Happy up here – Röyksopp

C’è crisi dappertutto, ma in Norvegia – in realtà – son felici lo stesso. O almeno è ciò che affermano i Röyksopp con il titolo scelto per il singolo apripista di Junior, il loro nuovo album. Happy up here, diretto da Reuben Sutherland, regista con poche clips musicali alle spalle ma con una precisione tecnica ed una coerenza estetica di tutto rispetto. Il suo lavoro precedente per i The Doves, infatti, (Sky Starts Falling, del 2005) conteneva già alcuni elementi tipici del suo stile che ritroviamo adesso potenziati: la passione per le danze aeree, le coreografie rigorose, i dettagli curatissimi per la messa in scena d’un racconto d’ambiente verosimile.

Una buonissima combinazione di computer grafica effetti lo-fi e una massiccia esposizione agli arcade games.
Happy Up Here è retrò, è urbano, è luce, ma è molto più di queste singoli elementi. E’ un puzzle complesso che assume senso dopo diverse visioni. La suggestione space invaders è soltanto un canovaccio, l’elemento immediato: lo stile va ricercato altrove. Nel breve sussultare delle architetture, nelle transizioni sul lettering tipiche di tanta motiongraphics ma qui applicate alla realtà (seppur simulata), nelle tonalità ciano e verdi, desaturate, alle quali ci ha abituato la fotografia di paesaggio contemporanea.

Un piccolo gioiello, da esplorare con attenzione.

Articolo redatto da Didier Falzone e Stefano Paron

Superelectric : FOX Cult (sorry for the edits)

Dutch super duo Superelectric brought their blend of stop-motion and live action to these idents for FOX Cult.
Watch: Idents 1 | Idents 2

Terminator Salvation : new trailer

A new two and a half minute trailer for Terminator Salvation shows alot of VFX from the movie.

Interview with Feng Zhu

In this interview we will talk about Feng Zhu Design School in Singapore and take the tips for the artists

Making of the Alley

This image in 3ds max was created to be used as the front cover of a London based band Tabloid

World Crisis

Guys, it’s a hard time to be in vfx, in italy as well.
I wish you all a lot luck, i know i wish it for me and my company.
Today one of our steadier clients shut off. We weren’t paid from months ago.
We’ll make it, i’m sure, but it will be hard.
The market needs us postproductions, one way or another. I just hope client will realize that before forcing to drop the prices even more, because that’s a one way ticket. When the crisis will end, they’ll say "But you used to do that for a third of the price six months ago".
It’ up to us to modulate the quality vs time vs quantity, trying to achieve the best result we can staying always in the budget. If we start to sell ourself off now.. the thought makes me shiver a little.
Freelancers needs to be wary as well. They are the fresh air of the industry, and they play a big role as well in all of this.

Just wanted to rant a bit, sorry 🙂

Lighting Artist

This UK based studio specialise in design, still image and animation. They require a Lighting Artist to work onsite for 1-2 months. You will be expected to light animations using Maya and Mental Ray. Experience in Renderman would be a distinct advantage.

http://www.smoothdevil.com/index.php?page=job&job_id=818

closes: 30 Apr 2009

Star Wars

Hi:

Yes you have read correctly. We are on the road of making a Star Wars short film. Actually five of them!.
And as an Star Wars film, much of the weight will be taken by the visual effects technicians. That’s my part:

We need 3D modelers and texture artists. We have quite an interesting group of spaceships design by the art department in a entire new way.

This job is a not paid job and here are the facts about the why:

a) This is not another Star Wars fan film. The script has a seal of approval only given by Lucas Licensing. This means that they have read the script, and the have aprroved it. This is the only LEGAL WAY that you can be a holder of a license that let’s you use the characters, the planets, the names, the lightsabers in you short film without being demmanded by Lucas.

b) Once your approval is corfirmed, you agree to accept this clause: Lucas Licensing and Lucasfilm let’s you use all about the Star Wars universe, but you CAN’T EARN A PENNY for the use you gave to that. This means that all has to be NON-PROFIT.

I think that pretty much this explains why this is a non pais job.

But far beyond than cosidering this as a disadvantage, let’s turn all the cards face up. We must say that in our team, we have people awarded with a Goya, and some people awarded with an OSCAR. Yes your eyes don’t lie, we have people that have been recipients of an Academy Award, and they are working with us all in this complex beautifull project. And all to be told if there ever was a doubt, NONE OF US ARE GETTING PAID FOR THE JOB WE DO IN THIS PROJECT, AND THE GOYA WINNER AND THE OSCAR WINNERS ARE NOT BEING PAID ALSO. We are all in the same condittion, no favoritism in here.

This is a worldwide open position, it doesn’t matter where are you from nor where you live now. The work can be done at home. No presence is required.

So are you ready to join an Oscar Awarded team? If the answer is yes, send an email to this address:

lavalampara@gmail.com
Jon.B
Spain (Europe)

It’s gonna be big!

Yours,

Feb CGW

div xmlns=http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtmlpThe February 2009 a href=http://www.cgw.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=nm=type=Publishingmod=Publications%3A%3AArticlemid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791tier=2did=8E13A780488A4CBA930FC0B5B57D4B21dtxt=Volume:%2032%20Issue:%202%20(Feb.%202009)issue/a of Computer Graphics World covers Pixar and Disney short animated films, Ed Catmull and a Honda ad./p/div

OpenEXR information

Hello! I’m trying 3D out for the first time and rendering OpenEXR files out of Blender (that seems to be the only multilayer format it will export). I am testing these shots in Shake and wanted any pointers to tutorials on using this data.

I have 3 shapes set beside each other and a camera rotation around them.

I need to create depth of field within the shot. I have assigned the 5 channels RGBAZ accordingly in the FileIn Node and applied Zblur after that. I’ve adjusted all sliders but am not getting a change in the blur. All 3 objects are blurred the same amount. It’s like the Z depth is even across all 3 objects in the shot no matter what the position.

Besides playing with this shot, just making sure I understand the flies features/limitations will help. Any pointers (to tutorials/books) or tips would be great.

Thanks:splat: