VFXhack

One of the coolest things about being a VFX Supe is getting to do all kinds of fun stuff that people with real jobs never get a chance to do. This always comes to mind when I’m breaking something or blowing something up or ordering someone to jump off the side of a twenty foot scaffold. It’s at those times when you think to yourself “Wow, this is so cool. I can’t believe I’m actually getting paid to do this!” Well, on the set of one of my shows I got chance to jump into a flight suit and and see life on the other side of the greenscreen. What happened was this, during a shoot we found out that we were missing some in-cockpit footage of jet pilot.  There were no extras or stand-ins available so I bellied up to bar and risked almost certain ridicule from my peers for the sake of my craft. Sure I don’t look like much of a fighter pilot in these pictures, but just imagine me with my mask on, a CG airplane around me and whole lotta camera shake. Badass.

LINK to a few more photos of me on set

Wired magazine describes FoC as a mashup of TenaciousD and Rushmore. And even though their ground breaking HBO series has ended , you can still enjoy the musical stylings of this New Zelander folk duo on your favorite mp3 playback device. The EP is extremely funny and performances from Brett and Jemaine are top notch. Highlights include Business Time which the iTunes review describes as Barry White trying to sex up a mundane suburban relationship. That is if Barry White was White. My favorite though has to be Robots (live). This Kilroy Was Here style rock opera spins an epic yarn of a human civilization conquered by robotic beings. Funny thing is, this one track is more interesting than both matrix sequels combined. I know it’s a bold statement, but I honestly believe that FoC is the Spinal Tap of a new generation. Look for a full album to be released in 2008.

LINK to FoC on iTunes

Extremely well done (and disturbing) animation created by a series of drawings on a wall by Blu.

LINK to the Blu Blog

thanks to Azathothx

I’ve seen a bunch of posts over the years regarding the question “How do I, the clueless aspiring VFX artist, break into the biz?” The answer is simple, have a kickass demo reel. As a guy who has been in charge of hiring artists for the better part of a decade, I can tell that the education section of your resume doesn’t mean squat. It’s all about getting across the idea that if you were to be hired by your VFX facility of choice, you’d be able to sit down on your first day and actually produce something. Many people out there in the cyber-space will give a sugar-coated, touchy-feely “it’s all about expressing yourself” approach to what supes are looking for in a demo. I’m here to give a few tid-bits the other guys won’t cough-up so give a listen.

No one cares about your short film.

Putting your eggs in one basket is never a good idea. If you think you have the only all CG, black and white, 20 minute opus staring a sad faced alienated would-be serial killer who lives in a basement lit by one bare light bulb that swings to and fro casting creepy shadows around the room, you are sorely mistaken. If you want a job in visual effects, you need to have VFX on your reel (no duh!). Who cares about your personal struggles or deep thoughts about the nature of reality itself? Better to spend the time and effort on less shots of a higher quality.

Bonus tip: People have long memories for bad animation.  I’ll never forget the worst short film I’ve ever seen on a demo reel. The title says it all, “Unicorn Baseball”.

Pick music that won’t drive people insane.

I just finished writing a letter to my congressman urging him put a permanent ban in place on using techno music on demo reels. Please, people! Think of the children. I can’t think of anything that makes my finger wander to the eject button faster than a monotonous beat punctuated by a high pitched squeal. You don’t want the person who is watching your reel fumbling for “mute” instead of checking out your CG jams. Stay away from lyrics too, power ballads from the 80’s just cause people to laugh at you.

Bonus tip: Don’t stress too much over music choice, most of reels are watched with the sound off anyways.

Only use your very best work.

It’s better to have 1 minute of kick-ass than 3 minutes of just plain ass. Think of your demo as a mix tape you’re trying to impress a girl (or guy) with. You don’t want to kill the mood with the VFX equivalent of Night Ranger. Start off strong, keep ‘em interested for bit and end on high note. The beginning is key because most demo reel ejections take place within the first 10 seconds of viewing (time is money ya know) and the end of the reel leaves the most lasting impression on a potential future employer.

Bonus tip: Skip the slide-show of selections from your gestural figuring drawing class at the local community college. Cuz, if you don’t skip it someone else will.

Remember the small guy.

Most VFX newbies dream of getting picked-up by one of the big studios for a huge feature project. What happens more often than not is that you’ll be brought into a big shop along with a couple hundred other fresh faces and unceremoniously released after a year or two of working in the latest schlockbuster. Then, you’re right back where you started. Waiting for the studio to give you the two shots from Garfield 4 you worked on with 12 other dudes and pimping an outdated student reel. If you work for a smaller shop you can often turn around some quick, good looking shots from a commercial or TV show that can give your reel some added gravitas.

Bonus tip: Not all small shops are created equal. Choose your boutique shop carefully, or you could end up working on Shark Atack 4: Return of the Megalodon.

If you want a job in Visual Effects show some Visual Effects.

This little nugget of wisdom comes from one of the supes from my intern days. So many reels sent to VFX houses don’t contain any visual effects. Can you create realistic fire, rain or smoke? Can you track a plate, place an object in it and render it so it looks real? Turntables and animation test are great, but they don’t really create a feeling of confidence that you can create a nice looking effects shot. A wider skill set is also a big plus. Specialists who can only do one specific task get called in for shorter bookings. An artists that can take a VFX shot from soup to nuts has a better chance of sticking around for while.

Bonus tip: Only apply for a job in VFX if you really want to work in VFX. If you don’t love what you do, you’ll get real bitter, real fast.

 UPDATE: Disney has already had this clip removed from YouTube! Guess you gotta be quick these days.

This incredible piece of retro-future starring William Katt from tee-vee’s Greatest American Hero was originally broadcast to showcase the state of the art in 2D and 3D animation. The series has been posted in seven parts on YouTube and has some great clips of the early pioneers including a young John Lasseter. The bad VHS transfer of the clips makes the whole thing that much more adorable.

LINK to Beyond Tron Part 1

The interactive website for Halo 3 lets the viewer navigate through a massive battlefield filled with tanks, explosions, aliens and all kinds of other good stuff. You’d think that a colossal marketing effort of this magnitude would be your basic CG wank, but not this time. The whole website was created using a series of Motion Control moves on an incredibly elaborate model. Everything you see on the site was crafted by hand. The main model was constructed by New Deal Studios with characters crafted by Stan Winston. The detail simply needs to be seen to be believed. Each explosion was made from a translucent plastic and lit from behind, the smoke trails from the RPGs and tank shells are cotton. They even made muzzle flashes for the guns. The expressions on the characters have enough emotional impact to stand up to the tightest close-ups.

The site allows you to take a self guided tour over the model. As you travel there are a few stop points along the way were you can see a 360° panorama of the carnage. The camera moves were achieved by the use of two separate Motion Control rigs fitted with Probe lenses placed on both ends of the model. The moves were shot in segments that could later be cut together into one continuous take. The end result is simply spectacular. Best of all, you can take snapshots at any point in your travels that you can download later.

Special thanks to Nyarlathotep for the low down on this one LINK to the Halo 3 Believe Site

LINK to stills of the diorama

Well the Red One camera shipped last Friday and all the VFX guys I know are going nuts. Love it or hate it, it’s real and it’s here. This jesus-camera seems to have a crazy devoted following. A lot of people love the 4k for 20k idea (the Red shots a 4k RAW image and costs 20k US$) and the fact that this camera has enough tech-bling to make any visual effects nerd pop some major wood. Here are some of the discussions going on around the industry right now.

Does it really cost $ 20k?

The answer to this is a definitive “NO!”. The body itself is useless out of the box. No lenses, rails, grips, viewfinder or even a power supply. I went to the web store and filled a cart with just the basics (2 lenses, basic body kit, viewfinder, memory, power supply, an LCD and some cables) and the bill shot up to over $ 32,000. Pricey to be sure but still a fraction the cost of a new Viper.

Is the image quality really all that great?

Oh yeah. Peter Jackson’s clip was cool, but the full rez frames on fxguide really show the detail you can get from this puppy. I’m practicly foaming at the mouth waiting for a decent VFX DP to shoot some bitchin’ zero-G explosions. I’m curious how the exposure will hold up when you blast fire at this thing.

Does it really work?

Well, sorta-kinda-maybe-not-quite-yet. There is currently no support for, sound, high-speed, time-lapse and the live output is is limited. Also getting images off the camera and into the computer is a bit dicey. Right now you have to shoot onto compact flash, export to firewire and then covert to frames using a piece of Red software. Red has assured it’s customers that all this will be fixed by a series of continuing updates beamed into the camera through the interwebs.

Let the record show that I did not buy a Red One, nor do I plan to in the near future. There seem to be too may questions at this point for me as far as visual effects goes. I don’t see how this camera can shoot motion control for one. And from what I’m hearing, if you want to use the Nikon mount you also have to use an external follow focus motor. This camera is a major departure from the conventional wisdom of film cameras for VFX. Will the old way of doing things be swept away by the ever advancing tides of change? Or, is the Red One just a huge steaming bottle of snake oil? Only time will tell.

Some other Red Links

fxguide shoots with the RED

Red One FAQ

fxguide covers Red launch (with unboxing photos)

“Moco” Head for the RED

Another reason why every Visual Effects nerd should carry a pair of anaglyphic (red and blue) 3D glasses with them at all times. Santiago Caicedo, has created this pretty nifty short. A mixture of live action footage and CG elements. It gets a bit repetative but the 3D effect works quite well.

LINK to the full movie

LINK to Santiago’s main page (not really in English)

For much of my career, I’ve left work with a feeling that can best be described as being chased by a horde of flesh-eating undead through a swamp knee-deep in molasses mixed with 40 weight motor oil while battling a raging case of E. coli. You know that feeling that no matter what you do you can’t catch up? Well, about a year ago I got sick and tired of feeling that I was going to puke in my own mouth every second of every day and since then I’ve been putting David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” techniques to work in the production of visual effects for film and television. The results really changed the way I feel about my job and to that end, I’d like to share some of my experiences with you VFXHacksters.

Now don’t get me wrong here, my GTD skilz are about as flawed as they come. Hey, I’m an artist. If I was well-organized, then I’d be something else. Maybe something to do with crafts or scrapbooking. Anyway, I practice my own brew of slacker GTD. Just enough to keep me sane but not so much that I spend more time organizing my file cabinet than working on effects shots. One of the tenets of GTD is breaking down every project into a series of tasks or “next actions”. The idea is that you separate project planning from all of the individual actions that need to be done in order to complete that project. In VFX-speak, that means making your shot design decisions first then breaking those down into shot methodologies, CG workflows, compositing scripts, etc. Seems obvious, right?

WRONG!

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen an effects shot go down in flames because the artists didn’t know what to do, or what the supe was looking for, or what the client wanted and so on and so on. The reason that I think GTD works so well for VFX is that all the creative decisions (theoretically) are made up front and all the elements that go into making the shots are just a matter of cranking through “widgets”. The key is to lock down creative early and then just jam on the block and tackle tasks till the shot’s done. But as we say in the biz, “The devil is in the details”. It’s all great to say that you’re gonna make a plan and stick to it to the bitter end, but what happens when the client changes their mind? What if you go to set and the A.D. sez “Sorry, no dust elements for you today. Anyway, can’t you make those in CG ?” Well, that will happen and your plan for any given shot from your first student film to the biggest summer blockbuster will always be a living, breathing ever-changing beast until delivery day. That said, I’m going to show you how I use some basic GTD (ish) techniques with the hopes of shining some light into the sometimes dark and scary world of VFX production.

Part 1 - Collecting

This is the science of gathering all of your thoughts and ideas about a project before sitting down and deciding exactly what you are going to do. Collecting is extremely vital in VFX because in my experience most problems occur from miscommunication (or lack thereof) early in the process. So here are some down and dirty pointers re Collecting for visual effects.

Always talk to your clients

Clients are people too and since they are the ones who have final say, you need to listen to them. Make sure you get as many details as you can as far as tone and complexity. Also, listen closely and don’t let your VFX nerdyness cloud the conversation. That big wire-fu sequence you’ve always wanted to do may not be right for the Murder She Wrote Re-union Special. Tip: Don’t use too much jargon with clients, it just confuses and frightens them.

Reference, reference, and more reference

As far as I know, no one in the history of VFX has bounced a shot because it looked “too real”. I’m always on the lookout for new reference sources. Bookmarking sites like del.icio.us are great for this as you can build and tag your library as you go. Tip: Watch out for NSFW google image searches like “furry” and “job”

Always talk to your artists

Nobody likes a dictator no matter how benevolent (are you listening, Steve Jobs?). Before you start planning a project, know the strengths of your crew. Ask them what techniques they’ve been wanting to try out. A good artist is always searching for “the new hotness” so take advantage of their enthusiasm before they grow bitter. Tip: If your crew already is bitter, ignore the sarcasm and just keep talking.

Review your budget

You can’t make Lawrence of Arabia on an Ed Wood budget. And the last thing you want to do is promise something that you can’t deliver. So take a cold hard look at how much you have to spend before you jump in.  Sometimes the best inspiration comes out of limited means. Tip: Learn Excel. Contrary to common wisdom, it does not cause your fingers to spontaneously combust when they touch the keyboard.

Keep it real

If you want it to look real, shoot the real thing. No, really. Even if it’s fully guerilla DVcam style, the right element can save your butt in a pinch. To that end, stay on top of the latest and greatest in the world of practical special effects. When it comes to things like explosions… Ain’t nothin’ like the real thing baby! Tip: Make friends with grips and gaffers, because you never know when you’ll need to pull in a favor.

That’s it for today’s lesson, kids. Next up… Now that we’ve collected, it’s time to break it down.

LINK to my favorite GTD site - Mr. Mann’s 43 Folders

LINK to my previous post - GTD Moleskins for VFX