Raymond Frederick Harryhausen R.I.P 1920-2013

May 7, 2013

Raymond Frederick Harryhausen Born: Los Angeles 29th June 1920 Died: London 7th May 2013. From the Harryhausen Family posted via Facebook: The Harryhausen family regret to announce the death of Ray Harryhausen, Visual Effects pioneer and stop-motion model animator. He was a multi-award winner which includes a special Oscar and BAFTA. Ray’s influence on today’s […]

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Iron Man 3: more suits to play with

May 6, 2013

More suits, more extreme effects. How the VFX studios behind Iron Man 3 made the film possible.

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Notes from AdobeMAX: It’s in the Cloud

May 6, 2013

I’m attending AdobeMAX for the first time this year and we share some thoughts from the conference with or fxphd and fxinsider members. New apps, new features, and new pricing model for Adobe’s software.

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Stop frame animation made with atoms. Yes, at the atomic level!

May 1, 2013

Atomic short film – literally a film made at atomic – per atom level by IBM – truly remarkable and a key to future atomic memory devices.

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LED light quality: a free fxphd Background lecture

April 29, 2013

LED lighting is rising in popularity but this free fxphd lecture explains and compares LED lights in this free in depth BKD class from fxphd.com. The results are surprising.

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Canon 5D Mk III firmware update released

April 29, 2013

Now out of Beta the 5D Mk III update is ready to be downloaded…

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Aaton out of the Game? updated

April 27, 2013

Reports that Aaton has shut down subject to finding additional funding. Updated 4/291600GMT with statement from Jean-Pierre Beauviala, Founder and CEO of Aaton

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FMX 2013 – final wrap-up

April 27, 2013

Some final thoughts on FMX 2013 and a look at the Iron Man 3 presentations by Trixter and Weta Digital, and on virtual production.

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The science of spherical harmonics at Weta Digital

April 25, 2013

Just what are Spherical Harmonics? And how are the visual effects artists at Weta Digital using SH to handle vast renders?

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Day 2 at FMX 2013 – Lara Croft’s hair, Arnold, MPC’s FX tools, OpenSubdiv

April 25, 2013

Day 2 at the FMX 2013 conference in Stuttgart, Germany had more great VFX and gaming talks, plus a look at digital camera work and Pixar’s OpenSubdiv.

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Day 1 at FMX 2013 – Pixar, Cloud Atlas, Life of Pi, Katana, V-Ray

April 24, 2013

We wrap-up day one at FMX 2013 in Stuttgart, which saw panels on the state of VFX, behind the scenes of Cloud Atlas, Life of Pi, The Blue Umbrella and Epic and ILM’s use of V-Ray.

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How Digic made the Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag trailer

April 23, 2013

Pirates, sailors and Assassin’s Creed – behind the scenes of Digic Pictures’ Black Flag trailer with CG turntables and making ofs.

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Inside Oblivion

April 22, 2013

We talk to DOP Claudio Miranda, ASC and the visual effects supes from Digital Domain and Pixomondo about Oblivion.

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RC special – what’s in Jason Wingrove’s Epic kit?

April 18, 2013

After several emails and comments in fxphd’s forums, we offer this update of the typical state of the art gear in an independent Epic film package. We asked the RC’s Jason’s Wingrove to open his camera bags and show us his typical kit.

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World-building: making the TV series Defiance

April 16, 2013

Behind the scenes of the VFX in Syfy’s new TV series Defiance, with befores and afters imagery and a bonus gallery.

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OpenEXR 2.0 goes deep

April 10, 2013

Now out of public beta, an update of the open source high dynamic range file format OpenEXR to include several new features, including deep data support, has been released with version 2.0.

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NAB 2013: Blackmagic and Moore’s Law

April 9, 2013

The buzz especially in the South Hall and Central Halls of the NAB 2013 which cater to production and post-production was the power of Moore’s Law as represented by a tiny ‘point and film’ camera that perhaps was the biggest news.

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HDRs for an animated film? Behind the scenes of The Croods

April 7, 2013

How DreamWorks Animation employed Point-Based Global-Illumination on The Croods, relied on HDRs to inform lighting and developed a new cross-over between effects and animation.

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Broadcast and ident design highlights

April 7, 2013

Here’s a couple of broadcast design and idents projects that have caught our eye recently – from NASCAR to MTV and the BBC – featuring work by The Mill, Polynoid and Engine Room.

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Welcome (back) to Jurassic Park

April 4, 2013

How ILM’s VFX art director literally put his body on the line to help make Jurassic Park, and what the hardest thing in the film was to convert for its 3D release – you’ll be surprised.

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Adobe’s new pro video tools: NAB sneak peek

April 4, 2013

Adobe has revealed its next versions of Premiere Pro, After Effects, SpeedGrade, Audition, Prelude, Media Encoder and Story.

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The Iron Man science project

April 3, 2013

Behind the scenes of an Iron Man-themed Verizon TV spot, with visual effects by The Embassy.

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fxguide’s guide to FMX 2013

April 2, 2013

The definitive guide to the effects, animation, games and transmedia presentations planned for FMX 2013 in Stuttgart, Germany from 23 to 26 April.

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The best tech demos from GDC2013

April 2, 2013

Some of the best game engine and tech demos from this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

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Creature features: VFX in TVCs

April 2, 2013

Dinosaurs to dragons, Easter bunnies and…avalanches. We look at characters and creatures in recent TVCs.

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G.I. Joe: Retaliation – kick-ass action

April 1, 2013

Find out how the biggest effects shots in G.I. Joe: Retaliation were created by ILM, Digital Domain and Method Studios. Featuring exclusive Digital Domain making of VFX clips.

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Rhythm & Hues auction won by Prana Studios (UPDATED x2)

March 29, 2013

Rhythm and Hues has been sold at auction following bankruptcy to Prana Studios. Final hearing scheduled for Friday at 10:00 am.

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What’s new from Autodesk

March 26, 2013

See the new announcements from Autodesk for Maya, 3ds Max, MotionBuilder, Mudbox, Softimage and Sketchbook Designer.

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More notes from the NVIDIA GPU Tech Conference

March 26, 2013

In the second of our reports from GTC, we cover HFR with Douglas Trumbull, ZOIC’s ZEUS pipeline, Rhythm & Hues Crom VFX platform, as well as a few more details about Octane’s cloud solution and the GRID VCA.

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How VFX saved Washington: Olympus Has Fallen

March 25, 2013

We break down the visual effects behind Olympus Has Fallen with before and after imagery and making of videos.

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