Category: Uncategorized

  • Rob Sitch and Working Dog’s Pacific Heat

    In Australia I’ve grown up with productions from Working Dog – they’re behind The Castle, Frontline, Utopia, and the members were part of the D-Generation and The Late Show. Now they’ve just done an animated series called Pacific Heat for Foxtel and Netflix. So I have to say it was a bit of dream talking…

  • Checking in on virtual filmmaking with Dreamspace

    While attending FMX in the past few years, I’ve been checking in on the Dreamspace project. It was an European Commission project that brought together several entities in computer graphics, VFX and filmmaking to look at virtual production techniques. These entities included The Foundry, ncam, Stargate Studios, CreW, Saarland University, iMinds and Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg –…

  • Fantastic Beasts found: on Cartoon Brew

    I had a chance to chat to the vfx supes, animation supervisor and other vfx artists on Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Here’s my breakdown for Cartoon Brew. Sorry but I just love the Niffler so much.

  • An interview with Paul Debevec

    Back in the late 90s I was still at university and I stumbled upon the SIGGRAPH Video Review. One piece I watched was Paul Debevec’s The Campanile Movie where he’d used image-based modeling and rendering techniques to do virtual camera moves on a bell tower at the UC Berkeley campus. It was also an example…

  • Indie vfx at MovieMaker

    MovieMaker Magazine asked me to look at how indie filmmakers could make the most of vfx in their films – check out the ‘Complete Guide to Making Movies 2017’ issue for the article.

  • New Pioneers showcases new rigging tools

    At VIEW Conference in Italy I got to meet Chris Perry. His Bit Films outfit and Raf Anzovin from Anzovin Studio collaborated on this New Pioneers pitch, and utilized some neat new rigging tools to do it. Here’s my interview, and an exclusive video, at Cartoon Brew.

  • Appearing on…CG Garage

    If you don’t already listen to Christopher Nichols’ CG Garage podcast (part of Chaos Group Laboratories), now’s a great time to start. Because I’m on it with Chris for a podcast we recorded at THU! We talk about what things get noticed on the internet, especially vfx stories.

  • Beauty and the Beast had a very cool partly CG sequence in 1991

    I’m sure you already know this was the ballroom sequence. I talked to CG supervisor Jim Hillin about how it all came together, for Cartoon Brew.

  • ILM is on fire with Deepwater Horizon

    You might not have seen Peter Berg’s Deepwater Horizon when it hit cinemas. But I’d implore you to check it out, if only for the remarkable combination of practical set photography, fire simulation and compositing involved in depicting the catastrophic – and real life – oil rig explosion that occurs in the film. I had…

  • Let’s celebrate the 20th anniversary of this amazing First Contact vfx shot

    It was the end of 1996, I had just finished high school and was discovering visual effects – in particular, the coverage of vfx in Cinefex – and then, Star Trek: First Contact came out. There are some incredible vfx shots in the film. The opening pull-back from Captain Picard. The ship to ship battles.…