Designers Guild

Keep up to date with the Designers Guild blog Designers Guild blog

Where does Surface Design start and finish? Flooring , cladding, interior design?

Appreciating Life

Experimenting with iPhone Apps

Oxo Tower

Oxo Tower Brasserie, Exceptional views over the Thames, the Shard and St Pauls

Oxo Tower

Charlie & the chocolate factory afternoon tea cocktails

Will you drink me?

Tent Exhibition London, fun tea bags. Will you drink me?

Teapop Travel by ATTA

The baby chicks have been born

10 two week old chicks. They have grown some hair now and not looking so scrawny.

Posing for the camera

2 weeks old. Love the tufty mohawk and beard on this one

Chunky Knits

The first week of Autumn, the chunky knits are coming out! 

I'm in love with London

London Bridge sophisticated afternoon birthday treat. Pink champagne, olives and French bread.

               

Street Art, Brick Lane

Brick Lane

Outfit: Sandals with orange sole, Black, with white and orange tear drop print, pinafore play suit. Moroccan thread and leather bag, necklace from street stall in Ibiza. Retro limited edition RayBan sunglasses.
The most beautiful Street Art, Octiphant/Elepus.

Street Art. OctiphantElepus

Barbican

Today was all about visual researching and enjoy the weather in London. Visiting Brick Lane, Shoreditch and the Miles Aldridge Exhibition at Somerset House.

Barbican first stop. Old Street don't let me down.

1960's Galaxy Chocolate icon

Audrey Hepburn, icon of 20th Century, in new [2013] Galaxy advert.

Advert took five years to produce.

Set against the idyllic Mediterranean coastline of the 1960s, the Galaxy's one-minute spot features ostensibly authentic footage of Audrey Hepburn — the late film and fashion icon whose slender, elfin visage evokes a Golden Age beauty that, for most, is beyond the realm of imitation. Production company Framestore used advanced VFX techniques and a meticulous attention to detail to create the advert.

Framestore initial searched for a "Hepburn" double, someone who "share as many of her features and characteristics as possible." The doppelganger's face was scanned, using a facial action coding system that allowed Framestore to extract the muscle movements and textures needed to build a more faithful, CG Hepburn. After filming long the Amalfi Coast, Framestore returned to its in-house Capture Lab to further refine their actress' face, smoothing out transitions and expressions for animation.

However, facial scans proved rather inexact. As a result, they had to build a 3D model of the iconic actress, using footage from her film catalog as well as old images and documentaries.

IMITATING THE INIMITABLE

Framestore finalized its recreation after using the Arnold renderer to "perfect the soft, translucent feel of real skin," though there were major challenges along the way. According to the company, Hepburn's feline eyes and trademark smile proved most difficult to recreate, largely because they're her most instantly recognizable features. Although Framestore originally chose the double because of her eyes and planned constructing Hepburn's face around them, the team soon realised that "full CG was the only way to get it right."

Creepy Crawlies

Today this little fella was on the door step at home.

The biggest caterpillar - 10 cm long no less!

Loving the luminous green with lilac and white stripes.

After much research, discovered that this is a Privet Hawk moth caterpillar before it has pupated.