Green Lantern: Sony suits up

July 5, 2011

We talk to several members of the Sony Pictures Imageworks team responsible for bringing many of Green Lantern’s visual effects to the screen.

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The Foundry releases NUKE/MARI workflow

July 1, 2011

The Foundry have announced a new set of tools which makes getting data back and forth between MARI and NUKE much simpler. It’s exactly the type of workflow that compositors using camera projections to do set extensions and fixes will surely find incredibly useful as the lines further blur between comp and CG. Click through for the full press release from The Foundry.

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Fringe takes an animated trip

June 30, 2011

VFX supe Jay Worth and Zoic Studios creative director Andrew Orloff explain the mind-bending animation techniques required for a recent episode of Fringe.

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Populating Mr. Popper’s Penguins

June 29, 2011

We talk to visual effects supervisor Richard Hollander about Rhythm & Hues’ CG creations for Mr Popper’s Penguins.

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How previs shaped X-Men: First Class

June 27, 2011

We recently partnered with The Daily to produce a story on The Third Floor’s previs work for X-Men: First Class.

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Cannes Film Craft Lions

June 24, 2011

The shortlist for the 2011 Film Craft Cannes Lions has been released, with the winners to be announced on 25 June. We’ve covered a number of these projects at fxguide. UPDATED to include the winners.

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Super 8: ILM’s production value on screen

June 21, 2011

We talk to senior ILM visual effects supervisor Dennis Muren and animation supervisor Paul Kavanagh about realizing the visual effects in J.J. Abrams’ Super 8.

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VES Career Fair & Workshops

June 20, 2011

On June 25th, the Visual Effects Society is holding a Career Fair with representatives from many visual effects companies who are looking to meet new talent. Companies hosting booths include Walt Disney Animation Studios, MPC, Sony Imageworks, Digital Domain, Deluxe, Technicolor and many more.

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Academy invites 178 to Membership

June 17, 2011

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the list of people invited to join as Academy Members for 2011. The list includes thirteen animators, two art directors, nine cinematographers, nine editors and twelve people in the visual effects category.

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Retro spotlight: A.I. Artificial Intelligence

June 16, 2011

Tony Hudson, who worked at ILM as the CG Model and Creature Supervisor on A.I. Artificial Intelligence, outlines some of his favorite memories from the experience.

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X-Men: First Class – Q&A with John Dykstra

June 16, 2011

Visual effects designer John Dysktra oversaw 1100 shots for X-Men: First Class. We ask his thoughts on designing effects for the film and how he approached grounding those in a mutant reality.

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Making mutants for X-Men: First Class

June 16, 2011

In this in-depth article, we take a look at effects for the major characters in X-Men: First Class and the film’s final showdown.

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MPC’s pirates & their ships sail on Stranger Tides

June 14, 2011

We talk to MPC’s visual effects supervisor Gary Brozenich about some of his studio’s shots for On Stranger Tides, and working for the first time in native stereo.

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Paws, claws and jaws in Attack the Block

June 2, 2011

We take a look at Fido’s CG fur, paws, claws and jaws for the film Attack the Block, with before and after pics, concept art and screenshots. Warning: spoilers.

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London calling for Pirates 4 at Cinesite

May 31, 2011

We talk to Cinesite about their visual effects contribution to Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, with the work spanning a carriage chase sequence through London, CG toads and the creation of Barbossa’s peg leg.

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Priest: not your average vampire movie

May 30, 2011

We take a look at just some of the 750 effects shots in Priest by Tippett Studio, Spin VFX, Svengali FX, Spy Post and The Senate.

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Psyop tested to perfection

May 26, 2011

For ‘Tested To Perfection’, a Castrol TVC for the company’s newly reformulated EDGE motor oil, Psyop was called upon to help create an elaborate test track complete with giant engine parts and a hero made of oil going through its paces. We talk to Jamie Scott (2D lead and co-vfx supervisor) and Tony Barberi (technical […]

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Elastic opens Game of Thrones

May 26, 2011

We speak to Creative Director Angus Wall from Elastic about designing and executing the two and half minute opening titles for Game of Thrones.

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VES 2.0 is here and ready to lead

May 25, 2011

The Visual Effects Society (VES) today released an open letter to “VFX Artists And The Entertainment Industry At Large” announcing VES 2.0, we talk with Jeffrey A. Okun, Chair of VES.

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Dutch Tilt – how much should you be paid?

May 25, 2011

We spoke to Jules van Den Steenhoven of the NSC about their new iPhone & iPad app that maps global salaries for production and post professionals. Some things like this have been tried in the past, none it would seem as successfully as the NSC’s app is proving to be. But what was their approach to gathering this information and how current is it? Does it take into account month to month currency fluctuation? And just why is this being done by the NSC anyway?

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The latest from Rok!t Studio

May 24, 2011

We talk to Rok!t Studio creative director Steve Viola about two recent projects – opening titles for Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family and stereo animation work for the Justin Bieber bio Never Say Never.

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Bear of a time at Cannes

May 23, 2011

Director Nash Edgerton along with producer Lauren Edwards have just completed a week at Cannes with the short film Bear.

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Digital Domain buys site license of KATANA

May 19, 2011

The Foundry announced today that Digital Domain has purchased a site license for KATANA, making them the first customer of the product. We caught up with Bill Collis for an update on this news as well as more info about open source and support of the recent deep compositing spec that’s part of OpenEXR 2.0

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Pixar’s Chris Ford on RenderMan Pro Server 16.0

May 19, 2011

We talk to RenderMan Business Director Chris Ford about some of the key features of the new RenderMan Pro Server 16.0 release.

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Mirada dreams of black for ROME

May 18, 2011

We thought we’d point you to some of the latest work from Mirada, the new studio collaboration between director Guillermo del Toro, director Mathew Cullen, cinematographer Guillermo Navarro and executive producer Javier Jimenez.

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Realms, robots & rainbow bridges: crafting Thor

May 18, 2011

We talk to Thor visual effects supervisor Wesley Sewell and some of the VFX vendors about a few key sequences from Kenneth Branagh’s film of the Marvel comic.

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Kessler Motion control slider : the rc bonus extra

May 11, 2011

In this bonus RC video, we speak to Eric Kessler about the new Motion Control Slider – first shown at NAB 2011.

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Cooke Panchros: the rc bonus extra

May 9, 2011

We caught up with Les Zellan from Cooke Lens. Cooke recently we introduced the Panchros (or Mini-S4s as Les jokes). We talk to Les and test drove the lens.

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FMX 2011 – Day Four

May 9, 2011

The final day of FMX 2011 included a Harry Potter VFX tribute and presentations on animated films and games. We also talk to Proof’s Ron Frankel about the concept of stereo previs.

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FMX 2011 – Day Three

May 6, 2011

More impressive talks punctuated day three at FMX 2011. We take a look at some of the highlights and sit down with ILM’s Tim Alexander and Patrick Cohen to discuss Rango.

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