Germany in Baselight
A look back: In DP 01:2019, we took a look at high-end grading with Baselight. We also spoke to Rotor Film about HDR material and the Amazon series "Deutschland 86".
Browsing Tag
Interview
172 posts
Interview about the company history of “Pacific Data Images”
Company founder Carl Rosendahl chats about his VFX company PDI, visual effects in the 90s and 0s - and the legendary company's memento mori in 2015.
Framestore kills Tom Cruise
Review: In DP 06:2014, we looked to London - and to the effects of sci-fi gem "Edge of Tomorrow", in which Tom Cruise dies a thousand deaths.
Magical effects
Review: In DP 05:07, Harry Potter 5, to which eleven studios contributed effects, was enchanting. These included heavyweights such as DNEG, ILM, Framestore and MPC.
Bloody ice magic
Review: In DP 06:2012, we visited the Polish studio Platige Image. Could the Poles, who are spoilt for success, manage the major project "The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings"?
Allan McKay on VFX and Games
The 21 Artist Show speaks with Emmy-winning VFX supervisor Allan McKay about effects, games, career development and lifelong learning.
Renderpeople Adds Rigged 3D People
A detailed look at Renderpeople's expansion from ready-to-render scanned people to rigged 3D characters, including topology, skeletons, facial controls and workflow trade-offs.
Gael Kerchenbaum on Creature Art
Creature artist Gael Kerchenbaum discusses anatomy, freelance practice and work with DNEG, Axis Animation, CGMA and Facebook AI.
The Witcher by Platige
Blast from the Past: In 2020 we conversed with Platige Image about the hit-series “The Witcher”.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker — VFX Supervisor Roger Guyett Interview
ILM VFX supervisor Roger Guyett discusses the global production, practical and digital techniques, virtual production and fleet work behind The Rise of Skywalker.
Unity’s rendering at its finest: Lightweight and High Definition
Blast from the Past: In issue 06 : 2018 of DP our author Alexandra Kaschny wondered 'Which hidden rendering powers are revealed with Unity 2018.1 and above?'
Interview: Adam Myhill on Unity, Cinemachine and Real-Time Cinematography
Unity’s Adam Myhill discusses Cinemachine, Timeline, procedural cameras, HDRP and the engine’s expanding role in real-time cinematography.
VR Deep Diving | Retro-Article
Review: In DP 06 : 2017, our author Mirja Fürst immersed herself in a VR experience for the "Ghost in the Shell" film adaptation.
Matt Aitken on Weta’s Digital Characters
Matt Aitken traces Weta Digital’s character pipeline from Gollum and Kong to Thanos, facial solvers, Manuka and cloud rendering.
Cyberpunk 2077 Technical Art Director Discusses the Game’s Texturing Pipeline
CD Projekt Red technical art director Krzysztof Krzyścin explains how Substance tools supported Cyberpunk 2077’s material pipeline.
Inside Mannheim’s L.O.U.P. LedCave Virtual Production Stage
RentEventTec built an 18-metre LED virtual-production environment in Mannheim using Unreal Engine, nDisplay and high-resolution LED panels.
The Elephant Funk? Inside the VFX of Dumbo
VFX supervisor Richard Stammers explains how MPC and Framestore created Dumbo, Dreamland and the film’s highly detailed digital elephants.
M.A.R.K.13 on Producing Ritter Rost
Holger Weiss discusses M.A.R.K.13’s work on Ritter Rost, its production pipeline, regional film funding and Stuttgart’s animation industry.
Dropbox Adds Frame-Accurate Media Review
Dropbox Creative Tools adds frame-accurate video comments, multi-track audio preview and cloud-based review for remote production teams.
Dropbox on Cloud Workflows for Large Media
Dropbox’s Andy Wilson discusses delta sync, 4 MB chunks, Smart Sync, previews, APIs and remote workflows for large video and VFX files.
Dan Smiczek on Star Trek: Picard CG
Pixomondo CG supervisor Dan Smiczek discusses Borg Cube design, detailed greebles and integration with live-action sets for Star Trek: Picard.
Sven Martin in Highlights of FMX
Pixomondo CCO and VFX supervisor Sven Martin joined Highlights of FMX to discuss dragons, major productions and sixteen years in VFX.
The Witcher Studios Shared VFX Breakdowns
One of Us, Platige Image, Framestore and Cinesite showed creatures, environments, battles and magic from The Witcher season one.
FMX 2020 Highlights Moved Online
FMX's 1994–2020 highlights series offered interactive interview rooms and public livestreams, beginning with Jan Pinkava on 5 May 2020.
MPC Breaks Down Godzilla’s 660 VFX Shots
MPC's Godzilla: King of the Monsters work involved more than 700 artists, 660 VFX shots, four hero creatures, environments and FX.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Blast from the past: Who is the most iconic video game heroine ever? Lara Croft, of course. In this interview, we take a deep dive into the lost city of Paititi – and the final installment of the reboot trilogy.
Who Needs an Office? – Talking with Hugo Guerra
At this year's animago, we talked to Hugo Guerra, one of the alpha-testers of The Foundry's Athera and an experienced Game Cinematic, Shortfilm and Commercial Director, about pipelines, owning a company and having a workflow that is completely remote. If you want to learn Nuke Compositing and keep up with courses and discussions, check out his Youtube channel bit.ly/hugos_desk, and for an overview of his work, check out hugo-guerra.com, where you will find the cinematics for games like "Assassin's Creed", "Eve", "The Walking Dead" and others.
Who needs a workstation these days?
At FMX 2O18, The Foundry launched Athera.io, a connection between The Foundry’s tools (among others, like Houdini, Blender, and many more to come), Google Cloud Services and artists. Via a browser – and really, any browser and machine will do – users
can get virtual workstations and rendering performance. That sounds nice – but let’s not get too excited and ask some questions first.
Zombies & 3D Scanner
They are also currently stepping on the gas with their development and possibilities: 3D scanners have always been a part of visual effects production
Effects production, many examples are now showing how they can make working on set much easier.
Weekend Reading
Andrew Allen chats a little about how you can actually get the most out of your short film... and why you should not throw in the towel too early.
Allegorithmic – Interview with developers
Allegorithmic is known for its material authoring tools. We met the team at FMX and talked about current and future developments, with information on Project Alchemist, UDIMs, UV tools, the new PBR Guide and more!
What‘s next in Blender?
At FMX 2O18 we caught up with Ton Roosendaal – head of the Blender Foundation and the guy who turned the package into an open-source tool. And when you are already in Stuttgart, why not ask a few questions?
Redshift: Interview with the developers
Biased vs unbiased rendering, new features in Redshift 3.0 and a look into the future of rendering: This and more in our conversation with the developers!
Interview with Blender Founder
Blender founder Ton Rosendaal in an interview: history, future and interesting facts about the creation of the open-source tool.
Third Ape Round for Weta
The final part of the "Planet of the Apes" trilogy opens in German cinemas on August 3. This video shows some of the technology behind the epic VFX work for which Weta was responsible.
Allegorithmic Substance Designer 5.5 in Conversation!
An update for Substance Designer - with the Nvidia-cooperating Material Definition Language (MDL), authoring features, expanded Linux support and the import of custom camera views in *.fbx format.
animago winner 2014: Making-of “Ryse”
Crytek had a lot of gladiators and blood in the pipeline in 2014; in 2014, the project won the animago AWARD in the "Best Game Design" category.
Modo in Space
(Free PDF to download) Bob Sauls - the visualiser of the new “Dragon V2” module from the spaceflight company SpaceX in an interview. You can hardly get any closer to “Star Wars”.
Cloudy with a view of Houdini
Review: In DP 03 : 2014, we climbed into the opening scene of the bestselling film adaptation of The Book Thief. Rise Visual Effects Studios realised a long cloud sequence including a 3D tracking shot with Houdini. How do artists create the perfect cumulus cloud?
When the Lucy gets the LIDAR…
Review: In DP 07 : 2014, "Lucy", together with director Luc Besson, tapped into the full brain power - and the VFX power of ILM, Rodeo FX and 4DMax. How did the sci-fi action film with Scarlett Johansson come about?
Spider webs vs. electric flashes
Review: In DP 07 : 2014, the most popular spider-man in film history was electrostatically charged. "The Amazing Spider-Man 2: Rise of Electro" was one of the most elaborate projects for Sony Pictures Imageworks in 2014. We caught up with digital effects supervisor David A. Smith.
Put in the right light
Review: In DP 04 : 2014, Depeche Mode went on a major tour - and Cologne-based post-production house the editors cgn was responsible for the high-quality post-production of the concert events. How do post-pros make the performers look as good as possible? Head editor Tobias Berbuer explains in an interview!
Historical Decay
Review: In DP 01 : 2014 game developer Naughty Dog threw its heroes into a post-pandemic scenario with The Last of Us - but how were the lighting, texturing and motion capturing created?
Cutting without shipwreck
Cat comedy or cult film in the making? We wonder who edited "Life of Pi - Shipwreck with a Tiger".
Rubinrote VFX
Review: DP 03 : 2013 took a closer look at the film adaptation of the young adult novel Ruby Red. We spoke to Professor Jürgen Schopper, Supervisor Mortimer Warlimont and VFX Producer Katja Müller about particle effects, the filmability of Spiegel bestsellers and the magic of VFX shots.
Bioshock Infinite
Review: In DP 03 : 2013, we asked Design Director and User Experience Specialist Billd Gardner why Bioshock Infinite had to be delayed. What happened behind the company gates at Irrational Games?
Of “Jaegers” and monsters
Review: In DP 06 : 2013, the VFX cracker Pacific Rim grilled the cinema summer. Compositing artist Michael Ralla tells us how Industrial Light & Magic tamed the Kaiju giants.
Visualising barley juice
Looking back: In DP 04 : 2013, we were thirsty for beer, because pilsner brand Warsteiner was celebrating its 260th birthday with an advertising campaign. The post-production studio nhb and the agency Kolle Rebbe created bottles in 3D for the Warsteiner brewery. Cheers!
Siggraph 2012: Invisible Cuts in Interviews
Berkley University and Adobe are working on a new tool intended to make placing cuts in interviews and inserting transitions easier.
Happy endings are inappropriate | Retro article
Review: In DP 06 : 2012, Luis Alonso, Senior Technical Artist at BioWare, spoke at FMX (Film & Media Exchange) about the video game Mass Effect 3. DP grabbed Alonso to ask him a few questions.
IBC 2010: AJA Connects Everything
A paperback-sized flash recorder with SDI, HDMI, LAN, XLR and CF? Yes! AJA introduces the new Ki Pro Mini.
On the hunt for facial expressions
Review: In DP 05 : 2019, we realised that elaborately produced cutscenes in video games are no longer a rarity. In Remedy Entertainment's Alan Wake, MoCap specialist metricminds took care of the characters' facial expressions.
“3D Is Simply Unlimited”
Armin Pohl, Managing Director of Mackevision, answered questions from the DP editorial team about the animago AWARD 2009.
System Speed and Efficiency Are What Count
Thomas Birner, Director of Sales, Central Europe, discusses current requirements in broadcasting and post-production.
“There Are No Compromises with Blu-ray”
Which is better: Blu-ray or video on demand? Michael Langbehn, spokesperson for Blu-ray Group Germany, knows the answer and discusses developments in the consumer-electronics market over recent months.
Gwyneth Paltrow: “I Was Driven” Tele 5 Interview for the Cinema Release of ‘Iron Man’
For the cinema release of Iron Man, TV broadcaster Tele 5 interviewed Gwyneth Paltrow. DP prints the complete interview here:
Video: Interview with Heinz Rüedi from Inselspital Bern
At Lichtblick 4D's Meet & Greet in Berlin, DP editor Michael Krimmer had the opportunity to speak with architect Heinz Rüedi about architecture and 3D visualisation. Heinz Rüedi is Head of the Support Division at Inselspital Bern (Bern University Hospital)
Video: Interview with macromedia Management
macromedia Chancellor Joachim Scheurer, and 3D Professor Dr. Wolfgang Höhl answered DP's questions on education and 3D.
Audio Interview: Experiences from Filming I´m Legend
Those responsible for the film "I´m Legend" talk about the locations, the film's visual style and the shooating in general.
Video: making of the Lost video game
We have extensive making.of material for the Lost video game. It shows the background to how the new Ubisoft game for Xbox 360 and PS3 was produced. We have the accompanying video.
Video: Adobe spokesperson on product developments
At the Cancom/Adobe roadshow, we met Alexander Hopstein, spokesperson for Adobe Germany, for an interview. Among other things, he talks about his company’s plans.
European football championship competes with cinemas
Industry representatives disagree about future prospects.
IMAGINA: Video on Craft Animation track plug-in
At IMAGINA, Craft Animation presented new plug ins for max and Maya. Among them is also a plug-in for tracked vehicles such as tanks and tracks. DP has the video.
IMAGINA: Video interview with Autodesk head Patrick Jocelyn
At Imagina in Monaco, the DP team met Patrick Jocelyn, Director EMEA at Autodesk Media and Entertainment, for an interview.
Quantel: Beyond HDTV
Thomas Birner of Quantel reveals in the DP interview which future tasks the manufacturer is preparing its systems for
The Right Way to HD
Volker Rodde, the founder of the camera rental company bearing his name, offers valuable tips for working in HD in the DP interview
SIGGRAPH 2007: Quest3D 4.0 Presented as Pre-Release
The Dutch manufacturer presented the pre-release of version 4.0 of its 3D software Quest3D to visitors at SIGGRAPH in San Diego.
Remko Jacobs, CTO of Act3D, explains to DIGITAL PRODUCTION what new things the current version has to offer.
SIGGRAPH 2007: Darin Grant of DreamWorks Animation in an Interview
DIGITAL PRODUCTION met Darin Grant, Head of Production Technology at DreamWorks, for an interview during SIGGRAPH 2007. Editor-in-Chief Matthias J. Lange spoke with him about the importance of SIGGRAPH, film productions, technological trends and the future of 3D animation.
SIGGRAPH 2007: Motion Tracking for Everyone
With its extremely inexpensive motion-tracking solution for 5000 US dollars, NaturalPoint caused a sensation at SIGGRAPH. DIGITAL PRODUCTION did not want to miss this and visited their SIGGRAPH stand. An interview with Jim Richardson, President of the company, and cooperation partner Alex Furer from plugin manufacturer Motion4U.
SIGGRAPH 2007: 3D Controllers from 3Dconnexion. DIGITAL PRODUCTION Meets Dieter Neujahr for a Video Interview
Conventional mice are only conditionally suitable for navigating precisely within three-dimensional spaces –even if users have come to terms with input devices restricted to only two axes. The 3D controllers point to a new way. Dieter Neujahr, President of 3Dconnexion, provides DIGITAL PRODUCTION with information about their 3D mice.
SIGGRAPH 2007: Meeting place of the scene. DIGITAL PRODUCTION talks with Armin Pohl of Mackevision
During SIGGRAPH, San Diego is the meeting place for the worldwide DCC scene for around five days. DIGITAL PRODUCTION met with Andreas Pohl, Managing Director of Mackevision Medien Design. In the video interview, he reports on visualization projects, tools and the community.
FAST Explains the blue Editing System
FAST development executive Ali Adelstein explained the open-format design, interface, colour tools and network workflow behind the blue editing system.