Kreative Soup Lounge

NEW MEDIA FILM FESTIVAL IN SF THIS WEEK!

2010-11-05T14:05:00.000-07:00

Friday Nov 5 & Saturday Nov 6 at
VizCinema

New Media Film Festival-SF Bay Area,
The Best of New Media: What's New,
What's Next...Honoring Stories Worth
Telling.

Meet award winning game, film, book,
show, web series & app creators!  It's a
dynamic program with panel discussion,
Q&A meet-n-greets, mini-workshops, demos,
screenings in these categories: Web Series,
Shot on RED, Animation, Documentary,
Feature and SRC-Socially Responsible
Content.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
Anyone looking to connect with thought leaders and content
creators from across, film, tv, games, web, mobile,
technology, venture capital investment and integrated
marketing all with one focus...honoring stories worth telling!

Speakers include:

*Steve Perlman, CEO of OnLive.com, an
inventor and entrepreneur with over 80
technology patents.

*Will Wright, Creator of Bar Karma on
Current TV and original designer for
"The Sims" games series which, as of 2009,
is the best-selling PC game in history

*Jaime Wilkinson, Producer, "Star Wars:
Uncut" (2010 Primetime Emmy Award winner
for Outstanding Creative Achievement in
Interactive Media - Fiction).

Join panelists from: Producers Guild
of America-Northwest (PGA-NW), Writers
Guild of America (WGA, West), IndieGoGo,
San Francisco Film Society, Red Planet
Studios, Movieset.com, Academy of
Television Arts & Sciences, Code and Theory,
Larsen Pomada Literary Agency, Manic D Press,
Red Wheel/Weiser Books/Conari Press,
Women's National Book Association SF Chapter,
AuthorsTeam, Credit the Edit, Flingo.tv,
Unity Technology, Babelgum.com,
Sharethrough, Tongal, Motorola, Magnicode
and more!

New Media Film Festival premiered in LA
in June 2010 and will be in SF Bay Area
with an expanded forum and line up of
industry executives & content creators.

SESSIONS INCLUDE:
* New Dialogue, Voices & Avenues and Finding Where
 You Fit In
* Challenges & Victories of Producing Content That Can
 Change the World
* Television Academy of Arts & Sciences Presents:
 The Future of TV
* Monetizing The Crowd: Crowd Sourcing, Crowd Funding & Fan
 Building
* Storytellers & Coders Unite: Creating Content for Mobile,
 ePublishing,iApps, iPad, Games, Interactive TV & Web

FESTIVAL COMPETITION:
Judges are professionals from Industrial
Light & Magic, Pixar, Summit Entertainment
& United Talent Agency. There are World
Premiere and Northern California Premiere
screenings. Winners will be announced on
Saturday evening.

Location: VizCinema at 1746 Post St.,
SF, CA 94115
Dates: Friday, Nov 5 & Saturday, Nov 6
Time: 9AM - 7PM & 7PM – Midnight
Website: www.newmedifilmfestival.com http://www.newmedifilmfestival.com
Register:  http://bit.ly/sfnmff http://bit.ly/sfnmff

For 20% off use discount code: special20

Upcoming Business and Tech events in the Bay Area!

2010-10-01T12:54:00.000-07:00

As San Francisco summer rolls into October, the heat continues for
business and tech events. You’ll have plenty to look forward to
between networking for ladies and mobile junkies, a conference
embracing “the happiness movement,” bootcamps to get your PR
and finance strategies in check, and bigwig startup events
BizTechDay and FailCon.

1. Music SF’s Mobile Entertainment App Networking Evening
Thursday 10/4 at 6:00 PM
San Francisco, CA / Free
Links:
http://eventbrite.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b9af9695d13926481e17982b2&id=656f6362b7&e=a026058cd9

2. Area Babes in Business Networking Event
Tuesday 10/5 at 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
San Francisco, CA / $25
Links:
http://eventbrite.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b9af9695d13926481e17982b2&id=5a2c8b0368&e=a026058cd9

3. Gun: Designing Happiness
Friday 10/8 from 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
San Francisco, CA / $135 - $335
Links:
http://eventbrite.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b9af9695d13926481e17982b2&id=1b073ead6c&e=a026058cd9

4. Social Media Bootcamp
Saturday 10/9 at 9:00 AM – Sunday 10/10 at 4:30 PM
San Francisco, CA / $450
Links:
http://eventbrite.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b9af9695d13926481e17982b2&id=88bca645b4&e=a026058cd9

5. Happiness Summit
Saturday 10/9 and Sunday 10/10 from 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Alameda, CA / $49.95 – $199.95
Links:
http://eventbrite.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b9af9695d13926481e17982b2&id=13dc54daa1&e=a026058cd9

6. Me the Money: Accessing Capital for your Business
Wednesday 10/13 at 6:30 PM – 9:00 PM
San Francisco, CA / $15
Links:
http://eventbrite.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b9af9695d13926481e17982b2&id=a1dd33066b&e=a026058cd9

7. Day
Saturday 10/23 from 8:30 AM – 6:30 PM
San Francisco, CA / $595
Links:
http://eventbrite.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b9af9695d13926481e17982b2&id=f89b768b2d&e=a026058cd9

9. FailCon
Monday 10/25 from 9:00 AM – 6:00 PM
San Francisco, CA / $215
Links:
http://eventbrite.us1.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b9af9695d13926481e17982b2&id=5792b534ec&e=a026058cd9
10.
http://eventbrite.us1.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b9af9695d13926481e17982b2&id=fc0d7a27ad&e=a026058cd9

Secret of Kells with Director Tomm Moore

2010-09-05T20:59:00.000-07:00

Embarcadero Theater, San Francisco, CA - September 26, 2010 3pm
A screening of the Academy Nominated film The Secret of Kells will be playing with a post screening Q & A with Director Tomm Moore. Also featured, short film Bigbox Singsong John.

Trailer:
http://www.gkids.tv/kells/

PIXAR DIRECTOR TO APPEAR AT THE BALBOA THEATRE FRIDAY, JULY 2

2010-07-01T19:38:00.001-07:00

The Balboa Theatre is proud to present

Teddy Newton, director of the new 

Pixar short Day & Night and the voice of 

Chatter Telephone in the feature

film Toy Story 3, who will appear at 

both evening showings on Friday, July 2.  



Newton came to Pixar in July of 2000 to 

work on the Emeryville-based studio’s 

sixth feature film, The Incredibles and 

has since contributed his considerable 

character design skills to many of 

Disney•Pixar’s award-winning feature and 

short films, including Ratatouille, Your 

Friend the Rat and Presto.  He was also 

instrumental in the creation of the “End

Titles” for The Incredibles and Ratatouille.

In addition Newton is frequently cast as a 

voice in Disney•Pixar films, including the 

lawyer Talon Labarthe in Ratatouille and the 

newsreel narrator in The Incredibles

and additional voices in Cars and Up.



For his Disney/Pixar directorial debut, 

Newton teamed with producer Kevin

Reher on Day & Night, a new short film 

released with Toy Story 3. Prior to coming 

to Pixar, Newton worked in the story 

department and in character design at Warner 

Bros. on Iron Giant.  He also served as

writer/producer for the independent feature 

film The Trouble with Lou.  Newton is inspired 

by the drawings of Al Hirschfeld and early 

Warner Bros animation. He grew up in Dana 

Point, California, and attended California

Institute of the Arts (Cal Arts).



More about Newton can be found at:

http://www.pixartalk.com/pixarians/teddy-newton/ 

An interview:

 http://www.pixartalk.com/2010/06/exclusive-teddy-newton/ 

Images from the short are at:

 http://www.pixar.com/shorts/d&n/index.html

Video about making the film with clips:

http://www.pixartalk.com/2010/06/making-of-day-night/ 



Teddy Newton will answer questions following 

the 7:00pm screening and introduce the 9:15 

show with stories about the making of both films. 

Hewill sign copies of the Day & Night poster and 

one lucky winner will receive a copy of The Art of 

Toy Story 3, published by Chronicle Books,

signed by Toy Story 3 Director Lee Unkrich and 

producer Darla K. Anderson.



The Balboa Theatre is located at:

3630 Balboa Street (at 38th Avenue), San Francisco. 

For more information: 

www.BalboaMovies.com or call (415) 221-8184

Review of short films on the festival circuit, including our film The Way to Heaven

2010-06-28T19:25:00.000-07:00

I missed last year's independent animated shorts submitted to the Nashville Film Fest, but this year I made it a point to try and see it when it airs on my day off or after my shift. And I feel fortunate that I was able to see these shorts this year, because there is a lot of different ways to animated a story that I haven’t even discovered yet!

For those of you that don’t know how these film fests work, any “shorts” segment features a collection of short films that have a running theme. For example, there is a collection of shorts called “Men Behaving Badly” featuring short films about men being… well, men. For “Sensational Animation,” the shorts submitted to the fest are just that. They are sensational and beautiful if not innovative.

Unfortunately, not all of the shorts were shown, but I’ll talk about what was shown at my screening.

The opening short was Death Row Diet by Mike Salva. This Flash animated short features Jonathan Katz voicing a Death Row inmate who was turned down by Weight Watchers as a potential spokes model. It’s pretty much your standard Comedy Central animated short, but the punch line is worth the wait. There wasn’t anything innovated here, especially if you’ve seen as much Flash animation on the internet as the average YouTube user.

Q&A (Tim & Mike Rauch) features an child with Asperger’s Syndrome interviewing his mother about how his mental condition affected what she was expecting to do as a parent. It’s a very sincere short, and definitely one of the most colorful. It looked as if the images were painted with art markers. You know, the kind that don’t bleed through the paper but still be bright. The image I found from the short doesn’t show it very well, but the outlines of the characters are really smooth, almost as if it was drawn over with pens. It’s definitely one for those that like their cartoons with a lot of bright colors and for those that love heartfelt and honest dialogue that only a parent can give their child.

Runaway (Cordell Baker) is a Canadian short film about what happens to a passenger train after it has a run-in with a cow that wondered on the tracks. Let me just say that it gets pretty ridiculous, with only a small commentary on the economic social class and status quo disguised as humor. The interesting thing about this short is the way it is animated. The studio animated this used a version of the multiplane that actually gives the animation a 3D effect without the use of 3D glasses! I’m not kidding you! There is a scene shortly after the train hits the cow (but doesn’t kill it) where the engine room is rocking all over the screen, and it actually feels like you are rocking with it. It’s a really difficult thing to describe on text, but animation fans should definitely check this one out for what they did here.

Leonardo (Jim Capobianco) features a humorous look at Di Vinci’s research in to flight mechanics. The character takes an Icarus-like approach, which results in some rather comedic gags. What’s really interesting about this film is that every so often, a frame will pop with notes about the character animation. Conceptually, this short is suppose to make it look like the viewer is watching Di Vinci’s sketches come to life. The Pixar animator even left the exposure sheet numbers in the corners of several of the sequences that were animated in the film! This is definitely a short for those that like to see unclean pencil test animation.

By far one of the longest shorts, if there is such a thing, in the collection is the Chinese film The Way to Heaven (Mier Tang begin_of_the_skype_highlighting end_of_the_skype_highlighting & Dalton Grant Jr.). The story is that an elephant god is on his way to his dragon god’s home in heaven when he is distracted by the plight of the human race below. Because of his distraction, he falls off the nimbus cloud that was carrying him and is stuck on Earth. He then discovers that he has the power to spread left throughout the barren land. After doing so, the humans give him thanks. But his dragon god master isn’t too pleased about this and demands he comes back home. When the elephant god refuses, the dragon kills him and turns him into a mountain. This is probably the most beautiful film I’ve seen animated. It starts out as a traditional 2D animation a kin to Samurai Jack, but ends up into a CGI piece that incorporates real life photographs of locations throughout rural China. Dare I say it is the most spiritual film I’ve seen that wasn’t trying to be overtly religious in its methods.

Immediately after that, we were shown a film from Latvia called Wings and Oars (Vladimir Leschiov). I have to be honest, I didn’t much care for this film. It looked like it was heavily influenced by the French symbolism film crap that only the most pretentious independent film viewer would see and understand as part of some ritual to claim bragging rights. I talked to another person after the screening about this film, and the best she could determine is that is was a symbolic short about a man getting out of a loveless relationship to pursue a life passion. It’s better than what I got out of it, which was nothing.

In order to bring humor back into the screening, we were then shown the Don Hertzfeldt short Wisdom Teeth. If you haven’t seen any of his shorts, look them up, because they are really disturbing and funny at the same time. How he gets it to work out that way is just something you need to see to understand. In this short film, his unfortunate victim lets a friend pull one of his wisdom teeth stitches out of his mouth only to discover that it is connected to something unexpected. The punch line of this short literally left the audience at my screening going “What the hell did I just watch?!”

After that mind fuck, we were shown a shadow puppet short from Sweden titled Dreams from the Woods (Johannes Nyholm). I don’t know how a shadow puppet play would qualify as animation, but for what it’s worth, it’s still a beautiful short film. Don’t ask me what it is about, because I got very little out of it other than a story about some girl going away to school only to be found dead in the woods after a rain storm. But still, it was a beautiful short.

The Spine (Chris Landreth) help bring the humor back into the screening while keeping the heady conceptual stuff going. It’s a short film about marriage council meetings. In the film, each couples problems are represented symbolically by how their own characters are designed. One girl’s boyfriend is so unemotional towards her that he appears as a wooden mannequin, for example. The short focuses on a couple who couldn’t produce a child and the emotional impact it has had on their marriage. The husband has become soft and meek, and it shows in how he is animated with skin that is constantly peeling. The wife is upset with how fat she’s become due to failed fertility treatment that she ends up projecting all that frustration onto her husband. This film, if nothing else, is best appreciated for the design of the characters. The story is simple to follow, but what really grabs your attention are the character designs. That, and when the husband actually grows back his spine as a sign of showing he’s regained his self confidence. It’s a beautiful sequence.

Lightheaded (Mike Dacko) is an interesting short in that it is about the creation of life, death, finding immortality, and the search for other life forms. All because someone lit a candle, which caused drops of wax to be animated into sentient beings. Basically, it’s one of those art films that is easy to understand, beautiful to look at, but offers nothing in innovation. It kind of reminded me of a Pixar short they would produce to test their new software before their big feature.

Ren & Stimpy animator Nick Cross submitted a short film called Yellow Cake. While trying to find an image to post of the short, I stumbled upon his blog entry about the film stating that it was going to be a “Direct-to-Internet” release. He shopped it around to the various film fests just to generate more views, but the entire film can be viewed online. You can watch it below, thanks to his Vimeo channel.

THE SECRET OF KELLS IN SAN FRANCISCO!

2010-06-02T15:22:00.000-07:00

THE SECRET OF KELLS
Animation, Tomm Moore, Ireland/France/Belgium,
2009
http://www.thesecretofkells.com/

Playing June 6 - 8, 2010 at The Red Vic Movie House in San Francisco.

Do not miss the highly anticipated new animated masterpiece from the producers of Kirikou and the Sorceress and Triplets of Belleville! Magic, fantasy and Celtic mythology come together in a riot of color and detail that dazzle the eyes in this sweeping story about the power of imagination and faith to carry humanity through dark times. Features the voices of Brendan Gleeson (Harry Potter, In Bruges), Mick Lally, Evan McGuire and Christen Mooney.

Young Brendan lives in a remote medieval outpost under siege from barbarian raids. But a new life of adventure beckons when a celebrated master illuminator arrives from foreign lands carrying an ancient but unfinished book, brimming with secret wisdom and powers. To help complete the magical book, Brendan has to overcome his deepest fears on a dangerous quest that takes him into the enchanted forest where mythical creatures hide. It is here that he meets the fairy Aisling, a mysterious young wolf-girl, who helps him along the way. But with the barbarians closing in, will Brendan's determination and artistic vision illuminate the darkness and show that enlightenment is the best fortification against evil?

For Ticket info and directions: http://www.redvicmoviehouse.com/directions.php

The 5 Miserable VFX Jobs That Make Movies Possible!

2010-04-12T03:28:00.000-07:00

By Christina H

So I am a visual effects (VFX) artist, putting fake things into movies with computers (often referred to as CG effects). You think you know me? You don't know me! You know that CG makes things like Gollum and dinosaurs and pretty much everything in Avatar, but most of the CG you've seen in your life, you didn't know was CG at all.

Just a collection of 1s and 0s.

For instance, did you know that there was only one real helicopter in Black Hawk Down? Or that most movie sports stadiums are filmed completely empty, or that no buildings were harmed in the filming of the Bourne trilogy? If not, then we know we did it right. If you ever find yourself saying, "That's a pretty cool CG effect there!", that means we fucked it up.
Everyone assumes VFX happen in an office that looks something like Mythbusters except with excited artistic types gathering around computers, talking about what kind of dinosaurs they want to make today. And for the top ranking people, the ones who get to talk on the DVD special features, it might be.
But several steps down the ladder from those guys, you have an army of peons whose job descriptions seem to have been created as part of some cruel psychological experiment. If you dream of a career making super heroes fly, these jobs are where you'll start, and you may never leave.
So, as you watch some $200 million VFX-filled blockbuster this summer that has CG in basically every frame, remember to say a prayer for the...

#5.Roto Artists

Basically It's:
Rotoscoping is a fancy word for "tracing." Specifically, tediously tracing around hairs on an actor's head, over and over and over until you long for the sweet release of insanity.
If you've ever tried to, say, use Photoshop to put some celebrity's head onto a naked fat man, you know just how fun it is to painstakingly trim out the background around a guy's head with your mouse. Roto is basically that, all day long.

Rotoscope artists look at film frame by frame, 24 frames in each second of film, carefully tracing around individual hairs or hoodie cords so that someone else can have the satisfaction of putting the actor or object behind or in front of explosions or dinosaurs or Jar Jar Binks. For the rest of their lives, roto artists are thus instinctively drawn to people who wear tight clothing and have short slicked-back hair, so there's a pro tip if you're looking to date one.

Roto artists' attempts to speak up for their community are often mistaken for PETA protests.

Why would someone want to trace Brad Pitt's head for ten hours a day? Well, it's a stepping stone to the cooler jobs (like Compositor, the guy who gets the satisfaction of actually pasting different elements together into a frame that actually looks like something). Roto is an initiation stage, like a fraternity pledge or a knight's squire, only if most pledges and squires never got promoted.
The second reason you'd want to do roto is if you live in India. A lot of this grunt work gets outsourced these days, because it looks pretty good if your only alternative is to have your eyes put out by a red hot poker and sing for your money, which is what I gathered about Indian career options from Slumdog Millionaire.

Don't even get me started on the gang problem.

#4.Production Assistants

Basically It's:
Doing whatever has to be done that no one else wants to do.
The duties of Production Assistants (also known as runners, or gofers, or peons, or self-moving ottomans) can range from relatively respectable tasks, like getting coffee, to slightly demeaning tasks, like holding coats for visiting Hollywood execs or being set on fire so the FX artists can have a reference for their fire effects.

Occasionally they fight for their boss's amusement.

When I was new to the field, the concept of working with PA's was pretty unnerving to me because they were basically like servants, waiting on you hand and foot. Over the years, though, I've gotten used to gently resting my feet on an obliging PA's back as I leaned back to think about a rendering problem or calling several PAs to form a bridge across a puddle on a particularly rainy day.

Producer and PAs, c. 14th century

Why would someone willingly submit to this treatment? Well, it's the Hollywood dazzle. When someone has the chance to be in a movie or participate in any task slightly related to a movie, the judgment centers of their brain go dead. Being a PA is like buying a lottery ticket to the Hollywood production big time. The chances of winning are laughable, but at least you have a ticket.
And even more tempting, a PA applicant often doesn't have to demonstrate any actual skills. They truly are looking for enthusiastic go-getters that will learn on the job and don't have a leg to stand on in salary negotiations. It also helps to look good, because, you know, Hollywood.

Hollywood.

Unfortunately, to get a promotion, PAs do have to demonstrate some kind of skill, even if it's just being "well-organized" or finding very good delis to get catered sandwiches from. There is a production ladder they can work their way up, each step as unlikely as the first, truly a churning whirlpool of cutthroat competition. Along the way they will gain more responsibilities, like managing schedules, communicating artists' needs between departments, and filling out a lot of forms.

Or picking up a producer's "medicine."

If they manage to make it all the way up, they might become a producer, in charge of budget and schedule, with a pretty firm grip on the balls of all the artists on their project. It's basically like a pawn crossing the chessboard to become a queen. And then some country actually declares the chess piece to be their actual queen.

#3.Matchmove Artists

Basically It's:
Drawing dots on individual frames that need CG, so the computers don't get confused. Over and over.
Matchmove is a lot like roto as far as prestige--that is, zero to negative.

The average hobo commands twice the respect of a matchmove artist.

Little known industry secret - most cubicles for real animators are actually built out of extra matchmove and roto artists. So what could matchmove artists do that could be as mind-numbing as roto?
Well, when the film makers shoot a scene with a camera, the camera is usually moving, even if just slightly. Your CG effect, on the other hand, will want to hold perfectly still if you don't tell it otherwise, so you need to match its motion with the real scene or else your Gollum or aircraft carrier landing on the White House will appear to jiggle haphazardly through the frame.
To fix this, some poor bastard has to put a little dot on the corner of the central building's tower in this frame...

...and then in the next frame, put a dot on that same tower to tell the computer that it's the same corner. He usually has to pick out several landmarks to put dots on, at which point he will turn it over to the computer, which will scream back that it doesn't have enough dots and make him do more.

Computers, like people, are put at ease by the freckles on Morgan Freeman's face.

#2.Render Wrangler

Basically It's:
Staring at a progress bar on a computer monitor. Then occasionally the phone rings and somebody screams at you.
So picture the actual VFX artists, drawing the CG Garfield riding his skateboard. They are inputting this into software and telling it how they want Garfield to look and move. But rendering photorealistic fames of CG takes a gigantic amount of computer horsepower, so it's at this point when the render farms get busy.

Render farms are literally piles of computers gathered in some room that turn data files into images. But even with Hollywood's supercomputers doing the work, each frame often takes an hour or two, and jobs are usually a few hundred frames each.
This brings us to the Render Wrangler. His or her main job is to monitor the render farm and the projects they're rendering, 24 hours a day, and tell people when something goes wrong while the machines do their slow, painstaking computery work. So being a Render Wrangler is really the closest you can actually come to getting paid to watch paint dry.

WOOOOO!

That is, when people aren't yelling at you. Because the computers work so slowly, you have various artists sending jobs in at the same time. How the jobs are prioritized determines how long the artists have to wait, and nobody is ever happy with the prioritization except the people who get priority #1. Knowing how long the jobs take, and how much pressure is on everyone to meet deadlines, you can imagine this causes angst bordering on "killing spree" level.
All of that angst lands on the Render Wrangler. The artists call or sometimes sic their production dogs or their managers on the render wranglers, jockeying for higher priority on the farm. Unfortunately, this favor-seeking tends to involve more negative reinforcement rather than positive (yelling, cursing, threats, possibly small electric shocks).

#1.Everyone Else

Basically It's:
Everyone in the industry knowing they will almost certainly be out of a job soon.

But rest assured, it's gonna happen.

So I talk a lot of shit about how VFX studios are built on the backs of these hard-working peons, but it's only fair to step back and look at the bigger picture.
Keep in mind when you have one of these jobs, you're not working for a film studio--VFX studios are just vendors who bid and work on productions at their behest. So, even the number one executive at a VFX studio is at the mercy of the film studio who hired them. And those studios are becoming increasingly merciless.
With movies needing more and more CG and more and more pressure to keep costs down, it's almost physically impossible to meet the budget and deadlines demanded without violating some human rights, and sometimes even then.

But rest assured, it's gonna happen.

There are a lot of VFX shops out there, and if one of them pleads for some kind of plausibly realistic deadlines or budget, the Hollywood film studio can easily find someone else who can work their peons harder and longer and for less pay. And if the peons don't like it, the VFX exec can just reach out the window blindly and grab a replacement.

Pictured: The right way to pick up a roto artist without damaging him.

Not that the ones who stay will be there long anyway. To win these contracts, VFX studios make promises they can't keep, which eventually leads to the whole studio going belly up when their costs wind up being more than the movie studio is paying. One studio, Meteor, went under and stiffed their employees of three months' pay.
To try to keep some kind of handle on costs, VFX studios hire most of their people project-to-project, so even great VFX workers can expect guarantees of about six months of work at a time. What happens after that? It's a surprise!
So, clearly if you didn't want to work in the VFX industry before, you do now! For the rest of you, as you're watching Tony Stark strap on a suit of CG armor this summer, take a moment to thank the peons.

For more info on this article: http://www.cracked.com/article_18486_the-5-miserable-vfx-jobs-that-make-movies-possible.html

"How To Train Your Dragon"

2010-03-29T15:43:00.000-07:00

CGSociety CGNews
Interview feature on 'How To Train Your Dragon' 3D animated movie produced by DreamWorks.
Wednesday, 24 March 2010

The film is set in a mythical world of Vikings and dragons. The story centers on a viking teenager named Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), who lives on the island of Berk, where fighting dragons is a way of life. The teen’s smarts and offbeat sense of humor is disliked by his tribe and its chief, Hiccup’s father, Stoick the Vast (Gerard Butler). However, when Hiccup is included in Dragon Training with the other viking teens, he sees his chance to prove he has what it takes to be a fighter.

After he entangles a dragon with a bolas-shooting cannon, Hiccup releases and ends up befriending the dragon, who he dubs Toothless.

This relationship flips his world upside down as he strives to convince his tribe that they don't need to be dragon-slayers but he ends up making the tribe angry and they lead an attack on the dragons home.

To read more about this article visit: http://features.cgsociety.org/story.php?story_id=5581

Shotgun and Tweak Release Integrated Production Tools

2010-03-24T01:38:00.000-07:00

Shotgun and Tweak Release Integrated Production Tracking and Playback Tools

Shotgun Software and Tweak Software today released an integration package for seamless interoperation of their VFX and animation production tools, Shotgun and RV. The combined solutions make it fast and easy for studios to track, organize, play, and review their work.

This integration provides one-click viewing of media in RV right out of Shotgun, and provides Shotgun-aware tools inside of the RV player. "I was an early adopter of both Shotgun and RV and used them successfully on a feature animation project. I always thought it would be great to have the tools work together, but now that they are integrated, the result is even better than I imagined. Once you can easily compare versions of a shot in RV directly from Shotgun, or automatically launch a shot in context of its neighboring shots, you can't go back and work the old way," said Stephane Deverly, C.T.O, Duran Duboi.

Tweak Software is the developer of RV, the next generation image and sequence viewer for VFX and animation artists. Shotgun Software develops Shotgun, a flexible and scalable web-based project management system designed for digital production studios. Both products have been adopted by leading studios around the world.

“The big shops have invested millions of dollars to build seamless pipelines. Tweak and Shotgun are working together to bring the same level of polished integration to everyone else.“ said Seth Rosenthal, Co-founder of Tweak.

“When you study the daily workflow of artists, supervisors and production staff, it becomes clear there should be no discernable separation between production tracking and review”, said Don Parker, Co-Founder and CEO of Shotgun Software. “We teamed up with Tweak to solve this issue for our clients, and we are thrilled with the results.”

“Shotgun is the backbone of our production tracking system. Together with RV integration, our artists will now be able to play back media from within the Shotgun interface giving faster and easier access to clips than ever before,” said Mike Romey, Pipeline Supervisor, Zoic Studios.

Key features of Shotgun+RV integration include:
• Move quickly from navigating tracking data in Shotgun to viewing or comparing one or more clips in RV.
• Launch Shotgun-aware playback from anywhere in the pipeline (from within Shotgun, via links in email, IM/Chat, todo lists, web pages, etc.)
• Deep link into Shotgun from RV to view metadata or create notes
• Update playlists in RV to use the latest cut data from editorial
• Load neighboring shots to see shots in context of the cut
• Display Shotgun metadata from right in the RV player
• Swap in high-res frames, QuickTime movies, or alternate media
• Easily Trim or reveal handles and slates

The new integration module will be provided at no additional cost to users of both products. Users can try out the new features by using a fully functional demo database and matching media package. Watch a video tour of the new features and sign up for a free evaluation here: http://www.shotgunsoftware.com/rv

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Cool Non Studio Animation Jobs (Interview with Faraz Mobin)

2010-03-24T01:30:00.000-07:00

Could you please tell us about yourself a bit? How did you get into the world of CG?

Hi, my name is Faraz Mohammad Mobin, I live and work in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) but am originally from Delhi (India). My main specialization is characters, although I do a little bit of all for my job. My motivation has always been games ever since I played the first Deus Ex. After high school (2001), I was a bit confused as I couldn't get people around me to see this as a career, at least in India at that time. There weren't many institutes that taught this well, so I took up Physics Hons (Jamia Millia Islamia) for the time being. After that I moved to Vancouver (Canada) for about a year and half, for my Game Development Course (College of Interactive Arts).

Please tell us where you are working and what is the nature of your job?

I am currently working at Dubai Police General Head Quarters in the Virtual Training Section as a 3D Modeler/Specialist. My work involves making 3d models (all sorts), setting up environments in the game engine and sometimes working on simple scripts. This gives me a chance to work in most of the steps during the development of Serious Games. I also get to work close to some of the other departments in the police like CSI (Crime Scene Investigation), TAI (Traffic Accident Investigation), Airport/Customs and SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics).

For the rest of this interview, check out: http://www.cgarena.com/archives/interviews/farazmobin/faraz_interview.html

Should American based artists consider relocation for job safety?

2010-03-24T01:12:00.000-07:00

Interview with Autodesk's Raman Madan
Regional Manager – Animation and Desktop Video, South East Asia & India, Autodesk Media and Entertainment

The paradigm of the Indian animation industry has changed drastically over the last few years. While India was earlier seen as a low cost destination for low end work, today we are seen as an animation superpower able to create world class animated features and products. Additionally, India has also grown in terms of creating animated content for the domestic market as well. With the likes of Hanuman, Ganesha as well as a slew of 3D advertisements being created here, the industry has truly come of age. Gaming too is a growing segment both in terms of international as well as domestic market.

According to a FICCI-PwC 2007 study the global animation and gaming industry is projected to grow from the present size of Rs. 11 billion to Rs. 29 billion by 2011, implying a 22 percent cumulative annual growth over the next five years.

In line with this trend animation houses such as UTV Toons, Visual Computing Labs, Crest Communications Prana, and Maya Entertainment as well as game developers such as Dhruva, Lakshya Digital, Gameshastra, DQ, FXlabs Gaming are on a constant quest for growth in order to meet the demand. As a result they are also investing heavily in technologies such as 3ds Max, Maya and Motion Builder from Autodesk Media and Entertainment.

Keeping these trends in mind, Autodesk Media and Entertainment plans to leverage the film & video, gaming, visualization and education market segment through the continuous launch of new and updated versions of its products 3ds Max, Maya and Motion Builder in particular. We have recently launched the updated versions of these products in India which we expect will further grow and consolidate our market share. In fact, we are doing customer launch events in 12 cities in India to reach out to our customer base across key cities in India.

Check this article out at: http://www.cgarena.com/archives/interviews/ramanmadan/interview.html

Disney to Shutter ImageMovers Digital

2010-03-12T19:01:00.000-08:00

The Walt Disney Studios and ImageMovers Digital, which produced "Disney's A Christmas Carol," will close the San Rafael, California-based IMD after production is completed on "Mars Needs Moms."

The IMD facility is expected to be closed by January, according to Friday's statement from Disney.

View article: http://www.thewrap.com/article/disney-shutter-imagemovers-digital-15221

Haitian Relief Fundraiser Raises $1,000

2010-02-25T13:18:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone who came out and participated in our first monthly Kreative Soup Lounge event. With this first event we decided to make it a fundraiser for the Doctors Without Borders Haitian Fund. This night of art music and philanthropy was a great night with local artists sharing work, networking, having some great tequila and even getting some awesome raffle prizes. We managed to raise $1,000 from the event which will go towards medical relief for those in Haiti in need of medical attention. It's a great cause and a great way to help save lives with a little bit of art.

We'd like to thank our sponsors for the night 111 Minna Gallery, Los Osuna Tequila and Stash DVD Magazine. Also, big, big thanks to the artists who were kind enough to donate their own art works for the cause. You can check out their sites and work by checking out their direct links in our featured artists links in the left side bar.

DJ's Mr.B from 4onefunk and DJ Deeandroid from the SkratchPad rocked the house and are always playing in the bay area so you've like to check them out please click on thier names for their direct sites.

Finally, we look forward to the next Kreative Soup Lounge coming up next month (announcments coming shortly)and know the power of putting creative minds togeather can be an unstopple force, so come out and join the soup next time!

You can see more photos from the event in our photo gallery in the right side bar.

Haitian Relief Fundraiser - 111 Minna Gallery

2010-02-10T11:50:00.000-08:00

Join us in this night of networking, fun and philanthropy!

Job Listing

2010-02-09T14:40:00.000-08:00

This was just forwarded to ASIFA by a former SF State animation student - perhaps you know somebody who might be interested in this I just wanted to let you know that my company is hiring for a technical support/software analyst position. I know finding a job has been fairly stressful and if you know anyone in the IT i...ndustry, please forward this email along. We're looking for an entry-level person with maybe some technical support background. It's not necessary that this person has a degree, but it'd be nice if this person was the computer tinkerer-type. If you feel you're a good match for the position, please apply. If you're qualified, the chance of getting the job through me is pretty high.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/tch/1565891081.html
See More
Technical Support/Software Analyst Position

The Way to Heaven at Austin Film Festival

2009-10-26T11:17:00.000-07:00

This week Jieli Digital Animation and Red Giant Studios had it's world premier screening at the 16th annual Austin Film Festival of The Way to Heaven. The film screened with a collection of other animated shorts in the Shorts 10 category and had a great turn out with a packed house at The Hideout Theater. The film will be screening again at the Austin Film Festival on Wednesday, October 28 at 10pm @ The Independent at 501. The Way to Heaven, based on the Chinese myth of Elephant-Trunk Hill in Guilin, China was nominated for best animated short film at this years Awards Luncheon. Dalton Grant, Mier Tang and Cindy Rangel (myself) were in attendance. We all look forward to the next festival and will making more announcements of festivals to come. Check thewaytoheavenmovie.blogspot.com for more info.

Red Giant Studios Wrap Party

2009-09-14T15:05:00.000-07:00

Last night we had a private wrap party for The Way to Heaven where we honored all the artists and people who worked on the film with a room full of close friends and business associates. Huge thanks to The Cellar of San Francisco for hosting the party and giving everyone a night to remember!

Radio Interview with Chief Operating Officer/Producer Cindy Rangel

2009-09-14T13:33:00.000-07:00

Click the links below to listen to the Women and Legends Who Really Rock's exclusive interview with Cindy Rangel, Chief Operating Officer and Producer of Red Giant Studios. It is a two part series interview hosted by Women and Legends who Really Rock, Carmen Milagro.

In this interview Carmen has a chat with Cindy about how she began her career in animation, how Red Giant Studios started and about her influences, idols and insights into being a women in film and animation.

Listen here for parts one and two of Cindy's interview:

Part 1 Click Here
Part 2 Click Here

!Calling All Artists!

2009-06-08T13:53:00.000-07:00

!!Update: We need donated works for our silent art auction at the KSL Haitian Relief Fundraiser on 2-17-10. Email us ASAP if you got a piece you can donate!!

The Kreative Soup Lounge would like to invite you to participate in our next upcoming event. If you are a fine artist, graphic designer, concept artist, performance artist or print artist of some sort we want you to hear from you!

Be part of the next Kreative Soup Lounge event and show your stuff to the world. We try to book artists 1 to 2 months in advace according to the nights theme so, please send samples, links and contact info to: mckenzy@redgiantstudios.net

We review work on a weekly bases and will get back to you within that time.

Cheers and we look forward to seeing your work!

Past and Present China Animation

2009-03-20T10:48:00.000-07:00

Today I was doing my usual research on the state of current China animation and ran across a pretty interesting site that goes through a gamut of past and present animated works from China. For those seeking to do business in the animation and entertainment industry out there I found this to be a pretty valuable page which quickly lays out the history on how the industry was established, what types of films have been successful in the past and why the current state of their animation industry is so far behind.

Here are some excerpts from the article but you can read the whole thing by going to the link below.

"Hidden from view for much of the 20th century, China's animation industry has still managed to influence the rest of Asia. However, the political situation in China has often conspired against animators and stifled their potential." -----------------------------
"The next few years in Chinese animation are liable to build on the success of McDULL, as the technologically-advanced Hong Kong region brings funding to the waiting animators of the Shenzhen and Shanghai economic zones. The cartoons produced by this marriage of complementary talents can now flourish in the world's biggest sales arena. With a potential audience of over one billion, Chinese animation has the opportunity to financially outperform many of its foreign rivals before it has even left the domestic market - a sobering thought for both the Disney kingdom and the emperors of anime to bear in mind."

http://www.muramasaindustries.com/punditry/animation/chineseanimation/chineseanimation.html

" Coraline "

2009-02-06T16:51:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. I'm back again with a little movie critique of LAIKA studios Coraline.

The film is a brilliant display of imagination and old school technical know how that certainly deliveries on the wow factor but falls a little short on general plot points. Don't get me wrong the film works well on a lot of levels , but the pacing and the dialogue needed a little more fine tuning to match the over all experience when watching this film.

There was a series of moments that the characters would say exactly what they felt, but the acting in the performances was plenty enough to understand the complexities of the characters. The danger never really felt dangerous but the set design and film style helped in that department albeit the best it could considering the material. Over all the film succeeds by picking up the pace in the 2nd act with its world transformations. I just wished I liked Coraline as a character more instead of several other characters helping her find her way. In the book she seemed more compeling. But understanding time and budget constraints, it made a lot of sense what LAIKA did in order to keep the films momentum going. It's always difficult to take a story from a novel and bring it to the silver screen or digital if you saw it in 3D. But the masterful art direction and interesting camera's combined with animation techniques not seen since Nightmare before Christmas makes this movie a definite must see.

The other point to note would be to understand what LAIKA is doing. The studio in Portland is taking some amazing risk not seen in most animated films done in 3D, 2D or any other style of animation to date. They are telling a story with darker themes and family dynamics that only live action films seem to be known for. There ability to tell a story of a young girl going through adolescence and not getting along with her parents because of the realities of having two parents in the working class American house hold was compelling enough to watch the movie alone. The Incredible's did this rather well a few years back and Coraline seems to do the trick rather well also. This movie is very different then the Incredible's for several reasons so its not to be compared with it in the way to say which is better. Certainly they both hold there own in there respected genres.

Coraline also makes an amazing reference to the Ranft brothers from Pixar. They're the movers in the beginning. If you ever worked with Joe you will love the animated performance of him getting the money to do the move for Coralin's mother.

I hope this film does well in the box office and continues to help LAIKA gain the momentum to set them apart from the various studios out there with there clever art direction and stories about families that are not cliche'.

China Animation Today

2009-01-06T13:33:00.001-08:00

For those of you who are new to the blog, I'm Dalton Grant, CIO of Red Giant Studios, LLC. We are a small animation production team that does 2D, 3D and visual effects for film animation. I was recently invited to do a speech in China at an animation conference in Beijing and it was amazing to say the least. At this current time China is very eager to become a major exporter of animation. Currently their animation market is being dominated by the animation imports of Japan and the US but, its only a matter of time before the supply chains geared towards animation in China will become stronger and grow into a world leader in animation. Its true they are 30 yrs behind there trading partners. Its also true that a lot of the universities out there are not on par with the animation schools of the US, Japan and Europe. But with major restructuring and government support, China is poised to change all of that.

While I was there I saw a lot of talent and a lot of students that were willing to learn whatever they could about the international animation markets. The only problem is they don't have a style or animation sensibility of there own. I believe in time they will but as of now everything is of Anime influence which is not necessarily a bad thing but it is what happens when your only familiar with what is being sold to you in huge numbers. Of all the animation that is happening in China , 80% of it is foreign. Of the 80% there is 60% Japanese animation and 20% US. So the supply chains of animation for China to even have an industry haven't even existed until now however, there is a lot catching to do. The advantages that China does have is the volume of workers and the governments willingness to help support the industry by making it easier for the financing of major films and TV shows. With over 300,000,000 children in China alone, the temptation to seek out the true potential of the Chinese animation market added with the even larger world animation market is impossible to ignore.

China is in the beginning stages of growth when it comes to animation. The worlds economy is slowing down especially here in the US. So to have the opportunity to be apart of something that has the potential to be one of the worlds finest places for entertainment is an honor and a gift and I would strongly urge other businesses and venture capitals to explore the vast opportunities in China. With their unstoppable growth rates, they could use our skills and talents to help provide a smooth transition into the future. The animation film and TV industry will blossom with new content and it will be well received by the world stage. If the opening Olympics is any indication of what is to come, then their future will just get brighter and brighter. I love films and to see filmmaking take on a new shape while maintaining some of what is familiar will be a welcome site to see in this bold new world. You can read more about the ICCIE Animation Industry Forum I attended and related press in the links below.

CCTV Animation Industry:
http://www.cctv.com/program/cultureexpress/20081219/102609.shtml

China Economic Net:
http://en.ce.cn/National/culture/200812/19/t20081219_17723820.shtml

ICCIE:
http://english2008.iccie.cn/cms/showCatalogAction.do?method=print&domainid=ff80808110c479b301116e7582d2126a

Show China:
http://en.showchina.org/Exchange/07/200812/t247909.htm

Official Start of Production

2008-10-07T02:00:00.000-07:00

So, this week here at Red Giant we've officially past all our Pre-Production concepts, got signed off on them and have begun Production on "The Way to Heaven", a 3D animated short (actually we were a little ahead of schedule so we really started the week before, yay!). It's been a tuff week work wise getting animation done, fixing rigging issues (the never ending story), dealing with the landscape rendering (Ahh!) and getting the computers not to crash but, I guess that's a given in this line of work. We always manage to have fun though so, the weeks pass by all to quick. On the other hand we also had to bid a very sad farewell to one of our crew this weekend who is leaving us to go live in Italy for a year. The amazing Hanna, was awarded a grant to go create an animated piece of his choice. So, congratualtions but, we'll miss you here. In the mean time, on with the show! The madness has only begun...

Man vs. Technology

2008-08-04T15:38:00.000-07:00

Man vs. Technology
Case #1: Windows Help Menu causes system crash.

Red Giant Signs with Jieli

2008-06-01T15:20:00.000-07:00

In May of 2008 Red Giant Studios based in San Francisco and Guilin Jieli Digital Animation based in southern China signed a deal to create a fully 3D animated short based on a famous chinese legend. The main focus of Red Giant is to revist this famous story in a way that most people have never seen or heard of before and to develop a chinese style in which to tell it in that retains a very chinese asthetic to it yet is modern and innovative. This is to be the first of many upcoming projects between the two companies most of which will be focused tword the family animated film market.