Hasta La Motion!

Canadian band, performing a foxtrot, composed by the U.S. songwriter Neil Moret, accompanied here by early 1920s photographs taken by Kodak cameras. Fun! Pictures from Kodakery magazine on the Internet Archive, audio from “The Virtual Gramophone” website.

UPDATE: Russell Earl from ILM is now attending VIEW, to break down his studio’s huge vfx work in Captain America: Civil War (remember that airport sequence?). And the directors of Dreamworks Animation’s Trolls, Mike Mitchell and Walt Dohrn, will both be there too.  

Last week I wrote about Turin, Italy. The city has had a big effect on me ever since attending VIEW Conference there last year. And so did the conference, itself.  There aren’t many places you can find out the latest in visual effects, animation and computer graphics AND actually interact with some of the biggest names in those industries.

But at VIEW, you can.

That’s because VIEW is different from your normal visual effects and animation conference. The big guns from places like Disney, Pixar, Warner Bros., Lucasfilm and Sony Pictures will be there, but they don’t get whisked away after their presentations. They’re around to talk to, to learn from.

How big are we talking?

Big.

People like Byron Howard, who co-directed Zootopia. Or Conrad Vernon who co-directed Sausage Party. There’s also ILM’s Roger Guyett, the visual effects supervisor for The Force Awakens, and, if you want to find out more about exactly how Marvel films are made, their VP Victoria Alonso who is also in charge of VFX at the studio, will be at VIEW too.

What happens when people like this present at VIEW is you get more information – more insight – than you might read in an article or watch on a DVD extra. If you’re like me, I’ll see a film and just want to find out as much as I can, immediately, about how it was made.

But sometimes I have to wait until events like VIEW to find out.

Which is actually OK, because VIEW’s line-up doesn’t stop with those films above. There are speakers presenting on Finding Dory, Storks, Kubo and the Two Strings, The Good Dinosaur, Deadpool, Alice Through The Looking Glass and The Jungle Book.

I’m concentrating on films here, but VIEW is so much more. Head there early and you can participate in several workshops (Byron Howard is doing one about Disney animated characters, for example). There’s also the VIEW Awards and a games developer ‘bootcamp’.

VIEW has for so many years been showcasing what has just happened and what is coming up in the industry, and right now that is definitely VR. So there are presentations by places like ILMxLAB from Rob Bredow, and from studios that have made Google Spotlight Stories. That’s a good way to find out what your career might be in the next few years.

And did I mention how awesome Turin is?

My advice is to start exploring the VIEW website – http://www.viewconference.it – it’s there that you can find out more on the speakers and presentations and about how to get there and how much it costs (it starts at 90 EUR for students).

I’ll be there – be great to say hi to anyone into vfx and animation.

Moving one step ahead, visual effects and animation studio, Cinesite announced that Dave Rosenbaum has joined the company assuming the key leadership position of chief creative officer. Rosenbaum will be ushering in the studio’s next phase of growth and expansion into a premiere movie animation studio in North America.

Dave Rosenbaum

Rosenbaum was a part of the team at Illumination since its inception as the VP of talent and shaped all facets of Illumination’s feature films, marketing, video games and theme park rides including the second highest grossing animated film of all time, Minions. He also served as the production executive and story supervisor for Despicable Me, The Lorax, this year’s blockbuster, The Secret Life of Pets and the upcoming film, Sing.

“Dave is one of the industry’s most highly regarded animation executives, with an impeccable track record of shaping movies that become culture phenomena,” said Cinesite Animation, president, Antony Hunt. “Dave’s drive, passion and vision will harness a new phase of expansion for us, as he leads our studio’s growing slate.”

In addition to building and expanding Cinesite’s movie slate, Rosenbaum will help grow the Montreal studio, based at the company’s new 54,000 sq ft facility, which has capacity for over 500 storytellers. He will be responsible for seeking out and cultivating new projects, artists, writers and directors.

“To grow our studio with impressive capacity and potential, to support talented filmmakers, and to deliver great animated films to a worldwide audience is an exciting opportunity. Let’s start with the best stories and storytellers and make Montreal the next animation nexus,” commented Rosenbaum on his appointment.

Prior to joining Illumination, Rosenbaum worked at DreamWorks and Screen Imagination Agency in Bulgaria. He received his Master’s Degree in Producing from the American Film Institute.

The post ‘Minions’ production executive Dave Rosenbaum joins Cinesite as Chief Creative Officer appeared first on AnimationXpress.

In this Cinema 4D Tutorial, you will learn how add dynamics to Motion Capture data to create an animated character. We will use Dynamics, Mograph Cloners, and the Random Effector to set up the main animation.

This video is part of an ongoing series of videos all about how to use motion capture data in Cinema 4D. Watch the full training series here.

At the end of this tutorial, I use our two most popular plugins, Topcoat and HDRI Studio pack to quickly and easily set up beautiful reflections and HDRI Lighting in this scene. Check out these plugins and more from the GSG store to help speed up your render workflow.

Learn More About…

HDRI Studio
HDRI Collections
Topcoat

This training series was inspired by your questions about how to make animations like this amazing AICP Sponsor Reel Animation by Method Studios.

Watch The Tutorial