(Part 2) Best products from r/vfx

Sure, I think you would do well to go back and study the basis of visual design, concepts like layout, color, shape, etc... there is an underlying visual language to all design that allows it to express balance, define emphasis, create tension, lead the eye, harmonious color schemes, the like.

With just a quick google search I found this which is a good start. A book like this might help you put the concepts in context.

I would ( and have ) hired someone with a better design eye over someone with better skills, because if the person is diligent, the skills can be spruced up, someone with a bad eye won't see the innate purpose and is generally slow on the shorthand.

If you can, I would look around and try to find a college course like this and see if either you can take it or just sit-in on it. I think it would be beneficial to have someone teach you as opposed to reading books about it, because they can guide you and give you exercises to do that will help you internalize the concepts.

I go back to actively thinking about the principles very frequently, sometimes they're a real catalyst to that aha! moment when you get stuck. But most of all they're the basis for being a competent artist in any discipline.

It's the difference between seeing a very simple piece of art and "knowing" that it's just perfect, and seeing a really intricate peice that looks kinda cool, but somehow it's just wrong. You will want that simple truthful elegance on your side, and having the principles of design at your behest will empower you to create effortlessly rather than grinding something out that you're never really happy with. Not to mention, giving your work that little extra push into being great.

So the biggest mistake that a lot of students myself included make, is that they want to get into the really cool stuff first. Animating Spider-man and fight scenes and other bad ass stuff is absolutely why we do what we do. But before being able to do any of that, the fundamentals of animation really need to be hammered in. And the best way to do this is to animate very basic stuff like a ball, or a tail, doing this will help you understand weight and timing. One of the things that I heard repeated constantly in school was that a bouncing ball can be used in most objects, even someone like spiderman. Picture his hips are a ball, and then get the timing of that ball swinging perfect so that it looks like is actually swinging on something. And from there you can start adding more things that make it look real, start animating the arms, then the legs, and the body, and the head. Trying to dive head first with no experience into a complex character will lead to frustration and potentially bad habits.

​

Check out this video on the 12 Principles of Animation, it can seem kind of tedious to learn all of them, but they are all important, some more then others depending on the kind of animation you are doing.

​

For my experience, I started school in late 2011, and it took me 5 years of work to break into the industry after animating constantly. Mind you I was (am) an extremely slow learner with animation, I wasn't good at retaining the information and would constantly blaze past the boring stuff because I just wanted to animate "cool" stuff. I got a job finally last year, and since then I have worked on five different movies, 3 or 4 advertisements including briefly on a game cinematic, and am now currently working on a projected theme park show for one of the biggest theme parks in the world. Being where I am now came with a ton of hard work but also a fair amount of luck and willingness to make friends and connections.

​

If you are serious about pursuing animation and you think you can become passionate about the art and the history behind it, then I would suggest pursuing some form of education in it. There are a ton of online schools with some very talented teachers, and while expensive, they are still cheaper then going to a university.

​

Like I said, it has taken me forever to grasp animation, sometimes I still think the studios are making a mistake in hiring me haha, but I work hard and am eager to learn more. The best advice I can give you is to start basic, work your way up, learn the stuff about animation that only animators can see, and practice as often as you can.

​

Edit: I figure I should mention this as well, a man named Richard Williams who unfortunately passed away just a few days ago wrote what is widely considered the animation bible. I doubt you will find an animator that doesn't own or hasn't put at least some time into reading it. I would highly suggest picking it up, it's called The Animator's Survival Kit, and it's as legendary as he is.

I do this, quite often. I work remotely from home every day, but when I travel I work even more remotely.

Basically , the day before I'm going to leave I pack up all the plates and support files I'll need to do my work onto a USB 3 drive. All my folder structures etc are mirrors of what's on my home system.

I have a Macbook Pro with as much ram as they offered 5 years ago.... (still 16 GIGs.... sigh)

And I take a plethora of USB 3 drives. I also have a second USB 3 powered 15 inch screen. I use a powered USB 3 hub, a wireless mouse and occasionally a full sized wireless keyboard. I also have a Wacom tablet and 2 of each species of cable in case something goes wrong on the road.

I do all my work building my project files on my Macbook Pro, get everything dialed in etc. Then I use dropbox, or my own FTP, Google drive or some other thing to send myself the project files.

I then use splashtop screen sharing software to remote into my home machine, drag the project file into the correct location in the folder structure, open it on my home machine, and render it there.

My main job uses Shotgun for reviews, so I log in from home, upload my quicktimes, then upload my DPX's to their server... all of this happens pretty much real time, and doesn't really rely on super fast internet other than to support the video share to home.

Your portable system can be whatever you can afford, but I'd spend the extra money and get as much ram as you can cram in there.

It makes a WORLD of difference having a dual monitor setup on the road. I always feel cramped when I step down from my dual 27 inch screens to Dual 15 inch screens, but, it's better than a single screen!

This is what I use, there are others but what's great is it folds flat
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H0FK2A6/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use a Lowepro camera backpack with a laptop area
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000YIWR8G/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I can fit my Macbook Pro, my Wacom Tablet and my Monitor in the laptop compartment.

Then I have the camera compartment to store my Digital SLR, an extra Lens, and additional pockets for cables, hard drives and power supplies.

(Individual results may vary.... but my kit usually is in the 75 pound range)

It's heavy.. but I have yet to be anywhere out and about where I didn't feel I could bust open a portable studio and do whatever was needed. Shoot, I even did some emergency work while onboard a cruise to Norway! (Shipboard wifi is CRAP!)

There's not a lot freely availbe out there on Nuke. If you're willing to pay, check out FXPHD.com. They do really good courses, pretty affordable. However, if you've never used node-ased compositing, then see if you can get the concepts down with any Shake tutorials you can find.

Also, this book will set you up pretty well for the conepts of various compositing operations, which will realy help you out with a node-based workflow. Honestly, great book - worth every penny.

I know its past Christmas, but still good to keep some books around! Especially in the bathroom :) Here are a few of my suggestions

Masters of FX: Behind the Scenes with Geniuses of Visual and Special Effects

Inside VFX: An Insider's View Into The Visual Effects And Film Business

Cinefex ~ Not a book, magazine but lots of great articles!

You might want to see if your local library has a copy of Dobbert's Matchmoving: "The Invisible Art of Camera Tracking" (also Amazon, Book Depository).

So, there is tracking - identifying features and following them through out the frame - solving - taking tracked features and mathematically calculating the relationship between the features and/or the camera in 2D or 3D. Stable tracking on well selected features allows for more accurate solves.

Chances are that the solving process will provide you with the path of the camera, and locators for the features. Ideally, those locators will show you where those features are in space. All stuff you already know.

You might be able to assume that the level of the tracked ground is consistent and just build it out and see if it holds. It sounds like that is what you are doing already.

There's a few ways you could approach it:

• track some additional features around where you're interested in putting things
  
• look to other sources like lidar (which you won't have) or Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) (which you might be able to purchase for a relatively modest price) to provide additional guidance as to the shape of the terrain.
  
• eyeball it, see if you can find a level that doesn't slip. Unreliable, but you might find yourself needing to do this anyway
  
  Regardless, what I would suggest is looking at some matchmove showreels - you'll find some really talented artists proving just how good their solves are - often on insane shots - and apply the lessons you take from those reels to your own workflow. eg. /u/semmlerino posted a reel on vimeo.

I know it's not 90's or 2000's, but if you haven't seen Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner check it out. Overall it's a great documentary, but the visual effects section is top notch. It's amazing to see how those timeless effects were accomplished.

I believe it was packaged with the Blade Runner: The Final Cut bluray that came out recently.

If you really like it and would like to do stuff like a pro, you should buy a book, IMO there is some books out there that can really boost your game. I really liked Professional Digital Compositing by Lee Lanier. http://www.amazon.com/Professional-Digital-Compositing-Essential-Techniques/dp/0470452617 There's some interviews, a dvd with tutorial and a lot of stuff you gotta know to be a good compositor. Even if you are into motion graphics or anything else, all the basics are in there. Plus, it's a AE and Nuke book and has tutorial on both + some interviews with professional. There is also a lot of other great books and online tutorial are great but doesn't talk a lot about theoretical thing, you gotta understand them by yourself and sometimes, some of them are hard to understand. Otherwise, Video copilot is really great :P

Hi, I would recommend the same book i recommended the digital compositing handbook, I'd also look into Z-Brush, if you like monsters and dive into Artstation.com & Behance.com for motivation and see what people are making.

Unless you are talking about physical VFX, then perhaps history in sculpture and makeup, this book is great https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0240818946/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I bought that book for learning how to retouch photos better. The theory of lighting and shapes is very good.

No problem.

A solid understanding of python & logic also helps, but 90% of the dicking around you'll be doing will be in VEX, which is pretty much just vector math.

The handy thing about Houdini is that geometry operators and shaders are both written in the same language, so you can prototype operations in SOPs and then copy/paste the code/VOPs to the shader context and as long as you remember to handle the space transforms (shaders default to camera space, SOPs default to object space) everything just works.

This masterclass on fluid solvers is fantastic, it's what made DOPs really click for me, this is a good example of the math;
https://vimeo.com/42988999

Other books worth reading;
https://www.amazon.com/Fluid-Simulation-Computer-Graphics-Second/dp/1482232839/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1480804002&sr=1-1&keywords=fluid+simulation+for+computer+graphics+second+edition - full explanation of how fluid solvers work internally, probably overkill for most artists, but helpful if you want to break things, namely FLIP & Pyro.

https://www.amazon.com/Advanced-RenderMan-Creating-Pictures-Kaufmann/dp/1558606181 (this is quite old and deals solely with the old REYES algorithm, but contains a lot of information on how renderers work internally and a lot of it applies to VEX, which was designed to be very similar to RSL).

https://www.amazon.com/Physically-Based-Rendering-Third-Implementation/dp/0128006455/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1480803895&sr=1-1&keywords=physically+based+rendering This is an explanation of the workings of physically based renderers, but it's quite heavy going.

Storage classically is the biggest choke point on a given computer system. M.2 is finally easing this, but SATA is still necessary for most systems that need large capacities, and is still the slowest thing in a machine by far.

M.2 drives are getting pretty cheap anymore, so using up your extra PCIE slots is a pretty attractive option. I am spec'cing out a new system for myself, and am looking at using something like these adapters to mount 2TB m.2 drives like these.

I don't know about your wrist, but what solved my wrist pain was a claw grip mouse like the logitech g502. And these things which I absolutely can't live without now:

http://www.amazon.com/Allsop-29808-Comfortbead-Wrist--mouse/dp/B000XZ8MB6/

http://www.amazon.com/Allsop-29809-Comfortbead-Wrist-keyboard/dp/B000XV16LS/

Tablets are great for drawing-like uses. But a huge pain for other things, though plenty of people use them. A cintiq might be a little easier because the screen is right under the pen, but they're pretty expensive.

Ron Brinkmann's book should be required reading for compositors, pretty much (and probably is if your course has a reading list).

Also has 100+ pages of case studies.

It's kind of a weird question though. Their work is shown in the films. I assume watching Blade Runner doesn't count towards your credits? If you're researching the technical aspects (ie the "how"), sites like fxguide have interviews on how they made stuff from a vfx standpoint, and the thousands of "making of" featurettes and videos.

It sounds like you're looking to research the artistic considerations (the "why") however. Which is why it's weird because it's generally not vfx making those decisions, and certainly not one single compositor you can reference. It's directors / cinematographers, and is deeply rooted in photographic composition. Reflections is a good book for looking into that.

Color and Light - yes it's a painters book but the theory and ideas apply directly into compositing. (http://www.amazon.ca/Color-Light-Guide-Realist-Painter/dp/0740797719)

Digital Compositing for Film - You are going to hear and read a lot fo stuff by Steve Wright. He basically is the man haha. This book is great because it teaches ideas no programs. EVERYTHING YOU COULD POSSIBLE NEED TO KNOW ABOUT COMPOSITING IS IN THIS BOOK!(http://www.amazon.ca/Digital-Compositing-Video-Steve-Wright/dp/024081309X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1413392563&sr=1-1&keywords=digital+compositing)


For your last question, I did a while ago, i didn't work for them I worked with them. I now am employed by Prime Focus World.

CPU and RAM is the important part. There are video cards made specifically for rendering graphics rather than playing video games, but a gaming rig can still function as a great work station. The video card is what will decide how well you display 4K. The CPU and RAM are there to process and store all the data that comes with building effects or models or whatever you're planning on doing.

You're going to need a lot of space for all that footage. I just have two drives on my most recent build. The OS and some programs are installed on a 1TB Solid State Drive because it's faster. Then I have an 8TB Hard Drive to dump footage in. I recommend doing something similar.

Think about upgrading your chair while you're at it. Oh, and name your computer after me.

At this stage, what you should probably do is lock your script, create storyboards for the vfx shots/sequences and then put together a breakdown of the vfx shots you have plus the storyboards and send this breakdown out to several vfx studios to get bids for the work (and also the cost of having their vfx supervisor on-set). This book will give you a better idea of the vfx bidding / budgeting process
https://www.amazon.com/Visual-Effects-Producer-Understanding-Business/dp/0240812638/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465510338&sr=8-1&keywords=the+vfx+producer
Also, you should find out if your film is eligible for any vfx tax breaks such as the DAVE tax credit in Canada. Those tax breaks can be significant and could influence you to go with a vfx studio in a certain country or state.