It's been a year since we officially announced "The Hunt" - I want to thank all my teamates and production partners Cola Animation Studio Kimchi, Unkai Co., Ltd. and Blauw Films for embarking on this crazy journey with me.

The film grew into something that has completely surpassed my wildest expectations, and it's all thanks to this incredible team (in my humble opinion, some of the best artists in the industry) - yay to them!

Painting by Ehsan Moghani

We're currently working hard on final animation, making the best film we can for you all to enjoy.

More updates coming soon... :)

Happy Holidays!

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As always, follow us on Instagram for the latest updates on the film and stay tuned for more. :)

Edit: Due to an error Tiago Coimbra isn't featured on the credit list - Tiago is awesome. Reach out to him if you're on the lookout for an animator!

Hi everyone!

I will be doing a small presentation at this next edition of Trojan Horse was a Unicorn Career Camp to talk about how I've been putting my short film together.

This Wednesday (Nov 8th) at 2pm (GMT).

The event is online, free and (now) open to everyone. I highly recommend it! Join me and bring questions!

See you then!

Happy to announce that we've partnered with renowned Oscar-nominated production cooperative COLA Animation to create "The Hunt". 

COLA will be handling the film's production while my team and I focus on making the best film we can.

"The Hunt" title design by Svetlana Zivanovic, Abbie James, and myself.

I'd like to thank Bruno Caetano for his incredible help and for believing in the project, João Alves and Susana António for their amazing support, and my kick-ass character artist Marta Macedo for making the introductions. :)

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More updates coming very, very soon. Stay tuned. :)))

"THE HUNT"- TEASER CONCEPT ART

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Hello there ArstStation friends, it's been a while since our last update on "The Hunt", so here it is. :)

This piece was created by the outstanding Friendly Robot and is based on my storyboards for the film.

We can't reveal more, but we wanted to share an early look at what you can expect from "The Hunt" - don't let your eyes deceive you - it is an ANIMATED film and will look very similar to this. :)

You are only as good as your team and it's been a joy developing the look of "The Hunt" with him and the rest of my wonderful team.

Follow us on Instagram for the latest updates on the film and stay tuned for more. :)

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Hello everyone, long time no talk. I wanted to share the news earlier, but unfortunately, the AI craziness has prevented me from doing so.

If you already follow me on other platforms you already know this, if not...

... Well, yes, WE ARE MAKING A MOVIE. It's a short animated horror film. It's dark, weird, and, hopefully, scary.

And this is us, the people who are making it. A few more people have joined us since the first announcement: Mehdi Hadi, Manny Contreras, and a few others I cannot reveal yet. :)

Still, a long way to go, but our baby is taking shape.

Stay tuned... 😬

P.S.: Even though our team is essentially complete, we're always interested in meeting new talent. Feel like you could help? Reach out! Extra hands are always welcome - if not on this one, on the next one, or the one after that. :)

As many of you are aware some of the recent AI tools have been causing some noise. As it's common on the internet, there's no middle ground and a lot of it completely misses the point.

I'm in fact ambivalent about AI art. Can relate to the concerns. Can see the potential.

This is a collection of thoughts on the topic:

1. If I had been working for decades to paint like Beksinski, I'd be pretty annoyed right now - that said, Beksinski already painted like Beksinski - and that's the only thing these tools can do at the moment.
2. I'm also of the unpopular opinion that tools do matter. Working with pencils and working with oils is not the same and naturally leads to different results. Same digitally. 
3. Some of these tools are... boring. The medium is the message. If I wanted to write things to communicate my ideas, I'd be a writer and not a visual artist. 
4. I suspect most of us find it easier to communicate with images rather than words - the idea of putting a word barrier between us and the image completely defeats the purpose of creating images in the first place.
5. There's also a mechanical component to it - the flow state is usually dependent on agency and (physical) action - a key element in sport/art - not sure how these tools can replicate that. 
6. There's also the issue of how these systems are built - they rely on huge chunks of data to figure out the patterns - unfortunately, the good stuff is always what's outside these patterns - which may lead to a regression to the mean - an overabundance of hacks and mediocrity.
7. My engineering background forces me to take Murphy's law seriously and consider the scenario of AGI: the program puts a Da Vinci out every second. There's the possibility that we simply don't care - like we don't care about computers being able to play chess better than us. 
8. There's also the possibility that the AI version of myself is better, faster, and cheaper than I am, there's clearly a market incentive to go for the AI - as I take a few hours to make a character, not a fraction of a second. The issue of copyright becomes extra tricky too. 
9. Finally and most importantly of all - we collectively need to start asking if something is a good idea in the first place. The future isn't always bright. Recommended reading: Cat's Cradle.
10. I see the idea AI tool similar to NVIDIA Canvas, the artist retains full control of what matters and the AI takes charge of the boring stuff. I want to paint one tree, but 10? Please AI, take care of that.  

In Sum, 

• Good AI: gets rid of all the boring stuff, without destroying the process and the artist's input.
• Bad AI: will be able to create anything better than anyone ever will. Everyone wants the AI stuff. Humans can't compete. T-800 comes from the future to kill Sarah Connor. Artists continue to do their stuff and need to find a day job to pay their bills - nothing really changed.

An AI picture

Hope you've found this useful. If you agree/disagree/have something to add please reach out - this is a topic that demands discussion from all of us. I truly believe AI can make or break the world - let's hope it stays somewhere in between.  

For the past few months, I've been working on a personal story that I'm excited to share with all of you in the upcoming weeks.

The idea - a reinterpretation of the mermaid myth - came from an old character concept that I've created years ago when I've started down this path. (Tip: check my avatar 👀)

You will probably notice a lot of similarities between this and the lighthouse movie, some of it is a coincidence, a lot of it is not. The movie is very close to what I wanted to make - and I decided that instead of running away from it I'd actively steal from it.

Most of the inspiration for my work comes from my favorite films, so if you like films like Alien, Under the Skin and The Lighthouse, you may like this.

See you soon!

I've been working alongside Ash Thorp, Olaf Blomerus and a team of incredible artists on this amazing project during the past year. We've just finished principal photography and Ash and Olaf decided to share a little taste of what's to come. :)

I did a lot of work on this film - some of it was helping design the characters in the poster - can't wait for you guys to see what we've been building. 

Stay tuned.