Industrial Light and Magic was created back in 1975 by the legend that is George Lucas, and has kept going ever since, racking up work on over 300 movies to date.
Lee's App of the week: The Walking Dead: Assault
I officially love The Walking Dead but hate the long breaks in between series (can I get an Amen to it's return this month!) so thankfully Skybound - the same company that publishes TWD comics - has produced a top-notch game app to see us through those tough times and give us our zombie slaughtering fixes.
In the beginning there was 'Display'
pho·to·shop, transitive verb, often capitalized \ˈfō-(ˌ)tō-ˌshäp\
to alter (a digital image) with Photoshop software or other image-editing software especially in a way that distorts reality (as for deliberately deceptive purposes)
- Merriam-Webster online dictionary, 2012
From MPC to Cinesite, Fuel VFX to Weta Digital and everything in between! Escapee Leo Neelands.
Ska loving escapee Leo Neelands made a career change but 7 years ago, when upon the word of a trusty friend who recognised the potential of his artistic skills, he made his way down to London with nothing but a Wacom tablet and pen in his bindle and a bucket load of raw talent in his brain.
Behind the scenes at Cinesite - See you there?
Hoth in your front room.
This rather charismatic chap called Barry has made his very own diorama model of the battle sequence on ice planet Hoth, from the Empire Strikes Back.
Game of Thrones fans, series 3 is on the horizon!
I’m a big fan of Game of Thrones and LOVE the VFX work the guys at Pixomondo have done on the series, especially the set extensions, and it gave me a real thrill to read that series 3 is on it’s way! The series 3 release date being announced at the 31st of March 2013.
2013 Oscars - VFX Nominees!
Tis but 10 days until the much anticipated Oscars! Here at Escape we have a keen eye on who will be winning the prize for best VFX, there are some pretty heavyweight contenders and nominees are as follows…
The 3D Printing Revolution!
Please do not pet the animals
Something different for your viewing pleasure – ingenious Polish artist Marta Klonowska creates these amazing sculptures from glass, ever seen anything like it? I want one!
View Conference announces cash prizes for 2013 winners!
Our friends over at View Conference Italy, last week unveiled that they will be providing cash prizes for winners of their different awards. The prizes vary from top of the range tablets to a lump sum of 2000 Euros. The categories for application are as follows (complete with direct links)
Lee's App of the Week!
After a brief hiatus, Selby's App of the Week has returned - under the new married guise of Lee's App of the Week!
Are you a natural Compositor? Find out on a Taster Day
Fancy knowing more about compositing? Do you think you might just be a natural compositor? If you'd like to find out more then why not come along to one of our compositing taster days?
Compositing is a crucial part of the Visual Effects pipeline. It's the bit where everything comes together. pipeline, the bit where it all comes together. As a Compositor, you’re the person who has to make sure the shot meets the artistic brief from the
director. You’re the one who’s finessing that creative vision. That final, all important creative milestone – that’s you. The Compositor. The person who naturally looks for the finer detail, who enjoys checking that the colour is ‘just right’, the person who questions whether that ‘hair’ looks part of the scene or not and if not, why not? You’re the person who helps deceive the eye, so the viewer asks, where there any Visual Effects at all?
Combining lots of different elements to make us believe we’re looking at a single scene is no mean feat and it takes highly dedicated individuals to make it happen. Without Compositors we’d never be looking at those gorgeous finished shots we’re so used to seeing. Instead, we’d be looking at the gaudy wires that support actors during actions sequences and shots lacking in any kind of atmosphere or composition. This is the department where the real magic happens through a variety of processes.
So fancy a day trying this out? seeing if it's for you? Places are limited so make sure you register your details now.
You water believe it!
Heinz Maier is an amateur photographer who has undertaken a rather unique project.
C (299,792 km/s)
The phrase ‘put your money where your mouth is’, is rarely put into practice. However, over the last few years, website kickstarter.com has bucked the trend by allowing generous and creative types to come together and put their money into projects that they genuinely believe in.
Bad Robot & Valve - Oh yes!
My goodness, it’s only January but for games and scifi fans dare I say it, Christmas is coming early.
Flying Sorcery
You may remember this fake UFO clip made famous last year - naturally everyone quickly branded it a fake which it clearly was/is.
Break out of the Box with VFX!
I really like how Michael Rigley has used 3D in a very creative, non-conventional visual effects project for his thesis.
Photoshop goes (even more) 3D
Fans of 3D and users of Photoshop will be delighted this week, with the announcement that 'Photoshop CS6 Extended' is on the market, it allows you to create 3D shape text using extrusions as a 3D layer... "similar to CS4 Extended" I hear you say! But alas, according to this write up, we are told that this works far more 'natively', with 'the usability you’d expect from an integrated Adobe toolset'.
Animation Ireland
And how has this happened? Well a decade of tax breaks and investment basically. Tax breaks to aid production costs and funding for development prior to production from various sources. Very interesting given the impending tax breaks around the corner in the UK. Could this be a new dawn in film and broadcast for us here?
I was amazed by how many companies are turning out real quality work in Ireland. The tax breaks have not affected the passion for excellence. In fact I would say it has merely fuelled it - the companies are competing against eachother to produce the best work. And as the industry steadily grows there are now whispers of full length animated movies being made there.
If you are curious about what has been happening in Ireland check out the Animation Ireland showreel on their website...
Here's something you may not know. Ireland has a booming animation industry. No I didn't know that either until I went to the Cartoon Finance conference in Dublin last year. In fact the animation industry is doing so well, that in the face of the downturn, it has become one of their major exports. At the conference, it was quipped that the animators are now the ones with the proper jobs.
