Kaleh And Mbaki Online Screener (Password Required)

For all festivals and events organizers who wish to preview the entire animated short film, please email me at dennis.sebastian@gmail.com so I can provide you with a password.

Kaleh And Mbaki: An Animated Short Film from Dennis E. Sebastian on Vimeo.

Kaleh and his Kin are Endangered

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/302547/scitech/science/infographic-phl-is-home-to-the-world-s-two-most-endangered-hornbill-species

2012 Was A Great Year For Kaleh & Mbaki!!! :D

This 2012 I finally completed the first of the animated shorts (yes the first) for Kaleh & Mbaki. The film got screened in competition for two festivals and won prizes in both. I would like to take this opportunity to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone who was instrumental in helping me create this personal work.

Icing on the Cake Part 2!

Kaleh At Mbaki won in its category (Best Animation 1-5 Minutes - Professional Division) at the ANIMAHENASYON 2012! GOD is Good :D

Kaleh & Mbaki at ANIMAHENASYON 2012

Kaleh & Mbaki will be screened at ANIMAHENASYON 2012. It will be held on the 26th to 29th of Novemeber 2012 at the De La Salle - College of St. Benilde School of Design and Arts.

Icing on the Cake!

Kaleh At Mbaki won 3rd Prize (tied with another entry) at the 24th CCP Independent Film & Video Competition! Yay !!! :D 

Kaleh & Mbaki At the Cultural Center of The Philippines

Tonight is Kaleh & Mbaki's very first public screening! Yay! :D

Ika-24 CCP Gawad Alternatibo Para Sa Pelikula At Video
(The 24th CCP Independent Film & Video Competition)

 20 to 23 November 2012 at the CCP Tanghalang Manuel Conde.
Animation Program - 22 November 2012, 7pm.

Consummatum Est

The film is finished :D

The Colors of Mbaki

Some Color Graded shots of Mbaki :D

The Colors of Kaleh

What color do you Feel?

Some Color Graded shots of Kaleh :D

Almost There... Stay On Target

I think the graph speaks for itself :D

I estimate that I will be done in 2 months and most of the work left is some rendering, a lot of compositing and light effects, plus the all important music and sound which will be done for me by a professional. Color me Excited! :D

* for the uninitiated, the title is a reference to the Star Wars scene where the rebel forces are attacking the Death star.

Goodbye Fan

It's sad when one of your most hardworking fans die on you.

For almost 4 weeks my computer was out of commission when the CPU fan quit on me. I was in the midst of weeks of 24/7 renderings so it was a good thing I discovered it early or otherwise I might have been greeted with a smoldering mass of electronics when I woke up one morning.

I can't believe it took over 3 weeks to find a replacement for you. I guess that just shows how special you are. Goodbye Fan, you will be missed.

* Of course I did not sit on my thumbs while the computer was in the shop. I actually used my thumbs and the rest of my fingers quite frequently during those weeks. Will post about it next time : )

Mystery Post...

a hornbill walks into a bar... part 2

Here are a few more shots from the beginning of the short film. The images here are 90% done but the sound effects are just temporary (the musical score still nonexistent). There are a ton of things yet to be done but I can safely say that I am on the last few stages of making this short film.  Yay! :D

I'm already excited about the next Kaleh & Mbaki short, but of course I must finish this one first!

Oh, did I fail to mention it? This is just the first of the series : )

a hornbill walks into a bar...

I finished rendering all the layers for this particular shot and excitedly made a quick assembly in my trusty Compositing program and now here are a few sample frames. It's not final by any means but it sure is nice to see the animation in (nearly) final form :D

And when this shot is done, 54 more shots to go!

Gulp :|

Animation is Done!!! :D

Character Animation for the short is finally done! WHEW! Here are a few sample shots from the beginning of the story. Color and shading are not final of course, that will be coming soon :D

Lighting Tests!

Some preliminary lighting setups and their test renders for the first few shots. This is actually fun to do except for the waiting-for-the-test-render-to-finish part. I wish I had another computer to do that. A CRAY SUPERCOMPUTER would do nicely I think :D

Kaleh & Mbaki in Ilocos Norte!

I was invited to give a talk on Animation to a group of students studying Computer Science and Information Technology and it was to be held out of town in the beautiful province of Ilocos Norte. Who would say no to that.

I actually almost did say no the invitation. Being in the thick of things in this short film of mine, finishing up the last few shots in animation and beginning the lighting of the scenes, I thought that any distraction would be bad for my progress. But when I thought that this would be another perfect opportunity to spread the "gospel" of Filipino Animated Content and also a chance to "convert" a few students to the exciting world of animation, I reconsidered and eventually said Yes.

And so with a quick assembly of my animation lectures of the past and an addition of a few new and never-before-seen-by-the-public Kaleh & Mbaki material, I was off to Ilocos Norte in the small town of Currimao.

I'm not a fan of very long bus rides (7 hours going to and 11 gruelling hours going back home) but when I got there, WOW!

In a nutshell - arrive - take lots and lots of pictures - breakfast - more pictures - long nap - wake up - prepare for animation talk - quick lunch - continue prep work - more pictures - stare at the beautiful scenery for a long time until students arrive - final prep work - quick dinner - Animation talk.

I figure the talk on animation went well because most of the students were quite responsive and some were actually very excited about getting into animation. Unfortunately we had just a limited amount of time for the talk and the students were tired from their journey. I could have gone on for a few more hours, but hey that's me when it comes to animation.

I'm hoping that some of the students do eventually go into an animation related career and for the others who don't, I hope that they will become avid fans of Filipino Animated Content.

Merry Christmas!!! :D

I Would Like To Thank The Academy...

At last nights Animahenasyon 2011 awards ceremony, there were winners and there were... non-winners. I was both! I didn't get the prize for the Category that my entry was in but surprise surprise, there was another prize that I wasn't aware of and it was Best in Technical Quality.

I was already chatting with the other finalists and almost oblivious to the proceedings when I heard them call my name. For a split second there I expected to be told that my car was double parked but when they waved me over to the stage I knew it wasn't about the car.

So, I would like to thank the Academy...

* Seriously, I would like to wholeheartedly thank the Animation Council of the Philippines and their very hardworking officers (Grace Dimaranan, Michael Kho Lim, Ricky Orellana, Laisa Gonzles and many others) for making the annual animation festival a reality. Without you guys our animated films will probably just be floating around internet limbo. Maraming Salamat Po!

*some of the cool giveaways from the festival

15 Minutes of Warhol on the Radio

Yesterday I was interviewed as a guest at an online radio show and the topic of discussion was ME. Actually the topic was animation and the upcoming Animahenasyon 2011, the Philippine Animation Festival.

I was invited by Ricky Orellana and Michael Kho Lim of the Animation Council of the Philippines to serve, I guess, as a cautionary tale for those would be animated filmmakers. Normally I'm quite uncomfortable with public speaking engagements when there's vitually no time to prepare, I was informed just the day before, but I agreed to it since it was a radio interview and no one was going to see my face. WRONG.

The radio show was in DIG Radio, a brand new internet radio station based in Makati City and they had a WEB CAM broadcasting Live. This I found out a few second before the interview. My main thought at that moment was, "Buti na lang naligo ako bago pumunta sa studio." (A good thing I took a shower before going to the studio). Not that anyone could smell me through the cam but somehow feeling shower fresh made me a bit more confident.

So confident that I think I monopolized most of the conversation. Sorry DJ Cyrus! Living in the cave with mostly just my doggie to talk to seems to have resulted in a lot of pent up... exposition. But overall I think it went well. I was able to talk about the most important stuff - the animation festival, my animated short K & M, and the origins of my superpowers.

Special thanks to Ricky and Michael for the Invite, DJ April and Mr. Norman for giving me the tour of the PORTAL, DJ Cyrus for the great interview, and the traffic cop in Pasong Tamo for not getting angry when I almost ran over him :D

Making Your Own Musical Score

When I was making the Teaser-Trailer for Kaleh & Mbaki, one thing I forgot to include in my timetable was the musical score. So while doing the final edit for the teaser, I decided to just wing it by sampling (stealing) some music from various movie soundtracks. Unfortunately, none of them fit well enough for what I had in mind. I also didn't want any copyright entanglements so I decided to make my own.

Thank God for MuseScore and LMMS(Linus MultiMedia Studio). Both are free software for making music. The former uses the traditional notational system while the latter uses the sequencer type system plus a few more bells and whistles.

It helped that the music I "envisioned" wasn't complicated in structure. My goal was to give it the feel of the primal rhythms of Cordilleran tribal music. I'm no music major so I just tried my best and relied on instinct and intuition and a lot of experimentation. With the aid of the two programs, I was able breeze through the creation of the musical score in Three Days! Thank God I still remembered some of my piano lessons :)

I used MuseScore for the Flute parts and LMMS for the percussion parts.

Watch the Teaser-Trailer (and hear the musical score) HERE.

Hey! We Got Merchandize :)

It's not a real film project if you don't have T-shirts! And other cool stuff :)

Via the Kaleh & Mbaki Zazzle Store, You can be the proud owner of this Super Cool T-Shirt (hardsell). Other cool merchandize coming soon :)

Visit http://www.zazzle.com/kalehandmbaki

SUPPORT INDIE ANIMATION!!! :)

WARNING: Please make sure you check how much custom duties (TAX) are for importing items in your area. The shipping costs plus the tax can sometimes be as much as the cost of the merchandize.

The Diorama Look

                                 (A scene from the short film)

I've always been fascinated with miniatures and dioramas. When I was still in grade school, my parents took me and my siblings to the Ayala Museum Diorama exhibit. I was so amazed to see the small people with their small buildings and vehicles and even animals, doing their historical thing.

At that time I really didn't care too much about the historical significance of each set piece. The foremost thought in my mind was, I wish I could take some of those scale models home with me so I can play with them. Most especially the Battle Scenes. I imagined taking the Katipunero models and pitting them against the Guardia Civil or the Guerilla models against the Kempetai. I would have had tons of hours of fun playing with them if it would have been possible.

I guess that "play" impulse is still alive and thriving within me. It's the main reason, I believe, that I am now an Animated Filmmaker. I cannot think of charactesr without thinking of their story or circumstance or the world they live in. When developing the stories for Kaleh and Mbaki, I could always imagine the scenery and the whole environment they were in and with the help of CG animation I am able to make those imaginings into a reality. In pixels anyway :)

                (From the Ayala Museum - The Diorama Experience)

We Have A Teaser-Trailer!

The complete short will still take awhile (Han Solo is to blame) but here's a little something to tide everyone over till it's done. I hope everyone likes it :)

Kaleh At Mbaki Teaser (Tagalog) from Dennis E. Sebastian on Vimeo.

So What Is This Petroglyph Thingie?

Petroglyphs (also called rock engravings) are pictogram and logogram images created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, and abrading. (from Wikipedia)

The Angono Petroglyphs is the oldest known work of art in the Philippines. There are 127 human and animal figures engraved on the rockwall dating back to 3000 BC. (also from Wikipedia)

(photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

What Is "Rendering" And What Does It Look Like?

I've been asked by some friends (who are not in the animation/CG profession) about what I mean when I say, all I can do is watch the screen get painted a few pixels at a time when the computer is currently "Rendering".

Wikipedia defines rendering as the process of generating an image from a model (or models in what collectively could be called a scene file), by means of computer programs. Clear? No?

The following video clip will show what the process looks like. (includes some bonus animation)

What Does "Rendering" Look Like? from Dennis E. Sebastian on Vimeo.

The video shows the render of 1 frame being finished in around 15 seconds because I sped up the simulation. It actually takes around 12 minutes to render. This particular shot has 207 frames so multiply that by 12 minutes = 2484 minutes divided by 60 minutes (1 hour) = 41 hours to render this particular shot.

41 hours of pixels doing their thing. It's no wonder that there are days when all I do is post youtube videos on facebook. :)

Kaleh Lighting and Render Test

A couple of weeks ago I started playing around with the lighting for one of Kaleh's shots. This process is paradoxically the most exciting and at the same time the most boring part of CG animation.

Exciting because for the first time I get to see the shots very close to how they would appear in final form. Boring because it's a trial and error process with lots of waiting.

Using the lowest settings, I still have to wait a minute or two for the machine to render (process) each image. At the higher settings I have to wait from 8 to 21 minutes before I can see what it looks like. Multiply the minutes by the number of setting changes done in a day and what you have is two weeks of watching images being painted a few pixels at a time. All for just one scene. No wonder they say that doing animation is like watching grass grow.

All that is worth it, however, when you finally hit the "sweet" settings and the shot begins to come alive :)

Kaleh Lighting and Render Test from Dennis E. Sebastian on Vimeo.

Hornbills

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rufous_Hornbill

The Rufous Hornbill (Buceros hydrocorax), also known as Philippine Hornbill and, locally, as Kalaw (pronounced kah-lau) is a large species of hornbill. It is endemic to the Philippines, where it occurs in primary, mature secondary and disturbed forests on 11 islands: Luzon and Marinduque (race hydrocorax), Samar, Leyte, Bohol, Panaon, Biliran, Calicoan and Buad (race semigaleatus), Dinagat, Siargao, Mindanao (plus Balut, Bucas and Talicud) and Basilan (race mindanensis).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palawan_hornbill

The Palawan Hornbill (Anthracoceros marchei), known locally as Talusi in Filipino language, is a smallish (approximately 70 centimetres (28 in) long) forest-dwelling bird. Its plumage is predominantly black with a white tail, a dark green gloss on its upper parts and a large creamy-white beak with a casque typical of the hornbill family.

These two species of hornbill were the main influences for Kaleh's design. One could actually refer to them as his parents.

Analog Mbaki

When my computer was out of commission for a couple of months, I was forced to go analog for that period of time and I'm actually glad. Not for the PC breaking down but for the opportunity to explore the character through traditional methods. There's nothing more real time than pen or pencil on paper. I still have a long way to go in terms of Drawing at the Speed of Thought like my artist friends but it really is fulfilling when you see your imagination take some physical form right in front of you. I need to do this more often :)