Raul Report
Hello again! It's been over a year since I've posted so let's get everyone up to speed on what I've been up to.
Back in December of 2007 I started working at Global Regina, a local TV station, as their graphics and animation guy. I've been there over a year now and I've worked on over four hundred TV commercials, promos and evening news graphics. I'd say about 75% of my job is taking existing promo commercials for events done last year and just changing the dates and times, maybe updating the logos if the client has changed it. It's all pretty simple.
But every once in a while I get to sink my teeth into a commercial that's 100% graphics and animation. I'll get the graphic order from one of the writer/producers usually along with voice-over (VO) and music, then I create all the visuals for the commercials. Budgets for these commercials are very small. I normally get 4 to 8 hours total to work on each one, if that (except for the Bingo commercial, that took 4 months) so there's a lot of cutting corners. Here are just a few of my favorites...
Sask Bingo: Debbie the Dabber
One of the first projects I was given was to redo a spot for Amalgamated Charities' Sask Bingo commercial. I built it entirely in Maya (3D program), lighted the set and animated the characters synching them to the music. One of my ex-students from Ex'pression, Leo Tolentino, rigged the models for us. The music was supplied by the client.
Pretty cheesy I know, but this project burned through two graphic artists before me. It still isn't perfect but it probably would've taken another year to get it to where I really wanted it. There comes a time when you just have to say, "That's IT! I'm DONE! NO MORE!"
The Park Hotel: Test Your I.Q.
This one was for a nightclub in Moose Jaw. The owner always likes to do spoofs of other commercials, this one he wanted to spoof the Subway Test Your I.Q. spot.
The pictures were supplied by the client (that's the owner with the cigar) but I created the card graphics and animated everything.
Capital Pontiac: Truck or Treat Sale
This is another corny one but it was a blast to do. I think the budget on it was 8 hours of graphics time. Our salesperson, Lori, said when the client saw it he said, "That's the best @#$&-ing commercial we've ever had done for us!" COOL! That also tells you something about the quality of commercials we have here in Regina. Hee hee.
That's my boss, Lyndon, doing the VO. He's a regular theater actor here in town and he does a lot of our voice-over work. I think this one is his best though.
Taste Regina: Website promo
This is one of my favorites because we turned it around so fast. The producer basically handed me the music and their logo and said "Find some pictures on iStockPhoto and make it 15 seconds long." BAM! It was done a few hours later.
Funny note, in the picture of the four women having dinner, I gave the one sitting in the bottom right corner a sixth finger on her right hand! Ha! I hide stuff like that all the time in my commercials.
Global News Promos
I also make these short "Evening News bumpers" where we superimpose our anchor, Jill, over some Regina landmarks. In my spare time while playing with Maya, I built a model of the Millennium Falcon and composited it into one of our news bumpers. "Punch it, Chewie!"
Besides Global, I also do some freelance storyboarding on the side. I've boarded a bunch of CG sequences for a show about solar flares, gigantic volcanoes and even a nuclear bomb set off in Times Square. I think it will air on the Discovery Channel or History Channel. I think. I'm not positive about that actually. Tyrell Media Corporation, a visual effects company here in Regina, did all the special effects for it. Tyrell also is doing all the 3D animation for the TV show Reinventors on the History Channel. I'll be storyboarding the 3D sequences for the rest of the shows they're working on.
C also picked up some side work doing illustrations for a TV show called In Justice which is produced locally by Dacian Productions. There are 13 episodes that will air here in Canada and it was also picked up in Europe and Russia! I'll sketch out the pencil roughs then C inks/paints the final illustrations. The show moves between live action and C's ink paintings sometimes the actors composited over her backgrounds.
The other thing I was working on this summer/fall was a chapter in the Regina Public Library's graphic novel, celebrating the library's 100th anniversary. I was one of 4 local artists to contribute a chapter in the graphic novel. One of the frames to my story actually made it onto the cover!
It was supposed to go to print last month and be released any day now. I can now say I'm a published graphic novelist!
So that's all the stuff worth mentioning. Thanks for checking in and I hope you enjoyed it!
Until next time... adventure!
R-
Back in December of 2007 I started working at Global Regina, a local TV station, as their graphics and animation guy. I've been there over a year now and I've worked on over four hundred TV commercials, promos and evening news graphics. I'd say about 75% of my job is taking existing promo commercials for events done last year and just changing the dates and times, maybe updating the logos if the client has changed it. It's all pretty simple.
But every once in a while I get to sink my teeth into a commercial that's 100% graphics and animation. I'll get the graphic order from one of the writer/producers usually along with voice-over (VO) and music, then I create all the visuals for the commercials. Budgets for these commercials are very small. I normally get 4 to 8 hours total to work on each one, if that (except for the Bingo commercial, that took 4 months) so there's a lot of cutting corners. Here are just a few of my favorites...
Sask Bingo: Debbie the Dabber
One of the first projects I was given was to redo a spot for Amalgamated Charities' Sask Bingo commercial. I built it entirely in Maya (3D program), lighted the set and animated the characters synching them to the music. One of my ex-students from Ex'pression, Leo Tolentino, rigged the models for us. The music was supplied by the client.
Pretty cheesy I know, but this project burned through two graphic artists before me. It still isn't perfect but it probably would've taken another year to get it to where I really wanted it. There comes a time when you just have to say, "That's IT! I'm DONE! NO MORE!"
The Park Hotel: Test Your I.Q.
This one was for a nightclub in Moose Jaw. The owner always likes to do spoofs of other commercials, this one he wanted to spoof the Subway Test Your I.Q. spot.
The pictures were supplied by the client (that's the owner with the cigar) but I created the card graphics and animated everything.
Capital Pontiac: Truck or Treat Sale
This is another corny one but it was a blast to do. I think the budget on it was 8 hours of graphics time. Our salesperson, Lori, said when the client saw it he said, "That's the best @#$&-ing commercial we've ever had done for us!" COOL! That also tells you something about the quality of commercials we have here in Regina. Hee hee.
That's my boss, Lyndon, doing the VO. He's a regular theater actor here in town and he does a lot of our voice-over work. I think this one is his best though.
Taste Regina: Website promo
This is one of my favorites because we turned it around so fast. The producer basically handed me the music and their logo and said "Find some pictures on iStockPhoto and make it 15 seconds long." BAM! It was done a few hours later.
Funny note, in the picture of the four women having dinner, I gave the one sitting in the bottom right corner a sixth finger on her right hand! Ha! I hide stuff like that all the time in my commercials.
Global News Promos
I also make these short "Evening News bumpers" where we superimpose our anchor, Jill, over some Regina landmarks. In my spare time while playing with Maya, I built a model of the Millennium Falcon and composited it into one of our news bumpers. "Punch it, Chewie!"
Besides Global, I also do some freelance storyboarding on the side. I've boarded a bunch of CG sequences for a show about solar flares, gigantic volcanoes and even a nuclear bomb set off in Times Square. I think it will air on the Discovery Channel or History Channel. I think. I'm not positive about that actually. Tyrell Media Corporation, a visual effects company here in Regina, did all the special effects for it. Tyrell also is doing all the 3D animation for the TV show Reinventors on the History Channel. I'll be storyboarding the 3D sequences for the rest of the shows they're working on.
C also picked up some side work doing illustrations for a TV show called In Justice which is produced locally by Dacian Productions. There are 13 episodes that will air here in Canada and it was also picked up in Europe and Russia! I'll sketch out the pencil roughs then C inks/paints the final illustrations. The show moves between live action and C's ink paintings sometimes the actors composited over her backgrounds.
The other thing I was working on this summer/fall was a chapter in the Regina Public Library's graphic novel, celebrating the library's 100th anniversary. I was one of 4 local artists to contribute a chapter in the graphic novel. One of the frames to my story actually made it onto the cover!
It was supposed to go to print last month and be released any day now. I can now say I'm a published graphic novelist!
So that's all the stuff worth mentioning. Thanks for checking in and I hope you enjoyed it!
Until next time... adventure!
R-
posted by Raul at 11:51 PM
3 Comments:
Nice work, Raullo! That commercial made me want to play Bingo, and I don't like Bingo. Kudos!
Gotta say, the cover art was my favorite. From Conan and Smurfs to the cover of a graphic novel... *sniff*, way to go!
Ha! Thanks Fro!
I was actually telling C about Conan and Scuzzbusters the other night. She just shook her head. I bet I can do a really kick ass comic on those now!
you say you composited the falcon into that news bumper, but you didn't mention the death star being added AFTER you made the actual bumper. was inclusion of THAT something like the 6th finger on the dining woman?
you sneaky thing, you! ;)
just kidding, i doubt anyone would have missed the huge DS floating in the sky over regina.
good to see your stuff!
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