Yoann Lemoine

I just had to make a reference to this versatile and visionary artist! You might know him from his music (Woodkid), however his creativity overflows in many many ways. It’s already an impressive career for this 30 year old french music video director, graphic designer, photographer and musician. For those who haven’t yet seen the full extent of his work, just check out Yoann Lemoine‘s personal site here. Hope it will inspire you as much as it inspired me.

 

 

 

Plastic Crash

I should have mentioned this before, a genuine raw stop-motion film by a friend of mine, Olya Tsoraeva! “Plastic Crash” was beautifully done, and we all know the song that inspired this film (Radiohead – Creep). Click to see the film.

The Polish Hammer

A friend of mine, Julien Duret, just released his film-documentary entitled “The Polish Hammer”! It’s a great one, congratulations buddy.

Synopsis:

” THE POLISH HAMMER ” is a full immersion documentary short film following the life of Filip Hryniewicki and his journey as a Muay-Thai boxer with his brothers from Singto gym.
Another way of watching boxe, narrated by Filip himself*.

*french with english subtitles.

Trailer:

 

 

And to see the full-length film, click HERE ! ! !

 

 

Experimenting with Cinema 4D

Hi there! I know, it’s been a while… Hopefully I’ll stop being lazy and get more personal projects going!

Today I want to talk about my first contact with Cinema 4D. I finally got my feet wet thanks to this really simple tutorial for absolute beginners. Many thanks to Chris Schmidt from Grey Scale Gorilla for this.

Now these guys (Grey Scale Gorilla) have great stuff that you’ll definitely want for Cinema 4D, and it’s totally worthy following their blog.

This is one of my first experiments with Cinema 4D, a cute lonely alien creature abandoned on Earth:

What I have to say about this software, is that it felt intuitive and simple enough for a noob like me. Great tools and templates that allow immense possibilities for a motion graphic designer. I still have a long long way to go, but I feel I can already create interesting things.

This is a video render of my little blue furry alien:

 

 

Well, it’s a start! But the goal is to get to this level (if I stop being a lazy ass):

 

 

Also done with Cinema 4D! Clearly the possibilities are tremendous, even if it’s not as complete as 3Ds max. You can also check the breakdown of this animation here.

See you soon for more exciting ahm… Stuff!

Testing the iPhone 4S

Well, I finally had some time to test the new iPhone 4S! I find the results astonishing. So here are 2 videos that I’ve made recently, with just some basic image corrections. The depth of field is awesome thanks to the new optics, the stabilizer is not bad at all and a shiny full HD resolution! I feel I can make a pretty nice film anywhere now!

A Walk by the Lake:

Feux de l’Avent 2011:

 

 

I’m pretty happy with this investment, and taking pictures can be great with some cool apps! Here’s a list here.

Andrzej Dragan

Andrzej Dragan is one of the best photographers today, with many awards and nominations. I’m amazed by all his pieces, whether personal, editorial or advertising works. If you don’t know his work yet and you enjoy portrait photography, I strongly recommend visiting his website.

 

 

[UPDATE: 21.oct.2012]

I’ve made a portrait of myself and tried to make it feel close to what this artist does. By doing it, I realized that I can only imagine what it really takes to get such splendid shots! Specially in terms of lighting and composition.

 

Maybe I should let myself grow older, and rather look right into the lens! I’ll try again in a couple of years!

The Planet Effect

So I tried to recreate a planet effect with a panoramic picture. It doesn’t look too bad for a first try, and I sure got the idea. Here’s the result:

By doing this experiment, I’ve quickly realized where I could improve, specially by doing a delicate choice of a proper landscape.

I suggest you do the same, it’s fun! Here’s how:

• First of all, make a 360 degrees picture. Take all the photos needed, add them in Photoshop and use the “Photomerge” tool under File > Automate.

More detailed info can be found on this website, and the following 4 magic steps:

1. Open Pano in Photoshop
2. Image –> Image Size | Now change the width to the same as the height. It will mush your photo into one square box. Be sure to uncheck the constraint box.
3. Image –> Rotate Canvas –> 180 degrees.
4. Filter –> Distort –> Polar Coordinates | Press Enter. Nothing to adjust.

And of course, this same principle can be applied on video. Here’s a great example: