jon.chesson.blog

Adriana Lima for Kia

2012-02-01T23:53:00.000-08:00

So, what do you do when you shoot a commercial for the Super Bowl and have extra footage of Adriana Lima shot high speed?

Well if you're Kia Motors, you put a five hour video of it on up You Tube!

We just finished up the new spot for the Kia Optima.

It'll be airing this coming Sunday for the Super Bowl!

Look for it and enjoy!

It's a new time

2012-01-30T22:11:00.000-08:00

New year's call for new moves being made. Well, I've been doing what I can to keep myself busy. I started at Method Studios in the beginning of January and have been having a blast so far. There's a slew of talent over there and I'm excited to see what's next for me.

Terra Nova on Fox

2011-10-11T21:28:00.000-07:00

A few weeks back Terra Nova premiered on TV. Its the show I'm currently working on with the fine folks over at Pixomondo. Its a fun show with tons of rad visual effects.

Here's a few screencaps of a couple of my shots. I'm excited to do some cool breakdowns and show off our work.

The show airs on Mondays at 8pm on Fox. Tune in and give it a peep.

They got dinos n shit!

:)

Making of Portal: No Escape

2011-09-17T21:40:00.000-07:00

We finally got most of the breakdowns done for the behind the scenes video that the short film's editor, David Trachtenberg put together for us.

Looks great. Compliments the film nicely!

Enjoy!

PopFX Interview

2011-09-11T23:01:00.000-07:00

I recently had the distinct pleasure of being interviewed by the creator and host of the webseries PopFX. We talked a bit about Portal: No Escape as well as some industry stuff. Thanks so much for your time Garrett! :)

Head over and check it out! :)

PORTAL: No Escape

2011-08-23T23:41:00.001-07:00

Today has proven to be an interesting day. A short film project entitled Portal: No Escape hit the web today and has been making quite the splash for Director Dan Trachtenberg. I've been a part of the Portal VFX team for quite a few months now. We assembled a group from multiple continents who devoted their time after hours and with some serious passion.

I'm very proud of the final product and thank you again to everyone involved.

Your dedication and stamina is what made this train roll.

Hope you enjoy!

The short is a lie..

2011-08-06T23:37:00.000-07:00

This summer has certainly been an interesting one. I've been doing a fair bit of studio hopping as of late, and have been meeting and working with some amazingly talented people. It's been an eye opener for sure, but I really wouldn't have it any other way. There are lots of good things on the horizon as well as in the near future. I just finished up a project that I got to opportunity to step into a supervisor's role on, as well as be on the box. It was quite the undertaking, especially working on it after hours and with a remote vfx team.

We screened the project at last months San Diego Comic Con, and it was met with a very positive response. The final short will be online with the next couple weeks so stay tuned for another update and a link very soon!

Pilot season wrapped

2011-05-04T23:36:00.000-07:00

Well, this year's network pilot season just came to a wrap for the visual effects side of things. It was my first experience with tv pilots and lets just say, damn! Thankfully, we had an incredible team that once again surpassed my expectations on all levels. I worked on both the pilot for Wonder Woman, and 17th Precinct. Both shows look like they're gonna be a lot of fun and have some great visuals.

Also, excited for Falling Skies which airs next month on TNT so be sure to look out for it.

Reel/Site Update

2011-02-19T01:58:00.001-08:00

Well things have been super busy as of late, and I finally got a free second to add a few new shots to the demo reel. There's lots of good stuff from Falling Skies that I'm itching to put out there, but we still have a few more months til that show airs.

For now you'll have to settle with the glamorous trappings of Simon Cowell's X-Factor, Call of Duty Black Ops Jeep, and the greenscreen loving, fan-favorite V.

X Factor Promo

2011-02-12T11:56:00.000-08:00

This was the Super Bowl spot I was involved in with an amazing team at Zoic Studios. It was some long nights since we were up against one of the craziest deadlines I've ever experienced.

3d work was done in Maya utilizing the Fracture FX plugin. All compositing was achieved in Nuke, with a heavy use of Nuke's 3d capabilities.

X Factor Promo from Jon Chesson on Vimeo.

2011 is here and my jetpack still is not...

2011-01-02T19:35:00.000-08:00

Well 2010 is now a thing of the past and what a pretty amazing time it was. I've met and been involved in more great projects this last year than probably ever before. The move to LA has been definitely the right thing to do.

Also I've gotten involved in the new show Falling Skies which airs in June on TNT. The first trailer actually just hit online this last week. There are a lot of talented people involved on all sides of the show, so I'm excited to see where it goes.

So heres to the new year! Lets take it by the balls!

The 'boy' is back in town

2010-10-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a long time coming, but after about a year of taking jobs in LA and commuting from my house in San Diego, I've finally said 'ENOUGH'! I made the move and am now an LA resident full-time! But I honestly couldn't be happier. As much as I loved SD, there's gonna be way more job opportunities here in LA, and face it, its just a rad place to be.

There are a lot of cool projects on the horizon, stay tuned for the spilling of the beans..

Compositing Reel 2010 is up!

2010-08-01T23:46:00.000-07:00

Finally got a chance to update my reel! I'm super excited about showing the masses what's been keeping me so busy lately.

It's up and ready to watch at: www.jonchesson.com

or just click the link on this page.

I'm available for work in the Fall, so please email me with any inquires.

Cheers! :)

Kingdoms of Amalur RECKONING

2010-07-26T11:10:00.000-07:00

SDCC just came to an end this last weekend and the debut of the most recent project I was a part of was shown at the 38 Studios panel on Thursday. The spot is the debut trailer for the upcoming game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which was directed by Todd McFarlane and also involved the legendary Ken Rolston. It was really cool to be a part of, and was a lot of fun to see with an audience.

It was the last project I worked on over at Zoic Studios. Hopefully I'll be back there to work with that amazing team again soon! Great job everyone!

Head over and check out the trailer!

Twisted Metal PS3 Launch Spot

2010-06-15T15:58:00.000-07:00

Well it's time for E3 again boys and girls, and the Sony keynote happened this afternoon. Zoic worked on the debut spot for the upcoming and highly anticipated Twisted Metal PS3 game. I'm so stoked that I got a chance to work on the commercial, and I really hope it gets everyone as excited as I am!

More Twisted Metal PS3 News & Previews

'V' Season 1 wrapping up

2010-05-15T15:35:00.000-07:00

During my current freelance stint back at Zoic Studios, I got to work on a few episodes of the ABC show, 'V'. It was a very cool opportunity, and I'll tell you, the team Zoic has on this project is pretty damn incredible. I'm back on another project there now, but the short time I spent on 'V' was educational and a whole lot of fun!

the finale airs this Tuesday at 10/9c on ABC

Watch it!

-KOR3-

2010-03-24T22:35:00.000-07:00

I had the very cool opportunity this past week to work on a couple shots for an upcoming short by Director Miguel de Olaso. The short is called KORE and hopefully soon I can post the final shots. It was a lot of fun to work on; more to come soon!

New site launch

2010-02-26T18:36:00.001-08:00

Just wanted to drop a quick line and announce that my new website is up and viewable. It's just the basics for now, but I really wanted this blog separate from my actual site. It's easier to find my work and contact info., and is in a less congested setting. I'll still be updating here regularly so look forward to that for sure!

please go check it out:

www.jonchesson.com

any C & C are welcome as always... Cheers!

Demo Reel 2010 had landed

2010-02-18T01:04:00.000-08:00

I'm really excited about getting the new reel out there.

For now, I'm obligated to keep a password on it until a couple of the games I worked on arrive in stores. If you are a studio interested in checking it out, please shoot me an email so I can give you a password. FYEO

Click here

Thanks and enjoy!

New demo reel is almost ready to drop

2010-02-16T23:29:00.000-08:00

My new demo reel is very close to being ready to post and I'm just putting some final touches on it. Unfortunately some of the games that I've been lucky enough to work on haven't come out yet, so my reel will have to be password protected until those titles hit the shelves. But if you are a studio interested in seeing it, all you'll have to do is contact me and I can send you a password. Legalities.. you understand. Here's a look at some thumbnails for the time being:

Hello 2010!

2010-01-08T16:19:00.001-08:00

Well its a new year and I figure a good resolution would be to update the blog a bit more often. So here I am talking to all of you. :) I've been super busy the last 6 months or so and am in the process of putting together a new reel. Hopefully some of these games will get released soon so I can show more of the rad stuff we've been doing here at Sony Computer Entertainment; and of course, some side projects as well.

In fact, I finished an internship at Zoic Studios a few months back which gave me the great opportunity to work on a cool project with some of the other amazingly talented interns there.

Another Day at the Office

More to come soon, and I hope this message finds you all well!

Battleship Progress

2009-03-18T21:23:00.000-07:00

This is a preliminary render for another shot that's goin in the reel. Still fixing some little stuff here and there, just trying to get the main aspects of the shot workin together...

C & C welcome!

Battleship Progress from Jon Chesson on Vimeo.

Reel Transitions Test

2009-02-05T03:29:00.000-08:00

I'm experimenting with how I'm thinking about transitioning from shot to shot in my reel. I took this 3d Camera move approach inspired by the intro to Guy Richie's flick RocknRolla.

This is just a rough pass working out the feel I'm going for. Any feedback or ideas are welcome!

Reel Transitions Test from Jon Chesson on Vimeo.

Fixin up the space bg..

2009-02-02T03:39:00.000-08:00

Here's a render of one of the shots I'm finishing up for my reel. I've been rehashing this space environment for my Battlestar shot for awhile now. I'm incorporating nebulas and possibly some planets, maybe some meteor debris as well. I don't want to overdo it though, especially since the show has fairly sparse backgrounds.

More to come soon!

Ocean Test

2008-12-22T15:10:00.000-08:00

Just a test I did with Maya's fluids for a shot I'm working on for the reel. Not sure if I'm gonna go with Maya or Realflow for the ocean sim. But I'm finding that Maya's ocean looks better than I thought. This is just a straight render, no compositing yet.

"Aftermath" progress...

2008-12-08T02:37:00.000-08:00

Still workin on this shot for my reel... I think I might need to add a more effective foreground element and the smoke trails need some adjusting as well.... I'm still working on it so let me know what you all think.. Thanks!

"Aftermath" Progess from Jon Chesson on Vimeo.

WIP and Various Samples

2008-12-03T01:53:00.000-08:00

Heres some samples of some past work and some projects that are in production at the moment...

WIP and other Samples.. from Jon Chesson on Vimeo.

Greetings all...

2008-12-02T18:03:00.001-08:00

This has definitely been a quarter for the books... with madness ensuing every step of the way. I couldn't be more excited about graduating in March, but even with a few months to go, it's like I have NO time to finish my demo reel. Hopefully this blog can serve as a venue to for me to talk about and show projects I'm currently working on. If that's not enough, I'm also trying to secure an internship at the same time which is proving to be a challenge all it it's own. I've been working hard though, so hopefully it'll pay off. We'll see how it goes. Cheers...

My current mindset =