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

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.

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.

MacDonald Interior Prop Exploration Collage

Davonne: Exterior and Interior Environments idea 1

The top drawing is the idea I had for maybe what one of the narrow passage ways to her home might look like. The bottom drawing is a concept for the interior of her home. We were thinking of using Pascal Campion's style of shading and texture.All suggestions are welcome!!

MacDonald Prop Inspiration Boards

Finished up the boards I will use while designing props. Feel free to let them inspire you all as needed. Cheers!

Background Rough Moodboards

These are some moodboards Jenna and I are working on in terms of how different parts of the environment can be open spaces or narrow spaces. The bottom board in particular was looking at different colors and textures we could use. For the narrow passage ways, we liked the idea of going under arches or just lots of items that hang from one building to the next (see top moodboard, bottom left image).

Nassri_RoughStoryboardThumbnails

This is a very rough storyboard thumbnails. It needs a little bit of explaining but basically incorporates the idea of having fast repetition to show that he what he does on a daily basis with the last one being from his eyes and showing how wonderful the world is to him.

Cordova_CharacterSketch

I'm no concept artist but I gave it a go and this was my result. I kept the design simple keeping in mind the "ways to economize production" that we discussed in the previous class. The colors blue and purple are often related with magic.

MacDonald Environment Concepts

2:35 Theater Widescreen

 2:35 Theater Widescreen

Above are speed paintings to capture an idea I had of restricting our magician character using light. So while people coming through the square are in the light, our magician character will be separated standing in shadow to screen left. I see it as a subtle conflict adding one more metaphor for this character's detachment from the perceived world. I have also tinted the grey slightly cool so it reads unwelcoming as opposed to say sepia tone.

2:35 Theater Widescreen

This second concept I have moved down south! I was thinking the city could be a New Orleans/Savannah/Charleston inspired. First and foremost these cities have amazing architecture to design from, but secondly they also have a strong presence of life long street performers. I played around again with light. This time showing contrast between the neighbors while the magician heads towards an empty house.

MacDonald Character Concepts

The above character is a woman in her 60's that has been performing as a magician for over 40 years. I wanted an older woman that wasn't what you normally see in animated films; hunched, wrinkled, and eccentric. She should have a sophistication and refinement about her gained through performing her act for decades. A past that was filled with stardom and beauty in which she continues to confidently project.

My key influence was the beautiful 63 year old Jessica Lange. Another is a Canadian street performer by the name of Billy Kidd who along with Janelle Monae inspired the androgynous outfit. This adds an interesting character trait to her unseen history of struggling with not only trying to introduce magic to the world but also to stand out and become accepted. Billy Kidd stated in an interview "It's a boys' club,"... "I have to work harder and do different things." which is one reason for Kidd's androgynous persona.

Lastly the color pallet chosen is an example of how the world could look towards the final few scenes of the film. Bright colors that play with a high contrast complimentary pallet. This method is more about experimenting with hue contrast than value contrast.

After finishing the last environment frame I decided to do a quick concept of the little girl in the street to refine that sloppy painting. This idea of having a child being able to also see the magic everyone else overlooks was brought up in class and I though it was interesting and worth exploring. I wanted her forms to reflect the magician she is impersonating so I tapered her arms and legs to mimic the magician silhouette.