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Adventures in Stereo 3D: Part 3 — A Stereo Markup Language

VFX / Stereo / Research January 12, 2014 February 6, 2018 itemprop="discussionURL"2 Comments

This entry is part 3 of 3 in the series Stereo3D Adventures

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 …

Saving Mr. Binks

Star Wars / VFX / Discussion / History January 8, 2014 September 23, 2022 itemprop="discussionURL"1 comment

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 …

Thanksgiving Photogrammetry — The GALACTICA

VFX / Research / Photogrammetry December 1, 2013 February 11, 2024 itemprop="discussionURL"1 comment

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 …

Shaping the Message of VFX

VFX / Discussion November 24, 2013 September 10, 2022 itemprop="discussionURL"Leave a comment

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 …

The VFX War: Part 2 — Fish In A Barrel

VFX / Discussion November 15, 2013 January 18, 2018 itemprop="discussionURL"Leave a comment

This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series The VFX War

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 …

Adventures in Stereo 3D: Part 2 — The Hyper-Glyph

VFX / Stereo / Research November 11, 2013 September 23, 2022 itemprop="discussionURL"Leave a comment

This entry is part 2 of 3 in the series Stereo3D Adventures

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, …

Halloween Photogrammetry

VFX / 3D / Research / Matte Painting / Photogrammetry November 1, 2013 June 6, 2020 itemprop="discussionURL"3 Comments

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 …

The British VFX tradition — Poppa Day to Alien

Matte Painting / Star Wars / VFX / Motivation / History October 30, 2013 February 19, 2024 itemprop="discussionURL"Leave a comment

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 …

Why Dimensionalization is Bad

Motivation / History / VFX / Stereo October 26, 2013 January 19, 2018 itemprop="discussionURL"1 comment

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 …

The Best VFX Hot Sheet

VFX October 23, 2013 June 6, 2020 itemprop="discussionURL"Leave a comment

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 …

Adventures in Stereo 3D: Part 1 — The Rebirth of Anaglyph

VFX / Stereo / Research October 21, 2013 September 23, 2022 itemprop="discussionURL"Leave a comment

This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Stereo3D Adventures

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). …

News Flash! Foreground Miniatures Still Work

VFX / Motivation October 17, 2013 February 11, 2024 itemprop="discussionURL"Leave a comment

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 …

The Art of Seeing Stereo 3D

Research / VFX / Stereo October 16, 2013 June 23, 2018 itemprop="discussionURL"1 comment

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. …

Cinemagic Magazine — Back from the past

VFX / Examples / History October 13, 2013 January 18, 2018 itemprop="discussionURL"5 Comments

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 …

MastersFX Digital Makeup Division

VFX / News / Digital Makeup October 10, 2013 October 22, 2013 itemprop="discussionURL"Leave a comment

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, …

Correcting Star Wars Tennis Shoe Myths — apologies

Star Wars / VFX / Discussion / History October 9, 2013 February 11, 2024 itemprop="discussionURL"3 Comments

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 …

Matte Paintings — The Lost Art

VFX / Motivation / History / Matte Painting October 3, 2013 January 18, 2018 itemprop="discussionURL"Leave a comment

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 …

The Digital Makeup Initiative

VFX / News / Digital Makeup September 27, 2013 January 18, 2018 itemprop="discussionURL"4 Comments

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 …

The VFX Tube

In 2008 I was struck by the lack of institutional knowledge of VFX in the industry. Each person has their collection of inspiration that brought them into the artistic field, and most of mine came from the Starlog Press, and TV VFX specials that occasionally showed up. So I set up my youtube account to inspire and educate, and I uploaded many of the old documentaries I could find. I add to the favorites whenever I find inspired VFX visuals, or documentaries that teach us more. Subscriptions to other sites usually lead to bigger collections of VFX know-how and examples.

It is important to know our history so we can learn from it. This channel is a repository, and signpost to VFX knowledge.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/user/AgraphaFX

AG

The VFX War: Part 1 — The iPhone Analogy

VFX / Discussion September 12, 2013 August 6, 2014 itemprop="discussionURL"Leave a comment

This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series The VFX War

A Quality Product Should Be Its Own Reward It is hard to realize that the iPhone is not even a decade old. For the most part it works so well, that it fades into the background of our daily lives — quietly doing its job. Now remove it from our …

The Story Begins

VFX / Motivation / Discussion September 12, 2013 September 16, 2013 itemprop="discussionURL"Leave a comment

Welcome to the blog. What is PunkWerks, one may ask? Officially this is an offshoot site of Agrapha Productions, but it is not directly related to the VFX content the company provides — it is one of the side effects of a life of art. Those projects and ideas that …