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I've join Weta FX since 2020. Glad this teaser is out, so proud of the work everyone did in the film. Its going to knock your socks off.

Commitment

It takes commitment to be in the VFX business. For digital characters and creatures, its a battle field only the cream of crop company are qualified to compete. For AF, they haven't seen the battle field yet. I am here to help them get there. But the reality is cruel, you may already bleed out all the money before getting there. You may have internal conflict causing the band to collapse. It all takes one thing to hold it together, Commitment Will they ever commit fully?

Brewery owned by coorparation

Ballast Point

Lagunitas

Founders

10 Barrel (AB-InBev)

RateBeer  (AB-InBev)

GooseIsland  (AB-InBev)

BlueMoon (MillerCoors)

Shocktop (AB-InBev)

HopValley (MillerCoors)

Terrapin Beers (MillerCoors)

 Elysian (AB-InBev)

Devil's Backbone(AB-InBev)
Blue Point(AB-InBev)

Four Peaks(AB-InBev)

Golden Road(AB-InBev)

Breckenridge(AB-InBev)

Karbach Brewing(AB-InBev)

Wicked Weed (AB-InBev)

FireStone Walker (Duvel Moorgat)

Ommegang (Duvel Moorgat)

Boulevard (Duvel Moorgat)

Animation supervisor for AF

I've left ILM after 4yrs and 7month of stint there. I joined Atomic Fiction as animation supervisor, helping them to establish creature animation offering. very excited about the new adventure.

Kai Hua Lan Creature Animation Reel

Kai-Hua Lan Creature Animation Reel 2017 from Kevin Lan on Vimeo.

Cinefx 152 cover

my squid shot is on the cover of Cinefx. After reading it I feel like I need put more info about animation out there
.
- I have never seen the old boy eating squid reference.

-The shot was turned over to me with just a concept drawing. Then I found this footage to study how gorilla eat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTq_ZhhQLTM

- Initially I requested we need more extreme lip shape for this shot but was told our shape and texture won't hold up for the extreme stretching. Plus they will sim the lip.So I animate loosely on the lip, with jaw doing most of the work.

- months past they realized the sim and mcor are not going to work. I jumped back to the shot.

-after several back and forth. I went all out on our lip shape anim, tweaker and whatever pushing way beyond limit.

-Lana Lan did a lot of mcor work to make sure lip and squid stick together and have correct deform during interaction.

攻殻機動隊

Ghost in the Shell 2017

- a much simplified version from original material. Roughly based on 1995 anime film.
Several key plot changes made this new movie completely its own, but missing the spirit

-  I actually enjoyed the viewing experience in 3D. Several low angle shots with camera pushing into the lush environment were very effective.

- I appreciate the effort to recreate several iconic scenes from the 1995 film. It brought back nostalgia.

- 1995 film was far more realistic.

-In 1995 action scenes, you could SEE and HEAR bullet shell  falling all over the place; Major Kusanagi needed to change over heated gun barrel; the trash truck hacker swapped armor penetrating ammo and planted his foot for recoil......1995 hand drawn anim completely beat out the 2017 cgi here

- The spider tank scene was crucial in 1995 film.

- In 2017 version, the moving tank took away the suspense and unpredictables.

- All those static shots in 1995 tank scene created space for viewer to think, and take deep breathe.

- Cyborg doesn't blink.

10 yrs veteran

I am a 10 yr veteran today. (3/5/2017)

10 years ago, March 5 2007, I started my VFX career at Rhythm & Hues Studios, working on Golden Compass.

Back in the day R&H flew me to Los Angeles for interview, Matt Logue and Keith Roberts chatted with me, we looked at my reel and they asked if I am ready to change my anim over and over again because thats the nature of business. I eagerly said yes!

The money in VFX was not great, but I've met great people and made good friends in the industry. I usually worked on movies tank in box office or involving talking animal, however that makes the few rare moment we accomplished something impossible much more memorable. And heck, I even started drinking beer because of VFX.

I want to say thank you, lets toast to the great 10 yrs and much more decade to come

WarCraft in 44th Annie nomination

I am nominated in 44th Annie award for Warcraft

Outstanding Achievement, Character Animation in a Live Action Production

Warcraft - Orcs - Animation Supervisor: Hal Hickel,
Facial Anim Dev : Jee Young Park,
Sequence Lead Animator: Kai-Hua Lan,
Animation Supervisor: Cedric Lo,
Animation Supervisor: KimHuat Ooi

Congrats to all ILM warcraft anim team

Warcraft reel

Kai-Hua Lan's Warcraft animation reel from Kevin Lan on Vimeo.

Warcraft trailer

Revenant won at 43rd Annie awards

This goes out to all the artists involved.

Practical effects in the Force Awakens

To be honest, practical effects are really out of date and look bad.

It's limited to the physical mechanical limits and it could never transform the accurate creature skin slide and physicality on screen.


The worst shot in the Revenant? The shot where they have a dead bear stuffy on Leo and people turned it over.

The Revenant

Such a poetic and beautiful film.


The opening scenes(Leo with his wife and son, the camera pan slowly from water flowing to forest) reminds of Tarkovsky's aesthetic.

This film is about Death, how insignificant it can be and how a person in giangatic nature environment faces his life comes to an end.

I loved the last shot where Leo stares into camera.

43rd Annie award nominees

I am lucky enough to be nominated for Annie award this year.

Outstanding Achievement, Character Animation in a Live Action Production
The Revenant – The Bear -
Animation Supervisor: Matthew Shumway, Lead Digital Artist: Adrian Millington, Digital Artist: Blaine Toderian, Digital Artist: Alexander Poei, Digital Artist: Kai-Hua Lan


Whole list: Here

War Craft trailer is here

Some work to be proud of

Jungle book trailer

It doesn't look good. I don't know why people are thinking the CGI animal look great. They are sub-par. Now the bear in Revenant doesn't look so bad anymore compare to this

Revenant

now I can even appreciate more for what we did on Life of pi. We struggled for more than 8month on the bear in Revenant. People are still rebuilding the whole bear shot by shot, crazy.

WarCraft wrapped and staff job

It was a fun ride after all. Great to work with Bill Westenhofer again. Hal is awesome, gave me a lot of freedom and creative choices. Production team bring a lot of fun to the whole team. Best experience at ILM for sure. I guess thats why I turned into staff now.

War Craft

I am working with Bill again. That's the last good thing I have to say so far.