No One head

So I've experienced what many artists in the industry experience... dramatic changes in production after a large time investment has already been made.
Columbia College does not believe in using a 3D solution for the effect, so it has been toned down.
Severely.
No need for 3D at all, in fact. What the actual effect will really look like is to be determined in the near future. Now, what to do with the work that I already did. After all, I researched HDR image lighting, took my first steps into the wonderful world of Mudbox, and have created a head for which I outlined a whole pipeline, from concept art through modeling, texturing, rigging, camera tracking, compositing...
I briefly considered dropping the project and starting something new. But I'm going to take this poor fellow under my wing now, and nurse him to completion.
The first image below is the result of an evening's worth of Mudbox modeling, output as a displacement map, rendered in Max with mental ray. The following two are the same model with a Subsurface Scattering shader applied and no textures.
Isn't he adorable? How could I let him languish somewhere on my hard drive?
By the way: here is an excellent SSS tutorial:
http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/item?siteID=123112&id=7445229&linkID=5573440

Woman on Street Hallucination VFX test

Test of a hallucination the protagonist experiences while walking down the street. This effect may end up being accomplished via simple editing, but I decided to give it a shot and see what production thinks about it.

To create the head "jitter" I took something like two dozen still frames of the talent with various head positions, then chose 5 or 6 of the best ones, which were then tweaked in Photoshop and then imported into Combustion for compositing.

Flies

In the script, a swarm of flies hovers around a dead dog. I wanted to test out an effect that would eliminate the need to have a million flies on set.

The video presents VFX flies added to a still image. Created with PFlow particle system in 3ds max using a simple still image with an alpha channel of a fly. If production decides to go down this road, I can put more time into it and create an even more convincing swarm, perhaps using Character Studio's crowd system.

Video Background Plate

Simple VFX proof of concept background plate shot on mini DV. Shows the camera movement and talent positioning in the final shot.

Work on practicum film.

One of my major projects now is work on a practicum film at Columbia College. The big moneyshot is a scene where a man looks up into a mirror and sees a noseless, mouthless face with black holes for eyes staring back.

I'm going to use many techniques I haven't tried before, such as Mudbox modeling, Subsurface Scattering, and HDR lighting to get as realistic and professional of an effect as possible.

Included in the post is several test renders of very early stages of the modeling process.

New Things...

Well! I've been rather lazy with updating my blog lately. I have been keeping busy however. I am working on VFX for a music video, a practicum film, and a shot or two for the benefit of my reel. I shall return.