VFXhack

Boing Boing posted a reference to this clip recently, It’s worth a look. It uses the Time Displace filter in After Effects to take slices of the image from different frames in the image sequence. The effect (on a static background) is quite striking. It works best when the movement is slower. To much difference between the images in each frame and you get that “steppy” look that can be seen in parts of the clip.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=I2MsDogV4g4[/youtube]

On my search for some higher resolution versions of cool VFX stuff on the InterWebs, I came across this pretty detailed behind the scenes for the spec spot Racing Beats that made the rounds awhile back.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-EpQp2bBNc[/youtube]

There are a few “gamish” looking spots in the piece but I love the fact that all the plates have so much greenscreen and all turned out pretty well. If you want to see the whole thing in a much better H.264 format I’ve posted it for your downloading pleasure, it’s big but worth the time.

LINK to quicktime of Racing Beats

Marc Bourbonnais quit his gig of 10 years at Hybride (a vfx company in Canadia) and decided to make a go at a start-up. I can relate, I left a good job and a position as a supervisor to start a new place. Going on COBRA with a wife that’s 8 months pregers is risky business as I can tell you. The one thing that I did not do in may particular situation was Blog my guts and expose everything I did to set-up my company like Mr. Bourbonnais.

Seriously, good luck to you Marc we’ll be watching. I think your own words say it best…

“Here’s to hoping this will turn out to be a success story and not a tragic comedy…”

LINK to People, Pixels and Production

This things been linked to high heaven by now. Looks to be a commercial for Hydro Train. Personally, got it sent to me by no less than 5 different sources. That being said, if you haven’t seen it take a gander.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=hlczxXqez-Y[/youtube]

Pretty seemless if you ask me. Anyone know of a high rez version so we can really take a look at it?

First saw this as Craigslist post but apparently it kept getting taken down. Now it’s up as a thread on VFxTalk. It’s titled Dear Mr. VFX Supe and makes a few good points about the things that Supes do that drive Comp’rs nuts. There are more than a few laughs here. The open letter includes five things for the VFX Nacho-Grandes to remember like “SHINY THINGS ARE USUALLY REFLECTIVE!” My first instinct is to defend by supervising brethren, but I’ve seen more than my fair share or “knuckle-head” decisions in the past. My favorite being a “greenscreen” shot that was actually photographed against a scrap piece of of blue and green screen put together with gaffer’s tape! I gotta admit it takes a big pair of brass ones to pass something like that along to your crew with a straight face.

LINK to the full rant by greenspillkilla

When things get rough around a facility and the normal flow of (mis)communication comes the screeching halt, it’s time to whip out the old Custom Client Configurator v880. This product is great because it uses all of the client based technologies we have at our disposal today. It’s a major upgrade from v799.09. The bugs in the Verimilitude slider have been worked out and Magic! now calculated in floating point. Check out the screenie below..

I love this thing cuz as one of the original authors of BiGiBiSi technology, I get a royalty every time this check box is selected.

Credit for this image is being withheld for more than obvious reasons.

Studio Daily has an interview with Chris Duddy, cinematographer on the new remake of the 1919 silent classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. This version (in English) was shot entirely on green-screen, using scans of the original sets for the backgrounds. Shot in 9 days on $150k budget the film comes across a bit like Sin City on a shoestring. Can’t fault a guy for trying, but you just can’t touch the original.

Link to full article at Studio Daily

Link to clip with audio commentary

Thanks to JM for the tip

Featuring a really cheezy robot suit

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C93MfjMu7PI&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Egoogle%2Ecom%2Freader%2Fview%2F[/youtube]

Love the eye-blasts in the opening sequence.

Digital Kitchen has put together a tight little parody of the “boutique” VFX facility called Designer Slash Model. There is some funny stuff here.

It’s a bit long so stick with it. I love the guy who sez “Green Screen is one of our many proprietary techniques”.

Link to designerslashmodel.com

Thanks to SK

Here’s an oldy, looks like it was posted in 2002! Some adventurous soul with a little too much time on there hands reverse engineered the Slit Scans from Kubruick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. The result is an approximation of the original flat artwork used in the scanning process. Nice!

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