Nuke 5.0 Now Available
The Foundry announced that the much-anticipated Nuke 5.0 was released today. The version is a major release featuring a new user interface, 3D stereoscopic workflow, Python scripting, and a number of additional features and enhancements. Nuke 5.0v1 is available to all customers with current support contracts and anyone with a valid evaluation license. You will […]
Autodesk Receives Scientific & Technical Academy Award for Maya Fluid
Autodesk announced today that developers of its Autodesk Maya Fluid Effects System have been awarded Technical Achievement Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Maya Fluid Effects System allows digital artists to create realistic animation of liquids and gases, using novel simulation techniques for accuracy and speed, as well as a […]
Building Art in Chicago: 1 1 2 3 5 8
The Chicago Spire is designed by artist-architect Santiago Calatrava and funded by developer Garrett Kelleher. When completed in 2011, the spire will be the tallest building in the western hemisphere. The massive film “Inspire” was commissioned to showcase the building. We spoke to director Sheena Duggal, an extremely experienced VFX supervisor, about the making of the film.
Eyes are the Window to Madame Tutli Putli
Madame Tutli Putli is a remarkable animation. Not only is the film moving, but it pioneered a very powerful new visual blending of live action and stop frame animation. Jason Walker created the new effect, which lead to the film winning this year’s Best Short Film at Cannes. It is also nominated in the Animated Short Film category at this year’s Oscars.
6th Annual VES Award winners
The 6th Annual VES Awards were held on Feb. 10, 2008 at the Kodak Theatre Grand Ballroom in Hollywood by the Visual Effects Society. Dennis Muren presented Steven Spielberg with the VES Lifetime Achievement Award. This award recognizes the contribution that his vast body of work, as both a director and producer, has made to […]
Apple Decides Not to Exhibit at NAB 2008
An article at TV Technology.com spills the beans that Apple will not be having a booth at NAB this year. This follows an announcement in November last year by Avid that they weren’t going to be having a booth in Vegas. Apple has been missing from the list of NAB 2008 exhibitors, so this news […]
Nuke 4.8v1 Released
Nuke 4.8v1 is now available to download from The Foundry web site. Nuke 4.8v1 includes several feature enhancements, increased stability, and numerous bug fixes. With Nuke 5.0 on the horizon, The Foundry is releasing Nuke 4.8v1 for customers with projects in progress who choose not to upgrade to Nuke 5.0 until their projects have completed. […]
One Man Against Attila the Hun
Every once in a while we get a story at fxguide that indicates just how far and how fast the industry is moving. The post on Attila the Hun, directed by Gareth Edwards, is one of those stories. Edwards produced the 250 HD effects shots by himself in five months using After Effects and Photoshop. Averaging 2 shots a day, it was one man against the armies of Attila the Hun.
Pro Living in a Consumer QuickTime World
Apple’s recent QuickTime 7.4 update caused numerous problems for applications from Adobe, RED, and more. While QT is used in high-end facilities around the world, it was a good reminder that the media wrapper is more closely linked to iPods than professional users. In this article we look at ways for pro users to maintain both sanity AND pixel purity when dealing with QT…with a key role played by After Effects CS3.
Oscar Visual Effects Nominations
Nominations for the 80th Annual Academy Awards were announced today (Tuesday, January 22) by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Sid Ganis and Oscar® winner Kathy Bates. For Achievement in Visual Effects the nominated films are: The Golden Compass Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End Transformers To reach these nominations seven films […]
fxguidetv #020 is on the air
This episode features an interview with members of the ILM vfx crew from “Transformers”. The fxphd.com tip shows taking an aerial shot that was filmed from a light plane and turning the footage into the kind of smooth move you would expect from a helicopter with an expensive camera mount. This tip is done by […]
“I Love Sarah Jane” coming out on itunes
fxphd.com worked on two short films that are in competition in the Sundance Film Festival. Each day for 10 days Sundance makes available one film for free and on the first day (Jan. 18th, 2008) it was “I Love Sarah Jane”. The other film, “Spider” is scheduled to be the closing film of the ten […]
Free BCC Snow Spark for Autodesk Systems
Boris Continuum Complete’s Snow filter is an auto-animated snow generator which can composite snow over a sky color or an image layer. The filter offers extensive options for customizing the effect and allows you to create drifts or make flakes pile up along the edges of an alpha channel. Download the Free Snow Filter Boris […]
A quick look at the new films for 2008
What is coming in 2008 – we have roughed out a schedule of effects films for 2008., From Indy to Maxwell Smart, from Lions to Penguins and on to Robotic heroes. What we can expect and from whom.
fxphd January08 Term Overview QuickTime
January08 term classes start next week over at our online vfx training sister site fxphd.com. We’ve got over 10 new courses with over 30 offerings in total. We’ve got some great new design based courses with Tim Clapham from hypa.tv in the UK, an Apple Motion course taught by Damien Allen, and even a Typography […]
VES announces nominees for 6th annual VES Awards
The Visual Effects Society (VES) today announced the nominees for the 6th Annual VES Awards ceremony recognizing outstanding visual effects in over a dozen categories of film, television, commercials and video games. Nominees were chosen Saturday, January 5, 2008 by numerous panels of VES members who viewed submissions at the FotoKem screening facilities in Burbank. […]
10 Scientific and Technical Achievements to Be Honored with Academy Awards®
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced 10 winners of Scientific and Technical Academy Awards, which will be presented at The Beverly Wilshire on Saturday, February 9, 2008. Unlike other Academy Awards, achievements receiving Scientific and Technical Awards need not have been developed and introduced during 2007. Rather, the achievements must demonstrate […]
Seven in Running for 2007 Visual Effects Oscar
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that seven films remain in contention for Achievement in Visual Effects for the 80th Academy Awards
Aliens vs Predator Requiem fxpodcast – incl. a Jan08 fxphd preview
Listen to the latest fxpodcast (see panel right) to hear our AVPR interview with the Directors, and also hear a preview of the new fxphd term.
How Much is a Post Facility Worth?
With the proposed sale of Rainmaker to DeLuxe for a package totaling $35 million, Digital Domain’s proposed $100M million public float, and a possible sale of Sony Pictures Animation for $500 million, we take a look at the value of an effects house. What is it worth, what should it be worth and just how much has Pixar affected the market.
And the winner is amongst these…
Variety is reporting that The Motion Picture Academy’s Oscar will be decided from “Beowulf,†“The Bourne Ultimatum,†“Evan Almighty,†“The Golden Compass,†“Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix,†“I Am Legend,†“Live Free Or Die Hard,†“National Treasure: Book Of Secrets,†“Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End,†“Ratatouille,†“Spider-Man 3,†“Sunshine,†“300,†[…]
SPI is Legend
In the film I Am Legend, Will Smith plays a character who might be the last man left in New York City, or at least the last one unaffected by a cure for cancer that goes horrifically wrong. Jim Berney supervised the visual effects at Sony Pictures Imageworks, and fxguide caught up with him to discuss shutting down one of the world’s busiest cities to take pictures of a stuffed toy deer.
Digital Domain files for IPO
Digital Domain this week filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a $100 Million Dollar Initial Public Offering. According to the filing, DD “will use our remaining net proceeds from this offering to implement our growth strategy by, among other things, expanding our technology development and licensing program and attempting to enter into the […]
NVIDIA buys Mental Images
From the press releases on NVIDIA site and Mental Images, the chip maker based in Santa Clara, CA has bought Mental Images (Berlin, Germany), makers of Mental Ray. Cash or share details of the transaction are yet to be published. NVIDIA has seen its share price swing between $25 a share to $37 and back […]
fxguidetv #019 is on the air
A new episode of fxguidetv is available for your viewing pleasure. This week’s episode includes an interview with Theo Bialak, CG Supervisor for Sony Pictures Imageworks, who chats with us about the work that went into Beowulf. We caught up with Bialak at the Digital Media World conference in Sydney. The fxphd.com tip of the […]
Variety stories
There are two stories about visual effects by David S. Cohen in Variety today. Vfx supervisors increasingly important explores how the role has expanded as technology allows us to create lead characters and complete environments, crossing all departments. Should Oscar honor animation effects? discusses the role of visual effects in animated films and how that […]
Strike a Deal
With the writer’s strike entering its fifth week, a grass roots rally took place on December 9th in Los Angeles to encourage both sides to come to a quick resolution. In our online story and fxpodcast we discuss the rally, the strike, and how it impacts not simply the writers but the entire production/post-production pipeline and the community and families at large.
Strike a Deal! Rally and March Dec. 9th
A group has formed to encourage both sides in the writers strike to come together and reach a deal. They are staging a rally and march this weekend at Hollywood and Highland. From the organizers web site: We are not organized or sponsored by any union, guild or association. We are a spontaneous grass-roots outgrowth […]
Our 100th fxpodcast
In this week’s 100th fxpodcast we talk to Lee Wilson of Anthem FX about the companies amazing work on this weekend’s Tin Man miniseries, which premieres Sunday Dec 2nd 9/8c. As this is our 100th episode we just wanted to thank all of you for listening and supporting the podcast. We really appreciate it and […]
Prime Focus Group Acquires Post Logic Studios and Frantic Films VFX
In our last fxguidetv episode, we visited Prime Focus in Mumbai and chatted with two of their smoke editors about their Cannes award-winning spot. The company is one of the largest in India and had been looking to acquire more companies in addition to their stake in the UK-based VTR Group. News came across the […]