Tag Archives: vfx

Work Update – Life Aint All Rocks & Jumps

Leave a reply

The video above is probably my favorite of all of the game trailers Luis and I have put together. The great background illustrations were done by Jennifer Whitney. Below are a few things I worked on earlier this year or late last year.

A couple of Nerdist projects where I handled effects and/or graphics:
DUO - Tinder for Superheroes
Dragonball Xenoverse - Going Super Saiyan in the office
Doogie Howser Rebooted – I put a bunch of graphics together

More Gamevil game trailers:
Dragon Blaze
Dungeon Link – We also did a few in-game animations for this in addition to this video.

A concept video for Brainitch – screen composites and other effects.

Also a thing for Ticketmaster:
Access Granted – A web-series. I handled the logo, open, and all graphics.

And finally, a trip back in time to clean up that holocaust mess:

Deluge Time

Leave a reply

Jumping off rocks don’t pay the bills. Sitting at a computer making things move does. It’s that time again—the time when I bury you all in a torrent of video links and embeds of various projects that went live in the last few months.

More game trailers for Gamevil. Party Slots was a fun one with lots of compositing people I know into goofy game scenarios. Ocean Tales and Dynasty Warlord are a couple of others we put together that rely more on motion graphics and animation. I contributed a few motion graphics to Perfect Inning, Luis and Travis handled everything else. Then, there was the hard one:

Mark of the Dragon was tricky. It involved using Element 3D and C4D Lite inside of After Effects in ways they weren’t intended to composite a bunch of individual 3D game elements into a story. It was essentially one big workaround that turned out pretty well considering. I had done some similar hoops-jumping for Pocket Gunfighters, but that one was not nearly as complex.

I was responsible for the visual effects in three of Nerdist’s Terror Twins episodes: The episodes starring Doug Jones, Brian Huskey, and Greg Sestero. I also did VFX for a few of their JLA episodes such as the Cinco de Mayo episode. There were a few other VFX things like Warp Zone’s Smite series : episodes 1, 3, and 4, but this should be more than a large enough video inundation for anyone’s attention span.

Dragging Feet Stop Dragging

Leave a reply

For over three years, I have been dragging ass getting my portfolio and reels updated. Occasionally, I would get a request to see my reel and I would dread having to give the “sure, but it hasn’t been updated in three years” response. Now, I don’t have to anymore. I have not only updated my reels, but also completely redesigned the site and portfolio elements. See the new site at chinnystyle.com.

I also embedded my general and director reels in this post.

Sugar Pi Fairy

Leave a reply

I’ve been looking forward to sharing this. Earlier this year, my friend (and past documentary subject) John Brown recommended me for a Nerdist project. Danica McKellar (Winnie Cooper from The Wonder Years) was working on a math/comedy (mathedy?) series and needed someone to direct and post a short music video based around the mathematical constant pi. We shot all primary photography (Danica and ballerinas) in one day in June followed by a couple of short pick-up shoots throughout the summer to grab the various celebrity cameos. I handled all of the post: editing, color, compositing, animation, design, etc. As a sign of her appreciation, Danica brought me a homemade chocolate pecan pie afterwards. I’ve never had a client bake me a pastry before or deliver it to my somewhat secluded (by L.A. standards) residence. She is setting a high bar for all future clientele.

And, yes, she really did have the whole song memorized.

pipie

Initiate Update – First Third

Leave a reply

It feels like all I have been doing this year is working. To a certain degree that is true, but when I look through my calendar and photos from this first third of 2013, I see the truth isn’t so glum. The year started out well. I was canyoneering several times a month, lead my first trad routes, hit the gym hard and regularly, and was balancing my workload well. Lately, though, work has been eating into everything. I did still manage to make it out to the Red Rock Rendezvous (best year yet) and backpacked through Surprise Canyon again (last time was over 3 years ago). I’m thankful for all the work, but hopefully outdoor time will start wedging its way back in. Currently Half Dome, Zion, and the Grand Canyon are on the calendar. Maybe they’ll help me get my balance back.

On a semi-tangent, back in February, I faced my first burrowing tick. I’ve had ticks crawling across my skin many times, but this was the first time one managed to dig into my flesh. I returned home after running Bailey Canyon under a full moon and found a big monstrosity protruding from my hip. After a struggle I managed to yank it out and its disgusting buried head. I’ve almost healed emotionally from the feelings of violation. Regardless, ticks have become my sworn enemies alongside cockroaches. Seriously, avoid those fuckers. And by avoid, I mean kill with extreme prejudice. We are talking tick genocide.

Being self-employed is always worrisome. I constantly expect the work to suddenly dry up and everything to fall apart. So far I have been lucky and work continues to flow in. We shall see if I can maintain it. Below are a few of the highlights from many projects that have seen completion so far this year: (There are some cool things I can’t share yet also.)

That’s enough yakking. Enjoy some photos below. Hopefully I will post something substantial soon and not just more of this  “Dear Diary” bullshit.

Video Avalanche

Leave a reply

It’s been a busy year. With the holidays approaching, things are slowing a bit (although they may ramp up again in a week or so). This gives me a little time to finally update this neglected journal. Unfortunately, this post will primarily be another avalanche of videos I’ve worked on in the last few months. Hopefully, I’ll start adding some meatier content again soon.

I’ve shot a fair bit of GoPro footage this year, but only now have I edited any of it. Above is a video from the Foam Fest back in May. Hopefully I can throw together a couple more GoPro edits and the 2012 collective video in the next few weeks. In related news, I lost my GoPro Hero 2 camera (along with the LCD backpack, tripod mount, a monopod, and the footage) while canyoneering a couple of weeks ago.

Below is a recent video I directed, edited, and posted for Ubisoft and DeStorm Power. This was also our most recent Butcher Bird project.

There are several commercials I’ve worked on in the last few months, but they aren’t online yet. There is this one that I did for this year’s West Hollywood Book Fair. This is the third spot I’ve done for them.

There have been several Nexon videos over the last few months. I am particularly proud of the three part series we did for the Presidential Election. Brian Schmoyer handled the character animation of the three MapleStory characters. I handled the motion graphics, animated infographics, puppet show, backgrounds, and compositing. The third installment is embedded below followed by links to the first two.

MapleStory Election 1
MapleStory Election 2

Oh yeah, I moved into a new place in September.
That’s all for now.

Momentarily Checking In

Leave a reply

tahquitz climb

Because I’m such a great son, I’ve included the sorts of photos in this post that make my Mom nervous. (Don’t worry, I am attached to a rope in that top picture.)

Spring and Summer seem to appear from nowhere and fly past each year. This year seems to be no different. Although not as much as I’d like, I am getting myself outside a fair amount. The photo up top is from last week on Tahquitz on pitch two of “El Whampo.” I’m not leading trad yet, but I’m getting a decent bit of practice following. I’ve also been attending rolling sessions with a kayaking club and I am happy to say I can roll my kayak now. I haven’t tested it on a river yet, but maybe I’ll get a chance before the season is through. Since Hawaii, I ran in the 5K Foam Fest, canoed Black Canyon again, jumped off rocks in a few places, climbed rocks in others, ran a canyoneering route through Eaton Canyon (where I ended up helping out in a rescue), and returned to Yosemite. It’s good to see that typed out, it makes me feel like I haven’t been slacking as much as I have been.

yosemite lazing

I’ve included a few images from these various things in the gallery below. But, first, here are some links to a few projects I’ve been working on that have gone live recently:

The Many Maladies of Marty Mitchell – a kids’ show made in my apartment
Infex Animated EBook – I was responsible for some of the animation
Maple Rising Star – animation
Blabberbox 6 – visual effects and motion graphics
MapleStory-Renegades: Jett – animation and motion graphics
MapleStory-Renegades: Phantom – motion graphics
Spiders Vs Scorpions – motion graphics, vfx, and color (all 3 eps)
ConnecTV Top Tweets – ESPYS – motion graphics
There are also a few local commercials on TV  I worked on that I haven’t seen online yet

Even More Videos

Leave a reply

I received an interesting email in December. An ad agency in Northern California had seen my video Hesperia Swimstream on Vimeo. This is a video from the summer of 2010—a few months after I had purchased my first GoPro—where I played around with the camera for the first time underwater. This ad agency was creating a 2012 ad campaign for Coldwell Banker using footage from various sources featuring families enjoying their homes. They asked to license some of my footage and now Erika and a couple of her nephews are in a few national commercial spots.

Coldwell Banker: Kids
Coldwell Banker: Backyards
Coldwell Banker: 30 Second

I’ve also been working on a few local commercials with a company called The Agency. I was responsible for the graphics, animation, and compositing in the above commercial and the following commercials for CCA and Living Spaces.

CCA – Fitness Trainer
CCA –  Phlebotomist
CCA – Counselor

Living Spaces – Special Order
Living Spaces – Special Order (Spanish)

I squeezed in a few videos with my buddies at Nexon as well. Here are a few of them below.

MapleStory: Aliens (Character Animation & Titles)
Maple Love Story (Character Animation & Compositing)
MapleStory: Ellin Forest (Animation of Titles)

There are several other projects ongoing or recently completed I’ll hopefully be able to post (or at least mention) soon. For those of you sick of seeing these video/work-related posts, fear not! I’ll be posting about some recent outdoor excursions shortly.