Work that drives us to do better

VFX Archaeology: Part 4 — Nurnies and Greeblies

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This entry is part 4 of 8 in the series VFX_archaeology

You can’t talk about #greebles without mentioning, likely the most iconic miniature ever shot, the #starwars #stardestroyer at only 3 feet long -@FonHDavis   Context is Everything Modern cinema maintains a series of technical terms via oral tradition, that really no longer make sense. How many people really itnow the origin of terms like …

VFX Between Shots — Get Up and Build Something Real

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This entry is part 1 of 2 in the series VFX Between Shots

  With Your Own Two Hands When I was a kid, I built things with my hands.  Clay, wood, paper, tape, wire, and film combined together were enough to make a movie. If you had a motion picture or still camera, you could forge the materials of this world into worlds of …

How We Faked The Moon Landing: Part 4 — The Visual Effects of Magnificent Desolation

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This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Magnificent Desolation VFX

To the IMAX Moon and Beyond Moon Flight Science! On September 23, 2005, Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon in 3D released on giant IMAX screens. It is a 4K stereo3D experience of the Moon landings, and speculative missions from the past and future. The film was honored with the …

How We Faked The Moon Landing: Part 3 — The Visual Effects of Magnificent Desolation

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This entry is part 3 of 4 in the series Magnificent Desolation VFX

To the IMAX Moon and Beyond Filming on location is not an option. On September 23, 2005, Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon in 3D released on giant IMAX screens. It is a 4K stereo3D experience of the moon landings, and speculative missions from the past and future. The film …

VFX Touchstones: Part One — The Code Breakers

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Writing Code For VFX Solves Problems, and Motivates Others It is my supposition that everyone in the visual effects business should learn to program, even a little bit, as it opens avenues that were once barriers. Whether writing the code, or just “breaking the code,” it is necessary to expand …

The Missing Millennium Falcon?

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This entry is part 1 of 8 in the series VFX_archaeology

Evolution of a Design This article contains an image recreated from memory of an actual  photo in an ex-ILMer’s archive — it is a re-creation for research purposes only, and not an official StarWars art piece. (However, the design has been verified to exist in the LFL archives by an insider.) …

Full Starlog Magazine Archive Online

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Kerry O’Quinn’s Penultimate Magazine Online Library. Unfortunately this archive is no longer available.  You can check Archive.org for any that show up.   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 …

Saving VFX: Part One — A Possible Way Forward

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Splitting Up to Carry On. Government kickbacks are not the only concern weighing on the Visual Effects (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 …

The British VFX tradition — Poppa Day to Alien

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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 …

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 Story Begins

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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 …