VFX Show 274: Foundation

This week on the VFX Show, Mike Seymour and Matt Wallin use maths and psychohistory to wrap our heads around the visual effects in the Apple TV+, David Goyer series “Foundation” based on the books by Isaac Asimov.

The story chronicles the waning days of a future Galactic Empire, the mathematician Hari Seldon spends his life developing a theory of psychohistory, a new and effective mathematics of sociology. Using statistical laws of mass action, it can predict the future of large populations. Seldon foresees the imminent fall of the Empire, which encompasses the entire Milky Way, and a Dark Age lasting 30,000 years before a second empire arises. Although the momentum of the Empire's fall is too great to stop, Seldon devises a plan by which "the onrushing mass of events must be deflected just a little" to eventually limit this interregnum to just one thousand years.

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Judith Weaver

On the latest 8111 I catch up with Judith Weaver!!! Judith grew up as a self-described “Airforce brat” moving around with her parents from post to post. She spent several formative years in, Colorado, the Philippines, some time on the East coast, and settled for a time in Ohio. Judith was the oldest kid with two younger brothers. In middle school she discovered a love for drama and acting in the theatre. After high school Judith was determined to live in a bigger city and headed off to American University in Washington DC where she earned a degree in political science.

After college she moved to Philadelphia and shared an apartment with an old pal. She eventually landed a job as the receptionist at a video house called Video Smith. She quickly learned the business and became an indispensable part of the team. She worked as part of the video crew backstage providing footage for CBS at LiveAid in Philadelphia.

After working for a few years at Video Smith she set her sights on getting a job at ILM. It was the height of the video era and the beginning days of HD. She moved to NYC and got a job doing industrial videos. Then an opportunity arose to work as a production manager at 1125 doing HD work for “out of town client” ILM. She worked closely with Scott Squires and Bruce Nicholson for weeks on end while they were working on an early HD project for Dentsu. A short time after that gig ended, Judith left 1125, packed her bags and moved to California to get a job at ILM.

Within a few months she was brought in to work as the animation coordinator on the Back to the Future sequels in 1989. Judith wound up at ILM for the next sixteen years working her way up to a top producer for the company. Her credits include: Back to the Future Part 2, Ghost, Joe vs The Volcano, Terminator 2, Hook, Death Becomes Her, Jurassic Park, The Flintstones, Dragonheart, Star Wars Episodes 1&2, The Perfect Storm, Space Cowboys, & War of the Worlds (to name only a few).

Judith left the business just as her kids were entering middle school to be a full-time parent. She says it was both the hardest and the easiest decision to make. Judith is a force of nature. Her enthusiasm, positivity, energy, and boundless curiosity serve as the engine that propelled her career to the apex of visual effects just as the industry was transitioning to the modern era. Judith is the best and it was an absolute blast to talk with her and hear her story.

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