Brett Wharton

Toyota Commercial Cinematic

2011-06-23T21:56:00.000-07:00

At Firstborn I had the opportunity to develop a commercial pitch for Toyota's concept vehicles. Below you can find a link to my cinematic, a render of my concept for the record player, and a couple of the value studies I sketched in order to convey the mood and style the cinematography would have aimed to achieve.

Two cars meet in a surreal, futuristic world and begin showing off. We discover their racetracks are in fact DJ turntables. When the DJ turns on the records, the cars switch into high gear.

Cinematic: http://vimeo.com/25540659

Conceptual Render:

Value Studies:

New Images

2011-05-13T17:10:00.000-07:00

Long time no post. Here's a dump of new images.

First two collaborations with Ringlingers. Bea Sims asked if I could help with some lighting ideas for a set she was working on. Once I opened the scene I couldn't resist digging into the rest of it until I had made it more my own.

Cassie lent me her character, a goofy alligator. I painted new textures and animated a sneak cycle after reading all about them in Richard Williams's Animator's Survival Kit. I had originally made the set for a Skittles project. When it was scrapped, I re-purposed the assets for this.

Here's a still from a shot completed for that canceled Skittles project.

This Skittles title was used and, as of this writing, it looks like it'll be featured on Firstborn's own film/animation reel :)

This was another ill-fated project, a spec commercial for Ford. After our company was bought by Dentsu, it seemed inappropriate to pitch to one of their client's (Toyota's) competitors. Changing to a Toyota pitch changed the story and the set. So, here's a comp I put together of the assets I built for a New York street that 3D Ford car would have sped down.

IBM Smarter City was a fun project that happily launched. I was given free reign to design and build a social services office under Michael Kuzmich's supervision. A cool guy, his instructions to me were to, "just make it cool" because the client's "really chill." Cool, to me, means modern furniture, 15-20 foot high ceilings and a 20mm lens.

For my second project in my first computer animation class I was excitedly telling Betsy Bauer how I planned to add a lens flare. She politely reminded me that lens flares are one of the biggest cliches in computer animation. I cut the flare then, but three years later, finally added a shot with a flare to my reel. I thought it served as a nice transition to my next piece.

These were a couple of my first assignments at Firstborn. We were making an airport for IBM. I told my boss, Eric Eng, that I really wanted to build the Boeing. He let me :)

Also made this apartment for IBM, but lit and shaded it just for kicks.

My biggest project isn't on here. While working, I learned to accept quickly when a direction I'm working on is changed, or a pitch is either shelved or doesn't result in a win for the agency (and therefore a website we get to bring to a finished project). This happened quite frequently.

For three months my main task was designing characters, storyboarding, laying out, modeling and animating a medieval project for a huge client. I had an awesome creative role on the project I would have never expected to be given so quickly at such a great studio. Firstborn definitely doesn't hold you back just because you're new.

Four months after finishing the project, our creative director broke to us the news that the client's marketing department decided to kill the project. They were uncomfortable associating the brand with medieval imagery. Alas, my dreams of having a dragon and ogre on StateFarm.com were shut down. It was actually the first time in Firstborn's history that a finished site failed to launch.

Ultimately though, I'm sure I'm much better prepared to do all the tasks I did on that project at a higher level when a new project comes along which hopefully has been signed off on by the client's marketing department!

Blue Balloons

2011-02-12T19:35:00.001-08:00

Worked on this today.

Warehouse

2011-02-10T13:47:00.000-08:00

Lighting studies for an upcoming render. (Also modeled the set.)

Car Model Sheet

2011-01-19T17:27:00.000-08:00

Shading and Textures

2011-01-09T17:40:00.000-08:00

Cassie Otte's model. You can see her animation here.

Photoshopping

2011-01-02T11:14:00.000-08:00

My first professional work for Firstborn was released this month. I designed and modeled the interior environments for the Social Services section of IBM's Smarter City website (the offices, server room, and apartment). I also got to build the Boeing jet, many of the vehicles, and some random models for the Air Transportation section.

A Few New Pictures

2011-01-02T10:29:00.000-08:00

Subway Sketches

2011-01-01T23:19:00.000-08:00

(or, Why Do These People Look So Depressed?)

Zoo Sketches

2011-01-01T22:12:00.000-08:00

Well what do you know? More pictures.

2010-10-10T17:34:00.001-07:00

Influence Map

2010-10-09T22:24:00.000-07:00

Don't be intimidated by the skull. It's just a Mary Blair pastel for Skull Rock from Peter Pan.

Tonight I read my friend Adam Hartlaub's recent blog posts and came across his Influence Map. It looked like an interesting, fun project. So, well over an hour later, I'm looking at my finished collage. I think it confirms three obsessions I already knew about: dramatic low-key lighting, movies, and some kind of fantasy, surreal setting.

In case you feel like trying one yourself, you can download a PSD template here.

More NYC

2010-10-03T00:19:00.000-07:00

I can't show any animation from work until it's officially released. For a change, I promise the next post will have some drawings.

Central Park

2010-09-25T22:37:00.001-07:00

New York City

2010-09-19T13:27:00.000-07:00

As it turns out, I take the subway to the stop at Times Square. I sure wasn't expecting my commute to be so exciting.
This is the entrance to our office. Couldn't believe how fancy it is.

View from my bedroom window.

And a couple pictures I thought were pretty cool from the plane ride over.

This is where I live (in the summer)

2010-08-28T19:46:00.001-07:00

Gator

2010-07-24T15:42:00.000-07:00

Character design and model compliments of Cassie Otte

Sneak in hiRes at http://www.youtube.com/whartonbrett#p/u/6/k6y1wp4BHT0

Angry walk in hiRes at http://www.youtube.com/user/WhartonBrett#p/u/6/G2YveaVeFqs

Charticle for RadioTime

2010-07-19T21:39:00.001-07:00

This is a freelance project I finished for Connect PR.

Here's the rough version and the concept sketch.

Penguin Walk

2010-07-16T21:48:00.000-07:00

After a year's happy hiatus, I have once again attempted to animate. It's really not my strength, but I want to give it some work. More animation coming soon! In the meantime, if you see this, please post your ideas! I would really love to revise this. Click here to see it on YouTube, fast and hiRes.

The rig is "Pengu" by Mayukh Datta. You can get it on CreativeCrash.com

TV News Backdrops

2010-05-06T04:55:00.000-07:00

New Demo Reel

2010-04-21T13:36:00.000-07:00

This treehouse is based on the illustration by my talented friend Betsy Bauer. It's part of my new reel at http://vimeo.com/11227731 .

New Lighting Renders

2010-04-05T16:05:00.000-07:00

Lighting and Modeling Reels

2010-03-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

YouTube.com/WhartonBrett
See them in 1080 p.

WIP Adam Repka's Kommander Kirr

2010-02-03T23:41:00.000-08:00

I did lighting, and revised some textures, models and the camera. I wonder how long this will take to render all 15 seconds...

Still Life

2010-01-23T14:24:00.000-08:00

Lighthouse

2010-01-23T11:38:00.000-08:00

Candlelight

2010-01-11T03:17:00.001-08:00

For my friends who wonder what lighting/texturing involves. You start with assets like these:

Treasure WIP

2010-01-10T03:43:00.000-08:00

Fluff

2010-01-09T21:44:00.001-08:00

Her first render. Improvements coming soon (a proper nose and mouth, for instance).

Files, Books and a Rainstick

2010-01-08T14:49:00.001-08:00

Venison

2010-01-07T00:54:00.000-08:00

Lighting and Texturing WIP

2009-12-29T11:47:00.000-08:00

This is really a first pass. Textures definitely have a ways to go. Right now I'm working on simulating Global Illumination for the Still Life. There should also be a bedroom render coming soon.

Once I get back to Chapman and can use Final Draft again, there should also be a huge post coming with some scripts!

Film Final

2009-12-18T15:28:00.000-08:00

This is the final project for our Intro to Visual Storytelling class at Chapman. You can see the film on YouTube. I am generally against movies about movies, but there were so many aspects of this class worth spoofing I figured: What better subject for my final miniDV production?

Mr. Toad and Salvador

2009-11-23T04:05:00.000-08:00

Mr. Toad is modeled after the Disney design for the 1949 film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. If you haven't seen it, you should! It's very short but very fun.

Notes from Oldboy Director Chan-Wook Park

2009-11-22T23:08:00.000-08:00

Pursuit

2009-11-02T01:11:00.001-08:00

See it on YouTube.

Movie Posters and DVD Cover

2009-09-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

I composed these posters and a DVD cover for a friend's thesis. The movie is written and directed by Mian Adnan Ahmad.

The Jacket

2009-09-27T13:46:00.001-07:00

Narrative Elements Essay on Ratatouille

2009-09-13T23:03:00.001-07:00

Still Life and Environments

2009-08-18T22:52:00.000-07:00

Figure

2009-08-18T22:03:00.000-07:00

Self portrait:
John Gulledge and Crishy Aponte:

J. Thaddeus Toad, Esq.

2009-07-08T23:15:00.000-07:00

So a group of the CAs at Ringling decided we would try modeling classic Disney characters over the summer to see how well we could realize them in 3d. After a week's effort--here's what I have:

Website and AWN Article

2009-07-03T23:37:00.000-07:00

Update: Ringling College removed my website shortly after I transferred. Nonetheless, here's an old screencap.

Also this July I was commended in an article in Animation World Magazine for my work on an I48 film project (the 48 hour guerrilla film contest).

Animation Reel

2009-05-12T14:52:00.000-07:00

Here's Ben.

Below are the original thumbnails, his model sheet, and drawings from the animatic.

Finally, this is my animation reel after completing my second year at Ringling College.

Commercial

2009-05-12T14:11:00.000-07:00

I directed this commercial for one of the final projects for Mark Parry's Camera & Sound class. Bri Meyer and Chaz Woods helped.

Subjective Animatic and Commercial

2009-05-12T10:47:00.000-07:00

For my final project for Concept II, the subjective animatic, I contrasted the points of view of an elephant hijacker and the passengers on the bus hijacked. It turned out kind of strange.

Below is my commercial animatic, an advertisement for Starbucks. A poodle has a frightening day at the groomers, but then is treated to a pastry. Happy ending indeed.

First Post

2009-05-11T18:37:00.000-07:00

The drawings and photograph are from my portfolio when I applied to Ringling College.

I did these last two pieces in my Communication Design and 3d Design classes.