The last couple of days have been very hectic. Moving into a new apartment is very exciting but you never realize how much junk you have hidden away until you start cleaning and packing. In any case, its been a couple days since the MTV interview got published. Since then, I’ve had some interesting comments, phone calls, emails, and facebook requests. My parents also received some emails from Japan as the news broke in a bunch of japanese websites and blogs. Thanks to all the well wishers and also the cynics. I couldn’t help but laugh myself when reading some of the witty remarks.
Of course my website and blog were greatly affected by the interview. The good thing was that traffic spiked up by about 500%. The bad news was that my site dropped from a #2 google ranking to #6 when searching ‘Wii Yatani’. The google search results were flooded with News sites reposting the article. Damn you google search spiders!
Anyways, with all that being said, I enjoyed my 15 minutes of fame but now it’s back to unpacking, cleaning and making my apartment look like a page from an IKEA catalog.
Big thanks to Stephen Totilo of MTV News for a great article and profile – A Man Named Wii Describes How Nintendo’s Game Console Changed His Life. It was truthful, humorous and frankly, its just plain funny seeing me listed as #4 for ‘Breaking News’ on the MTV website. 9000 views between MTV News and Gizmodo in a matter of 8 hours. Yikes, never underestimate the exposure power of Viacom! I see a couple other sites have picked it up as well…
A couple weeks ago, I attended an After Effects meeting organized by some of the wonderful people over at the Creative Cow. One of the speakers that really struck a chord with me was Pete O’Connell, a feature film compositor and VFX guy who has done work for major motion pictures such as Transporter 2 and Across the Universe. The tips and techniques he showed us for rotoscoping was very insightful. He showed us how tracking footage can save loads of time and even came up with a useful expression for guiding the position of the mask which I regret not writing down! In any case, he showed us an example of a scene from “Stranger Than Fiction” starring Will Ferrell that he worked on. Now this movie isn’t exactly “The Matrix” so it goes to show you how big of a role VFX plays in today’s movies. ONE scene that he showed us was literally 5 seconds but it took weeks and weeks to rotoscope and “extend” the scene. It was absolutely amazing and I have a so much respect for the amount of work that goes into each movie. He is a very knowledgeable instructor and you can purchase his instructional DVD here.
Like I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been wanting to redo my website for quite some time now. It’s very easy to push things off and save it for when you have more time. I realize more and more that my schedule is not going to slow down anytime soon. I just need to grit my teeth and do it and its nothing that some late nights and caffeine can’t help me through. Version 2 of the ‘wiimix’ is a lot cleaner, simpler and most importantly, easier to update/maintain. I’ve been working diligently for the past couple weeks. It’s been a very smooth and efficient process so I’m hoping to launch sometime next week. Keep your fingers crossed…
Feedback is always much appreciated! I’m very pleased with the result and definitely picked up some valuable skills along the way. I still have a long way to go especially compared to the amazing people at Psyop, Superfad, and Digital Kitchen to name a few. However some of the things that I found very frustrating before, are beginning to feel a lot more natural to me and with that, I can smile.
I’m now back to the drawing board for my potential ’short film’. A new Canon HF10 would be very useful!
“Designer’s First Monarchy” - talk about a bold tagline! Only someone at the #1 spot could make such a statement and get away with it and North Kingdom truly fits the bill. Their two websites, Vodafone Future Vision and Get the Glass, easily rank among the top 10 sites EVER. Their projects undergo a production pipeline similar to a damn feature length film. Green screening, sound design, VFX; they absolutely push the boundary of the internet and user experience. I’ve always had questions about their workflow and even though their site has some nice behind the scenes info, I wanted to get inside even deeper. Lo and behold, Robert Lindstrom’s (co-founder) blog, DCHPL. I came across it months ago and it’s an absolute must-read blog for designers, developers, project managers everywhere. You might have to filter through some of the posts but the behind the scenes stuff is just incredible.
**UPDATE: I’ve started animation for the Burton piece and it’s coming along nicely.
Not only does Burton have some of the best snowboarders in the world riding its boards and rocking its gear, it also has a pretty damn nice website. I’ve always wondered if their in-house team created it. I know JDK has done a lot of work for Burton, being in VT and all, but I didn’t see anything in their portfolio.
In any case, as my mind wonders from idea to idea, I started designing a storyboard. What started out as just some doodling, lead to some paint splatters, snow, Shaun White, and inevitably, Burton snowboarding. It’s been a great distraction as I brainstorm my short “film”. Below is a work in progress (click to enlarge). I’m pleased at the early results and eager to include this under my list of motion graphics work. Oh and by the way, if any head honcho from Burton is reading this, yes – I would love to design a snowboard for you guys.
I’ll be the first to admit… I’ve been a little distracted the past couple weeks. After watching Kobe and the Lakers lose in the NBA finals, my motivation for completing the Kobe Bryant video has gone completely downhill. The bad side to this of course, is that designers should ALWAYS finish a project to completion. So in that sense, I feel a bit guilty. The good side however, is that it was never a real project but rather just a creative outlet for me. It’s not like I missed a deadline or disappointed a client. I just wanted to experiment and do something different from my day to day. Another good side of it is that in the past couple weeks, I’ve felt the need to create other things as well. And besides, the ‘want’ and urge to create something is probably just as important as completing a project in its entirety.
So the question is, what next? My website, thewiimix, needs a MAJOR overhaul. It’s outdated, too gimmicky and just not efficient for where I am in my career. I do want to portray Wii Yatani in an accurate light and it’s VERY important that I do it soon. However, I decided to put that on hold for just a bit as I feel I have too much to learn and experiment with in other creative areas. Recently, I’ve started realizing how badly I would love to create a short film. Only a few, small problems lie in my way. I have no equipment, no experience, no script, no actors, no budget, and no time. So what do I do? Well, I realized pretty quickly that I should probably start off a little smaller. Perhaps it won’t be a full fledged production but it can still be a film, and it will most definitely be short! It’s very important for me to create something powerful, something that will move the viewer. The Kobe vid was fun to do but that’s all it was…fun. It’s pretty much just eye candy without any real emotional impact or messaging. I want to create something that will really move people however that may be. I want the piece to linger in the viewer’s thoughts for a few seconds (even minutes!) after watching it. I know that’s setting the bar high but that’s exactly what everyone should do in life in general right? Set yourself up for lofty expectations so that you have to reach that much higher in achieving it. I know what I have to do…brainstorm, plan, experiment, observe and work hard. No short cuts, no excuses. I know what I have to do, now I just have to do it. **end with nike logo here
In between commercials during the NBA playoffs, I found myself playing around and experimenting in After Effects. As mentioned in the previous post, I specifically started creating a motion graphics spot for Kobe Bryant as I was very inspired by his playoff run. I should’ve known that I’d be jinxing him from the moment I started the project and sure enough, the Lakers are down 2-0 to the much despised Celtics. I decided to stop work on the spot after about a week and half of time. My excuse is that I want to stop the jinx I put on the Lakers so that they can bounce back and start winning. However, the real reason is a busy schedule and a lack of free time. I do plan on updating the spot with a lot more depth and refining animation and camera work. It’s a bit sloppy right now but check out the first mix below or click the vimeo link:
