If this video is an indication of anything, it's that I spend an ungodly amount of time in front of a screen. 50+ hours condensed into two minutes.
Enjoy!
With graduation inching nearer and nearer each day, I've been taking time out of the past week to look over old composites from a year or more back to do a little cleanup and re-editing.
Some got a minor boost in color, while others had total overhaul in composition. To say the least, some of my old post-production workflow was less than tidy, so this was a fun exercise in seeing how my photoshop skills have grown in the past few years.
This week I sat down to pump out a final version of my "Sleeping Dogs" inspired image. Once again, the wonderful Teddy Ge modeled for this shoot in a custom suit he had made in Thailand a few years back. We shot this back in early January, and after an initial test composite, I've been gathering pieces for environmental elements for the past few weeks, I finally took the 10+ hour leap into photoshop to churn out what you see below.
A lot of what you see in the beginning in a massive amount of trial and error, this is one of the most labor intensive pieces I've done in a while, with a total of 14 different images being compiled to create the final image. For those of you wondering how I slapped this whole video together, my timelapse was captured and edited with a really sweet software called Camtasia.
My initial test composite from back in January
Be sure to check back here soon for more composite build ups like this!
With graduation coming up in the next few weeks, I'm taking the last final moments to wrap up any work that has been hanging in what I like to call my "Half Baked" category: composite pieces that either didn't seem to come together quite how I wanted them to in the past, or work that just got put on the back burner as school and other freelance work got pushed to the front.
This week's back-burner piece is this Mad Scientist piece I shot pieces for this past September. Initially geared as a straight character piece with my friend Teddy Ge (who happens to be an incredible painter and fashion designer, check out some of his recent work here) as a mad scientist creating a Frakenstein-esqe monster. I had envisioned a a scarred-up monster with a brain floating in a jar, pieces on skin stitched together, lying on a table beneath Teddy. But after shooting all of these pieces individually (Teddy at my studio in Denver, the monster back at home in Kansas) and starting to mash them all together in Photoshop, things just fell flat for me.
After letting the idea simmer in my head for a few months, I've re-geared my concept for Teddy's portrait into an over-the-top battery ad featuring tesla coils, robot arms, and a ton of lightening-y goodness. With this revamped focus, I'm dipping my toes into the 3D realm by trying out some 3D modeling and rendering, something I've been itching to do for a while but never have made the time to do.
Please excuse my sketching skills, there's a reason why I click a shutter!
After a whole day of pounding espressos, head scratching, and a uncountable number of profanities mumbled to myself, I have managed to create what you see below: a whopping five shapes somehow mangled together to slightly resemble my sketch from above.
Rough draft of my tesla coil 3D models created in CINEMA 4D
Check back in soon to see the finished product!
This past week was a step out of the comfort zone for a studio-hermit like me. While traveling out east from Denver to my hometown of Liberal, KS to Kansas City for work, an old friend gave me a ring and asked me to work with his new band, The Notionaries, on some promo images to coincide with their recent record deal. While band portraits are definitely not my normal assignment, I agreed with out batting an eye and hopped in my car stuffed to the brim with studio equipment and set sail for Wichita, KS.
When I pulled into Wichita that day, my heart sank when I saw the landscape that greeted me: a sea of dead trees, bland brick buildings and a downtown with as much excitement as a funeral service (Sorry Wichita, but you're hardly a sight for sore eyes). I immediately was taken back to the way I felt trying to find inspiration in my hometown before I made the big move to Colorado.
Check out the final photos in the slideshow below, if you're itching for some new tunes, give a listen to The Notionaries' two new singles here!
