The Best so Far →

Mike Seymour:

In the one VFX category which will run to tens of millions of dollars on a Hollywood film there are actually multiple departments being serviced, of course one of them is effects, but the move to increased budget size has not lead to greater control and influence by the visual effects team. It has lead to less understanding of the financial breakdowns of modern feature film production. In an absence of knowledge, facing an opaque VFX bid, the producer can only seek to lower the overall bid. If VFX represents a vast percentage of the budget and companies will aggressively bid, the role of the producer is to seek to lower one of their largest single line items.

This was a background episode on fxphd this term. I am really glad Mr. Seymour wrote about this for all to read. Thanks Mike for doing that.

Mailboxes

Today I watched Myong Choi place a cg mailbox in a shot. From download to comped in Nuke was under 20 minutes. Granted he didn't model it ,he didn't make the textures. Something about that seems neat. The speed of the thought going from idea to solution so fast. Did it work? Are we able to deliver the shot with the addition of a mailbox? No, we can't but the speed in which it happened was really neat.

Reel →

Oddernod:

01: Your demo reel is YOUR story. That means it’s not Greyscale Gorilla’s or Video Copilot’s. Show me who you are, not what tutorials you watch. If I see a tutorial, I turn it off.

Agreed. The one thing the bugs me about FXPHD is that people can use shots in the classes for their reels. I pretty sure this wont get you hired. Have a read if you are updating or thinking of updating your reel. I'm going to go back and edit mine.

Oddernod:

06: Your demo reel is a scientific hypothesis that will be proven during your first booking. Do not include what you cannot do, what you haven’t done, or what you don’t want to do. Always attribute others work, and delineate what you executed in a team project.

Good advise.

Nuke 9 is Live →

The Foundry:

Our industry leading NUKE range offers cutting-edge toolkits covering VFX, editorial and finishing across solutions that deliver unparalleled speed, functionality and collaboration possibilities.

Whether you're a single shot compositor or working across projects end to end, you can find all the tools you need to get the job done fast, without quality compromise, in NUKE STUDIO, NUKEX or NUKE.

Nuke 9 is a great release. Most of the new stuff don't just demo well.

What’s The Foundry buying? →

Mike Seymour:

The Foundry today announced that they were bringing Mischief paint into its product line, but what are they buying exactly?

There are really three things The Foundry achieve or get with Mischief:

Access to the tech and patents of ADF that the drawing and painting program Mischief is based on Access to world class research headed by Dr Sarah Frisken (co-inventor of ADF) A way to extend the technology, already inside The Foundry, out to a wider much broader design audience

Visual Effects are Not the Answer →

Stu Maschwitz:

But while visual effects can lend support to a movie, they are incapable of holding up its full weight on their own. I bet you can think of a few recent films that effectively demonstrate this.

Agreed.

We are here to help tell a story.

Nuke 9 Live →

Nuke 9 seems like a really good release. Let hope the speed is also in common functions like BluR and Rotopaint. Not just deep.

Nuke 9 Beta →

By Ian Failes:

The Foundry has made the latest beta of its flagship compositing software NUKE (version 9) available to current NUKE and NUKEX customers holding valid maintenance. NUKEX customers will also have access to the NUKEX and NUKE STUDIO beta releases.

More from the SIGGRAPH announcements

Digital Domain Remains on the Sick List →

I know a couple of artist that are doing good work at DD[Los Angeles]. Not on feature films but still doing very high end work. DD seems to be doing better than say R&H. It's a slow process.

Roof Tops →

On the Roof Tops:

During the last one and a half years, we have visited Hong Kong several times. We have been to so many places and now I have to admit that Hong Kong is a place where I would like to live. A year and a half ago, after visiting Singapore, I assumed that it was the real paradise, but I was mistaking.