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What the VFX “industry” needs now is…..

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It’s been over a year since the Visual Effects Society has issued their hopeful VES 2.0 letter to the industry. Many on the board of the VES have stated that there is action being taken by various subcommittees within the VES and that this is a difficult issue that needs a great deal of research and a strategic plan. I contend that the time to be effective is quickly slipping through our fingers.  I believe that given the structure of the VES, its charter as well as its management and its board of directors, make addressing the issues that the Visual Effects industry face, an impossibility.

The Value of Visual Effects

Scott Squires:

Almost all films coming out of Hollywood use visual effects to some extent and even many independent films have visual effects. Keep in mind that visual effects is not just for science fiction and fantasy films. They can be used extensively in period films and even in present day comedies. FIVE YEAR ENGAGEMENT used visual effects. WAR HORSE used visual effects extensively including some of the field shots, leaping horse, etc. FOREST GUMP showed an actor missing a leg.

I have been saying this for years. I challenge Hollywood to make a movie without us. Prove me wrong. Hollywood doesn't do it because it can't.

Alvy Ray Smith: RGGBA, the birth of compositing& the founding Of Pixar

Mike Seymour writing for fxguide

Dr Alvy Ray Smith helped or personally invented Paint as we know it, and the Alpha channel (the very idea of RGBA – and he picked the name Alpha). He directed the Genesis sequence in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan while at Lucasfilm, his first directing gig ever, and then followed it up with directed the first short The Adventures of André and Wally B. That film would become the prototype for the short film tradition that would follow until today in a company called Pixar, which Smith co-founded with Ed Catmull. Ed is a friend, who Alvy pushed to hire a young animator called John Lasseter. Smith sold technology to Disney, helped Steve Jobs invest half his fortune in Pixar ($50M), and then helped make him billions, finally coming to blows with Jobs over a white board. However, Jobs still invested in Smith’s next company which Smith would sell to Microsoft, making Jobs even more money. Along the way he worked at Xerox PARC at its height, inspired Photoshop, defended Adobe and lost to Quantel. It is a remarkable story.

I even sent this article to my dad. Thanks Mike for the access.

Getting a visual effects job

Scott Squires:

If you’re just starting out make sure to read the post on Career in Visual Effects and Visual Effects Schools. Is this the right career for you, do you have a specific area you’re focused on and have you learned enough to be able to do high quality work in a reasonable amount of time without having step by step instructions?

Effects you never new were there

Ian Failes writing for fxguide:

Greenscreen plates proved a more significant challenge, partly from the various formats (Alexa, RED and even Canon 5D footage). “The (overall) VFX Supervisor, Eric Robertson, did a great job lighting the greenscreen plates, but because they had to seamlessly intercut with material which was not greenscreen, we had to do a lot of sculpting to get the color densities to match precisely,” says Davids.

Nice work everybody.

VES Job Fair this weekend

Mike Seymour:

This weekend (Saturday, June 16, 2012) in Los Angeles, New York and London there is the second annual VES Career Fair & Tech Expo.

The event runs all day and allows artists in the visual effects industry to meet and talk with the top companies in entertainment industry from around the world, and was a surprise big success last year.

The VES VFX Global Career Fair & Technology Expo has the distinction of being the world’s largest visual effects-specific Career Fair and Technology Expo dedicated solely to the visual effects professional.

Thanks Mike.

Visual Effects Tips 1

Scott Squires:

Here are a few tips and suggestions for visual effects artists. Some of these overlap my post on being a good visual effects artist. It takes more than just knowing how to use a visual effects software package to be good. The real key is to be able to accomplish great finished results within the constraints of the project.

There are plenty of good button pushers. It's knowing what to do after you run out of buttons to push. Thanks for the post Mr. Squires.

Tall Computers

Stu Maschwitz:

When I described the ray-tracing 3D renderer in Adobe After Effects CS6 usable only by those with high-end graphics cards, many commenters took the opportunity to turn it into a Mac vs. Windows debate. That’s not how I saw the problem, but it did raise an interesting question:

IS IT APPLE’S JOB TO BUILD COMPUTERS FOR OUR (POSSIBLY ADOBE) SOFTWARE, OR IS IT ADOBE’S JOB TO BUILD SOFTWARE FOR OUR (POSSIBLY APPLE) COMPUTERS?

Another great post from our friend Stu. Only time will tell.

How does one make a million dollars in the movie business? Part 1

Scott Ross:

They are extremely costly to run, need an ongoing influx of cash to continually upgrade their hardware and software, are in constant turnover of their staff, have non-existant margins, incredible overhead, demanding clients, compacted schedules, outrageous competition, offshore companies that enjoy government subsidies and tax rebate programs…

Looking forward to part 2.