Diego VillalónPortfolio 2009

Contact: diego.villalon@gmail.com

PresentationI am Diego Villalón, a 26 years old Chilean designer. I could say that I start-ed making independent films when I was 14 years old. In 1996, as a school assignment, I made a new “Indiana Jones Saga” film with my best friend. That was the beginning, and since then we have never stopped working together. Of course, as time past, we went to university, and we became more and more professional in our productions.

After a two years Social Sciences Bacherlor’s Degree, I studied Design in Universidad Católica de Chile, while my friend studied Film Making at a dif-ferent university. Despite this, we kept working as a team making several independent short films, some of them just for fun, and some of them for different contests and festivals in which we often got good results.

Even though I like design very much, I always had in mind making movies. So, I’d rather say that I studied design not to be a classical designer, but as a way to take over almost any kind of communication project. I learnt to think as a designer and I experimented with many skills and techniques which I have successfully used in my short movie making experience.

For my Thesis Design Project I did research about how to create a Chilean Film Commission to promote the great potential of Chilean locations for filming in our country, and I graduated as a designer in January 2008.

Since then, I worked as a design teacher in Universidad Gabriela Mistral for half a year, and now I work in a Production House called “Patagonia Chile TV” and keep on taking independent projects. At the moment, I’m also studying a “Maya 3D FX” diploma in “Academia Mac” and I recently got a two years scholarship to specialize as a Production Designer in London.

Part 1 - ProjectsPersonal Projects and Works

In the first part of my portfolio, I will mainly present my personal work and projects, considering “personal” as projects that I have almost made on my own, in which I have worked in a very important role or I have participated in the whole production process. In this section I will include some Short Films, TV Spots and my Design Thesis Project.

This is the most important section, because it’s in these projects that I really used my whole potential and developed my own ideas and tech-niques.

Santiago UnpluggedSpecial Prize, “Nanometrajes Urbanos”, 2005

This guy named “Fla”, walks through the city plugged to his headphones and unplugged from the world. He suddenly comes back to reality when he’s almost part of a car crash. He takes 5 seconds to see what happened and then he puts his headphones and continues his way.

A simple story that happens almost everyday in every major city. Made in a mix of handmade animation, and a 3D scenery.

I made animation direction and 3D scenery design.

Details

Year

2005

Duration

30 Seconds

Technique

Traditional Animation and 3D

Role

Idea, Animation Direction,

3D Scenery Design

SubsueloWeb video teaser for independent comic book

Subsuelo (Underground) was a personal project from the international comic designer Gabriel Rodriguez. It told the story of an underground world which was connected with another dimension via the subway tun-nels under Santiago.

We were asked to make a web video trailer to invite people to read the comic. The characters were given.

I directed this production and designed some of the sceneries in collabo-rations with other designers.

Details

Year

2006

Duration

30 Seconds

Technique

Animation

Role

Idea, Animation Direction,

3D Scenery Design

El Profesor MalditoThe Evil Teacher - Independent Short Film

The Evil Teacher is based on a story from Tails From the Crypt. Two school friends playing with a black magic book cut a teacher’s head by mistake. The teacher comes back as an evil zombie and they’ll have to gather all the ingredients to get him back to life.

This short movie was made with a £10 budget to help the brother of a friend in a school short film contest. We continued developing it as a low budget horror movie with original soundtrack and it was selected in “Santiago Rojo Sangre” horror film festival and made it to the big screen.

I was the Executive Producer, Direction Assistant and Special Effects Designer.

Details

Year

2006

Duration

19 Minutes

Technique

Digital 8 Video

Role

Executive Producer, Direction As-

sistance and Special Effects.

Chileno MedioSpecial Prize, “Nanometrajes Urbanos”, 2007

The word “Medio” is used in Chile to say “Half”, “Average” and also to emphasise certain half way characteristics of a person. In this short we play with all those meanings. This “Average Chilean” tells us about his life using repeatedly the word “Medio” to describe things. Finally we realize that he’s also cut in half.

This short film describes the average life of the average Chilean people with a technique which mixes pictures, designs and real textures to cre-ate an interesting looking environment.

I worked on the script and directed this short film.

Details

Year

2007

Duration

30 Seconds

Technique

Digital Composition and Animation

Role

Idea, Direction

La Cazadora de DemoniosComic Movil TV Spot

This spot shows an animated comic scene from Comic Movil project. La Cazadora de Demonios (The Demon Hunter) was a school girl who had special powers to fight against demons.

Comic Movil was an independent enterprise which got government seed capital to develop their business of selling comics through cell phones. We made two TV spots with characters from their comics. It was trans-mitted by Channel 13 in Chilean open TV.

I made technical and animation direction for both spots.

Details

Year

2007

Duration

30 Seconds

Technique

Animation and Motion Graphics

Role

Technical and Animation Direction

Corazón EscolarComic Movil TV Spot

This spot shows an animated comic scene from Comic Movil project. Corazón Escolar (School Heart) tells the adventures of a typical group of friends at school and their teenage love stories.

Comic Movil was an independent enterprise which got government seed capital to develop their business of selling comics through cell phones. We made two TV spots with characters from their comics. It was trans-mitted by Channel 13 in Chilean open TV.

I made technical and animation direction for both spots.

Details

Year

2007

Duration

30 Seconds

Technique

Animation and Motion Graphics

Role

Technical and Animation Direction

Mas o MenosSelected for “The science of dream” contest

Mas o Menos (More or Less) is the nightmare of a guy who wakes up and tries to have breakfast but everything escapes from his hands. In the end we see he has a negative charge from a giant magnet on his back.

This short film was made in stop motion technique. It was sent to a con-test for the premiere of Michel Gondry’s movie “The science of dream” and it was selected for the official DVD version in Chile.

I worked on the script, directed and postproduced the film.

Details

Year

2007

Duration

30 Seconds

Technique

Stop Motion Animation

Role

Idea, Direction, Postproduction

Monster CameraPersonal Animation Experiment for DVD Menu

I needed to make a compilation of my work with a friend in DVD. We had never made 3D animation before and we decided to make this experi-ment to give some life to the menu background.

For some strange reason in Science Fiction movies aliens, monsters, zombies and every kind of strange creatures always attack New York, Washington, Paris or London. Finally we have our own chilean invasion!!

This is a monster camera attacking Santiago, Chile, with some “War of the Worlds” influence.

Design Process

1. We looked for some references and made a general drawing of how the camera should look.

2. I designed technical plans for the mechanisms so everything looked real when we animated the tripod.

3. I made the 3D model, rendered the animation, made the composi-tion with a picture of Santiago and added some explosions effects.

Cabeza de RatónTV Spot for Young Art Contest - www.mavi.cl

Cabeza de Ratón (Mouse Head) is a young artists contest organized by the Visual Arts Museum of Chile (MAVI). They asked our team to make a TV Spot in which the main concept behind the name was “It’s better to be a mouse head than a lion’s tail” (a typical Chilean proverb).

We tried to show how “cool” it can be to wear a mouse head around the city. I helped develop the script, made the executive production, special effects direction and digital compositing.

Details

Year

2009

Duration

27 Seconds

Technique

Digital Video + Animation

Role

Executive Production, Special Effects,

Digital Compositing

All Pictures by Gerhard Hüdepohl - www.atacamaphoto.com

Film ChileDesign Thesis: A Chilean Film Commission

Chile is a very long country where you can find almost any kind of landscape needed. From desert, to mountains, lakes, forests, ice fields, beaches, volcanoes, big cities, ghost towns, all on the same place.

Being one of the safest countries in South America, it has ideal condi-tions for film making, but it’s still missing an organized film commission.

For my thesis I worked with “ProChile”, a division of the government which promotes Chilean products outside the country. I made a study and designed everything they need to start a chilean Film Commission.

Film Chile Brand

I designed a complete branding project, with chilean locations, logo, branding guidelines, bro-chures and webpage.

ProChile continues to promote chilean locations and received in 2008 the “Quantum of Sol-ace” crew, for shooting some scenes in the Atacama Desert.

Material Designed

A Location Gallery Book, a Compass that indicates south, a Mini DVD Box, and a Logo Animation Presen-tation were some of the materials designed for the project.

Real and functional prototypes of all these objects were made.

The web page had a fully function-al database to collect and publish all the information of the locations in Chile.

http://diego.altervista.org/filmchile

Part 2 - ExercisesAcademic or Personal Learning Exercises

In this section, I show some exercises that I have mainly developed in an Academic context. I also include a few personal learning exercises made to improve my skills or just to experiment with innovation, as well as some unfinished projects which I believe are worth showing here.

The main purpose of this section is to give an idea about my different skills and to show the range of techniques I can manage.

Prototyping ExercisesExercises for Product Prototyping

These are a few exercises made for the Models and Prototypes Course. At the end of the course I became the Teaching Assistant.

It was mainly about learning to make prototypes with different kinds of materials and techniques, passing through wood models, wax molds, iron structures, plaster modelling, plastic processes, material simulation, and many other things.

All these works involved solving production problems and learning with “hands on” exercises.

Seat-eBicycle Chair Design and Prototype Exercise

In a “Design for Sports” workshop I designed this urban Bycicle Seat called “Seat-E”. The main Idea was to develop a chair specially designed for non-sport bikers. The design process went from a case study of Bycicle Seats, conceptualization, rendering, prototype testing, and final design prototyping.

It’s built in a rigid material, but it’s still comfortable, because of it’s ergonomic shape which allows the user to sit on his bones, and have a minimum contact surface with the seat, allowing better blood circulation and avoiding prostate problems in the future.

Prototypes

Two functional models were made.

The first made of plywood, was the

“Deluxe” version, and the other in fi-

berglass, was the “Economic” version.

Riel

Carcasa

Goma Frontal

Pestaña Frontal

Goma LateralPestaña Lateral 1

Pestaña Lateral 2

Tin-Opener StudyTechnical analysis and modelling of a Tin-Opener

Industrial design exercise. I completely studied and modelled every part of a working Tin-Opener and made a report about it’s functioning.

It was modelled in Rhino 3D.

Explosion View

Here’s an explosion view of the tin-opener in which you can see every component in its place.

Flying Aircraft KitA good starting point for Aeromdelism

I have always liked Aeromodelism, but it turns out to be a very expensive activity, and requires a lot of knowledge to get started.

I designed this Flying Aircraft Kit for beginners. The cardboard package itself is unfolded, cut, glued and magically turns into a flying airplane.

All materials and instructions are included in the packaging. It’s a very easy to build airplane which comes with lots of information about the basics principles that make an airplane fly.

Armado del Fuselaje

1 2 3 4

5 6 7

Armado Plano de Cola

8

9

Recorte de PiezasSimbología

Fuselaje

Fuselaje

AlaBorde de Ataque

Borde de Salida

Centro de GravedadLínea del 30%Ala

Borde de Ataque

Borde de Salida

Línea del 30%

Cabe

ceo

Guiñada

Alabeo

Ejes y Movimientos del Avion

DV-1982

Efecto Venturi Teorema de Bernouli Perfil Alar

Elástico

Elástico

EmpujeResistencia

Sustentación

Gravedad

Fuerzas que afectan el vuelo

Esta

biliz

ador

Horiz

onta

l

Flaps / Alerones Flaps / Alerones

Estabilizador VerticalTim

ón

Timón de Profundidad

Esta

biliz

ador

Horiz

onta

l

Tim

ón

A

Agui

luch

oBa

sic

AguiluchoBasic

AguiluchoBasic

AguiluchoBasic

Pixel Font DesignExercise for a Typography Course

In a Typography Course with the renowned typographer Francisco Galvez, I designed the basic uppercase characters of this pixel font.

A pixel fonts are different from standard fonts because their design is made with pixels instead of curves. This makes the font ideal to be used in pixel based screens, as computers, mobile devices, etc.

okoModulación es el nombre que se da al eje imaginario que se puede apreciar en las letras curvas de las tipografías con contraste. Este eje está determinado por los extremos más delgados de la letra cuyo grosor varía según la dirección del trazo y tiene su origen en la posición en que se usa la pluma en la caligrafía.

Typography Exercises

Writing a different message with a renown logo’s font, and a study about Times New Roman are some other exercises made during the same typography course.

StanleyMorr son

StanleyMorr son

StanleyMorr son

INTRODUCCIÓN A LA TIPOGRAFÍADiego Villalón

IpdAltura de X

Altura de Mayúsculas

Altura de Ascendentes

Altura de Descendentes

Línea de Base

v vcontrastecontraste

El c ontraste e s la diferencia e ntre l os trazos más gruesos y los más delgados d e una tipografía. E n esta tipografía e s indudable la presencia de un contraste, pero no es exagerado para que el gris sea agradable a la vista al momento de leer, y para facilitar la impresión sobre papeles de baja calidad, como los diarios.

-do la letra “ v”

para c omparar el trazo g rueso c on el

delgado, sin e mbargo, esto n o debe ser h echo

jamás, y a que la letra p ier-

se v e desproporcionada. El lado grueso queda en el lado contrario de

lo natural y el eje de las letras savrucqueda invertido.

Animals in the CityPersonal Photography Project

In every City, animals interact with people and objects, adapting them-selves to every new era excactly as humans do. I have tried to capture with my digital camera these animals living their citizen lives among us.

Unfinished “Freak Films” Logo Animation

Dinning RoomBasic Modelling and Texturing Exercise

This dinning room and it’s furniture was modelled as an exercise to ex-periment with UV texturing and basic polygon modelling.

All the furniture has a very simple geometry to be easily modelled with polygons, except for the chairs which are based on the famous Thonet design.

JungleJungle Modelling, Texturing and Postprocessing

This jugle was modelled for my Maya Diploma Course. The process included the modelling of the terrain and the main trees. Some of the plants were not modelled by me, but all the textures and ambience post-processing were part of the exercise.

Ibanez Daytriper ModelExam for 3D Course at “Politecnico di Milano”

This is my guitar. I fully modelled it in Maya with NURBS and rendered in Mental Ray with HDRI Illumination to get a very reallistic result. This was the final exam of a 3D Modelling course I took during my semester abroad at “Politecnico di Milano” in 2006.

This is me playing the real one >

Bicycle ModelExercise for a Maya Diploma Course

This model was an exercise of basic modelling in Maya. It’s not a full detailed model, and it doesn’t have textures applied. Even though it has all the main components of a real bicycle.

Elephant ModelExercise for a Maya Diploma Course

This model is an exercise of basic character modelling. It is modelled with polygons and has UV textures applied. The elephant is based in the “Tantor” character from Tarzan.

TarzanHuman Modelling Exercise

This exercise was made for my Maya Diploma Course to learn human body and face modelling. The modelling included the whole body, hands, feet, head and some basic facial movements with Blendshapes to allow the creation of some expressions.

Even though this exercise is just about modelling, some very basic tex-tures were applied in the end for better visualization.

The character is based on Disney’s child version of Tarzan.

Baseball PitchAnimation Exercise

This is a very classic animation exercise which I made to practice with basic animation principles. Anticipation, exaggeration and overlapping are essential to give the “Baseball Pitch” an interesting look.

This is a free character called “MooM”. I took the character already mod-elled and rigged and I just made the animation in this case.

Walk CycleAnimation Exercise

This is another free character called “Package Man”, which I just animat-ed in a walk cycle. This is a very simple exercise that consists of making a very good two steps cycle which can be repeated several times to give the illusion that the character is walking.

It’s a very good exercise to understand the walking movement and to take care about every detail involved in it, and specially applying the overlapping principle to the character parts.

Weight LiftingAnimation Blocking

Hogan is another typical character used for animation training. This ex-ercise consists on creating the main positions for a heavy weight lifting movement.

I have made the blocking but I haven’t yet made the final animation. The most important thing in this exercise is the body expression to create the illusion of weight in a virtual box.

ThanksFully Designed by Diego Villalón

Printed in Chile

diego.villalon@gmail.com