I recently purchased the new Andrew Kramer, of videocopilot.net, tutorial DVD titled "The Bullet."  It covers integration of 3D programs such as 3DSMax, Cinema 4D and Blender into After Effects.  Since I like free things, I decided to check out the Blender section.

 I haven't done the whole tutorial yet, as it's a big one.  I did start working in Blender and work on making some 3D objects.  The tutorial has you creating a 3D bullet that flies past the camera after it shoots.  It goes through step by step the process of adding textures and bump maps, lighting, reflections and finally animating and compositing.  Blender's interface is kind of intimidating, but through this tutorial I have a basic idea now how to move around the program a bit.

 In a few months there will be a series called "Amped."  The visual theme is that of the Mountain Dew Amp energy drinks, so I'm hoping to have a good feel for 3D animation to make some stuff for that.

Posted on: 5/26/2008 at 11:48 PM
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So I was doing a freelance video on my old 2005 masterpiece  of a computer known only as "The Beast" the past few weeks...and I noticed it acting a bit sluggish.  After over 3 years of movie making magic, I figured it was time to put it out to pasture.  After seeing some of my coworkers get refurbished macs, I decided to invest in one.  Enter the 8 core!

 So far, it's been a dream come true.  I keep throwing random 3D layers and particles at it and so far it just mocks my attempts and renders them out in no time flat.  I will be doing some render tests over the weekend with some of my old projects from work to see just how much faster it is.

Before I go, I wanted to give a shout out to my friend Jason Smithers over at theworstblogger.com .  He gave me one earlier today and I figured I'd let everyone know that he, much like myself, is awesome.  One look at the pictures on the top of his blog and you'll agree. 

Posted on: 4/24/2008 at 4:13 PM
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Here's a few videos I did this past week.

Posted on: 3/30/2008 at 9:19 AM
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Here's the final version that played at the Easter service this year.  Enjoy!

Posted on: 3/26/2008 at 1:53 AM
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Last year around this time, I was working at a TV station full time, taking a few classes and volunteering at CedarCreek.  With all that, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend some planning meetings for the Easter service.  There was a lot of talk about a video to a song a larger church did at their previous Easter service called Crimson.  Since we were unable to get a copy of it, I ended up doing a version of it.  With inspiration coming directly from the 300 end credits, a silhouette Garden of Eden was created.  Back then it was one of my favorites…but watching it now I get kind of bored.

 Because I dropped an external hard drive with the only backup, this year I’m recreating Crimson…only better!  The tree will be cooler looking, the leaves will actually be apple tree leaves instead those of a maple, and the text won’t be done in less than an hour.  Here’s the version from last year.  After Easter, I’ll post the new one so the three of you that read this can compare it.

Posted on: 3/15/2008 at 3:22 PM
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I just finished my contest video for the 89X in 30 seconds contest.  Take a look!

Posted on: 3/8/2008 at 3:22 PM
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Sometimes with all the lyric videos we do it's hard to keep them fresh.  I've had plenty of songs where I just can't think of a good visual theme to go along with them.  Last week with the song God of this City by Chris Tomlin, I saw his CD art and immediately concluded I wanted to do a video that looked like it.  It had a skyline with the sky an orangish color and a grungy texture on top.  I ended up tracing a bunch of buildings in pictures of city skylines and dropping a paper texture over the top of my video.  Take a look!

Posted on: 3/3/2008 at 4:04 PM
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