La Marche de l'empereur

This weekend was a movie weekend ^^. I got back from 'La Marche de l'empereur (March Of The Penguins), a documentary about the life of emperor penguins directed by Luc Jaquet. After seeing this documentary I can say, these where the best recordings of penguins I've ever seen. The Camerawork and the editing was incredible and the penguis so adorable.
I don't know about the other versions but in the German version the voices were a bit annoying. A woman speaking for the female penguis, a man's voice for the male and a child speaking for the baby penguins. I didn't like that at all. And the music was also not the best choice. But even though I had fun watching those guys walking, falling over sometimes, swimming like torpedos etc. So if you like penguins or nature documentaries don't miss this one.

Flight Plan

Just came back from the Movies. I've seen Flight Plan. It's a thriller that takes place almost entirely in an airplane. I liked it a lot. It has some similarities with David Fincher's 'Panic Room' (also with Jodie Foster).
I was kept in suspence, great acting by Jodie Foster (very convincing as usual) and some great camera work. The film was directed by Robert Schwentke (a German director) and partly filmed in Berlin where I used to live the last 3 years ^^. Overall it was a pretty nice movie! I'd give it an 8 out out of 10.

My left hand hurts...

I worked on a mattepainting for a upcoming TV series the last days. It was 5 days non stop photoshoping. Now my left wrist hurts a bit. I have to be careful not to get a typist's neuritis. ^^;
I was wondering 'Why my left hand?' when I paint with my right hand. Well it's the keyboard shortcuts I'm using with my left hand. I'm currently working with my laptop so the keyboard is placed in front of my graphic tablet (normally I place the keyboard to my left). Therefor I have to twist my hand in unnatural positions to press certain key combinations.

My wrist hurts most when I do the select->inverse command. (Ctrl+Shift+I). Put your keyboard right in front of you and try this combination with just your left hand. I think you'll understand why it hurts if you do it too often ^^; (I use pinky, ring finger and thumb for that combination btw)
So I tried painting without using my left hand... After 2 seconds my arm automatically moved towards the keyboard pressing Ctrl+z ^^

I should go back to pen and paper...then I won't need to use my left hand ;)

Cityscape

I recently watched a Gnomon DVD of Dylan Cole. On this DVD he shows techniques for Cityscape Matte Painting. I learned a lot watching it. It's really amazing how he brings detail in the picture with only a few brushstrokes. I always had difficulties when I painted buildings to keep the lines straight, adding details and stuff. After watching the DVD everything went better and faster. This took about an hour.

Kong Jr.

Played around with Markers today. I find it very thrilling to sketch directly with pen on paper. No eraser, no undo...no layers ^^;
But it's a good training cause you have to think carefully about each pen stroke.

Rooted

I had really fun painting this image! After an hour I was finished. Normally, when I paint characters, it takes a long time to finish. Don't know but everything worked out just fine today.
I didn't plan this painting...I was just inspired by a story written by fellow students of the German Film School. I really like how this turned out. Maybe I will go on painting on this one.

Skintones are hard....

I was experimenting with skintones today...someone said that human skin includes almost every color. Indeed when you look at your hand it's hard to figure out which colors you actually see. It's a mixture of many colors. Anyways I tried to use many different colors when I painted this image but then this guy looked like a zombie ^^; So I went over the image again.
I like the tip of his nose. I mixed a slight violet and orange in it, looks kind of natural.

The funny thing is that this guy looks exactly like my trumpet teacher.
(I used to play trumped many years ago...)
His name was Mr. Bartmann and so I named this painting. ^^

NTSC vs PAL

mmmm...I wanted to create a couple of Demoreels in NTSC (National Television System Commitee) also known as "Never Twice the Same Color" ^^ format...But I live in Germany. The German TV format is PAL (Phase Alternating Line). This has also it's nicknames but I don't remember... So how do I copy a PAL clip on a NTSC VHS tape?

Well I can't do it by myself...but I've found a copy shop in my hometown.
It's quiet expensive to convert from PAL to NTSC.
Each format has different resolutions and framerates. A special method is required for converting lossless. There is another format, SECAM (Sequential Couleur Avec Memoire). It's used in France and Eastern Europe. But I never had to deal with this format.

Well those formats could be pretty annoying. I think every animator who lives in a PAL (25frames/sec) using country knows the problem that you forget to change the format from NTSC to PAL in the preferences of the animation software...then you animate in default NTSC (30frames/sec). Later in the post production you realize that the animation is too slow...cause you imported the image sequence which was animated in 30frames/sec with 25frames/sec. An even bigger problem is when you synchronized the movements to a soundfile...now it's not so easy to edit the animation so it fits PAL 25frames/sec again.
Anyways HDTV is coming but they have different formats in different countries again...nooooooooo T.T!