100

Yup. This is the 100th entry for this blog. I started it 2 years ago to shed light on my travels as an artist and business person. It's been a way for me to share and process what I've been making and thinking. A lot has happened these past 100 weeks!

Over the last couple months, however, I've had fewer ideas of what to talk about each week. My guess is because I'm also making weekly video tutorials and essays. So, now I'm only going to post on this blog when bigger things happen or when I have something I want to share. The blog has been great for me, regardless of how many people have read it, but I feel like it's had its moment. I want to focus on other things now.

So, in one final, self-indulgent post, I'm going to list some of the things I've talked about over these past two years. Thanks for reading, friends!

Your pal, Bailey

Movin' Right Along

It's been business as usual this past week. Every day there's been development going on for the 3 aspects of the business strategy. I think I've talked about it before...original works (the flywheel), collaboration, and client work (for now). It was a good week for all of them.

Hunted reached a milestone, which I talked about in the Hunted Blog, but it's worth mentioning here too (for those of you who don't read it). So, yes, Hunted is coming along. A new and improved version of the layout has been completed. 

Some screen captures of the layout scenes. I'm using 3Ds Max.

Bailey

Laying the Groundwork

This week is one of those weeks where there's not a lot to show. Frankly there was a lot of business and prep work being done. However, that's not to say that there isn't anything new to see. I'm still creating daily sketches in the sketchbook. With each sketch, I learn a new technical thing. Most suck overall, but here are two of the better ones where I tried different ways of getting stylized atmospheric perspective.

Forma Pictures has more than a few projects lined up for release in the coming months. And each of them will serve the company in different ways. Some are client gigs and others are original IPs that will be produced by the company. Hunted, the film that's had the most attention, is but one of them. One of the other projects in an early stage of development is a more stylized, lighthearted adventure.

Hunted

And lest you forgot, all the updates for the progress of my short film have been moved to a different blog. And it updates every Tuesday right HERE. Two painted concepts are already over there just waiting to be looked at! What'r'ya waiting for? :)

Coming Soon

Next week I'm launching my 4th edited short. It's been a labor of love, so I'm excited to finally share it! In the meantime, take a stroll down memory lane with the first edited short I made a while back:

Stay tuned, lovelies.

Bailey

Behind the Scenes

This week I bring you another brand new section to the website...

Here you will find new images, animations, and details about how I made my films. So, if you're the type of person that likes seeing primitive storyboards and old designs, go check it out. Personally, I love seeing behind the scenes stuff, which is probably why I became an artist. When I was first starting out, I remember watching an artist draw and thinking I could watch him do this all day long. I've since learned that this is not so for most people. Come to think of it, that's probably a way to figure out what you should do as a career...whatever it is that endlessly fascinates you.

Behind the scenes of 3D Printing: Making a Better Future

Behind the scenes of VentureBox Assist: Product Overview

So, in addition to some BtS information on past projects, I've also begun a brand new, separate blog that will focus on Hunted, the animated short that's in development. When I first started this blog, it was primarily about Hunted. And it's time once again to give it more attention. So, every Tuesday there will be an update on its progress. And I will always show something, whether it be WIP art, photos, or something else. Here's where it will live:

Aaaand my month of C4D continues. New sketch everyday.

Bailey

Shop Forma

The shop is live! And with it comes The Forma Pictures T-Shirt. I'm tired of cheap t-shirts that don't hang well and have prints that begin to peel off after a few washes. So, I spent some time choosing a fabric that fits great. Then I sent them to printers that pride themselves on quality (my kind of people!). Hope you all like the shirt. :)

This young chap is my esteemed brother.

The t-shirt is just the beginning. As you know, Forma Pictures makes original content. So expect art in the shop later this year.

For the last 2 weeks I've been releasing art everyday in the sketchbook. And now for the entire month of March, I'm going to focus on Cinema 4D. So, for the next 31 days, there will be a new sketch to look at each night. Random stuff like this (but probably way worse):

I'm moving on from cube dances to do dailies. Sure, they're a lot shorter, but there will be something new every day here. And I'm getting faster. Little by little. Day after day. This speed practice has already had an impact on my big projects.

Forma Pictures' first short film, HUNTED, saw continued development this week too. Isaac (the composer) recently wrote some more goodness for the score. One my end, I've been tweaking the story, trying to make it better. I really believe in this project, but I need more help from artists and animators in order to release it this year. It's ambitious, as always.

Bailey

CTN & Cubes

What a week! So much happened. I attended the CTN Expo, and had a splendid time. I saw cool art, enjoyed panels, learned, and became inspired. But most importantly, I met a lot of wonderful creatives. Honestly, I was delighted to enjoy the company of such genuinely good people. Overall I left feeling that the community is pretty great. Happy to be part of it! And, naturally, I have something to share. The second installment in my ridiculous Cube Dancing series...

Aaaand last week the composer for Hunted sent me the first draft of the score. We'll be working on adapting it to the story and vice versa. Yay! Music!

Bailey

A Plethora of Projects

Progress on Hunted will be slowing down a bit. The truth is that Forma Pictures has been involved in a slew of projects. As of this writing, I'm working on 3 short film projects (and a couple smaller ones)! Some are original IPs like Hunted, and the rest are being made with or for others. So far, this blog has focused on Hunted, but I'd like to open it up to the other projects as well. At least the ones that aren't confidential.

Showing the other projects will be a more honest representation of the growth of Forma Pictures anyway. Client work remains a core part of its business model. I've got a lot of irons in the fire, and bets on more than one direction. I'm exploring where financial success lies, while still staying true to my core passions of working with great people and creating genuine, music-driven stories. See Good to Great to learn more about the 3 circles (money, passion, best at). I want this blog to peel back the curtain not just on Hunted, but also on the growth of a business.

Never fear, however, because Hunted isn't going away. I'll always be working on it. It's my favorite "kid", and I'll see to it that it becomes a high-functioning adult. Here's a poster concept I recently did:

UPCOMING CONTENT

• Next week I'll be releasing a new edited short. Remember Movie Magic? Well, get ready for more!
• Also, be sure to check out my new series of short shorts (aka "tinies"): "Dancing Cubes." These are goofy, 5-15 second, musical animations. The first one is below. More are on the way!

TWITTER

If weekly updates aren't enough for you, be sure to follow me on twitter: www.twitter.com/bkalesti

I actually spend a portion of time each week carefully collecting and posting good content from the web that I feel is worth sharing. I promise I'll never tweet what I had for dinner, because who gives a ****. My twitter presence is just about the craft and the community. It's where I mention new stuff I'm doing that may not reach the blog.

Bailey

Animatic Clip

As promised, I'm sharing a clip of the animatic. The score isn't in yet, so it's rather quiet. The art is obviously non-existent and the animations are point-A to point-B type of stuff. Everything is stand-in for the real art that will come later. But hey, movies are always bad in the beginning. My goal here is to shed light on the gritty details of this process. See last week's update for a more in-depth analysis of what goes into making an animatic.

In this segment, Chloe encounters something unexpected, and she's appropriately cautious...

Bailey

The Making of an Animatic

No art to show this week, so I’m showing a little behind the scenes. Personally, I love looking under the hood of a project, so I hope this is interesting to someone.

My main task right now is creating the animatic. During this process I’m addressing three important aspects that are shaping the movie:

• Staging
• Cinematography
• Editing

The initial boards I made were loose and I focused on finding a visual language. After creating the third batch of thumbnail sketches, I spent a day placing them into a non-linear editor.
 

The third batch.

I feel that the staging process is like solving a puzzle. I look to the script and determine all the actions that need to happen to move the story along. The hard part is adapting the ideas into a space, where action happens. Working from an overhead perspective, I literally just scribble ideas for camera angles, player movement, and interactions throughout the scene. When I’m building it, I’m thinking about technical limitations (based on visual direction), composition, eye-tracing, and 2D screen-space rules.

The cinematography has been fun for me. I’ve been getting coverage of each scene, which has helped the editing process. And I’ve been working on shot composition, which is an art form unto itself. Naturally, I feel like a complete novice. Creating a still with coherent composition is hard enough, and then adding the element of time makes it all the harder. As Joseph Mascelli says in The Five C’s of Cinematography (which I highly recommended), “Good motion picture scenes are the result of thoughtful compositions and significant movements, of players and/or camera. Unsatisfactory scenes are the results of thoughtless compositions and meaningless player or camera movements, which distract rather than aid in the story-telling.”

Editing affects the shots too. Sometimes I don’t feel I can cut to a certain angle in the given time, which makes me reevaluate my camera choices. And because this is a music-driven story, everything needs to work harmoniously with the score. So, Hunted is really a series of music-supporting sequences that move the story and emotion along a pre-defined arc. And for even the simplest scenes to work, composition, staging, music, editing, and design must cooperate. That’s really the beauty of film. It’s the convergence of so many art forms…each one potentially elevating the art to higher and higher levels.
 

A very early timeline.

Hunted is a simple film, but I know it will continue to push me to my limits. This is why whenever I watch a particularly well made movie, I can’t help by sit in awe. Good movies are hard to make. I can’t say if my film will be good, but I’ll pour everything I’ve got into it.

I’ll post a clip of the animatic next week (November 7th)!

Bailey

Animatic Underway

After creating hundreds of storyboard sketches this week, I began working on the animatic. I'm feeling good about the scenes, and the time has come to create a robust, moving storyboard. Here are some stills from a few of the scenes:

All very simple, but so important. I'm having fun getting coverage of the scenes, and then editing them together. Some shots have been drawn by hand over and over again, and it's good to finally see them in 3D space. I'm learning what works and what doesn't. Overall, this film challenges me in ways that make me very happy. I've continued to read about cinematography and editing as I try to get better at this stuff. I love film!

Bailey

Breakthrough

We all know that it's difficult to translate the vague ideas in our heads into something real. To help with this, I tried an exercise.

Over the last few weeks I amassed a lot of reference photos and inspiration. This week I chose thirteen of my favorites. Then I wrote down the reasons I liked each one. Finally, I compiled these qualitative assessments into a spreadsheet and tried to find patterns. Some interesting things developed from this. For one, I learned that I'm attracted to art that uses lighting to tell stories. I listed lighting as the primary reason why I liked eight out of the thirteen. I also learned that I apparently have a fascination with silhouettes.

This helped me because it distilled my pool of thoughts into something more tangible. The physical act of writing things down is a wonderful human tool that allows us to see multiple things at once and detect patterns. It forced me to recognize what I liked and didn't like too. I have a tendency to doubt my conviction while I search for "the perfect idea."

The aesthetic I see will serve the story of Hunted. It's been tricky finding an approach that will work for each scene in the film. Some shots will be more difficult, but I'm eager to put my ideas and passion to the test.

Here is the first environment test. This is just the beginning!

If you have any comments, critiques, or an interest in working together, don't be shy!

info@formapictures.com

Bailey

Busy Week

What a week! I did some rigging and concepting. But, unfortunately, a decent chunk of my time this past week was spent moving, so the film underwent less progress than usual.

Playing with tones and brush strokes.

The biggest challenge I'm facing right now is how I'm going to animate the characters. The visual direction is highly dependent on what character animations I can pull off. The vision is clear, but the execution is still a bit fuzzy. Nevertheless, I have a feeling I'll crack this puzzle by next Friday.

Until then!

Bailey

Painting Trees

This was a week of painting trees. And mountains. And more trees. And while I'm not "ready" to show people anything yet, I've got to show something! If I held off showing art until I was ready, I would just put it straight in the film because it would be done. The direction will change, grow, and be better.

A simple layout of a scene from Act I.

When I wasn't taking care of other projects and the business, I was collecting reference, exploring approaches to painting, and teaching myself basic character animation. I also started creating block-outs of the gas station and the cliff. Mostly just playing with where the camera should be and begging for some happy accidents. That said, I'm planning on most things being 2D.

If you're an artist out there who would like to learn more about this animated film, message me: info@formapictures.com. I'm looking for concept artists (character and environment) at the moment, but the project will eventually need 2D/3D animators and maybe a technical artist. I really believe in this project and I'm working hard to make it something genuinely good.

The composer is already creating the score, and now it's time to get some excellent artists on board!

Bailey