The Cypher 2.0 is up. Hope you all enjoy it as much as we did making it.
C.E. Cypher 2.0
Mike Goes Boom!
Hi everyone, I wanted to see if I could make someone explode ( as you do) through being struck by lightning with visual effects. This is the result. Warning, it is gory. Fake, but gory. My wife suggested I add the disclaimer beforehand incase I offend anyone. Some of you are probably asking, Umm why make this? … and the answer is, just cause I wanted to 
To give you an idea, below is a still frame from the original video pre-composited. We replaced the sky in the background with a photograph we found of some storm clouds and added the CGI rain, lightning basically everything else using Adobe After Effects. There are approx 30 individual layers that make up the final composition. Not to mention the 15 or so other layers that have the various sound effects used to create the storm, thunder clap, wind, initial strike, explosion and blood splatters. I actually used a ‘Ghostbusters proton pack turning on’ sound wave to simulate the build up from 1st strike to explosion. Fit rather well.
3D Animated Logo from a 2D still.
I’ve been dabbling with 3D animation a little lately; I need to raise my skills to a “hole nuther level” in this ever changing creative world.
So, I have a friend who has this company called Rankster. I wanted to attempt to create a animated 3D logo from a still image of his company logo seen below.
Using some artistic license I changed a few things like the coloring, but keep the main core elements such as the arrow and the Rankster font the same. I mean; you can’t really alter someones established company logo, for instance
imagine If the McDonalds famous golden arched “M” suddenly changed to a different font.
it’d look weird. Anyway I’m sure you get the point.
Below is the end result.
Cutting E.D.G.E. Cypher
We shot this little music video last year. It was super low budget, in fact so low there wasn’t one. Decided to shoot in black and white to emulate one of my all time favorite hip hop video’s (which, BE WARNED does contains explicit lyrics) ‘Jay-Z’s ’99 Problems‘. We also chose black and white because it adds a certain production value. Added some old film scratches and dust and presto.
The entire video is one continuous take. We got it on the second attempt. The sun was setting quick so we were on a time crunch but we got it in the end and everyone was happy with the end result.
Re-Editing footage to tell a different story.
No matter how many times I see this clip of Vader being a jerk, I always laugh, it never gets old and I’ve seen it many times.
It’s no wonder the clip currently has nearly 10.5 million hits on YouTube. The concept is so simple and yet it shows how editing can really change the narrative of a story, turning a very serious dramatic scene into a comedy. Timing in editing comedy is so crucial, cut too early or a few frames too late and you can miss the beats/punchline and the joke falls flat. Whereas a cut that is perfectly timed is priceless for instance the scene here where Vader has a stare down with General Veers is a perfect example of this, pausing for effect. The video has got my creative wheels turning and now I’m thinking of what other famous movie scene’s there might be that I could re-edit to tell a different story. Hmm, I wonder. Any suggestions?
Time Lapse of Carrie Bennett’s ‘Flight’ entry at the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival.
Here is a time lapse we shot on Saturday at the Lake Worth Street Painting Festival. Basically once a year the city of Lake Worth closes off a few streets for the weekend and lets the artists have at it. I shot the time lapse using a Panasonic HVX 200A, the camera captured 1 frame every 5 seconds. The frame rate was set to 30 fps (frames per second). I love shooting time lapse it’s such a beautiful medium, watching as the sun moves through the sky really brings the shadows to life. Hope you all enjoy. Leave your comments.
The music featured in the video is the new U2 song “Invisible (Red)” which is available here on iTunes. It’s SUCH a good song and really flowed with the style of the video.
There were so many incredible artists show casing their talent over the weekend. This years festival followed a ‘Movies’ theme. Below are just a few of the amazing pieces. Remember it’s chalk on concrete and you won’t believe some of the amazing 3D pieces that were there. Like this incredible floating X-Wing below.
Cary Grant & Deborah Kerr from the film “An Affair To Remember”.
Dick Dastardly famous for tying blondes to railway tracks.
The iconic image from the 1902 film “A Trip To The Moon”.
Robert Downey Jnr. aka Sherlock Holmes with Jude Law & Rachel McAdams
Actress Hedy Lamar
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
‘Flight’ from Carrie Bennett.
If you would like to see more images here is a newspaper article the Sun Sentinel wrote about the festival. It features the chalk painting shown in the video as well as the general atmosphere of the weekend.
“The Wake” audio as a Spectral Waveform.
I found a project online where a piece of music was animated and I wanted to see if I could do something similar. I took the audio from “The Wake” an instrumental song from Justin Jarvis’s Through The Glass -EP. 
(available for purchase from iTunes here)
and converted it into a spectral waveform. Basically I was kinda wondering, if the audio was a moving visual “thing” what would it look like. With the bass information and then applying some artistic license, I built a bunch of different animated light bands/boxes and glows and mapped them to the audios rhythm.
Hanifin Loyalty animated logo
Hi everyone, I created this short animated logo using Element 3D and then compositing it in After Effects.
Guardians of the Galaxy Trailer
Here is the new Guardians of the Galaxy trailer which featured on Jimmy Kimmel last night. It’s hard to say how I feel about this film. I know next to nothing about the storyline, history or universe of these characters. It looks to be a fun action sci-fi film but it also looks a little campy. Either way I’m sure I’ll see it this Summer. What are you thoughts?? Will you see it or do you think this could be Marvel Studio’s first big budget flop? Leave a comment.
Music
Music that inspires me to create.
