That thing you need to do

Do you have things in your life that you've always wanted to do, but you've always been too busy with other priorities? Or maybe you just lack the resources to do the thing you really want to do at the level you want to do it.

Well for me this thing has always been film making.

Since I was a kid I loved the idea of making movies. I was totally into the art of filmmaking; miniature models, set design, animation, photography, developing stories, characters and worlds. I knew it was something I'd always like to do.

At four years old I pulled my red wagon around the neighborhood and picked up trash. Told my mom I wanted to be a garbage man. Then from seven to maybe twelve years I wanted to be a race car driver and a jet pilot, like every kid. I also wanted "to make Star Wars" or make art and create things like it. In my mid teens I maintained that desire but I heard the bit about "starving artists" and "only a few people in the entire world get to work on Star Wars and do such things." Like the chances were so remote I shouldn't even waste time dreaming of such a thing, but of course I did, like every kid.

So in my early 20's I found myself on a solid career path in product design. It was good. Then in 1995 the Sony Playstation came out. I knew right away that I needed to make video games. So I did. Seventeen years later and the professional video game industry has been amazing and distressing all at the same time. My last full time corporate video game job was as a lead artist on a Star Wars game.

Afterwards I decided it was time to develop my own projects and start making films. I lacked pretty much every resource I needed - a crew, good funding and good film equipment. But I did own a camera, had written stories and created my own worlds. I had also developed relevant skill sets with my years of experience in art, design and directing creative projects. I'd continued to practice photography since I was about 14 and during my years making video games I'd continued to study all facets of filmmaking. I still had the desire to make films. So I did.

In October of 2013 I started a Kickstarter campaign to see if I could raise $3000 to help me make a two minute short film. The funds would help me buy some basic equipment & materials and help fund the project for a few months of development, (most of that time spent on fabrication and post production). Forty of my friends and a dozen people I don't know kicked in with their support. We reached funding goal in ten days. I finished the short film on November 12th, 2013 and delivered it to my supporters.

This short film is loosely based on two character archetypes in a much bigger, much more expensive story I've written. For many reasons I needed to go ahead and produce this on my own. Therefore I needed to keep the premise very simple so I could finish the piece in a timely manner. Here's a one page storyboard I created based on the concept of "Two characters from rival factions engage in a firefight, one prevails".

This seems so simple right? Even this took months of my life to complete and on top of that it took months to create and maintain my 1st Kickstarter campaign.

I created all the character costumes and props, acted, self shot, edited, created vfx and sounds for this final piece on my own. My friend Otto Cate provided the awesome music that we needed. Physically producing this short alone, using an old GoPro Hero camera did not offer me the opportunity to get the style of cinematic look I would have gotten if I shot another actor. What it did do however was force me to find a way, and force me to work through every facet of production, from planning to post. I learned many things along the way that will serve to make my next films better.

It's never gonna be perfect, you rarely have everything you want or need. Just use what you have and go do it!

I present to you my very indie "Project GF" short film - Sniper versus Scout:  on vimeo >>> http://vimeo.com/93150694
on Youtube vvv


***Also now on Vimeo for higher quality: http://vimeo.com/93150694

DRS1 Weapon design & build process for Short film Sniper versus Scout.

Here's a sample of a new video series I'm making on the development of my "Project GF" and short film Sniper versus Scout.

Project GF: Sniper versus Scout short film

In October 2013 I funded a short film on Kickstarter in 10 days. On November 12th, 2013 I delivered the film to my backers. It's available for viewing now as well as other developments being delivered as ongoing rewards to my supporters and those who have purchased specific items.

I am still honoring the Kickstarter pledge levels. You can get all access now -> select your pledge level & via PayPal send payment to FPDesignFab@gmail.com
View the Kickstarter here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/christopherscott/project-gf-sniper-versus-scout

Datalandia Production

Here's a fun spot I worked on with Fonco & Mekanism for GE Datalandia:

Pivit Bindings discovered by a UK magazine

Whitelines Snowboarding Magazine in the UK requested an interview with me last week. They discovered my Patented Pivit Laterally Flexible Snowboard Binding and thought it was interesting (US Patent #5,855,390). Read it here and learn more about the inspiration behind my binding designs.

http://whitelines.mpora.com/snowboard_gear/pivit-snowboard-bindings-inventor-answers-our-questions.html

Future FPS Hill 88 Assault

I haven't been on this blog in awhile, been keeping very busy. I made this video over the weekend. I'm starting to show some of what I've been up to with F>P Design Fab. This is a 1st look at a 24 hour short film challenge. It's part of a larger project I have in development. Check out the Youtube channel /FPDesignFab & video:

Hangtown Motocross National

Thad and I had a great time at Hangtown. Here's a link to some photos I shot:
http://chassell.smugmug.com/Flowculture/HangtownMX/23097917_vKMk32

Co-Optic Productions

I co-founded a production company with Otto Cate. Here are a few Images we created for a project in development.  Checkout www.co-opticpro.com and facebook/CoOpticProductions for more info.

MORAV Missions Live Action Set Fabrication

Here's a shot from the set I helped fabricate for Fon Davis's MORAV Missions live action series.

Creative Assistant Needed:

I'm looking for an assistant in my Marin studio. Digital and practical art, design, photography, editing and some fabrication work. Great opportunity for student / Intern level person. Pros welcome also. Contact me at FPDesignFab@gmail.com if you or anyone you know in the SF Bay area may be interested.

Design and Fabrication of an EMD

My best work days usually involve creating something from scratch. It's often about taking a conceptual idea from my head to a sketch, then into Maya or RhinoCAD and then fabricating it in the shop. I enjoy covering the full spectrum of conceptual, functional and aesthetic design to fabrication and realization. Some of my work only exists in the computer but on certain projects I get to see and hold actual items at the end of the day.

Last Friday Dec. 2nd was time to fabricate the EMD, a component part for a large prop I designed several months ago. I started the day over a morning cup of coffee while making a sketch to help visualize alignment of the internal parts and details for the sculpting I would do. Next I went into the shop and fabricated it. Lastly I took the formed part back to the computer and used CAD/CAM to design and laser cut ring and cover plates.

In the shop I sculpted what we call a "plug" which is used to create a shape to pull a vacuum form over. Here's the plug with a thin test pull.

Here's the first full pull using 0.90" thick Styrene. It looked good so I cut it out and called it done.

Here's the final plug and the vacuum form. You can see holes I added to the plug to ensure a tight pull.

I wired up LED's, cut a ring plate to mount them and trimmed out a radial fit in the top section of the part. Next I need to solder connections, cut LED holes, add a switch in the cover plate then assemble, mount and paint the component on the final prop.

My time at Lucasfilm Ltd.

In the beginning of January 2010 I started working at the Lucasfilm Letterman Digital Arts Center in the Presidio of San Francisco. I worked there as a lead artist on Star Wars projects until summer of 2011. *(The photos included here are only of common, open to the public areas of the campus).

Some days were good for a lunch break by the creek or a quick bike ride to the beach which overlooked the Golden Gate and Alcatraz.

I visited the Clone Wars studio at Big Rock and was fortunate enough to go to "The Ranch" four or five times. Including a fourth of July picnic and a special trip to hang out in the archives building which houses all the original Star Wars art and movie props. The archives visit was very rare, very impressive and quite epic. Here are a few images from The Ranch. I can't show any from inside the archives but the SW Blu-rays reveal enough for everyone to get an idea of how neat this place is.

 

It was fun being able to take my son on tours of ILM and The Ranch and have him meet the team making the Clone Wars at Big Rock. Being a young animator, film maker and SW/Clone Wars fan, I think the experiences left good impressions on him. 

Bobba Fett holding it down. 

 

Hanging out on Tatooine - the Anakin home set. (This photo was shot several years ago while I was touring N. Africa for Activision's Call of Duty games).

F>P Design Fab

In 2009 I started F>P as a label for my practical art, design and fabrication projects. Making stuff only in the computer for the digital realm was great but not enough anymore. I needed to also work with my hands again and see more practical designs built for real like I did before the games industry captured my soul. Most of my F>P practical work was centered around film props, gear, costume and character designs as well as some full scale and miniature sets.

I found that as a video game art director I often built practical art pieces and examples as part of my styleguides and relied on practical artworks to get the look I wanted in CG. I'd hand fabricate sections of character armor, throw paint around on real surfaces and always utilize photography when working on character designs and texturing styles. Just because we can technically do everything inside the computer doesn't mean we should. I like to start with reality as much as possible for the style work I do most often. With F>P I started doing Nerf gun and airsoft weapon mods, painting helmets and stuff like that on the weekends just to do more hands on practical art and balance out the major amounts of time I spent doing art & design on the computer.

Now in 2011 as an independent artist, designer and director I spend a portion of my time each week working in shops with some of the best practical fx and model makers in the industry here in the SF bay area. Most all of my F>P props work I do nowadays is fully custom built from scratch. I still use the computer heavily as an art and design tool but most of my final product is now actually hand fabricated and able to be filmed in camera instead of existing only as a computer rendering.

FPDesignFab@gmail.com

VFX Jobs.com

Animators, CG & VFX Artists & Technicians, check out my friend David's new website - VFXJobs. It's a great resource if you're looking for work in the industry: http://www.vfxjobs.com/

MORAV

Check out my friend Fon Davis' project: MORAV. I've been helping out on this project over the past month and Fon has some very cool stuff in the works for it.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/morav/morav-missions-live-action-series-pilot

Siege Beast

This is my Siege Beast I designed and built for a fantasy themed isometric 3rd person action RPG. Its primary role is to breach enemy fortifications and destroy enemy towers. It also does heavy damage to enemy monsters and players that get within range. This post documents the stages of development showing the progression from two initial thumbnail ideation sketches to the final rigged 3d model.

As I started thinking of the overall form and structure for this beast, my initial ideation lead me towards a blend of rhinoceros, komoto dragon, bulldog and armadillo. I wanted it to have the following characteristics: Aggressive size, weight and power. A low center of gravity for stability and linebacker like power to blitz thru enemies. Heavy armor to withstand weapons attacks from towers above. Long forklift like tusks for getting underneath objects and flipping them over.  I also wanted to add a weapon like a whipping tail or an ability to fling projectiles. I decided to go with a long whipping tail similar to a blend of rat and stegosaurus. I also decided to root the tail between the shoulder blades where it looks more unique, has a longer forward range and can attack similar in manner to a scorpion.

Below is the first pass complete diffuse textured and rigged model. In this attack position it lunges forward while rotating its torso and flings its tail in a whipping motion.

Below shows the orthographic model sheet, flat shaded and textured model. Once I roughed the form in 3d I stretched it out by lengthening the torso and hips.

Below are the first two ideation sketches. Do you remember the Herculoids? While ideating this creature I think I had a faint impression lingering in my memory of Tundro from the Herculoids - the big heavy creature that shot lava from it's horn. I was a fan of the Herculoids as a kid in the 80's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Herculoids. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKhIckp4ccY Ideation sketch #2 was more of a boar like creature with a type of horned claw/pincher on it's head. I stuck with the basis of my first design and tightened it down in the model sheet and into the final 3d model.

Check out the Project Realm facebook page where animations will post soon:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Project-Realm/219139128133897?sk=wall

Konclave Tribe

Konclave is a beastly tribal faction in Project Realm. They are students of transmutation; the bending and blending of nature. Also referred to as Deonodians and Rhyomorths, the Konclave tribe lives in the damp swampy forests of the South-Lands. Deep in the giant forest along a flowing rivers ravine these tribal creatures perfect their craft of altering their own biology. They've also formed a magical connection with their environment.

Konclave design forms follow organic signs of nature: curved conical cylinders, acute triangular shapes and the rhythm of the sinuous S. I first defined their high level art direction then started aesthetic design for specific characters. I had an image in my mind for a Shaman so I grabbed my reference and made the notes and ideation sketch shown below. I debated on posting this image because it's only an initial sketch. It is however the only one I made for this character before going to an orthographic model sheet. 

Project Realm is an exercise in small team rapid development of new-IP. Every piece seen here is of my creation and hands on work, however I've also utilized offsite contractors as needed to assist in specific stages of art asset production. This blog post documents the development process that works for this project. The goal is to get ideas down and conveyed very quickly and inexpensively, move into 3d asap and get it in game. The focus is on fast creative execution, not mind blowing visuals. I think showing some early, rough "in-the-making" imagery is fair here. Sometimes a napkin sketch is all it takes to move an idea or concept to the next phase. Three style-guide pages and the two following images were all that was needed to achieve desired results in 3d where finalized conceptual design often happens for me. 

This Shaman was only one asset among many being created at once and I needed to get it  into animation asap. This means it had to be ideated, designed, completely modeled, rigged and tested with separate component pieces before animation could begin. I worked with a remote local artist to help create an ortho-graphic model sheet. We drew/painted over each others work for a couple days to tighten down the design. I then sent an image similar to the one below to outsourcing for a first pass model. 

After a day or so of tweaking verts, proportions and leg mechanics on the outsourced 3d model I finalized the mesh and uv's. Several weeks later I had it textured and rigged looking like this.  It was ready to begin keyframing and be sent out for animation.

I had considered transitioning this character from a two leg stance into a four legged locomotion style but due to time constraints and other potential issues I didn't pursue it. I spent one or two days creating an animation tree and keyframe images for about six to eight animations: walk, get hit, death, three or four melee attacks and a couple spell casts. Whether we use animation blending or not we need each animation to start and end with specific keyframes. Below is the first pass anim tree before adding all final keyframe imagery. This animation work was outsourced to non english speaking animators I've never met, directly spoken with or had any direct email correspondence with. In order to get acceptable results with this process I must convey exactly what I need and effectively define a style I want them to follow, otherwise I'll get all kinds of random, inappropriate and unusable work.

One of the first Shaman spells is the Entangle, a ranged targeted spell to decrease enemy movement. The Shaman targets his enemy at a distance and conjures tree roots up from the ground which entangle and temporarily trap his enemies. Visually the Shaman rears back in a wide squatted stance with outreached arms, focuses on the ground then swoops his arms forward and up. Here are the keyframe reference images I sent for the Entangle and death animation.

I only sent key frame reference imagery to China so the animator could interpret it him or herself. They ended up asking for my maya keyframe files that I used to make the images. Fine by me. Stay tuned for animation results...

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Project-Realm/219139128133897

Irozan Faction

Irozan is the first of three factions in the fantasy based Project Realm. The Irozan's are learners of instrumentality, magical engineers. They traveled east into barren canyon-lands and settled on cliffs above the sea. They draw from the waters to help power and cool their magical glowing, steaming machines.

Irozan designs follow the etchings of their visionary mage leader who founded their belief in the powers of instrumentation. The three shapes of Irozan are the circle, square and trapezoid. They also adhere to the rhythms of the Gear (which in profile is made up of their three primary shapes). An interesting thing about the earliest markings found on Irozan artifacts is they are all etched in perspective. A 3d representation of their shapes forming spheres, cubes and cylinders. Artifacts from other factions show etchings of two dimensional shapes. This indicates Irozan aptitude and ability to think and see in broader dimensions. Irozan aimed to achieve the creation and development of perfect circle and square forms in their instruments. They believed if they could create these perfect forms they could increase their powers greatly.

The Irozan race of humans are short and stocky, they are muscular blacksmiths who utilize magical powers that drive their gear, weapons and machinery. The Irozan Snealth is a type of ranged warrior. He primarily uses cross bows and steam powered weaponry. When he gets in close he also uses explosive devices to take down targets. Seen below is an Irozan Snealth medium res model with diffuse textures.

I create keyframe imagery for every animation for every character when I use foreign animation outsourcing. Here's an example keyframe sheet I quickly created to describe and visually convey what I want for the plant explosives animation. 

The Irozan Juggernaut is a large magically powered suit or armor. The driver fits inside the torso and looks out of the porthole. This heavy suit is designed primarily to withstand attacks while pushing frontlines to destroy enemy towers and fortifications. The image below shows a rapid process I used to get this character designed, modeled, weighted and rigged for animation in less than four weeks while also doing many other tasks. The sketches are quick thumbnails that conveyed enough information to start the modeling process where I easily refined the design in 3d. The model images show a default upgradable hand attachment. It may be replaced with a variety of weapon mounts like blades and the glowing orange molten metal pummel fist. This Juggernaut design is intended to be an oversized suit of armor, not a "mech". Remember a driver sits in the torso and drives the heavy suit with Irozan magic. The torso is a large solid unit and the legs are shorter to give it this feel. The design matches the short and wide physicality of the Irozan people.

Below is a quick styleguide I put together to convey important hip translation requirements to the rigger.

Texturesets.com

Check out www.Texturesets.com for high quality digital texture source.

Flowculture

I created Flowculture in 2008 as a label to channel my photography, film, videography and product design interests in the bike and board sport arenas. Flowculture produced several biking videos, shot media coverage at professional bike and board events and continues to shoot pro/am sessions. Flowculture on facebook has since become a node for connecting local riders, photographers and film makers and provides coverage and exposure for talented up and coming athletes. The Flowculture page has subscribers in 19 countries and 14 languages.
http://www.facebook.com/Flowculture
http://flowculture.blogspot.com/
http://chassell.smugmug.com/Flowculture
http://www.youtube.com/FlowCulture