RadioLabs:
200 miles above Earth's surface, astronaut Dave Wolf -- rocketing through the blackness of Earth's shadow at 5 miles a second -- floated out of the Mir Space Station on his very first spacewalk. In this short, he describes the extremes of light and dark in space, relives a heart-pounding close call, and shares one of the most tranquil moments of his life.
The black in space is a complely different animal to here on earth. Have a listen.
After finishing with Synchroneon pictures I went back to the production world. Back to set lighting. I needed a job. There wasn't work at that time for artist with no experience. I bounced around working as a set lighting tech. I worked I on music videos and feature films and television. Learning all the gotchas of production.
I was contacted by a producer at Pacific Title and Art Studio and the decision was made that I didn't have the experience to do what was asked. Jim had put my name in the pool of artist for hiring. That's a big step. Jim trusted me to do a good job. He new that i would do whatever it takes.
About 3 months later I got a call from the same producer asking if I would be interested in a job.
I remember the day clearly. Location was Long Beach at a harbor hotel. It was 5:30am. I was acting bestboy for the day. I pulled into crew parking set the parking break and made the call. I left the message of my life. Joe and I agreed on terms and I went to work.
The job was a restoration. There was a scratch on 41,000 frames of Battle of the Bulge . I would be working nights.
Nuke 7 modeler is looking good.
It’s that time again…the 2012 National Geographic Photo Contest is in full swing.
Always great photos
Jeff Heusser writing for fxguide.com
BEVERLY HILLS, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that it has reached its initial goal of $100 million toward a $250 million capital campaign to fund the upcoming Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. Concurrently, the Academy unveiled its vision for the first major U.S. museum dedicated exclusively to the history and ongoing development of motion pictures. Designed by award-winning architects Renzo Piano and Zoltan Pali, the non-profit museum which will be located in the historic May Company Wilshire building in Los Angeles, is slated to open in 2016.
Watch the second installment of our NUKE 7.0 new feature and upgrade videos. In this 2min video we showcase the workflow improvements made possible thanks to Alembic, OpenEXR Deep data and ARRIRAW support, as well as FBX improvements.
Watching today’s DNeg’s layoffs it reminded me if what a different world it is to even 8 years ago. If was a sad day when the producer pulled you into his office to discuss the future. When you find out that you aren’t part of it. Good times are shared in the rooms of visual effects.
My first Shake job was turning night into day. It was a low budget feature that someone agreed to do the post and visual effects for. There was no budget. The job post was on the shake list and I responded. I interviewed with David Troy. He agreed to pay me a weekly rate for rotoscoping. I was not called a roto artist but that’s what I was. The scene need to take place in the day but the shots where shot as the sun was going down. If you have ever worked in production you know how many times this happens. Its not called tragic hour for nothing. The idea was I would roto talent and we would then place a daytime background in place of the fading to night one that was shot. Lets just say I got very good at roto really fast. How the body moves. Lower arm, upper arm. Even single bones of fingers if need be. There was also simi- transparent clothing. Which was very dark. If I had the experience to know that was going to be such a problem I would have run. As I remember it I had 3 weeks.
After I had completed the roto for all the shots the supervisor sent me plates that were to be place outside to make it seem like daytime. All of a sudden I was a compositor. This was exciting. This was what I had in mind. All the that hard work payed off. This was fun. I can do this.
The other artist was Jim. He was a compositor newly back from a trip around the world. Finding his way back on to the grid. Jim was a seasoned compositor by this time. Working on Paintbox and the inferno at places like Charlex in New York and Editel in Los Angeles. He was tasked with the other 20 or so shots in the this movie. He used all he basic tools. Clean plates, 2d tracking and most of all his brain.
After that job ended. Jim found himself at Pacific Title and Art Studio.
The internet vfx community exploded with rumors today over massive layoffs at Double Negative. This is perhaps a sign of the times, but unfortunate as it is not true – at least not to the extent that has been mentioned in forums such as Twitter. Talk of 200 + layoffs is just not based in fact. At fxguide, we too know of people who have been made redundant – but this is true of many companies from time to time, but for some reason this move at Dneg has been amplified in the ‘internet echo chamber’.
Mike, thanks for clearing things up.
"We are not for sale," Berger said over email. "However, we continue to raise money for our film fund, East Grand Films, and we are also speaking with potential joint venture partners regarding the company's continued international expansion."
Remember when R&H was a just a family owned company?
I was asked this weekend what is the most expensive part of visual effects.
I responded:
All of it.
Paint and roto are just as important as modeling and lighting.
There is a notion in visual effects, that you can throw a bunch of cheap labor at a problem. This isn’t true.
That model that you spent countless hours on will look like crap behind bad roto. If the compositor has no clue then the game is up.
The idea that roto/paint is a entry level job and there for is easy just doesn’t hold up. I’m a bad painter. I can get it done, but by no means do I consider myself a rockstar painter. If you need painters hire them but dont hire artist that might also know how to paint. If you need great modelers grab them up.
To many times I have seen companies hire because of price and then have to scramble and pay the price hiring people who have the skills needed.
Always give the shot to the artist who is best suited for the task. Know your artists. I have heard coordinators and supervisors joke about trading artist for other artist.
I don’t think that’s a crazy idea.