Raymond Frederick Harryhausen R.I.P 1920-2013

May 7, 2013

Raymond Frederick Harryhausen Born: Los Angeles 29th June 1920 Died: London 7th May 2013. From the Harryhausen Family posted via Facebook: The Harryhausen family regret to announce the death of Ray Harryhausen, Visual Effects pioneer and stop-motion model animator. He was a multi-award winner which includes a special Oscar and BAFTA. Ray’s influence on today’s […]

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Stop frame animation made with atoms. Yes, at the atomic level!

May 1, 2013

Atomic short film – literally a film made at atomic – per atom level by IBM – truly remarkable and a key to future atomic memory devices.

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Canon 5D Mk III firmware update released

April 29, 2013

Now out of Beta the 5D Mk III update is ready to be downloaded…

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Aaton out of the Game? updated

April 27, 2013

Reports that Aaton has shut down subject to finding additional funding. Updated 4/291600GMT with statement from Jean-Pierre Beauviala, Founder and CEO of Aaton

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FMX 2013 – final wrap-up

April 27, 2013

Some final thoughts on FMX 2013 and a look at the Iron Man 3 presentations by Trixter and Weta Digital, and on virtual production.

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Day 2 at FMX 2013 – Lara Croft’s hair, Arnold, MPC’s FX tools, OpenSubdiv

April 25, 2013

Day 2 at the FMX 2013 conference in Stuttgart, Germany had more great VFX and gaming talks, plus a look at digital camera work and Pixar’s OpenSubdiv.

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Day 1 at FMX 2013 – Pixar, Cloud Atlas, Life of Pi, Katana, V-Ray

April 24, 2013

We wrap-up day one at FMX 2013 in Stuttgart, which saw panels on the state of VFX, behind the scenes of Cloud Atlas, Life of Pi, The Blue Umbrella and Epic and ILM’s use of V-Ray.

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RC special – what’s in Jason Wingrove’s Epic kit?

April 18, 2013

After several emails and comments in fxphd’s forums, we offer this update of the typical state of the art gear in an independent Epic film package. We asked the RC’s Jason’s Wingrove to open his camera bags and show us his typical kit.

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OpenEXR 2.0 goes deep

April 10, 2013

Now out of public beta, an update of the open source high dynamic range file format OpenEXR to include several new features, including deep data support, has been released with version 2.0.

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NAB 2013: Blackmagic and Moore’s Law

April 9, 2013

The buzz especially in the South Hall and Central Halls of the NAB 2013 which cater to production and post-production was the power of Moore’s Law as represented by a tiny ‘point and film’ camera that perhaps was the biggest news.

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Broadcast and ident design highlights

April 7, 2013

Here’s a couple of broadcast design and idents projects that have caught our eye recently – from NASCAR to MTV and the BBC – featuring work by The Mill, Polynoid and Engine Room.

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Adobe’s new pro video tools: NAB sneak peek

April 4, 2013

Adobe has revealed its next versions of Premiere Pro, After Effects, SpeedGrade, Audition, Prelude, Media Encoder and Story.

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The Iron Man science project

April 3, 2013

Behind the scenes of an Iron Man-themed Verizon TV spot, with visual effects by The Embassy.

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fxguide’s guide to FMX 2013

April 2, 2013

The definitive guide to the effects, animation, games and transmedia presentations planned for FMX 2013 in Stuttgart, Germany from 23 to 26 April.

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The best tech demos from GDC2013

April 2, 2013

Some of the best game engine and tech demos from this year’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

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Rhythm & Hues auction won by Prana Studios (UPDATED x2)

March 29, 2013

Rhythm and Hues has been sold at auction following bankruptcy to Prana Studios. Final hearing scheduled for Friday at 10:00 am.

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What’s new from Autodesk

March 26, 2013

See the new announcements from Autodesk for Maya, 3ds Max, MotionBuilder, Mudbox, Softimage and Sketchbook Designer.

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More notes from the NVIDIA GPU Tech Conference

March 26, 2013

In the second of our reports from GTC, we cover HFR with Douglas Trumbull, ZOIC’s ZEUS pipeline, Rhythm & Hues Crom VFX platform, as well as a few more details about Octane’s cloud solution and the GRID VCA.

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How Star Trek went into darkness for Earth Hour

March 24, 2013

With J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek: Into Darkness only a few months away from opening, the film’s distributors staged a Trek-themed quadrocopter light display as part of WWF’s Earth Hour over the weekend in London. Stunt? Sure, but a fun one – see the video here.

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NVIDIA GPU Tech Conference report

March 20, 2013

The GPU Technology Conference (GTC) advances GPU computing in computer graphics, games, mobile, and the cloud. For the vfx and production, this tech is has become an incredibly important part of the process and today we cover new announcements from the NVIDIA keynote.

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VFX Town Hall photos and notes

March 14, 2013

Our live notes from the VFX Town Hall which took place on March 14th – Pi Day – in LA, the Bay Area, Austin, Wellington, Vancouver – and around the world via a live simulcast.

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Different ads – different techniques

March 14, 2013

A look at the innovative use of effects in some recent spots by Digital Domain, Important Looking Pirates, Poetica, Framestore, Alt.vfx and Realise Studio. Includes an EXCLUSIVE breakdown from DD for their Dead Space 3 game promo.

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SideFX releases Houdini 12.5

March 14, 2013

Houdini 12.5 is now available, the impressive new tools include an Ocean FX Wave tool, and a Cloud FX generator – part of a DreamWorks Animation & Side Effects Software collaboration!

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International VFX Town Hall meetings (updated)

March 12, 2013

Here’s how to RSVP to VFX Town Hall meetings happening in LA, the Bay Area, Austin and Vancouver on March 14th, plus details of the planned live broadcast.

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Luxology teases new MODO 701

March 12, 2013

Luxology announced a new version of their 3D package today, which contains new features, optimizations, a new Linux version, as well as an increase in price.

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Games online all the time might only be good in theory: SimCity

March 7, 2013

EA’s SimCity server troubles have highlighted the problem of being online, all the time.

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VES open letter – what is the VES’s role here?

February 28, 2013

fxguide talks to VES Chair Jeff Okun about the VES open letter ‘Call to Action’, which contemplates a worldwide VFX congress of effects practitioners, and, seemingly conversely, for artists to lobby the Californian government for increased tax incentives in that U.S. state.

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VES responds to VFX protest

February 25, 2013

Visual Effects Society Chair Jeff Okun has responded to issues arising after yesterday’s VFX protest near the Oscars.

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So how did they make Ted present at the Oscars?

February 25, 2013

Ted’s appearance with Mark Wahlberg almost stole the show at the Academy Awards. Here’s how Tippett Studio pulled it off.

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And the winner is…

February 24, 2013

Life of Pi won the Oscar today at the Academy Awards. However, the presentation of the VFX award was not without some controversy.

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