Shine in Los Angeles, CA recently animated and produced the title sequence for Kung Fu Panda, DreamWork's blockbuster summer film starring Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman and Angelina Jolie. I spoke with Michael Riley, Creative Director at Shine, about creating the titles.

Labels: Inspirations

Alicia VanHeulen of Toolfarm interviews Bryan Paperiski on shooting, editing and finishing a short film in 24 hours for a festival.

We'll be following Bryan, Alicia and others as they finish post on the piece using Red Giant and Digieffects plugins, among others, in After Effects. Check it out!

Labels: After Effects, DigiEffects, Inspirations, Magic Bullet Looks, Red Giant

Seth Hancock and the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Bureau were awarded a Telly for thir work on the Indianapolis promotional video with singer John McLaughlin! There were 14,000 entries in the Travel/Promotional Pieces category and they took home the Silver Award, which is the highest they offer.

Toolfarm interviewed Seth Hancock about the project a few months back. Read the article. Congratulations Seth.

Labels: Inspirations

Yesterday I had a Conversation with David Torno and Brandon Parvini about Flight of the Conchords' 'Ladies of the World' video they just completed.

It's incredibly funny and has a cool 70s style to it. They rotoscoped the faces of The Conchords onto stunt skaters. They talk about the challenges they had with the project and how they used lots of digital tools to make this really impressive video.

Labels: Inspirations

I wanted to say congrats to my friends at Postworks Michigan, who work on a kids show called Come On Over, which has been nominated for 8 Emmys!

I interviewed Mike and Bill from Postworks in 2007 for Toolfarm Inspirations about the post-production work on the show. Read the interview.

Labels: Inspirations

This is part two of an ongoing series with Dirty Trousers filmmakers, as we follow them through the post production process.

In this interview we specifically talk about shooting green screen and the keying process. Daniel Land gives us some insight on what it is like to work on a film filled with effects with a limited amount of time and budge, and what it takes to bring their vision to the big screen.

• Part 2 of the interview
• Part 1

Labels: Inspirations

Yesterday I spoke with Daniel Land, co-director and vfx artist on the film Dirty Trousers. This is interview #1 in the series we'll be doing on the film, following it down it's post-production path.

Dan talks about the premise of the film and what obstacles they are encountering in post-production. They are using tools from Imagineer and Red Giant Software in post.

Labels: Imagineer Systems, Inspirations, Red Giant

Seth Hancock is the Production Manager for the Convention and Visitors Bureau for the city of Indianapolis. He produces an amazing video podcast called 'Doing Indy' and most recently he directed a music video/branding piece for the city with Indiana crooner Jon McLaughlin titled For You From Me.

Seth and Michele Yamazaki from Toolfarm discuss the finer points of green screening and Seth gives some terrific tips on getting the perfect time lapse.

Labels: Inspirations

Yesterday I had the great opportunity to chat with Tomer Bahat, a music video director, producer, post-production (he uses After Effects extensively!)... basically, he is the jack-of-all-production trades. Tomer is an extremely talented artist with some very clever tricks up his sleeve. He discusses working on music videos from concepting to the final edit. See several examples of his incredible work, too.

Labels: Inspirations

A boxed version of Noise Industries FxFactory is now available. FxFactory is a primo plug-in package for Final Cut Pro and Motion. It's FxPlug, so it's fast, and of course, it's Universal.

Read a review of FxFactory Pro by Jim Geduldick

Read an interview with Niclas Bahn of Noise Industries - Niclas explains exactly what FxFactory is and why it's the plug-in package for Final Cut Studio that you must own.

Labels: Final Cut Pro, FxFactory, FxPlug, Inspirations, Motion, Noise Industries, reviews

Jerome is a friend of mine who is a filmmaker in Japan. We met online in 2006 right after he finished his film, Missing Pages. The film is made with still images that are broken apart and moved in After Effects to give perspective and movement. It is mindblowingly cool and full of suspense... and so stylistic.

I interviewed Jerome for Toolfarm Inspirations in February 2006. Since then, the film has garnered gobs of attention, won loads of awards and is still getting tons of attention. And why shouldn't it? It's freakin' amazing. The guy is an extremely gifted filmmaker

The CG Channel interview goes deep into the project and has lots of great images from the film.

You can view the first part of the film on Jerome's website or on iTunes.

Labels: Inspirations

This month, Steve Audette of PBS Frontline will be presenting. Steve has been a contributor at Toolfarm on several occasion, including a tutorial on creating Realistic Auto Gauges in After Effects and a behind-the-scenes look at a PBS Frontline Promo "When Kids Get Life".

Steve Audette, Senior Editor for the PBS public affairs series FRONTLINE, will discuss his recent work and workflow on the documentary ENDGAME.

As the United States begins one final effort to secure victory through a "surge" of troops, FRONTLINE investigates how strategic and tactical mistakes brought Iraq to civil war. The film recounts how the early mandate to create the conditions for a quick exit of the American military led to chaos, failure, and sectarian strife. Endgame traces why the president decided to risk what military planners once warned could be the worst way to fight in Iraq -- door-to-door -- and assesses the likelihood of its success. Top administration figures, military commanders, and journalists offer inside details about the new strategy.

ENDGAME is Mr. Audette's 39 credit as editor for FRONTLINE. His work has contributed to many Emmy award-winning documentaries, as well as numerous Peabody and Dupont award-winning programs. He has been recently nominated to join the esteemed members of America Cinema Editors.

Check out the ChiFCPUG website for the details.

Labels: Final Cut Pro, Inspirations, Tutorial, User Group

Aussie designer Stephen Watkins is on the verge of hitting it big in San Francisico.... next week! Before his cross-continental relocation, he took time to chat with me about some of his projects that lead up to the cross-planet move. We chat about how he experiments with textures and 3D cameras to come up with whimsical, organic compositions with natural movement. He gives a great tip on working with multitudes of layers in Adobe After Effects.

Labels: After Effects, Inspirations

June is 'Creativity Month' at Toolfarm and we're kicking it off with an interview with Matthew Collings, a musician and videomaker living in Iceland. Matthew talks to me about the creative process and visualizing music and we get into a pretty deep conversation. We discuss synesthesia and Matthew tells me some very interesting techniques to give video organic noise and feedback effects.

Read this Toolfarm exclusive interview with Matthew Collings

Labels: Inspirations