Please watch in 720p

Thank you to Neil Randerwala for assistance in setting up and Matt Watson for filming with the second camera (close-up, moving camera).

This is the longest piece I have edited, clocking in at 1 hour 10mins and 40seconds.

The 10 second animation at the start took exactly 76 hours, 18mins and 30seconds to render.

Please click 720p.

Miles Donovan (Part I)

Miles Donovan (Part II)

The leaves that I added blown by wind at the very start were probably more of a pain to do than they were worth. The leaves kept on passing through the wall of my classroom and zooming past my shot inside. There was no reason for some of them to go through as others were stopped by it. I ended up having to layer many more walls outside of our view so that they wouldn’t pass through.

This is the overall scene I built from a distance.

I photographed most of the textures whilst walking around the block.

The classroom is roughly modelled to the real classroom we filmed in.

The screenshot above and below shows how I have tried to roughly match the end of the intro animation with the start frame of the film edit.

Who is Miles Donovan?

Taken from – http://cargocollective.com/milesdonovan

‘Hello, I’m Miles Donovan, i’m an illustrator and member of Peepshow Collective. My work has been used internationally for editorial and advertising clients including The New York Times, Creative Review, Guardian, Telegraph, Airtran and Qantas. You can find my illustrations in the books ‘Illusive’, ‘The Fundamentals of Illustration’, ‘Pen and Mouse’ and ‘Illustration Play’. With Peepshow I’ve worked on design, art direction and animation projects for BBC, Nike, Channel Four, Philips, Toyota, Redbee Media, Diesel, and The Victoria & Albert Museum. I’m represented by the good people at Art Department in New York and Serlin Associates in London and Paris.’

Painshill Park today comprises of 158 acres, reduced from it’s original 200 acres. The park was created and owned by Charles Hamilton (a british politician) in the 18th century. ‘Painshill was created as a romantic landscape to stimulate the senses and emotions of the visitor. Hamilton was in the vanguard of the picturesque movement.’ He ‘eventually ran out of money and sold the estate in 1773.’ After 1948 Painshill gradually fell into decay until around 1981 when restoration started.

The statue below stands in the Ampitheatre. The Ampitheatre comprises of ‘Six tiers of evergreen planting, mixing European and “exotic” trees and shrubs are arranged in a semi-formal rhythmic pattern which reminded Sir John Parnell of an amphitheatre in 1763.  The limited palette of plants gives the border a unity and attention is paid to the shape and growth habits of each tree or shrub in its position to keep the tiering.’ The statue is a copy of the ‘Sabine Group’ by Giambologna, which is made from marble and stands in Florence. The replica in Painshill Park however is made from lead.

Beyond these trees stands the vineyard. The vineyard produces white, rose and sparkling wine. This is also one of three entrances to the Ampitheatre.

This is the Gothic Temple. It was designed to offer a preview of the buildings around the park so that you could visit them at a more close-up and intimate level later.

The ‘Ruined Abbey’ was the last ‘ folly’ created by Charles Hamilton. It was designed this way to start off with. It is constructed out of brick but made to look like stone (on the other side, not pictured here).

The chinese bridge that leads to the Grotto.

The upper walls and ceiling of the Grotto are covered in gypsum, quartz, calcite and fluorite. The lower walls are made of clinker stone to give contrast. The tunnel and outer structure is made from brick which is covered by blocks of limestone. All of this gives the impression of a natural crystal grotto. The grotto is built across two islands in the lake and from the outside looks like a rocky outcrop.

The holes through the limestone are completely natural.

I am not really sure what kind of ‘duck’ this is. I haven’t really seen a duck perched in a really tall tree before, if anyone could let me know what it is id be happy to know!

Painshill is one of the most stunning parks I have been too. I think we covered most of it, though there is not enough light this time of year to spend the entire day wandering and exploring which is a shame. Though I couldn’t have asked for anything better from the light and sky that we did have on the day!

I have decided to animate some short clips here and there throughout the talk to make it even more engaging. I have started making a little intro. The idea here is that camera zooms through a classroom into a simple 3d respresentation of the first starting shot, which will then switch into real life footage. I need to add colour and detail but it is on its way!

It is a rough estimation of what the actual classroom we filmed in looks like.

It is the first time I have made anything that isn’t created from primitive shapes. I don’t think I went about it the right way, but I managed to get it how I wanted it to look!

More to come very soon!

Straight away the entrance looks imposing. Our tour lady told us lots of interesting things about the place such as to get the body across the road (where im standing) to the east cemetery, they had an underground tunnel so that they didn’t have to cross the road. It is currently waterlogged but they are trying to restore it.


It was very overcast all day and with all the trees overshadowing the cemetery it made it hard for photography. Wasn’t allowed tripods, and even if you was, at the speed the tour was going I wouldn’t have been able to use it anyway. This was the only bad thing really, the tour was interesting and i’m glad I learned some interesting facts about the place but I would have liked to wander off afterwards and taken photos without being rushed. I could have easily spent all day in the place. The one time I did lag behind I got called to ‘are you coming?!‘ To which she explained later she wasn’t allowed anyone out of sight as some people book tours and wander off with the intentions of scattering ashes of their loved ones in the cemetery without permission, which I found quite amusing to be honest.

Some parts of the cemetery had a very ‘Indian Jones’ feel to them.

This pyramid-shaped grave was the 11th grave put in the west side cemetery.

This is the grave of Thomas Sayers, who was a bare-knuckle prize fighter. There were no weight divisions back then and his final fight against an American, John Heenan, is regarded as the world’s first boxing championship. This match lasted 40 rounds, a match only ended when a fighter was knocked down, so between them they had been knocked down 40 times! The match ended in a draw when the crowd flooded the ring. The dog guarding his tomb was Sayers’s constant companion called Leo, or Lion.

Highgate cemetery is well worth visiting, though it is rather annoying that you are forced to have a tour to see the west side. The tour is only an hour long and I feel we only got to see a fraction of the place. Despite this I thoroughly enjoyed myself, I would love to have the opportunity to explore the west side of the cemetery and discover at my own leisure.

Berries
Made out of my love for putting berries in most of the drinks I have!

Technical details -
Made in – Cinema 4d, Premiere
Render Time est. – 15 hours

Morale

This video started as an idea to make a funny short animation that would last around 8 seconds in which the girl gets squished under the weight of what she is carrying.

Whilst working on it other ideas came to mind and I kept on expanding upon my original idea, turning it into, hopefully, an animation with an inspiring and motivating message.

All photos, animation, 3d design and sound effects were created by me.

Camera used – Canon 7d
Programmes used – After Effects, Cinema 4d, Illustrator, Premiere & Photoshop

Music – Foo Fighters – Walk

Photos used -
Screenshot of the flag in c4d -