Hasta La Motion!

Jul 13

Skew in Fusion ?

Posted in: Beginners Talk

Is there any shortcut key for skew to polygon of any kind of shape in Fusion 6?

Jul 13

ProRes QT export looks interlaced in FCP

Posted in: NUKE from The Foundry

Hi guys,

My job is pretty simple:
I have HD prores movs to import to Nuke, work on them and write them back to HD prores movs.

Sometimes (10% of the cases) Nuke adds some metadata to the finished movs, so in fcp they are handled as if they were interlaced. In fact they don’t look interlaced in quicktime player, but fcp adds some blur on the clips. This blur goes away if I set the interlacing to non in FCP, but comes back if I export and reimport this shot into fcp. As well as that damn interlaced setting.
The source clips aren’t interlaced either, they look just fine in fcp.

The same happens with every mov format. I can’t export anything else, because I’ll face with gamma issue then. What do you guys think?
Have you ever seen something like this before?

Thanks,

pH.

Jul 13

3D Generalist for Method Studios NYC

Posted in: The Job Lot

Based in Los Angeles, with locations in Vancouver, London and New York, Method is a leading post production facility providing a full range of visual effects services. As an artist driven company Method is built around an exceptional team of VFX professionals who have created award winning visual effects for Feature Film, Commercials and Music Videos.
Recent feature credits for Method include; Tree of Life, Captain America, Nightmare on Elm Street, Sorcerers Apprentice, Let Me In, Fast Five, Life as we Know it and Gullivers Travel.
Job Requirements:
Minimum 2-4 years of Maya and MentalRay
Experience working on visual effects for television (or similar fast-paced environment) preferred
Experience Synth-Eyes or Boujou tracking software a plus
Zbrush skills a plus
TD skills plus
Must be self-motivated and a collaborative team player
Excellent problem solving skills
Ability to work under tight deadlines
Dependable and flexible

Reels and Resumes can be sent to: Method-NY-Recruiting@methodstudios.com

Jul 13

Sr Modeler for Method Studios NYC

Posted in: The Job Lot

Create models (characters, sets and props) as assigned by the Supervisor.
Complete assigned modeling tasks in a timely manner.
Ensure all working files are efficiently organized.
Follow Supervisor directions, ensuring models created are accurate and effective.
Fully comprehend the requirements on the designs thereby creating models true to their designs, whether organic, or mechanic in nature.
Create and modify models by following the creative direction of the Supervising Modeler, Production Designer, and Cinematics Director / Producer.

Experience and Skills:

3 5 years Modeling experience for photoreal games or DTV/ Feature length films.
Excellent knowledge of displacement map and normal map generation
Excellent knowledge of polygonal and patch geometry modeling.
Excellent knowledge of material, texturing, and Maya 2011 shader use
Expert knowledge of skeleton and rigging setup.
Vast knowledge of basic expression setup.
Ability to multi-task and prioritize.
Knowledge of keyframe animation.
Excellent team player.
Excellent file management skills.
Good communication skills.

Required Software Competencies:
Maya 2011
Z-brush
Mudbox
Adobe Photoshop

Software not critical but an asset:
3D Studio Max
Nuke or Shake Compositing software
Massive

Resumes/Reels can be sent to: method-ny-recruiting@methodstudios.com

Jul 13

Houdini FX artist for Method Studios LA

Posted in: The Job Lot

Based in Los Angeles, with locations in London and New York, Method is a leading post production facility providing a full range of visual effects services.
As an artist driven company Method is built around an exceptional team of VFX professionals who have created award winning visual effects for Feature Film, Commercials and Music Videos.

Recent feature credits for Method include; Nightmare on Elm Street, Sorcerers Apprentice, Let Me In, Life as we Know it and Gullivers Travel.
Current shows in production include, Captain America, X-men, Cristiada, This Means War and Wrath of the Titans.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
· Design and animate high quality, photo-real effects (dust, fire, smoke, explosions, debris, clouds, etc.) that meet all technical and aesthetic standards for the project
· Work within the show structure and production deadlines to complete all tasks
· Integrate created elements into scenes with lighting, shadows, reflections, etc.
· Work closely with Lighting Artist and Compositors to ensure all effects will work smoothly within the show pipeline
· Produce look tests based on provided reference materials
· Has good communication skills and is able to take direction from FX Leads and FX TDs
· We are looking for enthusiastic, dedicated team players who are looking to start their careers in Feature and Commercial VFX

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS REQUIRED:
· Degree in Animation, Arts, Fine Arts or equivalent production experience
· Working knowledge of Houdini
· Knowledge of any and/or all of the following: rigid body and particle dynamics, volume modeling and rendering, procedural geometry generation and fluid dynamics
· Strong understanding of physical dynamics and natural phenomena
· Experience with one or more other professional software packages such as Maya, Nuke is a plus
· Proficiency in shading and rendering techniques, ideally both Mantra and Renderman
· Requires strong technical knowledge and organizational skills
· Python scripting is a plus

PLEASE INCLUDE DETAILED BREAKDOWNS WITH ALL SUBMITTED REELS.

Reels/Resumes can be sent to:
method-la-recruiting@methodstudios.com

Jul 13

Technology Producer- Method Studios LA

Posted in: The Job Lot

Recent feature credits for Method include; Tree of Life, Captain America, Nightmare on Elm Street, Sorcerers Apprentice, Let Me In, Fast Five, Life as we Know it and Gullivers Travel.

Reporting to the VP of Technology for the Method Studios group, the successful candidate will be responsible for the daily supervision of the technology teams.

The technology teams are responsible for a number of areas including:

· technical operations including resource planning and monitoring, render wrangling and data IO
· facility software development
· pipeline software development

Duties and Responsibilities

· work with production and show supervisors to understand the operational and development priorities of current and upcoming shows
· in collaboration with your leads, develop plans to ensure the shows have the tools and coverage they need; communicate status and progress on a weekly basis
· work with the VP of Technology to understand the longer term development goals of the group and participate in the distributed development efforts to achieve those goals

Experience

· must have experience in media production of some sort: VFX features or commercials, game development or similar
· must have a solid understanding of the operational processes of a VFX features and/or commercials facility
· must have an understanding and appreciation of pipeline tools and enabling technologies; however, your real strengths will be in your project management, reporting and communication skills
· experience managing or working closely with software developers, perhaps in a commercial environment using an iterative, agile methodology, a strong advantage

Personal Skills

· succinct written and verbal communication
· adaptable and flexible; able to adjust and reprioritize in a fast paced and dynamic environment
· ability to balance many conflicting requirements under pressure; see the way through the trees and communicate that path to your clients
· strong attention to detail
· a clear head under pressure

Resumes can be sent to: recruiting@methodstudios.com

Jul 13

cmiVFX Releases Autodesk Softimage – Demystifying The Render Tree Training Video

Posted in: The Pad

cmiVFX Releases Autodesk Softimage – Demystifying The Render Tree Training Video
High Definition Training Videos for the Visual Effects Industry

Princeton, NJ (July 13, 2011) cmiVFX launches its latest training for the Autodesk Softimage Animation Package. Learn how to wrangle your own renders with the powerful Softimage Render Tree. This training video will unlock the mysteries of the delicate nuances of great digital imagery.

No cubes, balls or teapots found in this project! We go deep into this production ready scene to learn the most fundamental rendering tool in Softimage, the Render Tree. Render Tree is the nodal interface for dealing with shaders in Softimage and it is the right tool for the job in Mental Ray and third party renders alike. With some great promises on the rendering horizon for SI there is no better time to jump on the bandwagon and Demystify the Render Tree yourself!

Short Description
Learn how to control the Softimage Render Tree by creating unique shaders and renderings for a production ready scene.

||||||||||||||||||||| Softimage – Demystifying The Render Tree ||||||||||||||||||||||
http://store.cmivfx.com/tutorials/vi…ge+Render+Tree

The Basics
All good training videos start with a good recap of the basic workflow. We will continue this trend by showing you the UI, the node environment, and how to go about using plugin shaders and textures. We will also cover some other little do’s and donts, as well as your new best friend (if you are using Mental Ray) the Architectural Shader.

Mixing Procedurals, Images and Decals
There are many great things to learn when working with procedurals. The endless repetition, the limitless resolution, and how customizable it is. But there are some times when that is just not enough and you are going to need a image. Lets learn how to mix the best of both worlds, and while we are at it, we will place some decals on top of all that!

Displacements And Bump Maps
In this chapter we will discus what displacement maps and bump maps are, when to use each, and how to optimize your displacement renderings.

Complex Shading Trees
Complexity is where the Render Tree really shines by mixing materials that layer on top of each other. Remapping your textures so that they affect many aspects of your shader, or even adding them on top of your existing bump maps will let you create the rich look only found in natural photography. This chapter will give you the knowledge to tackle very complex materials in a production environment.

SSSkin (Subsurface Scattering)
The effect of light going through a surface and scattering inside it is also known in CG as SSS (sub surface scattering). This will be most important to you while creating organic stuff like skin, fruits, flesh, flowers, and others waxy materials. Even some harder materials like marble have their share of SSS. Lets learn what this is all about, get to know the main SSS shader in Mental Ray (the Fast Skin) and lets learn how to mix what we love from the SSS shader with what we love from others shaders in our toolbox.

Compounds
So youve created some very nice looking materials, or some heavily complex trees and you know you could re-use them at some point. Compounds will let you wrap trees in a single node, and expose one or many parameters for later tweaking. Thus enabling for powerful customization with little effort.

About The Artist
Gustavo E Boehs is a generalist 3d artist from Brazil. He started his career as a Graphic Designer, but soon became very interested in 3d. He moved to São Paulo (Brazils financial capital) looking for good education in this field. The institution he attended used Softimage as its main tool, and what a tool it is to start your 3d venture! Having created a short film, and many advertisement pieces, he has dealt with most aspects of 3d and compositing and gained a deep all around knowledge of SI’s tools and workflow, as well as some experience in other packages like Maya, Max and Cinema 4d.

Special Thanks!
Special thanks to the artist Michelangelo Almeida (http://michelangelo.cghub.com/) for creating, modeling and so kindly sharing this character with us.

Mentors Blog
http://www.gustavoeb.com.br/blog

Project Contents
All cmiVFX videos come with all the training materials you can need right from our website. No matter what time of day, your location, or how your feeling, cmiVFX will be there waiting for you!

This video is available today at the cmiVFX Store: http://store.cmivfx.com/

About cmiVFX
cmiVFX is the leader in High Definition Video Training for the Visual Effects Community. Register for FREE and receive hours of FREE content at the cmiVFX Video-on-Demand Player. ( http://store.cmivfx.com/login ) For additional information about cmiVFX, visit http://www.cmivfx.com. © 2010 cmiVFX | cmiStudios. All rights reserved.

Jul 13

Alpha Question

Posted in: NUKE from The Foundry

I have a pretty straight forward question. I want to pull the alpha from the top left image (clops) to go over the (bg) layer. I think that’s what I need to do, right?

Thanks.

Attached Thumbnails

Jul 13

flint2012

Posted in: NUKE from The Foundry

Anyone have any idea the upgrading of the road map Autodesk flint development?
If they have announce the stop selling of Autodesk flint last year 2011 but they are still developing flint into Autodesk flint2012. What is the rational??
I in the mid way of decide whether to upgrade to flame2012 or not..
due to it is much more expensive and there are not far from each others in term of it features…:confused::confused:

Jul 13