Generate VFX Directory from Command Prompt

Since using Linux systems at my day job I've seen how much project management is done with code rather than the old manual click, click click. Frustrated with my inability to set up shots so quickly on my Windows machine I decided to write a tiny .bat script to automate the creation of a shot directory with custom named folders within.

Download makeshot.bat

Silibil N' Brains "Eat Your Brains" MUSIC VIDEO

Here is the latest video that I directed with John Fairfield for Flyboy Creative. I also did all the post production on the video including putting in some nasty sound effects. VFX breakdowns are to follow but if you want to check out some behind the scenes stuff you can go to the Flyboy Facebook page.

VFX Breakdown for 'Edinburgh' by Woodpigeon

Here is a short VFX breakdown for some work I did on Ben Soper's music video for the band Woodpigeon.

http://woodpigeon.bandcamp.com/
http://bensoper.blogspot.co.uk/
http://www.blueirisfilms.co.uk/

After Effects to Avidemux - Datamosh Round Trip

This tutorial for shows you how to export video prepared for datamoshing from After Effects, join clips and remove I-frames in Avidemux (freeware) to create the datamosh, then export the result as an image sequence for further processing in After Effects.

Thanks to datamosher on YouTube for his video tutorial on the process.

VFX Breakdown for Pigeon Song Animation

Here is a VFX breakdown for a live action / animated shot that I produced for a recent music video.  I did the compositing and the landscape sketches, Nuria Valdeon did the cell animation and Fraser Murdoch did the 3D modeling.

Anderson, McGinty, Webster, Ward & Fisher 'Pigeon Song' Music Video

Here is the music video that I directed with John Fairfield for the band Anderson, McGinty, Webster, Ward & Fisher.  The video was shot by Ian Forbes on the AF-101 in Dundee and St Andrews.  It was cut in Premiere CS6 and most of the VFX and grading were done in After Effects.  A break down of the animation sequence is to follow next week.

Nuke Compositing Demo

Here is a walkthrough of a shot I made in the Foundry's Nuke Compositing Software.  Watch it in 1080p if you want to see what's going on in the node tree.

VFX Breakdowns

A selection of VFX breakdowns from my short films Falling Out (2011) and Meta (2010)

Showreel

This showreel features work that I directed, edited, graded and composited as well as post production that I have done for other directors. All my directorial work was shot by Ian Forbes and produced by John Fairfield for Flyboy Films.  The music used was Lewis den Hertog's score for my short Falling Out and the track "Ain't That Peculiar" (Oddisee Remix).

The View - "How Long" OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO

 I did the colour grade and VFX for this music video directed by Scott Davidson. It was shot by Ian Forbes  and edited and art directed by Rose Hendry.

DELTA HEAVY - 'Get By' (official video)

DELTA HEAVY - 'Get By' (official video) from Ian Robertson on Vimeo.

I recently did the visual effects and finishing for hyper talented director/animator Ian Robertson's new music video.

Ian shot high resolution jpeg stills on DSLR using Dragonframe stop motion animation software and created the edit in Final Cut with proxy video before conforming to the original image sequences.  I then imported a Final Cut XML of the project into Premiere Pro CS5.5 and nested each shot for colour grading.  For the pan and scan and visual effects I used the dynamic link to send shots to After Effects.  Most of the animation was done in twos (doubling frames in a 24fps sequence to give the appearance of 12fps) so hold key frames were used at two frame intervals so as not to introduce smoother motion than was native to the animation.  Needless to say, motion blur was SWITCHED OFF!

Digital Cinema Package Tutorial

In this tutorial I detail how to create a Digital Cinema Package (DCP) from a quicktime video file.  The source video in this example was HD 1920x1080, 25 frames per second in the ProRes codec.  In order to be sure that the DCP will work on any server I convert it to standard cinema 2K pixels and slow it down to 24 fps.  This demonstration is done on MAC but all operations can be done on PC as well.

DISCLAIMER: SINCE RELEASING THIS POST I HAVE BEEN CONTACTED BY PROFESSIONAL DCP ENCODING LABS POINTING OUT FLAWS IN THE WAY OpenDCP CREATES DCPs.  PLEASE READ DAVID MARGOLIS'S POST IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW AND CONSIDER USING A PROFESSIONAL LAB.

Stills from Portobello

I've been back in Edinburgh since last month and staying by the sea has given me a few great opportunities to capture some stills.  Here are four of my favourites.  All have been processed in RAW to recover all available dynamic range and then in photoshop at 16 bit.

ADO - The Ultra - OFFICIAL VIDEO

I recently AD'd and colour graded the music video The Ultra by Ado for co-directors Ian Forbes and Rose Hendry. It was a great experience and the first time I'd worked 'on set' rather than on location.  Big thanks to Tin Roof Arts Collective for letting us use the space as well!!

Falling Out - Looking Back

Hanna Stanbridge as Carrie

In November I posted a blog entry discussing the development of a script for my short film Falling Out. In it I mention that it was five months prior that I had first introduced the idea to writer Tom K McCarthy, which would make it now 14 months since we began the project!
As the final film is now complete I am taking a moment to trace the project from inception to completion.

Monsters Under the Bed - VFX Breakdown

Here is a quick breakdown of the VFX shot that I composited for John Fairfield's film Monsters Under the Bed.  You can check out the film on the Virgin Media Shorts website.

Nuclear Explosion

Dylan Gauld's work on the CGI dynamics for the nuclear explosion from my short Falling Out is coming to a close.  I've been experementing with a single frame render that he's given me to see what I need to do to sell the shot.  Because we haven't had much time to refine it in Maya I'm doing the colouring in Nuke using an R, G & B ID pass and generally distroying the image as much as possible to hide the seams.

CG ID passes coloured and merged over plate.

Early pass on reducing detail with over exposure effects.

Monsters Under the Bed

This is John Fairfield's submission to Virgin Media Shorts.  Please check it out and 'like' it on Facebook if you find it deserving.


I was assistant director on the shoot and did the colour grade and the monster VFX, concept artist Ross Burt created the monster asset in Photoshop for me to composite and animate in Nuke. The DP was Ian Forbes.

360° Panorama

I recently purchased the 8mm f/3.5 fisheye from Samyang in order to do create 360°  panoramic HDRI's for my VFX work and take sweet hip-hop style images;

Red Camera Workflow at the VERL

Last week I gave a short presentation on behalf of the Visual Effects Research Lab to our North Sea Screen partners from Denmark and Norway.  As well as offering visual effects we wanted to make clear that we could offer a comprehensive digital post production workflow.  This particular Red Camera workflow was designed for artist / photographer Wendy McMurdo, allowing her the ability to request changes and see them made quickly during any part of the production process.