The legend that created the lab process of travelling mattes, (that’s blue/green screens to the rest of us) sadly passed away last week, at the grand age of 96.
An Insight to Industrial Light and Magic
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
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!
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!
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.
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.
WFTV: Women in Technology Networking
A big thank you to the ladies from WFTV (Women in Film and TV) for organising a networking event last night for women who work in technical roles across film and television. Three of us (Davi Stein, Anita Gribble and myself) from Escape went along to see what was going down! We had a great time meeting women from lots of different fields. Among them was a DOP, a few editors and to our delight two effects TD’s from MPC.
Truly EPIC God of War trailer
We were enticed this week when we saw this epic live action trailer for Sony’s game ‘God of War: Ascension’, It was made by creative studio and production company ‘Imaginary Forces’, a firm who have worked on a huge amount of projects, spanning from commercial work to television and film,
Google Chrome, Powerade, Transformers, Minority Report, and Boardwalk Empire, are but a few of their accolades to date. Impressive stuff!
If the game is half as epic as this evocative ad, viewers will no doubt want to get playing right away!
It's paper, but not as you know it...
