Author Archives: Mike

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Nickelodeon Creates Original Movie In-House with Dell Workstations

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82vRWa5rXi0

Did you spend as much time watching television over the holidays as I did? If so, then you might have caught Nickelodeon’s first original animated TV movie, Albert. In the film, Bobby Moynihan (from “Saturday Night Live”) is the voice of a little Douglas fir tree named Albert who wants to become the Empire City tree.

A Nickelodeon employee works on the Albert movie using Dell Precision workstation and Dell monitors

Albert’s 3.1 million total viewers in Live+7 (which in TV ratings talk means the number of viewers within seven days of first showing) helped Nickelodeon finish 2016 as the number-one kid’s network for the year, according to numbers released last week.

Even if you were one of those millions of viewers, I bet you likely missed the story about how Dell Precision 5810 workstations helped them bring their first 45-minute movie to life, though.

“Using the Dell Precision with NVIDIA Quadro M6000 graphics cards has allowed us to stay competitive with overseas studios because we’re able to turn around results much faster and we’re able to keep a smaller team longer and be more efficient,” said Jason Meier, animation director at Nickelodeon, in the video below.

And if you missed it, or just want to hold on to that Christmas spirit and watch it again, the full Albert movie is available on Nick.com!

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Texture Artist-DreamWorks TV

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Title: Texture Artist, TV

Department:   Texture

Reports To: Line Producer, TV  / Art Director, TV/VFX Supervisor

Apply HERE.

Summary:

The Texture Artist will primarily paint 2D line art in Photoshop to give the characters, locations and props the final CG look of the show. In addition, they will specifically describe the texture, color and material properties for the surface of the asset.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

  • Utilize Photoshop to paint 2D line art to give the characters, locations and props the final CG look of the show. It would be beneficial to have some experience painting CG models in Mari.
  • Able to align with style of the show and utilize specific styles to texture characters, props, and sets.
  • Collaborate with the Art Director and VFX Supervisor to help create the textures for our CG assets.
Required Skills
Requirements:

 

  • Minimum 2 years’ experience in the television, feature film or gaming industries.
  • Strong background in texture painting, color theory and application.
  • Able to paint, texture and demonstrate strong artistic skills.
  • Experience creating high quality texture maps, including all supporting maps (transparency, specular, bump, etc).
  • Understanding of the CG pipeline, UV layout and principles.
  • Mari, Maya and UV unwrapping skills a plus, but are not required.
  • Flexible to changes, able to multitask, prioritize and follow through on requests.
Job Location
Glendale , California, United States
Position Type
Full-Time/Regular
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Character Modeler-DreamWorks TV

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DreamWorks Animation

Apply HERE.

Title:               Character Modeler, TV

Department:   TV Production HUB

Reports To:    Production Supervisor, TV

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Responsible for creating models during prebuild including characters, character blend shapes, and character UV unwraps.

  • Ensure that character assets are of high quality while staying within the production’s parameters, pipeline and schedule detailed and adaptable to various styles.
  • Generate overview notes for the designs in order to meet the requirements for the production.
  • Responsible for ensuring all deliverables are completed on time and according to production standards.
  • Ensure that creative and technical Modeling standards are adhered to by partner studio within the confines of the production schedule.
  • Provide recommendation and suggestions for designs and animatics while ensuring timelines are met.
  • Document workflows and processes using Camtasia video and Publisher software.
  • Review & note assets submitted by our Partner Studios.
  • Serve as character modeling point person in show specific meetings and reviews.
  • Complete all tasks within a timely manner.
Required Skills
Requirements:

  • Ideally 2-4 years of industry experience in film, broadcast, and/or games
  • Advanced knowledge of hard surface characters and organic models.
  • Intricate understanding of Maya’s referencing system and ability to organize complex hierarchies.
  • Solid modeling and rigging skills.
  • Prior experience working in a fast paced production environment.
  • Creative problem solving skills and adaptability skills.
Job Location
Glendale, California, United States
Position Type
Full-Time/Regular
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Layout Artist- Blizzard Entertainment

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Layout Artist

Employer: Blizzard Entertainment
Location: Irvine,CA
Date Posted/Updated: 12/16/16
Job ID: 129507

Apply HERE.

Job Description:

Blizzard Entertainment is currently seeking an experienced 3D generalist to join our cinematics layout department as a layout artist (temp). The layout department is the -hub- of cinematics, facilitating the flow of assets from modeling, surfacing and rigging, as well as assembling and helping to compose shots from previz, working through animation, simulation and FX, all the way to lighting and compositing. The temp layout artist will work with previz, modeling, and rigging to translate rough scenes into production-ready shots, support animation and camera with environments, continuity, and troubleshooting, and coordinate with modeling, animation and FX with shot by shot set dressing and crowd population. Broad technical and artistic understanding of 3D pipelines, shot composition, and film language are all important.

Responsibilities
– Using Maya, assisted by internal tools and python scripts, translate previz scenes into scenes ready for animation.
– Support animation at various stages, managing layouts, caching and assembling characters with look variants, and rendering for review.
– Add or adjust shot set dressing, crowd cycles, static character poses, and continuity changes.
– Fill in any additional gaps, and catch and solve technical and artistic problems revealed through assembly that are not handled by other departments or through typical pipeline procedures.
– Organize and manage assets, and work closely with programmers to develop, improve, or fix tools that not only serve the layout department, but the cinematics department as a whole.
– Work with artists, programmers, leads, supervisors, directors, and production staff on multiple projects simultaneously, balancing the needs of each and ensuring communication between them.

Requirements
– A minimum of 3 years’ experience in production or feature film in a 3D generalist role, such as layout or previz.
– Depth of knowledge in 3D pipelines, both technically and artistically.
– Strong understanding of the principles of storytelling, film, and composition.
– Basic skills in modeling, rigging, animation and cameras.
– Some experience with lighting, rendering and compositing.
– Data administration skills and interests (e.g. asset management, scene building, tools, etc.)
– Familiar with scripting, especially within a 3D environment.
– Strong, proactive communicator and problem-solver able to learn and work independently and creatively with diverse personalities under resource and time-limited conditions.

Pluses
– Extensive experience with Maya
– Proficiency in python scripting
– Knowledge of RenderMan and/or Redshift renderers
– Some experience with 3dsmax and Nuke
– Expert organization and communications skills, both written and oral
– A thirst for learning and a knack for efficiency
– A passion for Blizzard games, stories, characters and worlds

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Hej Stylus

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I haven’t had a chance to play around with this yet but it looks interesting. The idea is that by offsetting your stylus you can get more of a brush stroke. I’m not entirely sure that will do what they claim but you can check it out for yourself easily enough by downloading it and trying it out.

You can learn more here.