THARG THE MIGHTY SAYS: "MONSTERS" IS IN THE MEGAZINE THIS WEEK!!!

Just had word from THARG THE MIGHTY that "Monsters" is being published in the JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE (Meg 250) THIS WEEK!!!

Be sure to nip down to your local newsagent or comic shop and get your copy. Run, don't walk, run!

THE HOUSE WHAT I BUILT.

There's an update over at the Grimmwood site. Go check it out.

Grimmwood and all production work is © 2006, Ian Culbard, All rights Reserved.

"Gather wood and I will light a fire ...

... so that you may not be cold."

Things are coming along. If all goes well then I should have a trailer (consisting of test footage) up in about two weeks from now).

Building Red House has proved a fun challenge. Having never worked in three dimensions before, it's been quite an experience and a huge amount of fun. These are a couple of test frames built in Swift 3D, exported into Flash.

I'm playing around with lenses here (and haven't quite achieved all I want to achieved with lightning, but I'm getting there). the building is based on an earlier design. The first image, the aerial shot, is an early mock up of the building, not quite complete. The second image is the completed model. I found that once I'd started building the house that I began to make various changes, notably with the shape of the main building's roof, and with the facade, changes which brought it to a better point of realisation. It's a great feeling to have such a dominant component in the film built and ready to pose in every shot by just dropping it in and angling the camera. Quite liberating to be working in three dimensions after all these years of working in two. There's a sense that this broadens the scope of what I'm aiming to achieve so I'm rather excited about the process. The wonderful thing about Swift is it intergrates the elements seemlessly into Flash because it's also speaking the same language. Vector.

It's also helped me determine a number of aesthetic factors. Notably the trees. A lot of the trees are going to be flat 2D elements, but there are a number of sequences in the film that require movement through trees. Characters will be leaping from branch to branch and the camera will be following them. The animated trees produced in Swift will have a silhoutte appearance about them but still move in three dimensional space. These will be off set in tone to the rest of the background for purposes of definition. This is just one element of what will make up the trees. The Grimmwood itself is as much an element as any of the characters. It will be one of the test elements that will appear in the trailer.

Grimmwood and all production work is © 2006, Ian Culbard, All rights Reserved.

NO REST FOR THE WICKED ...

Okay, been a while since I last posted. Just finished a string of commercials. Firstly for the previously mentioned Travelodge for Doner Cardwell Hawkins. If you follow the link to Picasso Pictures (a flash site) you'll see my name in a list of Directors, follow that little road to my work and you can watch the ad right there if you haven't seen it on TV (in the UK). I got to work with the immensely talented David Semple, so go check out his work. He was responsible for the look of the ad and is the illustrator for the campaign.

Just last week I wrapped on a string of Flybe commercials and am now putting together some test footage for Grimmwood. So, it's been one heck of a busy summer, which is good because that gives me a more time to focus on Grimmwood and certain comic book projects which I'll be talking about over the coming months.

Grimmwood is © 2006, Ian Culbard, All rights Reserved.