strawberry

It wasn't any kind of plot point, but when we were working on our film we came to choose a pie type for each of the characters.  Pete was apple - the quintessential American classic - even the stunt pie standing in for him in the live action scene was an actual apple pie.  Sheriff, we decided, was a meat pie.  Narrator came to be a strawberry pie.  Of course, by that point, it only seemed proper to outfit him with an appropriate bandanna.

dress-up

Key Lime was such a minor character in our film, really she was just a background character who played into a couple of gags.  Since she wasn't all that important and never got much screen time, not a whole lot of time and concern went into her design beyond the initial phases.  Upon entering 3D though it quickly became apparent that we had some issues to resolve and decisions to make.  Since Key Lime is a "flat top" pie she is very close to Quiche structurally and the structural problems were consequently solved through Quiche.  Her dress however wasn't.  We were stuck with the simple short hand we had used for her in prepro, but that simply wasn't translating into the world we were building, so it was back to the drawing board.  These are my notes from that whole bit of trying to fix her and how to adapt a showgirl's dress from a person to a pie.

don't cry over spilt milk

Not everyone catches this little gag in our film, it goes by pretty fast, but you can catch it at 1:14.  I did the lighting in this shot, Uri did the comp, and then I painted the milk residue and drop animation in photoshop to layer back on top and finish off the shot.  Since Blue is really the only thing that moves in the shot we were able to simply layer it on instead of having to map it or anything.  For consistency, the drop residue was painted in and then duplicated and erased as I animated.  Also, her refraction in the mug is a total cheat, which let us get it to look the way we wanted.

e pieribus omnom

So you know how in our film we had that coin?

 

 

Well, it was one of my favorite props to work on!  I came up with the basic design and painted the displacement maps for it.  This is the only shot where you get a good look at it, and the only side you really see - but thanks to the internet you can now look at both sides!  At the same time!  Try doing that with your Susan B!

 

things that are on the internet now

The Ballad of Poisonberry Pete! (made by Adam Campbell, Uri Lotan, and myself!) (It's our thesis!)


My demo reel! (!)


My 24-hour film! (It's really stupid, sorry!) (I made it for Ashlyn Anstee's annual film fest MANIMATE!) (Check out the other films!)

a post about pie

So, if you didn't already know, I spent this last year working on thesis with my buddies Adam Campbell and Uri Lotan. We can't put the film online yet since we're submitting to certain festivals, but we cut together this trailer to give you a peek if you haven't caught sight of the film yet! (You should fullscreen it!) We've also got a Facebook page running that we'll keep updated with information about screenings, production art, and the eventual online release.

Now that I've graduated I've been going through all the boxes of papers and miscellany from the past four years. The other day I found my first page of pie doodles. Now, most people might not know this, but The Ballad of Poisonberry Pete did not start out as a thesis idea. We had a day off from school, and instead of doing homework like we probably should have, we wanted to be like all the cool kids at other schools and decided to make a 24 hour film instead. Needles to say, we didn't finish but we pulled the idea back out later during round two of thesis pitches. This page is from that very first idea session where Adam, Josh, and I went to Uri's house after the labs closed, somehow thought cowboy pies were a funny idea, and proceeded to make stupid jokes and stupid drawings until 3 in the morning. It was wicked fun.

Looking back, it's kind of amazing how many of our initial ideas, jokes, and design instincts stuck around, and amazing too how much things did change from there to now.

Looking back, I'm also glad I didn't major in something that requires impeccable spelling (although I did spell impeccable right all by myself!)

for those who don't know

I am making a short film with Adam Campbell and Uri Lotan!
It's a western, with pies!
It will be out in a year or so!

In other news, I will be out by LA at JibJab for the summer!