Animated Short Film Work:


Dream Sweeper – Written and Directed by Brendan Bellomo
CGI Robot created in LightWave 3D

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Dream Sweeper, a film I wrote, directed and animated was exhibited at Lincoln Center. In December 2004 it screened with the 60-piece NYU Symphony Orchestra performing an original, live score by composer Tiffany Wu and conducted by Chien-Nien Chen. Japhy Riddle and I collaborated on the stop motion animation, sound design and editing for the film, while I worked on the digital animation to this science fiction short.

Synopsis:

A robot janitor discovers artistic refuge within the oppressive world of a mysterious ocean metropolis. The film’s miniature sets and characters, constructed from found objects and electronic parts, were animated using stop motion techniques. These elements were coupled with digital animation accomplished in LightWave 3D throughout the 16-month production.

The Production:

Japhy and I started this production in 2002 without any idea what the story would be about. We only knew that we wanted to create another world: mysterious and oppressive.

Set Construction:

Here are some pictures of Japhy and I working on set design. These are actually during the "Bohemibot" set construction sessions, but the process closely resembles the Dream Sweeper environment building procedure.

Starting Out: Stop Motion

We created the train shots (see below) as the very first sequence in the film. We shot with a Canon XL1s and recorded directly to DV capture in Adobe Premiere in progressive scan. Simultaneously, we did "video assist" to a Video Tool Works Video Lunchbox . The Lunchbox would capture a duplicate frame set that we could use for reference, PB, and ghosting when we needed to check out work in progress. Before Dream Sweeper, Japhy and I had finished out last stop motion film, Insect Transfer , in just 15 hours. We had no idea that Dream Sweeper would end up taking over 3,000 man-hours!

Japhy and I both animated and captured; we would trade off from day to day. To create the diverse environment of the water city and the surrounding area, we built 25 sets. Some took over 8 hours to create and were about 4'x6' while others were simple. But they were all made with out the use of glue or adhesives so we could strike them and re-use the components for other sets. We shot over 90 shots with stop motion.

The Next Step: Digital Animation

Soon we realized that we needed to couple digital animation into the produciton in order to achieve the look we wanted. This made complex efffects and nuanced animation possible. We animated just over 15,000 frames for this film throughout the intense 16 month production. Some 60 shots (of about 120 total) were animated digitally in Newtek's LightWave 3D .

The film's digital elements were all created from scratch. No presets textures or particle behaviors or existing models were used. The result of which was over 100,000 object, scene, images and texture files.

It was the first time I had used the advanced particle effects in LW known as Volumetrics and we ended up employing them heavily for the explosions, smoke, water, dust and various particles through out the film. In order to merge the stop motion with the CGI animation, we used detailed lighting matches, environment reflection mapping, shadow matching and automated digital color grading to composite the two types of visual elements together. An extensive amount of rotoscoping was done to paint out hands and add effects like motion blur to the moving characters. Everything was rendered on a Pentium III Dual 800 MHz, and two Pentium 4 2.26 GHz workstations with professional animation graphics cards.

Post Production: Sound Design

Japhy and I spent about two months sound designing Dream Sweeper. We used just two mikes and did almost no location recording. Everything was tracked right in my bedroom into Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge XP and Calkwalk Sonar XP. We tracked over 20 hours of sounds to be mixed down to just 8 minutes. There is only one sound the was "canned." But that's a secret.

We recorded everything from teakettles, salad spinners, light bulbs, CD-ROM drives, explosions, water and Styrofoam pellets to create the sounds for the industrial metropolis in the film. We used Sound Forge XP extensively to process the tracks that were recorded direct to disc with an SM 58 and an AKG C1000s. By employing a great deal of pitch and time manipulation as well as multi-tracking and some vocal SFX we created a whole world of sound to sell the story; which ultimately is about musical expression.

Support

We would not have been able to finish this challenging project without help from out friends. Victor Bellomo provided invaluable and continual support with script development, visual feedback and editing advice. Our fourth grade teacher Roger Ganas loaned us some great circuit boards for set design and my friend and calculus tutor Emile Bruneau gave me a headlight cover from his restored Ford Model A that we used as a skylight. Alex Klaiber mastered the DVDs in Apple DVD Studio Pro for us. Nicki, Robin's dog, ran onto the set one day and almost destroyed the days work. I had to painstakingly rotoscope her out!

Once the film was done (unscored version) Master Teacher Barbara Malmet, Professor John Canemaker , Professor Ronald Sadoff , Composer Tiffany Wu and Conductor Chien-Nien Chen would join Japhy and I to take the film to the next level.

Finishing and Initial Distribution

With the generous support of my sound recording teacher Barbara Malmet, whose continual help of my work has opened many doors, I made the first public screening of the film. I lectured about the sound design process for a NYU Tisch Film/TV Colloquium class of about 100. The film was very well received and it was an honor to tell others about what I had learned during the production process.

Next, I showed the film to Tisch Animation Professor and Department Head John Canemaker. The Academy Award winner was very excited about my work and the next semester, with special permission, I began an Advanced Production Independent Study with Professor Canemaker. For more info visit Bohemibot

Scoring Dream Sweeper: The Concerts

 Performance and Scoring Session Pictures

With the generous support NYU Professors Ronald Sadoff and John Canemaker, Dream Sweeper was exhibited at Lincoln Center. In December 2004 it screened with the 60-piece NYU Symphony Orchestra performing an original, live score by composer Tiffany Wu and conducted by Chien-Nien Chen.

Composer and NYU Graduate Student Tiffany Wu wrote a fantastic full length score for for the Lincoln Center screening. Composer and NYU Graduate Student Chien-Nien Chen did a marvelous job conduction the 15 piece ensemble of NYU musicians at the Walter Reade Theatre. Dream Sweeper was excellently received at Lincoln Center. It was accompanied by Graduate and Senior Thesis films from Tisch's Film/TV Production program.

Most recently Tiffany Wu re-orchestrated the score for the 60 Piece NYU Symphony Orchestra. After a month of intense re-orchestration and rehearsal Chien-Nien Chen conducted before an audience of about 400 at NYU's Frederick Loewe Theatre. This screening was an exciting honor as the film was very well received. Dream Sweeper was the only film and was accompanied by Andrzej Panufnik's "Concertino for Timpani, Percussion, and Strings" and Gustav Mahler's "Symphony No. 4 in G major".

Making the DVD

Tiffany Wu, Chien-Nien Chen, Japhy Riddle and I just finished the final audio mix for the DVD. This soundtrack will fuse the original sound design with a recording of Wu's score performed by the NYU Symphony Orchestra conducted by Chen. Tiffany spent two weeks mixing the score recordings. We mixed down to stems from Digital Performer and then mixed the stems in Pro Tools using the Waves Renaissance Reverberator, EQ and compressor to master the tracks. This is the final and definitive version of the film. After mastering, the DVD should be ready in early February. If you are interested in purchasing a copy contact me...

Brendan Bellomo
(650) 814-2200
bb612@nyu.edu

Dream Sweeper: Production Time

+16 Months: Pre-Production/Production/Post-Production: Animation + SFX + Edit
(2 Months: SFX Recording and Mix)
+10 Days: Composing Midi Mockup Score
+3 Days: Prepare Score for 15 Ensemble
+1 Month: Re-Orchestrate for NYU Symphony Orchestra (60 Pieces) (3 versions)
+Two Full Weeks: Music Mix
+2 Days: Final Mixdown: SFX + Music
=
20 Months Total



Dream Sweeper Production Stills:



Still from Dream Sweeper title sequence. All CGI robot and set with digital particles. Created in Lightwave 3D.



The film's protagonist, a robot janitor. All CGI.



All CGI robot. Composite in LightWave 3D. Dual Background Plates of miniature set aquired with Canon XL1s.



Physical body model with CGI head. The digital lighting match was critical to "selling" this shot. Plate aquired with Canon XL1s.



CGI water city created in Newtek's LightWave 3D. Background painted in PhotoShop. ~1.8 million polygons. The 20 second open shot took over 60 hours to create and 70 hours to render on a Pentium 4 2200Mhz with 1024MB.



CGI robot with physical set. The Dream Sweeper robot was modeled by eye to closely match its physical counterpart. Plate aquired with Nikon D100 DSLR.



CGI robot with physical set and digital backlot. Plate acquired with Canon XL1s.



Physical set and model. Smoke and lights tracked onto the train in post with LightWave 3D. Plate acquired with Canon XL1s.



All CGI set created in LightWave 3D. This was rendered in two pieces. A layer of 15,000 lights was rendered on one workstation while another for the buildings, water and robot was rendered on another Pentium 4.



CGI robot and environment created in LightWave 3D.

Contact Brendan Bellomo
All Content Copyright 2005 by Brendan Bellomo