Todd Vaziri:
Here are the nominees for Achievement in Visual Effects for the 89th Academy Awards. Congratulations to everyone involved in the creation of these magnificent images.
Thanks Todd I am being lazy this year. Also check out this article Todd wrote it's a good one for any Star Wars fan.
I had lunch with a friend and mentor of mine Jim O' Hagen. We got talking about what we wanted to get better at or maybe something we needed to learn. He mentioned Codecademy.com . Jim mentioned that Miles had posted a commandline tutorial from them and it was really good. Last week I posted about discussions on the Nuke mailing list about wanting to get better at math. I thought I'd pass this forward.
I know a couple of artist that are doing good work at DD[Los Angeles]. Not on feature films but still doing very high end work. DD seems to be doing better than say R&H. It's a slow process.
One of my best moves was taking the seat right next to the FrameThrower when I started at Pacific Title And Art Studio. I could look over there shoulders and listen to what was being said. I also got to watch senior artists present there work. How they handled notes and which questions I needed to ask to get the answers they needed to get the shots done. I could also go lever to the senior artist and ask how they did something. The senior artists at Pactitle were and still are helpful to me. They always had time to show me a technique or at least tell me the shot number so I could open the Shake script and have a look at how it was done. I also was asked a lot "what do you think?" or "do you see anything wrong with this?" As I gained more experience I could share my ideas and techniques.
You might be asking what's my point? Learning and teaching is so important to a post production environment. Closed minds and the thought that this is your technique is crazy and really not helpful. I have heard requiters say over and over again "You also need people skills." It's in every job post on the Internet. "Must work well in a team as well as on your own."
Be a teacher to the juniors, also learn from them. Pass knowledge around and speak up if you think you might have a solution to the problem an artist is having.
Vfx Soldier:
One piece of advice that I learned in my VFX experience was that perfecting your craft is one thing, but learning intimately about the craft you are delivering assets to is just as valuable. If you’re a Character TD you should know how animators work to deliver high quality assets to them. The same goes for Animators to CFX and FX departments, CFX/FX to lighting, lighting to compositing, etc.
When that happens, you have more people knowing the pitfalls and not having an ill-conceived notion of how VFX works like Mr. Serkis. Also, it’s worth noting as I mentioned in my previous piece that we bare some responsibility for this by not respecting our craft the way others do in the industry.
So who will learn first the visual effects industry or Mr. Serkis. I'm going to bet on the visual effects industy. If you are not asking questions and learning and teaching your craft your not doing something right. If your the smartest artist in the room your in the wrong room. Teach and be taught. Nothing bugs me more than a artist that isn't willing to teach or learn. If you know everything all ready your in the wrong field.
It has been 1 year. I don't know one person that makes movies for the money. Their are people who happen to be really good at it. Turns out they need our help.
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By Jeff Heusser:
The Oscars are this weekend and by all rights should be dominating the news cycle. This week is different with multiple important visual effects business related stories hitting in a one day span.
I can't believe its been a year and almost nothing has changed. Not from lack of trying, I guess we just keep going hoping for change. We are a very smart group who loves what we do. I hope we can change the ideas that the non visual effects professional have. We need to edjucate not laugh when they say "CGI".
Ian Failes:
ILM is no stranger to the SciTech Awards; numerous innovations crafted by its artists and engineers have been recognized with prestigious Scientific and Technical Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The studio’s latest two SciTech honors were awarded recently for ILM’s GPU-based simulation and volume renderer Plume and the Zeno application framework. fxguide spoke to key members of ILM’s team about these in-house visual effects tools.
Studios are wanting more for their money than ever before. They want free money even. Visual effects are no stranger to this. Because of this lots of people ask why visual effects cost so much? I'll tell you why.
You crew up again.
Let me explain. After pre-production and production the images have been captured and all seems done. Champagne and wrap parties. Not so fast. The movie making process is just getting started. In some cases there are whole worlds to create. This reminds me something Glen Campbell said in a visual effects cinematography class I took while at UCLA. He talked about TRON, and how Disney Execs were shitting there pants when they saw a rough cut of film. This rough cut was before all the roto was done and all the neat effects added to the film. They were looking at actors against black felt. It was just the edit.
This was a change in the way movies where made. Before everything was captured in the camera. You did some editing and sound design, added a sound track. Most if not all was done "On the day. " not weeks months down line.
Now here is the most important part of this. Those Disney execs they are not stupid for not know what was happening. They just didn't know. Your not stupid if you have never been taught fractions and you think 1/6 is bigger than 1/5. You just don't have the right information.
Producers and directors not having the right information is our fault not theirs.
I heard a story about DD one time about how a producer pulled aside the Roto/Paint Lead and told him "On this show roto and paint will be very important."
The Roto Paint lead responded " Everything is going to be important, we are all important."
Why am I sharing this with you? Because that type of thinking is hurting visual effects as a whole. Everyone is important.
Put together a team, do not just fill seats. Plus if you really want your "A" team all the time as a producer you need to make sure they don't leave. Keep them busy, keep them happy. Don't micro manage them. Let them do what they do well. Making a film is hard, no doubt. Don't make it harder by hiring the guy off the street. The story starts with a single image. Talented people put there minds to work on what that world should look like guided by a director that hopfully has a vision, and can articulate it to others.
Assemble your team carefully. Choose the roto artists because they do great roto not because they are cheap but because you know their is going to be a shit load of roto to be done. Find really good texture artists if you need to be inches from cg with your camera. Get the right lighting people in. Set upon the crew based on talent not price.