Star Wars: Episode VII/Star Trek mashup movie posters

I’ve made two new Star Wars Episode 7 mashup movie posters, done in the same spirit as my last Star Wars/Little Miss Sunshine mashup poster. This time they’re a riff off this Star Trek: Into Darkness poster, since that director J.J. Abrams has been announced to also direct Episode 7:

One of the fun things about making Episode 7 fan art is sitting back and coming up with scenarios that might theoretically occur in the new sequels. There are many unanswered questions for them to address, such as which principle characters will drive the plot, which locations will be used, and which “wow” moments will be created. I tried illustrating two very different directions for these mashups, both involving the silhouette of the Rebel Alliance logo replacing the Star Fleet insignia from Star Trek.

For this first poster, I went to the Star Wars canon from the novels, where Luke Skywalker, now a Jedi Master, returns to planet Yavin IV with R2D2 to set up the new Jedi order at the Massassi temple. I’m fairly certain the Jedi order will begin to be remade in Episode 7, and will continue to grow throughout the new trilogy.

The second mashup features an unknown Jedi padawan, surveying a battle-ravaged Coruscant, where massive fleets of Mon Calamari and Imperial Star Destroyers wage war above the planet’s smoking skyline. I have faith that Coruscant will play a big role in the new films, since it was the home base for the Empire before expanding to the Outer Rim in the original trilogy, and the Rebel Alliance cannot rule with confidence unless they control the city planet. Time will tell if any of these ideas are proven correct.

See also: Boba Fett Episode VII Facebook cover image

Oscar Nom for The Avengers!

'Marvel's The Avengers' (couldn't leave off the "Marvel's?") was announced today as garnering a Visual Effects nomination at the Oscar site. Exciting! A good number of people across many companies were involved with its visual effects, so I get a kick to think of all the other people out there who are also happy with this news. Although it's probably an underdog against The Hobbit, since WETA and Peter Jackson were 3/3 for Visual Effects Oscars with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and The Hobbit was nominated in two other categories this year, I'll be crossing my fingers for it on Oscar night.

Star Wars Episode VII Mashup Poster

Here's a mashup poster I made of Star Wars Episode 7 and Little Miss Sunshine, two movies written by screenwriter Michael Arndt. When he was announced as the Episode 7 screenwriter, the poster idea popped into my head and it wouldn't go away.

The moment I tried to capture was the main characters getting ready to hop into the Millenium Falcon and head out into the next movie (of course, the story for Ep VII will most likely not have them all in it, but I picked them in the absence of any real story details). I wanted to stay as true to the iconic LMS poster as I could, and adjusted the Millienium Falcon's dimensions to better match the VW van. Picking which character would replace which was fun, and certain subtleties were serendipitous, like the similarity of vests between the characters of Alan Arkin and Harrison Ford. Although I included official logos and crew names at the bottom for a more realistic touch, this is of course just fan art and was not made for commercial purposes.

Shout-out to the guys at 8-Bit Cubist for their helpful feedback as I worked on it.

For those who dig it, here are some desktop background versions:

1680 x 1050 (widescreen)

1600 x 1200

For those who liked it, be sure to also check out my Boba Fett Episode VII Facebook cover photo.

Rockstar Games wins "Best Animation" award for Max Payne 3

Congrats to all of the animators who worked on it. I'm proud to have briefly been among you on that project in 2010, and it's great to see your work pay off like this!



The trailer:

New portraits for the "300 Heads" Sketchbook

More portraits from the "300 Heads" sketchbook. The theme for this week was Top Chef judges, and in Bravo fashion, I introduced some bold color...

Tom Colicchio, Emeril Lagasse, and Hugh Acheson

New trailer for 'Jack the Giant Slayer'

The Jack the Giant Slayer movie that I worked on now has a new trailer:



I worked on the movie for six months at The Third Floor, which previsualized many, many shots for it. Shots from the trailer that I worked on include:

0:46 Isabelle screaming as Jack's house lifts/Jack running through rising vines to get to his house
1:28 Giants throwing flaming trees from across the castle's moat
1:32 Jack jumping across giant steps along rope bridge to Gantua
1:42 Giant throwing windmill blades at horseback riders

300 Heads Sketchbook Update

More portraits from the "300 Heads" sketchbook. The theme for this week was The Three Amigos.

300 Heads Sketchbook Update

More portraits from the "300 Heads" sketchbook. The theme for these was White House Cabinet members.

Arne Duncan (Education), Shaun Donovan (Housing/Urban Development), Eric Holder (Justice)

Ray LaHood (Transportation), Hilda Solis (Labor), Steven Chu (Energy)

300 Heads Sketchbook update

Barack Obama’s campaign “Dream Team”: 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe, senior advisor/strategist David Axelrod, and 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina. Together the three controlled the two most dominant political campaigns of the modern era, and with Obama's re-election success this week, it seemed fitting to draw them for this week’s trio of quick portraits in my "300 Heads" sketchbook.

David Plouffe, David Axelrod, Jim Messina

Election Day

You know what to do.

Episode VII banner

With the news this week of George Lucas selling his Lucasfilm company and properties to Disney, I thought it would be fun to mash-up a little banner for the new Star Wars trilogy arriving in 2015.

"300 heads" sketchbook update

Five pages from my "300 heads" sketchbook:

Steve Jobs, Stephen Colbert, Mark Kelly

John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman

Robert Iger, George Lucas, Kathleen Kennedy

Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr.

Nothing all that pretty, but at least I'm keeping myself busy.

300 sketchbook update

Five new pages for the "300 heads" sketchbook:

The three richest people in the world: Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Larry Ellison

The three tenors: Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Jose Carreras

Soldiers: Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, Specialist Pat Tillman, Sgt. 1st class Leroy Petry

Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Pattie Boyd

Malala Yousafari, Neda Agha-Soltan, and Marie Colvin

More will come soon.

I just finished the Battlestar Galactica series

And this is all I have to say:

"Art is a Game" Art Show at Gam3rcon

Over Comic-Con weekend this year, there was a video game art show put on by my good friend Ben (aka "Mister Benja" of the 8-Bit Cubist.com. The venue was the top floor of the theater that featured Gam3rcon.Two of my 8-Bit Legends prints were among the awesome artwork displayed. More pictures of the event are on the 8-Bit Cubist Facebook page.

Bug-eyed at the "Art is a Game" show with fellow 8-Bit Cubist Ben.

Despicable Me "Minion Mayhem" ride opens at Universal Studios in Orlando, FL

"Minion Mayhem," the Despicable Me 3D ride at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, is the latest project I worked on through The Third Floor, and it opened earlier this month. Unlike the movies I have been a part of, where I helped previsualize an assortment of individual shots, this theme park ride was essentially one continuous shot, animated by several Third Floor animators. It was a unique challenge, and my first chance at animating some really cartoony characters. Having worked with motion capture and keyframed almost exclusively realistic human motion for over a decade, it is hard to overstate how much of a breath of fresh air it was to work with this type of material.

NBC's Today Show recently visited the theme park to see the ride in person, and here is the video segment they made about it (you can catch glimpses of the parts I helped animate at 0:46, 1:16, and 1:21). The final animation did a great job of matching the very particular timing and blocking we established, and including dynamic background elements and detailed sets. The main chunk I worked on was the ending, but of course that part was not in the video. If it's anything like how the rest of the ride ended up, it will be bright, colorful, and lots of fun. For the readers of this blog who are able to see the ride, I hope you enjoy it.

StudioDaily article on the pre/tech/postvis of The Avengers

An excellent piece that goes into good detail on what The Third Floor's work was for the blockbuster movie. All of the teams did a great job.

List of VFS graduates on The Avengers

Link to the Vancouver Film School blog post is here. Nick and I first met each other there in Class 28, and Aaron was one term ahead of us in 27 (I'll never forget his "vulture burglar" reel). The rest of the names I don't recognize, but I'd like to say "congratulations" to them all.

FXGuide's writeup of the VFX in The Avengers

A nice and thorough account of how the visual effects teams worked together on the movie.

Previs'ing the Avengers

'The Avengers' takes Los Angeles

Now that The Avengers is wrapping up its record-breaking opening weekend, I thought I'd post some pictures of ads I've seen around town.
 

Setting up for the world premiere on Hollywood Boulevard

Highland

Barham

La Brea

Hollywood/Highland

Hollywood Blvd. Site of the world premiere.

Wilshire