DaVinci Resolve 9 public beta released
Blackmagic Design has released the public beta version of their popular color grading tool DaVinci Resolve 9, with an entirely redesigned user interface, and further camera and file type support.
Laguna College of Art and Design
Laguna College of Art and Design (LCAD) is celebrating its 50th Anniversary. We visited the campus and spoke with Jonathan Burke, President of the University as well as with Catharin Eure, chair of Design.
Sinbad: The Mill’s effects voyage
VFX supe David Houghton from The Mill tells us about the elemental visual effects in the new TV series Sinbad.
Founders Series: industry legend Jim Blinn
Ivan Sutherland once commented: “There are about a dozen great computer graphics people, and Jim Blinn is six of them.” We are proud to interview the man who invented bump maps, did the JPL flybys and taught us so much.
Blackmagic Design Acquires Assets of Cintel International
Blackmagic Design has acquired the intellectual property and all aspects of Cintel’s entire portfolio of film scanning products. This includes all of the IP, name and brand ownership and product development rights…
DMM: FEA for VFX
A look back at the success of Pixelux’s finite element analysis tool DMM – from LucasArts’ The Force Unleashed to MPC’s Prometheus ship destructions. And a peek into a new pre-made VFX online store using DMM tech.
Ice Age 4: riding the new wave
Blue Sky Studios talks water sims, voxels, sky systems and characters for Ice Age: Continental Drift.
2012 Emmy Nominations
The 64th Primetime Emmy® Award nominations were announced this morning at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in North Hollywood. The nominees for visual effects related categories are…
Katana in production: changing the structure of the workflow
The Foundry’s look-dev and lighting tool Katana is being adopted by more and more VFX houses. We take a look at the current state of play with the software. Includes exclusive Katana screenshots from Sony Pictures Imageworks.
Going bananas: Madagascar 3
DreamWorks Animation’s Scott Peterson tells us all about banana guns and other absurd effects in Madagascar 3.
Greenscreen to small screen: three great ads
Behind the scenes of 3 VFX-filled ads with making of breakdowns from Method Studios, Alt.vfx and Rhythm & Hues.
It’s Art. It’s Science. SIGGRAPH 2012 preview
We preview the key technical papers, visual effects production sessions, talks, courses and more in the upcoming SIGGRAPH 2012 conference being held from 5-9th August in LA. fxguide is a major media partner of Siggraph and will bring you heaps from the show…
Space Nazis: the making of Iron Sky
Iron Sky vfx supe Samuli Torssonen discusses the realities of making a moon Nazi film and how he created many ambitious visual effects with a small team of artists.
Alvy Ray Smith: RGBA, the birth of compositing & the founding of Pixar
Dr Alvy Ray Smith from Xerox to Lucasfilm, PIXAR to Microsoft – he is truly one of the founders of our industry.
Shooting diary of Spider-Man: bringing it to the screen
A Special RC Written Report: Light Iron’s Michael Cioni shares the early days of testing the brand new RED EPIC for shooting The Amazing Spider-Man in stereo, and how the filmmakers pulled it off.
Clarisse iFX: a new approach to 3D
Rarely do companies attempt to change the way we work, but Isotropix and its Clarisse iFX product is attempting just that. Clarisse iFX aims to change the way CGI pipelines work, via one central mantra: reduce to a minimum time to first pixel output in any situation. And that’s just the start. Exclusive high-res output samples and much more.
Spider-Man: the detailed vfx of spiders and lizards
We speak to SPI about lizard skins, spiders and vast city blocks.
Ted: the bear facts
Behind the scenes of Seth MacFarlane’s Ted, the very naughty bear brought to life by Tippett Studio, Iloura and The Creative-Cartel. Updated with several making of videos.
Vampire Hunter: two killer sequences
How Weta Digital and Method Studios used novel approaches for two sequences in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Features breakdown images and videos.
Academy Visual Effects Invites
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has released the names of those invited to become voting members. The 2012 invitees for Visual Effects are…
Effects you never knew were there
The invisible VFX of Hemingway & Gellhorn, Rock of Ages, Rust & Bone, Moonrise Kingdom, The Dictator and Safe.
Cannes Lions 2012 winners announced
Check out the Cannes Lions 2012 advertising winners in the Film Craft category, and read fxguide coverage of the visual effects work.
Brave New Hair
Sim Samurais, digital curling irons and the amazing world of Pixar’s Brave simulation team.
Prime Focus adopts Shotgun & Revolver starting with MIB3
Shotgun Software was founded in 2006 by a group of vfx professionals to build production tracking and pipeline solutions. Shotgun today has more than 350 animation, visual effects and game development clients including Digital Domain, Double Negative, Reliance, Framestore, Pixomondo, Playstation, Blizzard and Zoic Studios. The newest addition to this line up is Prime Focus.
RenderMan – new bundles and info from Pixar
A look at Pixar’s new website for RenderMan ahead of the RPS17 release. Also, RenderMan for Maya is to be combined with RenderMan Studio.
Prometheus: rebuilding hallowed vfx space
fxguide explores Ridley Scott’s alien world in Prometheus, with exclusive in-depth coverage of the VFX by Weta, Fuel, MPC and other vendors.
VES Job Fair this weekend
This weekend, Saturday, June 16, 2012, in Los Angeles, New York and London there is the second annual VES Career Fair & Tech Expo. fxguide has spoken to many of the VFX studios attending – here’s a quick guide to the Fair and Expo.
Prometheus: in-depth coverage on fxguide
fxguide will be covering Prometheus in-depth, with articles, an fxpodcast and fxguidetv all this week. To get an idea of what to expect, check out this excerpt including a breakdown of Fuel’s star map orrery sequence.
Alien versus a 5″ gun
Image Engine worked with Battleship lead vendor ILM on crafting the alien Thugs for two on-ship sequences. We break down the work with images and videos.
Huntsman: every trick in the fairytale book
How face replacements, shattering soldiers, CG trolls and magic metallic mirrors were made for Snow White and the Huntsman. fxinsider members can also watch an exclusive interview with Double Negative.