SIGGRAPH 2008 - Day 2

Although today started off a bit slow (a blessing really given the late night before courtesy of Autodesk!) it really started to pick up late morning and the conference and job fair areas were really humming. I dropped by a few booths and things while it was quiet just to check things out before the madness began. I was suitably impressed with what BLIZZARD ENTERTAINMENT is trying to do - 2500 people worldwide and I think on the verge of busting out of 'just games' and into something much broader. Interesting. Also, Image Movers Digital, the Robert Zemekis & Walt Disney Co. co-venture was really impressive. A nice job with concept work and getting the message about the kind of company they are across. Of course, there were the usual contenders for cool looking stuff... Lucasfilm, Pixar, R&H, etc. But I was a little surprised by the above two. The afternoon blasted by and by end of day I think I had conducted 6 or so interviews. All went well - no duds! So, I hustled off back to the hotel to get a little refreshed before the Autodesk VIP Party. Thanks to Brett Ineson for getting us on the list - and also Kerry at Annex Pro our reseller. There are loads of studios out there purchasing way more Autodesk product than we are - so I appreciate the "VIP" gesture!

SIGGRAPH 2008 - Day 1

I thought it might be interesting to jot down a few notes on this year's SIGGRAPH experience. Now, granted I have not been too much of a contributor over the years and you'd think that I would have been loads more, however, this will only be my third trip. However, I am excited because this year Image Engine will have a real presence at SIGGRAPH. The studio is represented by about 8 people: John Haddon, Greg Massie, Jason Gross, Hanoz Elavia, Vera Zivny, Stefanie Boose, and of course Peter Muyzers and myself. Not sure whom else may be coming down on their own. I will be focusing on the Job Fair where I will be interviewing candidates for jobs at the studio this fall. Should be a little crazy-busy, but fun. I will also be trying to see as many presentations as possible, meeting the odd client, etc. Okay, so today was just getting there, getting settled in, etc. As well there was a whack of stuff to deal with back on the ranch, so that occupied loads of my time. Vera, Stef & Hanoz did a great setting up the booth! And then we all headed off to take in the big Autodesk User Group meeting, presentation & party. Aside from some legitimate quibbles about the lack of truly new development in some of the core products, Autodesk put on a great show. Especially considering all of the "we're not supposed to show you this stuff" clips from various productions. I was especially impressed with a sequence from "Kung Fu Panda" that was presented in 3D for the first time. This year will be all about 3D I think. It just seems to be popping up everywhere you look and I suppose that this stage it is the last great bastion of true development in cinema. Bring it on!

August Rains

Normally, the end of July and the beginning of August in Vancouver are the most reliably dry time of year. This year, something different. We had gorgeous unseasonably warm weather at the end of June and beginning of July. And thus, in late July and early August we've had some much needed rain. I am sure the crops will be better off for it! Yet, of course there is the odd bit of pooh-poohing going on as usual. And so, for all those snivelers out there I relate the following brief story (passed on to me by Meg this week):

Calvin (4 year old boy): It's raining AGAIN. I don't want to get wet today.

Calvin's papa: Well, when it rains like this you have a choice. You can stay inside all day. Or you can just go outside, know you're going to get wet, plan on getting wet, and enjoy the day anyway.

For more rain, click here.

Watchmen

Every once in a while a film trailer is released that returns me to the days when as a young teenager I "discovered" the cinema. I remember that absolute thrill of anticipation during the "coming attractions" at the theatre that ran in front of the feature presentation. What will be coming out next? Now the experience seems cluttered with "trivia" which is really moronic and dull slides. Call me a purist, but there were times where the experience of the film's trailer superseded the experience of the film. Before it all became so clichéd. When the feeling of "I just can not wait to see that film!" was all consuming. Remembering and holding on dearly to the memory of that experience has served me well. An excited glimpse of one possible future urging you to return to the cinema another day... With that, I give you the film I have more anxiously waited for than any other this year... Watchmen!

Vive Le Tour!

It's that time of year again! Ah yes... the storied history of the racing bicycle, the gorgeous landscape of the most cultured country on earth, the triumph of shear personal will against intolerable amounts of self-inflicted pain... And performance enhancing drugs, of course. I can remember watching the Tour de France "recaps" on CBC Sports Television as a kid, during Greg Lemond's era, and later watching the stages daily during summer rowing travels in Europe (I spent several weeks in France in July of 1994 and every evening was spent recovering while watching the tour). However, it wasn't until Lance Armstrong's famous "look back" at the base of Alpe D'Huez in 2001 that I got hooked. I was on a cycling tour in France with Meg at the time. And I was near a town called Anduz in the Languedoc-Roussillon region. It was hot as hell and I was crammed into a little roadside cafe at midday, or was it a cafe in the camp site? I can't recall... However, I can remember perfectly the gestures of shock and enthusiasm (a little old fellow in a black beret screaming "Mon dieu c'est incroyable!" at the TV set) as Armstrong scaled that famous climb - seemingly inhumanly - as he first looked back to Ullrich, his German nemesis, and then tore off to victory. There is only one word to describe that moment in the tour's history: awesome. Regardless of the plague of recent doping scandals (which Armstrong was never touched by during his career, but have lived on in his retirement via the rumour mill) and the very uncertain future of a sport that have always had a certain flair for the unexpected, unintended, I will watch this year again hoping against reason for 'a good result.' It is impossible to tell whether or not the sport has finally come clean, or if that even matters these days in professional cycling. But the lure of the most difficult of human athletic feats, the grand scale of the event, the magical images it creates year upon year, will captivate me again as it has many more cyclists over the years. I will leave you with one of the great battles on the switchbacks of Alpe D'Huez! Vive Le Tour!

Where the Hell is Matt?

This is positively the silliest thing I have seen in years - and I love it.
Check it out - you'll smile - I promise.

EugeniusD80's Photos

Hey! Check out this interesting photostream. Definitely not your run of the mill web photography here folks! Some gorgeous colour work here.

Hallelujah, Thank You, Leonard

Here we are again at that pivotal time of year. The hard-working dark days of November and December have come and gone and the holiday season is upon us! I will be working off-and-on throughout the season, but still I am hoping for some serious R&R at times. I am not a religious man, at least not in the western god fearing Christian sense - but the mixed up Jewish, Catholic, slyly sexy "Hallelujah" has always rung a sweet chord with me - and it comes in handy this time of year. Thank you, Leonard. More recently, the late Jeff Buckley gave us a special gift in his version of the tune. Here's the lyrics. Feels okay to publish them here like a poem given Mr. Cohen's propensities in that area. Happy Holidays.

Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Let it Snow!

Well, it is that time of year again... The time that I invariably catch the remarkable, incomparable Jimmy Stewart in one of his landmark roles for the big screen, Frank Capra's 1946 masterpiece "It's a Wonderful Life." I am working on a film right now that requires visual effects to provide "snow augmentation" so as I flipped channels and came across this marvelous film, I initially just stopped surfing to think about how the crew accomplished so much damned falling snow in the film. But, of course, not much more than a moment passed before I was drawn in by Stewart's amazing, frenetic, emotionally relentless performance. There is something so convincing in his eyes in this film, the performance never fails to grab me. Of course, the spirit of the time, and it's likable themes don't hurt. But man, he's just incredible isn't he? No matter the cynicism these days about the schmaltz of the Christmas season and its overbearing commercialism, those eyes just cut right through to the heart of what Christmas means to so many people. Believing in doing the right thing. Seeing the good that comes from the struggle to achieve something morally right. People banding together to recognize and thank those who have been so generous to them in their lives. It is all that and much more.

The Red Violin

Remember "The Red Violin?" An amazing Canadian film from Don McKellar? Check out this sequence. It came up in a pitch meeting recently. About 4 minutes into the clip you the see the red violin stationary in the frame while many different players and settings fade in and out again. Ori Ben-Shabat and I were pitching some ideas for titles for a new client. We wanted to present the idea of a significant object that remained in the frame at all times, because it is important. But that somehow the object recedes for the viewer, becoming somehow subconscious even though it is there at all times. That's an amazingly cool, simple idea... The violin is there the whole time, so it starts to drift away, becoming subconscious, and you focus on what is changing instead of what is there all the while... McKellar used it as a device to sell the passage of time. But we wanted to use it to link together disparate moments in the history of the object without being didactic. Wicked... Anyway, I thought I would just mention how cool I think this sequence is in Mr. McKellar's film. As a side note, a friend of mine, Bradshaw Crombie grew up next door to Don in Toronto. Anyone want to play "six degrees of separation?"

London Calling Walshman Oct.11-16th

So I am off to The Big Smoke again. Second time this year. Hard to believe. I will be in London from October 11th until the 16th conducting interviews and seeing some future clients for Image Engine. I am not looking forward to the travel really, I never do, but it will be interesting to spend some time in Soho again. See a few mates, etc. Man, how the circumstances have changed. I spent about 2 years in London working at The Moving Picture Company as a Senior Lighting Technical Director. Now here I am heading back as a Producer. Whacko! It was a great time in my career both creatively and socially. I worked on some stunning stuff and met a crowd of amazing people. I would much rather work in London again compared to L.A. even though lifestyle-wise Santa Monica was pretty good to me. I met some great folks in L.A. also, but I guess I am just referring to the vibe of the place more than anything. I suppose it is more about "if I was gonna be on the west coast" I'd way rather be in Vancouver. But, I have to say, when London began to wear on me, it wore out fast! Could it have been the Harry Potter sized room I was living in and the guys who woke me at 6am regularly by tossing empty kegs from the pub into the street? Naw... But, I loved it while it lasted. I remember it as a very hard working, fast-paced and experience filled time of my life. Cramming work in between weekend flights to Madrid to see Meg and barely sleeping a wink all the while. I remember feeling absolutely worn out one morning and learning over to Andre "El Camaro" De Souza who was sitting next to me at the time and saying "Camaro, why is it that when I come to work I feel like I have been up for four days straight and I am hung over?" He said in his heavy Sao Paulo accent "weeellll Walshman, dat's basically because you have been and you are man." Enough said, for better or worse, the Walshman cometh.

The Cool Creaps Into the Air

Autumn. I love this time of year. There's a moment in the fall when you realize that summer has truly passed. Maybe you hadn't noticed the crimson creeping into the scene, or a smell in the air... And then, it hits you. It is a melancholy moment, but strangely you nearly always look forward to it, and are glad when it transpires. Perhaps it happens via a gust of wind that carries with it a crispness you haven't felt in some time, or a moistness that's been lacking of late. You take notice of all the usual signs: the changing colours in the trees, the growing darkness that comes more quickly in the north, the bigger more dramatic clouds & rain. We spent the weekend in Victoria and all of these things came to pass. Just that much closer to the vast Pacific Ocean, we witnessed the wind gusting familiarly, recalling old memories. It reminded me of going to school in September as a kid and the cool, damp walks to school through the neighbourhood in the mornings. Back then, there were still the last solemn plots of land with orchard trees standing silent in the suburb, like they were maintaining some kind of vigil. Halloween was special. There's a great White Stripes song "We're Going to be Friends" that I think captures aura of it. Does anyone let their kids walk to school anymore? Mateo in his little sweater and vest, running in the park against the wind, his laughter floating on the gusts, picking up fallen leaves... I tell you man, pure happiness. And I didn't even mention the fresh apple pie!

More Great Work by Ben Reeves

My long time buddy and fellow U.B.C. Fine Arts alumni Ben Reeves has just had a very successful show in Toronto at Jessica Bradley Art + Projects. This work represents a virtuoso impressionist influenced splash of colour an texture from Vancouver's painters' painter. I'll leave the rest of the pontificating to this well written review from The Globe and Mail.

Smoke and cream pie: the ultimate cover-up

By GARY MICHAEL DAULT
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Ben Reeves at Jessica Bradley Art + Projects

Painter Ben Reeves seems quite taken with the idea of superimposition. In the case of the painting reproduced here, for example, his Car and Petals, the Vancouver-based artist has very convincingly offered up an image of a tomato-red Volkswagen Beetle, delicately covered with fallen pink Magnolia blossoms. There are two pictorial elements in dialogue, in dynamic equilibrium: one that covers, and one that is covered.

Curiously, though, the artist's winning new exhibition (Smoke, Flowers, Cars) at Jessica Bradley Art + Projects (his first solo show in Toronto) doesn't begin with the artist's determination to cover something with a second something. In fact, you get about half way through it before the impositions begin to happen. The paintings in the first room, which seem only to be about Reeves's exquisite paint handling, are entirely imposition free: That is to say, they are about one thing at a time, and not about two things at once.

Reeves's big Ice Breaker, for example, is just that - a lush, sensuously brushed painting of an ice breaker, negotiating frigid, thickening seas. Why an ice breaker? Who knows? Except that there is something about the ship's hard, hulking form, and the bright, thin sunlight falling all about it, that serves Reeves's purposes well - one of which, at least, is to slather on the oil paint in a way that carves his chosen subject from the canvas's blank space with the kind of exuberant, painterly abandon you don't see much any more. On the wall opposite Ice Breaker, there
is another lushly painted but imposition-free work, called Smoke (Close Up). Like Ice Breaker, it's a painting with a lot of brio - but that's really all. (The atmospheres of other famous paint-handlers, by the way, lurk within its churning field: Willem de Kooning, for example, and Richard Diebenkorn, and even Britain's Frank Auerbach.)

But when you round the corner into the second gallery, past a curiously listless painting called Broadway and Oak (Magnolia) - the only purpose of which may be to introduce the upcoming imposition idea (blossoms fallen on the grass and sidewalk) - you suddenly find yourself in another painterly world: Here, Reeves crackles wildly into life - and immediately proves himself to be a funny, caustic, inventive and highly original painter.

For here, in this second room, imposition reigns supreme. This is where Reeves's smoke paintings are. Three smoke paintings and one cream-pie painting. The four of them are, in fact, nearly obliterated by Reeves's having muffled up the first element of each painting (a portrait) with a second element (smoke, cream). In Smoke 1, Smoke 2 (golfer), and Smoke 3 (girl smoker), the beautifully rendered faces of Reeves's subjects are almost obliterated by the "smoke" - which is made of big, fat, wet-looking globs of grey pigment that the artist has exuberantly and wickedly troweled over the finished painting beneath. In Cream Pie, the same thing has occurred, with globs of "cream" instead of "smoke." This is imposition with a vengeance. And yes, there's a certain slapstick quality to the proceedings (smoking begins to look as silly as being winged with a pie). In the end, though, it is the artist's paint-handling that astonishes. Heavy clouds of "smoke," splatters of "cream pie," it doesn't matter. Reeves has found a way to pile up the paint in such a way that leaves you uncertain whether it's the subject of the painting that counts here, or the way the paint is handled. The balance between the two is brilliant, funny, irritating and disturbing. It's virtuoso stuff.

Walshman Takes On Morning Traffic & Wins!

PRESS RELEASE

Walshman Sustains Pre-G.W. Injuries, Survives!

Vancouver, B.C.

In a dramatic incident not unlike the 2005 Yan Ulrich pre-Tour training crash, it was confirmed today that local Vangroovey Clydesdale Class road cycling champion "The Walshman" sustained non-life threatening injuries during a routine training lap of the city's storied Stanley Park.

Having jostled with morning commuter traffic through the rain-slicked historic Gastown neighbourhood, The Walshman was preparing to "hit the jets" and fly onto the Georgia St. viaduct when he was abruptly brought to a metal twisting halt by a 2005 Toyota Corolla. Stunned on-lookers watched as The Walshman's 230 lb frame crumpled the feeble import in an impressive display of athletic violence.

Although The Walshman felt he had extolled "sufficient vehicular damage" in retribution for having been cut off by an indecisive intersection foible, the incident does not come without its costs. "I was feeling primed for a top performance at this year's Gentleman's Weekend Ball Hockey Bruiser Blowout" claimed a blood soaked Walshman as he waited for paramedics to remove glass from his forearm on the picturesque downtown sidewalk, "now my hopes are dashed. I don't know what to say, I feel like I let me line-mates down."

When hearing the news, an admittedly dejected Coach Pearce, who this year had spent much personal time priming "The Clydesdale Cannon" as he is known in roadie circles remarked, "The Walshman was building towards this moment for several seasons, he was in top condition, I've never seen him so potently athletic."

The Walshman has vowed to push on at this year's Gentleman's Weekend. recalling the heroics of The Legend of the Red during past Ball Hockey Bruiser Blowout Championships. "The Legend was an inspiration as he hobbled about the rink" said a reflective Walshman while he lay on the doctor's table being stitched, "I only hope that I can live up to his tremendous geriatric athleticism."

Security video camera footage to follow.

-end-

Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

The official film website is up now for "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium." The shot pictured here is one that I supervised on-set with Raymond Gieringer from Intelligent Creatures and was composited by Ian Fellows. This show has been a long haul for Image Engine and had its fair share of ups and downs as most projects do, but overall I am really glad to have been a part of it. I can't wait to see the final product! Better yet I have worked on something that hopefully some day Mateo will watch and enjoy! Who doesn't love a magical toy store right?

Sleepy Hollow... Again!

Every once in a while I will catch a few moments of a film on television in the evening, and somewhat rarely these days, I am inspired. Although in summation, Tim Burton's take on "Sleepy Hollow" didn't live up to my expectations... The rushed and somewhat silly ending, the odd choice of jokey lines here and there... When I see it now I almost always respond the same way. "God, that's gorgeous!" The film is an absolute triumph of art direction and production design provided by Rick Heinrichs and crew. My mind spins immediately into a myriad of personal projects I might undertake to explore that look and feel. There really are so many amazing aspects to the way the world of the film is created and unified throughout. From the physical town location that was actually built, to the forced perspective backdrops on the huge stage sets, to the spectacularly realized forest set - I love it all. It is a film that truly takes advantage of that which only film can deliver, the visual authority of a history painting, only one better - because the image moves! And tonight, having been reminded of a few stunning moments during this film, my belief in the medium is restored. If only for a night. Thank you Mr. Burton!

Rise of the Image Engine

So Image Engine has finished up a small selection of shots for the upcoming 20th Century Fox release "Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer." Basically a 911 job (we were the last and smallest of all the visual effects vendors chosen to work on the film), but I think it is the highest profile work the studio has ever undertaken - unless perhaps "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" turns out to be higher profile, but I doubt that. Anyhow - a pretty cool step forward for everybody I think. The shot pictured here - I robbed from the theatrical trailer which is out now - was the largest chunk of work. A dynamic panning shot revealing a spy satellite circling the earth. A straight forward all computer generated shot, although it was actually a lot trickier than you'd think. The foreground element was all done through our Maya & 3Delight pipeline, but the background was a kind of 2.5D approach using a scene set up in Maya and then exported out for use in Nuke. The background is essentially a huge (4K) matte painting from source imagery of the earth (I think from the Hubble or something). It required loads of noodling to get it right. The people - Corrina Wilson, Oskar Wahlberg, Ori Ben-Shabat, Reynold "Bo" Mosley, Greg Massie, Jeremy Mesana, Roberto Hradec, Stefanie Boose - all did a wonderful job. Given the last minute notice and the inclusion of the shot in the film's trailer - it was a pretty crunched schedule. Onwards and upwards!

El Gran Pueblo

Madrid... What can I say? I feel like I know the city a little bit now that we have been there quite often and it seems to be like another possible home... Yet, as evidenced by Meg's father's cousin Marcelino's tour of central Madrid - I don't. One night during our stay we went out for an evening stroll and tapas with Marcelino and it was illuminating to say the least. This is the kind of thing that you just cannot pay for... Local, biased knowledge of "what's good." We visited about 5 tapas bars all in the area between Opera, La Calle Baja & La Latina. We stopped in for one or two tapas each time and a simple, small "caña" of red wine. I must say that all the walking definitely wore off the effects of the food and drink because every time we stopped I was starving and thirsty! This trip through El Gran Pueblo was a little more complicated with Mateo being along for the ride, but he was a champion traveler and it was I that fell ill with some kind of nasal infection. Methinks it was a classic combination of the ole "we're finally here, I can relax now" phenomenon as well as our crazy hectic schedule in London (to say nothing of the madness at work before I left!). Still we managed to get around with Meg's mama and Mateo and see quite a few of our favourite spots in the city. I have said often to people: Madrid is like a soft boiled egg. Somewhat difficult to assess at first glance, and like Paris somewhat difficult to access, but once you crack your way in... It is a warm and inviting place indeed.

The Splendour and The Stench of The Big Smoke

I have always found London a inviting place - gentile you might say! - though complicated by expense (it is as horrendous as people say) and a preponderance of bureaucratic civility! Of course, when living in The Big Smoke as opposed to traveling through as tourist your feelings change as you get on with the rigors of daily life. Much of London is grim. Dirty and sullen on dark winter days with little respite from the city encroaching on your soul. Escaping as I did while living there to the relative tranquility of Cambridge and a good friend's flat at the weekend was a godsend! There were moments of pleasure and fun and I always miss the pub! And I have to say that something about the stern British fight to get on in spite of things won me over a lot of the time. Finally, there was a time when I had had enough and the light of California came calling - if only for a short while... London's splendor was restored for me a bit on this trip (although I had to plug my ears every time I paid for something to avoid going deaf from the recurring grenades going off in my wallet) and I guess that had to do with staying largely to Earl's Court, Hyde Park, Kensington and Mayfair. My brief jaunt into Soho for a pint with friends reminded me briefly of the 'London as a shit hole' factor. Tough to forget really, and I left with as mixed feelings as I arrived, fond memories of long days at work at The Moving Picture Company and even longer nights at the pub all swallowed up by the atmosphere blending into a single gray element... Did I mention it was sunny?