From This Window

Looking for a little help

At the moment i am working on creating realistic grass with stiff-like motion as the wind blows through. Im trying to use softbodies for my effect atm but… i was wondering if there is an easier/better way to achieve this effect. Each piece of grass is modeled out of polys and textured because of how close the grass is to the camera. Any kind of advise would be helpful, ty.

Here is what im going for to help you to better understand the shot.

Harrington meets Arkitip


Steven Harrington from Arkitip, Inc. on Vimeo.

Nice behind the scenes video of how (and where) Stephen works. For his new product range at Arkitip

Download DVD to PC -upload clips to After Effects-Which file format is best/lossless?

I’m working with After Effects on a PC, and I’ve encountered a problem with the type of file formats that After Effects CS3 accepts.

I’d like to download a DVD onto my computer’s harddrive and then import clips/sequences from it into AE. (I have a DVD of an old film that was missing some effects due to the producer’s lack of budget, and I’ve gotten the original storyboards and thought it would be fun to recreate those "missing effects" and matte paintings & edit these back into the movie).

The download from the DVD is in vob format (uncompressed 1:1 – I used DVD Shrink) and I’m trying to convert these files into a format After Effects will accept. I’m searching for a format where the conversion is lossless/without compression (the imagery from the DVD is poor enough & I don’t wish to make it any worse).

Would you have any suggestions on this? Thanks for all your help!

Lighting TD Required

hi all

i am looking for a lighting td to light and render a 3d lion in maya for a tv commercial.
kindly get in touch with me at amarssadal at gmail dot com if interested.
this is a paid job.

thanks

Ring of Fire Studios seeks Fur FX TD

Ring of Fire Studios, Santa Monica, is seeking an experienced Fur FX TD with a background in Houdini. Artist must have 2+ years minimum of Houdini production experience.

• Experience creating dynamic hair/fur required.
• Hair/fur grooming experience required.
• Lighting experience required.
• Python scripting experience required.
• VEX experience a plus.

Please forward resume and/or links to reel to: rof_hr@ringoffire.com

Please put "HOUDINI" in the subject heading of your email response.

Artist must be based in Los Angeles.

No phone calls please.

Thank you.

Ring of Fire Studios
www.ringoffire.com

mask blurring question

Hi, ive got an issue when blurring a mask with a blur node. Adding blur through the mask node doesnt seem to look right to me, so i usually throw a blur node after a bezier node. If my mask goes off screen though the blur will blur in from off screen based on the frame size and not the size of the bezier. Is there an easy workaround for this?

10bit LOG TV Comps with 8bit LIN footage.

Hey I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions…

I have 10bit LOG TV Plates, to have Linear Footage comped onto them. I need to have the color space of the LINEAR footage somewhat be similar to the LOG, then render out all LOG DPX files to be filmed out.

So I have the LOG Backgrounds. Then I can take the LINEAR footage and do an INVERSE PRIMATTE LUT, to mix with the LOG. Also maybe an inverse custom LUT?

Any suggestions?

Guilherme Marcondes Crafts Worlds for British Gas

british_gas_

Director Guilherme Marcondes recently completed a lovingly hand-crafted spot for British Gas with Hornet. Guilherme’s unique artistic and directorial vision – evident from his short-films and now increasing commissioned projects (which you can view on his website) – is evolving in exciting ways with each new project he releases.

The press release from Hornet reveals more about this particular spot:

The idea for this British Gas spot was to create a dreamlike environment, somewhere between day and night, a myriad of planets floating in a blend of outer space and open air. While most of the elements could have been digitally created, Guilherme wanted to maintain the warmth and real sense of the tactile environment. The technical details: the planets were built as practical scale models. Once built, stills and camera moves were shot of the planets. Sky and other animated elements were composited later to complete the look. The characters were animated as cut outs. The photographic caricatures of the people in the spot were precisely distorted to look real with a cartoony edge.

Check out some initial styleframes and making of photos on Guilherme’s Flickr page which give a welcome look behind the scenes. I discovered looking at the Flickr set that the blue planet was made of clay and had to be re-sculpted every frame to create the motion of the waves. You can tell alot of love went into this and it definitely pays off when seen in motion.

Since the client loved the end result, I hear there are plans to further explore the visual language and tone that Guilherme brought to life for this first spot. Bravo!

Credits

Posted on Motionographer

Guilherme Marcondes Crafts Worlds for British Gas

Earth Stood Still slideshow

A slideshow of images of Weta’s spaceship effects for The Day The Earth Stood Still, at Fast Company.