Feb
18
Brainstorm Digital
Posted in: 1Brainstorm Digital’s website has some before and after clips for Frost/Nixon, Syncedoche, Burn After Reading and other films.
Feb
18
Hey guys, I like this effect and I’ve been playing around with footage and 3d stuff lately so i wouldn’t mind trying to figure out the workflow for this effect
http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/…st-experience/
basically the street changes from new to old kinda like transforms, the road turns into a brick road etc
I’m gonna give it a go in a few weeks when i finish my current vfx shot.
cheers.
Feb
18
Valerie Pirson : Coca-Cola “Two Guys”
Posted in: coke, Commercial, funny, General, live action, pixilation, stop action
Partizan’s Valerie Pirson (commercial reel) put her analogue sensibilities to good use in this chuckle-worthy spot for Coca-Cola and agency Weiden+Kennedy Portland. Using a grab-bag of stop-action techniques, Valerie pumped personality into the spot’s lo-fi aesthetics.
Stimmung’s Skeleton Suit enchanced the tongue-in-cheek melodrama with some great sound design, and Brand New School’s graphics are the tasteful cherry on top.
Posted on Motionographer
Feb
18
Creativity Day 2009
Posted in: after effects, codice sconto, creativity day, milano, Spot NewsCreativity Day 2009
Il Creativity Day è un giorno pensato per i creativi del digitale, con un fitto programma di seminari, esposizioni e performance artistiche. L’evento è programmato per il 25 Febbraio 2009 a Milano.
Il giorno seguente, il 26 Febbraio, ci saranno dei corsi intensivi, tra cui anche The day After… Effects, dedicato interamente ad Adobe After Effects CS4.
Feb
18
Skin replacement
Posted in: Training Discussions and Tips!Hello all,
I was wondering if anyone had some tips and advice on a skin replacement effect i’m trying to do for a university project.
In this test video I’ve used PS to cut out a part of the face, retouched the eye and then placed that as a material in C4D with camera tracking done in PFTrack.
To be honest i’ve thrown myself in the deep end and I’m looking to see if there are more productive and better ways than what i’ve been doing. As you can see the blend isn’t quite perfect as it is only one image.
While this is a test i’d like to cover the whole face with skin, like the effect in the Matrix with neo’s mouth although it doesn’t have to close.
I’ve also looked at modeling a mesh of the face and blending that in, am I on the right path? I guess it’s a mix of what is possible for me to achieve and what looks good 🙂
Cheers and what a great community!
Feb
18
Freelance artists x-image
Posted in: Freelancer ListingsHey ,
We are freelancers from Bulgaria and working together over 4 years. Our team has spent years working together and continues toi develop digital solutions.If you interesting about our work please feedback to email: contacts@x-imagebg.com
portfolio web site – http://www.x-imagebg.com/x1.html
Greetings
x-image team
Feb
18
[NEWS=”http://www.cgnews.com/wp-content/uploads/special_guest_thumb.jpg”]18710[/NEWS]Special Guest, the multi-talented sibling of 1st Avenue Machine, recently summed up the company’s eclectic creative spirit with an 80-second stop-motion style animated film entitled “Special Guest: The Journey.” The film is the debut for the studio’s newest addition, Director Vinicius Costa. In the studio’s tradition of having new directors create a film based on their idea of The Special Guest, Vinicius Costa created “Special Guest: The Journey” The film employs the metaphor of travel using a neatly-packed suitcase to reveal the company’s diverse and multi-faceted capabilities.
“I was visiting New York on business, and saw an interesting book on perfect packing,” says the Brazil-based Costa. “It occurred to me that just looking at someone’s luggage could tell you a lot about the owner’s personality. The idea stayed with me, and I started thinking of Special Guest as a suitcase full of unique techniques, options, and creative styles, all right there for the taking.”
Opening with a full-screen shot of neatly folded shirts and other apparel, “Special Guest: The Journey” widens out to reveal the scene on a t-shirt. A pair of arms reach forward to deftly fold the t-shirt and place it in a suitcase. As the camera pans to the left, the suitcase extends to reveal a wide variety of brightly patterned shirts.
The shot continues smoothly as the patterns begin to interact with one another. A chest pocket opens like a door before emitting a long blue ribbon which just as quickly becomes a roadway complete with moving cars. Surrounding patterns spring to life, revealing moving airplanes and trains, as cars attempt to park between the black keys on a keyboard. The scene changes to one of dimly illuminated space before changing utterly to reveal a doorknob.
“In keeping with the theme of luggage and travel, I started working with hotel elements,” says Costa. “I came up with a doorknob tag in the shape of a G, sort of like a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign. I knew I had an important symbol that would connect the video together.”
Drawing out from the doorknob, viewers are presented with a tiny person ready to enter a tiny doorway on the giant doorknob. As the door opens, the epic music swells and the camera drifts upwards to reveal a colorful, whimsical environment that seems equal parts Salvador Dali and Monty Python. Brilliantly colored, illustrative images combine with flying beds and pink jellyfish, and precede a cartoon-like rendering of the company name backed by rays of heavenly light puncturing clouds. No sooner is the scene complete than the camera pulls back to reveal a Special Guest t-shirt, which is duly folded and placed in a suitcase, bringing “Special Guest: The Journey” to a close.
“While in New York, I also saw the incredible Salvador Dali show at the Museum of Modern Art,” says Costa. “It blew me away and inspired me to combine my illustrative techniques with elements of surrealism. Back in Brazil, I enlisted the help of my colleagues at Studio Animatorio to put all of this together. It was a big challenge, because we used so many techniques and styles to create a very unusual scene. I wanted all the elements to be realistic in their interactions with each other, but I also wanted a playful feel. In the end, the film is so packed with details that it needs repeated viewings. Since it begins and ends with the same shot, I liked the feeling of it turning into an infinite loop, a symbol of Special Guest’s renewable talent.”
ABOUT SPECIALGUEST
Based in Manhattan, SpecialGuest is a new creative studio stemming from the talented minds of New York’s 1st Avenue Machine (www.1st-ave-machine.com ). SpecialGuest’s declared commitment is to create more tactile animation that is both funny and weird. SpecialGuest brings a light touch to a wide range of organic animation techniques and styles. More information may be found at www.specialguest.tv
RELATED LINKS
www.specialguest.tv
www.1stavemachine.com
Feb
18
[NEWS=”http://www.cgnews.com/wp-content/uploads/asylum_lg_thumb.jpg”]18709[/NEWS]In Vase :30 we find ourselves in a white minimalist space that is representative of inside of the vacuum. The conspicuous shards of glass and splatters of paint are exhibited in a dance against the suction power pulling them in the same direction, before being condensed into one multihued glass vase. As we move away from the vase and out of the vacuum, we see a woman tidying up and dispensing of the conveniently compressed dirt. Asylum, under Mark Romanek’s direction, conceptualized and created the metaphoric world inside the LG vacuum.
This spot was done in close collaboration with BBH/NY and Mark Romanek from Anonymous. Aside from the live action pullout shot of the lady vacuuming, the entire spot was created in CG.
From Asylum’s Sean Faden:
“Asylum faced a number of unique challenges in bringing LG’s Vase to life, including an all CG environment, tremendous amounts of fluid and dynamic simulations, and an abstract story needing to be told within the limited time of a 30 second spot. Due to the open-ended nature of an all CG piece, the progression from storyboards to previs to final renders took Asylum’s team through multiple concepts of how the paint should flow, how dynamic the cameras should be, and how architectural the environments should read.
The camera work was tricky because the shots needed to look as if they were actually shootable on a partial set, while at the same time giving as much screen presence to the fluids as possible. Thankfully, it was agreed upon at an early stage that the camera’s movement would gradually increase as the story progressed- which gave the animators a rough rule of thumb to follow. Also difficult was figuring out how to actually form the final vase while demonstrating a consistent compaction across the final moments.
Early tests had more of jigsaw puzzle build with swirling liquids mixed in, but in the end, the pieces were made to collide and compress while scaling down as they hit each other. Additionally, a fluid vase slowly swells up from the center giving the illusion that the vase is growing from the continual flow towards its center.
Asylum had developed a lot of fluid tools within Maya and RealFlow on Benjamin Button, and used many of them to achieve the paint flows that are seen. Also utilized were Houdini’s fluid tools when the shot called for glass penetrating fluid. All of the glass was actually Houdini based dynamic simulations that allowed the pieces to realistically bounce off of one another and their environment. The simulations on average took about half a day to run, and over the course of the production, Asylum’s effects team ran a few hundred of them, trying to get the perfect movement for each shot.
While in general it is useful to mix practical and cg elements to create an effect such as this, it is notable that in the end, due to animation constraints and look requirements, there were no practical elements employed to create the effects. As a result, with each iteration of lighting, animation, and compositing the spot eventually came to life- a testament to the patience of all involved.”
About Asylum:
Asylum is a premier visual effects and design company, handling high-profile features, commercials, music videos, and emerging media content for web and mobile platforms. Asylum created the visual effects for such films as Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World (Academy Award and BAFTA nominated), Moulin Rouge, Minority Report, Phantom Of The Opera, Pirates Of The Caribbean ll & lll, Mel Gibsons’s Apocalypto, Tony Scott’s Déjà Vu, Man on Fire & Domino and Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down. Asylum has done spot work for brands such as Nike, Sony Playstation, Coke, BMW, Gatorade and Visa.
In addition, Asylum Design has created award winning title and graphic design work for such films as Tim Burton’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, X-Men I & II, The Island, Bad Boys II and XXX.
The Creds:
Client: LG
Spot Title: Vase
Air Date: January 09
Agency: BBH, NY
CD: Dylan Bernd
AD: Thompson Harrell
Copywriter: Nike Zafonte
Sr. Producer: Julian Katz
Prod Company: Anonymous Content
Director: Mark Romanek
EP/Head of Commercials: Dave Morrison
Head of Production: Sue Ellen Clair
Producer: Scott Kaplan
Post/Effects: Asylum
VFX Supervisor: Sean Faden
EP: Michael Pardee
Compositing Supervisor: Tim Davies
CG Supervisor: Jason Schugardt
CG Producer: Jeff Werner
Producer: Mark Allen Kurtz
Production Coordinator: Diana Cheng
3D Modeling Artist(s): Greg Stuhl, Aaron Vest, Toshiro Sakamaki
3D Particle Animation: Jens Zalzala
3D Look Development: Mathew Maude
3D Particle Effects: Gunther Schatz, Beatriz Lorenzo
3D Lead Lighting: Brian Bell
3D Lighting: Dan Abrams, Bret St. Clair
3D Tracking: Eddie Offermann
Feb
18
Rhino : Re-brands
Posted in: 1NY, NY based Rhino launched a new site, new reel and completely rebrands for 2009 …”Nearing a decade in the advertising and entertainment business, the entire team at rhinofx is pleased to announce that the studio is dropping off the f and x and changing its name to Rhino. A year after uniting with Gravity, […]
Feb
18
thinkFA : Free Association
Posted in: 1Free Association, a Digital Agency based in DUMBO, brooklyn … recently launched a fresh new site with alot of great work: www.thinkFA.com
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