Blog

Who doesn't care about George Lucas and Lucasfilm? Aside from the people of Marin county who have been trying for over 20 years to keep his Grady Ranch project out of their neighborhood.   

I'm not a kid anymore, but I do end up seeing a lot of kid's movies since my daughters LOVE to see movies at the theatre. I honestly don't usually look forward to seeing most of them but there is one in particular that looks both funny and visually interesting: The Pirates! Band of Misfits from Aardman Animations and Sony Pictures Animation. It doesn't open here in LA until the end of April, but I'm really looking forward to it. Check out this 'making-of' video and you too will be impressed by all of the imagination, creativity and time that went into making this film.  

We are very keen to find out what sort of video tutorials you like and which in particular you would like us to develop. So, in order to get as much feedback as possible, we have devised a very simple 5 questions survey. I takes less than a minute to complete and if you fill it in, you stand a chance to win 12-months access to our Maya Essentials online course or 12-months access to our ZBrush for 3D Artist course. Not bad for less than a minute's work!

Darin Grant, Chief Technology Officer of Digital Domain Media Group, just joined our Advisory Board.  You’ll see when you click through to his biography that he has an enviable set of credentials.

Five questions finding out more about our Twitter followers, how and why they got started, and what they feel about the industry asked by Social Media Manager @TobyJOYdigital

I have recently been exposed by my kids to the joys of a very special cartoon. Adventure Time is a newish series on Cartoon Network. It is by far the most inventive and original series I've seen in years. The creator Pendleton Ward has combined a ton of stuff from my childhood into a very surreal setting, a combination of Dungeons and Dragons, Felix the Cat and the humour from the likes of The Simpsons and Futurama. It is a very good watch for geek dads as well as anyone interested in the world of surreal animation.

Have you always wanted to learn more about Houdini? Are you in Los Angeles? Does the idea of attending a two-day boot camp float your boat? You're in luck!

Super Bowl approaches – do you have your snacks at the ready? Have you chosen your team? More importantly, have you set your DVR to record the commercials? 

This week’s mashup consists of some Super Bowl sneak peeks – we have a “Twilight”-like tailgating party for Audi courtesy of The Mill, takes 2 and 3 for VW and the “Star Wars” enterprise involving Man’s Best Friend, a couple of car spots steeped in fantasy complete with bikini-clad extras, the Coca-Cola polar bears (Giants v. Patriots) up their game and “The Avengers” trailer.

I remember when you actually had to wait for Game Day to see the spots! 

This year’s previews are kind of light on VFX  - I suspect everyone’s still rendering. 

Let us know which ones you liked – and we hope your team wins!

Sometimes called the industry's best kept secret Houdini is a 3D program that should have better recognition. That’s why I’ve decided to run this webinar: to let the secret out of the box and dispel some of the myths surrounding the software.

As part of their classroom course with us, our students (who we affectionately refer to as escapees), get a chance to visit working studios to get a taste of what they will be faced with when they start working in the VFX industry. We took our first bunch of escapees to New Deal studios last week, and rather than giving you my thoughts on how the visit went, I asked Greg Pilon - who is taking our Compositing for Production course - to give us a quick summary of his visit.