My Animated Short has a Teaser-Trailer!

This is the English version of the Teaser.
Kaleh & Mbaki Teaser (-English-) from Dennis E. Sebastian on Vimeo.

This is the Tagalog version of the Teaser :)

Kaleh At Mbaki Teaser (-Tagalog-) from Dennis E. Sebastian on Vimeo.

Kaleh & Mbaki: Currently in Production

Visit the Kaleh & Mbaki blog
or the Kaleh & Mbaki facebook page

Currently in Pre-Production: Why The Sky Is High

I'm working on a new animated short film based on an old Filipino folk tale. The above character is a low poly version of the Shaman, the main character of my version of the story. I am very excited about this project :)

dennis e. sebastian: character animation REEL

dennis e. sebastian: character animation REEL (may2009) from destudioanima on Vimeo.

All Character Animation by Dennis E. Sebastian

01 Wolverine VS Ninjas - Animation Test
02 Santa Brothers - Animation Test
03 Mareet (Ramayana) - TV Series Pilot
04 Rama & Lakshaman (Ramayana) - TV Series Pilot
05 Ballerina - Animation Test

dennis e. sebastian: animation/cg supervisor REEL

dennis e. sebastian: supervisor REEL (may2009) from destudioanima on Vimeo.

01 Hoodwinked - Animation & Modeling Supervisor - Feature Film
02 Andong Agimat - CG Supervisor - Pitch
03 Banal - CG Supervisor - Feature Film
04 Brotherhood - CG Supervisor - TV Commercial
05 Happy Food - CG Supervisor - TV Commercial
06 Carnival - CG Supervisor - TV Commercial

dennis e. sebastian: writer/director REEL

dennis e. sebastian: writer/director REEL (may 2009) from destudioanima on Vimeo.

01 MA'YO - Writer/Director - Short Film Pitch
02 BTX - Director/CG Supervisor - Pitch
03 Man In A Hole - Writer/Director/Animator - Short Film
04 SAKO - Writer/Director/Animator - Short Film
05 Show & Tell - Writer/Director - Short Film Pitch
06 Tumatakbo - Writer/Director/CG Supervisor - Music Video

Updating My Reel

Here's a little intermission while I update my reel. An animation test (that is almost finished) of Wolverine fighting some bad ninjas.

The Optima Digital Years Part 2 (2007-2008)

After a year at GFR, the company was absorbed by its sister company Optima Digital (my alma mater in CG so to speak). I have now come full circle after 15 years. This time, however, it's purely supervision and very rarely any hands-on work.

AA
(Dennis E. Sebastian - CG Supervisor)



BANAL/Anak ni Kumander
(Dennis E. Sebastian - CG Supervisor)



Brotherhood - MILO TVC
(Dennis E. Sebastian - CG Supervisor)



Salvador - Hydro-Aid TVC
(Dennis E. Sebastian - CG Supervisor)



Pepsi - Rexona TVC
(Dennis E. Sebastian - CG Supervisor)



JTV Intro
(Dennis E. Sebastian - CG Supervisor)



* more to come

The Year of the Giant Flying Robots (2006-2007)

In 2006 I got linked up with my former boss from Optima Digital and what was first a one shot animation project turned out to be a full time stint as Animation Director & Operations Manager for a new company called Giant Flying Robots.




Carnival - Dunkin Donuts TVC
(Dennis E. Sebastian - Animation Director/CG Supervisor)



Eskimo - Dunkin Donuts TVC
(Dennis E. Sebastian - CG Supervisor)



River - Astring O Sol TVC
(Dennis E. Sebastian - CG Supervisor)



Water - ADB Pro Bono
(Dennis E. Sebastian - CG Supervisor/Particle effects animator)



Happy Food - Magnolia Nutri-Oil TVC
(Dennis E. Sebastian - Animation Director/CG Supervisor)



Hero - Bingo TVC
(Dennis E. Sebastian - CG Supervisor)



BTX Teaser
(Dennis E. Sebastian - Director and CG Supervisor for Teaser)
http://karnabal.blogspot.com/2009/01/posterity-post-btx.html

The Year of the Music Video: Tumatakbo (2005)

I took a sabbatical after Hoodwinked so I can focus on my own stories. But in the middle of pre-production for a short, I got infected by the music video bug. Music and Animation in a story that I create myself. Wonderful! - and I get paid too (well kinda, it pays peanuts).

Out of the dozens of pitches made only one got greenlit. The song was "Tumatakbo" by the band Mojofly. I wrote the story a long time ago but it fit the song perfectly. The rest is history.

* to see some of the other pitches visit http://karnabal.blogspot.com






An Animated Music Video
Written and Directed by Dennis E. Sebastian.


Music By MOJOFLY.
Produced by Karin Araneta for lukasMusic
Art Direction by Bants Abantao
Models/Textures by Voltaire Cada
Textures/Lighting by Mads Raneses
Animation by Terence Roldan and Dennis Sebastian
Technical Direction by Martin Sacramento

The video had it's debut September 2, 2005 at the Music Museum as part of the live album launch of the band Mojofly.

It won Best Animated Video as well as Favorite Indie Video in MTV Pilipinas Music Awards 2006

It was also part of the Official Selection in the 19th Singapore International Film Festival (2006)

The Digital EyeCandy Years (2003-2004)

I got my first big chance to work on a full length animated feature when the Hoodwinked project came to Philippine shores. Initially, my intention was to go back full time to character animation but my calling for that project turned out to be supervision once again.

It was an unconventional production to say the least. But we still managed to pull it off despite the limited manpower, resources, and time. Plus the movie did very well at the box office. I would, however, prefer to work with more than 25 animators and more than 6 months to animate the next time I am tasked to supervise a full length feature.





Hoodwinked: The True Story of Red Riding Hood
(Dennis E. Sebastian - Modeling and Animation Supervisor)

The ImagineAsia Years (1998-2002)

In late 1997 I discovered that there was a little known animation studio in Mandaluyong called ImagineAsia whose artists were working on an animated version of the Ramayana. I knew that I just had to be a part of it so I called them up, got interviewed and got hired as a supervisor/animator. We finished two completely different versions of the Ramayana pilot but it never took off. We did however got to do a few work for hire projects as well as a variety of in-house short films.

Max Lucado's You Are Mine






Character animation I did for Max Lucado's You Are Mine. A project at the now defunct ImagineAsia Inc.
__________________________________________________________________

AEX Conan


An animation exercise I did during one of our downtimes in the studio.
______________________________________________________________________________


Santa Brothers Test


A shot I animated for a project we were bidding for. I also modeled and rigged the thin Santa character. All other models, textures, rigs, and lighting work were done by other artists.
___________________________________________________________________


Maelstrom/Borkus Test


An animation test I did for the Borkus character in John Rocco's Maelstrom project. I also modeled the head and made the temporary rig. The rest of the body and the textures were done by other artists.
___________________________________________________________________


Ramayana


These are some shots from The Ramayana pilot episode which I animated. It was an in-house production of the studio. Directed by John Rocco.
___________________________________________________________________


Deer Animation Test


An animation test for one of the animal characters for the Ramayana pilot. I modeled, rigged, and animated the deer. The cg environment was from our model library at ImagineAsia Inc.

The Independent Years: SAKO - excerpts (1997)

The filmmaking bug remained with me and so I made another animated short. I worked on it in the evenings while helping out in another independent animated film during the day.



I made this animated short film for a Human Rights Festival/Competition which did not materialize. The organizers just disappeared.

Written, Directed, and Animated by
Dennis E. Sebastian
1997

software: 3D Studio (pre-Max version), Adobe Premiere
hardware: pentium 166 machine

The Independent Years: Man in a Hole - excerpts (1996)

After three years of working on tv commercials I decided I needed to learn more about real animation and filmmaking. This led me to the Mowelfund Film Institute's Independent film Animation Workshop.

Below are excerpts from my very first animated short film which was produced by Mowelfund. Done in stop-motion, shot with a 16mm Bolex, and edited on a Steenbeck.

After doing CG animation for commercials for 3 years, doing stop motion was a really great learning experience for me.



Story, Production Design, Model Construction, Lighting, Animation, Editing and Sound by Dennis E. Sebastian

The film won 2nd Place for Best Film Animation at the Gawad CCP Independent Film and Video Awards in 1996. (It was tied with another entry.)

It was part of the Official Selections of various film festivals held in Singapore, Spain, Tunisia, and Switzerland.

The Optima Digital Years Part 1 (1992-1995)

In December of 1991 I passed the Licensure Exams for the Board of Architecture. Two months later I quit my job and gave up the architecture profession for good. I bought a computer and self-studied 3D animation and nine months later I got hired as Optima Studio's first 3D artist. Aside from doing CG work for the various commercial projects, I also developed the pipeline which became the foundation for the future systems for the studio.



To start everything off, here's my very old CG reel from Optima Digital for posterity. Works are from 1992 to 1995. I still look at some of these with great fondness although the others really make me cringe whenever I watch them. Oh well, we all have to start somewhere :)

* since the list would be too long if I have to annotate each shot's CG credits, I will just include all personnel responsible, in one way or another, for the models, textures, lighting, animation, effects and compositing.

First there's me, Dennis E. Sebastian (90%). Then there's Norman Belen and Jay Santiago for some CG work. Also Pablo Biglang-Awa and Lou Agas for effects and compositing.


Here are a few more tv commercials in their entirety.


Ovalteenies (All the models (except keyboard), rigging, textures, and lighting by Dennis E. Sebastian, plus half the animation)



Predent (All of the CG by Dennis E. Sebastian)



Shell Rimula-X (All the models, rigging, textures, and lighting by Dennis E. Sebastian, plus half the animation)



Blue Ice Beer (All of the CG by Dennis E. Sebastian)


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this will be my portfolio site