Grumpy Downton Deer

Perhaps the greatest dramatic climax in 2012's pivotal Downton Abbey Christmas special.

Reel 2013, plus extra Chevron bits

I cut together a new showreel from the work I have completed over the last year, it can be seen here:

I wasn't able to include everything I would have liked but hopefully this gives a fair impression of how I've developed. It was especially cool to be able to show a piece of Darkside, and the Chevron commercials.

But not everything is shiny enough to fit into a two minute reel, so I've made the breathtakingly arrogant assumption that people want to see all the work-in-progress bits. So here are some of them, presented in the fashion that one might present the bed with a pile of washing.

Chevron Bird

This is the process of building one of the main cars used in the commercial that I didn't light.

In preparation for lighting I had fun tweaking the shaders and making them look as much like fruit as possible.

And a disco ball, as a parting gift.

Time from a break from all this money and success...

I Made Some Unimportant Things

When you're stuck, making anything at all is a victory.

Sometimes you need a new tool.

 It doesn't have to be a sunset, a grey day will do,

 You just need some friends

To inspire you.

And then you can make again.

I'm slowly starting to create things again, me and Jenny made this time lapse together. It took me a long time to finally accept that not every idea I have has to be the most important thing ever conceived to be worth pursuing. How obvious is that? I made a (self indulgent) investment in my creativity and bought a beautiful journal to scribble and write things in, it came highly recommended from the Cartoleria behind the Pantheon in Rome, so it clearly has mystical qualities. All these things are small steps toward rehabilitating myself, I feel better already.

First Person Journal Action: Immersive

P.S After Effects has a raw editor for RAW sequences!? Very, very cool. Lovely to work with but slow to load images, unsurprisingly.