vfxblog’s Jurassic Week coverage continues with this look at a few innovations introduced by ILM in Jurassic World; an iPad app for visualising the dinos during on-set photography, and a workflow for motion capturing raptors and the scariest dinosaur so far. Check it out below.
https://atomic-temporary-105830471.wpcomstaging.com/jurassicmocap/
Jurassic Week continues with this in-depth look at the several tech breakthroughs made by ILM in Jurassic Park III, including with ambient occlusion, virtual sets, flesh sims and simulated plants. Read the dedicated page, below.
https://atomic-temporary-105830471.wpcomstaging.com/jurassicpark3/
A lot of crazy stuff happens in Deadpool 2. A lot. But perhaps nothing quite matches the ‘baby legs’ moment. It’s when Wade Wilson aka Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is stuck on the couch of his elderly blind roommate Blind Al (Leslie Uggams) while his legs re-generate, having been earlier torn in half by Juggernaut (oh yeah, that was pretty crazy, too).
We first see the stumpy legs – and possibly more – as Wilson sits. Then, Cable (Josh Brolin) arrives and Wade shuffles up to him, baby-walk style. To pull off the legs gag, director David Leitch entrusted production visual effects supervisor Dan Glass and VFX studio Double Negative to work their magic. vfxblog asked Glass to describe how those shots were made. Continue reading Deadpool 2’s what the…!? scene and how it was made
Next up in vfxblog’s Jurassic Week is a brand new oral history on the making of the Dinosaur Input Device. It was this dinosaur-shaped stop-motion armature fitted with special encoders that kept Tippett Studio in the game during the making of Jurassic Park, after its original stop-motion dinos were scrapped in favour of ILM’s CG. This oral history includes a ton of rarely seen behind the scenes images.
https://atomic-temporary-105830471.wpcomstaging.com/dinosaurinputdevice
SIGGRAPH’s tech papers often herald new features in vfx and animation tools. I highlighted a few for Cartoon Brew.
This week vfxblog is celebrating Jurassic Week, a whole week of Jurassic Park-inspired articles to celebrate the imminent 25th anniversary of Jurassic Park and the upcoming release of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. First up, a look at ILM’s secret weapon in bringing its photoreal dinosaurs to life: Viewpaint, a 3D texturing tool that let artists paint directly on CG dinosaur models. Start reading at the special dedicated page below.
https://atomic-temporary-105830471.wpcomstaging.com/viewpaint/
I was lucky enough to score a ticket last night to see James Cameron speak in Sydney. It was at a Vivid event, a festival here famous for lighting up city landmarks and for presentations on culture, new ideas and art and technology.
Cameron shared his journey on all sorts of things, mostly related to his deep sea expeditions and environmental causes. He was incredibly engaging the whole time and managed to pass on a few key insights into his past, recent and upcoming filmmaking adventures (yes, he mentioned the Avatar sequels A LOT).
I’ve gathered a few of his thoughts on the state of stereoscopic filmmaking, what he wants to do with 360 degree video, his approach to making creatures in Avatar, his take on the future of artificial intelligence (it doesn’t go well for humans), and a BIG promise relating to The Terminator. Continue reading James Cameron on the state of 3D, his plans for immersive filmmaking, how he approached Avatar creature design, why machines won’t like being slaves, and his promise to do a commentary track for The Terminator
For Side Effects, I talked to Method Studios about their cymatic effects work done in Houdini for Black Panther. It’s awesome when science guides the art.
For Cartoon Brew, I asked Framestore how they completed the CG Colosuss for Deadpool 2.
I’ve been a regular attendee at Trojan Horse Was a Unicorn for a few years now. Formerly in Portugal, THU is landing in Malta this year, and the location looks stunning.
What’s exciting is, you can enter the Golden Ticket Challenge art competition to get there yourself. There are two categories – student and professional – and winners will receive a ticket to THU, flights to Malta and 5-star accommodation. The first placed student also receives a Wacom mobile pro and a Lenovo mobile workstation.
So, what do you have to do?
To enter, you need to create a piece of artwork on a set theme, ‘Land of Wonder’, which is inspired by the new Malta location.
Submissions opened on May 14th and run until July 9th. Winners are announced on ArtStation – which is partnering with THU on the Golden Ticket Challenge – July 16th.
What are you waiting for – find out more here: www.trojan-unicorn.com/main-event/golden-ticket
Oh, and how good does THU look already? On the VFX front, some of the speakers include ILM’s Hal Hickel, Black Panther vfx supe Geoffrey Baumann, DD’s Matthew Butler, vfx Leslie Ekker and more. And then there’s production designer Alex McDowell, director Jorge Gutierrez, and concept designer Ian McCaig. Seriously, amazing people.
THU takes place September 24-29, 2018 in Valletta, Malta.
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