February 2006 Archives
It's not totally visual effects related, but I thought I'd share a link that I came across. This link describes how they use a laser to create a point in space, via plasma emission.
Five days and counting! We've got a bunch of shots left, and almost all of the compositors on the show are in the studio finishing up their shots for Charlotte's Web. We're extremely close, and there's not much left to do except finesse. I have two shots left to complete, and one crossover shot to complete with Rhythm and Hues, and then I'll be done! It's all very do-able, unless we get some complicated notes from production.
As some of you may already know if you check IMDB regularly, Tippett Studio is one of the shops that has beem awarded Enchanted, a magical tale about a fairy princess. Or something like that. Here's a little blurb from the IMDB page about the recent news.
The Walt Disney Co. is planning to revive traditional hand-drawn animation next year with its live-action/animated Enchanted, Disney watcher Jim Hill reported on his website today (Wednesday). A traditionally animated test sequence has already been created for the film by veteran Disney animator James Baxter, best known for his supervision of the character Belle in Beauty and the Beast, according to Hill. "And those who have seen this particular piece of rough animation say that it is 'simply stunning. A wonderful throwback to the sort of films that Disney used to make.'" Baxter, Hill said, has been secretly working on the sequence with a small crew at his own studio in Pasadena, and, he added, his work is likely to be displayed by Pixar's John Lasseter and Ed Catmull as they make their well-known case for reviving hand-drawn animation to Disney chief Robert Iger. Said Hill: "They're going to tell Iger: 'Doesn't that look terrific? People are really going to eat this picture up. They've been waiting for Disney to do a new film that features traditional animation. Which is why this movie is going to do HUGE box office next year.'"
We're down to the last two weeks of production here on Charlotte's Web. It's going to be tight, but we're working quite a bit to meet the deadlines! Everything's looking so sweet.
As of now, I'm not sure which project I will be transferred onto. There are a bunch of projects coming in, but staffing is still being organized. I hope I'll be able to lead again on a significant project, but only time will tell. Many of the other leads will have seniority over me when being chosen for a project, as I have only had two under my belt (here at Tippett). Both of them commercials, with shot counts of under 20. My previous lead position on Ghost Ship was a surprise, as I was only there for the last several months, and was not expecting to become an influential part of the crew or even be credited.
I had a chance to read Kevin Tod Haug's Manifxto a little while ago. It's a great blog with some insightful takes on the state of the industry. I worked with Kevin back in 2003 on a made for TV movie that shall remain nameless. It was an interesting project, and I was brought in, like usual, near the end of the show, and had to correct errors that some previous compositors on the show had made. Kevin makes some excellent points on his blog, and I pretty much agree with almost everything he's mentioned. While not updated as often as mine, his blog goes into much more detail about certain visual effects areas, and his perspective as a visual effects supervisor is relevant.
Yes, I finally finished voting in the 2006 VES Awards. There were some really sweet breakdowns, and some great nominees! It sucks that there has to be one winner per category, because all the nominees in each category were excellent. I finally got to see the breakdown of the Guiness noitulovE commercial, which was posted over at MeyeMind earlier in the month. It was definitely well done, and the work that went into that spot, wow. Kudos to those guys. The other nominees in that category were Esuvee Keep it on all Fours, and Motorola-PEBL. Another category which I had a great time viewing was the music video category, with Rob Thomas, Nine Inch Nails, and Chemical Brothers as nominees. While all were excellent, I really enjoyed the NIN video, entitled Only.
One of the problems I had while voting was the lack of resolution in the quicktimes! We're judging TV, HD, and film work, via streaming Quicktime, at significantly reduced res. I think it would be beneficial for future voting sessions to have a DVD of all the nominees. They surely fit on a DVD, right? That way we'd be able to see all the detail that goes into some of the compositing and effects work. Another suggestion I'll have for next year is to put the times of each of the nominees breakdowns on the webpage. Currently we just get two viewing options, with no clue as to how long each nominee has. Sometimes it's a couple minutes, others seem close to ten.
I just checked out the new VES website, and it's so nice now. It's definitely much more professional! Very sweet.
A bit of a break from visual effects. It's been a while since I last updated, but that's mainly because Charlotte's Web is wrapping up, and we're working hard and long hours to finish the show! The past month of so we've been having a little competition here at work. Check out the blogspot space, and revel in the culture of what makes Tippett a great place to work. What a bunch of characters! A couple more days until the winner is crowned! Make sure you read the posts from the very beginning of the year.
