New images from "Sheriff"

We are finish up the final artistic touches and technical fixes on the rooster. I am so excited to see things coming together.

Sheriff may actual finish in 2010!

The "Sheriff" production is heading into it's sixth year of production/post production. It seems like only yesterday we were shooting on the back lot of the MPS. The main character has gone through some major revisions, always in an effort to increase the quality of the project.

The project has been through many technology changes. For my fellow cg nerds... the project started in Maya 6.5 and has found it's final home in Maya 2010. It began in Renderman 12 and rat tools 6.1 and is now in Mental Ray. It started on Windows Xp and now finds itself living between Mac OS 10.5 and Linux. It has been a real adventure maintaining a pipeline for this endeavor.

There have been many production children from the various artists helping on the movie. The "Sheriff" family continues to grow. I thank everyone for their support. Especially all the wives and children of the crew. Kelly and myself look forward to finishing the project very soon.

Here is a sneak peak at a work in progress shot!

My Next Short is coming

Sheriff

This film has been a major labor of love. It started on the tail end of Der Ostwind while I was still in school. I told Kelly Loosli, my faculty adviser, that I wanted to do another visual effects film but something different from Ostwind. So we bounced some script ideas off each other. We settled on a story idea by Shane Lewis.

The premise of the story is the biggest, meanest, baddest dude in the old west comes to town to take on the cowardly sheriff, only to find himself facing something he would have never expected... a rooster with a badge!

Being that I started the film when I was in school and since then have worked on 3 different Blockbuster movies, it has morphed and changed in its look and approach since starting. Some of the elements I am kind of saddle with but in other areas there was a lot of room to maneuver. It still isn't perfect but hey... it is still born of a student film.

I have a great team of friends whom I attended school with helping me with the project and my tip my hat to BYU for allowing the project to continue to eat up resources at the University. I am hoping that for the students who help on the project will get a taste of a more real world experience of film making that many times is lacking in education.

What I am showing is a work in progress (render artifacts and all) of the new look for the rooster. He has come a long way believe you me. This is what he was:

then he was this (well not really but this was the first attempt at doing feathers and not just painted to look like he had feathers):

Needless to say, but he has improved much. He's not perfect... but then again... none of us are. I am excited as shots are beginning to be ready to render. Hopefully this film will reach even greater heights than Der Ostwind did. I would love to get to attend Sundance again. With out further adu... here he is... (right click play if necessary)



and here are just some fun posed images not really from the film but to give you an idea (not rendered... don't worry we won't have a gray rooster)