Hasta La Motion!

Hey all,
I decided that in 2011 we need to get back to the positivity of VFX work. I decided that I would start that by doing my own blog of things that I find make me more productive, etc. I also will be pushing ideas to make yourself more effective and generally moving in a forward direction without negative cruft. I respect the other blogs about the VFX business but I feel we can do more with a good mindset.

Feel free to check it out :

http://zenvfx.net/

Hopefully everyone’s 2011 is looking great!

Rob

Cinesite opens 2011 Inspire Program to help grow the next generation of VFX talentSuccessful visual effects internship program returns for a second year
London, UK, January 17, 2011 – Cinesite, one of the world’s leading film visual effects houses, is now receiving applications for its 2011 internship program, Inspire, which helps develop young visual effects talent. Following the success of the 2010 program which has seen both of last year’s winners, Chris Mulcaster and Alex Betancourt, go on to work on the upcoming blockbusters Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and John Carter of Mars at the company, Cinesite has brought the internship program back for another year.

“Inspire has proved to be a great platform for us to find and nurture young talent and to give something back to the visual effects industry,” commented Antony Hunt, managing director of Cinesite. “We’re expecting the standard of applications this year to be even higher and the volume of interest throughout the pre-registration period has already overwhelmed us. Helping to develop the visual effects sector by giving new talent a chance to shine is something that is vital to our industry. I wish everyone who applies the best of luck.”

For the 2011 program Cinesite is broadening access to Inspire by accepting applications from students who are due to graduate in 2012, as well as 2011 graduates. Students who have already graduated may also apply. The company is looking to receive applications from people with interests in the following areas: shader writing, pipeline programming, digital matte painting, animation, lighting, texturing, modeling, FX and compositing.

The closing date for applications is April 1, 2011. For full terms and conditions, please visit: http://www.cinesite.com/internships

About Cinesite

With one of the largest and most comprehensive facilities in Europe, Cinesite’s visual effects team has the capacity and creativity to produce all manner of effects, both digital and physical, for feature films and broadcast projects of all scales. Their award-winning team of highly talented visual effects artists take filmmakers’ ideas and turn them into spectacular cinematic reality.

Cinesite is currently working on Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (Warner Bros.), John Carter of Mars (Disney/Pixar), Battle: Los Angeles (Sony/Columbia), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Disney/Bruckheimer) and X-Men: First Class (Twentieth Century Fox).

For more information please visit www.cinesite.com.

cmiVFX Releases New Tracking Video For Eyeon Fusion 2011
High Definition Training Videos for the Visual Effects Industry

Princeton, NJ (January 17, 2011) – cmiVFX launches its latest full feature training video update for Eyeon’s Fusion Compositing software for Linux and Windows. Based on the popular cmiVFX Fusion Matchmoving Video, the content has been updated for 2011 with new techniques and tutorials. Additional demonstrations with particles and trackers have been added to this title, while legacy material has been updated to work with this years Fusion software subscription. Here at cmiVFX we maintain a current training library for the latest versions of popular software titles. When it comes to high end CG and VFX training, there is only once choice… cmiVFX! This video is available today at the cmiVFX store for a Special Introductory Offer Price!

Don’t forget about the cmiSubscription plan! Get one today. cmiVFX launched the most affordable subscription plan in Visual FX Training History for only $299 USD, and if you were a subscriber, this New Training Release would already be in your account. This video is also available a-la-cart in our brand new HTML5 player system.

Eyeon Fusion Tracking Video 2011
http://www.cmivfx.com/tutorials/view…+Tracking+2011

The Tracker in General
The first chapter will explain Fusion’s tracker in general. It will cover the adjustment of the pattern sample area and the pattern search area. It will also describe which channel the tracker uses to analyze the image and how to profit from the flip book function. With a one point track we will then stick a text onto an image sequence.

Adding a hotspot to the tracker
There are different methods that can be used to connect elements to a tracker. In this case we want to attach a hotspot or lens flare to a one point track. Simply merging and match moving the hotspot to the sequence will not make the lens flare move with the camera in relation to the light source.

Arrow pointing towards a feature
Using a tracker can be valuable for a multitude of things. One of which is to emphasize or point out something of interest in an image. In this case we want an arrow to guide us to a certain frame. We don’t just want to stick the arrow to the sequence, but rather keep the arrow centre frame while it just changes the direction in which it points.

Corner Positioning
To substitute a painting by another can be achieved by using a four point track. Using a corner positioning operation the task is very straight forward – still the result will not always be convincing. Problem: The edges are too harsh, shadow and colors don’t match the original… We will try to address these issues.

Trackers Leave Frame
A common problem is that the object being tracked leaves the frame. This is especially severe on a corner pin, so we will explore options to correct trackers gone astray. These will involve gradient extrapolation, click and draw append, setting key frames manually and using the track centre append function.

Stabilizing & Reapplying Motion
In this section we will explore another approach to dealing with trackers gone off the frame. First we stabilize the image sequence, second make our amendments and third reapply the motion. This method can also be very effective if things have to be painted out or removed.

Follow Points & Reflection
Some of the paintings are behind glass. If we want to substitute these paintings we have to bring back the reflection to sell the shot. While dealing with the reflection, we will also test how we can connect single points of our roto shape polygon mask to our trackers and how to move points of our mask along with the tracked rest without key framing them.

Attaching a Tracker to a Roto Shape
In this project we will track the movement of a hand-held gun. Then we will use the track to connect a roto spline instead of manually rotoing the gun across all frames. This saves time and work. We can also add motion blur to this roto shape.

Particle Muzzle Flash
In this section we will quickly browse through Fusion’s particle system to create a muzzle flash that we can use on our gun. We will also enhance our particle flash to make it look more satisfactory to the shot sequence.

Integrating the Muzzle Flash
We will of course connect our flash to the tracker to integrate it into the shot. Now we can see where we have to make some adjustments. To finalize the shot we will also create some contact lighting and play around with the timing inside of Fusion.

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.

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A new CGI cross media project ‘Phil was there’ is launched by the new started London based sweetdoh! productions. It is a story about a person consumed by the Idea of photographing the world and made it picture perfect.

It is being kicked off by starting a new competition, of which the winner will get something really special. More details next week on the website and facebook page

http://sweetdoh.com/Philwasthere.htm

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=181131358584918&set=a.1811313085849 23.40449.180534795311241#!/pages/Phil-was-there/180534795311241?v=info

Chandigarh, India, January 12, 2011 – Prime Focus, one of the world’s largest visual entertainment services groups, has announced the launch of its new facility in Chandigarh, Northern India. This is the tenth Prime Focus facility in India. The company also operates studios in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Goa and Mumbai, in addition to international facilities in London, Los Angeles, New York, Vancouver and Winnipeg.

The 50,000 square foot facility, which opened on December 25, 2010, will hold 3000 artists and will be dedicated to working on global projects, utilizing Prime Focus’ global digital pipeline which connects India to North America and the UK.

Merzin Tavaria, co-founder and chief creative director (India), Prime Focus, commented: “Our new facility in Chandigarh is a major expansion of our View-D™ 2D to stereo 3D conversion capacity. Prime Focus has always wanted to mark its presence in Northern India, considering its existing strong presence in Western and Southern India. Chandigarh is an ideal location due to its huge student population, many of whom are looking to establish a career in animation and VFX.”

Following the success of the newly released The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, which Prime Focus converted to 3D for its theatrical release, the company has signed several new international orders and has a busy slate of 2D to 3D stereoscopic conversion work for this year. The opening of the Chandigarh facility will allow elements of this work to be handled in Northern India, by a highly trained new team and under the supervision of Prime Focus’ expert team of stereographers.

Prime Focus expects that Chandigarh, and Northern India in general, will benefit immensely from the opening of the new Prime Focus facility as it will be generating close to 3000 jobs for the local population.

Since its inception in 1995, Prime Focus has contributed visual effects and post production services for many successful Bollywood projects. From equipment rental of film cameras and kit (EQR) to VFX to digital intermediate (DI), Prime Focus has played a part in big budget Bollywood films such as Guzaarish, Anjaana Anjani, Raavan, Housefull, My Name is Khan, Blue and many more. Internationally, Prime Focus has worked on Hollywood projects such as Tron: Legacy, Avatar, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and New Moon, The A-Team and numerous others.

About Prime Focus
Prime Focus is a global Visual Entertainment Services group that provides creative and technical services to the film, broadcast, commercials, internet and media industries.

The group offers a genuine end-to-end solution from pre-production to final delivery – including stereo 3D visual effects, stereo 3D conversion, and video and audio post-production, digital intermediate, equipment hire, digital asset management and distribution.

Prime Focus employs more than 3,000 people with state-of-the-art facilities throughout the key markets of North America, the UK and India. Using its ‘World sourcing’ business model, Prime Focus provides a network that combines global cost advantages, resources and talent pool with strong relationships and a deep understanding of the local markets.