Animation Update and The Possibility Engine

First of all, I'm very pleased to say that Part IV of my animation was completed around 4am this morning. I'm going to take the rest of the weekend off and begin Part I on Monday, followed by some minor changes to Part II. The currently untitled animation will premiere at our Senior Photo show on May 2nd. After that, I'll post it here along with some extras.

Next, there are some pictures taken while filming The Possibility Engine at the Seibel Center on Wednesday. We spent more time changing rooms and moving lights around than actually filming, but it was a good time nonetheless. Got to work with the HD camera, which was really cool but unfortunately uses Nikon lenses (The ones we had were a 28-105 and a 50 f/1.8). Apologies to my Canon brethren. Overall a good equipment experience and the story really has a lot of potential for some cool camera/light work.

The stills once again taken with the trusty ol' Canon 70-200 f/2.8



Securing the lens adapter to the camera.

The director, Victor, considers the possibilities of camouflage duct tape.

One of the possible universes.

StarFox: The Movie Trailer

While this isn't exactly photography-related, it is relevant to my interest in film. This was my final project in Time Arts, made with Final Cut Pro. This was a lot of fun to make, especially the capturing part which required me to hook up the Nintendo in the computer lab and play through StarFox several times to get all the video/audio clips I wanted. Oh the looks I got.

One of the main reasons I chose StarFox is because in the game's audio options you can turn off the music and sound effects, leaving only the voices. Which is perfect because, as anyone who has tried to make their own fan trailer from an existing movie or TV show will tell you, there isn't any background noise mucking up the dialogue or having the game's music constantly changing from one clip to the next. The aspect ratio is a little more extreme than I would've liked, but that's a result cutting out the in-game Heads Up Display.

But hey- Ghostbusters was 2.35:1 and people still liked it, right?

Women's Gymnastics

These pictures are from the gymnastics "pink meet" in February. As a photographer, it's a welcome break from all the orange. Plus, the uniforms are much brighter than the usual navy blue so one's able to shoot at a lower ISO or, even better, a higher shutter speed (which helps with darkening the busy backgrounds in that gym. It's still difficult to capture a lot of their movements, though). It's especially handy for floor exercise where they're not elevated at all, which can leave you with some nice photos of the people waiting in line at the concession stand.

All images copyright Donald Eggert and The Daily Illini

The War on Drugs and The Hold Steady

While I'm at it, here's the most recent: The War on Drugs and The Hold Steady playing at the courtyard cafe. Now I was warned that the lighting was awful, but... wow. Almost no light falls on the lead singer or anyone else standing up front. (As you can see in one of the photos, the only light on the keyboard was a very dim red light.)

To make matters worse- when the second band came on, the moshing began. Imagine trying to wield a 70-200 at settings below the bare minimum in a tightly packed crowd that constantly jumping up and down and will randomly slam to one side. Once I got close enough I tried switching over to the 35mm f/2, but its AF is to slow to find the subject and snap the photo before the the crowd sways back or someone steps in front of me and starts in with the jumping. The only photo I ended up getting with that lens was a spray and pray where I held the camera above the crowd and shot down- something I really, really hate to do. So even though size in the crowd was a problem, I mostly stuck with the 70-200.

Thank God (or Canon?) for Image Stabilization.

Images copyright Donald Eggert and The Daily Illini

Team U.S.A. Gymnastics

Sorry it's been so long since the last update. The good news is that the animation in coming along very nicely. Part 4 is almost completely drawn and I should be able to start building the frames and sequencing this weekend.

Here are some photos from when the U.S.A. Olympic Gymnastics team came to Assembly Hall back in November '08 as part of the Tour of Gymnastics Superstars. One of the gymnasts, Justin Spring, is the assistant coach for our men's team and proposed to his girlfriend during the intermission. You can check out more of the story and a slideshow here.

All images copyright Donald Eggert and The Daily Illini