Hey looks like updating the Wordpress install wiped out the all the users in my database. Yipee! So now when you comment you’ll get the added fun of having to re-register your user name. Think of it as a chance to re-evaluate part of your online identity.
Thanks for your patatience.
Reader Eeetu sent over a link to a fairly long running forum on on VFX talk containing many posts of jawdropping examples of node tree hell. Of course Nyarlathotep points out that these ain’t squat compared to the exposure sheets that were needed to do this stuff in-camera in the olden days.
LINK to the thread on VFX talk
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Nyarlathotep passed along this awesome pic that at first glance looks like some sort of Sci-Fi S&M setup but is really an early motion capture rig. There is more info on Dave Sieg’s Scanimation website about this image
I recall seeing a demonstration videotape in which a girl wore a harness equipped with motion sensors connected to a Scanimate. Each sensor was a goniometer, a type of rotary transformer which converts angular displacement into a corresponding phase shift between windings. The wearer of this harness could cause a stick-figure, generated by Scanimate, to mimic his movements in real time. Remember, this was done back in the early seventies, well before any of the recent magnetic or optical motion capture work.
I’ve searched the whole internet (well not really) trying to find the full demo video of this system but to no avail. Any hints from fellow VFXhackers out there could help us all scratch our vintage MoCap itch.
LINK to a cool movie of the Scanimation system in action for Dave’s site
We’ve all heard the overquoted story from about how it took Thomas Edison 10 million tries to get the lightbulb right or how Dyson went through thousands of prototypes before he settled on the perfect design for a vaccum. But, behind these cliches lies more than a nugget of truth, especially in regards to he world of Visual Effects. I have found that no two shows (or two shots for that matter) are exactly the same. And with the pace of innovation racing ahead so rapidly, what’s state of the art in VFX today won’t hold up tomorrow. Is there anything us work-a-day guys and gals of the VFX community can do to keep pace? Well, I’m happy to tell you that the answer is yes. One of the keys to creating a great visual effects sequence is to fail early and fail often. This is a hard pill to swallow for some of you out there. Getting a ahead in this business means always being the guy or gal with the answers. When a Director asks, “How the heck are we gonna do this?” nobody wants to answer “I don’t know. Lemme think about it”. Humility in the VFX world is in short supply and huge egos tend to be greatly rewarded. The fact is, failure is a big part of the VFX (or any artistic) process. And how you handle failure in a work environment is a far better test of your character than success.
Fear of failure can lead to being overly cautious in shot design or worse indecision and inaction. If you fear failure, you will never learn anything. Sometimes starting a project can feel like standing on the edge of a giant, bottomless pit of sadness and despair. Although your doubts may not be unfounded, at a certain point ya’ gotta just say to your self “Screw it” and jump in head first. Nobody ever got the glory by sitting on the sidelines saying “See I told you it would be too hard”. So climb aboard that failboat and sail on with a smile on your face.
One of the things that defines a successful person is the ability to see things for what they are, not what you want them to be. The only way to make your failures work for you is being honest with yourself about what didn’t turn out right in your shot and how it went off course. Cast a critical eye to the work you’ve done. If you were the client, what would you have said about the work you put forward? Don’t get stuck making excuses or qualifying your work. Specifically, identify how you screwed up and what you are going to do differently the next time around.
To really learn from failure you must do it again and again. Just think of it this way, if every time you fail is opportunity to never step in the same pile of VFX doodoo again. Some of you may be afraid to walk around the office with canine poopy on your shoes. Admitting that you screwed up might feel a bit strange in this alpha dog eat alpha dog world. But look at it this way, artists that set themselves up as perfect run the risk of not knowing when something really bad is staring them right in the face (Jar-Jar Binks anyone?).
It’s probably not a good idea to continuously fail at important stuff like making a delivery or remembering not to fish a burning bagel out the toaster with a metal fork while it’s still on. Try to create a safe failspace for yourself on each project. Animatics or concept sketches have great failure potential. What you need is sandbox where you can try out creative options without sinking the entire project. Starting out a job with many failures can result in the cream rising to the top early. Just make sure that you’re a quick study and turn your mound of crap into a diamond in short order. Otherwise, you won’t be the guy who learned from his failures and became great, you’ll just be a plain old failure.
LINK to some inspiring Fails over at Failblog
This Bollywood style dream sequence takes you inside the mind of a CG animator faced with the prospect of life after outsourcing. It’s pretty funny but falls a bit into the category of gallows humor considering all the people in this video could be replaced someday soon by their Indian counter-parts. Ah well, if you can’t laugh at yourself who can you laugh at?
(via Cartoon Brew)
This clip is 10 minutes of pure VFX gold. It’s a behind the scenes explaining the process behind the Death Star mission briefing in A New Hope. There are some great details here and the process really is a combination of practical and computer techniques. I love that the animation wasn’t keyframed but “performed” real-time by manipulating a bunch of dials and knobs. The creator of this animation was Larry Cuba, a CG pioneer who programmed the film Arabesque with with John Whitney.
LINK to an excerpt of Cuba’s 1985 masterpiece Calculated Movements
Special thanks to Agrapha for the Star Wars link
