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TV & Movie Appreciation
Method Studios builds a giant world for JUPITER ASCENDING
Jupiter Ascending is the latest sci-fi epic from Lana and Andy Wachowski, the visionaries whose hallmark is creating compelling worlds that span vast reaches of time and space. We spoke to Simon Carr, the VFX supervisor for Method, about creating many of the key components in Jupiter Ascending's world, and what their experience has taught them about building their own future.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Tim Wilson |
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Adobe Dreamweaver
Bridging Web Design and Development with Adobe Extract
Adobe Extract, released in August 2014, is a feature in Photoshop 2014 CC, Dreamweaver 2014 CC and Creative Cloud that has the potential to transform the way web designers and developers work together. If the designer does have a Creative Cloud membership, it opens up a new possibility: uploading a PSD file (one received via email, for instance) to Creative Cloud and getting the assets and CSS information out to to your project.
Editorial, Feature
Michael Hurwicz |
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Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe's Mobile Canvas: Desktop, Devices Come Together at MAX
Adobe has announced a a new family of mobile apps, tied together by a new Creative Profile, to seamlessly integrate into existing desktop tools as part of the latest Creative Cloud release. The CC update, expected to be available today, also includes major new features for the desktop family of tools including Photoshop, Illustrator After Effects and Premiere.
Editorial, Feature
Kylee Wall |
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Adobe Creative Cloud
Adobe Streamlines Workflows with Creative Cloud Updates
Adobe has announced updates to the professional video tools in their Creative Cloud, featuring timesaving enhancements to media and project management, increased support for new codecs and display technologies, and refinements to everyday editorial tasks in response to some long-standing user requests.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Kylee Wall |
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TV & Movie Appreciation
Building The World of Hercules
Hercules achieved an epic look on a relatively modest budget through careful and clever CG environments. Together, Method Studios and Milk VFX are two of the companies that helped create a full, realistic world for Hercules, from the sky, to the Acropolis, to the sea.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Tim Wilson |
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TV & Movie Appreciation
Contemporary Living Network: Fresh Ideas, Fresh Content
Longtime Creative COW Contributor, Walter Biscardi, Jr. recently announced the upcoming launch of Contemporary Living Network, a digital network focusing on positive lifestyle edutainment. For him, it's a natural progression from production to creating a new home for all original content. We asked Walter to tell us about CLN and his crowd funding campaign for "Ice Cream Nation," one of the first series to be featured on the new network.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Walter Biscardi |
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TV & Movie Appreciation
The Toaster and Tim's Vermeer
The inventor of the NewTek Video Toaster was certain that he figured out the secret behind the uncanny realism of one of the world's greatest painters, and certain he could use the same methods to duplicate it. Really? Yes, really. Join us for a conversation with NewTek founder Tim Jenison on the unexpected intersection of art, technology, obsession and the Video Toaster in the wonderfully provocative documentary called Tim's Vermeer.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Tim Wilson |
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TV & Movie Appreciation
Making Maleficent Fly
Maleficent's Oscar-nominated Visual Effects Supervisor Carey Villegas speaks to us about his work creating the world of the iconic Disney villain, coordinating multiple effects houses on every one of over 1500 shots, and the challenges of creating realistic effects.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Tim Wilson |
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Social Media
How Are You Doing? Really...
In an industry where mental health is hard to come by, Kylee Wall reminds us how important it is to ask ourselves, and our peers, "How are you doing?". When's the last time you answered truthfully?
Editorial, Feature
Kylee Wall |
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Cinematography
Technology 2014 | Production, Post & Beyond: Part TWO
What were the big technology trends in media and entertainment over the past year? What's going to be significant in the coming year? Those are questions that many of us are asking, so we went to some of our savviest Creative COW contributors to ask their opinions of where we've been and where we're going. Here in Part 2, our conrtibutors offer in-depth insights. (See Part 1 for a broader industry overview.)
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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Cinematography
Technology 2014 | Production, Post & Beyond: Part ONE
What were the big technology trends in media and entertainment over the past year? What's going to be significant in the coming year? Those are questions that many of us are asking, so we went to some of our savviest Creative COW contributors to ask their opinions of where we've been and where we're going. Here in Part 1, we offer an overview of their perspectives. (See Part 2 for their additional insights.)
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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TV & Movie Appreciation
John Dykstra, ASC: VFX Then and Now
Creative COW had the great pleasure of speaking to visual effects pioneer John Dykstra, who received his first Academy Award for his work on Star Wars, and, the same year, won an Academy Scientific and Engineering Award for the Dykstraflex motion-control camera that made so many of Star Wars' effects possible. Join us as he shares behind the scenes on Star Wars, speaks about his transition from an artist to a VFX supervisor, and gives us his thoughts on the state of VFX today.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
John Dykstra, ASC |
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TV & Movie Appreciation
Creating the 3D in Gravity
Gravity, the highly-acclaimed, intensely emotional space thriller, has been hailed as some of the - if not the VERY - best 3D footage ever seen on the big screen. This has led to some surprise when learning that Gravity was NOT shot in 3D. However, it wasn't entirely converted in post either. It featured an innovative and unique workflow that incorporated 3D conversion during production as well as a complex integration with 3D VFX. In a conversation with Prime Focus World, we find out how they did it.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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Art of the Edit
Story Stuff Is Story Stuff
Insights for becoming a better writer easily make the transition to the editing world. Kylee Wall gleans from the masters - Vonnegut, Elmore Leonard, Palahniuk - and highlights simple ways to finesse your storytelling abilities.
Editorial, Feature
Kylee Wall |
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NEWS: People in the News
Remembering Ray Dolby: A Life of Invention
Ray Dolby gave his talents and his name to the most significant advances in audio recording, for both the professional film/TV/music industries and consumer products. On the occasion of his death, at age 80, Creative COW tells the story of his life, his engineering achievements and the impact he has had on the creative people in our industry.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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Adobe After Effects
Adobe Ups Creative Cloud and Adobe Anywhere
Adobe has updated its Creative Cloud with 150 new features, including numerous video tools for Premiere Pro, After Effects, SpeedGrade and other components. In addition, the company has also planned significant updates to Adobe Anywhere Video, the "modern collaborative workflow platform" that allows Adobe pro-video solutions benefit from centralized media and assets across standard networks.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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Art of the Edit
Women In Post Join Forces
Women in Post is a new HPA (Hollywood Post Alliance) committee formed by and for a decidedly minority group in the world of film/TV high technology. After three meetings -- two of them successful round table discussions, featuring accomplished women in the industry -- the group is expanding its plans to offer networking, mentoring and camaraderie and more.
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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TV & Movie Appreciation
VFX Titans Remember Ray Harryhausen
"When we grieve Ray Harryhausen's passing, we are at least in part grieving perhaps the last living link to the earliest days of movie visual effects," says Creative COW's Debra Kaufman. She spoke to many of today's VFX giants who were inspired by Ray, including Phil Tippett, Richard Edlund, Jeffrey A. Okun and ILM Animation Director Hal Hickel, who says, "Ray Harryhausen's impact on an entire generation (several actually) of filmmakers cannot be overstated, each of them trying again and again to reproduce the wonder they first felt as a child watching Jason fight those skeletons."
Editorial, Feature, People / Interview
Debra Kaufman |
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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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