The title is not spelled wrong. Guerrillas are crafty, live by the seat of their pants fighters on the front lines. Gorillas are rough, hit-it-with-your-fists solvers of problems. Both of these are distinct VFX mind-sets we embrace. This series explores solutions to problems that are a little unorthodox, but effective. …
Information and title updated 03/20/2014 A patch from the old Boss Film Days. The 65MM in the title says it all. I was there at the end. Richard Edlund’s BOSS film studios (named after his favorite shotgun, but originally BOSS FILM CORPORATION **) was a powerhouse of creativity. It …
Kerry O’Quinn’s Penultimate Magazine Online Library. In several boxes in my garage sit almost every copy of Starlog Magazine up to issue 100. They are in various conditions, some tattered, some torn, all well read. They are an archive library. For those who did not live in Los Angeles, and …
Hollywood’s Juvenile Response to Brilliance. For 2014 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences promises in a Variety article to “get the visual effects presentation right this year.” They are in reference to last year’s global debacle of a presentation after The Life of Pi was played offstage as …
Youtube Analysis Of VFX Documentary Viewers. In 2008 I added a Youtube Channel, dedicated to collecting, and favoriting links to documentaries and inspiring visual effects. I uploaded several of the documentaries that I enjoyed as I was growing up (and had to take a few of them down — thank …
Splitting Up to Carry On. Government kickbacks are not the only concern weighing on the VFX industry. We have innovated our way into solving everyone else’s problems, taking on the burden that used to belong to other departments. VFX have threatened the jobs of other parts of the industry for …
Todd Masters and Johnathan Banta At The Digital Days Conference. The Digital Days Conference kicks off Saturday Feb 1, 2014. Todd Masters and Johnathan Banta (spelled wrong on their website) of MastersFX join a panel Sunday to talk about the convergence of practical and digital effects. Join us as we …
Scribbling is the Universal Language. If a picture is worth a thousand words, it is likely that two thousand words will be required to properly describe how to correct a problem in a stereo 3D converted image. I have seen the notes go on for pages (dictated some of them …
Focusing the Hatred of the Galaxy, a Digital Star is Born! There are long diatribes on the Internet tearing George Lucas to shreds for the creation of Jar Jar Binks. Such vile hatred for a character in a movie —an individual that does not exist — is curious. Normally this level of …
Fun With Photoscan. A year ago I started playing more with Agisoft Photoscan software, at the behest of a very respected VFX artist. It is now a professional tool in my kit, but also a hobby. On the hobby side it is always fun to do things guerrilla style on …
Visual Effects Stories Losing Their Fire? I remember when something unusual happened while making Special Effects, it was bandied about in a good story, either in a magazine, or as an urban legend. When an artist had a particular view of his or her work, they would let it be …
We Are Eating Ourselves. It’s almost as if someone planned it. A Macivelian overlord sat down one day, scheming how to drive down prices, institute near slave-driven hours (without compensation as often as possible) by arbitrarily putting a date on a calendar, increase their profits, pay for no benefits, accept …
Updating the 1850’s French Innovation. In part one of this series about Stereo 3D, we discussed the use of stereo anaglyph images as a tool for stereo artists and supervisors, not just for novelty 3D prints, and late night 3D festivals on TV. Lightweight, and easily viewable in many situations, …
Photoscan Software in Action — Where Have You Been All My Life? Just for Halloween: 3D pumpkins! AgiSoft’s Photoscan is a stunning development for visual effects production. It is at its root designed for virtual map making, but is agile enough for full-body scans in action poses. Yes, there are …
poppa_day.mp4 Great British VFX Documentaries Online. From Poppa Day to Matte Painting in the 60’s and 70’s, Dennis Lowes webpage is an amazing documentary resource of visual effects in Britain. Want some in-depth information on the making of Alien you did not know? He has multiple interviews on video with …
By any other Name it is Good Old Fashioned Sculpture. The term Dimensionalization should leave the lexicon of stereo conversion. First off, it is a buzz-word that Madison Avenue could have invented that says very little about the process, and it also calls forth images of an automated process that …
Get Your Daily Feed…It’s Worth It Sure you can have a Google alert come your way for the VFX news of the day, but the best “Hot Sheet” out there is ILM model/monster maker Howie Weed’s Worth a Mention. I am not sure how he gets the information, but it …
Another French Innovation Probably one of the oldest methods of viewing stereo 3D content is Anaglyph. Invented in the 1850’s by Frenchmen Joseph D’Almeida and Louis Du Hauron, it has seen little update over the years, other than varying the color of the lenses (mostly as an attempt to deliver better full-color images). …
We have come so far these days in VFX. We use computers to do everything, and forget that often the simplest methods are the best. Here is an idea: Put models in front of the camera, and take a picture with real places in the distant background. I think they …
Stereo vs. Reality Stereo 3D is not “real,” it is an optical illusion. We are all constantly told that stereo 3D is more engaging visual content, but having actually directed stereo VFX and helped create the whole field of Stereo conversion, I will say the verdict among audiences is mixed. …
If you made super-8mm movies in the late 1970’s to early 1980’s, and loved visual effects, you read CINEMAGIC, originally created by Nightbeast director Don Dohler, and then helmed at Starlog press. (I remember calling David Hutchison and John Clayton to give me information on folks in the SPFX …
The Digital Makeup Initiative in practice at MastersFX for Season 4 of Falling Skies. Here is a link to their press release: MASTERSFX Perfects Practical/Digital Effects Mix for Emmy Nominated TV Series “Falling Skies” “The upgrade of MASTERSFX’s Digital Makeup division occurred in tandem with the launch of “Falling Skies.” Johnny Banta, …
In 1996 the Internet was still young, and George Lucas was making changes to Star Wars. As I was an avid Star Wars fan — it was instrumental in my career choice — I created The Bogus Star Wars Homepage to chronicle it, collecting what the fans were finding, and …
They used to be called SPECIAL effects, and thats what matte paintings were — alchemy. What else would you call a mixture of paint, glass, and photography with magic as the result? A few years back I slammed together an outline of a book, and invited several matte painters from …
dMFX joins the pantheon of tools. FXGuide.com ran a quick blurb on work I am leading at MastersFX for Steven Spielberg’s FALLING SKIES. Though not intended to be a news item, they introduced my Digital Makeup Initiative to the world, to some degree. The initial goal of the initiative is …
