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MAYA
Iron Man 3: The Trixters Behind Tony Stark's Shiny New Armor
Seventy artists from Trixter worked an entire year to create a formidable 208 VFX shots for Marvel's Iron Man 3. Each new episode in the Iron Man saga details a slick new technology created by the ingenious Tony Stark, and the new installment does not disappoint! Combining the hard surface geometry of the Iron Man suit auto-assembly with the flexibility of the human body was one of the challenges that Trixter brought from previs to believable screen reality.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Alessandro Cioffi |
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NAB Expo
NAB 2013: Autodesk Expands Its Reach
This year, Autodesk comes to NAB 2013 not simply as a successful company in the professional content creation space, but a player in the consumer market as well. SketchBook alone has 15+ million users and the use of Smoke has also now reached thousands of new customers. On the professional side, the newly debuted Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite 2014 includes updated versions of Maya, 3ds Max, MotionBuilder, Mudbox, Softimage and Sketchbook Designer. Autodesk has also announced partnerships with Blackmagic Design and Technicolor.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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NAB Expo
NAB 2013: Day Four With Ryan Salazar
Only Ryan's own words suffice, "WOW! Has this been a SPECTACULAR Show or what?!?! It was intense... I interviewed Vince Pace of the Cameron | Pace Group and Marc Hamaker of Autodesk, among many others during the Show! I feasted my eyes upon so many wonderful innovations that I can't wait for them to be released throughout the coming year! I had my own TV Crew, courtesy of NAB LIVE! 2013, and I came face-to-face with a shark! It was all I had hoped for and definitely MORE!"
Editorial, Feature
Ryan Salazar |
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NAB Expo
NAB 2013: Day Two With Ryan Salazar
Ryan Salazar fills Day Two of NAB Show with interviews. Ryan spoke with Marc Hamaker, Senior Product Marketing Manager of Creative Finishing at Autodesk, with Vince Pace, co-founder of the Cameron | Pace Group, and stopped by the Panasonic, Canon, GoPro and Camera Corps booths.
Editorial, Feature
Ryan Salazar |
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Art of the Edit
Unique VFX Challenges for Live One-take Shooting on Les Miz
Les Misérables, based on Victor Hugo's novel of crime and redemption in 19th Century France, has been a huge hit in theatres. Though it's gained acclaim for director Tom Hooper's technique of one-take shots of actors singing the songs, digital visual effects have provided many key elements. Les Miz represents a unique combination of in-camera effects, 2D and 3D compositing, adding elements, removing elements -- and not a single green screen shot.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Cinematography
The Hobbit & The Dawn of High Frame Rate Cinema
The technology wizards of the film/TV industry have been talking about High Frame Rate cinema for a long time; indeed, Douglas Trumbull's Showscan at 60 fps presaged the current interest over 30 years ago. But it took director Peter Jackson to take the plunge for mainstream cinema, declaring he would shoot The Hobbit in 48 fps to get momentum going. In about a year's time, manufacturers made the gear, theater exhibitors updated their movie theaters, and the studios prepared for one of the most audacious technology debuts that cinema has seen. Creative COW goes behind the scenes to see what it took for you to see The Hobbit in 48 fps.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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Autodesk Smoke
IBC 2012: Autodesk
Autodesk is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Flame by launching Flame 2013, a totally re-architected and re-designed version of the groundbreaking platform. What's new? A new Creative Work Space, full timeline integration and a GPU/CPU model for improved performance. Autodesk is also showing its latest iteration of Smoke for Mac, which has been part of a massive public trial.
Editorial, Feature
Debra Kaufman |
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Cinematography
Behind the Lens: Paul Cameron ASC on Total Recall
Paul Cameron, ASC, just finished work on the remake of Total Recall, directed by Len Wiseman and starring Colin Farrell, Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel with Bill Nighy, Bryan Cranston, and John Cho. Cameron was last featured in Creative COW for his work on Henry's Crime. His previous credits include director Michael Mann's Collateral and Tony Scott's Man on Fire.
Feature
Paul Cameron, ASC |
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Windows Hardware & Software
HP Skyroom: Power & Simplicity for Remote Workgroup Tasks
In this article, Ron Lindeboom looks at the powerful HP Skyroom technology, which allows team members to interact in high definition video with one another, as they work on projects and approvals remotely. Highly powerful, yet priced within reach of many small to medium-sized companies -- nevertheless, the system is powerful enough for even major players like Dreamworks Animation, who used the system during the making of the blockbuster 'Monsters vs Aliens.' Powerful, elegant, simple to use.
Review, Feature
Ron Lindeboom |
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Autodesk Combustion
Writing a Logo with Light
Play Video
In this video tutorial, CreativeCOW leader Ayman Abdel-Basset demonstrates a quick, easy way to use the eraser of the paint operator and the particle system of Autodesk Combustion to create a nice writing logo effect -- complete with shining rays. This tutorial is for advanced users of Combustion, but also has some useful tips for new users.
Tutorial, Video Tutorial
Ayman Abdel-Basset |
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Art of the Edit | Ergonomics for COWs
The question was asked in the Avid Editing COW: 'After eight years of working on a computer, my wrist hurts within an hour. Anyone else getting carpel tunnel? What can I do to prevent major damage?' Dave Anselmi, a T'ai Ch'i Instructor for over 10 years and whose friend is an Ergonomics Specialist, was quick to the rescue with this great advice.
Tutorial
Dave Anselmi |
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Windows Hardware & Software
Evoluent Vertical Mouse
It starts as a slight twinge in the shoulder, or a prickle in the wrist, a dime-sized knot in the forearm or a tingling somewhere up and down the arm. Whatever the symptoms, the cause is usually the same - RSI or repetitive strain injury or its widely publicized brother, carpal tunnel syndrome. In this article, John David Hutton takes a look at the new Evoluent Vertical Mouse. It could be the answer to protecting yourself from carpal tunnel and other strains.
Review
John David Hutton |
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Autodesk Combustion
Combustion 4 Training Course
Michael Hurwicz looks at Kenneth LaRue's combustion 4 training DVDs and concludes that this set is great for novices and intermediates alike, but if you're already an expert, you may only need the 'What's New in Combustion 4' set that's available.
Review
Michael Hurwicz |
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Autodesk Combustion
Sapphire Plug-ins Provide Big Help on ''Little Manhattan''
Film editor and FX artist, Alan Edward Bell shares some Hollywood secrets in this discussion of his recent job for 20th Century Fox and New Regency Pictures, "Little Manhattan." One tool he came back to again and again was GenArts' Sapphire Plug-ins -- both during the editing stage to create effects within Final Cut Pro, and during the finishing stage to finalize the effects at film resolution within Autodesk combustion.
People / Interview
Alan Edward Bell |
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Autodesk Combustion
The Blonde with One Green Screen
The following technique from CreativeCOW member Todd Groves can be applied to situations where the actor or object that is placed before a greenscreen/bluescreen has some element about them that cannot be separated by the standard approach to keying. The situation that inspired this solution involved a blonde haired actress in front of a greenscreen.''
Tutorial
Todd Groves |
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Adobe After Effects
SynthEyes 3-D Camera Tracker
If your are unfamiliar with 3D camera tracking software, SynthEyes 3-D Camera Tracker is a tool which will analyze moving 2D video footage by tracking points of reference frame by frame. From this, it can reproduce an accurate 3D camera which matches the properties and movement of the real-world camera you used to shoot the sequence. In this review/tutorial, Karl Holt gives us an indepth look along with a lot of tips for using the software.
Review, Tutorial
Karl Holt |
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Autodesk Combustion
Creating the Old Movie look with Combustion
Contributing Editor, Bimo Adi Prakoso demonstrates some techniques for Creating the Old Movie Looks with Combustion in this tutorial. He adivises readers that, ''Many plugins for creating an old movie look are available at various costs, but the challenge is creating one without any plugin at all. Actually, it's a simple, straight forward process''.
Tutorial
Bimo Adi Prakoso |
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