Jon Wadelton at The Foundry was kind enough to keep giving us more information about NUKE 6.3. You can read what he had to say about the future of NUKE when he spoke to me last week.
The Telegraph Interviews Escapee Alex Swan
Louisa Peacock, the Jobs Editor at The Telegraph, recently interviewed one of our escapees who is working as a compositor at Framestore. Alex Swann loves his job and explained what a day in the life of a compositor entails – everything from roto all the way through to rig removal.
Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, Visits Escape Studios
Dom, Mark and I were delighted to play hosts to Ed Vaizey – the UK Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries – yesterday.
Memories of Digital Media World...
I had an email reminder today that Siggraph is less than two weeks away. It got me thinking about travel and how many of us probably miss the good old days when we would all go to Siggraph on our annual trip. These days, we are not only too busy, it's also harder to justify when all the information we could only find in trade shows is now available at our finger tips on the Internet.
For some reason 'Digital Media World' popped into my head. Is anyone old enough to remember DMW? It was THE show to be at in Europe and was held in London every November. It was the trade show part of an awards ceremony called LEAF. I did a quick Google search, but couldn't actually find any links to DMW that I could point you towards - it's obviously that long ago!
IKinema Provide New Game Animation Experience
I’ve been looking at the latest version of IKinema, and I reckon those of you out there who work on game animation might want to take a look at it. If you don’t know what IKinema is, the official marketing description is “A full-body animation technology that allows effortless run-time control of characters during game play to achieve full adaptation to a scene giving users a new game animation experience”.
The CG Industry Needs You
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how buoyant the VFX industry is and how Senior NUKE Compositors are in high demand. Well, the surge in demand for mid-level and senior artists is continuing. With some of the biggest releases for 2011 and 2012 (films like The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn and War Horse) being worked on in London's Soho, the post houses have never been busier.
Industry Coaching Diary of Compositing Escapee Húni Húnfjörð
Our mentored program for our classroom students is moving on a pace, and I am pleased to report that another one of our compositing classes is being mentored by Ben Owen at MPC.
What Happened at the London RenderMan UGM
We hosted the much-anticipated London Pixar RenderMan User Group Meeting last week, and all I can say is that it was pretty packed.
Jon Wadelton at The Foundry Talks About What's New in NUKE 6.3
I met up with Jon Wadelton at The Foundry a few days ago and we had a chat about what's new in NUKE 6.3. Here's what he had to say.
The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
I noticed this cool little project knocking around the web and just couldn't resist sharing it with you.
Lucian Freud Dies at 88
A great artist died yesterday and whilst his death has nothing whatsoever to do with the world of CG and VFX, I thought many of you would be mourning the death of this great artist.
Reporting Back on HP7 in 3D
Last weeks I wrote about Harry Potter and asked you whether or not you would be watching the last instalment it in 3D (The Harry Potter finale: 2D or 3D?). Many of you replied back through Facebook and on this blog – thanks to all of you who took the time to do so.
Farewell to Potter
It wouldn't be right to let Potter go by and not say a word about it?
Personally I loved it - the early days especially and finally HP7 which was amazing, even in 3D!
And for all our friends in Soho, it's also an end to something which has played a major part in the rise and growth of VFX in the UK. The Industry would have survived and prospered without it but I am not sure it would have had the meteoric rise it did if ILM had not passed the work over to this side of the Atlantic...
An Evening with NUKE & MARI in London
We’re going to be hosting an event with The Foundry and Hewlett Packard called An Evening with NUKE and MARI in London on August 18th. The event is designed for professional artists who want to take a peek at the new features of NUKE, NUKEX and the newly launched bridge between NUKE and MARI. It will definitely be exciting to see first hand all that’s new in these products.
NUKE 6.3 is Released
The Foundry just released NUKE 6.3 and there’s a lot of new stuff in the product. They’ve taken product development in a direction that allows users in all VFX industries to partake in the benefits of the product. NUKE is no longer just built for artists in the film industry, it is built to create highly visual commercials with the functionality that it now has.
Escape Studios First in the UK to Teach NUKE to MARI Bridge
I have just finished a great week teaching MARI to our new Compositing Professional class. I took them through UVing in Maya, and then taught them how to get to grips with MARI. As part of the curriculum, I also included for the first time the brand new NUKE to MARI bridge which makes the process of taking camera projections from Nuke to Mari and baking projections to UV space much quicker and more flexible.
Escapee Chris Mulcaster Talks About His Job at Cinesite
Chris Mulcaster is a great example of someone who got to where he wanted to be through hard work and determination. Chris studied our VFX Production course and it gave him all of the skills he needed to secure a job in the VFX Industry. But he didn't just study the course, he poured his heart and soul into it. This is the sort of dedication which pushes you to achieve great things and which sets you apart in a very competitive industry.
Globalisation of the VFX Industry
How VFX artists can seize the opportunities of this changing landscape
GRAPHIC Animation Competition at the Sydney Opera House
Those of you starting out in the CG industry may be interested to know that the Sydney Opera House is currently running an animation competition.
Happiness Versus Pay
A couple of weeks ago, we launched our Creative Features Report which looks at how much creative people value training.