Search Results for: film
Compositing – Nuke Is Now Available to Everyone
http://nofilmschool.com/2015/04/nuke-powerful-node-based-compositing-software-now-available-everyone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPHHDBnV_V8
CineSync
You could be working with a commercial agency, a film director, a VFX studio or a games developer. You need to know that the person on the other end of the line is seeing exactly what you are showing them.
cineSync’s intuitive drawing tools allow anyone in the session to sketch right on top of the image.
You can circle or point to areas of interest, or paste “sticky note” text boxes, visible to everyone in the session.
You can also save out annotated reference frames – or even export the clip with the annotations burned in.
Are the best directors tyrants?
http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20141001-are-the-best-directors-tyrants
“When a film has got problems”, he says, “they’re usually little problems, but they build and build incrementally, and by the time you’re finished, there’s not much you can do about it. But if you’re like Fincher and you iron out these problems as you go along, it can save you. If you’ve got the money and the strength to do 50 takes, then do them.”
Hayao Miyazaki – On Your Mark
In 1995, Hayao Miyazaki had writer’s block while working on Princess Mononoke.
So he took a break to direct this music video for Chage and Aska’s song “On Your Mark.” And while it may have been a short film, Miyazaki didn’t skimp on the visuals.
apertus – open source cinema
The goal of the community driven apertus° project is to create a variety of powerful, free (in terms of liberty) and open cinema tools that we as filmmakers love to use.
Union appeals to VFX employers to improve working conditions
https://www.bectu.org.uk/news/2095 A recent survey amongst VFX staff found high levels of dissatisfaction amongst this skilled group over working hours, workloads and work/life balance. Responding to the survey: 77 per cent of people knew someone who had recently left the industry over workloads, overtime and poor working conditions;81 per cent of people had felt pressured or bullied into working overtime for free on films;83 per cent of people said it was difficult, or very difficult, to raise a family whilst working in VFX What does the Charter call for? All overtime to be voluntaryAll overtime to be paidWorking Time Regulation opt-outs to be handled responsiblyRespect for caring responsibilitiesStatutory rights to daily rest to be met (eg 11 hour break between turns of duty)Statutory rights to weekly rest to be met (eg no to working on 12 consecutive days)Better care for night workersRespect for the rights of trade union members.
I’m Phil Tippett, stop-motion animator, director, dinosaur supervisor. And the status of VFX.
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1r5h9b/im_phil_tippett_stopmotion_animator_director
LA Animator:
What, in your opinion, is broken in the current VFX workflow? What things would you like to most see change?
Endless revisions?
Disconnect between Director and artists/VFX facility?
Bidding process? etc?
Phil Tippet:
In the olden days, producers knew what visual effects were. Now they’ve gotten into this methodology where they’ll hire a middleman – a visual effects supervisor, and this person works for the producing studio. They’re middle managers.
And when you go into a review with one of them, there’s this weird sort of competition that happens. It’s a game called ‘Find What’s Wrong With This Shot’. And there’s always going to be something wrong, because everything’s subjective. And you can micromanage it down to a pixel, and that happens all the time.
We’re doing it digitally, so there’s no pressure to save on film costs or whatever, so it’s not unusual to go through 500 revisions of the same shot, moving pixels around and scrutinizing this or that.
That’s not how you manage artists. You encourage artists, and then you’ll get – you know – art. If your idea of managing artists is just pointing out what’s wrong and making them fix it over and over again, you end up with artists who just stand around asking “OK lady, where do you want this sofa? You want it over there? No? Fine. You want it over there? I don’t give a fuck. I’ll put it wherever you want it.”
It’s creative mismanagement, it’s part of the whole corporate modality. The fish stinks from the head on down. Back on Star Wars, Robocop, we never thought about what was wrong with a shot. We just thought about how to make it better.
This resonates with the VES 2008′ Status Of VFX white-paper written by Renee Dunlop, Paul Malcolm, Eric Roth for the Visual Effects Society in July 2008. A critical effort in educating the production world on the status of the current use of visual effects:
“While digital visual effects have opened the door wide to tremendous opportunity, those working in the
pipeline are still jostling to claim their place in the process.
Though it is understandable that different crafts want to protect their own territory, safeguarding
the old ways of doing things often gets in the way of creating partnerships.
· An oft-heard concern raised by Art Directors and Production Designers has been a lack
of consistency throughout the pipeline and the impact new technologies used by VFX
artists will have on their work. However, the fact is that part of a VFX Supervisor’s
responsibility is to maintain communication with DPs and Art Directors to ensure that
the final product reflects what those parties wanted.
· Often it is difficult to determine who is in charge of certain creative decisions that
overlap craft boundaries.
· There are cultural and generational factors to consider. A lot of Directors don’t want to
commit to what the shot’s going to be until they’re in post. However, many younger
Directors are very open to manipulating images early on.
· On many, if not most, projects, Art Directors and DPs are often on another project and
no longer accessible to VFX artists after the shoot. Unfortunately, this is when VFX
Supervisors are finalizing their work in post, which impacts the work done earlier by
other craftspeople.
Yet another factor is time. As studios continue to push for shorter production periods, putting
together the perfect pipeline becomes increasingly difficult. As Alex Funke, Visual Effects
Supervisor and DP says:
“In a perfect world, the live action would be shot first, the miniatures would
shoot second and then the digital effects would assemble and enhance the
whole mix. But it doesn’t usually happen that way. It’s more likely that the
miniatures will be shooting along with the live action, and the digital artists will
be trying to get rough assemblies of shots done so they can find out just how
much work they will have to do.””
…
“Some of these cultural changes need to begin within the visual effects community itself.
As VFX Supervisor and former Visual Effects Society Board Chair Jeffrey A. Okun noted:
“In our earnest desire to get a seat at the ‘adults table’ of the business, we have
been engaged in a 30-year publicity campaign to make everyone aware of what
we do and how we do it. In this process we have focused on the success stories
and hidden away the terrible truth of how we got to those successes. As far as
the public, most directors and producers are concerned, they are not at all aware
of how time and hands-on intensive the process really is. What we need to do is
begin telling the painful truth.””
…
“Visual effects artists need to bring other practitioners into the VFX production process as part of
the education process. Unfortunately, this often proves difficult because of long-standing
territorial issues. As productions are shared throughout the international production community,
consistency and quality can be difficult for Department Heads to monitor.”
…
“As anyone with even a modicum of experience in the entertainment industry knows, nothing
ever changes unless producers can be convinced that it’s in their best economic interest. That
said, visual effects professionals have a very convincing argument to make with producers
about the need to re-evaluate the impact of VFX on the bottom line.
Roughly 20 out of the top 25 highest grossing films of all time are visual effects films. Visual
effects typically take 25-50% or more of an entire show’s budget, an estimate that is often
admitted as low. In animated films, that number is far higher. Clearly, the work, the creative
product, and the practitioners of the visual effects industry all have an enormous impact on the
producers’ bottom line and the show’s eventual success in the marketplace.
Essentially, if visual effects artists are included in decision making up front, productions costs
will drop because the VFX artists can help streamline the production path in telling the
Director’s story. They can be instrumental in offering more choices that help guide and
generate better creative and production decisions and, therefore, a more efficient production
schedule.”
ReelMatters.com
The owner of ReelMatters is a Technical Director with over 25 years of production experience in various fields of the entertainment business.
During this period he has contributed to Productions for some of the most distinguished and internationally recognized studios and facilities including Walt Disney Pictures, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Universal Pictures, Weta Digital, C.O.R.E Feature Animation, Framestore CFC, Moving Picture Company, UPN, Atari, Seneca Colleges, Hasbro, DKP Studios, Artech Studios and FOX.
In 2001 he was awarded as one of the fifty most recognized Maya developers by French magazine: Pixelcreation. He has been named in various technical contributions published online for organizations such as VFX World, Autodesk Alias and Highend3D.
Covering various Production roles, such as CG Supervisor, Art Director, Lighting Supervisor, and lead Technical Director, he has led and supervised teams up to 40 people to successful deadlines in various production types; from video games, to broadcast television and theatrically released feature films.
His expertise range from modeling and look development, to lighting, rendering, VFX and to pipeline implementation.
PixelSham.com is now the direct portal for ReelMatters‘ blog and industry news.
RIP Ray Harryhausen
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/07/ray-harryhausen-dies
VES Advocates For More VFX Subsidies
http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/2013/02/27/ves-advocates-for-more-vfx-subsidies/#more-3400
The VES sent a call to action for VFX subsidies in California:
First, we call upon Governor Brown and the State Legislature to immediately expand its tax incentive program for the entertainment industry and to include a focused approach concentrated on the visual effects and post production sectors of the industry.
I disagree with this idea and I’m very disappointed.
An Open Letter to Ang Lee
http://vfxsoldier.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/an-open-letter-to-ang-lee/
Dear Mr. Lee, When asked about the bankruptcy of Rhythm + Hues, the visual effects house largely responsible for making your film “life of Pi” as incredible as it was, you said: “I would like it to be cheaper and not a tough business [for VFX vendors].
VFX law
http://vfxlaw2012.wordpress.com/2013/02/05/organizational-skills/
At one point in my career I was a Visual Effects Producer, and am a current member of the PGA. Is it possible that I am responsible for some companies having gone out of business because I squeezed them too hard on prices? Yes. Is it possible artists lost their job because of the decisions I made? Yes. Is it indeed possible that the visual effects industry finds itself in dire straits with nowhere to turn? Yes.
How do we fix it, and more to the point, can it be fixed?
The Price Of The VFX Overtime Death March
vfxsoldier.wordpress.com An article is making the rounds promoting the 40-hour week and explains how long work hours have proven to cost workers and their employers more of their time, their money, and their health.
The Most Expensive Places To Live In The VFX Industry
(vfxsoldier.wordpress.com)
VFX Artist Aruna Inversin has a great post on Vancouver’s skyrocketing real estate prices:
The Case for Eliminating the Best Animated Feature Award
(grantland.com) As I hope I’ve made clear by this point in our Oscar journey, I love awards. I cover them, I handicap them, I tweet them, I do useless math about them, I would happily volunteer to accept them if the actual winners could not attend, and I watch them. On Sunday I got really excited about the complicated, layered irony of Bon Iver winning Best New Artist at the Grammys even though I’m about 80% sure that I don’t know who he is. So when I propose the elimination of an award, please understand that it’s with a heavy heart. That said, when it comes to the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, my strong feeling is, to quote Padma Lakshmi: Please pack your knives and go.
Kodak preparing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/05/kodak_chaper_11/
The Wall Street Journal reports that Kodak, a company was synonymous with photography during a good part of its 131 years of existence – it had a 90 percent share of US photo-film sales in 1976 – is preparing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy if it can’t make survival cash by selling off its patent portfolio, itself a pathetic last act for the once-mighty company.
VISUAL EFFECTS INDUSTRY Bill of Rights
http://www.visualeffectssociety.com/visual-effects-industry-bill-of-rights
The Situation Today The global visual effects industry is in transition. Because visual effects now play a central role in today’s feature films, television programming, animation, video games, commercials and virtually all forms of entertainment, they have become critically important to the entertainment industry.
An Open Letter To VFX Artists And The Entertainment Industry At Large Visual Effects Society 2.0
http://www.visualeffectssociety.com/node/2425
As an Honorary Society, VES has led the way in promoting the incredible work of VFX artists but so far no one has stood up to lead the way on the business side of our business. No one has been able to speak out for unrepresented artists and facilities – or the craft as a whole – in any meaningful way.
Eric Roth – The Real Wizards of Oz Deserve Better Treatment
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-roth/the-real-wizards-of-oz-de_b_1166422.html
Visual effects are the true “movie stars” of big studio pictures — they turn today’s movies into box office hits the same way big name actors ensured the success of classic films. In fact, 46 of the 50 top worldwide Box Office films of all time were visual effects-driven. And movies and broadcast programs you wouldn’t think of as visual effects driven routinely utilize “invisible” effects to make changes to hair color, the sky, or to the background of a scene — even creating the entire backlot and sets.
Free music archives
https://www.youtube.com/audiolibrary/music?nv=1
https://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music/2
https://www.partnersinrhyme.com/pir/free_music_loops.shtml
http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/
http://www.archive.org/details/opensource_audio/
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Directories
http://hissandaroar.com/free-sounds/
How to become an apps developer in a few easy steps
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2009/feb/10/gameculture-apple
http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/11/the-ultimate-toolbox-for-iphone-development/
http://www.readwriteweb.com/mobile/2010/12/30-plus-tools-for-building-your-own-mobile-app.php
The developer of iShoot quit his day job after earning $22,000 a day at the top of the App Store charts. Here’s what you have to do to be next…
The Great Camera Shootout 2011
Cameras Tested: Arri Alexa, Sony F-35, Sony F3, Canon 5D Mark II, Canon 7D, Canon 1D Mark IV, Nikon D7000, Weisscam HS-2, Phantom Flex, Panasonic AG-AF100, RED ONE M-X and 35mm Kodak 5213 and 5219 film.
CASSINI MISSION
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.
The footage in this little film was captured by the hardworking men and women at NASA with the Cassini Imaging Science System. If you’re interested in learning more about Cassini and the on-going Cassini Solstice Mission, check it out at NASA’s website:
saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/science/index.cfm
Composition – How to make a slow motion shot
http://www.slomovideo.com/slowhow.html
Slow motion cinematography is the result of playing back frames for a longer duration than they were exposed. For example, if you expose 240 frames of film in one second, then play them back at 24 fps, the resulting movie is 10 times longer (slower) than the original filmed event….
Vivian Maier photography
An incredible story. Vivian Maier was a nanny who lived in Chicago for most of her life and passed away in 2009 at the age of 83. Little more is known about her, except that she was an avid street photographer. Her work was discovered at an auction in 2007, more than 100,000 negatives and undeveloped rolls of film, sold by a storage facility who were cleaning out her locker for delinquent rent.
http://www.cracktwo.com/2011/04/amazing-mystery-photographer-comes-to_28.html
Blockbusters blow budgets, deadlines
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118035870
All of Hollywood seems to be still figuring this out, and as a result, the tentpole pattern is now well established:
• A movie demands you’ve-never-seen-this-before visual effects both for marketing and story;
•Ambitious plans and a short schedule leave little margin for error;
•Inevitable schedule problems trigger urgent meetings among studio execs, vendors and filmmakers to get the project back on track;
•”911″ emergency calls go out to almost any vfx shop in the world that can take on some last-minute work;
•Everyone runs a harrowing race to deadline despite all the extra help.
Collapse, rest, repeat.
