Shots from previous filming.

Here are a few shots from the filming last week. More bloody fun with Graham and me rolling around the back of the van, not included in the shots but also in the van was Mark Wyness as the 3rd victim. Mark is also the production photographer so couldn't take any shots of himself unfortunately.

Mark Stirton (director) and Scott Ironside (Ronnie) stare at press cuttings I've produced for a later scene in the movie. Behind can be seen an early version of the movie poster with a white van instead of the blue one we now have.

Mark tempts Graham Robertson (victim 1) with a cancery treat while providing direction for the next scene - 'Lie still and don't laugh, you balloon.'

Corpsy pair enjoy a moment of rest. Me and Mr Graham dead it up big time while lying in a puddle of dessert sauce, which doesn't taste too bad initially but after 4 hours really makes your teeth hurt.

Back to Work!

Well, so much for my visiting my wee ginger godson (and his parents) last weekend as filming called and I had to lie in the back of a van with 3 bloody (literally) corpses for a whole day. As one of the mostly dead and make up artist I had to be there. Day went well, make up, blood, corpses etc. Scott Ironside, as one of the removal men, spent the whole throwing us around the van in varying states of bleed: he's a tuff bloke so it was no problem for him.

We were a sticky bunch by the end of the day. By the way, I tried out a new 'blood' recipe given to me by Allen (of Darkness Aftermath fame) and it worked pretty well. Strawberry and chocolate dessert sauce with food colouring and a little red wine. Worked great and came straight off with no staining - bonus. The mixture had about half a bottle of food colouring (red and yellow) instead of the usual 3 -4 bottles. Nice one Allen, cheers.

Photos from the day will be up as soon as I get them from the photographer, Mark Wyness.

Just to save this post looking empty I'll include some images I was working on a few weeks ago for a possible new project. I'm still getting used to Vue 5, so have been trying out some giant space cities (everyone loves those don't they). Of course, I couldn't be bothered making a whole city for a render test so got a pre-made one from those lovely folk at Daz studios (Poser stuff / Bryce). The Dystopia city block sets are great fun and very well modeled, they can be set up in Poser or Daz studio, then opened in Vue with textures intact - instant big space city. I used 2 sets out of the ten to make a little city layout, then chucked in the environment and a few Vue presets for dressing to finish it off.

With animated flying things and vehicles on the roads I think it would serve pretty nicely as back plates for some project. These images are as rendered, with no post work as yet.

Comic Artist Encounter 2...

As some of you fine fellows may know I'm a bit of a fanboy when it comes to comics. After many years of not seeing any I'm getting a fast trak course in modern comicy things from my mate Mike, who owns the local comic shop (Asylum books & Games).

Last Saturday I wondered into the store to find it empty apart from one bloke sitting at the main table, drawing stuff: as he was surrounded in comic artwork I guessed me may be one of the regular guest artists that visit, he was. Jon Haward has been working in comics and illustration for over 20 years and has worked with some of the best writers in the UK and Americaland, of course I hadn't heard of him due to my comic sabbatical.

I stayed for about an hour and had a great chat, eventually moving on as the word had spread and a heap of people that had heard of him were staring at me with envious eyes (comic fans are scary folk - except me of course). It turned out that Jon is a good friend of the artist David Lloyd (V for Vendetta), that I had met at the store last year, which was nice. I've now met quite a number of artists and writers at the store and they have all been fun people, I think me being a graphics bloke with an illustration background helps and also the fact that I'm not dribbling over them to draw Wonder Woman bending over in 'that special way.'

I am actually doing a lot of film stuff at the moment, but its learning software n' stuff so it's not too exciting to write about. More later....

Flash - ahaaaaa

Hi, just a quick bloget today. I'm currently hammering the new film website into shape and think it needs a bit more interactivity than it currently has: I'm thinking some games in flash would be cool. So far my flash skills are limited so I'm looking for some people that may be willing to knock up a game framework or basically do all the work while I point at things and provide drawings.

Any game developers out there that may be interested, please get in touch and I'll go into my ideas further. Notoriety and possibly money will be waved at the successful applicant.

I can't go into too much detail at the moment about content, but it's gonna be sweary - to tie in with the movie.

It's for charity, mate....

No, not for me. I generally don't give to charities as I know the sponging little funts just use the cash to eat crack and buy PS3's...

My mate Duncan (Aktoman) is doing a cross country walk (starting this Saturday) from one side of Scotchland to the other. Existing only on captured haggises and tartan pudding his trek will take him across 212 miles of the most rugged, badger infested terrain on earth... and he's doing this for fun! The walking mentalist has a heart of sponge though, he's got a link to a charity site on his blog where nice folk can donate money to the 'Gurkha Welfare Trust.'

As a big fan of the Gurkha's I said I'd mention it on me blog, and I have. Gurkha's are amazing soldiers and have been part of the British army since about 1815 - winning heaps of Victoria crosses and generally kicking the enemies arse in the name of truth, justice and freedom. To find out more about these brave chaps click here .

There is a link to Duncan's site in my links section, or click here. Please visit, even if its only to call him mental for doing the Southern Upland Way.

Various dangers Aktoman may encounter...