Simon Legrand

Megaupload owner arrested.

2012-01-23T12:16:00.003+01:00

THIS IS WHAT'S WRONG WITH BILLS LIKE ACTA, SOPA, PIPA and all the other wannabe IP protecting bills.
Megaupload was a cloud service like any other cloud service. If they're able to seize the domain name and send the owners to jail only because users hosted copyrighted material on their servers, then, by that logic, googleDocs is guilty of the same, ubuntuOne, dropBox and all the other cloud services around. This is a very big attack on our future and the future of data storage, management and an even bigger attack on our rights to privacy. Back in the days where you would tape your favourite show on a VHS would you have the FBI breaking your bedroom door down and seize the closet in which you stored your tapes? Would the FBI shutdown your entire school for photocopies your teacher made of book pages so the students could write on them? The powers behind legal terrorist attacks like these are afraid of the internet, they're afraid of the medium because they're afraid they will not know how to adapt, so, they do everything they can to halt its growth and/or shut it down.
If the content of the internet was as censored, as bland and pointless as the absolute crap they put on our TVs, would you stand for it?

STOP ACTA!

2012-01-22T21:14:00.001+01:00

I work in the film industry. I love my craft and I am very grateful to the Hollywood machine for allowing me to do what I love and get paid for it. But let it be clear that I in no way support ACTA, SOPA, PIPA and all proposed bill which will infringe on the people's right to learn, share and create beautiful things via the infinite power of the Internet. There are other ways to keep our industry healthy other than lobbying for bills that will push our society one step closer to an Orwellian dystopia.

Simon LeGrand

Some Tintin making-of videos.

2012-01-22T21:01:00.003+01:00

Also available from Catsuka

I name him Numbdoo

2012-01-14T15:51:00.001+01:00

Some early concept for a little game

2011-09-29T17:18:00.003+02:00

Another Tintin trailer, this time in german.

2011-09-27T00:45:00.002+02:00

Some new images in this one. Look pretty hey. Congrats Weta peeps. The fire looks especially nice! I'm looking at you Garry! :D

The Happy Feet 2 trailers are online.

2011-09-23T11:34:00.004+02:00

In the new one, we can see some krill characters which I was tasked to design and do preliminary modelling on back at dr D. I'm amazed to see that in two years, it hasn't changed too much from some of my original sketches and Zbrush models. However I'm sure they've gone through a laborious development cycle via all the talented modellers at dr D and have only come back to this look by chance.
PS. the shader work on these is AMAZING guys!

Late night sketch.

2011-09-20T00:27:00.000+02:00

Kitty.

2011-09-16T11:31:00.001+02:00

Stradford, London by night

2011-09-16T11:30:00.000+02:00

Nimes

2011-09-11T03:12:00.001+02:00

This is what a little bat looks like close-up

2011-08-20T02:47:00.000+02:00

Messing with lights, long expo and a gas-mask...

2011-08-20T02:03:00.001+02:00

Super fast sketch

2011-08-07T14:59:00.000+02:00

Le Mont St Michel

2011-08-02T02:44:00.000+02:00

Just some contrails.

2011-08-02T02:42:00.002+02:00

Playing with a torch-light in a wheat field

2011-08-02T02:36:00.000+02:00

Prepare to... Aaah, who am I kidding...

2011-07-31T10:24:00.003+02:00

Prepare to meet your marker number... Err... Who's counting anyway?

2011-07-24T00:44:00.003+02:00

Today's inky scribble after 2 days of awe-inspiring lurkings around Angouleme, the city of Comics. I love this town.

Prepare to meet your marker. #20

2011-07-13T11:27:00.001+02:00

Prepare to meet your marker. #19

2011-07-10T23:42:00.002+02:00

Prepare to meet your marker. #18

2011-07-08T14:06:00.002+02:00

Prepare to meet your marker. #17

2011-07-06T00:23:00.002+02:00

2011-07-05T19:45:00.002+02:00

Prepare to meet your marker. #16

2011-07-02T23:20:00.000+02:00

Prepare to meet your marker. #15

2011-07-02T23:06:00.000+02:00

So we went to see a "boring" old castle in France...

2011-06-29T15:07:00.002+02:00

...and then we got there...
...cue "Excalibur Carmina Burana".

Prepare to meet your marker. #14

2011-06-29T12:17:00.000+02:00

Prepare to meet your marker. #13

2011-06-29T12:11:00.000+02:00

Prepare to meet your marker. #12

2011-06-24T00:16:00.001+02:00

Alright, this one is definitely not great and is a bit of a cop-out, but it's quarter past midnight and I swear I'll do another one tomorrow to redeem myself.

Fires of the celebration of the summer soltice... I think.

2011-06-24T00:11:00.001+02:00

Either that or someone left the stove on.

Wasp on a flower.

2011-06-24T00:09:00.000+02:00

Birdie

2011-06-24T00:04:00.000+02:00

Wheat.

2011-06-24T00:01:00.000+02:00

Hmmm... Flower...

2011-06-23T23:58:00.000+02:00

Moon... again. Same thing, different lens.

2011-06-23T23:00:00.001+02:00

I photoed a cicada too...

2011-06-23T10:48:00.000+02:00

Prepare to meet your marker. #11

2011-06-23T10:35:00.001+02:00

I photoed a bee...

2011-06-22T23:15:00.002+02:00

BZZZ...

Prepare to meet your marker. #10

2011-06-22T22:12:00.003+02:00

And Charm wanted one where he wasn't "scary"...

Prepare to meet your marker. #09

2011-06-22T20:41:00.003+02:00

Ratty said he liked my dog from a couple of days ago. So I drew him another one! :)

Blackbird videos

2011-06-21T14:03:00.000+02:00

I found a friend on the road while cycling around town.

2011-06-20T22:00:00.017+02:00

I heard chicks dug... chicks...

So I was heading out for a bike ride this afternoon and stopped early when I saw this guy sitting on the gravel road leading out of the house. I stopped and thought I'd take a photo but got too close to him (around 10 cm from his face) and he decided to awkwardly run away. He managed to flap his wings a bit and get some air, but it was more like a chicken flight than that of a blackbird. At that point my Dad saw my camera bag and my bike alone in the middle of the driveway and probably thought I had been abducted by aliens. When he found me I explained that yes I had been abducted by aliens but that was a long time ago and that now I had to unhinge my jaw and and feast on the little bird I'd found like any good reptilian would do. My Dad and Mom, who had just joined us, were shocked! "You found a bird?!... Where?!". So I retracted my mandible jaws and pointed to the stack of tiles under which the bird was most likely hiding from me. At that point, birdy decided that he wanted to come out and my Dad gently took him. We took him home. Before you boo me, I have to say: The thing was retarded! I mean, we caught it really easily. The neighbourhood cat/cougar/tiger thing walking around would have turned this guy into easily 2 minutes of entertainment and we would have had him as an offering on our door step the next morning. True, now we have a pretty big responsibility to keep him in good health until he learns to fly, but I'm sure we'll bring him up to be the best damn Ostrich in Lorcy!

Chip, chip, chip...

Working on our routine...

Seriously, aerodynamics fail...

After all this I went for a 13.2 km bike ride. :)

View Larger Map

Prepare to meet your marker. #08

2011-06-20T14:16:00.001+02:00

Prepare to meet your marker. #07

2011-06-19T23:31:00.001+02:00

Almost didn't get that one in on time. :)

Some old sketches I just inked

2011-06-17T19:49:00.001+02:00

Prepare to meet your marker. #06

2011-06-17T15:37:00.003+02:00

Prepare to meet your marker. #05

2011-06-16T19:04:00.001+02:00

Not so good this time, but it's a try. Lucky I didn't become an architect.

Xmen first class VFX on FXguide.

2011-06-16T11:08:00.003+02:00

LINK HERE

Note that they seem to forget that the Banshee's scream in the final showdown was done by moi at Weta and not Luma. But whatever. Most of these articles are usually far from accurate.

Prepare to meet your marker. #04

2011-06-15T15:47:00.001+02:00

Prepare to meet your marker. #03

2011-06-14T17:18:00.004+02:00

Prepare to meet your marker. #02

2011-06-13T19:01:00.007+02:00

Prepare to meet your marker.

2011-06-12T10:04:00.001+02:00

Prepare to meet your marker is a new series of a drawing per day done in marker. :)

Some photos from my new thinking zone.

2011-06-11T06:40:00.002+02:00

Some concept art for a defunct project.

2011-05-26T05:28:00.000+02:00

A computer on a usb stick for less than 25 bucks.

2011-05-06T07:06:00.002+02:00

I don't often post news and links on this blog as I try to keep it as related to my work as possible, but I couldn't resist sharing this with the small amount of you guys who are stiff reading this. :)

This guy, David Braben, has built a computer the size of a usb stick which costs even less than a usb stick. Truly amazing. This opens up accessibility to the computing world to people, namely children in 3rd world countries, to the power of the the digital ages. Truly inspiring work. Another reason for posting this is that of course the only sensible thing to run on this baby are Linux and free-BSD distros including Ubuntu and Lubuntu.

Here's the newer trailer for Xmen first class.

2011-04-27T05:22:00.002+02:00

Xmen first class trailer.

2011-03-31T13:55:00.001+02:00

This is one of the films that has been keeping me busy amongst others. I like the trailer. :)
I did the effects on the XJET, like the afterburners, heat haze and condensation streamers. Simple stuff but fun.

Welcome to Hollywood...

2011-01-12T21:55:00.001+01:00

iPhone and blue pencil.

2010-12-30T04:56:00.002+01:00

Cocktail by the pool.

Florida Iguana

2010-12-24T04:52:00.001+01:00

Airport

2010-12-02T03:29:00.002+01:00

Giving the Cintiq a whirl.

2010-11-12T09:51:00.002+01:00

Zbrush and myPaint on Kubuntu 10.04.

This is why FX artists shouldn't be allowed to use fireworks.

2010-11-10T00:15:00.000+01:00

The FX department with fireworks - 1 from Simon LeGrand on Vimeo.

The FX department with fireworks - 2 from Simon LeGrand on Vimeo.

The Fishermen's Town.

2010-10-31T02:23:00.000+02:00

Badulah train station.

2010-10-25T09:54:00.004+02:00

Slow-stick maiden test flight.

2010-10-24T05:57:00.000+02:00

Unsuccessful would be an understatement, however it was a fun time and basically I think all I need is more power. The prop is hooked to the engine by quite a large gear lowering the RPM's of the prop compared to the RPM's of the engine. I'm going to try to change that gear ratio and I'm confident this baby will fly. The airframe seemed fairly stable. I may try to increase the V of the wings for more stability and also, somehow shift the electronics so that it's not so tail heavy.

Slow-stick maiden test flight. from Simon LeGrand on Vimeo.

Quick test sketch with the Cintiq.

2010-10-18T10:56:00.000+02:00

I am so ashamed. I have had this Cintiq for a couple of months now and I haven't been able to find the time to do any work with it. This is a very quick sushi chef test sketch that I did tonight with MyPaint.

Scratch built rc plane update.

2010-09-30T14:57:00.002+02:00

Scratch built slow stick progress.

2010-09-28T10:03:00.003+02:00

The overall beast in all its glory of wood and metal bits.

The elevators and rudder. Showing the control rods connected.

The servos ready to do my biding and control this untamed demon.

The propeller taken from an old gas engine rc plane. Hopefully it will do the trick.

My trusty controller. It's always there for me.

Meccanos! Who doesn't love 'em.

Rubber bands to hold the wings! Yup, ya gotta do watcha gotta do.

Scratch built slow stick.

2010-09-27T09:32:00.002+02:00

Moon.

2010-09-14T11:49:00.001+02:00

As well as being the title of one of my favourite movies of all time, tonight, it was also the subject of some test photography using a crazy 1300mm lens (merci Papa!). I'm very happy with these early results as I did not have a trigger with me and it was windy, thus shaking was a bit of an issue. Future tests will include tests on Venus, Jupiter and the neighbour's bathroom window.

Ubuntu Linux Used in the Making of Avatar

2010-09-14T04:41:00.000+02:00

It's definitely nice to see that the fact that we use Ubuntu on our Desktop computers at Weta is finally coming out officially. I hope Weta digital will make many more press releases on this topic.

Click the two links below to read a bit more about it.

"Ubuntu is at the core of all of this, running on all of the rendering nodes, and 90% of the desktops at Weta Digital".

"According to Paul, Ubuntu is at the core of all of this, running on all of the rendering nodes, and 90% of the desktops at Weta Digital."

Sculpture of some little dude.

2010-08-21T11:23:00.001+02:00

Mercedes SLS-AMG

2010-08-21T11:14:00.001+02:00

It's a BEAST!

I just bought a mother-flippin' CINTIQ!

2010-08-19T01:00:00.001+02:00

I'm on a boat MOTHAF*CKAAAA!

A video of the light sensitivity test.

2010-07-31T08:22:00.002+02:00

Arduino - Light Dependant Resistor, LEDs test. from Simon LeGrand on Vimeo.

And in action!

Arduino - Light Dependant Resistors, in action. from Simon LeGrand on Vimeo.

Arduino Robot.

2010-07-26T05:08:00.003+02:00

This little guy was the result of an Arduino (Interactive Physical Computing) crash-course I had the chance to attend over the weekend. I have to Say, Kim Newall from Mindkits was a great teacher and we all managed to get quite a cool little robot out of the 2 day course.
Here are some photos for now, I will post some video to demonstrate its functionality very soon.

Until I get footage of the actual beast, here's what it could do...

Don't Drink This Video.

2010-07-22T15:19:00.000+02:00

Experimental film using liquids mixing and chemical reactions. Shot on Canon 550D with Nikkor AF micro 60mm lens. Music by "The Orchestral Movement of 1932" (tinyurl.com/28q9kyg). This video is creative commons and you are welcome to use it for any purpose. I am also a strong believer in open source, so if you think one of the full HD source files may help you in one of your project don't hesitate to contact me and I will do my best to send you the uncut original source videos.

Don't Drink This. from Simon LeGrand on Vimeo.

Don't drink this.

2010-07-22T01:15:00.006+02:00

Some stills from yesterday's exploration of liquids mixing. I will post the full video on VIMEO very soon.

Ceylon - creatures

2010-06-30T01:53:00.006+02:00

Ceylon - portraits

2010-06-30T01:51:00.005+02:00

Ceylon - landscapes

2010-06-30T01:47:00.006+02:00

Photos of butterflies.

2010-06-14T06:28:00.006+02:00

Taken at the Singapore Changi airport butterfly garden.
I had the right lens for the job with me. I could have spent hours in there.

Another iPhone sketch.

2010-04-30T02:54:00.001+02:00

Bored at airport = more iPhone drawing

2010-02-18T03:13:00.001+01:00

Dyce trailer.

2010-02-14T23:51:00.009+01:00

A short film written and directed by my good friend Nick Kacevski and his team of editors, producers and actors. I had the previledge to help with a very small amount of CG. I had hoped to do more but sadly the distance between Sydney and Wellington wasn't our friend. Matt "Macka" Mackareth and Edwin "Houdini houdini" Erdmanis did a great job out of supervising and creating the great visuals that you will see in it. Once again I tip my hat to the whole team and wish this movie all the success it deserves.
LINK

Shoot 'em up. progress.

2010-02-14T10:09:00.000+01:00

Shoot 'em up my ram-ape brother!!!

2010-02-13T04:17:00.004+01:00

Early WIP...

MyPaint sketch with Ink brush.

2010-02-11T11:33:00.001+01:00

iPhone sketch.

2010-02-03T07:40:00.001+01:00

- Posted from my iPhone

bot

2010-01-19T22:29:00.000+01:00

Some Photos

2010-01-07T13:00:00.005+01:00

Another iPhone sketch!!!

2009-12-16T13:03:00.002+01:00

And yet another one.

2009-12-14T11:49:00.001+01:00

Well I simply haven't been able to stop finger painting on this damn thing. :)

- Posted from my iPhone

And another.

2009-12-13T12:12:00.001+01:00

It's pretty adictive.

- Posted from my iPhone

Another iPhone sketch.

2009-12-13T12:10:00.001+01:00

Iphone sketch

2009-12-12T06:44:00.004+01:00

Yup. I have an Iphone. I love it. My beautiful girlfriend decided to surprise me with it a couple of nights ago. I've be looking at all the cool painting and 3d apps available for it and I even bought a couple. The best one in my opinion is the one called "layers". Why? Because it has layers and it has a 'smudge tool'. Here's a little test I did with it this afternoon.

Life drawing

2009-11-30T13:08:00.003+01:00

Some tabletop sketches

2009-11-30T13:06:00.001+01:00