Shinto Gates: Maya, Mental Ray, Shake

The grass is a paint effects simulation with different variance in color, length, turbulence, ect. Each clump is a separate pass and
can be further changed in post. The lighting was done with Mental Ray diffuse bounces instead of global illumination.

Chess: Maya, Mental Ray, HDR Shop, Stitcher Pro, Shake

Chess explores the nature of HDR lighting and compositing. The advantage of the HDR map was receiving a lot of bounce light
for free while still having control in the final composite. The panoramic map was shot on location and processed in Stitcher and HDR Shop.

FriendBot: Maya, Mental Ray, Shake, HVX200

From concept to editing it down, this was a trial of what I can put together by myself.
The short itself is seven effects shots following a clueless, unhelpful robot and her new (and unfortunate) owner.
I wanted to create something that was a container to show off my lighting/compositing ability and also a piece of entertainment.

Reflection maps were shot on location and the character was lit traditionally.
Not too layer heavy, the short was about ten to twelve layers depending on the shot.
A placeholder bot was used on set to plan out the interaction and timing between the two characters.

Pong: Maya, Mental Ray, Traditional Lighting, Shake

The objective of this shot was to exhibit the power of traditional lighting techniques for live action lighting.
The shadow and the specular highlight were the primary challenge here.