Jonathan Topf

My last post ever?

2009-03-03T12:03:00.000-08:00

For now anyway, I've moved my blog over to my own wordpress blog hosted on my own site

www.jonathantopf.com

so have a look at that, its ever so slightly less ugly than this site so that's a bonus.

tchus tchus

jon

super conceptual

2009-02-06T10:20:00.000-08:00

Just playing with some schminke watercolours and thought that the bits of tissue i used were pretty

3d fail

2009-01-31T14:10:00.000-08:00

Colours?

2009-01-31T14:04:00.000-08:00

Me in Bashir

2009-01-28T12:02:00.000-08:00

OK so anyone who hasnt seen Waltz with Bashir should really go out and see it, actually I'm sure its not everyones cup of tea but I liked it, so here is me transplanted into one of the press stills.

Render Test

2009-01-26T03:33:00.000-08:00

Just a quick test to see how the my film might look given the 3d treatment

Alain Sketch

2009-01-24T10:27:00.001-08:00

Aditive versus subtractive colours

2009-01-21T15:51:00.000-08:00

For anyone who's interested here's a colour study with photoshop, compairing 'pure' rgb anc cmyk values and how they compare. I know that ink technologys have evolved but if photoshops 'cyan' as anything like the cyan int thats used then its no onder that all my puctured come out so badly. (ALrigght, it has been pointed out to me how much of a mess my spelling and typing is on this post, I'M ILL ALRIGHT, i have a belly full of stitches and im tired so deal with it! (pinch of salt)

Bush Hotel

2009-01-10T09:41:00.000-08:00

ColourKeys

2009-01-09T10:53:00.000-08:00

my beautiful face in pantone

2009-01-03T11:04:00.000-08:00

This image is 100% accurate, the colours are anyway, fun with a pantone swatch book...

colcours

2008-12-26T14:00:00.001-08:00

Alain ?

2008-12-16T08:57:00.000-08:00

old sketches

2008-11-19T10:04:00.000-08:00

just as a footnote, anyone who hasn't visited the advanced style blog should check it out, these sketches are from photographs featured there.

layouts

2008-11-19T07:56:00.001-08:00

colours

2008-11-19T07:54:00.001-08:00

roughs 21-41

2008-11-19T07:52:00.000-08:00

roughs 16-20

2008-11-19T07:50:00.000-08:00

roughs 11-15

2008-11-19T07:49:00.000-08:00

roughs 6-10

2008-11-19T07:47:00.000-08:00

roughs1-5

2008-11-19T07:45:00.000-08:00

More treatment images

2008-11-12T08:54:00.000-08:00

Wrinkly paper

2008-11-10T08:32:00.001-08:00

Wooden stars

2008-11-09T05:55:00.000-08:00

Before I fall asleep

2008-10-11T20:16:00.000-07:00

The Bops

2008-10-06T17:11:00.000-07:00

Cher again

2008-10-06T17:10:00.001-07:00

One more for today

2008-10-05T15:34:00.000-07:00

Gnarly

2008-10-05T09:47:00.000-07:00

Cher Powered

2008-10-04T18:48:00.000-07:00

Dark Lady

2008-10-04T13:44:00.000-07:00

Gypsies Tramps and Thiefs

2008-10-04T10:55:00.000-07:00

3rd October

2008-10-03T14:32:00.000-07:00

Petrified Fresh Water Fish

2008-10-03T09:57:00.000-07:00

Douglas Fir

2008-10-01T15:45:00.000-07:00

Dip pens

2008-09-20T10:05:00.000-07:00

All a bit precious for my liking, but its what I've been up to

firefly

2008-09-03T16:09:00.000-07:00

SNB

2008-08-30T04:54:00.001-07:00

Guten tag from Freiburg

Playing God

2008-08-12T14:11:00.000-07:00

Doodle pad

2008-08-07T13:13:00.000-07:00

As I've been working and finishing my last semesters film so interesting things to blog are thin on the ground, so here's something uninteresting instead, my work doodles

jon

The importance of abandoning crap

2008-07-10T12:48:00.000-07:00

Ive seen this piece of footage a few times on other peoples blogs around and about and although I'm not sure its the gospel its nice to hear someone who clearly has the knack talking about their trade.

youtube link to part 1

Pupils Help Plant 265 Trees!

2008-07-07T10:55:00.000-07:00

So as my last post stated I'm not dead, although I may as well be, I haven't posted in aaages. Well to fill the gap I have dug out my first appearance in print, march 15th 1997, where I along with 6 other pupils drafted plans to plant 265 trees, that's right two hundred and fifty six, woot. Click the image to read the whole thrilling article or click here

I'm not dead

2008-05-22T19:06:00.000-07:00

College has beena bit life consuming recently and I finally feel like I'm learning a few what to do's rather that what not to do's. I have been thinking about my third year project and having beed rather inspired by Ted M's Rosie and Iasbel I'm considdering working on a comic book (or simplified version of) over the summer to then convert in to my final film. I'm liking the idea of doing lots of drawing because although I dont miss hand drawn animation to much I realy miss the emdeiecy of one off sketches.

jon

Backtrack a little

2008-04-30T07:03:00.001-07:00

So this is just a test of Jane's Smile and frown blend shapes that I made a while back and for the sake of preserving all the work that is going in to this film I thought I would commit this image to the internet, even if its not that exciting.

jon

test render shot 01

2008-04-25T14:16:00.000-07:00

Just a test render to get the ball rolling with rendering. I have to say Im happy with the way it looks and i think it will b e better still when it goes final, fingers crossed.

jon

Colour Script

2008-04-25T12:17:00.001-07:00

This is a colour script I made a while ago for assesement, we were asked to produce 12 frames of a presentation storyboard and as I already had a working storyboard I decided to use it as a chance to create a colour script. Things have changed and I think there are to many frames which makes all the frames similar in terms of colour. This said it was nice to give myself permission to take pretty simple drawings and focuss on colour.

just a test really but though it was worth posting just so I have a record of it.

jon

emo rainbow

2008-04-24T16:47:00.000-07:00

It may not look any different from anything I have posted but there's changes under the hood, its evolving. I need to find a better cloudscape, the perspective is a bit squiffy. Also the rainbow thing, I remember a real photograph that looked just like this that my dad used to keep beside him on his desk, I always thought it was photoshopped but it was from the 70's so evidently not, way romanticised and way cool.

jon

My red phase

2008-04-10T11:28:00.001-07:00

The buz term in computer graphics at the moment seems to be subsurface scattering, its the effects of light being absorbed into your skin, rattling around and then coming back out, like when you shine a torch through your ear and it glows redy orange. Well I cant afford the rendering times on my film to use it But I'm doing my best to emulate it, either way it is interesting to look at.

jon

Jane 0.02

2008-04-09T20:59:00.000-07:00

Getting there

jon

colour study

2008-04-09T07:41:00.001-07:00

Lately I've been taking pictures arround my room of the sunset, I love a good melodramatic sunset but they are way hard to draw so I took a few pictures of the light to see how it reflects on different fabrics and skin and what it does to the colours, here's a feew..

jon

Ye oldy Ruby Flare

2008-04-08T21:43:00.000-07:00

There are some pretty significant rendering artifacts here but I thought it must be worth posting this, I was just playing whilst waiting for a render but I like what heppened, the colour bleed and chromatic abboration are fun to play with, destroy the edges a little.

jon

Jane 0.01

2008-04-08T06:01:00.000-07:00

I've got to finish of my models and sets soon, above is Jane the last character I have to model and rig, at one point I was going to have another two characters milling about but at a week of modeling and riggin a pop I quickly decided against that, I'm chomping at the bit to nail down my set because thats where the fun is, I get to play with the shapes and really compose an interesting world to put the camera in. Onward!

jon

Ruby Flair (Flare)

2008-04-03T08:50:00.000-07:00

Right so here it is, the first piece of my next film that actually moves. I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for my dreadful spelling on this blog and everywhere else, I seem to have mis spelled the title of my film: flair > flare. Oh well lets hope you are watching the film not the titles. Its made up of playblasts out of maya so the images don't represent the final render but they do the job, scroll down for some more highly rendered images.

enjoy, comment, critique

Hi res quicktime

Crappy ol youtube

jon

Poses

2008-03-29T14:34:00.000-07:00

Poses of Felix and Ruby, I rendered them out at 4000 x 6000 but had to downsample them for the blog but they are still a decent size. Ruby's eyes are a bit skewey but if you squint its ok, The render took ages so i left it as is, for now.

jon

SnappySnaps

2008-03-27T21:24:00.001-07:00

I went home over the easter holidays and managed to take a few shots of the location that fetures heavily in the film I am making at the moment. The quality is questionable but it was nice to be able to see the place up close before I start rebuilding it from memory. Saying that what I did remember was interesting because I had editied out all the bits I didn't want, gotta find a happy medium I guess. Anyway... Onward

jon

More of the same

2008-03-27T13:23:00.000-07:00

Note to self: Visit Art Renewal More

2008-03-23T10:55:00.000-07:00

http://www.artrenewal.org/ Worth a visit

Another day another model

2008-03-18T16:01:00.000-07:00

Early Ruby Model

2008-03-17T16:10:00.000-07:00

Felix Rig Test

2008-03-14T15:39:00.000-07:00

Felix rig test animation (quicktime)

Just a quick test to see if the rig I built works as expected, minus a few quirks it seems to be ok, on to the next two characters...

jon

Test Rig

2008-03-12T05:54:00.000-07:00

A quick test to check if the rig I just finished works, Had to make a last minute change and reduce his torso by about 25cm in length but overall I think its ok.

jon

Very first draft animatic

2008-03-07T15:40:00.000-08:00

Youtube
Quicktime (20 Meg, H.264)

A very first draft animatic for my second semester animation. I know what I'm going to change but I'm interested to see what you think?

jon

More views

2008-03-05T23:55:00.000-08:00

Ode to sully

2008-03-04T21:02:00.000-08:00

My window

2008-03-04T10:32:00.000-08:00

Ive been looking at Bill Cone's blog recently and its really amazing, his pastel drawings just glow, they moved me to buy a set of pastels and go and draw on some real paper in the real outdoors. Alas the drawings that I produced were not a patch on his but it was fun and I'm definately going to do it again, when I have a few I will post them here. For now a few drawings from my cintiq of the view from my window.

Jon

Felix W.I.P

2008-02-28T09:06:00.000-08:00

Seems I haven't posted in a while, I've been working on caharacter modelling and working up an animatic for this semesters short (will post it once its done). For the meen time here are a few test renders of a character I have been working on, still very much work in progress.

Jon

Sound and Image 1-7

2008-02-17T13:59:00.000-08:00

Images 1 through 7 of a colour script for my sound and image project.

Jon

mom

2008-02-11T19:24:00.000-08:00

how can this not make you happy

2008-02-10T08:55:00.000-08:00

I found this whilst browsing the exelent archive.org website for some old footage of a jukebox. Anyone who doesn't know about this website is sorely missing out. Check it out

Anyone who cant see the video can click here and get the video direct from archive.org

jon

Some more drawings

2008-02-07T12:36:00.000-08:00

Not my best drawings ever but this is supposed to be a digital sketchbok of sorts so I should keep the good and the bad I guess.

jon

Sculpy

2008-02-03T20:14:00.000-08:00

Just a test to see wheather some of the shapes i have been drawing work in 3d... they look like they have had their hair dipped in glue, i promise it wont look like this forever

Real Paper!

2008-02-03T14:35:00.001-08:00

Shoes!

2008-02-01T09:58:00.000-08:00

Possibly my favourite thing to draw

DoodleStrip

2008-01-31T21:42:00.000-08:00

Another stab at clouds

2008-01-31T18:16:00.000-08:00

Always trying to paint interesting clouds, never quite getting there

Google film maker

2008-01-31T15:38:00.000-08:00

I am often asked why I am not doing a film degree and doing an animation degree instead. People say I am not using animation to its full potential using camera angles, cuts, and semi-realistic design, it sems odd, as far as I know animation is just another type of filmmaking. Im still playing with ideas in my head but one thing I am doing is trying to base as many aspects of the film on thinkgs I know, for exaple the sets. I pulled an image from google maps of a pier that I know and have roughed out a version in 3d and its great, it might be just one step removed from real film but who cares, I'll make changes and characature it but as a starting point its great.

SketchStrip

2008-01-30T15:46:00.000-08:00

Wharf

2008-01-28T21:08:00.000-08:00

Oceanic

2008-01-28T11:48:00.001-08:00

2nd year 1st semester animation, make of it what you will

Link

Jump Suit

2008-01-22T20:11:00.000-08:00

Best film of 2007

2008-01-22T18:13:00.000-08:00

My vote is for surf's up. Its not the film you are expecting, its actually funny and more importantly actually got some heart. The soundtrack also owns, not the green day and incubus I could care less about that (although it does work well) but the original music is really something. Watch it, its money well spent

Post Mortem

2008-01-18T07:59:00.000-08:00

So right as i was editing the final cut of my film and i cant remember why but part of my workflow required me to look at all the shots in black and white and it sucked becase virtually every time it looked better. So it made me think about the next project; I might do it in black and white, the problem is although it looks kinda cool, whenever I watch a modern film in black and white it brings me out of the film becase I'm just not used to it. I feel like i need a good reason to do this other than aesthetics, i just cant for the life of me think of one...

Z Play

2008-01-18T07:46:00.001-08:00

After my last project I'm changing my workflow, try and nail down the characters in 2d, then sculpt in zbrush then finaly make an optimised model from that because the way I worked before was way restricting. Im looking back at my last film right now and thinking 'wow, I've learned so much', although I seem to only have learned what not to do, maybe an a few weeks with some perspective I will appreciate it more.

wow... studio soi

2008-01-11T06:17:00.000-08:00

Wow those guys at studio soi never fail to impress, they've got something good going on there, their characted designs are amazing. take a look at chere christmas card as well, really nice work

jon

Ab

2008-01-08T21:48:00.001-08:00

Haven't flipped this yet, so the proportions are a but skewy, but hey

Hoody

2008-01-08T18:37:00.000-08:00

sky Barn

2008-01-07T22:51:00.000-08:00

Another lump of nothing

2008-01-07T00:27:00.001-08:00

Sailing alone around the world

2007-12-28T09:36:00.000-08:00

If there is anyone out there who reads this blog I do apologies for all the posts that make no sense what so ever, this one for example. I just saw a book on my parents shelf called 'Sailing alone around the world' and I thought it was worth remembering. I dont know if the book itself is any good but I like the title. It looked as if the title was literally what happened in the book but I think it would suit something a little less obvious.

2007-12-25T11:42:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across Tamara De Lempicka's work and just thought it doesn't look dissimilar to a lot of work you see in the 3D animation landscape these days.

That modern cubist look seems to pop up a lot in 3D movies. Maybe it's easier to model, maybe it just looks cool.

Jon

Sisters

2007-12-15T20:38:00.000-08:00

I am reading

2007-12-14T21:31:00.000-08:00

So rather than fill up my blog links section untill its three pages long I have set up a google reader account. Now to the right is the 'I recomend' section where I will post my latest favourite posts from my rather giant list of artists blogs that I check on a regular basis. With any luck I will be able to pair down the blog links section to the cream of the crop but still link to any other good stuff when it pops up. Take a look.

jon

Very

2007-12-13T16:06:00.000-08:00

early character design for an upcoming short film,

Reactions

2007-12-02T17:03:00.000-08:00

Character animation reference at its best, thanks Flip

something or nothing

2007-11-28T17:05:00.000-08:00

faces

2007-11-26T11:59:00.000-08:00

Pixar university!

2007-11-24T15:21:00.000-08:00

Tho following speil is swiped from wikipedia, so cool!!!!

Pixar University is an in-house professional-development program that expands the concept of employee education by broadening its focus from skills training to a more general fine-arts education[13]. The program offers more than 110 courses: a complete filmmaking curriculum, classes on painting, drawing, sculpting and creative writing, which usually last four to sixteen weeks. These classes are available not only for animators, but everyone, from the security guard to cafeteria chef[14].
In this setting, employees are allowed to miss work for a full slate in classes (about 14 per week) to raise the level of the best, cross-train, and develop mastery in whatever subjects may interest them[14]. The vision behind the university is for employees to try new things, work together better and test new ideas, but one of the most important benefits from the program is to build morale, spirit and communication among employees[13].
The dean of Pixar University, Randy S. Nelson, explains: "We've made the leap from an idea-centered business to a people-centered business. Instead of developing ideas, we develop people. Instead of investing in ideas, we invest in people. We're trying to create a culture of learning, filled with lifelong learners. It's no trick for talented people to be interesting, but it's a gift to be interested. We want an organization filled with interested people

Actors wot are good

2007-11-22T18:53:00.000-08:00

Kevin Spacey
Thora Birch
Ana Paquin
Claire Danes
Leonardo DiCaprio
Jake gyllenhall
Owen Wilson
Bill Murray
Susan Sarandon
Kate Winslet
Nicole Kidman
Miranda July
Clive Owen
Natalie Portman
Steve Buscemi
Scarlett Johansen
Liam Neeson
Kate Blanchett

Pipped

2007-11-20T15:11:00.001-08:00

Forst Shot (ish)

First full rig

2007-11-13T20:37:00.000-08:00

First go at a fully working 3d character rig