Imaginative effects in Imagine That
For Imagine That, director Karey Kirkpatrick called on Hammerhead Productions to provide 140 invisible effects shots to help tell the story of a troubled financial executive (Eddie Murphy) who turns to his daughter’s imaginary world for some much needed guidance.
In the Land of Six Foot Pheasants
For “Pheasant Rodeo,” a commercial for Britvic’s Drench Spring Water, agency CHI tasked The Mill with saddling up a cowboy on a giant bird. Ian Failes gets the feathery details from Lead 3D artist Rob van den Bragt and Flame Op Jonathan Westley.
First Look: Fusion 6
eyeon made the release candidate of long-awaited Fusion 6 available to their subscription customers this week. In this special guest column, fxphd prof Matt Leonard walks us through the major new features in the software which include some serious enhancements to its 3D capabilities. Leonard is a long time Fusion user and spent time on the software’s beta program.
Pepsi Penguins
Framestore NY combined live action, 3D characters and real soft drink for ‘Penguin,’ a Pepsi TVC for BBDO New York. Ian Failes talks with Andy Walker (VFX supervisor/CG lead), Murray Butler (VFX supervisor/Flame lead) and Seth Gollub (lead animator) about the spot.
Fusion 6 Now Shipping…
…in release candidate form. The just issued eyeon newsletter serves up the fact that the long awaited Fusion 6 is now available for download to “all artists and studios with a current subscription license.” The idea behind the RC release is to get the software in the hands of artists to do final bug and […]
Mike Lecturing This Week in Singapore
fxguide is in Singapore this week for CG Overdrive and Broadcast Asia. Mike Seymour is giving two workshops (each running over 2 days) on the Benefits and Challenges of Digital Acquisition. These are being held on the 16th/17th and then repeated on the 18th/19th at Broadcast Asia – held at the Expo centre as part […]
Drag Me To Hell
For the Hell sequences in Sam Raimi’s Drag Me To Hell, Tippett Studio augmented miniature photography with various digital elements. Visual effects supervisor Matt Jacobs gives Ian Failes a run-down of Tippett’s work for the film. This story contains Spoilers.
iPhone Color Correction App from The Mill
Yes, you read that correctly, The Mill has released a free iPhone application that allows the user to apply looks or emulate primary color grading tools found in a grading suite. The app has preset looks like “golden” and “bleached” as well as controls for lift, gain, gamma and saturation that can be applied across […]
VES Announces Health Care for Members
When we interviewed Jeffrey Okun from the Visual Effects Society at the end of May for a podcast he broke the news that the VES was working on getting health care options for VES members. He mentioned that this has been a top request from members. Today members were emailed with information about that plan […]
Siggraph 2009 Technical Papers Preview Video
This August the fxguide crew will be in full force to cover Siggraph 2009 in New Orleans. Siggraph is always a great place to network, see what is coming in future technology or update your skills. The last time the show was in New Orleans it was an amazing combination of work and play. If […]
ILM Purchases Nuke Site Licence
Hot on the heels of its management buyout, The Foundry has completed a major deal with Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm Ltd’s multiple Academy Award-winning visual effects studio. ILM has purchased a site licence for Nuke. ILM’s visionary work has earned thirty-seven Academy Award® nominations for Best Visual Effects. Lucasfilm’s chief technical officer, Richard Kerris, […]
Another Dark Day for the Industry
We are hearing that one of the oldest companies in our business Pacific Title & Art Studio, formed in 1919, is heading to receivership. We share what we know so far and ask “what is the future of our industry?”.
GenArts Signs Deal with Lucasfilm
Today GenArts signed an agreement with Lucasfilm covering Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm Animation, and Lucasfilm Animation Singapore to have GenArts software as standard across all their compositing packages and to work together moving forward.
fxpodcast: Terminator Salvation -ILM & Kerner Optical
In this week’s fxpodcast we have an amazing show – we speak in depth to both Ben Snow of ILM and Brain Gernand of Kerner Optical about Terminator Salvation. Ben discusses things such as a whole new lighting “energy conserving” renderman system at ILM and Brian discusses both miniatures and pryo – and the complex […]
New red centre Podcast
Our Digital cinematography & production podcast red centre episode #41 is live and ready for download. This week’s podcast we talk his week, the guys talk about RED Rocket, films on RED, Scarlet, and more as Mike prepares for a SMPTE panel by interviewing Jason about his opinions on Scarlet, 5D Mk II and full […]
The Foundry Announces Management Buyout
Since NAB, we’ve heard rumors from around the world that The Foundry was no longer going to exist as a company due to financial problems at Digital Domain. However, to steal a quote from Mark Twain, the reports of The Foundry’s death are greatly exaggerated. Thankfully for artists and those who wish for a diverse software market, The Foundry has announced that they are independent once again….
Illusion Arts Sadly Closes
After 26 years Illusion Arts is closing, another victim of the global financial crisis and the severe pressure on effects houses. The loss of Illusion Arts is particularly upsetting given the history of the company; it is one of the oldest and most respected specialist facilities in the industry. Variety is reporting that co-founder Syd […]
1984 – Pool Balls 25 Years Later
With the release of the critically acclaimed film UP by Pixar, we acknowledge that 2009 marks 25 years since the famous Pool Ball shot 1984. In this week’s fxpodcast we talk to Rob Cook of Pixar about the some of the history surrounding that landmark shot, his own career and the industry today. We took a bash at redoing the shot to see just how much easier things are today.
Updated Jun 05, now with three user submissions
Friday Fun: Viral Industry Funnies
Two online videos with appeal to our industry made waves in the social networking worlds like Twitter and Facebook this week. The first one, by editor Joy Moeller, is a list of 21 things that a client should and shouldn’t do in an edit session to keep peace with your editor. The second one places […]
Another Night at the Museum
Rhythm & Hues visual effects supervisor Raymond Chen discusses his studio’s vast visual effects work for Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (outside the USA: Night at the Museum 2), with fxguide’s Ian Failes.
Philips 21:9 fxguidetv is Back up Again
We were required to remove the now infamous episode #57 of fxguidetv, – for reasons nothing to do with fxguide. Well we are happy to report it is back. Last month the buzz on visual effects forums, Facebook and Twitter has been “have you seen that Philips frozen moment?”. This web promo for a wider […]
NBA: the barest of all possible great moments
The new “Where amazing happens” spots feature famous NBA playoff moments starring Larry Bird, Kobe Bryant, Dr. J, Magic Johnson and Shaquille O’Neal. Empty stadiums are gradually filled (and emptied) with players and spectators as the iconic moments play out, Ian Failes speaks to Brickyard VFX about the task of working with such iconic clips.
Unpaid Artists update
We did a podcast in July of 2008 with Dave Rand about a group of artists that were left unpaid for work they did for the film Journey to the Center of the Earth. Dave posted an update today over on CGTalk that the Discovery Channel has offered them back wages of 45% without overtime […]
fxpodcast: Visual Effects Society Update
Jeffrey A. Okun, Chair of the Visual Effects Society joins us to discuss the mission of the VES, the difference between unions and societies, health care for members, how to become a member and much more. Visit the fxpodcast page for direct downloads and RSS feed links. To be notified automatically and have the episodes […]
fxguidetv #59: Breaking down Rorschach’s Mask
It’s a new week and with it comes a new fxguidetv episode. This week, we focus on the movie ‘Watchmen’ via an interview with Intelligent Creatures 2D Supervisor Greg Astles. Recorded at NAB, he breaks down the process of creating Rorschach’s mask from the start of the concept to putting on the the finishing touches […]
red centre #34 is On the Air
red centre episode #34 is live and ready for download. This week’s podcast includes a look at the Phantom HD high speed camera, an attempt to review the V3 Depth Enhancer, and a conversation with Axel Baumann. Visit the red centre page for direct downloads and RSS feed links. To be notified automatically and have […]
Faster and Even More Furious
Fast & Furious (4), directed by Justin Lin, had the biggest box office opening of the year when it was released in early April (now eclipsed by Wolverine and Stark Trek). Double Negative’s effects team built three tunnels different tunnels for chases in the film. Ian Failes talks with them and also Rhythm & Hues’ Bob Mercier about R&H’s contribution and the opening exploding petrol tanker sequence.
fxguidetv #58: Star Trek Plus Now ILM !
Episode 58 of fxguidetv is live for your viewing pleasure, covering this weekend’s release of Star Trek. The show features interviews with director director J.J. Abrams and actor Karl Urban (Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy), including a discussion about how they created the abundant anamorphic lens flares and some cool old school techniques. Visit the fxguidetv […]
Pixar to Expand to New Studio
Pixar plans to open a 20,000-square-foot satellite studio at the end of the year in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The studio is currently scouting locations in the city for the new facility. The Vancouver studio will focus only on the production of Pixar’s short films and other non-feature projects based for the most part on […]
VES Awards to be Broadcast in US this weekend
This Saturday night, May 9th, the Starz Edge Network (channel 522 on DirecTv) will air the premiere of the “7th Annual Visual effects Awards” that were held February 21st. The email from VES says 8:00PM but it does not specify timezone (we assume West Coast, we tried to track down but it does not show […]