brian alvarez : fx : lighting : compositing

Apple and Watchmen

Director Zack Snyder (“300”) and visual effects supervisor John ‘DJ’ Des Jardin discuss the creation of the CG character Dr. Manhattan.

February 17, 7:00 p.m.
1248 Third Street Promenade
Santa Monica, CA 90401
(310) 576-1011

Visual Effects Society

Image Quality Considerations for Cinematography and Visual Effects

The choice of an imaging system and camera has implications as never before. Choosing film or digital (or which type of digital) can have far reaching consequences on style, cost, image quality, and practicality. The Cinematographer and the Visual Effects Supervisor should be as integrally involved in these choices as they were in the selection of film stocks traditionally. This event will strive to help Cinematographers and Visual Effects practitioners find the correct balance between theory, practical implications, and current practices. Hans Kiening will present a scientifically based overview of Spatial Image Quality, Dynamic Range , and Grain & Noise. Learn how to judge what image capture systems are right for your project. Then Ray Feeney will host a panel of Cinematographers and VFX Supervisors as we look at the choices made by this years Oscar nominated cinematographers and VFX teams. Films to be discussed are: Benjamin Button , Dark Knight, Iron Man and Slumdog Millionaire. Each of these feature films made unique choices optimized for their individual projects. Never before have we had VFX and Best Cinematography nominations that cross as wide a spectrum of imaging choices — Traditional 35mm film, Imax, Viper, Silicon Imaging, etc. This promises to be an exciting (and perhaps controversial) evening of discussion.
Presenters: Dr. Hans Kiening and Ray Feeney

Panelists:
Claudio Miranda – DP ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’
Wally Pfister, ASC – DP ‘The Dark Knight’
Matthew Libatique, ASC – DP ‘Iron Man’
Anthony Dod Mantle, BSC – DP ‘Slumdog Millionaire’
Eric Barba, VFX Supervisor – ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’
(Other Panelists to be announced)

Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Linwood Dunn Theater. 1313 Vine Street. Hollywood, CA 90028
6:30pm Snacks/Drinks 7:00-9:00 Event

Free for VES, ASC and Academy Members. PGA + DGA Members $10. All non-members $20

VES Members CLICH HERE to RSVP. All others please call (818) 981-7861

PSST!3 Screening

Lately I been collecting images of clocks and watches for my next personal project (they are a key component). I have also been testing out the new camera rig and preparing my animatic for framing shots and animation tests. Although it’s still too early to show anything, I did sketch out designs of clocks in preparation for story boarding and style frames.

Other then that, I have been packing and gathering stuff for my journey to LA tomorrow (January 28th 2009) for interviews. I’ll see if I can get a picture or two posted… maybe even document the trip. We shall see.

I am starting a new personal project and it requires some crazy camera movements. However, the default Maya camera’s suck at doing great camera moves, so I came across this badass camera rig for Maya. It’s called shotCam.

It’s a mel script Lionel Gallat wrote and can be downloaded at his website: http://seithcg.com/wordpress/

P.S. I also found this alternative here. It’s actually based on Lionel’s script and works just about the same.

Just got the recent copies (US is a month late compared to UK) to 3D World and Computer Arts.

I just got done going through 3D World and they had an amazing tutorial on building a flock of birds. I tried it, and after a few tweaks, I got something pretty nifty:

This should come in handy for future projects.

After months of seclusion, I’m finally done with my website and personal work. My montage 2009 can be viewed here.

I will also be updating this page with ramblings on anything vfx, motion graphics, or art related and most of it will probably be personal stuff.

Oh, and I’m currently seeking employment in LA or NYC area for vfx and motion graphics work.

I can’t help but be amazed by the work done on the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button:

These images are from fxguide’s article, The Curious Case of Aging Visual Effects. Check it out!

I have been listening to the new Animal Collective album Merriweather Post Pavilion.

I recently found a H.264 codec in a ProVideo Coalition article entitled Brightness Issues with H.264 QuickTime Movies. This codec does a better job at exporting H.264 movies out of Quicktime Pro and does not have the gamma/saturation issue the Apple H.264 codec produces, which is something I was experiencing when I was making mov’s for the site.

Here is the link: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/20273

One Bic pen.