Mr. Tumnus the Faun
iaian7 » blog » projects John Einselen, 10.05.08Inspiration
I grew up listening to my dad read C. S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia (and yes, I watched the BBC miniseries many times as a kid). When the live action film was released in 2005, it was the perfect excuse to make a faun costume! Though not intended to replicate the film adaptation of the character, I of course wore the costume to see the movie on opening weekend.
Horns
The original set of horns (circa 2005) were made from stiff paper I cut in such a way as to create shaped horns that would curl around my head, a design that landed somewhere between goats and rams. This form was taped up, then wrapped in string dipped in glue to form the ribbed texture, and finally painted with a custom acrylic paint and matte Mod Podge mixture that allowed me to polish some of the high points.
They were glued onto my forehead with super glue. Yes, I lost a lot of hair.
I eventually cut off the base of the horns so they were much shorter (more like 5”) and more manageable, but was never happy with how they turned out. New ones were eventually made out of clay, in a much more subtle 2” length. You can check out the Narnian horn article here.
Hooves
I was in a full-torso back brace in high school. Not a particularly enjoyable time, to be sure, but there was one positive beyond the spinal corrections: I had left over titanium bars. My dad constructed hooves out of wood and created a foot brace using the titanium pieces. I added industrial velcro straps, gel pads intended for high heels, and of course the fur coverings (attached with more velcro so I could piece things together when dressing, instead of trying to put everything on at once).
Clothes
These were largely repurposed, using the short tan pants from my Frodo Baggins outfit and a shirt and jacket I designed and made for a short film premiere where I was the lead VFX artist (No Greater Love,). And yes, I was slightly late to the premiere because I was finishing the last few stitches at home!
Results
It was snowing as I drove through the small town of Sweetser, Indiana, anticipating seeing cherished childhood memories of The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe translated to the big screen. The white of the snow easily reflected and diffused the light of street lamps, brightly illuminating the otherwise dark night. As I turned onto a side street toward Marion, a police officer pulled me over. “Did you realise you were driving without your headlights turned on?” Oh shoot, I really hadn’t. He was nice about it and let me off with a warning, at which point I started to drive away…only then realising I was wearing fur leggings, had 12” horns glued to my head, and in the seat next to me were giant hooves.
I’ll always wonder what story that police officer shared back at headquarters.
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Spring at home
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 27.04.08This weekend I got to drive down to Indiana and visit my family! I also got sidetracked Friday night while driving through Michigan… somehow seeing the signs for I69, but completely missing the exit. After missing an alternate route with a poorly marked detour, I gave up and by midnight was in Berrien Springs, where my brother goes to college (we live on opposite sides of the state; he on the west side, me on the east). We didn’t get home till 2:30 in the morning, but it was a fun ride.
Saturday I grabbed my camera and took photos around the house. Cherry, crab apple, and pear trees were in full bloom, along with ginko, violets, and many others. My parent’s place is rather idyllic (granted, having grown up there, I could be biased). Unfortunately, being an “out of state” visitor, I couldn’t get cheap admission to the Mississinewa Reservoir, so ended up driving around the Seven Pillars formation and hiking some of the river bed and the reservoir dam till sunset. I love spring (there’s more on Flickr).
Sunday my cousin Sarah Wilson graduated with a degree from Goshen college. It was probably the best graduation ceremony I’ve been to yet; and though people still slept through much of it (the photo is of my parents), it wasn’t nearly as bad as most. 
It was also great to see extended family, and hang out with grandparents. We had a big family lunch, and celebrated as many holidays as we could think of at once (there are odd little things us cousins do as holiday rituals, such as grabbing food off other people’s plates as part of Thanksgiving festivities).
Sarah is working in southern Kentucky this summer, then moving to South Korea for a year as an ESL teacher, so it’ll be awhile before we can hang out as a group. She will have a website to blog and post pictures on, and with an internet connection, everyone should be able to keep in touch pretty regularly. I’ll post the link for the website just as soon as I can get the design and back end working!
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Last snowfall
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 21.03.08Or rather, I hope it is. Every week I think it’s finally snowed for the last time, and then a week later, I’m proven wrong. Which in a way, is good, because I’d hate to end this winter without trying some flash photography at night during a mild snow storm.
Just in case we’re going to keep getting snow till I finally take the plunge, here’s an attempt. At the very least, it was fun. Also, cold. Especially after an hour running back and forth in the snow, testing shots and exposures.
More on Flickr.
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CG storytelling
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 12.02.08I watched the animated film Beowulf a couple weeks ago with some friends at the cheap theatre in town, and any review I could muster always comes back to this; computer graphic storytelling shouldn’t be any different than film. When it’s treated as something different, as something other than a filmic art form, it will fail.
Much has been written about the uncanny valley and its effect on storytelling. To paraphrase, the more robots and CG characters look, move, and talk like humans, the more repulsive they are. This is due to a multitude of factors, but depends primarily on the uncanny effect of something that closely mimics humanity – but gets it subtly wrong.
I’m not sure this can really encapsulate why Beowulf fails so spectacularly; though it’s certainly a contributing factor, there’s a bigger problem here. It’s also something I’m seeing more often as technology advances, and directors become more comfortable with CG. Like any other technique, 3D animation and computer graphics are merely a means to an end—the story. If the technique does not serve the story, it will most certainly and absolutely hinder it. Beowulf is a rather decent example of this; of how not to do a film.
Doing something because you can, inspires only rubbish.
Doing something because you cannot do it any other way; that has a chance to become art.
It’s a weird and tricky dichotomy. Technology allows creative and amazing new forms of artistry, and yet often destroys the drive to make it good. And because so much is possible now, many directors seem to feel the need to use it, even when unneeded or inappropriate.
In the classic sci-fi film Forbidden Planet, a horrifying monster was insinuated instead of shown; footprints, shadowed lights, noises. It’s a well established fact that allowing the audience to fill in the gaps, to imagine what isn’t shown, is a far more effective, more terrifying storytelling device than merely showing the monster itself. Defining something limits it. The same principle developed by Greek philosophers should be used to great effect in filmmaking! Be it a logical argument, frightening scene, a tragedy, comedy; when the audience is involved in the act of creation (be it the logical conclusion of an argument, or the imagining of a monster in a film), it becomes their own. Far more true and real than a speaker or filmaker could ever try to define by themselves.
The movie Signs used this approach for much of the film, but ultimately showed the aliens in full-on visual effects. Many viewers complained that, once shown, the mystery and terror had been lost. There would be complaints if the film had been too subtle of course, and in my opinion M. Night Shyamalan often strikes a decent balance between subtle storytelling and visual gratification.
Limitations, though frustrating, will often stretch those involved to come up with creative solutions; a more effective story telling device, a cheaper alternative, perhaps a more subtle, more elegant telling of their story. I can’t say I like this principle, or even rise to the challenge myself, but everything I’ve learned so far points to it being true.
The creator of Family Guy blamed an unfunny season on the lack of limitations. They had not been censored as much, and instead of writing something funny, it became something crass (or in the case of Family Guy, simply more crass).
The original Star Wars films used cutting edge effects, but was still constrained by the limitations of film, miniatures, and (at least compared to now) rather primitive bluescreen technology. Instead of focusing solely on effects, however, the story took precedence. Technology became a supporting actor. Part of that was due to limitations, and I suspect part due to Steven Spielberg’s involvement, but nonetheless, the movies became a huge success.
Once freed of those limitations, however, George Lucas went completely nuts. Quite literally. Story was thrown out in lieu of “stunning” worlds and vast digital landscapes. Not only are the new Star Wars movies less convincing, but they fail at the very foundational element—the story was hurt, instead of helped, by focusing on technique instead of art.
This discourse could go one for quite a long time, so I’d better start wrapping up…
Which brings us back to Beowulf. While fighting an uphill battle to overcome the Uncanny Valley (and failing miserably), director Robert Zemeckis completely missed the point. The story didn’t need to be told via animation. There was no reason to use motion capture and advanced technology, none, and it’s painfully obvious that performances and purpose were completely lost in the process.
Pixar, on the other hand, has made it abundantly clear that they will not only put story first, but will only tell stories that should be animated—how else could toys, bugs, and cars talk?
Should a film be done digitally? Only if that is the only way to do it, the only way to tell your story.
Couldn’t possibly agree more.
Have you seen Lightwave stuff in Youtube? Mostly they are titled “VFX test” or “dynamics test”.
Most independent CG hobbyists never finish their production or even take a story into a serious consideration.
Myself, Im making animated small feature because I have discovered that “maybe Lightwave could be a media what I can use”. If I could, I would shoot the movie with 35mm film with real humans (and dogs).
I find your comment most refreshing and wise.
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Apple DRM
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 25.01.08In a rather dire turn of events, Apple has just broken every macintosh After Effects installation in the world with the most recent Quicktime update. Quicktime 7.4 does, indeed, introduce the latest in digital rights management for media files. In the meantime, it also prevents After Effects from rendering to said files; you’ll be able to render a project for precisely 10 minutes, at which point Quicktime will crash the render process by “securing” the file-in-progress and locking down user access rights.
The current workaround is to render projects out to an image sequence (PNG files work well), and use Quicktime Pro to save the rendered frames into an MOV (or similar) media file. You may be able to render your image sequence from After Effects into a QT file as well, but be forewarned; even when pre-rendered, if you hit that 10 minute mark, you’re toast.
Ironically, this seems to be affecting OS X installations of After Effects, not Windows. Other applications (such as Lightwave) in OS X are also unaffected. While I appreciate Apple’s attempts to appease both media conglomerates and media consumers, I find it rather horrid that this is can be the result… especially as Apple has been quickly and quietly deleting forum threads regarding the problem. Will we be asked to move to Siberia soon? It’s more than a little disconcerting. At least last time I checked, the 99% negative reviews for the macbook power adapters were still displayed in the apple store.
On the flip side, some people have rightly pointed out that those installing Quicktime 7.4 have done so at their own risk. It’s not a required upgrade, they typed in their password, and clearly didn’t check to see if others were having trouble. You wouldn’t try a blind upgrade to other programs central to your workflow, would you? Adobe is notorious for not supporting Apple updates. It’s taken 6 months for CS3 applications to work in Leopard, and that’s after the year they had previous to the public release, with full Apple developer support.
Shame on Apple for so flippantly breaking a major graphics application in the process of implementing DRM procedures, shame on users for blindly upgrading without checking compatibility, and shame on Adobe for not writing compliant code (CS3 is by far the worst version yet of the Adobe product line – it doesn’t surprise me in the least as we’re seeing more and more fatalities).
One point to add about Quicktime 7.4 is that the newest iTunes upgrade (can’t remember which version) seems to require Quicktime 7.4. I tried to open iTunes after upgrading and it repeatedly crashed. After installing Quicktime 7.4, I had no problems whatsoever.
This seems to be another danger of Mac OS X software, that applications are interconnected. Users of both iTunes and After Effects are forced to choose which application will work better, missing out on newer upgrades or paying the price for upgrading.
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Iaian7Podcast - Music Show 03
iaian7 » podcast John Einselen, 20.01.08Featuring the Twelve Girls Band.
This starts a series of artist features, where I hope to delve a little deeper into their music and artistry. The Twelve Girls Band is a group of musicians from the Peoples Republic of China that have been filling stadiums in Asia for years, and have received critical acclaim in America as well.
It’s a blend of traditional Chinese music, classical, celtic, and modern covers. Enjoy!
Twelve Girls Band
“Dunhuang” (mp3)
from “Romantic Energy”
(Domo Records)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Napster
Buy at Amazon
Buy at GroupieTunes
More On This Album
Twelve Girls Band
“Ruten” (mp3)
from “Romantic Energy”
(Domo Records)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at Napster
Buy at Amazon
Buy at GroupieTunes
More On This Album
Twelve Girls Band
“The First Noel” (mp3)
from “Twelve Girls of Christmas”
(Domo Records)
Buy at iTunes Music Store
Buy at eMusic
Buy at Napster
Buy at Amazon
Buy at GroupieTunes
More On This Album
All music licensing courtesy of the IodaPromonet.
Hey, they may be playing at this music festival coming up in April. It’s the indie music equivalent to the film festival. You should fly out. It’ll only be in the 80s by then.
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Macworld Live!
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 15.01.08Well, macworld is in progress as I write this, and some reasonably cool stuff has happened already. The airport base station now comes in 500Gb and 1Tb models, the iPhone is seeing some updates, and iTunes is offering rentals. Sadly, a lot of websites are going down in the mad rush to find updates, but here are some of the live feeds still on the net:
MacRumorsLive is continuously updated via AJAX, and the only one I’m bothering with now. Text and pictures in a continuous stream!
ArsTechnica has several reporters writing updates and taking pictures.
Gizmodo and Engadget also have live feeds, though availability has been sporadic.
Here at Vectorform, bets have been raging as to what Air will entail… hardware, software, or service? My bet is on a combination, taking into consideration Intel’s WiMAX technology and the rollout of WiMAX in Japan and Germany. At the very least, Apple should be announcing an ulta-thin laptop, though I’m hoping for a tablet.
Well, now I’ve got to get back to reading live coverage updates… yay Macworld!
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Snow, fog, rain, and ice
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 7.01.08
Today marked a massive climate shift; after weeks of cold weather, snow, and ice, we suddenly got a warm draft of air here in south-eastern Michigan. While I sadly missed much of the thickest fog, I did manage to traipse around in my Sunday boots and grab some pictures from around the apartment grounds. No photoshop needed, save for some colour correction and contrast adjustments. As it has already been asked, no, the fog is not fake.
I did manage to accidentally tear off all four of my tzitzit tassels in the process of hiking through the snow and ice, and my pants were completely soaked from the ground up a foot or two. For January it’s surprisingly warm, but after a couple hours I was feeling kinda chilled, and by 6:00 it was too dark for photos anyway. Once inside I realized I’d lost my camera remote somewhere in the piles of snow. Guess it’s time to start looking for a new one.
These have also been posted to Flickr, along with a few extras.
Alas, the downside of living here is the boring weather: ‘sunny and warm,’ ‘sunny and warmer, ‘sunny and hot. But I’m adjusting. And the sky and mountains give the most dramatic shows (usually when I’m driving to work in traffic without a camera).
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Oh, the movies!
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 3.01.08One of the best (though certainly not the best) parts of visiting with friends in Ohio is the constant and continual film watching. It’s really great just to hang out and discuss some of the latest movies, their strengths, and weaknesses.
Of the films we watched and discussed, Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was the most divisive. While some could appreciate the macabre, I was left mourning for the shock I wanted to feel over such a horrific piece of cinema. The story itself is good and tragic, the music acceptable, and the humour, at times, slightly funny. But why was there so much killing? And so artlessly done? Not that art makes violence acceptable, but at least it can make it purposeful; instead of leaving death entirely gratuitous, unsurprising, dull, and ultimately pointless.
Thankfully The Kite Runner was superb. Dark, at times, but culturally, politically, and emotionally worth it. Covering a span of some years, it follows recent Afghani history through the lives of two boys, one of whom moves to America, the other who does not. I highly recommend it, along with Osama, if you have any interest in foreign films, cultural politics, or gripping dramas.
On the other side of the spectrum, there’s Juno. Not, perhaps, everyone’s cup of tea, but a hilarious comedy wrapped around the heartache of growing up, teenage pregnancy, and parenthood. The witty lines just keep coming… amid great performances by newcomers and old hats alike.
We also went to see Aliens Versus Predator: Requiem, mainly so we could laugh through the entire film. And laugh we did… along with most of the theater. For a film that’s supposed to be serious, there are some preposterously (and unintentionally) funny lines. Unfortunately, Resident Evil: Extenction was so bad, we couldn’t even laugh. Much glaring ensued between those forced to come, and those that mistakenly insisted it’d be fun.
Other highly recommended films from the past weekend would be Death at a Funeral and Fido. Neither one can really be justified in a single paragraph, so it must suffice to say that they’re both completely odd.
I can understand your distaste for Sweeney Todd. On defense of the movie, however, I will say it stayed very true to the broadway musical storyline (we studied the musical in college theater), and actually was a great adaptation of a depressing musical. I think those who knew the musical going in would have a better appreciation for it. I warned my girls before they saw it, “it’s not a happy story at all.’ They made the blood very ‘fake’ to somewhat mimic the play. Yes, the broadway play was very bloody, and ultimately everyone dies.
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2007
iaian7 » blog John Einselen, 1.01.08My belated Chirstmas letter and year end review. Enjoy sordid tales of lost jobs, the thrill of laborious moving expenses, and the excitement of my dead potted plants. Sadly, this excerpt really is more interesting than the full article, but there are shiny pictures and movie clips if you click the link!
mediaboxAdvanced
hey, nice pictures! i obviously haven’t visited your site since you started blogging again a couple months ago. the nature shots are strikingly splendid, and the graduation ones are aww, special. also, i’m impressed with the costume you came up with for LotR. you’re much braver than i. well, i guess we just stick out in different ways: you as a faun, me as the only american in my village. i love you!