I supervised the shoot and was lead Flame op on InterSport, a world cup ad for Indonesia featuring Fernando Torres. This is why it’s been so quiet here over the last few weeks.

Stunning timelapse video of New York. All the tilt-shift/depth of field effects were created in post using Frischluft Lenscare, a plug-in I must have.

Just finished this last week. The sumos were shot on blue/green screens on location. Enjoy!

We don’t get a chance to go to the cinema very often but one weekend Gillian and I had the opportunity. We went to see Star Trek and boy did it make every other film in the series look weak, thin and boring! The new cast were absolutely spot on and the effects were utterly fantastic. The story and the action drew you in and kept you in that universe.

Directed by none other than J.J. Abrams, the film had 1,005 visual effects shots beautifully realised by ILM and Digital Domain. Any post house that can take anamorphic plates with tons of lens flares, create intricately detailed CG and comp it to perfection deserves all the accolades the industry can award. There’s a really good write-up on the VFX side of Star Trek on the CG Society site.

It’s fantastic that J.J. Abrams decided to take a very well known franchise like Star Trek, shake it to it’s foundations and come up with a much better story than almost every other film done before. Bravo, and I’m looking forward to the next one!

Click on the plates above for a larger view.

It was 1984 and I was 14 when Tron came out. I absolutely loved the film and I think I probably watched it over a hundred times. I was surprised when I felt a little bit excited about the sequel after watching the VFX concept trailer.

It’s released at the end of 2010 and with most of the original cast appearing. From the trailer it appears that Jeff Bridge’s character, Flynn, is perhaps now a baddie! Oh yes: Light cycles, frisbees of death, Master Control Program, glow suits. And it’ll be in 3D.

The Droste Effect is a technique whereby an image is rendered recursively to create a mind-bending (or brain-hurting) result. If you look at MC Escher‘s famous works you’ll see how a master artist uses this technique.

Now let’s have some fun. Download and install Adobe’s Pixel Blender Photoshop plugin, then get the Droste Effect Filter and start warping!

The effect is a lot more effective when it’s in motion. Take a look at OneInThree‘s fantastic video for Wild Beasts. I have to stress that the video was done mathematically by OneInThree themselves and not using the Adobe plugin. Enjoy!

It’s a big, BIG day for RED. The new cameras are just spectacular and game-changing. Infinitely modular, extremely adaptable, always upgradable.

I was going to write about the announcements in as much detail a I can, but Dorkman has already done that. His post captures the excitement and the disbelief. I mean, a 28K film camera? Huh? I thought 6K was the upper reaches!

Happy REDmas.

Last October, FXGuide had an interview with Grzegorz Jonkajtys about his short film The Ark which won Best of Show in Siggraph 2007. It took Jonkajtys 2 1/2 years to make the film whilst working on his day job at CafeFX.

I finally managed to watch the film online. I love the fact that it’s very dark and sombre and that feeling is constant throughout. The detail in the deep shadows is fantastic. The CG charaterisation and animation is extremely good and the matte paintings simply stunning.

It’s available in HD & SD here. Go have a look.