RenderMan drops in price
Pixar announced today that it is dramatically lowering the cost of RenderMan. As the most highly regarded feature film renderer, – this is significant news. It will allow more independent owner/animators to use RenderMan on smaller projects and its volume pricing reductions reflect the massive growth in render farms. Fxguide spoke to the RenderMan team about the new pricing.
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fxguidetv: MPC Nuke Breakdown Syfy
We have looked at Nuke in a feature film environment here at fxguidetv, so we have shifted gears and look at Nuke in a Promo environment. This week we speak to MPC’s Nuke artist Alex Harding, who takes us through a breakdown of one of the promo films for the the US cable network Syfy, […]
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New fxpodcast: Skyline on RedMX
This week Skyline opened in the USA. The film looks like a Hollywood Blockbuster but cost only $10million. While it opened modestly – it still grossed $4.7M on Friday alone. Whatever you think of the film – the significance of this should not be overlooked. This is a VFX house not waiting for the next […]
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AnimfxNZ Avatar
Weta Digital recently gave an incredible full day ‘Making of Avatar presentation on James Cameron’s film as part of this year’s AnimfxNZ conference in Wellington. Here is a rundown of some of the major points brought up by Weta supes and artists from the day. Weta’s accomplishments The Making of Avatar‚ was actually one of […]
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IATSE Formally Announces Visual Effects organizing Drive
For over a year IATSE has been working with members of the Visual Effects community to establish an organizing campaign for artists. To that end they are formally and publicly announcing that effort. In addition they have hired Jim Goodman as a full time representative whose sole responsibility will be to organize VFX artists into […]
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V-Ray 2.0 for 3ds Max open for Beta
Chaos Group has announced that the the new V-Ray 2.0 for 3ds Max is now entering its final BETA stage. V-Ray 2.0 combines the power of the V-Ray rendering engine with the flexibility and speed of the interactive rendering system – V-Ray RT, now running on GPUs. V-Ray 2.0 for 3ds Max BETA program is […]
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Sony Launches F3
Sony Announced today the details of the PMW – F3 Camera. A PL mount, Super 35mm sensor, 24P video camera. While not cheap at an estimated under $19,000, it is also not expensive for a S35 sensor. The camera signals a huge shift and a creative opportunity for film makers and documentarians.
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fxpodcast: The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences
Our current fxpodcast takes a break from looking at visual effects projects and examines one of the major awards organizations, The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. The Academy honors U.S. primetime television via its Emmy Awards, the most prestigious honor given in the states. For the podcast, Mike Seymour chats with Geoff Mark, former […]
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An Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Primer
We speak with Geoff Mark, former Special Visual Effects Governor for the Academy, about the organization and its reach.
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Vue 9 Now Shipping
e-on software announced today that they are now shipping their new versions of software: Vue 9 xStream and Vue 9 Infinite. One of the big rendering enhancements is a new anti-flickering algorithm which they developed for the rendering of the kind of detailed natural environments one creates in the software. Vue 9 xStream retails for […]
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Hereafter & Scanline: go ahead, make my wave
Well-known for its CG water creations in films such as 300 and 2012, Scanline VFX faced new challenges in creating a near-death tsunami experience for Clint Eastwood’s Hereafter. We take a look at the studio’s digital water live-action destruction effects, digital make-up work and and afterlife visions.
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red centre #075
The Spheron HDR video camera in London, The Triplicator in New York, Jason in Adelaide – all from the Tech Penthouse of fxguide.com in Sydney.
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The Foundry Release Mari on Windows
The Foundry’s texture painting tool Mari is now shipping on Windows. The software is supported on Windows 7 64-bit or on Linux 64-bit (Fedora 12 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4). Our sister site fxphd.com is currently running an Introduction to Mari course this term. It’s taught by artist Gareth Jensen, who has been working […]
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Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions
Animator Tom Sito’s book Drawing the Line: The Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson came out in 2006, but only recently came to our attention. If you think about the history of traditional animation, that industry has already faced issues including labor law abuses, outsourcing and tax incentives. This book […]
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VES Production Summit 2010
The Visual Effects Society held their second annual Production Summit this past Saturday in Marina Del Rey. This is a unique event designed to break out of the day to day routine and think about the future as well as hear from an amazing group of speakers and panelists.
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A Brand Manager’s view of production and post
Everyone thinks that all a Brand Manager does is make TV commercials. The reality could not be more different: throughout a brand manager’s ‘life’ he or she will be lucky to even work on one brand that requires a TVC to be shot. Thanks to Liz Foster, we look at the world of Production and Post from a Brand Managers POV.
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RED CIS goes Badass
Director Robert Schwentke’s Red tells the story of ex-CIA agent Frank Moses (Bruce Willis) recruiting his former team to help him defeat a hi-tech assassin. CIS Vancouver contributed 220 shots to the film ranging from detailed composites, CG bullets, an exploding RPG and plentiful destruction. We talk to CIS vfx supe Randy Goux.
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