If we are watching a live action film with actors, it’s very rare that one of the main character features we concentrate on is the hair. Occasionally a judgemental comment of whether it looks good or not is thrown out there but that’s the extent of it. The average viewer will fail to notice if the colour looks wrong in one of the scenes or that it doesn’t look realistic enough.
Next Generation Of Sony Entertainment
Huge news was announced this morning that SCE (or Sony Computer Entertainment to those of you not familiar with the Sony department responsible for all things Playstation and games) has purchased the online gaming streaming company GaiKai for $380 million.
Can You ‘Recall’ The Original?
Yes, I really went there. A new trailer has been released for the updated version of Total Recall, and gone are the days of Arnie showing his rippling torso and basking in the limelight. This adaptation follows Doug Quaid (Colin Farrell) on his quest to find something better than his current life. After discovering ‘Rekall’, and being warned against it, he decides to rebel (against the norm, funnily enough) and visit the place regardless. This results in Doug Quaid having to question everything to try discover what is, and isn’t, real. The film boasts robots, a futuristic (yet dark) London and a whole lot of CG from MPC, Double Negative and Prime Focus. So from an industry point of view, it's definitely going to be worth a watch.
Studio Secrets Come Out From The Shadows
During it’s opening weekend, Dark Shadows topped just over $29million at the Box Office. This may not be up to the usual par of some of Johnny Depp’s films but the CG within the film didn’t fail to impress once again.
Creative Skillset Short Course Approval
We’ve just had some exciting news from the lovely people at Creative Skillset. The creative industries’ sector skills council are currently running a pilot scheme for short courses that provide training in areas such as TV, film, radio, interactive media, animation, computer graphics, facilities, photo imaging, publishing, advertising and fashion & textiles. By making training in these areas more readily available, they hope to open up these industries and create a more diverse pool of talent right here in the UK. And we’re delighted to play a part in that ambition.
Spider Senses Are Tingling
Last Monday night saw the premiere of the The Amazing Spiderman in Leicester square. Whilst the premieres are continuing elsewhere around the globe I thought I’d bring you a bit of information as to why we at Escape are excited for the latest installment from the Spiderman franchise.
B Movie Box Office
Last week was an interesting week for movie fans. Our prayers were answered when Michael Bay's production of Ninja Turtles was shut down (he decided that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles should be neither mutants nor teenagers, apparently, and the world decided to hate him). The Amazing Spiderman had it's London Premiere, another 45 minutes worth of TV spots for The Dark Knight Rises were released and the world was given Abraham Lincoln; Vampire Hunter.
Are You 'Dredd'ing It?
Usually, comic book adaptations tend to be successful at the box office; Spiderman, Batman, The Hulk, The Avengers to name a few. However, there are exceptions; Green Lantern, Elektra and of course, Judge Dredd. Judge Dredd looked promising, we all love a bit of Stallone but the actual outcome, to put it nicely, didn’t quite live up to expectations.
Time to HUG London
We are really pleased to announce HUG London, the first ever HIERO User Group in London to celebrate The Foundry’s shot management, conform and review tool.
E3, On The Flip Side
As shown in this real time tech demo by Epic Games Unreal Engine 4, there are a host of improvements coming to the next generation of console and PC games. These are notably, real time dynamic lighting and particle effects as well as massive improvements to the UDK itself, enabling developers to leverage all these improvements much easier and faster. Then, just to show off Square-Enix, creaters of the hugely popular Final Fanstasy series, go and show what their latest real time tech is made of, and that really is impressive.
Stop, Motion Time
Some of you may have read the Frankenweenie blog from last week, well, after doing a little research on the film myself I came across this video that I think anyone who is interested in the film, the director, or stop motion should watch.
Escapee Showreel - Ewan Armstrong
Having previously worked in the games industry and studied Computer Games Art at degree level, Ewan Armstrong wanted to broaden his skill set to make the transition into film and TV media. Ewan made the decision to study at Escape because he saw an opportunity to fill the gaps in his knowledge on production rendering techniques, camera tracking and compositing, all while being in an environment closely linked to the VFX industry.
Watch This Space
The Halla Stulecia in Wrocław, Poland is an almost 100 year old dome designed by legendary architect Max Berg and was built to commemorate the 1813 war of liberation against Napoleon. Almost a century on, members of the visual arts label AntiVJ have transformed the 65 foot concrete dome into what they call O (Omicron). O is a cinematic installation that paints the hall's intricate contours with the stark, pulsing lights of a futuristic starship.
The Return of Mike Wazowski
Many of you will know who I’m referring to if I mention Sulley, Boo and Mike Wazowski. If you don’t, shame on you. They are, of course, the main characters from Disney’s Monsters Inc. The film won an Oscar, a BAFTA and a variety of other awards for its storyline, music and character animation. So if you haven’t seen it, invest, as it’s definitely worth a watch.
HIERO 1.0V3
The Foundry has just released the latest update of their cross-platform timeline-based application, HIERO for Mac and Linux.
All Fear Frankenweenie!
Tim Burton is one of my favourite directors, with my favourite animation film of all time (so far) being The Nightmare Before Christmas. Nearly every film he has done I’ve loved, whether it’s Batman Forever, Corpse Bride or my favourite. Everything about the films scream his trademark ‘look’, from the plots and animation to his infamous dark twists which make him so easily recognisable. It won’t come as a shock to you then, that his latest film, Frankenweenie, is no different.
The Summer Must-See Movies Take 2
I have already aired my excitement over the new Batman film The Dark Knight Rises in yesterday's blog. However, after searching through more of the summer "must see" films on IGN I came across another film I am excited to see; Ted.
Gamers Paradise: What Should we be Getting Excited About?
Epic Games released this trailer of the Unreal Game Engine at the E3 Festival last a few weeks back and it got me thinking, what else can we look forward to seeing this year?
The Summer Must-See Movies
Whilst scrolling through the IGN website I stumbled across a page that I wanted to share with you all, even if it is just a check list! IGN has released their list of top summer movies for 2012 and, although many of them have been released (and you can cross them off on your check list), there are still plenty of brilliant CG films being released over the upcoming months.
An Incredible Day at the VES Career Fair
Over the weekend we attended the London VES Career Fair & Tech Expo, and let’s just say it put Love Box to shame with the numbers who turned out for the event itself! Queues of aspiring VFX artists patiently lining up to speak to representatives from some of the world’s greatest post houses, including ILM, Framestore, Pixomondo, Method Studios, Cinesite, Prime Focus and Disney, really highlighted just how much competition there is to get your foot on the first rung of the ladder in the world of Visual Effects.