Author Archives: Mike

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Behind the Scenes: Kyle T. Webster on how he digitally recreated the Munch brushes

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In a followup to the other day’s post, Adobe had a conversation with Kyle T. Webster on how exactly he recreated the Munch brushes.

FROM THE ARTICLE:

In a world-first collaboration, which we call The Hidden Treasures of Creativity, Adobe is working with the support of The Munch Museum in Oslo and award winning Photoshop brush maker Kyle T. Webster to digitally recreate seven of the more than 100-year old brushes used by Edvard Munch, painter of the famous artwork ‘The Scream’, in order to make them available in Creative Cloud for Photoshop and Sketch users worldwide.

To give you a glimpse behind the scenes, we spoke with Kyle about his involvement in the project and how he was able to capture the exact detail of Munch’s brushes and recreate them in Photoshop and Sketch.

Click here to read the entire article.

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Extraordinary: Stan Lee Hosted by Chris Hardwick

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*** SAVE THE DATE *** SAVE THE DATE *** SAVE THE DATE ***

Extraordinary: Stan Lee

Hosted by Chris Hardwick

on August 22nd at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills

As Part of this Live Tribute Event, Legendary Creator Stan Lee Will Be Joined by a Variety of Stars,

including Tom Bergeron, Lou Ferrigno, Todd McFarlane, Michael Rooker, Andy Signore, and more  
WHAT: Extraordinary: Stan Lee is a highly-anticipated, star-studded live event paying homage to the world’s most iconic comic creator.  The tribute, which is produced by In-Theater Live and Agents of Mayhem in partnership with Stan Lee Collectibles, will bring together heavyweights of the comic book world along with a number of leading TV/film talent.
WHO: Stan Lee

Chris Hardwick (Host)

Presenters/Guests/Celebrity Attendees include: Tom Bergeron (Dancing with the Stars), Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk),Todd McFarlane (Spider-Man, Spawn), Michael Rooker (Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, The Walking Dead), Andy Signore (ScreenJunkies and Honest Trailers), plus more to be announced.
WHEN: The event begins at 6:00 pm. There will be a red carpet/arrivals line beforehand and those details are forthcoming.
WHERE: Saban Theatre

8440 Wilshire Blvd, Beverly Hills, CA 90211
TICKETS: Tickets for Extraordinary: Stan Lee live at the Saban Theatre are currently on sale through Ticketmaster ranging from $95.00 for general seats to $350.00 for VIP seats and a meet-and-greet.

Fans can visit Omaze.com for the chance to be flown out to Los Angeles, receive a complimentary hotel stay and enjoy two front-row seats at the tribute. The VIP experience includes a private meet-and-greet with Stan, and tickets to attend the exclusive VIP after party. Proceeds raised from the campaign will support Make-A-Wish® to grant life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses.

The ceremony will also be streamed live in movie theaters nationwide, allowing real-time access for fans outside of Los Angeles to share in the extraordinary experience. Full list and ticket info to be announced. ‘Nuff said! 
About Stan Lee: Known to millions as the man whose superheroes propelled Marvel to its preeminent position in the comic book industry, Stan’s co-creations include Spider-Man™, The Incredible Hulk™, X-Men™, The Fantastic Four™, Iron Man™ and hundreds of others. He introduced Spider-Man™ as a newspaper strip, which became the most successful of all syndicated adventure strips having appeared in more than 500 newspapers worldwide. Stan currently remains Chairman Emeritus of Marvel, as well as a member of the Editorial Board of Marvel Comics.

About Omaze: Omaze is an online fundraising platform that makes giving fun and easy by offering once-in-a-lifetime experiences and exclusive merchandise in support of critical causes. Our campaigns connect influencers, nonprofits and donors to create lasting impact, and have raised funds and awareness for more than 200 charities with donations from over 175 countries.

About Make-A-Wish: Make-A-Wish grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. According to a 2011 U.S. study of wish impact, most health professionals surveyed believe a wish-come-true has positive impacts on the health of children. Kids say wishes give them renewed strength to fight their illness, and their parents say these experiences help strengthen the entire family. Headquartered in Phoenix, Make-A-Wish is one of the world’s leading children’s charities, serving children in every community in the United States and its territories. With the help of generous donors and more than 33,000 volunteers, Make-A-Wish grants a wish somewhere in the country every 34 minutes. It has granted more than 285,000 wishes since its inception in 1980; more than 15,300 in 2016 alone. Visit Make-A-Wish at www.wish.org to learn more.
 

PRESS CONTACT:

  

Megan Levy & David Gardner, The Lippin Group: megan@lippingroup.com, dgardner@lippingroup.com

 

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Luma Creates Dynamic CG Vulture for Spider-Man: Homecoming

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Luma Creates Dynamic CG Vulture for Spider-Man: Homecoming

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Award-winning creative studio Luma teamed up with Director Jon Watts and VFX Supervisor Janek Sirrs to deliver stunning visual effects work for eleven sequences in Spider-Man: Homecoming, which is being praised as the best Spider-Man movie to date.

Marvel’s fun new take on the friendliest superhero around features a standout villain that audiences can truly empathise with: the Vulture is a regular, street-level guy who turns to illegal activities to take care of his family. Luma worked on key sequences featuring the cunning Vulture, many of which required creating and animating an impressive and weighty CG Vulture wing-suit that goes toe-to-toe with a speedy Spider-Man.

PERFECTING THE VULTURE LANDING
In the beginning of the film, Adrian Toomes builds his alien technology empire after being fired from his previous blue-collar job. Eight years later, his guns are bigger and badder, he’s naturally grown greedier and his mechanical wing-suit is the size of a small airplane. He makes his first grand entrance into the lab as the ceiling door opens up, he spreads his wings and swoops onto his platform in a hard landing and smugly boasts that “business is good!”

It was up to the Luma crew to create this epic landing scene, which required a full CG Vulture and landing platform with articulated arms. Luma used Vulture’s geometry from two other vendors on the show and incorporated that into their pipeline. “We were aiming to tie the suit and the warehouse into the same world to make it feel industrial and real, but also not as refined of a suit as Iron Man’s. The mood and contrasting raw metals of the wings helped bring Vulture’s suit into the same world as the set”, says CG Supervisor Andrew Zink.

Animators then brought the domineering Vulture to life, which proved to be a complicated thing: he is a dynamic tank that hovers over the ground, his two turbines are controlled by exoskeleton arms which act as the sole propulsors, so the amount of RPMs and the angles in which they lean creates a push and pull effect. Animators also had to consider his unique wing shape, flight trajectory and predatory poses to perfect his flight and fast landing.

THE ICONIC VULTURE GRAB
A rookie Spider-Man discovers Vulture’s henchmen selling alien technology to a wanting criminal and chases after their van as he runs through backyards, unapologetically destroying everything in his path (the scene is a parody of the famous Ferris Bueller’s Day Off “The Race Home”). Vulture saves his henchmen as he violently swoops in and grabs Spider-Man in the same way a real vulture would grab its prey. He rapidly ascends into the sky travelling at a whopping 208 mph before dropping him into a lake.

To create this completely virtual sequence, “animators began blocking with simplistic Google Maps photography and drone photography to work out the aesthetics of what the surroundings would look like”, recalled VFX Supervisor Kevin Souls. For Vulture’s character, animators tackled the challenge of animating the hefty wing-suit that, while also making sure it was dynamic enough to fight with a swift and speedy Spider-Man. “We like to ground our characters in real world physics, so our animators use a variety of Luma created tools to track speed, gravity and archs—it’s easier to bend the rules once you understand them,” explains Animation Supervisor Raphael A. Pimentel.

DAMAGE CONTROL
Luma worked on the first fight battle between Vulture and Spider-Man, where Spider-Man interrupts Vulture from stealing supplies from the Damage Control truck. Initially tasked with enhancing the sequence, Luma realized early on that it would be easier to recreate the sequence in full CG in order to add camera moves and to work with the portal (the alien technology that allows Vulture to travel through the roof of the truck). Since this was a close-up and constrained fight, animators had to ensure that Spider-Man looked weighty and in control, while also ensuring that the Vulture build was dynamic enough to fight with him.

Luma didn’t just create a stunning villain for Spider-Man: Homecoming, the studio’s varied scope of work in this action-packed blockbuster also included creating and animating a full CG Spider-Man for various sequences, the disintegration effect on Bryce’s character, the ATM sequence, and the Crime Fighting sequence where a rookie Spider-Man head outs into the city attempting to stop petty crime.

“This is definitely the proudest I’ve been of the crew that I work with. The passion and hard work they put into this film really shows the kind of talented people we have at Luma and how much care about the artistry of their work they have”, says VFX Supervisor Brendan Seals.

Luma is currently working on Marvel’s Black Panther, Thor: Ragnarok and Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time.

CREDITS:

Director:  Jon Watts
Creative VFX Studio:  Luma Pictures
VFX Supervisor:  Janek Sirrs
VFX Supervisor:  Brendan Seals
VFX Supervisor:  Kevin Souls
CG Supervisor:  Andrew Zink
CG Supervisor: Alexandre Cancado
Animation Supervisor:  Raphael A. Pimentel
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VFX Supervisor PIXOMONDO LLC. - Los Angeles, CA

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VFX Supervisor

PIXOMONDO LLC. - Los Angeles, CA (1 day ago)

Apply Now

Department:
Production
Position Level: Experienced

Facility:
Los Angeles
Date(s): ASAP

Contract Type:
Employee/Contract

Position Requirements:

  • Minimum of 7+ years VFX post-production experience, this must be recent and continuous.
  • • Solid knowledge of Maya, Mari, and Nuke
  • Solid previous experience as CG/2D Supervisor and most recently VFX Supervisor experience on 2 or 3 major projects.
  • Creative eye and aesthetic judgment with a deep understanding of composition, cinematic design and animation timing.
  • Must have an understanding of Directing/Lighting/Camera work/Practical Effects/Camera Gripping/Art Department/Production Design and Props.
  • Excellent understanding of composition, light and color with strong attention to detail.
  • On-set supervision experience is an asset
  • Ability to meet strict deadlines often under pressure.
  • Excellent communication, organization skills and financial and budget management skills.
  • A thorough understanding of the CG & 2D principles and pipeline.
  • Proven team leader with strong motivational qualities.
  • Technically and creatively astute.
  • Highly organized.
  • Able to effectively communicate with people at all levels.

Duties & Responsibilities:

  • Understanding the entire production process and approving the work of all crew on the show.
  • Verifying technical solutions proposed by team members.
  • Working closely with film director to develop and interpret their creative vision.
  • Briefing entire crew on directorÂ’s creative vision and enable artists to produce desired results.
  • Communicating with external production companies.
  • Coordinating the management of a show and project schedules to ensure that work is delivered to deadlines.
  • Managing teams
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Paint like a master: Adobe brings to life the 100-year old brushes of Edvard Munch

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Adobe has just released a set of digital brushes on their blog created by Kyle T. Webster and based on the tools of Edvard Munch painter of The Scream.

From the article:

The unsung heroes of these famous paintings are the tools which created them. Many museums keep the brushes used to create such masterpieces out of sight, and in many cases, some artwork is also hidden away to avoid light or UV damage. To increase the accessibility of these classic pieces, prestigious museums like The Met in New York and in The Rijksmuseum Amsterdam have started to release their collections online.

To celebrate digital preservation of masterpieces, we at Adobe have teamed up with The Munch Museum in Oslo and award winning Photoshop brush maker Kyle T. Webster to recreate digital versions of the more than 100-year-old original brushes used by Edvard Munch, painter of the famous artwork ‘The Scream’, in order to make them available in Creative Cloud for Photoshop and Sketch users worldwide.

You can read the full article on Adobe’s blog and you can download the brushes themselves here.

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Freezing a Muay Thai battle in time: Saddington Baynes premieres unique ‘Statue’ full-body 3D simulations

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Freezing a Muay Thai battle in time: Saddington Baynes premieres unique ‘Statue’ full-body 3D simulations

You can view the entire piece here.

LONDON, UK – 12th May 2017 – With the release of its Statue project, London-based creative studio Saddington Baynes has created a frozen moment of a Muay Thai battle, utilising full-body 3D photo scans created in partnership with body-scanning experts FBFX.

Saddington Baynes is well-known for pushing the boundaries of technical innovation in the creative industry, establishing its R&D arm SBLabs to showcase this in-house ability. For Statue, SBLabs used advanced procedural displacement techniques, complex shaders and dynamic particle simulations to deliver a fierce fighting showcase. The results are already sweeping up accolades across the creative community, including a Platinum in the Creativity International Media & Interactive Design Awards.

James Digby-Jones, Executive Creative Director at Saddington Baynes, comments: “We wanted to create a project to showcase our expertise working with complex simulations and highly detailed 3D talent, while also demonstrating our imaginative storycraft and VFX capabilities. The Statue project quickly picked up a Platinum award and we’ve entered it into others. It’s a great piece that shows off a variety of high level skills, applicable to multiple market sectors.”

Scanning and capture

To achieve unparalleled detail required meticulous planning. SBLabs blocked out early concepts in Cinema 4D to explore strong poses and the choreography and to direct the camera path.

SBLabs then approached SFX costume and 3D scanning specialists FBFX, who captured key moments of the Muay Thai battle in live action, as one at a time the combatants jumped and punched and kicked, all the while being captured as high resolution point clouds and image maps from multiple cameras. Besides being martial arts enthusiasts, both models were actually part of the Saddington Baynes team – a Production Assistant and a CG artist!

Andrew White, Creative Director at Saddington Baynes, comments: “FBFX helped us build separate scan captures in ZBrush with seamless results. They were a huge asset, delivering exactly what we needed in line with our vision”

Particle simulation

Alongside these scanned models, Statue also features complex Houdini simulations. The models land blows on each other, cracking open igneous husks to reveal the searing heat below. SBLabs ran a series of customised fragmentation and tessellation processes on the geometry with look development performed in Mantra.

Andrew White, Creative Director at Saddington Baynes, comments: “We found that by outputting some custom aov passes we could create a hot metal look inside Nuke. By using holdout mattes and base beauty elements, this gave us a great way to time and control the intensity of the heat effect.”

Based out of London, Saddington Baynes has a long history of technical innovation. Besides being the original pioneers of digital retouching in 1991, Saddington Baynes were also one of the first production studios to harness the potential of CGI in-house. More recently, the team developed an Engagement Insights® service – the world-first use of neuroscience techniques to measure emotional impact of imagery. Recent commissions include Honda’s pan-European ‘Real View Test Drive’ campaign.

About Saddington Baynes

Saddington Baynes is a leading creative production agency that has produced premium imagery for advertising agencies and brand clients for 25 years.

Saddington Baynes’ mission is to create sensational imagery that inspires brand devotion, with a focus on emotional reactions and engagement. To achieve this, Saddington Baynes developed its Engagement Insights® service – an entirely new way to measure the emotional impact of imagery, using neuroscience techniques.

http://www.saddingtonbaynes.com/work/favourites/statue