VES Summit 2012 →

Jeff Heusser writing for fxguide.com

On Saturday October 13th the Visual Effects Society (VES) presented VES Summit 2012, EVOLUTION at the Ritz Carlton in Marina Del Rey. This was the fourth year for this conference which is focused on the business of visual effects. The Summit is not really designed for Visual Effects artists like the VES Festivals of many years ago were. It’s not a gathering of artists sharing techniques, rather a unique opportunity to hear from studios and technology leaders about new directions and business issues.

Disconnect

There is a disconnect in artists.

One of the best things I learned at Pactitle is,

"This is your shot. Nobody is going to come rescue you."

That meant that its my roto, my track[sometimes we would get camera tracks, or art for other sources],I keyed that. I know where the demons live. Most importantly I know how to keep the demond's at bay. Most importantly it is my problem. Find a solution.

The many steps a shot might take is a hard thing to juggle.

When you are getting roto from here and tracking from down there. There is no telling what might happen. There is a pipeline. Not the one you are thinking. But the one that goes from artist to artist. There is color space to manage. There is file naming conventions.It might be as simple as is the scan right. Does it match the ref. There are a lot of places for murphy to show up. You have to trust that everyone on the line can do what they say, and that it goes to plan.

Make sure you are talking to the other artists. If your the roto guy, make sure you know what the result of your work needs to be. Don't roto blind. Ask the compositor what is needed. Do you want soft edges or no filtering. If your doing a removal and there is going to be a huge cg alien comped in, it might help to know that, if your painting out a background element. Green screens, know, or have a general idea of what is being comped. If your a match mover a tip of the hat. If the track is off, what do you got. That's right, nothing.

Don't forget to thank and tell the other artists that contributed when you get a final if your the last to touch the shot. Everyone works hard. It's nice to know what you contributed, worked.

Wide Lens

We are a group of highly technical people. Most of us are nerds. I have heard people say " That guy is freak of nature good." What I think they mean by that is the artist is both artistically talented and technically talented. We draw and paint. We can make things move like they weigh a ton when it's really just ones and zeros. Sub surface scattering is exactly that, technical. Normals are pure math. Matching color can be both done by eye or numbers. Frankly the human eye sucks at matching color so you should go with numbers. Math always wins.

I think that's what a company is looking for. Someone who can see and think.

Just this last week we were trusted to make a naked man look not naked even thou he was clearly streaking down the street. Sounds impossible, it's not. We pulled it off and the director was very happy. Having technical knowledge is part of having ninja skills. It's one thing to think it up and have a plan. It's a completely different process to making it come to life on screen.

Stepping back and looking thru a wider lens is always a good idea. This isn't new for any profession. It's a good practice for life in general. It's knowing what is important and getting rid of what's not.

Real?

Maureen says. "It doesn't have to look real. But it has to look consistent."

What's real can be nothing more than a opinion. But if the image isn't consistent then all bets are off. My annt can pick out that comp. Kids these days look at Star Wars and shrug.

Having real world production experience is great. Most never have. If you get the chance you should.

The DP has to make it look real but also has a set look. Maybe it's tragic hour and your losing the light. The make-up artist needs the actress to look there best even thou today, not so much. Working with a DP or Gaffer is great composition and lighting experience. Seeing what happens in the real world is huge. Working as a AC gives really good knowledge of the camera.

Every step of making movies is a trick. From writing the story to final distribution. Know your craft. Love your craft. Geek out. I have seen artists do crazy stuff with both there knowledge of art and there technical knowledge. Push nuke to its limits.

Break it, then come back.

Artistry of vfx →

Scott Squires

To some we’re looked at as technical nerds (with the full stereotypes) to simply fill in the blanks of the scene - place 2 spaceships there, a creature in the foreground and a castle in the background, just like it is in the storyboards or previs. Stat!

And at times we’re our own worst enemies. We frequently do get caught up in all the technical issues and the pixel level details of the shot rather than stepping back and seeing it as the whole.

We’ve also become slaves to reality. We think that our goal is always to make every shot real, regardless if it’s the most cinematic or even proper for the film. Sometimes we look down our noses at vfx that are stylized or gauge success based purely on the technical achievement rather than what it provided the film.

Mike Seymour said it best and I completely agree. It went something like this[this isn't a quote because I can't find the exact quote] Visual effects has the right amount of art and tech.

Animal Logic buys Fuel VFX →

By Ian Failes:

In a sign of good news for the visual effects community, Sydney-based Animal Logic has bought Fuel VFX, which had been in voluntary administration. A new entity will be formed called Animal Logic Fuel and carry out short form VFX and advertising work out of Fuel’s building in Newtown, Sydney. The new company is opening immediately.

This is good news. It shows good work is always needed.

Important

Mr. Johnson.

Paint and Roto will be very important. So will lighting and tracking and compositing. Couldn't believe what was coming out of there mouth.

The very idea that one task is more important than the other is monkey balls. Ask any artist. We are all important. Don't let anyone try to tell you different. Roto is hard work and takes skills. Lighting also takes skills.

Scott Ross Talks Digital Domain, Bankruptcy, and the Value of Visual Effects Artists →

Scott Ross Talks Digital Domain, Bankruptcy, and the Value of Visual Effects Artists

vfxg.org:


As I talked with Scott, he wanted to impress upon me (and everyone reading the coverage of Digital Domain?s bankruptcy) that we?re all becoming too preoccupied with numbers, statistics, and celebrity

I’d link to the stories from the LA Times and bizjournals.com….but.

At least the LA Times got the Tron image right.

Cineon

Mr. Flynn?

Yugandhar (@Yug_and_her):


@scott_squires @VFXSoldier no VFX facility makes money. Maybe, it’s time we realise we’re all on same boat no matter where you operate from.


paddy (@padster):


Cineon has, Nuke lacks: usable graphic clip management, ‘filmroll’ app for managing and viewing material, a ‘make it not suck’ node.

Ok, Cineon had, Nuke lacks: comprehensible proxy working strategy, disk caching of proxies, colour management, playback vrsions, fast median

Cineon had, Nuke lacks: better spline handles, drawable roto splines, a better tracker, hardware realtime transform preview, better grain


I think Yugandhar is right. So far in the last 16 months or so I have watched a small VFX company grow. I do not believe anyone is going to become millionaires. But all of us love what we do. We love making stuff. We are problem solvers and love the challenge.

Paddy has good points. The grain in Nuke isn’t great. The tracker as it is now. Not that great(Nuke 7 might change that). There are other options but you should be able to match your own grain without F-Re-Grain. It’s like cooking rice, if you can’t your not a chef. He is also right the Median is nuke is really slow. Setting down to 2 speeds it up but sometimes that’s not going to work.

Paddys references to Cineon. A compositor i have known for many years had a Octane under his desk for exactly those reasons. He hated the tracker in Shake. I wonder if he can stand it in Nuke.

Power & Performance →

by Hieronymus Foundry:

Watch the first installment of our NUKE 7.0 new feature and uprgade videos. This 2.5min video showcases the improvements in power & performance that NUKE 7.0 brings, including RAM playback cache, bookmarks and 3D updates.

Have a watch.