So today, in one day, I learned to sky dive! I got 8 jumps in and passed all the requirements for each jump so now I can jump on my own without supervision of an instructor. The next goal is to total 25 jumps and get my A license. After 200 jumps I could start flying a wingsuit.

Having over 400 hours in a hang glider does help in accelerating the learning process of another air sport, like skydiving. It is as much as a mental advantage as it is physical. I have reached a certain level of comfortability for being at altitude from flying hang gliders that allows my mind to focus on the tasks at hand instead of overcoming the obstacle or fears that I might of had, if I did not have the hang gliding experience.

Flying and landing the parachute was quite easy relative to hang gliders. For pilots out there, imagine flying a boaty Falcon with a drogue chute out. I would love to write more about all this but I’m tired and need to get some sleep, another full day of jumps tomorrow. I’ll let the video speak for itself, it was a fun day.

Nothing is more frustrating to me when someone takes 15 minutes to explain something that could be done in 1 minute.

Recently, I was making some animated GIFs and looked up tutorials online that were very slow, the most-viewed one on YouTube takes over 6 minutes to explain!

So I decided to make one of my own and do it 3x faster than that one! Above is my tutorial on how to make an animated GIF in less than one and a half minutes.

I took the photos with my Canon 7D which can shoot 8 frames a second which is perfect for GIFs, but I use it to catch action shots normally. The other time I’ve used an animated GIF was for a wedding party jumping.

I recently won a contest over at Tongal in a new format they’ve created.

This contest was only open to pitches from the top 100 members of Tongal (based off of previous winnings). I was 42nd at the time I submitted my pitch but now I should jump up a couple spots. They haven’t announced it on Tongal yet even though ScoreBigDaily had a big PR release today.

I have previously placed in the finals of two contests, you can see them on my Tongal portfolio, but I have yet to win one until this contest.

I wrote a script and drew a storyboard for my idea and received an email within two days that said my pitch had won! So only based off my boards and idea, I was already chosen to win. That’s much different than your typical contest where only after you’ve created your final product do you have a chance at winning.

I had one week to execute my pitch, on top of crunch time at work or I would be banned from this new format forever (Sandlot voice) and not receive the payment for winning. Luckily, I was able to pull it off in the short amount of time.

I used Maya and After Effects to create it and edited in Final Cut.

At the time of writing this it looks like the app is currently the 7th most downloaded app in the free app sports category in the Apple App store.

I recently made the trip from Vancouver to San Francisco and I stopped at two flying sites to hang glide, Dog Mountain and Mattole. Both were incredible. Check out the video above to see what these sites look like.

I finally bought a GoPro and am very happy with how convenient it is and all the hang gliding shots in the video were shot with it. Below the photos were taken with my trusty 7D.

Dog Mountain

Oregon coast

Lost Coast

Mattole

Redwoods

After graduating VFS, I had a little extra time on my hands so I decided to learn a new skill.

I saw the movie the Green Hornet a little while back and thought it was cool how he could spin the bottle caps off of a drink. While I can’t do it with a beer bottle, I did find a bottle that worked, it’s a drink called Body Armor.

Once I learned how to do it, I decided to have a little fun with it, which you can see in the video. This video placed 6th in the Body Armor contest!

One intense year of study has come to a close as I have graduated Vancouver Film School and completed my animated short film ‘Growing Up!’

I hope the message of the short film is clear and that it resonates with some people.

I could not have completed this project without the help of my classmates, instructors, and support from friends and family. Thank you!

I’m responsible for all the visual elements of the film. I’m an animation student so that was my main focus in this short, but I also created the story, modeled, textured, rigged, lit, and composited everything myself as well.

I used Maya, Zbrush, Nuke, After Effects, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro.

When I started this project the end seemed so far away. When I wasn’t satisfied with the initial images I was creating, I remember thinking that I knew what the potential for this project could be and that pushed me to work harder and make dramatic changes by completely remodeling the character and environment. I believe that within my capacity, I took this work as far as I could in the time that I had.

Within the last six months of the program, except for two days of break, I worked every day for the entire six months, that’s 7 days a week and typically a minimum of 12 hour work days, every day, and I don’t regret it. Despite many challenges along the way, both technical and creative, I enjoyed the entire process.

Yesterday was our official graduation and it’s definitely bitter-sweet. It was overwhelming to see my classmate’s work in rapid succession on the ‘big screen.’ I am very fortunate to have been able to work with so many great people this year and have the opportunity to pursue what I love. Thanks for watching!

See more ‘making-of’ things about ‘Growing Up’ in an earlier post here.

Graduation in a movie theatre, it doesn't get better than that.

Why?

Because 1 million dollars and Super Bowl-level exposure is at stake!

In addition, this year they are adding the opportunity to create a commercial with The Lonely Island! So you can imagine how competitive this contest is, and this year is no exception. Browse the gallery to get an idea of what’s out there, but you might have to do a lot of hunting to find the gems, but there are some really good ones. You can see all the finalists from the past here.

Here’s how the contest works:

• Judges will select the top 5 entries and announce them the beginning of January

• These 5 will receive $25k and a trip to the Super Bowl

• A public vote will determine one winner from these 5

• This one winner will be run as an advertisement for Doritos during this year’s Super Bowl

• If that winner’s commercial is chosen by USA Today (newspaper) as the best Super Bowl commercial, either on USA Today’s facebook page or using their AdMeter system, Dorito’s will give that winner 1 million dollars. If they are second then $600k, and third is $400k.

So 1 million dollars seems like a long shot, right?

Well, it is and it isn’t. Out of the 5 years they have operated this contest they have awarded the million dollar prize twice!

I have entered this contest two years ago, you can see that unsuccessful entry here. This year I didn’t want to hold back so after a mild brain aneurysm I thought of a decent idea, ran it by my friend Eric, who made it even better, then I started storyboarding it.

Let me apologize in case you're incredibly intimidated by the unmitigated talent I display at drawing stick figures, I can't help it. Also, it's pricey, but not a bad app for your iPhone, this cinemek thingy.

Then I began designing my dinosaur! I wanted a velociraptor so I did a litte research and rewatched Jurassic Park 1 and 2 for design, as well as reference for the animation. After creating the base mesh in Maya, I used Zbrush to finish off the model:

I am concurrently trying to finish up my student short film, so I didn’t have a ton of time for this project. For example, after I got the base mesh for the dinosaur done, I spent one day and completely finished modeling, texturing, and rigging this character. It was the fastest I’ve been able to work on anything, I think, just because of the time constraint I placed on myself. For that same reason, I feel I could have done better with some more time.

Also, to be efficient with my time, both dinosaurs are the exact same rig and model. Therefore, my one constraint, besides simplicity, was to make the rig scalable.

For animation, I tackled the hardest shot first, the bench ejector one, and I’m glad I did, because it made the other shots seem much easier. I also got the help of a classmate for the compositing of this commercial, thanks Marco!

I shot this commercial with my trusty Canon 7D. If you have any other questions, just make a comment below – thanks for watching!

You can watch it below or go to Dorito’s website and watch it there, so then you can see my competition afterwards:

For comparison, here’s last years contest winner, who won one-million dollars:

Here’s a 360-view I took from the top: http://360.io/AWAa2Y

The joby gorillapod was ideal for this situation, that I could hike in with a lightweight tripod and set it up where I needed it.

I wasn’t really planning on shooting this, but once I got up there and saw the logging operation with the water I had to shoot it. I just wish I had more time to spend up there to get some more footage.

Maybe some time soon, if I get back in climbing shape, I can climb up the front instead of hike up the back. Here’s a really old climbing video I made.

I also tried to get the miniature, tilt-shift look in post with the help of Magic Bullet Looks.

I recommend watching it in HD so you can see all the little detail. I didn’t even notice there were men walking around the logs until I put the photos into a timelapse.

My dog enjoyed the view while I tended to the camera.

My take on it was a guy trying to catch a lightning bug, or as everyone else I’ve talked to that’s not from Kentucky, knows it as a fire fly.

First, we shot reference of each other and did multiple takes to see what was working and what was not. It helped to have my classmates there, thanks guys, to give me feedback and even try to act out my scene for me the way they would do it.

Next, I thumbnailed out the basic poses very rough to see lines of action and see my keys. Then I exaggerated those thumbnails in some more rough sketches.

Then I took it into Maya, using my reference to get my key poses blocked in, and timed out roughly. Then another pass to get the ‘extremes,’ and then yet another pass to get the breakdowns, which is more about timing. Then the final couple of passes were for polishing.

My reference footage cut next to my keys.

I added an entire section at the beginning when I was adding the breakdowns where he misses the bug and gets angry. It was fun to diverge from the reference and make the animation work better than what I shot of myself doing in the reference.

For next term I’ll begin animating my short film, which has undergone countless changes. I think I’m working on animatic number 7 or 8 this week, I’ve lost count. We’ll also be doing a lip sync assignment as well.

You can vote by going to the contest’s YouTube page HERE. Then click the “Vote” tab, and look for my video in the “Vote for these Videos” window to the right of the current video that’s playing.

I created this short mainly between the hours of midnight and 3am for about a week and a half since I am a full time student at Vancouver Film School. I just couldn’t pass up this opportunity with the skills I’m learning here.

I always find it interesting to see how far I can push myself and see what quality I can produce in a short amount of time, especially when others are given the same task and I can compare what I’ve done with what is possible. Maybe it’s me living out some subconscious desire to be like MacGyver, but in a film contest: okay, you have 30 seconds to create something with the theme of escape, go.

I chose this story because I could get the animation done in the amount of time given. They are simple shapes, easy to model, rig and animate, relatively, but the relationships implied create a deeper story. So even though they’re simple, the story doesn’t have to be sacrificed.

There are three rounds to the competition, with only one winner that gets flown to Sydney for their short to be screened at a festival and also awarded $20,000. The top 10 winners for the first round will be announced July 25th.

I also just cranked out a short hang gliding video from a recent flight. I was going to hold onto the footage to use later, but decided it might get lost in the shuffle of school work so I just needed to cut it together and get it out. Hope you enjoy, that day was a great flight, although I’m a little rusty on the wingovers they’re always fun: