Nowadays aspiring your visual effects artists have a lot a resources that weren’t available in the old days (like 1990-2000) Fancy modeling,animation and rendering tools had yet to hit the market in large affordable numbers not to mention the lack of decent CG training on-line or otherwise. One side effect of all this is that the bar is set so high that something that was once a staple of the industry is near extinction.
I’m talking about truly awful imagery created on a computer.
There was once a digital shrine created to hold those works that had transcended from just bad to sublime. It was called The Gallerie Abominate an offshoot ofRichard Morris’ Maya resource site.
It was a place you could always count on for a laugh and to gain small comfort in the fact that there was always something out there worse than what you you were doing. The archive hasn’t been updated since 2001 but it’s still worth more than a few chuckles.
Any self respecting Bay Area nerd knew Bob Wilkins from his days as the host of “Creature Features” and “Captain Cosmic” (my secret crypto-code fan club card is number 08236 in case you are interested) on Channel 2 (KTVU) during that bygone age of the mid to late 70’s. Bob passed away on January 7, 2009 due to complications from Alzheimers. Both of his shows had a profound effect on my life and Bob’s enthusiasm for all things Horror and Sci-Fi has fueled my passion for VFX for as long as I can remember. This is the man (along with his faithful side-kick 2T2) that single handedly introduced me to Ultraman, Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robots, Starblazers and who could forget Bambi vs Godzilla. I don’t know if he set out to do anything more than capitalize on the Star Wars craze that was sweeping the nation at the time, but whatever the reason Wilkins ended up bringing a lot of joy to the kids of the Bay Area. So long Bob, thanks, and remember “Truth Prevails”.
VFXHack fan and all around great guy Agrapha, has compiled a plethora of VFX links(266 to be exact) on YouTube. There is some fantastic stuff here, how-tos and interviews from projects old and new covering a variety of subject ranging from stop motion and animatronics to compositing and miniatures. You kill a few hours on the Dark Crystal stuff alone! Another highlight is Walt himself walking us through the construction of Pirates Of The Caribbean. Check this video out and please post any ideas you may having explaining the babe with the riding crop.
Two vids detailing the the super sweet Zgrass realtime raster graphics system. Be sure to check out the Tom Defanti’s geek regalia in the first clip. It takes a lot of guts to pull off a tie that wide with a denim jacket.
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.
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
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
I recently got a chance to get a tour of the ILM facility at the Presidio in San Francisco. The place is just dripping with VFX history. Sure you’ve got the obvious awesomeness like Han Solo in Carbonite but there are lots of hidden gems too like the original door to Kerner Optical and the Optical Printer used on the original Star Wars film. One thing that caught my eye was a poster from the 7th Voyage of Sinbad that was signed multiple times by Ray Harryhausen himself. I asked my tour guide what the deal was with the poster and he was clueless. It just so happens the San Francisco Chronicle did a little piece about the poster last week. Here’s a snippet
But there’s one piece of art on the wall that few in the building take for granted: A giant print of the Cyclops from “The 7th Voyage of Sinbad,” with a signature scrawled on it once for every visit by the monster’s creator. It was displayed prominently in the lobby of the old ILM offices in San Rafael, and now gets a place of honor near the cast photos from each of the company’s productions.
“Every time I walk by that and see those signatures, I think, ‘This has got to be the coolest place in the world,’ ” says Tim Harrington, an animator in his mid-30s who is working on the new Indiana Jones movie. “Ray Harryhausen has been here five times.”
This commercial for VW is a stop-motion masterpiece. The detail in the character is amazing, check out the flailing arms on the Fay Ray when it’s in Kong’s hand.
LINK to Nova interview with David Allen about the inner workings of the Big Ape
What is VFXHack?
Here’s the deal…
All the other visual effect sites and visual effects blogs lack that certain something. Visually they are jumbled, they tend to shill shamelessly for the big studios and the galleries are filled with same old ogres and big tittied chicks with metal bikinis that we’ve all seen 1,000 times. And honestly, after over a decade kicking around this crazy industry I’m sick of it. What I want to do in an in the trenches, real-life, counter-culture VFX blog. Stuff that’s cool that you might not know about cuz it’s not from the majors. Along with “real” tips from the folks on the ground like you and me.
Nowadays aspiring your visual effects artists have a lot a resources that weren’t available in the old days (like 1990-2000) Fancy modeling,animation and rendering tools had yet to hit the market in large affordable numbers not to mention the lack of decent CG training on-line or otherwise. One side effect of all this is that the bar is set so high that something that was once a staple of the industry is near extinction.
