The Wretched Novelization

On the surface, yes, this is just another variation on the poster previously posted.  But what's that on top?  My name?  Holy crap, y'all, it's a book.  Yes, that's right, the official novelization of The Wretched is now available on Amazon, in both paperback and ebook versions.  And hey, if you buy the paperback, you get the ebook for free!  By Grabthar's hammer, what a savings...

Full Noon, Update 1

Preproduction is underway on Full Noon, a comedy/horror feature film written by myself, my girlfriend Felicity, and her two friends Leota and Ashley.  I'll also be directing, while my co-writers will star.  We've got a script, we've got a budget, and God willing, we'll have a movie this summer.

We're currently in the early stages of securing funding.  A grant/pitch contest didn't pan out, so it looks like Kickstarter is in our future.  Until that happens, I'm going through and storyboarding the film, which is what a responsible director does anyway...

Be on the lookout for future updates, including our fundraising demo and trailer.

Basement

I've returned to film.  Following the disaster that was Compulsively Yours and my disillusionment following film school, I've started to make movies again.  First was the short Mint In Box.  Next is the feature Full Noon.  But right now is Basement, a film my writing partner/girlfriend Felicity Hull and I developed for the Project Greenlight Reel Fear contest.  While creating the pitch video to submit to the Project, I made a few concept drawings to illustrate some of the visuals we envisioned, as well as a creature design modified from an unproduced animation project that I did some concept work for.  Please enjoy!

Green Dog Productions

     So, I'm starting to push forward with my film career...  After participating in the 48 Film Project as a boom operator under director Tracey Trost, I'm setting out to direct my own film, Compulsively Yours.  And as I'm getting ready to start a serious career, I need a serious logo.  So, Green Dog Productions, replacing my previous Beware My Wrath and Peng Productions (though I still may use Peng in the future...)
     Logo made by tracing a picture of my late dog, Goliath, in Illustrator, then titling in after effects.  TO see the whole Green Dog intro video, click here... http://youtu.be/ruWVWBLqGx8  Footage taken from my previous short, Dogs of War (his last role!)

The Mysterious Fate Of Mister Hinson Totoro...

One should never say never, but...  It looks like Hinson Totoro is going on indefinite hiatus.  Even if I do finish the first game (Only 2-3 videos and some voiceover to go!) I will never truly be able to finish this first arc, due to the passing of my father, one of the key actors.  So, to not let so much work go completely to waste, I proudly present ALL THE BACKGROUND PLATES!  Created entirely in Photoshop using primarily pictures scrounged from Google, these took... a lot of time, and may have indirectly led to me failing a class.  What fun!  Hope you enjoy, and if you have any questions as to the specifics of these pics, please comment below. 

Dungeons & Dragons For The Morbidly Obese...

     So, working for Rhett and Link...  I was recently given the job of finding some pictures for a sketch.  These pictures, that of a Troll, Dragon, Sorceress, and unnamed fourth character, were to be used as new circles on a twister board that in turn would be a part of THE MOST COMPLICATED BOARD GAME EVER!!!!!  (it should be coming out soon...  I'll post a link when it does...)  Anyway, being me, I instantly decided that the best way to "find" pictures would be to make my own.  Well, Daz studios comes preset with a dragon, a sorceress, a warrior (the unnamed fourth character), and I had already bought a troll, so....  Yeah.  I posed, lit, and exported for post in Photoshop.  Hope you enjoy!

Novacane

     So, being in filmschool, it seems crazy that I'd actually design a poster, right?  So anyway, last night my flatmate Raul asks me to design a poster to go with the script he's writing for class.  One plot description and fantasy casting session later, the above is what I came up with.

     Then come the revisions.  Turns out the title "Novocaine" refers not to the common dentistry anesthetic, but rather to the not-R&B song "Novacane."  Combine that with a darker color scheme to match Raul's tonal vision, and you have the above, final poster, ready for class display.  

     

     But if the above is final, what dwells below?

     My own little version, achieved by playing around with filters and then playing through Zac Efron's unedited face and hands.

     Anyhoo, hope you all enjoy this, and please feel free to leave comments and critiques!

Makin' Movies

So, I'm working on a short film (a real one, with a budget!) as a production designer.  During the early parts of development, I was tasked (along with my friend Kelley) with designing the characters' school uniforms, based on some ideas and images provided by our director.  We went out to Goodwill (always a good start) and took some photos of clothes.  I then took those photos, reconstructed the parts covered by hands and hangers, and colorized 'em.  Using Daz, I rendered out a little girl, then warped the clothes over her.  One posterization later, and this concept sketch was complete!  The design was ultimately rejected for something a bit simpler, but I think this 'sketch' is good enough to share (and to just show what the heck I'm up to here in Hollywood).  Enjoy!

Also, if you need a production designer, contact me; I'm good.  See?

Rhett & Link!

So... I've got my Los Angeles internship... with Rhett & Link.  Yes, those Rhett & Link.  Here's a screen shot from 30 Rock, edited to look like a combination of--you guessed it--Rhett & Link.

The Pale Man...

Show of hands, who's seen Pan's Labyrinth?  I know, it was good, right?  Anyhoo, an interesting guest recently dropped by my school...  Doug Jones, the actor who played both the Faun and the mind-numbingly terrifying Pale Man (amongst many, many other roles.  Dang, I feel like going out and having McDonald's tonight...)  Having had some forewarning about the Jone's arrival, I set to work sketching the image above, based on a Google reference image.  The picture... isn't that great.  But you know what?  It was signed by the Jones himself, so I'm happy.  And below is a photo of the three of us!  Such fun we had together!  My beard was stroked...

Gigawatt! again...

Hey, remember Gigawatt from two posts ago?  Well, he's back.  For those who don't know (surprisingly, I don't think I've mentioned it on here yet), I'm writing a book, published sporadically on my other blog, The Realms of Neldak (the link is in the bar on the left, but here's another: http://neldak.blogspot.com/ )  Anyhoo, in that book, Gigawatt is nothing more than a fictional character, and one of the characters has a Gigawatt action figure with a broken leg.  Thus the joints, thus the severed leg.  Seen here is a corrected, colored version, and the original ball-point version, captured using my snazzy scanner, a.k.a., my camera.  Also, I'm putting a tag in for Action Figure, even though this isn't really, just for theme's sake.  Please enjoy!

P.S.  First post from my new apartment in L.A.!

Gigawatt!

Okay, so, way back in like, middle school (early 2000s) I got into doodlin' (as kids tend to do), and eventually drew myslef as a super hero (as kids tend to do).  Then today, I was sitting at work with nothing going on, so I got to doodlin' (as high-paid night shift pencil sharpeners do) and popped out a picture of Gigawatt, my electrically charged alter-ego.  Later, during class, I got to messin' around with a 3-D modeling program (as kids tend to do) and popped out the picture below...

I then brought that picture into Photoshop (as kids--okay, that's getting annoying) and layered the heck out of it, until I got the character demonstrating his powers in a very showy manner.  The little thing in the upper right-hand corner is his logo.  It's supposed to be a lightning bolt crossed with a 'G'.  It's.... a little abstract.  So!  3D done in Daz, using the Genesis figure and various add-ons.  Couldn't get him looking exactly as I wanted, but close enough.  2D done in Photoshop.  Fun fact: There are only 2 lightning bolts generated.  They were merely flipped, stretched, and rotated to create the ELECTRO-STORM!  Hope you enjoy....

Agabis--Final?

So, a while back I posted a quick sketch for the Agabis, and said I would show more of the evolution later.  Well, I never really got around to that (though I still intend to)...  However, I recently knocked out a finished work (that I'm none to happy with) that I'll be using in a school project.  The Agabi you see are the final painted ones, composited into a partially painted scene, with a lot of Photoshop goodness thrown in for good measure.  Enjoy!

In the Studio

I like movies. Most people do. I also like making movies. Again, many people can agree with that. But I look at movie making not as a hobby, but as a career. I've got two credits on IMDB already, and hope to add more. Ever since I was 5, I've wanted to be a film maker, and it looks like I might actually be able to some day.

A couple weeks ago, my mom showed me a scholarship opportunity entitled 'Frame Your Future." Basically, you make a piece of artwork showing what you hope to see in your future. So... I did that. I made a little film set, complete with crew. I used action figures from 6 different toylines*, four of which were heavily reworked/painted by yours truly (see Custom Figures by Hrothmeir to the left), photographed them separately on blue screens, and composited them in Photoshop. This was my first success with HDR photography (my older attempts were down without the aid of a tripod), and I really like the results. The background was made in blender, exported as multiple images, and then HDR'd in Photoshop. I then added shadows, lights, etc., etc. in, you guessed it, Photoshop.

Oh, and the camera was made with LEGO; I'm rather proud of it, actually.

*Star Wars (30th Anniversary), G.I. Joe (Rise of Cobra, 30th Anniversary), Indiana Jones, Avatar, Iron Man 2, Prince of Persia

Agabis--Initial Sketch

The Agabis... Undoubtedly the best work I've ever done. Also one of my first forays into digital painting. Just what is the Agabis? Look up. You see that bizarre winged creature at the top of the page? That is the Agabis. It is a creature, mechanical in nature, that I sadly have no backstory for. It is an image, wholly unconnected to any fictional world I have created. As I said, it is one of my earliest digital creations, and one that I am still working on. I occasionally doodle out other pictures, different versions, etc. I'm also still at work on a city-scape for it to dwell in that I am wholly satisfied with. Ah, well.
The Agabis started innocently enough. Following the release of the second Transformers film in 2007, I found myself drawing a lot of rather strange mechanical creatures very much in the style of Mr. Bay's behemoths. Sometime late in the year I was in church, drawing one such creature (Sadly, I can't remember which), when the man sitting behind me noticed my work and asked if I could design a tattoo for him: a bio-mechanical angel. I quickly roughed out the image above, with the intent of scanning it in, detailing it, and mirroring it for a final image. To simplify the story I did so, then proceeded to paint that sucker.
I intend to show many more derivations and permutations of the Agabis, including the computer line work and rough paints, but those will all have to wait for another time...

Flannel

Hello, and welcome to the Art of Hez; I'm Hezekiah Bennetts. The purpose of this site is to provide a repository for my art, as well as some insight into the creations. Now, I will freely admit that I'm no great artist, but I hope that having this public record of my art will push me to better myself and improve further.

I'll be starting this blog with a personal favorite of mine, a 3D living room created with the program Blender. Made in early 2011 for a college video project, it was used as a chroma-keyed background in a faux kid's show. It is meant to evoke a flannelgraph, similar to the backgrounds found in shows such as "Blue's Clues."