Avatar wins BAFTA for Special Visual Effects
Congratulations to Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andrew R. Jones who took home the BAFTA for Special Visual Effects for Avatar. The Orange British Academy Film Awards rewards the best work of any nationality seen on British cinema screens during the preceding year. The awards took place on February 21, 2010 at the Royal […]
Invictus draws a crowd
Invictus tells the story of South African President Nelson Mandela’s efforts to unite his torn country under the auspices of the 1995 Rugby World Cup Championship. Director Clint Eastwood collaborated with visual effects supervisor Michael Owens and CIS Vancouver to create virtual stadiums and crowds, plus key digital make-up effects, for the pivotal rugby matches seen in the film.
Massive 4.0 Released
The folks at Massive Software announced today that version 4.0 of Massive is now shipping. The release contains new Terrain Nodes, V-Ray rendering, new Stadium placement tools, and other improvements. We’ll have the new release available soon on the VPN over at our sister training site fxphd.com. For the full press release from Massive, click […]
Open Letter, Animation Guild Updates and Other Resources
There has been a lot of activity since our podcast about the Open Letter to James Cameron and our interview with Steven Hulett from The Animation Guild. In the interview with Lee Stranahan about the Open Letter he proposed a VFX Town Hall meeting, a webinar style event to discuss the issue of VFX Fairness. […]
GenArts buys Tinder plugins from The Foundry
GenArts CEO Katherine Hays received a call one day from Bill Collis of the Foundry – a call which led to GenArts buying all of the Tinder plug-ins. The move all but cements GenArts position as the dominant plugin company for high applications such as Nuke and Autodesk systems. But why did the Foundry want to drop its profitable plug-ins and how will GenArts get a return on all its recent acquisitions? Mike Seymour speaks to both companies to get the detai
Red Centre Podcast: Red Day & Shane Hurlbut
Red Centre 56 podcast out. This is our biggest show ever, with Red and Canon news, Jeff’s Heusser reports from LA on the February Red Day. And Shane Hurlbut ASC (Terminator Salvation DOP ) kicks down the door of the Red Room. Click the more button below for a portfolio of images from Shane Hurlbut, […]
fxpodcast: An Open Letter to James Cameron
A week ago Lee Stranahan wrote an article in the Huffington Post titled: Open Letter To James Cameron: Fairness For Visual Effects Artists. Lee has opened a wider dialogue for a topic we have been championing for years. We discuss what led him to write the article, the reaction, what should happen next and issue […]
How am I supposed to live without sidekicks?
A sad salt shaker, dejected after learning that Knorr’s ‘Sidekicks’ contains 25 per cent less sodium, is the star of ‘Salty’, a David Hicks-directed commercial with visual effects by Toronto-based axyz. Lead animator Dennis Turner and Inferno artist Andres Kirejew talk to fxguide about the challenges of the spot, which included listening repeatedly to Michael Bolton’s ‘How Am I Supposed To Live Without You?’.
fxpodcast: Another Visit with The Animation Guild
Steven Hulett is the Business Representative of The Animation Guild (TAG) Local 839 IATSE, he last joined us for a podcast in August of 2008. We wanted to talk further with him about the Guild and get more of the history of previous efforts to organize visual effects. We talk about the failed efforts a […]
Open Letter To James Cameron: Fairness For Visual Effects Artists
Lee Stranahan is a Filmmaker, Writer, Photographer who writes for the Huffington Post. He has crafted an Open Letter To James Cameron. This is a must read: Open Letter To James Cameron: Fairness For Visual Effects Artists
Oscar Nominations announced
Nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards® were announced early this morning by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. For the visual effects category this means the field is now narrowed from seven to these three nominated films: Avatar Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones District 9 Dan Kaufman, Peter […]
The Halo Life
The Life, a live action short directed by MJZ’s Rupert Sanders to promote the launch of Halo 3: ODST for the Xbox 360, features visual effects by Asylum as we follow Tarkov, an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, through training and a major battle sequence. Visual effects supervisor and lead compositor Rob Moggach tells fxguide how […]
Foundry Katana Blog Post + New Tuts
Late last year, The Foundry announced a tech sharing agreement with Sony Pictures Imageworks which included access to SPI’s Katana 3D software. Since that time, there has been some discussion (even grumbling) on the net and mailing lists about The Foundry losing focus regarding the heart of Nuke: compositing. If you’ve watched some of the […]
Happy Christmas Mr. Zemeckis
In A Christmas Carol, featuring Jim Carrey as Ebenezer Scrooge and the three ghosts that haunt him, director Robert Zemeckis relied on the newly formed ImageMovers Digital to bring this performance capture adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel to life. fxguide speaks with visual effects supervisor George Murphy and animation supervisor Jenn Emberly about making the performances possible.
Inside Rodriguez’s ‘Shorts’
In Shorts, director Robert Rodriguez delivers his trademark colourful imagery to tell the story of a young boy’s wish-granting rock discovery. Working alongside the director were artists at Rodriguez’s own Troublemaker Studios who, with other effects studios, delivered a bevy of fun visual treats, including an impressive booger monster. Troublemaker’s Chris Olivia talks to fxguide […]
Nuke 6/NukeX 6 Released
The Foundry has released two new versions of their Nuke compositing software, Nuke 6.0 and NukeX 6.0. Nuke 6.0 includes a completely new shape rotoscope and paint toolset and also bundles Keylight as a standard feature. NukeX 6.0 contains a new 3D camera tracker, lens distortion tools, depth generator, and Furnace Core — 12 Furnace […]
BAFTA Film Award Nominations
Avatar, District 9, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Hurt Locker and Star Trek have been nominated for British Academy Film Awards in the category Special Visual Effects. The Orange British Academy Film Awards take place on February 21st at The Royal Opera House, London. A complete list of nominees can be found at […]
le freak
Bringing a bunch of colourful characters to life in Paul Weitz’s Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant was the job of Rhythm & Hues. Visual effects supervisor Todd Shifflett tells fxguide how his studio approached the diverse range of Freak Show performers in the film.
THR states Avatar leads VES awards
The VES nominations have been released a tad early it seems by the Hollywood Reporter, which is claiming James Cameron’s “Avatar” led the list of nominations scoring 11 nominations. The animated “Coraline,”also released in Stereo, followed with four nominations. New Zealand-based Weta Digital, which worked on “Avatar,” led the company noms with nine. For visual […]
Sony Releases Open Source Shading Language
At last year’s SIGGRAPH in New Orleans, Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI) announced their open source initiative in 5 areas. At the time, we spoke with Rob Bredow in fxguidetv episode #69 about this and other happenings at Sony. Today, SPI released the alpha version of the source code for their Open Shading Language (OSL) at […]
Goats, hamsters and the military
Grant Heslov’s The Men Who Stare At Goats tells the story of a former U.S. Army member claiming to be a psychic soldier who can, among other things, stop the hearts of animals using only his mind. CIS Hollywood, under the vfx supervision of Thomas J. Smith, realised shots of this so-called power in action, as well as a number of other sequences in the film. Digital fx supervisor Joe Henke talks to fxguide about how the shots were accomplished.
Panavision Sues Canon and Others
Yesterday on the net, a story started circulating that Panavision was suing Canon over the use of HD Video from a CMOS Sensor. The rumours started flying that Panavision would no longer rent Canon gear, and that might include even Canon lenses. Here is the truth, as best we can verify. In a March 2009 […]
Smoke Event in Chicago at fxguide/Hootenanny
fxguide/fxphd and the boutique post house Hootenanny are hosting an Autodesk Smoke on Mac event on Thursday, January 14th in Chicago. It’s an event being run by Autodesk and reseller Midwest Media Group. You’ve read the articles on fxguide about the release, now come and see it yourself and get your questions answered in person. […]
New Podcasts
New fxpodcast Part 1 of our coverage of Avatar. An in depth interview with Joe Letteri, senior vfx supervisor for Weta Digital, discussing details of mocap/facial capture tech and other aspects of their work on Avatar. www.fxguide.com/podcasts New Red Centre We kick off 2010 as we aim to continue, RED news, DSLR chat, gear reviews […]
Dr Gilliam & Peerless Camera Company
Director Terry Gilliam relied on his longstanding relationship with Peerless Camera Company to delve into the hyper-real visual effects for The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Visual effects supervisor John Paul Docherty and lead technical director Patrick Ledda talk to fxguide about the film.
Sci-Tech Winners Announced
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that fifteen scientific and technical achievements represented by 46 individual award recipients will be honored at the Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation at The Beverly Wilshire on Saturday, February 20, 2010. Winners include Paul Debevec, Tim Hawkins, John Monos & Mark Sagar for the Light […]
BAFTA Long List announced
Award season rolls along with the release of the Long List for Special Visual Effects from the British Academy Film Awards. 2012 * Avatar * District 9 * Fantastic Mr Fox Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince * The Hurt Locker The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Inglourious Basterds The Lovely Bones Moon The Road Star […]
Mass Marketing of LG ‘Cars’
Classic movie car chases are channelled in ‘Cars’, an LG cellphone spot directed by Filip Engstrom with visual effects by Mass Market. Lead Flame artist Nick Tanner talks to fxguide about bringing a unique miniature and old-school quality to the commercial.
Oscar VFX Short list Announced
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that seven films remain in the running in the Visual Effects category for the 82nd Academy Awards®. The films are listed below in alphabetical order: “Avatar” “District 9” “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” “Star Trek” “Terminator Salvation” “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” “2012” On […]
Mumbai Nuke Master Class Recap
As Nuke has increased in popularity around the world, The Foundry have been holding master classes around the world to help build up the user base. Their recent Nuke Master Class in Mumbai attracted over 250 visual effects artists from as far afield as Hyderabad and Chenai. Attendees were treated to sessions on customization, colour […]