January 2012
2 posts
WatchAlthough it’s just a simple logo resolve, this project is one that hits closer to home for me than most others I’ve worked on. Having always been a huge gamer and also a fan of Microsoft games, it is a privilege to see my own work at the forefront of all new Microsoft Studios releases. Forza Motorsports 4 is the first game released in 2011 to include the new logo animation. Concepted by Elliot...
WatchSeeing the northern lights in person is definitely near the top of my “Things to Do Before I Die list. Until then, however, I figured I could make do with engineering them digitally. The unique look and motion could be called abstract, but when you really study them you realize how particular their movement is. I discovered a great technique after a good deal of experimentation that...
November 2011
5 posts
WatchThis is a new spot masterminded by Jeremy Stuart at Digital Kitchen. The flowers are shot in time-lapse, but many might not realize that the bottle of perfume is entirely CG. My role was to assist my colleagues (credit list here) in 3D modeling the glass bottle and label.
October 2011
5 posts
30 Seconds @ The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
Watch the new :30 spot for The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas that we just finished creating at Digital Kitchen! The actors were filmed on a custom built elevator set, but the surrounding lobby was all done in 3D.
I started off by animating the elevator doors in 3DS Max. As the project moved forward, I had a heavy hand in the Fusion compositing. I became the point man on taking the graded...
Substrate
These programmed images by j.tarball are really incredible. I want to have this printed on a 6’ canvas and hang it on my wall.
Battle of the Bands
I’ve spent some of my free time recently throwing together this animation as a tribute to Project1999, a classic Everquest emulator. I pulled the character and environment models straight out of the game, and used 3D Studio Max’s Character Animation Tools to animate them.
I was aiming to capture the spirit of the game by retaining the slight video game appearance and animation. If...
June 2011
1 post
Windows Phone Take 2
We at Digital Kitchen were tasked with creating an updated version of the Microsoft Windows 7 teaser. Having already completed one video, we used the established pipeline to crank out an all new 90 second sequence.
Chad Ashley was on materials, Justin Reed on lighting and rendering, and myself on compositing. Chris Green offered assistance in animation, compositing, and asset wrangling. Jeremy...
March 2011
1 post
2 tags
ZipCar Animation Contest
A quick project completed in 18 hours over the course of 4 nights. Animated it on my laptop, lit and textured on my home desktop using VRay RT, and carried through to completion at work on my desktop & a 40 quad bladed render farm.
I placed second for $50 Zipcar driving credit. facebook.com/zipcar?v=app_10339498918
January 2011
1 post
3 tags
Entanglement Rendering
“Scientists have moved a step closer to creating ultra-fast quantum computers by generating 10 billion bits of quantum entanglement in silicon for the first time.
Scientists believe that super-fast quantum computers, based on quantum bits, or qubits, will be able to test many possible solutions to a problem at once. Conventional computers based on binary “switches,” or bits,...
December 2010
2 posts
2 tags
Belkin FTW, but PPPoE = Fail
I believe Belkin has trumped Linksys as the new standard in networking. Their new routers continue to impress me with ease of installation and also with the amount of features in the control panel. It comes with WPA encryption enabled without any setup required to get securely, wirelessly connected to the web. The friggin’ even thing comes out of the box with the power and ethernet cords...
2 tags
Living In The Cloud
So lets assume on a good day you have four computing devices you juggle about. Home desktop, work desktop, laptop, and mobile device. Each of them have their own place in your life, but you generally conduct many of the same activities across the board. Considering at any given moment at least one (if not two or three) of these devices is definitely within arm reach, it’s...
November 2010
2 posts
2 tags
New website is up!
Toddkumpf.com has switched from being a blog to a gallery and container for some other stuff. Eventually there will be articles, widgets, archived content & links, and an integration of this very weblog.
I recommend bookmarking toddkumpf.com for future reference, since this particular URL will soon be obsolete. Toddfx.com also redirects there now.
As you can see the theme here also...
2 tags
3D Blackberry Tablet
In this quick three day turnaround, the initial scene was created by the lead 3D artist at Digital Kitchen and handed off to me for a series of revisions. I molded the way the reflections and lighting dance across the tablet, tweaking them into place per direction of the client and creative leads.
This product spin was used as the end-tag in a 2 minutes Blackberry PlayBook release video...
August 2010
2 posts
2 tags
The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas
If you go to Las Vegas any time soon (or ever), you surely won’t miss the largest and highest resolution marquee on the strip. It’s displayed out front of The Cosmopolitan hotel, and us at Digital Kitchen are in charge of animating the content on it.
It’s primarily a montage of room photography and brand logos, but myself and other 3D artists here created the transitions...
2 tags
Never Enough Planning...
So yeah, remember my post last month about the crazy insane multimedia center? Well, I put it into motion and all was looking good, but as of today it has been derailed.
Essentially the system would involved a HDMI hub that all peripherals get routed through and then sent to both the projector and the TV. Any two of the four devices (X-Box, Blu-Ray, PC, etc.) could be sent to either screen...
July 2010
2 posts
1 tag
A piece of the 19th century
I recently stumbled upon a shop called ”American Barn Company” who specialize in demolishing barns and restoring old wood, furniture, and other antiques they find inside. What caught my eye in their storefront was this very rustic looking domed top steamer trunk. I’ve always been intrigued by the authentic “treasure chest” style of old trunks, and this is a perfect...
2 tags
My first (and last) Apple fanboy post
When the iPad was first announced, I saw zero use for it. I thought it was just an oversized and overpriced iTouch that would be a waste of money. Then it was launched and I got the opportunity to play with it a bit. Although it felt nice and looked sexy, it still seemed fairly useless beyond just being a coffee-table iTouch. I didn’t really think much more about it until just the...
June 2010
1 post
2 tags
Cartoon Network @ Toy Story 3
So Toy Story 3 is coming out this Friday, and in theory, the Cartoon Network animation I worked on at Digital Kitchen should be playing before the movie. The animation is an introduction sequence to Cartoon Network’s Screen Vision advertisement, which plays while people are filtering into the theater before the previews start. We are told it is being displayed in AMC theaters for G and PG...
May 2010
2 posts
2 tags
3D @ DK
After ~4 months of freelancing here, I’ve just been hired as a full time 3D artist at Digital Kitchen!
3 tags
2010 Compilation Reel
I finally just finished putting together a new reel. It’s been about a year in the making, including all commercial work I’ve had the opportunity to help out with. It’s all 720p so be sure to click the HD button to watch it in high definition on vimeo. Check out toddfx.com to see the full length videos featured here. And be expecting a lot of updates and additions from here...
April 2010
2 posts
2 tags
A Goofy Van
I had some free time today and started making this…
I won’t be taking it much further, I just wanted to get this out of my system. It’s just a random practice project.
2 tags
The Quest
I was once addicted to a game. It’s a game that soaked up so many years of my adolesance and kept me from participating in after school activities. I do not regret this, as I think it gave me much more enjoyment and value than any silly sport or club could of. So sure there may of been valuable physical and social benefits in those school activities, but when it comes down to it, what...
March 2010
2 posts
2 tags
Bouncing
Here’s a simple animation and lighting test I did exploring the differences between materials and physics. I did a similar exercise several years ago in basic 3D animation class, but it sounded fun to give it another shot.
Spheres Bounce Test from Todd K on Vimeo.
2 tags
$16,497.15
So apparently I was bored the other day, because I spent a good two hours drooling over computer parts and putting together a mega-machine. Believe it or not, it is actually slightly modest compared to what I initially set out to create. At least this all fits into one box…almost. After the jump you’ll find a list of components. Pardon the shotty layout, I lifted Newegg’s...
February 2010
6 posts
1 tag
Career Builders
I’m not going to be putting this on my portfolio site, as I only had an extremely minor role, but I did a couple days of work on this Career Builders commercial about 2 months ago.
Filmworkers sent me some 3D scenes in which I had to manipulate a character rig to match the motion of these actors. From there they used the geometry to interact with the fairy particles, allowing realistic...
3 tags
The Power of Free
Not many guys get to say they’re teaching their girlfriend how to 3D model and render, but fortunately I can (it’s how we met, actually)! Along that journey, I discovered a pretty nice plugin for Google Sketchup. IDX Renditioner unlocks loads of possibilities that the average Sketchup patron never dreamed of. No longer will your architectural spaces or mechanical parts look like...
1 tag
Capital One
Two Capital One spots in which I assisted with the lighting on the giant 3D pins are up. I worked with the Filmworkers team on this one.
Things a buzzin!
I recently had the opportunity to work on a couple of larger projects, and am excited about the amount of publicity being generated. I’m still new in this business and have had few occasions where my name is explicitly listed as part of a major commercial release. Check out this press release for the two Illinois Lottery commercials!
Another big deal that has surfaced this week, is the...
2 tags
The New Age of Mobile
My mobile computing experience just jumped to a new level I remember about five years ago when I got my first Sony Ericsson and was so excited that I could finally blog my photos on the go. Today, I edited and compressed HD video, generated thumbnails, formatted it into an HTML display, uploaded it all to my FTP, and created a blog entry to announce it. All from my iPhone.
This was only...
1 tag
Mega Millions
A new Illinois Lottery commercial I worked on is released. I worked with The Filmworkers Club to create a wall of money raining down on this car. Specifically, I created the dynamic dollar bills in the two skidding shots among various others. Check it out.
January 2010
3 posts
2 tags
An old work in progress
I first created this mech in 2008 as my final in a Maya class. I’ve just resurrected the project and have plans to transform this into a full visual effects shot. Here it is in its early stages.
This will be set in ~2020, where a post-apocalyptic world defends themselves with an army of salvaged and hacked together machinery. This concoction of a mech trots down the street stomping on...
1 tag
Dare.Dream.Do
A few Target spots I worked on at Digital Kitchen were released today. Look for them on TV, but you can also check them out at target.com/daredreamdo, as well as d-kitchen.com and toddfx.com.
They’re geared for black history month, and feature stop-motion style animations interacting with individuals speaking about their careers. My job involved creating various 3D elements to hover...
2 tags
Finders Keepers
Today I realized how appreciative i’ve grown of recycling fabrication materials and found objects. Somebody down the street threw out a massive wooden cabinet with wood veneer that could of came straight out of the IKEA showroom. I keep walking by it, and have to resist a very compelling urge to snag the paneling. Funny thing is, the only reason I don’t actually grab it is because I already...
December 2009
2 posts
1 tag
Burst Generator
GenArts and Wondertouch just released a new particle generator for After Effects called Particle Illusion (piAE). During my involvement in the beta test, I created this video cue to the Chemical Brothers song “Burst Generator.”
The video is being showcased on wondertouch.com
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1 tag
Some Motion Graphics
Check out PG.com and click “Hear Our Story” in the lower left of the image (you won’t see it without the latest version of Flash). I put together the video, creating some subtle motion graphics to bring the photographs to life. By slicing the foreground and background elements into separate layers, 3D space can be exaggerated with a slight camera move and rack focus.
November 2009
2 posts
2 tags
Mental Design...or something
One of the most important parts of design, particularly 3D modeling in my case, is how you think about a project. The way you develop and hold the information in your head will change your work flow.
What really got me into 3D modeling and animation was that it gave me to power to bring ideas to life. My overactive imagination would be responsible for conjuring up an idea and molding it into...
2 tags
The Sound of Epic
Copyright infringement aside, if the word epic had a soundtrack, it might go something like this.
October 2009
2 posts
1 tag
The Art of Advice
30 Pieces of Inspiring Words of Advice
I stumbled upon this yesterday and by the time I got finished reading it all, my mind and mood were in a new place. I love reading stuff like this, because it all just makes so much sense. It tells exactly the way life should be lived.
1 tag
A Year of Time
Over the last year or so I’ve been putting together a time-lapse of Greenview & Grace. Eventually it will be part of a larger ongoing time related project I have brewing. For this particular segment, the idea is to slowly transition through an entire year at this location, which would include animated details like rain, cloud movement, leaves falling/blowing, environmental sound effects,...
September 2009
1 post
1 tag
ToddFX.com
There’s a bunch of new stuff up. One day sooner or later I want to update the whole style of the site, but for now at least the newest content is up.
By the way, it only took like a month for the “new look” here to fully arrive, but is finally here to stay.
Also check out http://chicago.toddkumpf.com.
August 2009
2 posts
1 tag
The Look
I was never fully satisfied with the design I had come up with for the previous installment of toddkumpf.com, and never even got around to finishing it. I didn’t like the dark colors and messy layout, so I finally decided to revamp it all. I think this is a lot friendlier, and it will be much easier to manage as it’s being fed straight out of tumblr.com (blogging service). EDIT:...
Living Life →
I like this article a lot.
July 2009
2 posts
3D Animation Reel
I finally got together a second reel concentrating on 3D animation. Now maybe I can grab the attention of Pixar or somebody!
Stuttering Forum →
I’ve been spending a lot of time around this forum recently. There’s a lot of information and experiences being passed around, and being able to relate so closely to most of it is really inspiring as a stutterer. Also, I think this thread and this thread would be really interesting to a non-stutterer.