News: September 2007 Archives
But noooo.. Somehow the little birdies got out and started telling rumors that today was my birthday. I blame that girl over at Rhythm & Hues, who in turn, probably got it from another girl at home. So now I've got a mass email at work, which just leads to more craziness here. Awesome. Thanks, ladies. And yep, it's a milestone, the big 3-0. From here on out, it's all downhill, so I better pick up speed and start doing everything that I want to do. Hard to believe I've been doing something consistently for almost a decade, and actually made a career out of it.
Enough about my big day today, on to more exciting things. Remember those three shots from earlier in the week that got finalled? They got unfinalled. But now they're hopefully finalled again. An amazing turn of events, but just another day in feature film vfx. These shots, if I've been told correctly, are the first ones in the sequence to get finalled, so they'll now be used as a template to match to.
VFXTalk is getting good. No really, and I'm not just plugging it like I always do. There is a wealth of information on there, as well as contributing professionals as well as professional lurkers, who pipe in when something entices them. Recently there have been a number of great threads and answers, from the likes of nrgy and rueter, to name a few of the more recent posters. Think you can stump them? Head over to the Professional Talk section of VFXTalk and match your wits, and answer compelling questions. For the most part the moderators have been keeping a keen eye on both the Professional and Beginner Talk sections, and will move a thread if it doesn't meet the requirements.
Yep! The Dark Is Rising is now complete! The movie comes out in less than a month, so be sure to check it out. I have no idea where our work is in the movie, but I have a feeling it'll be near the end. Immediately after it last week, I started working on the next show coming out this year, The Golden Compass, which comes out in December. We've got a fair number of artists on the show, and I actually just finalled three shots so far.
The VFXTalk gathering last weekend was a great success! We had close to a hundred people, double what I expected, and it was getting pretty crowded in there. For our next one we'll have a bigger venue. The tentative schedule is sometime in March 2008, so if your company wants to be a presenter, please contact me. These gatherings are a great time to mingle with artists from other companies, network, and see and talk to industry artists directly. Thanks go to Luma Pictures, Method Studios, and Digital Domain, who did some great presentations. The meeting was sponsored by VFXTalk of course, Plugin, and CGNews. They all have some great plans for the future, so be sure and check them out. VFXTalk is the only one that's not currently in beta, so expect occasional changes and improvements on the other two. VFXTalk is our community forum, Plugin is our professional networking service, and CGnews is our computer graphics news aggregator.
Ah.. So here I am, September 1st, working the Labor Day weekend. What exciting times. Our deadline for the show is in a mere six or so days, and I've got some work ahead of me, so the crew is in today and the rest of the long weekend to hit our mark by next weekend. I don't have the most shots on this show, luckily, only four out of less than fifty or so. There's a good crew on the show, and everyone is really quite competent. After this wraps, I may be going onto The Golden Compass, or something entirely different. I won't know until we actually wrap.
Coming up next weekend is the VFXTalk usergroup gathering! It's going to be pretty neat, I think anyway. We're doing this on a limited budget, thanks to the guys over at VFXTalk who are funding it. We've lined up two guest presenters, and we're hopefully going to get two more, which I'll here back from early next week. We've got a good RSVP list, so make sure you do that, if you haven't already.
On a slightly different note, I was awarded a Patent Pending on one of my products in development last Friday! It's been a hectic journey, from the time I came up with the idea about a year and a half ago, to now. I'm not going into much detail about it, since it's not vfx related, but I thought I should share what else I've been doing outside of visual effects. I'm also currently reading Guns, Germs, and Steel, a great book (so far!) about the rise of civilizations and why certain ones surpassed others. Additionally, I'm trying to finish The Intelligent Investor when I can. I'm about 1/3 through that one. Aside from the copious workload, somehow I managed to get into several books.. Sometimes there is just not enough time to do everything I want to do!
Over the previous weekend I went up in a R44 helicopter with a coworker who's getting certified for her commercial license. We had a great time, and it's been something I've been wanting to do for a long time now (flying, not just being a passenger!) Unfortunately, the price is steep, roughly double what a regular plane license will cost, so we'll see when and how far I can get on that.
