Weeds short animated film

Nice animated Weeds short directed by Kevin Hudson. A flower is the main hero here :) Also really good rigging by Disney Rigging TDs.
https://www.weedsshort.com/

WEEDS_h264 from Kevin Hudson on Vimeo.

Dinosaurs by ILM

Nice behind the scenes about making dinosaurs by ILM for recent Jurassic World movie.

Jurassic World raptor reel from Image Engine

Impressive creature and set extension work by Image Engine on recent blockbuster Jurassic World

JURASSIC WORLD BREAKDOWN REEL from Image Engine on Vimeo.

Wildlife Crossing done with internet pipeline

Nice, this cool short was all done on the internet pipeline with a Pixar director and a team of 58 people from 15 countries with main base in Czech Republic :)

WILDLIFE CROSSING! from ANOMALIA on Vimeo.

Making of Wildlife Crossing with Anthony Wong


WILDLIFE CROSSING! - a message from Anthony Wong [PIXAR] from ANOMALIA on Vimeo.

Lego the Movie FxGuide documentary

Here is FxGuide.com document about Lego the Movie. Pretty good coverage of all things CG society would like to know: depth of field, camera moves, animation restrictions, render software for lot of raytracing, modelling process, atmosphere etc.

(you need to follow the link and watch it on vimeo.com, or on AnimalLogic website)


FX GUIDE EP 186 THE LEGO MOVIE from Animal Logic on Vimeo.

Cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2

Just saw Cloudy with a chance of meatballs 2 - amazing animation movie! I loved the animation, the gags and the artistic style. The daddy character got more importance in the story then in the first movie which was cool.
I did quite well in the boxoffice. Made so far $273 million worldwide against budget $78 million, boxofficemojo.com. First one made $243 million with budget $100 million - so financally did better as well.
What else to say, similar nice surprise like Lego the Movie I saw recently. Great use of 3d animation! Btw. some of the gags/sounds reminded me Despicable Me (strawberry).

Trailer:

Brian Tindall moving to Laika for Boxtrolls

Nice article about Pixar rigger Brian Tindall having moved to animation studio Laika.
http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2013/02/post-pixar_award-winning_brave.html

Also mentioning his current project Boxtrolls and interest in 3D printing technology, which is used in Laika for their stop-motion style animation projects.

Wreck-it-ralph models

These models are just awesome!
zbrushcentral_com_link

If you are interested in the Disney Animation modeling production, make sure you read the comments below the images.
This is unique chance to get quite detailed insider info on modelling process how it is seen by the Disney feature animation modellers. I`m sure something to check out for anyone interested in cartoon modelling, or even from film visual effects.

ILM London considered

The possibility of ILM London division has been mentioned again. This is in connection with a production of new Star Wars film sequels which will take huge amount of CG artist and facility resources. The Singapore and Vancouver offices are probably busy already. One of the reasons for considering London is obviously infamous tax subsidies, but we need to add that there is also large amount of CG artist talent pool quite easy to find. It might be a tide in of many who had to leave DNEG and Framestore and most recently Cinesite, which had large layoffs including HOD positions (head of department). And also nice breeze of employer competition as the legendary name will attract lot of talent both junior and senior.
The article also mentions that headquarters stay in San Francisco and the size of the team there will not be reduced in favour of possible London branch.
Possible location according to different sources could be Docklands, near Canary Wharf. I guess this is due to high rent prices in Soho.

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/ilm-considering-opening-london-office-star-wars-work-exclusive-88566

Alkay in development of new CG feature

After sucessfull delivery of their first full CG feature film "Ctyrlistek" ("Quarterfoil"), Prague based animation production Alkay is in development of new film. With well known czech producer Ondrej Trojan they work on "Lichozrouti" (tricky to translate, "Sockeaters"?). The art design looks very interesting and non-hollywod-like. This is what I like behind this, it`s more like czech traditional puppet movie. What can be the challenge is the conversion to 3d rendered characters. The puppets include soft hairy cloth and sometimes dense medium long hair. The faces look very stylized and cartoony needing other setup then a classic human FACS based layout. There is some concept art already on their website along with the first animation/lookdev test:
http://www.alkay.cz/content/text/cz/?projekty/celovecerni_filmy/lichozrouti

I should also mention that Alkay is hiring for this production (not sure if relocation to Prague and EU working VISA is required for all positions):
http://www.alkay.cz/content/text/cz/?kariera

Visual effects industry crisis

Well I took some time to add a post about this one as the network is full of comments and articles on the topic of today`s uneasy times of visual effects vendors. I agree with opinion that the bussines model needs a significant change. Vendors have always been divided by the bidding war, which would always be a benefit not for any of them, but for film studios. But from the beginning most of them would always loose film revenue profits while investing as well and often have to argue to get a place in film final credits. In contrast to a fact that all high grossing films were built on visual effects and would not attract the audiences without them: Avatar, Titanic, Avengers, Harry Potter, Transformers, Alice in Wonderland etc. (source: boxofficemojo). And while these titles made all over billion dollars, in contrast to this creators behind the "the magic" are fighting for survival between jobs and some are already gone.
And to add something positive, the demand for visual effects content in film is actually higher then ever before. Also this article is not about to blame film studios, who will always try to get lowest price.

Here is recent article about this topic on cgchannel.com.

Weta talks about Tissue

In this interview Weta Digital supervisors talk about their latest tool for character skinning. Very interesting stuff for riggers.

http://www.fxguide.com/fxguidetv/fxguidetv-166-weta-digitals-tissue-system/

Gollum facial rigging

Check this video if you are into face rigging or modelling. Latest Gollum facial (and neck) setup by Weta. And a great emotional performance in the movie. There are more behind the scenes on The Hobbit character rigging and 2-parts demo of the Hulk setup from latest Avengers.


Making of - Gollum - The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey by Weta Digital from CGMeetUp.net on Vimeo.

Behind the Magic: The Visual Effects of The Avengers

Another Making Of from ILM with great effects done for Avengers.

ILM London

Yes, based on the changes in official Lucas Film Recruiting website it seems there will be another ILM branch open in 2013. And the place will be in London.
This is actually second time, when major VFX house founded in US created a branch in London. It was first with Digital Domain in 2011 as a bussiness partnership with Reliance Media, which after aquisition of DD stayed as Reliance MediaWorks only.
But with new film tax relief being effective from april 2013 in UK, London becomes more attractive spot for visual effects post production. And with upcoming work on more Star Wars films after Disney aquiring LucasFilm, ILM could be more busy then before.

Here is ILM`s latest demoreel from their work on Battleship:

Čtyřlístek - trailer

Here is latest trailer for 3d animated cell shaded movie from czech production Ctyrlistek, which in english means Quarterfoil. It is about 4 classic characters from old but well known (in Czech Republic) hand drawn kid comic book. Director of this movie is Michal Zabka, who has plenty of experience with making puppet animated characters for  short movies (winning on international festivals), TV commercials including Vodafone chamelleons and TV 3d animated series Prasatka, which means Little Pigs. This is his first full CG feature and third made by czech production. Previous two were Goat Story and Goat Story with Cheese from director Jan Tomanek with AAA Studio.
Ctyrlistek production is based in animation studio ALKAY, which did Prasatka as well as many TV commercials with 3d characters. I think choosing cell shaded look helped to make the production a bit cheaper and gain from the consistent look.
There is also another 3d character animation in czech production, which is called Nejmensi Slon na Svete (The Smallest Elephant in the World) made by Eallin Animation and co-produced by Czech TV.
Interesting to mention is that all these productions are using Maya pipeline.

IronMan 3 teaser

Only link at the mo... looks cool! Can`t wait for the next one.
YOUTUBE_VID_LINK

Total Recall talk

Czech:
V zari budu mit v Praze na Get Splashed (byvaly Maxcon) prednasku o Rigging v Total Recall. Je to jedinecna prilezitost dozvedet se neco o tom, jak se delal film se stovkami efektovych zaberu jen mesic po jeho premiere. Termin je 8.9.2012. Prednaska je s oficialni podporou Prime Focus Film London.


http://www.get-splashed.cz/program.html


English:
I will have a talk about Rigging in Total Recall at Get Splashed CG Conference in september in Prague. Important note, this conference is czech/slovak language only.

Pacific Rim poster

New Pacific Rim poster, huge robot!!

Pirates! Rigger interview

Here is interesting interview with a rigger Martin Orlowski who worked on Aardman animated feature Pirates! Band of Misfits:
http://www.riggingdojo.com/2012/04/29/interview-martin-orlowski/
I have read some parts, and it seems as quite detailed production coverage. Including building UIs for animators and pipeline and scripting techniques.