REF

It's not exactly news, REF is my shortfilm from 2004, but only recently I got around to upload it in good quality on vimeo. REF, apart from being my graduate film at Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow in Poland, ended up being huge character animation study. I knew very little about character animation prior to starting this project and it proved to be quite a challenge. I even wrote custom software to handle animation which I then turned into commercial product and had been selling for some time.
The inspiration for the film itself was the beauty of martial arts movements ( especially Aikido ) and my desire to see B action movie scene in a bit more artistic way, without the usual revenge plot ;)

Dog of Zone animation sample

"Dogs of Zone" are moving forward and here is a first animation sample that I'm satisfied with. The sound was designed by my brother Maciej Pazera.
In the end, the project is meant to be an interactive animation installation and right now I'm working on a custom software that is going to drive animation based on the input from Microsoft Kinect (XBox 360 controller and motion sensor). Yeah, I'm coming back to my programming days ;) It's early stages but already quite exciting. The next step is to put together a prototype of the application together with a simple animation sequence, possibly based around this very sample.

I embedded Vimeo video below but I highly recommend switching it to HD and watching fullscreen straight from Vimeo website. It's got far better quality this way.

Dog of Zone walkcycle from Lukasz Pazera on Vimeo.

Real brushwork

I don't paint too often and don't really consider myself a traditional painter but I like to grab a real brush from time to time. This painting is acrylics on canvas, 120x100 cm and can be considered a part of "Postcards From The Zone" series. It isn't very new, I did it in 2009 but wasn't really convinced about it in the beginning. It's been growing on me since and it seems to reasonate well with some of my friends who have seen it on my wall too. So here it is...

A Horde

So I'm slowly working towards animating "Dogs of Zone". That is one of the elements of my PhD project. I've been trying different approaches and testing how they work with moving pictures and I believe I'm getting close to finishing this research now. "A Horde" and a couple of last dogs were created with a workflow that can be applied both to static images and to animation. You can't really appreciate it with a single image but I hope it'll make more sense once you see things moving.

Dog of Zone VIII

Here goes another one...
As usual, you can also view this image and all others from the series in a bit higher quality at  postcardsfromthezone.com (be sure to set fullscreen in options ;).
 

Alice: Madness Returns matte painting

One of the background pieces I did for the third game trailer (see previous post for more info).

Alice: Madness Returns trailer 3

The third trailer for the upcoming game "Alice: Madness Returns" has been released.
This piece, just like previous ones, was directed by Shy the Sun and produced by Passion Pictures. It was quite a big job for me - colour designs, some initial layout work on the big turnaround shot and a few matte paintings on different shots. The most fun to paint was the dark cloudscape in the last sequence with Mad Hatter's house and the tea party (as seen on the thumbnail below). Click the image to watch the trailer on YouTube.

Dog of Zone VII

The Zone herd grows!

Dog of Zone VI

I started PhD studies at Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, Poland last fall and "Dogs of Zone" are part of my 3 years PhD project. It will not consist of still images only, I'm planning to incorporate my interests in other mediums and technologies but I'd rather not speak too much before I get well past initial stages of the work. Meanwhile, one more Zone creature.

Alice:Madness Returns color designs

Color designs are probably my favourite part of the job. Basically, these are quick and loose sketches that are done to help visualise scenes better. The focus is on color and light, not on models or details. They usually go through a couple of revisions. Sometimes they end up quite close to final work and sometimes not. Commercials production is probably more freestyle and organic then movies so there is more margin for changes throughout the process.
First two images come from the second Alice trailer (look for links a few posts back) and were done with Passion's Stu Hall who was supervisor on the job. Third image was done for the first trailer.

Coke Zero dark cloud

Before I put some new zone doggies on display here are the dark cloud matte paintings I did for the aforementioned Coke Zero "Invasion" project last year.

Coke Zero "Invasion"

This is a job that was completed a few months ago but I think it has been aired only recently. Anyway, it's out now and my part was... you'll never guess... matte paintings! I've done a lot of work on this one, skies (surprise ;), hills, grass and the big, dark, bad cloud which was especially fun. Pretty much every shot has something I worked on. I also animated the dark cloud matte paintings and this animation was later mixed with CG particles simulations for enhanced effect. Overall, good memories of loooong, busy summer time days in the Passion Pictures studio ;)

Alice: Madness Returns Teaser 2

Second teaser for this upcoming EA game is online. Done at Passion Pictures and directed by Shy The Sun. I got my usual job on this piece - I did a couple of color scripts together with Stu Hall who supervised the look on the project and then I painted London backgrounds based on those scripts. I also painted the Puppet Theater cut-out set which unfortunately you can't see in full glory in the final cut ;). I hope I'll be able to post original color sketches and mattepaintings soon! Meanwhile watch the teaser at the game official website or at YouTube.

"Dog of Zone II" making of

The "Dog of Zone II" making of tutorial that I wrote for CGSociety has recently been released. I hope it'll be interesting read for everyone who asked me or was wondering how I created this image and other similar ones from "Postcards From The Zone" series.
Tutorial appearance is connected with the forthcoming release of Ballistic "Expose 8" artbook in which "Dog of Zone II" got one of Master Awards and is presented as a 2 page spread :)
Click the image below to read the tutorial or preview "Expose 8" book here.

Alice Teaser

Latest project I worked on at Passion Pictures is online. It's a teaser for an upcoming game "Alice: Madness Returns". I got to do a color script and a background mattepainting. Enjoy!