intelligent ape news

WWZ is a trilogy???

2012-01-04T14:16:00.004Z

Apparently....according to Brad Pitt, WWZ is going to be a series of films, a trilogy no less. It seems this is the trendy thing to do these days, announce that the film your working on is one of many, does this create hype? buzz? I'm not sure it does, i mean look what happened witht he Golden Compass! That film was based off a trilogy of books, the trailers made mention of the series as a trilogy and then just before the film came out, it was edited to be one stand alone film with a very loose ending, just in case.... I think you have to be supremely confident in the quality of your film to announce its going to be a Trilogy or else your gonna look like an idiot! But hey, its far more likely that its just a marketing ploy to drum up interest in the film.

Sooooo, what does this mean for the VFX? well very little is my honest answer, I have worked on franchsied filmed before and it very rarely stays with the same company, with the odd exception of something like Transformers and Star wars, which has always been done by ILM. Harry Potter, Narnia, the Batman films, all done by different post houses, and why? because they out bid each other, maybe the VFX looks good, but perhaps the working relationship between the VFX house and the production broke down? who knows, but more often that not, a new film means you go back to the drawing board on the VFX! nothing is secure in post production and the simple development in software means that in as little 2 years, a company that handle 80/90 percent of the VFX in one film may not get any in its sequel.

anyway, here is the origional article from which these thoughts stem:

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=85621

first decent shots of john carter are here!

2011-11-28T10:31:00.004Z

as usual, I have been terrible at updating my news section - really the whole site needs updating, but finally Disney have realised some decent screen shots of the John Carter of Mars, and behold a beautiful render of an airship! which I worked on.

In additon to which, there is a nice little review from Harry Knowles at ain't it cool news on these pics.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/52084

finally we come to the big write up....

disney screened about 20 minutes of the film to a select group of press and reviewers.....

AND THEY LOVED IT!

you can check the first one here:

http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/1145066/john_carter_our_thoughts_on_20_minutes_of_footage_that_weve_seen.html

This sort of write up actually gets me excited about the movie and I worked on it! This may be the sort of film , that whilst your working on it, you become quite detached because it consumes so much of your life, for me it was over a year and half, i know plenty of people that worked on it for over 2 years...but maybe just maybe its going to be the massive blockbuster we all hoped it could be...will just have to wait and find out now...

fingers crossed.

here come's WWZ!

2011-09-13T11:27:00.004+01:00

So the days of John Carter of Mars are over, and I've moved onto a new production - WWZ.

Im hoping some of your will heave heard of it, if not for the book - An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brookes, then almost certainly for the media circus a surrounding the lead star - Brad Pitt!

Im short, its a post apolalyptic zombie film, set all over the globe. Cant really say much more than that for now, but there is plenty of information available online, and the book is really good, so i definatley encourage you to pick up a copy!

John Carter of Mars

2011-05-19T16:06:00.006+01:00

Well, sadly there havent been many updates from me in a while. The reason for this, is that i've been on one project for the best of part of the last year and a half, so my updates on projects etc, have been rather limited.

That being said, i see no reason why i can't familiarise people with the project, and also offer you exciting news of a personal project i am working on, that i will be posting about in august! so stay stay tuned, because its coming soon!

Anyway, as the title of the post suggests, i am working on a filme called 'John Carter of Mars' can't really say too much about it, but it exists in book form, so i suggest you go out and buy it, there are 11 books in the series, written way back at the beginning of the 20th century, its old school sci-fi. Im working my way through them at the moment, but have only got up to book 7. They are pretty entertaining, i wouldnt go so far to say they are well written, its all pretty one sided, the hero always wins, get the girl and kills the bad guy, there is very little depth, but what can you expect from a science fiction novel from 1917?

anyway to clue you all in a bit im posting some of the book covers, that depict the rather colourful world of mars (or barsoom as it is refered to in the books). these covers were designed by Michael Whelan, who is an awesome fantasy artist, i bought his book after seeing these images, and i thoroughly encourage you to look him up! anyway, enjoy:

A Princess of Mars

The Gods of Mars

Warlord of Mars

Thuvia - Maid of Mars

The Chessmen of Mars

Mastermind of Mars

A Fighting man of Mars

Swords of Mars

Synthetic men of Mars

Llana of Gathol

and the image at the top is from 'John Carter of Mars' which is the last book in the series.

visual effects work on Prince of Persia

2011-02-03T09:54:00.004Z

This morning I found this article about the various effects work done on prince of persia, there is a breakdown of the roles of the different post production houses.

Nice little quote about the work I was directly involved in with Cinesite, the sequence involving the poisoning of King Sharaman, its from Sue Rowe, who was the Visual effect supervisor here at Cinesite:

"We cast two youth doubles who stood in straight after the take with the original actors so we could take high-res digital stills in the same lighting conditions. We added darkened eye lashes and thickened hair, and removed wrinkles and age spots. These were then tracked onto the actors’ skin using our in-house software Motion Analyser, which basically sticks the new skin on top of the old skin - like a digital skin graft.” A similar approach was used for the death of King Sharaman (Ronald Pickup), who is poisoned by snake venom, using a combination of 3D veins and skin graft, with smoke done in Maya Fluids"

you can check out the whole article here:

http://www.fxguide.com/featured/Prince_of_Persia/

plans for the future

2011-01-21T13:29:00.005Z

I recently discovered the work of Manuel Augusto Dischinger Moura, he's a concept artist from brazil, and I really love his work! Manuel was kind enough to send me some copies of his artwork, simply because i liked it that much. one of his drawings in particular immediately had me thinking how cool it would be to model in 3d.

Its his take on the ninja turtles, I've always been a fan on donatello myself (everyone has their favourite right?) but his drawings of michelangelo had so much character that I instantly wanted to make him in maya! shame he hasnt drawn a Don, yet, but maybe in the future I hope?

here are the designs for the other three turtles:

you can see more of Manuel's work at cghub here: http://manuhell.cghub.com/

he also has a fantastic series of Street Fighter zombies!

check it out!

new tutorial character

2011-01-10T11:11:00.003Z

Hello all, so thought i would give you a sneaky peak at a character im modelling for both a new tutorial series and also a short im working on!

The tutorial is a 12 part series, on full character modelling, its pretty basic, but i think it should help aspiring young modellers! :)

let me know what you think

Adam

almost oscar nominated again

2010-12-13T14:26:00.002Z

well in the last 3/4 yeasr in film I've worked on one oscar award winning film, and one oscar nominated film, those were:

The Golden Compass - 2007 oscar for visual effects
The Dark Knight - 2008 nominated for oscar in visual effects

well....this year, the final 15 potential nominee's have been announced! they are:

“Alice in Wonderland”
“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”
“Clash of the Titans”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1″
“Hereafter”
“Inception”
“Iron Man 2″
“The Last Airbender”
“Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief”
“Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time”
“Scott Pilgrim vs the World”
“Shutter Island”
“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”
“Tron: Legacy”
“Unstoppable”

....i have two films in this list: clash of the titans and Prince of Persia..... my personal opinion is that its a two horse race between inception and tron legacy, but you never know.....fingers crossed, would be nice to be nominated again!

Mr James's reel!

2010-12-10T15:34:00.003Z

Hello everyone, well another day, another update, today im showcasing the work of James Stone. James is another modeller at cinesite, and his work is excellent! He also teaches at The Animation Workshop in Denmark...and, although he doesnt have a website at the moment, he does have an excellent new showreel! check it out:

new tutorials!

2010-12-08T11:47:00.001Z

Hello everyone, well as i said i was going to be making updates, here are some more, ive had a new series of tutorials published on 3d.dtuts.com

I am now regularly recording tutorials exclusively for this site, they are very accomodating, and get pretty good coverage, so im rather happy with the arrangement! they ahve posted part 1 of a new series I have just sent them on:

How to model a low poly building for games

there are 2 parts, and its a pretty easy to follow series. I record call my tutorials in real time, so you cant follow along with me, and if it takes 40 minutes...well then thats just how long it takes...is simple and effective.

anyway, here is the link to part 1: HERE

and the embedded video can be viewed here, enjoy:

long delayed updates!

2010-12-06T11:10:00.004Z

Hello everyone, well firstly....an apology! its been apsolutely months since i last made an update, truth is, ive been extremely busy both at home and on the work front! .... since july, ive had two new tutorial series published, and im working on a fourth/fifth. some exciting new trailers from cinesite have been released, ive come across some good reels i should have shared, so in the next couple of days and weeks im gonna make an effort to catch up on all of this!

so lets kick things off, with the new trailer for Battle Los Angeles, this is film cinesite did a large part of the visual effects for over last spring, I think it looks great, and a darn sight better than 'skyline' which it is bound to be compared to. why do these films always come out in pairs? armageddon and deep impact, a bugs life and ants, big vfx features always seem to come out twos.... its ood. anyway from what ive seen here, this looks like a visual feast, so i defiantely recommend you go see it, several excellent artist i know worked on it, so it should be thoroughly enjoyable!

here is trailer 2:

the tutorials take off!

2010-07-16T16:26:00.004+01:00

Well its been about 2 months now, since i launched the head modelling tutorial series, and its been a big sucess!

there has been a mix of websites re-directing to the tutorials and websites who are hosting it themselves, you can see the offical tutorials now on 3 siteS (more to follow) :

3DTUTS

3DTOTAL

and free3dtutorials.com

been getting pretty good feedback from it! so i have plans for 2 future tutorial series:

1) unwrapping the head

2) maya modelling for apsolute beginners!

anyway, stay posted!

Student Special!

2010-06-29T14:02:00.002+01:00

For today, I thought I would show some of the showreels, of the class I recently taught over easter! these guys have had one years worth of tuition at the Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark! Some very talented individuals, im looking forward to seeing what they produce next year!

anyway, here is small collection of some of their works:

Character Project CGA09 from Anne-Sofie Tholander on Vimeo.

CG Showreel, Dennis Jensen 2010 - The Animation Workshop from Dennis Jensen on Vimeo.

Monster Father: Turnaround from Paolo Giandoso on Vimeo.

character showreel from Ole Christian Løken on Vimeo.

Design and modelling: The Vampirate - Nikki Starostka from Nikki Starostka on Vimeo.

apologies to those students i didnt include, i promise i will showcase your work, next time!

;)

THURSDAY SHOWCASE

2010-06-17T10:25:00.002+01:00

Why is it, that star wars games seem so much more interesting than the new films? instantly this star wars cinematic for 'The old Repubilc' seems to breath new life into what became a rather cliched series

if the game play is anywhere near as good as this cinematic, i am snapping this game up!

Buy an action figure of my work!

2010-06-03T11:43:00.003+01:00

Just thought I would post some pictures of the Harvey Dent figure from 'The Dark Knight'. I bought one of these when it came out, and its awesome! They captured the detail of his scaring really well, and its fully posable and comes with a load of props too! well worth it!

Prince of Persia posters!

2010-05-25T11:27:00.004+01:00

Some visual goodness for you!

I normally Buy one poster for every film i have worked on, and get the crew to sign it.... wonder which one I should get for Prince of Persia?

Prince of Persia in cinema's now!

2010-05-25T11:17:00.002+01:00

Hey everyone, just a head ups to let you know that Prince of Persia is now out in Cinemas. I worked on this film for about 6 weeks last may. It was the first film i worked on with Cinesite, and a nice, enjoyable job. My role was primarily working on one specific shot where King Sharaman gets poisoned, its a high detail visual effect, that i think turned out really well, hopefully should get some shots of it up on the website later in the year, for now you will have to make do with some of the officially released shots!

anyway, check out the film and look out for King Sharamans poisoning scene! modelling, texturing and sculting work!

Adam

TUESDAY SHOWCASE

2010-05-18T09:49:00.002+01:00

check this shit out! awesome! gaiking movie!

video tutorials

2010-05-11T10:23:00.003+01:00

Hey guys, well im back from a month teaching at the animation workshop in Viborg, Denmark, and while i was out there, i decided to record some tutorials for my students! luckily for everyone else, i have popped them on vimeo too, for everyone to see!

here

Adam Dewhirst tutorial - Facial modelling from adam dewhirst on Vimeo.

Adam Dewhirst tutorial - Head modelling from adam dewhirst on Vimeo.

Adam Dewhirst tutorial - Eye and mouth Modelling from adam dewhirst on Vimeo.

Adam Dewhirst Tutorial - Ear modelling from adam dewhirst on Vimeo.

Adam Dewhirst Tutorial - finishing the head - part 5 from adam dewhirst on Vimeo.

Adam Dewhirst Tutorial - Head modelling part 6: Props from adam dewhirst on Vimeo.

Adam Dewhirst Tutorial - Hair modelling - part 7 from adam dewhirst on Vimeo.

Adam Dewhirst Tutorial - Head modelling - part 8 - clean up from adam dewhirst on Vimeo.

Twitter

2010-04-30T10:47:00.001+01:00

you can now follow me on twitter too!

http://twitter.com/intelligentape

hurrah!

some renders of WIP

2010-04-14T17:08:00.003+01:00

some more renders of my silly little lionman character im modelling for the class I teach in Denmark, have uv-ed it now, made some slight tweaks to the model, and started to test out some fur sim on his beard.

here are some renders plus the origional concept! (not mine)

WIP

2010-04-10T14:02:00.003+01:00

a little something I made this week in denmark to teach character modelling to a new class at the animation workshop (more on this later)

sneaky peak.

2010-04-01T09:47:00.000+01:00

some pics from outside the Clash screening!

CLASH OF THE .....youtube?

2010-04-01T09:45:00.003+01:00

check out you tube today....some very subtle advertising for CLASH OF THE TITANS!

my teaching profile

2010-03-23T11:25:00.002Z

Morning all! Ive just had a profile of me uploaded to the animation workshops site. Ther animation Workshop is a school in Denmark that specialised in hand drawn animation and Computer Generated animaition, i taught there for four weeks last year and in two weeks time im heading back to teach a similar module!

you can check out my profile

HERE

MONDAY SHOWCASE #4

2010-03-22T12:41:00.004Z

Finally remember to do this on a monday!

This is the new teaser for Dreamworks 'Megamind' judging by the vocal talents they have for this film it should be good, but i cant gage too much from the actual trailer, other than it being a vehicle for Will Ferrell.

anyway, here it is:

scorpion BATTLE!

2010-03-22T09:30:00.002Z

Well, somewhat suprisingly, they (Warner Brothers) have released an exclusive clip of the scorpion battle in Clash of the Titans, its jsut short of 1 minute, and pretty much sums up the work i have been doing for the last 8 months! looks great!

here is the link:

http://www.traileraddict.com/clip/clash-of-the-titans/scorpioch-battle

Clash of the Action Figures

2010-03-11T14:18:00.001Z

Just released, the new Clash of the Titans, action figures!

currently only:

Persius
Persius - with dirt (im assuming this is battle damage persius!)

I picked up mine (battle damage Persius) from forbidden planet today, looks awesome, lets hope they make a scorpion too!

another WEDNESDAY SHOWCASE

2010-03-10T10:19:00.001Z

Well here we have another Wednesday showcase, as once again i prove to be inept at getting this out on a monday! lol.

found the link to this on 3D total, and I really like it, the music isnt to my taste, but the overall quality of production is very high, and I love the miscleanious nature of it. Nice post production work too (im assuming in after effects).

instrumental video nine from beeple on Vimeo.

finished Bust

2010-03-02T11:02:00.002Z

This is a finished model (mainly) I've been working on for a friend, I may still tweak the hair in places, its not quite right, and to be honest I didn't want to have to sculpt the stubble, but overall its good enough for the job its for. When I get some more Free time I will probably wrap it up.

I built it during downtime at work, so will have to re-assemble it at home using the 'sculpt using displacement map feature' but that shouldnt be a problem

will post the finished product that the image is being used for when it becomes available to the public!

click on the image for the high res!

Work Desk

2010-03-01T11:21:00.003Z

Ever wonder what covers the desk of a VFX artist?

I shall tell you! TOYS!!!

WEDNESDAY SHOWCASE

2010-02-24T14:40:00.001Z

although this sort of defeats the point of me doing a 'monday showcase', saw this today, and thought it was worth posting:

check it out:

Samurai from Phil Shoebottom on Vimeo.

MONDAY SHOWCASE #3

2010-02-08T11:24:00.002Z

continuing the monday showcase theme, here is my thirs week's submission, found this on vimeo, whilst doing a casual bit of surfing... i think i was attracted to it, because of the polar bears, and having worked on 'the golden compass' i now have an unhealthy obsession with all things polar!

check it out!, cool, but odd

Polar Bear from Plane Stupid on Vimeo.

some WIP

2010-02-05T17:30:00.004Z

I posted a few pics of this sculpt before, heres something a bit more specific. Cant go into details about the project, but its a photoreal sculpt of a friend of mine, i think ive got the face down, but sculpting hair as geometry is difficult, it just wasnt ment to be done!

still... it looks nice in chocolate!

New Clash of the Titans Trailer!

2010-02-02T10:06:00.001Z

just released, the new international trailer for clash of the titans!

MONDAY SHOWCASE #2

2010-02-01T14:45:00.000Z

another monday, another 'monday showcase'. this is a short animation/experiment in branding by capacity.

its just...........lovely!

great style and animation, like a 3d anime. really beautiful! how great would this look as a whole film?

Upgrade + Mobilize from Benji Thiem on Vimeo.

chocolate or jelly bean?

2010-01-28T16:29:00.000Z

messing around with a sculpt in mudbox, (more on this project later).

2 hours at work

2010-01-28T15:14:00.000Z

want to see what two hours in vfx looks like from the point of view of my mousemat?

WELL HERE YOU GO! using the iphone timelapse app!

2 hours at work from adam dewhirst on Vimeo.

MONDAY SHOWCASE

2010-01-18T09:53:00.000Z

Hello, welcome to a new feature on intelligentape.co.uk, a weekly posting af good quality and new 3D work!

I'm startings off with a bang! the trailer for the new game: TRANSFOREMRS: war for cybertron, currently showing on youtube, vimeo and gametrailers.com. (sure you can find it elsewhere too!)

Im not going to comment on the game, or when its released, or what console its one, just the graphics! and I really like them, Its styled somewhat closer to the cartoon series than the films, i particularly like bumblebee's design. nice pasing to the trailer, nice camera work and overall good design. I have to admit however, that the tag line 'one shall stand, one shall fall' is very tired! and somewhat cliche!

Transformers - war for cybertron from ayekt on Vimeo.

a sort of update

2009-12-29T14:10:00.001Z

Hello all

well its approaching 2010, and I though i would round off the year with a few updates on whats happening with me.

a brand new clash of the titans trailer has just been realised, which is exciting! it heavily features the work we have been doing at Cinesite, so thats cool. Realease date is now the 26th March, which is sooner than I expected, but nice to know its coming up.

Speaking of Cinesite, Im about half way through my contact here now, its been about 7 months so, far and i must say its a very nice company, friendly and full of talented people. I also think its about the right size, not too big, not too small, meaning you pretty much know everyone, but its large enough that you can mingle, and work with different teams, definatley getting very comfortable here! might post some photos from the work xmas party if im in the mood?

Have been thinking about updating the website, nothing too big, just updating some of the link, adding some new pics and maybe updating the text a bit, i have several projects from the last year thats have yet to be showcased on the site, including the opening cinematic from the beatles rock band game, several small adverts, the work teaching in denmark, and (a bit later in the year perhaps) the two films i have worked on so far with Cinesite.

Im also thinking of putting some personal projects online here, i dont usually have time, for such things, but i figured if i posted some 'work in progress' shots online it might spur me to develop the work further.

In other news i am thinking of returning to denmark to teach again in the spring, its dependant on what film i am working on with cinesite and how flexible my time is. we will see.

anyway, thats all for now, will update again when i can

adios

Adam

clash of the titans trailer!

2009-11-11T09:28:00.000Z

wahaaaay!

the new clash of the titans trailer has been released! and i think it looks kick ass! lots of my work in here, but im not sure about how much i can releal at this point, so just sit back and enjoy!

prince of persia trailer released!

2009-11-03T12:27:00.001Z

hello all

well the prince of persia trailer has finally been released online. The film itself comes out next summer, looks like its going to be the summer blockbuster.

im afriad none of my work in the trailer, but its nice to see the film coming together and i thought you might be intreaged to see the sort of thing i have been working on this year, (and at cinesite). this is the first film i have worked on since 'The Tale of Despereaux' with framestore, but more importantly its the first film i have modelled on since 'The Dark Knight, which was over a year ago now, and ...... most significantly, its the first film i have some texture work in (although i doubt i will be credited with that)

once the film it out on DVD i will detail my role on the project, but for now, sit back and enjoy the first trailer for 'The Prince of Persia'

Some more Beatles related goodness

2009-09-15T13:52:00.000+01:00

Following on from my earlier post about my work on the Bealtes: Rock Band intro, im now really excited to show you the game 'outro'.

With the release of the game earlier this month alot of the graphic work has been released onto youtube. My involvement with this was once again as a modeller and texture artist, working with Passion Pictures. The biggest example of my work on the outro are the instruments, which were modelled in Modo 302 and textured using photoshop and I think they look great in the final render, a great mix of 2d and 3d animation.

enjoy:

Beatles Rockband!

2009-06-17T14:11:00.000+01:00

Hey all, just a quick note today, to say, they finally made it public! the promo i was working on at Passion Pictures was for none other than 'Beatles Rockband', which has been drivingme mad keeping it silent. thankfully the game makers revealed the opening cinematic to the world at E3, so I am now happy to present to you...... a weblink...................to that promo!

LINK

I modelled and Textured a number of things for this, will have more details later, but for now, enjoy the promo. The Games is released in 3 months, 09/09/09

Press Bonanza!

2009-06-17T14:01:00.000+01:00

Hello all

well, I've had a bit of a press coverage over the last few weeks, first appearing in a supplement of the independent on graduates in design, and then again yesterday being quoted in the daily star

you can see a scan of yesterdays (16/06/09) daily star cutting here:

and you can read the online version of the independant article on their website here (scroll down):

LINK

As soon as i scan the independent article i will upload the pic and the date details.

Adam

Cinesite!

2009-05-28T10:00:00.000+01:00

Hello all

some news for you this month as of last monday (the 18th) I am now an employee of Cinesite London. Its great to be working in Film again, and it looks like im gonna be here for the best part of a year, so should have some exciting new work to show at the end of it all.

Working as a modeller again, but i think it may be straying into texturing before too long, will keep you posted with any news that I can.

In the meantime heres a little about Cinesite:

"Cinesite offices in Hollywood and London were established in 1991 and 1994 respectively, as test sites for Kodak's Cineon computer system, an end-to-end solution for 2K and 4K digital files. Cinesite became so successful in its own right, however, that after Cineon was discontinued by Kodak in 1997, Cinesite developed into a visual effects facility. In 2003, Cinesite's Hollywood branch became incorporated, by Kodak, into LaserPacific, a multimedia, DVD authoring digital intermediate and post-production facility.

Initially, the company worked solely as a visual effects facility for film. Since 1999, it has increasingly become involved in television, creating effects for several productions, including HBO's Band of Brothers in 2002; Rome in 2006, again for HBO; and The State Withi for the BBC in 2006.

The company has won awards for its visual effects, gaining an Emmy Award nomination and a Royal Television Society award for Band of Brothers. Its work for Rome was awarded the Emmy for Visual Effects in 2005."

Cinesite is also part of the visual effects team that won an Oscar for the Golden Compass in 2007

you can fine more info HERE

fatcap competition

2009-05-10T19:06:00.000+01:00

Hello all

another update from the animation workshop, just thought I would post some details here of a competion I ran for my class while teaching in denmark.

I wanted to see how they would handle a basic brief that was much simpler than it looked, so I challenged them to model and render a 'fatcap' figureing by kidrobot. Kidrobot sell these figures as collectables and in unmarked boxes so you never know which one you will get, the designs on each model come from various artists and designers around the world and are rather cool if you ask me. The challenge here is that the shape is, while organic quite specific and has both hard and soft edges, so while it look simple, is in fact, somewhat of a challenge. (there are some pics below, i must confess, they arent mine.)

I gave them three weeks to submit (waaaayyy too much time, but we had other things to do), to model one of these figures and here are the winning results. The catagories were: BEST RENDER, BEST TEXTURE and MOST IMPROVED MODELLER.

Here are the winners:

BEST RENDER (and) BEST TEXTURE:

Jonothan Brusch

I thought Jonothans image was excellent, the texture is interesting and cool, and there render is nice and simple, works perfectly for the subject. also the model is spot on, so well done Jonothan.

MOST IMPROVED MODELLER:

Casper Wermuth

Casper modelled this as soon as I set the task, dedicated and enthusiastic his attitude to the project was admirable, and while the model isnt 100 percent accurate, it showed huge improvement as a modeller and a good approach all round. well done Casper

so thats it for Denmark for now, may well pop back here later in the year to teach another group basic modelling, we shall have to see. Its been fun!

some work by my students

2009-05-01T10:29:00.000+01:00

Hey all, just wanted to post some work by my students, this was from an exercise in low poly speed modeling, they had roughly one hour to model a new york style building (which i had given them reference for), and then these models were pieced together to make a "block". I think the end result is excellent and just goes to show what you can do with a limited time if you keep things simple.

here are some renders (we duplicated the block several times to give the impression of a city)

Teaching at the Animation Workshop

2009-04-10T18:26:00.000+01:00

Hey all

So I've taken a month out of commercial work to go and teach at the animation workshop in Viborg, in Denmark.

Its a very cool place, im teaching the 1st year 'CG Artist' course its a BA course, and we're currently working on characer modelling and mudbox.

thought i would post some work, so here is a quick turntable of the character i am modelling to teach the class, its a depiction of Peter Parker by artist 'Kizer' from the deviant art forums.

you can check out the website for the animation workshop here: LINK

TURNTABLE:

Peter parker from adam dewhirst on Vimeo.

A Passion for work

2009-04-10T17:51:00.000+01:00

Hey all

just wanted to update you all on my latest whereabouts and projects, since January 2009 ive been working at Passion Pictures as a modeller using luxology's MODO. Its always a challenge to have to work with a new piece of software, but it can be rewarding and its definatley a plus on the CV. I have to say Modo is a very nice modelling program, since returning to maya, ive realised how clunky is it. The one thing Modo is missing is a decent 'snap to point' tool.

Anyway, im digressing...Passion Pictures, very cool place, based in London's Soho. They have created some outstanding work including the Gorilla's videos (most of em), the sony bravia bunny adverts, and most recently the compare the meercat adverts (which ive included below)

details of the actual project ive been working on, will be realised soon, so check back here to see what this cool project is! (no info just yet!)

all the best

Adam

Im Oscar Nominated!

2009-01-22T15:00:00.000Z

...well i say 'I', i mean to say 'we'

Yep, the Dark Knight has been nominated for an oscar in 'Achievement in Visual Effects'

which is fantastic! and the second one for me, since we also won the visual effects oscar last year with 'The Golden Compass'

fingers crossed i may be a part of 2 oscar wins, but our competition is stiff, we are up against Iron Man and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, both of which have great CG.

The Work of Guy Buckley

2009-01-21T09:48:00.000Z

Hello all

Just wanted to drop a small mention to my friend Guy, who has just launched his new website

www.guybuckley.co.uk

I worked with Guy about 3 years ago on two computer games projects modelling and texturing games assets, hes a great guy and a very talented modeller! and unlike me, can handle Nurbs like an expert!

so have a look round his website and if your looking for a Nurbs or Hard Surface Modeller, I totally recommend Guy!
.

pics from 'The Tale of Despereaux' screening

2008-12-30T10:16:00.000Z

last sunday morning we got a chance to see an advance screening of 'The Tale of Despereaux' in Leicester Square, took some pics while we were there, though you would like to see them!

as a little bonus we were given fluffy despereaux dolls as we left. it now sits atop my christmas tree.

updated showreel and new film release

2008-12-19T09:27:00.000Z

Hello all, just to let you know, I've updated my shoreel with footage from some projects I've been working on this year, including The Dark Knight and a promo for channel 5 advertising their new gadget channel (see earlier posting)

you can see the new reel in the showreel section of my website, have a look.

also

'The Tale of Despereaux' was realised nationwide this morning. Ive been working on this animated feature for the best part of this year, as a creature TD. Ive worked on some 200 shots, about an 8th of the film, so check it out and look for my name in the credits!

all the best

Adam

Im in 3D World magazine!

2008-12-01T09:42:00.001Z

Check it out, im featured in this months issue of 3D WORLD magazine. Its a full page advert for escape studios, with a lovely splash photo of me and a quote I gave them in a recent interview.

It was great to be asked to help them promote their maya training course, it's nice to be able to give something back after they helped me out so much when I was getting started, and also its great PR!

Promo for Five FWD

2008-11-11T09:56:00.000Z

Just recently finished working on a promo for channel five's new internet based web channel 'Five FWD' with The House of Curves.

some info from their website:

"Tune in to FIVE and you’ll see an ad on high rotation featuring a multitude of gadgets whizzing around the screen. It’s the launch of Five’s web based technology and gadget channel called FIVE FWD, created over 14 intense days at The House of Curves....

....Almost as quickly as placeholders were being created, Adam Dewhirst and a team of modellers were transforming them into beautifully crafted and detailed models. The slick renders are a testament to the great modelling abilities of our students....

(should add at this point, I'm not one of their students, although I have learned alot from these guys!)

you can read the whole article here: FIVE FWD

For my part i had to model a variety of photo real models to interact with each other. One of the more challenging parts was to create a camcorder that transformed into a huge array of gadgets including projectors, tv's speakers and even a telescope.

I also had a chance to do some simple shading work which was great fun and a nice change of pace.

will post the video as soon as it comes online!

Another Trailer for 'The Tale of Despereaux'

2008-11-10T15:50:00.001Z

Hot off the press, here is another trailer for the upcoming 'Tale of Despereaux'. This one is a fair bit longer and you can see much more of the film, you'll also get a better idea of the story! looks good, lots of my shots in this trailer!

I have entered 'The House of Curves'

2008-10-24T12:43:00.001+01:00

Hello all

some updates on the job front for you, This past monday, I started work at The House of Curves, located in London's Holburn. Working with Andrew Daffy and Matt Estela.

I'm finally back to some modelling, in actualy fact I've probably modelled more in this last week that most of this year, its bizarre returning to photo real modelling after working as a creature TD for so long, but very enjoyable! (and a little nackering, I think i am developing some kind of RSI).

Anyway, The House of Curves is great, glad to be here, and a welcome change of pace from Framestore, will post more news on what I'm working on as soon as I can.

all the best

Adam

working with great people!

2008-10-17T14:55:00.000+01:00

Sad news: Today is my last day with Framestore, after a year and half here I'm off to greener pastures (The House of Curves!). Its a shame as ive really enjoyed my time here, but they have run out of work for me, so my contact is not being renewed for now. However......... I have worked with some awesome people, and today over lunch, they presented me with a A3 framed picture of this:

which is simply amazing!!! I'm really touched by it, and it looks great.... going straight on my wall! so thank you to everyone i've worked with at Framestore, you guys are awesome, and im sure we will work together again in the future!

Thanks!

Adam

screenshots from 'Despereaux', the game.

2008-10-14T18:17:00.000+01:00

These screenshots of 'The Tale Of Despereaux' the computer game have just been released. I'm afriad I have no details on it yet, but its another movie tie in for the film, which is good news!

From the look of it, the games developers may have been passed some of our models, they look pretty similar, it does look quite nice actually. I remember seeing the screenshots for 'The Golden Compass' game, when I was working on that and being very dissapointed.

modelling with Steven Stahlberg

2008-10-02T10:00:00.000+01:00

Hello all, just a small bit of new here, I have enrolled upon the Steven Stahlberg cybergirl modelling class at cgworkshops (www.cgsociety.org). The course started this past monday and its already flying! hopefully by the end of it my photo real humans will be that much better, but its great to get to work with a maya master like Steven.

will post some updates of my work as it comes in, for now im just brainstorming some concepts! its all very exciting.

(of course fitting it into my schedule is chaos, but when is it not chaos?)

heres a link to the course cg workshops offer: HERE

and steven's website: android blues

all the best

Adam

designs for animated short

2008-09-20T15:17:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone, I thought I would post some designs for an animated short I am working on. Its a personal project im doing in my spare time.

I don't want to go into too much detail, but I got very excited today because I received the final designs for the first character. Im working with a concept artists/illustrator called Leo Bennett, and he sent these over today, they really capture the character I'm after, so hopefully we see more of the same soon.

Here are the first finalled designed of the 'Guard' character for my short:

posed shot:

More on this soon hopefully.

will also post a link to more of Leo's work as soon as i get it.

New Despereaux Poster

2008-09-12T17:40:00.001+01:00

This new Poster for 'The Tale of Despereaux' has just been released

Poster 2:

I have to admit I really like it, and it focuses on the main character more, which i think is a good thing. For those of you who have read the book, you'll know that there are in fact 3 main stories, each with a different lead character, however for the purposes of the movie I think it makes sence that Despereaux himself get stop billing.

heres the first poster that was released earlier in the year:

Poster 1:

The Despereaux Crew!

2008-09-12T16:49:00.000+01:00

hey all, just wanted to post a small update, we had a group pictures taken taken of the crew for 'The Tale of Despereaux'. This is everyone on the crew, as it stands on 12/09/2008.

I only just got there in time, so im way out on the left!

lovely animation

2008-08-29T14:58:00.000+01:00

I found this while trawling through you tube today, its a lovely piece of animation in 3D. Great look, style and very nice animation indeed - also set to rather mellow music. reminds me of something tim burton would do, but in a lighter tone.

after checking the credits, ive discovered its by an animator named 'yannick puig' with music by david lascombe and sebastian lecocq

it reminds me of a video called 'i live on the moon' and (moments later) upon looking this up, ive realised its the same animator. both of these anims are worth checking out:

I live on the moon is available in high definition HERE on Yannicks home page

really spendid work. here are some still to wet your appetite:

sneak peak at the Tale of Despereaux

2008-08-27T12:21:00.000+01:00

Universal have released a small sneak peak at the behind the scenes of 'The Tale of Despereaux', which is the feature animation i am currently working on.

Due out in December, its stars matthiew Broderick and Dustin Hoffman, as well as a whole slew of other actors lending their vocal talents. It is the tale of a little mouse and the adventures hes has in the kingdom on Dior.

I've been working as a Creature TD on it.

check it out!