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- Written by Andrew Gray
- Category: Blog
Moving on from the 'Satellite' animation I made my video for the Acting course I had been taking, I thought about designing and making a spaceship, and seeing if I was capable of using a green screen.
Considering it didn't take much time (and it probably shows) it came out a lot better than what I expected.
In fact it came out well enough for me to sit down and develop a script from it.
Of course it sets me up for another half completed project which I will probably never finish. But as long as i am having fun, who cares.
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- Written by Andrew Gray
- Category: Blog
For an acting course I have been doing, I am performing a scene from the movie "Tears of the Sun".
I wanted to add an animation to zoom out from a character in the jungle talking on a satellite phone, up to the satellite as it 'flys by', and then back down to the other character replying from another location at a Naval base.
This is what I have done so far - the satellite is a little off centre, but the plus side is, this is my very FIRST animation using the Blender open source software - so I am quite excited how it has come out.
I will make some amendments for the final version, but I am very happy with it so far.
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- Written by Andrew Gray
- Category: Blog
Today as a part of the Level 4 acting course I have been participating in, we got the opportunity to film at the same location as many television series have been filmed at (including The Cult) at Titirangi.
We were recreating a scene from the movie "Tears of the Sun" and needed dense bush as a backdrop.
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- Written by Andrew Gray
- Category: Blog
I was reading in a magazine two weeks ago about a way to take 2D footage and turn it into 3D, by delaying the left channel a couple of frames behind the right channel.
The premise seemed simple enough, but I thought I would give it a go myself.
The colours are a bit washed out but i can see in two places the 3D effect worked quite well, more so when there is actually movement.
With a bit of practice I am sure i could get the timing right, and the colour correct = but at least it proved that you can take simple 2D footage, and with minimal manipulation get a 3D image.
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- Written by Super User
- Category: Films
For the 2010 48 Hour Film competition the genre receive was "Biopic".
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- Written by Andrew Gray
- Category: Blog
So I have only just found a brilliant open source program for 3D modelling and animation - it is called Blender.
I wish I had known about this years ago, so i am going to have to do a lot of catching up to work out how to use it - and see if my knowledge of Maya is of any help!
Hopefully I can make some time to make something creative from it.
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- Written by Andrew Gray
- Category: Blog
Earlier this month I headed down and filmed an airshow at Ardmore Airport in Papakura.
Being right underneath the planes I found it pretty hard to keep up with them, but there is nothing like being so close.
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- Written by Andrew Gray
- Category: Blog
Shooting the Moon
I have tried to film the moon a few times, and never had much luck. Being that it is night time, increasing the shutter speed or adding ND filters never even crossed my mind - because I thought it is already dark.
But playing around with such things was exactly what I needed to do to get a good image.
Only after this did I also learn that when doing a time lapse, be careful not to move around the camera! I thought because I was on concrete it would be fine, turns out I am so heavy that the concrete actually moves under me, which moves the tripod, which then of course moves the camera. Small lesson for me on Physics there!
You can see some of my first images below:
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- Written by Andrew Gray
- Category: Blog
I wanted to have a go at some visual effects. Some very basic, and others a little more complicated.
I went for a walk down the Viaduct in Auckland one day, new camera and tripod in hand and filmed a a wind twister art thing, and a boat.
- ART: With the 'arty' piece it moves quite slow, so i wanted to see what it looked like sped up. Nice and simple.
- THE BOAT: With the Boat, my brother had pointed me to a Vimeo page where a guy tries to make things look small using a tilt shift - so I had a bit of a play with that.
- HEROES: Then, being a fan of the TV series Heroes, I wanted to try a couple of effects from there.
- CRICKET: I finished with some guys playing cricket at the domain, and tried to make them look small also.
I found the whole thing fun, but as you can see - a lot of neandering and no real rhyme or reason. But who needs one when you are having fun!
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- Written by Andrew Gray
- Category: Series
In this episode of Mary TV, Mary and best friend Angus have a go at cooking some creamed chicken. Video below:
Also Mary responds to fans and viewers and answers some of those long time questions with the following video: