IRON MAN 2005 · SPEC PIECE
The second time I worked at CafeFx, I had much more animation experience. Around November of 2004, the company decided they wanted to do a spec piece to try and get work on the upcoming IronMan film. Unfortunately this had to be done after hours and right in the middle of Sin City production. They also wanted to try and finish it by the end of the year. For me, this was a good opportunity to work on something really cool.

Initially, everyone was excited because of the great storyboard Phil Norwood put together. However, most people were not thrilled about working in their spare time which is understandable. Many people dropped out or didn't deliver what they committed to. The final piece really suffers because of that. Animation wise it's fine for me, but I was really hoping it would turn out photo-real with great vfx, especially given the number of talented people who initially wanted to work on it. Even though people were dropping like flies, I put in a lot of time getting a 3d animatic done quickly to try and inspire the group to actually work on this. It worked to some degree, but I still ended up having to rig both Ironman and the enemies, as well as animate Ironman in the main shots. I even had to do everything on the end logo.

Despite all the hiccups, it was a great experience for me. I'm happy with some things about it, but dissappointed more people did not participate in their respective areas, such as lighting and compositing. I really felt it could have been a much stronger piece had it looked completely "real." The final product was finished around March 2005.
CREDITS

STORDYBOARD · DIRECTION
Phil Norwood

IRONMAN MODEL
Steve Arguello

HYDRA FLYER MODEL
Joe Hoback

HYDRA PILOT MODEL · HYDRA ANIMATION
Gabriel Vargas

HYDRA ANIMATION
Paul Griffin

HYDRA CHAINGUN MODEL
Manny Guizar

HYRDA RAILGUN MODEL
Nic Spier

RIGGING · 3D ANIMATIC · IRONMAN ANIMATION · END LOGO

Brett Paton

IRONMAN INSERT SHOT ANIMATION
Domenic Digiorgio

CITY COMP
Akira Orikasa

VFX AND FINAL COMP
David Ebner