Rodeo FX delivered 126 visual effects shots for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, including many featured creatures and their environments, the magical reconstruction of a destroyed room, and MACUSA – the elaborate headquarters of the wizarding world.
Come have a look at the breakdown pictures of our work: http://www.rodeofx.com/en/projects/fantastic-beasts-and-where-to-find-them
Story – https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/flyte/story-the-levitating-timepiece?ref=newest
Omdat veel mensen omlaag kijken naar hun smartphone, is in
Bodegraven-Reeuwijk is een proef begonnen met een stoplicht tussen de
stoepstenen. De met LED verlichte streep verlicht net als stoplichten
rood en groen. De lichtlijn moet ervoor zorgen dat mensen ondanks de
afleiding van hun telefoon, veilig oversteken.
Nelvana in association with Kids Can Press, announced from the 2017 Kidscreen summit, that they are set to begin production on The Most Magnificent Thing – a 22-minute short film based on Ashley Spires’s bestselling picture book of the same name. The film is currently in pre-production, developing story outline and pre-visuals, and will be directed by Canadian Arna Selznick. Both owned and operated by Corus Entertainment, Nelvana and Kids Can Press have a storied history in joining forces to bring popular children’s books to life on screen, including the ever-popular Franklin the Turtle series.
“We are delighted to be working with our colleagues at Kids Can Press to bring another one of their prolific tales to life on screen,” said Nelvana, president, Scott Dyer. “We were inspired by Spires’s story of a young girl and her vision and have infused the same passion and perseverance to this film, ensuring that we make The Most Magnificent Thing, the most magnificent thing we can.”
Featuring high-quality CGI and produced in 4k resolution, Nelvana’s short film version of The Most Magnificent Thing animates Spires’s tale about an unnamed girl, her furry best friend and their quest to make the most magnificent thing. The girl knows just how it will look and just how it will work – all she has to do is make it, and she makes things all the time. After several trials and several errors, the girl realizes that making the most magnificent thing might not be as easy as she thought, but with the help of her furry best friend, and a whole lot of dedication and imagination, she manages to get it just right.
“I am incredibly excited that the plucky little girl from my book will be making the magnificent leap from page to screen,” said Ashley Spires. “There can never be enough opportunities to present young female characters as empowered, inventive problem-solvers to inspire children. I’m honoured that Nelvana saw the potential in my illustrations to translate into film and I can’t wait to see the final product.”
Translated in nine languages and with more than 250,000 copies sold worldwide, The Most Magnificent Thing is a bestselling picture book written and illustrated by the award-winning author-illustrator. Originally published in April 2014, the book quickly became popular within the maker community, as well as with educators and parents around the world for its themes of perseverance, initiative and innovation. Spires first launched the book at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa and continued to tour Canada, visiting schools, libraries and festivals, landing the book on a number of 2014 Best ‘Books of the Year’ lists.
The post Nelvana to create a short film titled ‘The Most Magnificent thing’, adapted from a bestselling picture book appeared first on AnimationXpress.
It’s the season of love and Pogo wants to bring in content which the kids love. The channel will be starting with ‘Appu the Yogic Elephant’ every Saturday and Sunday at 8:30 am. Followed by this would be ‘Pogo’s Film Factory’ treating the kids with favourite movie of the week at 10:30 am every Saturday.
During the weekend, the KTB trio aka Krish the monkey, Trish the cat and Baltiboy the donkey are back with yet
another movie. The movie Krish Trish Baltiboy 7 – Over smartness Never Pays, is a set of three stories around how over smartness never does anyone any good will be premiering on the channel on Saturday, 25 February at 10.30 am.
‘Tom and Jerry’ will be up next on the list with the new “Masti Masti Mein Dosti” followed by Tom and Jerry movies back-to-back only on 19 February, 10:30 am onward. Pogo will also be treating its little fans with new Mighty Raju episodes starting 26 February, every Sunday at 10 am.
The comedy continues with the battle for forest supremacy between ‘Grizzy and the Lemmings’, Monday to Friday at 6 pm. Alongside, ‘The Oddbods Show’ will be adding a dose of laughter from Monday to Friday at 2:30 pm on Pogo.
Ensuring kids’ request is being fulfilled; the channel will bring to life ‘Yo-Kai Watch’ from 6 February, Monday to Friday at 7:30 pm. It follows the adventures of Keita, who discovers a peculiar capsule machine which brings forth a ghost-like YoKai named Whisper and gives him a YoKai Watch.
The post POGO celebrates the month of February in a segment titled ‘what-you-love’ appeared first on AnimationXpress.
As the film begins, you are plunged into the world of the filmmaker. What message does he/she want to convey to us? Are we connected with the storyline? Do we relate ourselves or our near ones with the characters? Does it have the ‘x’ factor to make us sit throughout the movie?
To be one with the audience is the biggest challenge that a director faces. It can make or break the movie. And to get the perfect recipe for making a successful movie, a director needs to be backed up by a team which is in sync with his vision for the film. And that’s exactly what happened with Kahaani 2.
Director Sujoy Ghosh managed to rope in ace TVC cinematographer Tapan Basu who has a reputation for being selective about the projects he takes on. Ghosh had sent a movie script to Basu back in 2013 which Basu politely declined saying that though he likes working on different genres, the first feature film he would like to work on would be a thriller, something on the lines of Kahaani, as that’s where his heart lies. Little did he know that Ghosh would be directing a sequel to it and voila! when the project was finalised, Ghosh immediately brought Basu on board.
The first thing Basu said was that they needed to get a colourist on board. This surprised a lot of people as usually in Bollywood, colourists are never called beforehand. And that’s how Nube studio, founder, Navin Shetty was roped in.
Compared to Basu for whom Kaahini 2 was the first feature film, Shetty has worked on many feature films before like Wazir, Force, and Omkara. Basu and Shetty had first worked together on the movie Kaminey with cinematographer Tassaduq Hussain and since then they partnered on many commercials together.
To know more about the whole experience of working on Kahaani 2, AnimationXpress got talking with cinematographer Tapan Basu (TB) and colourist Navin Shetty (NS). Excerpts from the conversation:
From left: Tapan Basu, Navin Shetty
We all know you work on selective movies, what made you say yes for ‘Kahaani 2’?
NS: Tapan likes to work with a fixed set of people as they know his way and style of working. The reason the movie piqued my interest was because of the fact that I knew Tapan was going to do something extraordinary. If you see the whole film, there is a variation. It does not have just one style.
Apart from that, the International film industry involves the colourist right from the beginning. However in India, a colourist isn’t involved during the shooting process normally. 99 per cent of the time, a colourist is never involved in deciding what kind of camera can be used or knows much about the script. So it becomes like a job for them.
For us it was more like an association. I was involved in the storytelling process, the mood of the film, we discussed about the lenses, which led to us having a perfect flow-chart.
Once the team was finalised, how did you go about with the movie?
TB: While reading the script and deciding how to go about with the shoot, Sujoy told me only one thing, “Keep the emotion and mood of the scene intact.” When we read the script, we went through the best choices that would go with the script. The script had the scope of a flashback, present time and had four different locations. For choosing the camera, the decision was solely taken by us and the colourists together. We were riding the tests and we were like “Let’s go for this format” and “Let’s go the mix format.” Then once we were convinced we brought in the director and took his views.
When we did the tests, we decided that the Kalimpong sequence should be shot on anamorphic lenses on Alexa XT. For Kolkata and Chandan Nagar we decided to shoot with Red Weapon with spherical lenses. That time, Weapon wasn’t available in India so we could not do any tests with it. It got shipped just before our schedule began.
NS: Sujoy and Tapan were always in sync which was very important as it avoided confusion. They were clear. So we just had to improve on what we were doing. Much before the DI (Digital Intermediate) started, we used to do a lot of tests over here (Nube studio), as it then became easy on the DI table to sit and understand where was the project headed. We used to share some footage with Sujoy so that even he could understand what we have. And the best part was we did the trailer first which looked perfect. So we knew this was the space we had to work. We were very clear about those things.
As a colourist, it is important to know what the DOP is trying to portray. With Tapan, I knew the way he shoots by looking at the frame and what he is looking out for. That’s most important – to see from his eyes. I also went to Kolkata, to see the footage to understand where we are, where we can take it. My studio is not equipped for a DI because we don’t have a big screen, so we had to go to Pixel D. I have a monitor, and Sujoy and Tapan were fine with it but the film was going to be shown on a big screen. Sujoy had said they will adjust but adjust is not what is important, output is important. So we thought of going to some other studio which was well-equipped.
As for the colour grading system, I worked on Baselight Two. We used to work on the raw files itself and shared the same with the CG team (Drishyam VFX). Later we used to balance it out.
Take us through the various sequences and what kind of treatment was given to them?
TB: The flashback sequence was shot in Kalimpong. Having studied in the quaint Himalayan hill town of Darjeeling, I understand the environment of hilly places quite well. Kalimpong being a hill station, you will observe more of grey tones in the movie. However, if you see other films, they always try to make it blue. But it’s not blue. There’s always little bit of gray in there. So we decided to go ahead with that.
NS: If you see the whole film, there is a variation: it has different places, different style, different lighting, different moods. You felt it is all real but there is something which gives an edge to the whole thing. So all these small small things, like the Kalimpong early morning walk shot, it’s there, but it’s neutral. We did not have to force ourself to add a cool tone to it.
Tapan was very sure that skin has to be skin and it shouldn’t have a blue tone. The natural light whatever falls on that is okay as long as it’s kept in a neutral space. Those things were different than what we do normally. If some other person would’ve been there, he would forced it to go towards bluer space. Somewhere Sujoy also was majorly influenced by getting this sort of a tone.
TB: Then we went to Chandan Nagar which was the present day city where Durga (Vidya Balan) resided. Here we took the liberty of putting lots of lights, LED lights, and then we had to choose a camera for rendering as the shot demanded the colours to be a bit more saturated and have a bit of contrast.
In the entire movie, there is a major chunk where Vidya Balan is on the hospital bed as she’s in coma. We had to frequently keep coming back to that scene. However, if you observe carefully, every scene was actually different. That’s because since we’re in the same room, we’re lit by natural sources. In the majority of the shots she’s just lying on the bed, until she wakes up. That’s the only time you actually get to see the mood. It reveals the place, where you see the render, and because she is waking up, you see the flare, which worked well with the narrative. Though I love flaring, which you will observe in my advertisement projects; in the entire movie I used it only six times.
NS: Basically, every day there was a different source of light coming in. That subtle change which he has done, if you watch carefully, when you switch from this scene to that scene, there is a slight difference, and it is kept that way. It’s all kept very subtle, so that the viewers can interpret it the way they want to.
TB: Different sequences demanded different filtration and camera movement. One thing that Sujoy likes is a breathing camera. I thought that just because it is a thriller, it cannot be moving / breathing every time. It has to go with the action. That’s why you will notice that when Vidya is writing, the camera was breathing. When she met with the accident, she was negatively framed. You feel like she is on the edge of the frame. From the beginning to the accident, she is composed very classically. However, during flashbacks, she is centrally composed as the story is being read by Inderjeet Singh (Arjun Rampal). So when one reads about someone else’s life, that person becomes the protagonist and you picture them in the center and not on the sides of a scene.
Which was the most challenging shot for both of you?
TB: There was one sequence in particular which I was worried about: it was when the young Minnie is jumping off the roof. Due to the location being a rooftop and the shoot taking place during the day, we couldn’t control anything. There was a constant movement of the sun. I remember taking a shot where I saw clouds coming in. Since it was an intense moment, I couldn’t do anything. We had to correct that and it was done so incredibly that no one had any complaints.
As there were a lot of scene changes, present to flashback, scenes shifting from Kalimpong to Chandan Nagar, there was a constant change of colours. Every scene was cutting from a neutral or a colder space to a warmer space. Also, if you make a space little cold and then you go to warm, it will all look a bit saturated. So you have to be very subtle with the colours. In the end, we managed to keep it consistent.
Sujoy was superbly supportive, he said, “Do what you have to do, do what you feel right.”
NS: One was definitely the rooftop scene. Apart from that the whole film had to get a right space. That was the basic challenge because you have different scenes and every scene had to look true to itself. When changing from one scene to another – which is present to past – your eye shouldn’t jerk, like “what happened?” So that smoothness, the subtle change is what was most important and I think we achieved that.
The most interesting scene was the climax when Vidya enters the house at night. It was dark, the only source of light coming was from outside and we had to show just the eyes. These subtle things were tricky to grade. We had to grade such that you could not just see the right information but also the mood should be there that she is in the house and there is a source of light coming from outside. So those things were very interesting as well as challenging for me. This was my best scene.
Another challenge was the end sequence where Jugal Hansraj gets killed. The shoot was taking place from morning to evening and it was already dark, so we had to keep the whole consistency. We tried to manage it.
How many days did you actually work on the movie?
NS: We spent more than a month working on it as there was a lot of CG work. A lot of time got wasted as the CGs had to come in, and only after the CGs came in, we could set the finishing part of it. There were a lot of ups and downs otherwise we would’ve completed it earlier.
TB: The film took about nine months to get completed. We were working till the very last day of this film.
Since Drishyam was the VFX studio, did you both have to co-ordinate with them?
TB: See we had to make it look consistent and real. The DOP and the VFX team, both are equally responsible for the look of the film. So I had to be with the VFX team and make calls.
NS: During the final stage, we had to sit with the VFX team because the deadline was near and we were running short of time. For the finishing touches, we had to go to the studio, check and give a final call on those things.
How was the collaboration with Pixel D?
NS: Pixel D, the confirming team and the data team worked on the movie. It was their team and I came in as a colourist with my assistant. Since I knew some of the colourists over there, that’s how the introduction happened. Our relation with Pixel D was not with them as a whole, but with the technical guy who was responsible for the output.
Overall, they were well organised. Here and there we had hiccups but every day is not perfect. They have a good support staff.
What was the learning from this film?
TB: You learn something or the other every day. This was more of a test for me, from what I had learnt for the last four years. You learn how to handle pressure, and obviously advertising was different. I think a film feature has a whole set of romanticism attached to it. We did have few bad days at shoot but I was comfortable with that fact as it’s part of the journey.
Learning wise, there were a lot of things which I had not done in advertising that I got to do over here. In ads, we shoot one scene a day maybe, and over here, we had to shoot six to seven scenes a day. Also, when you have a strong storyline, there is so much you can do. We have a lot of self-constructed imagery in our head but when you go onto the floor and see the flow of the story, you also need to learn how to sacrifice a good-looking shot just for the story. That was the biggest learning experience.
NS: Our basics were very strong. Once the basics are strong, we can take it to the next level. That’s what he (Tapan) has done. In advertising you need to be versatile. He is probably one of the most versatile DOPs I have seen. He has worked on all types of projects, right from dark to fashion to glossy. And this is the film where everything was there. There were different sets of moods so I think this was a difficult film for him.
Which projects are you currently working on?
NS: Right now I’m not working on any feature. They are still in the pipeline. One film I’ll probably be doing is Devashish Makhija’s. Earlier I was a feature film colourist but I left because I got a chance in advertising and I feel this is the right space to be in, because your commitment to the film is for 25 days. For advertising, one job would be four to five hours so I can put that sort of involvement rather than putting in 25 days. So we select what projects we are doing and you need to gel with the DOP, the production people.
Thankfully, I got the opportunity of selecting my films, which is good. And with selected DOPs, like he (Tapan), Tassadik. These are the people with whom I can gel well. It is very important to gel well with your DOP otherwise it looks like a job and I don’t want to do a job sort of thing. It should be more like it’s your own film and I can take a call and my call has value.
So for now, we are working on commercials and are back in advertising. We are enjoying this space.
TB: I’m sure we’ll do something exciting, and features take time. If things fall in place then why not? As of now, we are just talking on scripts so we don’t really know.
The post What ace lensman Tapan Basu & colourist Navin Shetty brought to ‘Kahaani 2′ appeared first on AnimationXpress.
ANZ is expressing support for the LGBTIQ community with “Hold Tight”, a campaign celebrating the power of holding hands. As the LGBTIQ community on both sides of the Tasman get ready to celebrate love at Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras (SGLMG) and the Auckland Pride Festival, the majority still struggle with the smallest acts of public affection. The disconnect between perception and reality is saddening. Holding hands is the simplest expression of affection, whether it be a family member, friend, first date or lifelong partner. It’s hard to fathom, in 2017, that not everyone is comfortable with this small but significant gesture. This insight is the inspiration behind ANZ’s latest campaign in support of the LGBTIQ community. #HoldTight aims to highlight this disparity and encourages all people across Australia and New Zealand and beyond to show their support. The ANZ Hold Tight campaign opened in time for Valentine’s Day with a hero piece of film which features couples in everyday situations holding hands in public, accompanied by heartfelt stories told by ANZ staff, and a microsite anz.com/holdtight.
As ANZ celebrates eleven years of supporting the SGLMG and eight years of being an active supporter of Big Gay Out and Pride Parade in Auckland, the #HoldTight campaign will be a constant theme over the coming month’s activity. A limited edition, custom wristband will be worn by ANZ marchers at the parades in Australia and New Zealand and exclusively distributed to spectators on the nights. This unique piece of wearable tech uses infrared to detect when two people are close together and lights up when they hold hands. The wristbands will create a spectacle on the night whenever people en masse hold tight. As part of a broader social campaign, in collaboration with Twitter, a custom emoji has been developed and appears when people use the hashtag #HoldTight.
Research commissioned by ANZ has revealed in Australia that the LGBTIQ community is three times more likely (52%) than non-LGBTIQ (14%) and in New Zealand more than twice as likely (39%) than non-LGBTI (18%) to have felt uncomfortable performing the most basic gesture of love: holding hands in public. Statistics also show that while the vast majority of Australians (94%) agree that everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, should feel comfortable holding hands in public, less than half of the LGBTIQ community (43%) are truly at ease. Similarly, in New Zealand, (95%) support everyone feeling comfortable with this show of affection, but only (39%) identifying LBGTIQ actually say they feel very comfortable.
Commenting on the campaign, Carolyn Bendall, Head of Marketing Australia at ANZ said:
“ANZ is using #HoldTight as a platform to share an important message about diversity, inclusion and respect and to help people understand the challenges that many members of the LGBTIQ community face. We hope to make a difference by encouraging the wider public to join in the conversation and show their support.”
Terese Casu, Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras CEO said: “This highlights the daily pressures that the LGBTIQ community faces. It’s a simple and loving gesture to hold your partner’s hand, however for fear of discrimination, and experiences in violence and abuse – the reality is that many in the community still don’t feel safe. We love the awareness that ANZ is raising about this issue for the community,” said.
The ANZ Hold Tight campaign was developed at TBWAMelbourne by executive creative director Paul Reardon, creative director Tara Ford, creatives Tim Woolford and Scott Canning, and social creative Max Reed, head of broadcast Margot Get, head of integrated production Dave Keating, content director Harrison Webster, content producer Stephanie Leddin, content creator and editor Jesse Richards.
FIlming was shot by The Glue Society director Pete Baker via Revolver/Will O’Rourke with executive producer Michael Ritchie, executive producer/head of projects Josh Mullens, producer Jasmin Helliar, director of photography Geoffrey Simpson.
Editing was done at The Glue Society Studios by Philip Horn, with colourist Christine Trodd and online editor Lee Sandiford.
Sound and music were produced at Level Two Music by composer Michael Edwards.
Wristbands were produced at Clear Systems by Tim Boss.
I must confess… I was never a big fan of shape layers… we just didn’t get along. I was used to using masks but suddenly (around AE CS3) the same mask tool began creating Red vector shapes.
At first, they seemed cool enough but after accidentally adding shape layers to my comps, instead of masks, I lashed out! I even made a few jokes at the expense of them. It was wrong and I apologize
Since working on a few space movies, I really took the time to learn the tools better and began to realize how cool and powerful they are.
There are some extremely cool things that can be done with layering and ways to randomize path position with a wiggle settings and other cool things that would be impossible to do with masks.
I’m nearly finished with an unrelated tutorial (See below) but I’m looking forward to incorporating some interesting tips about shape layer creation!
In this tutorial from EJ from Eyedesyn you’ll get a little intro to the Time Effector and how you can use it to help automate animation inside Cinema 4D!
New to 3D? Watch my FREE Cinema 4D Lite for the 2D Animator series!
Don’t have R18? Download the free Cinema 4D Thrausi fracture plug-in
• Learn some Time Effector basics
• Combining the Time Effector with other Effectors to get variations of animation applied to objects
• Introduction to the R18 Voronoi Fracture object & learning how it fractures up objects
• Learning about Falloff Clamp functions
• How to create a nice procedural marble texture
• Utilizing the Random Effector for more organic, interesting animation
If you have any questions about the Time Effector or Voronoi Fracture, be sure to post it in the comments section! If you create anything using this technique, be sure to share it with me on Twitter or in the Comments! Thanks for watching!
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A. during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
