I have been looking at Maya to Mantra today, and thought: "Great! Means that sometime soon we'll be able to try out Houdini's Mantra Renderer in Maya".
Terrence Malick: Visionary Genius or Boring Pseud?
His films certainly divide modern critics and audiences alike, which is perhaps no surprise. In a Hollywood saturated with formulaic product for multiplex audiences, his films are an anomaly, breaking from a conventional narrative and featuring extended, languid shots of the natural world that often serve to emphasise his character's - and therefore Man's - insignificance in the face of events.
Free Maya Tutorial - Creating Realistic Materials
If you want to replicate the complexity of real world objects, you need to create materials that mimic them and this month's free tutorial will show you exactly how to do that. A car body is made up of lots of materials or layers, like metal and paint. If you want to create a rusty car you'll need more materials to create the common signs of deterioration. Many Maya users will be familiar with the 'layered shader' and 'layered texture' nodes. This tutorial asks what happens if you are using the MIA material and rendering in Mental Ray.
New Bridge Between MARI and NUKE
I’ve just finished speaking with Jack Greasley at The Foundry. He shared some interesting information about the latest version of MARI and the bridge between NUKE and MARI. See what he had to say…
The Harry Potter finale: 2D or 3D?
After years of waiting, Harry Potter finally nears the end with the last instalment which premiered in London last week. Warner Brothers' decision to convert the final Harry Potter film into a 3D format left many of us concerned the magic would be lost.
Massive Savings on NUKE and MARI
Most compositors out there want to be using NUKE, and those who are would love to be using NUKEX. Now's the time to update your workflow and take advantage of these special promotions by The Foundry for their award winning NUKEX and MARI products.
Hollywood Composer Hans Zimmer on Writing for 3D
Behind every great director is a great composer; where Steven Spielberg had John Williams and Sergio Leone had Ennio Morricone, it might be said that Christopher Nolan has Hans Zimmer.
A Crowded Market?
For many years now Massive has owned the crowd sim market space, especially at the high end of VFX. Of course some of the larger post-houses have written their own tools, but the availability of any other commercially viable product has been limited.
Private Colleges Set to Undercut on Tuition Fees
Did any of you read this recent story (Private college undercuts on tuition fees) published on the BBC? If you haven’t, it basically focused on the emergence of competition in the education sector from private colleges. The journalist, Sean Coughlan, took the example of the ifs College of Finance in London who recently announced that they would be charging fees of £5,750 to £6,000 per year.
Animation Escapee Becomes a Ninja
Another escapee from our Character Animation Course has just secured a position in the games industry. Congratulations to Pedro Cabeleira who began an internship this week at Ninja Theory in Cambridge, working on Cinematics for one of their new games.
My Animation Talk at Annecy
The Animation Festival ‘Annecy’ invited me to give a talk about my career as an animator and to lift the lid on a few Animation Mysteries as well. As much as I love working at Escape Studios, it was great to talk about my life as a freelance animator and some of the jobs that have shaped my career like ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ and ‘The Lion King’. It was also nice to see that people were interested in this too!
New: Key Compositing Concepts Webinar
There are some key compositing concepts that every artist just starting out in the industry should know about. That’s why I have decided to put this webinar together. I will walk you through those concepts, concentrating on a shot that involves Roto, Paint and Rig removal. This is something that I cover in great detail in the Compositing for Production Course that I teach at Escape Studios. I teach about all the techniques that our students will be required to use when they get a job in the industry. This practical knowledge is essential and my aim for this webinar is to give you a taste of these techniques helping you to stand apart from the competition.
3D Creative Director at The Mill Comes to Escape
We’re getting pretty excited here at Escape Studios and looking forward to July 12th, when 3D Creative Director at The Mill, Jordi Bares, will be taking part in our special VFX Open Day.
