Exclusive: Foundry and Luxology merge
Exclusively and on the record fxguide can report that The Foundry is merging with Luxology, makers of Modo. We report the facts, interview the new management team and gauge industry reactions from ILM, WETA, SPI and more.
GRAPHIC 2012 at the Sydney Opera House
We preview the GRAPHIC 2012 festival at the Sydney Opera House in November, which includes talks from Pixar’s Lee Unkrich and Animal Logic.
Galloping Horse America & Reliance MediaWorks buy DD
Galloping Horse America & Reliance MediaWorks have jointly acquired the assets of Digital Domain & Mothership in DDMG bankruptcy auction. Here is the press release.
Resident Evil: Retribution – just add bacon
How Mr. X created the FX for the latest Resident Evil, and how bacon (yes bacon) inspired one of the main creatures.
Indy on blu-ray, and more
John Rhys-Davies, who played Sallah in Indiana Jones, talks to us about the Indy blu-ray release. Plus we check out some other blu-ray and DVDs with effects-heavy featurettes.
How to sell cars: dancing hamsters, singing robots
The Kia hamsters are back. We look at Method’s VFX in a new TVC, plus the work of The Embassy for a new Citroen robot spot. Updated with a Method breakdown reel.
Creative Arts Emmy Winners
The Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards were held tonight in Los Angeles. And the winners are… Plus we have breakdowns of Pixomondo’s GOT VFX, and Brainstorm Digital’s work for Boardwalk Empire.
Open letter response to David Cohen, Variety
An open letter to Variety’s David Cohen, who has suggested VFX today are boring.
Creative strength in advertising / behavioral change
What is the future of creativity in advertising? It may well be walking away from the 30 sec ad format and starting over with a whole new approach focusing instead on behavioral change. At the forefront of this is Naked Communications. Mike spoke in Sydney to co-founder Adam Ferrier.
Monsters, moths and MRIs: The Possession
Released on the Labor Day weekend, The Possession surprised many at the box office, taking in more than $21 million. Artifex Studios VFX supe Adam Stern outlines the spooky visual effects. Now with making-of VFX reel.
Digital Domain shuts down Florida studio; LA/Vancouver Still Open
After defaulting on debt earlier this week, Digital Domain announced today it is closing its Port St. Lucie, Florida operations. They intend to operate California and Vancouver without interruption. Click through for the press release.
Hiero 1.5, Hieroplayer and Nuke 7 from The Foundry
The Foundry today formally announced Hiero 1.5, Hieroplayer and Nuke 7.
NVIDIA to launch Quadro K5000 card for Mac
NVIDIA announced today that it will be releasing a new Kepler Quadro K5000 card for Mac later this year. Running up to two times faster than the current gen Quadro 4000, it’s good to see a higher level card make it to the Mac platform.
Bonus Imageworks interviews
In this bonus video for fxinsider members we have extended interviews with Imageworks VFX supes Ken Ralston and Jay Redd, and Imageworks CTO Rob Bredow (all with new additional content). This year Imageworks is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
New tech: Adobe Anywhere
Adobe’s Anywhere software is being announced this week at IBC, and we’ve got an early look at the collaborative editing solution.
Pixel Farm’s PFDepth: exclusive first look
We have an exclusive preview of PFDepth, The Pixel Farm’s new tool for creating stereo images from mono footage via depth maps.
SIGGRAPH Asia speaker profile – the father of MP3
fxguide is once again the official podcast of SIGGRAPH Asia, being held in Singapore from November 28th to December 1st. We’ll be talking to several speakers and presenters from the conference, including our first guest – Professor Karlheinz Brandenburg – the so-called ‘father of MP3.’
fxphd live: practical effects & digital integration
Practical 3-day workshop on fx, pyro, greenscreen and digital techniques from Oscar-nominated VFX experts.
From Speed to Spidey: 20 years of VFX and animation
A timeline of films and tech innovations over 20 years from Sony Pictures Imageworks and Sony Pictures Animation.
Tandent Lightbrush: engineering an image
Tandent’s Lightbrush tool allows artists to manipulate surface colors and shading separately in a still image.
End of an era: Matte World Digital and Fuel
In two sad developments, Matte World Digital today announced it has closed its doors while Fuel VFX has gone into voluntary administration.
How James Bond met the Queen, and other Olympics effects
Visual effects helped shaped the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony – we look at some Olympics and Paralympics VFX notables.
Cinesite’s fresh start
Recently sold to private backers, Cinesite has moved sans-Kodak into a difficult visual effects climate. So where is the company at the moment, and what does the future hold? We sat down with Cinesite VFX supe Simon Stanley-Clamp to find out.
Method lends a hand
Behind the scenes of three documentary promos for SBS by Method Studios. Includes a making of clip.
The tech behind ParaNorman
A quick look at the tech behind LAIKA’s latest 3D stop-motion animated film ParaNorman and a timelapse video of the animators at work.
Back for more mayhem: The Expendables 2
VFX supe Ajoy Mani on WorldwideFX’s work for The Expendables 2, with two breakdown reels.
Scientific and Technical Oscar – 2012 consideration list announced
Award season kicks off with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announcing the list of seven achievements under consideration for the 2012 Scientific and Technical Awards at the Oscars.
The making of Cookie Monster’s ‘Share It Maybe’
Cookie Monster’s ‘Share Me Maybe’ has had more than 8 million views on YouTube. We look at how The Diamond Brothers directed the video and how the new DaVinci Resolve 9 was used for finishing.
Death of Naiad. Horse’s head in the bed or vast opportunity?
Autodesk effectively bought the heart and soul of Exotic Matter (EM) but not the company. It purchased the rights to the technology, leaving the product Naiad completely dead. It will not be developed, supported or individually developed past the current version.
More from SIGGRAPH 2012
In our end of week update from SIGGRAPH, we cover news from Side Effects, the RenderMan user group, NVIDIA, Massive, Open Source, Dreamworks, and the Weta Virtual Production session.