If you know me, you’ll know I have very strong opinions about Star Wars. This video is slightly outdated, (to put it kindly) as my views on many of the "Disney Star Wars" projects have become much more... critical. I also wish I had included more content from the pre-Disney Star Wars Expanded Universe, and, frankly, made the humor actually funny. One day, I’d love to revisit this project with better animation and stronger content, but unfortunately, time is limited. That said, I’m still proud of how many characters I managed to include. Please enjoy, and may the Force be with you!
Although the idea of Fold co. has existed longer (circa 2017) in the form of "selling" paper folded products, comics, 3D Prints, and more, the official website launched on May 21, 2020. The website enabled me to share stories in the form of animation unlike anything I had done beforehand. While now a relic of a past era, Fold co. sparked a period of artistic growth that I’ll always look back on with deep gratitude. Over the years, the site grew to host more than 15 animations and one movie, along with a vibrant cast of characters, many imagined with friends, that brought the world of Fold co. to life in a way that felt truly special.
Below is the site embed!
This was thrown together rather quickly, I had limited time to finish my final project while on a historical trip/program in the Netherlands. It was filmed on an iPhone (THE HORROR!) and edited in iMovie (THE SHAME!). Despite these constraints, I managed to finish the documentary in about 3–4 hours, thanks to some B-roll footage I had captured earlier at a Rembrandt festival. Although I was slightly concerned about the ethics, I used RVC voice conversion to make myself sound like Sir David Attenborough. All things considered, I’d say it turned out decent enough to share on my website—enjoy!
Written, edited, and directed by me, this was my first student film… and it shows. Personally, I believe the magic of filmmaking mostly happens in the editing room, but as a Lumière-style film, I was challenged to shoot everything in a single take with no cuts. It definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. I relied heavily on sound effects to create a sense of depth, and I vaguely remember being praised by both my peers and instructor for that choice and skill.
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Also written, edited, and directed by me, it's a pretty fun watch. I’d say that audio was once again my friend in this film (and I still stand by that for the most part), but unfortunately, NYC being NYC, it was really loud outside, so by the end you can barely hear the characters speak. The VFX were done sloppy as well, I would have done them in a Blender simulation or Houdini, but I didn't have time or access to them at that point. The film is reminiscent of a Charlie Chaplin piece, but I think taking it a step further and removing speech entirely might have improved its watchability. Just my two cents, anyway...
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A "mockumentary" about pigeons, written, edited, and directed by me! I really liked this concept a lot, and the execution… was decent. When you’re working with pigeons, you take what you can get and make the most of it, which I think was tastefully done in this case. I was especially happy with the color grading in this film; it made the blues and greens pop nicely. In general, I’m a fan of grading that brings more color into a film, since I find it more visually appealing. The actors did the voices for the pigeons nicely (particularly the voice for Kevin). I originally wanted to use AI voice modulation (RVC) to mimic David Attenborough’s voice for the documentary, but was persuaded otherwise by my peers and instructors. Personally, I believe it’s ethical to use AI as long as there’s another actor behind the performance, but oh well...
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More projects coming soon...
(man school really is an inhibitor)
Working on this with a friend, it is difficult trying to get the human segmentation working the way we want it to. Essentially you just scan anyone into the game and a 3D model of the subject will be assigned attruibes of a zoo animal that you as the player have to take care of as the zookeeper. You can make the zoo to your liking as you would expect from these types of mobile games, it's a cool concept!
As a Captain of the team HiveMind-19167 it is a very important for me to put my heart and soul into this project, so far it seems like it's going well (even if it is very time consuming). It's not just the hardware and the software we need to perfect but also the other factors the judges focus on, including and not limited to outreach.