Third Floor started as the third floor pre-viz department at Skywalker ranch. Now a separate company, Third Floor is a pre-viz and post-viz specialist. In this week’s fxpodcast we talk to CEO Chris Edwards about their recent work on Narnia, and explore their filmic approaches to previz. We also present Edward’s play book for successful pre-viz along with some client survival tricks.

Stan Winston, one of the great names in special effects, has died at age 62.

The Oscar-winning visual effects artist died at his home Sunday evening surrounded by family after a seven-year struggle with multiple myeloma, according to a representative from Stan Winston Studio, reports David Cohen from Variety.

Iron Man is a blockbuster hit due to a focus on acting, great action sequences and seamless big budget visual effects by lead facility Industrial Light and Magic, steered by visual effects supervisor John Nelson. Alongside ILM was The Orphanage and we drill down on just one aspect of the film – the Heads Up Display – in this week’s fxpodcast with designer Dav Rauch.

Adobe has surprised some by moving towards a web app model for the crown jewel of Adobe: Photoshop. We review the new effort and see how viable it is for serious production.

NAB starts this weekend, so we spoke to the organizers and worked out our fxguided tour to get the most out of NAB. With a massive investment in seminars and events, NAB now provides some really cool content discussions and presentations. Check out the talks, the presentations, events and the key parties.

We are rarely presented with something truly new and inventive, but the work of Minivegas is really worthy of the term ‘groundbreaking’. For client S4C they have created a set of promos that automatically animates in realtime to the exact pitch of the presenter’s voice. Every day each promo is unique. This fully automated solution is both technically and creatively impressive, and also often a load of laughs.

DI is a process often reserved for the top films involving days of film scanning and large budgets. Local Hero Post is focused on providing a DI solution for the independent filmmaker, offering high quality at prices more in line with the budget of an Indie film. In this week’s fxpodcast, we discuss with owner Leandro Marini the approach Local Hero has taken to make this possible.

In a broadcast filled of commercials with talking animals, dancing animals, and even animals with a point to prove, the Coke spot “It’s Mine” stood out from the crowd. We speak with The Mill’s creative director Angus Kneale and Senior CG artist Ben Smith about the work that went into making one of the most popular spots from the big show.

10,000 BC by director Roland Emmerich takes audiences to a time when mighty mammoths shook the earth. In this in-depth article we examine just one part of this blockbuster film and drill down on complex task of producing photorealistic mammoths that, while not the heros of the film, certainly gave the film power, gravitas and some ripping good thrills.

One of our favourite films of 2007 was The Kingdom. If you missed it – rent it. Peter Berg’s film is a powerful action drama based around a criminal investigation shared by two cultures chasing deadly terrorists before they are ready to strike again. We explore the seamless visual effects delivered by Rhythm & Hues and explore the amazing opening titles which both inform and set the tone for the entire film from the PIC Agency.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Beowulf once again raises the bar for films based on motion capture, extending the work from Polar Express and Monster House. Fxguide spoke to Doug Chiang at Siggraph about the film and we now follow that up with Sony Pictures Imageworks’ Visual Effects Supervisor Jerome Chen and CG Supervisor Theo Bialak. (Updated 30th Nov)

Post production clearly follows production, so what happens when production has no scripts to shoot?
In this week’s podcast we talk with David S. Cohen of Variety to get a post production perspective on the effect of the Writers Guild strike.

Grzegorz Jonkajtys directed the short film Arka (The Ark), which makes heavy use of miniatures and won Siggraph Best of Show this year. The beautiful, yet deeply sad film is the tale of an unknown virus has destroyed almost the entire human population. The title refers to the attempted escape by the only remaining survivors in a flotilla of huge ships, in search of uninhabited and uncontaminated land.

In Part 2 of our Emmy coverage we talk to award winners Stargate Digital about their winning Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King/ Battleground. Stargate, nominated a stunning three times this year, won for Oustanding Special Visual Effects for a Miniseries, Movie, or Special.

This week we honor winners of 2007 Emmy Awards, starting with Atmosphere Visual Effects for their amazing work on Battlestar Galactica. The work is all the more exceptional considering it is episodic television – done week in, week out. Coming up later in the week, we’ll speak to other category winners from this year’s outstanding collection of Visual Effects submissions.

New versions of flame 2008 and smoke 2008 were at IBC this weekend. The most striking thing is that the UI has been adjusted to fully take advantage of the 16:9 screen. Yes…time to give that muscle memory a bit of a shock. The smoke release has a totally reworked DVE module, inspired by the Action module, as it provides compatibility with the effects app. Read why you’ll want them….

Saturday was our first day shooting with the RED Camera. We know the community is keen to see real shots and we will publish more in coming days and weeks. For now, we aim to address the expectation of RED with the reality of filming with it. It is after all a camera – it exists to produce footage – and so that is what we did.