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Post by Vince De Quattro on Nov 12, 2004 11:26:09 GMT -8
Blue Sky Studios Blur
Giant Killer Robots
Industrial Light and Magic
Mainframe Matte World Moving Picture Company
Orphanage
PDI Pixar
Rhythm and Hues
Stargate Digital
Tippett TOYBOX Tweak Films
WETA
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Post by Vince De Quattro on Dec 8, 2004 7:29:19 GMT -8
Blur and Tippett Studios
Maya Han AAU VFX Correspondent Blur started in 1995 in Venice, California by Tim Miller and David Stinnett of Sony Imageworks. They left Sony believing that the increasing power of the desktop systems would allow them to create the kind of company that they always wanted to work at, and ever since Blur has been growing in virtually every area from feature film effects to TV commercials, music videos and game cinematics. For example, in their most recent film ‘Bullet Proof Monk’, Blur created the photo-real environment for over seventy shots. Their work is seen throughout the first 10 minutes of the film and involved creating vast, detailed 3d environments, matte paintings and complex camera tracking work. In “South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut”, Blur was brought in to create the lushly animated ‘Heaven and Hell’ sequence, and it took part in the production of Miramax’s “Final Encounter”, Touchstone’s “Deep Rising”. In Shania Twain’s cutting edge music video, Blur created an epic, futuristic world populated with mechanized citizens and giant robotic defenders. TV commercials are a big part of Blur’s work as well. They created numerous TV spots for major clients including Reebok, Sirius, and Sci-fi Channel. In Reebok TV spot, Blur staged an incredible, above-the-rim duel between two of NBA’s best point guards. Blur shepherded the spot through production and post, handling not only the animation, but also directing, editing, effects, motion capture. They are also well known for their shorts in animation community, and their first independent short film ‘Aunt Luisa’ and their second film ‘Rockfish’ were short listed for Academy Award consideration. Currently they are working on 40 minutes of animation for Disney and they have several of their own projects they are developing in-house. Blur uses 3D Studio as the dedicated 3D tool, and they have been a major contributor in MAX development in the community with the help of Dave Humphries (the creator of Layerman) who joined Blur winter of 2003. Blur has approximately 60 employees and is looking to grow to 70 in a few months. Tippett Studio was started by Phil Tippett in 1984 after he left ILM where he worked as ILM Creature Shop Supervisor. The company is located in Berkeley, California and the facility consists of five large buildings in more than 28,000 square feet of campus. For twenty years, they created forty three feature films, such as “The Matrix Revolutions”, ”Hellboy”, “Robocop” trilogy and “Jurassic Park”, and were nominated for Oscar six times. Now as a company with a crew of more than 200 artists, designers, engineers and animators, under the guidance of Phil and his partners, Jules Roman (President and Executive Producer) and Craig Hayes (Co-founder, Creative Director and Senior Visual Effects Supervisor), Tippette Studio has risen to the top of the world’s leading character animation and visual effects studios. Tippett Studio is well known for their character animation with fantastical creatures, both frightening and funny. With the benefit of Phil Tippett’s lifelong study of animation and filmmaking, the animators at Tippett design characters they are way beyond their realistic appearance, imbued with weight, mass, lifelike behaviors and individual personalities. In 1997, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences recognized the Craig Hayes and his team’s contributions to filmmaking by presenting Craig with a Technical Achievement Award for the development of the Digital Input Device. Originally designed for use on “Jurassic Park”, this motion capture system not only utilizes both real-time and stop-motion input, but also interfaces directly with their animation software. Lately Tippett Studio has implemented a proprietary muscle and skin system that plugs directly into Maya, their primary animation software. The animators now control the musculature of characters and the resulting way in which the skin lays on top, which heightens the realism of the digital creations. Moreover, they have developed animation tools that streamline their completely digital pipeline, and allow the animators, artists, and technicians to pre-visualize and quickly block out entire sequences, giving demanding directors the chance to craft better sequences with their digital characters. As the role of digital filmmaking grows in its contribution to realizing the vivid imaginations of writers, directors and producers, Tippett Studio continues to develop proprietary technologies that push their digital tools beyond the state-of-the-art to create fantastic images. In 2001, Tippett Studio launched a successful new commercial division. Working alongside advertising agency Doner of Southfield, Michigan, this new division created the highly successful “Carl & Ray” Pet Shop Campaign of Blockbuster Entertainment. Since then the commercial division has completed 14 commercials, many of which have been honored with awards and mentions, including four 2002 Clio statues. Blur is a relatively small, and also a new company compared to Tippett Studio. It’s a new kid on the block that’s thriving to become a major player in the highly competitive industry. One of the founders, Tim Miller says the mission at Blur is to offer a common banner that people can rally around and believe in both as a creative entity and an institution. Blur thinks it’s time to show up on a different set of ‘radars’ and is seeking to jump into a feature film production of their own in the near future. With two ambitious thirty-something as the leaders, Blur seems to be packed with young creative energy that might lack experience but it’s full of possibilities. On the other hand, Tippett is a seasoned player with two decades of experience in filmmaking and several awards. Powered not only by creativity led by Visual Effects Designer Craig Hayes, but also by their cutting edge technology developed by an impressive group of talent, Tippett Studio thrives to move beyond to set new standards for others to follow. As for me, I’d like to work for a smaller start-up company where everyone is appreciated as an individual, and one can have a better opportunity to expose themselves to different types of work. Someone who works for a giant movie effect house once told me that the type of work one is required to do is pretty limited in a bigger work place, and one usually becomes a small part of a big machine rather than an individual artist with individuality. Of course, I’ll assume bigger workplace would come with a better job security, but I’d rather choose to work for smaller companies where creativity is encouraged and one can be a part of the company’s identity rather than be a small bolt of a big machine. Therefore I choose Blur. Reference: www.blur.com www.tippett.com www.cgworks.com www.vfxhq.com
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Post by Vince De Quattro on Dec 8, 2004 8:30:14 GMT -8
The Orphange and Giant Killer Robots
Brian Derkash AAU VFX Correspondent The Orphanage and Giant Killer Robots are Bay area effects houses with an amazing array of work. These companies are pushing the industry standards with an amazing array of work. They both work on all areas of the entertainment industry from film to commercials to music videos. They have work for people in animation, compositing, matte painting, rotoscoping, directing, and design. The Orphanage is located just south of the Golden Gate Bridge in the Presidio. The Orphanage is one of the few effects houses that are located in the presidio. This is a nice location in the city where you hear birds and crashing waves away from the din of fire trucks and domestic violence. The company was started by Jonathan Rothbart, Stu Mashuwitz, and Scott Stewart. All three founders started out at Industrial Light and Magic. The company is named The Orphanage because they all came from ILM. After some time at ILM they decided to start their own company. The company has been around for awhile now and they have an amazing portfolio. Some of their recent projects are: Sky Captain Guardian-Blender Chelsea Walls Day After Tomorrow Dr. Scholl’s-HM Office Kid Lovely and Amazing Garfield Gordon’s Gin-Possibilities BigLove The Forgotten PS2-Ratchet and Clank The Upgrade Hellboy Pepsi Man-Construction Falling Iron Jawed Angels Tivo Interface Design Sweet Jeepers Creepers II EA Sports-It’s Alive The Last Birthday Card Jackass the Movie PS2-JakII They Nest Hero PS2-JakII Print Campaign Seven:Seven:One Sea Biscuit MV Film Festival Trailer E-Dreams Charlie's Angels II Hamtaro-Ham Ham Dance Taco Bell-XBox Spy Kids 3D Robbie Williams-Feel Fox Sports Spots Anger Management Chefs of San Francisco Webby Awards Pathe to War You can check out their portfolio online at www.theorphanage.com The company has about 140 employees ranging from custodian to VFX supervisor. It is a relatively young working environment. It has a very laid back atmosphere and the average age of employees is late twenties to early thirties. It’s a relatively small company so you get to meet a lot of other people and work in many different departments. Being a small company you get the opportunity to be a part of the creative process and really mold the output of a project. You work with many different people and learn many different skills. Along with working for a small company there are a few drawbacks. The company is fairly new and they don’t have a developed pipeline yet. I think that they are working on developing a certain amount of structure so that projects can be completed in the most efficient amount of time. Time is a very important part of this industry and people want their shots as soon as possible. This and a newly forming pipeline can lead to long hours at the work place and you might end up working seven days a week until you complete a specific shot. They do pay overtime so your hard work will not go unrewarded. A few of their most recent project include a motorola spot, Forgotten, Disney commercials, and the new feature film Sin City. The company is looking for Technical Directors,VFX Production Assistant, Digital Matte Painters, VFX Production Coordinator, Compositors, Animators, Match Movers and Character Riggers. If you are interested in working here you need to send a demo reel and resume to: Recruiting Department 39 Mesa Street, Suite 201 San Francisco, CA 94129 Giant Killer Robots is another fairly new effects house located in San Francisco. The company was founded by Peter Oberdorfer, John Begher, and Mike Schmitt. The three of them come from the east coast and were brought together when they were all working on a 3D film. Together they founded the Pixel Liberation Front. After this they moved out to the west coast to start Giant Killer Robots. “Giant Killer Robots (GKR) is an Academy Award-winning visual effects boutique specializing in high-end, high resolution CGI animation. Based in San Francisco, GKR provides complete animation services from preliminary creative and technical guidance to final compositing. We service all aspects of the entertainment industry including movies, commercials and music videos. As a boutique, GKR provides clients with a hands-on/ interactive work experience. At GKR the principals are actively involved in every step of the process for every project ensuring clients the highest quality product. The partners and staff of GKR possess a unique combination of design skill and technical understanding. This allows GKR to act as both Art Department and CG production house, developing ideas from beginning to end. Giant Killer Robots is an effects House that does everything from pre-visualization to recording out to film. Their portfolio can be viewed online at: www.giantkillerrobots.com. Currently the company is working on Scooby Doo Too and Blade III. Giant Killer Robots is a pretty small company with about 45 employees. It has a very laid back atmosphere with an average age of about thirty years old. Being another small company you get to work with many different people and learn many different skills. Not only do you work with them but you get to know everyone on a first name basis as opposed to some of the bigger companies were nobody knows your name outside of your specific department. John Begher states, “We don’t want to be anther ILM, and we don’t want to be another Pixar.” The company takes a lot of pride in their work and they want to stand out as a unique boutique. I think this would be a great atmosphere coming directly out of school. The company is really small and a drawback is that they are not able to take on larger projects. With a crew of only 45 you are limited to the shots that you can create. The company does seem to be taking on bigger projects like Blade Trinity and Scooby Doo Too, so maybe they are bulking up their work force. If you are interested in working for Giant Killer Robots send a demo reel and resume to: Giant Killer Robots 361 Brannan Street San Francisco, CA, 94107 The Orphanage and Giant Killer Robots are great companies to work or intern for if you are not quite ready for a larger corporate effects house. Their work is very well done and have many long time industry professionals working for them. If you choose to work here you will be working directly with these guys and girls and the opportunity to learn new things is inevitable. If you work for either of these companies you will be building a stronger portfolio as well as learning many of the inside tricks of the trade.
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Post by Vince De Quattro on Dec 10, 2004 6:54:27 GMT -8
Blue Sky Studios and Matte World Digital, Inc.
John 'J. B.' Blalock AAU VFX Correspondent
Founded in part by Chris Wedge, Blue Sky Studios is a company that has done work on quite a few well-known films, including the all-cg film Ice Age, which broke records for its domestic release in March of 2002.
Aside from Fight Club and Ice Age, they have also created alien creatures in Star Trek: Insurrection (1998 by Paramount), Alien monsters for the more difficult scenes of Alien Resurrection (1997 by 20th Century Fox), and the effect-rich final scene in the animated Titan A.E., among other film and commercial productions. The biggest TV effect shot they have produced was a “talking fish” for the highly popular series The Sopranos in a 1999, and was very well received by the public.
The company is located in White Plains, New York – an oddity in the effects world, as most big film companies are located on the west coast, namely California. They employ over 150 effects artists whose skills, according to their website, “range from traditional cel animation to the latest in digital technology.” This makes sense, as they do a lot of varied work. For example, Fight Club required realistic effects to blend in with the ‘real-world’ environment, while Ice Age could be more exaggerated and cartoon-like since it was essentially a 3D cartoon.
In 1997 the company merged as a unit of Fox Entertainment in 1997, though it had existed for an entire ten years before. The company has its own proprietary CGI Studio renderer, which they boast as being “the best renderer in the business.” It is worth mentioning that they won both an Academy Award and an Oscar in 1998 for their short film Bunny, mainly for being the first film to use radiosity. Bunny also won more than 25 other awards for its animation technologies.
A person looking to work for Blue Sky will have to take into consideration that they will have to learn the wholly exclusive, internal program CGI Studio, which I mentioned briefly above. The main draw of this application, as opposed to other 3D programs like Maya, is that it is capable of doing efficient raytracing through very refined algorithms, which in their own words is done by, “breaking up the space before and during rendering to make the software smarter about when (or when not) to test for intersections.” The results, I say with full assurance, are quite convincing. While I thought Ice Age was pretty neat, I didn’t think it was “ground breaking”, and thus in my eyes feel the biggest impact of this company and its potential is -- and has been -- in the realistic-realm. As a side-note, one very nice aspect of Studio is that it automatically determines rendering times and distributes the workload over the network accordingly – saving additional overhead due to resource bottlenecks, which is always a concern for any type of effects work.
Overall this sounds like it would be a very fun company to work for. As a good-sized company, they likely adhere to the general industry pay scale for entry-level jobs -- $18,000-$25,000 for roto artists, and 26,000-$50,000 for compositors. They seem much more geared towards 3D however, though they likely use compositors and roto artists as much as the next company, except when working in an all-3d environment, which seems to be the way they are leaning towards.
My second company was chosen for their work on another of my favorite movies – Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The company is Matte World Digital, which initially – as the name suggests – started out more focused on matte paintings. This art, however, was declared in its traditional form a dying one, and thus began their transition into the digital realm, along with other aspects of the industry. The company was formed, without surprise, by former employees of Industrial Light & Magic, and is owned by Academy Award nominee Craig Barron, for his work on Batman Returns. The goal of the company is to create realistic visual effects shots – affordably! They work on all types of formats – films, television, commercials, and even interactive. What’s so impressive is the number of films they’ve worked on, many of them big-budget movies that I have seen and enjoyed – though regardless, their company slogan remains, “To say you’ve never seen our work is the greatest compliment,” and indeed I have never realized to what extent their skills have been utilized.
Even though I chose them based off of their work on Dracula, they have worked on even more highly regarded films, including Casino, Clear & Present Danger, Terminator II, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Independence Day, Armageddon – among many, many others! They offer a “full package” of services, and work in conjunction with the director & staff to decide what solutions will best work within the production’s budget. As a funny side, they provide trained camera crews for plate photography on location – ensuring that effect-oriented material, such as clean plates, are properly obtained and actually useable! To further reduce costs they also offer their own blue and green screen facilities in their studios. It seems that they really go to great lengths to keep to their company goal of offering effective, cost efficient solutions. It would also seem that this courtesy is very much appreciated by companies, as their list of past clients is quite extensive and includes all of the ‘big-gun’ companies. On a funny note, they did all of the effects on Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” music video – which at the time featured some amazing effects. I remember hearing on TV back then that, at the time, even for a short music video they had tremendous problems getting enough hard drive space to work with!
This company sounds very, very appealing to me. It sounds like they’re not a huge corporate company that is solely about money, but is also well-established enough that it should remain in existence, unlike many other smaller scale, newer companies. With their lower-cost emphasis, however, it may be possible that their pay scale may be lower than similarly-sized houses in the industry, though I was unable to attain specific data on this information. That, however, may be balanced out by having a smaller number of seats – also a number that the company does not openly offer. I’ve heard horror stories of employees putting in seven day weeks for three months at ESC when deadline was approaching for the last two Matrix movies – which doesn’t seem to be as big of a problem for individual employees in companies that have been around longer – and thus often have a larger number of seats to distribute the workload over. For these reasons, I would definitely be interested in working for this company.
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Post by Vince De Quattro on Dec 10, 2004 7:27:50 GMT -8
Pixar Animation Studios
G. Garrett Groszko AAU VFX Correspondent Company Background Pixar was formerly a member of George Lucas’s computer graphics division of Lucasfilm, Ltd. In 1986 Steve Jobs purchased it for $10 million dollars. It then became known as “Pixar”. Pixar Animation Studios is a publicly traded studio, priding themselves on the combination of creative and technical artistry creating original films in the medium of computer animation. The history of the studio’s growth and unique films is amazing. It all started with an animated lamp, named Luxo Jr. in 1986. This film went on to win an Academy Award for best animated short film. Pixar spent the next nine years creating several animated short films and commercials. Each of the films working to overcome a technical boundary present in computer animation. In 1995 Pixar released the world’s first feature-length computer animated film, called Toy Story. It was culmination of Pixar’s creativity, technical research and achievements from the date of its inception. The film was the highest grossing film of 1995, taking in about $192 million domestically and $362 million worldwide. This also marked the first film Pixar was to create under a contract made with Disney for rights and distribution of five animated feature-length films. In 1998, Pixar released A Bug’s Life. The film became the highest grossing animated release in 1998 bringing in $163 million domestically and $362 million worldwide. One year later, Toy Story 2 is released again breaking box-office records. This film grossed $245 million domestically and $485 million worldwide! This film becomes the first film to be entirely created, mastered and exhibited digitally. 2001 brought the public Monsters, Inc.. This movie became the third highest grossing animated film ever. The movie also showcased Pixar’s cloth and fur simulation abilities as well. In 2003, Finding Nemo in released breaking box office records domestically for an animated feature and becoming the eighth highest grossing film of all time. In 2004, Finding Nemo takes home the Oscar® for Best Animated Feature Film. This year Pixar and Disney are preparing to release the Incredibles, on November 5th, 2004. According to Pixar 2005 will house the release of John Lasseter’s fourth animated feature film called Cars. Cars will end Pixar’s contract agreement with Disney. There is also speculation about a not publicly announced film in production called Rats, directed by Jan Pinkava. Since Pixar was first created their team of creative wizards and technical geniuses have made several breakthroughs in the world of computer animation. Pixar’s technical and creative teams have collaborated since 1986 to develop three core proprietary software systems: i. Marionette™, an animation software system for modeling, animating and lighting, ii. Ringmaster™, a production management software system for scheduling, coordinating and tracking a computer animation project and iii. RenderMan11®, a rendering software system for high-quality, photo-realistic image synthesis that Pixar uses internally and licenses to third parties. In 2001, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ Board of Governors® honored Ed Catmull, President, Loren Carpenter, Senior Scientist, and Rob Cook, Vice President of Software Engineering, with an Academy Award of Merit (Oscar)® “for significant advancements to the field of motion picture rendering as exemplified in Pixar’s RenderMan®.” Pixar believes that its proprietary technology, which enables animators to precisely control the motion of characters and the sets in each frame, represents a breakthrough in the art of animation. The result is a new “look and feel,” with images of quality, richness and vibrancy that are unique in the industry. Pixar continues to invest heavily in these software systems and believes that further advancements will lead to additional productivity and quality improvements in the making of its computer animated films and other products. Pixar’s technology also facilitates the manipulation, editing and reuse of animated images, which helps to reduce person-hours and therefore film production expenses. (Technology information courtesy of www.pixar.com) Since 1986, Pixar’s creative and technical teams have worked in tandem to produce short films, television commercials and feature-length movies using three-dimensional computer animation while continually developing their creative expertise and proprietary technology. Pixar is located in Emeryville, California and now has over 730 employees. The studio is capable to work on about three films at a time. Pixar became the leader in computer generated feature-films and story, perhaps for the next eleven years they will remain on top. Managing Biographies Steve Jobs Steve Jobs is CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, the Academy-Award®-winning computer animation pioneer which he co-founded in 1986. He is also CEO of Apple Computer. The Northern California studio has created five of the most successful and beloved animated films of all time: Toy Story (1995), A Bug's Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Finding Nemo (2003). Pixar's five films have earned more than $2 billion at the worldwide box office to date, and Finding Nemo is the most successful animated film ever released. Pixar's next two films are The Incredibles (November 5, 2004) and Cars (holiday 2005). Steve grew up in the apricot orchards, which later became known as Silicon Valley, and still lives there with his wife and children. Dr. Ed Catmull Dr. Ed Catmull is president and co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios. In 1979, Ed brought his high-technology expertise to the film industry as vice president of the computer division of Lucasfilm, Ltd. Ed has been honored with three Scientific and Technical Engineering Awards from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his work, including an Oscar®. He also won the Coons Award, which is the highest achievement in computer graphics, for his lifetime contributions. John A. Lasseter John Lasseter is executive vice president, creative, and a founding member of Pixar Animation Studios. He is a two-time Academy Award®-winning director and oversees all of Pixar’s films and associated projects. John directed the groundbreaking and critically acclaimed Toy Story, A Bug’s Life and Toy Story 2. Additionally, he executive produced Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and the upcoming film The Incredibles. John returns to the director’s chair with the animated feature film Cars, to be released in holiday 2005. Under the guidance of Mr. Lasseter, Pixar has built a creative team of highly skilled animators, writers and artists. In order to attract and retain quality artists, the company founded Pixar University, which provides educational opportunities for all of Pixar's employees. Sarah McArthur Sarah McArthur, executive vice president of production, joined Pixar Animation Studios in 1997. She served as executive producer on Toy Story 2 in 1999. Prior to joining Pixar Sarah was vice president of production for The Walt Disney Company’s Feature Animation division, overseeing the production of animated films in the Burbank, Florida and Paris Studios. Simon Bax Simon Bax brings more than 20 years experience in financial operations to his role as executive vice president and chief financial officer at Pixar Animation Studios. Most recently Simon was chairman of SmartJog S.A., a company that provides secure digital content delivery between film and television distributors and broadcast facilities throughout the world. He is currently a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Lois Scali Lois Scali is executive vice president and general counsel for Pixar Animation Studios, and is responsible for all legal matters at Pixar. Prior to her career in law, Ms. Scali was an accomplished songwriter and recording artist, who performed in the U.S., Europe and Japan. Computer Statistics 1024 Intel Xeon Processors inside eight RackSaver™ BladeRack™ clusters all running on a UNIX based OS outfitted with Pixar’s RenderMan 11 2 TB of memory 60+ TB of disk space 500 Dual Processor 2.8Ghz Linux workstations 125 Windows workstations 375 PowerPC’s 100 PowerBooks Note: March 10th Pixar announced they would be switching to OS X and Power Mac G5s for full production work. Software Marionette™ (modeling, animation and lighting) Ringmaster™ (production management software, scheduling and tracking) RenderMan11® (high-quality photo-realistic image synthesis) Maya (modeling and effects and shading) Photoshop Contact Information Pixar Animation Studios 1200 Park Avenue Emeryville, CA 94608
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Post by Vince De Quattro on Dec 10, 2004 11:37:43 GMT -8
Weta Digital
G. Garrett Groszko AAU VFX Correspondent Weta was founded in 1993 by a group of New Zealand filmmakers. The group included Peter Jackson, Jim Booth, Jamie Selkirk, George Port, Tania Rodger and Richard Taylor. The goal behind setting up such a production facility in New Zealand was to fill the need for a special effects house that could cater to the local film and television industry. Weta became New Zealand’s first comprehensive effects facility. Weta began to do work on many shows being filmed in the area as well as some of the founder’s own projects. Weta worked on Meet the Feebles, Braindead (aka Dead Alive), Heavenly Creatures, the television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess, Forgotten Silver and The Frighteners. Weta was expanding quickly and needed to move to a larger studio space. They chose a group of studios on the Miramar Peninsula of Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand. Weta Digital is a visual effects production house capable of a wide range of digital effects. Weta Digital can begin a project from conceptual design and follow it through to film quality 3D animation and effects. Weta Digital is a sister company to Weta Workshop which focuses, conversely, on practical models and miniature creations for feature films. The primary focus of Weta Digital is to provide world-class visual effects for feature films and commercials. They are most famous for working on the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, released each year in succession starting in the holiday 2001 season. Weta’s filmography is not as lengthy as some visual effects houses, however they are a proving to be a visual effects production facility that can stand it’s ground. Aside from completing visual effects projects Weta Digital has made significant technical merits in the Visual Effects industry. In order to create the crowds and armies of warriors needed for the Lord of the Rings’ movie trilogy Weta developed a crowd simulation application called MASSIVE. This system gave each soldier or creature a mind of it’s own. These characters were given a brain and a goal. “ The program allowed every animated character in an animated army to respond individually to its surroundings. If such a character encountered an enemy character it was programmed to fight in a specific style until it either killed the enemy and went looking for another, or until it sustained a specific number of hits and fell down "dead".” ( www.brainyencyclopedia.com/encyclopedia/m/ma/massive__animation_.html) Weta also worked diligently to create an extremely believable facial animation system for a completely computer generated character the trilogy. They used a combination of motion capture and facial animation capture to drive the character, Gollum’s facial expressions. This blending of technologies and physical performance may have created the most believable and emotional performance by a computer generated character to date. Since the Lord of the Rings Trilogy is completed, Weta has established itself as a credible and fully functional effects house. They have worked on two feature films outside of natively produced Weta films. They successfully completed visual effects shots for Van Helsing and I, Robot. For Van Helsing, Weta completed 38 visual effects shots, and for I, Robot, Weta completed 290 visual effects shots. Weta also worked on Contact in 1997, completing 48 visual effects shots. Biographies Peter Jackson Peter Jackson was born as an only child in a small coast-side town in New Zealand in 1961. When Peter was eight years old his parents bought a 8mm camera. Jackson started creating films using his friends and himself as the main characters. They were usually short, but contained Jackson’s talent for creating impressive special effects with an extremely low budget. At the age of 22 he began his trek to become a director. His early career was spent making blood-splattering gore-movies. These films gained cult status and projected him in to the main stream of movie production. In August of 1998, he announced that his next project would be an adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkein's famed Lord of the Ring series. For further information: movies.yahoo.com/shop?d=hc&id=1800031300&cf=biog&intl=us Tania Rodger Tania Rodger is the manager of Weta Workshop, Ltd. Richard Taylor Richard Taylor is the supervisor at Weta Workshop, responsible for special make-up prosthetics, creature creation, armor and miniature construction, as well as Costume Design. Computer Statistics: 1600 Dual Processor 2.2GHz-2.8GHz Intel Xeon server for the render farm (Linux) 400 Dual Processor 2.2GHz-2.8GHz Intel Xeon workstations using NVIDIA graphics (Linux and some windows) 30 PowerMacs G4/G5 (OS X) 60-70TB of online network attached storage 500TB of offline tape storage 100Mbit and Gigabit Ethernet to the desktop Multiple gigabit links to file servers 10-gigabit links from the core network to the render farm Software: Maya MASSIVE Houdini Shake Discreet’s Colour Lustre Color Grading ZBrush Curious Software’s Curious gFX (raster painting, rotoscoping and retouching) Pixar’s RenderMan 11 SoftImage 3D modeling SoftImage Eddie Proprietary software Filmography: Heavenly Creatures, 1994 Studio: Miramax Studios Shots: 30 The Frighteners, 1996 Studio: Universal Studios Shots: 497 Contact, 1997 Studio: Warner Bros. Director: Robert Zemeckis Shots: 48 The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001 Studio: New Line Cinema Shots: 450 The Two Towers, 2002 Studio: New Line Cinema Shots: 760 The Return of the King, 2003 Studio: New Line Cinema Production Company: Three Foot Six Studios Shots: 1496 Van Helsing, 2004 Studio: Universal Studios Director: Steven Sommers Shots: 38 I, Robot, 2004 Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Director: Alex Proyas Shots: 290 Contact Information: Weta Digital Ltd. 9-11 Manuka St. Miramar Wellington New Zealand Ph: +64-4-380-7314 Fx: +64-4-380-9010 www.wetadigital.com
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Post by Vince De Quattro on Dec 10, 2004 12:20:01 GMT -8
Toybox and Mainframe
Peter Chanthanakone AAU VFX Correspondent
Toybox and Mainframe are two of the most prolific 3d animation and effects houses in Canada. While Mainframe Entertainment primarily deals with cartoons, Toybox deals with digital effects in movies and television. This essay will look at both companies in detail.
Based in British Columbia, Mainframe burst on the 3D scene when it first introduced its animated series called, "Reboot." This production was the first of its kind to feature fully 3D animated characters.
First producing computer animation for television and direct-to-videos, they are expanding into CGI for feature films, commercials and interactive entertainment. In addition to its production of reboot, the company created the award-winning "Barbie Swan Lake" direct-to-video feature, a new "Popeye" primetime television special and the new "Spider-Man" animated series.
Mainframe has produced over 240 half hours of computer animation since its inception in 1993 and have worked on 3D IMAX features, the animation, logo, and branding for the 2003 MTV Movie Awards. Their current projects include a new series of Reboot, on a direct-to-video of "Inspector Gadget," and a direct-to-video of the great skateboarder, Tony Hawk, set for release in 2006. Mainframe has won many prestigious awards of its technical innovations, including a Laureate of the 1998 Computerworld Smithsonian Awards.
Softimage XSI is their off the shelf program of choice along with their own Mainframe developed mocap protocol which it has been employing in its animated features and television series. It has since outsourced to gaming clients such as EA Sports for key frame animation and cinematic sequences in their NHL series.
The company once employed approximately 240 artists, animators, technicians and production personnel. However, Mainframe has since declined in productivity and market value. While in 2002, they produced 33 episodes, 2003 brought only 10 episodes which also created a -31.7% decline in employees. Mainframe has been on the decline since 2001.
They believe in order for growth, to implement a work-for-hire service work. With 2 of the largest toy companies, Mattel and Hasbro, producing television series, Mainframe is also starting to generate merchandising revenue. With their motion capture facility, Mainframe is supplying digital animation for character rendering in games as well as cinematics in the games.
Since the current decline, Rick Mischel became CEO in 2004. He says their latest CG special Scary Godmother will have a budget in the $2 million range, a very low figure when compared with budgets for an average CG feature. "But don't forget that we do get certain economic advantages being in Canada," he cautions. "We get substantial savings through the tax credit program here and labor costs that are a bit lower, in addition to the efficiencies that we've built into our production pipeline over a decade of work."
While Mainframe has seen a decline in the industry, TOYBOX has been surging in the visual effects realm. Command Post & Transfer Corporation provides post-production services and visual effects for film, television, and commercials. One of Canada's leading post-production firms, the company operates under the names Alphacine and TOYBOX. TOYBOX has worked on movies such as Chicago and Matrix Reloaded for IMAX. Formed by Steve Robinson and three of his friends in 1986, TOYBOX is located in Vancouver, Toronto and a virtual studio in Los Angeles. They house their own digital intermediate paths, cinemaHD for digital video and video captured features and cinemaDI. Using tools such as Maya, Houdini and 3D Studio Max, Toybox provides 2D and 3D visual effects for feature films, television and commercials.
Their virtual studio in Los Angeles allows their clients to connect with Toronto and Vancouver via a high-speed fibre optic link allowing for remote, real time interactive edit, visual effects and dailies delivery. Their chief executive is Andy Sykes and within that studio, employs 5 people.
Command Post & Transfer Corporation was bought out by Technicolor's Technicolor Entertainment Services (TES), which itself is part of Thomson's Digital Content Solutions division. It makes Thomson one of the media juggernauts of the world.
With two of the top animation and visual effects companies in Canada highlighted in Mainframe and Toybox, there is ample amount of talent available up North. While intergrating with their neighbour, USA, will be important to their existence, the idea of lower costs and similar talent skills seem to entice potential clients around the world.
Toybox Physical Address USA 5254 Melrose Ave Ste 200d Los Angeles, CA 90038-3145 Phone: 323-769-2550
Toybox Physical Address CANADA 2025 W. Broadway, Ste. 200 Vancouver, British Columbia V6J 1Z6, Canada Phone: 604-714-2600 Fax: 604-714-2641 Mainframe Primary US Office 2049 Century Park East, Ste. 2130 Los Angeles, CA 90067 Phone: 310-556-2221 Fax: 310-556-0975
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Post by george on Sept 11, 2005 21:54:58 GMT -8
Living and working in London is one of the many options I'm considering. Do you have insight into any of the VXF Companies there? ... specifically Cinesite?
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Post by Vince De Quattro on Mar 10, 2006 8:29:29 GMT -8
Jason Bidwell
Tweak Films
Chris Horvarth and Jim Hourihan started Tweak Films in 2000. Jim and Chris, who previously worked for Industrial Light and Magic decided to break away and start their own studio. They were just two guys and a name until Jim was noticed while giving a keynote speech at a MacWorld convention on a real-time water simulation. Two days later he was called to work on their first film. “Hero” directed by Zhang Yimou, received a Hong Kong Film Award. Other notable movies from Tweak Films include, “Matrix: Reloaded,” “Matrix: Revolutions,” “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” and “The Day After Tomorrow.”
Tweak Films has carved out a niche in the Visual Effects industry as the go-to studio for difficult shots. Jim Hourihan has been recognized for his research and development on fluid and particle simulations. Innovation out of necessity has prompted Jim and staff to write custom software to handle complex, rigid body simulations. For example, the “tower destructions” scene in the “Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (LOTR) needed an advanced rigid body simulation to show a crumbling tower. According to Francisco Delatorre, a VFX artist for Tweak Films, “Nothing of that scale had ever been achieved before.” Jim and his staff also devised a fluid simulation tool for creating the giant wave effect in “The Day After Tomorrow.” This shot benefited from other in-house software, which was needed to render the particles and sprites.
Tweak Films is a small “boutique” studio, which employs 8-to-15 VFX artists, depending on the workload. According to Delatorre, the artists are paid competitive salaries, but not as much as some of the larger VFX studios. He said that the tradeoff for the artists is creative freedom. Delatorre also said that Tweak doesn’t hire entry-level VFX artists or provide internships. They prefer to hire only seasoned veterans who can produce amazing things in a short period of time because of the complexity and pace of their business. Hiring people mainly from a pool of colleagues they have worked with in the past, Delatorre said that, “they are more of a family than a business.” He went on to say; “Your shot is only as good as your weakest link, so every stage [of the pipeline] is equally important.”
Jim Hourihan mentioned how a typical workflow for Tweak Films is rarely typical. A shot is usually completed quickly, because they known for “putting out fires” for other studios who have difficult sequences and tight deadlines. After planning out the shot, modeling and animation is completed in Maya. Highly complicated and detailed particle simulations are created with Tweak’s own custom software. They also have their own proprietary rendering software called “Entropy,” which is based on Pixar’s “Renderman.” They also use their own file system called GTO, which is a compact file format for the storage of 3D geometric data. Entropy helps speed up the rendering time, which gives the artists more time to make adjustments. This is critical, because the turn around time can be very short and the artists never really know how it will really look until it is rendered. Finally the compositing is completed with Apple’s “Shake” compositing software. Hourihan prefers Shake because its ability to render superior motion-blur effects.
Not all of Tweak’s shots are completely created inside a computer. Hourihan said that sometimes a mixture of CG and traditional effects are needed to produce the desired effects. DeLeTorre also said “it’s common to film [elements such as smoke and fire] separately and then turn them into sprites for particles, or just composite them into a scene.” For example, in LOTR, Hourihan described a scene where the characters are running from a large, fire-covered demon. The CG fire was represented by particle sprites. These sprites were mapped with actual footage of fire, which gave the demon’s character a very realistic look.
Delatorre was asked about specialized skills that would make a prospective employee stand out. He said, “less common skill sets such as [learning] Houdini or shader writing are always useful because they make you stand out. I think that it’s more important that [the applicant] has a good reel. If your stuff looks good, it hardly matters how you made it.” He mentioned a few tips on producing a good demo-reel, which is the business card of the movie industry. “Your demo-reel should begin with your strongest material and end with something memorable. Aside from that, if its well edited and has interesting material, it will speak for itself.” He also cautions that “bars and tone” at the beginning of the reel is undesirable. “Nobody’s going to adjust the color space of their TV.”
Through the generosity of Jim Hourihan and Francisco DeLeTorre, I have learned that smaller studios like Tweak Films provide an arena for the cutting edge VFX artists to break new ground in the industry. There is more pressure to produce and less time to figure things out, which makes smaller studios seem like a less viable option for recent graduates looking for work. It is exciting to learn about people who are paving new ground for the industry. Through hard work and care as I learn my craft, I hope to become one of the industry’s most valuable innovators.
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Post by Vince De Quattro on Mar 10, 2006 8:51:48 GMT -8
Matt Beightol 2005
STARGATE DIGITAL
Stargate Digital was founded in 1989 by Sam Nicholson. They have since then grown into a film and digital imaging studio that has done work for TV shows, commercials, and also feature films. Through the years Stargate has gained a great reputation throughout the world for producing high quality productions. Stargate has a staff of about 150 very talented artists, production staff, and technicians. They are lead by Sam Nicholson who is the CEO and founder of Stargate Films. Sam started at UCLA School of fine arts and got a masters degree in design. He has extensive experience in film as a cinematographer and director and had his first visual effects experience on Star Trek I and Max Headroom where he worked as the visual effects supervisor. Since then Sam has produced and supervised visual effects on Ghost Busters II, Highlander II, 40 DAYS AND 40 NIGHTS and many others. He has also done a lot of commercial work for clients such as DHL, Lexus, and Jeep. As of 2003 Stargate Digital has 3 studio locations spread throughout the world. In March of 2001 they were located solely in California in the historic Route 66 district of South Pasadena, just 10 minutes from Los Angeles. Then in 2002 they opened a studio in Vancouver, British Columbia that consisted of only 4 artists. After only about 6 months they outgrew the office and had to move to a larger location because the company was growing so fast. Finally in 2003 Stargate Digital opened a facility in London at the legendary Pinewood Studios which has been a popular place for British film production for the last 50 yrs.
Stargate Digital is a unique studio because it is one of the only studios that offer almost any service you could want all in the same production house. They offer services such as live action production, advanced motion control, sets, props, miniatures and creatures, process photography, 3D CG, matte painting, compositing, film scanning and record out, offline and online HD and Digital Betacam post production. Though they offer just about any service you could want I think what they’re most known for is their matte paintings and their virtual backlot. The artists as Stargate have worked on matte paintings for Race Against Time, “Las Vegas”, “Helen of Troy”, “Desperate Housewives”, “CSI” and the “Dead Zone” TV series to name a few. The matte paintings and visual effects that they created for the TV mini series Spartacus were featured on the cover of computer graphics world magazine in April 2004. It wasn’t planned to be built completely in CG but as production unfolded they ended up taking about 6months creating a photorealistic 3D version of the ancient city. Doing this allowed more flexibility with camera angles and movement that would not have been possible with a live action set. Stargate Digital’s Virtual Backlot™ was also a valuable asset to this shot. The Virtual Backlot™ creates a 3d environment that can be photographed from any angle. It basically creates a 360 degree world made up of matte paintings, green screen elements and 3D models. This allows the artists at Stargate to create just about any environment they need within a reasonable budget and time frame.
Stargate Digital has worked with visual effects and production on feature films like White Noise, The Onion, Charlie’s Angels 2, and The Bachelor, TV series’ like “Las Vegas”, “ER”, “CSI”, “West Wing”, “Nip/Tuck” and also commercial spots for Hyundai, FOX TV, Gilette, Sketchers, and the U.S. Marines to name a few. A lot of the films and TV shows that they work on aren’t big “effects films” which is why Sam Nicholson says that the best compliment an audience can give them is by asking what they did. Most of their work involves creating environments and compositing them w/ live action shots. You know you did a good job when the audience doesn’t even notice that the giant sky scraper in the scene doesn’t actually exist at all. Stargate Digital is a studio that I would definitely be interested in working for when I get out of grad school. They currently have job openings for Compositors, Matte Painters, VFX Coordinators, and a couple other positions throughout their 3 studio locations. It seems like it would be a fun place to work and a great place to start my career in the visual effects industry.
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Post by Vince De Quattro on Mar 10, 2006 8:58:03 GMT -8
Tiffany Grant March 10, 2006 Giant Killer Robots Robots on Attack!!
“Hey, Tiffany are you going to the Academy boat party on Saturday?” asked a friend.
“No, I have to report to both my jobs so I can’t go.” I respond.
“You have TWO jobs! What do you do?” questions my friend.
“Well, I work at Barnes and Nobles serving lattes and I have a internship at GKR.”
“GKR?” states my friend with wide and questioning eyes. “Giant Killer Robots, it is a VFX house.”
I started working at Giant Killer Robots about three months ago as a production intern. I can still remember the first time I approached their building. I was walking on Brannan Street looking for 361. After a couple minutes, a sign jumped out at me stating “361 Brannan” located on a brick wall.
I remembered Kelli, the Human Resources Manager telling me they were situated in an alleyway. And behold an alleyway! My first thought was WOW!! This is different and kind of unusual.
I walked up to the glass doors and pulled on them. Locked. “How do I get in?” Over to the right was a doorbell begging to be pushed. So, I pushed the button. A minute or two later, Kelli answered the door with a big smile and happy greeting. Upon entering the building, there was a huge blown up picture of the “real world” from the Matrix Reloaded or Revolutions movie, a pool table and arcade machine in the corner.
In the main section of the building, were rows of computers and people, mostly males, roaming around and working at their desks. It didn’t feel like a computer lab that was devoid of life or emotion. On the upper part of the walls were the movie posters GKR had worked on: Matrix: Reloaded and Matrix:Revolutions, Scooby Doo 1 & 2, Romeo Must Die, Son of the Mask, Terminator: 3, Blade:Trinity, What Dreams May Come, etc. There were pictures of the artists’ families and friends, action figures, funny toys hanging on walls, half eaten snacks on desks etc.
A dog even greeted me.
Right away, I got the feeling that GKR had a laid-back environment. A week or two later, I realized this assumption was right.
The founders treated their artists with beer on Friday nights, an abundance of unhealthy snacks, and anyone can bring their dogs to work. And if there is a workday on Saturdays, sometimes there will be bagels waiting for them in the morning.
When I became a new “robot” in February, there were roughly fifty artists, including the founders and systems management. Now, there are over eighty “robots” in the company and a new annex to the building.
Together, these talented people are able to produce high-resolution visual effects for movies and miniseries from “ pre-visualization to final print.” As stated in their description for the company: “Giant Killer Robots (GKR) is an Academy Award-winning visual effects boutique specializing in high-end, high resolution CGI animation…As a boutique, GKR provides clients with a hands-on/interactive work experience… Giant Killer Robots acts as both Art Department and CG production house, developing ideas from beginning to end.”
These are the main aspirations that founders John Vegher, Peter Oberdorfer, Mike Schmitt and later Amber Wong, executive producer, envisioned that their company would possess. No CEO can be found at GKR, because John, Peter, Mike and Amber do not believe in a heavy management owned company and a workplace that is compartmentalized.
As GKR grows, this could be a problem. With eighty-plus artists, it is harder for co-workers to become personable with majority of the staff. This maybe true, but from my observations everyone seems to still make their way to each others desks, stand around in groups for a chat and few giggles in the kitchen, and even hangout at the local bar for happy hour or attend movies together with their families. So far, the founders’ plan is a great success.
The history of Giant Killer Robots seems to be a typical one. A few artists working together on a VFX project become good friends and share common ideas and principals for producing a new and fresh company. They take a leap of faith and set out to open this boutique and there you have it. In 1996, Peter, Mike and John were working on Judge Dredd at Cinergi Pictures.
There was a bond between them and an excellent mix of talent. They founded Pixel Liberation Front in New York with other friends. Pixel Liberation Front was a pre-visualization company and the three gentlemen want to have a studio that had involvement from the start of a project to the end. So, they moved to sunny California and formed Giant Killer Robots in 1997. Its name is derived from the founders’ love for Japanese Anime.
Soon after, they received a project called What Dreams May Come and later the movie received an Academy Award for Visual Effects.
The founders John Vegher, VFX supervisor, studied architecture at Columbia University. He developed the production pipeline, encourages and challenges the artists to become multi-dimensional by cross training. Mike Schmitt, VFX supervisor, comes from MIT. His talents excel at math, environmental details, textures, and atmospheres.
Peter Oberdorfer, VFX supervisor, comes also from Columbia University with an education in architecture. He skill set is producing virtual environments and he is an excellent problem solver.
Amber Wong, executive producer, is very business savvy. She brings in the projects, is the talent recruiter and makes sure GKR remains on schedule. She is a former computer graphics producer and business manager of Click 3X. Together, all the partners work directly with the clients and artists to insure a successful project. Along with the ideals for their studio, as of now, they are opposed to out sourcing abroad. They feel that Canada, Australia and the Czech Republic VFX studios are a major competition.
Why? They are lower-priced companies. Amber Wong wants local companies to flourish because it brings in more projects into the Bay area, which is great for all as a whole. Giant Killer Robots is a respected boutique in the computer animation world. Even though they are not well known like Pixar, ILM or PDI, they are still able to average a little less than 5 million dollars in profit yearly.
What software is used to make these profitable and high-end effects? The programs that GKR has used on past projects are Maya, XSI, Shake, Photoshop, After Effects, Boujou and Commotion. Along, with this they created proprietary engines if needed. This is a great opportunity for Academy of Art 3D animation students because these are the programs taught within the University with the exception of Boujou, a ten thousand dollar tracking program, and XSI.
From just talking with the artists, they are a lot of academy alumni and current and former instructors of the academy working here. This reminds me of a conversation I had with one artist, Louis. He is an Academy instructor and he pointed out two of his previous students who worked just a few desks down from him currently. The entry-level jobs seem to be rotoscoping and tracking.
In my opinion, Giant Killer Robots is a great company to work for. The artists, presently working there loves it. I have not heard one bad thing about the studio. It is a laid-back environment but highly stressful because of deadlines etc. The only negative that I notice is at the end of the project majority of the artist will be let go if there are no upcoming assignments for them to work on. But this goes for any VFX studio, big or small.
The current project they are working on is coming out this July. However, I am not able to share that information. An internet search is a quick fix to this problem.
Happy hunting!
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