BUILDING AND COMPOSITING

The team continues to chug the project away, paying attention to minute details in every aspect of the movie. Currently the team can be seen broken up into various departments.

Here are the walls of demeter being built. Basically, a concept drawing is taken and done into what is known as technical drawings. These drawings are then scanned into the computer and from a 2D image, these guys here are responsible with bringing it alive from all dimensions. Using their specific reference pictures, they built the framework of what will become Demeter.

Olympia is basically built building by building. These row of guys built wire frame models of the buildings...buildings after buildings after buildings. The fact that these guys can stare and squint for long periods of time is beyond me. But that's what they do, and what they do best. Gotta love it!

Over here, they are creating the effects of the Transcoder. that term may sound alien to you now, but it's the hero effect of the movie. You'll know what it is when you see the actual movie. I'm trying to refrain from telling much of the movie, and rather the step by step, making-of process.

Many of you saw the Aereann Flyer Design a while ago...if not...this is how it looks

Bearing in mind that the Aereann Flyer is not a creature but rather a technological advance. The guys above built every part of the Aereann Flyer, from the mechanism to gears. Yes, that's because I will have a shot of the camera going into the Aereann Flyer. Must be fun to fly in and out of gears, love it!

These guys create what is known as compositing. Taking the green out and creating mattes for the guys to merge it together with the movie. They have to take every step and care to make sure no detail is left into the picture. Unlike television movies, the resolution is extremely high and mistakes are more easily spotted on the big screens than your regular television. It's either spot the mistakes now or pay later.

Here is where wire frame models are brought into the actual movie to give a feel of the framing, camera movement and to test whether this is what I want. Obviously, tracking and other complicated shots are done as a rough draft now. The important thing is for me to identify whether we should continue working or try different tactics of VFX framing and work.

Then, finally, the test footage is brought over to Editing department, where they will insert the shots. The team gathers around and we discuss what needs to be done and changed before we move on to the next few shots. All that work, and they just tests!

10 DAYS IN BULGARIA, 1 DAY OFF

So I finally got the day to go take a look around Bulgaria. We went to Plovdiv, to see the historical parts of Bulgaria. Ooo..what a blast! We took a walk down the city which was a blast. Although, I'm used to the crowded streets of LA so seeing something empty like this is like...umm...ok...I guess maybe because it was snowing or something (heavy snow too)

But Simeon (VFX Supervisor) and co. took me into a shopping center. The coolest quaint little shopping center. It looks more like a coliseum than a shopping center. It was later I found out that I was only nearby the famous coliseum so I suppose that was the theme to it.

So we got out of the shopping center, cause I wasn't interested in shopping in Bulgaria. If I wanted to shop, it would be Hong Kong or Singapore. I had to see something exotic. So we kept walking...and I saw something promising...

that led to...

Heh heh, a big cheesy smile for all of ya. Notice how i refrained from doing the peace sign. I was actually going to. I think it's an Asian genes, especially strong in Japanese and Koreans. Almost every photo I see has a PEACE SIGN...still don't know what that means. Are you honestly referring to Peace in the world? ok...I'll give you that...

Anyhoo, we kept walking, the entire streets of Bulgaria just went off in church bells. Yup, must have been like 5 of them around the area. I found one and wacked my camera at it.

And here's the coolest part of the day. I went to check out this dude who makes pottery. Ok, sounds normal. But this guy made a vase in under a minute! And it looked better than those university students who spend a whole semester on their pottery project. And there's something about his technique as well, but you could throw his pottery as hard as you can, and it won't break! Whoa! If I get married, I ain't buying my stuff from him.

But his little studio is close to 200 years old. It's made out of large stone slabs and the huge wooden and metal doors were just...umm....'nifty'...that's all I can think of right now. But anyway, this guy was so nice, he gave me a wine set that he made himself. It's a traditional Bulgaria wine jug with 5 glasses that are so odd looking (I haven't unwrapped them yet) that you can't tell if you are drinking wine or smoking opium. Pretty cool. No guest in my US Home will ever drink from a wine glass again!

Anyway...the rest of my day was even more awe-inspiring. I had so many movies in my head just walking in Bulgaria. I need to come back and explore this country when I'm not working. There are a lot of places I would love to take photos for you guys, but they do not allow it. To protect the church or something...note: I DID NOT BURN WHEN I WALK INTO A CHURCH...even after I said 'goddamnit' and got away with it cause nobody spoke english there This is all I can find in the web of a church I've been to

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So then, as we were walking back to my car. I saw this advert and I was thinking...WTF!!!!!

Yup, you read it right...DIY silicone....I turned the pictures sideways cause I know all the guys will be slowly turning their heads to the side rather than reading the label on the right side up Now...back to work for me!

SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD

The days have been getting longer. And by longer, I don't mean the days are dragging out. It's more hours on the computer and less hours in bed. Came home at about 8pm yesterday, went through the day's work just to make sure I don't miss out anything. Made a few notes and preparation for tomorrow's early morning meeting via video conferencing. I got up at about 4am in time to get online and had a meeting with the producer and editor who are in Los Angeles. There, the movie is screened for me on a seperate live feed while I go through my notes and discuss with the producer about the final cut, whether there will be any changes from the VFX breakdowns that I finished, any scenes deleted .etc. This goes on till about 7:30am. And I have about 1/2 to shower and get ready before I get picked up to get to the VFX Studio.

This is my set up at the hotel. I have a seperate hard drive for my VFX stuff and notes for the movie The Gene Generation. So much for wireless technology, my desk is a clutter of wires, as usual...and empty Diet Coke bottles do not help either. The video conferencing program I am using is ivisit using the isight camera attached to the top of my laptop. This was taken after my shower so the session is closed. But there are 4 video windows usually, 1 for Keith (producer), 1 for Carmelo (editor), me and a live stream feed of the movie. We have one seperate window for any notes and stuff that we need to input. We have our own video-conference room so we keep it private, away from the public.

Speaking of which, notice some mentos and the diet coke bottle on my table. Scott, VFX Producer, told me that if you dump mentos into a Diet Coke bottle, it will cause a chemical reaction that makes the Diet Coke shoot 20 feet into the air and empties out a 2 litre bottle easily. I even saw some footage of it...now I'm tempted to try it...heh heh....

Click Here for the footage of The Diet Coke Geyser!!!

So...since I drink a lot of Diet Coke...I tried eating some mentos hoping I would puke out a foutain like that! I think I need more mentos and Diet Coke...the experiment continues for me...

OFFICIAL START OF 3D TEAM

Here are some pictures of the meeting with the VFX 3D team. These are the main people who will be building the assets of city. Each one of them is assigned a number of buildings to develop for the city and they spend days churning out the wireframe models for the city. The basis is that once the wireframes are built, I get to adjust where the buildings will be placed .etc. then we can start framing our green screen shots and others before the rendering and texturing begin. Then the 2D department will come down for the remaining process of compositing and gamma correction .etc.

This is the team, in the meeting headed by our VFX Supervisor, Simeon Asenov who has been working with WWFX for about 5 years now. He's basically handling the organization of the VFX Project while at the same time working closely with me regarding my vision. The guy in the blue shirt is basically my QC (quality control). He would be integral in making sure that everything is done the way I want it and that nothing goes out and is approved without his eye. Everything has to be done this way and that way, and he helps me with some of my stuff as well. But he is there for basically everything I discuss with the team, and he will make sure the appropiate notes are taken and instructions carried out.

Long haired guy is Simeon Asenov who is the VFX Supervisor. Can you tell he is a metal head? Heck yeah! Although, he did let me hear Bulgarian Rap...which...I will not comment about it. But Simeon will basically handle everything from the organization, time line, break down, you name it, he'll be on it. The guy watches more movies than me. Everyday, he would be watching one film. Before I came, he watched all the movies that The Gene Generation was inspired from and was basically in the right frame of mind when I arrived. I think the only thing he does more than watching movies, is working and drinking coffee (the guy can drink)

The guy standing by the door, is our VFX Producer Scott Coulter. He's the main guy who will handle the job as a producer but on the VFX department side. Yes, he gets the budget, negotiates and when there's trouble, he's on it (Which means delegating task and manpower around to get the job done on time, on target). He makes sure every department is keeping ahead of schedule together with Simeon and monitors the entire process of the film. He mainly has to think ahead and identify problems before they come, while the rest of the team is just basically absorbing ourselves into the cities of Demeter and Olympia.

Of course, Scott has to juggle between another 2 films as well, so he's always running around, people coming in and out of the office, meetings regarding future movies as well.

Guy on right photo with short hair, nearest to the Camera is Ven. He's the lead designer of Gene Generation. He looks nice from the outside, polite in character, well groomed guy....but man, his head is messed up! And I say that as a compliment. Ven designs all my 'Hero' shots and has more gross pictures than rotten.com. He did the entire city drawing / painting on his own and the Aereann Flyer design. Right now, he's working on a little design for the Transcoder, as we pay homage to one of the greatest Anime of all time, AKIRA!

So those 3 are my main guys, I'll keep you updated with their work as we go along. It's going to be a fun ride.

AT THE WWFX STUDIO

So today pretty much marks the end of the first day of full fledged production on the Visual FX by WWFX Studio. It's amazing how much you can learn, and I'm finally able to post pictures. I found blogging to be a way of homework. It's like a revision of what you learn and something that you can refer to at the end of the day. Nothing like finishing a day feeling like you accomplished something too.

There were many different departments working simultaneously today. The first thing I did in the morning was to go through the breakdowns of the Visual FX shots and list. We did it over a Avid System, added markers for fast reference, and also the ability to pull out pictorial reference for quick revision and discussions with the VFX Producer (Scott Coulter) and VFX Supervisor (Simeon Asenov) who are currently the main guys I discuss things with right now. Yes, there are more, but it's my first day, and I'm getting the hang of everybody's names and such.

In between our sessions, during breaks, I would head over to the Conceptual Design Department with my (new favorite) conceptual designer Ven (I'm saving myself face by not attempting to spell his name). He does the main designs for the city which is later broken down into smaller buildings by the rest of the concept team.

Once I approve on the drawing. They are sent to the VFX team where close to a hundred people (including people who come in on Night Shifts) start building the city polygon by polygon. I took a breather to watch them work, and this is better than looking at the view of the Grand Canyon...we are creating one! Why watch a city when you can create it! I wonder if this is how God feels....It's funny to see something go from nothing to a gorgeous landscape. And from what I hear...5 MILLION POLYGONS FOR THE CITY!! Argh...I wouldn't have the patience...I need to be jumping back and forth between many things...sometimes such patience is indeed a virtue. Without these guys, I would be making 1/4 films...

And while the guys at WWFX Studio have all the cool toys. I get my own table, with my wife (I'm gonna divorce her for a new Powerbook though) of 1 year, and our kids (Diet Coke Jr., Diet Coke Sr.) and some porn (World of Warcraft!). That's going to be my family for the next month. And then...there's the server room that makes my mouth dropped...ever heard so many computers humm it's almost like music?

I suck at photography...thank god it's not my profession of choice...not to mention that's the stupid date stamp that I forgot to set as well

AND SO IT BEGINS

Today begins the first day of full fledged VFX work, it's 8am here and I'm waiting to be picked up so I thought I'll blog. I'll try to explain each process for those interested in how the whole thing works in detail. But the VFX breakdown has been done and I found myself listening to a particular playlist on my itunes....yeah...itunes and ipod baby! What ever happened to CDs...hmm...oh well! You're gonna have to click on the picture to see a larger picture. No britney spear and kelly clarkson...sorry...

If you guys have not heard much of these artists. I don't blame you. I just recently chanced upon some of them from Randy, owner of Batpack / Malediction Society. I hope to get some of them for the actual movie The Gene Generation. Although most of them are music to hear on the background. Selecting music for film is a completely different process. That would be next month.

BULGARIA

Right, so here I am in Bulgaria. I need to buy a SD card reader so I can upload some photos. But things are going great here. I have just been approving concept art right now to develop the city. It's an interesting process. We generated a map of the Gene Generation City as shown below.

As you can see, we have divided the city into very little sectors with placements of the actual locations of the movie. What I am approving right now is each sector until it is all complete, then we can build a pre-rendered city to move the camera anywhere.

Step two is deciding the time line, where the sun will be in relative to the movie. Which means that if Michelle is in the alley and it is supposed to be day, our alley has to be facing the appropiate direction so the shadows fall right. Of course, this changes the 'view' of the city, but it's these little things that make the difference of suspension of time and belief than just trying to throw in the coolest things.

More on that process when I have things to post. As said before, I will only post things that we will see on the first 10 mins of the movie. For the most part, many of the concept especially the end shot will be kept in strict confidence right now. Sorry, no spoilers....if you want a spoiler, click here

So! Not much time for a normal life yet. I've barely had time to even walk around to buy my shampoo, toothbrush .etc. BUT...I learned something new about me today. Those who know me, know that I am a Diet Coke FREAK! Yeah, 2 litres of that junk a day (at least I don't drink coffee). In Bulgaria, Diet coke is known as Coca Cola Light.... but there is just something different about it. Can't place my finger on it...

Hence, I've come to 2 conclusions:

1. I like the name Diet Coke because it makes me feel insane...I'm skinny but I'm drinking Diet Coke. Hence, when it becomes Coca-Coca Light, the novelty is gone...*groan*....

2. I like the taste of artificial sugar. Splenda rocks, I could dunk a whole packet into my mouth! It's like eating a bouillon cube while watching a movie...yummy. Maybe they used another kind of artificial sweetener...it better not be healthy otherwise I'll get sick

So that's it for now. More to come, Square Toilet Bowls and Abandoned Children's Playground

LEAVING WITHIN THE HOURS

So I'm still at the office. Keith Collea, our producer, is running out for the prints of our Gene Generation posters. Thanks to all who e-mailed me about which one they liked, we finally decided on which one. I'm sitting down on the last reel of the film, finalizing the VFX shots I will take with me to Bulgaria. Here's one more concept art taken from an actual still of the film and just painted over it to give me an idea.

Then, I promised my God-Sister / Sound Designer (on all my films) that I'll watch Underworld: Evolution with her. Perfect, cause it would take about 2 hours to render out the footage anyways. Then, I'll head home and actually PACK, before I head off there. It's kinda scary, because I've never packed before for 1 month! How the hell do you pack for 1 month! There's way too much stuff to carry with you!

I think I'll just wear plastic bags when I'm there. I mean, I look at these clothes for snow, how I'm going to have to bundle up...and I think...how the hell am I going to take a dump. By the time I take off my clothes, the whole cubicle will be filled with my clothes. Urgh...since we are all bundled up, you think anyone would notice if I taped a coke bottle so I can piss and number 2 anytime I want without undressing a whole fashion parade?

So, I heard that I have internet connection, but it sucks there. Groan! How the heck am I going to play World of Warcraft!

And to all Asian Americans...I just watched Old Boy...so quit telling me I really need to see it...it was a great movie...I only cried once when the octopus was eaten alive...I have one in a jar on my fireplace....other than that, the movie was kinda sensual...in an incestual way anyway

VFX WORK

So the tickets are booked, and I'll be flying to Europe on the 24th of this month to work on the VFX for The Gene Generation. Here's a look at two of the many of concepts we've designed. I cannot show you much because most of it is confidential till the movie released, but trust me, it'll be an 'reel' acid trip.

So we'll be doing it at World Wide FXwhere they have a nice set up, only second to the talent I've had the pleasure of working with. Efficient and artistic, it's going to be very exciting to be with them for a month and doing nothing but work...oh...and I get to play Warcraft in the hotel. I checked with Blizzard and I can log into the US servers there...whew! What would I do with my free time man! .... or maybe actually get out more? AHHH! REALITY!!! NOO!!

So with that said, off to the VFX work. Slowly, the film is coming together. It's been a grueling but satisfying production and as the date closes in, I hope to find time to blog. To everybody, I'm not ignoring you, but this is just at the phase where I need to be completely enveloped into the world of The Gene Generation. No space for reality... only lucid nightmares....

NEW POSTERS, AND MORE TO COME

These are some more concept posters we came up with. The colors have not been fully tweaked yet and the credits are pretty much wrong. So pay no attention to it. At this point, me and the producers just want to hash out the final design first, then work on the credits later.

But, if anyone wanna put in their two cents worth right now, go for it. It would be interesting to hear it from the audience. so far, everybody has very different viewpoints, and it's equal which one they like. But there will be more out soon, I just want to see the direction. Personally, I like the first one. The second one is nice and simple, but I hate white. The third one is very Star Trek Nemesis to me

(Note: These Posters are not to be circulated without permission from Middle Link production. For Internal Use only)