Capturing the Guardians
Vicon House of Moves recently helped bring to life 30 animated superheroes for an NHL and Stan Lee venture known as The Guardian Project. We find out how they used mo-cap and the Epic Games Unreal Engine to make it possible.
Read the Article
Luma shows True Grit with the Coen Brothers
With over 350 visual effects shots, True Grit represents the fourth collaboration between Luma Pictures and directors Joel and Ethan Coen. We take a look at some of Luma’s key invisible effects for the film.
Read the Article
Lumen-escent: the VFX of I Am Number Four
Visual effects supervisor Greg McMurry oversaw 800 shots for I Am Number Four, the story of an alien fugitive on the run from other-worldly pursuers. We take a look at some of the key effects scenes from the film.
Read the Article
Union’s 350 shots for 127 Hours
Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours tells the story of mountain climber Aron Ralston (James Franco) who becomes trapped beneath a boulder in Utah. We talk to VFX supe Adam Gascoyne from Union Visual Effects about how his studio helped tell this real-life tale of survival.
Read the Article
Framestore goes under seige
A stand-out commercial airing during this year’s Super Bowl was Coca-Cola’s ‘Seige’, featuring a group of evil fire-warriors invading the village of a band of furry, friendly creatures. The Wieden + Kennedy spot was directed by Nexus’ Fx&Mat, with CGI and animation work by Framestore. We talk to Framestore’s visual effects supervisor Diarmid Harrison-Murray.
Read the Article
The future of Furnace on Flame
Recently on Flame-news it was reported that the Foundry would no longer fix bugs or develop for Furnace on Flame.
We spoke exclusively to the Foundry to find out if Furnace was “end of life” on Flame
Read the Article
Skulley Effects freezes fire for Stone Sour
Skulley Effects was behind the frozen moment work in ‘Hesitate’, a music video for Stone Sour that caught our eye. We talk to senior visual effects artist and Skulley owner Culley Bunker.
Read the Article
Life with the EliteBook: DreamColor Overview
One of the attractive aspects of the EliteBook is its DreamColor display, which provides outstanding color response and calibration capabilities which are suited towards film and video pros. In the second of our multi-part series, we take a look at DreamColor and review some of the tech details behind it.
Read the Article
Stargate crashes The Event
In the second episode of NBC series The Event, a plane once headed to kill the President mysteriously emerges from a wormhole only to crash-land in the desert, care of VFX from Stargate Studios. Lead compositor Diego Galtieri discusses the crash seen in the episode, which received a VES Award nom in the Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Series category.
Read the Article
IATSE Informational Meetings this Sunday in Los Angeles and Vancouver
IATSE will host their first public informational meetings in Santa Monica and Vancouver on Sunday, February 13th. IATSE 891 VFX in Vancouver describes the events as an opportunity to “chat with your fellow artists, compare working conditions, and ask the questions you want answered of the union about the organizing drive, the benefits of a […]
Read the Article
Glassworks goes big for MINI
‘MINI vs Monster’, a stereoscopic spot directed by Robert Jitzmark, features digital crowds and other VFX by Glassworks. Lead 2D and 3D artists Morten Vinther and Markus Lauterbach from the studio’s Amsterdam office break down the work. Included is a making of VFX clip.
Read the Article
Super vfx for the Super Bowl – part 2
In part two of our Super Bowl spot coverage, we put the VFX spotlight on some of the other outstanding commercials that aired during the game.
Read the Article
Super vfx for the Super Bowl – part 1
In part one of our Super Bowl XLV commercials coverage, we look at Method Studios’ ‘Carma’ spot for Bridgestone Tires and The Mill’s Cars.com ‘Reviews Are In’ ad. And check out episode #101 of fxguidetv for an in-depth look at Animal Logic’s ‘One Epic Ride’ spot.
Read the Article
Building a Boardwalk Empire
We talk to Brainstorm Digital visual effects producer Richard Friedlander about his studio’s work for HBO series Boardwalk Empire. This week Richard received, along with Robert Stromberg, Dave Taritero and Paul Graff, a VES Award for Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program for the show.
Read the Article
2010 VES Award Winners
The 9th Annual VES Awards were held last night at The Beverly Hilton recognizing outstanding visual effects artistry in 24 categories. The event was hosted by Patton Oswalt. Nominees were selected January 8th by VES members in an all day screening process held in Burbank, San Francisco, London, Sydney and Vancouver. The winners were then […]
Read the Article
Nexus, always unpredictable
London studio Nexus recently created ‘This Unpredictable Life’, an rousing animated piece for Honda Jazz that shows life as an unknowable journey. Watch ‘This Unpredictable Life’ The spot was directed by Smith & Foulkes for agency Wieden and Kennedy London. It begins with a giant shoal of babies, and then follows just one person through […]
Read the Article
ShapeShifting with Charlex
A dark car speeding through the night bursts suddenly into a thousand pieces, forming brilliant metallic creatures on the surface of an alien planet. Such is the action in ShapeShifter, a short film entirely conceived and created by New York studio Charlex. We take a look at how the film, directed by Charlex founder Alex Weil and narrated by Gabriel Byrne, came to be.
Read the Article
Podcast recommendation: A Conversation with Dave Rand
Visual Effects Artist David Rand spoke recently at an event in Vancouver sponsored by IATSE 891 VFX. This talk has just been made available as an audio podcast and we highly recommend it for anyone working in Visual Effects.
Read the Article
Psyop’s toy story cleans up
A roomful of anxious toys face the dangers of domestic dust in ‘Something’s Lurking’, a Psyop spot for LG’s Kompressor Elite vacuum cleaner. We spoke to lead 2D artist Nick Tanner to get an in-depth look at how the spot came together.
Read the Article
The VFX 2011 Oscar nominees reactions
fxguide would like to congratulate all of the VFX artists who worked on the 2010 Oscar-nominated films, and especially the nominees themselves. We spoke to a few of the nominees today to get their first reactions, but we will also be continuing our series of Tech behind the major facilities, so keep an eye out […]
Read the Article
2010 Visual Effects Oscar Nominees announced
This morning The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 83rd Academy Awards®. Getting the nod were Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, Hereafter, Inception and Iron Man 2. In a bit of a surprise, Tron: Legacy was not nominated.
Read the Article
HP EliteBook Mobile Workstation Giveaway
To celebrate the new site we are giving away an HP EliteBook 8740w worth about US$6,000 thanks to our friends at HP and NVIDIA. This is not a laptop or a tablet PC. This is a serious mobile workhorse.
Read the Article
Ben Snow: the evolution of ILM’s lighting tools
In this written version of the fxpodcast: we continue our series of stories on the technical tools behind the big effects companies, we talk to Ben Snow of ILM about his career & the development of the energy conservation lighting, as recently used on Iron Man 2.
Read the Article
Gondry-fying The Green Hornet
Michel Gondry’s signature filmmaking touches are ever-abundant in The Green Hornet, the director’s take on the masked vigilante made famous in radio serials and comics. VFX supervisor Jamie Dixon guides us through some of the the film’s key 650 effects shots.
Read the Article
Bending time with The Green Hornet
Some of the stand-out shots in Michel Gondry’s The Green Hornet occur in the time bending fight sequence effects, seen as the character Kato utilizes his martial arts skills to dispatch the bad guys. We take an in-depth look at how these shots were created by CIS Hollywood.
Read the Article
Life with the HP EliteBook 8740w, Part 1
We’ve got a new HP EliteBook Mobile Workstation in house at fxguide and will be posting over the next month about our experiences with the notebook. With high-end features such as a DreamColor display and Quadro 5000M Fermi graphics, it seems built for our industry. In this post, we have our first overview of the hardware.
Read the Article
Re-Award me! guest columnist Liz Foster looks at awards
Recognition in any profession is something we all crave. And there’s nothing better than getting recognition from your peers. The advertising industry is no exception. Guest Columnist and Brand Manager Liz Foster looks at Advertising Awards.
Read the Article
British Academy Film Awards nominees announced
The 2011 Film Awards Nominees for the Orange British Academy Film Awards were announced today. In the Special Visual Effects category three of five nominated films are the same as will appear in this week’s bake-off for the Oscars, however BAFTA adds Black Swan and Toy Story 3. We believe this is the first time […]
Read the Article
Alembic update with Rob Bredow: What happened to it?
Last Siggraph (2010 LA), a news conference was called to announce a new interchange format. SPI and ILM took to the stage to launch a modeling format that wasn’t FBX, wasn’t OBJ and wasn’t yet released. Now some 6 months later we speak to Rob Bredow, CTO of SPI, to find out what happened to it.
Read the Article
Atomic Fiction
Atomic Fiction is a new visual effects company formed by three former ImageMovers Digital employees.
Read the Article