The VFX Tourist
Visual effects supervisor Ted Rae oversaw nearly 400 shots for The Tourist, a romantic Venetian comedy thriller starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. We take a look at how Rae simulated a critical train journey and re-arranged the rooftops of Venice for the film.
Enter the Void made by fx
Director Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void follows drug dealing teen Oscar who, after being killed in Tokyo, watches over his sister from the otherworld. Images of Oscar’s subjective POV, many based on hallucinations and near death experiences, were created and augmented by Paris studio BUF. Vfx sup. Geoffrey Niquet talks to us about the unique nature of the film.
Yet Another Facility Closes: CafeFX
We received an email today from Jeff Barnes and David Ebner, announcing that CafeFX/ComputerCafe have decided to shut down. This comes after a downsizing earlier this year. It saddens us here at fxguide to hear the news of their closing and wish everyone the best. The outstanding company has worked on a number of visual […]
Toy Story 3 technical podcast : Siggraph Asia
fxguide attended Siggraph Asia and caught up with Brian Green of Pixar (California). Brian has the unique distinction of being the character supervisor of the “most successful animated movie of all time” twice. The Academy Award-winning feature “Finding Nemo” broke all box office records in 2003, and “Toy Story 3” broke box office records in […]
3D or real: Above Everything Else
When we first saw Alex Roman’s work in ‘Above Everything Else’, a 60″ spot for Silestone kitchen worktops, we were blown away by the 3D realism. So we got in contact with Alex to talk about what was real, what was CG and how the spot was achieved. Beside we figured 1.2 Million views on Vimeo cant be wrong.
TRON: Legacy, Face off
TRON: Legacy expands on Digital Domain’s already incredibly impressive face replacement work in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. We speak in depth to 4 members of the Digital Domain team and plot the exact steps required to pull off the 165 Clu character shots in TRON: Legacy.
Nuke 6.2 Ships
The Foundry has just a new major release of its powerful compositing applications NUKE and NUKEX 6.2. Now shipping, this release encompasses artist feedback to deliver continued refinements to core operations whilst also incorporating the new technology. Most significantly the new image-based modeling and projection tools will advance artists’ ability to create and use scene […]
Dawn Treader Podcasts
We have two new podcasts, The Red Centre podcast focused on digital cinematography and a new fxpodcast – both covering different aspects of the new film The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. We speak in a frank and in-depth interview with Angus Bickerton, the VFX supervisor for the film. Part 1 […]
Narnia: The Dawn Treader’s VFX Crew
For The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, visual effects supervisor Angus Bickerton led the creation of some 1400 shots in the third film adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ fantasy series. We highlight a number of the key effects by Framestore, MPC, Cinesite, The Senate and The Mill.
Imagineer Shipping mocha pro, Improved mocha AE
We’ve been fans of Imagineer’s mocha, mokey, and monet products and the planar tracking technology that forms the foundation of the offerings. But in the past we’ve also honestly been a bit confused with the lineup and what product did what. So at IBC when we learned that they were simplifying their lineup into three […]
Click3X Lego Fun
Stop-motion photography and visual effects by Click 3X helped bring together Build Together, a :30 spot promoting the joys of LEGO construction. We take a look at how the commercial was created. Click here for the Quicktime The brief for Build Together centred around LEGO’s new online experience to share the building experience at home. […]
15 selected as semifinalists for VFX Oscar
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films have been selected as semifinalists for Achievement in Visual Effects for the 83rd Academy Awards®. In early January, the members of the Academy’s Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee, who selected the semifinalists, will narrow the list to seven. Those seven will go […]
Mirada – Purveyors of Handmade Storytelling
After a string of bad industry news it is great to be able to bring news of a new venture. Mirada is a new production studio that will develop and produce television programming, video games, commercials and films. Designed for storytellers, the studio is a collaboration between director Guillermo del Toro, Motion Theory principals Mathew […]
RV now integrates with Nuke
Tweak Software announces today that their image sequence viewer product RV is now integrated seamlessly within Nuke. This integration makes the player much more integrated to Nuke than just a flipbook, RV communicates with Nuke over a live connection. To be clear RV is still a separate product, requiring purchase from Tweak Software, there is […]
Airgrade from Pixel Farm
Ok we would not normally post about a free ap in the itunes Ap store, but this one is just so much fun and indicative of how in the last few years we have moved from multi-million dollar grading suites to free iphone aps. Our friends at Pixel Farm have posted Airgrade. Now unlike most […]
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Several visual effects shops contributed to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 under overall vfx supe Tim Burke. In this article we continue our coverage of the film by focussing on the signature shots by MPC and Cinesite and the work of Double Negative, Framestore, Rising Sun Pictures and Baseblack.
Assimilate (Scratch): What’s the story?
On twitter this week we posted that Assimilate had settled with Autodesk over the long running law suit. We also heard that Lucas Wilson – for many the public face of Assimilate – had moved on to 3alitydigital. Luckily, we also discovered that an old friend of fxguide – Steve Bannerman had left GenArts to […]
Spiderman 4 starts shooting Epic Stereo
RED announced today that Spider-Man 4, to be directed by Marc Webb, will be shot in Stereo on the EPIC, with filming beginning today. EPIC is RED’s successor to the 4K RED ONE. It offers 60% more resolution by relying on a 5K sensor and can shoot at frame rates up to 120 fps. A […]
Black Swan takes wings
For Black Swan, director Darren Aronofsky turned to Look Effects to help bring his dark New York ballerina story to life. Look’s visual effects supervisor Dan Schrecker oversaw 220 shots for the film, from full CG swan wings to prosthetic augmentation, face replacements and other enhancements.
IBEW, IATSE activity roundup
There has been a lot of activity lately in the effort to organize visual effects. IATSE is holding small meetings around Los Angeles on a regular basis with different groups of artists to present their case why artists should want to be represented by them. IBEW has scheduled another public meeting in Culver City for […]
The Foundry’s STORM Beta + Future Plans
The Foundry released their first public beta of STORM earlier this week and the initial feedback from the community has been positive. In the first 24 hours it was available, over 2000 users registered the software…that’s actual registrations, not downloads. The software will be free for use until the 1st of March, at which point […]
Red Centre Epic-M and Arri RAW +Codex
This week Jason and Mike discuss the situation with the Epic-M and the recent fxphd Arri -Alexa stereo shoot shooting Arri-RAW to the Codex digital recorder. (Director was Richard Gibson (Luscious International) – in conjunction with the Aust. VES and ACS ) Visit the red centre page for direct downloads and RSS feed links. To […]
Harry Potter 7 Dobby and Kreacher Animation podcast
In this episode we speak to Framestores’ vfx supervisor Christian Manz about the amazing character animation of Dobby and Kreacher in the new Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. Framestore did an outstanding job with the character animation of these characters in HP7 and did it entirely as keyframe animation. Watch out for […]
Avatar/Weta Interview: The extra bits…
James Cameron’s Avatar is now available as an Extended Collector’s Edition DVD and Blu-ray release. We take a look at the Blu-ray featurettes and talk to Weta Digital visual effects supervisor Wayne Stables, who was responsible for the incredible Tree of Souls sequence in the film.
fxpodcast Krakatoa’s Chris Bond
This week on the fxpodcast we speak to Chris Bond of Thinkbox software about their production proven volumetric particle rendering, manipulation and management software. Krakatoa has been used on umpteen feature films and commercials. It provides a great pipeline for acquiring, caching, transforming, modifying, deforming, culling, shading and rendering vast quantities of particles at unprecedented […]
Kevin Pike Elected to Emmy’s SVE Governor
fxguide congratulates Kevin Pike on being elected as the new Special Visual Effects Governor for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Special Effects Supervisor, Kevin Pike, an industry professional for over 36 years, started his career on “JAWS,” in 1974. For AMPAS, he serves as a member of the Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee […]
F3 vs 5D MkII
As part of our Red Centre Podcast coverage we want to share this clip with you that compares the Canon 5D Mk II and the new Sony F3. In this test, both cameras were attached to the same tripod locked together – and then panned over the same technical background. The results show the F3 […]
Deluxe buys Ascent Media
After the markets had closed on the eve of the USA Thanksgiving weekend, the LA Times reports that “Deluxe Entertainment Services Group said Wednesday it has reached an agreement to acquire the bulk of Ascent Media Group, the Santa Monica-based postproduction company, for $68 million” We understand that the purchase price has been allocated as […]
DirecTV Cyborg Fight Club
In ‘Ice Cream’, a DirecTV spot directed by Rupert Sanders, two battling cyborgs literally crash and burn through several rooms of an apartment as the owner manages to pause their actions. We talk to MPC in Los Angeles about their visual effects work for the commercial, with some great before and after clips.
Mari Launch Event in LA
The Foundry will be having a Mari launch event in Los Angeles on December 1. Presenters include Brandon Fayette & Jake Raymor from Bad Robot Production, Scott Metzger from Method Studios, and Brad deCaussin from Digital Domain. Click through for more details, including a registration link.