Here is an example of how to save money on a production. It was a relatively small expense compared to the total cost of the production but every bit counts. I guess this is the kind of money saving trick I learned from a couple of years of weekends working on no-budget sci-fi film.

The First pic shows pieces of foam suspended from wires. These were replaced by computer generated swinging paint brushes in the final commercial. This was an economical alternative to having oversized paint brush props built. Had we gone down that path we probably could have only afforded on giant brush, which we wouldn’t have seen until a day before the shoot and would also have been heavy etc etc. We just had to design a rig that would have the correct movement and be safe for the talent.

The final rig was easy to setup and the foam pieces were designed to swing which provided great motion reference for the 3D team and something real for the talent, who weren’t professional actors, to interact with. I placed 3 tracking markers on each piece of foam but in most cases the final shots were so short the CG brushes were easily hand animated.

Supervising and Art Directing the launch campaign was an enormously challenging task and the largest VFX job Channel Nine’s VFX/Design department had undertaken at that time. Since then we have upped the ante once more.

This is a bit off-topic but it is such an amazing pice of footage I think it’s worth sharing. A visually stunning video of the earth seen from the International Space Station. At the time of writing this clip has been online for 4 days and has had 4.4 million views.

Hope you enjoy it as much as i did!

More details and full credits can be found on Michael König’s Vimeo page here

Title: Showreel of Joseph Pole, 2011

Duration: 1:10

VFX Supervisor: Joseph Pole

Compositing: Joseph Pole

Music: Aphex Twin

Music Title: Polynomial-C

Promax World Gold!

Recently a commercial I VFX Supervised and composited won the 2011 Promax BDA world gold awardfor the Best Program Promotion in the Entertainment category. I also directed 2nd unit where we shot some wide shots cutaways and plate elements.

We had a few days of pre-production, one day for plate shoots and one day in a greenscreen studio. I then composited the whole thing in After Effects in about 2 weeks. Another tight turnaround but to receive such a prestigious award made the late nights and lost weekends worthwhile.

Title: 2010 The Farmer Wants a Wife Launch Campaign

Duration: 01:00

VFX Supervisor: Joseph Pole

Compositing (After Effects): Joseph Pole

Client: The Nine Network Australia

Music: INXS

Music Title: Never Tear Us Apart

The Wacom Inkling records your strokes while you draw on a sketchbook or paper. The specially designed pen’s location is recorded by a infrared and ultrasonic receiver with 2GB (or a couple of hundred drawings) of storage. That’s the basics but there are plenty of other features – usb rechargeable batteries, 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity and refillable ink cartridges and so on.

Looks like Wacom have another revolution on their hands. I stopped using a mouse about 7 years ago because the Wacom tablet became more intuitive and faster for me and their tablets are pretty much ubiquitous throughout the VFX, Motion Design and Digital Design Industries.

If it had character recognition wordsmiths could use it to write their novels oldschool pen & paper style too.

cntrl y – makes a new layer

Visual Effects Supervising and Art Directing the launch campaign was an enormously challenging task but the results couldn’t be better. The show launched 15% up from 2010 and ended on this high note. Needless to say there was a celebration this morning!

Title: Show Opener – Tropfest 2010

Duration: 00:30

Client: Nine Network Australia

Art Director: Joseph Pole

3D (Maya): Joshua Czikowski

Compositing: Joseph Pole

Music Title: Rather Lovely Thing

I’m not sure why but I love the way this logo animation turned out.

I struggled with it for ages. The 3D department  supplied plenty of good passes and it should have looked good but it just wasn’t looking right. In fact, it just looked dull and typical. Then I decided to simplify the project and switched off a lot of the passes and started flicking through different blending modes with only 3 or 4 layers switched on. Suddenly this multicoloured juggernaut jumped out of the quagmire.

I was thrilled even though I knew it was way too psychedelic to ever get approved. I thought at least I’d have something nice to put on my site. Yet, to my surprise, it got approved right up the foodchain and went to air in the form that you see here. Good times!

Title: Show Opener – WTF!

Duration: 00:30

Client: Nine Network Australia

Art Director: Joseph Pole

3D (Maya): Sebastian Leliard

Compositing: Joseph Pole

Music Title: Cae Rale