Chad is a member of fxphd. We speak to him about his experiences and a recent challenge submission he made – and won – inside fxphd.
fxg: When did you join fxphd?
I joined fxphd for the first time in October 2011 based on some really positive reviews I’d heard around the internet; and I’ve heard Nick Campbell (greyscalegorilla.com) recommend you guys.
fxg: Where are you?
I’m in the United States, specifically Dallas, Texas. Although I grew up and attended college 1,000 miles north in Minnesota.
fxg: What courses have you enjoyed @fxphd?
AFX215, BKG222, C4D102, and C4D204. I will say that wish I had time for the grading class.
fxg: Do you work in the industry?
Yes, I’m an editor (even though I’m in After Effects more than any other program) for Vertigo Post which is production arm of an Advertising Agency called Turnstile Inc. Our clients are amusement/theme/water parks all across North America. I wish I could share more of my work but we don’t like to make our clients jealous. I post my work that’s already been broadcast on my vimeo page: http://www.vimeo.com/chadgilmour and I’m usually posting stills or videos on my twitter: @gilmourmedia
fxg: Has fxphd helped get you to the next level?
Definitely, my bosses and clients have noticed an improvement too! We had a couple spots we normally would have farmed out to other post-houses, but thanks to these classes I learned enough to handle them myself and keep it all in-house.
[fx_video src=”/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/CH41_cm1342.mp4″ link=”/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/CH41_cm1342.mp4″]
– Watch Chad’s challenge entry
fxg: Was this the 1st time you entered the challenge?
Yes, and it’s the first time I’ve done any type of challenge like this. The whole time I kept thinking I was putting in way too much time with this, but now that I watch it I just want to keep tweaking keyframes and adjusting the lighting.
fxg: With the challenge, what apps did you use for the particles?
Particular, this plug-in rocks, I use it all the time. I actually started with a preset and adjusted it to where I thought it looked more natural and less like a preset. I also used some of the ember footage that was given to us.
fxg: And for the compositing?
After Effects all the way. I used CS5 in 32bit mode to get a more natural feel with the light and glow effects.
fxg: So no 3d apps?
Oddly enough, no. The whole reason I joined fxphd was to learn C4D and then I never used it at all on this haha!
fxg: What was the story with the setting of the moon in the background?
It actually started as an after thought on the last shot I was creating because it was a lot easier to plop in. I had everything set with all my shots and they looked good, but it felt like it was falling a bit short. I wanted the project to be more than just adding particles to a scene. My thought process was; it has this “other worldly feel”, it’s outdoors at night, and some of the best night time photography I’ve seen has the moon and stars in it. The sky fit perfectly for 2 of the shots where the rock wall wasn’t visible, but I had to roto out and manually keyframe part of the rock wall on the wide-shot.
fxg: With your color palette, what made you want to head in a more blue direction?
You mean aside from it being my favorite color? I figured everyone would be doing fire tones and I always think blue is calming and went naturally with really slow, fluid footage especially with a female figure in every shot. And if you couldn’t tell, those “streaky” ipod commercials from a few years ago were definitely an influence. My only regret is that I didn’t spend a little more time pushing the blue color, I spent the vast majority of my time working on the particles and the light sources. As Mike pointed out it still competes with the red color a bit too much.
fxg: What was the process and decision behind the anamorphic lens choice for flares.
Honestly, I just went with what I thought looked the coolest. I used Video Copilot’s Optical Flares. I started with a preset and tweaked it ’till I got something that looked like a cool light source.
fxg: Where do you want to be in 5 years time
My dream is to be a lead VFX or Finishing artist at a big post-house. However my current job may transform into that within 5 years anyways. Even though we are a smaller company we keep taking on bigger and bigger projects that used to be farmed out, which means we have to keep growing and expanding our own abilities to keep up the pace we are setting for ourselves.
fxg: What was your favorite part of the fxphd experience?
Access to instructors that provide immediate responses on the forums. A number of times I would experiment with something I learned in a class, ran into an issue, posted the question, and the instructors responded quickly with a detailed answer often with a project file as an example. That’s something you’re not gonna get at other forums or places that only offer training videos.