Another date for the VFX/Animation diary



On February the 28th the 8th Annual VES Awards will take place at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

The VES (The Visual Effects Society) is the only organization to represent the full breadth of VFX practitioners, including, artists, model makers, educators, studios, supervisors ect. Basically everything to do with VFX and this years VES award nominations and the UK VFX companies and swept up many nominations.

You can see the full lust of nominations here  

Naturally Avatar is in there but since that has been talked to death because of the Oscars, we will focus on the UK VFX nominations.

London VFX industry is becoming more and more successful in each year, even out doing the big Hollywood houses. London is becoming the hot bed of Visual Effects while America remains the place for animation feature films.


Among the UK nominations The Mill has been Honored with 3 nominations.
Mill, London has been nominated for it's work on Sky's drama "Skellig", while the Mill LA has 2 nominations for "AMF Caterpillar" (AMF is a French investing company). The Mill is probably best known for it's work in "Gladiator" and "Doctor Who".




The Moving Picture Company (MPC) has been nominated 4 times including 2 for it's work on the LowLow Cheese advert another for the Evian Skating babies and finally an award for "Plane Stupid Polar Bears"


Framestore has an amazing 6 nominations (Best known for there "Walking with Dinosaurs" work). 2 for there work on "Avatar", 2 for the Pepsi Penguin, and more nominations for there work on DJ Hero and "Sherlock Homes"

Double Negative is up for 4 awards for it's work on Sherlock Homes, Harry Potter, Angels and Demons, and Franklyn along with a nomination for Visual Effects Supervisors David Hickory and Ryan cook on there work on "Sherlock Holmes" and "Angel and Demons" .

It's brilliant to see all this work being recognized outside of Avatar which seems to be taking virtually everything going and some great works being left off of most award ceremonies lists. So big support to the UK VFX industry and there work.

Good luck to all the UK houses. Full British support.

Links:
VES
The Mill
Framstore
MPC
Double Negative
Avatar
Sky
Sherlock Homes
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
DJ Hero

Ever wanted to take an extraordinary journey into the world of Pixar animations? Ever wanted to learn from one of the industries best known animation studios? Got 2 days to spare? Then read on.

Mark your calenders for Thursday the 18th and Friday the 19th of March as 2 of Pixar's animators show us how it's done at the Apollo Cinema in Piccadilly, London. A one-off 2 day masterclass course presented by 2 of Pixar's animators Andrew Gordon (Senior Animator) and Matthew Luhn (Story Artist) who have both been involved with virtually every single Pixar feature film. So who better to tell us how?



"Finding Nemo" (2003) Disney/Pixar

Day One's Masterclass is on Animation presented by Andrew Gordon covering:

• Animation principles
• Staging and pose design
• Locomotion
• Acting for animation
• Facial animation
• Scene planning
• Blocking
• High level polishing techniques
• Q&A

Day Two's Masterclass has Matthew Luhn show us:

• Storyboarding and the story artist
• Preliminary storyboards
• Three act story structure
• Sequence boards and character development
• Gags
• Storyboarding from a script
• Composing your storyboard
• Line and value
• Q&A

The Masterclass has been designed for Professionals and Student's of any level, so can't use that as an excuse not to go. This is a great one-off opportunity to learn the means in becoming a great animator.

The course costs £375 (Including VAT) and can be bought from Escape Studios. Fantastic value for money compared to some masterclass courses which can run into thousands.

For further details, questions and to book head over to Escape Studios website.

Sign up to Escape Studios Newsletter to get news about further opportunities like this.

I doubt I will be attending as money flow is a little problem for me right now, but bound to be 2 days anyone would enjoy. I remember attending similar classes and lectures at the Bradford Animation Festival, they are fantastic opportunities.

Links:
Escape Studios
Pixar
Apollo Cinema, Piccadilly
Bradford Animation Festival
Beer, CG and Escape Studios

See you in the Vortex.

Yup finished it. Only 11 chapters and a glossary and Doctor Who episode guide.

Now admittedly I am not a Biography reader. I prefer autobiographies, and even then I am very choosy about the type of autobiographies I read, I have very few in my collection of books. The reason for this is that most celebrity autobiographies tend to be a reason to name drop and describe glamorous parties they have been too and Biographies rarely involve the subject and tend to be a bit cold, this is no different. This was given to me as a Christmas present from my mum as she couldn't find anything Chris Eccleston related. I'm taking bets that the next book she buys me is "The Writer's Tale :The Final Chapter" she is now buying me any book Who related bless her.

Don't get me wrong it's a nice read, but there really wasn't enough it for me, and did get a little irritated by it in places.

As I said it's 11 chapters each documenting parts of his life and then at the end of the book there is a glossary of TV terms and a 10th Doctor episode breakdown. And the book seems to of been split in half. First half I enjoyed more as it had more feeling to it, the book begins with the sad death of David's Mother in 2007 and then continues with his childhood and onto education then his early works. Then we get to the second half of the book and it's an explosion of Doctor Who facts. And that's all it is it's facts.

The author acknowledges all thous who helped in the making of the book and even says the subject wasn't involved much in the making of the book so virtually every quote in the book is taken from interviews and newspaper/internet articles which is one of the things that irritated me about it. Thou understandable since David is a very busy man. The entire books seemed to revolve more around the behind the scenes of Doctor Who with Tennant's life dotted around it. It is more of a "Did you know" kind of book rather then a in depth look at the actual man behind the TARDIS doors.

As a Chris Eccleston fan this book did irritate me in a couple of places. Mainly that it didn't seem to take kindly to Chris in some places and takes quotes from papers like the Sun and News of the World bad mouthing the guy for quitting after one series. Yet when Billie Piper left for the exact same reasons Chris left to explore new roles and new opportunities that they would of missed while doing Who, it was barely touched upon and seemed to be more accepted. It also seemed to of suggested that Chris left under a black cloud which seems very unfair.

The book is also filled with various coloured photo's of David which I did enjoy very much as well as the nice quotes from David on the start of each chapter. I did like the book but wouldn't put it in my "Must Read again" pile. It certainly gives an insight on how the TV industry works and partly into the private life of David Tennant thou most bits are quotes from gossip columns and so called "Who insider" rubbish which I always take with a pinch of salt anyway. The chapters are nicely constructed and easy to read and give background information threw out the chapters but not so much that you forget or lose what is being said or discussed. The stalker bit was a bit scary to read, I feel sorry for people who have folk like that on your tale all the time and very scary when you have no idea what they look like. Book doesn't elaborate what happened to the stalker, my guess she has a shrine in her bedsit. Poor guy.

Overall 3 out of 5. As I said I am not much of a biography reader. Would suit more of the hardcore Doctor Who fan and the David Tennant fan club more then anything. David Tennant is a private man so I do understand the difficulty on getting the right and correct information when the man is understandably private outside of work life. He is still a young man so in my opinion it would of been better to write the biography a few more years down the line and looking into life after Doctor Who as well which would be interesting to read how he was going to break into hollywood films. There is nothing new in the book that can't be read from tabloids and fan sites.

Not bad but not my cup of tea. Why do I all of a sudden have this image of being descended upon by a herd of David Tennant fans carrying pitch forks?

You can buy "A Life in Time and Space: The Biography of David Tennant" by Nigel Goodall from:
Play.com
Amazon
Waterstones

Next book:

"Up" is also up for Best Picture, Best original Screenplay Best Score while "The Princess and the Frog" has 2 of it's songs up for best original song. Nice to see Disney going back to it's 2D roots of animation and no surprise that "Up" got in there somewhere as is another popular film from Pixar/Disney. And also a pleasure to see that CG is not dominating this category as it usually is, we have some stop motion based work with Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox. The Secret of Kells was a surprise to me in this category as it is a lesser known film. I have seen clips for this and it is a beautifully animated piece of work and going back to the animated styling of Bass and Rankin films that were much loved and still popular today. I am secretly hoping for "The Secret of Kells" but the CG in me says "Up" and the Disney girl in me says "Princess and the Frog" and the nostalgic little girl says "The Fantastic Mr. Fox". I am completly torn in this category and can't wait for the results for this especially.

Overall, Not many surprises this year. British films seem to be lacking a great deal this time round and Avatar is dominating most of the categories. As mentioned I see it definitely taking "Best Picture" and "Best Visual Effects". Mainly because of it's popularity and setting a new goal for all VFX films and CG work for the future. My loyalty to British film making is secretly hoping "Sherlock Holmes" gets something.

So what are your own thoughts about the films and categories? Would be interesting to see the response, from the few that read my blog.

Links:
Oscars
Avatar
District Nine
Sherlock Holmes
Star Trek 2009
Up
The Princess and the Frog
Coraline
The Fantastic Mr Fox
The secrets of Kell

Kept meaning to do this all weekend but got a little ill instead.


As a Christopher Eccleston fan I heard threw the grapevine that Christopher is backing a campaign for The cancer charity The Christie to raise money for a new radiotherapy clinic to be built at the Salford Royal in conjunction with his local paper The Salford Advertiser.

The appeal is to raise £250,00 towards the £17 million they need to do this. And to help get people really into it the charity have thrown open the challenge for people to become "Salford Superstars". The challenge to raise £100 in 12 months.


Press Release

The fan run Facebook page for Chris, run by the lovelies that are Ruth and Louise (Which I am a fan off obviously ) have set up a JustGiving page with the aim to raise £500. They have already passed the 50% mark which is just FANTASTIC and has only been up for a couple of days, but more is still needed.

Cancer has invaded my family 4 times now, 3 have sadly passed but my Grandmother fights on bless her and her bravery. You or any member of your family may or may not of been to a Christie center but we all must banned together to help with this disease no matter the name of the charity it's the same goal we all share. If you have dealt with cancer then you know what people must be going threw.

To make a donation head to the Ecclesnut JustGiving page. We love/fancy/like Eccleston and some of us are a bit nuts, so there you go.

Support The Christie, The Salford Advertiser and help make a difference. Now matter how much you donate we are all superstars. So get busy (Not that kind of busy, thou wouldn't turn down Chris)

The Ecclesnuts JustGiving Page

The Christopher Eccleston Facebook page
Team Ecclesnut twitter page
Chris Eccleston.com

This is just truly astounding, I was given a link to this a few days back but die to troublesome internet connections couldn't watch it, today I manged to do just that.

Many including myself have found it hard to believe that this is CG but it really is, kinda put's into perspective my feeble attempts so far.

All done by Alex Roman from The Third and The Seventh

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

Rendered using VRay

See you in the Vortex.

Dear Dawn,

As the book is in the form of letters to the much loved and George Clooney I thought I would write about it in the form of a letter to you. It's OK no one really reads my blog anyway and with one subscriber I think we are safe.

I have just finished reading your scrummy book of you. I got it in paperback form so I could read it with ease as I travel to and from London on the endless search for a new home. I think I must of looked strange when I started reading it on a train to Sydenham (Place somewhere in London, I can't even pronounce the name properly) and started laughing randomly. Just the other day I couldn't stop laughing for 10 mins about Jim, poodle humping in the Vicar of Dibley. You are one funny, strong, independent lady and someone I have always admired and loved.

I don't usually read biographies I have very few in my collection including yours, only other one I have are Jonathan Ross, Paul O'Grady, Alan Alda and now you. HOORAY! I only ever buy an autobiography from thous I love and watch from a distance on the TV and admire there work a great deal.  I found that most biographies that I have flicked threw in the shop while being keenly watched by the assistant behind the till, is that they are never truly who they are in the books, more like a way of name dropping or promoting themselves because of a new film or TV series. But not yours. It comes more from that lovely big heart of yours and because of it being in the form of letters it represents the real you, your feelings, your dreams and wishes are all there on the page and not hidden by endless stories of name dropping, self loving actors in there auto-biographies.

Very much Like Jonathan Ross's book you talk about the events that have impacted your life to make you what you are, everything from meeting the Queen mum to your the loss of your Dad. For which I am truly sorry and saddened to read. Had me wishing for tissues on hand.

Your book is like a good bar of chocolate, you can't just take a couple of chunks out of it you have to devour it all then feel guilty on eating it all. (I thought I would use an analogies that we both love with a passion) OK now I have a craving for Chocolate.

Did you know you could buy your book from these lovely people?
Waterstones
Play.com
Amazon

I don't know who/what you are reading but my next book is a Christmas gift from Mum. David Tennant: A life in time and space.


Not sure why I was given this. The excuse was there were no Christopher Eccleston related goodies in the book store so she grab the next best thing. I think she got it because it's Doctor Who related. Would of been nice to grab the real thing or grab the even better Eccleston but they may not appreciate the grabbing much. Matt Smith looking rather yummy to no?

If you aren't busy reading something else we could trade notes. No one ever really comes here so might be safe. Highly unlikely you will come here but can live in hope

Much love to the Lady of Dawn and her mucho loving family.

See you in the Vortex.

glitter-graphics.com

On Monday the 28th of December 2009 I went with a couple members of the family to see Avatar in 3D, all I am extremely happy now.

There is a lot to cover here so what I will do is split it up into chunks, for thous with no interest with the CG will talk about the story first so they don't have to scroll threw junk to get to what they wanted.




I haven't seen much about how the animation for this was done, most of it was either character development/design or an exploration of the world rather then the actual working mechanics of it but from what I understand some of it was motion captured (I'm assuming the facial expression and some body work) and the rest using muscle simulation on skeleton joints and done by hand, which is probably the best way to go since we don't have large eyed, cat like faced, 7 - 10 feet tall human beings to carry out anything accurately. Human animation was very impressive thou is some places a little obvious there animated characters.

The animals. Why were they all 6 limned? Yes everything had more then 4 limbs, even the flying animals were multi-limned. From what I can tell the large winged animals were slightly better animated then the ground animals thou looked impressive. It seems the the extra 2 limbs only followed the 2 front limbs in motion and didn't look to improve the speed, durability or impressiveness of an animal. And is some cases the extra limbs wern't noticeable. Doesn't effect the story or anything I was just curious as to the extra limbs of the ground based animals.

Hair is something I try to avoid like the plague along with fur dynamics (I prefer particles, slightly less stressful to work out) Probably becuase I haven't been taught properly about these engines, in this the hair on the Na'Vi was very well done, thou most of the time they were either pulled back or in dreads but still impressive especially once in flight and the movement of wind blowing the hair about.

Music
I have  listened to a couple of tracks from the soundtrack and as any good film you don't notice the music but still know it's there. Music isn't as intrusive as some films where you know the music is playing and changes. Almost seamless transactions in most places and loving the theme music to this by Leon Lewis, can't stop listening.

Overall: 4.5/5 the story is nothing exciting and drags the score a bit but did not dull my enjoyment of the film.

This film is clearly not to everyone liking as most seem somewhat harsh on it, and hit the story hard so as I said if you like deep intriguing, developed stories with surprises and twists then go to this film you won't enjoy it despite the visuals.

After many hours sorting out the frames of the storyboard and finding audio and pulling out everything in my drawers to find my Sound FX CD's the animatic is finally done. Oh and Maya 2008 turned up today so very pleased and working well




Obviously will not be exact and timings will probably change as well as some sequences. Luckily the animatic turned out to be under 2 min 30 (VMS time limit) which is good but will end up shorter then that I am assuming, usually happens with me. I have no sense of timing.

Right next stage Character and scene modeling. Lord help me and the people I will force this upon . Will post a full blog once thous have been done, if you want more regular updates and model development you can follow me on Twitter or if you don't have twitter you can get less frequent updates via Facebook.

Animations will be going up via my YouTube page but won't be for a while but subscribe to keep updated there.

See you in the Vortex.