Wednesday, April 06, 2005

TONY HAWK IN BOOM BOOM SABOTAGE

DIRECTOR / CO-WRITER / MOTION CAPTURE DIRECTOR




Movie Trailer
(01:58 - 4.2 mb)







This 66 minute direct-to-dvd feature was a blast to work on despite its EXTREMELY low budget and the fact that it was almost entirely motion-captured (which worked really well for the skating aspects but the "performances" however...). We went to Carlsbad, CA for the voice record with Tony Hawk and then to his private warehouse to motion-capture him on his vert ramp. In Vancouver, we hired some pro skaters (Alex Chalmers, Chris Haslam, Keegan Sauder, Russ Milligan) to do the motion capture at our motion-capture facility and the results when applied to our skateboarding models were phenomenal.










The original script was rather lackluster so I took a stab at reworking the structure and dialogue; throwing humour and fun throughout it. Andrew Duncan and Logan McPherson were the animation directors and Brian Carson was our composer and did an amazing job at going all-over-the-map with the original soundtrack (carny music, eerie "Forbidden Planet" Moog type music, raw punk, hillbilly western rockabilly, etc.). Larry Grimley, was perfectly voiced by Michael Dobson and his motion-capture performance was acted by the incredibly gifted Donavon Stinson. Both guys went above and beyond the call of duty, literally busting themselves to bring A TON OF LIFE to our main villain.

Jumping A Shark in a Leather Jacket
(2 min 19 sec)
Tony's been captured and taken to an abandoned tiki-themed water park. I love grottoes so I thought it would be the perfect place to hole him up. I then felt that the villain should monologue to Tony like a villain does with James Bond but then kinda veer off topic.



The Moonshining
(48 sec)
A nod to my favourite film.




A Magical Moment
(2 min 09 sec)
For the first time in motion picture history, someone reacts realistically to a shooting star...



Frank Calls "Tony"
(3 min 33 sec)
I like the scenes here but the motion-capture just kills it. Ironically, one of the funniest moments of the production was when we mo-capped Donavon doing the limbo (he even wore a neck brace). Be sure to look at what's on "Tony's" ball cap.



Friggin' Monkeys
(1 min 51 sec)
You can't tell in this clip, but the Monkey Trainer has the most amazing short-shorts. I wish I could say that the comp-job on the multiple monkeys running at camera was supposed to look really crappy on purpose...WAIT! It's a nod to cheesy rear-projected scenes in old movies! YEAH that's it!

Saturday, February 05, 2005

BEAT FREAKS

DIRECTOR / EDITOR / COMPOSITOR / "ANIMATOR"

The mandate: "NO ANIMATION! Make a promotional video for this CGI animated series but it can't have ANY ANIMATION!" I was given character models (which were not rigged or weighted for animation), I had some Photoshop promotional artwork and I was given some music.

"Make it exciting BUT NO ANIMATION! The budget doesn't allow for it! "



(alright, so there's some animation -- fire me).