Red Giant Universe 2.0 - no more free lunch

You probably already heard, but...

Red Giant Universe had been a consistently-updated mix of free and subscription effects for Adobe After Effect, Premiere Pro, and related apps like Hitfilm Pro, Final Cut Pro X, and DaVinci Resolve. With the new Universe 2.0, Red Giant removed the less popular plug-ins -- and will no longer offer free tools! 

There more at PVC in Red Giant Universe 2.0: Hud, Mograph, Stylized Damage & Looks, Transitions

HitFilm 3 Pro for free if you own HitFilm Plug-ins

FXHOME has announced HitFilm 3 Pro, now pre-ordering for release in late November 2014 for $299. Hitfilm, available for Mac and Windows, supports modern filmmaking workflows that require you to be an editor, VFX artist, and colorist at the same time.

There's great news for some: if you already own HitFilm Plug-ins, you’ll get HitFilm 3 Pro for free.

Read the rest at PVC...

A few TRON titles in After Effects

Andrew Kramer released his "Tron-Pilot" After Effects CS4 project file and a short video walk-through which describes creating the faux 3D text in AE (adding the Vegas filter for a volumetric effect) and building a few expressions. The project was previewed in December.

There's some other tutorials to mimic the TRON look, and some background on the VFX of TRON: Legacy from Fxguide (on face replacement effects), [update: Talking Tron with Digital Domain at Motionographer,] and in numerous "Making of" videos like those posted by Digital Domain. Here's a few more tutorials for After Effects, veering off with a few on neon:

• Tron Titles Part 1 ( Cinema 4D) and Part 2 (AE) by Antonio Cerri, part of Aetuts+ Hollywood Movie Titles Series

• Nick Khoo posted Tron Legacy style titles in After Effects in 2 parts (1, 2) and a Tron font.

• Letrindle posted TRON Grid Tutorial in 3 parts on Youtube

• In a TRON trailer the title text flickered. Motion Graphics Exchange has an expression from AEnhancers that creates a flickering effect similar to a flickering neon light.

• Neal Barenblat posted Neon Text Graphic - After Effects at Vimeo

• Simulate A Glowing Neon Light Sign Of Your Logo by Juan Carlos Navarro on AEtuts+

But what if Saul Bass had done the titles for TRON?

Tron vs. Saul Bass from Hexagonall on Vimeo.

Fxphd Jan 2011 orientation week video

The latest fxphd term is open with courses on VFX, editing, motion graphics, compositing, roto/tracking, color correction, 3D, photography, 3D stereo, and more. Members have access to a variety of higher end software over the fxphd VPN, and for an extra fee some past classes.

The overview movie is out and provides a comprehensive overview of the new term, in QuickTime on the blog or via torrent.

Here's a look at stuff in the last term:

fxphd July10 Term Orientation Week Video from fxphd.com on Vimeo.

Feds sue Lucasfilm for 'undermining' VFX artists

Lee Stranahan has a new article on The Huffington Post, Feds Sues Lucasfilm for Undermining VFX Artists.

Update: there's a thread started on A Union for Visual Effects at CG Society, and a long thread on on Reddit, IAMA visual effects artist for the last 14 years on many major films, and don't give a...

Fxphd July10 term overview movie

The latest fxphd term begins July 12 with courses on VFX, editing, motion graphics, compositing, roto/tracking, 3D, photography, and more. Members have access to a variety of higher end software over the fxphd VPN.

The overview movie is out and provides a comprehensive overview of the new classes.

VFX Sweatshops + Spec Work

Talk about troubles in the VFX industry has continued since FX industry troubles: Lee Stranahan, Scott Ross + editing. Motionographer posted a rundown on the flurry of activity since then in VFX Townhall Recap and Links, and there's a bit more in AEP's VFX TownHall leftovers.

Scott Squires has been tracking the issue and recently noted the article on Hollywood's VFX sweatshops in Time magazine and offers advice for directors and producers in Visual effects service - The Big Picture and Getting the most out of your VFX budget. His latest note is on The Tragic Plight of Hollywood VFX Sweatshops at the blog Sinisthesia.

Also of note is The Indian Exodus by Steve Wright (who helps with outsourcing), from an interview by Stranahan at VFX Filmmaker. Here's an excerpt:

'There is much concern in the VFX industry about our jobs being outsourced to India, and even China [which bans unapproved reincarnation]. Indeed, India is rapidly booting up a visual effects industry and has a vast pool of low cost artists to staff it with. Since I have been to India five times to conduct VFX training (the most recent being a two-month visit to two different facilities) I am often asked about the “lay of the land” there. While India has much potential, they do have some systemic problems to overcome.
[...]
So what does all this mean to the worried domestic VFX artist? If I were a junior artist with only roto or paint skill I would be worried. The lower the skill and artistic requirements for a job the more vulnerable it will be to taking the exodus to India. To keep our well-paying domestic jobs we will need to continually upgrade our technical and artistic skills. Don’t just be a compositor. Be a lighter-compositor. Be the “shot finisher” with superb color correction skills. Get into stereo. Take some art classes and have an artistic hobby to show a potential employer. Bottom line - the higher up the VFX food chain you are the more secure your job is.'

Update: Grayscale Gorilla has some things to say in his post and video, Why the NO SPEC Movement Isn’t Working. And, Why That’s so Awesome!

Why the NOSPEC Movement isn't Working from Nick Campbell on Vimeo.

Red Giant TV interview with ILM's John Knoll

Aharon Rabinowitz interviewed Industrial Light & Magic VFX supervisor John Knoll for Red Giant.

Update: part 2 is up.

Fxphd term starts with 41 courses

The fxphd term has begun with 41 total courses on VFX, editing, motion graphics, compositing, roto/tracking, 3D, photography, math & scripting, and more. Members have access to a variety of higher end software over the fxphd VPN: Nuke X/Nuke v6, Smoke 2011 for Mac, Mocha/Mokey, Cinema4D 11.5, Maya 2010, PFTrack, Render, ManMassive.

Classes with After Effects are taught by Danny Princz, Mark Christiansen, Tim Clapham, Mark Coleran, and Lloyd Alvarez (Introduction to After Effects scripting). Stu Maschwitz is teaching DSLR Cinematography.

It's quite a deal if you can spare the money and time. They have a QuickTime movie that describes the details vividly.

The Ken Burns Effect — and beyond

ForaTV has Ken Burns in Conversation with Robert Stone from The New York Public Library. Burn talks about how Steve Jobs roped him into the association with the effect for iLife; see time 1:33:30 in the video embed. [see another interview at the Archive of Television]

For more, see Poynter Online's advice on Burns and His 'Effect' and background in Wikipedia.

By the way, Noise Industries is still offering a free FxPlug, Fxfactory pan and zoom plug-in (Mac). There are numerous tutorials for this effect if you don't have a plug-in. Shane Ross did a video tutorial for FCP at Creative Cow. In the Adobe world, this sort of pan & scan is done by Anchor Point animation; see Chris and Trish Meyer's article on pan & scan at Artbeats and More Motion, Less Control (on adding a human touch) at PVC for good results.

Examples of taking the effect to the next level are also numerous, especially after the movie The Kid Stays in the Picture, noted in another article by Trish & Chris at Artbeats. There's also Bob Donlon's example in Son of Ken Burns, a Richard Harrington video in 'Motion Control' with After Effects, and other AEP resources for multiplane animation.

Update: here's more on multiplane cameras from an old Disney show (filmed: Feb 13, 1957):

Update: Stu Maschwitz added a new product, Prolost Burns, an Animation Preset for After Effects CS6+ that automates the process of creating this type of animation.

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VFX TownHall leftovers for examination + VFX Union Panel/Chat Room

It's so over, making this post a bit repetitive, but hey...

Conditions can be tough for people working in advertising and visual effects as economic and technological pressures realign the industries. A flurry of stories last month (see FX industry troubles: Lee Stranahan, Scott Ross + editing), culminated in a VFX TownHall meeting last night.

If you missed it live, there's a Twitter potluck #VFXTownHall and audio of the event provided by VFx Haiku and to lighten the bandwidth burden by Fxguide. There's more to come, but for now some the glamor of VFX is discussed at Cracked in The 5 Miserable VFX Jobs That Make Movies Possible.

Update: via @alba #vfxtownhall sprouting corridors in every direction [Wednesday] tonight 7:30pm PST @dorkmanscott doing panel @ http://downinfront.net/vfx/ via @neonmarg

Update 2: Scott Squires, with VFX experience ranging from Close Encounters to Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, posted VFX TownHall Meeting thoughts [and later added more].

Update 3: Creative COW avoids the term outsourcing in the recently published Worldsourcing: A Prime Focus on Global VFX Collaboration by Mike Fink, which uses another term -- Collaboration:the new buzzword in advertising, production, & online video.

You might compare "collaboration" to the other views noted earlier in The PEN story: another YouTube Dilemma and The Carrot is the Stick which noted Motionographer's Mass Animation=Mass Exploitation?

FX industry troubles: Lee Stranahan, Scott Ross + editing

Recently 2 news stories on the FX industry in China and California attracted wide attention (see VFX offshoring unpleasantness), and were followed by an Open Letter To James Cameron: Fairness For Visual Effects Artists by Lee Stranahan in the Huffington Post.

Today Fxguide posted background info and an interview with Stranahan in fxpodcast: An Open Letter to James Cameron.

If you like this, be sure to check out the December 2009 Fxpodcast with industry pioneer Scott Ross on history and the future of the visual effects business as outsourcing away from the USA accelerates.

Update: even editors are worried about outsourcing now, with remote collaboration tools available like iChat Theater in Final Cut Pro 7 or Fuze.

Update 2: on 03/05/2010 Mark Christiansen asks, Is a Visual Effects Guild to Materialize this Decade? Fxguide has a few more items in Visual Effects link roundup.

Fxguide's 'Art of' Tracking, Keying, Roto, Optical Flow, HDR, 3D Stereo, & more

Fxguide's 'Art of' series is still pretty good. Here's what's easily found in the series:

• The Art of Tracking
• The Art of Keying
• The Art of Roto
• The Art of Wire Removal
• The Art of Optical Flow
• The Art of HDR
• The Art of Digital 3D Stereoscopic Film
• Matte Painting: 1, 2, 3, 4

Covering some of the same ground is "classic" VFX training resurrected for now on Vimeo, the out-of-print Masters of Visual Effects.

VFX offshoring unpleasantness

Via NeonMarg and Flowseeker, 2 stories of unpleasantness:

* Working in China from VFX Wages
* California Visual Effects Industry Gets Weaker Every Day from Animation World Network.

Update: see the Feb 5 Open Letter To James Cameron: Fairness For Visual Effects Artists by Lee Stranahan.

Smoke for Mac demo in SF

Advanced Systems Group and Apple Inc. are holding special technology previews of Autodesk Smoke 2010 for Mac OS X on December 15 in San Francisco.

Sessions are 4:00 -05:30 pm and 6:30 -08:00 pm at The Landmark at One Market Street (a building with Autodesk offices).

Update: (11-27) The Official Autodesk Technology Preview of Smoke on Mac has 4 movies from the presentations in Japan.

Fxguide TV coverage of Smoke on OS X

Fxguide TV episode 72 has in depth coverage of Smoke on OS X:

"At the Inter BEE 2009 conference in Tokyo Autodesk showed a technology demo and announced Smoke on the Macintosh platform with a price of $14,995 (U.S. suggested retail price). We take an exclusive first look at Smoke on the Mac and talk with the product managers and developers to answer all the questions you may have."

Besides lacking some higher end features, $2000 of yearly license is mandated, compared to $1000 for Final Cut Studio outright. Still, the price is below comparable systems like Avid DS.

Also, check out a new blog by Scott Malkie, Smoke on OS X; intro and features movies are on the about Autodesk Smoke site.

Update: there's more on Youtube,

'Droidmaker' free & other curios

Via Adam Wilt is a free (for now) PDF version of Droidmaker: George Lucas and the Digital Revolution, a history of early computer graphics and nonlinear editing. Droidmaker author Michael Rubin's presentations around the Bay Area upon the book's release were entertaining, and the book got the nod from Alvy Ray Smith, who with Ed Catmull co-founded Pixar.

Rubin has more on the same line, including early home movies of ILM from former ILMer and SFSU/MSP AE instructor Dave Berry (catch his life-affirming video Laugh if you can). Rubin also noted a web version of George Lucas: Maker of Films, a 1971 PBS piece with an interview of Lucas by film theorist Gene Youngblood, author of Expanded Cinema. There's additional background from source Binary Bonsai, who also noted the Raiders 125-page story conference transcript.



Youngblood's book itself is also available as a PDF download, if you're interested in expanded or synaesthetic cinema, an idea that includes visual music, experimental animation, and motion graphics. For more see the AEP post Visual music and motion graphics, which includes a 'making of' on Larry Cuba's computer graphics in the first Star Wars movie.

Science of the Movies

Science of the Movies is a new show from the Science Channel (which also features Michio Kaku). It's on Tuesdays at 9 p.m. starting tonight May 26th, with some repeats. The first episode is "Spider-Man" Motion Control, in which host Nar Williams explores the motion-control technology behind cloning and the famous "Spidey-sense" shot from Spider-Man. They also show a CG elephant created by the creature special-effects team behind 300 and look at a chase scene using wireless camera mounts.

Also, FilmmakerIQ has collected 505 Behind The Scenes Videos, which includes several segments from Making the Movies on MTV.

Whip Pan & Transporter tutorials for AE

Eran Stern works with Red Giant plug-ins in a new video tutorial, Creating a Transporter Effect. There's another transporter effect tutorial, with particleIllusion via Toolfarm.



The content on whip or swish pans has been updated in Whip (swish) pans in After Effects & Premiere at Pro Video Coalition.

Star Trek on Fxguidetv + elsewhere

fxguidetv #58: Star Trek is available. It "features interviews with director director J.J. Abrams and actor Karl Urban (Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy), including a discussion about how they created the overabundant anamorphic lens flares."

If you missed J.J. Abrams' mystery box from TED, here it is:



Fan perspectives may be unhappy about plot points, and Mylenium's points seem better taken than this silliness from The Onion, Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable':



Update: A Star Wars fan, maybe even Jar-Jar Binks himself, goes to the top of the Marin Headlands to strike back in Starship Enterprise Destroyed by the Death Star,