Jeffrey A. Okun, Chair of the Visual Effects Society joins us to discuss the mission of the VES, the difference between unions and societies, health care for members, how to become a member and much more.

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A new episode of fxguidetv is available for downloading. In this episode we talk monitors with a look at Cine-tal and HP DreamColor, discuss RED and 16k with da Vinci, see the latest from Matrox and visit with our friends at Eyeon. We also get an update from Ted Schilowitz at the RED user party.

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A new fxpodcast is out, and this week it is an interview with VFX Supervisor Eric Grenaudier from Stargate Digital about their work on the U.S. television series ‘Heroes’. The show recently started its third season in the United States, having been nominated for a visual effects Emmy in 2007 and 2008.

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Click through for a set of exclusive before and after green screen and on set shots from Series 3 of Heroes. We appreciate and thank the support of Stargate Digital and NBC in getting us these images.
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In our second fxguidetv episode from Amsterdam and IBC 2008 we get a look at the soon to be released Ocula plug-in from The Foundry for problem solving Stereoscopic images. Also a preview of what’s new in Fusion 6 and Generation from Eyeon.

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On the way to Amsterdam John Montgomery stopped in Montreal to get an exclusive and in depth look at the latest releases for Flame and Smoke. Philippe Soeiro from Autodesk takes us through some of the exciting new features including 3D Particle presets, the transition to floating point workflow, real time deliverables and more.

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In this episode we continue our Siggraph 2008 coverage from Los Angeles. We look at what Autodesk is doing with Stereoscopic, get the scoop on the latest developments in Fusion, and have some fun in the New Technology area.

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In our last fxpodcast we interviewed Dave Rand about the artists who went unpaid by Meteor Studios after working on Journey to the Center of the Earth. This week we take a break from that Labor Series and focus on the technology in the film and in particular doing DI on a stereoscopic film. Our guest is Jeff Olm, who may be known to some of you as a long time Flame compositor, or maybe you had a Lustre demo from him at a trade show and he is also a professor at fxphd.com. Jeff did the DI for Journey to the Center of the Earth and shares his insight into the technical issues.

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In this fxpodcast we get an overview of New Deal Studios with co-founder Matthew Gratzner. New Deal made their name in miniatures but can take a project from design through finish using whatever tools and tricks the job requires. Matthew shares some great stories about favorite past projects as well as offering a perspective on the industry.

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Plenty of great behind the scenes images after the jump…
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In this fxpodcast we talk with Chris Sage, VP of operations at Luma Pictures, an artist driven facility in Venice California that does high end visual effects.

From time to time we like to do facility profiles rather than stories about specific films or techniques. Luma Pictures initially caught our attention because they promoted themselves as a primarily Mac based facility. We discuss this as well as their work, pipeline and tools.

To hear the podcast or subscribe to it via RSS or iTunes, click on Podcasts. You can also search for fxguide in the iTunes Store.

Show notes, images and links after the jump….
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REALVIZ was a unique company, one of the first to solve and commercialize a range of outstanding visual effects tools ranging from panoramic Stitching to 3D Tracking. The fxguide founders actually visited REALVIZ about 2 years ago in its location just outside of Cannes, France. This visit cemented our opinion about the quality of the team and depth of their image research and development. The company’s contribution to the visual effects industry has been enormous, thus their future is of great importance to many in the industry.

The purchase of REALVIZ by Autodesk initially received some bad press – perhaps due to the online suspension of purchases via their website, or perhaps because of discussions suggesting a reduced product line. As reports have widely speculated about the future of these French developers, we approached Autodesk directly to set the record straight: would the French R&D team be leaving, would the original founders be moving on, and just what could we expect from the company formerly known as REALVIZ?

fxguide spoke with Marc Petit, SVP, of Autodesk Media & Entertainment about the the deal….

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