CG Today - VFX News

DIVE Produces 105 for "I Am Number Four"

Tuesday, 22 February 2011 08:15

I am Number FourDIVE produced 105 visual effects shots in the highly anticipated DreamWorks release “I Am Number Four”. The film, directed by DJ Caruso and starring Alex Pettyfer and Timothy Olyphant.

DIVE, the visual effects, DI and film finishing company whose recent credits include “Let Me In” and “Fair Game”, worked with Visual Effects Supervisor Greg McMurray to enhance the main character’s otherworldly powers showcased in the film. One of DIVE’s challenges was in creating a technique to demonstrate the power of “Lumen” and how it transfers to the tools the main character touches.

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Entity FX Adds Visual Effects for "I Am Number Four"

Tuesday, 22 February 2011 07:57

I am Number FourEntity FX, of Santa Monica and Vancouver, is excited to see its work in the new sci-fi thriller "I Am Number Four", a DreamWorks production directed by DJ Caruso and produced by Michael Bay.

The film follows a teenage boy, one of nine youngsters who, along with their mentors, are the last survivors of their home planet, and are now hiding on Earth. While trying to blend in at the local high school, he struggles to achieve control of his emerging superpowers before being found by the Mogadorians - alien assassins sent to track and kill each of the nine, in numerical order. If Number Three dies, John is in mortal danger: he is Number Four.

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NVIDIA Quadro Powers All Five Academy Award Nominees for Best Visual Effects

Wednesday, 16 February 2011 11:32

“Alice in Wonderland,” “Inception,” “Iron Man 2,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1,” and “Hereafter” Nominated for VFX Oscar

InceptionThis year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences expanded the Best Visual Effects category to five nominated films, and it was another clean sweep for films that relied on NVIDIA® technology—all Oscar nominees in this category were created by studios using NVIDIA® Quadro® professional graphics solutions.

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LightWave™ Artists Win Visual Effects Society 2011 Award for "Caprica”

Tuesday, 15 February 2011 09:41

Newtek LightwaveNewTek, a worldwide leader of 3D animation and video products, applauds the 2011 Visual Effects Society (VES) award-winners and nominees that count on NewTek LightWave™ to deliver groundbreaking visual effects tools for broadcast and film.

The LightWave 3D® VES 2011 award-winners and nominees are:

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Zoic Studios Creates Reverse Explosion Effect

Monday, 14 February 2011 06:53

Zoic Studios Creates Reverse Explosion Effect for Simon Cowell & Fox's The X Factor

Zoic Studios

Fox's new show The X Factor had a dramatic introduction during the Super Bowl as thousands of Xs came together to form the show's host Simon Cowell. The reverse explosion of Cowell was produced by Fox, Three (One) O, Park Village Productions in collaboration with effects powerhouse Zoic Studios.

To create the effect, a variety of plaster forms simulating Simon Cowell's legs, torso and head were detonated at high speed (1000-1500  fps) and shot on the Zoic Studios Stage. A week later on a London sound  stage, high-speed principal photography captured  multiple angles of Simon Cowell, both static and spinning on a turntable, against an all-black environment with heavy backlight. Additionally, Simon Cowell was 3D scanned to provide high-resolution  textures for the eventual 3D model of his full body. Autodesk's Maya was then used to fracture and explode the 3D model. The compositing challenge was to integrate all the live-action elements from the explosion shoot, principal photography, and CG passes of Simon's fracturing shell, individual body parts, and various X shapes, to create the illusion of Simon being formed from the  ground up.

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