Cars 2 animation progression
Disney/Pixar have released a neat breakdown of the opening drilling platform chase sequence from Cars 2.
The sound fx of Cars 2
Here’s a video we worked on with The Daily on the sound design and effects by Skywalker Sound for Pixar/Disney’s Cars 2.
Free Scratch + RED Webinar July 14th
fxguide’s own Mike Seymour will be leading a webinar on July 14th covering SCRATCH and RED workflow. If you own a RED camera — or if you don’t own one and need to manage productions and post that are using RED, this short webinar will be useful for you. Register here or click through for more details.
Some recent TVC highlights
Here’s just five TVCs from the last few months that have caught our eye for their inventive use of visual effects.
Green Lantern: Sony suits up
We talk to several members of the Sony Pictures Imageworks team responsible for bringing many of Green Lantern’s visual effects to the screen.
The Foundry releases NUKE/MARI workflow
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.
Fringe takes an animated trip
VFX supe Jay Worth and Zoic Studios creative director Andrew Orloff explain the mind-bending animation techniques required for a recent episode of Fringe.
Populating Mr. Popper’s Penguins
We talk to visual effects supervisor Richard Hollander about Rhythm & Hues’ CG creations for Mr Popper’s Penguins.
How previs shaped X-Men: First Class
We recently partnered with The Daily to produce a story on The Third Floor’s previs work for X-Men: First Class.
Cannes Film Craft Lions
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.
Super 8: ILM’s production value on screen
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.
VES Career Fair & Workshops
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.
Academy invites 178 to Membership
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.
Retro spotlight: A.I. Artificial Intelligence
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.
X-Men: First Class – Q&A with John Dykstra
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.
Making mutants for X-Men: First Class
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.
MPC’s pirates & their ships sail on Stranger Tides
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.
Paws, claws and jaws in Attack the Block
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.
London calling for Pirates 4 at Cinesite
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.
Priest: not your average vampire movie
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.
Psyop tested to perfection
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 […]
Elastic opens Game of Thrones
We speak to Creative Director Angus Wall from Elastic about designing and executing the two and half minute opening titles for Game of Thrones.
VES 2.0 is here and ready to lead
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.
Dutch Tilt – how much should you be paid?
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?
The latest from Rok!t Studio
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.
Bear of a time at Cannes
Director Nash Edgerton along with producer Lauren Edwards have just completed a week at Cannes with the short film Bear.
Digital Domain buys site license of KATANA
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
Pixar’s Chris Ford on RenderMan Pro Server 16.0
We talk to RenderMan Business Director Chris Ford about some of the key features of the new RenderMan Pro Server 16.0 release.
Mirada dreams of black for ROME
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.
Realms, robots & rainbow bridges: crafting Thor
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.