Following an extensive period of beta testing The Foundry release HIERO 1.0. This new project management, conform and review tool is now available for purchase worldwide.
March Free Tutorial: Speed Up Your Workflow in Maya
If you want to be taken seriously as a 3D artist you’ll need to approach your workflow professionally. This means being super organised when managing your assets and in this month’s free tutorial we are going to show you how this is done.
An Exclusive Event on 3D Visualisation
On Thursday 29th March, Escape Studios are hosting an event at the Barbican Centre that will discuss the art of 3d visualisation. Joined by four industry speakers this is an opportunity to discover how professionals in film and other media create stunning as well as captivating animated visuals. The event is aimed at anyone working in the business of 3d visualisation, whether that’s in architecture, design, engineering or media and entertainment. We would like to invite you all to this exclusive event as we expose the creative side of this visual form.
Want to See Your Name on the Big Screen?
It's great to see our escapees leading the way in a new film from Skillset promoting the computer graphics industry.
Stargate Studios 'The Walking Dead' VFX Showreel
As an avid zombie fan, I spend my days either killing zombies on the game console or watching them get hacked to pieces on tele (not to mention seeing one in the reflection of the mirror, the morning after a night of partying). One TV series which I'm sure most of you have heard of, is 'The Walking Dead'. Apart from the ghastly zombies and the characters of the show - one of the most common things people talk about is the lovely VFX. The talented guys at Stargate Studios are responsible for the VFX for The Walking Dead and they have just released their Season 2 showreel.
Enjoy, VFX/Zombie fans!
Spot the CG...
After six weeks of intense Maya core, halfway through the VFX Production course, escapees gather in the break out space to present their work to their class colleagues, as well as to view the other studio classes projects.
Nike FlyKnit Commercial by Digital Domain
A few friends of mine have posted the Nike 'FlyKnit' commercial link on Facebook and I can't help but share it with you all because it's so cool. Nike is showing off its latest technology for the upcoming 2012 Olympics in London. It was created at Digital Domain, and is directed by David Rosenbaum and VFX supervised by Aladino Debert.
The whole shoe weighs a mere 160g (5.6 ounces) for a size 9 and has been worn by the first, second and third place athletes in the men's marathon at the 2011 World Championships. Nike released the Flyknit HTM Racer in London on Saturday 25th of February, to much anticipation.
I think you'll agree that the commercial looks amazing and stylish. It just makes me want a pair of these bad boys! Well done to the guys at Digital Domain!
News Round-Up: Monday 5th Mar 2012
Here is my usual jumble of news to start off this week. There are tutorials, news of various software releases, a cool "Making of Rango", and really sweet advert for Twinnings tea, and lots more. Feel free to add anything I may have forgotten.
Answer 5 Questions For a Chance to Win Free Online Courses
We have been hard at work planning our next set of video tutorials for you all to enjoy but right now, we are very keen to hear directly from you what sort of tutorials would help you most. Since we understand that you are all busy, we have put together a super quick, super simple 5 question survey, and all those who fill it in will get a chance to win a free Maya Essentials online course or a ZBrush for 3D Artist online course.
Week 05: The Lights Are On...
The fifth week of the Maya Core evening course is equivalent to day five of the intensive day time class, so we have now covered one week of the comparable daytime course. The advantage of the evening course is you have more time to soak in the deluge of information showered onto you, but the daytime class are constantly thinking in Maya so perhaps absorb it more thoroughly.
Pixomondo Pick up VFX Oscar®
Pixomondo’s first Oscar was won for their contribution to Martin Scorcese’s 3D cinematic triumph, Hugo. Visual & Digital Effects Supervisors Ben Grossmann and Alex Henning were there to pick up the award, but the entire Pixomondo worldwide family contributed to the success, including a couple of escapees here in London.
CG Coffee Culture
The lives of professional VFX artists, who during their working hours create amazing effects, are generally fuelled by a colossal coffee culture, which is almost as strong as the pub culture that exists after work.
Autodesk Excellence for Every Customer
This year Autodesk are putting you first, with the introduction of their new customer engagement initiative which they are calling "ACE". The program aims to offer the end user the best possible experience when purchasing Autodesk products.
HIERO Launch Party in London
Wednesday 29th of February marks the official release of HIERO, a VFX tool we’ve been lusting over for the past 6 months. Following rigorous beta testing this product is now ready for integration with VFX pipelines around the globe. To give this product the welcome it deserves, The Foundry are hosting launch events in LA, Toronto, Vancouver, New York, London, Paris, Hamburg, Munich and Sydney. Escape Studios are teaming up with The Foundry for the launch in London, an event we hope you can all attend. The event is on Tuesday, 6th March at the VUE Leicester Square, running from 7-9pm, followed by drinks. Registrations will start at 6:15pm so try to get there early to avoid queues.
Framestore Industry Coaching for Escapees
We believe it's crucial for students to not just have a thorough knowledge of work flow and software, but also understand the VFX industry and pipeline where they will work. So during their course we invite established post production houses to coach them, this means they get direct feedback on their work from respected VFX supervisors.
News Round-Up: Monday 27th Feb 2012
It's the time of the week when I share with you the news that picked my interest over the last seven days. This time, there are the following goodies on offer: a cool making of from Framestore, some great new tutorials, a trailer of Pixar's "Brave", a new trailer for Spiderman and lots of education news related to Michael's latest announcements regarding education reforms.
Week 04: All Tapped out but Ready to Roll
After last week’s fruity frolics and forays into furniture, we began week four of our Maya Course finishing the seat cover of our poly modelled chair. The back row gang was complete again as our comrade James returned as he was unable to attend last week’s lessons. He was gutted to miss the chair making exercise, because he’s a budding furniture designer now hoping to get an internship at a London studio, and believes learning Maya will boost his creative potential.
News Round-Up: Monday 20th Feb 2012
After an absence of a week, I am back again with my usual digest of news. This week, we have some great showreels from the likes of Pixomondo, a great trailer from Spiderman and even some tutorials.
A Modern Soundtrack for a Restored Classic!
Last weekend I stumbled across an album cover with the VES (Visual Effects Society) logo on it. For those of you who don’t know, the current logo for the VES is the iconic image of the moon from the film Le Voyage dans la Lune (A Trip to the Moon), a 16 minute black and white silent film from 1902. It was a revolutionary film for its time, being not only the first sci-fi but also using special effects that were very high tech at the turn of the century. Though the film was distributed predominately in black and white there was also a hand-coloured version that was thought to be lost for quite some time until the only surviving print was found in Spain in 1993.
Calling all Maya Artists!
NVIDIA very recently put out a call for Maya artists to submit new models to be considered and potentially used as benchmarks for Autodesk’s Maya. NVIDIA developed a CUDA plug-in for Maya that delivers fluid simulation, hence their involvement in this. For more details on that, check out this demo.