Stan Winston Passes Away

It is with great sadness I make this post. Legendary make up and creature effects artist Stan Winston has passed away at age 62. He was one of Hollywood's top talent. Throughout his career, he won three Academy Awards. His loss is a great one to the effects industry, and to Hollywood as a whole.

Some of you might not know his name, but you most certainly know his work. He and his team of talented artist brought us the likes of the Terminator, the Jurassic Park dinosaurs, Alien, Predator, and many more. His most recent work was creating the practical suit for Iron Man.

His death hits kind of close to home for me, because I am an aspiring effects artist. Even though I aspire to be a CG artist, and not a physical effects artist as Stan was, he is still an inspiration to me. His animatronic work on Jurassic Park, along with ILM's CG effects, is what inspired me originally to want to be an effects artist.

So next time you watch one of the classic movies he worked on, remember all the hard work and genius behind the effects that he and his team created. A truly talented man, and a great loss to be sure.

CG Water Splashes

This afternoon I played around with creating large scale CG water splashes using compositing tricks. The results are below...

Background Plate

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CG Splash Element

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Final Composite

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For a more in depth rundown of how I created this effect, head over to the CGTalk Particle Flow Discussion Thread

As a side note, today is my 3rd wedding anniversary to my wonderful wife Sarah. I love her very much, and I look forward to the many more years we will spend together.

VFX Tip #2 - Lightwrap: Less is More

Light wrapping is a useful technique for making a blue/greenscreen subject or CG object really set in the background it is being composited into. It creates the illusion of the light from the background plate appear to bleed over the foreground, which helps the element blend naturally with its background.

However, this technique should be used subtly. A common mistake I see often in composites is using too much lightwrap. If you just leave the lightwrap effects at 100% opacity, most of the time, it will be too much. In fact, I try not to go above about 50% opacity. Look at the example below to see what I mean.

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Clearly, the default 100% is far too much lightwrap, which looks unnatural, and gives away the composite. However, on the right, the lightwrap is only at 25% and feels far more natural.

BMW Spec Commercial - Directed By Me.

Some of you may know, about 3 weeks ago I purchased a Canon HV20 HD Camcorder. I wanted to test it's full video quality, so Jonathan and I set out to film some footage of his BMW M3. I shot the video at a full 1080p at 24fps and edited together a little spec commercial for fun. It was not my original intention to make a commercial out of it, but I thought I might as well turn the footage into something useful. Take a look, and let me know that you think.

I hope you enjoy my choice of music. *wink*

You can view the YouTube Version here...



And the Vimeo HD version here (Better Quality...Click Link Below Video to watch in HD)...


BMW Spec Commerical - Directed By Daniel Broadway from Daniel Broadway on Vimeo.

VFX Tip #1 - Hunk Of Burning Love

No, I'm not the hunk of burning love. However, you may love me after this easy tip. In addition, you'll most certainly love the power of blending fire elements using 1.0 gamma.

This is the first of what I hope to be a continued series of visual effects tips. Sometimes they will be quick tips, and sometimes a bit more involved.

For my first tip, I thought I would share the benefits of compositing using a gamma blending of 1.0 in Adobe After Effects. Without going into a detailed explanation, blending with a gamma of 1.0 allows a more natural looking blend of light inside of a composite. This is especially true of elements shot against black such as fire or explosions.

In After Effects, you can enable 1.0 gamma blending by going to File>Project Settings and put a check mark next to "Blend Colors Using 1.0 Gamma." Below is an image example. All settings are identical, except for the gamma blending change. Both fire elements are composited using the "Add" transfer mode.

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Notice how the fire on the left is quite blown out, and has lost much of it's orange color, which was in the original plate. After enabling blending, you can see on the right that it sets in the in the image much nicer, and looks far more natural. Well, as natural as burning stone can look, anyway. There is also a noticeable difference in the cast lighting that I faked on the ground under the fire.

Also keep in mind, that this can also be useful for energy effects, such as sparks, lightning, lasers, or even lightsaber blades.

I hope this little tip was helpful. Stay tuned for more.

My "Star Trek" Fake Footage Entry [UPDATED: April 11, 2008]

UPDATE: I won the contest.

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Click to Enlarge To HD Size

Well, I just finished up my latest visual effects shot. It is for IO9's and Trekmovie's joint Star Trek fake footage contest. Because of the amount of time required for modeling the saucer and shuttles, I actually finished this shot in under 24 hours from animation, rendering, to compositing.

For those not familiar with visual effects, that is a breakneck pace to finish a shot like that. It's not my best work, because of the severe time limit, I didn't have time to tweak it to perfection. I like it nonetheless, so I thought I'd post it. The winners of the contest will be announced Monday, April 7th. Wish me luck.

Here is my entry at YouTube...



and in HD at Vimeo (better quality)...


"Star Trek" Fake Footage from Daniel Broadway on Vimeo.

The Ulitmate Snack

Today I discovered the most delicious combination of snackage that can be experienced by us, as humans. It is as follows...

1. A "Grab and Go!" serving size of original flavored Pringles. (available at most gas stations and supermarkets.)

2. A "vend size" Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pie. (available at most gas stations)

3. And a glass of Purity Vitamin D Milk. (available at most supermarkets)

Of all the various snacks I have ever had, none come close to tasting as good as the aforementioned items. While they are delicious on their own, the combination of the three, eaten together, provides man with a taste experience unmatched in history.

While doing research for this blog entry, I also have discovered the greatest machine that man has ever created, and probably ever will...

Source: Wikipedia