BenjaminDBailey
Where art comes to life!
Grey Justice: Puncher of Men
Jul 27th
OK, two weeks ago I helped create a short animated film, called “Grey Justice: Puncher of Men.” It was our entry for the Richmond 48 Hour Film Festival, so we only had two days to make a complete little flick of genius!
So, here is what we made!
Grey Justice: Puncher of Men from Jason van Gumster on Vimeo.
Led by Roberto Rubet and Jason van Gumster (Fweeb,) the Hand Turkey Studios team, both in Richmond and internationally, put together a short film against all odds.
Though quite rough, it is by far the best entry our team has made for this festival, this being our third year in the contest. This is my first year being part of the team, however, and it was a blast!
The two character models were pre-modeled for the project by Jonathan Williamson, but other than that, everything was done within the 48-hour span of time. After all, is an actor ever born the day of the shoot?
All the modeling, rigging, texturing, lighting, compositing, rendering, and animating was done with Blender! Ardour and Mixbus were used for mixing, and we had HyperRendering’s farm on board to plow through a bunch of shots.
Some of the team members recorded their computer screens as they worked, so you can watch the creation process as timelapse videos. As for me, I recorded my screen while modeling the little toy rocket that is featured in the opening of the short.
Toy Rocket – Modeling Timelapse from Benjamin Bailey on Vimeo.
Well, that’s about all. I really hope I can work on more films like this in the future. I don’t know where my life is leading my, or where exactly I’ll end up, but I want to have an amazing time as I find out!
All in all, we had an AWESOME team. I tip my hat to our whole, insane, hardcore group! It was great working with you all. 
Until next time, fair winds on the high seas, friend!
Christmas Production Is Over!
Jan 11th
Well, it’s finally over. The youth of Fayetteville Christ Fellowship’s Christmas Production was performed yesterday evening at 6pm EST. This Biblical retelling of the Birth of Jesus was presented from the point of Mary of Nazareth, showing the roller-coaster ride she went through from before the point of receiving the message from Gabriel to the conception of Jesus, and His death and resurrection, this play shows you what she felt during these years of rejection and hope.
 Eric's angel groupshot |
 Simeon's seems a bit busy with his iPhone |
This play mixes live-action stage performance with pre-filmed video projected on the screen. In one scene, Mary actually has a conversation with the video (with the voice of Gabriel being dubbed live.)
We had a great cast, especially Erika Dailey (Erica Snuffer,) who portrayed Mary. A big thanks goes out to the entire youth group, our youth group leader who directed us, to those who provided the lands to film the shepherd scene and Buster the donkey for the traveling video, and the baby for the temple footage. We had actors, narrators, musicians, and those who ran the sound and video display during the performance – it was a huge undertaking, but the theme that permeated the entire production was “Trust, trust, trust”. Yes, trust God, and with that trusting, the whole project pulled through to become a beautiful performance.
 Temple scene mini-groupshot |
 Mary and Joseph traveling |
I was privileged to portray a magi, sing the song “God With Us”, and direct, film, and edit the footage sequences, as well as narrate the voice of Joseph.
Me giving a thumbs-up for the temple scene
Praise God for His help and leading with this project, because without Him it would not have pulled through nearly as well. There was a lot of fighting against this production, but God prevailed.
You can see all the videos from this production on this Vimeo playlist!
Enjoy and God bless
HDR Images in Blender!
Dec 21st
Today I learned how to use an HDRi image as a World background in Blender, for use in creating realistic reflections. Using an HDR light probe angular map image, I was able to greatly improve my little object’s lame material into a stunning render.
Original
With HDR light probe angular map
With HDRi angmap and compositing
I hope to turn this little baby into a spaceship and animate a set of fly-by shots!
Here’s the node setup (for a different render of the chrome spaceship that looks like this. This other render took 4 hours and 12 minutes to render, with 15 motion blur render passes!)
Chrome spaceship node setup
This project was a branch-off of another project (in an attempt to re-learn IPO drivers) that I hope to return to soon, which looks like this:
Futuristic engine model
And while chatting with a friend over a Skype call, I modeled this fellow (still a work in progress, mind you!)
Head model (WIP) during Skype call with Trey Bowen
Christmas is coming on soon, and I’m done with my shopping for the family! Yipee! I even shopped for a few things for myself (shameful, I know.) Oh, and of course I have a lot more work to do on editing videos for the upcoming Christmas production by my church’s youth group. So, I’ll be onto that tomorrow!
Here’s the shepherd scene, fully edited (no audio on purpose.)
Shepherds – Christmas Production from Benjamin Bailey on Vimeo.
(You can check out my other videos for this production by browsing my Vimeo playlist.)
I’ve got more to share, but that’s enough for one evening! So long, folks! God bless and a merry, merry Christmas to you all!
-b
Interviewed for Blender Indonesia!
Dec 17th
A few weeks ago I was interviewed for Blender Indonesia’s magazine, [dot]Blend Magz! It is a great honor, and the second issue, containing my interview, is published! Hiza Ro permitted me to upload it to my site. Check it out now!
Right now I am very busy with preparing the footage for my church’s youth group Christmas production, which will combine live action with recorded video to put on the screen. It’s pretty cool. Today I finished reviewing most of the footage we shot, and tomorrow I will be editing as much as possible all day long!
Gotta get some sleep, now that I’m done playing CTF matches in Open Arena!
I’ve got work to do! Cheers!
