Meet "Seeker", a short VFX film combining live action and animation, completed by our final year students at Escape Studios. "Seeker" is a film about a giant robot seeking out its victim in a quiet suburban setting. The project was directed by Rassoul Edji and produced by Tosin Ogunleye, and overseen by supervising tutors Jonathan McFall and Allar Kaasik. "Seeker" has already been accepted for two film festivals, despite only having been entered into competition a few days ago.
About Seeker
The goal for Seeker was to deliver a sequence of shots that could be part of a feature film. Director Rassoul Edji wanted to make sure that the project "encompassed the entire filmmaking process". The film was inspired by the feature films "Transformers" and "Pacific Rim".Most of the VFX work in Seeker is invisible - with the goal being that, besides the robot "Titan", the audience should not be able to tell what is digital and what was shot on location.
Covid-19
The live action shoot on Seeker was filmed in a unique modernist villa in Faversham, Kent, just before Lockdown. The weather was tricky, and as a result principal photography took a day longer than expected.
VFX and post-production
The VFX and post-production was completed remotely, using whatever resources were available during Lockdown - including the Escape Studios VPN Network, which permitted the team to render through the Render Farm.
Remote Collaboration
The team collaborated through GoogleDocs, Shotgun and a number of other online platforms.
Modeling and Rigging
The creation of the Titan model and rig was a very iterative process, with a good deal of "back-and-forth" taking place between rigging and animation, to make sure that the rig could do everything it needed to.
"Seeker" Credits
"Seeker" in Film Festivals
Despite only having just been entered into festival competition, "Seeker" has already been accepted for two film festivals:
The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To find out more about our new BA/MArt, now recruiting for September 2020, follow this link. To apply, visit the official page here.
The live action shoot on Seeker was filmed in a unique modernist villa in Faversham, Kent, just before Lockdown. The weather was tricky, and as a result principal photography took a day longer than expected.
VFX and post-production
The VFX and post-production was completed remotely, using whatever resources were available during Lockdown - including the Escape Studios VPN Network, which permitted the team to render through the Render Farm.
The team collaborated through GoogleDocs, Shotgun and a number of other online platforms.
Modeling and Rigging
The creation of the Titan model and rig was a very iterative process, with a good deal of "back-and-forth" taking place between rigging and animation, to make sure that the rig could do everything it needed to.
"Seeker" Credits
- Rassoul Edji, Director, Editor, Animator, Titles, Colour Grading
- Tosin Ogunleye - Producer, Compositor, Matchmove
- Oscar Lowe - Executive Producer, 3D
- Zack Bish - Music
- Matteo Balduzzi - Director of Photography
- Vincenzo Meola - Actor, Compositor, Matchmove
- Tim Coleman - 3D
- C.J. Burbage - Animation
- Luca Valentino - Compositing, Matchmove
- Milan Grundza - Compositing, Matchmove
- Charlotte Derry - Compositing
- Will Philips - Matchmove
- Pranav Borse - Matchmove
"Seeker" in Film Festivals
Despite only having just been entered into festival competition, "Seeker" has already been accepted for two film festivals:
- Kosice International Monthly Film Festival, June 29th
- Prague International Monthly Film Festival, June 30th
The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To find out more about our new BA/MArt, now recruiting for September 2020, follow this link. To apply, visit the official page here.
Whats the best camcorder under $400 to make films for youtube vfx & afterfx ?
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Hey alvinbascal. This movie was shot with a BlackMagic Pocket 4K, which costs about £1000 and is great because it gives you options for using good lenses and access to high quality ProRes and raw formats, but you do need a stabiliser (we used Ronin). If you're just getting started and are not too concerned about filming greenscreens, then my recommendation would be to get a DJI OSMO Pocket £250, because it has a built in stabilisation, it shoots high quality MP4 at 4K and has a really decent sensor. https://www.dji.com/uk/osmo-pocket Great for shooting some action backplates to integrate some CG in it. Also it is small enough to carry around all the time, so whenever you see something cool, you can just pop it out without any set-up. It is worth getting an ND16 or ND32 filter for it for shooting outside, since it has a fixed iris.
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