Climate Change - Conservation Agreements

A few months ago I finished working on this interesting project for the NGO known as Conservation International.

I had not done anything like this in years so it was both fun and challenging to develop all the art on my own (most of the times I take the artwork from someone else and animate it). The process began as usual: I got a script which I turned into a storyboard. Once it was approved it was time to get into production.

What's nice about a storyboard is that it makes it easier to illustrate all the artwork. You have a solid reference to work from, right? Well, in this case it was even better! The client just loved the style I used on the storyboard so there was no need to develop a new style, it was already there in the paper. So I scanned those pages and took them directly to Toon Boom, drew over them, tweaked a few things here and there and then started putting some color.

Once all the illustrations were colored it was time to take them to Photoshop. All of you who have read my previous posts know this is what I do: take the original illustration from Toon Boom and add some lights and shadows in Photoshop. Keep in mind that all these illustrations were exported as separate layers if they were going to get animated.

Now that the whole package was colored, I started all the compositing work in After Effects. Every object was in place just like the original B/W storyboard but fully-colored. It was really nice to see this thumbnails coming to life even though they were not animated yet.

All the animation process went very smooth. I have to admit this is the way things should go every time you work on an animation project on your own but they just don't. Due to time constraints, most of the times you just start animating the whole sequence on-the-go.

The end result is something that I am really proud of. I take credit for all the artwork and the animation. Sound effects and music were added by someone else after I delivered the video file.

Now go ahead and take a look!

Eye Fixation

It's been years since the last time I painted something just for fun. So I was there sitting in front of the screen playing with brushes and blending modes. That's how this multi-layer thing came to be an eye. I had no intention on painting a realistic eye so there was no research, just my imagination and the intention to make it believable. Some might say it looks like a deity or some sort of mystical creature, and the truth is any of those interpretations is valid because (like I said before)I just did this for fun!

Animation Reel 2014

This animation reel shows some of the work I have done on TV, film and videogames. All rotoscoping, character animation and motion graphics were done in After Effects while illustration was done in Toon Boom Studio and Photoshop.

DEMO REEL 2014 from Nicolas Calderon Eader on Vimeo.

Tracking - Labels over images

A few months ago I got on-board this already-started project. The Ecuadorian secretary of industries & productivity (MIPRO) requested a TV commercial where all items inside this house were labeled according to the "INEN standard". So EVERY product that is manufactured or imported to Ecuador is registered under a specific code determined by INEN.

On this case I used a lot of reference points as tracking points, every label is at a different position and depth. On a couple of labels I had to move the "tracking Null object" frame by frame even though the camera movement was very smooth.

Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup TV Spot

The Ecuadorian financial institution known as CACPECO launched their latest savings-investment campaign in late 2013. "Ahorro Inversión" was targeting the 2014 FIFA World Cup (to be held in Brazil) and that means: most of the country. Ecuadorians are such big soccer fans, that most institutions, financial or not, like to offer LCD TVs in exchange of their products/services.

The first 15 seconds were shot on location, the rest was shot on green-screen. So, my job was to put on screen all the products the financial institution was giving away as part of their deal. I had to sync all of it with the voice-over. Now the fun part was working on the green-screen footage. After dealing with the yellow jersey and masking the feet on a couple of shots, the job was done!

All designs were developed by a designer and then passed on to me. I take credit for the green-screen & compositing stuff.

Color Correction

This was the first color correction job that I had and also very important. This video was released on several huge-LCD screen around Quito (maybe other cities too). Behind the scenes images are black&white, so there is not much to say about it. The real deal relied on the color-images. Models were dancing in front of LCD screens, which caused a lot of moire-effect noise (see still images), so getting rid of it was a bit of a challenge.

The important thing was to match the skin color on every scene. Then I was able to remove specific colors from the overall image. There is only a couple of scenes were I had to mask the girls in order to keep the detail from the LCD screens. Apart from that, the end result was achieved with filters like Hue&Saturation, Curves, Levels, and Color Balance.

The video is the property of their respective owners, I do not own it.

Animatic Sample

This is just a fraction of the original 9-minute long animatic I worked on some time ago. It tells the story of young Ecuadorian guy who becomes a hero after standing against some bad guys. He has this companion -a female Condor- who aids him on his journey to fight the injustice and the corruption in Ecuador.

The hero has his ongoing comic book series known as "Capitan Escudo." He is developed by Zonacuario, which is based in Quito, Ecuador. These illustration/storyboards were handed to me as photoshop files, constructed on a few layers so I could animate each character on its own. Since this is an animatic I did my best to make it feel as close to what the finish product should be in terms of timing & pacing. Everything was done in After Effects with some puppet pin application over the characters.

Seeds of Ralark - Video-game animations

It is my pleasure to announce that Seeds of Ralark is up and ready to download at the XBOX Live website. I am also proud to say that I have shipped-title experience, this is the first one!

Keep in mind this is an update to my previous video-game character animation post so all you need to know is:

- All characters were animated in After Effects, most of the times I used the puppet pin tool.

- Character/creature artwork was already delivered as "ready-to-animate" photoshop files. Nothing else was required at this stage besides layer-renaming.

- The characters and creatures depicted on this video are the property of Escapism Entertainment.

If you wish to take a look at the game please check the XBOX marketplace website, the trailer, and the game's official website.

And now, the video. Hope you enjoy it!

2D Character/Creature Animation

Here is a sample of my latest work on character and creature 2D animation. 

The first images will be familiar if you have seen my other videos. So the new stuff is:

- The two men outside the restaurant,
- the flying dog with the red cape,
- the two superhero characters,

- and some of the creatures in the last segment, Seeds of Ralark. 

More creatures will come in the following weeks as soon as the game is released in XBOX Live. 

All characters, creatures and environments were developed by different illustrators. I only take credit for 2 of the marathon kids, the Blond and the African-Ecuadorian one. 

Live-action Roto

This is my latest contribution to a film. Check out the official website"Thunderfunk",and the trailer.

My job was to get rid of the green screen behind the white mini-van (0:52). Then I put the car over the background plate (street).

The other green-screen scenes I worked on were:

- 0:53: guy inside the car

- 01:03: same

- 01:07: same

- 01:11: guys smoking inside the car

After the green screen was removed, each scenes was put together with its background. Smoke effects, breaking glass and other effects are not mine. I was only responsible for the gunshots VFX.

Hope you enjoy it and help us make this movie at: Thunderfunkmovie.com

Videogame creatures animated with puppet tool

UPDATE: check the post from April 03, 2013 for the latest animations!

This is one of the latest projects I have been involved in. Due to this agreement I am not able to give away any details but I am allowed to show what I have done so far. These creatures were completely animated in After Effects using the puppet tool. This process is known as "cut-out" animation, this is not my first time doing it so that is why I am involved in this videogame.

Hopefully I will be able to show you some other stuff in the near future. I hope you enjoy these few animations. The illustrations are not mine, I repeat, illustrations were done by another artist, I only take credit for the animation. All artwork, animations are the property of Escapism Entertainment.

Life Drawing Workshop

Here is a few drawings from this workshop I have been attending in Studio City. Most of them were done with pencils, a few with charcoals. I know there is some nudity, hope I'm not breaking any rules, just want to show you what I've done over the last few weeks.

2D artwork - Informative for Democracy

This is a compilation of the 2D artwork from the "Informative for Democracy" project I was involved in until January 2011.

For one year I illustrated and animated these backgrounds and cartoons. The animation is really simple, cut-out style for the characters and a few lip-sync here and there. Everything creation is mine, in some cases I had photographic references.

In every infomercial you could tell there were different plants, trees, people, clothes, food and so on. The pictures you are going to see are just a small compilation of all the work I did for a year. We did 20+ infomercials and the number of new illustrations (single objects) was between 80 and 100 for each new infomercial. All are hi-res images!

As you can see there is a lot of ethnic races. Well, the idea was to depict most of the Ecuadorian culture we could.

Next, this video collects a few backgrounds with some animation. I take credit for all the illustrations you see there except for the traffic signs, the trees silhouettes, and water texture you see before the last scene. Those came from a vector library. 

I hope you enjoy all of these and expect some comments. I will be gone for a while, it is time to work on some new challenges!

Stop Motion - Puppets, Scenery

And now we are going to see pictures of a stop-motion project I did while studying. Here I did a lot of things, character designs (which were not chosen), scenery design (outside look of a mansion), puppet fabrication (2 characters), scenery building (front view of the mansion), and also a couple of Condor for the mansion. Because we wanted the project to have a "local feeling" we had the 2 huge birds as statues. The mansion was partially based on some architecture from Quito's civic center.

Sketches

All mine.

Condor birds

All mine. For the skeleton I used, wire and flex foam. For the body sculpting: air hardening modelling clay and plasticine. In the final stage I mixed regular white glue with blue acrylic paint. After putting it over the sculpted body with a flat brush, I got a nice stone-look with cracks. You can see it helped a lot.

Characters

I worked on the skeletons and bodies of the 2 characters (an old man and his servant), costumes were made by a classmate. Partial animation of the servant was done by me. Below: the servant. The guy in the third picture is a painter, done by a classmate.

Scenery

These interiors are not mine, just wanted to show what we achieved in this class. I will add a few pictures of the mansion soon.

More pictures and animation tests coming soon.

Graphics - TV commercials, corporate events...

This post is just about graphics. I think I should show some of the work I have done besides illustration, animation, 3D and compositing.

Here you are going to see mostly intros, outros, animated logos, maps, that kind of stuff. I remember having worked on a bunch of pilots as cameraman and/or animator. The following video is a compilation of the most relevant work from the years 2008 - 2010. It includes material from TV commercials, corporate events and TV shows.

Footage from policemen, firefighters, etc., is not mine. My job in this one was to create an intro for a show about cops: their everyday duty, how difficult it is to fight crime, and so on. So I took the main cut, added some filters, text and did a few masks.

I used the usual stuff for these graphics: Photoshop, Illustrator and After Effects.

All logos and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Music from danosongs.com is licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0"

The Patriots - Compositing, 2D & 3D artwork

This compilation depicts my compositing job in "The Patriots". The project was developed during the Ecuadorian Bicentennial in July - August 2009. I take credit for most of the 3D renders. Some models were donde by an intern. Texturing, lighting and rendering was my task. 2D artwork was done by former mentor & friend Gustavo Idrovo.

The Patriots ("Los Patriotas" in spanish) aired in ECTV, an Ecuadorian TV station. The show a time-period interview-like show. Important figures from the Ecuadorian revolution and further independence were portrayed by actors. Our artwork came in whenever they would recall important moments before, during and after the revolution. As you will see, there are still images and a few scenes that look like a motion-comic. If you would like to know more about this project please take a look at my previous post from July 2011: "The Patriots".

Rotoscoping - 2D illustrations (Reina de Quito 2010-2011)

Here are some scenes from the 12 spots that I worked on in 2010. By the end of every year, Quito (Ecuador's capital city) celebrates its foundation anniversary. And so, a new Queen is elected for a one-year-term. This event is known as Queen of Quito ("Reina de Quito" in spanish).

A few months ago I got the chance to work on 12 spots, each one for each candidate. My job was to put some 2D artwork, clean up the streets or the sky and so on. It was kind of easy but like any rotoscoping gig, it takes a lot of time and patience to work with masks. I worked in After Effets, Toon Boom Studio and Photoshop. I only take credit for the illustrations. The spots were developed to introduce the candidates to the city of Quito and Ecuador of course.

Rotoscoping, object replacement - Rainbow TV commercial

This was my first rotoscoping gig. It was late 2007 or early 2008. My friend Santiago Celi from Productores Render told me he needed to insert a 3D vacuum in a commecial. The idea was to replace the old model with the new one. Original footage was 35mm and I had to match the camera movement.

We had just a couple of days I think, so I asked how different is the new model from the old one. Once I saw the new model I noticed the only new things were the printed designs and the logo. My suggestion was to match-move the printed designs and changed the color of the vacuum. Well, we ended up replacing them with photographic reference from the new model. As you can see, the model remains the same, I just changed the color with a mask and moved the lateral designs in a 3D perspective in After Effects. Some light and shadows were painted over the printed designs in Photoshop.

Oh, and the camera movement had to be matched almost frame by frame because the original movement was not as smooth and straight as I would liked it to be.

This video is uploaded for the sole purpose of showing my work. I don't own this footage nor the logos. The rainbow name and logos are the property of their respective owners. 

Wire removal & rotoscoping

In this post I'm going to write a brief explanation about this job I had in the year 2009. I assisted my friend and former-teacher Alfredo Velasquez with a couple of scenes that required some "clean up". The scenes are from an Ecuadorian feature film. Unfortunately we never knew the official title.

So here is the first scene. I used After Effects and Photoshop for all the process. In After Effects I used the "simple wire removal" tool, and clone stamp wherever it was needed. Photoshop came in when I needed to build a new hat for the character. As you will see, the character is coming down from the sky but spinning thanks to the rope. Yes, that rope was just any kind of rope and the knot behind the head is HUUUGE!! Now for the last part of the scene I had to do a lot, I mean a lot of frame-by-frame painting because the rope was waving in front of the balloons.

Now the second scene was much more easy but still needed some time to get done. Prior the shooting of this scene, the mirror was fine, no dust, it was clean. Later when they shot this scene they realized somebody had out it face down. Here is where I came in. My task was to replace the mirror. It had to be flawless. I started with Photoshop, got a still frame from the clean mirror and cleaned it up with some brushes (digital brushes of course). Once the back of this mirror was ready, I jumped into After Effects. This was going to be much easier to work with because I just had to match the movement of 1 layer. Well, the match didn't work out as I expected so I took the long way. I set the layer in 3D perspective and moved it, rotated it every 5 frames, sometimes 2 or even even 1 frame. You have to be very careful when you do something like this. Just like animating a character or anything else, you need a layout or a preliminary animation path. Once you get the whole sequence, then you work with the in-between. Well, after I matched the movement I did some levels correction and some brightness/contrast tweaking. You can see that sometimes the wood piece is facing upwards so it becomes a bight brighter.

Feel free to ask any questions!! Thank you.

Scenes from Corporate Video - AVIS rent a car

Back to 2009, working with "Primal Producciones" again. This video I believe was something like 5 minutes long. The funny thing was that it was being worked on in Quito, Ecuador but was meant to be sent to Colombia! This time we were 4 animators working with After Effects. All material was provided by a creative agency, they even gave us a photo-storyboard made with the pictures that we used in the final product.

Scenes contained here are just a small selection of what I did with After Effects in a 3D camera setup. The Avis logo is property of their respective owner(s). Please be aware, this video is not intended for any commercial purposes, just meant to show what I have done in terms of animation.