The visual effects of Star Trek – a retrospective
On September 8th, 1966, the U.S.S. Enterprise flew across American screens for the first time - since then, "Star Trek" in all its various iterations has become part of the zeitgeist. And, in keeping with the Enterprise's mission, it has also repeatedly stepped into new areas of visual effects, making it one of the many trailblazers for our industry. In this retrospective, we want to take a closer look at some of these milestones.
Let’s fix it in Pod 07 FMX with Mario Müller
In this episode of Let's fix it in Pod Christoph & Bela browse the FMX Programme and talk about their favorite picks. They are then joined by FMX project manager Mario Müller for a deep dive into what goes into planning an fmx and bringing it to life.
Syntheyes 2025: ML-powered masks, batch processing and more…
Boris FX has just releases the latest version of its 3D Tracking and Matchmoving software, Syntheyes. Boris FX traditionally tries to utilize technology from its other software solutions in its various products, and Syntheyes is no exception, including Mask ML in the 2025 release.
Speed in a small package: LaCie Rugged SSD Pro 5 Review
Thunderbolt 5 offers the ONE thing all VFX professionals crave - more speed. LaCie now rolls out the very first SSD to really take advantage of the new standard and it seems like they had us in mind when designing this little drive.
Lets fix it in Pod 05 Looking to the future
In this episode of Letsfixitinpod we take a deep look into our crystal ball and share our predictions on what surely look like an interesting year 2025
The Rise and Fall of Cyborg
When we think of compositing systems of the late nineties and early two thousands, Discreet and Quantel come to mind. But for a brief time, there was a real contender to those two powerhouses: 5D Cyborg!
Let’s Fix it in Pod 04 Industry Societies and Associations
In this episode, Bela and Christoph discuss means of staying connected - from informal groups and meetups to the Societies and Associations that define our industry.
Let’s Fix it in Pod 03 Open Industry Standards with Jonas Kluger and Arne Palluck
In this episode, Bela and Christoph discuss the benefits of Open Industry Standards, but also the hurdles and processes in establishing these.
In this episode, Bela and Christoph tackle the possibilities and challenges that Machine Learning and A.I. are offering to the vfx industry.
Let’s Fix it in Pod 01 Control Surfaces with Mazze Aderhold
In their very first episode, Bela Beier and Christoph Zapletal talk about control surfaces for an artist's workstation.
Once upon a time, there was a Henry
Everything used to be better - that's nonsense, of course. But nostalgia also has its very own charm. And so we want to take a look back at the supposedly good old days in a magazine that usually keeps its eyes curiously open to the future. Completely subjective, beautifully coloured and deliberately seen through rose-tinted glasses.
What’s new in Flame
Autodesk is releasing the next version of Flame just in time for NAB. And once again, the update is a colourful bag of innovations. From minor optimisations to major new features, from product maintenance to fundamental changes, everything is included.
From the left..
Nomen est omen. When reading the company name "Left Angle", anyone with any mathematical knowledge will think: "There's no such thing!" And it's a bit like that with your product, Autograph: a new compositing and motion design application that stands up to comparison with Nuke and After Effects. That doesn't even exist. Or is there?
Nuke Utilities Volume 8 – Textures
You can have great footage under the pen - sometimes you just need a few extra details to give your comp the finishing touch. And so that we don't all keep using Nuke's own noise generator, this issue contains a small, fine collection of texture generators for Nuke.
Nuke Utilities Volume 7 – Transform
It's time to move a few things. So this issue
this issue, our little collection of tools is all about Transform Tools. So we're distorting,
scaled, rotated and even morphed a little.
The new kid on the block!
The market for VFX and motion design software seems pretty saturated. Nuke for VFX, After Effects for Motion Design, sprinkle in a little bit of Flame and Fusion and that’s about it. Or is it?
Nuke UtilitiesVolume 6 – Keying
Admittedly, if you look at the keyers that are included with Nuke out of the box, it's a who's who of clipping tools: Primatte, Ultimatte, Keylight & IBK, plus Luma, Difference & Co. However, as everyday working life throws all kinds of challenges at us, there are also some clever little helpers that we want to take a look at here.
Something‘s always happening in the Boris FX- Ecosystem – and just before this year’s IBC they announced that Syntheyes is now part of the family! So we cornered Boris Yamnitzki and John-Paul Smith and asked them what the plans are for one of our favourite tracking Tools.
Timeline Tools von The Foundry 2
Color, Comp und Conform! Nuke and Nuke X are the de facto-standard in node-based compositing. But even seasoned Nuke artists have often had little or no contact with the closely related reviewing and finishing products.
What’s New in Nuke 14?
"The next generation of Nuke" - the British developers from Foundry are confidently announcing their new version. Let's take a look at what's new between Copycat and Scanline Renderer, what's changed, what's completely new or what remains the same?
Nuke Tools Vol. 3 – Channels, Passes and Mattes
While looking at the UI previously, we are now finally moving on to the node tree. More specifically, into Nuke's channel management. Here too, artists can make their lives much easier with a few tools and scripts. Because especially with a view
rebuild, you want to make life a little easier than constantly repeating the same steps.
Putting the „Ace” in ACES
The fact that ACES is more than just another buzzword in the VFX industry should have
t should have got around by now. And anyone who works at a major studio in a reasonably up-to-date pipeline will already have had contact with ACES. But what about one-person dancing bands, freelancers with mobile workstations and those who like to dance at several weddings?