Studio Monthly articles from August 2006

Studio Monthly archives from August 2006

Playing with parameters.(editor's note)
August 1, 2006... Stardust Studios is a relatively new effects shop with offices in Santa Monica and New York. We love what Stardust does and how they operate, rendering new forms with novel combinations of readily available gear and software. The studio's 22...

What's my flow.(quick cuts)
August 1, 2006... VICO SHARABANI Partner/FX Supervisor Rhinofx, www.rhinofx.tv WHAT WE DID Created super-slow moments for a three-spot Mercedes campaign (via Merkley + Partners/NY), "Blow Out," "Jiggle" and "Tour Bus HOW WE DID IT The...

What i'm using now.(quick cuts)
August 1, 2006... EditShare MARK HERVEY Post Production Technical Supervisor Hybrid Films, New York, NY LIST: $12,000+ depending on configuration WHY I LOVE IT: We did a lot of research on products and EditShare came out on top: it was the best...

Modo gets lux.(gear up)
August 1, 2006... Luxology recently unveiled modo 201, a 3D modeling, painting and rendering software program built on the ultra-clean modo code base. The software combines 3D painting and rendering tools in a modern workflow, customized to save you time during...

GPU-powered Knoll flares.(gear up)
August 1, 2006... Red Giant Software, makers of John Knoll's popular Knoll Light Factory plug-in for After Effects, began shipping version 2.5 in mid-July. Just click on "Do GPU" in this version of the ILM Visual Effects Supervisor's classic and you'll get to...

More Knoll tools.(gear up)
August 1, 2006... In another quadrant of the Knoll galaxy, Digital Anarchy released Knoll Spark Pack v.3. New features give you increased control over the look of hundreds of lighting effects for more refined 2D composites. The pack contains three filters: Use...

Custom backgrounds (the easy way).(gear up)
August 1, 2006... Chromatica, a collection of edgy multilayered backgrounds, is one of several new releases from Artbeats, the stock footage company. The NTSC and PAL versions of Chromatica include The Artbeats Blender, a background creation tool for Adobe After...

Autodesk Motion Builder 7.5: it's not cheap, but this tool can save you lots of time.(ROI reviews)
August 1, 2006... Sometimes all you want to do is dance--through your character, anyway--and not get bogged down in details about bones, constraints or modeling. MotionBuilder is a 3D character animation tool that allows an artist to focus purely on animation....

Digital Anarchy Data Animator 1.0: a plug-in set for simple yet elegant animated charts and graphs.(ROI reviews)
August 1, 2006... In my corporate and factual work I often need to present numerical data. These may include budget and earnings numbers, survey results, scientific data and rising gas prices--anything that can be presented in a bar, line or other chart. ...

Blend Cinema 4D elements with 2D After Effects animation for a "2.5D" look.(how)
August 1, 2006... STEP 1 CREATE YOUR 3D SCENE Build your scene in Cinema 4D, animating your objects and your camera. Having a few objects spread out over space with a more dramatic camera move will make your 2D comp more noticeable for your first...

Create cool wipes and effects with Stencil blend modes in Apple Motion 2.(how)
August 1, 2006... STEP 1 OPEN A NEW PROJECT Start up Motion and in the Select Project Preset dialog box, choose NTSC DV from the pop-up menu. A new 10-second/300-frame project will open. Or, if Motion is already open, choose File > New from the menu...

Crank up render times of photo-real, complex scenes in 3ds Max.(how)
August 1, 2006... STEP 1 PREPARE YOUR SCENE Open a 3ds Max scene setup that features HDRI, global illumination, lots of geometry and separate light sources, and save it out in its final form with motion blur and depth of field turned off. This way,...

Create and render photo-real HDR Images in Autodesk Maya with minimal setup.(how)
August 1, 2006... STEP 1 DOWNLOAD A FEW HDRI IMAGES The acronym HDRI stands for High Dynamic Range Image. There are many commercial sources to purchase all types of HDRIs. However, there are a few free ones floating around the net. A great place to...

Transfer attributes with GATOR in SOFTIMAGE/XSI v.5. 1.(train up)
August 1, 2006... STEP 1 LINE UP THE SOURCE AND TARGET MESHES The goal here is to transfer attributes from one or more Source meshes to a Target mesh. For this example, our source meshes are: an enveloped cyborg character (with UVs created and textures...

Katrina's less ons is your studio prepared for the worst?(@WORK)
August 1, 2006... I've operated a full-time video production studio, Video Specialities, in Slidell, LA since 1990. We do events, corporate and educational videos. From our storefront, we take in editing, duplication and film transfer orders. In the studio, we...

Brickyard VFX: teamwork builds the strongest studio.(hot house)
August 1, 2006... WHAT'S THEIR GIG? Brickyard VFX, an artist-owned and operated visual effects boutique, has combined an old-fashioned Yankee work ethic with a creative edge and kiln-fired them to create a unique work environment. From sea to shining sea...

Dealing with visually challenged clients.(snafu u.)
August 1, 2006... DONNA? THE CLIENT WANTS IT TO WOK "MORE ALIEN" UGH... I HATE THIS JOB... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "OKAY ILL DO ANOTHER..." "SIGGHH..." NEXT DAY: MAKE IT MORE ALIEN HE SAYS! AUGW!! "HE DIDNT" LIKE THIS?!...