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FISTS OF FURRY: DREAMWORKS ANIMATION’S KUNG FU PANDA
The fur started flying when DreamWorks Animation’s latest triumph, Kung Fu Panda, leapt into theaters on June 6. We take a brief look into the technical wizardry behind the scenes with Effects Supervisor Marcus Manninen.
By Steve Mitchum
HOW’D WE DO THAT? SPEED RACER
Speed Racer’s CG Supervisor shares with us how the Sony Pictures Imageworks team coped with a compressed production timeline, a highly stylized look and feel, and the problem of multiple effects studios sharing common assets. Our fascinating series gets you behind the scenes access as never before.
By Theo Bialek
I AM IRON MAN: FORGING THE MOLD
Concepts, storyboards, animation–it’s a long process to take Iron Man from 2D comics into a whole new 3D world delivered on the big screen. See how Framework Studio took up the challenge to create Iron Man’s captivating theatrical trailer.
By Jonathan T. Winbush & Matt Ciaglia
WHERE A SHAPE-SHIFTER FEELS AT HOME
Explore the milieu created for Prototype, a new 3rd person open world/action game from Radical Entertainment. Art director Maurice “Skip” Kimball shows how he created the concept art for the game.
By Briar Lee Mitchell
WHAT’S THAT IN THE SKY?!? DESTRUCTION WITH AFTERBURN
This tutorial explains the steps to get visually interesting volumetric particles with AfterBurn. Learn how AfterBurn can bring your production work to a new level.
By Christopher Ashbaugh
PLAYER CAMERA ANIMATION TECHNIQUE
Go to your local game store, and take a look at the selection. Many of the big-budget blockbusters take place from the first person perspective. In this tutorial, find out some of the tricks and techniques used to get the most robust first person player animations possible.
By Richard Lico
PIPELINE DEVELOPMENT, PART 5: TOOLS FOR ALL OCCASIONS
The last pipeline article, about developing tools for easing VFX production.
By Peter Hartwig
IF OPPORTUNITY DOESN’T KNOCK, BUILD A DOOR: CREATING AN IRIS DOOR IN LIGHTWAVE 3D
This article steps you through the creation of an iris door.
By William “Proton” Vaughan
PIPELINE & COLOR PLANNING, PART 2: FILM AND HD COLOR WORKFLOW
Visual effects artists and filmmakers need to manage film and HD color workflow in order to have an effective film pipeline.
By Edward Heede
WAX DROPPINGS
From animated to hand sculpted, Rocco Tartamella explains traditional sculpting.
By Rocco Tartamella
MODELING A HUMAN, PART 8: MODELING A HUMAN FOOT
The series on Modeling a Human in Maya is completed with these step-by-step instructions for creating the foot. It is a lengthy process, but the results are worth it.
By Peter Ratner
FIRESIDE CHAT WITH PIXAR’S RENDERMAN
To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Pixar’s RenderMan software, our Editor-in-Chief sits down with Renee Lamri to discuss Pixar’s historic role in the past, present, and future of rendering.
By Dariush Derakhshani
FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT
Justin Stockton shares with us his super-fast gateway into the computer animation industry.
By David Andrew Maldonado
BEYOND TRADITIONAL OUTREACH: IPAX LETS TEACHING FACULTY STUDY WITH PROFESSIONALS
Imageworks Professional Academic Excellence (IPAX) continues to expand and offer greater opportunities to eligible schools and teaching faculty. Much more than just great scholarships and internships, IPAX provides fellowships and production experience on feature films.
By Sande Scoredos
KOOSHLINGS
By Dariush Derakhshani
GIDGETS AND GADGETS
By William “Proton” Vaughan
STUFF
By Brad Carvey
XSI CORNER
By Raffael Dickreuter
FINAL RENDER
By Andrea Carvey