Photography: La Voie Maritime

I saw a little fog about 45 minutes into my ride, but it was after the sun was up, so it was burning off. However, at the 2-hour mark, I was on La Voie Maritime, a long strip of land between 2 islands on my route, and there were bands of heavy fog passing long after the sky was blue and sunny everywhere else. I had my iPhone that can take 48-megapixel RAW images, so I was able to get some nicer images. 

Animated short film: 25 Years Later (2026) made by Vincent-louis Apruzzese

A cyclist on a trip from his home in Montreal Quebec to his former hometown of Boston Massachusetts is haunted by memories of the time he spent there with his best friend 25 years previously. 

This is a remake of sorts of an earlier version of this animation made in Cinema 4D. I use Blender now and thought I might do better as it was a very personal project for me. I actually planned this trip for real but was never able to do it for various reasons recurring kidney problems on my part, family issues and the pandemic happening. This is a functional film for sure but many of the events are from life and experience from that time with my friend, Jay.  

Below is the original film, should anyone want to see it for comparison. I kept some of the original animation as I really liked them. Most of my problems visually were with the characters and how they and some of the renders looked. The basic structure is the same with some cleaning up of shots and scenes to hopefully work better and I also added a subtle effect for when things are in the past to make that clearer. 

photography: Canal Lachine

 Just a few photos I took with the iPhone on my morning ride yesterday. I used the 48-megapixel raw setting. 

update: 25 Years later remake: South West Corridor

 I spent 3 days working on remaking the set for the SW Corridor shot. Most of it is made from still and video cutouts. The buildings in the rear I drew in Affinity vetcor. The animation on this was very simple so it didn't take long to do after everything was set up. There is a right wing to this set where we see the friends walking as a butterfly flies past them, which is challenging character animation and the sick friend is walking with a walker. 

The original shot is below. I am not reinventing the animation so it's very similar but more natural looking, I hope. I noticed there are vantage points on the corridor where more Boston landmarks are visible so I think it has more a sense of place now. 

Photography: Montreal's Insectarium 2026

 I had my nephew's family here for a few days and his boys love dinosaurs but the younger one really has been into bugs these days and I told we would go to the Insectarium. I have not been since it was renovated and the kids loved it. I was let down a bit, though. It has less to really see in it, opting for a large part of it being a series of pathways that look like you are in an ant tunnel. That is well done and why the kids love it but they also didn't have many living insects other than butterflies and what was a large open area with bugs prepared and pinned in frames is in a smaller room with some of the exhibits too high to really see, especially for young children. They did add a permanent butterfly room, which was pretty great. 

I got to use my new Nikon Z 5II and have a lot to get used to with it. 

EXhibition: Escher Exhiibtion

Exhibition Website

I recently had the chance to see some of the works of Escher right in front of my eyes here in Montreal. I went with a good friend, and we were there for a couple of hours, enjoying the work and having great discussions about it. 

Even on a Tuesday afternoon, it was well attended but not packed, so it was easy to linger on the images we wanted and not feel rushed to see it all. There was a lot to see. It shows work from the early days to the end. Most of his best-known pieces were there, and many more rare images as well. The prints, mostly wood engravings, I would say, were excellent quality, a joy to see in real life. 

There were a few "asides" I did not really think were needed. A room that, depending on where you stood, made you look large or small, a room of mirrors... these things had little to nothing to do with his work, and not many people were using them. They might have been there to engage younger people, but even the children that were there were much more intrigued by the work itself and the videos showing how it was done and what inspired it. It was a bit expensive at 30+ dollars a person, I thought. Granted, I haven't had money or time to see many exhibitions in recent years, so I don't really have a good idea what these things cost these days. 

The show is here all summer, ending in August, so if you are here, go see it. Keep in mind the unrelenting construction in Montreal made this almost impossible to find. The entry to the Place des Arts metro station was closed, and it was not clearly indicated how to leave the station, and the space itself was hidden from view by tents on Saint Catherine. I was lost for 45 minutes trying to just get there!! Not a week before, the configuration of the area was completely different! 

Animation:: 25 Years Later UPDATE - bike riding

 

Moving along with this project. I took the bike model and made it work for animation, meaning the wheels turn, the handlebars turn and the pedals turn and the whole thing can be moved as one object. Then I put the main character on it and, after a couple days of work, managed to attach his feet to the pedals so if they move his legs move and look like he is pedalling the bike.  I cheated on the wheels and pedals turning in a way. There is a technique for making them turn when the bike moves forward but it involved math so I just couldn't handle it. Instead, I animated them by hand for 10 seconds, long enough for any scene this will be in and can drop it in and it will look fine. There are no close-ups of him on the bike, just medium long and long shots. 

Updating older animations: 25 Years Later (2020)

 

Original: 25 Years Later (2020) 4 minutes 19 seconds

The story of a man taking a bike journey from Montreal to Boston, where 25 years earlier, he had taken care of a sick friend and the memories invoked along the way. Made in Cinema 4D.

New version.... about the same length of time I'm thinking. More or less. I cut a couple shots while making my shot list for this new version but I think some of the other shots will get lengthened as I try and improve on them. This will be made in Blender. The characters a re made the same as the first version but since switching to Blender I have a much better handle on how to make them more realistic. I am going to have much more cinematic lighting, I hope, and  more atmosphere to each shot plus better movement and emotions on the two characters. 

Above is the cyclist character in all the versions I will need throughout the film. The second character changes more dramatically and will be more of a challenge. 

A big challenge will be remaking all the sets. There was A LOT and I don't plan on cutting any out. Interiors and many exterior shots of cycling from Montreal to Boston. As this is a deeply personal film for me, I want it to be special, though I doubt even as many people who saw the first version will watch this updated one. 

Illustration: Phare Canal Lachine Juin 2024

 

This came along quicker than I thought. Mostly because I had a day (seriously almost 12 hours) with no electricity so no internet, phone calls, or other distractions. The iPad did run out of power despite having an external batter backup. 

I wasn't trying to mimic watercolours or anything this time and just used whatever brushes I thought might work for what part I was painting. The foreground, like my last painting, still seems off a little but much less this time. The lighthouse has plenty of details so I didn't skimp on that. All in all it was about 15 hours of painting. 

Illustration: Parc La Fountaine septembre 2025

 

I finally had a day to work on my own stuff for once and managed to get this digital painting done. It's mostly gouache brushes and a couple texture brushes. The last was an isolated tree and this is an entire scene so it was more challenging in that respect. It's still loose compared to my other work but it took about 8 hours of work to do. The forground path still looks wonky even after repainting it a few times. My main focus was the blurred/ditorted reflection on the water as I didn't want to have it look like a mirror. 

Illustration: rue de la Visitation 04

 

Another house on the the way to my gym/pool. This was not in the best shape for a long time and a few years ago fell victim to fire. After the fire there was a major renovation that kept most of the original details and restored it to perhaps more than its former glory. 

This was a rare case I didn't hate the drawing until the end when it was near finished. It came along much more smoothly, thought slowly. Lots of bricks. I think before the fire it was all painted pink! 

Illustration: 1915 rue de la Visitation

 Finished another building I see on my walk to the gym. I will do the one next door as well soon, it's more interesting building. As usual, I HATED this until I was almost done. Then I was fine with it. maybe it says something about not giving up or maybe I'm just not looking at the process of doing these in a positive way. I like the end results and I guess that is what matters. 

photography: Canal lachine

Got on the bike before sunrise so I could be further along my path when the sun came up. This lets me take morning light photos on some of the prettier parts of the bike trail outside the city.I have a light for the bike but it's not exactly the safest thing to do as the trails often have hard to see potholes and sometimes there are other cyclists without lights you can't see until they are about to hit you. Lately there isn't anyone else out there, which I prefer so this was pretty quiet and peaceful.

Do you need a boat to get to the other boat?

I love black and white and there was also still a light fog even an hour into my ride so I was able to capture some of that. You can see light rays coming through the trees in one of the photos. 

Aprt from the morning light, another reason I wanted to leave early was the last week the wind has been very light and the canal is often like a mirror. 

 

Illustration: pride dansers

 The boy is from this year, he was marching with the black and white drawing dancer I posted not long ago. The Drag on stilts was from last year. I have been unable to decide what to do with her. I started as a colour, then though maybe a loose watercolour but couldn't get into it then made a detailed outline and that is where it stands now. 

Illustration: Street Acrobat on Saint Catherine MTL

I didn't get many reference photos this year from Montreal Complement Cirque, there wasn't a free show at the park near me and I didn't see many of the acts on St Denis. I did catch this guy near my house, the business group here in the village has been doing small shows up and down Saint Catherine most days and I happened to walk by while I had my camera with me. 

I decided to use Affinity Photo and do my old paint in greyscale then colourize technique. I like the look of it. I might do one more of him, maybe pen and ink maybe digital water colour which I have been playing with but not getting anywhere. 

photography: Village Gai mai 2024

 A break from Blender for the moment this morning. The street has a rainbow path on it this year. Still not competition for the canopy of coloured balls we had for years and brought in tons of tourists. It's something at least. 

Illustration: rue Berthier

 

Another in my local house series. This one is also close to the gym as those are the houses I see most of the week. I think I like the brick houses, they look cool to me and I like the colour palette. 

Like a lot of there, the drawing looks much nicer than the real place. This building is cute but it is hidden by poles, electric line, meters... you name it. There really should a law against visual pollution blocking our appreciation of the places we see every day. 

Illustration: 1600 ave Lartigue

 

This is a house that really sticks out on one of the alley/streets I pass when going to a friend's house. It used to have a slightly larger than life plaster statue of an old time'y soldier painted in bright colours in front of it. It seems to always be for sale, sold, then for sale again. Not sure why that is, the inside seems really nice and large, there is a good outdoor space and parking. It is pretty weird, not sure what "style" it's in. 

Like most of these drawings, it hated this until I was in my second colouring/painting stage where I start adding shading to the solid colours I laid down first. Now.. I like it a lot. Mostly because I think the roof tiles do it for me. The reference photos were sort of a mess. This is a narrow space and getting all the house in one shot was out of the question so I took multiple photos and made a couple panoramas with limited success. 

Illustration: Hottie in Sunglasses

 

What else would I call this? This was from references of acrobats reshow this summer. I made it in Affinity Photo on iPad and desktop by saving the file I was drawing  with in Dropbox so I could open it on either and pick up where I left off. I worked really well and I can see me doing that with other work in the future. Though photo is still missing good colour blending options (Procreate has the same issue for me) it forces me to try other methods to get something I like. 

photography: Vieux Port Montreal 13 Septembre 2023