Amazing display of Particle Effects

I found this link to this video online, and thought I'd share it with you guys. It's an incredible display of particle effects.

http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XMTIyODU1NzUy.html

Tube Tape - MxLight series review

For some professional equipment I'm surprised how poorly packaged it was delivered. Everything I ordered seemed to be shooved into one box as much as possible. One of corners one of the metal frames at the front of one of the lights was bent outwards because one of the screws didn't go all the way in. When you first order the lights you got to shave some plastcic off the inside of the socket in order for it to go into the stand, and one of the legs on one of my stands all already has a dent. I'm not sure if came like this or got it from the first time I used it the day after I got it. Either way thats pretty weak. It looks really nice when it's all set up. Performance wise I didn't get to fully try it out because plugging in two or three blows a fuse so I haven't got to work with all of the light at once. Considering it's my first Light kit I'm still excited to have it.

First Photoshoot

So the equipment I ordered came in on the 23rd. Then the 24th I brought it with me to a family Christmas Eve get together to shoot portraits for everyone. Haha, for my first shoot it didn't go too bad. They were blow away seeing all the equipment all set up. My light blew fuses like ten times, but they all had fun yelling out "Brown Out! Brown Out! Brown Out!" everytime that happened. We had alot fun.


Sana magustuhan ninyo ang pamasko ko.
Hope you like my Christmas gift.

Avatar (2009) Pro's, Con's, and Visaul Effects

I give Avatar a 9. 99999 / 10 It was a incredible movie. I knew it was going to a great movie when I hear Alex Alvarez, the director of Gnomon a vfx school in La was brought in to work on the creatures for the movie. The movie was intense I could tell just by watching that it had the most compositing work I've ever seen in one movie, and hearing the budget they had for the movie I could why. It brought me into a world I didn't want to end, and the movie being a 3D and visaul effects artist myself really intimediated for a while. It was fantastic and cutting edge. I loved the storyline. There were 2 scenes though that stick out in my head that make it so I can't give them the full 10. First hen the main guy escaped the burning helicopter in the mobile suit. The scene was really done, but after landing did he really have to take a few seconds to pose for the camera. Yea, it would've made a great poster, but it took me out of the movie for a little. Second, the scene where Jake Sully the main character was about to die because he couldn't breathe and the shot was when they did a close-up of his hand on Neytiri's face the main female chacacter. The shot didn't look like it was composited to the background very well. The camera shake felt really weird, and the Jake's human hand you could tell was Cg, but consider the amount of compositing that when into this 2hr 42min movie I'm surprised I didn't see more things like that. But this is one of my favorite movies, and hopefully see again this time in imax.

The Blog Show and New Equipment

So the blog show "The Film Ninja" will be starting the first week of January. I'll be placing the order Saturday so hopefully everything goes well with that. I plan to get a 10x20 Greenscreen with stands and three piece MxLight light set both from a site called tubetape. I also plan to get worklights from walmart for extra light to light the green screen. I'm still trying pick out a great camera though.

Here are the links to the equipment I plan to order.

Green Screen and Support Stand
http://www.tubetape.net/servlet/the-15/Green-Screen-and-Support/Detail

MXLIGHT TWIN LAMP THREE SOFTBOX KIT WITH BOOM
http://www.tubetape.net/servlet/the-93/MXLIGHT-TWIN-LAMP-THREE/Detail

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Star Wars: The Force - Fan Film

So I've been working with a one of my best friends on a film idea for a Star Wars Fan Film. He's a big Star Wars Fan with some great ideas.

Solano College Film Festival

The other day went to a film festival where students from Solano Collage presents films they made through the semester. They had snacks and I got to meet some great students.

Building a comp for 3D/Vfx/Film

October 9th, 2009, 03:05 PM

I need help trying to figure out what kind of computer rig I need to build for work. I work heavily in 3D Vfx and Film.

What I know so far.

Desktop vs Laptop
Why? SO I could change a customize parts if I need to. Plus it can hold more ram and other components. I could buy more ram and better components for much cheaper.

Also I already have a laptop. I have to disable the graphic card just so maya would work. It's daul booted with mac but I can't get programs like Final Cut to Work because the graphics card on it isn't compatitble with the Mac OS X Operating system.

Mac Vs PC
First of all I want to be able to daul boot between both mac and windows operating systems.

Mac's I hear have no problems having a windows os installed on it but I haven't tested it out myself yet, but I don't anything about Mac Hardware and if it's even customizable. I read in 3D world a few months ago most 3D Artists choose Pc's because Mac's are very limited in graphics cards.

Pc's I could daul boot, but I may be very limited with the hardware I could have on my computer. It doesn't look like Nvidia Quadro Fx's and FireGl's graphic cards are compatible with Mac Os X.

Linux os I may want because I hear helps render times. But it would probably work either way. I'm not even really gonna look into that right now.



Processor
I need the fastest processor possible
why? sounds like most people say that. And I know it must help with render times because batch renders usaully ask for multiple processors.

Questions:
Does it basically help to work in realtime when working in heavy scenes in 3D apps like Maya?

Can multiple processors be installed into one computer?



Graphic Cards:
For graphics cards it looks like Nvidia Quadro Fx's and FireGl's work the best with 3D.

Question:
Is it basically for better hardware renders in 3D apps, Or is there other reasons?

Is it hard to switch between graphics cards?

Can multiple graphic card be installed into one computer?

Does it effects maya software render and mental ray renders at all?

Does it help with render times?

Does it help working in real time and working on Heavy scenes and renders?


Memory and Motherboards
I'll probably start of with 8gb of ram. I think the ram helps with working on heavy scenes, and allows users to work in multiple apps at one time without there comp slowly down. As well as having more processes running. Is that right?

Questions:
How many ram slots can one motherboard have?

Is there a way to add more ram after the slots are full?

Does it help with render time


HardDrive
I'd get a hard draive with alot of storage but I don't find it really necessary because I'm constantly buying external drives.

Question:
How important is the speed of the hard drive?

Pt 2 of my conversation tsuperb - He asks about the hardships of the Fx Industry

Re: Gnomon School or VFS? or any other?

Postby tsuperb on 10/6/2009, 9:42 pm
My school of choice would probably be Gnomon, but I have to that's partly because I already live California even if it's still pretty far away. I haven't done my research on VFS, but I've seem some great reels on youtube of their work...[]

Thank you so much for you reply, it has been very helpful. I'm glad that you ask me to let you know what i decide, and i decided to reply your post because right now i am facing a two way exit and i don't know which one to choose, let me explain.

As i said i am a graphic designer, i love typography, great logos, posters, photoshop working, and above all that i love motion graphics (title sequences, advertising, etc) i came across a video that showed the process in the making of a character, from sketch to modeling, and i found it to be actually boring, so i said to myself, "is this what i want to end up doing my whole life?" Don't get me wrong, i really love visual effects and 3d, but i had a class with 3ds studio max and i really really hated it. So i don't know if you actually get what i am saying, but i would really appreciate if you could tell me something about being in the FX industry, i have read a lot that it is VERY TIME CONSUMING and that people end up practically with no social life, and actually not getting paid what they deserve. so what do you think about this?

tsuperb

Posts: 3
Joined: 07/25/2009, 11:51 pm

Top
Re: Gnomon School or VFS? or any other?

Postby NinjaTronix on 10/24/2009, 1:05 am
I understand what your saying. Personally though I'd choose 3D character modeling over title sequences.

As for the people in the industry not getting paid what they deserve, and the work being very time consuming. I'm not sure how well I could answer this considering I've only recently started making some serious money starting early this year, but my view on it is that you get paid for your skills as well as how well you sell yourself for.

The more people you network with the more jobs you'll come across, and the more chances you have to get jobs that pay well. I've seen some great portfolio's with people asking for a crazy amount hourly and I'm sure they must still be getting paid. I don't know if 3D artists get under paid because there's so much to learn in that area, and I've heard it's overpopulated with people and reels that aren't very good. Motion graphics I don't know if it's the same way, but in my opinion is way easier then 3D and people with not much skill could still have a great looking reel so people with different levels of skill would be completing with each other and more likely to be underpaid.

Also where and who you work with would also play a big factor in how well your paid. I'm guessing working in a studio you'd probably get paid alot more then if you were just doing freelance work. I never really worked in a studio so maybe someelse on the site could talk about that. Also a good example about "who" would be if you worked doing many weeks on a great looking music video for a local music artist you may still get very little because music artists are usaully pretty broke, but if you spend a day doing a simple commercial for a company you could probably get alot of money cause they have the money to spend it and there often more professional.

As for time consuming this also depends on where and who you work with. If your producing music videos for someone your probably calling the shots telling them when it will be done working in your own hours. If your working at a studio your probably working as long as it takes to finish within the deadlines they set.

Social life, I think is the same thing. If your working on a if your working on a big film your probably going to come on set and work with alot of great and interesting people, or if your in 3D at studio you'll be working with a lot of people along the pipeline. But if your doing freelance work with crazy deadlines like I am right now. I've pretty much been stuck in the same room for the past few months. Haha.. i've met some people on online dating sites while I work, but it's still no use if I don't have time to meet with them. But even if your faced with crazy deadlines there's also another side to it. Once you reach that deadline you'd have 24/7 to socialize or do anything you want. Something I have heard in the industry is that you may need to learn to live off of 6 months of income because lots of people get laid off when projects finish.

As for me I'm probably going to start my own production company, and provide services for pretty much everything.

(Wow.. I almost lost everything I typed because when I clicked submit it went to "page not available." and my internet froze. I selected everything and copied incase that would happen, but it didn't paste on the first two placing i pasted to nothing happened so i though I lost everything. Luckily it work the third time. I don't know if I would've really wanted to type this whole thing over again lol..)

NinjaTronix

Posts: 3
Joined: 10/1/2009, 11:46 am

A Rant I had about VFX Schools on the Video Co-pilot Forums

Gnomon School or VFS? or any other?

by tsuperb on 09/21/2009, 4:46 pm

Hi!
I am a 21 year old graphic designer. I want to continue my studies in the VFX field, but i am unsure about which one should i choose. I have read some bad reviews about VFS saying that the price was to high for such a little time for the program (one year). I haven't find anything bad about Gnomon, except that they focus on post-production classes and not production, say motion capture, or green screen and all that, isn't that REALLY important for a VFX artist?

So please anyone who knows about these two schools (or any other that you would recommend) please say something. I don't live in the states and this is a difficult and important decision for me.

Thank you!

tsuperb

Re: Gnomon School or VFS? or any other?

by NinjaTronix on 10/1/2009, 12:42 pm

I'm 21 as well facing the same desicion towards schools.

My school of choice would probably be Gnomon, but I have to that's partly because I already live California even if it's still pretty far away. I haven't done my research on VFS, but I've seem some great reels on youtube of their work.

It's true when I visited gnomon I didn't see any motion capture work, but I don't think you have to worry about green work. I've seen some great compositors come out of gnomon, and learned a ton of of green screen material from there training material alone. Pro's and con's of green vs blue screens, all the way down to how boujou triangulates tracking markers, and what are the best ones to use in what situations. Writing down distances of the green screen, the talent, and the camera. I'm at the point with green screen (like many other aspects of 3D/Vfx) that any other school would give me a more diluted education then what I've learned from thetraining material from gnomon, and if I want to go further in my education I actually got to go to that school.

I'm at the point where I have tons freelance jumping at me from different directions Vfx, 3D animation, and film. I'm thinking of taking Gnomon 9-week fast track course get a diploma or something. I admit though I don't know much about motion capture. I plan to ask someone from Expressions college in emeryville, california to show me how all that stuff works.

Expressions is another great 3D/Vfx school in Northern California. If you like motion capture and green screens I also toured there school. They got 2 really great green screens, and a cool looking motion capture room. They also have classes were they put someone studying audio, someone studying film, and someone studying vfx together to make short films. (The team were something like that.) There 3D work is really great two. For me I'm not even really considering that school because it's on like a bachelors program or something, and I don't want to waste my time doing general ed. If you already got stuff like general ed that might be a great school to consider. Same with Academy of Art in San Fransico. They require General Ed too. I don't know about VFS and Full Sail. Full Sail is another school I hear alot, and another I haven't done much research on. I think Gnomon and Full Sail is said to be the biggest Fx schools in the U.S.
More pro and cons of Gnomon.

Pro's- It's in Hollywood. Best place to go for fx work, and networking with the industry. They also have events happening all the time. There now working on a short film with the maker of the movie "9" Any great film or game they usaully have a panel come in and do a complete breakdowns.

Con's- The don't have a motion capture room and they have a giant screen there, but not for student use. Also you probably wouldn't be able to check out any camera's or anything.
(This actually doesn't effect me much since I'm about to invest the money I just earn from freelance work into a $4,000 High Def Camera and a portable Green screen stuff and lights.)

Let me know about any information you find. I'd really appreciate it. Hope this info was helpful.

Thomas
www.TronixProductions.com

TronixProductions Website V3

I'm now working on www.TronixProductions.com v3. This time it's gonna be big. This time I believe I really know what I'm doing and I won't have to remake it from scratch anymore. I'm building the site with great foundation. 20 pages so far with a great foundation. Gonna go through a ton more Dreamweaver and Flash Training material. The Sites gonna be Great!! =D

Thomas Ferrick
3D-Vfx Artist/Filmmaker
www.TronixProductions.com