Oz->some

Ben Button : Making of

2009-01-25T15:41:00.000-08:00

I'm the middle aged dude playing the young dude disguised as an old dude.

Grandpa Durden!

Bat-Tech

2009-01-02T22:26:00.000-08:00

History Channel explains why a yellow utility belt is always classy.

Duh-na-nana-nana-nana-nah!

The Ark

2008-12-13T17:25:00.000-08:00

My buddy Greg's badass short. Best of show at this year's Siggraph. Peep it and rate it.

WATCH

Jack Black + Mocap = Awesome Sauce

2008-12-13T01:30:00.000-08:00

Special Attack!

Death!

Decap!

The badass trailer for Tim Schafer's new game starring Jack. Pure awesomness.
DIO!

16-bit Poses

2008-10-16T17:35:00.000-07:00

SHORYUKEN!
Great fight and design ref from Street Fighter 3. Choose a character and select your Biff! Bam! Pow!'s....AT WILL!

Watch'em

Snag'em

NIN will blind you with awesomness.

2008-10-15T16:11:00.000-07:00

Wired Article

Some behind the scenes tech:
no charge.

Ben Burtt

2008-06-28T00:23:00.000-07:00

The name probably doesn't ring any bells but we've been "fhooomnnn-ing", "tttzzzz'ing" and "whoosh-ing" trying to imitate Ben Burtt's work since the first time we heard a light saber drawn or Indy's whip crack. Burtt has his stamp on tons of legendary flicks and characters. A short list of some of his work:

The light saber in "Star Wars": The feedback from a malfunctioning television set and the whirring of an idling film projector.

The whip in "Raiders of the Lost Ark": Recording of an actual whip, which at one point Harrison Ford demonstrated on the side of the road in San Anselmo. The "whooshing" sound of the whip in the film is a Harrier jet.

The TIE Fighter engine in "Star Wars": Combination of an elephant's roar (slowed down considerably) with the sound of a car driving fast on a rain-slicked road.

The cockroach named Hal in "WALL-E": Hal's voice was composed of sped-up raccoon noises, and the sound of his feet skittering along the floor was made by clicking handcuffs - recorded with the help of Burtt's police officer neighbor.

I thought he was totally showing off in Wall-E and I loved it!
ABSORB!

Meet the Sniper

2008-06-17T17:09:00.000-07:00

I'm trying to kick 2 addictions...coffee and Team Fortress 2.
HEADSHOT!

Art of the Title "Se7en"

2008-05-11T03:33:00.000-07:00

I'm a huge geek when it comes to title sequences. If they're done right they act as great prologues to films, tv shows or games; they set the tone and direct the audiences emotions.
I came across this great collection of title sequences and it seems that they keep it up to date which is just plain sexy:

ART OF THE TITLE

Kyle Cooper's work for the "Se7en" titles is still my favorite piece of visual anything!...the double visions of Jon Doe's pen writing in his notebooks and sewing them together with his cutoff fingertips as Nine Inch Nail plays in the BG...soooo awesome! The obvious sync up with the song saying "you get me closer to god" with "directed by David Fincher" at the end still cracks me up.
Peek it!

Trivia #1: There's a frame in the Se7en title sequence that's flipped upside down, rotated, smeared and reads "This will be the end of you."
Trivia #2: I have never bothered looking for Trivia #1. Someone just told me it was there.

Kyle Cooper's other work:
www.prologue.com

Poison Dragon - Landing

2008-05-08T23:39:00.000-07:00

Little animation for the other new downloadable dragon for 'Lair DLC'.

Wind Dragon...KAW!

2008-04-23T02:33:00.000-07:00

*Concept by Pat Presley and James Zhang.

Not the most exciting samples of my work but we're celebrating Lair : Downloadable Content finally being released!
I wrapped on DLC work in September 07 and I'm pretty confused why it took so long for the work to get released. It's great to see it finally out there though...mostly 'cuz I animated one of the new playable dragons' flight cycles;)
The Wind Dragon is a nice detour from traditional dragon proportions. A long neck like a Chinese dragon with menacing shaped wings and a stub for a tail?! Yup, no slick tail motions or attacks for this guy. Not having to animate a long tail gave me some time to nap at work;)
I put quite a bit of effort into defining the Wind Dragon's character in wing shapes and timing. For a dragon that has similar proportions to a swan, I didn't want gamers to dismiss it as weak. Since the player perspective is from behind the dragon, the wing shapes had to be the strongest from that angle especially because the rest of the body and neck are not visible. The Medium Flap anim is where I started and the other 3 anims branched from there. I studied a lot of footage of geese for body and neck but used bats and seagulls for the wings; bat wings have a much more menacing and determined look to them. Even though the wing anatomy is different on a bat, I wanted to get the look bat wings have of catching pockets of air to keep the body up and the body hanging from the shoulders when the wings rise. Simplicity of seagull wing shapes is also something I wanted to capture - you can always recognize them from afar and simply draw them as a V shape with curved ends. The closest flight style of a geese is in Flap Small; not a lot of collapsing joints/follow through as the wings go up and down but most of the motion comes from the wing roots at the shoulders like a person floating on the ocean with the oscillations of the waves passing under his arms. Flap Strong didn't take a whole lot of work - it's pretty much the Flap Medium sped up and seems to work perfectly. A good example of holding back from my tendancy to over-animate...aaaaand I was just lazy.

Glide

Flap Small (Relaxed)

Flap Medium (Normal)

Flap Strong (Rapid)

Photo Equipment and Lighting

2008-04-06T14:57:00.000-07:00

Scrounging through old notes from college, I found a very handy list. For the avid photographers in SF. Credits to John Caperton http://www.johncapertonphotography.com/

San Francisco

Adolph Gasser Inc.
181 2nd st.
(415) 495-3852

Pro Camera
2298 3rd st.
(415) 431-3313

Photographer's Supply and Lighting
436 Bryant st.
979-0950

Advance Camera (camera repair)
118 Columbus Ave.
(415) 773-9025

Calumet Photographic
2001 Bryant st.
(415) 643-9275

B & H Photo
(800) 947-9954
www.bhphotovideo.com

Photo Labs:

Chromoworks
425 Bryant st.
(415) 957-9481

New Lab
651 Bryant st.
(415) 905 8555

Foto Depot
55 Third st.
(415) 222-9696

Big Dog Beta

2008-04-04T13:45:00.000-07:00

Great find Dave! It's perfectly fine to kick over people in black spandex.

Is it wrong to kick over a Robot Dog?

2008-03-17T17:47:00.000-07:00

Actually, it's pretty awesome!
Boston Dynamics' Big Dog

Humble beginnings...

Roaches, slugs and armour.

2008-03-14T22:10:00.000-07:00

Lost & Found

2008-01-14T13:17:00.000-08:00

Hola amigos -
I know it's lame to put up old work especially on a first post but I really had to get this ball rolling. Visiting family the last couple of weeks in Dhaka, I've come across a lot of old work that I never scanned, took pictures of or archived. Time for show and tell!

This was done on some down time in Dhaka 5 years ago. My uncle bugged me for a couple of years prior to make him a "painting". I think he was expecting something nicer like some pretty scenery or a tame still life but I guess he never saw any of my previous work;)

Red Dragon(2003), 30" x 20", Acrylic and Pen on some sorta brown board.

Based off of a photograph of 2 really ugly hillbilly brothers standing side by side, I wanted to experiment with a piece that could be rotated and viewed upside down and on its side. An easy excuse for a piece that turned out rubbish and just needs to be flipped or I may have been inspired by a very irritatingly crooked picture frame.

Twins(2002), 30"x20", Chalk on Black Matte Board

A portrait of Wayne from the band Static-X. Hangs in my mum's place in Dhaka.

Static(2001), 16"x16", Charcoal