The Blackheart Gang is a well oiled machine, a collective of good friends with passion for the arts. Each member has their own sets of skills and talents that form an incredible collaborative dynamic.
“Ree is a illustrator with red hair, freckles and braces; she also has a very short temper, a ticking time bomb of sorts. Markus is determined and strong, his heavy noble brow is set under a constant frown, he makes music and writes. Jannes takes all of Ree and Markus' bits and pieces and makes them real. TOGETHER THEY ARE THE BLACKHEART GANG!
Ree Treweek - Illustrator, concept and character developer for The BHG. Ree is 27 and works as a freelance illustrator.
Markus Smit (Wormstorm) - Musician, concept developer and writer for The BHG. Markus is 24 and has a musicstudio called SayThankYou.
Jannes Hendrikz - Compositor and Creative Director for The BHG. Jannes is 26 and works as a compositor and designer for BlackGinger Visual Effects.
How did they do it?
Again, in their own words:
“To keep it short…Ree drew all the elements with pen on paper, scanned them, and coloured them in with Photoshop. Jannes would then build a scene with her elements in Photoshop, and prep the layers for After Effects. He would then build a 3d environment in After Effects, add live-action elements we shot, and animate all 2d elements. A lot of time was spent blending the 2d elements and live action to create a living world with depth and dynamics. Environmental elements like caustics and volume light helped to achieve this look.
The next step was to give the 3d guys a background plate to animate on. Justin Baker who did all the 3d work, modeled all the birds and developed shaders to look like Ree’s drawings. We wanted to maintain an authentic feel, so it was important for the 3d birds to look as 2d as possible.
Jannes would then composite the renders into his scene, treat them and do the final camera animation. Markus then composed the music and recorded the voice artists.
We really hope to inspire people. This project was about beauty, sincerety and passion. We want to share that. And hopefully, for just a moment, pull people out of the chaos they have grown so accustomed to.
We see The Blackheart Gang as a lifelong project. And we have a lot of plans and ideas for the future.
The Tale of How is one of the histories from The Household. Difficult to tell you much about it in short because it resides in Markus and Ree’s heads. But, it is huge, with many branches and we will probably be working on it for the rest of our lives.”
We are glad to announce the launch of the new Otaku Magazine issue, which has the theme “THE END OF THE WORLD” and encompasses various themes, from Godzilla and Gundam, to otaku survival methods. (more info: otakumag.com)
Did you guys give your video and creative ideas to United Airlines? They're airing a commercial in the states now that looks just like your video "The Tale of How". I hope you're getting paid for this. I know of another artist who's work they completely ripped off for another commercial. That artist didn't get a cent or any credit at all, even though United Airlines clearly stole their ideas almost completely. I guess they figure that artists are too poor and unconnected to actually bring a lawsuit.
I hope you guys are getting paid for that commercial. It's airing constantly now during the Olympics..
KAIDAN is the term used for the Japanese ghost stories, and, extensively, for the J-Horror culture. The Buddhist moralizing stories were rapidly transformed into international shockers; people wanted more frightening monstrosities and oddness, with no direct connection with the Western horror.
Manga, anime, movies and the subcultures developed around them competed in shicks and panic. If you really want to know why on the Japanese horror movies is written 18+, take a look at the next issue of Otaku Magazine. Nevertheless, is our duty to warn you that all who looked inside certain pages of this issue have disappeared shortly after. Still, it might be just a story to send the children to sleep for good.
great to hear from you guys again! I'm looking forward to your next short. If I can be of any assistance let me know ;)
I'm still working on a feature movie and trying to finish some short cartoons at the moment and playing a lot of music... too much to do and so little time.
hey guys , I just saw that my myspace was spammed... I did not send you this B/S message below. I resolved that spam problem but wasnt able to delete the message so, sorry about it.
Anyway I wanted to say Hi , Your movie still looks great!
I had some beers with you guys in Annecy at the Leffe cafe this year. I hope you still had a great time at the festival. Are you working on something new?
Thank you for the add. I am mildly... ok very much obsessed with your animation. I work at a place called ghost productions (www.ghostproductions.com). I'm working on a short film that has a similar feel to Tale of How. You are all truly inspirational. Cheers!
-Joel
