Back to NBA’s future with a52
Vancouver. 1996. A young Steve Nash is visited by a fan from the future whose life was changed by the NBA superstar. But it’s all thanks to visual effects from a52. Lead Flame artist Glyn Tebbut guides us through how this ‘Nash’ future kid spot for the NBA was realised. We also have a making of clip.
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Autodesk 2012 releases: change is good
For the first time ever, Autodesk announced new versions of their creative applications on a single global launch day. There are new 2012 versions of Flame, Smoke, Maya, 3ds Max, Softimage, MotionBuilder, and Mudbox. We have information about the new releases as well as details about some key structural changes that have the teams working together more than ever before.
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Flame 2012 New Feature Videos
fxguidetv covers the new 2012 Flame Premium release from Autodesk. But there’s way more in the new releases than we had time to show.. We have over two hours of additional and unedited overview videos with Product Designer Philippe Soeiro from Autodesk.
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Reach for the Sky: MPC goes full circle
Scenes of Monument Valley, NYC, the English countryside, a distant space station & a vast icescape were brought to life as a continuous shot by MPC in a recent stereo spot for Sky Movies. We chat to MPC’s 3D supervisor Duncan McWilliam about shooting the 360 degree pan in stereo, creating worlds and then stitching it altogether.
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STORM 1.0 Now Shipping
After a winter of beta testing, The Foundry have released the first version of STORM, their digital workflow app for RED files. It’s now available for purchase on The Foundry’s web site for 375USD/250GBP/300EUR. Click through for the full press release.
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Highlights from the Oscars
Congratulations to all the Oscar winners from the 83rd Annual Academy Awards. Here are some of the highlights from the awards ceremony.
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Today was EPIC
Today the rollout for the new RED EPIC-M continued and fxphd was there to get one of the very few cameras now out in the wild. Jeff Heusser and Mike Seymour spent the day at RED, not only running through the new 5K EPIC and it’s advanced new features, but also looking at a few new features still in development.
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the rc #83: SLR Indie Show
Jason and Mike talk to some very successful independent SLR film makers and discuss the new Apple MacBooks and their value to film makers.
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Life with the EliteBook: DreamColor Calibration
The previous “life with” article was an overview of the DreamColor display and why it’s especially suited for our field. In this installment, we examine the HP-branded software and hardware used to calibrate the monitor and ensure the colors you’re viewing are accurate.
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the vfx show #118: Hereafter
Mike Seymour, Mat Graham and Ian Failes discuss the visual effects work done by Scanline in Clint Eastwood’s 2010 drama, Hereafter.
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Capturing the Guardians
Vicon House of Moves recently helped bring to life 30 animated superheroes for an NHL and Stan Lee venture known as The Guardian Project. We find out how they used mo-cap and the Epic Games Unreal Engine to make it possible.
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Luma shows True Grit with the Coen Brothers
With over 350 visual effects shots, True Grit represents the fourth collaboration between Luma Pictures and directors Joel and Ethan Coen. We take a look at some of Luma’s key invisible effects for the film.
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fxpodcast: Shaun Tan’s Oscar nomination for The Lost Thing
This week in the lead up to the Oscar Weekend, we speak with Shaun Tan, co-director of The Lost Thing which has been nominated for Best Short Animated Film. This film is an act of love, taking a small team 9 years to complete.
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Lumen-escent: the VFX of I Am Number Four
Visual effects supervisor Greg McMurry oversaw 800 shots for I Am Number Four, the story of an alien fugitive on the run from other-worldly pursuers. We take a look at some of the key effects scenes from the film.
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fxpodcast: Dr. Mark Sagar
In the last of our series on the tech behind the major studios, we switch gear to facial animation and Dr. Mark Sagar of Weta Digital. Mark is a back to back 2010 and 2011 winner of the Sci-Tech Award (Scientific and Engineering Award) from the Academy. At Weta Digital he has directed the development of the performance driven facial animation system for Avatar and King Kong.
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Union’s 350 shots for 127 Hours
Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours tells the story of mountain climber Aron Ralston (James Franco) who becomes trapped beneath a boulder in Utah. We talk to VFX supe Adam Gascoyne from Union Visual Effects about how his studio helped tell this real-life tale of survival.
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Framestore goes under seige
A stand-out commercial airing during this year’s Super Bowl was Coca-Cola’s ‘Seige’, featuring a group of evil fire-warriors invading the village of a band of furry, friendly creatures. The Wieden + Kennedy spot was directed by Nexus’ Fx&Mat, with CGI and animation work by Framestore. We talk to Framestore’s visual effects supervisor Diarmid Harrison-Murray.
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The future of Furnace on Flame
Recently on Flame-news it was reported that the Foundry would no longer fix bugs or develop for Furnace on Flame.
We spoke exclusively to the Foundry to find out if Furnace was “end of life” on Flame
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