The Walking Dead: Learning 3D Cameras in AE

When I was first introduced to the camera and 3D components of After Effects this past summer I watched this animation as a great reference for some of the possibilities that the program allows.

The animation was done by Daniel Kanemoto for the television series The Walking Dead. Kanemoto is also the creator of Ex Mortis Films and has done other interesting animations for well-know names such as Animal Planet and Nickelodeon.

Kanemoto's The Walking Dead opening sequence was done using 2D drawn images placed in 3D dimensional space, (X,Y, and Z axis') where the Camera moves around within this space. The animation is cinematic, clever, and captivating, and it can all be done in After Effects!

Watch The Walking Dead animation here: https://vimeo.com/15266890

You can take a look at Kanemoto's other works here.

Zombieland: The Series

Yes, that's right, another zombie show is coming. One that hopefully revolves around comedy and killing zombies rather than drama. This new series will occur two weeks after the movie, which ended at the carnival. Being released by Amazon Studios, it will be 30 minute shows for Prime Instant Video. Amazon is testing the show by offering it's pilot, and 13 other shows, for free and having viewers vote on which ones they like. So when this comes out I expect everyone to watch it and vote for it. Or else.

Here's a link to some information, which I totally didn't get most of my information from.

The Walking Dead - Intro

This week I began looking at different films / programs I could design an alternate intro sequence for.  Being a fan of the walking dead, I noticed when I was watching it this weekend that the effects here are not terribly complicated.  The second video is the intro sequence from the animated Adult Swim show, The Venture Bros.  This intro uses some of the techniques we discussed at the beginning of the semester (using textures, stamps, brushes, still photos, etc). Two very different shows, both with some interesting effects.

The Making of the Walking Dead

This is a really cool video into how they shoot the Walking Dead, do the zombie make up, and blood effects.

The part I found to be pretty funny was how everyone is so surprised in the comments that they fill condoms with blood for the blood splatters. I thought that was pretty common knowledge. And the fact that it took the make up people two hours to dress them as zombies is amazing. The zombie's always look really believable and disgusting. I also liked the directions he was giving the extras for how to be an effective zombie when they get shot so the special FX person had an easier time lining up the blood.

Zombie Effects

One of the things I'm interested in After Effects is altering how people look. I have always liked how demons, vampires, and other weird human-like creatures are made in After Effects. Some of my favorite movies that do this are Van Helsing and Dawn of the Dead. Even something as simple as altering somethings face or color correcting a person can help a film make the impact that it wants.

Zombie Effect

Demon Face (even though it looks like an alien to me)

Zombpocalypse

Since I've kinda run out of zombie movies to watch from last semester, I turned to YouTube. As a student hoping to make a zombie movie, this is a great inspiration. It is a student film written, directed, filmed, and edited by a high school student. The sound effects are spectacular, very well written, and the special effects are pretty awesome. Definitely something everyone should watch.

ParaNorman

In honor of Halloween, I thought I would post about a zombie movie.  This movie is called ParaNorman.

This summer I was an intern at VideoLink in Newton, MA.  Cassie Affleck came in the office one day to promote his new movie, ParaNorman.  He played the voice of Mitch Downe.  For several hours I rolled the ParaNorman trailor so the organizations interviewing him could throw in clips of the movie.  Besides pushing play and record buttons, I learned a lot about how the movie was made, and it fascinated me.  The makers of Coraline made this 3D- stop motion movie.  It was also the first stop motion film to use a 3D color printer to create each character's face.  It is the second stop motion film to be shot in 3D.  The film was in production for about 3 years with the animating stage of production lasting 2 years.  So pushing buttons had its benefits that day.  I got to meet Casey AND learn about the production process.  

It is amazing how "life like" this movie is.  The 3D effects don't distract the audience, but rather give the stop motion another dimension.  This kind of convergence of stop motion, 3D, and animation is what makes me so excited for the future of films.