| Papa:
What was your favorite part of working on the Backwater Bunch
Project?
Brad:
Assembling all of the pieces together was the best part for
me. I had a good time assembling the story from all of the
images rendered. Once I got the animatic done it was really
cool to see it fleshed out. It is a pretty solid piece of
work.
Papa: Can you tell me what
some of your responsibilities were on this project?
Brad: I
worked closely with the art director in creating the animatic
to present to you (Papa). I worked on the post production
parts and editing the final movie. I over saw the production
of the behind the scenes pieces and the graphic elements
created by John.
Papa: What did you do prior
to working at Digital-Tutors?
Brad:
I worked at a television station as cameraman and talent. I
then went to work for a company who created ski videos for a
number of years and that was a blast. I then started working
for PL Studios and Digital-Tutors for almost 4 years now and
having a blast.
Papa: Which character did you
like the best?
Brad: I
liked Rusty the best.
Papa: Why Rusty?
Brad:
I like his attitude. It is so sinister. The character looks
awesome! He is such a beautiful character. His texture and
this screen presence is wonderful. If you hear the voice you
can see Rusty. I don’t act like him… I’m a good guy
<snicker>.
Papa: Can you tell me what
went wrong with the project?
Brad:
Nothing major in my department went wrong. I had small
obstacles and storage issues but nothing major.
|
 |
Papa:
Why did you have storage issues?
Brad: Well
we are on a terabyte fibre channel system and filled it up
fast. Also backing up was an issue. We did not have a back up
system or a plan for recovery because of tight budgets. All of
that changed once we installed an AIT-2 tape drive by Sony. Now all
of our work including rendered images are backed up twice a
day.
Once the back up unit was installed we connected it directly
to the storage so transfer was very fast. If you are an
animator and have projects that have taken a long time to
render an AIT tape back up system is the way to go. Some of our frames
took close to an hour to come back from the render farm and
when you are working on large projects it doesn’t make sense
redoing the work.
Papa: Can you tell me about
the animatic you mentioned? What is that for people who don’t
know?
Brad: Well
an animatic is a rough blocked in or storyboard edit so you
can see the images and hear the voices and find out if the
first round of editing and assembly is where the project needs
to go. I took all of the storyboards and the audio cut from
our Pro Tools system and assembled them in Media 100. We then
broke them down into individual shots and I rendered them out.
This gave the artists and animators a set number of frames and
audio to sync to.
Papa: How did you get into
editing and post?
Brad: I
graduated from University of Oklahoma with a degree in Video
and Film Production. I was really into 8 mm as a kid and
getting different perspectives using the camera. Everyone
thought I was weird and now I am a professional. After doing
the work I did in Colorado I wanted to do bigger projects and
help people at the same time. So here I am.
Papa: What are your future
goals?
Brad: To
make 1 billion dollars <pinky goes to edge of mouth>. No
just kidding. I have really turned on to teaching and I love
video so this company is the perfect fit. I would like to
continue teaching different areas and getting into parts of
the production process.
Papa: Is there anything else
you would like to share?
Brad: Yes,
I enjoyed working with all of the talented artists on this
projects. Even though our producer was a mean... Oh that was
a private thought. Just kidding. <laugh> The ideas going
back and forth and different points of views really opened my
eyes to everyone’s dedication and loyalty to the project. A
lot of long hours, little sleep, but all in all I wouldn’t
change it for the world.
Brad can be contacted at matson@digital-tutors.com
|
