Spaceship!

Here’s a shuttle I made for Earthkiller. I’m pretty darn proud of it!


Some more Earth Killer stuff

Some  more work I’ve been doing for Earth Killer.  This is just a test composite to see if all the angles of the CG line up with the live action stuff, but I think it turned out alright! Also, this is probably the first time this blog has had a butt on it!

It’s nice working with Andrew Bellware, since most folks I work with have a privacy NDA thing going, I can’t post stuff I’ve been working on. He has the opposite approach, “POST EVERYTHING! TELL EVERYONE! PUBLICITY!” which I both think is logical, and convenient!

Click to see it larger!

And here’s a better view of the space station. Or part of it. He wanted it to be tentacle/squid-like, and I wasn’t really sure how to do that, so I ended up just making a bunch of different messy parts, which kinda gave the look he was going for, I think.

Earth Killer Teaser

A trailer for a film I’ve been doing a few effects things for has just been released! “Earth Killer”, directed/produced by Andrew Bellware and written by Montserrat Mendez.

See it here!

See the trailer here, if you want! It’s pretty fun! (although nothing I worked on is really in there, barring one TERRIFYING SHOT OF A ROBOT DINOSAUR!)

Space Lighting

A friend asked me about lighting a space scene in Blender,  so I made a kinda template thing. Feel free to download and use it here!

Just some Environmental Lighting and a parallel sun light thing- but hey!

Pods

I haven’t really drawn much in the past year or so, and I’ve been trying to get back into it.  Generally I just do outlines and stuff with pen, but doing some of the shading (the flat blacks and such) turned out fairly well!

If you click it, it’s bigger

Project London Multiply Teaser

This isn’t really even a teaser as much as just another recruitment tool for catching the eye of folks who might want to help us with CG for the movie (back when we needed that. We’re done with VFX now! Mostly!), But it dawns on me that I never posted it here, and while I don’t even think anyone really checks this blog, I’ve been trying to keep it slightly more udpated recently! So! here’s the teaser we released half a year ago (it actually has, like, 200,000 views on YouTube or something. Which is rad. And has also accumulated 500 comments saying, “Wut?”)

Project London: Multiply Teaser from Phil McCoy on Vimeo.

In the words of Mr. McCoy,

Here’s a new teaser from the independently-produced, science-fiction, action-adventure, no-budget, effects movie, Project London featuring the song, “Multiply” performed by Half Acre Day.

This clip explores the world of Project London and introduces the opposing forces, Joint Command and The London Underground. All 3D animated elements were created using Blender, open source software.

We recommend playing this clip with your volume control turned way up. Multiply is now available at a number of music services including globally on iTunes. Here’s the link to the song at the U.S. iTunes Store: itunes.apple.com/?us/?album/?multiply-lunar-singles-mix/?id362042653

Jellyfish

My friend Nate Taylor said that if I modeled a jellyfish in Blender, he might rig it.

Well. I was at a Blender Users Group meetup last Saturday, and I made one. It has some simple softbody stuff going on, but probably nothing that would work in the long run.

I still wanna texture it (and you know, finish the modeling), but hey! It’s a start! I’ve never really done organic stuff before, so this is a fun experiment!

I’ve always wanted a CG jellyfish… just in case!


Dustlands

Back a couple years ago I thought I really wanted to make a comic. I started, spending crazy amounts of time on each panel.

Eventually, I realized the whole thing was a bit derivative, and I was too crazy busy to really keep it up, so I decided to stop working on it.  I’m all for finishing what I start, but you also gotta pick your battles!

The primary issue was just that each panel took too darn long to draw. At an hour or two per panel, it was too much about the technique, and not enough about the story. Heck, I could have done it significantly faster in stop motion (that would have been pretty rad, actually).

But hey! I’m still left with a couple dozen fairly cool panels, which I’ve just thrown into a page if you want to peruse them!

I may give something like this a go again at some point… we’ll see. I think I’d want to come up with a much faster visual style, first, or a much more succinct story.

Dustlands

Background Chatter

I’m writing background chatter for all the scenes that take place in the Big Governmenty Buildings in Project London. It’s kind of a fun challenge, writing stuff that can be entertaining, informative, and most importantly ignorable. It’s just there for ambiance.  Phil says he knows a perfect voice to read ‘em.

“Today is Tuesday.”

“To the owner of a blue comb, please pick it up at the lost-and-found.”

Hitchhiker

Hitchhiker

The light of the early dawn was disconcertingly blue. This was not a time for humans.

Mike switched on the kitchen light, only further reinforcing the absurd impotence of the dismal morning sky.

Feet scuffle.

Fridge handle.

Milk.

Scuffle.

He leaned half over the counter, eating some porrige. Or grits. Or oatmeal or something. Whatever. Now he would not die.

The car was cold; the roads were open. Streetlights were ambivalent. Mike hit ‘next’ on the shuffle cue a dozen times before realizing he was looking for silence.

He couldn’t remember what he’d been thinking about.

Whenever he listened to a book on tape, Mike pictured the voice talent sitting on a stool under a spotlight in the middle of a massive black-painted studio, caressing a worn copy of the book and miked to the teeth. That’s actually how he pictured all the music he listened to as well; everything performed under this one solitary spotlight, nothing before or after or outside. Except the Beach Boys.

He had no idea where the Beach Boys performed, but it sure wasn’t that spotlight. The beach?

That was what he’d been thinking about.

Red light.

Red light.

Yell-Red light.

Green light.

Batman.

The man dressed as Batman ran out in front of Mike’s accelerating car and gestured for him to stop. Mike did. The man gestured for Mike to roll down his window.  Mike didn’t.

“I need a ride!” yelled the man dressed as Batman.

“I’m sorry, I need to go,” replied Mike lamely. Pretty lamely.

“Do you know who I am?” yelled the man dressed as Batman.

“A man dressed like Batman?”

“I’m the actual Batman, and I need your help to save the city.”

When Mike was a kid he had jumped off the high-dive to impress his friends. The trick, he discovered, was to never give yourself a chance to reconsider. Climb the ladder, walk to the end, and fall into the water- don’t even think about the jumping. The moment you thought about jumping, you had a choice. You could reconsider. Re-evaluate those pros and cons.

His hand was already on the passenger side door handle before Mike started listening to his doubts. Was this guy insane? Probably, but he was dressed as a vigilante, so it was probably the good kind of insane. Besides, it’d give him something to tell the boys during lunch. He’d have to take a picture with his cell phone.

He opened the door, and Batman got in. Mike got out of the intersection.

“You should put your seatbelt on,” said Mike.

“I need to be ready to tuck-and-roll. Just a precaution,” said Batman.

“Yeah, except I think I would get the fine if we get pulled over. Click it or ticket.”

“Fine.” said Batman. He put on his seatbelt.

They drove beneath more streetlights, power lines, and the lightening sky.

“So,” said Mike, “Why are you Batman?”

“Why do you ask ridiculous questions? I’m Batman because I’m a symbol of justice. The Penguin is going to release a horde or robotic penguins from the subway system, and I have to warn the mayor.”

“So are you one of Batman’s ‘helpers’?”

“No. What do you mean?”

“We’re not in Gotham. I don’t even think Gotham really exists, does it?”

“Guess that explains why I’m not there.”

“I guess.”

Batman stared out the windows. He slid open the cover for the sun roof.

“I have to be wary of attacks from above. My enemies think three-dimensionally.”

“Gotcha,” replied Mike, “So do you have those, what are they, batarangs? No that’s dumb. What are they called again?”

“Yes. Batarangs,” said Batman stiffly, “And yes I do.”

Batman pulled some batarangs off of his utility belt. Mike nodded.

Red light.

“Just run it,” said Batman, “We’re in a hurry.”

Mike stopped.

“You’re killing me. Do you have any idea how urgent this is?” Batman said.

“You know, for being an advocate of justice, you’re sure trying to break the law a lot.”

Batman was silent. Then he spoke.

“So what do you do? What’s your name?”

“I’m Mike. I’m a doughnut delivery guy.”

“I see. You know, it’s people like you that make society run.”

“Is that sarcasm?”

“No.”

“It’s just delivering doughnuts.”

“I think it’s beautiful,” said Batman.

Mike scowled so Batman couldn’t see. They sat in silence for a while.

“This is it,” said Batman. They were at city hall.

Mike pulled up to the curb and Batman was immediately out of the car. He quickly leaned back into the car and shook Mike’s hand.

“Thank you, Mike.”

“Mike Dobbins.”

“Thank you, Mike Dobbins. You’ve done your society a great service.”

“Yeah.”

Batman turned to go, and Mike called after him.

“Hey, if you’re ever around, look me up some time.”

Batman didn’t hear him. He was running up the steps of city hall, where several policemen were waiting with the mayor to usher Batman inside.

The doors had already been closed for a few seconds when Mike yelled out, “Why didn’t you take the Bat-Mobile?”

Green light.

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