photography Archives - Page 26 of 43

Earth Day 2021

Disney's Animal Kingdom tiny planet featuring the Tree of Life and Expedition Everest

The celebration of Earth Day is always a special time for me, as it is also the anniversary of the opening of Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park at The Walt Disney World Resort; a park where I played a small part in the opening day festivities.

Disney's Animal Kingdom Virtual Grand Opening teaser page

At the time, I was a cast member with the Disney Multimedia Group working as an artist on a multitude of projects. To celebrate the opening of this new park, the company wanted to do something special and I was brought into the team that was responsible for the design and delivery of the first-ever event site for The Disney Co.

The idea was to tease the opening of the website on Disney.com leading up to the opening. At the time this was somewhat unheard of for a company like Disney and our team had to pitch to a lot of the executives in the company and continue to defend the project up until it launched – on the opening day of the park.

Disney's Animal Kingdom Virtual Grand Opening landing page

A theme park opening for the Disney Company is a huge party and the desire of this project was to allow a little of that Disney Magic to be delivered to fans around the world who could not be at the park on the day of opening.

Throughout the day, on the hour to coincide with events in the park, we would release new content about the park, the animals, attractions, and people who brough this new concept to life through videos on the site; which was a new concept.

Originally, the plan was live-video, but to ensure everything went smoothly the team ended up using pre-recorded video segments relating to the park’s opening.

Disney's Animal Kingdom Virtual Grand Opening Screen Saver page

No park experience would be complete without a little swag, so there was even some giveaways for those that participated in the day.

That project set a standard for the company that continues to this day. The project delivered over 650% increase in traffic to Disney.com on the day and more the following day; however, the event was only live for one-day to coincide with opening day at the park.

This garnered some disappointment from guests to the site and the next site we created, for the new Disney Cruise Line, was up for an extended period of time but that is another story.

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John Carpenter’s Halloween

Printed in Blood makes some great artbooks filled with visions of illustrations by artists from all over the world. They are currently finalizing the next project, John Carpenter’s Halloween to be released later in 2021, and this is one of my illustrations that was rejected from inclusion.

I have another illustration that made the cut, but wanted to share this one as we wait for the upcoming release from Printed in Blood. This film is one of my all-time favorite horror movies and it is very excting to have my work licensed to be included with so many other talented artists. I cannot wait to see what the final product looks like and will share more details as we get closer to the release date.

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Tiny Planets

Tiny planet image of the Star Tours attraction in the Disney Hollywood Studios

Back in 2011, when I began writing The Elements of Magic, I wanted to include as much immersive material in the iBook as possible and at the same time I was just beginning to create panoramic imagery.

As I explored the method of creating these sweeping vistas, I also discovered a way to manipulate them into appearing as tiny planets; this is done by presenting an equirectangular panoramic image in a stereographic projection.

Tiny planet of the Magic of Disney Animation attraction in the Disney Hollywood Studios

These images were created using a series of images shot on a specific tripod mount and stitched together to create the panorama. Once the panorama was created, the images were retouched and specific panorama within the image were highlighted to become the central feature of the image; for example, the AT-AT coming through the trees in front of Star Tours was enlarged to showcase the impact it has on a guest walking up to this attraction.

MuppetVision in 3-D tiny planet in the Disney Hollywood Studios.

At present I have several dozen of these images and I would like to continue working through the series. I had purchased a new 360 camera at the beginning of 2020 to being working through the new Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge land in the Studios when the pandemic hit and locked everything down. Once we return to a new sense of normalcy I will begin expanding the series, but until then I will work through the existing series and share them here on the site.

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Thor

Portrait of Chris Hemsworth as Thor, God of Thunder, to match my earlier portrait of Tom Hiddleson’s Loki, God of Mischief.

This print is on a Hahnemühle gloss Baryta paper. The gold leaf adhesive didn’t absorb into the paper, so you can see brush strokes of its application on the piece.

The matte papers will be better for this type of multi-media print in the future due to manner in which the glue absorbs into the paper as it dries and allowing a flatter application of the gold-leaf once burnished.

The illustration was created using Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and Corel Painter.

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Gold leaf

Further experimentation with the age-old technique of metal, or gold, leaf application to imagery. Using some giclee prints of my recent illustrations as the basis for these tests to combine the ancient with the modern.

There are certain considerations to take into account on the application of the leaf to the image areas. I am not using traditional bolle as the adhesive, but a liquid glue to adhere the leaf to the paper. Finding the right consistency of glue in the application as well as the most appropriate time for the glue to dry before applying the leaf are the answers I am seeking with these tests.

One of the other items I am exploring is the use of burnising and polishing of the leaf after the glue has dried fully. There are inconsistencies in such a laborious process, but I am slowly relearning some of the techniques taught in my bookbinding classes at university. I plan on continuing with some of these experiments in service to some larger pieces which I will share on the site.

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Loki, redux

Portrait-sketch of Tom Hiddleston as Loki

Print of Tom Hiddleston as Loki with metal leaf

I worked up a sketch of Tom Hiddleston as Loki the other day (top image) as a morning warmup. As the sketch was evolving, I thought I might be able to treat this particular idea a little different (bottom image) by incorporating some metal-leaf as a decorative element to the piece.

In my university days, I did a lot of bookbinding and thought that gold-leaf might be an interesting remarque on the illustration. This test print is the first attempt at using metal-leaf on any of my illustrations; I have used it for other purposes, but incorporating it into an illustration is a new technique for me.

One must really see the image to value the effect. Holding the illustration and tilting it back and forth to catcht the light is a really dramatic effect to the piece. I have a few more tests to perform but I plan on adding this to specific prints that bridge the gap between digital creation and traditional creative techniques.

The imperfections in the process are one of the intangible qualities of using this centuries-old technique paired with the latest in digital production that can breathe life into new methods and connect them to our artistic heritage.

The original sketch was created in Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and Corel Painter, while the print was output on a Canon Pro-100 printer to Hahnemühle Baryta paper. A fixative was sprayed on the print and the metal-leaf applied once dried. A final protective coat was applied to the piece, once the leaf had dried.

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