The Foundry has just released Katana 1.0. I used the Sony Imageworks version of Katana on both "I Am Legend" and "Beowulf 3D". It was a fantastic tool back then and I can only imagine that The Foundry has done a great deal to make it a truly revolutionary product. Integration with Nuke will make it a fantastic tool for any production pipeline. Click on the image below to read more.
VFX Show podcast episode #135 "The Thing"
Mike Seymour, Matt Wallin and TyRuben Ellingson look at The Thing from 1982 & 2011 and the structural changes in this year's movie viewer demographics. Click on any of the images below to listen to the show at FX Guide or subscribe for free in iTunes.
Esper Machine (Blade Runner, 1982)
I'm in San Sebastian, Spain preparing to give a talk at the International Conference on the Image and have been thinking a lot about just how we define the nature of the "image" in today's environment. I recently went back and watched a lot of old movies from my youth. There is a great scene in Ridley Scott's 1982 film, Blade Runner, where Harrison Ford uses a device, that the script referred to simply as the "Esper Machine", to analyze some found photographs he believes belong to the genetically engineered replicants that he is tasked with "retiring".
In my research for the talk this scene struck me as an early precursor to some of the emerging technolgies in digital imaging, ie; dual-photography or light-field photography. I thought it was fun to have a look at the original images from the film here.
The Esper sequence was achieved by taking a series of still photos on a small set and then assembling them on an animation stand to create a piece of film that was transferred to videotape for playback on the Esper prop. Most of the material here is from an early version of the Esper sequence that was eventually re-shot, but includes 35mm positives and 8 x 10 in. transparencies that were eventually used to create the Polaroid of Zhora that Deckard prints out of the Esper.
Visual Effects Society 2.0 "Industry Bill of Rights"
The Visual Effects Society issues an "Industry Bill of Rights". The VES Board unanimously voted to approve the document outlining the rights of visual effects workers, facilities and studios. You can read the entire document by clicking on the image below.
In the Summer of 2008 my family and I spent three months in Vancouver working for a visual effects company on a major studio release. When the film came out in theaters, I did not receive screen credit. I hope this bill of rights would eliminate that kind of thing from happening in the future. A credit winds up being the equivalent of a published work when it comes to academia. That studio/facility denying credit has the potential to put one's future job security at risk.
VFX Show episode #132 "Poltergeist"
“They're here…”, Mike Seymour, Mark Christiansen and Jason Diamond go retro with a discussion on the visual effects of the classic 1982 film, Poltergeist. Click on either image below to listen or subscribe for free in iTunes.