Probe

Kestrel work by Frazee

joelgerlach — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 16:09:39 +0000

Check out Frazee’s updated work of the Kestrel. It won’t appear this way in the film (as they must be old and rusted at this point), but awesome nonetheless.

~Joel

Some stills

joelgerlach — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:49:54 +0000

Check out a few stills from the shots from the movie. If you have any suggestions, comment below!Click to view slideshow.

Name Change

joelgerlach — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 15:48:54 +0000

Anyone like the words “From the Sky” instead of “Probe”?

Jay says the words, “You came from the sky too. But you’re not like them.” Referencing the probe itself. I’m seriously thinking about a name change. Anyone gonna be upset about that? Maybe it’s not the best protocol. But I like that a little better.

~joel

Comet Impact Revision

joelgerlach — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 06:06:59 +0000

Hey everyone! Work continues steadily! Check out a short video showing the comet impact revision from the proof-of-concept trailer to the final film!

Yeah, working solo on this project sucks. Any talented VFX artists out there? :-)

Anyone like the title, “From the Sky”? Maybe an alternate title than Probe? Eh….

Back At It!

joelgerlach — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:52:35 +0000

Damn the Kestrels!

Probe is back in production after a summer hiatus. Look forward to updates, new graphics, and such coming from the production labs soon! Don’t worry, we’ll be backing up lots of times so as to not loose massive amounts of work (see earlier). In the meantime, I’ll be heading back along the visual effects shots and redoing the work that was lost.

In other news, I’m possibly looking for another title than “Probe” to help avoid the snickering remarks.

Till then!
~joel

…

joelgerlach — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 04:16:07 +0000

I have some sad news to report. Due to a freak accident, many of the visual effects compositions inside of After Effects have been corrupted–the backups too! This includes around four minutes of color correction and three visual effects shots, all that have to be started from scratch. It was an unbelievably sad day for me today, as I realized that nearly two weeks of work and over 60 man hours had been destroyed. My only option? To start those shots over from scratch. Thankfully, the models, footage, and blender renders are all in tact. It’s just the entire compositing sequences in After Effects that are gone. The moral of this story is to back up all your files to anything that stores data. You never know when one, two, or six might go bad.

~Joel

Working hard… not hardly working!

joelgerlach — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 05:49:56 +0000

Welcome everyone from blendernation! Production continues long and hard, as it’s finally funneled down to Nate Russell and I. I spent twelve hours today working on the VFX shot of the Kestrel coming over the Dome. Every little detail from the highlight off the metal panels of the building to the simulated shadow on the concrete wall has been meticulously worked on by yours truly. I hope to have some pictures of the shot here soon.

In other news, I’m editing the video of the Probe crew getting interviewed by Fictional Frontiers radio show and podcast. We’re toward the end. Go ahead and check it out on their website: http://www.fictionalfrontiers.com/ You can find the link to the right hand corner. Enjoy it while it lasts! The video of the interview will be online soon.

Production is coming. Fingers crossed to see if it’ll be done by next Friday. Your guess is as good as mine.

Peace!

Visual Effects shot #25

joelgerlach — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 15:50:40 +0000

Hello faithful blog followers. Is it just me or is Probe seeming to get longer and longer? Oh… that’s what she said.

Lots of stuff going on right now. Production is in double time right now as I stay awake late into the night working out visual effects shots. I now can relate to filmmakers who say they absolutely loathed their film until the moment it was released to the fact that they spent so much time working on it. Cheers. Check out the fantastical work of shot #25, where I spent around thirteen hours perfecting.

Also, I just got back from visiting Kris, who is producing the music for Probe. We spent a bit of work refining his original tracks, and we’ll continue working on it this evening. I’m taking some heavy references from the “Moon” sountrack released last year. David, our sfx designer, is also working nonstop on creating original sound effects for the film, and he’s doing a great job.

My original deadline for the film to be done is next friday. Hopefully it will be done by then! (fingers crossed)

Another Probe joke: I decided that the director’s cut of the film is going to be called “Probe: extended edition”. Oh jeez. Whose idea was it to name this film Probe?!

Behind the Scenes II

joelgerlach — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 23:01:19 +0000

Go go vimeo video go! it’s the last day of the film shoot, and it’s Joel’s birthday. Witness the extravagant celebration by an exhausted film crew!

In other news, Nate and I came up with a name for the probe, who remains nameless in the movie. But who would want to be a nameless physical object with enough firepower to destroy manhattan? No, such a thing requires a name. And so we named the Probe “Merlin“

Probe Transformation Test #1

joelgerlach — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 16:58:14 +0000

Lots of Vimeo videos on the blog. Fun stuff. Anyway, Nate has been working diligently on getting the probe rigged and animated for its starring moment–the scene where the probe transforms. Now, for those of you who aren’t looking for a spoiler, better not watch this video. In fact, don’t even look at the picture and in fact you probably shouldn’t even be reading this. For the rest of you, check out the first draft of the probe transformation sequence.