AFX205 - After Effects Motion Graphics II

One of our most popular professors, Tim Clapham from Luxx, will be returning to explore the use of Adobe After Effects for the production of Motion Graphics.

The classes will be mostly project based, with tips and tricks for creating stunning visuals. Clapham will demonstrate methods to facilitate an efficient workflow. As well as working in After Effects, working with 3D applications will also be discussed, specifically utilizing Cinema4D for mulitpass renders, After Effects integration and avoiding common gotchas. The course will encompass the use of expressions to speed up production and enhance creativity. Clapham be using After Effects CS3 (members can also use CS4), with some content being discussed in Cinema4D r11.

The classes will include the following subjects, plus much more:

• Using 3D Multipass and exported 3D data to enhance and add elements in After Effects.
• Creating an animated newspaper headline with 3D layers and Trapcode Form.
• Colour Correction using Color Finesse and Magic Bullet Looks.
• Incorporating a 3D Render with the Shatter Effect. Reproducing the bullet time effect.
• Stop Motion type animation effects.
• Using Expressions to speed up workflow.
• Creating a Music Channel Ident, using audio to control parameters.
• Creating a cardboard type theatre using 3d shape layers and lighting rigs.

Professor: Tim Clapham (TimC)

Class 1: This class will take a 3D multipass render along with exported 3D data. From this, elements will be isolated using Object Buffers as mattes. Creating a fake blurry reflection. Adding extra content using After Effects 3D layers combined with Object Buffers. Creating text animation using Track Mattes and Text Animators. Offsetting parameters overtime using expressions.

Class 2: Using scripts to generate a 3D Cube, then replacing the sides with graphic patterns. Introduction to Trapcode Form, using Layer Maps. Creating Layer Maps with Radio Waves, Trapcode Particular. Looping keyframes with a simple expression.

Class 3: Overview of alternative effects that work with layer maps, including Card Dance and Particle Playground. Animating a camera using parenting. Animating Illustrator artwork in 3D space. Working with AE Text, per character 3D feature, combined with range selectors and using wiggly selectors for randomizing characters and text colour.

Class 4: Part 1 of 2. This week we will be taking a layered Photoshop file and breaking it into sections to displace over time. We will be adding an expression to control several parameters over many layers at different points in time, then linking them together with expression sliders. We will also use Trapcode Form to create an animated halftone effect.

Class 5: Part 2 of a 2 week class. This week we will complete the project, using Form for the halftone and then distributing the particles in Z space. Adding in text elements and linking the parameters between comps. Adding independent wiggle to XYZ position on the camera using expression controllers.

Class 6: Taking a green screen shot and pulling a key using Keylight. Combining mattes to key out tracking markers. Tracking and Cloning to clean up skin. Isolating skin areas for smoothing.

Class 7: Continuing from last week. Stabilizing the keyed footage. Creating a light wrap effect. Adding in a shape layer background and some type. Trapcode Starglow and Particular for enhancing the shot. Grading in Magic Bullet Looks.

Class 9: Part 1 of 2. This week we will look at creating assets by combining several photographs or scans to give a stop motion stuttering type effect. Creating vector artwork from photos and autotrace. We will then start to assemble a series of shots using continually rasterising vector art and 3D layers. Using expressions to tint the layers based on distance from camera.

Class 10: Part 2 of 2. Using Particular to create a journey through a forest of trees. Finishing the final shot and editing all shots together with transitions.

AFX211 - After Effects Project - The Open

Building upon the popularity of our first After Effects project-based course, AFX208, we'll begin work on a new project from concept through compositing and design. For this project, we'll be creating a new animated show open in the style of programs such as "Top Chef", "Project Runway", and "Make Me a Supermodel". Leading the course will be Danny Princz, a New York City based artist who has taught several courses in the past. Also helping out will be Mark Christiansen, author of "Adobe After Effects CS4 Visual Effects and Compositing Studio Techniques", and fxphd dean John Montgomery.

The project will focus on using the new After Effects CS5 once it's released. But like most real world projects we will also be covering other applications for tasks such as 3D camera tracking, creating and rendering cgi for the virtual set, and more. Members of fxphd can share work in progress and design ideas in the forums, getting feedback from the profs as well as as other members.

The opening project will be completed in courses over the next two terms at fxphd, but rest assured that each members of each term will receive plenty of 720P material to build shots for their reel. Our previous course distributed over six gigabytes of footage.

Professor: John Montgomery Böhm (johnmont)

Class 1: Working through the concept through design and storyboarding. It's incredibly important to nail down the look and feel of the project before diving into production. Guest designer Mark Ward.

Class 2: On-set for the shoot. We'll be documenting what happens on set and the process beforehand, The goal is to share tips to make your on-set experiences more comfortable and less stressful.

Class 3: The edit. We'll look at working through the edit from a creative standpoint as well as a technical one using both Final Cut Pro and the new Premiere CS5.

Class 4: Diving in and starting the compositing and design. Approaches to working which, if done correctly from the start, will make your life much easier.

Class 5: We take our blocked out "Magician" scene and start to integrate more elements from the board and push it toward a final look. Using provided 3D camera track data in AE, current options for 3D text in CS5 as well as creating a template for reuse, and build out the base environment.

Class 6: Laying the technical ground work for the Perfectionist, shot with an extreme wide-angle (fisheye) lens. Latest Keylight techniques, lens distortion, Shape Layer usage as an alternative to Illustrator, and tracking with Mocha AE.

Class 7: We create the "magic" for the "Magician" scene using the built-in plugins in AFX as well as enhancing the effect with particular.

Class 8: This class brings the Perfectionist shot closer to the design from the storyboards using Photoshop CS5 to create 3D text and various methods to composite the title and talent over an aerial city shot.

Class 9: The Prodigy scene is roughed out using a 3D camera solve, elements from the Magician scene are re-used to start building the comp. A simple cube is built in AE as a stand-in element for the Prodigys geomtric animation. AE's 3D lights and shadows are used to further integrate the elements of the comp. The aescripts.com True Comp Duplicator script is used to save time.

Class 10: In this class we animated the stand in cube and used a building block for the geometric animation from the storyboard. Option parenting is used quickly create offset blocks. AE camera Depth of Field is used to integrate the elements as well as a layer style based Light Wrap. A solution to banding issues is addressed in 8/16bit

AFX212 - After Effects Project - The Open, Part 2 

Building upon the popularity of AFX211, we'll continue work on "The Next FX Master" show open. Leading the course will be Danny Princz, a New York City based artist who has taught several courses in the past. as well as fxphd dean John Montgomery.

The first course covered the design and shoot, so this course will be fully focused on continuing to work on the project from a creative standpoint. We will work through the remaining vignettes as well as the various host scenes. In addition, a key aspect of the work will be tying the various vignettes together in a meaningful way in order to add impact, as well as creating the final logo design for the show. We'll call in a sound designer to further help us bring the open to life before completing the project by the end of the term.

1920x1080 footage will be distributed for the course so members can share work in progress and design ideas in the forums, getting feedback from the profs as well as as other members. In addition, we offer an option to buy the entire R3D footage from the shoot.


Professor: Danny Princz (rendernyc)

Class 1: Old School. For the practical effects guy, we'll be adding explosions and lighting effects to sell the idea that the explosions are interacting with the talent.

Class 2: Old School, continued.

Class 3: The Generalist. How do you bring a scene to life when there's not much to work with? We intentionally made the generalist scene a bit underwhelming in order to work through a scene that really relies on the artist to make it interesting.

Class 4: Opening shot. From a scripting standpoint, our host serves as the storytelling thread for the open. We start the process of bringing it all together by taking a look at the first host scene.

Class 5: Contestant montage. Recapping the heroes of the series via a dynamic photo montage and exploring the transition to the logo end frame.

Class 6: Logo Design. We'll take a look at the process of coming up with a logo design, issues to consider when creating a logo, and then actually creating and animating the logo.

Class 7: Logo Design, continued.

Class 8: As with many large projects, we've got scenes from several different artists. Even though each artist had guidelines to go by, how do we now combine these different scenes into something artistically and aesthetically cohesive ?

Class 9: Sound Design. Sound is an incredibly important aspect of any project, but for the show open it can play an especially big role.

Class 10: Bringing it all together. Putting the finishing touches on the project.

BKD217 - Background Fundamentals July10 

This term we return to the magazine format in Background Fundamentals as we cover a wide range of industry topics but with partial theme. The loose theme is roles and expectations. We will cover the various roles in visual effects and post, what each person does and what recruiters look for when trying to fill that role. To help us we will speak with major houses and recruiters from around the world.

We start the term with a case study from our own team on our film Moving Day, covering from tracking to compositing, we then move to look at the roles on a major production and explore the expectations of recruiters and managers who staff those positions.

Background will also cover other unrelated topics as the team will be this term at Siggraph 2010 in LA.

Professor: Mike Seymour (mikes)

Class 1: An overview of the current state of the film business, including economic, structural, and content issues. Inspired in part by the book The Hollywood Economist by Edward Jay Epstein.

Class 2: A detailed look at creating digital doubles and flame effects for a shot from the fxphd's short film "Moving Day" by our postgrads Michael Thingnes (thimic) and Aarne Harju (Aarne Harju).

Class 3: We continue our look at the Moving Day shot. Michael Gillian (mgillian) takes us through the tracking of the shot and Andrew Thomson (firefly67) explains the compositing process in detail.

C4D101 - Introduction to Cinema 4D

The Cinema4D 101 course will be a practical approach to learning Maxon's Cinema4D. The course will cover everything needed to obtain a solid foundation in using the application. From understanding the interface, to modeling using the built in primitive and NURBs objects. An exploration of lighting and material creation, through to animation techniques, use of expressions and rendering possibilities. Specifically aimed at new users to the application, some experience of 3D would be advantageous, although not essential. After completing this course, you will have an in-depth understanding of the workflow and techniques required to work with Cinema4D in a production environment.

Based in Sydney Australia, Tim Clapham is a multi-disciplinary animator and compositor. Evolving from a solid foundation in traditional animation using both Film and Video, Tim soon transitioned into the digital domain and has forged a solid career in the world of Motion Graphics. With over 11 years of industry experience, Tim is accomplished with many 3D animation and Digital Compositing applications.

This knowledge has been the bedrock of his many successful training courses as a Professor for fxphd and a continuing relationship with Maxon Computer where Tim has worked as a beta tester for many years, and also contributes tutorials to their online learning resource cineversity.

As the owner of Motion Graphics and Animation company Luxx, Tim is hands on with every project that the company produces. With a history of working with many global Advertising and Broadcast companies, the work Tim produces is both technically challenging whilst maintaining innovation and high quality.


Professor: Tim Clapham (TimC)

Class 1: An introduction to the Cinema4D interface. Working with position, scale and rotation tools to transform objects. Adjusting and creating custom layouts. Introduction to viewport options.

Class 2: BThis week we will create a Martini Glass, Cocktail Shaker and Cocktail Umbrella using a combination of Parametric Primitive Objects, Splines, Generators and NURBs Generators.

Class 3: Modeling a car wheel using hyperNURBs. This week will make use of selection tools such as loop selection, modeling tools such as extrude, knife and bridge.

Class 4: Materials, shaders and texture tags. This week we explore the material system in Cinema4D. Creating and organizing materials. Working with texture tags and the different projection types. Finally we create a few materials to use in our scenes.

Class 5: Lights and Cameras. This class will look at the light types available, working with visible lights, shadows and falloff. Using cameras and also a look at creating a depth map.

Class 6: An introduction to Xpresso. Overview of expressions in general. Working with the Xpresso Editor. Using Set Driver and Set Driven. Creating User Data to control Xpresso.

Class 7: An introduction to the MoGraph module. Exploring the various settings of the Cloner object, then combining this with effectors to unleash the possibilities available with the module.

Class 8: Part 1 of a 3 week project. This week we prepare some ExtrudeNURBS objects. Start animating the objects and camera, with an introduction to the timeline and f-curve manager.

Class 9: Part 2 of a 3 week project. Adding materials to the objects. Using the Fracture Object in combination with hierarchies of objects, adding the plain effector to wipe text on. Working with layers and creating object presets.

Class 10: Part 3 of a 3 week project. This week we add in some background elements using Cloner Object combined with the Step Effector. Look at the MoGraph Color Shader and the Random Effector. Finally we create a basic multipass output and composite in After Effects using the 3D data exported from the C4D scene.

C4D102 - Introduction to Cinema 4D II

This course will complement the C4D101 course and further develop your skillset when working with Maxon’s Cinema4D. Alongside the core Cinema4D concepts, the 102 course will include classes on using some of the popular modules available for Cinema4D, including Cloth, Sketch & Toon and MoGraph, as well as an introduction to using Bodypaint3D and understanding the concept of UV mapping and texture painting within the application. The classes will be both practical workshops and project based classes, further enhancing your experience of using the core Cinema4D application, Bodypaint3D and the available modules.

Tim Clapham is a multi-disciplinary animator and compositor and one of our members favorite profs. With over 11 years of industry experience, Clapham is an industry recognized expert in Cinema 4D and After Effects. As Company Director at Luxx in Sydney, Australia, Tim works with a wide range of global advertising and broadcast companies, producing world-class content that is both technically challenging and innovative.

Professor: Tim Clapham (TimC)

Class 1: Creating a short logo animation part 1. Using subdivided splines for smooth deformation. Fracture object with ExtrudeNURBS and Plain Effector to animate type.

Class 2: Creating a short logo animation part 2. Animating the logo using animation layers. Creating glossy materials and a basic light setup. Rendering with Picture Viewer.

Class 3: Introduction to the Hair Module. Using the Hair Object. Styling hair and working with the Hair Material. This class also covers cloning with Hair and Hair dynamics.

Class 4: Introduction to the Cinema4D cloth module. Exploring the Cloth Tag parameters. Cloth collisions with regular objects. Using ClothNURBS for smoothing and thickness. Belting Cloth to Polygon objects.

Class 5: Working with the Sketch and Toon module to create Non-Photorealistic Renders. Exploring the sketch render options, sketching individual objects with unique materials. Finally creating a watercolour type line from scratch.

Class 6: Introducing Bodypaint 3D. This week we take a look at manipulating UVs and creating UV maps. This will cover different UVW projections, interactive mapping and the Bodypaint Setup Wizard.

Class 7: Texture manipulation with Bodypaint 3D. This week we continue our exploration of Bodypaint, focusing on the texturing features. Subjects covered include working with layers, filters, multichannel painting and projection painting. This class also covers baking textures.

Class 8: Week one of a three week project. Creating a logo animation for Top 100 Countdown. This week we create the text from illustrator artwork. Model a clock dial using Cloner and Shader Effector. Colour the dial with the MoGraph color shader. Animate the effectors using Xpresso.

Class 9: Week two of a three week project. Adding animation to the project. Working with F-Curves. Creating the tunnel of clock dials and other graphic elements using standard particles combined with MoGraph Tracer, Cloner and a combination of effectors. Scene management with layers.

Class 10: Week three of a three week project. An extended class of 1hr 30mins, including bonus 30 minutes working in After Effects. First we add basic lighting and finalise our materials in Cinema4D. Create a geometric zoom from the Top 100 model. Add streaks of light with Tracer. Create a wipe with Cloner and Boolean operations. Set-up multipass and AEC export. Render the 3D passes and then complete basic composite and grade in After Effects.

C4D202 - Cinema4D and After Effects in Production

We're excited that Tim Clapham returns this term for a combination Cinema 4D and After Effects course. The classes will be project based, with each project covering several weeks of classes. Clapham will start out by building elements and rendering imagery in Cinema 4D and then taking the results into After Effects for final finessing. Even if you're a motion graphics designer who doesn't use Cinema 4D, you'll still get a ton of great tips and tricks out of the course.

Professor: Tim Clapham (TimC)

View a short sample clip from one of the C4D202 classes

Class 1: Using MoGraph to build some basic skyscraper buildings and distribute them through the scene. Then light it and export multipass renders, along with 3D camera and null data to be imported into After Effects.

Class 2: Continuing where we left of from class 01, we will take our multipass renders and light passes and composite them in AE. Adding in a title, making use of object buffers and depth pass. Finally we'll have a look at ways to check for broadcast safe colours.

Class 3: In this this class we shall use the MoGraph Fracture object in combination with the Random and Delay effector. We will create two short animations using the fxphd logo. These will be lit and some materials created. Then prepared for multipass output, ready for compositing in After Effects.

Class 4: Part 2 of 2. Firstly, we'll create one more shot to continue from last week. We will look at using Xpresso to link MoGraph effectors to standard Cinema4D object parameters. We will then output the render and complete the composite in After Effects. This will involve importing our 3D renders and using the multipass output in combination with AE layers.

Class 5: Part 1 of 3. We will track some green screen footage and then look at methods of exporting the tracking data to C4D. Once in C4D we will use the data to create some trails and sweeps using a combination of nulls, tracers and lofts.

Class 6: In this class we will work in After Effects and look at a method of creating a trail to compliment our 3D render from last week. We'll be using Trapcode Particular for this. Finally we will use keylight to pull a key on the greenscreen footage we used for the tracking.

Class 7: In this class we finish the key we started last week. We add in a background element using C4D MoGraph, this will look at the shader effector, step effector and random effector. We will use the time offset feature and also adjust the weight of the clones. Finally we bring it all together in After Effects, adding in some expressions and using shape layers with various modifiers.

Class 8: This class will take a jpeg sequence that has been tracked in 3D. We will look at a few things to check when importing tracking data into C4D. Then we will add in a bouncing flocking particle simulation using Thinking Particles, Xpresso and also examining ways of adding user data and tag properties to your Xpresso setups.

Class 9: In this class we will look at a few modeling techniques using HyperNURBS. We will model a cactus for the desert scene and use Spline Wrap and MoGraph Cloners along with some effectors to animate the objects appearing

Class 10: In this class we will look at attaching clones to specific track points. Preparing the scene for output and looking at methods of speeding up rendering. Finally we will complete a basic composite in After Effects.

C4D205 - Cinema 4D and Design III 

This term Tim Clapham returns with a fresh new course for Cinema4D. Aimed at the intermediate user, but certainly accessible to advanced beginners, this class will cover many features of the Cinema4D toolset. Alongside revealing some of his innovative techniques for working with the MoGraph module, Tim will also cover fundamental subjects and their application within Cinema4D, such as principles of lighting, working with audio, use of Xpresso to streamline workflow, multipass rendering and compositing with After Effects.

Based in Sydney Australia, Tim Clapham is a multi-disciplinary animator and compositor. Evolving from a solid foundation in traditional animation using both Film and Video, Tim soon transitioned into the digital domain and has forged a solid career in the world of Motion Graphics. With over 11 years of industry experience, Tim is accomplished with many 3D animation and Digital Compositing applications.

As the owner of Motion Graphics and Animation company Luxx, Tim is hands on with every project that the company produces. With a history of working with many global Advertising and Broadcast companies, the work Tim produces is both technically challenging whilst maintaining innovation and high quality.

Professor: Tim Clapham (TimC)

Class 1: Creating a Pin Art sculpture - Modeling the Pin Art structure and pins, then assembling the array using the MoGraph Cloner object. Adding the Formula Effector to offset the pins and the Shader Effector to transform the pins creating the impression. This class will also include basic material creation.

Class 2: Animating along paths - An exploration of animating objects along splines within Cinema4D. Examining - Align To Spline, Spline Wrap, Spline Effector. The class will conclude by creating an animation setup using the core particle system combined with Matrix Object, Cloner Object, Effectors and also MoDynamics to create a continual flow of dynamic objects animated along a path.

Class 3: Building a Stereoscopic Camera Rig in Cinema4D Part 1 of 2 - this week we discuss some stereo theory and create the foundation of a toed-in, parallel and offset axis camera using Xpresso and User Data.

Class 4: Building a Stereoscopic Camera Rig in Cinema4D Part 2 of 2

Class 5: Baking Textures, Shaders and Illumination - This class will cover the concept of baking textures within Cinema4D. Using the Bake Texture and Bake Object features. Creating significant speed increases to your renders by baking processor intensive shaders and lighting setups. Baking of spherical maps for creation of custom textures, environment maps and generating HDR images.

Class 6: An exploration of lighting principles and their application with in Cinema4D Part 1 of 2 - Throughout these two classes, Tim will share a dialogue on the principles of lighting for 3D, the classes will progress to include several practical lighting examples. This will cover the reproduction of various types of illumination, such as natural lighting, studio lighting and lighting for night time scenes. Working with HDR and Global Illumination. Lighting in layers and compositing with light passes in After Effects to allow maximum flexibility during post production.

Class 7: An exploration of lighting principles and their application with in Cinema4D Part 2 of 2

Class 8: Creating an animated ident with audio Part 1 of 3 - The final three weeks of the course will be dedicated to the creation of an animated indent from concept through 3D construction, rendering including final grading and compositing. With the class will be provided an audio track which will be the foundation of the animation and dictate the underlying structure. After exploring some automatic techniques of animating to sound, the class will develop into some more abstract and less conventional uses of the audio. This will involve using Xpresso to link parameters to the sampled and refined audio. Using the MoGraph Sound Effector. Animating the camera and linking the motion to the audio samples. Lighting and rendering using Multipass, with final composite and grade in After Effects.

Class 9: Creating an animated ident with audio Part 2 of 3

Class 10: Creating an animated ident with audio Part 3 of 3

CLR201 - Grading with Apple Color

This next level grading course builds upon our introduction to Apple's Color software. In the first course, fxphd helped users hit the ground running by introducing the basics to color correction using this application. In our 200 level offering, taught by colorist Kelly Armstrong, users will apply these tools in a more subjective and creative manner to forward the technical capabilities of the software in a more artisitic format.

Content will vary from various types of stock in different resolutions as well as imagery which will include but not be limited to nature scenes, dialogs and short films. This class will delve into the aspect of color correction from a higher, creative viewpoint rather than technical, straightforward vantage point. We'll also take a look at some workflow issues, including grading with RED footage.

We'll look at a scene and take various approaches to correction. It's extremely common for a colorist to have to dramatically change the mood of scene on the fly during a grading session, under the supervision of clients. For example, we will look at a scene shot straight out of the gate, and create looks that reflect different points in time, from scratched up vintage film to a 70's era tinted look. Or help a DP turn a grey, gloomy day into a sunny day for continuity purposes. The class will be able to try their hand at this at the same time and then talk about their success afterwards.

Armstrong spent 20+ years as a colorist at Avenue Edit Chicago, and now freelances working off of Color. While at Avenue, she worked primarily on national commercial work, including spots seen during the Super Bowl, Olympics and Academy Awards for clients including Coors Light, McDonald's, Addidas and Michelob. Along with commercial work, she has color corrected music videos, documentaries, independent and feature films.

Professor: Kelly Armstrong (Kellyarmstrong)

Class 1: Off and running The approach for this course is to combine color theory and how it has an affect on how we manipulate color. Each class will discuss how we take an approach to color correction in a creative, artistic way to not only create a beautiful image, but address our audience and their emotional perception of these images. Class one hops right into this with the discussion and re-creation of the DUOTONE.

Class 2: Associating color with emotion The theory that color and the effect we choose to put on our color correction is directly associated with the subconscious. We will look at traditional associations with color in movies and advertising. We will take Soderberg's film "Traffic" and re-create this "color associated with a certain place/emotion."

Class 3: Color and symbolism Taking the previous class another step. We'll look at Schinder's list and the effective use of isolated color to create an emotion. In this film, the girl in the red coat became a color representation of the hundreds of thousands of those killed in WW2. We will focus on keying, and using this concept of focusing in on one color to provoke our audience to associate that image with an overall theme.

Class 4: Color through the ages As we look back in time, we can see that each era has a specific look, represented in color to signify that period in time. If we are to prompt our audience to believing they are watching something shot in a certain era in time, we can push this thought process along via color correction. We will take the same piece of film, and manipulate it in color to emulate different points in time.

Class 5: Expressionist theories of color and our use of these ideas today The famous artist Jean-Michel Basquiat used color to force our eyes to a certain area on his canvas. He used saturation to create a sense of depth and emotion. We will take this principle and focus on how we can manipulate an image to force our viewer to a specific area of our frame -- by use of depth perception, saturation, and effects tools.

Class 6: The Autochrome.. color from the beginning In 1906, Auguste and Louis Lumiere of France created the autochrome, film's earliest stages of color imagery. Using an additive method of separating an image into separate elements of red, green and blue by the use of potato starch filtering, this beautiful and unique image is worthy of replicating - even today. We will look at a current commercial which shares this imagery, and create our own using film shot today. To appreciate the contemporary use of high end color effects, it is great to step back and take note of these early processes which not only set the path for where we are at this time in color correction, but are relevant even by today's standards, and worthy of replication.

Class 7: MTV awaits This class will have us pushing the envelope as we look into creating funky, fun, high end looks for a music video. Ramp it up! (The "color theory" in this has yet to be determined..... it's just really fun!)

Class 8: Continuity is the key This class will look into the issue of continuity -- a key element in color correcting anything from commercial to feature films. Continuity ties your piece together, creates a cohesive look as well as commits the viewer to following the story line no matter what twists the environment, lighting, or elements of post production may hand to us.

Class 9: Lighting and its effect on our viewer Lighting. It sets the tone, determines our feelings and prompts a reaction. The way we light a scene convinces our audience of what they are watching and how we want them to feel. We will discuss many aspects about lighting. From how to re-light a scene with issues to simply creating dramatic lighting for enhancement.

Class 10: Copy the masters A fun way to end the course, this class will have us taking the same piece of film (or two or three) and replicating the looks of famous directors and cinematographers. You'll have Danny Boyle chasing you down to color his next award winner!

CMP201 - Special Ops: The VFX of Red Dwarf

While BKD212 examines the Red Dwarf: Back to Earth project from an overall and on-set perspective, this course focuses on the visual effects by breaking down shots from the television specials. Mike Seymour, who served as vfx supervisor and 2nd unit director, will be the hosting professor for the course as he works through how shots were planned and executed for the show.

Serving as guest professors, members of the fxphd "special ops team" will have dropins which show how they completed the shots. The plan is to break down a single shot over two or three weeks of classes, spending time to fully develop the shots and focus on selling the shot. Footage from the show will be supplied as part of the course, allowing members to follow along and re-create the visual effects themselves. We expect to send out an average of 500MB of footage files per class during the term -- so ramp up your bandwdith.

The course will cover multiple areas of visual effects post -- from camera tracking to cleanup, visual effects to keying, cgi and matte paintings. This will be a hard core compositing course covering a wide variety of applications, creative techniques, and more. If you're a compositor at heart -- this course is definitely for you.

Professor: Mike Seymour (mikes)

Class 1: Part 1 - How the initial photography for LMP (london Matte Painting) we taken and a look at how this was projected onto a 3d enviroment.

Class 2: Part 2 of the LMP creation. We look at the 2D component of the shot and look at LMP2 with its more rushed production time.

Class 3: FIN Design talk about the process of creating the G-Deck and the complexities of working with a vast space.

Class 4: We look at the tricks behind making a vase fly through the air and freeze and animating origami squid tentacles.

Class 5: We look at the creating and compositing the dimension-cutter effect (DCE)

Class 6: We look at the tracking workflow and role of Image Modeler on Red Dwarf.

Class 7: Match Moving on Red Dwarf using master plates and reference pictures.

Class 8: A look at Shakes application to composite the HALL sequences.

Class 9: André Hedetoft demonstrates how he did the Blade Runner scanning sequence for Red Dwarf.

Class 10: A look at the car hitting shot from Red Dwarf.

DCT101 - Digital Color Theory

Taught by Vancouver-based colorist Lorne Miess, Digital Colour Theory introduces you to the fundamentals of light and colour when applied to film and television industries. Understanding how to make your images look as photorealistic as possible is the premise for this course. Standard theories of additive and subtractive colour models will be discussed with examples from various media and software packages such as Final Cut Pro and Photoshop.

Learn what colour enhancement is all about and why you would use it. You'll learn that using different colour correction packages are made easier when you understand the colour theory behind what you want to achieve. This class will cover film and video theory, in particular how colour is used creatively as well as technically. This is a great companion course at fxphd to use with courses on the inner workings of Davinci and Lustre. Have some fun with light and colour, you'll be amazed when you see what you can achieve.

Professor: Lorne Miess (lmiess)

Class 1: Light and color theory, Part 1: where light comes from, how we see it, and Part 2: color theory, bit depth, calibrating broadcast monitors

Class 2: Introduction to colour correction, goals, workflow, Photoshop demo, and understanding video levels

Class 3: Apple's Final Cut Pro 3-way colour corrector, analyzing the video signals, matching shots

Class 4: Colour interpretations, matching shots, numerical interface, secondary colour correction, workflow, setting black, white and gray points numerically

Class 5: Multiple secondary colour correction, current and future technology, video standards, signal flow and patching, legalizing the video signal, day-for-night

Class 6: History of recording, colour correction workflow, film basics by the numbers, spot colour correction

Class 7: Digital Intermediate workflow 4:4:4, edl's, Flexlists, and Keycode, XML workflow, bleach bypass

Class 8: Luminance keying, green and bluescreen keying, reversal film look

Class 9: Colour correction for show openings, for digital compositing, multilayer correction, day-for-night shot revisited

Class 10: Part 1: Logarithmic vs Linear colour space, film basics, film printer points, dirt fixes, and Part 2: Ergonomics, focus and defocus, noise reduction

DOP202 - On-Set Lighting

The main focus of this course will be on lighting from the point of view of a Cinematographer. Through practical lighting setups and problem solving,  Director of Photography (DOP) Tom Gleeson, ACS, will explore how to light a scene and give it emotional resonance. Topics will include classic lighting setups, which lights to use, tricks and even how to work out a lighting budget from a bare script.

Gleeson is an extremely experienced traditional film DOP who has worked with lighting TDs on films such as Happy Feet , Oscar winner for best animated film. He has also worked in television on reality series, being senior DOP on several series of Survivor (CBS), as well as working on episodic dramas. Tom is just finishing a stereoscopic project as DOP and was also DOP on fxphd's short film Moving Day. 


Professor: Tom Gleeson (lensboy235)

Class 1: Moving day lighting interior

Class 2: Budgeting - working out what is needed from a script

Class 3: Smoke, haze, filters, cutters:  negative lighting

Class 4: Lighting with natural light - available light

Class 5: Woman - beauty - lighting eyes

Class 6: Interview lighting - faces and talking heads

Class 7: Moving day exterior

Class 8: Lighting td on set - HDRs (happy feet)

Class 9: Answering questions from the forums on set at a restaurant, and a discussion on the difference between cinematography and photography

Class 10: Part 2 of answering your questions on the restaurant set, a demonstration of the effect of light falloff, and continued exploration of the new MX camera.

DOP203 - Tools of the DOP 

Tom Gleeson returns with a course on the tools of the DOPs trade. This course focuses on how a DOP tells the story with the help of the grip. Not only will the classes cover most of the key gear in the Grip truck but how that translates to better story telling. The course aims to work from high end feature film gear to innovative SLR rigs. This course is designed as a companion to Tom Gleeson's hugely successful lighting courses and as such will not cover lighting or lighting gear.

Professor: Tom Gleeson (lensboy235)

Class 1: Tripods and Dollies are discussed with professional Grip, Jason Weekes, from a technical and artistic point of view. Mike directs a shot with an interesting move, and Tom and Jason demonstrate its setup and execute it.

Class 2: Tom and Mike discus how steadicam works and how to set it up, and they show some classic examples of how steadicam was used in feature films to help tell the story.

Class 3: Car mount options, part 1. Tom and Mike go through various designs and modifications available for filming with vehicles and Mike shows us a light weight car-mount perfect for DSLR film making.

Class 4: Car rigs 2 in and on the car

Class 5: Tripods and staging

Class 6: Cranes and jibs

Class 7: DSLR sliders and rigs

Class 8: Composition

Class 9: ND filters and depth clues

Class 10: Composition and motivated moves

DOP211 - DSLR Cinematography: Nature 

DSLR video is a growing if not exploding area of cinematography. In our second DSLR course we contrast the urban intensity of our Japan course with the majestic intensity of the landscape of Yellowstone national park. Without a doubt the best person we could think of to teach this course is Captain Tyler Ginter of the 55th Combat Camera Company. Tyler is well known for his work in helping the Army's camera company move to DSLRs and has worked in some of the most rugged and unforgiving environments on Earth. No one is better suited to discuss what you should take into the field to shoot away from the protected environment of the studio than Tyler.

Professor: Mike Seymour (mikes)

Class 1: Scouting locations and preparing for a shoot

Class 2: Tyler and Mike discuss Tyler's background, field gear, 50mm prime lenses, and compare the Canon 1D mk4, 7D, and 5D mk 2 in terms of ISO and FOV.

Class 3: Shooting wildlife

Class 4: Lens

Class 5: Tripods and sliders

Class 6: Filters, monitors, extra kit

Class 7: DSLR sliders and rigs

Class 8: Time-lapse and motion control

Class 9: Workflow part 1 including audio, sync, compression and ISO

Class 10: Workflow part 2 - including grading, enhancing, fixing

FCP213 - FCP Techniques and Creative Editing

"Film editing is now something almost everyone can do at a simple level and enjoy it, but to take it to a higher level requires the same dedication and persistence that any art form does." - Walter Murch

Wise words from Walter, but where to begin?

Taught by Enzo Tedeschi, FCP213 will take you through some of the basics and some of the intricacies of Final Cut Pro. As with any other post-production tool, true value comes from its proper use within a well-designed workflow. So in addition to a bit of "what does this button do", Enzo will more importantly be talking about Final Cut Pro's place within the larger context of a production as well as more creative editing techniques for storytelling. While this course will slightly touch on items covered in our other FCP offerings, with a new prof comes new and interesting perspectives.

Tedeschi is an Editor whose ten-year body of work covers drama, documentary, television series and commercials.

Class 1: Start at The End. Everything you do is about the outcome, so working out what that is should be the first thing you do. The role of the Assistant Editor, Project Setup, Thinking Ahead, Syncing Rushes.

Class 2: Videotape is Dead. Not quite. But it is being given a good run for its money by a bunch of tapeless formats. Prepping and ingesting P2 and XDCAM, firewire Varicam for the Lowman, and backup.

Class 3: RED. With new technology comes with new workflows, and RED is no exception. Prepping for and cutting with RED, RED Proxies and R3D, On Location.

Class 4: Telling The Story. At the end of the day, knowing how to push the buttons is only useful if you know how to tell a story. We look at a scene shot by the DOP class and discuss some of the issues that arise in the cut. Eyelines, Using Silence, Using Music, Murdering Your Darlings.

Class 5: Framed. Some things fit, some things not so much. Some projects require working with a myriad of different formats and media, but how do you bring it all together? We look at the documentary "Food Matters" as an example. Aspect ratios, working with stills, mixed format timelines.

Class 6: Multiclips and Multiclip Sequences. Lots of cameras. One shoot. Too easy.

Class 7: Handing Over. Your edit is finished -- now what? There's audio, colour, vfx, CGI. How do you get there? Locking Picture, Prepping for Audio Post, Prepping for Grade, Final Cut Studio Round Tripping, XML and EDL.

Class 8: The Master. The edit is over and you need to create your deliverables. There are now as many options as there are for what's coming into your project. We discuss a few as well as some ways you can maximize your resources while minimizing your time watching progress bars. Edit to Tape, DVD Studio Pro, QuickTime reference Files.

Class 9: Telling The Story Part 2: Telling a story in 30 seconds can sometimes be a challenge! We look at storytelling techniques with relevance to editing a television commercial. Storytelling shorthand, Cutting for No Story, Cutting When Necessary.

Class 10: Any Questions? We set aside the last lesson of the course to field questions from the forums, and cover any interesting issues that may arise from previous episodes. Plus, a bonus class from sys201, a discussion about Final Cut Server.

FUS202 - Intermediate Fusion 6

Our new Fusion course follows directly on from the 100 level course helping artist to get even more out of eyeon’s flagship compositing system. Utilizing all the power of Fusion 6 including the much anticipated enhancements in its 3D environment, this course covers the essentials need to move forward as a proficient compositor. Topics covered by Professor Matt Leonard in this course include keying, tracking, roto, 2½D matte painting, plate cleanup, particles, 3D, motion graphics and the much talked about stereoscopic workflow.

Leonard's sphereVFX company has been doing Fusion training for years, including creating an intermediate level DVD for the app. Leonard has worked in the animation and visual effects industry for over sixteen years producing state-of-the-art work for feature films, broadcast and commercials in the UK and US markets..

Professor: Matt Leonard (mattdleonard)

Class 1: We look at the new UI and 2D enhancements to Fusion 6 along with Editors and Displace View updates.

Class 2: We look at the new 3D tools including: Blend Modes, Mattes, UVW Mapping, Material & Object IDs, Materials, Textures, FBX, Fog, Renderers, and lots more.

Class 3: 3D Project, Part 2: This is the second of a three class project going in-depth into the new 3D features of Fusion 6. We’ll be covering FBX I/O, Materials, Textures, Blend Modes, Mattes, UVW Mapping, Material and Object ID’s, Fog , GPU (openGL) Rendering and much more.

Class 4: 3D Project, Part 3: This is the final of a three class project going in-depth into the new 3D features of Fusion 6. We’ll be covering FBX I/O, Materials, Textures, Blend Modes, Mattes, UVW Mapping, Material and Object ID’s, Fog , GPU (openGL) Rendering and much more.

Class 5: In this class we look at Keying techniques including UV Blur, Screen Correction, Hard / Soft Mattes, and creating a custom Add Mix setup.

Class 6: Stereoscopic: In this class we’ll be looking at Stereoscopic compositing inside of Fusion 6. We will not only be working with stereo live action footage and rendered material from Maya but also creating our own stereo source material from inside of Fusions 3D environment.

Class 7: In this class we look at plate cleanup, 3D rotoscoping, paint and wire removal.

Class 8: In this class we look at a 3D screen including imported Maya geometry, camera projections, particles and more.

Class 9: 2.5D Matte Paint: This class looks at creating a 2.5D matte painting utilizing both 2D and 3D techniques. Also we’ll be working with 3D geometry, projections and other techniques.

Class 10: Motion Graphics, Fusion and Photoshop: In our final class we’ll look at building a typical corporate / network indent using both the 2D and 3D techniques but heavily utilizing Photoshop elements and layers inside of Fusion 6.

LST201 - Intermediate Lustre 

Autodesk's high-end product Lustre was born outside the company with a strong foundation of grading tools. Once it got inside Autodesk, features and workflows from the vfx products have made their way into the last several releases. These tools and workflow improvements actually open up the creative opportunities for colorists using Lustre, and this course aims to demonstrate how they can be used to create beautiful imagery in an efficient manner.

Leading the course are Ivar Beer (Digital Lab Manager), Sebastian Goehs (Lustre Colorist) and Ansgar Kruetzmann (RED Workflow specialist) of CinePostproduction GmbH Geyer Berlin. They will showcase their areas of expertise during the term, showing why it has found a place at the heart of their company's workflow. To these artists, Lustre is far more than simply a color correction application, as they found that it is a very potent tool when used the right way. The performance, masking and tracking systems are its key features -- practical features they found which could be used not just for grading but also basic vfx work to keep the flame and smoke seats open for the more complicated work. They also use Lustre for digital dailies because this way they can keep the grading data for the finals and offer a start to end solution for clients whilst creating a pipeline that is as fast a normal telecine workflow.

Professor: Ivar Beer (Ivar@inferno)

Class 1: Professor Sebastian Goehs shows the differences of the various changes that were made since Lustre 2008. He will give you an additional tour of all the general features and tools that are essential in grading your footage: the Primary Color Correction, how to balance shots, the right use of the Histogram & the Waveform Monitor. We �ll also take a first look at the RED Transcode Panel.

Class 2: With Lustre �s secondary color correction tools you can give your footage that final touch, incorporating masks and keys. In this class, Sebastian Goehs shows the differences between the Diamond keyer and HLS and take a look at using the gmasks for general grading tasks.

Class 3: The RED Dailies Show introduces you to working with RED ONE dailies on Autodesk Lustre, showing you the complete workflow. From ingesting your files and handling all the metadata to exporting your graded footage for your offline editing system of choice (Avid, FCP, ...)

Class 4: Converting material that was shot under daylight to a scene that looks like it was shot during the night will be the subject of this class. It includes creating a moon, stars and clouds - all with the tools (color correction and geometries) you find in your Lustre system.

Class 5: In this class we take a shot at creating realistic rain using only geometries. With this lesson you will be able to create rain like the one seen in Sin City or more subtle every day rain. All the stuff is build with some heavy use of geometries.

Class 6: You �ve probably seen many productions using Light Strokes or "Painting with Light". Learn how to archive this striking effect using the Lustre System and it �s outstanding free- hand tool. You will learn how to manually track an object and apply color correction and glows to it.

Class 7: The RED Dailies Show continues and gives insight to finishing your RED ONE Projects on Autodesk Smoke and Lustre. Rrom selectively transferring your backed-up RAW-footage and conforming your timeline, to using your Grades and Metadata settings from the dailies. We'll start with getting the offline EDL and doing the conform on Smoke, transfer the Smoke Timeline to Lustre via Wiretap, reuse the existing dailies grade to start with, create the final look, and ready the DI master for print to film & DCP

Class 8: No romantic dinner without a candle. Learn how to create one using Lustre �s simple freehand shapes to give more atmosphere to that special shot.

Class 9: More effects - snow. It might be hard to imagine in your part of the world, but after watching this lesson you �ll be able to create artificial snowflakes directly in your Grading System. We'll use some simple circles / freehand shapes to create closeup snowflakes (like seen through a window).

Class 10: Sometimes the cleanest look is not always the desired one. In this class you will learn to use Tools based on Lustre �s Plugin architecture to create Film grain, sparks, dirt, scratches and anything needed to artificially deterior your footage. In addition you will see how to generate heat haze and a 2.5D camera move.

MOC101 - Introduction to Mocha

Welcome to the world of planar tracking. David Blum’s course will show you from the ground up how to use mocha to get accurate tracks without relying on traditional tracking marks (feature tracking) and how to export that data to AE. Mocha is another great tool to put in your box. You’ll also learn a much easier way to perform rotoscoping including the use of the mocha Shape plug in for AE CS4. Each of the lessons will build from the previous one and will include practical tips and applications using alphas, embedded mattes, edge controls, off screen, and on screen tracking examples. This is the perfect class to get you into Mokey, Motor, and Monet.

The best way to learn any software is to use it, so this course will be heavily project based. Blum,a part-time instructor at the Art Institute of Phoenix, has been teaching and training artists how to use planar tracking for the last five years with great results. Blum will be covering the interface as tracks are solved, so you get the “feel” of the software from the first lesson. It’s not as easy as it looks. Having spent over a decade feature tracking, Blum will show why planar tracking requires a complete change in the dynamics of how to solve a shot. It will take you a little while to get over the “hump” but the reward is worth it. Over the last six years, he’s relied almost exclusively on the Imagineer planar tracker to solve both the easy and the tough shots.

David Blum has been involved in high-end post production for years. As Senior Editor at Varitel Video in Los Angeles, he created the first digital laboratory in Los Angeles. In the early 2000’s Blum worked on films including “Charlies Angels”, “Matrix”, and “Seabiscuit”. In 2004, Mr. Blum opened a new office of his five year old company, Catalyst FX, in Phoenix. The visual effects and post production company combines design, supervision, and implementation. He also supervises DI workflows from acquisition to final conform and has been involved in over 15 independent features both in Los Angeles and Phoenix.

Mocha in various flavors (standalone, After Effects, Final Cut) will be available to fxphd members over the VPN.

Professor: David Blum (dmblum)

Class 1: An explanation of what planar tracking is and how it works followed by the first tracking exercise. The track is exported and proved in After Effects CS3. The basic mocha interface is explored. Suggestions for additional tracks and homework finish the lesson.

Class 2: Tracking multiple objects and objects that become obscured. We go over one of the uses for Adjust Track, more mocha interface options, and export corner pinning data and manipulating it in After Effects CS4.

Class 3: Using mocha for AE for Rotoscoping without using the export shape functionality. Explaining how adjust track is used to control the surface properties and the use of the "Align Surface" function. Examples of how to use tracking techniques for Rotoscoping in After Effects. Using multiple tracking shapes on a single layer, tracking multiple objects in the same shot, and more tracking tips.

Class 4: This is a two part lesson. The first part deals with objects that either enter the frame or leave the frame during the tracking process. The second part deals with exporting tracks that may not start or end at the beginning or end of the shot. More interface explanations, tracking tips, and export options.

Class 5: All about tracking organic objects (no tracking marks required). We track a head and an arm using different techniques for both including using color correction to improve tracking results. Additional tracking tips and software interface information is included.

Class 6: This is all about tracking the crazy stuff. We work with extreme perspective tracks, tracking rotation and perspective, as well as tracking perspective on rotational shots where the rotation is not a required track element. There are a lot more tips and interface information included.

Class 7: We get into using the export shape data function combined with the mocha shape plug-in for After Effects. This is probably the fastest and easiest way to rotoscope you've ever seen. There's more interface tips including how to attach multiple shapes to a single track and how to track footage with 3:2 pulldown.

Class 8: Rotoscoping and shape export is featured in this lesson. We go over how to rotoscope organic shapes and objects with more than one motion axis. We use the interface to create a motion blur edge that is manually controlled through key framing. This is also the first introduction to the curve editor and some great new tools in the interface.

Class 9: More tracking and Rotoscoping techniques and tips. There are three separate projects in this lesson and one designed specifically for reality television.

Class 10: The toughest track yet. We use just about every technique learned to solve this one including some new tips. We also talk about predictive tracking and more solutions for reality television. Finally we look at ways to use mocha to help make solving 3D camera tracks easier.

MRY201 - Production Rendering Techniques with Mental Ray

This course will teach techniques and concepts for rendering realistic, physically based CG elements in a visual effects context (i.e. for integration into live action shots). As it is a hands-on course in using Mental Ray to do these things, it will start with a fundamental treatment of everything from light and pixels through to cameras, response curves and compositing, as well as "learning to see". The course will be performed using the 3ds Max application, but most things apply to Maya and Softimage as well.

Professor Hakan 'Zap' Andersson has been working as "Shader Wizard" at mental images since 2004 and is the author of numerous mental ray shaders, such as the subsurface/skin shaders, the car paint shader, as well as the architectural and production shader libraries. Originally educated as an Engineer in Electronics, Zap's passion for computer graphics caused his graduation year "special project" to be an actual hand-built and hand-wired graphics card, for which he wrote his first ray tracer. Today Zap spends his days (and nights) writing shaders, documentation and tutorials for mental ray, and sometimes makes presentations at user events and conventions, as well as maintains a mental ray tips blog mentalraytips.blogspot.com.

Professor: Zap Andersson (MasterZap)

Class 1: Pixels vs. Light - What is a pixel? The units of light, and how they map to the RGB values we encounter every day. Shows how the math we apply to pixels can break, and how, if we are not careful, two plus two can end up ten.

Class 2: Lighting - Understanding the quality and quantity of light. Understanding how real-world lights map to computer graphics lights. Understanding how light gathers and reflects off a surface.

Class 3: Cameras - Understanding how a real world cameras function map to their computer graphics counterparts. Understanding what film and digital cameras do to the image before you even see it.

Class 4: Materials I - Using the physically based Arch&Design material to simulate real world surfaces. Learning to see the world, so that one can translate it to CG.

Class 5: Materials II - More about materials. Using the mental ray skin shader for realistic characters.

Class 6: Interaction between CG and the Real World - Using the production library shaders to seamlessly integrate CG objects in real-world background plates with reflections, bounce light, shadows, etc.

Class 7: Interaction between CG and the Real World part II + "What Not To Do". Advanced interaction topics like smoothing out glossy reflections of HDRI environments and masking. Also discusses things you should avoid; Walks through the topics of previous classes and deals out some "no-no's".

Class 8: Compositing - How stuff that comes out of the renderer goes together, and what can (and should) and can't (and shouldn't) be delegated to compositing.

Class 9: Pixels, Samples and Filtering. Discusses anti-aliasing methods, and the different primary ray acceleration techniques, and demystifies the various mental ray methods for motion blur.

Class 10: Indirect illumination in animation. Avoiding flickering in Final Gathering in animated scenes. Also does a final course wrapup.

MSV201 - Massive in Production

Geoff Tobin returns to take this follow up to the introductory MSV101 course. While the 100 level course gave an overview of the Massive software, this course will cover the pipeline and workflow for setting up a typical Massive shot. From planning the mocap sessions and importing and processing the motion through to designing the brains, running the sims and finally rendering with a Renderman compliant renderer. It will also cover advanced features such as dynamics and cloth as well as integration with other software such as Maya.

Massive is the artificial-life crowd simulation software developed for The Lord of the Rings trilogy and used on major motion pictures, TV shows and commercials.

Tobin is a Lead Massive TD working at Weta Digital in Wellington, New Zealand. He started working in the industry in 1993 as an animator using SideFX Prisms, Alias PowerAnimator and Maya. Geoff has been working with Massive since 2000 and was involved with its early development in creating the crowd scenes for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. He has since used Massive in motion pictures such as I-Robot, King Kong, X-Men 3, Eragon, Bridge to Terabithia and The Day the Earth stood still.

Members of fxphd will have access to the full version of Massive software via the vpn. The software is only to be used for educational purposes or building shots for a personal (individual) demo reel.

Professor: Geoff Tobin (geoff_tobin)

Class 1: Introduction: The first class will cover the planning stage of setting up a typical Massive shot. Starting with a client brief we'll look at deciding what sort of actions are required for the shots. We'll cover the technical requirements of capturing motion for Massive agents, and use Massive to design an initial motion tree to assist with the capture process.

Class 2: Importing the motion: This class covers the steps required to import and process the raw mocap into a set of actions which can be triggered by the brain. We'll also look at creating IK controls for the actions so they can be adapted to the environment (eg. placing the feet on uneven terrain).

Class 3: Controlling Actions: This class shows how to trigger the actions both directly from the brain and via the motion tree. We'll also cover procedural adaptation using IK.

Class 4: Skinning Geometry: This lesson covers how to attach geometry to an agent using Massive's 'bones' skinning. We look at how to set up optional geometry such as different kinds of clothes as well as using blend shapes.

Class 5: Action! In this class we'll set up the brain of the agent to control its general behaviour as well as perform the specific action required for the shot.

Class 6: Dynamics: This lesson looks at the dynamics features of Massive including rigid body dynamics, cloth, springs, forces and wind.

Class 7: Running Sims: This class covers running the simulation and the various data which needs to be output in order to render the sim. We also look at running multiple pass sims, using the result of one sim as input to the next pass.

Class 8: Maya Integration: In this class we look at how Massive can integrate with other software such as Maya. We'll look at how Massive can import skeletons and motion, as well as cameras and lights from Maya, and export Massive skeletons and motion to Maya. We'll also see how to export particle data from Massive to enable us to import a Massive sim onto a Maya particle system.

Class 9: Advanced Rendering: This class will cover setting up a Renderman compliant renderer for rendering the Massive sim.

Class 10: Bonus: In this last lesson we take a look at some bonus features of Massive including spawning projectiles and getting the agents to paint onto the terrain (eg. for creating footprints)

MTH101 - Mathematics for Visual Effects and Design

This course aims to provide a basis for Maths for the Artist that says "If I'd known Maths would have been central to effects and animation I would have paid attention in school!" Mike Seymour works through the major areas of maths that are useful to understand for visual effects and animation. This really is a maths course, teaching you both actual maths and the principles of areas of maths in more advanced areas. The aim is to equip you with the tools you need and to demystify the jargon - so you can understand the principles and approaches we use maths for everyday in production and post.

Professor: Mike Seymour (mikes)

Class 1: Introduction to Maths - some useful concepts and an outline of the major areas of maths

Class 2: Co-ordinate systems, simple matrix, vectors and dot product. Plus, a tutorial on some of the basic concepts covered in the class.

Class 3: Vector addition and Subtraction - normals

Class 4: Fibonacci sequence, Pi, the Golden ratio, noise and turbulence.

Class 5: Algebra and factoring equations

Class 6: Equation solving using Matrix multiplication and the Unity Matrix.

Class 7: Velocity, Acceleration and Gravity

Class 8: Calculus part 2: Integral and Differential equations

Class 9: Fourier Transforms

Class 10: Putting it all together: how everything you have learnt this term can unlock a Siggraph paper.

MYA102 - An Introduction to Maya 2011

Taught by Matt Leonard, Maya course is aimed at those who have little or no experience in 3D, or post-grads who know another system, such 3DS Max or Softimage but want to expand their software skills. The course is designed to cover all the main areas of Maya's vast toolset including Modeling, Animation, Rigging, Muscles, nParticles, Dynamics, nCloth, Hair, Fur, Fluids, Shaders, UV’s, Lighting, Cameras and Rendering.

This course is entirely project focused and throughout the term we’ll be working on a single shot featuring two animated characters chasing each other around in humorous way. The shot will be created with a final Stereoscopic output in mind and will utilize all areas of Maya mentioned above. An extra bonus class has also been added on to complete the project in Nuke. All models, animations, etc will be made available to complete each class so if you fall behind you’ll still be able to jump in at any class and follow along.

Leonard has been in the 3D and visual effects industry for 19 years and has produced work for feature films, commercials and large corporate projects. He has spoken at various events and shows on behalf of Autodesk, The Foundry and eyeon Software. He has had articles published in magazines and journals and has beta tested Maya, Nuke, Fusion Particular and Mocha. He currently runs his own on-site training company in the UK and has trained artists from companies such as Framestore, MPC, Digital Domain and Mr. X.

Professor: Matt Leonard (mattdleonard)

Class 1: If this first class we will begin by looking at Polygon and Sub-Division modeling techniques. We will also talk about the new 2011 UI and various hotkeys. We'll finish up the lesson by looking at creating various models using Curves and Surfaces.

Class 2: Our second class is dealing mainly with animation. We cover animating objects down a Path, via Keyframes and the use of Deformers. We also look at the Connection Editor, Set Driven Key, and various editors including the Graph Sheet, the Dope Sheet and Trax, Maya's non-linear editing system. I have also included an extra video covering some modeling techniques used to build the rest of the models we are using this week for animation.

Class 3: Characters, Rigging and Muscles: Our third week moves into more character-based work, we’ll look at building Skeletons and Rigging them for both FK (Forward Kinematics) and IK (Inverse Kinematics). From here we’ll Bind the Skeletons with the geometry from class 1 and set Constraints. Finally we’ll look at Skin Deformation and the use of Maya’s Muscle Collation system .

Class 4: In our 4th class we move away from model animation and into particle animation. Adding Maya's nParticle systems to our scene we'll be learning how to create various types of Emitters and then control our Particles. Alongside this we'll explore Nucleus, the heart of Maya's nDynamics system, and look at adding Fields and a very brief look at Goals that control and order the Particles.

Class 5: In class 5 we stay with Dynamics and look at the animation of Rigid and Soft Body objects. This is done through the use of natural forces such as Gravity, Wind, and Turbulence. We'll explore how objects can Collide with each other (and Particles) along with how to Constrain Dynamic objects together and keep Soft Bodies from totally ripping apart through the use of Goals weights.

Class 6: In class 6 we progress on from nParticles and Dynamics to look at nCloth, MayaĂ­s high-end cloth simulation system. We'll cover how to convert geometry into nCloth and how to edit its parameters, changing its Material type, Weight, Tearability and resistance to Dynamic forces, etc. We'll also cover nClothĂ­s ability to Collide with geometry and nParticles, along with nConstraints used to constrain cloth to other objects.

Class 7: In class 7 we look at both Fur and Hair. For Fur we cover Light Models, Scale and Density, Length, Baldness, Inclination, Polar and Roll, Width, Curl, Scraggle and Clump. Then in Hair we look at Paint Effects Style and Curves, Follicles, Start and End Positions, Constraints, Collisions, Texture, and more.

Class 8: In class 8 we dive into the world of Fluid Dynamics. We look at Oceans, Ponds, Wakes and 2D and 3D Fluid Dynamics. We cover the use of Locators for floating objects Boats and Motorboats, Foam creation, shaders and more.

Class 9: In class 9 we look at camera and lights. For camera we specifically look at Types, Environments, Depth of Field, Stereoscopic, Film Backs, and mental ray shaders. And for lights we look at Types, Colour/Intensity, Shadows, Decay Rates, Light Linking, and mental ray shaders.

Class 10: In class 10 we cover shaders and textures, along with rendering. Specifically we look at creating Shaders, Texturing, UV Mapping, mental ray shaders, setting up the Rendering, Render Layers, Render Passes and looking at openEXR files in Nuke.

NUK102 - Introduction to Nuke

Taught by Sean Devereaux, this new introductory course will expand upon the Foundry Nuke tutorials produced by fxphd. Nuke version 5 software will be available over the VPN to fxphd postgrads for non-commercial use (OSX, Linux, and Windows versions). Devereaux has worked at Digital Domain, ILM, RhinoFX and other facilities as a freelance artist, working on films such as Transformers, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, I, Robot, Star Trek: Nemesis, and others. If you've viewed the Foundry DVDs, this course will cover the software in much more detail and is a great next step in learning the software.

Professor: Sean Devereaux (filmsoup)

View a short sample clip from one of the NUK102 classes

Class 1: Everything you wanted to know about the nuke 5 interface but were not bored enough to ask! This class will give you all the in's and out's of nuke's workflow and layout.

Class 3: Pixel based image tracking including stabilization, match moving and motion blur.

Class 4: Awesome Keyers! The core keyer in nuke and the joy of rotoscoping!

Class 5: Super Awesome Keyers! Primatte, the IBK and the loneliness of keyng hair.

Class 6: Color Tools! An in-depth look at my favorites and an introduction to most of the others.

Class 7: Introduction to the magical world of 3D compositing! Requires nuke5.1v1 or later.

Class 8: An introduction to the 3D system in production. Importing camera and object data from various sources and an introduction to projections.

Class 9: Scene study: Using the 3D system to cleanup a shot and create monitor replacements at record speed.

Class 10: Wire/Rig removal. Nuke specific, but utilizing principles that can be used in any compositing software. Also, a brief introduction to gizmos.

NUK203 - Nuke and Stereoscopic

Nuke 203, taught by Daniel Smith, is an intermediate level class that is built upon the foundation of how to use Nuke and understanding its basic concept and work flows. This course will tap into Nuke's Multi-View workflow and leverage stereoscopic work as a way to explore a complex shot from beginning to end.

We will be using nukes 3D tools to take 2D live action and dimensionalize it into stereo, drill though the uses and techniques for the Foundry's Ocula plugin suite, and create custom gizmos to control depth.  The work you will learn is applicable to both 2D and 3D productions and we will explore ways to use stereo work flows to enhance all aspects of your compositing tool set.

This course is a perfect complement to our STR101 Introduction to Stereoscopic course being offered in the October term. Even if you're not currently working on a stereoscopic show, chances are as an artist that you'll be asked for your expertise regarding this hot field in post production. Armed with your knowledge from this course, you'll be able to offer solid advice and information to your clients.

Daniel Smith has worked as an animator, compositor, and VFX supervisor for over 18 years. Daniel's career took him to pioneering previz on Judge Dredd, animating the famous M&M characters, compositing on films such as Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban  and Spy Kids 3D. He has also been involved with stereoscopic filmmaking for over a decade. Daniel has designed all aspects of the stereoscopic experience for many special venue films and worked on several ground breaking projects.  Daniel supervised "Corkscrew Hill", the first ever large format digital projection ride film for Busch Gardens. Daniel was the stereoscopic supervisor at CafeFX for "Spy Kids 3D."

Professor: Daniel Smith (daniel3D)

Class 1: Intro to stereoscopic workflow in Nuke. Review of anaglyph, polarized, and shutter glasses. Multiview workflow, going through the view menus, building a custom anaglyph node, and putting together your first stereo composite.

Class 2: In class 2 we look at the use of multiview with 9 cameras. We explore stereoscopic playback options with Framecycler Pro and Stereoscopic Player. Lastly we repair a locked off plate and prep it for VFX work in stereo.

Class 3: Creating stereo gizmos to help with work flow and an examination of the levels of depth, with and addendum update concerning DepthGrade version 3.0.

Class 4: In class 04 we look at the Foundry's Ocula. We examine different reasons for Ocula from camera rigs and the use of converging stereoscopic techniques. We then use Ocula's tool set to fix a live action shot and get it ready for final post.

Class 5: Rules of good stereo and how you can use Nuke to break them. Creating a floating window will bring your effects into the audience.

Class 6: In class 06 we start working on our multi class big money shot. In this class we look at the animatic and the live action shooting of the plate. Then we get the plate ready for tracking.

Class 7: In class 07 we expand on the shot and composite our CG car and address multiview composites with some simple roto. We learn how to break the 3D frame with great stereoscopic effects

Class 8: In class 08 we add the spaceship and pylons. We also take a look at how to fix some breaking frame issues that arise from the composite.

Class 9: In class 09 we add fire, smoke, and interactive lighting to the comp. We also add more debris and fix some stereo issues with the renders.

Class 10: In class 10 we plus the shot to the next level. We add glows to the brake lights, animate the ship's thrusters, and add some 2d green screen in 3D.

NUK204 - Intermediate Nuke

Our new second-level intermediate Nuke X course picks up where the 100 level offering leaves off. Using Nuke X version 6, professor Sean Deveraux will work through concepts in the app as well as lead several project-based classes. The 3D compositing environment of Nuke is one of its strengths, so several classes will dive fully into this feature with practical, real-world examples. Deveraux will also be covering the nuts and bolts of setting up Nuke for automation as well as taking a first look at Gizmos, Nuke's "macro" functionality. The focus is on the type of work that any compositor might run into while working at a facility.

Deveraux is our lead Nuke professor at fxphd. He has been using Nuke since 2000, working as a compositor at Digital Domain on Hollywood blockbusters such as How the Grinch Stole Christmas, I, Robot, and Star Trek: Nemesis. Using a variety of compositing packages, his freelance work has taken him to ILM (Transformers), Hydraulx (Rise of the Silver Surfer), and others. He is currently working at Brickyard VFX in Boston.

This course serves as a replacement for NUK202, updated for Nuke version 6/X which will be available on the VPN once the release ships.

Professor: Sean Devereaux (filmsoup)

Class 1: An in-depth look at Nuke 6's RotoPaint tool, covering everything from soup to nuts.

Class 2: Inside NukeX's Camera Tracker and Lens Distortion tools and how to use the data they collect in production.

Class 3: Fun with Gizmo's! We'll create and customize a "film look" gizmo, learn a little python and even customize nuke's menus and toolbars!

Class 4: A two part class on keying in nuke with a difficult shot. This class is focuses on keylight and the mind set when approaching a difficult key. Part two will final the composite and go through assembling a key from multiple keyers.

Class 5: Part two of our multi layered keying class. This class goes beyond theory and into practical production problem solving to final an above average difficulty shot.

Class 6: Multi-pass compositing! The joys of controlling just about everything in the comp and how to maintain all those extra channels and layers properly and efficiently.

Class 7: Multi-Multi-pass compositing! Way beyond just diffuse, reflection and specular passes. Full relighting and retexturing in nuke using normals and uv passes.

Class 8: Super Pan N Tile Setup: Feature film level quality tiles supplied and ready for your imagination. This is a massive 18 tile, 300 degree, multi tiered system that will wow your friends and influence your employers.

Class 9: Matte Painting 3D Extraction: How to bring life into you static, placid and all around flat image.

Class 10: Final touches, grain matching and tips tricks featuring The Foundry's Furnace Core!

NUK210 - Nuke in Production I

Tahl Niran, one of our inaugural and most popular professors at fxphd, returns with a production-centric Nuke course. Beginning with material based around the research and development of the Nuke Masterclass in London, this course will be exploring Nuke's toolset as more than just a standard 2d/3d compositing solution. Niran will be demonstrating a variety of production techniques along with help from Matt Leonard(SphereFX), Frank Reuter (Digital Domain and OHU FX) and Ben Minall (the Foundry) This course will take you into some of the advanced concepts of Nuke and its 3d system.

This class will focus on three main projects which will be explored in depth over a number of lessons, each one developing into a more complex shot. Topics covered include.

Advanced concepts in 3d projections:

• using the Scanline renderer to create plate and set extensions.
• integrating Multipass composites with 3d sets in Nuke.
• complex object and wore removal using 3d systems and projections
• integrating paint and 3d animation to generate set extensions

Creating live action Composites with Nuke:

• using panoramic projections to create back-plates for composited elements.
• optimising live plates and 3d for better integration.
• colour matching and grain techniques.

Understanding complex concepts in film compositing.

• colour space management of multiple elements.
• optimising your file and proxy setup for working with large files

and a whole lot more.

Professor: tahl niran (aneks)

Class 1: First steps into using Nuke's UV render mode to create "splat maps" to project 2D images onto geometry. Using .fbx exports from Maya to sync up the camera move in Nuke for the integration of pre-rendered elements. Dissection and extension of the original image to provide the full texture map for the scene.

Class 2: Thorough breakdown of creation of all the elements needed for the shot overviewed in class 1. Camera Projection and Scanline Render set up for each texture. Tips for texture editing for extending the initial image into a complete texture map.

Class 3: Personalization of Nuke by creating custom user menus and tweaking the interface by using Python within the Nuke system files. Also, how to create, export and then load in your own gizmos as menu items.

Class 4: General Nuke work flow overview in use with a background replacement. Discussing bi-cubics on cards for added depth of elements in the scene and correcting lens distortion. Creating the shot's elements with keying and roto, including using non-keyer nodes to produce different mattes.

Class 5: Continuing the comp from class 4. Reorganizing the background elements for aesthetic purposes. Further detail into the use of bi-cubics and the DisplaceGeo node for correction and enhancement. Final tweaks to polish up the composite.

Class 6: Dealing with lesser talked about issues, such as color space in compositing applications. How color is interpreted depending on the way the footage is presented (linear, logarithmic , floating point.) Creating your own default Nuke start up template.

Class 7: Working with 3D cameras and how to get the most out of importing 3d tracking data. Creating a TCL button within the menu to import Boujou tracks. Buffer trick to overlay your background onto your 3D point cloud. Using the Reconcile3D node to eliminate the need for tracking nodes.

Class 8: Using separate 3D passes embedded into an .exr, like z-depth and motion vector, for use in compositing. Applying depth of field and motion blur in Nuke. Explanation of render layers in Maya.

Class 9: The Robot Pt1 Using the Wndy House footage and the 3d Robot Character v02 together to show how create a complex live action and CGI integrated scene, as well as some tips on grading overexposed film plates and transferring .fbx data from Maya to Nuke.

Class 10: The Robot Pt2 A continuation and completion of the scene focusing on the use of multipass and 3D motion blur. Finally a quick discussion on a depth of field plug-in for Nuke.

NUK211 - 3D Relighting Techniques in Nuke

This course serves as an introduction to various relighting techniques both within Nuke and using Nuke and RenderMan together.  As the recently acquired Katana technology is folded into Nuke, integration with RenderMan will become more of a hot topic.  This course will serve to inform you of the current state of the art, along with its limitations, and as a primer for what is to come. 

Taught by Michael Garrett, the course focus will be on 2D relighting techniques that are leveraged by the capabilities of Nuke's 3D space.  We will use simple scenes to illustrate the key concepts and develop the complexity as we progress.  We will cover direct and indirect (image based) relighting methods for basic diffuse and specular material types, and how to integrate lighting information between prerendered 3D and Nuke's own 3D environment.  You will be shown some of the essential mathematics common in computer graphics that you will need to accomplish this.  We will be doing some simple shader writing both directly with a text editor and with Slim, Pixar's ui-based shader authoring tool. 

In addition to Nuke, we will be using Maya, RenderMan Studio and PRMan.  As well as being comfortable with Nuke, this course assumes some basic familiarity with Maya,  but no prior knowledge of RenderMan.  It is highly recommended that you also take the excellent RND101 Introduction to RenderMan course as an adjunct to what is covered here. 

Garrett has been learning and using Nuke since v4.5 just prior to the product changing hands from Digital Domain to The Foundry.  He has a design and compositing background, having worked at studios such as Nexus and Passion Pictures in London, Animal Logic and Rising Sun Pictures in Sydney, and more recently at Animal Logic and Motion Theory in Los Angeles.  His interest in RenderMan stems from seeing the way that Nuke and RenderMan have been used so effectively together for innovative technical solutions that blur the line between 2D and 3D. He has endeavored to understand RenderMan from a compositor's perspective.

Both Nuke and RenderMan are available for members on the fxphd VPN. Nuke version 6/X will be available on the VPN once the release ships.

Professor: Michael Garrett (mgarrett)

Class 1: Introduction Part 1 - First we will cover learning material recommendations. We will then illustrate the relighting concept with a basic example in Nuke that uses the built-in shader outputs of the scanline renderer and the somewhat neglected ReLight node. This will be a precursor to using the same kind of shader outputs rendered from PRMan in order to drive relighting in Nuke.

Class 2: Introduction Part 2 - We will begin to look at how to get the render data we need from PRMan to relight in Nuke by writing simple shaders and an accompanying RIB scene description file. Using more complex object and camera placement, we will update our shaders to reflect the need to more robustly define our point and normal data. We will also show how to render our data as arbitrary output variables (AOV's) from a single shader, and how to render to a multichannel OpenEXR file.

Class 3: Using RenderMan Studio(RMS) and Nuke - Using a more complex scene and a moving camera.  We will migrate the hand written shaders over to Slim equivalents and add shader code to render motion vectors to feed the VectorBlur node in Nuke. We will see how to render our custom AOV's from RMS/Maya, and how to enable subpixel output at render time to improve the final result in Nuke.

Class 4: Beyond the ReLight node/Direct Relighting 1 - We'll now start to look at the maths of relighting under the hood so that we can create our own tools in Nuke that utilize the AOV data. We'll build a vector rotation gizmo that will allow Euler rotations and a defined rotation order. We look at how we can use a dot product and Euler rotations with normals to create simple diffuse relighting. We'll use this knowledge to build the guts of a direct relight gizmo that works in Nuke's 3D space.

Class 5: Direct Relighting Part 2 - We build a point relighting tool in Nuke that works in 3D space, and touch briefly on what goes into making a spotlight. We will also cover a basic example of how we can place a shadow camera in the same position as a spotlight in Nuke and send the placement info back to Maya to render a shadow pass through RMS.

Class 6: Direct Relighting Part 3 - We will build a point relighting tool in Nuke that works in 3D space and use that as the starting point for making a spot relighting tool. We will also cover a basic example of how we can export spotlight placement from Nuke back to Maya to render a shadow pass through RMS.

Class 7: Image-Based Relighting Part 1 - How to render ambient occlusion, bent normals and reflection occlusion passes to be used in Nuke for diffuse and specular image-based relighting.  We'll also see how bent normals can be used in place of "true normals" for direct relighting applications.

Class 8: Image-Based Relighting Part 2 - Continuing from the last class, we create both diffuse and specular image-based relighting methods, using HDRI environment maps.  We'll combine the result with the ambient and reflection occlusion passes we previously rendered, and create a simple fresnel effect in Nuke to further attenuate our environment reflections.  We'll composite all our rendered and derived AOV's into a final image.

Class 9: Advanced Environment Map Applications in Nuke Part 1 - In this class we first project a full environment map onto 3D geometry in Nuke. We will then render a sequence for a new spatially-aware environment map that is animated based on the position of an object moving through that 3D scene. We can then use this animated environment map with the Nuke Environment Light as well as our specular image-based relighting tools to light the object in a more convincing way.

Class 10: Advanced Environment Map Applications in Nuke Part 2 - Following on from the last class, we will replace the sphere reference object with an animated character moving through the Nuke 3D scene to produce a final relit shot.

NUK302 - Advanced Nuke II

Our latest advanced Nuke course is broken up into multiple sections over the course of the term. Professor Sean Devereaux will work through several projects in the app as well as focus on diving into detail on some of the tools. The first two classes will focus on a current hot area in features: stereoscopic.

With all the stereoscopic films slated for release there is no doubt that more and more of us will be tasked to create them. You may be surprised to learn that due to technical considerations, some of these films are shot single camera -- focusing the stereoscopic effect to be created in post. We will use this technique on a project which will leave you with a strong foundation in stereoscopic post no mater how it was shot. 3D glasses are required for this section of the course.

Devereaux will share tips for some of his favorite Furnace tools -- with Nuke X around the corner, it will be more and more likely that these tools will be available to many more artists. The term at fxphd will also include VPN licensing of Furnace for Nuke so that members can get their feet wet with these powerful image processing tools.

Mid term classes will focus on one of the rapidly growing aspects of the compositor industry with beauty touch up work on talent and the new features and changes brought with the update to Nuke 5.2v1. The final three classes will take a look at getting the most out of the power tools in Nuke, including a guest lecture by one of our most popular professors Tahl Niran. This includes a hardcore look at keying and some of the infrequently yet incredibly powerful nodes in Nuke.

Devereaux is our lead Nuke professor at fxphd. He has been using Nuke since 2000, working as a compositor at Digital Domain on Hollywood blockbusters such as How the Grinch Stole Christmas, I, Robot, and Star Trek: Nemesis. Using a variety of compositing packages, his freelance work has taken him to ILM (Transformers), Hydraulx (Rise of the Silver Surfer), and others.

Professor: Sean Devereaux (filmsoup)

Class 1: Single Camera Stereoscopic Compositing - 3D: In this class we will use single camera footage to create a stereoscopic comp while defining and maintaining all the depth of the scene. Most of this work will be completed using nuke's 3D system.

Class 2: Completion of our steresoscopic single camera shot and another reason to love nuke!

Class 3: TOOLBOX: Nuke's hidden power tools & Furnace plugins: There are several tools in nuke, that although powerful, we rarely cover so this class is dedicated to the nodes and tools that come up less often but are none the less key to successful nuking. Also a detailed overview of the furnace tools that save my shots most often and how to make sure you're setting them up in the most efficient way.

Class 4: The joy of BEAUTY work part 1: As one of the fastest growing segments of our business it is important for every compositor to have some understanding of the process involved in beautification. This is a 2 part class involving one shot and includes intermediate to advanced techniques for making beautiful people even more beautiful. It's photo re-touching at 24 frames per second.

Class 5: The joy of BEAUTY work part 2: Continuing with the work from class 4 with final tweaks and setting up for overall color correction.

Class 6: A brief overview of the changes in nuke 5.2v1 from 5.1v6 and a startup class for our next big project which includes an opportunity for reel building and loads of learning.

Class 7: A bit of everything as we continue to work on a complex shot. 3D lighting, uv mapping and a truly difficult sky replacement.

Class 8: A look at common problems with keying that seem to be getting more common everyday and how to best solve them in nuke.

Class 9: Discussion of working in a linear workflow and tools and techniques dealing with color management in linear space.

Class 10: 2.5D ReLighting of 3D computer generated elements in nuke. Get more control over your cg renders then you ever imagined and with extremely low cpu overhead. Plus, a bonus course by Tahl which contains a big sandbox of footage, assets and tips for building an exciting and challenging shot. With tips on tracking, using 3d cameras and much more.

NUK303 - Nuke Stereoscopic Master Class 

Professor Russell Dodgson will be throwing you in the deep end with a 10 week look at a full stereo production exercise. Based around the presentations from the Foundry’s recent Masterclass, Dodgson will be examining the project in intricate depth taking students from a raw plate through a variety of stereo production techniques including Ocula, Camera Projection, UV Mapping, Keying, 3d Texture Painting for compositors, Camera Tracking, Depth Grading and of course… clean up.

If you attended or watched the class in London, why should you join this course? While the masterclass was a great overview of the techniques used, this course will go into much greater detail and show much more specifically how the shot was finished. As with most fxphd courses, you'll also get access to the footage so that you can finish the shot yourself. By approaching the shot from a variety of angles the course will take you in detail through a wide range of nukes capabilities and how these techniques can all be used to assist you in creating a successful stereo result, all on a shot pushing 1000 frames!

Dodgson in currently Senior Nuke Compositor at Framestore Commercials in London and is heavily involved in developing their commercials stereo pipeline. He was an early convert to Nuke and has been working closely with the Foundry for several years as a beta tester, helping influence the development of some of their more recent additions to Nuke. This year he was heavily involved in the Foundry’s stereo Masterclass in London, both directing the shoot and teaching at the event. His recent work has included Harry Potter, the latest Kia campaign and the cinematic for Activision’s DJ Hero. A firm believer in the importance of having a thorough understanding of the production process Russell is co-founder of the creative partnership One Red Pixel, and has extensive experience in shoot production and supervision. He is also a budding director.

Professor: Russell Dodgson (dodger)

Class 1: An introduction to the shot that we will be working on throughout the course. We’ll look at the shoot material and assess the plates for in-camera issues. We’ll then go through the workflow for the shot and what needs to be done to the plate before handing it off to other departments. This will include lens distortion and several methods of approaching a global colour match. Note: heroplate is split into 8 downloads. The first 4 are distributed here, the next 4 will be distributed next week.

Class 2: Moving onto using 3d Camera Projection and UV Projection to remove lens flares and grip equipment. Through these techniques we learn how fixing one eye with projection we get the fix for the other eye for free.

Class 3: A more in-depth examination of the plate fixing process. We’ll be removing lens flares and grip equipment, and fixing polarization issues.

Class 4: Ready. Set. Pain! We’ll be looking at paint, roto and keying in stereo. [Pre- and post-class meditation is strongly advised.]

Class 5: Set Extensions. First we’ll break down what we are going to add into the shot and establish which techniques will work for each element. We will also discuss the issue of camera tracking stereo plates. Finally, we’ll look at the 3D set build and how we transfer our scene from Maya to Nuke.

Class 6: D texture painting. We will be looking at 3D texture painting from a compositor’s perspective with a discussion about how diving into these tools can really improve your workflow and allow you to achieve much more in comp. We will then look at applying these UV’d textures to our geo in Nuke and integrating them.

Class 7: Camera Projection. We’ll be employing camera projection techniques to make buildings, motorways and distant matte paintings. You’ll then learn how to make your own embedded channels for grading and integration purposes.

Class 8: This week we will be taking pre-rendered CG elements into our scene and integrating them into our live action plates. We’ll also reveal some handy tips and tricks to optimise your workflow.

Class 9: Finishing our shot with Ocula. We’ll use Ocula to vertically align our final plates, and learn how to manipulate the stereo effect in our scene through depth grading.

Class 10: Camera Tracking. Starting with a look at how stereo camera rigs work, we’ll then track our own stereo footage in Nuke, and learn how to resolve common problems as they arise.

PFT302 - Advanced PFTrack II

Victor Wolansky's tracking courses have been perennial favorites at fxphd. In his new advanced course, he’ll be covering many high level issues which come up during production. For instance, he’ll take a look at dealing with lens distortion - a big problem which is sometimes overlooked. Bad tracks can often be attributed to a bad lens distortion correction and he’ll show you how to avoid these pitfalls.

The course will also include different approaches on how to set the workflow to work with lens distortion and CG, fixing the BG and tracking, fixing the FOV after tracking, and more. Rolling shutter is a big problem of many of the popular new digital cameras, and Wolansky will work through how to deal with the issue. The course will also work with stereo footage and look at the advantage of the extra parallax provided by this footage. He’ll also include some face tracking, object placing, and much more over the course of the term.

Victor’s classes have always been well received at fxphd and this one should be no exception.

Professor: Victor Wolansky (victorw)

Class 1: In this first class we take a look at lens distortion and how to deal with it, FOV calculation to increase resolution, and a quick introduction to rolling shutter distortion.

Class 2: In this first class we track a shot with two groups of motion, use camera and lens information, and correct distortion for a proper tracking.

Class 3: Continuation of class02 and some tips for 3D animation and modeling based in tracking points.

Class 4: In this class the we cover the rolling shutter distortion and take a look at the new plugin from The Foundry to fix this problem.

Class 5: 3D stabilization

Class 6: Continuation of class 05, techniques for 3D stabilization using MAX and Flame, and adding motion to a static camera.

Class 8: Tracking hell part 1 – 1300 frames of 1080P

Class 9: A continuation of class 08

Class 10: Tracking stereo footage

PHD117 - this week @ fxphd July10 Term 

Professor: John Montgomery Böhm (johnmont)

Class 2: No update this week

PRM201 - Intermediate Premiere Pro CS5 

This course will focus on the features of Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 that are moving the software onto the radar of editors in every tier of the industry. This offering is certainly for anyone interested in the new release, but will be especially useful for those editors using Final Cut Pro and interested in testing the waters with Premiere Pro. The course will start with an overview of the basic interface and the philosophy behind it. Native format support and workflow will be covered, including particular focus on RED R3D workflow and native support for DSLR footage.

'Dynamic Link' between Adobe's other applications, including those supplied with Premiere Pro (On Location and Encore), is also a key feature of the produce. Interaction with Photoshop, After Effects, and Soundbooth will be demonstrated (these applications are included in the Production Premium or Master Collection bundles) and, of course, we'll cover the Mercury playback engine throughout the course. Completing this course will allow you to use your knowledge of Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 to plan a successful, efficient project workflow and to easily move into editing a project with the software. You will also gain fluency in the concepts and mechanics of the Adobe Suite of applications as they relate to Premiere Pro CS5.

Tim Kolb has spent the last 20 years avoiding productive work by hiding out in the video production industry. He has been a tester, advisor, consultant, or otherwise sticking his nose into the development of software and hardware products from Adobe, CineForm, Convergent Design, Digieffects, PNY, Silicon Imaging, and Sony among others. He has edited on several platforms, but has used Premiere/Premiere Pro as his primary tool for about a decade, and he holds out hope that the day when he is considered a 'visionary' for his persistence is still approaching…

Kolb is a Director on Commercial and Corporate projects with a particular emphasis recently on performance automotive projects, he is a DP on documentary projects, and of course he edits and does post production work as well including some compositing and location VFX supervision including an occasional call to be the green screen 'enforcer' on shoots from time to time. He has a collection of Tellys, a Chicago Film Festival Hugo, and a Regional Emmy as well as three nominations. He is also an instructor for Adobe software at Class On Demand.

Professor: Tim Kolb (Tim Kolb)

Class 1: Intro to PPro - While Premiere Pro has an interface that does seem very similar to many other NLE products, many new users find that the sheer number of panels is a little confusing at first. Like most software programs of this complexity, there are areas of the interface that you’ll use every day, or even every hour…and those that you’ll pull out once every three months. Understanding the operating metaphor and philosophy behind Premiere Pro will help you set up the interface so it best serves your methods and system. This first class will give you the foundation for understanding Premiere Pro’s interface and file structure.

Class 2: Getting your hands dirty: Native Edit: DSLR - This class will both focus on DSLR native workflow, and will put the editing workflow laid out in week one into practice. We’ll be working with the DSLR media photographed as part of our DSLR course here at fxphd.

Class 3: Layers and Vectors: Smart Graphics in Premiere Pro - Adobe Premiere Pro has been the most capable NLE for handling graphics from Illustrator and Photoshop for some time. Handling Photoshop layers in groups or individually and using the vector structure in Illustrator files to scale and manipulate vector logos and graphics cleanly through continuous re-rasterization are two of the areas we’ll focus on. Before the end of class, we’ll touch on what may be one of the best “original equipment” title tools in any NLE.

Class 4: Metadata, Transcripts, and Media Analysis - Adobe Premiere Pro is on the second generation of its voice-recognition technology, and the creation of usable transcripts from audible human speech seems to be a real possibility. We’ll look at that, PPro’s media analysis for face recognition, and Adobe’s nearly product line-wide muscle for handling metadata.

Class 5: Getting your hands dirty: Edit: RED R3D - Apparently there’s this camera…maybe you’ve heard of it? What you may not have heard is how the workflow in Adobe Premiere Pro keeps the footage in RAW by actually handling the R3D files and allows you to actually access the decode/demosaic parameters on footage in your edit project and make changes to the demosaic settings, primary color correction, exposure…even the camera ISO. This workflow is why you chose to shoot RAW in the first place…

Class 6: Scopes, External Monitoring, and Color Correction - Waveform and vectorscopes are joined by RGB and Y’CrCb parade displays in the interface and several manufacturers make products that will take the output of your timeline out of the computer to external monitoring. Color correction in Premiere Pro is one area where many users would love to see some faster evolution taking place, but the basic tools are there if you know where to find them.

Class 7: Premiere Pro CS5 Effects workflow - Video effects in Premiere Pro are GPU accelerated, 32 bit float, and come in RGB and Y’CbCr color structures…but most effects have a subset of these attributes. Sorting them out and using them effectively is key to preserving the visual quality of your project and the weekends of the editor.

Class 8: Hearing is Believing: Audio in Premiere Pro CS5 - When you think about video editing applications and how they each handle audio…which ones do you think do a really competent and nuanced job of it? Premiere Pro may not be the first application that pops into your head…but then we haven’t had this class yet… Track-based AND clip-based audio effects and mixing concepts will be covered so that you can adopt a workflow for yourself, using the tools that you’re most comfortable with.

Class 9: Unraveling the Dynamic Link - Once you move into Adobe’s “CS5 Production Premium”, you may end up reconsidering whether or not “codependence” is a bad thing. Premiere Pro’s working relationship with its collegial applications is tight and frankly, Adobe’s Dynamic Link technology can create some fascinating post production workflow efficiencies.

Class 10: 3D Workflow with CineForm, AJA - CineForm has what may be the best stereoscopic media structure available right now. With an AJA card, or cards, and the ability to send the two eyes of your editing project to a variety of stereoscopic displays and projectors, AND change the “3D” parameters while you continue to edit, this workflow is definitely worth watching. We’ll cover Premiere Pro CS5, CineForm NEO 3D (available on a 15 day free trial), and CineForm First Light (included in the NEO 3D package.)

PYT101 - Python Scripting for Compositors

In the last few years Python has grown from being a rather obscure scripting language developed by a man with an intense love of Eric Idle to being the de facto standard for scripting applications in the post production domain. This new introductory class will focus on the fundamentals of python scripting, building up to quick, tactical tools that can be used by vfx artists in facilities large and small to make their lives easier and their financial masters happier.

As The Foundry's Nuke has been converted to a Python underpinning since the release of version 5.0 a great deal of interest has developed in existing and developing nuke artists for some understanding of the TD magic going on under the hood. Nuke is now an incredibly scriptable program with a very powerful set of core tools that can, in the hands of a compositor with a good basis in Python, dramatically improve the efficiency of many of the more redundant compositing tasks, and can even make the bit that remains a lot more fun in the process.

This course will spend a fair bit of time getting compositors with little or no programming / scripting knowledge up to speed; Python is very accessible to non-programmers and as you will learn a little Pythonic knowledge can go a very long way towards making your compositing life a lot easier. This course syllabus will likely change as we delve in and see how everyone does getting their feet wet. The last two classes, especially, will evolve in response to the type of examples that you, the student body, would like to see and explore.

Suggested Text: Learning Python, 3rd Edition by Mark Lutz ISBN 0596513984

Professor: Michael Morehouse (michaelmovies)

Class 1: The most basic Python program possible, followed by an introduction to all of the basic variable types, including Integers, Floats, and Strings.

Class 2: In this class we expand on the basic numeric and string variable types presented in Class01, and continue on to the sequential variable types, lists and tuples. There is also some discussion of syntax and naming conventions.

Class 3: We finish introducing the basic python variable types with a discussion of Dictionaries. We then move on to program logic flow tools such as if / elif / else conditionals and for loops, while loops, and list comprehensions.

Class 4: Modules, use and abuse. Function definitions, namespaces, and variables both global and local / private. The Try statement and exception handling in general.

Class 5: Jumping into Nuke: basic customization through the Init.py and Menu.py files. Folder structures and the basics of package importing. Good installation practices, followed by How to Break Nuke in One Easy Step ... and figure out how to fix it again.

Class 6: Beyond customization. Simple one off scripts to make changes to many nodes very fast, quick ways of finding things you thought were lost, and the dumbest thing you'll ever see Python do to Nuke (AKA Havoc for Fun and Profit). Some time will be spent on parsing external files to bring arbitrary data into Nuke and use it for something.

Class 7: The Top 10 Things you should know how to script in Nuke. Including a basic Panel GUI.

Class 8: A very brief introduction to Object Oriented Programming; this is an advanced topic, but it can really come in helpful when you start looking at expanding on the toolset you've already built above. Simple Classes, an understanding of inheritance, and a foundation in the world of OOP.

Class 9: Depending on where we go in the forums, classes 9 and 10 will likely be dedicated to more advanced scripting examples that students request, as well as a good overview of docstrings and why they are your friend. More discussion of OOP is likely, as is a brief introduction to the Ethics of Scripting Well.

Class 10: Continuation of class 09

RED210 - Comprehensive Guide to RED Shooting & Post

We reset our clock and give an up to date comprehensive guide to shooting and posting the Red One, the new MX and the EPIC cameras. Everything you need to know to approach Red's innovate data centric tapeless workflow.

Professor: Mike Seymour (mikes)

Class 1: Red Sensors and ISO MX & M

Class 2: Latitude and dynamic range, and the differences between epic, red mx and red one

Class 3: On camera menus and recording formats

Class 4: Lenses, filters and mounts for your red camera

Class 5: The increasingly important role of the DIT is explored in an interview with Deane Thrussell discussing one-set procedure and good practice.

Class 6: Typical Avid and FCP post workflows, from rushes to offline/online and through to final grade.

Class 7: Red Rocket apps and Flame/Smoke 2011's new R3D feature.

Class 8: Adobe After Effects, Premiere Pro and FCP workflow

Class 9: Comparing the differences in de-bayering and post handling of r3d files between the major apps.

Class 10: Michael Cioni from LightIron Digital talks about Red grading and a quick look at grading Red footage using Scratch.

RFL202 - Real Flow 5 Project Workshop 

RealFlow has become a commonly-used fx tool for film and commercial production, dominantly for creating fluids like water, blood and molten chocolate, but increasingly for complex rigid and soft body dynamics. Out-of-the-box, it can create beautiful, organic animations driven by physics, and with some practice and knowledge, artists can achieve astounding, high-end, art-directed visuals at the cutting edge of visual effects.

The recently released version 5 has really pushed the package deep into the high-end, with dramatic simulation speed-ups, very noticeably improved stability, many new Python commands, lots of new functionality (e.g., object parameters like friction and stickiness can now be controlled with painted texture maps rather than a single value), vastly improved Realwave for open water surface simulations, a completely overhauled rigid and soft body solver that is now truly remarkable in and of itself, a whole new grid-based fluid solver for medium to large scale simulations, an improved meshing algorithm plus a whole new meshing algorithm, and if all that wasn't enough they've also added a C++ SDK so you can write your own, multithreaded and optimized plugins. Wow that was a really long sentence.

There's no way this package can be fully explored in 10 classes, so we're going to grab ahold of the core and most production-focused parts. We're going to learn not just how to use them, but how to use them appropriately -- covering the do's and don'ts, the common beginner errors, and the knowledge that you need. By the end, you won't be just hitting buttons in some prescribed order, but understanding why things are done, how to set up simulation scenes and what the parameters actually mean. We'll do this thru a set of 10 classes, most of which are mini-projects or the simulation component of projects. We won't cover the ultra-basics, instead assuming you are at least a little familiar with RealFlow but need to kick up your skills to a next, definitely higher level.

Co-founder & VFX supervisor at Fusion CI Studios, Mark Stasiuk is a world renowned RealFlow expert. With a PhD in fluid dynamics, Mark has a unique advantage in the world of cg fluid effects. This and his custom Python scripting work with RealFlow has elevated his studio’s work to among the best in the world, creating dynamic effects for films like The Surrogates, GI Joe, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and National Treasure: Book of Secrets and cutting-edge fluid effects for clients like Frey Chocolate, Sea World, Rosemount Wine, Propel, Smirnoff and Toyota. Fusion’s work can be seen at www.youtube.com/fusioncis; www.vimeo.com/fusioncis and www.fusioncis.com where the r&d section displays groundbreaking accomplishments using RealFlow.

Members of fxphd will be able to purchase the educational version of Real Flow 5 to use for non-commerical purposes and follow along with the course. Details will be available beginning the week of July 5th.

Professor: Mark Stasiuk (markstasiuk)

Class 1: Oveview. Like all mature CG packages, RealFlow is a maze of details, features and parameters. This class functions as a quick overview to highlight those aspects that are crucially important to most project work, to help you sort thru what's important, and what you can not worry about (for the most part). In the class we'll go over the elements of the UI that you need to know; menu items that are important but often overlooked by even experienced fx artists; the core functionalities so you know what's RealFlow can do; and the basic workflow that you'll use over and over again in your work.

Class 2: Particle Fluids, Part 1 - Art-directed pour into a glass - If you start using RF for production, you will be surprised how often you find yourself doing a pour of fluid into a glass. Weirdly, each time you do it, the project needs will be sufficiently different that you'll find it challenging, making it worth a class. Also, it makes a great intro to dealing with particle emitters, daemons, object interaction and the standard workflow. Here we'll pour fluid from a bottle into a glass according to specific shot needs, and make the fluid behave in a naturalistic, yet art-directed way. The art-direction is always the source of the challenge.

Class 3: Particle Fluids, Part 1 - Forming a word out of rain hitting a windshield - In this class we'll continue to explore particle-based fluids and their interaction with objects, this time creating a rain storm hitting a car, and using the fluid to form a logo on the windshield.

Class 4: Meshing and options for visualizing your sim results - After you've created your simulations, you have to render them. There's now quite a wide variety of ways to do that, but typically this involves generating meshes around your particles first. We'll cover the ways of meshing in RealFlow. Also, we'll discuss alternative methods of meshing and also particle rendering, to give you a broader feeling for how to turn your results into images.

Class 5: Getting to know grid fluids - Flood-forming a logo - RealFlow 5 includes a brand new fluid solver called a grid fluid, and in this class we'll start working with it. It's designed for doing larger-scale simulations, so we'll start by forming a logo with a giant flood.

Class 6: Grid fluids 2 - Beach scene - In this class, we'll extend our knowledge of the grid fluid solver by creating an oceanside simulation of waves washing up on a beach.

Class 7: Realwaves Intro - Making a basic ocean surface - Construct a choppy, open ocean surface using the new rwc workflow, including some floating debris, and make it tile to create a larger ocean patch.

Class 8: Rigid and soft bodies,and basic Python, Part 1 - Shooting a basketball - Set up a rigid body sim for a basketball shot. Make the basketball a soft body. Use a python script to set a target direction for the initial velocity.

Class 9: Rigid bodies and basic use of Python, Part 2 - Firehosing a moving target near a swimming pool - Set up a rigid body sim of a swimming pool scene and a moving target. Use the previous targeting script to shoot a fluid jet at a pinata swinging on the end of a chain over a pool. When hit, have it break apart. Have the rigid bodies and the fluid interact with the pool.

Class 10: Extending Python - Building a custom force field to make a lava lamp - Create a scripted force field that makes fluid oscillate up and down in a container, making a lava lamp.

RGT201 - Red Giant for FCP 

These days, the lines between disciplines are blurring, and art directors and producers are asking more and more from their editors. With the advance of computing power and software capability, the offline and online edits have merged to become the craft edit, where many shots are treated in situ on the timeline. But there's not always the time (or the budget!) to switch over to your favourite graphics or grading program to complete the job, and it's not always practical for the modern editor to become the master of multiple programs to be able to complete their work.

We're excited to partner with Red Giant Software and their Red Giant University program to bring you our first course focused exclusively on using their plugins. Taught by Apple Certified Master Trainer Simon Walker, this course is aimed at Final Cut Pro editors who need to improve and enhance footage, add flourishes, stylise shots, and perform post production and compositing tasks, all on a deadline covers the key plugins from Red Giant Software that will help you deliver technically proficient and high quality work. You'll precisely grade and colour-correct clips, keep flesh tones accurate, design custom and stylised looks, animate 3D swirls and shapes, add light rays, glows, highlights, perspective shadows and reflections, as well as compositing elements into existing scenes and quickly set the mood of your piece.

From a productivity point of view, all these effects will be achieved from within Final Cut Pro, which really speeds up your workflow and they are especially helpful when you're on a deadline. The presets in each plugin have been crafted by professionals who use these techniques on high-end production work, and we'll be covering how to further tweak these settings to create your own custom effects.

And as the weeks progress, Walker will also show you the key parameters in each plugin to adjust, to get the fastest results, whilst also showing you useful Final Cut Pro training tips and shortcuts along the way. While the class listings focus on specific plugins, don't be fooled by the simplicity. Walker will be layering multiple plugins and effects to bring your imagery to life.


Professor: Simon Walker (SimonWalker)

Class 1: Magic Bullet Looks (part 1). Overview of the plugin, applying and configuring looks. Looking at primary corrections, setting the mood of a shot, adjusting the presets, and strategies on applying filters to multiple clips on the FCP timeline.

Class 2: Magic Bullet Looks (part 2). Using the individual tools, choosing a tool for different shots, creating and saving your own custom looks from scratch, creating secondary corrections and keys in MB Looks, setting up a 10bit timeline in FCP to keep quality as high as possible for grading whilst also avoid banding, an overview of strategies to convert DSLR footage into ProRes using Magic Bullet Grinder, plus footage and project files to download for this week's challenge: creating a grade using Magic Bullet Looks.

Class 3: Trapcode Shine. Adding light rays to footage, enhancing and stylising shots. Shine lets you add light rays to footage, graphics and FCP text. We'll be covering how to enhance scenes naturally as well as creating hyper-real looks. We'll also look at how to nest clips to enable better use of Shine, as well as customising the colours of the light rays to match your content, and techniques to use the in-built masks to craft your desired effect.

Class 4: Magic Bullet Mojo. Using Mojo to target flesh tones while manipulating the colour in scenes, and how to separate your actors from the backgrounds whilst grading. Simulating a blockbuster or filmic look and easily adjusting the warmth, colour and saturation of the highlights separately from the shadows. We'll also be looking at when to use these different tools, and how they fit into your arsenal of grading software.

Class 5: Trapcode Shine. Adding light rays to footage, enhancing and stylising shots. Shine lets you add light rays to footage, graphics and FCP text. We'll be covering how to enhance scenes naturally as well as creating hyper-real looks. We'll also look at how to create seamless background loops with the animation controls within Shine, as well as customising the colours of the light rays to match your content, as well as techniques to use the in-built masks to craft your desired effect.

Class 6: Trapcode Starglow. Adding soft glows, glints and shimmering lights to footage. Starglow has the ability to adjust the glows with masks, light settings, and colour controls, and we'll be covering how to create more interesting looking shots as well as more riveting graphics sequences.

Class 7: Trapcode 3D Stroke. Usually, to create glowing swirling shapes and lines, you have to fire up a graphics package, but 3D Stroke lets you create, taper and animate these elements on a Final Cut timeline! There's a 3D camera and duplication settings, preset shapes, and the ability to import custom Illustrator files. This plugin is particularly useful for creating lower thirds and animated backgrounds. There are a host of settings to control, and we'll be covering which are the key ones to achieve the fastest results.

Class 8: Knoll Light Factory. For 100 years cinematographers did their best to try to eliminate lens flares! These days because of the amount of computer generated imagery we work with, lens flares and light artefacts can add more realism to your shots. They can also be used to add dynamism to text or logos and create more interesting transitions. Knoll Light Factory lets you design, adjust and animate multiple styles and types of flares. We'll be running through adding lens flares to outdoor and indoor scenes (natural and artificial light-sources), compositing light elements with video, and easily tracking and enhancing light-sources in FCP (without keyframes!)

Class 9: Warp. Editors are often called on to 'fix' shots and to add in screen elements. Warp lets you composite graphics onto computer and TV screens within your footage using corner-pinning to match the perspective. It also lets you add adding reflections and throw-shadows to graphics and text. These are things that you'd traditionally have to do in After Effects or Motion, but we'll be analysing when to use them, and how these techniques can be performed quickly without leaving FCP.

Class 10: Radium Glow. With a library of glow types and shapes, multiple sliders and controls, and three different filters within one plugin, Radium Glow lets you add sparkling glows and highlights to footage with the ability to manipulate each glow to create natural as well as stylised twinkles. There are settings that can speed up the rendering times and we'll show how to make sure that your super-bright glows stay broadcast legal. We'll also be covering how you can combine multiple Red Giant plugins on the same clip to create unique looks and effects.

RND101 - Introduction to RenderMan

Pixar's Renderman@ is a core rendering technology that has been powering production pipelines since 1985. Leading digital effects houses and computer graphics specialists use Pixar's RenderMan@ because it is the highest quality renderer available anywhere and has been production tested through successful use in feature films for over ten years. RenderMan’s powerful features such as programmable shading language and anti-aliased motion blur allow designers to believably integrate stunning synthetic effects with live-action footage. RenderMan is used for Pixar’s own feature film productions.

This fxphd course provides an introduction to the core concepts and fundamental features of Pixar's Renderman Pro Server software. It will cover the structures used in the RIB interface to describe scene data and introduce RSL, the Renderman Shading Language through the implementation of a set of simple custom shaders. The course also analyzes REYES, the core rendering algorithm, and the implications on shader design as well as rendering optimization strategies.

By the end of the course, students should have a firm understanding of how to render a scene with Renderman, take advantage of the rich feature set to precisely control render time and image quality. They will also learn how to write custom shaders in the RSL language such as the ones developed by professional shading technical directors in the demanding environment of motion picture production. Note : this course does not cover the RendermanStudio or Slim user interfaces.

Manuel Kraemer is currently a software engineering technical director in the Production Engineering group at Pixar Animation Studios. He received a M.Sc. in Computer Science at the University of Teesside (UK) in 1996. In London, he contributed to projects such as the BBC Science documentary “The Planets” and Universal's sci-fi thriller “Pitch Black”. In 2000 he relocated to the US at the Walt Disney Company, working on the stereoscopic ride "The Magic Lamp" and then moving on to the research project "Gemini Man", exploring photorealistic facial capture and rendering technologies. He started at Pixar Animation Studios in 2002, developing the skin rendering software for the Oscar winning "Incredibles" movie and contributing to the shading and rendering technologies of titles such as "Cars", "Ratatouille", "Wall-e" and "Up".

Professor: Manuel Kraemer (mkraemer)

Class 1: Introduction: Renderman@ is a specification, prman is the software : a brief history of this 20 years old software - quick tour of the prman software package and the various utilities - "hello sphere" : write a simple RIB to render a sphere - overview of the structure of a RIB - context stacks.

Class 2: RIB structure : creating a scene - basic transformations (and matrix concatenation) - positioning the camera - basic geometric primitives - parenting - options & attributes

Class 3: REYES: in-depth look at the REYES algorithm, does it really Render Everything You Ever Saw ? - core concepts : splitting, dicing, micropolygons and shaders - render options : taking control of your memory, speed and image quality

Class 4: Custom Shaders: introduction to the shading language grammar, syntax & data types, compilation - implementation of a simple plastic shader - implementation of a simple light shader - attaching the shaders to the geometry.

Class 5: ImageFeatures: motion blur, motion samples, multi-segment blur, limitations - depth of field - uniform / varying - flow control - fBm

Class 6: Passing Data: coordinate systems, space transformations

Class 7: Shading, texture maps: txmake and texture( ) - geometric primitives - texture coordinates

Class 8: Shading, Illumination: Illuminance, Illuminate : diffuse & specular reflections

Class 9: Bump & Displacement: bump mapping - displacement mapping - displacement bounds - practical application of sub-pixel displacement

Class 10: Shadows: shadow maps - bias - blur - samples - workflow in Maya / Slim

RTO210 - Secrets of Paint and Roto

"We'll fix it in post." No doubt you've heard the phrase before. And while it may get thrown around more than it should, the challenge of 'the fix' often falls to the paint and roto artist. From removing pesky crew members or production rigging in frame, to altering background environments or clothing on actors, we're going to focus on the approaches and techniques of this invisible art using standard tools like After Effects, Photoshop along with supporting apps like Mocha AE and software from The Pixel Farm.

Professor Wes Ball will be examining real-world production shots from recent TV shows as well as newly acquired RED footage. As we walk through the completion of full shots, you will gain a solid grasp on the fundamental concepts of paint and roto and hopefully learn a few hard-won tips and tricks along the way. Ball will be using After Effects as his finishing tool of choice, but the techniques he'll be showing are applicable across many different applications.

Ball's freelance operation, OddBall Digital, works in a variety of areas in film and TV, one facet being paint and roto for prime-time television.

Professor: Wes Ball (wesball)

Class 1: We'll get an overview of the kinds of paint shots that often come up in a production situation. Many of the shots we look at in this class we will come back to in detail later in the course. We'll start looking into approaches and how to think about removing unwanted elements in the frame.

Class 2: Stairs Another crew member gets in the way. We'll go about removing him by replacing the entire half of the frame. We'll look at creating the patch in photoshop as well as simple tracking in after effects with hand tweaks using null parents. Also, we'll look into a method I call 'reverse tracking'.

Class 3: Baloons This time we're going to look at using track mattes in After Effects to single out objects in the frame we can use to block or hide unwanted elements in the shot. We'll also get an intro in Mocha AE for tracking and using its data inside of After Effects.

Class 4: Helicopter Using RED footage shot by fxphd, we'll look at a simple method for removing rigging cables supporting a model helicopter until its explosive demise. Specifically we'll show how simple roto shapes, still frames, and color keys can get the job done.

Class 5: Mic Wire Sometimes you can get away with using blurs and different blending filters inside of after effects to remove unwanted elements. In this case, a mic wire is taped across a guy’s bare chest and we’ll wipe it away with a few filters. We'll also use this opportunity to go into a little detail on how I like to approach the specific task of roto.

Class 6: Go Kart Part 1 of 2 We'll start upping the ante with a fairly difficult shot of another crew member walking straight through the middle of the scene. We'll look into some serious tracking with a zoom and handheld camera using pfTrack.

Class 7: Go Kart Part 2 of 2 We'll finish out the shot by exporting the track into a 3D app to generate a full background using the patch we created in the previous class. We'll also look into the roto involved in completing the shot.

Class 8: Shoreline A & B We'll take a look at a collection of shots that are "the same but different". Each shot needs us to remove objects off in the distance, but we'll take different approaches with each one to illustrate some of the choices you can make when tackling shots.

Class 9: Shoreline C In this class, we'll take a fast-moving handheld shot out on the ocean and clean the distant shoreline of any distracting buildings, ships, or evidence of civilization. We’ll look at stitching several stills from different times in the frame into one giant patch. We'll track it into the shot, and then briefly look at the roto involved with finishing the shot.

Class 10: Grass canons In the last shot of the course, we'll remove an entire crew on a grassy hillside. We'll look into 3D tracking and ways to rebuild elements of the grassy hillside in 3D and merge them back into the shot.

SHK302 - Shake (and More) in Production

A classroom is fine but does it really prepare you for your regular daily tasks as a compositor? We're very excited to have Tahl Niran, one of our most popular professors at fxphd, return for an all new advanced Shake in production course. Niran's courses have always been well received by postgrads and this course is sure to be no different.

The aim of SHK302 is to show the practical day to day approach the compositors use in production. Using the two most common scenarios for producion visual effects. Television commercials and film visual effects. Using two examples, the iPhone/Lexus spot and the short film I love Sarah Jane which was shown at Sundance, this course will demonstrate how to use a variety of tools to get the job done.

In production, software and a tools take a back seat. Technique and understanding are key. To this end the course will cover the principles and practice of bringing a series of shots to completion using a combination of Shake, Nuke, Maya, Boujou, Mocha and a few little bits and pieces. This also includes how to approach a shot creatively and from a design perspective and more importantly how to be flexible and client-conscious when approaching tasks. We will look at how to break down larger visual effects shots into manageable tasks and use composting and other visual effects techniques to maximise the quality and impact of the photographed material. In addition, we will be tackle key workflow issues including: file management, delivery and interchange formats and perhaps the most commonly requested topic. Colourspace management for film compositing.

This course is an advanced 300 level course and as such aimed at people with a solid knowledge in at least one compositing application and a grounding in the practical application of digital image management in a visual effects environment. Previous experience in either Shake or Nuke is highly recommended as is a knowledge of Photoshop and experience with a major 3D application is also beneficial.


Professor: tahl niran (aneks)

Class 1: Intro to the course, customizing shake under the hood to setup workflows for use during the duration of the project

Class 2: Setting up a rough comp of a shot from the Lexus commercial to begin visualizing the final result, using Shake and Photoshop

Class 3: A quick look at same shot from class 02, this time in Nuke, pointing out some color space handling differences. Also, starting the 3D elements and track in Maya, and a tip for finding good 3D models online

Class 4: Back to Shake, moving on with the comp, integrating 3D elements

Class 5: working with multi-pass compositing of floating point, multi-channel, exr files in Shake and Nuke, and more 3D prep in Maya

Class 6: Finishing the comp from a general compositing POV, but with a special look at getting the most out of Shake

Class 7: Starting a shot from "I Love Sarah Jane", where a number of techniques are used to add atmosphere to a scene by making a regular house look severely damaged using Shake, Nuke, and Photoshop. Also, using Mocha for roto.

Class 8: Another shot from "I love Sarah Jane" integrating a number of elements including a matte painting, sky replacement, and fog to completely transform the atmosphere of a relatively simple plate using Shake

Class 9: Continuing on with the finer tuning of the shot from class 08 in Shake

Class 10: A look at the closing shot from the Lexus commercial with keying, camera tracking, monitor replacement, and background replacement

SMK103 - Introduction to Smoke on Mac

The release of Smoke on Mac has opened up the software to a much wider variety of users than any other Autodesk systems product. This course, taught by Brian Higgins, will provide an advanced introduction to Autodesk Smoke (both linux and Mac versions), building upon the free tutorials and demos that are available elsewhere on the web (http://area.autodesk.com/smoke-tutorials/about_smoke_essentials_tutorials). Focusing on real-world finishing, color correction and visual effects tasks, we’ll be working through several projects and tasks, taking footage and turning it into a finished piece, exploring the breadth of Smoke's toolset along the way.

Higgins is Senior VFX Artist at SOL design in Chicago. After a wildly unsuccessful attempt in college at studying music, he discovered that he could "use the computer to blow things up" and his fate was sealed. Brian started out in post production as a Maya and After Effects artist at Interface Media Group in 1999, transitioning to Flame and Smoke work in 2003. At SOL design, he's created VFX and finished national spots for accounts including Allstate, Budweiser, Disney, Chase, Dell, McDonald's, Nintendo, Kellogg's, Nike and MillerCoors. In 2008, he taught Smoke masterclasses for Autodesk at NAB and throughout Asia and Australia. Higgins will be joined by guest prof Brian Mulligan, whose broadcast experience will provide an additional perspective to the course.

Members will be able to license Smoke on Mac via the fxphd VPN, lifting the short 30-day demo version restriction so that they may dive more fully into the software. Most of the course will focus on features that are available on Smoke on Mac, but some Smoke Advanced features such as BatchFX will be touched on during the term.

Professor: Brian Higgins (higginba)

Class 1: A smoke tour. For artists sitting in front of Smoke for the first time, the process can be a bit intimidating. Higgins works through the UI and modules, sharing real world techniques of what is good to know.

Class 2: Finishing 101, Part 1. We set up the smoke working environment and conform an EDL to a work picture. How to import media and link to to the EDL, basic editing tools, comparing to the work picture.

Class 3: Finishing 101, Part 2. We continue the conform using soft effects, the tracker, and masking.

Class 4: File-based P2 workflow with Brian Mulligan.

Class 5: We get in-depth with Smoke's color-correction tools, the color corrector and color warper. We'll talk about how to fix common color problems, how to "speak" the art director's language, and some simple tricks for creating looks.

Class 6: Action basics - Animation, design and compositing using Smoke's Action 3d compositing environment. We'll create and animate graphic elements for use in our next class.

Class 7: Action II: The Sequel - Introduction to chromakeying with the master keyer and color correction.

Class 8: Tracking and finishing of the shot.

Class 9: The Modular Keyer and Text - Solving compositing problems with Smoke's node-based Modular Keyer, and creating type in the Text module.

Class 10: Paint and 3D text with sources (yes, even MORE Action!) Exploring Smoke's raster paint module and 3D type creation tools.

SMK204 - Intermediate Smoke/Flame III 

The introduction of Smoke on Mac has greatly expanded the reach of Autodesk's systems products and gotten it into the hands of more users. Building upon our successful introductory courses at fxphd, this combo Smoke/Flame course will center on covering approaches and tools for common tasks that artists might run into on the job. As a flame or smoke artist working on tv commercials, prof and fxphd dean John Montgomery has spent a great deal of time fixing scenes and helping make them look pristine for their brief appearance on the screen. He pulled his top four common tasks and will be looking for input on a fifth task for the final class of the term.

fxguide co-founder Jeff Heusser will be joining Montgomery for the course. He will cover techniques utilizing the Modular Keyer (MK) for his guest appearances as part of the course. The MK is often misunderstood and under-used, so Heusser will be sharing his on the job knowledge using the tool.

Also joining the course will be New York-based Randy McEntee. One of the big new features of the 2011 release is support for stereoscopic timelines, stereo cameras in action, and stereo display support. McEntee has worked on several 3D jobs since the release of the software in April and will be sharing his tips and tricks for working in the third dimension. McEntee is a Smoke and Flame Artist at The Mill New York. He has completed work for Coca-Cola, Nike, JCPenney, Anheuser-Busch, AT&T, Levi's, Skittles, Snickers, and ESPN, with some nominated for awards by the AICP, Cannes, Daytime Emmys, and DA&D Pencil. McEntee is the lead beta tester for The Mill Group's Flame and Smoke departments.

Professor: John Montgomery Böhm (johnmont)

Class 1: Everyday Tasks - Label and Package Replacements, Tracking the product and using expressions for a flexible adjusting rig.

Class 2: Everyday Tasks - Label and Package Replacements. Finalizing the track and easily creating the reflection pass.

Class 3: Everyday Tasks - Sky Replacement. We look at ways of fixing skies from old school 2D tracking to 3D camera solves.

Class 4: Everyday Tasks - Logo Removal. So many times, scenes are filmed where advertising or other signage needs to be removed from the scene. As an artist who refuses clients requests to "just blur it out" (because it's hideous), we'll work through fixing up a scene with various logos.

Class 5: Stereoscopic Introduction. Passive vs active displays, choosing the right monitoring option, creating stereo clips and building a stereoscopic timeline. Guest prof Randy McEntee.

Class 6: Stereoscopic Workflow. Stereo Action rigs, Batch tips and tricks, a simple stereoscopic 3D text comp, and outputting/encoding options. Guest prof Randy McEntee.

Class 7: Stereoscopic Practical. How simple monoscopic composites and fixes become challenging in a stereoscopic setting. Guest prof Randy McEntee.

Class 8: Modular Keyer, Part 1. Guest prof Jeff Heusser

Class 9: Modular Keyer, Part 2. Guest prof Jeff Heusser

Class 10: Everyday Tasks - By Popular Request. If there's a task you'd like to see covered, post in the forums and we'll enter it for the final class of the term.

STR101 - Introduction to Stereoscopic

Sure to be one of the term’s hits, Mike is joined by Peter Moxom of Pixar, to give you the complete 100 level guide to Stereo production and post.  Stereoscopic 3D is a very hot topic and the guys will walk you through the theory, history, practical production and post -production of Stereoscopic films. 

This course aims to demystify all the terms, jargon and tech so you can actively work in stereo production and feel confident to focus on the creative aspects of a project. The aim is to give you the tools to move past gimmicks and tricks - so as to allow serious story telling with this re-discovered area of film making. 

In addition to Peter Moxom of Pixar we will be joined by some of the world's leading Stereoscopic experts including Arnaud Paris and Dan Smith, both senior extremely experienced feature film and special event Stereographers.

Professor: Mike Seymour (mikes)

Class 1: A brief history about stereo photography.

Class 2: Detailed explanation of stereo options

Class 3: Filming stereo

Class 4: Monitoring and projection

Class 5: On-set stereoscopic, using the Element Technica 3D rig and dual RED cameras as a case study to examine issues specific to the rig and more generic ones. Filmed in Paris with Arnaud Paris of LocaRed/Sysmic Films.

Class 6: Using results of the Paris test shots to discuss issues concerning stereoscopic filming. Quick start guide to viewing anaglyph images in various desktop applications. Filmed in Paris with Arnaud Paris of LocaRed/Sysmic Films.

Class 7: Nuke and ocula, with guest Daniel L Smith VFX Supervisor & Stereographer

Class 8: Color grading and post, and stereo aspects of the Renderman pipeline

Class 9: Virtual cinematography in 3D

Class 10: The future

SYN101 - Introduction to SynthEyes

Our fxphd tracking specialist, Victor Wolansky, takes members through the economical but incredibly powerful Syntheyes 3D tracking application. The course will be using the recent release of Syntheyes 2008. This course will give you the base knowledge you need in order to solve various types of shot.


Professor: Victor Wolansky (victorw)

View a short sample clip from one of the SYN101 classes

Class 1: Tracking, solving, and using meshes in Syntheyes. Uses helicopter shot in desert.

Class 2: A bit of 3D tracking theory and a look at the manual tracker.

Class 4: A look at tracking stationary cameras on tripods with and without zooms. Also, a look at orientating the camera on a still or locked off shot.

Class 5: Stabilization and more tricks on orienting the 3D world with the footage.

Class 6: Tracking a DV shot and dealing with interlacing, compression artifacts, and an intro to masking.

Class 7: Brief on importing interlaced footage in a 3D app. A difficult handheld shot using manual tracking.

Class 8: Tracking a steadycam shot through the lab. Cleaning up trackers and prepping a shot for use in 3D.

Class 9: Tracking a shot with a lot of lens distortion. Adding distortion to CGI elements for use in compositing applications.

Class 10: Getting started with a very challenging shot. Instead of achieving a perfect track in one class, overall techniques are discussed that are useful when approaching more difficult shots.

VUE201 - A Comprehensive Guide to Vue 

Taught by Eran Dinur, this course offers a comprehensive approach to learning Vue, with an emphasis on workflow and techniques needed for effectively using it in various professional production scenarios. From creating assets for matte painting and compositing to animating and rendering complete 3D scenes. Vue has gained a prominent position in the industry as a tool for creating rich and detailed 3D natural scenery and there's an ever-growing demand for competent Vue artists.

We will first cover all of the main aspects of Vue - the different atmospheric models, polygonal and procedural terrains, EcoSystems, animation, materials and plant editing, and then dig deeper into more complex areas such as fractal functions and multi-layered shaders. Keeping in mind the needs of matte painting and compositing, we will also explore Vue's extensive multi-pass rendering, matte generation and export options.

Dinur has worked for several years a senior digital artist at ILM Singapore, and is currently senior compositor at Framestore New York. He has created visual effects for films such as "Clash of the Titans", "Salt", "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen", "Surrogates", "Terminator Salvation", "Star Trek", "Iron Man" and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". Dinur is a true Vue veteran, and has been using the app extensively since version 2 in numerous projects. He has written Vue tutorials for various publications, including 3D World Magazine (for which he is a regular contributor), and has created many sample scenes for Vue xStream, Infinite and Esprit.

Members of fxphd will be able to purchase the educational version of Vue to use for non-commerical purposes. Details will be available beginning the week of July 5th.

Professor: eran dinur (erandinur)

Class 1: Introduction to Vue - We will look at some of the strengths and unique capabilities of Vue. Then we’ll build a simple scene, which will allow us to get familiar with the interface and various editors.

Class 2: Plants and EcoSystems - After examining Vue’s SolidGrowth plants, We’ll take a close look at Vue’s fantastic distribution system. We’ll explore the different approaches to setting up EcoSystems, from free-hand painting to defining distribution and interaction rules.

Class 3: Atmosphere and lighting - Mastering the atmospheric models in Vue is essential for achieving good looking renders. We will devote most of the class to the Spectral atmosphere and volumetric clouds, and will also take a short look at the standard model and environment mapping.

Class 4: Terrains - We’ll go through the different terrain types (height field, procedural, large scale and infinite), and explore terrain hand-sculpting and erosion techniques, as well as basic function editing, and spherical terrains.

Class 5: Materials and natural distribution - We will create textured and procedural materials and layer them using natural distribution rules. We will also create water material and explore transparency, refraction and murkiness.

Class 6: The function Editor - In this class we will dig deep inside Vue’s powerful node-based function editor, and learn how to create elaborate terrains and materials using fractal algorithms and filters.

Class 7: Animation - Importing cameras from external applications, camera and object animation, animating atmospheres and clouds, wind animation and ventilators, animating water materials and terrains.

Class 8: Rendering and exporting - Vue has an extensive multi-pass rendering system, and we’ll take a close look at the various passes and their potential usage. We’ll also look at render quality configurations, as well as object and material export options.

Class 9: Advanced Techniques 1 - Displacement, sub-surface scattering, Hyper textures and camera projection mapping.

Class 10: Advanced Techniques 2 - More lighting, terrain, material, plants and EcoSystem techniques.

AUD101 - Introduction to Digital Audio Post

For this course, we will cover some of the concepts and processes for working with digital audio -- which is often overlooked (or at the very least, misunderstood). This will include a quick review of the basics, and then we'll jump right into typical challenges, problems, techniques and solutions faced when dealing with audio. We will avoid focusing on a specific software application, but special coverage will be given to Pro Tools, Soundtrack Pro and Logic Studio and related plugins.

This course is taught by Kristin Martin (an multimedia designer and musician) and David Fleminger (an audio producer, composer and musician), each having more than 15 years experience in audio postproduction, music production, sound design and composition. Clients include Apple, Adobe, Sun Microsystems, Bank of America, Mattel, Leapfrog and many others.

Professor: Kristin Martin (kcmartin)

Class 1: Tour of digital audio basics Description of sound and related terms, frequency spectrum, A/D and D/A converters, sample rate and bit depth. We also present an overview and demo of equalization (EQ), monitoring tips, an overview of dynamics signal processing and a compression demo.

Class 2: Tool basics Major audio applications -- ProTools, SoundtrackPro, LogicPro and Peak Pro; other audio applications and workflow tools. Plugin formats, demos of a few useful plugins. Hardware overview -- audio interfaces, control surfaces, mixers, monitor speakers.

Class 3: Basic sound for picture Basic editing operations: trimming, fades, crossfades. Automation: Track, plugin and MIDI data. Sound for picture basics: spotting sound fx, volume and panning. Sync and timecode overview.

Class 4: Audio project and file management Project setup in ProTools and Soundtrack Pro (audio file and multitrack projects). Common audio file types. Project interchange formats and demos. Methods for using plug-ins.

Class 5: Basic problem-solving, microphones and acoustic treatment Fixing audio level issues with normalization and compression. Noise removal and reduction using EQ, spectrum display, Izotope RX and Sound Soap Pro. Microphone types and basic technique. Acoustic treatment for your studio or workspace.

Class 6: Music loops and sound effects Music loop libraries, Apple Loops overview and demo, selected online resources for audio. Using the Final Cut Studio / Logic Studio sound effects library, recording your own sound effects and an overview of Foley.

Class 7: Mixing and Output Submixes/Stems and busses in Pro Tools and Soundtrack Pro, stereo mixing, surround 5.1 mixing overview, bounce to disk in Pro Tools, export options in STP, Data compression and distribution formats for audio files.

Class 8: Project-based class Project set up -- importing video and OMF. Fixing selected dialog problems, adding ambiance and sound effects. Creating a soundtrack. Putting it all together in a mix.

Class 9: Advanced Audio Tools Working with clipped audio in RX Declipper. Hum and buzz in RX Hum Removal and RX Denoiser. Equalization matching. Time compression and expansion tools.

Class 10: More Advanced Audio Tools Elastic Time in Pro Tools. Lift and Stamp for reusing effects, Multitake Editor for simplifying voiceover recording in Soundtrack Pro. Spectral Repair for damaged audio in Izotope RX.

BKD102 - Collection: General Interest

This general interest Background Fundamentals collection includes some of our most popular Background classes to date. It consists of both magazine style interviews and complex on-screen compositing demonstrations, including stereo work. Mike talks ABOUT Photo Jounrnalism, with the team at ILM and RealViz, and gives us his own take on the future of Post Production, and how to have a successful career as a vfx artist.

Class 1: Photo Journalism discussion with Sean Hobbs (bkd206-01)

Class 2: An interview with the ILM Sabre Team (bkd203-09)

Class 3: Solving problems with a stunt shot from the short film Spider - Director: Nash Edgerton, Production Company: Blue Tongue Films (bkd203-10)

Class 4: Solving problems with a stunt shot from the short film Spider - Pt2 (bkd203-11)

Class 5: Solving problems with a stunt shot from the short film Spider - Pt3 (bkd203-12)

Class 6: Making Episodic TV - Interview with McLeod’s Daughters’ Post Production Supervisor, Benita Carey (bkd203-01b)

Class 7: Stereo compositing in Shake for Duran Duran Music video with Damian Allen (bkd204-02)

Class 8: The Future of Post Production lecture (bkd204-03)

Class 9: 3D Tracking, Image and Interview with Luc Robert, CTO, REALVIZ (now Autodesk) - (bkd203-01 and 02)

Class 10: Genius, Talent and Luck - What it takes to be successful in the vfx industry (bkd213-03)

BKD103 - Collection: Lights, Camera, ... Action

This Background collection covers on-set issues. Whether you're running your own production, or going on-set as a representative of your post facility, you'll find here a wealth of information on topics from basic lighting, lens selection and on-set behavior to more more unique situations such as shooting Super 8 and underwater photography. In addition to lectures and demonstrations by the crew at fxphd, a number of very experienced DOPs and other experts appear as guests.

Class 1: Mike discusses the most important tool of a VFX supervisors kit: the 35mm SLR (bkd212-02)

Class 2: How to work on Set and what you should take with you (bkd212-04)

Class 3: The role of the 2nd Unit Director (bkd212-10)

Class 4: Shooting Super 8 film (bkd213-08)

Class 5: Discussing lenses, from mounts to aperture and how we have made the choices for the Moving Day project (bkd213-02)

Class 6: Lighting - different types of light and their applications (bkd214-09)

Class 7: Underwater Photography with George Evatt, underwater DOP (bkd214-01)

Class 8: Lecture on 35mm lens adaptors and lenses, including Tom Gleeson, DOP (bkd206-08)

Class 9: Looking at the work of Kerner Optical based off a speech by Optical DOP Marty Rosenberg (bkd205-08)

Class 10: Nick Nicolaou from Make Up Effects Group, MGE (bkd203-06)

BKD104 - Collection: LUTs, Gamma and 3D

This package consists of a collection of our efforts to explain and demystify one of the most challenging issues in day-to-day vfx workflows: dealing with LUTs, gamma, and general color pipeline issues. Taking advantage of the technical nature of this collection, we've also included some classes on 3D, Virtual Cinematograhy, and rendering with Renderman and Mental Ray. And, for a fun break from the tech talk, there is a round table discussion about Directing Live Action and Animation.

Class 1: 2D and 3D LUTS (bkd206-09)

Class 2: Monitors, calibration and modern LCD’s (bkd207-08)

Class 3: Gamma and linear workflow (bkd211-10)

Class 4: How to get the right colours in front of your audience by understanding your colour workflow, with colorist Warren Eagles (bkd208-05)

Class 5: Duncan Brinsmead, developer from Autodesk on nCloth, Fluids, etc for Maya (bkd206-06)

Class 6: Directing Live Action and Animation - with Rob Coleman, Animation Director, Dr D Studios -- Eric Leighton, Animation Director, Animal Logic -- Peter Sohn, Director, Pixar -- Lucas Martell, Director, Pigeon Impossible (bkd213-06)

Class 7: Virtual Cinematography in Pixar’s Up (bkd213-09)

Class 8: Talking with Zap Andersson about car shading techniques using Mental Ray (bkd209-05)

Class 9: Understanding the function of the BRDF, Biderectional Reflectance Distribution Function (bkd209-08)

Class 10: A chat with Per Christensen about Pixar's Renderman rendering techniques (bkd209-07)

BKD210 - VFX Supervisors

This term, to mark our 10th Background Fundamentals, we've got a blockbuster in store for fxphd members. Throughout the term, we'll look at what it means to be a Visual Effects Supervisor. What are the pressures, the roles and how do you manage a large Hollywood film?

To find out, we engage in lengthy discussions with the world's best supervisors including John Knoll, Scott Squires, John Dykstra, Pablo Helman, Dennis Murren, Mike Fink, Ken Ralston, Kim Libreri and others. These are some of the finest visual effects specialists in the industry with a stunning 5 technical or special Oscars, 24 Oscar nominations and 14 Academy Award wins between them. This truly one of the most accomplished group of visual effects experts ever assembled.

Professor: Mike Seymour (mikes)

Class 1: How to break down a script and pick approaches, Part 1

Class 2: How to break down a script and pick approaches, Part 2

Class 3: A look at pre-viz and storyboarding

Class 4: On set issues with choices to be made

Class 5: Working with both the Director and other crew

Class 6: Selling the shot and managing the team, Part 1

Class 7: Exploring the team; a look at the world of TVC and managing multiple houses.

Class 8: Studio pressures, working well with other houses

Class 9: Pipeline, infrastructure, R&D and the negatives of being a VFX supervisor.

Class 10: What it takes to become a serious member of the VFX community.

DAV210 - Grading with da Vinci Resolve

da Vinci grading systems such as the 2K have been at the top of the industry for grading commercials, episodic television, music videos, and film. Over the past year or so, their next generation Resolve system has begun to be installed in earnest at top facilities around the world. Their use of multiple NVIDIA CUDA hardware boxes allows realtime performance in grading image resolutions up to 4K.

This introductory course, taught by colorist Charlie Ellis, is designed to provide a solid foundation of how the system works and designed to get users who are unfamiliar with Resolve up to speed quickly. The course begins with an overview of the hardware, including the dedicated grading panel. Members will then learn how setup projects, load footage into the system with EDLs, prepare timelines for grading, and then dive into actual grading. The various tools will be examined including how to grade with primaries and secondaries, and isolating grading through masking and tracking. After the operational foundation is laid, the last part of the course will take this knowledge and examine using the tools to grade a variety of footage creatively.

Ellis is a colorist working at Blackmagic Design Post Production in Singapore (yes, same Blackmagic but different division). He helped oversee the adoption of Resolve at the facility, where they specialize in commercials, high definition documentaries, television series, and feature film finishing.

Class 1: Da Vinci Resolve overview, panels and UI

Class 2: Setting up your project, importing EDl's, conforming media and working with multiple sequences by navigating the UI and console.

Class 3: Serial node, Parallel node and Layer Mix node; Hue Qualifier, Auto balance; Windows and Key mixing.

Class 4: Printer Light Functions, Custom Curves, Hi Clip/Lo Clip, Soft Clip, Qualification Modes, Mist, Sharpening and Grabbing Stills.

Class 5: Object Tracking, Dynamics and Grading Example

Class 7: TVC workflow with Resolve - part 1

Class 8: TVC workflow with Resolve - part 2

Class 9: TVC workflow with Resolve - part 3

Class 10: TVC workflow with Resolve - part 4 and stylistic looks.

DOP210 - DSLR Cinematography

Every day more and more productions are exploring the use of high end DLSR for HD video. Stu Maschwitz rejoins the team and the guys in Tokyo to give the most comprehensive guide to the new phenomenon of DSLR cinematography. In this course we will cover:

• What it takes to shoot cinematically with camera such as the Canon 5D MkII


• How to shoot for post


• Tricks and techniques for camera control and camera movement, including the Red Rock Micro and the Mini-Steadicam


• Compression and camera settings recommendations, covering 24P, Manual settings, Tricks of compression etc.


• Rules of thumb for evaluating what camera and lenses you need


• Color grading DLSR video footage for Hollywood professional looks


• Sensor and optical 'behind the scenes' including rolling shutter


• reviews of 720 P with the Nikon D90, Full HD with the Olympus PEN, Panasonic GH1 and the Canon 5D MkII

Mostly shot in Tokyo and Kyoto, but as a special event later in the term, we will go on base with the US Army 55th Combat Camera Unit to look at the Canon 5D Mk II in war zone correspondent use, an unparalleled and unprecedented chance to see how these cameras are used in the most dangerous and unforgiving environments imaginable. Literally, we hope to have Stu and John putting the camera through its paces with Blackhawk helicopters and some of the bravest cameraman and women in the world with the US Army's Canon 5D Mk II specialists. A rare honor, and one we are most appreciative to have the chance to bring you.

Professor: Mike Seymour (mikes)

Class 1: Establishing the pro's and con's of DSLR cinematography and getting outside to shoot on the streets of the Ginza district in Tokyo with the 5D mk2.

Class 2: Part of the Ginza shoot post workflow and looking at the difference between the main camera's in the DSLR cinematography market.

Class 3: Shooting on the sly in the Tsukiji fish market and how to shoot with grading in mind. Stu walks us through grading in AE with Magic Bullet.

Class 4: Shooting on the busy streets in Harajuku, Stu discusses lenses and lens choices and how they effect composition and storytelling.

Class 5: Dealing with camera mobility and adding virtual weight to your shots.

Class 6: Using optical filters vs digital filters in post and the problem of rolling shutter.

Class 8: Using the 5D Mark II in rugged and combat situations. With 1st Lieutenant Tyler Ginter of the US Army 55th Signal Company

Class 9: A technical look at the files produced by DSLR's including image quality, processing, and keyability.

Class 10: A continuation of a keying example from last week, a discussion of the Canon 5d vs. 7d, a look at the new Magic Bullet Mojo plugin, and a wrap up conversation with Stu. Plus, a bonus class looking at ND filters and Canon 7D settings, both default and custom.

FLM102 - Introduction to Flame

Our new introductory flame course is designed to get artists up and running in the software so they can be confident working on scenes and spots in the app. We get a lot of questions from potential flame artists asking if they should take the course even though they don't have easy access to a flame or flint system. The answer is an emphatic "yes". The course is designed with the understanding that your time might be limited on the system -- for instance, maybe you're a junior artist who can only get on the system at night or you will be doing an internship at a facility in the coming months. By taking FLM102, when you get time on a flame, you won't have to waste hours finding your way around the software.

Taught by fxphd co-founder and longtime flame artist John Montgomery, the course begins with an exhausting overview of the system and the UI. This is important considering flame doesn't follow many of the standard desktop conventions users might be familiar with. Once that is done, we'll quickly dive into the various modules with a project-based approach to learning them. Our goal is to have course members be able to execute entry to intermediate level jobs on the flame by course completion. At the end of the term, an online certification exam will be available in order for you to test your knowledge.

Professor: John Montgomery Böhm (johnmont)

View a short sample clip from one of the FLM102 classes

Class 1: An overview of the flint/flame, including hardware, the software and UI conventions you need to know.

Class 2: The start of a multi-class tv ident project. A first look at action, paint, masking and more.

Class 3: Our first in-depth look at Action. Using the camera to create a 3D environment for the ident, layering types, creating the black/white city look and more.

Class 4: Continuing the indent, with a look at keying techniques in Action.

Class 5: Finishing off the ident. Premult v. unpremult action layers, adding graphics with reflections, cheating the 3D look with layering.

Class 6: Beginning an example tv commercial project, starting with an EDL assembly from videotape. A comparison between a standard NTSC assemble and using 24P mastering to make life easier.

Class 7: Timeline editing basics: trimming, sliding, swapping shots. Grading a shot and layering water effects on the scene to set the look of the spot.

Class 8: Batch, Pt 1 of 3 A simple batch tree, recreating the colour grading and layering done in the previous class, context viewing, and outputting. Also, a brief look at two timewarps.

Class 9: Batch, Pt 2 of 3 Beginning the opening shot using a mix of Action nodes and direct nodes in batch. A quick look at desktop paint to fix up a water drop for distorting.

Class 10: Batch, Pt 3 of 3 The Distort node, Text, Optics, and Sapphire Sparks all help take the opening graphic to completion.

FLM204 - Flame, Smoke, Expressions and More

Recent versions of Flame and Smoke have blurred the line between products, as Smoke gains BatchFX and Flame gains a more versatile editing timeline. This class is designed to be appealing to artists and editors alike, covering topics which are generally applicable across both products. The common thread throughout the term will be taking a look at expressions and how they can help you as an artist and editor. Professor and Dean John Montgomery will tackle a wide variety of workflow expressions -- ones any artist can use on a daily basis to simply changes to more esoteric, hard core maths which demonstrate both the power and limitations of the feature.

In addition to expressions, Montgomery will also be covering other aspects of the software such as infrastructure (Configuring for Open FS vs. Stonefs, Wiretap Central) and working with RED and XML/AAF.

This course will deal with some subjects and material that has been covered in other (now retired) fxphd courses such as the FLM201 expressions course. However, with changes in the 2009 and 2009X1 releases a lot has changed in the software, so we felt a need to retire the old create a new course. We realize many of you have taken our past offerings and will keep this in mind to bring new and useful material into this offering.

Professor: John Montgomery Böhm (johnmont)

Class 1: Expressions An overview of what will be covered in the course and then diving directly into creating expressions you can use daily. Also includes bonus material on how to maintain clean images in Action.

Class 2: BatchFX and the Timeline Flame artists find the timeline overwhelming. BatchFX is a new paradigm for Smoke editors. This class will find the common ground for both and show why the 2009 improvements are so powerful.

Class 3: BatchFX and the Timeline, Pt. 2A look at editing in batch with source and record clips, as well as more bfx features.

Class 4: Expressions A look at effecting Media layer blur through simple expressions and more complex positional expressions.

Class 5: Expressions Timing adjustments with expressions using the eval() function. Tips for building your expressions to be as flexible as possible.

Class 6: Expressions Using expressions to animate OpenEXR textures on 3D geometry to create a completely graphical spot.

Class 7: RED DPX from Avid Hints for working with RED footage in Avid, exporting DPX for EDL assembly, traps when assembling from images, and unlinking/relinking footage.

Class 8: DPX Soft Import and RED from FCP A look at soft import issues, using the spot from class #7. Also, converting a RED footage based sequence in Final Cut Pro into QuickTime-based XML for flame/smoke.

Class 9: Working with FCP XML Tips and tricks for getting XML sequences into flame/smoke. Covers custom Compressor scripts and a quick look at Tether.

Class 10: By Popular Request Expressions for animating a counter, blend modes, camera tracking. A brief look at batch scripts.

FUS101 - Introduction to Fusion

Matt Leonard leads our Fusion course at fxphd. His sphereVFX company has been doing Fusion training for years, including creating an intermediate level DVD for the app. Leonard has worked in the animation and visual effects industry for over sixteen years producing state-of-the-art work for feature films, broadcast and commercials in the UK and US markets.. He has set up and run animation divisions in five companies, overseen animators and compositors, worked as a CG Supervisor on various projects and has overseen live-action shoots.


Professor: Matt Leonard (mattdleonard)

View a short sample clip from one of the FUS101 classes

Class 1: This class looks in depth at the user interface of Fusion 5.2 and shows how to create your first composite

Class 2: This class looks at replacing a sky in a scene along with adding a sign and video screen to the side of a building. We are mainly at Transform and Warping nodes within Fusion but we also cover some Colour Correction Matte and Effects Tools

Class 3: In this class we look at the colour correction tools inside Fusion 5.2, Depth Pixel tools for utilizing additional colour channels such as U, U and Normals, and a quick look at openEXR

Class 4: In this class we look at the Masks and rotoscoping tools, specifically Rectangle, Triangle, Elipse, Bitmap, Mask Paint, Wand, BSpline and Polygon Mask

Class 5: In this class we look at the Keying and Matte tools along with Light Wrap techniques and Macros

Class 6: In this class we cover Tracking, Stabilization and Corner Pinning

Class 7: In this class we cover Paint, and the time manipulation tools

Class 8: In this class we cover all the main aspects of 3D in Fusion

Class 9: In this class we cover more of the 3D functionality in Fusion, focusing on Point Cloud data, Camera Projections, and .fbx and 3rd part data importing

Class 10: Introduction to particles, and a bonus class covering 25 new nodes not covered in the other lessons, along with a more detailed look at Fusions Graph Editor

FUS201 - Intermediate Fusion

Matt Leonard leads our intermediate Fusion course at fxphd, building upon his 100-level introductory course. Since members have learned the basics in FUS101, Leonard will cover using the app on a project basis, tackling scenes over several classes in order to show how to truly get the most out of the software. From greenscreen keying, to tracking and using 3D projections, to graphics design, you'll see why Fusion is used by so many different types of artists.

Leonard's sphereVFX company has been doing Fusion training for years, including creating an intermediate level DVD for the app. Leonard has worked in the animation and visual effects industry for over sixteen years producing state-of-the-art work for feature films, broadcast and commercials in the UK and US markets..

Professor: Matt Leonard (mattdleonard)

View a short sample clip from one of the FUS201 classes

Class 1: I Love Sarah Jane, House Damage We start our new course with a straightforward visual effects shot taken from the short film, "I Love Sarah Jane". In this class we'll look at transforming a smart residential home into a busted up, graffiti scrawled, zombie trashed house. We'll use a collection of techniques including roto, tracking, paint, colour correction and much more.

Class 2: Robots and Wendy House Our second project for the course spans three weeks and involves adding multiple CGI robots into a handheld, live action plate shot on the RED camera. The shot will involve multiple compositing tricks including multi-pass renders, tracking, roto, sky replacements, colour correction, and a bunch of integration techniques such as light-warps, edge-blurs, and more.

Class 3: In the second of three classes covering the Wendy House and CGI Robots we focus on Material/Object ID customization, Camera Projections and Normals.

Class 4: Continuation

Class 5: Motion Graphics in Fusion Our next project spans a couple of weeks and really shifts gears into the area of motion graphics. Our project is to create on-screen graphics similar to those seen in Iron Man, Minority Report or The Island. We'll be using a mixture of live action along with graphical elements created in Photoshop and Fusion. All these will be treated to create a very animated, stylised, motion graphics look.

Class 6: Continuation

Class 7: Lexus Commercial In yet another three week project we create the illusion of a camera pull back through the inside a car while driving down the road. What we have to work with is quiet different; a stationary car shot on a green-screen stage. To pull off this complicated shot we'll be looking at creating a 3D pan and tile environment, adding contact lighting, realistic reflections and a host of tricks to create the illusion for a moving car.

Class 8: Continuation

Class 9: Continuation

Class 10: Aftermath This shot, originally created by Theodor Groeneboom, shows off Fusions 3D and particle tools to the max. This final class goes step by step through the process of creating a building explosion from a single photograph. We'll be covering a whole mixture of techniques and tools including camera projection, particles, colour correction, paint, roto, to name a few.

HOU101 - Introduction to Houdini

Taught by Valerie Cripps, this new introductory course will give you an introduction to Houdini 9.5, getting you familiar with the interface, procedural workflow, and some basic fx principles. The software is vast and used in most of the big production houses for many types of film effects. Getting these basics is a great way to open the door to creating killer visual fx for film production. Over the course of the term, you will learn the building blocks necessary to create a foundation for further production lessons in Houdini with a mind to creating film effects. The course begins with a solid overview of the UI and application principles and then dives into a sample project for the rest of the term.

Cripps worked at Side Effects Software for 7 years before going into production in 2003. She has worked as a freelance fx and lighting artist at Sony Imageworks, CBS and Rhythm and Hues on films such as Superman Returns, Spiderman 3, and Mummy 3, among many others, working on effects such as swarms of flying locusts, flames, crowds, snow, dust, clouds and more.

Members may use the Houdini Apprentice addition, which is available as a free download from the Side Effects web site. For only $99, a Starving Artist Edition of the software is also available which allows for watermark-free renders up to HD resolution -- perfect for adding a shot to your demo reel. Both versions of Houdini Apprentice include all of Houdini Master's features except for the ability to render to third party renderers. Files created using the Apprentice versions cannot be opened in the full version of the software. However, upon upgrading to the full version, Side Effects will do a one time conversion of all your non-commercial work to Houdini's commercial format.

Professor: Valerie Cripps (ValCripps)

Class 1: Intro to the Interface, Part 1 Get an intro to Houdini's node based, procedural workflow, learn about all of the different types of editors (from modeling to compositing), get your work flow and personal settings going, and find out where to get help, plug ins and more.

Class 2: Intro to the Interface, Part 2 Now that I've shown you where most everything is, let's get used to the interface via a very simple example and put into practice what we learned in the first lesson, so we'll be rockin' as we go through the rest of the term.

Class 3: Continuation.. We use planning and 'trickery' to adjust our source geometry to avoid the problem of our particles not colliding correctly. We also talk about adjusting color preferences for the interface, coloring nodes, adding notes to nodes, bypassing nodes, accessing primitive numbers and using them in the group parameter of SOP nodes, as well as displaying and adjusting point normals to create initial thrust and velocity for our particle system. We then get into the stamp feature of the copy SOP, using a random variable to create varied sizes for the spheres in our particle system.

Class 4: In this lesson, we learn how to load in the dragon object, and load in a back plate. We make point groups to isolate different parts of his body. We then use the soft transform node to adjust the model, and also to create some rudimentary animation on the dragon for our project. Since in production, we'd normally get the file and animation from modeling and animation, we're not doing rigging in this class, and instead continuing to focus on introductory concepts and our focus on fx. We also cover some more concepts of working with nodes and the Houdini interface. Now we will be ready for next week's lesson, where we can take this animated dragon and use the intersection of his wings with the ground and their velocity to drive our particle system that will be used for the dust hits.

Class 5: We continue our dragon dust hits project by learning how to write out the dragon file to disk using a geometry ROP. We'll also continue learning interface tricks, learning to create a netbox to organize our nodes, and discuss adding a Null SOP at the end of node chains to work cleanly. We'll also discuss the object merge node, and how to set up the attribute transfer so that when the wing intersects the ground plane, a point group is created from which we will eventually birth particles. Finally, we'll discuss the geometry spreadsheet as a mode to view point attributes and detailed information in a table format.

Class 6: Continuation, using the point group we created that happens every time the dragon wing intersects the ground plane. We use this point group to birth particles and explore a variety of parameters in the Source POP, including per frame birthing, setting initial velocities using the normal variables, and other information. We then learn about additional POPs to shape and control the particles.

Class 7: In this Lesson we will continue working with pops and finish setup up the motion of the particles. We will also prepare for the lighting and rendering stage.

Class 8: In this lesson we will get a new camera with a better track for our shot, and set up the lighting for the shot. We talk about 3 point lighting, rendering with mantra rops, using mplayer, bundles, shading, shadow mattes, and writing out sequences.

Class 9: In this class we set up a Houdini environment variable, render motion blur and learn about deleting extra attributes. Then we take the passes of the dragon and dragon shadow that we rendered and brought them into cops where we composited them. We also start our shading for the particles, and add an extra attribute to set opacity so that the shader can recognize it. Finally we set up out hold outs for the particles layer.

Class 10: In our final class we will put an fxcomp of all of our elements and see our result. After seeing the comp we will fix some obvious issues that become apparent. Then we will work in VOPs to further develop our dust shader and learn about the rest positon sop. We will also talk about what else could be done to complete the shot and how we would have done the rendering in production if we had those resources.

HOU201 - Houdini Production Techniques

Val Cripps and Lori Smith are teaching the course, two Houdini fx artists who have worked on their share of fx for film.  Val will be presenting the class, and Lori will be working with Val behind the scenes to get the material together.  The topic for HOUD201 is debris, a staple, bread and butter type of fx work that happens on many films and commercials, and that you will do at least once in your fx career. This could include pieces of glass kicked by a cg character's foot, for example in The Incredible Hulk, or bits of dirt crumbling down a roof from a character climbing, like some shots I worked on in They Came From Upstairs/Aliens in the Attic, or many other situations where debris helps set the CG into the live action, or must help to tell the story. 

We'll start with a general introduction and overview to these types of effects and dynamics in Houdini, and then we'll complete a simple shot with debris flying into the scene, much like fx work that Lori did on Pirates of the Caribbean at Digital Domain.  This will include traditional and procedural modeling techniques with instancing, techniques and tricks for DOPs (dynamic operators), POPs,  (particle operators) and of course, some shading, rendering and compositing to get everything layered together.

Cripps worked at Side Effects Software for 7 years before going into production in 2003. She has worked as a freelance fx and lighting artist at Sony Imageworks, CBS and Rhythm and Hues on films such as Superman Returns, Spiderman 3, and Mummy 3, among many others, working on effects such as swarms of flying locusts, flames, crowds, snow, dust, clouds and more. She received her Master of Fine Arts in Electronic Visualization from Mississippi State University in 1997.

Smith has worked in CG for 4 years at Digital Domain and 1 year at Rhythm and Hues. During this time she worked on commercials and films such as Aeon Flux, Flags of Our Father, Pirates 3, Speed Racer, Mummy 3, Cirque du Freak and Land of the Lost as a technical director and fx artist.  She received her Master of Science in Visualization Sciences from Texas A&M University in 2003.

Professor: Valerie Cripps (ValCripps)

Class 1: In this first class for Houdini 201, we very briefly touch on what's new in Houdini 10. Check out www.sidefx.com for complete information, and for the apprentice version of Houdini we'll be using in class. We discuss our topic for class, which is Debris in fx production. We then begin with an introduction to DOPs (dynamic operators), covering how to get started with a few simple examples, a look at the interface and a few key points to keep in mind.

Class 2: In this second class for Houdini 201 we continue our introduction and overview of DOPs. We cover the following topics: Creating and tweaking rotational movement in DOPs, Friction and Dynamic Friction, Collisions, and Interaction and Animated Objects.

Class 3: FX Shot for HOU201. We'll introduce the shot we'll be working on this term, and delineate the elements needed to create a shot similar to the pirates shot. We'll highlight some typical issues in production, including: naming conventions, director changes, digital assets for working on many shots, and more. We'll get into what's needed to get started on our shot, including creating the chunks that will be flying into the scene.

Class 4: Blowing chunks. We'll finish up any modeling for our chunks, get them moving and tweak things, and discuss topics such as moving chunks and interacting with ground (rotation and sliding), volumes and adjusting resolution for additional control and static vs animated geometry and more.

Class 5: We'll discuss workflow issues, such as: preroll, sims (creating, saving and importing sims), fps and playback, troubleshooting, and consolidating tools into digital assets for production.

Class 6: Setting up lights, shaders, and render passes for the Chunks.

Class 7: In this class we continue to develop our digital asset as we work through the look of our shot, making exploding chunks, and fine tuning the control panel of our debris tool.

Class 8: In this class we continue to add to our digital asset, using a magnet force to improve our explosion, adding a clumps element which includes using the stamp along with other POPs tips, and get ready to render next week.

Class 9: In this class, we set up all of our render objects and outputs and discuss related issues to rendering all of our elements.

Class 10: In this class, we finish up our class with a final look at the settings and add in some dust impact elements as a final bonus.

PHT201 - Digital Photography

There are a lot of aspects to photography, so we have decided to make it commercial and focus on all sorts of everyday issues.

Professional photographer Tim Wheeler will show how to shoot high-end professional photographs.

Professor: Tim Wheeler (Tim Wheeler)

Class 1: Photographing shiny objects

Class 2: Discussion of cameras, sensors and film versus digital.

Class 3: Photographing the sunrise

Class 4: Working with digital photos in Adobe Lightroom

Class 5: Portraits, Part 1 : Beginning shooting portraits with Angie from fxguidetv

Class 6: Portraits, Part 2: continuing from class05 on shooting different styles of portraits with Angie

Class 7: Flash photography - location shoot with Tim Wheeler

Class 8: Long exposure with lights and laser

Class 9: Food photography

Class 10: Drinks photography

PHT202 - Digital Photography for VFX

We are joined by Steve Anderson who will focus on photography for VFX artists. The course will cover generating textures, HDR, shooting for matte paintings, timelaspe, how to photography normal mattes, and much more. This terms focus is really on specialist photography and showing how a DSLR can be the number one tool for a VFX supervisor on set. If you do on set work and provide assets to other members of your team this course will show you a number of ways to provide better material and speed up both workflows and render times on larger projects.

Steve is a highly award visual effects supervisor with a very strong 3D background. Many of the classes will be relevant to people with 3D skills, as well as 2D. Steve is also a very accomplished stills photographer in his own right.

Professor: Steven Anderson (steveanderson)

Class 1: Photography for normal mapping

Class 2: Shooting for textures - part 1

Class 3: Shooting for textures - part 2, post production

Class 4: Gear and gadgets

Class 5: Shooting timelapse

Class 6: Photographing for sprites

Class 7: Photographing for HDR - part 1

Class 8: Photographing for HDR - part 2

Class 9: Mattepainting and Painting with Light

Class 10: Lens Calibration

RED203 - RED One Production

How to understand and shoot with the RED camera. We will explore the theory and practice of shooting with the RED, discuss how the Mysterium sensor works and how to get the most out of it, and test the RED lenses. We'll also examine what .r3d files are, how they are encoded, rate and explore recording media, and compare RED with other common capture tools and show how to use it on set and show how to use the latest RED software builds and versions. This course would be ideal if you have just gotten or are about to get a RED camera.

Note: This course replaces RED 201 which will no longer be repeated. It contains some footage from the previous RED 202 course, but is primarily new footage

Professor: Mike Seymour (mikes)

Class 1: Chat with DOP Peter Holland about the RED in General, and how the .r3d data is encoded. Comparisons to other modern digital cameras.

Class 2: Looking at the accessories and addons for the Red One camera.

Class 3: Lens comparison: the Red 18-50mm, the Cooke 75mm and the new Red 18-85mm lens.

Class 4: Understanding Color space, Gamma space and LUTs

Class 5: On set - a look at monitor calibration and on set monitoring

Class 6: This week we look at the pro's and cons of the new FCP and colour workflow

Class 7: How to rate your Red an tops for avoiding that "video" look

Class 8: Time-lapse, stop motion and ramping

Class 9: Interview with senior colorist Warren Lynch, specifically talking about working with Red files.

Class 10: Comparison of shooting green screen in daylight and tungsten

SCR201 - Scratch and Grading RED

Jeff Olm takes this course on colour grading with the Assimilate Scratch. Scratch has become extremely popular due to its unique position of being able to natively read RED's .r3d files. Jeff is an experienced Scratch artist with a very strong visual effects background in over 50 features. He has just finished doing a stereo 3D Scratch colour grade on Journey to the Center of the Earth as a Stereo Colourist. Jeff covers general Scratch workflow , grading Red footage and even gives an overview of Stereography issues using Scratch's stereo grading tools.

Professor: Jeff Olm (jeffo)

Class 1: Scratch overview and R3D import

Class 2: Matrix, Primary, Scaffolds and Versions

Class 3: Texture, Canvas, Qualifier, Vectors and Tracking

Class 4: Project management and working with dailies

Class 5: How to organize your conforms and displays/layouts

Class 6: Getting creative with colour to create beauty passes and make your talent look their best

Class 7: Grading Red footage

Class 8: Editing features, keyboard shortcuts, conforming and plugins

Class 9: Using Scratch to play with 3D footage and what camera settings gets the best result

Class 10: Overview of what Scratch can do and how it can help our workflow on your project, and how to get the seat as a Scratch operator

VFX101 - Intro to Compositing with Ron Brinkmann

Each week, Ron Brinkmann and Mike Seymour explore the fundamentals of visual effects compositing. Brinkmann is well known throughout the industry; a visual effects supervisor who co-founded Nothing Real and helped create Shake. More recently he has served as an advisor on The Foundry's Nuke compositing software. He is author of the recently released second edition of The Art and Science of Digital Compositing (Morgan Kaufmann). This book forms the foundation of the course, and the weekly discussions expand upon the principles found in the text.

Professor: ron brinkmann (ronbrinkmann)

Class 1: Accuracy vs Art. And how our minds can be tricked. It is art and science.

Class 2: Compositing hierarchy: who has what roles?

Class 3: Camera issues and greenscreen

Class 4: Resolution, colour space and formats

Class 5: Roto and keying

Class 6: 3D tracking and on set

Class 7: Matte painting. morphing, and telegraphing effects

Class 8: 3D multipass rendering and lens curvature

Class 9: Bit-depth, compression, codec and aspect ratio.

Class 10: Selling the shot

XSI201 - Lighting in XSI

This production-centric course will explore a variety of lighting techniques, and how to get the most out of XSI's lighting tools. The first half of the course will focus primarily on the technical skills required to light a shot, while the second half will apply these skills to real world scenarios and explore ways to enhance storytelling through lighting. The class will be taught by Lucas Martell, a freelance visual effects artist best known for his video podcast about the making of his animated short film "Pigeon: Impossible."

Professor: Lucas Martell (LucasMartell)

Class 1: Lighting Techniques: Lighting a basic scene with 3 different techniques: a traditional setup, global illumination, and HDR. Special attention will be paid to the strengths and weaknesses of each technique and their place in modern production pipelines.

Class 2: Multipass Lighting: This class covers the basics of passes, partitions and overrides. It follows the process of lighting a simple shot from scratch using a multi-pass approach, compositing with XSI FXTree, and then tweaking settings to improve the look of the shot. We also cover basic mental ray settings, establishing a light-rig for texturing purposes, and tips for dealing with XSI's pass editor.

Class 3: This class covers more advanced pass setups and how to override specific parameters for better interaction between objects. It continues where class02 left off and completes the setup and final comp for the pigeon shot. We also cover depth passes and the more advanced visibility parameters for rendering purposes.

Class 4: This class covers a variety of tips to help render large scenes. We discuss optimizing materials, reflection passes, merging materials, referenced models, .map files, breaking scenes into z-slices, geometry approximation, and combining multiple scenes.

Class 5: This class covers additional ways to speed up your renders including occlusion optimization, rendermaps, splitting up expensive raytracing techniques by using multiple passes, and 2D motion blur. We also cover how even a scripting novice can harness the power of the event logger to dramatically increase their productivity.

Class 6: This week's class focuses on some techniques for lighting CG elements to be incorporated into visual effects. We cover topics ranging from final gather to linear workflows, and a cool trick to create environment maps using a variation of the "shiny ball" trick often used on set to capture lighting setups.

Class 7: Class 7 is back to Pigeon: Impossible, but focuses on lighting the interior of the briefcase using an all-in-the-render approach. We balance quality with render times, show how you can use photographs of lights to create more realistic renders, and explore several of the more creative aspects of CG lighting.

Class 8: This class addresses several questions from the forums and also introduces geometry deformers and the math that goes into them.

Class 9: Class 9 covers some techniques to add mood to a scene, as well as a further discussion of composition and how to lead the viewer's eye with lighting. We also discuss color and light direction through three different setups for a product shot of a scooter; the classic "white void" setup, a heroic setup, and a scary setup.

Class 10: Class 10 continues with the scooter product shots from the previous week. We cover a few aesthetic issues as well as some ways to make the volumetric light look more realistic. We also discuss some tips on interacting with clients as well as an exploration of lighting setups for different times of day.

XSI202 - Production with XSI

Lucas Martell returns with his second course, this time covering production concepts using XSI. The primary objective of the class is to introduce some of the more technical aspects in a way that artists can immediately and confidently take advantage of. The course begins by discussing rigging, but in a way that's designed to ease post-grads into scripting, expressions, and eventually lead into the second half of the term which applies the same concepts to the visual programming nature of ICE. Along the way we'll also discuss pipeline considerations, including custom tools to help speed up production, as well as some useful tips for taking control of simulations. The class is aimed at a wide range of people, from younger students who generally have not dealt with some of these higher-level issues, to experienced artists who could benefit from a more intricate knowledge of Softimage's inner workings.

Lucas Martell is a freelance animator who recently completed the 5-year production cycle on his short film "Pigeon: Impossible." In addition to his own projects, he has taught through the training site: fxphd and is widely known for his weekly podcast that chronicles the techniques and obstacles he's faced throughout the course of producing his films.

Professor: Lucas Martell (LucasMartell)

Class 1: Expressions This class covers expressions from basic construction, to more advanced scenarios with nested functions and condition statements. Several examples are shown including IK feedback and a rig for horizontal window blinds.

Class 2: Synoptic Editor This class begins with an intro to some fundamental scripting issues, and moves onto some basic scripts that are tied together into a control panel using the synoptic editor.

Class 3: Autorigging This class creates a vehicle rig using some more advanced expressions, then builds an autorigging script that can assemble the rig on the fly from a guide model.

Class 4: Building a pipeline An in-depth look at the data pipeline for PI, some useful tools, and best-practices.

Class 5: This class picks up several things we couldn't fit into the first 4 classes. We discuss some additional rigging and pipeline tips, as well as some very cool uses for scripted operators.

Class 6: ICE particles This class discusses several tips and tricks with ICE particles. We create our own custom force compound and introduce state machines. We also cover some handy tricks to keep in mind when rendering ICE particles.

Class 7: This class addresses several questions from the forums including getting data in and out of ICE, shading smoke and fire, and using ICE kinematics to create custom constraints.

Class 8: ICE deformers Creating your own custom deformers using ICE.

Class 9: Simulation Case Studies Several tips and tricks for getting the most out of simulations. We cover loopable cloth simulations, blending simulations, and several Rigid Body techniques.

Class 10: In this final class we address several questions from the forums including selective particle trails, changing particle colors based on a texture map, a very cool dominoes simulation with ICE and some final scripting tricks for creating folders within XSI.