Knight & Day
For James Mangold’s Knight & Day, vfx supervisor Eric Durst oversaw more than 700 effects shots to help tell the story of a secret agent and his unwilling partner pursued around the world. We delve into the digital Running of the Bulls work by Rhythm & Hues and the European train effects by Weta Digital.
Going Green
This week Jason and Mike are joined in the Red Room by Doug Purver to discuss is cool Running Spot. Also the guys geek out on SLR sensors and the way Canon builds .CR2 RAW files for the Canon 5D and 7D. Visit the red centre page for direct downloads and RSS feed links. To […]
New AE Camera Tracker and Kronos from The Foundry
The Foundry have announced two new plugins for Adobe After Effects CS5, a 3D camera tracker based upon the tracking technology from Nuke, and an extremely fast version of their Kronos plugin. It’s a good sign to see some of the Foundry’s research and technology make it’s way to the affordable desktop platform. The Kronos […]
Wet Disney
For a spot promoting Disney’s ‘World of Color’ show, Motion Theory orchestrated fountains of colored water and light and mixed them with renditions of well-known Disney characters. We talk to MT’s vfx supe John Fragomeni and RealFlow lead Andy Cochrane about the techniques used for the commercial.
fxguidetv : Pixar Director Teddy Newton
Before Toy Story 3 was the incredibly successful short film Day and Night. The film is not only creatively entertaining but one of the best uses of stereoscopic animation ever done. This week we speak to Director Teddy Newton. Also from SIGGRAPH, we have a brief look at the SIGGRAPH Job Fair, one of the […]
Mari Release Event in London
For our readers in London, The Foundry is holding a release event on August 12th for their recently released Mari software. To be held at the VUE in Leicester, the event will be showcase the product from an artist and technical perspective as well as laying out the product roadmap. Click here to register and […]
SIGGRAPH fxguidetv: PFMatchit and ‘The VES Handbook’
fxguidetv episode #88 takes a look at PFMatchit, the new node-based camera tracking software from The Pixel Farm. The company has completely re-architectured tracking workflow in their new product to build for the future (see the press released posted here last week). Mike Seymour also speaks with Scott Squires, one of the co-editors on The […]
SIGGRAPH final day
Here is our third and final report from Siggraph, but watch for fxguidetv eps and podcasts rolling out this week and next.
Today we look at Day&Night, Airbender and a summary of cool things around the show, including the mysterious Spheron HDRV camera.
SIGGRAPH fxguidetv: NVIDIA + Mental Ray
Episode #87: In our first episode from Siggraph 2010 in Los Angeles we catch up with and Mental Images. Check back later for more Siggraph coverage including Pixar’s Teddy Newton: Director of Day and Night, VFX supervisor Scott Squires and more… Visit the fxguidetv page for direct fxguidetv downloads and RSS feed links. To be […]
Inception
Our Inception coverage is in two parts. Click through for a detailed discussion with the team at New Deal Studios by Ian Failes. And also to access our in depth podcast with Visual effects supervisor Paul Franklin of Double Negative in London. We have delayed publishing both as they contain heavy spoilers on what must be one of the year’s best films.
SIGGRAPH Tuesday
Tuesday and we were not disappointed from 8 minutes of the new 3D Tron film to Jim Morris’s keynote – the Siggraph event was delivering on its promise of production relevant sessions.
SIGGRAPH 2010 Monday
Siggraph starts fully today Monday in LA. Avatar dominates the production sessions, but Siggraph delivered as usual with a stunning array of technical papers and creative sessions. In addition to the Avatar highlights, the Computational Photography session provided a timely insight into the cutting edge of photography. The parties also hit with the huge Foundry User party, the Mental Images User group, and will continue into the night.
Pixel Farm to Unveil Radical New Tracking Solution at Siggraph
We were already looking forward to Siggraph and here we are in the week before getting releases that make us even more excited to be covering the show. Pixel Farm is using words in the press release that follows that get our full attention “brand new architecture”, “node-based flowgraph architecture” plus they include a quote […]
The Foundry and Disney launch Groundbreaking Agreement
Advance news from Siggraph is already starting to roll in and here is some big news from The Foundry. The press release and some images are after the jump, but in a nutshell The Foundry is incorporating elements of Disney’s internally developed Paint 3D technology into Mari and Walt Disney Animation Studios’ technology group will […]
fxpodcast: we nominate Scott Ross
When we talked with Scott Ross about six months ago you let us know by the number of downloads, emails and personal comments that it was one of our most popular podcasts. We check back in with Scott with an unusual proposal, for the duration of the podcast we put him in charge of the […]
Red Centre 66 with Stu Maschwitz
This week Jason and Mike are joined by Stu Maschwitz, filmmaker and accidental technologist. The guys discuss a recent ProLost post on the issues around SLR digital cinematography as well as the week’s news and an amazing video documentary project Jason is involved with. Please send us your comments red (at) fxguide.com Visit the red […]
fxguidetv: ILM and Transformers 2
Episode #86 features Industrial Light & Magic’s Jason Billington, going over work done on Transformers 2. The segment, recorded earlier this year at NAB, shows how they used Nuke’s 3D environment to layer footage of explosions and dust over cgi renders. Visit the fxguidetv page for direct fxguidetv downloads and RSS feed links. To be […]
fxpodcast: Pixar’s Michael Johnson
Dr Michael Johnson discusses the Moving Pictures Group at Pixar and how technology has worked with the Artists over time. Michael has personally worked on every single Pixar film since joining the company in 1995. Before Pixar, Michael was with the Computer Graphics and Animation Group at the MIT, he also worked at Thinking Machines […]
Academy to Celebrate Petro Vlahos
If you are in Los Angeles on Thursday July 29th, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is holding a tribute to Petro Vlahos. Many of you may know the name from his pioneering work with Ultimatte but he holds many other patents and has been a great innovator in our business. There will […]
ILM’s Elements for The Last Airbender
For The Last Airbender, director M. Night Shyamalan turned to Industrial Light & Magic to create dynamic fighting scenes featuring elemental manipulation, as well as complex creatures and environments for the film. VFX supe Pablo Helman and associate VFX supervisor Craig Hammack take us through some of ILM’s main technical challenges.
Walt Disney Animation Adopts Nuke + Mari Preview
Another facility officially joins the Nuke family with Walt Disney Animation Studios licensing Nuke for their feature productions workflow. This continues the list of major studios adding Nuke this year, including Framestore, Cinesite, MPC, and Soho VFX. Also, the Foundry have posted a YouTube sneak peek at their new Mari offering. For more information about […]
Oscar VFX category officially expanded to 5 nominees
The Academy has approved new rules expanding the Visual Effects category from three nominees to five as is the the case is most other categories. Press release with details after the Read More…
2010 Emmy Nominations announced
Early this morning Sofia Vergara (Modern Family) and Joel McHale (Community) along with Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Chairman-CEO John Shaffner announced the nominees for the 2010 Emmy Awards. After the jump you will find the visual effects, commercial and title design nominees and a link to the complete list.
Foundry GeekFest at SIGGRAPH Announced
Times have changed when attending a geek fest is cool. Or maybe that’s just me. But you won’t want to miss The Foundry GeekFest taking place on Monday the 26th of July at SIGGRAPH this year. With their acquisitions of Mari and Katana, a 6.1 version of Nuke in sight on their roadmap, a 3D […]
Jellyfish Transitions for History Channel
America: The Story of Us is one of the History Channel’s most popular series, telling the story of how the United States was invented. To help showcase many years of history in only a 12 part series, Jellyfish Pictures realised several sweeping ‘transition’ shots to link stories together. We talk to Jellyfish creative director Phil Dobree and visual effects supervisor Hasraf Dulull.
Shut up fool, this is the A-team!
Director Joe Carnahan’s re-imagining of the popular 1980s TV series The A-Team sees the renegade soldiers taking on a more modern mission. Overall visual effects supervisor James E. Price looked to both practical and digital means to achieve the characteristically crazy and high action stunts made famous by the series. We drill down on some of the major FX sequences from the film.
Lexus CG Dark Ride
For a sneak peak of the not-yet-released Lexus CT 200h, director James Brown created an interactive adventure called ‘Dark Ride’. With the help of visual effects from Speedshape, users take on the role of the accomplice to Lexus driver Tony and must get the secret car – unscathed – from the Nevada desert to Los Angeles. We talk to Speedshape vfx supe Connor Meechan about his studio’s CG car work.
Academy invites new Members
Each year The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences invites a group of individuals to join their roster as voting members. This year eight animators and twelve visual effects artists are in the group including Eric Barba and Paul Debevec. Congratulations to all those selected, the complete list can be found after the read […]
Marmaduke
Director Tom Dey called on several FX shops for Marmaduke, the story of a loveable Great Dane who moves to Orange County with his unsuspecting family. Under overall VFX supe Craig Lyn, artists brought to life several talking animals mostly via CG face replacements, although some key scenes featured an all-digital title character. We take a look at the work by Cinesite, CIS Vancouver and Rhythm & Hues.
The MPC’s Mini Market Musical
fxguide spoke to Franck Lambertz, Visual Effects Supervisor and Lead Flame artist at MPC LA, about their work on Washington’s Lottery spot. The Mini Market Musical final piece is both theatrical and engaging and literally turns the world upside down.