Bit off more than I can chew

Ok, I think I have bit off more than I can chew. Here is my dilemma. I figured out exactly what I want to do (Or so I think), I want to be a compositor and visual effects artist. I want to do these effects:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWpHRwkBLUo – I want to create these effects, and composite them (Green fire, fire snake, magic)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_OtbXmu9kg I want to be able to create the meteor and composite it perfectly (Meteor, fire, smoke, Composite)

I could go on, but I think you guys get the idea. My problem is this, I cant seem to focus on the craft. My plan is to get really good with AE, then move onto NUKE, or some other node based software. Along side the compositing part, I want to get more involved with boujou. And to top it off I want to learn the effects part of Maya.
But Im not exactly sure where my focus is. As of now, I don’t wanna make the next toy story, I don’t wanna make the transformers models. I want to do the effects and compositing. I DO understand that all of these takes entire teams of people doing their own part. But when it comes to learning the 3d elements, what do I learn?

Im sure its good to learn most of the 3d basics, which I do. But for what I want to do, what areas do I need to focus most on? For example, to create the ocean or lasers, Im sure I don’t need to master rigging and lighting. Im assuming lighting and particles? That’s the thing I don’t know. There are millions of tutorials out there, and Im just not sure what the heck I need to learn. As of now,

As of now, Im a nobody. So Id like to start out small, and work my way up. With that, I know maya somewhat, what parts of maya should I put most of my focus on? For small video stuff, should I even give Blender a try? How is its particles and dynamics? Or am I missing out on learning 3ds Max? I know so little, I would like advice from anyone on what tutorials I should take and which I don’t need just yet, in order to be somewhat proficient in my goals. If anyone has any suggestions on specific tutorials that would be much appreciated as well.

The Foundry’s 2009 Nuke Roadmap

The first ever Nuke master class in London was held in Soho today and over 200 artists from all around Europe attended the event. The session was definitely geared towards artist-types and started with the Foundry’s Jon Waddleton covering python scripting for artists. There were also a ton of cool tips and tricks shown by Nuke gizmos guru Frank Rueter and artists Tahl Niran and Matt Leonard (favorites of fxphd.com members). Double Negative’s Roy Stelzer showed cool techniques for touchup relighting in 2.5D, with a nod to efficient irradiance environment maps developed by Ramamoorthi and Hanrahan. It was really a great session with a ton of fantastic tips and ideas.

For more information : http://www.fxguide.com/qt/694/the-fo…9-nuke-roadmap

Uninvited fx

div xmlns=http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtmlpa href=http://vfxworld.com/?atype=articlesid=3894The Uninvited Comes to CIS Vancouver/a, at VFXWorld./p/div

Connecting nodes issue

Hi, i make connections via publish the transformations of a node to another node to follow his animation, But the connection works in both directions. I wanna make connections like "parent-child" in after effects. I wanna move a node without affecting the other node (like move the child node without affecting the parent, move the parent yes affects the child). Anyone knows how? Sorry my bad english. Thanks

Motion Path in 3D

Hi, sorry my english i´m from Argentina, anyone knows how can i see the motion path of an animation in the 3d space? thanks!

mpg2 hddv to avid

hi guy i shoot somr staf on hdtv 1080 but since avid does not take that file, and i have to convert it to quick time, what program can i use. I was using sorensom squize but its dam slow it takes to long, is there out there somthing faster and i dont want to lose any quality here since i will be using this for cg. I was thinking of using free trial of adobe premiere to import it and then export it as tiff uncopresed any sugestions would help.

Thansk

Basic question about b/w mattes

I’m reading a book on basic composting and wanted to duplicate a simple matte process in Nuke. There is a background image (bricks), a foreground image (graphic for a tv show), and a simple black/white radial gradient with black as the see-thru area in the middle. All three images where made in Photoshop and output as TIFF (rgb) with no alpha channel.

The matte (a black/white (rgb) radial gradient) is merged multiplied with the background. The same matte is inverted and merged multiplied with the foreground.
The outputs of the two merge multiplied are merged over for the final image.

I achieved what I wanted but have to wonder what the NUKE solution would look like. I mean, I must be doing this the hard way. I’ve tried working with masks but could not come up with an easier method. Thank you.

Attached are the node graph and final output.

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January CGW covers Button, Despereaux

The January 2009 issue of Computer Graphics World (in electronic print form here) covers The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Tale of Despereaux.

Yuval and Merav Nathan for Oren Lavie

her_morning_elegance

I know this piece has been up for close to a week now. However, after some great feedback across the board, I’ve decided to upgrade to a full-post.

If you haven’t already, check out Yuval and Merav Nathan’s video for Oren Lavie’s song, Her Morning Elegance. This delicately choreographed film is a perfect example of how stop-motion can continue to be a fresh technique when backed by a strong narrative, thoughtful details and a bit of personal flare. Also take notice of this piece’s relatively one-shot approach and beautifully executed animation; a by product of pre-vis using 3d dummies during pre-production.


Credits
Directors: Yuval & Merav Nathan, Oren Lavie
Producer: Michal Dayan
Photography: Eyal Landesman
Animation: Yuval Nathan
Assistant Animators: Guy Ben Shitrit, Tamar Nathan
Actress: Shir Shomron

Posted on Motionographer

Yuval and Merav Nathan for Oren Lavie

Eric Durst interview

fxguidetv interviews vfx supe Eric Durst and showcases Levi’s 501 spec spot by director Paul Schneider.