the fxphd deans blog

There are few things we like more than geeking out with Lenses at the fxphd Tech Penthouse! This week we have been putting the new RED 18-85mm lenses through some fun and very geeky testing. The new RED lens is vastly bigger than say the RED 18-50mm T3 ($6,500) and while it is more expensive at nearly $10,000 - it is actually a vastly more professional lens. This week we’ll be publishing all our tests in fxphd’s RED course, but first impression this compares to a lens worth 5 to 10 times the price.

Had a fun weekend shooting or helping to shoot for an upcoming film. We will be doing the vfx on the shots, literally. It was all shot on the RED - and the film is a really complex and interesting story of isolation. Current thinking is that this will all go into an upcoming mega flame course but hey - we’ll discuss that next term - or maybe Nuke - who knows?

For now I will just say how much fun it was and to add that our new 18-85mm Pro RED lenses arrived today - WOW what a step up from the first Red Lenses. We’ll publish our finding on it in RED 203 Class 03, but it is a cracker of a lens and really heavy !

We are really proud to have been able to add REALFLOW to the Oct 08 term of fxphd. If you recall a couple of weeks ago we posted cloud tank images from the shoots we were doing, we did not let on then that these were liquid tests for the REALFLOW course, being run by Mark Stasiuk. The course covers Goo Spew, Rigid body dynamics ( like rockets blasting through a building ) and of course water. Hence the reference material we shot. But I wanted to let you guys also know that we have followed up on your cloud tank help and we have gotten none other than Scott Squires to offer us some direction. (Talk about going to the source) anyway Scott has advised on cloud material ( powered tempera paint ) and how to layer the water… all of this and your notes will go into an upcoming BKD (I expect next term now).

So thanks for all the help ! BTW both Mark and Scott have agreed to be in upcoming fxguidetv episodes.

Those of you who know Mike and I — or who listen to our podcasts — know that I’m generally a bit more reserved than Mike is when it comes to talking about what we are doing and how cool it is. Ok…fair enough…a lot more reserved. To this end, I want you to know: this is me being excited…..

Wow! (note the exclamation point — I *never* use them) I’m really, really excited about the masters of the craft series we’re starting up later this week on fxguidetv. We’ve assembled a stellar lineup of the top vfx supervisors in our industry to tell us about themselves — learn about them and not just talk about the latest film they’ve been working on.

But where it gets really cool (note the bold type of excitement) is that this leads into one of the best offerings ever at phd this term — our new Background Fundamentals vfx supervisor course. Mike’s Background course is always great, but this term he’ll be walking through what it takes to be a vfx supe…and supporting him will be discussions from these masters. This is stuff you won’t get from fxguidetv…and information that will be incredibly useful to you on the job. Check out the course information page for an outline of the course…and remember: this is a course that everyone who is a member of fxphd will get. How cool is that?

Really — to coin my friend’s phrase — it’s gonna be a cracker.