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.
Keeping it real: Total Recall
Inside the hover car chase, ‘in-one-shot’ gun fight, Synths, holograms and destruction vfx for the new Total Recall.
iPad app beta program for fxinsiders
Thanks to the amazing support of our readers during our fxinsider membership drive, we’ve begun development of our fxguide iPad application. In fact we’re happy to say that thanks to your support, we’ll soon be opening a beta program for testing the application…
Moving Day – now a free ‘making of’ iBook
We’re proud to announce a free behind the scenes iBook on the making of fxphd’s short film Moving Day.
SIGGRAPH 2012 opens
Our report from the opening of SIGGRAPH 2012 in Los Angeles looking at major sessions and tech announcements.
The Foundry releases MARI 1.5
At SIGGRAPH in LA, The Foundry announced they have released MARI 1.5, with new overlapping UV support, Maya texture export, and mirroring in the paint buffer. Click through for the press release from The Foundry.
How to destroy aliens, a cow and a Costco: The Watch
Animating aliens, blowing up a cow, destroying a Costco: Digital Domain’s effects for The Watch.
Pixar’s encouraging performance – by giving away the good stuff
Pixar is contributing to the open source community by making their interactive friendly, high speed Open SubDiv available to all.
The latest in music video VFX
A look at the recent MTV VMA nominations and some other killer music promos.