The Foundry and Luxology →
The Foundry and Luxology brands and customers are very valuable things that we don’t want to harm. So from day one - nothing changes.
Mike Seymour writing for fxguide.com
The Foundry (Nuke, Mari, Katana) today announced it has merged with Luxology (Modo). The two companies are a very interesting fit in terms of technology and markets. The combined portfolio will open doors to new ways of working, providing artists and designers with increased creative choice, yet they only share about 10% of common customers. Modo is very accessible 3D, while Nuke dominates the high end feature film 2D compositing market. Luxology is known for a nearly heroic devotion to artists, and The Foundry is one of the most successful companies in the world at complex workflow pipelines that can handle anything anyone can throw at them.
Excited to see what happens. Both The Foundy and Luxology have great products.
Have a read and a listen.
Seeing
My dad when he got his television stolen he never replaced it. Why you might ask. You need to learn to think and not see.
Awhile back Scott Squires posted tips for being a good VFX artist. One of the ideas was that you needed to know how to see what you are trying to do before you do it. He is right. Being able to see it first is so important. Scott goes on even being able to see it on slow motion. This really isn't a new idea. athletes have been doing this for years. Visualize it and then your body can do it.
I have watched many an artist try crazy things because they can't visualize it. You have to make the connections.
First learn to think, then learn to see.
Scott, thanks for making me think.
There is a great Roald Dahl poem describing exactly what my dad is talking about.
Roald Dahl:
He cannot think -- he only sees!
Job Security
The visual effects world has been thrown for a loop. One of the big 6 is showing signs of failure.
Let me explain.
I have been a part of a failing company before. This is an experience that I would have rather of not been thru. I watched a the CEO take a booming post house and destroy it in 18 months. Having a long credit list doesn't make you immune to failure. All it take is a leader that doesn't understand what we do.
I hope everything can get back to normal. 50 hour weeks for some 90 hours for others. days of greatness, and days when nothing will track, the grain won't match and the deadline is right now.
I will always go back to what a friend of mine said.
Despite current labor struggles, #vfx has been and will be an industry that thrives on creativity, intellect, and gut instinct. #jobsecurity
Deadly dull vfx undermining the biz →
David S. Cohen writing for variety.com
But as innovation has shifted from the screen to the pipeline, vfx have become less startling. This year's vfx movies have ranged from fun ("Avengers," "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter") to forgettable ("Battleship" and... you know, that other bloated thing, what was the name of it?) but they haven't made me think "Wow, I've never seen that before" -- even when I haven't. No wonder movie attendance is flat or falling. There aren't enough films being made to build and sustain auds' relationships with stars, and vfx are losing their novelty value.
I thought about whether or not this was something to respond to. So I'm late to the game.
I have work in Battleship that you don't know about. Nothing of what I do is exciting.Its called problem solving. I love it.
I have been sneaking my composites by you for years. Non of them are boring.
Submit
I helped do some visual effects on a short being submitted to Sundance.
It was a fun and frustrating process.
Keep doing good work.
Open letter response to David Cohen, Variety →
Mike Seymour writing for fxguide.com
I will assume for this reply that Cohen is focused on just the feature film end of the business and that all the other amazing innovations such as remarkable real-time rendering of human faces, with dials to change things in real time, increased skin moisture until sweat beads on the brow of a photo real / sub-surface scattered human face, or the ability to film live action and produce from one camera complete 3D surface maps based on the natural way light polarizes as it reflects off any surface, or the introduction of remote editing via brilliant server software innovations by Adobe Anywhere – are all outside Cohen’s Variety beat. Those three innovations alone were all either published at SIGGRAPH or at IBC in the last month. Personally I find these monthly advances stunningly interesting and completely exciting…but maybe that’s just me.
It's about knowing where to put the X
Digital Domain, what does it all mean? →
Mike Seymour writing for fxguide.com
The idea of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection is to give a company time to negotiate with its creditors, since during that time the creditors cannot pursue any debts or claims. The company must file a plan of its reorganization with the bankruptcy court, and the creditors are participants in the bankruptcy proceedings, that is, they can investigate the operations of the company. The creditors must vote on the proposed plan, and the court will review it for feasibility. Then the company must carry out the plan.
A friend of mine not in the visual effects world is floored by the bad news around DD.
How can it be this bad.
Digital Domain Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy →
by Georg Szalai
It also said it has reached a purchase agreement with Searchlight Capital Partners, which will acquire Digital Domain Productions and its digital visual effects operating units in the U.S. and Canada for $15 million.
This is good news?
Screen
