Cosplay Spotlight: Beast!

Hey all! It has been quite a while since I posted, but it is time to reveal what I have been working on for so long! Here is a video spotlight and breakdown of the Cosplay my friend Lauren McLaren and I made for Emerald City Comicon.

After 5 months of work, we made this Uncanny costume of everybody's favorite blue-haired X-Men, Beast! We debuted it at Emerald City Comicon, which was WAY bigger than last year's event. I would guess somewhere around twice the amount of people, which really blew me away. Better yet out of all the contestants for this year's costume contest, I got 3rd place in the Marvel category! What made it better is that Yaya Han (a famous professional cosplayer) was one of the judges!

It was a very successful event and I wanted to create a video to break down the individual pieces that make up this costume. The video is made up of three different elements: live action footage of the costume shot against a green screen, piece-by-piece break down snippets, and a motion background with particle effects.

Re-shot Footage

Original Footage

The live action footage of the costume was originally shot horizontal, but the footage ended up being too dark and it pixelated horribly whenever I zoomed in. So I reshot the video, moving the camera closer and turning it vertical so that the subject took up much more space in the frame. It turned out much better and allowed me to zoom in with pretty good results. As I previously stated, the original footage was also too dark which gave me a lot of problems whenever I tried to key out all of the green. The reshot video had much better lighting and didn't give any trouble in the keying process. Lighting is very tricky with green screens.

The snippets (and the live action footage) were shot using a Nikon D5100 against a nice dark red curtain and my friend Lauren McLaren played the role of Vanna White.

A majority of the project was done in Adobe After Effects, which I am currently learning how to use (though there is so much to the program, I will probably never stop learning new aspects of it). I created the yellow and blue X background out of several layers with a mask on the yellow layer to cut away chunks and give it the X shape. Then I used two particle generators and stretched them from corner to corner to get the little yellow streaks to fly by each other. After I did all that, it was a little too bright so slapped a transparent grey layer over the top of them to dull all the colors. This helped the costume pop from the background.

Once I had all of the footage, I keyed out all of the green from the live action video, turned it vertical, then scaled down the image. I also created a virtual camera within the project so that I could zoom around the live action footage. After I figured out where I wanted to zoom in I brought in the scaled-down snippets and positioned them relative to their respective pieces. Then I made all of the different media layers into 3D layers so that I could move some forward and retreat others to give the video a feeling of depth. When all of that was done, I imported the finished After Effects footage into Final Cut Pro, where I mixed all the audio and added a fade-to-black.

This was a really fun video to make and I hope you all enjoy it! I have plans to make more videos like this one in the future to spotlight all the other fun costumes that Lauren and I have created.

DIY Resin Mold Skulls

This weekend Lauren and I did our first experiment with polyester resin casting. She is making skulls for a Mystique costume belt and I made a video to share the experience with other costumers who are interested in using casting resin to make their costumes.

We bought a 32 oz container of casting resin and a small container of catalyst from the craft store and used a cookie mold to get it into the skull shape. Each skull uses approximately one ounce of resin and takes about 24 hours to cure. They are easy to make, they are lightweight and durable, and they look great.

Check out the video for the details!

Spooky Stop Motion

Happy Halloween! This was my first time doing an animation outside with lighting that changed as I went. There are some things I would do differently but I'm not unhappy with the results. More details on how I did it are below:

I shot with this with my new Nikon D5100 that I got about month ago. We were camping on the Oregon coast and I figured this would make for a great project to do while the sun went down. The shoot took roughly an hour and is composed of around 250 separate photos. Because the sun was going down, we (my girlfriend Lauren and I) couldn't go back and reshoot anything. So there are lots of things I would like to do differently if I were to do it again. As far as post production, this is the first time that I actually took stills instead of just going through and pulling freeze frames from footage. I finally figured out that by importing everything into iPhoto I could easily set all the pictures in order and touch them up as needed. After that I loaded the photos into iMovie and laid them all out in the timeline at a 10th a second a piece and saved the movie as a QT file. THEN I loaded that QT file into Avid where I did my precision editing and added music. The music is from the Sorcerer and the Apprentice. Enjoy!

Suggested Viewings: British Cinema

All of you aspiring film aficionados have probably thought to yourself, "I want to expand my understanding of the cinematic medium by watching foreign films." Shortly after you doubtlessly remembered that the reason you don't is because you don't like reading subtitles. Many people have told me that the reason that they don't like to watch foreign movies is because they don't want to read subtitles. Personally, they don't bother me in the slightest, but I can see where people are coming from. So, in light of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee I have pulled two British action movies for your viewing pleasure. This way you can explore foreign cinema without the alienating foreign language! It's a nice way to ease yourself into exploring films from beyond our borders.
The following movies are also tied together with two common themes: They are all directed by Guy Ritchie and star Jason Statham. So you know they're going to be awesome.

 Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
When a group of no-bodies get cheated in a high-stakes card game they end up half a million pounds (that's British money) in debt with only a week to pay it back. Guy Ritchie movies always have a lot of great action and comedy. They characters, situations, and dialogue will get at least a few chuckles out of you. Lots of gangsters, guns, and f-bombs in this little gem.

Snatch (2000)

Jason Statham, yet again, finds himself being chased by gangsters in one of my favorite action movies. Brad Pitt plays a bare-knuckle boxing gypsy that gets two boxing promoters in trouble with the bookmakers. This one has a great cast and a truly chaotic (yet manageable) story line. If you're looking for witty comedy, bad-ass dialogue, and pig farmers, this is the one for you.

Guy Ritchie has also made another movie that is similar to the above called Revolver which was released in 2005 in the UK and 2007 in the US. I personally do not believe it is quite good enough to suggest everyone to go watch it, but if you really liked the first two you'll probably like this one as well.

Discussions with Devs: Beatrice the Biologist on Amoeboid

In this episode I sit down with the voice of Katie McKissick, also known as Beatrice the Biologist, to talk about her new game Amoeboid. It's a kind of like Pac-Man on the cellular level.

Check out her blog here, http://www.beatricebiologist.com/.

Suggested Viewings: Eastern Westerns

Genres are very important in marketing films.  For example it is easier to tell someone that the latest Ryan Reynolds' movie is a comedy then it is trying to explain the plot. Why? Because genres are socially accepted conventions that everyone understands. Marketing agencies use genres to sell stories that no one has ever heard of. A lot people will go see a romance movie, not because they know the story but because they like the genre.  There are many films out there that cross over between a single genre, like romantic comedies or sci-fi horror.  But there are many more genres that are not quite as popular. One of my favorite genre mash ups would have to be Eastern Westerns. Most American audiences are familiar with the western genre. Lots of cowboys, dusty towns, and gun fights. Those same audiences may not be familiar with Samurai movies which are very similar in nature. A lone character with an inability to fit into society ends up floating from town to town looking for adventure (and violence).  The following three films are filled with swords, guns, samurai, cowboys and dust. Lots of dust.

Sukiyaki Western Django (2007) (Japanese with subtitles)

This movie was made by the cult Japanese director, Takashi Miike. Director Quentin Tarantino also guest stars in the film, doubtlessly having some input in some aspects. In the film, a town is caught in a war between two rival gangs and only a strange nameless hero can help put the bloodshed to an end and save the town.  It's a bloody film with lots of guts and steel flying through the air. If you like westerns and aren't afraid of blood, you'll like it. 

Bunraku (2010) (English)

Another big aspect of eastern action movies is martial arts. Directed by Guy Moshe, Bunraku has this in excess. Instead of a lone hero this movie has two, one from each genre. When a cowboy (Josh Hartnett) and a samurai (Gackt) find themselves in a post-apocalyptic town run by a crazy killer (Ron Perlman), it takes an enigmatic barkeep (Woody Harrelson) to lead them down the right path. The movie is highly stylized around the Japanese art of shadow puppets which makes for a really cool intro.

The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008) (Korean with subtitles)

This genre blending comedy comes from South Korea and was inspired by Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad, the Ugly (1966). It shares a similar story where three men try to beat each other to a hidden treasure. The character dynamics are not quite the same for example the Good character (played by Clint Eastwood in the original film) is a bounty hunter and not nearly as intriguing and mysterious as the original Blondie. But the Bad guy is just as Bad and the Weird is just as Ugly.

Suggested Viewings: Animated Marvel Adventures!

Welcome to the first installment of my new weekly series, Suggested Viewings.  When I was in film school we were given suggested viewings to go with our lessons.  I've decided to put this method to good use and help people explore film.  Since I do most of my movie watching on Netflix, all of the films I'll be referring to can be found on Netflix Instant.

Since I'm still on a pretty big superhero kick from the The Avengers movie, I'll be talking about animated Marvel cartoons.  Animated shows and movies are great because they can get away with things that live action movies cannot.  For example, it is extremely difficult to get CG special effects to look realistic enough for people to suspend their disbelief. However, cartoons do not have this problem because they are not realistic to begin with.  And once you buy into the following cartoons it will be hard for you to pull yourself out.








Black Panther: The Animated Series (2009)
Back in 2008 BET teamed up with Marvel Knights to create an animated comic series for TV that was released in 2009 and debut on television in the US in November 2011.  The series is based around the origin of the Black Panther who is the king of the reclusive nation of Wakanda in Africa. Out of all the animated comic book series that Marvel Knights has released, I think that this one is the best. It's a good series and with rumors of Black Panther getting his own movie, it's a good way to get associated with the character.

The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2010-Present)

If you liked The Avengers movie then you may also want to check out this cartoon. It was made for Disney's Toon XD channel and originally debuted in the fall of 2010. It has all of the characters from the movie and a few more (Black Panther, Wasp, and Ant Man). This show has great animation, voice acting, episodic continuity, and story lines that are complex enough to be enjoyed by an older audience. It's a well rounded show in its own right and with an extensive line-up of characters from the Marvel universe.  I would recommend it to anyone who can't get enough Marvel exposure.

Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow (2008)

I watched this movie in the build up to The Avengers movie.  It takes place in an alternate universe where Ultron (a sentient robot created by Hank Pym) has conquered the world and killed most of the original Avengers. However, the super-team's children were saved by Tony Stark and trained from an early age in hopes that they will be able to defeat Ultron. I had a lot of laughs watching this and would recommend it based solely on the voice acting performances of the kids.

Hulk Vs. (2009)

Most of the time our favorite heroes are fighting on the same side but Marvel also likes to pit them against each other from time to time.  This animated feature doesn't have much in the way of a story line but it sure is  a lot of fun to see the Hulk fight Thor and Wolverine. If you just want to see some all-star fighting then this one is for you.