KUTIMAN

What you are about to see is a mix of seemingly unrelated YouTube clips composited together to create a unique and new work of art, called Thru You. It's amazing, and amazing too, the creativity of Kutiman, who is behind this eclectic composition of videos and sounds. And I just love that Steely Dan drummer who opens this thing... "The Mother of All Funk Chords"

OBSERVING WATER

This project has been a collaboration with photographer Claudia Goetzelmann. The idea behind was creating an aura of water around the model standing on different postures. 3D techniques were important on this scene in order to keep the model "out of the water" without damaging her make-up, hair style and shooting set. Observing the water falling has been one of the main assets on this project. A wide H2O research, studying the light, textures, shapes, movements, speed, etc. You are thirsty, aren't you?

WE GOTTA GET OUT OF THIS PLACE

Sand, jungle and snow... were the ingredients for this latest Land Rover outdoor campaign. Kurt Geisler from Y&R who concepted and art directed this billboard went to see the final installation on this cold winter night in New York City and sent me this picture. I love how the snow board fades into the night sky. I am really happy the message is in such a great place!

BEFORE & AFTER

On the right you can see the final digital retouched piece. Ready to mark the seven differences?

TURNING DAY INTO NIGHT

I think just about every retoucher in the Bay Area has been asked to work on this Sprint campaign by Goodby, it's just such a vast campaign, I guess. Here we were asked to find out whether we could get away with a NASCAR shot that was taken in the day time and turn it into a night time shot, then create the trademark light swirls that make up the monster cars. I thought it looked halfway decent, but in the end, the time was found to do a shoot at night after all.

NEW GILETTE BODY WASH COMMERCIAL

New Gillette Body Wash commercial. In this case the 3D has been used to cover the body of the model while having a shower. Movement, texture, speed, shape, anatomy and color have been the challenges to accomplish.

INSIDE OUT / OUTSIDE IN

Piece written by Jamie Kripke.

I had the opportunity to work with the insanely talented Michael Tompert of Raygun on this ad for EA's new game. It was a very cool experience to collaborate with another artist that looks at things so differently. As someone that creates 3D objects from scratch, he views things from the inside out, where as a photographer, I look at things the opposite way. This was totally fascinating to me, and has changed how I now look at objects.

For the record, Michael was hired by Heat (via Kate Chase) to create the image, and I was there to shoot photographic elements, and to create the feel and mood that would translate to the main image. We rented the Alameda airstrip and wet it down with a water truck, then arranged the cars into a rough approximation of the layout. We waited for the light to be just right, then started shooting like crazy in order to capture as many elements as we could. Which looked kind of like this:

Michael also did shots of everything from the car's POV so he could get the reflections right. We also did shots of the car blasting through the scene on wet pavement to get details of how the water comes out off the wheels, which was really fun to shoot, and looks kind of like this:


Then we shot a million more frames of everything, and Michael went back to his studio with a bunch of jpegs (yes, jpegs) and started work on the final image. When he sent it to me I was totally blown away. It had been through a million rounds of art direction and retouching and had taken on a life of its own. I think it looks pretty killer, but have a hard time seeing my hand in this project.


Michael insists that I did create the mood that was the starting point for the image. I guess I'll take his word for it. I had a blast on this shoot, and am hoping to do more of this kind of work.

SANTA'S VISIT

Santa Claus took some holidays this year and he decided to visit us coming all the way to California. I took him down to Santa Cruz, CA. He could not get enough surfing. That's the Christmas card I created in his honor the past 2008. Finally, he enjoyed the sun and the waves of the Pacific Ocean.