My 2014 Reel
After finishing my work as 3D supervisor on Last days on Mars at Screen Scene on
the 17th march 2013 I can fianlly show the two reels and some images of what I did on
it including something not seen in any breakdown reels by screen scene (as it
was done directly for the director on an evening and weekend). So there have been serious additions to the main site.
My Last Days On Mars 3D Supervisor Reel
I don't actually
any of this to get work now, as I work as Senior Environment
Artist at Rockstar North. The main LDOM
reel of mine is as way of a thank you to every single person I had the joy of
working with back then and that helped me to create such happy memories. I count every
single one as a dear friend now and if only we were allowed to tell some of the
crazy stories of things that happened in those 7 months. Once I get time I may do a blog on some of the interesting facts and figures from us guys in 3D and the dev and shot times from last days on mars...if I am allowed that is.
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| Me sculpting the suit for the Liev Digital Doubles...total dev time till ready for rigging.. 24 hours. With all shaders and textures. |
But while I can't list everyone I worked with (the comp dept
get a special mention for saving our arses more than a few times and making all us crazy loud 3D people look good). But let me list the core 3D team that did the
majority of the 3D work on The Last Days on Mars
John O Connell
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| The only shot I have that is fit to be shown publicly of John..here at work on the infamous 'shot 1016' that everyone worked on at one time or another |
John is a good mate, someone I had met prior to screen scene
at the end user event one year previously.
He is without a doubt one of the best technical artists I have worked
with and always was able to knock out a Maxscript to get us out of a bind or
make life easier. A total savant at
optimizing Vray (but definitely not an idiot!)
and cutting down render times.
John did all sorts on the film and was indispensable, John is the ultimate 3D Generalist. I hope one day we get to work together again.
(You'd better be blushing at this point John! ;) )
Daniel Rath
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| Daniel modeled and textured the lander and the Rover, seen here on with the lander |
I remember when I 1st started at Screen scene Daniel sitting
at his corner desk, this serious young German lad. He turned out to be one helluva modeler and
texture artist, and had a wicked sense of humour. Put it this
way...neither myself or Glen Southern could fault a single thing he did. The guy who single handedly modeled and textured the rover and the lander. I would recommend him highly in the strongest
terms. He worked hard, always exceeded
what was required and was great fun to be around. (Just don't mention 99 red balloons
to him or garloff).
Garloff 'Mr Garloff' Langenbeck
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| Oh no! Deadline crashed again! |
The mad German! Garloff
was responsible for just about every bit of wheel dust you see in last days on
mars, a lot of the lighting, most of the blood and god alone knows what else. One of my favorite people to be around and
sort of like a younger better looking German version of me. I am proud of the fact I learned him many new English swear words.
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| Garloff on with the zombie blood Simulation |
He lit
the best lit shot in the entire film and made it look so good out of the gate
that I re-evaluated the whole lighting pipeline afterwards. The fact that Garloff also managed to stay
sane after sharing a house with me for 2 weeks is testament to his
fortitude. Definitely a person who you
can enjoy your work and off times with.
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| ..and a third shot of garloff because its such an awesome shot. |
Glen Southern
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| Glen hard at work avoiding using shotgun again lol |
Glen doesn't need an introduction at all, he's been a mate
for a good few years now and I asked him to come over to help with the modelling
duties as we had a serious amount of stuff to do and not enough time to train
someone to do it to the required standard.
Glen and I always have a sort of short hand that meant we could get
assets out between us very fast indeed.
Glens now creative director over at Egg in Dublin. When you see the Pit...glen did one side in Zbrush I the other in Mudbox...only glen and I know which is which and we're not telling ;) (fanboys of either app should have fun trying to work it out lol)
Yanko Slavov 'The Terminator of 3D Tracking'
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| Yanko at rest...as he had run out of shots to track. |
A member of the infamous [NAME REDACTED]'family' The Bulgarian Mr Yanko was the fastest and
most accurate tracker I have ever worked with. Every 3d tracker has a
percentage of failure... Yanko didn't..his tracks were always perfect and done
at warp factor ten. Often before you even realized you needed them. A really nice guy and he saved my bacon one
night in the early hours when I got back off my flight from seeing my kids and
the lock had jammed, Yanko gave me his bed so I would have somewhere to sleep while
he slept on the couch. That says
everything I can about the man. If you
need the best 3D tracker... go for Yanko.
I count him as a dear friend and look forward to visiting him in Dublin
again soon.
Giacomo Cavilleti
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| Giacomo's Lighting face |
Giacomo came straight out of Aardman and into screen
scene. He cranked through lighting shots
like a man possessed and I always knew if I gave a shot to him it would get
done well. A great guy who likes a laugh but takes his work very
seriously. Giacomo is someone that
anyone would love on their 3D team. I do miss having lunch with him.
Martin Naydenski
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| Martin after 5 months of 7 days weeks and late nights..he still looks better than I did lol |
If you saw a dust storm in Last days on Mars...it was
martin, done on his own in impossible time limits that would make any large studio bring out a team of 30. He managed to exceeded anything anyone
thought was possible. A Bulgarian particle mastermind, he now runs BottleShip FX
with Hristo Velev.
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| Ed Bruce and Glen pretending to understand what Martin is doing.... I swear it was black magic somehow. |
Ben Klimmeck
Ben had the distinction of working on both the screen scene
LDOM crew and the directors crew over the road. Ben is a hardcore production 3d guy with
some good skills and the ability to get shit done well. He was also (amongst many other things)
responsible for the facial rig on the marko zombie head I did for RR. Alas I don't have a decent shot of Ben.
There were others who came and went during the course of
LDOM but these guys and myself were the core 3D Crew. Add to this the production staff with VFX sup
Ed Bruce, Mighty VFX coordinators the legendary Sarah Mooney (another member of
the [NAME REDACTED]' ...as am I ;) )and Amy James, along with
Nico Murphy and Kenneth Coyne. The comp
dept headed by Grainne Freeman (with special mention to another of my favorite people Joe Courtis).... It was
without doubt the most hectic , but also most fun time I have had working
anywhere in my life.
So guys and gals who worked at Screen Scene on Last Days on
Mars..I salute you all.
