I talked to FuseFX about their vfx for The Tick. This is a fun show, and that also meant: fun vfx. Read it at SYFY WIRE.
Month: November 2017
‘Flubber’ turns 20: how ILM made the shape-shifting green goo come to life
Twenty years ago, the film release schedule was awash with CG and VFX-heavy projects. Industrial Light & Magic, which had had a hand of course in a number of these, further demonstrated a diverse visual effects skill set with its work on Flubber.
Brand new challenges for the studio came in the form of Flubber itself, which had to be both a transforming piece of sticky goo and a character with major personality, while also being reflective and translucent. ILM’s artists solved these issues in several ways, including taking advantage of Softimage’s MetaClay tools.
Philip Edward Alexy was a lead technical animator at ILM on Flubber, and he shared some memories of the show with vfxblog. The show was overseen by visual effects supervisor Peter Crosman, and by VFX supervisors Tom Bertino and Sandy Karpman at ILM. Alexy also shares some rare crew shots and behind the scenes stills from during production. Continue reading “‘Flubber’ turns 20: how ILM made the shape-shifting green goo come to life”
Jan Pinkava on 20 years of ‘Geri’s Game’
Geri’s Game celebrated its 20th anniversary very recently, and I got to have a LOOOONG chat with director Jan Pinkava about the Pixar short, its development, the use of subdivision surfaces and the film’s legacy. Check it out at Cartoon Brew.
The surprising costume VFX in ‘Thor: Ragnarok’
Marvel has always done a great job of augmenting character suits or costumes in its movies. But one of the most seamless recently was for Hela in Thor: Ragnarok – check out the story at VFX Voice.
Behind the scenes of ‘Valerian’s’ Big Market
When Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets was released, I got the opportunity to talk to both overall VFX supe Scott Stokdyk and ILM supervisor Philippe Rebours about the Big Market sequence. Now with the film set for home entertainment release, there’s a snippet of one of the featurettes available on the Big Market sequence. Check it out below.
Early VFX Oscar predictions
For Cartoon Brew, I weighed on what I thought were the early contenders for the VFX Oscar. What are your thoughts?
Lytro’s volume tracer
Director Rodrigo Blaas and Lytro vfx super John Berton Jr told me about Lytro’s new volume tracer and the short they made to demo it. Check it out at Cartoon Brew.
SIGGRAPH Asia tech papers preview: 3D avatars from a single photo
Over the past few years, I’ve had the pleasure of reading about and watching the results of digital human and faces research led by Hao Li. He is, simultaneously, CEO & Co-Founder of Pinscreen, Inc., Assistant Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southern California, and Director of the Vision and Graphics Lab at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies.
Most recently, Li and his collaborators have been demonstrating tools to produce 3D human avatars directly from facial scans and even just single photos. Their latest research, titled ‘Avatar Digitization From a Single Image For Real-Time Rendering’, is being published as a technical paper at SIGGRAPH Asia in Bangkok (27 – 30 November). I had a quick chat to Li on what the research is all about, and where his startup Pinscreen is up to. Read on to also find out how to get a discount to SIGGRAPH Asia. Continue reading “SIGGRAPH Asia tech papers preview: 3D avatars from a single photo”
Olivier Gondry on the making of Kylie Minogue’s ‘Come Into My World’
My recollection of music videos from the 1990s to early 2000s is that they were almost like the ultimate VFX showreel. Of course, this was at the same time that CGI was making headways in feature filmmaking, with music videos taking advantage, too, of advancements in digital effects, particularly compositing, to help tell their stories, often in quirky and unique ways. What better way to stand out amongst the crowd in music video promos.
One promo directed by Michel Gondry that has always stayed in my mind is Come Into My World by Kylie Minogue, released in 2002 and now celebrating its 15th anniversary. In it, Minogue strolls around the same Parisian intersection four times, each loop bringing a further duplication of the singer and the people around her.
To make that possible, the clip was filmed with a motion control camera on the street, with the meticulous rotoscoping and compositing led by Michel’s brother, Olivier Gondry. The two had been regular collaborators on some of the most memorable music videos from that time, including The Chemical Brothers’ Star Guitar; at that time their post production company was called Twisted Laboratories. I recently got a chance to chat to Olivier, now an accomplished commercials director himself, to revisit how Come Into My World was made. Continue reading “Olivier Gondry on the making of Kylie Minogue’s ‘Come Into My World’”
‘Thor: Ragnarok’s’ Sakaar chase scene was also a courtship dance
Stuck on Sakaar but looking to get back to Asgard, Thor, Valkeryie and Banner steal one of the Grandmaster’s ships, the Commodore. In a high octane chase scene through the city, they escape Sakaar fighters and exit through a wormhole.
Digital Domain crafted visual effects for the Thor: Ragnarok sequence, overseen by overall visual effects supervisor Jake Morrison. In this special vfxblog, Morrison and DD’s VFX supe Dave Hodgins explain how the exciting chase was pulled off. Continue reading “‘Thor: Ragnarok’s’ Sakaar chase scene was also a courtship dance”
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