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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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.
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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.
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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.
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Framestore: Deathly Hallows Animation
The crucial origin of the ‘Deathly Hallows’ is told inside the latest Harry Potter film via a three minute animated sequence directed by Ben Hibon and created by Framestore. In it, we learn of the story of the Three Brothers and their encounter with Death. Sequence supervisor Dale Newton tells us how it came together.
Watch for more HP7 stories, podcasts and interviews coming up here at fxguide. UPDATED
Red Centre: F3 on location
In this week’s fxguide Red Centre podcast we examine the new Sony F3 camera. Jason Wingrove shot with one of only three F3 cameras in the world this week, testing this new Super35 Sensor Sony camera that will be released in Feb 2011. In the Red Room, Maarten Treurniet of Marvin goes head to head […]
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State Film Subsidies report
Yesterday the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released a study examining film and TV tax subsidies in the US. Titled “State Film Subsidies: Not Much Bang For Too Many Bucks” the report is very critical of subsides concluding “State film subsidies are a wasteful, ineffective, and unfair instrument of economic development.” In an LA […]
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Asylum Visual Effects closing
After 11 years it appears that Asylum Visual Effects in Santa Monica is closing. Nathan McGuinness built a shop that had a strong reputation providing high end visual effects for films like Master & Commander, Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Terminator Salvation (IMDB) as well as commercials like the recently released Call […]
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Stargate Studios: Walking (the) Dead
Stargate Studios is handling the visual effects for The Walking Dead, AMC’s new TV series based on Robert Kirkman’s zombie apocalypse comic and directed by Frank Darabont. We take a look at some of Stargate’s zombie enhancement and virtual set work for the pilot episode.
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RenderMan drops in price
Pixar announced today that it is dramatically lowering the cost of RenderMan. As the most highly regarded feature film renderer, – this is significant news. It will allow more independent owner/animators to use RenderMan on smaller projects and its volume pricing reductions reflect the massive growth in render farms. Fxguide spoke to the RenderMan team about the new pricing.
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fxguidetv: MPC Nuke Breakdown Syfy
We have looked at Nuke in a feature film environment here at fxguidetv, so we have shifted gears and look at Nuke in a Promo environment. This week we speak to MPC’s Nuke artist Alex Harding, who takes us through a breakdown of one of the promo films for the the US cable network Syfy, […]
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New fxpodcast: Skyline on RedMX
This week Skyline opened in the USA. The film looks like a Hollywood Blockbuster but cost only $10million. While it opened modestly – it still grossed $4.7M on Friday alone. Whatever you think of the film – the significance of this should not be overlooked. This is a VFX house not waiting for the next […]
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AnimfxNZ Avatar
Weta Digital recently gave an incredible full day ‘Making of Avatar presentation on James Cameron’s film as part of this year’s AnimfxNZ conference in Wellington. Here is a rundown of some of the major points brought up by Weta supes and artists from the day. Weta’s accomplishments The Making of Avatar‚ was actually one of […]
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IATSE Formally Announces Visual Effects organizing Drive
For over a year IATSE has been working with members of the Visual Effects community to establish an organizing campaign for artists. To that end they are formally and publicly announcing that effort. In addition they have hired Jim Goodman as a full time representative whose sole responsibility will be to organize VFX artists into […]
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V-Ray 2.0 for 3ds Max open for Beta
Chaos Group has announced that the the new V-Ray 2.0 for 3ds Max is now entering its final BETA stage. V-Ray 2.0 combines the power of the V-Ray rendering engine with the flexibility and speed of the interactive rendering system – V-Ray RT, now running on GPUs. V-Ray 2.0 for 3ds Max BETA program is […]
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Sony Launches F3
Sony Announced today the details of the PMW – F3 Camera. A PL mount, Super 35mm sensor, 24P video camera. While not cheap at an estimated under $19,000, it is also not expensive for a S35 sensor. The camera signals a huge shift and a creative opportunity for film makers and documentarians.
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fxpodcast: The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
Our current fxpodcast takes a break from looking at visual effects projects and examines one of the major awards organizations, The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The Academy honors U.S. primetime television via its Emmy Awards, the most prestigious honor given in the states. For the podcast, Mike Seymour chats with Geoff Mark, former […]
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Vue 9 Now Shipping
e-on software announced today that they are now shipping their new versions of software: Vue 9 xStream and Vue 9 Infinite. One of the big rendering enhancements is a new anti-flickering algorithm which they developed for the rendering of the kind of detailed natural environments one creates in the software. Vue 9 xStream retails for […]
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Hereafter & Scanline: go ahead, make my wave
Well-known for its CG water creations in films such as 300 and 2012, Scanline VFX faced new challenges in creating a near-death tsunami experience for Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter. We take a look at the studio’s digital water live-action destruction effects, digital make-up work and and afterlife visions.
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The Foundry Release Mari on Windows
The Foundry’s texture painting tool Mari is now shipping on Windows. The software is supported on Windows 7 64-bit or on Linux 64-bit (Fedora 12 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4). Our sister site fxphd.com is currently running an Introduction to Mari course this term. It’s taught by artist Gareth Jensen, who has been working […]
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Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions
Animator Tom Sito’s book Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson came out in 2006, but only recently came to our attention. If you think about the history of traditional animation, that industry has already faced issues including labor law abuses, outsourcing and tax incentives. This book […]
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VES Production Summit 2010
The Visual Effects Society held their second annual Production Summit this past Saturday in Marina Del Rey. This is a unique event designed to break out of the day to day routine and think about the future as well as hear from an amazing group of speakers and panelists.
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A Brand Manager’s view of production and post
Everyone thinks that all a Brand Manager does is make TV commercials. The reality could not be more different: throughout a brand manager’s ‘life’ he or she will be lucky to even work on one brand that requires a TVC to be shot. Thanks to Liz Foster, we look at the world of Production and Post from a Brand Managers POV.
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