New Shirts!

Giving

It has been a while since I last posted here, but that's only because we've been very busy this year with many exciting projects. I'll update you on those in a future post, because today I want to write about our new initiative to get more involved with causes we care deeply about. Meet the fledgling TEAM LEGENDHAUS:

Steve, Catherine & Alex 

This project is being spearheaded by my almost-teenaged son Alex. He has long been inspired by the courage and feisty spirit of our six year-old neighbor Mike, who was born with serious heart problems, requiring several surgeries that continue through his young life. Additionally, heart disease is an issue in our own family, so it isn't surprising that Alex has chosen the American Heart Association as his first cause to champion.

Beginning this month, my family will be actively seeking projects that we can support as a team.  Legendhaus will be sponsoring us, as we start what we plan to be a continued, lifelong effort. In September, our family is participating in two such fundraising events: The American Heart Association's HEART WALK 2014, on September 21, and on the 28th, we will join I.C.O.N. / Cure for a Cause's STOP CANCER.

Walking, running, and biking is a relatively easy way to raise money and spread awareness for charitable organizations (while promoting a healthy lifestyle), but we also plan to support our causes by volunteering at local community-based organizations, and participating in (or initiating) other creative endeavors designed to give something back and make the world a better place. I'll be posting more about Team Legendhaus's adventures here in the future. Meanwhile, we hope you will follow the links above, and consider making a tax-deductible donation to support our efforts... Or, if you want to get more involved, please consider joining the team!

Thanks for your time and contributions!
--Steve

Links: HeartWalk, Stop Cancer

The Last Extinction Process, Part Three: Field Station Scene

This post is the second in a series of behind-the-scenes peeks at the creation of the art of The Last Extinction, taken from Steve Buccellato's other blog. Click here to read part one.

This shot is another piece with art by John VanFleet. It depicts an archeological field station in the Amazonian rain forest, where we catch a glimpse of The Wheel of Omagua: an ancient artifact whose discovery is a story element of The Last Extinction. It's a pretty simple shot, but I think it's extremely effective for it's purpose: to set a mood for the story chapter in this enhanced eBook.

my original storyboard sketch

The process for creating this shot was typical for the project, except for the addition of  a 3D rendered element: the Wheel of Omagua. Because this artifact is such an important part of the storyline, we decided to create it as a 3D model to be used in many situations, while keeping the details consistent (I will devote a future blog post to the creation of the wheel, working with 3D artist Dean Kubina). The creation of the wheel took several months, at the same time as artists were working on painting these scenes. Since we didn't have a finished wheel, at the time, Dean created temporary files such as the one below, rendered in the correct size, position and perspective, for the artists to paint "around."

Wheel render by Dean Kubina, design by Kubina, Buccellato & Hanrahan

As usual for this project, my storyboard was accompanied by photo reference and many notes to call out specific details needed for the scene, as well as indications for where we required separate layers for animation.

For me, the beauty of this scene is how much appears to be going on, even though it is a very static shot. In the end, a 'zoom' was added, tracking in closer to the wheel, but originally, there was no camera movement indicated at all. I still don't think it's necessary; the rain, lightning strike and eerie music and sound effecs work very well to create the mood and set the stage.

early version by John VanFleet with temporary Wheel placeholder

some of my feedback/edits... adding details from elsewhere in scene for continuity

This scene was produced pretty easily, without a lot of back-and-forth between me and the artists. Except for some fairly minor tweaks and changes, John pretty much nailed this one from the start.

Eventually, the 3D wheel was also completed, and Dean rendered out a new version in the same pose as the placeholder. John was able to drop it into place and paint over it to make it feel like part of his drawing. 

Finally, the shot was given to the animators and a soundtrack was composed, resulting in the final video file shown above. This version is partially seen in the promotional trailer, with the face of a character superimposed in front of the wheel. The entire shot seen here will be shown in the eBook.

 Next time, I'll show you some wonderfully detailed art created for our creepy nightmare scene! It's October, so how appropriate is that?

Story

Great speech, Mr. Spacey. People want STORIES, not labels. Viewing experiences may be interchangeable, but excellent content is key...

 
Kevin Spacey talks about how Netflix is changing traditional TV for good

The Last Extinction Process, Part Two: Shark Finning Scene

This post is the second in a series of behind-the-scenes peeks at the creation of the art of The Last Extinction, taken from Steve Buccellato's other blog.  Click here to read part one.

The video above is just one shot in what was probably the most complicated sequence we created for the promotional trailer for TLE. The scene depicts a Chinese shark-finning boat, floating derelict in the ocean. As the camera gets closer (following a swarming flock of gulls and other sea birds), we witness unspeakable carnage on the ship. From the stern, we see hooks and lines trailing down into the ocean depths, where the camera follows, revealing another kind of horror beneath the waves.

Really, the final underwater shot was so massive and complicated that it deserves a blog post of its own, which will follow at some point. Today, I'm going to focus on the fairly simple shot above, following the many steps from start to finish... But first, here is the entire sequence as I originally storyboarded it...

These boards were created after much discussion with TLE Writer/Producer Michael Hanrahan and his lead animator (at the time), Scott Walker, of Highliner Studios. We decided to create these images as 2D digital paintings in Adobe Photoshop, designed for animating in After Effects, using multiple layers to separate objects and planes.

Layers were key to our success. One important benefit of creating our scenes from scratch, rather than using stock photos or more traditional 2D images, was that we could customize each piece of art with animation in mind. Therefore, any environment had multiple layers from foreground to background, with complete art behind each layer above. As well, characters, props and anything in the extreme foreground needed to exist as separate, fully-realized pieces of art.

an example of the storyboard, along with initial notes to indicate the important layers necessary to animation

On this particular scene, I hired the amazingly talented John Van Fleet to paint all the elements. John is one of two artists assembled for TLE that I've worked with in the past. He's an extremely versatile artist, who I first got to know when he was painting graphic novels for Marvel Comics.

Typhoid by Ann Nocenti & John Van Fleet

John's work on TLE has been exceptional, and his attention to technical detail has, in many ways, set the bar high for much of the project.

Getting back to process, however... The first step with this scene (and all others) was to provide John with detailed boards (like the one above), as well as technical specs, notes and photo reference to help inspire and inform the shot. In turn, John would send me increasingly detailed artwork, as we provided feedback at each step. Here are a few iterations of this first shot...

early version: art by John Van Fleet

early version: art by John Van Fleet

final version: art by John Van Fleet

You can see many apparent differences here, including the color and texture of the ocean, the design and details of the boat and the 'wake' behind it. Changes were made for different reasons; some purely aesthetic, others to match the scene as it reads in the book, or to heighten the reality.

When it came to the ship itself, John took it upon himself to model it in a 3D program first, and paint over it. This allowed him to keep its details consistent throughout the scene.

model by John Van Fleet

This particular shot was fairly straightforward. Once we had the main details down, and the shot captured the mood we were going for, it was smooth sailing, so to speak. Some other shots from the scene required much more back-and-forth to get all the elements in line.

Below is a typical example of how I'd direct the work of John and the other artists, usually accompanied by extensive emailed notes and more examples of photo reference. Many of the artists on TLE lived in other parts of the world, and so email was our main form of communication (we had artists in Sweden, Russia, France and around the U.S.).

The example above was from a complicated shot that John completed, but was not used. It was supposed to provide a transition between the shot showing the deck of the ship, and the underwater tracking shot. The use of 'swarming' birds would have been crucial to selling these shots, and creating a feeling of total chaos. In the editing, we realized it wasn't necessary. In the end, not every shot that I storyboarded was painted, and not every frame painted appeared in the promotional trailer.

art by John Van Fleet

art by John Van Fleet

Once these layered Photoshop files were complete, the files were passed on to the animators who brought the images to life in Adobe After Effects. In many cases, new elements were added at this stage, including certain lighting and atmospheric effects, some sound effects, and simulated camera tricks such as blurred focus and camera movements. In the case of this shot, the animators had to multiply the birds and have them 'swarm' convincingly, as well as creating realistic movements in the water and fog.

The end result is the video clip at the top of this blog post. When each shot was completed in this way, the Video Editor, Damon Caussen, had the raw materials to put together the finished trailer (along with other assets, such as the musical score, voice-overs and some stock video footage). All throughout, Michael and I had access to the work in-progress, providing input. 

Most of the scenes followed this basic procedure to produce. However, several scenes or individual shots required special techniques to get the required results. Next time, I'll tell you about one of those exceptions...

The Last Extinction Process, Part One: Getting Started

This post will be the first in a series where we finally get to show off some of the beautiful work  created for The Last Extinction. (Note: This series of posts are duplicated content from Steve Buccellato's Other Blog, and therefore written entirely from Steve's P.O.V.)

storyboards by Yours Truly

To summarize briefly: last year,  Legendhaus was hired by writer/producer Michael Hanrahan to develop and create content for his enhanced eBook, The Last Extinction. TLE is an adventure novel with environmental themes, about an ancient artifact that predicts a time when nature itself will rise up against humanity. Michael's plan was to set his story apart from other prose novels by including exciting visuals and animated vignettes to enhance the reading experience. That's where I became involved...

After the initial meetings and getting-to-know-you stuff, I was hired as Art Director for the project, tasked with building a team of digital 2D and 3D artists, and developing the artwork for animation (later, my role would grow, and my title changed to Creative Director).

There were many stages, but basically, I started by working with Michael and his lead animator to choose the most visually or emotionally interesting scenes from the book. I then storyboarded them, planning out how the animations would work. Meanwhile, I built up a team of about ten digital painters from around the world, who mainly work as concept artists for film and video games.

Originally, Michael was not sure if he wanted to use art or stock photographs and video to create the visuals.  I happen to be a big fan of concept art (I like to collect the behind-the-scenes "Art Of..." Books that are published as movie tie-ins) and ultimately convinced everyone that the painterly look of concept art would be a unique, and ultimately cost-effective way to go for the project.

Just a small sampling from my shelves...I seriously love these books!

After assembling our team, my next task was to divvy the scenes out among them, playing to the strengths of each individual artist (one might excel at painting people or animals, while others were chosen for their ability to paint beautiful environments).

work in-progress by Robin Olausson (my notes)

 

art by John VanFleet

work in-progress by John VanFleet

rough environment sketches by Kalen Chock

work in-progress by Kalen Chock

Here's a peek at some work behind one shot...

art by Kalen Chock

Painting by Andrey Pervukhin

Early on, we decided to first focus our energy on a few specific sequences, to be used in the promotional trailer below.


The Last Extinction from Hanrahan Media on Vimeo.

Each scene had its own challenges, but Michael's dedication to his project allowed me to find and hire amazing talents who were more than up to them. This made TLE a very exciting project to work on. We were off and running on a project that would keep me very busy for much of last year, and with which I'm still involved as the publication date draws near.

Tomorrow, I will post the first a few in-depth peeks at how the art was created, step by step. Check back for an exclusive look at the creative process behind The Last Extinction!

New 'Hybrid' Logo

What do you think? Had to come up with a version of the logo that incorporated both the standard text and the "LH" bullet. Mainly because it needed to appear as a square icon. I'll tell you why later.

Meanwhile, I'd actually appreciate feedback from any of you crazy-for-type nuts out there! :)

—Steve