Mads:
Nuke have some really powerfull build-in grading and color correction tools, perfect for VFX work. But i often find my self a bit frustrated when i do VFX look-dev and temp grades, as these tools are not really build with “Look Grade” in mind, it feels. My main issues with the build-in grade node is that (For grading purposes):
Robert De Niro:
“You weren’t just following dreams, you were reaching for your destiny. You’re a dancer, a singer, a choreographer, musician, a filmmaker, a writer, a photographer, a director, a producer, an actor, an artist. Yeah, you’re f**ked.”
Any talent that the rest of the world doesn't understand will be met with resistance. That's why we have a saying, "F**k you pay me". It used to be called knowledge work and payed very well because the people who needed that work done hadn't a clue what to ask for. They just wrote the check and were glad when the work was finished. But today everyone thinks they know how this is done. News flash they don't. Mr De Niro is right. One of my hardest jobs is convincing others that I am worth every penny.
Daniel Kutz:
BBC's Horizon looks at ILM and visual effects. This show is from 1985 and is a true gem. I thought it would be important and educational to show the interesting bits of the show, focusing on subjects such as optical printing, matte painting and even rotoscoping.
Via: Matt Leonard
Scott Squires:
The visual effects industry and workers suffer from a number problems. Two of those are massive overtime and unpaid overtime.
If you are working unpaid overtime doing it wrong. You are also making it really hard for us who don't work unpaid overtime. Stop Doing This.
If you run a place and ask artists to work unpaid overttime shame you. You are breaking the law. If the only way to get a project done and on budget is to pay no artists overtime your doing it wrong. Huge amounts of overtime are bad for both the artist and really bad for the company.
Major Kong:
One topic that I've seen confusing a few people is how Nuke handles caching. At its most basic, Nuke is caching results so that it doesn't have to keep recalculating frames, or specific parts of your tree, in an attempt to keep working in your comp nice and snappy. The details can get rather more complicated, however!
I re-read this article last night. Many Nuke artists don't understand how all the cacheing works in Nuke and in turn but get why things slow down. Even if you have read this do it again.
NASA.gov:
The original plan was to photograph a rare angular conjunction of Mars and Venus that occurred a week and a half ago, with the added bonus of a crescent Moon and the International Space Station (ISS) both passing nearby.
Save this one for refernece.
It's a good read for the weekend or at rendering time. Have a good weekend.
For a shot of a map blowing away like cocaine, we shot baby powder in 10 minutes to get a good take while sims were going for days #mochat
This discussion on Twitter reminded me when Jim O'hagen was trying to fake blood spreading on a shirt. After a couple of hours of nothing. He got a camera from production and a paper towel. He shot water spreading into the paper towel. With that he had a matte for the effect. It worked great.
Mike Seymour:
Professional, innovative, polished and fun: from practical to sims, from NUKE to Maya, here then is some of what you can see inside fxphd, plus work the members have done themselves. The quality is outstanding and we want to congratulate those members whose work made this final edit. But in truth we had way more material than we could have hoped for, so please accept our sincere thanks for all your submissions and accept our apologies that our -very- talented editor could not make all the submissions work in the one edit!
Fxphd is a great resource for visual effects artists around the world. Every term I take away knowledge that I didn't have before. Sometimes I come away with a new thinking on a topic or a different way to tackle a problem. I even learn things I never new was out there. If you are a vfx artist and your not a member shame on you.
Lauren Davis:
Kevin Schmidt changes the blinking lights atop those high TV towers, climbing 1500 feet into the air. And thanks to drone photography, we can enjoy the astounding view without making the queasy climb.