Sony Releases Open Source Shading Language
At last year’s SIGGRAPH in New Orleans, Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI) announced their open source initiative in 5 areas. At the time, we spoke with Rob Bredow in fxguidetv episode #69 about this and other happenings at Sony. Today, SPI released the alpha version of the source code for their Open Shading Language (OSL) at […]
Panavision Sues Canon and Others
Yesterday on the net, a story started circulating that Panavision was suing Canon over the use of HD Video from a CMOS Sensor. The rumours started flying that Panavision would no longer rent Canon gear, and that might include even Canon lenses. Here is the truth, as best we can verify. In a March 2009 […]
Smoke Event in Chicago at fxguide/Hootenanny
fxguide/fxphd and the boutique post house Hootenanny are hosting an Autodesk Smoke on Mac event on Thursday, January 14th in Chicago. It’s an event being run by Autodesk and reseller Midwest Media Group. You’ve read the articles on fxguide about the release, now come and see it yourself and get your questions answered in person. […]
New Podcasts
New fxpodcast Part 1 of our coverage of Avatar. An in depth interview with Joe Letteri, senior vfx supervisor for Weta Digital, discussing details of mocap/facial capture tech and other aspects of their work on Avatar. www.fxguide.com/podcasts New Red Centre We kick off 2010 as we aim to continue, RED news, DSLR chat, gear reviews […]
Sci-Tech Winners Announced
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that fifteen scientific and technical achievements represented by 46 individual award recipients will be honored at the Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation at The Beverly Wilshire on Saturday, February 20, 2010. Winners include Paul Debevec, Tim Hawkins, John Monos & Mark Sagar for the Light […]
BAFTA Long List announced
Award season rolls along with the release of the Long List for Special Visual Effects from the British Academy Film Awards. 2012 * Avatar * District 9 * Fantastic Mr Fox Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince * The Hurt Locker The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Inglourious Basterds The Lovely Bones Moon The Road Star […]
Oscar VFX Short list Announced
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that seven films remain in the running in the Visual Effects category for the 82nd Academy Awards®. The films are listed below in alphabetical order: “Avatar” “District 9” “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” “Star Trek” “Terminator Salvation” “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” “2012” On […]
Mumbai Nuke Master Class Recap
As Nuke has increased in popularity around the world, The Foundry have been holding master classes around the world to help build up the user base. Their recent Nuke Master Class in Mumbai attracted over 250 visual effects artists from as far afield as Hyderabad and Chenai. Attendees were treated to sessions on customization, colour […]
fxpodcast: Michael Taylor, CEO Rising Sun Pictures
In this weeks podcast we talk with Michael Taylor, new CEO at Rising Sun Pictures. Michael has a rich history in visual effects starting with an engineering background, becoming a visual effects supervisor and then moving into in senior management at Rhythm and Hues, Digital Domain and Ascent Media. This journey has taken him from […]
Genarts announces pricing for Sapphire 5
GenArts has announced pricing for Sapphire™ 5 licenses for Autodesk systems. A new Sapphire 5 license for Linux Flame, Inferno, Flint HD and Smoke HD will be priced at $8,499, a $1,500 decrease from Sapphire 4. Upgrades from Sapphire 4 to Sapphire 5 will be priced at $3,499. In addition, new Sapphire 5 burn licenses […]
Smoke on Mac Part 1: Overview
Autodesk announced the release of Smoke on Mac 2010 today and it’s a big move for Autodesk, as traditionally their system products have been bundled software/hardware packages.
Brisbane Colorist training
Warren Eagles, (one of our online fxphd Profs.) is heading up a “Colourist Strategies” live training course in January, 2010. The 3-day course will take place in Brisbane, Australia. “Colourist Strategies” will provide colourists with the toolset to maximise their abilities and gain an edge on their competition. It provides students with an opportunity to […]
15 films selected for Visual Effects Oscar
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films have been selected as semifinalists for Achievement in Visual Effects for the 82nd Academy Awards®. In early January the Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee will narrow this list to seven films, which will compete in the “Bake-Off”, after which three films will […]
fxpodcast: Scott Ross
When we talk about the history of visual effects we tend to take digital for granted, yet this transition occurred in our lifetime. Scott Ross is an industry pioneer, from his time at ILM, to founding Digital Domain, he was at the center of the birth of the digital age of visual effects. In our […]
Framestore Joins the Nuke Crowd
The Foundry announced today that Framestore, the largest visual effects and computer animation studio in Europe, has invested in a Nuke site license. Adoption of Nuke at major facilities seems to have hit the tipping point, as Framestore joins Sony Pictures Imageworks, ILM and Weta Digital as Nuke site license holders. For the full press […]
Nuke User Group at SIGGRAPH ASIA
The Foundry is holding a Nuke User Group at SIGGRAPH ASIA on Wednesday 16th December at The Pacifico, where Siggraph Asia is being held. The event starts at 5pm (registration from 4.30pm) with beer and nibbles afterwards. There will be presentations by JL Design, Beijing Wonderstar, OLM Digital and Animal Logic plus The Foundry team […]
fxpodcast: Talking Color Management with Technicolor Creative Bridge
In February the Visual Effects Society (VES) and American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) held a joint meeting to discuss Image Quality. At the time we wrote that it was clear that “DI and the workflow from image capture to release is not one workflow”. At the VES Production Summit Fred Chandler (Senior Vice President Post […]
red centre: Nov. 30th RED Announcements
The end of November brought another slate of announcements from the folks at RED, including details on Scarlet as well as a potentially cool new product called RedRay Pro. Instead of wasting your time surfing the web culling through post upon post of misinformation, take a moment and download the latest red centre and get […]
Circus is Ringleader for Grenelle Spot
An environmentally friendly approach to urban development is the subject of this spot for Grenelle, a French neighbourhood near Paris. Circus, co-founded by Jérôme Bacquet and Julien Villanueva, worked with director NoBrain to transform industrial landscapes into greener areas for the spot. Bacquet tells fxguide about his studio’s work. Interview by Ian Failes View QuickTime […]
fxguidetv: Smoke on Mac
At the Inter BEE 2009 conference in Tokyo Autodesk showed a technology demo and announced Smoke on the Macintosh platform with a price of $14,995 (U.S. suggested retail price). We take an exclusive first look at Smoke on the Mac and talk with the product managers and developers to answer all the questions you may […]
fxguidetv: Another Killer Nuke Segment
Right on the heels on the incredibly popular segment in our last fxguidetv, we have another feature from IBC featuring work in Nuke. In episode #71 Shervin Shoghian, compositing supervisor at Image Engine, shows off some insane 3D tricks from work they did on District 9. This is another great example of how to use […]
smoke on mac: yes, it’s for real
We haven’t been able to say anything up until now as we strongly respect our Non-Disclosure agreements as beta testers, but the rumors are true: there is definitely smoke for mac in Autodesk’s future. According to Autodesk, they will be “showing a technology preview of its industry leading Autodesk Smoke editorial finishing software running on […]
fxpodcast: AICP Digital
In July we posted a press release from the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP) announcing their digital initiative. We wanted to learn more about this so we sat down with Ed Ulbrich (Digital Domain) who is heading up AICP Digital. The AICP has been around since 1972, this new initiative is designed to tackle […]
fxguidetv: rise | fx Nuke Presentation from IBC
This year’s Foundry booth at IBC had several fantastic presentations by artists who use Nuke at their facilities and our next two fxguidetv episodes have two of those killer presentations. Episode #70 features the work of rise | fx, the biggest vendor for vfx in Berlin. vfx supervisor Florian Gellinger shows off the work they […]
Bridgestone by RedCartel
‘Hotel’, a Bridgestone Australia spot created by Sydney collaborative outfit RedCartel, features a recurring Gecko character realized entirely using the open source Blender 3D software. click below to read our interview with RedCartel producer James Neale, as he explains how Blender made the spot possible. RedCartel started in May 2008 as a collaborative effort between […]
Extensive Interview: Red and the Epic-X Tattoo
Our Digital cinematography & production podcast red centre episode #48 is live and ready for download. This week’s podcast we talk to Ted Schilowitz about the scheduled roll out the Epic cameras. We examine and explain all four options and discuss some of the cool tech of the new Epic -X Tattoo camera. Also check […]
Conference on Visual Media Production
Nov. 12-13th in the UK, the newly revamped CVMP conference kicks off at the BFI on London’s Southbank. Designed to be refocused on the industry and covering high end technical issues, the CVMP is shaping up to be a very good conference. The conference is aimed at Chief Tech. Officers, TDs, pipeline specialists, researchers and […]
New 5DMKII & 1D News from Canon
5D users will finally be able to shoot 25P and 24P with a new firmware update coming for the 5DMkII. “We understand that EOS 5D Mark II users desire additional frame rates and we’re preparing a firmware update to allow the camera to shoot at both 24P and 25P,” said Chris Macleod, Brand Manager – […]
VES Production Summit
Next Saturday, October 24th, The Visual Effects Society is holding it’s first ever Production Summit at the Ritz Carlton in Marina Del Rey. VES bills the event as: Shifting The Paradigm: A collaborative conversation on production, technology and business in the 21st century. The Summit is focused on looking at visual effects and the broader […]
iPhone Director’s Viewfinder
The folks over at Chemical Wedding were already known to us because they make the iPhone app Helios that calculates Sun Position. They now have introduced a Director’s Viewfinder app called Artemis. It supports selected film and digital cameras with more to come. It says “coming soon” on the web site but it is in […]