VFXhack

The Animation Guild Local 839 has published a survey of salaries in the animation industry and I’ve broken out some of the data that pertains to VFX folks. The numbers in the survey are median weekly rates based on union jobs but the numbers are still interesting.

In other words modelers are at the low end of the scale bringing in about $82k per year and supes are hovering close to $130k per year down about 20% from ‘07. The string of blockbuster VFX flicks seems to be keeping demand for artists high enough to meet supply. Just remember this is a boom and bust biz folks so fill up those 401ks while ya can.

LINK to the full survey

Rubber suited, trashcan lookin’ CG robot action!

(via Twitch)

Star Wars kid eat your heart out. Videogum has put up a list of the top 10 lightsaber mashups on the YouTubes. My fav is above (comin’ in at #2) but there are some other gems on the list as well.

LINK to the full Top 10 (via Boing Boing)

I’ve been working opn a show that requires tons of futuristic housing so I’ve scouring the inter-webs for reference over the last few weeks. I came across this photo gallery of the San-Zhr Pod Village, a futuristic collection of abandoned building in Taiwan. The coolest thing is that they are also supposedly haunted.

LINKto the gallery at File Magazine (via io9)

These nuggets of godly wisdom from the book of Exodus have inspired many imitations from The Ten Commandments of the Mafia to The Ten Commandments of Couch Crashing here’s my entry into the fray

The Ten Commandments of Visual Effects

1. Thou shalt not covet thy cubicle buddy’s action figures.

2. Thou shalt not put thy greasy goddam fingers all over my monitor.

3. Thou shalt always use headphones.

4. Thou shalt not ship until first thou hast blurred and glowed.

5. Thou shalt not get overly excited about the latest Hollywood blockbuster based on a comic book or 80’s toy.

6. Thou shalt always pad thy hours.

7. Thou shalt not torture thy interns (they could be your boss some day).

8. Thou shalt not become too bitter too quickly.

9. Thou shalt not wear free t-shirts from Siggraph on the Sabbath.

10. If thou cannot do… thou shalt blog.

There is a thread of VFX themed “Yo Mamma” jokes rolling on VFXTALK right now. Here are some choice tid-bits.

Yo momma so fat, they had to roll her out onto a football field and film her from a blimp, just to get a good key!

Yo Mamma so fat, we had to throw away our 32 bit systems because of insufficient lightwrap!

Yo momma so fat, She crushed all my blacks

And my personal fav

Man, Yo Mamma so fat, we was talkin about node noodles and she grabbed a bowl.

UPDATE

I’ve thrown my own creation into the fray

Yo Mamma so fat she broke my clipping plane!

LINK to the full thread

I find it interesting that the VFX for this spot look as if they were done on a VIC-20. Check out the big man in all his tan on tan glory. This was a smokin’ hot machine for it’s day (a whole 5kb of RAM) and for just $299.95. Gotta love that they use GORF as one of the demos. Here’s the print add from the same campaign.

via io9

Just started this comic over at Strip Generator. Loads of fun, more to come.

LINK to the full Wireframez strip blog

Caught this link through Motiongrapher of a video from design house Action Figure of random folks getting there clocks cleaned through the lens of the high-speed digital Phantom camera. Enjoy!

LINK to the Action Figure write up on the project

News flash from the no duh department. Sleep deprivation effects your ability to make sense of what you see. And that’s not just anecdotal ladies and germs, it’s from a study published in the Journal Of Neuroscience. Study author Dr. Michael Chee says,

Interestingly, the team found that a sleep-deprived brain can normally process simple visuals, like flashing checkerboards. But the ‘higher visual areas’ — those that are responsible for making sense of what we see — didn’t function well

That means, the person at your facility that is always saying “Dude I was here sooo late last night. But hey, you gotta do what it takes.” is actually doing a way worse job than the bright eyed and bushy tailed VFX artist who got a good nights sleep. Go figure.

via PixelVomit