Ink doodles

Ink and compressed air lend themselves wonderfully to creating creepy imagery.

This was Sean Farbolin's idea- we spent most of the afternoon doing these (they're lots of fun).  Check out the awesome doodle he did over here.

Some of you may have already seen these on Facebook, but I felt they were worth posting again in case I ever get followers who aren't my friends there.

:D
Nate

The Urchins of 49th Station (Update #1)

As promised, here is a little bit of info on the short animation project I'm starting up in my free time!

The absolutely compressed nutshell explanation of the project, without really giving away the script (which is still being revised and added to), is this:

A few nomadic children in a desolate future enter a deserted subway station.  There they meet the Child Eater and his machine of destruction...

Of course you'll have to keep watching this blog if you wanna know how it all turns out.

Here are some early sketches of the machine and the children by my concept artist, Sagan Lacy.  I'm sure he will be annoyed with me for posting these, since they're not fully hashed-out.  I did tell him I was going to, though.  So hopefully he won't be surprised anyway.

Although these designs have a ways to go yet, I think they're awesome.  AAAAAaaaaand here you go:

Also I rendered out a quick camera fly-in of the subway as it exists so far.  It's vastly unfinished, but here's your sneak peek.  If it's too dark to see on your monitor, sorry.  :)

That's all for now, folks!  Stay tuned for more updates.  You may, of course, change the channel now.

The Long-Awaited Update of Stuff and Whatever

I actually have way more news than I know what to do with as far as this post goes, so I'm just gonna cover the important stuff.

1.  I have a REAL JOB.  I'm working for the Army as a CG Generalist.  Who would've guessed?  It is, however, a great job.  And I have a pretty reasonable amount of free time because of my work schedule- which leads me to...

2.  I'm starting a new short animation project in my spare time, with the help of a few other artists.  Thus far I have recruited two very talented artists, Sagan Lacy (character designer) and Ian Hubert (modeler).  The film is in pretty early development stages, but I fully intend to post progress here.  The working title is "The Urchins of 49th Station," so if you want to follow my progress use the link in the sidebar labeled "Urchins of 49th."

3.  Project London!  It's being released this year.  I am super hyped.  You should be too.  If you aren't hyped yet, go on over to the Project London Production Blog to track our progress in sound design and release preparations.  Soooo.... cloooosseeee...

4.  There is no fact #4.  Please move to the next fact.

5.  I have purchased a Canon T2i and I'm waiting for it to come in the mail.  Once it gets here, I'll be using it to make live-action short films (which will be silly), visual effects tests (which will also be silly), and I'll be practicing photography.  Of everything.  Ever.  It will probably be a little bit silly.

To the 6 people currently following my blog:  You guys rock!  Now that I've actually got a fun project starting up  and such, I would seriously appreciate any new followers.  If I fail to update often enough for your taste, feel free to stop watching my blog (and risk missing out on fantastic humdingery and whatchacallits).  :D

That is all for now!  Look for new posts about the animation project very soon.
Cheers!

Project London!

Hey everyone!  For any of you who have yet to hear about the progress on Project London, the film is essentially finished (excepting sound design)!  For anyone who doesn't already know what Project London is, find out at http://projectlondonmovie.com/.  I have been given the incredible privilege of working on visual effects for this film over the past few years, and it has been an amazing growing experience for me.  Anywho, here's the fun stuff: a sample from the first press release and some fun links and images for you guys:

New teaser clip!  Watch it.  Do it.  You know you want to.
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoQDPEt0mc8
Vimeo: http://www.vimeo.com/10370567

From the press release:
*****
PROJECT LONDON: A PERFECT BLEND OF NO MONEY, NO
HOLLYWOOD, AND TONS OF MIND-BLOWING SPECIAL EFFECTS
     New teaser clip about the “movie that will eat your planet” unveils today, highlighting significant storyline elements and exclusive music from Half Acre Day.
Bothell, Wash. – Tuesday, March 23, 2010: As the final touches of independent, feature-length effects marvel Project London are now underway, the film is quietly gaining attention among special effects experts and social networking communities all over the world. The virtually no-budget, live action movie features more than 650 vivid, intense visual effects and animations that help drive a compelling story about a boy battling with a moral dilemma in a present day sci-fi epic. Unique to the film’s production is the use of the open-source software, Blender, for the core of all animated visual effects in the film. As Jawbone.tv called it, Project London is likely one of the “most ambitious no-budget effects movie ever.”
     “The entire concept of Project London is enough to make anyone excited, from science fiction fans to software engineers, from movie buffs to post-production artists, and it has,” said Phil McCoy, Project London Executive Producer and founder of Spiral Productions LLC. “An undertaking like this film wouldn’t be possible without a storyteller like Director Ian Hubert, the support of many talented Blender artists, and the more than 250 worldwide volunteer artists and craft people who joined our team.”
     Progress and new reveals of Project London are chronicled on the movie’s Web site at www.projectlondonmovie.com, where, today, the newest teaser clip has been released to the public. The clip introduces fans to the world of Project London and its two significant forces: the London Underground and the Joint Command. The song showcased in the new teaser clip, “Multiply,” is a brand new song by Half Acre Day. It will be featured in the film and available exclusively on the Project London soundtrack.
*****

And a few sample images!  (You can -- and should -- check out the entire press release at http://projectlondonmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/ProjectLondon_AwarenessRelease_FINAL.pdf)

My exosuit vs. Ian's exosuit.

Telephone pole.  Acrophobia?

Hey!  Those are the tankbots I made!

Seattle skyline.  Almost.  :)

Mr. Lead Character Man (Nebraska), played by Josh Truax

Finally, don't forget to check out the rest of my site (http://nathanhtaylor.com)... there's a couple producer-approved Project London related goodies you won't find anywhere else on the web.

The Poster.

CHEERS!
Nate