Recording Foley

I was able to film a few of the Foley recordings as they were being done. Enjoy.


Vita Magus Foley Session from Vita Magus on Vimeo.

Sound Design Update

We've been hard at work this weekend locking down the majority of our necessary Foley. A handful of sound effects remain but we will work over the next day and a half to give the film as much depth as we can achieve in our extremely short sound deadline. It has been a great learning experience sitting next to Jim and seeing how he problem solves. Check out some photos taken during recording.

Using a cardboard box as Vita's magic hat

Performing the card trick in our makeshift spare closet sound booth

Recording Foley footsteps while watching the film on a laptop

Sound spotting using the final timing of our film with 40 hours till deadline

Jumping into a puddle after soaking the patio

Tahlia came over to the studio tonight but hasn't been working so hard

One Day Left!

We are down to the wire.  Today is Tuesday the 12th of March and our show airs March 14th!  There have been a lot of long nights, a lot of take out food and gigs and gigs of data flying back and forth.  Today, we are taking the Final Comp and compositing it with the effects passes and then hopefully on to the lighting tweaking and sound and we are done.

Compiling the Final Cut

Everyone on deck. One class to go

Hard at Work

Here's a few shot of some of the team hard at work. Just about any hour of the day, you'll find a few members of the team glued to the screen.

Yu uploading the latest

One cup isn't enough. Colin needs a whole pot

Andy checking on Trello

Yes...Jenna is always this happy

Foley Session

Today we work on Foley for Vita Magus!

Our good friend Jim from sound of the hunt is sacrificing his weekend to elevate Vita Magus to the next level bringing rich depth and his professional skills to our student film. I will be posting more videos and pictures of the sessions as the weekend progresses.

Jim setting up his equipment and running test a few days back in prep for the weekend.

Here is the small closet filled with a futon mattress and comforters that we will be using as our sound booth.

A shot of Jim working hard while I take a nap.

Vita's Back!

Hard at work, there is a mere week left in the production of our film Vita Magus. This means the film is nearing completion and we have moved into the final rendering/post production phase. Below are some screen captures of the film 80% composited with the hard work of the entire team.

Post Production

Wow. I had to dust off a few cobwebs here.

Just to take a moment to update our readers on how the film is coming. We are well into Post Production and on the home stretch. The final film will be done by Thursday March 14.

It's amazing how far we've come. 13 people, all with very different ideas, styles, work habits and talents have come together to make this film. For the most part, Production took place outside of this Blog obviously. Using great organizational tools like Trello, and Dropbox we've managed to, for the most part, stay organized and share whatever files we've needed. People have put in countless hours and have been flexible enough to change 'hats' as necessary.

In the next few days, as we get down to the Final Cut, we'll post some pictures of the progress along the way and a link to both the rough Cut as well as the Final Film.

Stay tuned.

- The Vita Magus team

Lucius Walk Cycles

Hello folks,

Here are the new walk cycles for Lucius.  I've just realized that he's pretty short compared to Vita, and he'll probably have to walk a lot faster to keep up with her.  But here are the slow cycles in the meantime.

Act 1 3D Layout and Food Truck

Version one of the 3D layout for Act1 has been uploaded to vimeo. There are some minor timing adjustments during the establishing shot to take advantage of the incredibly detailed cityscape Andy mocked up in Maya. I have also combined 22:1-23:1 when Vita is packing up her gear in the rain to help reduce the amount of rapid dissolves during that scene and take advantage of our environment with a camera move.


Lay_Animatic_Act1_Ver001_MacDonald from Vita Magus on Vimeo.

I was also able to finish the model for the food truck. Below is a turn around of version one.


Props_FoodTruck_Turntable_Ver001_MacDonald from Vita Magus on Vimeo.

Zona Environments: Courtyard Buildings and Interior

Lucius Turnarounds, with the new ears.

Intro and End Credit Animatics

We will wait until the animatic loads to vimeo before I embed it. Until then, here are the links.

Intro Credit Animatic:
https://vimeo.com/58479375

End Credit Animatic:
https://vimeo.com/58479561

Background people

Dupart: Building Concept Designs for Alleyways

I imagine the streets and alleys to be a little dingy as she travels home.

Nice long character post

Angela's color test

Character line up with color

Character Breakdown

Vita's turn around

Vita's expressions

Angela's breakdown

Angela's Turn Around

Angela's Expressions

Piggy breakdown

Magician home exterior with environmental props

My design was based on the map of the magician's home provided by Andy.

Animatic (timing edited) with alternative sound

Background Characters

MacDonald Props Update

Working through our prop list for the final phase of visual development. I've finished some electronics for the background characters, umbrellas, and the cars, buses, and trains in our environments.

Vita TurnAround

Vita Turnaround