BigEyez Studio Blogspot

This post is long overdue. I’ve been meaning to write a post a few months back now, but I never got the chance to do so, due to my busy schedule. I’ll be honest, most of the time I just look for excuses not to. Because of that, I didn’t realize that it’s been months since I wrote a post or even replied to any comments. So I do apologize for that, everyone. (Although most of the comments that I get lately were bunch of spam’s, but nevertheless it’s all good). This last few months I was busy working with client projects and as well as looking for new clients. I’ve felt like that I have neglected this site, like a sad puppy.  Every time I come to check this site, it looks back to me begging me to give it attention. Know that I’m back, it has my full attention.

In this post, I just want to share what I want to do for this year. So far, I had a good start entering the year 2011. I feel good & very confident about this year and I want to keep it that way! I have my own share of loses and heartbreaks last year and I am no different from everybody else.  We’ve experience this kinda of things some point of our lives, am I right? This year I would like to make an improvement and start doing the things that I deprive myself from doing. Pretty much I have listed the things I would need to do for this year. It’s almost like plotting my destination on a road map, where I want to start, the stops I’m going to make and where I will end my trip.

On the very top of my list that I’ve wrote is I would be more involved and active with my personal projects. That means starting with this blog-site and as well as my portfolio site. This would be considering being an utmost highest priority. And me writing this post is a very good start! This might sound to be a resolution that I would break eventually down the road. But this is not a resolution, which I will be telling and reminding myself. These goals are a very important goal that needs to be done this year. This is just one of several goals that I’ve listed that I would need to do for myself. My life and future depends on this.

I’ve been holding back and depriving myself from the things I want to do because of personal reasons. But this time it will be different, I am going to start to live the life that I want and nothing and I mean nothing will hold me back. I’m going to take every opportunity that would present itself. NO MORE EXCUSES!! I am going to take those necessary risks, which I rarely do. This is my responsibility to myself. I won’t even give my wants and needs a second thought. No More Regrets! That’s a promise.

I have other goals that I’ve written, but I will share that another time. ‘Till then, Cheers!

This post is a little of topic from what I usually write on this blog. But its such an awesome video, I thought I should share it with you guys here!

Click on the image to watch the video.

If you’re a fan of graffiti  and ‘Street’ Art like me or at least appreciate general illustration and designs, you’re going to love this. It’s a great work of art and full of creative inspiration.  Check it out!

For more info on this, read the back story on www.bigeyezstudio.wordpress.com.

To watch this video on vimeo click here.

You guys must’ve seen this stunning viral video on YouTube. How can you not, it was the latest Internet sensation on YouTube uploaded a few months back. The video-clip generated more than a hundred of thousands of views and still growing. (It already reaches more than 2 million to date)

I came across this video at Yahoo! Buzz a month back and was fascinated by the concept. I’ve been meaning to write an article on this video for quite some time now.

The video-clip titled “Guy walks Across America” was called “The Levi’s Jean viral ad campaign.” Although the viral video wasn’t a direct advertisement of any particular Levi’s product line, their logo did make a prominent appearance at the end of the clip. Levi’s not only made an appearance in the video, they also made a significant contribution by funding and sponsoring the film project providing the filmmakers expense cost for the 14 day cross-country trip and jeans as well, worn by the actor during the entire clip.

The crew, who was responsible for the Internet phenomenon comprised of Sam Griffith the Director, Blake Heal the Producer, Peter Cote Director of Photography & Producer all jumped in a RV and traveled for a 2 week cross-country trip. They only make stops in different landmarks to capture footages of Actor/Model Michael Johnson (who is part of the crew) making the 3,000 mile walk across America.

The video which was originally conceptualized & created by the young filmmakers, was produced in a “Shoe string” budget. Realizing that they don’t have enough funds to produce the project, they decided to look for a sponsor and Levi’s came to mind which they pitched the concept to. Luckily enough, Levi’s love the idea and gave them the “Go!” signal.

You might be wondering, “How in the hell did they make the guy walk across America in just 14 days?” With the latest Hollywood special FX and expensive equipments of course! Come on! Levi’s funded the project and took care of the guys needed expenses. Beside, you can only achieve this Hollywood style effect with a ridiculous high budget. Right!? Right!?  Well . . . you’re wrong.

First of all, like I mention earlier, this project was done in a very tight budget. Levi’s did provided funds for the expenses for the production of the film. But they didn’t exactly shell out an extremely huge amount of money, although they could.

Watch the guys behind the film discuss their creative process in this interview with ABC Linsey Davis here.

This remarkable video was not your conventional moving pictures. The short 2 minute vid was filmed using a combination of Time-lapse photography and the use of a traditional Stop-Motion animation, an “extremely time-consuming and painstaking” technique in film. Plus, there were no green screen involved in the making of the video.

The technique of filming the video involves taking individual still shots of Actor Michael Johnson walking. Since the impression of walking posed a challenge to the team. In order for them to accurately create the effect of him walking, they shot a video of the actor walking in real-time and took thousands of stills and used those as reference points to pose the model for the still shots. The camera was measured carefully making sure it matched the previous frame and lined up at exactly the same distance away from the model the entire time.

“We did not have any really expensive instruments to ensure really smooth orbital moves . . . It was really MacGyver style . . .” said director of photography Peter Cote.

This process was then repeated again for hundred of frames creating the effect of the actor passing landmarks on his way across the country.

The crew made New York Brooklyn Bridge as their starting point of the cross-country walk passing through different American landmarks from Washington D.C., Chicago, Mt. Rushmore, and Las Vegas and ending the video at San Francisco Golden Bridge. Which I think tied in very well with the idea of “bridging the gap.”

The finished video consisted of 2,770 individual still shots. Ain’t that awesome!

Watch the making of the incredible video and how it took the filmmakers to make this viral ad campaign below.

The film project proved to be a challenge for the guys. It took some meticulous planning and a lot of trial & error on their part to make this amazing video. With their hard work and determination, the project resulted to an incredibly well-polished & unique video. Coupled in nicely with the song titled “Home” played by the band Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros; the chosen music played a huge part of the videos success. Which fitted in well, I might say.

With more than over a hundred of thousands of views in YouTube to brag, it’s truly one of the best which deserves its proper recognition and appreciation of the craft.

For further reading and details of the creative process of the video, do check out this links:

- A Journey in Jeans

- Behind the scenes of incredible Levi’s ‘Guy Walks Across America’ ad which took 2,770 photographs to make

- Dude walks across America, shoots stop motion movie with Canon 5D Mark II

- The Conversation: ‘Guy Walks Across America’

This is such an incredible video! If you’re into alternative sports like skateboarding, you’re going to love this. And if you like videogames, you’re going to like this even better! If you’re into both… well, just take a look at this and you’ll see what I mean.

I love and enjoy the sport; it was of my favorites and passion when I was growing up. And still is! As for videogames, you got to admit it’s everybody’s favorite past time. I might be generalizing, but I believe everyone would agree with me on this one.

This commercial trailer is called “Transformation”; it was made for the game developers Ubisoft for the videogame Shaun White Skateboarding. It was directed by +Jacksonkarinja from the Production Company Rabbit, while the CGI was handled by the VFX Team of Santa Monica based studio Ring of Fire.

The shots that were taken in this video were at the Downtown and East L.A. There were no green screens involved in the making of this video. It was all created with Live-Action footages with actual ramps, real professional skaters and real stunts! What the talented team from Ring of Fire did, was take the footages and erased the actual ramps, and added the  CGI on top of the erased ramps, did some Roto-scoping and color correction. Once that was all taken care of, they comped it all back together using Autodesk Flame.

I was all psyched up watching this video! It made me wanna go and grab my board, hit some rails along the way to the nearest game shop, buy the game and have a go at it.

Watch the Director’s Cut here.

Since I was a kid, even up until now, I’m always amazed with the behind-the-scenes and Interviews of blockbuster movies, TV commercials and music videos. I get excited watching and knowing how they were made! From concept art, visual FX, Sounds and productions; every one of them are very inspiring to watch.

From the latest 3D animated feature, to the next TV hit commercial, I always have these urge to know more about it and how these people behind these visual art have done it. Having said all that, this video is no exception. From the time Adobe launched the new CS5 Suite and watching all their product commercials, I was captivated with all the visual delights they have thrown at me. The Adobe CS5-Production Premium commercial has caught my eyes and stuck out of my noggin!  Just like always, I had the urgency to find out more, who were the people responsible behind it and how they’ve done it.  So right away, I went and did some research, reading, browsing and more research.

Not long after that, I came across this great interview post by Michelle Higa from Motionographer of FlavioMac, the Art Director of Seagulls Fly.  By the way a very informative site I might add, especially for the people like me who love VFX and motion graphics!  The interview went in depth, from discussing the concept behind the Film and post-production, especially the inside reveal of their production techniques.

Remember the opening “cow scene abduction” and Samurai warrior toy scene? After watching the commercial for the first time, I always thought it was a mix of traditional animation, practical effect & stop-motion and a little bit of 3D. I thought wrong. Read more on that interview here.

And also check out the Seagulls Fly Vimeo site here for the Behind-the-scene video of the Adobe CS5-Production Premium and their other incredible works they have done.  If you wanted to know more about this amazing Brazilian-based studio, drop by their website at www.seagullsfly.com.

It’s been several long months since my last post. I’ve been neglecting my blog-site for quite awhile, I’ve been very busy working on and looking for client projects. Since I started working for myself has an independent contractor (has a freelance Designer), I haven’t had the time to take a look at my blog. I just realize how hard it is and how time is sooo important.

Keeping those bills at bay and making sure you have a roof over your head and food on the table was no easy task! Annoying revisions, beating client deadlines and chasing payments, I always wonder how I survived and kept my sanity at the same time. I guess when you really love what you do, all these doesn’t seem to matter. Just being able to make your own decision alone made it worthwhile, I do feel fulfilled for every project accomplished. Well, just the fact that I can play days off was enough to convince me to continue doing this.

Now that I have time until the next client project, I can finally post some new entries on my site. There were a lot of inspirational and interesting stuffs that I’ve stumbled on the internet, watched on TV and movies as well as learned through countless conversations that I had that was worth writing about.

Well enough said, let’s get started!

I’ve posted an article on this incredible studio not long ago on my previous blogs. The talented guys of Titmouse Inc. produce this animated music video for the rock band The Fray. The band did a new take on Kanye West’s Heartless. Its a fusion of Flash and After Effects. What a showcase of creativity and a great source of inspiration, way to go guys! Read the full story here at ColdhardFlash. 

Here’s an amazing animation video with an exceptionally good storyline which I stumbled upon in Coldhardflash. Its a Flash-animated short called “Tarboy“ created by Australian Animator James Lee. And musical score composed by Hania, James wife. A very good one I might say! Can’t wait to see what this dynamic duo comes up with the next Tarboy.

I did a little research on that animation contest reality TV show idea, wondering if there is such a show/contest exists. During the time I was browsing I stumble on