the fxphd deans blog

This week we co-sponsored the local Final Cut User group event, and one of the organizers was fxphd Prof. Doug Suiter. Doug actually attended the event via ichat video window from London.

The night focused on FCP server. I really like Server. I think asset management is one of the huge issues we still need to solve. At fxphd we publish 15 hours of content a week. We have been hanging out for this. It does have some big soft spots, namely audio. While audio can be logged, the tools for even viewing the assets makes it impossible to know what type of audio any clip is. Yes I can go and with a few key click I can find out but that is not the point. I want to preview it - scan it and manage it like the rest of my assets. Still for major multiple seat FCP setups like ours - Server is a key solution. And the User group was a great get together to discuss it and explore how users are deploying Server.

At the end of last week I flew up for the day to film Mark Coleran’s first After Effects class for this term.  If you haven’t seen Coleran’s work on feature films, you really need to check out his reel to confirm the quality of his work.  His work on Bourne Ultimatum, The Island, AVP, and other films is simply brilliant — and it is fantastic he’s sharing his knowledge with fxphd members.

But why in Ottawa? Coleran is currently applying his excellent “fake” UI skills to a real UI project: Gridiron Flow. If you haven’t seen the previews of Flow, it is a fantastic new app which automatically tracks the history of assets you use in creative projects.  It’s currently in private beta and will eventually see light first as a public beta. We’re lucky to be involved in the beta here at the fxphd loft in Chicago — and it is definitely a cool product. This product again shows why we’re huge fans of the folks at Gridiron.

Read more >>

We were just in Beijing and everywhere we saw countdown clocks to the Olympics ( three weeks btw). In the rush for gold, gold, gold, it is easy to forget the massive effort being undertook to televise the games. The Olympics are simply the most complex broadcast in the world.

I had a small role in the Sydney Olympics as I worked along side the SOBO (Sydney Olympic Broadcast Organization). This lead to me having a profound respect for the technicians behind the scenes. So at the risk of jumping the start, and also out of fear that the role of the media techs might be lost in the roar of the actual games, I wanted to pass on some stats I recently saw in the Australian newspaper(7.10.08).

Read more >>

Last term, we had our first smoke course at fxphd which our members loved. This term, we’re bumping it up to the intermediate level with a new workflow-centric course being taught by Chris Kreynus and several guest lecturers. While it’s technically listed as a smoke course in our schedule, with the line blending between products even more, SMK201 is gonna be a great offering for flame artists as well.

Smoke is generally the final destination for projects in a facility, so it’s truly important to know how to deal with various formats and project types. Kreynus will be covering RED workflow, XML, P2 and AAF, soft-import, and other types of work throughout the term.

But it’s not gonna just be plumbing-type stuff being covered in the course. We’ve got a fun approach to the Lexus RED footage we shot a couple of terms ago — with a re-edit and the creation of a stylized 3D environment using action and batch timeline fx (click on the image to check it out). It’s gonna be a lot of fun!

We got a nice email today from the Producer of a feature film Hunt Angles that Prof. Rose Draper, and I worked on at the start of fxphd.

Read more >>

We are now working on the DOP new course for fxphd. I have noticed that I have this phenomena called BWV or “brick wall view”. And I actually think many people who are creative and yet get a lot done, have a similar approach.

I feel like I am running hard - on course - but straight at a brick wall. All I can see is this one huge brick wall. I know that there are other similar walls to climb over before I am done, but if I think about later walls - I will slam into the first one. What I need to do is clear this immediate wall first, and to do that I need to concentrate. Maybe it is a bloke thing, maybe it is just me, but if I can really focus on that next wall I can nail it and clear it easily - if I am distracted, I crash and burn.

Read more >>

We had a great day with models yesterday. You start with a clay model such as this and at the end up with a fully working animation model.
Having seen and even used latex for years, I had never actually been involved in making it, from first principles. It is amazing stuff to work with, and very very precise to make. So precise that the instructions from GM Form require a certain model of Sunbeam mixmaster - so you can mix it with exactly the right settings, mix 7 for 10 mins, mix at 4 for an additional 3 mins etc. And given how much the ammonia comes off during the mixing stage, I may not need to do it very often, even with the extraction fans, feel sorry for anyone who has to been in complex latex applications daily.

Still it is great fun to actually bake a mould and pop the latex figure complete with animation armature, it is the birth of creative stop frame animation process. After all these years in visual effects, I think I have really found the mad scientists in the back room - nice guys - just a tad high on fumes !

I am working on our new stop frame and miniatures course here in Adelaide with Anifex. There are so many brilliant aspects and while we were working on replacement animation for lip sync yesterday, I got to play with Magpie Pro. I had heard of it but not used it.

The program allows you to load either 3D target heads/mouths/expressions, or drawing or stills of the claymation mouth variations for all the major mouth shapes related to all the major mouth sounds. You then feed in a .wav file and the program will do a first pass at lip syncing it based on the audio alone. Once done you can modify it to better suit your character. In the later versions you ca then go further and time out the eyes, eye brows etc .

Read more >>

We are so excited about the new term - we have some brilliant classes. Today I started filming for the new miniature / stop motion course. I have to say I am insanely happy at the end of the day… the sets look amazing, the team here are brilliant and I’d be stunned if people did not enjoy this.

I think this course will be great for people wanting to learn more about this aspect of film making either because they want to move into doing post for this style or work, or they want to use miniatures or stop motion in one of their own projects. But I doubt anyone with a passion for the craft - that does what we do for a living would not love this subject area. It is the birth of visual effects and the last bastion of what I like to call ‘inventive film making’.

Without a doubt we had an absolute ball today - it was just heaps of fun. Tomorrow we have an early start and we are pouring latex - I mean does life get any better ?

Man after kung fu in China and some of the other classes we have coming up… this will be our best term ever.

We did get to shooting yesterday. We were doing a few things at once yesterday, both testing high speed modes on the RED and shooting material for this upcoming term of fxphd.

We shot at 120 fps, 96 fps and 47 fps. We also tried super sharp shutters, 22fps and a bunch of cool tricks. We tried a couple of audio tricks as well. In this upcoming fxphd we are adding Audio courses, so we figured we’d try a few high speed photography audio tricks ! Not something that may immediately come to mind - but we gave it a shot. Of course sitting here the morning after, I am dying to know if they have worked. But this term we are about creative problem solving and that means trying things that may not always work… but man I hope they do.