Steven Larson's Blog » Digital Talk

Sports Promotional Cards

Larson — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 21:04:25 +0000

Finished up those local bar sports promtional cards…

OS Commercials

Larson — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 03:47:14 +0000

I saw one of those commercials I heard Microsoft paid Jerry Sienfeld $10,000,000.00 to be in. I was totally confused right from the beginning. First I thought Bill Gates was a shoe salesman, but then he is wearing his shoes in the shower. Why Shoe Circus? Why are they talking about shoes anyway? Then they are talking about computers being cake???? This has to be one of the most epic fail of a commercial. Seems their commercials are as bad as their operating systems.

I’m sorry, but even the over done Mac commercial are still funny.

SIGGRAPH 2008

Larson — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 04:42:36 +0000

I attended the SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group/Graphics) convention this year here in Los Angeles. Autodesk just has become the powerhouse in the industry, and announced new versions of most software I haven’t even begun to learn. Including the fact that I wasn’t quite aware that they had purchased Mudbox, a competitor of Z Brush. Their booth was jammed pack the entire day. Then all over the exhibit hall were signs of the upcoming move to stereoscopic. Which is a term you have to use to create the rehashed 3D movie crap they are putting in movies. All I thought is this more ’shit’ I have to learn.

Besides Autodesk, Pixar and Disney were popular areas on the floor, though it’s hard to compete with Lucas Films. For some reason I noticed this year that it’s just not ILM at SIGGRAPH, but because George Lucas has so many divisions – they simply call it Lucas Films now on the floor. I have to say Softimage is still hanging in there, and EyeOn’s ‘Fusion 6′ looks cool with it’s new part of the studio ‘Generation‘. Where while in a discussion with a client they can bring up a in program chat with the artist and can draw right no the clips to direct the artist even better. Then the artist can make another ‘generation’ of the clip — get it. Course this software comes with a price of around $9995. I didn’t go over and look into viewing Maxon’s Cinema 4D. I just look at it all and think do I need to learn all this?

Once again I didn’t go to the Animation festival. In all honesty this years SIGGRAPH made me a bit humbled. Though they did have it at the new Nokia center in downtown – plus they showed a pre released copy of the new animated movie Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Which I also did not attend.

Gnomon 2008 Grad Demo Reel

Larson — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:33:32 +0000

Gnomon approached me to work on another project for them. This time it’s a Student Reel for them to run during SIGGRAPH this year. I wanted to tackle this right away, but I have to say after I used Handbrake to rip the digital video off the DVDs of the students’ reels. It was really like staring at a blank sheet of paper, where do I begin I thought. So I found I didn’t tackle the project like one that had been scripted. I finally decided to simply sit down load the student reels into Final Cut Pro preview them and mark the ins and outs of the clips I believe would be useful. Then I first thought to group them towards each student, but obviously some reels were better than others. So then I came up with categorizing into genres like concept, matte paintings, modeling, textures, animation, and graphic design. Which started okay, but actually made it ‘look’ boring. So I eventually went with simply editing it to the beat of the music. So from all that I put something together.

The first version wasn’t any good, as I tried to stay away from Gnomon’s clichÃ© ‘Creature Feature’ look. It didn’t give a strong feeling of the school, plus after the first viewing I was able to use more student’s work. The second version wasn’t quite strong enough, plus I got an email that I didn’t put in all the ‘BOTs’. What the hell is a ‘BOT’? Turns out Gnomon has a page on their web site for ‘Best of Term’ pieces by students. Once I added all those in and tighten it up recreated the opening graphic animation. I had something for them.

Digital Grunt

Larson — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:48:50 +0000

How true this video is. Makes you almost want to think twice about going head first into this career. Rumor is that it was made by a group of guys over at Digital Domain.

TWiT 24Hr Coverage of iPhone 2.0

Larson — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:11:39 +0000

I have to confess that I did begin to watch Leo Laporte’s 24 hours of the new iPhone release, then ended up going out drinking with Sheldon. I ended up stumbling home around midnight, and turned back up the iPhone coverage as I pasted out.

Which led me to dream about driving around with Leo Laporte, and Leo was driving and acting like a tour guide. Till he got in a car accident, then everyone in the SUV had to jump out and run to the next Apple store to get their new 3G iPhone. Then woke up around 5am to the screams of the fanboys in line at the 5th Ave Apple store and Leo laughing.

I do not see myself getting the new iPhone 3G, my first version iPhone fits me quite well.

Though One cool interview that Leo did in his 24 hour mania was with Steve Wozniak

When Do You Consider Yourself a Photographer?

Larson — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:00:01 +0000

In this new digital era of digital photography I have notice a couple of things. One, that a number of people who have simply bought a digital camera are calling themselves ‘Professional’ photographers and handing out business cards to that affect. After talking to a couple of them over drinks it is clear they do not understand the fundamentals of photography; f/stops, depth of field, or even ISO. Then I was even more surprise to find out that on top of that most don’t understand the basics image manipulation. Image size and it’s comparison to resolution – especially when you are cropping, color profiles (sRGB, Adobe RGB 1998, ColorMatch, etc…), what happens when they compress a file, or even know which file format to use. Don’t get me started on using RAW files.

Which brings me to the second group, the professional ‘film’ photographers. Now most know how to use the camera, but then they have this digital file and the image manipulation applies. They even have a hard time with naming their files!

It totally boggles my mind. Now here I am, who has been shooting since 1983. Developed and printed my own work in my own closet darkroom. Then 13 years later went to school and learned the whole computer age and image manipulation. Not to mention that I have been working in a photo lab for over 11 years. …and I still do not consider myself a professional photographer. Even though I have sold some of my photos, and some have been published. Maybe it’s because I compare my landscape work to Ansel Adams, or my event photography to Joe Buissink (who amazingly captures the moment), or my portrait work to Annie Leibovitz (who creates a setting and mood). I feel I always compare myself to the best, or in my view the people that express images that I am drawn to.

I do no have firm grip on the business side as I have never created a business, nor know even how to start one. To me it’s about the art. So maybe it’s just me, and my thoughts of a professional to who calls themselves a photographer. In the end run maybe it’s not simply someone who has a really good eye and experience, but someone that knows how to market themselves.

Speed Racer

Larson — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 06:07:10 +0000

Gnomon School of Visual Effects, the VES and the Maya User Group welcomed Digital Domainâ€™s visual effects supervisors Kim Libreri and Mohen Leo to discuss the making of the â€œphoto animeâ€ film Speed Racer. It is well known by now that the movie Speed Racer did not do well at the box office at all, but the visuals were on the edge of ground breaking in new way and style.Digital Domain was the lead facility on Speed Racer. The film has several distinctive visual aspects — a rich palette of super saturated colours, a rapid Manga energy and an unusual relationship between the live action actors shot on greenscreen and their cinematic background. Kim Libreri contruded to say that his team at Digital Domain developed, among other things: a large proportion of the color pipeline, the panoramic acquisition software; the compositing software, Nuke; the car animation system; the on-set compositing system, Sparky; the on-set motion base car simulation techniques; the look and methodologies for the cars; the initial bubble look and techniques; and of course we created the Thunderhead and Grand Prix races.

Kim and Mohen showed us the first concept reel they put together to show the new look. For a pre-vis scene it was amazing and have to gave note to Brent Bowen at ILM for editing the slice of magic together. They said they worked 8 weeks on it with a team of around 10. Working of course 7 days a week 15 hour days.

The DD team used an advanced ray tracing global illumination, image based lighting approach to produce the level of visual accuracy needed and photoreal cars. But the ray tracing comes at a price, and that price is render speed, especially with vast amounts of geometry in the scenes. Kim said they were able to cut down the render time from 8 hours a frame to 8 minutes a frame.

Kim and Mohen both talked about the digital camera they used SONY F23. Plus how they did use edited version massive for the crowd shots, and went on to talk about the motion blur used in the motion picture. I found this article ‘Mach -A- Go Go’ from fxguide that discussions these topics

On top of the hard geometry of the race track and its environment, someone at DD calculated these massive data sets also had some 2.1 million digital crowd members watching the final race. All of which needed to be motion blurred — both motion blurred accurately and as a stylistic decision and technique. To do this, a combination of Mental Ray and DD’s own 2.5 post processing motion blur was used. Doug Roble at DD wrote a new motion blur tool as the actual motion blur varied on different objects in the same scene.

Motion blur is caused by the duration of the exposure which is turn is controlled by the angle of the shutter on a traditional film camera. During post, the Wachowski Brothers along with VFX supervisor John Gaeta and VFX supervisor Dan Glass would set individual shutter angles on separate objects. They would request in dailies “make that car 45 degree shutter, that one 120 degree shutter, cartoon motion blur on that, back on 120 degree here.. etc ” explains Libreri. They had “multiple combinations of the shutter angles for the motion blur on multiple objects in the scene, and if the Mach 6 blew by the camera, then they may have a combination of 180 degree shutter angle, mixed and blurred with video shutter angles”, so you would see the Mach 6 cleanly but with trailing motion blur speed lines. This was done in the composite in Nuke.

The project was shot on the F23, with a large depth of field. Initially the film makers were not going to have such a stylized look to the film, but during testing the Digital Domain team found they could get the F23 to look 100% real and just like film, an alternative was explored, that of the hyper-saturated, low grain, vast depth of field look.

During the shoot, DOP David Tattersall used the Hyper gamma 4 curve in the F23. The Hyper Gamma 4 is type of modified REC709 gamma curve, more like HD than Film. The files on set were recorded into the new Codex store, as 10 bit DPX log files. By using the Codex they could record DPX but still on set monitoring with standard HD monitor but also get DPX files so the vfx team could composite on set. The Hyper Gamma 4 Curve effectively “brings down the shoulder of the cameras response so it still fits in a standard Rec709 video file

SONY F23 CineAlta

Kim brought up the Speed Racer environments used VR bubbles. They utilize VR image to create shots, for stylistic and practical purpose. VR is not 3D but it has pseudo depth, which allows you to travel within it to certain extend. This was used primarally on the ‘home’ scenes not the races. I found this example below from a VR Mag article.

Also I found this interview on VR mag too. The following video interviews by Xeni Jardin are courtesy of BoingBoing TV.Â BBtv: Speed Racer is “poptimistic” — interview with John Gaeta, part 1.

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Overall the night left me thinking – I need to learn so much more. But more important that I need to try and do more and more. What’s taht saying ‘practice makes perfect’.

Redesigning My Studio

Larson — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:37:04 +0000

After some time of thinking about it. I finally decided to take action and redesign and rearrange my computer systems and studio layout. I began on Friday and pull all the systems out and come up with a basic more simple desk arrangement for the computers and TVs. This took me to 2am.

Saturday morning dealt with sizes and heights. See I have all those storage racks because they are more like a erector set and I can change it up the way I want it. So I measured the height of the Apple monitors to set the height of the HDTV behind it, and I measured the height of the little 13″ TV’s to place them on the top of the shelf, measured the heights of the ‘extra’ smaller shelves for my CD books and DVDs – etc…

Once I got the measurements down I need to place and hook up the computer systems. Five to be exact – the main Mac Pro, my Mac G5, the Mac G4 for iTunes, the Mac G4 for office use, and the lonely PC. Next I needed to decide on what to place in the audio rack etc… By 2am again I am exhausted!

Sunday morning I awoke to a huge mess on the other side of the studio. Well, I needed to tackle that.

I planned out how to place my desk and the sculpting area, and ran into problem after problem. But I got the layout to look like this by 9pm. Which I like.

By 11pm I was too exhausted to continue with the detailed/ comprehensive video and audio wiring. So laid down for a rest and completely fell asleep.

Effects guru Stan Winston dies of cancer at 62

Larson — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 03:30:32 +0000

Stan Winston, the Oscar-winning special-effects artist creator as such animatronic creatures like the dinosaurs in ‘Jurassic Park‘, the robots in ‘Terminator‘, ‘Aliens‘, even ‘Edward Scissorhands‘ and other iconic movie creatures to life, has died today at 62.Â

Winston died at his home in Malibu surrounded by family on Sunday evening after a seven-year struggle with multiple myeloma, according to a representative from Stan Winston Studio.

Working with such directors as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Tim Burton in a career spanning four decades, Winston created some of the most memorable visual effects in cinematic history, and was a pioneer in merging real-world effects with computer imaging.

Frederick Brown / Reuters file

During a film and TV career that spanned four decades, Winston collaborated with such filmmakers as Steven Spielberg and James Cameron and worked on some of his generation’s most memorable films.

He won four Oscars, for the visual effects in “Jurassic Park,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and “Aliens” and for makeup on “T2.” He also earned Oscar noms for his work on “AI: Artificial Intelligence,” “The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” “Batman Returns,” “Edward Scissorhands,” “Predator” and “Heartbeeps.” He was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2001.

Past Films & Videos
Â — Iron Man – Special Effects (2008)
Â — The Deaths of Ian Stone – Producer (2007)
Â — Big Fish – Special Effects Director (2003)
Â — Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines – Special Makeup Effects Artist, Animatronic Effects (2003)
Â — Jurassic Park III – Live Action Dinosaurs (2001)
Â — Pearl Harbor – Special Makeup Effects Artist (2001)
Â — Galaxy Quest – Animatronic And Creature Effects (1999)
Â — End of Days – Creature Effects Supervisor, Creature Designer (1999)
Â — Inspector Gadget – Special Animatronic Effects (1999)
Â — Lake Placid – Creature Effects (1999)
Â — The Lost World: Jurassic Park – Live-action Dinosaurs (1997)
Â — The Island of Dr. Moreau – Makeup/creature Effects (1996)
Â — Congo – Gorilla Special Effects, Second Unit Director (1995)
Â — Tank Girl – Ripper Design (1995)
Â — Jurassic Park – Live Action Dinosaurs (1993)
Â — Batman Returns – Special Penguin Makeup & Effects Producer (1992)
Â — Terminator 2: Judgment Day – Special Makeup, Terminator Effects Production (1991)
Â — Edward Scissorhands – Special Makeup And Scissorhands Effects Producer (1990)
Â — Pumpkinhead – Director, Writer (1988)
Â — Predator – Special Effects (1987)
Â — Aliens – Alien Effects Creator, Second Unit Director (1986)
Â — The Terminator – Special Terminator Effects Creator, Second Unit Director (effects unit) (1984)
Â — Dead & Buried – Makeup Effects Designer (1981)
Â — The Wiz – Special Makeup Designer (1978)
Â — Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde – Special Makeup Supervisor (1976)
Â — The Man in the Glass Booth – Makeup Artist (1975)

Source: IMDb
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