Brian Van't Hul. photo by Kelly Gorham

Carol Schmidt – MSU News Service

Brian Van’t Hul is an Oscar-winning master at crafting some of the movie’s most fantastical illusions, but he says the formula for success in filmmaking involves little magic.

“It’s really just an ability to network, think creatively to solve problems and have an exceptional work ethic,” said Van’t Hul while in Bozeman to visit family and speak to students in the Montana State University School of Film and Photography. He talked about his work as the visual effects supervisor on the recent film “Coraline,” which is on the long list for 2009 Academy Award nominations for animation.

“Between walking out of the door here (at MSU) and the ‘glam,’ there is a lot of hard work, long hours and not that much recognition,” said the 1987 graduate of MSU who won an Oscar in 2005 for his work on the visual effects of Peter Jackson’s “King Kong.”

During his 20-year career, Van’t Hul has helped put magic in some of the silver screen’s most inventive films. He was the visual effects supervisor for “Coraline,” the first major stop-motion animated feature to be shot in stereoscopic 3-D. In addition, Van’t Hul was part of the WETA Digital team responsible for the classic “Lord of the Rings” trilogy. He has also worked on “Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Forrest Gump,” “Master and Commander,” “I, Robot,” among others.

Van’t Hul’s journey began on the streets of Bozeman. Even as a kid he had a passion for movies, which he watched in Bozeman’s Ellen Theater. He was particularly fond of those with monsters and mythical creatures that were the work of the pioneering film special effects guru Ray Harryhausen.

“I loved movies and television and I think I was 8 years old when I realized that there were people behind those creatures,” said Van’t Hul during a recent visit to his hometown of Bozeman. “I knew then that was what I wanted to do with my life.”

Van’t Hul said he’d try to create the scenes in the basement of his Bozeman home with small plastic figures and a Super 8 camera. The basic stop-motion techniques he used to create those childhood films were, ironically, at the root of the dazzling “Coraline.” Except, on that film Van’t Hul supervised a crew of 20 that combined sophisticated stop-motion film work with computerized special effects for eye-popping effect.

Van’t Hul said he considered himself lucky to grow up in a town where there was a film school, which he began tapping while he was still in junior high. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle ran a movie trivia contest and in order to win free movie tickets (Van’t Hul was one of several winners), he called up the MSU film program and talked to a helpful Bill Neff, who is still an MSU film professor. Neff invited Van’t Hul to see the MSU film program.

“That was before the (VCB) building so the program was scattered all over campus,” Van’t Hul recalled. When it was time to go to college, Van’t Hul said he stayed home to go to MSU rather than go to the famed film school at the University of Southern California.

“It was a very hands-on program,” Van’t Hul said. “And that was important.”

In five years, Van’t Hul was trained and received degrees in both film and television (“You could do that then,” he said.) He was working at KUSM when a friend of his from MSU phoned him and told him to get down to Los Angeles because he knew of a job that was opening. The job was driving a truck for a film equipment rental company. Despite the humble beginning, Van’t Hul said it was a huge break for him. “I spent my first years learning the nuts and bolts of cameras and in the process met people who knew people who knew about visual effects.”

“One thing that experience really did was to give me training how to solve problems,” Van’t Hul said. “You can’t believe how important that is on a set that’s stalled. It’s important to know just how to get stuff done. That can give you an opportunity to step forward and say, ‘Ok. This is how we’ll do it.’” Van’t Hul said he believes a film school such as MSU’s fosters that sort of ingenuity. “Often, making a film is like a puzzle and you have to figure it out.”

Van’t Hul said networking is essential in Hollywood. “It really comes down to walking around to people on the set and asking them if they know anyone who can take that spot,” Van’t Hul.

Van’t Hul’s networking ability led to work on Peter Jackson’s horror flick “The Frighteners.” Van’t Hul hooked up with Jackson again when work began on “The Lord of the Rings.” It was considered something of a risk at that point to follow Jackson to New Zealand. It turned out well for Van’t Hul. While in New Zealand with the trilogy he met his wife, who is a special effects compositor. The two were married in the Ellen Theater, still one of Van’t Hul’s favorite places. The two now live in Portland, Ore. where Van’t Hul moved to work with LAIKA, an animation studio owned by Phil Knight, co-founder and chairman of Nike. LAIKA was the maker of “Coraline.”

Van’t Hul said he and his wife fell in love with the lifestyle in Portland, and he enjoys its proximity to his parents in Bozeman, but his career may require another move soon. He’s weighing offers for both stop-motion and computer-generated features.

In the meantime, he’s lecturing about “Coraline.” His stop in Bozeman came after a talk at the Bradford Animation Festival in England’s National Museum about visual effects. “We’ve been so happy that it’s been so well received,” Van’t Hul said.

Van’t Hul said he enjoyed the stop at MSU, where the film students “ask many of the questions that I had when I was here,” he said. Bob Arnold, director of MSU’s School of Film and Photography, said Van’t Hul’s appearance had a special effect on the students.

“For Brian, visual effects represent the integration of technology and art,” Arnold said. “It is a great opportunity for our students to meet and learn from someone who has reached the level that Brian has reached and understand that the most important thing is his passion for and dedication to the craft. It isn’t about fame or money; it is about doing what you love to do, and how that passion can take you far.”

Amazon Specials!

When Disney’s A Christmas Carol came out a few weeks ago I went to see it and I must say that it was a great family film. Jim Carrey’s acting was phenomenal and so was the visual effects. The 3D was amazing! All of the graphics were so crisp and clear it almost felt and looked as if you were right there in the scene with the characters. When Scrooge was flying through the air with the ghost of Christmas Past, I could almost feel like I was flying through the streets with them. The visuals effects were that amazing!

Did I mention Jim Carrey? Jim Carrey was acting at his finest by far. He played the role of multiple actors as well as the lead role of Scrooge, which he did hauntingly well. Just the sight of Scrooge would make you cringe when you saw Scrooge walk down the street. Jim Carrey definitely deserves an award for his performance in this animated classic adaptation of Charles Dickens’ tale.

IGN has recently posted a developer dairy by Star Trek Online Visual Effects Lead (VFX) Artist Michael Cavallaro. The new diary talks about the visual design for Star Trek Online and what he and his team faced in developing the Star Trek universe. Given that the Star Trek Franchise stretches over forty years and 11 movies and incomposes visual styles from the low budgets on TOS in the 1960’s to J.J. Abrams slick high budget reboot of 2009 you can imagine the difficulties of fusing it all together into one style that pleased all the fans.

” The effects changed from series to series and from movie to movie, and of course you have the J.J. Abrams version, which is different than all of them. If there is one thing we learned from Abrams it is if you make it cool enough, the fans will like it. “  said Cavallaro  ” The first step in visualizing an effect is to meet with the design team to see exactly what something does, when it’s used and how much damage it inflicts. From there we scour old episodes and movies to find all the reference for that particular effect. Sometimes we have several versions and sometimes it just doesn’t exist. In the case of different versions from different time periods, we try to find the most iconic one to build off of and give it a modern look. For new effects, we work closely with the Art Lead and Concept Team to make sure that what we are creating looks and feels like it is Star Trek IP. It’s kinda cool to think that a future Star Trek movie or TV show might use something we created as canon “

Judging from what I have seen so far Michael and his team have done a Great job the game looks better than I was anticipating  when Star Trek Online was first announced. To read the full article go to Michael Cavallaro’s dev blog hosted on IGN.

DazPix

DazPix est un studio de design et d’animation londonien qui propose des Motions Graphics et des Effets Visuels détonants.

Créateur d’identité musicale et visuelle pour ses clients, cette société a tout pour nous émerveiller en développant de nouveaux concepts en matière de vidéo.

Laissez vous entraîner dans leur univers avec leur Motion Graphics :

ou avec leurs Effets Visuels :

Vous ne le regretterez pas…

Bonne découverte!

Remember the hit movie “Titanic” that came out in the 90’s? The director, James Cameron, has another movie coming out next month, titled “Avatar.” I would be hard pressed to describe the story, but it looks interesting. (And judging by the 3D trailer I saw in front of “A Christmas Carol” yesterday, it looks great.) Below is an interview with Cameron from 60 Minutes. (I think there is one mild curse word in the interview, just FYI.) The most interesting part of the interview to me was the discussion near the beginning about the story vs. special effects. “Avatar” looks like a feast for the eyes, but Cameron stresses that the story is really the key element.

The most memorable movies have stories that connect with people. They may feature great visual effects, but the movies that last and are universally loved and remembered are the ones with a great story. On the other hand, movies that are long on special effects and short on story and character may do well at the box office, but are quickly forgotten. (The “Transformers” movies immediately come to mind.) Any good director will tell you that visual effects must serve the greater purpose of telling a good story.

Special effects change over time. What was innovative a few years or decades ago seems hokey and out-of-date today because of the constant advance in technology and the tastes of audiences. So visual effects aren’t bad, and in fact can be quite helpful. But they shouldn’t exist for their own sake.

It’s much the same with worship. Every tradition of worship features some form of “special effects.” These can range from the evangelical emphasis on music and technology, to the liturgical and Catholic use of vestments and bells, and to the Orthodox use of icons and incense. Every Christian worship tradition has practices and elements that help people to worship. However, they don’t exist for themselves, but rather to help us remember and enter into God’s great Story: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Re-Creation. They support, enhance, and focus worship, but they should never become the focus themselves.

This Christmas season, I encourage all of us to remember the heartbeat of Christmas: worshiping the God who gave himself unselfishly. The shopping, Christmas music, church programs, TV shows, Christmas traditions… all of those are great, but what really matters is the story of salvation embodied in a tiny child born in a manger.

MİNE TUDUK – Hurriyet Daily News

Bulgaria, Romania and Tunisia have become Hollywood’s backyards because of low production costs, which is also an advantage for Turkish special effects makeup artists. Turkish makeup artists are popular internationally due to their high-quality work and low costs. While some work on projects abroad, some send their designs to foreign countries

Two Turkish space pilots enter a gravitational field during a routine mission and encounter aliens on a strange planet. Cüneyt Arkın, one of the two pilots, fights these unidentified aliens. Yeşilçam’s (Turkish Hollywood) first science fiction film, “Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam” (The Man Who Saves the World), made in 1982, is remembered for these scenes, effects and aliens.

Both Yeşilçam and the special effects industry in Turkey have made advancements since the 1982 film and are now opening up to the world.

Turkish prosthetic and latex special effects makeup experts, who create interesting characters out of their knowledge of anatomy, sculpture, chemistry, color and imagination, are popular not only in Turkish cinema but around the world.

The fact that films are shot in countries such as Romania, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Tunisia and Australia due to low production costs has become a particularly new opportunity for Turkish makeup designers. They are preferred for their high-quality work and low prices, and take part in projects abroad with effects such as broken arms, severed heads or fantastical creatures.

Demand from the underground causes an atelier to close shop

Arzu Yurter is a Turkish expert in the field of latex makeup design. Yurter, who is known recently after being asked to apply latex makeup to Ergenekon case witnesses, discovered the art form eight years ago. She received her education in Turkey and abroad. Working for films, commercials and photography shoots in which latex makeup is applied. Yurter is known for her work in “gothic style.”

“I can make a man a woman and a woman a man with plastic makeup. Even their father would not know them,” she said.

 Yurter said recent developments in cinema created a new sector that lets Turkish makeup artists take part in important projects abroad. “Makeup artists’ wages change between 50,000 to 200,000 euros in Europe and the U.S. according to the project. It is between 600 and 1,600 Turkish Liras weekly in Turkey. When Turkish makeup artists work for a foreign project, they earn 400 to 550 euros daily for the projects of the same quality,” she said.

 Yurter said she created plastic noses, chins, severed arms and legs for films in Korea, and also worked for many film projects in Italy, Romania and Canada as well as the Far East. She also told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review about some of the interesting proposals she has received.

“I received very different proposals when my name became known for latex makeup, which was planned to be applied to Ergenekon case witnesses. Security officials visited my atelier for the project, but we did not make a contract. After hearing this, I received interesting proposals that I could never accept. Some said ‘change the face of my gunman.’ Since I became a target, it disturbed me so I had to close down my atelier,” she said.

People come from L.A., Bollywood

Arzu Yurter

Corci is the first name that comes to mind in the special effects makeup sector in Turkey. In his 35 years as a special effects makeup artist, his experience has been applied to many films made in foreign countries. Corci said he has received many proposals in recent years. “Bulgaria and Romania are like the backyards of Hollywood. Turkish makeup artists are preferred because they are very good and are priced low.”

Corci said demand from abroad was not limited to Bulgaria and Romania: “I get proposals from many countries to give training. I have attended many training sessions and seminars in Bulgaria and the Turkic Republics. On the other hand, there are those who come to Turkey for training. Students from Los Angeles, Canada, Iran, France and Bollywood, the heart of the cinema industry in India, come to Turkey in groups a few times a year. I teach them the details of the business.”

Corci

In the 35th year of his professional life, Corci plans to establish a new project: “I will make molds of famous faces for my new project. I am planning to take molds of nearly 35 people and want to open a museum or an exhibition to display these molds.”

Where creatures of your dreams are made

Dükkan-ül Hayal, founded by Emir Özer and Zeynep Nuhoğlu in 2006, is Turkey’s only latex makeup and animatronics special effects atelier. Özer and Nuhoğlu, who can create 2-meter monsters, said latex makeup and special effects require a disciplinary effort. “Recently, we have been working with higher-cost films and directors, but latex makeup is not completely understood in Turkey. They asked us to make a Terminator in three days last week. We were excited about it, but it was not possible,” said Nuhoğlu.

She said the fact that horror and super hero films have recently done well at the box office and the revival of Turkish cinema have increased interest in special effects makeup, adding: “The opening of different special effects and latex makeup studios will develop the sector more. The younger generation, particularly shows interest in this sector. Students from Mimar Sinan and Marmara fine arts faculties work as assistants in our projects.”

Nuhoğlu said they have plans for the sector’s development: “We plan to make a film, written by Emir Özer. We will use various visual effects and latex makeup applications. We will send the film to foreign festivals and prove to the world how good the business is carried out in Turkey.”

As for interesting demands, Nuhoğlu said: “Some people call us from the Black Sea and ask us to completely change their face or make their nose smaller. We don’t accept demands like this unless it for a production, because it is unethical.”

The cost of special effects and latex makeup differs according to each project. The cost of a scene where the artist will be cut in two, the camera dimensions and lighting conditions would cost between 7,000 and 25,000 liras. The cost of face makeup is around 6,000 liras.

Amazon Specials!

That’s the show reel I had to make for my visual effects module. I think it turned out pretty good!

Mathias J. Ringler: Die Digitalisierung Hollywoods: Zu Kohärenz von Ökonomie-, Technik- und Ästhetikgeschichte und der Rolle von Industrial Light & Magic. Konstanz: UVK, 2009. 187 Seiten, € 24,00

Ein hehres Ziel hat sich Mathias J. Ringler mit seiner Doktorarbeit gesetzt: Er will die Digitalisierung Hollywoods beschreiben, in der Kohärenz von Ökonomie-, Technik- und Ästhetikgeschichte mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Rolle der wohl bekanntesten Visual-Effects-Schmiede Hollywoods, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). Die “Trias”, wie er sie nennt, von Wirtschaft, Technik und Ästhetik, die er aus dem Standardwerk “Film History” von Robert C. Allen und Douglas Gomery zieht, ist ihm extrem wichtig: immer wieder weist er darauf hin und bezieht die Begriffe in seine Kapitelüberschriften mit ein. Und sie ist mit Sicherheit der richtige Ansatz, denn anders als in der Zusammenwirkung dieser drei Faktoren lässt sich nichts in der Kunst-Industrie des Films ausreichend erklären. Umso tragischer ist es, dass Ringler mit seinem Buch, einer Doktorarbeit an der Uni Erlangen-Nürnberg, keinem der drei Faktoren gerecht wird.

“Die Digitalisierung Hollywoods” scheitert maßgeblich auf zwei Ebenen. Ihr erstes Scheitern besteht darin, dass sie ihrem akademischen Anspruch kaum gerecht wird. Ringler schlägt einen weiten Bogen, will seine Ausführungen über Digitalisierung bis in die Anfänge Hollywoods zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts zurückverfolgen, doch er bleibt dabei stets so nah an der Oberfläche, dass sich seine Arbeit zeitweise eher liest wie ein Sprechzettel für einen Politiker, der gebeten wurde, eine Rede zur Digitalisierung zu halten.

Entschuldigungen dafür gibt es auf gerade mal 161 Seiten (ohne Anhänge) genug: Immer wieder weist Ringler darauf hin, dass es den Rahmen seiner Arbeit sprengen würde, wenn er tiefer in ein Thema einsteigen würde. Die Entschuldigungen können jedoch keine Erklärung dafür sein, dass er für viele Themenbereiche mit nur wenigen Quellen arbeitet und bevorzugt diejenigen zitiert, die allenfalls einen groben Überblick über das Thema bieten, beispielsweise Röwekamps “Schnellkurs Hollywood” zum Thema “New Hollywood”. Einen Abriss über die ökonomische Funktionsweise des klassischen Hollywoodkinos geben zu wollen, sogar mit Bezug auf die von Allen und Gomery beschriebene “Great-Man-Theory”, ohne Thomas Schatzens wegweisendes Werk “The Genius of the System” auch nur zu erwähnen, scheint schlicht unmöglich, Ringler macht es trotzdem. Das New Hollywood besteht in seinem Buch maßgeblich aus dessen Anfängen (Bonnie und Clyde, The Graduate) und dann aus Spielberg und Lucas. Dass es weniger die späteren Blockbuster-Erfinder Spielberg und Lucas waren, die der wichtigsten Erneuerungswelle des amerikanischen Kinos ihren Stempel aufdrückten, als vielmehr Francis Ford Coppolas Firma Zoetrope (Immerhin: Der Pate wird erwähnt) und Regisseure wie Martin Scorsese, Peter Bogdanovich und Hal Ashby, scheint Ringler keine Erwähnung wert.

Bei der Beschreibung der Auswirkungen der Digitalisierung des Films lässt der Autor bahnbrechende Techniken außen vor. Den “Digital Intermediate Process” (DI) des Color Gradings beispielsweise, den inzwischen fast jeder Film durchläuft, erwähnt er ebenso nur im Vorbeigehen, wie die Demokratisierung von Produktionsprozessen und die neue Qualität des Dokumentarfilms durch HDV und die Veränderungen in der Schnittästhetik durch nonlinearen digitalen Schnitt. Für eine Doktorarbeit, die sich einen so umfassendes Ziel setzt, kann das nicht genügen. Das von Ringler ausgiebig zitierte Buch Film und Computer von Almuth Hoberg, obwohl inzwischen zehn Jahre alt, bietet nach wie vor einen wesentlich fundierteren Überblick über das Thema in seiner Gesamtheit.

Den Werdegang und den Einfluss von ILM, den Ringler als eine Art Fallstudie in den Kern seiner Ausführungen stellt, beschreibt das Buch noch am besten, doch auch hier hat es klare Defizite. Dies wird vor allem dadurch begründet, dass als Quellen über die Arbeit des Unternehmens aufgrund dessen Kommunikationsstrategie eigentlich nur Propagandamaterial und kaum “objektive” Quellen zur Verfügung stehen. Doch auch hier können DVD-Dokumentationen, Audiokommentare und der Rest des Panoptikums, der inzwischen an Material über Visual Effects – gerade zu wichtigen ILM-Filmen wie Terminator II oder die Star Wars-Saga – zur Verfügung steht, Anhaltspunkte zumindest für die ästhetische Analyse bilden. Bei der Lektüre des Buchs entsteht der Eindruck, dass der Autor eigentlich nicht weiß, wie die Arbeit an Visual Effects wirklich vonstatten geht – stattdessen lässt er sich allzu oft von der zuvor kritisierten Propaganda blenden, schreibt bewundernd über Rechnerkapazitäten und die tolle Arbeitsatmosphäre auf der Skywalker Ranch.

Das zweite Problem des Buchs ist seine Struktur. Obwohl sich Ringler Mühe gibt, seine Kapitel jeweils unter einem der Aspekte seiner Trias zu subsummieren, gelingt das in den seltensten Fällen. Die Abschnitte handeln oft erstaunlich unstringent von dem, wovon sie handeln sollen, stattdessen werden große Teile des Textes darauf verwandt, auf vorhergehende oder noch folgende Ausführungen zu verweisen, was den Leser unnötig verwirrt. Eine klarere Struktur, die alle Aspekte eines Themas Stück für Stück abarbeitet, hätte deutlicher machen können, worauf der Autor eigentlich wirklich hinaus will.

Allein, auch das wird bei der Lektüre von Ringlers Arbeit nur äußerst unzureichend klar. Seine Schlussfolgerungen bestehen häufig aus einem unglaublich vagen “Alles verändert sich”. Was sich konkret verändert hat seit 1975 – und was sich noch verändern könnte – bleibt gerade innerhalb der Trias sehr nebulös, zu handfesten Zahlen und Statistiken, die die Veränderungen beispielhaft beziffern könnten, greift der Autor nur selten.

Schließlich und endlich ist “Die Digitalisierung Hollywoods” anscheinend nur notdürftig lektoriert worden. Einige Teile des Buchs scheinen aus dem Jahr 2004 zu stammen und wurden nur flüchtig aktualisiert, so ist an einer Stelle von den “fünf bisher produzierten ‘Star Wars’-Filmen” (es sind seit 2007 sechs) die Rede. Hinzu kommen Erbsenzähler-Fehler wie eine falsche Schreibweise von Jar Jar Binks und eine manchmal etwas kreative Zeichensetzung, die aber auch dazu beitragen, dass der Gesamteindruck des Buches sich nicht verbessert. Schade eigentlich, den von einem gerade in der Filmwissenschaft oft herausragenden Verlag wie UVK ist man eigentlich Besseres gewohnt.

Diese Kritik erschien erstmals bei Screenshot – Texte zum Film. Als Anmerkung sei gestattet, dass Mathias J. Ringler mich in seinem Buch zitiert und meine Meinung als “treffend” bezeichnet. Dadurch fühlte ich mich geschmeichelt, aber leider nicht besänftigt.

By: Craig Sharp – FilmShaft.com

During the recent promotion for his latest “I’m going to destroy the world in a crazy VFX kinda way” movie – 2012, director Roland Emmerich was again asked about the film that seems to have been cropping up a fair bit recently – the sequel to 1996’s Independence Day.

Talking to MTV, Roland Emmerich dropped a bomb the likes of which nearly tore the world in two (in a crazy kind of VFX way), not one sequel, but TWO.

Given the fact that thirteen long years have passed since the original, I’m quite thankful that noone has gone down the remake route yet, but two Idependence Day sequels? A fanboy’s wet dream. Emmerich told MTV:

“What we want to do in the next – it’s actually two movies – we want to do a bigger arc,” he explained. “‘Independence Day’ was always like the king who leads his troops into battle against an evil force, and that stays like that.”

And if you’re wondering what this all-encompassing story-arc may be called, well Emmerich’s already thought of that too:

So the plan is not just one sequel but two. And Emmerich has got a nifty title in mind: “‘ID4-ever,’ Part I and II maybe?” he suggested.

But before you all start breaking out your ID4 figurines and heading to Area 51, the MTV folks do make a point of saying that there is no script at present, Emmerich himself says “There’s an idea,” he says, before confirming to the guys that if it goes ahead, Will Smith will almost certainly be involved:

“The idea is just to continue the story and actually I don’t know how many years ago this was—twelve, thirteen, fourteen years ago—and just continue where it ended.”

Amazon Specials!

Diese Woche ist Emmerichs neueste Weltzerstörungsorgie in den Kinos angelaufen. Im ofizellen YouTube Profil zum Film gibt es einige interessante Blicke auf die Visual Effects.

Huiuiui, es gibt einen Trailer für Clash of the Titans.

[via Fünf Filmfreunde]

Ich oute mich an dieser Stelle: Obwohl ich als SFX-Afficionado auch großer Ray-Harryhausen-Fan bin (habe ihn schon zweimal live erleben dürfen, jedes Mal ein Vergnügen), habe ich das Original leider nicht gesehen, denke aber ich gehe in die gleiche Richtung wie die Filmfreunde, der Film ist vermutlich “mehr als nett, aber dennoch kein unantastbares Meisterwerk”. Das nur vorweg.

Was sagt uns dieser Trailer? Es kommt eine ganze Menge grober Unfug auf uns zu. Unfug, wie wir ihn schon mit The Day the Earth Stood Still erlebt haben. Unfug, der entsteht, wenn man Filme, die schon einen leichten Trash-Hintergrund haben, auf “High Concept” neu macht. Dann entstehen – man halte sich fest – Taglines für Clash of the Titans wie “TITANS / WILL / CLASH” – ernsthaft.

Ein paar Tagline-Vorschläge für andere Filme dieses Jahres: “This Summer / Will Have / (500) Days” – “This Carol / Will Be / About Christmas” – “It / Will Be / This” – “Goats / Will / Be / Stared At” – “The Wild Things / Will / Be There” – “Bones / Will Be / Lovely” – usw. usf.

Was sagt uns der Trailer außerdem noch: Es kommen Monster drin vor, Pete Postlethwaite (das ist eine gute Nachricht) und Sam Worthington (das ist eine geht so Nachricht). Der Pressetext erzählt mir, dass sich auch die Großen Alten Liam Neeson und Raph Fiennes für das Spektakel hergegeben haben. Und der Trailer sagt: “Irgendwannn ist genug”. Jawoll. Es muss wieder draufgehauen werden im amerikanischen Kino. Wir haben zu viele Weicheier in letzter Zeit erlebt. Sogar James Bond heult ja inzwischen fast.

Klingt nach einem furchtbar doofen Film und einer ganzen Menge Spaß.

Howdy all..

Been a hellishly busy several weeks which has been both a blessing and a curse! Good for the cash flow, not so good for oil painting! Been working with SOAP Creative here in Sydney on a James Bond website promotion thingy.. I cant say much more than that and will post more when I can.

I rolled straight into a matte painting job after the Bond gig.. the task.. create New York in 1927! This is big and I had approx two weeks to complete it. It’s taken two and half actually. Matte painting projection was the primary approach, Maya being the 3D tool of choice and of course Photoshop CS2.

Projected matte painting, for those who don’t know of it, is a method of mapping your 2D matte painting onto 3D geometry. For you old school folks, it’s like projecting a 35mm slide of an image onto white blocks of wood in a pitch black room.

Imagine those white blocks of wood are scale models of real buildings and you’re projecting your 35mm slide of the exact same building onto that model (perfectly aligned of course… impossible with a slide projector I know, but stay with me here..)

Now you pick up your handicam and start filming as you walk towards the model and perhaps move around the model a little. Traditional 2D matte paintings have always been limited to.. well, 2 dimensions. You cant go around anything within the painting. You can zoom in, move up and down the painting but the sense of 3 dimensional space is lacking. Same as projecting a 35mm slide onto a screen, you can walk up to it, move it up or down but it will always look 2D.

Projecting that 2D image onto a 3D object allows you to push beyond the 2D realm cheaply and more cost effectively than going full 3D. It only works in some situations and has certain limitations, but if your camera is moving in one direction with perhaps a little drift this way or that, projection is the way to go.

I was taught a fancy trick at Digital Domain by a dude named Eric Hanson.. Use INCANDESCENCE mapping. This has the advantage of A/ Allowing the matte painter to paint the lighting onto the object/scene in a way that only a matte painter can and B/ Doesn’t use a single 3D light within the scene, so rendering time is dramatically reduced. If the lighting needs changing, then it’s back to Photoshop and a re-paint, but the rendering time becomes consistent, predictable and fast.

I will usually render the object flat shaded or with a basic global illumination pass. It will look something like this:

Then I paint it up..

Before I show you the New York shot, here is an example of how I used the technique to great effect on Vincent Ward’s recent Blossom Hill Wine TV commercial, look for the shot of the train going over the viaduct. The viaduct, the train and background were all 2D images projected onto 3D. Yes, even the train!

I’ll leave it there and post a more in depth ‘how to’ soon.. Including the New York shot, so stay tuned!

Digital Juice’s Compositor’s Toolkit 2 was just announced today. It ships on November 19th. With a list price of $499.95 (and an actual price of probably $249 considering their constant specials) this collection is way beyond a steal. And this time around, if you pre-order your copy you can reap the rewards for just $199.95.

For those who don’t know, the Compositor’s Toolkit 2 is a set of 275 royalty-free clips shot in ultra high resolution 2K (that’s bigger than full HD) shot in slow motion giving you full control of the speed for endless possibilities. And the content and quality are beyond superb. These pre-keyed clips have a dual purpose to serve both the visual effects compositor and the motion graphics artist featuring organic elements in a variety of categories. No computer simulations; this is the real deal. And it’s ‘real’ good!

After watching all the sample clips (yes, i watched pretty much all 275 clips) I saw the potential for this collection is astounding. Well, I didn’t want to keep it to myself so I’m going to go through most of the new categories and tell you where the mograph people will be looking and what’s gonna tickle the visual effects guys and also describe how some of these clips can be repurposed for even more uses.

Explosion
Twenty-four fiery clips. There is a lot of repetition in this category; many clips seem almost identical to others yet unique in their little ways. Well, I think that’s grand. I think I mentioned this before on the Digital Juice forums that this kind of similarity is good. Each clip varies just enough to give it its own unique character and personality. You may not be so picky, but I’d rather have a lot to choose from to find just the right fireball that fits my comp.

CTK2’s Explosion clips do a fantastic job of staying inside the frame so that you can simulate distant explosions. Too many stock fire clips whoop up and fill your screen, touch the sides and leave you able to create only close-up explosions. Thank God someone finally got it right! About half of the clips feature explosions that are well rounded like they’re off to the side (on the side of a building), in the air, below you on the ground and, of course, in space. The other half are grounded and shoot upward into the air. Nice.

Clip 024_Explosion is a great wall of fire probably more suited for titles.

Fire
Again, a lot of repetition. And, again, I think that’s good. The Fire category probably would have been better named Flicks and Flames as this fire doesn’t quite have the mass to be considered full out fire. This leaves them more suited to motion graphics title sequences and it’s here the similarities among the clips are useful. You’ll probably be using this footage to set titles on fire and you’ll easily find a clip to match (or burn) all words in your sequence.

I had suggested on the Digital Juice forums that fire for torches and such should be included and it looks like they had a go at that as there are several. The slow motion doesn’t come in handy here if you’re going to composite torches, but they flicker so often that if you loop them at normal speed they’ll look just fine. There are a couple unique clips that go their own way and could come in handy for visual effects: one has flames spreading from the side which you could easily use to composite over a window, and another features flames sprawling across a dark floor. I’m sure you see the potential for vfx here.

However you choose to utilize these clips, you’ll probably need to beef ‘em up with levels as they’re a little on the weak side as far as power. But that’s good, this gives you detail. It’s up to you how you make them shine.

Water
Not much to say here. It’s water. And it’s mostly abstract. These clips are more backdrop footage (albeit nice backdrop footage) and I don’t see very many compositing opportunities here, though it is always fascinating to see water in slow motion. These clips are great for editing projects and motion graphic backgrounds.

Bubbles
Pretty good selection and lots of compositing and vfx possibilities. Most of the clips seem to be on a small (or close-up) scale. I’m talking on a home aquarium level here. But there are also enough clips that have a grand scale feel to them; many would work well for underwater explosions. Over all, fantastic stuff. And again, fascinating to see in slow motion.

Shatter
Careful where you step, the Shatter Category is a fantastic selection of both fine and coarse glass shatterings perfect for visual effects applications as well as motion graphics. In addition to the full out shatters there are a nice selection of falling glass and glass “dust”, some of them directional.  I wish there more.  Priceless.

Ink Drops
They held the camera below glass and dropped blue ink from above making some crazy flower-like designs. I can see a lot of mograph potential here. But visual effects compositors working with horror or even action projects should take note: the blue ink has just the right shading in it that just a spin of the hue wheel will give you some nasty looking blood — and I mean nasty in a good way. These clips would look so convincing as blood that had they used red ink they might have gotten an R rating. (Wise of them not to teeter on offending some customers.)

Sparks
At first glance this sets seems to be a twenty-four clips of the same thing. There is a lot of repetition and though I’ve been going on about how that’s a good thing, in this case I think it just left no more room for more possibilities. Most of the clips seem small scale/up close good, again, for both vfx and mograph work. There’s a great selection of raining embers and a lot of burning fuse type sparks which you could easily animate to lead up to one of those big, black, round bombs. (Do they still do that?) I was very pleased to see that at least one of the clips was shot from directly above. This set could have used a little more of that. All in all as sparks go, these are great.

Paint
White paint on rollers up against glass ready to be colored any way you like. These would definitely be of interest to mostly motion graphics folk. The slow motion comes in handy here as you can remap the time to suit the pace of your project. But aside from the paint rollers, there’s also a good selection of paint getting whopped onto glass (wait, did I just make up a word to suit me?) complete with drips as well as gushes of spray. Again, mapping a dark red onto these splats and sprays will give the horror vfx guys a lot of good compositing blood. Picture a zombie in a car getting shot in the head. The blood (paint) splats outward onto the inside of the window. The slow motion helps here as you can speed it up just right to see the splat form. Good stuff!

Electricity
This is a brief collection of blue, Frankenstein style electricity, maybe good for a Halloween commercial or two. I don’t see a lot of opportunity here to map these bolts from point a to point b so you’re probably better off using After Effects‘ built-in filters or Sapphire’s Zap To effect. Although… these are real.

Debris
Good stuff if you need it. Clips range from the chunky building collapsing type debris to finer clouds of falling dust. Good for visual effects work.

Lighting
At first I was disappointed with this category which I made numerous suggestions for on the Digital Juice forum. However when I took a closer look and examined each clip I realized the team at Digital Juice really know what they’re doing. The Lighting category is a collection of light beams with just the right amount of atmosphere which you can use to make 20th Century Fox style… well, light beams. The beams in this collection don’t just sit there. Each clip has it’s own choreography so you’re sure to find a dance that fits your motion graphics project or your visual effects requirement. Now, should you want to choreograph the beam yourself in After Effects you don’t need to worry about the beams not sitting still.  You’ll need to capture only a frame, move the anchor point to the light source and animate the rotation of the layer to taste. (At first I thought they’d make clips that just sit there so we could animate them and then realized that’s just a waste of video.) Again, Digital Juice did a very nice job of not letting the beams “touch the sides”. You’ll still have to do a little masking but that’s to be expected. Some clips are shot vertically so that you get even more resolution (after all, you’re probably going to mask and transform these anyway.)

Variety abounds! There are beams going up, going down, off to the side, etc. perfect for making ground lights, helicopters, prison wall search lights and more. I was very pleased to see clip 006_lighting had a moving texture in the beam (perhaps done with a rotating gobo?) that looks PERFECT for an underwater light beam. Just perform a little color adjustment, get some bubbles from the Bubbles category or get clip 0006_snow from the original Compositor’s Toolkit (see the value of collecting them all?), turn it upside-down and choke the alpha channel a touch for some up-drifting fine particles (already in slo-mo for realistic underwater movement) and then throw in some fish-eye-view Trapcode Psunami to finish it off and you’re under the sea. (I’d demonstrate with video but the product isn’t out yet.)

Some of the light beam movements were probably arranged with some of these potential uses in mind. Have a scene with a helicopter or UFO searching the ground? Clip 017_lighting is perfect. There are many clips with just motion graphics in mind and some with just vfx. There’s a good selection of stadium type lamp clusters which you could use for, well, stadium lighting. Or, you could scale them down and line up multiple copies for very organic and very real looking UFO lights. The lamps juice up from blackness and then run a few frames; you’ll need to freeze the clips after that.

Well that’s a wrap. I don’t know about you but I’m just itchin’ to try some of the ideas I mentioned. Goto Digital Juice and reserve your copy right now. And if you like what you see don’t forget there’s a Compositor’s Toolkit 1. Like I said before, this deal’s a steal. And if you had to buy all of these clips from, say, ArtBeats you’d have to sell your car first!

Marooned is a 1969 American science-fiction film directed by John Sturges and starring Gregory Peck, Richard Crenna, David Janssen, James Franciscus, and Gene Hackman.

The film was released less than four months after the Apollo 11 moon landing and was tied to the public fascination with the event. It won an Academy Award for Visual Effects.

It was based on the 1964 novel of the same name by Martin Caidin; however, while the original novel was based on the single-pilot Mercury program, the film depicted a space station program resembling Skylab (the space station seen in the film was based on an early proposal of the OWS based on several sketches during the Apollo Applications Program). Caidin rewrote the novel, incorporating appropriate material from the original version and updating it to follow the film.

Caidin acted as technical adviser.

Plot Summary
After spending several months in an orbiting lab, three astronauts prepare to return to earth only to find their rockets wont fire. After initially thinking they might have to abandon them in orbit, NASA decides to launch a daring rescue. Their plans are complicated by a Hurricane headed towards the launch site and a shrinking air supply in the astronauts capsule.

Taglines

–Three marooned astronauts. Only 55 minutes left to rescue them. While the whole world watches and waits…

–The Saga of Ironman One

Directed by
  John Sturges

Writers
  Martin Caidin - Novel
  Mayo Simon  – Writer

Producers
  Frank Capra Jr. … associate producer
  M.J. Frankovich … producer

Cast
  Gregory Peck … Charles Keith
  Richard Crenna … Jim Pruett
  David Janssen … Ted Dougherty
  James Franciscus … Clayton Stone
  Gene Hackman … Buzz Lloyd
  Lee Grant … Celia Pruett
  Nancy Kovack … Teresa Stone
  Mariette Hartley … Betty Lloyd
  Scott Brady … Public Affairs Officer
  Craig Huebing … Flight Director
  Frank Marth … Air Force System Director
  John Carter … Flight Surgeon

Special Effects Department
  Chuck Gaspar … special effects coordinator (uncredited)

Visual Effects Department
  Lawrence W. Butler … special visual effects
  Donald C. Glouner … special visual effects
  Robie Robinson … special visual effects

Gregory Peck and Gene Hackman

Trivia
Based on a novel by Martin Caidin, who would later write “Cyborg”, the basis for the TV series The Six Million Dollar Man.

Was the impetus behind the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz Test Project where American astronauts and Soviet cosmonauts docked in space.

Frank Capra began work on the film. Inspired by his work on the Martin-Marietta Corp.-commissioned faux documentary, “Rendezvous in Space” for the 1964 World’s Fair in New York, Capra (a chemical engineer by education) worked to make the picture for Columbia, but finally abandoned the project in preproduction in May 1966 when he couldn’t bring the budget down to the $3-million required by Columbia worldwide production chief M.J. Frankovich. The eventual budget for the finished film (directed by John Sturges) was $8 million. Capra never made another film.

There is no musical score for this film. Instead, each spacecraft has its own ambient soundtrack when it is shown in space. The Apollo shots feature a low hum; the XRV, a hollow ringing; the Nimbus Weather Satellite, a rapid series of beeps ascending in pitch; and the Russian Voshkhod, a constant pitch series of beeps. The only exceptions to this is are a very slight, muted bit of music played under the Apollo ambient soundtrack during Pruett’s final EVA, and a single tone (with some ambient effects that could be called music) during the opening credits.

Average Shot Length (ASL) = 8 seconds

The Film Ventures International re-edit of this film (retitled “Space Travelers”) was featured on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000. This was also the only film featured on the show to have won an Academy Award.

The film’s release (prior to the launch of Apollo 13) about a space disaster led to a real-life crisis aboard Skylab 3 (c. July -September 1973) where a thruster leak developed on board the Apollo CSM. The depiction of a rescue vehicle (the lifting body in the film) was the basis of the Skylab Rescue space vehicle, based on a Block II Apollo Command Module (CSM #119) which was modified by North American Rockwell. Memos dating back to December 1970 (from NASA facilities at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, TX and Kennedy Space Center) confirm that a rescue spacecraft will be the next in line if the main Apollo CSM fails during flight. By November 1971, the modified CSM was phased in with evaluation and testing (prior to the final moon mission, Apollo 17, which launched in December 1972). The real-life thruster leak aboard Skylab 3 was neutralized and fixed where the rescue launch vehicle (piloted by NASA astronauts Vance Brand and Don Lind) was pulled from flight duty; the vehicle was on standby for Skylab 4 and the Apollo-Soyuz mission. Brand would fly on the Apollo-Soyuz mission and Lind on STS-51B in 1985. Since the final Apollo flight in 1975 (with Apollo-Soyuz), the modified command module, CSM #119, has been on display @ the Kennedy Space Center’s Visitors Complex. NASA engineers have studied the modified Skylab Rescue CSM for the Orion Spacecraft (part of Project Constellation), which will replace the Space Shuttle after its final flight in 2010.

In the film, the astronauts are seen using what appears to be the early concept of the Manned Maneuvering Unit – during the real-life Skylab missions, the Astronaut Maneuvering Unit (the AMU) was tested inside the space station and never tested in the vacuum of space. The first use of the MMU was during STS-41-B (the fourth flight of the Challenger) on February 7, 1984.

The space station using a spent Saturn S-IVB stage was based on early proposals during the Apollo Applications Program; at the time of filming, what came to fruition as Skylab was still under development. The only differences between the orbital workshop depicted in the film (which has a rocket motor attached) and the real Skylab was the incorporation of the Apollo Telescope Mount and two docking ports on the docking module, not to mention the absence of a rocket motor. The real Skylab was launched as a ‘dry’ workshop using a surplus Saturn V #SA-513 (originally earmarked for the canceled Apollo 18 mission). The three-man crew in the film spend 5 months living in space; the longest duration in the real Skylab was 84 days during the final mission, Skylab 4.

AMazon Specials!

Love Light Sabers.
Even tried compositing some my self, check here and tell me what you think, be gentle I did this years ago:

I made that after watching the Ryan vs Dorkman 2 DVD, well worth the small investment.
But here’s  a great tutorial by Apple Shake Guru.

Also there are some fantastic pointers in the Encyclopedia of Visual Effects – one of my favorite books.

Taraf daily’s latest TV ad. ThemeÇ Challenging political taboos.

Zaman’s latest ad with a theme “prejudice”. Challenging political prejudices. Zaman, who is known to have direct relations with Fethullah Gülen, has been producing very nice ads for a while…

And a roundup of interesting videos Erkan had a look….

Sweden – Heaven and Hell

Notorious Italian shockumentary on the wicked ways of Sweden in the Sixties!

Visual Effects: 100 Years of Inspiration

brands @ the movies

At Tamotion we recently expanded our HD capabilities. We bought two brand new HD cameras as part of our expansion into live productions. These cameras record in AVCHD format, output .mts files, but give us the quality of true HD. We get images up to 1080p – just gorgeos! We even can record slow motion with HD 720 60p. The cameras record to SD cards so downloading the footage is very easy.

Our first project with the new cameras is a set of music videos for Michoel Schnitzler’s first album. Here’s some advice on editing HD footage: make sure you have hardware that can handle the files. Laptops are generally not going to work – even if the footage is just 1280×720 – yes, I tried it myself

Frankenstein Unbound Monster (1990)

 

Frankenstein Unbound is a 1990 horror movie based on Brian Aldiss’ novel of the same name. This film was directed by Roger Corman, returning to the director’s chair after a hiatus of almost twenty years.

Trivia:

Cast
  John Hurt … Dr. Joe Buchanan/Narrator
  Raul Julia … Dr. Victor Frankenstein
  Nick Brimble … The Monster
  Bridget Fonda … Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin
  Catherine Rabett … Elizabeth Levenza, Victor’s Fiancee
  Jason Patric … Lord George Gordon Byron
  Michael Hutchence … Percy Byshee Shelley
  Catherine Corman … Justine Moritz, Woman tried & condemmed as a witch

Make Up Department
  Guiliana DeCarli … makeup artist
  Nick Dudman … special makeup effects
  Romana Piolanti … hair stylist
  Suzanne Reynolds … prosthetic makeup

 Special Effects Department
  Renato Agostini … set special effects

Visual Effects Department
  Syd Dutton … visual effects
  Bruno George … optical effects
  Bret Mixon … rotoscoping
  Mark Sawicki … matte photography
  Robert Stromberg … matte artist
  Bill Taylor … visual effects
  David S. Williams Jr. … optical effects

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Catherine Rabett

Looker is a 1981 science fiction film written and directed by Michael Crichton. It starred Albert Finney, Susan Dey, James Coburn and featured former NFL linebacker Tim Rossovich as the villain’s main henchman. The film is a suspense/science fiction piece which comments upon and satirizes media, advertising, TV’s effects on the populace, and ridiculous standard of beauty. Though spare in visual effects, the film is notable for being the first commercial film to attempt to make a realistic computer generated character, for the model named “Cindy.” It was also the first movie to create 3-D shading with a computer, months before the release of the better-known Tron.

Kim Carnes recorded her own version of the title song for her album “Voyeur” (1982). The title song in the movie was performed by Sue Saad.

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