RE: OT Pacific Rim Merchandising

[Angus Davidson]

Will most definitely do so;) Thanks Alan.

From: Alan Fregtman [alan.fregt...@gmail.com]
Sent: 28 March 2014 04:36 PM
To: XSI Mailing List
Subject: Re: OT Pacific Rim Merchandising

I don't have contacts but Pacific Rim is owned by both Legendary Pictures and 
WB. You should talk to either of their folks. Try Legendary first:
http://www.google.ca/finance?cid=1021586
https://twitter.com/Legendary



On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 8:39 AM, Angus Davidson 
mailto:angus.david...@wits.ac.za>> wrote:

Hi Sebastien

It was a student project which has been identified as having this possibility. 
So the assets  were created by them. Would need to check on the exact legal 
standing within the university context. This is all very new for us.

Kind regards

Angus

From: Sebastien Sterling 
mailto:sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com>>
Reply-To: 
"softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>" 
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Date: Friday 28 March 2014 at 2:30 PM
To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>" 
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Subject: Re: OT Pacific Rim Merchandising

where you responsible for assets ?


On 28 March 2014 12:22, Angus Davidson 
mailto:angus.david...@wits.ac.za>> wrote:
Anyone on list know who I could speak regarding an merchandising opportunity 
associated with Pacific Rim ?

Kind regards

Angus

From: "Leendert A. Hartog" mailto:hirazib...@live.nl>>
Reply-To: 
"softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>" 
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Date: Friday 28 March 2014 at 2:01 PM
To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>" 
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Subject: Re: Another alternative to Softimage

Oh, don't let my slight semantic cynicism fool you into thinking
that I don't "applaud them for what they're doing".

Greetz
Leendert

Dan Yargici schreef op 28-3-2014 12:02:

As with all things there is a threshold of economics/performance/convenience 
that needs to be crossed, but I believe we'll get there sooner rather than 
later and I applaud them for what they're doing.



--


Leendert A. Hartog – Softimage hobbyist

AKA Hirazi Blue – Administrator @, NOT the owner of 
si-community.com<http://si-community.com>


--


Leendert A. Hartog – Softimage hobbyist
AKA Hirazi Blue – Administrator  @, NOT the owner of  
si-community.com<http://si-community.com>

This communication is intended
 for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this 
communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original 
message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the 
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 signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the University 
and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message may not be 
legally binding on the University and may contain the personal views and 
opinions of the author, which
 are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the 
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and 
outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in 
writing to the contrary.



This communication is intended
 for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this 
communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original 
message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the 
permission of the University. Only authorised
 signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the University 
and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message may not be 
legally binding on the University and may contain the personal views and 
opinions of the author, which
 are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the 
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and 
outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in 
writing to the contrary.





This communication is 
intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this 
communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original 
message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the 
permission of the University. Only authorised signatories are competent to 
enter into agreements on behalf of the University and recipients are thus 
advised that the content of this message may not be legally binding on the 
University and may contain the personal views and opinions of the author, which 
are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the 
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and 
outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in 
writing to the contrary. 

Re: OT Pacific Rim Merchandising

[Alan Fregtman]

I don't have contacts but Pacific Rim is owned by both Legendary Pictures
and WB. You should talk to either of their folks. Try Legendary first:
http://www.google.ca/finance?cid=1021586
https://twitter.com/Legendary



On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 8:39 AM, Angus Davidson
wrote:

>
>  Hi Sebastien
>
>  It was a student project which has been identified as having this
> possibility. So the assets  were created by them. Would need to check on
> the exact legal standing within the university context. This is all very
> new for us.
>
>  Kind regards
>
>  Angus
>
>   From: Sebastien Sterling 
> Reply-To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com" <
> softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
> Date: Friday 28 March 2014 at 2:30 PM
> To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com" 
> Subject: Re: OT Pacific Rim Merchandising
>
>   where you responsible for assets ?
>
>
> On 28 March 2014 12:22, Angus Davidson  wrote:
>
>>  Anyone on list know who I could speak regarding an merchandising
>> opportunity associated with Pacific Rim ?
>>
>>  Kind regards
>>
>>  Angus
>>
>>   From: "Leendert A. Hartog" 
>> Reply-To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com" <
>> softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
>> Date: Friday 28 March 2014 at 2:01 PM
>> To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com" 
>> Subject: Re: Another alternative to Softimage
>>
>>  Oh, don't let my slight semantic cynicism fool you into thinking
>> that I don't "applaud them for what they're doing".
>>
>> Greetz
>> Leendert
>>
>> Dan Yargici schreef op 28-3-2014 12:02:
>>
>> As with all things there is a threshold of economics/performance/convenience 
>> that needs to be crossed, but I believe we'll get there sooner rather than 
>> later and I applaud them for what they're doing.
>>
>> --
>>
>>>
>>> Leendert A. Hartog - Softimage hobbyist
>>>
>>> AKA Hirazi Blue - Administrator @, NOT the owner of si-community.com
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>> Leendert A. Hartog - Softimage hobbyist
>> AKA Hirazi Blue - Administrator  @, NOT the owner of  si-community.com
>>
>> This communication is intended
>>  for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this 
>> communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the 
>> original message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without 
>> the permission of the University. Only authorised
>>  signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the 
>> University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message 
>> may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the personal 
>> views and opinions of the author, which
>>  are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the 
>> Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and 
>> outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in 
>> writing to the contrary.
>>
>>
> This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is 
> confidential. If you have received this communication in error, please notify 
> us immediately and destroy the original message. You may not copy or 
> disseminate this communication without the permission of the University. Only 
> authorised signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of 
> the University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this 
> message may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the 
> personal views and opinions of the author, which are not necessarily the 
> views and opinions of The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All 
> agreements between the University and outsiders are subject to South African 
> Law unless the University agrees in writing to the contrary.
>
>

RE: OT Pacific Rim Merchandising

[Angus Davidson]

Sadly its not something I can describe without totally giving it away.

No Yeagers in Caps, I can promise you that.

From: Sebastien Sterling [sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com]
Sent: 28 March 2014 06:18 PM
To: softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
Subject: Re: OT Pacific Rim Merchandising

Did they make models of the yagers (robots) ? cause those already exist as toys 
I'm pretty sure. still... maybe if you put a baseball cap on one of them that 
could slide :P.


On 28 March 2014 14:49, Angus Davidson 
mailto:angus.david...@wits.ac.za>> wrote:
Will most definitely do so;) Thanks Alan.

From: Alan Fregtman [alan.fregt...@gmail.com<mailto:alan.fregt...@gmail.com>]
Sent: 28 March 2014 04:36 PM
To: XSI Mailing List

Subject: Re: OT Pacific Rim Merchandising

I don't have contacts but Pacific Rim is owned by both Legendary Pictures and 
WB. You should talk to either of their folks. Try Legendary first:
http://www.google.ca/finance?cid=1021586
https://twitter.com/Legendary



On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 8:39 AM, Angus Davidson 
mailto:angus.david...@wits.ac.za>> wrote:

Hi Sebastien

It was a student project which has been identified as having this possibility. 
So the assets  were created by them. Would need to check on the exact legal 
standing within the university context. This is all very new for us.

Kind regards

Angus

From: Sebastien Sterling 
mailto:sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com>>
Reply-To: 
"softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>" 
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Date: Friday 28 March 2014 at 2:30 PM
To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>" 
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Subject: Re: OT Pacific Rim Merchandising

where you responsible for assets ?


On 28 March 2014 12:22, Angus Davidson 
mailto:angus.david...@wits.ac.za>> wrote:
Anyone on list know who I could speak regarding an merchandising opportunity 
associated with Pacific Rim ?

Kind regards

Angus

From: "Leendert A. Hartog" mailto:hirazib...@live.nl>>
Reply-To: 
"softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>" 
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Date: Friday 28 March 2014 at 2:01 PM
To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>" 
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Subject: Re: Another alternative to Softimage

Oh, don't let my slight semantic cynicism fool you into thinking
that I don't "applaud them for what they're doing".

Greetz
Leendert

Dan Yargici schreef op 28-3-2014 12:02:

As with all things there is a threshold of economics/performance/convenience 
that needs to be crossed, but I believe we'll get there sooner rather than 
later and I applaud them for what they're doing.




--


Leendert A. Hartog – Softimage hobbyist

AKA Hirazi Blue – Administrator @, NOT the owner of 
si-community.com<http://si-community.com>


--


Leendert A. Hartog – Softimage hobbyist
AKA Hirazi Blue – Administrator  @, NOT the owner of  
si-community.com<http://si-community.com>

This communication is intended
 for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this 
communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original 
message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the 
permission of the University. Only authorised
 signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the University 
and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message may not be 
legally binding on the University and may contain the personal views and 
opinions of the author, which
 are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the 
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and 
outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in 
writing to the contrary.



This communication is intended
 for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this 
communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original 
message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the 
permission of the University. Only authorised
 signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the University 
and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message may not be 
legally binding on the University and may contain the personal views and 
opinions of the author, which
 are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the 
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and 
outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in 
writing to the contrary.



This communication is intended
 for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received t

Re: OT Pacific Rim Merchandising

[Sebastien Sterling]

Did they make models of the yagers (robots) ? cause those already exist as
toys I'm pretty sure. still... maybe if you put a baseball cap on one of
them that could slide :P.


On 28 March 2014 14:49, Angus Davidson  wrote:

>  Will most definitely do so;) Thanks Alan.
>  --
> *From:* Alan Fregtman [alan.fregt...@gmail.com]
> *Sent:* 28 March 2014 04:36 PM
> *To:* XSI Mailing List
>
> *Subject:* Re: OT Pacific Rim Merchandising
>
>   I don't have contacts but Pacific Rim is owned by both Legendary
> Pictures and WB. You should talk to either of their folks. Try Legendary
> first:
> http://www.google.ca/finance?cid=1021586
>  https://twitter.com/Legendary
>
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 28, 2014 at 8:39 AM, Angus Davidson  > wrote:
>
>>
>>  Hi Sebastien
>>
>>  It was a student project which has been identified as having this
>> possibility. So the assets  were created by them. Would need to check on
>> the exact legal standing within the university context. This is all very
>> new for us.
>>
>>  Kind regards
>>
>>  Angus
>>
>>   From: Sebastien Sterling 
>> Reply-To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com" <
>> softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
>> Date: Friday 28 March 2014 at 2:30 PM
>> To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com" 
>> Subject: Re: OT Pacific Rim Merchandising
>>
>>   where you responsible for assets ?
>>
>>
>> On 28 March 2014 12:22, Angus Davidson  wrote:
>>
>>>  Anyone on list know who I could speak regarding an merchandising
>>> opportunity associated with Pacific Rim ?
>>>
>>>  Kind regards
>>>
>>>  Angus
>>>
>>>   From: "Leendert A. Hartog" 
>>> Reply-To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com" <
>>> softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
>>> Date: Friday 28 March 2014 at 2:01 PM
>>> To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com" 
>>> Subject: Re: Another alternative to Softimage
>>>
>>>  Oh, don't let my slight semantic cynicism fool you into thinking
>>> that I don't "applaud them for what they're doing".
>>>
>>> Greetz
>>> Leendert
>>>
>>> Dan Yargici schreef op 28-3-2014 12:02:
>>>
>>> As with all things there is a threshold of 
>>> economics/performance/convenience that needs to be crossed, but I believe 
>>> we'll get there sooner rather than later and I applaud them for what 
>>> they're doing.
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>>>
>>>> Leendert A. Hartog - Softimage hobbyist
>>>>
>>>> AKA Hirazi Blue - Administrator @, NOT the owner of si-community.com
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>>
>>> Leendert A. Hartog - Softimage hobbyist
>>> AKA Hirazi Blue - Administrator  @, NOT the owner of  si-community.com
>>>
>>> This communication is intended
>>>  for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this 
>>> communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the 
>>> original message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication 
>>> without the permission of the University. Only authorised
>>>  signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the 
>>> University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message 
>>> may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the personal 
>>> views and opinions of the author, which
>>>  are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the 
>>> Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and 
>>> outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in 
>>> writing to the contrary.
>>>
>>>
>>   This communication is intended
>>  for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this 
>> communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the 
>> original message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without 
>> the permission of the University. Only authorised
>>  signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the 
>> University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message 
>> may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the personal 
>> views and opinions of the author, which
>>  are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the 
>> Witwatersran

Re: OT Pacific Rim Merchandising

[Angus Davidson]

Hi Sebastien

It was a student project which has been identified as having this possibility. 
So the assets  were created by them. Would need to check on the exact legal 
standing within the university context. This is all very new for us.

Kind regards

Angus

From: Sebastien Sterling 
mailto:sebastien.sterl...@gmail.com>>
Reply-To: 
"softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>" 
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Date: Friday 28 March 2014 at 2:30 PM
To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>" 
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Subject: Re: OT Pacific Rim Merchandising

where you responsible for assets ?


On 28 March 2014 12:22, Angus Davidson 
mailto:angus.david...@wits.ac.za>> wrote:
Anyone on list know who I could speak regarding an merchandising opportunity 
associated with Pacific Rim ?

Kind regards

Angus

From: "Leendert A. Hartog" mailto:hirazib...@live.nl>>
Reply-To: 
"softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>" 
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Date: Friday 28 March 2014 at 2:01 PM
To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>" 
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Subject: Re: Another alternative to Softimage

Oh, don't let my slight semantic cynicism fool you into thinking
that I don't "applaud them for what they're doing".

Greetz
Leendert

Dan Yargici schreef op 28-3-2014 12:02:

As with all things there is a threshold of economics/performance/convenience 
that needs to be crossed, but I believe we'll get there sooner rather than 
later and I applaud them for what they're doing.
--


Leendert A. Hartog – Softimage hobbyist

AKA Hirazi Blue – Administrator @, NOT the owner of 
si-community.com<http://si-community.com>


--


Leendert A. Hartog – Softimage hobbyist
AKA Hirazi Blue – Administrator  @, NOT the owner of  
si-community.com<http://si-community.com>

This communication is intended
 for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this 
communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original 
message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the 
permission of the University. Only authorised
 signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the University 
and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message may not be 
legally binding on the University and may contain the personal views and 
opinions of the author, which
 are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the 
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and 
outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in 
writing to the contrary.





This communication is 
intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this 
communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original 
message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the 
permission of the University. Only authorised signatories are competent to 
enter into agreements on behalf of the University and recipients are thus 
advised that the content of this message may not be legally binding on the 
University and may contain the personal views and opinions of the author, which 
are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the 
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and 
outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in 
writing to the contrary. 

Re: OT Pacific Rim Merchandising

[Sebastien Sterling]

where you responsible for assets ?


On 28 March 2014 12:22, Angus Davidson  wrote:

>  Anyone on list know who I could speak regarding an merchandising
> opportunity associated with Pacific Rim ?
>
>  Kind regards
>
>  Angus
>
>   From: "Leendert A. Hartog" 
> Reply-To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com" <
> softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
> Date: Friday 28 March 2014 at 2:01 PM
> To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com" 
> Subject: Re: Another alternative to Softimage
>
>  Oh, don't let my slight semantic cynicism fool you into thinking
> that I don't "applaud them for what they're doing".
>
> Greetz
> Leendert
>
> Dan Yargici schreef op 28-3-2014 12:02:
>
> As with all things there is a threshold of economics/performance/convenience 
> that needs to be crossed, but I believe we'll get there sooner rather than 
> later and I applaud them for what they're doing.
>
> --
>
>>
>> Leendert A. Hartog - Softimage hobbyist
>>
>> AKA Hirazi Blue - Administrator @, NOT the owner of si-community.com
>
>
>
> --
>
>
> Leendert A. Hartog - Softimage hobbyist
> AKA Hirazi Blue - Administrator  @, NOT the owner of  si-community.com
>
>This communication is intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. 
> If you have received this communication in error, please notify us 
> immediately and destroy the original message. You may not copy or disseminate 
> this communication without the permission of the University. Only authorised 
> signatories are competent to enter into agreements on behalf of the 
> University and recipients are thus advised that the content of this message 
> may not be legally binding on the University and may contain the personal 
> views and opinions of the author, which are not necessarily the views and 
> opinions of The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements 
> between the University and outsiders are subject to South African Law unless 
> the University agrees in writing to the contrary.
>
>

OT Pacific Rim Merchandising

[Angus Davidson]

Anyone on list know who I could speak regarding an merchandising opportunity 
associated with Pacific Rim ?

Kind regards

Angus

From: "Leendert A. Hartog" mailto:hirazib...@live.nl>>
Reply-To: 
"softimage@listproc.autodesk.com" 
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Date: Friday 28 March 2014 at 2:01 PM
To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com" 
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Subject: Re: Another alternative to Softimage

Oh, don't let my slight semantic cynicism fool you into thinking
that I don't "applaud them for what they're doing".

Greetz
Leendert

Dan Yargici schreef op 28-3-2014 12:02:

As with all things there is a threshold of economics/performance/convenience 
that needs to be crossed, but I believe we'll get there sooner rather than 
later and I applaud them for what they're doing.
--


Leendert A. Hartog – Softimage hobbyist

AKA Hirazi Blue – Administrator @, NOT the owner of 
si-community.com


--


Leendert A. Hartog – Softimage hobbyist
AKA Hirazi Blue – Administrator  @, NOT the owner of  si-community.com





This communication is 
intended for the addressee only. It is confidential. If you have received this 
communication in error, please notify us immediately and destroy the original 
message. You may not copy or disseminate this communication without the 
permission of the University. Only authorised signatories are competent to 
enter into agreements on behalf of the University and recipients are thus 
advised that the content of this message may not be legally binding on the 
University and may contain the personal views and opinions of the author, which 
are not necessarily the views and opinions of The University of the 
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All agreements between the University and 
outsiders are subject to South African Law unless the University agrees in 
writing to the contrary. 

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Alan Fregtman]

Hehe, I wish! I'll suggest it though.

In the meantime, there's a handful of social profiles:
https://www.facebook.com/rodeofx<https://www.facebook.com/rodeofx?rf=159524600749192>
https://vimeo.com/rodeofx
http://www.youtube.com/user/RodeoVFX/videos
http://www.behance.net/RodeoFX
https://plus.google.com/106443376038511688221/posts
http://pinterest.com/rodeofx/



On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 10:25 AM, Ben Houston  wrote:

> So why doesn't RodeoFX have a blog where you can post this in more detail.
> :-)
> -ben
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 12:12 AM, Alan Fregtman 
> wrote:
>
>> Uh-oh! lol
>>
>> artofvfx.com has posted an article on our work for *Now You See Me*. You
>> can see some nice before & after pics:
>> http://www.artofvfx.com/?p=4669
>>
>> ** Before:
>> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_03B.jpg
>> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_04B.jpg
>> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_05B.jpg
>>
>> ** After:
>> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_03A.jpg
>> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_04A.jpg
>> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_05A.jpg
>> (falling ICE money simulations, ICE standing crowds, additional Arnold
>> volumetric lights)
>>
>>
>>
>> ** Before:
>> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_11B.jpg
>> ** After:
>> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_11A.jpg
>> (lots of funky motiongraphic cubes driven by ICE particles. not sure if
>> the crowd is cg or 2D, I didn't work on that particular shot.)
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 10:40 PM, Sylvain Lebeau  wrote:
>>
>>>  you better…..
>>>
>>> i know where you live……
>>>
>>> ;-)
>>>
>>> *Sylvain Lebeau // SHED**
>>> *V-P/Visual effects supervisor
>>> 1410, RUE STANLEY, 11E ÉTAGE MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC) H3A 1P8
>>> T 514 849-1555 F 514 849-5025 WWW.SHEDMTL.COM <http://www.shedmtl.com/>
>>>  <http://WWW.SHEDMTL.COM <http://www.shedmtl.com/>>
>>>
>>> On Tuesday, 16 July, 2013 at 9:51 AM, Alan Fregtman wrote:
>>>
>>> Believe me, I know. If it was entirely up to me I'd put up lots of cool
>>> behind the scenes visuals.
>>>
>>> With commercials, it's a piece of cake to take a screenshot and attach
>>> to an email; if it's aired it's usually fair game and rarely anyone ever
>>> cares, but when it comes to big name distributors of film,  you have to
>>> clear everything with lawyers and there's many more bureaucratic layers.
>>>
>>> When it comes out on bluray I'll ask my boss if I can show some
>>> behind-the-scenes. I can't promise they'll allow it, but I can ask. :p
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 4:30 AM, Angus Davidson <
>>> angus.david...@wits.ac.za> wrote:
>>>
>>>  Hi Alan
>>>
>>>  Awesome work.  Just want to let you know that breakdowns like this are
>>> not only important for other professionals who have this massive shared
>>> curiosity but it also incredibly important when it comes to our students.
>>> When we made the decision to move away from Maya to Softimage for our
>>> teaching we caught quite a bit of flak for the decision. However posts like
>>> these are really great because we can show just how Softimage is being
>>> used. We have also just set up our first Arnold render farm and we are very
>>> excited to see the results we get from two really great pieces of software.
>>>
>>>  Kind regards
>>>
>>>  Angus
>>>
>>>   From: Alan Fregtman 
>>> Reply-To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com" <
>>> softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
>>> Date: Monday 15 July 2013 9:07 PM
>>> To: XSI Mailing List 
>>> Subject: OT: Pacific Rim
>>>
>>>   Hey guys,
>>>
>>>  A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I
>>> personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to
>>> share some details with you. :)
>>>
>>>  I'm the lead rigger at *Rodeo FX*http://rodeofx.com and we did all of
>>> the interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), including the
>>> visors, foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some digidoubles, etc.
>>> (except the holograms/UI graphics that were done by the folks at Hybride.)
>>> We also had the chance of doing our first organic creatu

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Eric Thivierge]

Not everyone is cool enough to have their own blog Ben. :P


Eric Thivierge
===
Character TD / RnD
Hybride Technologies


On July-17-13 10:25:41 AM, Ben Houston wrote:

So why doesn't RodeoFX have a blog where you can post this in more
detail. :-)
-ben

On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 12:12 AM, Alan Fregtman
mailto:alan.fregt...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Uh-oh! lol

artofvfx.com <http://artofvfx.com> has posted an article on our
work for */Now You See Me/*. You can see some nice before & after
pics:
http://www.artofvfx.com/?p=4669

** Before:
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_03B.jpg
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_04B.jpg
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_05B.jpg

** After:
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_03A.jpg
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_04A.jpg
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_05A.jpg
(falling ICE money simulations, ICE standing crowds, additional
Arnold volumetric lights)



** Before:
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_11B.jpg
** After:
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_11A.jpg
(lots of funky motiongraphic cubes driven by ICE particles. not
sure if the crowd is cg or 2D, I didn't work on that particular shot.)



On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 10:40 PM, Sylvain Lebeau mailto:s...@shedmtl.com>> wrote:

you better…..

i know where you live……

;-)

*Sylvain Lebeau // SHED**
*V-P/Visual effects supervisor
1410, RUE STANLEY, 11E ÉTAGE MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC) H3A 1P8
T 514 849-1555 F 514 849-5025WWW.SHEDMTL.COM
<http://www.shedmtl.com/> <http://WWW.SHEDMTL.COM
<http://www.shedmtl.com/>>

On Tuesday, 16 July, 2013 at 9:51 AM, Alan Fregtman wrote:


Believe me, I know. If it was entirely up to me I'd put up
lots of cool behind the scenes visuals.

With commercials, it's a piece of cake to take a screenshot
and attach to an email; if it's aired it's usually fair game
and rarely anyone ever cares, but when it comes to big name
distributors of film,  you have to clear everything with
lawyers and there's many more bureaucratic layers.

When it comes out on bluray I'll ask my boss if I can show
some behind-the-scenes. I can't promise they'll allow it, but
I can ask. :p



On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 4:30 AM, Angus Davidson
mailto:angus.david...@wits.ac.za>> wrote:

Hi Alan

Awesome work.  Just want to let you know that breakdowns
like this are not only important for other professionals who
have this massive shared curiosity but it also incredibly
important when it comes to our students. When we made the
decision to move away from Maya to Softimage for our
teaching we caught quite a bit of flak for the decision.
However posts like these are really great because we can
show just how Softimage is being used. We have also just set
up our first Arnold render farm and we are very excited to
see the results we get from two really great pieces of software.

Kind regards

Angus

From: Alan Fregtman mailto:alan.fregt...@gmail.com>>
Reply-To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>"
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
    Date: Monday 15 July 2013 9:07 PM
To: XSI Mailing List mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Subject: OT: Pacific Rim

Hey guys,

A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in
movies, so I personally love to hear stories when it does
happen. Therefore, I wanted to share some details with you. :)

I'm the lead rigger at /Rodeo FX/http://rodeofx.com and we
did all of the interiors of the control pods (the cockpits,
that is), including the visors, foot actuators & mechanical
stilts, some digidoubles, etc. (except the holograms/UI
graphics that were done by the folks at Hybride.) We also
had the chance of doing our first organic creature, the
brain in the lab (which involved a lot of "gross" ICE
deformations), as well as many beautiful matte paintings and
a couple of helicopters.

Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in
Softimage and as far as I know it was all rendered in our
favourite renderer, Arnold! We'd still be rendering today if
Mentalray had been used. :p We threw countless ~8k textures
with displacement and stupid amounts of topology, and good
ol' Arnie performed like a champ.

The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had an

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Ben Houston]

So why doesn't RodeoFX have a blog where you can post this in more detail.
:-)
-ben

On Wed, Jul 17, 2013 at 12:12 AM, Alan Fregtman wrote:

> Uh-oh! lol
>
> artofvfx.com has posted an article on our work for *Now You See Me*. You
> can see some nice before & after pics:
> http://www.artofvfx.com/?p=4669
>
> ** Before:
> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_03B.jpg
> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_04B.jpg
> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_05B.jpg
>
> ** After:
> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_03A.jpg
> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_04A.jpg
> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_05A.jpg
> (falling ICE money simulations, ICE standing crowds, additional Arnold
> volumetric lights)
>
>
>
> ** Before:
> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_11B.jpg
> ** After:
> http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_11A.jpg
> (lots of funky motiongraphic cubes driven by ICE particles. not sure if
> the crowd is cg or 2D, I didn't work on that particular shot.)
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 10:40 PM, Sylvain Lebeau  wrote:
>
>>  you better…..
>>
>> i know where you live……
>>
>> ;-)
>>
>> *Sylvain Lebeau // SHED**
>> *V-P/Visual effects supervisor
>> 1410, RUE STANLEY, 11E ÉTAGE MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC) H3A 1P8
>> T 514 849-1555 F 514 849-5025 WWW.SHEDMTL.COM <http://www.shedmtl.com/> <
>> http://WWW.SHEDMTL.COM <http://www.shedmtl.com/>>
>>
>> On Tuesday, 16 July, 2013 at 9:51 AM, Alan Fregtman wrote:
>>
>> Believe me, I know. If it was entirely up to me I'd put up lots of cool
>> behind the scenes visuals.
>>
>> With commercials, it's a piece of cake to take a screenshot and attach to
>> an email; if it's aired it's usually fair game and rarely anyone ever
>> cares, but when it comes to big name distributors of film,  you have to
>> clear everything with lawyers and there's many more bureaucratic layers.
>>
>> When it comes out on bluray I'll ask my boss if I can show some
>> behind-the-scenes. I can't promise they'll allow it, but I can ask. :p
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 4:30 AM, Angus Davidson <
>> angus.david...@wits.ac.za> wrote:
>>
>>  Hi Alan
>>
>>  Awesome work.  Just want to let you know that breakdowns like this are
>> not only important for other professionals who have this massive shared
>> curiosity but it also incredibly important when it comes to our students.
>> When we made the decision to move away from Maya to Softimage for our
>> teaching we caught quite a bit of flak for the decision. However posts like
>> these are really great because we can show just how Softimage is being
>> used. We have also just set up our first Arnold render farm and we are very
>> excited to see the results we get from two really great pieces of software.
>>
>>  Kind regards
>>
>>  Angus
>>
>>   From: Alan Fregtman 
>> Reply-To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com" <
>> softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
>> Date: Monday 15 July 2013 9:07 PM
>> To: XSI Mailing List 
>> Subject: OT: Pacific Rim
>>
>>   Hey guys,
>>
>>  A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I
>> personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to
>> share some details with you. :)
>>
>>  I'm the lead rigger at *Rodeo FX*http://rodeofx.com and we did all of
>> the interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), including the
>> visors, foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some digidoubles, etc.
>> (except the holograms/UI graphics that were done by the folks at Hybride.)
>> We also had the chance of doing our first organic creature, the brain in
>> the lab (which involved a lot of "gross" ICE deformations), as well as many
>> beautiful matte paintings and a couple of helicopters.
>>
>>  Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage and as
>> far as I know it was all rendered in our favourite renderer, Arnold! We'd
>> still be rendering today if Mentalray had been used. :p We threw countless
>> ~8k textures with displacement and stupid amounts of topology, and good ol'
>> Arnie performed like a champ.
>>
>>  The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from 1500 to
>> 2500 separate meshes and on average about 150 segments (solid groups of
>> parts that moved as one.) Once we identified the "segments" by the end we
>> had a rig of

RE: OT: Pacific Rim

[Marc-Andre Carbonneau]

And Vincent is too modest but he and his partner also crunched some fluid shots 
like crazy for ILM Vancouver...
Vacation for the next two weeks for me and I almost hope it rain so I don't 
feel guilty to go see all of this summer's line up! ;)


From: softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com 
[mailto:softimage-boun...@listproc.autodesk.com] On Behalf Of Vincent Fortin
Sent: 15 juillet 2013 16:14
To: softimage
Subject: Re: OT: Pacific Rim

Congrats guys, top notch work!
I also enjoyed the film very much, it was a lot more entertaining than the 
average Marvel that try to be so serious. IMHO Del Toro did a good job, you can 
feel his personality throughout the humor, colors and ubiquitous geekiness :-)

On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 3:59 PM, Tim Crowson 
mailto:tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com>> wrote:
Alan, I saw Pacific Rim in Imax 3D and was absolutely blown away! In my 
opinion, it's the film that is best suited for Imax 3D projection. Other films 
may be fun to watch like that, but Pacific Rim really steps it up. Major ass 
was kicked in the making of this film.

Congrats to you Alan, and everyone else at Rodeo! Impressive stuff, and glad to 
know Soft was used!

I don't really understand the naysayers complaining of thin plots. Who would 
possibly be naive enough to go see this film for any other reason than to 
satisfy the 10-yr old kid in you? It's all over the previews! Don't fool 
yourself... you know why you're there! :-D

-Tim


On 7/15/2013 2:41 PM, David Gallagher wrote:
Congratulations!

On 7/15/2013 3:07 PM, Alan Fregtman wrote:
Hey guys,

A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I personally 
love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to share some 
details with you. :)

I'm the lead rigger at Rodeo FX http://rodeofx.com and we did all of the 
interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), including the visors, 
foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some digidoubles, etc. (except the 
holograms/UI graphics that were done by the folks at Hybride.) We also had the 
chance of doing our first organic creature, the brain in the lab (which 
involved a lot of "gross" ICE deformations), as well as many beautiful matte 
paintings and a couple of helicopters.

Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage and as far as I 
know it was all rendered in our favourite renderer, Arnold! We'd still be 
rendering today if Mentalray had been used. :p We threw countless ~8k textures 
with displacement and stupid amounts of topology, and good ol' Arnie performed 
like a champ.

The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from 1500 to 2500 
separate meshes and on average about 150 segments (solid groups of parts that 
moved as one.) Once we identified the "segments" by the end we had a rig of 
Arnold stand-ins with each segment saved as one ass file, and low-res geo 
representing that segment constrained to some part of the rig. It then became 
relatively "light" to have the standins rigged instead of the full raw geo, and 
it made it quite easy to replace parts or textures later in the pipeline during 
or after animation. (Also caching was a piece of cake in this scenario, as we 
only needed to plot the segment nulls instead of thousands of meshes or 
pointcaching anything.)

On the brain there was procedural pulsing animation driven by ICE deformers. 
Globules would "breathe", a heart-like organ would pump its ventricles 
intermittently and an intestine-like organ flowed with bulges travelling along 
its tract. It was gross and (in my opinion) kind of awesome. lol Speaking of 
ICE, there was a kind of lettuce behind the brain that was also moving a bit. 
The modeling was done with strips that were procedurally curled and then if I 
remember correctly the whole thing was driven via Syflex as the brain gently 
floated. This lettuce thing was handled by another guy on this mailing list, my 
 coworker and friend Jonathan Laborde. Maybe if he's reading this he can give 
more details of how he used ICE in a few other shots.

It was crazy fun project to work on. Fingers crossed that Pacific Rim 2 becomes 
a reality. :) Anyway, did you guys go see it? What'd you think?

Oh and speaking of other movies, we did a ton of work in "Now You See Me" as 
well, including hundreds of stadium dudes with our propietary ICE static crowd 
system, falling/flying money, cg bubbles, an art-directed liquid, lockpicking, 
flying cards, many vehicles, the projected motiongraphics near the end and a 
few invisible fx. (I feel like I probably missed something, but anyway, we did 
a lot.) We were the main vfx vendor on that film, delivering just over 20 
minutes worth of vfx "magic" (pun intended.) Again, Soft & Arnold and lots of 
effects in ICE all throughout.

Cheers,

   -- Alan



--

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Rares Halmagean]

ah, these are Great! Thanks for sharing these and your detailed 
breakdown, Alan. It's a real treat to see Soft + Arnold used in such a 
big way. More please... i.e. robots and monsters. ;-)


On 7/16/2013 11:12 PM, Alan Fregtman wrote:

Uh-oh! lol

artofvfx.com <http://artofvfx.com> has posted an article on our work 
for */Now You See Me/*. You can see some nice before & after pics:

http://www.artofvfx.com/?p=4669

** Before:
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_03B.jpg
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_04B.jpg
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_05B.jpg

** After:
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_03A.jpg
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_04A.jpg
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_05A.jpg
(falling ICE money simulations, ICE standing crowds, additional Arnold 
volumetric lights)




** Before:
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_11B.jpg
** After:
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_11A.jpg
(lots of funky motiongraphic cubes driven by ICE particles. not sure 
if the crowd is cg or 2D, I didn't work on that particular shot.)




On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 10:40 PM, Sylvain Lebeau <mailto:s...@shedmtl.com>> wrote:


you better…..

i know where you live……

;-)

*Sylvain Lebeau // SHED**
*V-P/Visual effects supervisor
1410, RUE STANLEY, 11E ÉTAGE MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC) H3A 1P8
T 514 849-1555 F 514 849-5025WWW.SHEDMTL.COM
<http://www.shedmtl.com/> <http://WWW.SHEDMTL.COM
<http://www.shedmtl.com/>>

On Tuesday, 16 July, 2013 at 9:51 AM, Alan Fregtman wrote:


Believe me, I know. If it was entirely up to me I'd put up lots
of cool behind the scenes visuals.

With commercials, it's a piece of cake to take a screenshot and
attach to an email; if it's aired it's usually fair game and
rarely anyone ever cares, but when it comes to big name
distributors of film,  you have to clear everything with lawyers
and there's many more bureaucratic layers.

When it comes out on bluray I'll ask my boss if I can show some
behind-the-scenes. I can't promise they'll allow it, but I can
ask. :p



On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 4:30 AM, Angus Davidson
mailto:angus.david...@wits.ac.za>> wrote:

Hi Alan

Awesome work.  Just want to let you know that breakdowns like
this are not only important for other professionals who have
this massive shared curiosity but it also incredibly important
when it comes to our students. When we made the decision to move
away from Maya to Softimage for our teaching we caught quite a
bit of flak for the decision. However posts like these are
really great because we can show just how Softimage is being
used. We have also just set up our first Arnold render farm and
we are very excited to see the results we get from two really
great pieces of software.

Kind regards

Angus

From: Alan Fregtman mailto:alan.fregt...@gmail.com>>
Reply-To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com
<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>"
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Date: Monday 15 July 2013 9:07 PM
To: XSI Mailing List mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Subject: OT: Pacific Rim

Hey guys,

A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies,
so I personally love to hear stories when it does happen.
Therefore, I wanted to share some details with you. :)

I'm the lead rigger at /Rodeo FX/http://rodeofx.com and we did
all of the interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that
is), including the visors, foot actuators & mechanical stilts,
some digidoubles, etc. (except the holograms/UI graphics that
were done by the folks at Hybride.) We also had the chance of
doing our first organic creature, the brain in the lab (which
involved a lot of "gross" ICE deformations), as well as many
beautiful matte paintings and a couple of helicopters.

Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage
and as far as I know it was all rendered in our favourite
renderer, Arnold! We'd still be rendering today if Mentalray had
been used. :p We threw countless ~8k textures with displacement
and stupid amounts of topology, and good ol' Arnie performed
like a champ.

The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from
1500 to 2500 separate meshes and on average about 150 segments
(solid groups of parts that moved as one.) Once we identified
the "segments" by the end we had a rig of Arnold stand-ins with
each segment saved as one ass file, and low-res geo representing
that segment constrained to some part of the rig. It then became
relatively "light" to have the standins rigged instead of the
full raw geo, 

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Alan Fregtman]

Uh-oh! lol

artofvfx.com has posted an article on our work for *Now You See Me*. You
can see some nice before & after pics:
http://www.artofvfx.com/?p=4669

** Before:
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_03B.jpg
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_04B.jpg
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_05B.jpg

** After:
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_03A.jpg
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_04A.jpg
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_05A.jpg
(falling ICE money simulations, ICE standing crowds, additional Arnold
volumetric lights)



** Before:
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_11B.jpg
** After:
http://www.artofvfx.com/NOW/NOW_RODEOFX_VFX_11A.jpg
(lots of funky motiongraphic cubes driven by ICE particles. not sure if the
crowd is cg or 2D, I didn't work on that particular shot.)



On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 10:40 PM, Sylvain Lebeau  wrote:

>  you better…..
>
> i know where you live……
>
> ;-)
>
> *Sylvain Lebeau // SHED**
> *V-P/Visual effects supervisor
> 1410, RUE STANLEY, 11E ÉTAGE MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC) H3A 1P8
> T 514 849-1555 F 514 849-5025 WWW.SHEDMTL.COM <http://www.shedmtl.com/> <
> http://WWW.SHEDMTL.COM <http://www.shedmtl.com/>>
>
> On Tuesday, 16 July, 2013 at 9:51 AM, Alan Fregtman wrote:
>
> Believe me, I know. If it was entirely up to me I'd put up lots of cool
> behind the scenes visuals.
>
> With commercials, it's a piece of cake to take a screenshot and attach to
> an email; if it's aired it's usually fair game and rarely anyone ever
> cares, but when it comes to big name distributors of film,  you have to
> clear everything with lawyers and there's many more bureaucratic layers.
>
> When it comes out on bluray I'll ask my boss if I can show some
> behind-the-scenes. I can't promise they'll allow it, but I can ask. :p
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 4:30 AM, Angus Davidson  > wrote:
>
>  Hi Alan
>
>  Awesome work.  Just want to let you know that breakdowns like this are
> not only important for other professionals who have this massive shared
> curiosity but it also incredibly important when it comes to our students.
> When we made the decision to move away from Maya to Softimage for our
> teaching we caught quite a bit of flak for the decision. However posts like
> these are really great because we can show just how Softimage is being
> used. We have also just set up our first Arnold render farm and we are very
> excited to see the results we get from two really great pieces of software.
>
>  Kind regards
>
>  Angus
>
>   From: Alan Fregtman 
> Reply-To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com" <
> softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
> Date: Monday 15 July 2013 9:07 PM
> To: XSI Mailing List 
> Subject: OT: Pacific Rim
>
>   Hey guys,
>
>  A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I
> personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to
> share some details with you. :)
>
>  I'm the lead rigger at *Rodeo FX*http://rodeofx.com and we did all of
> the interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), including the
> visors, foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some digidoubles, etc.
> (except the holograms/UI graphics that were done by the folks at Hybride.)
> We also had the chance of doing our first organic creature, the brain in
> the lab (which involved a lot of "gross" ICE deformations), as well as many
> beautiful matte paintings and a couple of helicopters.
>
>  Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage and as
> far as I know it was all rendered in our favourite renderer, Arnold! We'd
> still be rendering today if Mentalray had been used. :p We threw countless
> ~8k textures with displacement and stupid amounts of topology, and good ol'
> Arnie performed like a champ.
>
>  The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from 1500 to
> 2500 separate meshes and on average about 150 segments (solid groups of
> parts that moved as one.) Once we identified the "segments" by the end we
> had a rig of Arnold stand-ins with each segment saved as one ass file, and
> low-res geo representing that segment constrained to some part of the rig.
> It then became relatively "light" to have the standins rigged instead of
> the full raw geo, and it made it quite easy to replace parts or textures
> later in the pipeline during or after animation. (Also caching was a piece
> of cake in this scenario, as we only needed to plot the segment nulls
> instead of thousands of meshes or pointcaching anything.)
>
>  On the brain there was procedural pulsing animation driven by ICE
> deformers. Globules 

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Sylvain Lebeau]

you better…..  

i know where you live……

;-)  

Sylvain Lebeau // SHED
V-P/Visual effects supervisor
1410, RUE STANLEY, 11E ÉTAGE MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC) H3A 1P8
T 514 849-1555 F 514 849-5025 WWW.SHEDMTL.COM (http://www.shedmtl.com/) 
<http://WWW.SHEDMTL.COM (http://www.shedmtl.com/)>


On Tuesday, 16 July, 2013 at 9:51 AM, Alan Fregtman wrote:

> Believe me, I know. If it was entirely up to me I'd put up lots of cool 
> behind the scenes visuals.
>  
> With commercials, it's a piece of cake to take a screenshot and attach to an 
> email; if it's aired it's usually fair game and rarely anyone ever cares, but 
> when it comes to big name distributors of film,  you have to clear everything 
> with lawyers and there's many more bureaucratic layers.
>  
> When it comes out on bluray I'll ask my boss if I can show some 
> behind-the-scenes. I can't promise they'll allow it, but I can ask. :p
>  
>  
>  
> On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 4:30 AM, Angus Davidson  (mailto:angus.david...@wits.ac.za)> wrote:
> > Hi Alan  
> >  
> > Awesome work.  Just want to let you know that breakdowns like this are not 
> > only important for other professionals who have this massive shared 
> > curiosity but it also incredibly important when it comes to our students. 
> > When we made the decision to move away from Maya to Softimage for our 
> > teaching we caught quite a bit of flak for the decision. However posts like 
> > these are really great because we can show just how Softimage is being 
> > used. We have also just set up our first Arnold render farm and we are very 
> > excited to see the results we get from two really great pieces of software. 
> >  
> >  
> > Kind regards  
> >  
> > Angus  
> >  
> > From: Alan Fregtman  > (mailto:alan.fregt...@gmail.com)>
> > Reply-To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com 
> > (mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com)"  > (mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com)>
> > Date: Monday 15 July 2013 9:07 PM
> > To: XSI Mailing List  > (mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com)>
> > Subject: OT: Pacific Rim
> >  
> > Hey guys,  
> >  
> > A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I 
> > personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to 
> > share some details with you. :)  
> >  
> > I'm the lead rigger at Rodeo FXhttp://rodeofx.com and we did all of the 
> > interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), including the 
> > visors, foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some digidoubles, etc. (except 
> > the holograms/UI graphics that were done by the folks at Hybride.) We also 
> > had the chance of doing our first organic creature, the brain in the lab 
> > (which involved a lot of "gross" ICE deformations), as well as many 
> > beautiful matte paintings and a couple of helicopters.  
> >  
> > Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage and as far 
> > as I know it was all rendered in our favourite renderer, Arnold! We'd still 
> > be rendering today if Mentalray had been used. :p We threw countless ~8k 
> > textures with displacement and stupid amounts of topology, and good ol' 
> > Arnie performed like a champ.  
> >  
> > The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from 1500 to 2500 
> > separate meshes and on average about 150 segments (solid groups of parts 
> > that moved as one.) Once we identified the "segments" by the end we had a 
> > rig of Arnold stand-ins with each segment saved as one ass file, and 
> > low-res geo representing that segment constrained to some part of the rig. 
> > It then became relatively "light" to have the standins rigged instead of 
> > the full raw geo, and it made it quite easy to replace parts or textures 
> > later in the pipeline during or after animation. (Also caching was a piece 
> > of cake in this scenario, as we only needed to plot the segment nulls 
> > instead of thousands of meshes or pointcaching anything.)  
> >  
> > On the brain there was procedural pulsing animation driven by ICE 
> > deformers. Globules would "breathe", a heart-like organ would pump its 
> > ventricles intermittently and an intestine-like organ flowed with bulges 
> > travelling along its tract. It was gross and (in my opinion) kind of 
> > awesome. lol Speaking of ICE, there was a kind of lettuce behind the brain 
> > that was also moving a bit. The modeling was done with strips that were 
> > procedurally curled and then if I remember correctly the whole t

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Sylvain Lebeau]

Hey Alan, just came back from the movie…….

AHHHRG

Bravo Rodeo for the amazing work!!! it's cool since i've read your mail before 
going to actually go see the movie.  
Just like in Mortal Kombat…….  Flawless Victory

sly



Sylvain Lebeau // SHED
V-P/Visual effects supervisor
1410, RUE STANLEY, 11E ÉTAGE MONTRÉAL (QUÉBEC) H3A 1P8
T 514 849-1555 F 514 849-5025 WWW.SHEDMTL.COM (http://www.shedmtl.com/) 



On Monday, 15 July, 2013 at 3:07 PM, Alan Fregtman wrote:

> Hey guys,
>  
> A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I 
> personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to 
> share some details with you. :)  
>  
> I'm the lead rigger at Rodeo FX http://rodeofx.com and we did all of the 
> interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), including the visors, 
> foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some digidoubles, etc. (except the 
> holograms/UI graphics that were done by the folks at Hybride.) We also had 
> the chance of doing our first organic creature, the brain in the lab (which 
> involved a lot of "gross" ICE deformations), as well as many beautiful matte 
> paintings and a couple of helicopters.  
>  
> Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage and as far as 
> I know it was all rendered in our favourite renderer, Arnold! We'd still be 
> rendering today if Mentalray had been used. :p We threw countless ~8k 
> textures with displacement and stupid amounts of topology, and good ol' Arnie 
> performed like a champ.  
>  
> The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from 1500 to 2500 
> separate meshes and on average about 150 segments (solid groups of parts that 
> moved as one.) Once we identified the "segments" by the end we had a rig of 
> Arnold stand-ins with each segment saved as one ass file, and low-res geo 
> representing that segment constrained to some part of the rig. It then became 
> relatively "light" to have the standins rigged instead of the full raw geo, 
> and it made it quite easy to replace parts or textures later in the pipeline 
> during or after animation. (Also caching was a piece of cake in this 
> scenario, as we only needed to plot the segment nulls instead of thousands of 
> meshes or pointcaching anything.)  
>  
> On the brain there was procedural pulsing animation driven by ICE deformers. 
> Globules would "breathe", a heart-like organ would pump its ventricles 
> intermittently and an intestine-like organ flowed with bulges travelling 
> along its tract. It was gross and (in my opinion) kind of awesome. lol 
> Speaking of ICE, there was a kind of lettuce behind the brain that was also 
> moving a bit. The modeling was done with strips that were procedurally curled 
> and then if I remember correctly the whole thing was driven via Syflex as the 
> brain gently floated. This lettuce thing was handled by another guy on this 
> mailing list, my  coworker and friend Jonathan Laborde. Maybe if he's reading 
> this he can give more details of how he used ICE in a few other shots.  
>  
> It was crazy fun project to work on. Fingers crossed that Pacific Rim 2 
> becomes a reality. :) Anyway, did you guys go see it? What'd you think?  
>  
> Oh and speaking of other movies, we did a ton of work in "Now You See Me" as 
> well, including hundreds of stadium dudes with our propietary ICE static 
> crowd system, falling/flying money, cg bubbles, an art-directed liquid, 
> lockpicking, flying cards, many vehicles, the projected motiongraphics near 
> the end and a few invisible fx. (I feel like I probably missed something, but 
> anyway, we did a lot.) We were the main vfx vendor on that film, delivering 
> just over 20 minutes worth of vfx "magic" (pun intended.) Again, Soft & 
> Arnold and lots of effects in ICE all throughout.  
>  
> Cheers,
>  
>-- Alan
>  

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Ben Houston]

Amazing work Alan!  :-)  Pacific Rim is an awesome VFX movie.
-ben

RE: OT: Pacific Rim

[Angus Davidson]

Hi Alan

I have had a year full of lawyers and it never a fun exercise ;) I like to 
think its very good exposure for the animation studios involved in production 
of the vfx shots .Star Wars and the Lord Of the Rings for example and the 
making of DVDs were massive exposure for the studios involved. Even though you 
might have 5 or so studios working on the shots only one (normally the main 
one) gets all of the limelight. It would be great to see how all the various 
players did their thing.

Maybe things like that need to be part of the new business model that studios 
need to adopt.

If they actually realize that there are a lot of people (particularly students) 
 that are very interested in this stuff and its not just to bulk up the blu ray 
they might take it more seriously. Point me at those lawyers if you need any 
help to plead the case ;)



From: Alan Fregtman [alan.fregt...@gmail.com]
Sent: 16 July 2013 03:51 PM
To: XSI Mailing List
Subject: Re: OT: Pacific Rim

Believe me, I know. If it was entirely up to me I'd put up lots of cool behind 
the scenes visuals.

With commercials, it's a piece of cake to take a screenshot and attach to an 
email; if it's aired it's usually fair game and rarely anyone ever cares, but 
when it comes to big name distributors of film,  you have to clear everything 
with lawyers and there's many more bureaucratic layers.

When it comes out on bluray I'll ask my boss if I can show some 
behind-the-scenes. I can't promise they'll allow it, but I can ask. :p



On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 4:30 AM, Angus Davidson 
mailto:angus.david...@wits.ac.za>> wrote:
Hi Alan

Awesome work.  Just want to let you know that breakdowns like this are not only 
important for other professionals who have this massive shared curiosity but it 
also incredibly important when it comes to our students. When we made the 
decision to move away from Maya to Softimage for our teaching we caught quite a 
bit of flak for the decision. However posts like these are really great because 
we can show just how Softimage is being used. We have also just set up our 
first Arnold render farm and we are very excited to see the results we get from 
two really great pieces of software.

Kind regards

Angus

From: Alan Fregtman mailto:alan.fregt...@gmail.com>>
Reply-To: 
"softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>" 
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Date: Monday 15 July 2013 9:07 PM
To: XSI Mailing List 
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Subject: OT: Pacific Rim

Hey guys,

A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I personally 
love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to share some 
details with you. :)

I'm the lead rigger at Rodeo FXhttp://rodeofx.com and we did all of the 
interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), including the visors, 
foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some digidoubles, etc. (except the 
holograms/UI graphics that were done by the folks at Hybride.) We also had the 
chance of doing our first organic creature, the brain in the lab (which 
involved a lot of "gross" ICE deformations), as well as many beautiful matte 
paintings and a couple of helicopters.

Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage and as far as I 
know it was all rendered in our favourite renderer, Arnold! We'd still be 
rendering today if Mentalray had been used. :p We threw countless ~8k textures 
with displacement and stupid amounts of topology, and good ol' Arnie performed 
like a champ.

The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from 1500 to 2500 
separate meshes and on average about 150 segments (solid groups of parts that 
moved as one.) Once we identified the "segments" by the end we had a rig of 
Arnold stand-ins with each segment saved as one ass file, and low-res geo 
representing that segment constrained to some part of the rig. It then became 
relatively "light" to have the standins rigged instead of the full raw geo, and 
it made it quite easy to replace parts or textures later in the pipeline during 
or after animation. (Also caching was a piece of cake in this scenario, as we 
only needed to plot the segment nulls instead of thousands of meshes or 
pointcaching anything.)

On the brain there was procedural pulsing animation driven by ICE deformers. 
Globules would "breathe", a heart-like organ would pump its ventricles 
intermittently and an intestine-like organ flowed with bulges travelling along 
its tract. It was gross and (in my opinion) kind of awesome. lol Speaking of 
ICE, there was a kind of lettuce behind the brain that was also moving a bit. 
The modeling was done with strips that were procedurally curled and then if I 
remember correctly the whole thing was driven via Syflex as the brain gentl

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Alan Fregtman]

Believe me, I know. If it was entirely up to me I'd put up lots of cool
behind the scenes visuals.

With commercials, it's a piece of cake to take a screenshot and attach to
an email; if it's aired it's usually fair game and rarely anyone ever
cares, but when it comes to big name distributors of film,  you have to
clear everything with lawyers and there's many more bureaucratic layers.

When it comes out on bluray I'll ask my boss if I can show some
behind-the-scenes. I can't promise they'll allow it, but I can ask. :p



On Tue, Jul 16, 2013 at 4:30 AM, Angus Davidson
wrote:

>  Hi Alan
>
>  Awesome work.  Just want to let you know that breakdowns like this are
> not only important for other professionals who have this massive shared
> curiosity but it also incredibly important when it comes to our students.
> When we made the decision to move away from Maya to Softimage for our
> teaching we caught quite a bit of flak for the decision. However posts like
> these are really great because we can show just how Softimage is being
> used. We have also just set up our first Arnold render farm and we are very
> excited to see the results we get from two really great pieces of software.
>
>  Kind regards
>
>  Angus
>
>   From: Alan Fregtman 
> Reply-To: "softimage@listproc.autodesk.com" <
> softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>
> Date: Monday 15 July 2013 9:07 PM
> To: XSI Mailing List 
> Subject: OT: Pacific Rim
>
>   Hey guys,
>
>  A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I
> personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to
> share some details with you. :)
>
>  I'm the lead rigger at *Rodeo FX*http://rodeofx.com and we did all of
> the interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), including the
> visors, foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some digidoubles, etc.
> (except the holograms/UI graphics that were done by the folks at Hybride.)
> We also had the chance of doing our first organic creature, the brain in
> the lab (which involved a lot of "gross" ICE deformations), as well as many
> beautiful matte paintings and a couple of helicopters.
>
>  Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage and as
> far as I know it was all rendered in our favourite renderer, Arnold! We'd
> still be rendering today if Mentalray had been used. :p We threw countless
> ~8k textures with displacement and stupid amounts of topology, and good ol'
> Arnie performed like a champ.
>
>  The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from 1500 to
> 2500 separate meshes and on average about 150 segments (solid groups of
> parts that moved as one.) Once we identified the "segments" by the end we
> had a rig of Arnold stand-ins with each segment saved as one ass file, and
> low-res geo representing that segment constrained to some part of the rig.
> It then became relatively "light" to have the standins rigged instead of
> the full raw geo, and it made it quite easy to replace parts or textures
> later in the pipeline during or after animation. (Also caching was a piece
> of cake in this scenario, as we only needed to plot the segment nulls
> instead of thousands of meshes or pointcaching anything.)
>
>  On the brain there was procedural pulsing animation driven by ICE
> deformers. Globules would "breathe", a heart-like organ would pump its
> ventricles intermittently and an intestine-like organ flowed with bulges
> travelling along its tract. It was gross and (in my opinion) kind of
> awesome. lol Speaking of ICE, there was a kind of lettuce behind the brain
> that was also moving a bit. The modeling was done with strips that were
> procedurally curled and then if I remember correctly the whole thing was
> driven via Syflex as the brain gently floated. This lettuce thing was
> handled by another guy on this mailing list, my  coworker and friend
> Jonathan Laborde. Maybe if he's reading this he can give more details of
> how he used ICE in a few other shots.
>
>  It was crazy fun project to work on. Fingers crossed that Pacific Rim 2
> becomes a reality. :) Anyway, did you guys go see it? What'd you think?
>
>  Oh and speaking of other movies, we did a ton of work in "Now You See
> Me" as well, including hundreds of stadium dudes with our propietary ICE
> static crowd system, falling/flying money, cg bubbles, an art-directed
> liquid, lockpicking, flying cards, many vehicles, the projected
> motiongraphics near the end and a few invisible fx. (I feel like I probably
> missed something, but anyway, we did a lot.) We were the main vfx vendor on
> that film, delivering just over 20 minutes worth of

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Angus Davidson]

Hi Alan

Awesome work.  Just want to let you know that breakdowns like this are not only 
important for other professionals who have this massive shared curiosity but it 
also incredibly important when it comes to our students. When we made the 
decision to move away from Maya to Softimage for our teaching we caught quite a 
bit of flak for the decision. However posts like these are really great because 
we can show just how Softimage is being used. We have also just set up our 
first Arnold render farm and we are very excited to see the results we get from 
two really great pieces of software.

Kind regards

Angus

From: Alan Fregtman mailto:alan.fregt...@gmail.com>>
Reply-To: 
"softimage@listproc.autodesk.com<mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>" 
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Date: Monday 15 July 2013 9:07 PM
To: XSI Mailing List 
mailto:softimage@listproc.autodesk.com>>
Subject: OT: Pacific Rim

Hey guys,

A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I personally 
love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to share some 
details with you. :)

I'm the lead rigger at Rodeo FXhttp://rodeofx.com and we did all of the 
interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), including the visors, 
foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some digidoubles, etc. (except the 
holograms/UI graphics that were done by the folks at Hybride.) We also had the 
chance of doing our first organic creature, the brain in the lab (which 
involved a lot of "gross" ICE deformations), as well as many beautiful matte 
paintings and a couple of helicopters.

Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage and as far as I 
know it was all rendered in our favourite renderer, Arnold! We'd still be 
rendering today if Mentalray had been used. :p We threw countless ~8k textures 
with displacement and stupid amounts of topology, and good ol' Arnie performed 
like a champ.

The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from 1500 to 2500 
separate meshes and on average about 150 segments (solid groups of parts that 
moved as one.) Once we identified the "segments" by the end we had a rig of 
Arnold stand-ins with each segment saved as one ass file, and low-res geo 
representing that segment constrained to some part of the rig. It then became 
relatively "light" to have the standins rigged instead of the full raw geo, and 
it made it quite easy to replace parts or textures later in the pipeline during 
or after animation. (Also caching was a piece of cake in this scenario, as we 
only needed to plot the segment nulls instead of thousands of meshes or 
pointcaching anything.)

On the brain there was procedural pulsing animation driven by ICE deformers. 
Globules would "breathe", a heart-like organ would pump its ventricles 
intermittently and an intestine-like organ flowed with bulges travelling along 
its tract. It was gross and (in my opinion) kind of awesome. lol Speaking of 
ICE, there was a kind of lettuce behind the brain that was also moving a bit. 
The modeling was done with strips that were procedurally curled and then if I 
remember correctly the whole thing was driven via Syflex as the brain gently 
floated. This lettuce thing was handled by another guy on this mailing list, my 
 coworker and friend Jonathan Laborde. Maybe if he's reading this he can give 
more details of how he used ICE in a few other shots.

It was crazy fun project to work on. Fingers crossed that Pacific Rim 2 becomes 
a reality. :) Anyway, did you guys go see it? What'd you think?

Oh and speaking of other movies, we did a ton of work in "Now You See Me" as 
well, including hundreds of stadium dudes with our propietary ICE static crowd 
system, falling/flying money, cg bubbles, an art-directed liquid, lockpicking, 
flying cards, many vehicles, the projected motiongraphics near the end and a 
few invisible fx. (I feel like I probably missed something, but anyway, we did 
a lot.) We were the main vfx vendor on that film, delivering just over 20 
minutes worth of vfx "magic" (pun intended.) Again, Soft & Arnold and lots of 
effects in ICE all throughout.

Cheers,

   -- Alan




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Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Sebastien Sterling]

Doesn't seem to be out in Belgium yet grrr, looks so cool, congratulations
to the guys at Rodeo ! yay Softimage !


On 16 July 2013 00:34, Upinder Dhaliwal  wrote:

> Saw it in Imax3D. Awesome movie.
>
> Congrats to everyone involved.
>
> Cheers,
> Upinder Dhaliwal
> www.upinderdhaliwal.com
> On 16 Jul 2013 08:29, "Graham D. Clark" 
> wrote:
>
>> Congrats Alan! you guys did great work at Rodeo FX, and also thanks to
>> Hybride for getting us such well separated out holographics, so great when
>> elements are solid deliveries for the 3D to work out.
>>
>> Alan, keep up he fight, we use Softimage for all CG Vfx additions on
>> features.
>>
>> Graham D Clark, Head of Stereography, Deluxe 3D dba Stereo D
>> phone: why-I-stereo
>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamclark
>>
>> On Jul 15, 2013, at 12:08 PM, Alan Fregtman 
>> wrote:
>>
>> Hey guys,
>>
>> A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I
>> personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to
>> share some details with you. :)
>>
>> I'm the lead rigger at *Rodeo FX* http://rodeofx.com and we did all of
>> the interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), including the
>> visors, foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some digidoubles, etc.
>> (except the holograms/UI graphics that were done by the folks at Hybride.)
>> We also had the chance of doing our first organic creature, the brain in
>> the lab (which involved a lot of "gross" ICE deformations), as well as many
>> beautiful matte paintings and a couple of helicopters.
>>
>> Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage and as
>> far as I know it was all rendered in our favourite renderer, Arnold! We'd
>> still be rendering today if Mentalray had been used. :p We threw countless
>> ~8k textures with displacement and stupid amounts of topology, and good ol'
>> Arnie performed like a champ.
>>
>> The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from 1500 to
>> 2500 separate meshes and on average about 150 segments (solid groups of
>> parts that moved as one.) Once we identified the "segments" by the end we
>> had a rig of Arnold stand-ins with each segment saved as one ass file, and
>> low-res geo representing that segment constrained to some part of the rig.
>> It then became relatively "light" to have the standins rigged instead of
>> the full raw geo, and it made it quite easy to replace parts or textures
>> later in the pipeline during or after animation. (Also caching was a piece
>> of cake in this scenario, as we only needed to plot the segment nulls
>> instead of thousands of meshes or pointcaching anything.)
>>
>> On the brain there was procedural pulsing animation driven by ICE
>> deformers. Globules would "breathe", a heart-like organ would pump its
>> ventricles intermittently and an intestine-like organ flowed with bulges
>> travelling along its tract. It was gross and (in my opinion) kind of
>> awesome. lol Speaking of ICE, there was a kind of lettuce behind the brain
>> that was also moving a bit. The modeling was done with strips that were
>> procedurally curled and then if I remember correctly the whole thing was
>> driven via Syflex as the brain gently floated. This lettuce thing was
>> handled by another guy on this mailing list, my  coworker and friend
>> Jonathan Laborde. Maybe if he's reading this he can give more details of
>> how he used ICE in a few other shots.
>>
>> It was crazy fun project to work on. Fingers crossed that Pacific Rim 2
>> becomes a reality. :) Anyway, did you guys go see it? What'd you think?
>>
>> Oh and speaking of other movies, we did a ton of work in "Now You See Me"
>> as well, including hundreds of stadium dudes with our propietary ICE static
>> crowd system, falling/flying money, cg bubbles, an art-directed liquid,
>> lockpicking, flying cards, many vehicles, the projected motiongraphics near
>> the end and a few invisible fx. (I feel like I probably missed something,
>> but anyway, we did a lot.) We were the main vfx vendor on that film,
>> delivering just over 20 minutes worth of vfx "magic" (pun intended.) Again,
>> Soft & Arnold and lots of effects in ICE all throughout.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>>-- Alan
>>
>>

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Upinder Dhaliwal]

Saw it in Imax3D. Awesome movie.

Congrats to everyone involved.

Cheers,
Upinder Dhaliwal
www.upinderdhaliwal.com
On 16 Jul 2013 08:29, "Graham D. Clark"  wrote:

> Congrats Alan! you guys did great work at Rodeo FX, and also thanks to
> Hybride for getting us such well separated out holographics, so great when
> elements are solid deliveries for the 3D to work out.
>
> Alan, keep up he fight, we use Softimage for all CG Vfx additions on
> features.
>
> Graham D Clark, Head of Stereography, Deluxe 3D dba Stereo D
> phone: why-I-stereo
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamclark
>
> On Jul 15, 2013, at 12:08 PM, Alan Fregtman 
> wrote:
>
> Hey guys,
>
> A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I
> personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to
> share some details with you. :)
>
> I'm the lead rigger at *Rodeo FX* http://rodeofx.com and we did all of
> the interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), including the
> visors, foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some digidoubles, etc.
> (except the holograms/UI graphics that were done by the folks at Hybride.)
> We also had the chance of doing our first organic creature, the brain in
> the lab (which involved a lot of "gross" ICE deformations), as well as many
> beautiful matte paintings and a couple of helicopters.
>
> Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage and as far
> as I know it was all rendered in our favourite renderer, Arnold! We'd still
> be rendering today if Mentalray had been used. :p We threw countless ~8k
> textures with displacement and stupid amounts of topology, and good ol'
> Arnie performed like a champ.
>
> The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from 1500 to
> 2500 separate meshes and on average about 150 segments (solid groups of
> parts that moved as one.) Once we identified the "segments" by the end we
> had a rig of Arnold stand-ins with each segment saved as one ass file, and
> low-res geo representing that segment constrained to some part of the rig.
> It then became relatively "light" to have the standins rigged instead of
> the full raw geo, and it made it quite easy to replace parts or textures
> later in the pipeline during or after animation. (Also caching was a piece
> of cake in this scenario, as we only needed to plot the segment nulls
> instead of thousands of meshes or pointcaching anything.)
>
> On the brain there was procedural pulsing animation driven by ICE
> deformers. Globules would "breathe", a heart-like organ would pump its
> ventricles intermittently and an intestine-like organ flowed with bulges
> travelling along its tract. It was gross and (in my opinion) kind of
> awesome. lol Speaking of ICE, there was a kind of lettuce behind the brain
> that was also moving a bit. The modeling was done with strips that were
> procedurally curled and then if I remember correctly the whole thing was
> driven via Syflex as the brain gently floated. This lettuce thing was
> handled by another guy on this mailing list, my  coworker and friend
> Jonathan Laborde. Maybe if he's reading this he can give more details of
> how he used ICE in a few other shots.
>
> It was crazy fun project to work on. Fingers crossed that Pacific Rim 2
> becomes a reality. :) Anyway, did you guys go see it? What'd you think?
>
> Oh and speaking of other movies, we did a ton of work in "Now You See Me"
> as well, including hundreds of stadium dudes with our propietary ICE static
> crowd system, falling/flying money, cg bubbles, an art-directed liquid,
> lockpicking, flying cards, many vehicles, the projected motiongraphics near
> the end and a few invisible fx. (I feel like I probably missed something,
> but anyway, we did a lot.) We were the main vfx vendor on that film,
> delivering just over 20 minutes worth of vfx "magic" (pun intended.) Again,
> Soft & Arnold and lots of effects in ICE all throughout.
>
> Cheers,
>
>-- Alan
>
>

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Graham D. Clark]

Congrats Alan! you guys did great work at Rodeo FX, and also thanks to
Hybride for getting us such well separated out holographics, so great when
elements are solid deliveries for the 3D to work out.

Alan, keep up he fight, we use Softimage for all CG Vfx additions on
features.

Graham D Clark, Head of Stereography, Deluxe 3D dba Stereo D
phone: why-I-stereo
http://www.linkedin.com/in/grahamclark

On Jul 15, 2013, at 12:08 PM, Alan Fregtman  wrote:

Hey guys,

A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I
personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to
share some details with you. :)

I'm the lead rigger at *Rodeo FX* http://rodeofx.com and we did all of the
interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), including the
visors, foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some digidoubles, etc. (except
the holograms/UI graphics that were done by the folks at Hybride.) We also
had the chance of doing our first organic creature, the brain in the lab
(which involved a lot of "gross" ICE deformations), as well as many
beautiful matte paintings and a couple of helicopters.

Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage and as far
as I know it was all rendered in our favourite renderer, Arnold! We'd still
be rendering today if Mentalray had been used. :p We threw countless ~8k
textures with displacement and stupid amounts of topology, and good ol'
Arnie performed like a champ.

The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from 1500 to 2500
separate meshes and on average about 150 segments (solid groups of parts
that moved as one.) Once we identified the "segments" by the end we had a
rig of Arnold stand-ins with each segment saved as one ass file, and
low-res geo representing that segment constrained to some part of the rig.
It then became relatively "light" to have the standins rigged instead of
the full raw geo, and it made it quite easy to replace parts or textures
later in the pipeline during or after animation. (Also caching was a piece
of cake in this scenario, as we only needed to plot the segment nulls
instead of thousands of meshes or pointcaching anything.)

On the brain there was procedural pulsing animation driven by ICE
deformers. Globules would "breathe", a heart-like organ would pump its
ventricles intermittently and an intestine-like organ flowed with bulges
travelling along its tract. It was gross and (in my opinion) kind of
awesome. lol Speaking of ICE, there was a kind of lettuce behind the brain
that was also moving a bit. The modeling was done with strips that were
procedurally curled and then if I remember correctly the whole thing was
driven via Syflex as the brain gently floated. This lettuce thing was
handled by another guy on this mailing list, my  coworker and friend
Jonathan Laborde. Maybe if he's reading this he can give more details of
how he used ICE in a few other shots.

It was crazy fun project to work on. Fingers crossed that Pacific Rim 2
becomes a reality. :) Anyway, did you guys go see it? What'd you think?

Oh and speaking of other movies, we did a ton of work in "Now You See Me"
as well, including hundreds of stadium dudes with our propietary ICE static
crowd system, falling/flying money, cg bubbles, an art-directed liquid,
lockpicking, flying cards, many vehicles, the projected motiongraphics near
the end and a few invisible fx. (I feel like I probably missed something,
but anyway, we did a lot.) We were the main vfx vendor on that film,
delivering just over 20 minutes worth of vfx "magic" (pun intended.) Again,
Soft & Arnold and lots of effects in ICE all throughout.

Cheers,

   -- Alan

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Serguei Kalentchouk]

Congrats to everyone at Rodeo FX, really outstanding work!


-- 
Technical Director @ DreamWorks Animation

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Ognjen Vukovic]

I haven't seen it yet, but i do plan to these days.
All i can say though is that i was blown away even by the trailers that
came out some time ago... So either way, congratulations and im looking
forward watching it.

Cheers.


On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 10:16 PM, Ben Davis  wrote:

> I also saw it in Imax 3D, I agree a 100% with Tim, it was great to be a
> kid again! And it was fun to see a few familiar names in the credits, great
> job!
>
> --
> *Ben Davis*
> www.moondog-animation.com
>
> +1 (423) 313 9304
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 3:59 PM, Tim Crowson <
> tim.crow...@magneticdreams.com> wrote:
>
>>  Alan, I saw Pacific Rim in Imax 3D and was absolutely blown away! In my
>> opinion, it's the film that is best suited for Imax 3D projection. Other
>> films may be fun to watch like that, but Pacific Rim really steps it up.
>> Major ass was kicked in the making of this film.
>>
>> Congrats to you Alan, and everyone else at Rodeo! Impressive stuff, and
>> glad to know Soft was used!
>>
>> I don't really understand the naysayers complaining of thin plots. Who
>> would possibly be naive enough to go see this film for any other reason
>> than to satisfy the 10-yr old kid in you? It's all over the previews! Don't
>> fool yourself... you know why you're there! :-D
>>
>> -Tim
>>
>>
>>
>> On 7/15/2013 2:41 PM, David Gallagher wrote:
>>
>> Congratulations!
>>
>> On 7/15/2013 3:07 PM, Alan Fregtman wrote:
>>
>>  Hey guys,
>>
>>  A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I
>> personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to
>> share some details with you. :)
>>
>>  I'm the lead rigger at *Rodeo FX* http://rodeofx.com and we did all of
>> the interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), including the
>> visors, foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some digidoubles, etc.
>> (except the holograms/UI graphics that were done by the folks at Hybride.)
>> We also had the chance of doing our first organic creature, the brain in
>> the lab (which involved a lot of "gross" ICE deformations), as well as many
>> beautiful matte paintings and a couple of helicopters.
>>
>>  Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage and as
>> far as I know it was all rendered in our favourite renderer, Arnold! We'd
>> still be rendering today if Mentalray had been used. :p We threw countless
>> ~8k textures with displacement and stupid amounts of topology, and good ol'
>> Arnie performed like a champ.
>>
>>  The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from 1500 to
>> 2500 separate meshes and on average about 150 segments (solid groups of
>> parts that moved as one.) Once we identified the "segments" by the end we
>> had a rig of Arnold stand-ins with each segment saved as one ass file, and
>> low-res geo representing that segment constrained to some part of the rig.
>> It then became relatively "light" to have the standins rigged instead of
>> the full raw geo, and it made it quite easy to replace parts or textures
>> later in the pipeline during or after animation. (Also caching was a piece
>> of cake in this scenario, as we only needed to plot the segment nulls
>> instead of thousands of meshes or pointcaching anything.)
>>
>>  On the brain there was procedural pulsing animation driven by ICE
>> deformers. Globules would "breathe", a heart-like organ would pump its
>> ventricles intermittently and an intestine-like organ flowed with bulges
>> travelling along its tract. It was gross and (in my opinion) kind of
>> awesome. lol Speaking of ICE, there was a kind of lettuce behind the brain
>> that was also moving a bit. The modeling was done with strips that were
>> procedurally curled and then if I remember correctly the whole thing was
>> driven via Syflex as the brain gently floated. This lettuce thing was
>> handled by another guy on this mailing list, my  coworker and friend
>> Jonathan Laborde. Maybe if he's reading this he can give more details of
>> how he used ICE in a few other shots.
>>
>>  It was crazy fun project to work on. Fingers crossed that Pacific Rim 2
>> becomes a reality. :) Anyway, did you guys go see it? What'd you think?
>>
>>  Oh and speaking of other movies, we did a ton of work in "Now You See
>> Me" as well, including hundreds of stadium dudes with our propietary ICE
>> static crowd system, falling/flying money, cg bubbles, an art-directed
>> liquid, lockpicking, flying cards, many vehicles, the projected
>> motiongraphics near the end and a few invisible fx. (I feel like I probably
>> missed something, but anyway, we did a lot.) We were the main vfx vendor on
>> that film, delivering just over 20 minutes worth of vfx "magic" (pun
>> intended.) Again, Soft & Arnold and lots of effects in ICE all throughout.
>>
>>  Cheers,
>>
>> -- Alan
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>>
>
>

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Cesar Saez]

Congrats to everyone involved! :D

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Ben Davis]

I also saw it in Imax 3D, I agree a 100% with Tim, it was great to be a kid
again! And it was fun to see a few familiar names in the credits, great job!

--
*Ben Davis*
www.moondog-animation.com

+1 (423) 313 9304


On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 3:59 PM, Tim Crowson  wrote:

>  Alan, I saw Pacific Rim in Imax 3D and was absolutely blown away! In my
> opinion, it's the film that is best suited for Imax 3D projection. Other
> films may be fun to watch like that, but Pacific Rim really steps it up.
> Major ass was kicked in the making of this film.
>
> Congrats to you Alan, and everyone else at Rodeo! Impressive stuff, and
> glad to know Soft was used!
>
> I don't really understand the naysayers complaining of thin plots. Who
> would possibly be naive enough to go see this film for any other reason
> than to satisfy the 10-yr old kid in you? It's all over the previews! Don't
> fool yourself... you know why you're there! :-D
>
> -Tim
>
>
>
> On 7/15/2013 2:41 PM, David Gallagher wrote:
>
> Congratulations!
>
> On 7/15/2013 3:07 PM, Alan Fregtman wrote:
>
>  Hey guys,
>
>  A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I
> personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to
> share some details with you. :)
>
>  I'm the lead rigger at *Rodeo FX* http://rodeofx.com and we did all of
> the interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), including the
> visors, foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some digidoubles, etc.
> (except the holograms/UI graphics that were done by the folks at Hybride.)
> We also had the chance of doing our first organic creature, the brain in
> the lab (which involved a lot of "gross" ICE deformations), as well as many
> beautiful matte paintings and a couple of helicopters.
>
>  Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage and as
> far as I know it was all rendered in our favourite renderer, Arnold! We'd
> still be rendering today if Mentalray had been used. :p We threw countless
> ~8k textures with displacement and stupid amounts of topology, and good ol'
> Arnie performed like a champ.
>
>  The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from 1500 to
> 2500 separate meshes and on average about 150 segments (solid groups of
> parts that moved as one.) Once we identified the "segments" by the end we
> had a rig of Arnold stand-ins with each segment saved as one ass file, and
> low-res geo representing that segment constrained to some part of the rig.
> It then became relatively "light" to have the standins rigged instead of
> the full raw geo, and it made it quite easy to replace parts or textures
> later in the pipeline during or after animation. (Also caching was a piece
> of cake in this scenario, as we only needed to plot the segment nulls
> instead of thousands of meshes or pointcaching anything.)
>
>  On the brain there was procedural pulsing animation driven by ICE
> deformers. Globules would "breathe", a heart-like organ would pump its
> ventricles intermittently and an intestine-like organ flowed with bulges
> travelling along its tract. It was gross and (in my opinion) kind of
> awesome. lol Speaking of ICE, there was a kind of lettuce behind the brain
> that was also moving a bit. The modeling was done with strips that were
> procedurally curled and then if I remember correctly the whole thing was
> driven via Syflex as the brain gently floated. This lettuce thing was
> handled by another guy on this mailing list, my  coworker and friend
> Jonathan Laborde. Maybe if he's reading this he can give more details of
> how he used ICE in a few other shots.
>
>  It was crazy fun project to work on. Fingers crossed that Pacific Rim 2
> becomes a reality. :) Anyway, did you guys go see it? What'd you think?
>
>  Oh and speaking of other movies, we did a ton of work in "Now You See
> Me" as well, including hundreds of stadium dudes with our propietary ICE
> static crowd system, falling/flying money, cg bubbles, an art-directed
> liquid, lockpicking, flying cards, many vehicles, the projected
> motiongraphics near the end and a few invisible fx. (I feel like I probably
> missed something, but anyway, we did a lot.) We were the main vfx vendor on
> that film, delivering just over 20 minutes worth of vfx "magic" (pun
> intended.) Again, Soft & Arnold and lots of effects in ICE all throughout.
>
>  Cheers,
>
> -- Alan
>
>
>
> --
>
>
>

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Vincent Fortin]

Congrats guys, top notch work!
I also enjoyed the film very much, it was a lot more entertaining than the
average Marvel that try to be so serious. IMHO Del Toro did a good job, you
can feel his personality throughout the humor, colors and ubiquitous
geekiness :-)


On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 3:59 PM, Tim Crowson  wrote:

>  Alan, I saw Pacific Rim in Imax 3D and was absolutely blown away! In my
> opinion, it's the film that is best suited for Imax 3D projection. Other
> films may be fun to watch like that, but Pacific Rim really steps it up.
> Major ass was kicked in the making of this film.
>
> Congrats to you Alan, and everyone else at Rodeo! Impressive stuff, and
> glad to know Soft was used!
>
> I don't really understand the naysayers complaining of thin plots. Who
> would possibly be naive enough to go see this film for any other reason
> than to satisfy the 10-yr old kid in you? It's all over the previews! Don't
> fool yourself... you know why you're there! :-D
>
> -Tim
>
>
>
> On 7/15/2013 2:41 PM, David Gallagher wrote:
>
> Congratulations!
>
> On 7/15/2013 3:07 PM, Alan Fregtman wrote:
>
>  Hey guys,
>
>  A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I
> personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to
> share some details with you. :)
>
>  I'm the lead rigger at *Rodeo FX* http://rodeofx.com and we did all of
> the interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), including the
> visors, foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some digidoubles, etc.
> (except the holograms/UI graphics that were done by the folks at Hybride.)
> We also had the chance of doing our first organic creature, the brain in
> the lab (which involved a lot of "gross" ICE deformations), as well as many
> beautiful matte paintings and a couple of helicopters.
>
>  Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage and as
> far as I know it was all rendered in our favourite renderer, Arnold! We'd
> still be rendering today if Mentalray had been used. :p We threw countless
> ~8k textures with displacement and stupid amounts of topology, and good ol'
> Arnie performed like a champ.
>
>  The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from 1500 to
> 2500 separate meshes and on average about 150 segments (solid groups of
> parts that moved as one.) Once we identified the "segments" by the end we
> had a rig of Arnold stand-ins with each segment saved as one ass file, and
> low-res geo representing that segment constrained to some part of the rig.
> It then became relatively "light" to have the standins rigged instead of
> the full raw geo, and it made it quite easy to replace parts or textures
> later in the pipeline during or after animation. (Also caching was a piece
> of cake in this scenario, as we only needed to plot the segment nulls
> instead of thousands of meshes or pointcaching anything.)
>
>  On the brain there was procedural pulsing animation driven by ICE
> deformers. Globules would "breathe", a heart-like organ would pump its
> ventricles intermittently and an intestine-like organ flowed with bulges
> travelling along its tract. It was gross and (in my opinion) kind of
> awesome. lol Speaking of ICE, there was a kind of lettuce behind the brain
> that was also moving a bit. The modeling was done with strips that were
> procedurally curled and then if I remember correctly the whole thing was
> driven via Syflex as the brain gently floated. This lettuce thing was
> handled by another guy on this mailing list, my  coworker and friend
> Jonathan Laborde. Maybe if he's reading this he can give more details of
> how he used ICE in a few other shots.
>
>  It was crazy fun project to work on. Fingers crossed that Pacific Rim 2
> becomes a reality. :) Anyway, did you guys go see it? What'd you think?
>
>  Oh and speaking of other movies, we did a ton of work in "Now You See
> Me" as well, including hundreds of stadium dudes with our propietary ICE
> static crowd system, falling/flying money, cg bubbles, an art-directed
> liquid, lockpicking, flying cards, many vehicles, the projected
> motiongraphics near the end and a few invisible fx. (I feel like I probably
> missed something, but anyway, we did a lot.) We were the main vfx vendor on
> that film, delivering just over 20 minutes worth of vfx "magic" (pun
> intended.) Again, Soft & Arnold and lots of effects in ICE all throughout.
>
>  Cheers,
>
> -- Alan
>
>
>
> --
>
>
>

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Tim Crowson]

Alan, I saw Pacific Rim in Imax 3D and was absolutely blown away! In my 
opinion, it's the film that is best suited for Imax 3D projection. Other 
films may be fun to watch like that, but Pacific Rim really steps it up. 
Major ass was kicked in the making of this film.


Congrats to you Alan, and everyone else at Rodeo! Impressive stuff, and 
glad to know Soft was used!


I don't really understand the naysayers complaining of thin plots. Who 
would possibly be naive enough to go see this film for any other reason 
than to satisfy the 10-yr old kid in you? It's all over the previews! 
Don't fool yourself... you know why you're there! :-D


-Tim


On 7/15/2013 2:41 PM, David Gallagher wrote:

Congratulations!

On 7/15/2013 3:07 PM, Alan Fregtman wrote:

Hey guys,

A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I 
personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I 
wanted to share some details with you. :)


I'm the lead rigger at /Rodeo FX/ http://rodeofx.com and we did all 
of the interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), 
including the visors, foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some 
digidoubles, etc. (except the holograms/UI graphics that were done by 
the folks at Hybride.) We also had the chance of doing our first 
organic creature, the brain in the lab (which involved a lot of 
"gross" ICE deformations), as well as many beautiful matte paintings 
and a couple of helicopters.


Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage and as 
far as I know it was all rendered in our favourite renderer, Arnold! 
We'd still be rendering today if Mentalray had been used. :p We threw 
countless ~8k textures with displacement and stupid amounts of 
topology, and good ol' Arnie performed like a champ.


The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from 1500 
to 2500 separate meshes and on average about 150 segments (solid 
groups of parts that moved as one.) Once we identified the "segments" 
by the end we had a rig of Arnold stand-ins with each segment saved 
as one ass file, and low-res geo representing that segment 
constrained to some part of the rig. It then became relatively 
"light" to have the standins rigged instead of the full raw geo, and 
it made it quite easy to replace parts or textures later in the 
pipeline during or after animation. (Also caching was a piece of cake 
in this scenario, as we only needed to plot the segment nulls instead 
of thousands of meshes or pointcaching anything.)


On the brain there was procedural pulsing animation driven by ICE 
deformers. Globules would "breathe", a heart-like organ would pump 
its ventricles intermittently and an intestine-like organ flowed with 
bulges travelling along its tract. It was gross and (in my opinion) 
kind of awesome. lol Speaking of ICE, there was a kind of lettuce 
behind the brain that was also moving a bit. The modeling was done 
with strips that were procedurally curled and then if I remember 
correctly the whole thing was driven via Syflex as the brain gently 
floated. This lettuce thing was handled by another guy on this 
mailing list, my  coworker and friend Jonathan Laborde. Maybe if he's 
reading this he can give more details of how he used ICE in a few 
other shots.


It was crazy fun project to work on. Fingers crossed that Pacific Rim 
2 becomes a reality. :) Anyway, did you guys go see it? What'd you think?


Oh and speaking of other movies, we did a ton of work in "Now You See 
Me" as well, including hundreds of stadium dudes with our propietary 
ICE static crowd system, falling/flying money, cg bubbles, an 
art-directed liquid, lockpicking, flying cards, many vehicles, the 
projected motiongraphics near the end and a few invisible fx. (I feel 
like I probably missed something, but anyway, we did a lot.) We were 
the main vfx vendor on that film, delivering just over 20 minutes 
worth of vfx "magic" (pun intended.) Again, Soft & Arnold and lots of 
effects in ICE all throughout.


Cheers,

   -- Alan





--
Signature

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Alan Fregtman]

We have a nice making-of showing what we did, but it's pending clearance by
WB. I'll post the link the moment it goes public. Same goes for Now You See
Me, which is pending clearance from a different production company.

We also had some nice animated turntables showing the stilts and brain in
action which I think were neat but I'm not sure we'll be allowed to show
those. If all goes well maybe they'll use it in the extras in the bluray
release.



On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 3:16 PM, Steven Caron  wrote:

> was waiting on someone to stand up and take credit. great work guys!
>
> i am hoping for some more behind the scenes? maybe with visuals?
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 12:07 PM, Alan Fregtman 
> wrote:
>
>> Hey guys,
>>
>> A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I
>> personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to
>> share some details with you. :)
>>
>>
>>
>

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[David Gallagher]

Congratulations!

On 7/15/2013 3:07 PM, Alan Fregtman wrote:

Hey guys,

A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I 
personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I 
wanted to share some details with you. :)


I'm the lead rigger at /Rodeo FX/ http://rodeofx.com and we did all of 
the interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), including 
the visors, foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some digidoubles, etc. 
(except the holograms/UI graphics that were done by the folks at 
Hybride.) We also had the chance of doing our first organic creature, 
the brain in the lab (which involved a lot of "gross" ICE 
deformations), as well as many beautiful matte paintings and a couple 
of helicopters.


Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage and as 
far as I know it was all rendered in our favourite renderer, Arnold! 
We'd still be rendering today if Mentalray had been used. :p We threw 
countless ~8k textures with displacement and stupid amounts of 
topology, and good ol' Arnie performed like a champ.


The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from 1500 to 
2500 separate meshes and on average about 150 segments (solid groups 
of parts that moved as one.) Once we identified the "segments" by the 
end we had a rig of Arnold stand-ins with each segment saved as one 
ass file, and low-res geo representing that segment constrained to 
some part of the rig. It then became relatively "light" to have the 
standins rigged instead of the full raw geo, and it made it quite easy 
to replace parts or textures later in the pipeline during or after 
animation. (Also caching was a piece of cake in this scenario, as we 
only needed to plot the segment nulls instead of thousands of meshes 
or pointcaching anything.)


On the brain there was procedural pulsing animation driven by ICE 
deformers. Globules would "breathe", a heart-like organ would pump its 
ventricles intermittently and an intestine-like organ flowed with 
bulges travelling along its tract. It was gross and (in my opinion) 
kind of awesome. lol Speaking of ICE, there was a kind of lettuce 
behind the brain that was also moving a bit. The modeling was done 
with strips that were procedurally curled and then if I remember 
correctly the whole thing was driven via Syflex as the brain gently 
floated. This lettuce thing was handled by another guy on this mailing 
list, my  coworker and friend Jonathan Laborde. Maybe if he's reading 
this he can give more details of how he used ICE in a few other shots.


It was crazy fun project to work on. Fingers crossed that Pacific Rim 
2 becomes a reality. :) Anyway, did you guys go see it? What'd you think?


Oh and speaking of other movies, we did a ton of work in "Now You See 
Me" as well, including hundreds of stadium dudes with our propietary 
ICE static crowd system, falling/flying money, cg bubbles, an 
art-directed liquid, lockpicking, flying cards, many vehicles, the 
projected motiongraphics near the end and a few invisible fx. (I feel 
like I probably missed something, but anyway, we did a lot.) We were 
the main vfx vendor on that film, delivering just over 20 minutes 
worth of vfx "magic" (pun intended.) Again, Soft & Arnold and lots of 
effects in ICE all throughout.


Cheers,

   -- Alan

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Eric Thivierge]

You don't want behind the scenes or visuals of Alan...

Great work Alan!


Eric Thivierge
===
Character TD / RnD
Hybride Technologies


On July-15-13 3:16:27 PM, Steven Caron wrote:

was waiting on someone to stand up and take credit. great work guys!

i am hoping for some more behind the scenes? maybe with visuals?


On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 12:07 PM, Alan Fregtman
mailto:alan.fregt...@gmail.com>> wrote:

Hey guys,

A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so
I personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore,
I wanted to share some details with you. :)

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Steven Caron]

was waiting on someone to stand up and take credit. great work guys!

i am hoping for some more behind the scenes? maybe with visuals?


On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 12:07 PM, Alan Fregtman wrote:

> Hey guys,
>
> A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I
> personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to
> share some details with you. :)
>
>
>

Re: OT: Pacific Rim

[Mirko Jankovic]

Cheers Alan!
Always great to show how Softimage+Arnold IS a winning solution.
There is a lot more studios than we wanna admit that uses one package of
another just because this is made with that.
Seeing "our" combo in great movies maybe will show them who is the really
boss :)
Cheers and always enjoyed your work :)
All the best and wish you a lot more projects like this, to you and your
team.
If you need someone to peek behind your shoulder and make one damn good
coffee that raise dead, just call, I'll take even that :)))


On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 9:07 PM, Alan Fregtman wrote:

> Hey guys,
>
> A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I
> personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to
> share some details with you. :)
>
> I'm the lead rigger at *Rodeo FX* http://rodeofx.com and we did all of
> the interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), including the
> visors, foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some digidoubles, etc.
> (except the holograms/UI graphics that were done by the folks at Hybride.)
> We also had the chance of doing our first organic creature, the brain in
> the lab (which involved a lot of "gross" ICE deformations), as well as many
> beautiful matte paintings and a couple of helicopters.
>
> Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage and as far
> as I know it was all rendered in our favourite renderer, Arnold! We'd still
> be rendering today if Mentalray had been used. :p We threw countless ~8k
> textures with displacement and stupid amounts of topology, and good ol'
> Arnie performed like a champ.
>
> The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from 1500 to
> 2500 separate meshes and on average about 150 segments (solid groups of
> parts that moved as one.) Once we identified the "segments" by the end we
> had a rig of Arnold stand-ins with each segment saved as one ass file, and
> low-res geo representing that segment constrained to some part of the rig.
> It then became relatively "light" to have the standins rigged instead of
> the full raw geo, and it made it quite easy to replace parts or textures
> later in the pipeline during or after animation. (Also caching was a piece
> of cake in this scenario, as we only needed to plot the segment nulls
> instead of thousands of meshes or pointcaching anything.)
>
> On the brain there was procedural pulsing animation driven by ICE
> deformers. Globules would "breathe", a heart-like organ would pump its
> ventricles intermittently and an intestine-like organ flowed with bulges
> travelling along its tract. It was gross and (in my opinion) kind of
> awesome. lol Speaking of ICE, there was a kind of lettuce behind the brain
> that was also moving a bit. The modeling was done with strips that were
> procedurally curled and then if I remember correctly the whole thing was
> driven via Syflex as the brain gently floated. This lettuce thing was
> handled by another guy on this mailing list, my  coworker and friend
> Jonathan Laborde. Maybe if he's reading this he can give more details of
> how he used ICE in a few other shots.
>
> It was crazy fun project to work on. Fingers crossed that Pacific Rim 2
> becomes a reality. :) Anyway, did you guys go see it? What'd you think?
>
> Oh and speaking of other movies, we did a ton of work in "Now You See Me"
> as well, including hundreds of stadium dudes with our propietary ICE static
> crowd system, falling/flying money, cg bubbles, an art-directed liquid,
> lockpicking, flying cards, many vehicles, the projected motiongraphics near
> the end and a few invisible fx. (I feel like I probably missed something,
> but anyway, we did a lot.) We were the main vfx vendor on that film,
> delivering just over 20 minutes worth of vfx "magic" (pun intended.) Again,
> Soft & Arnold and lots of effects in ICE all throughout.
>
> Cheers,
>
>-- Alan
>
>

OT: Pacific Rim

[Alan Fregtman]

Hey guys,

A lot of people say Softimage doesn't get used much in movies, so I
personally love to hear stories when it does happen. Therefore, I wanted to
share some details with you. :)

I'm the lead rigger at *Rodeo FX* http://rodeofx.com and we did all of the
interiors of the control pods (the cockpits, that is), including the
visors, foot actuators & mechanical stilts, some digidoubles, etc. (except
the holograms/UI graphics that were done by the folks at Hybride.) We also
had the chance of doing our first organic creature, the brain in the lab
(which involved a lot of "gross" ICE deformations), as well as many
beautiful matte paintings and a couple of helicopters.

Overall, we did over a hundred shots. CG was done in Softimage and as far
as I know it was all rendered in our favourite renderer, Arnold! We'd still
be rendering today if Mentalray had been used. :p We threw countless ~8k
textures with displacement and stupid amounts of topology, and good ol'
Arnie performed like a champ.

The stilts (the leg controls in the cockpit) had anything from 1500 to 2500
separate meshes and on average about 150 segments (solid groups of parts
that moved as one.) Once we identified the "segments" by the end we had a
rig of Arnold stand-ins with each segment saved as one ass file, and
low-res geo representing that segment constrained to some part of the rig.
It then became relatively "light" to have the standins rigged instead of
the full raw geo, and it made it quite easy to replace parts or textures
later in the pipeline during or after animation. (Also caching was a piece
of cake in this scenario, as we only needed to plot the segment nulls
instead of thousands of meshes or pointcaching anything.)

On the brain there was procedural pulsing animation driven by ICE
deformers. Globules would "breathe", a heart-like organ would pump its
ventricles intermittently and an intestine-like organ flowed with bulges
travelling along its tract. It was gross and (in my opinion) kind of
awesome. lol Speaking of ICE, there was a kind of lettuce behind the brain
that was also moving a bit. The modeling was done with strips that were
procedurally curled and then if I remember correctly the whole thing was
driven via Syflex as the brain gently floated. This lettuce thing was
handled by another guy on this mailing list, my  coworker and friend
Jonathan Laborde. Maybe if he's reading this he can give more details of
how he used ICE in a few other shots.

It was crazy fun project to work on. Fingers crossed that Pacific Rim 2
becomes a reality. :) Anyway, did you guys go see it? What'd you think?

Oh and speaking of other movies, we did a ton of work in "Now You See Me"
as well, including hundreds of stadium dudes with our propietary ICE static
crowd system, falling/flying money, cg bubbles, an art-directed liquid,
lockpicking, flying cards, many vehicles, the projected motiongraphics near
the end and a few invisible fx. (I feel like I probably missed something,
but anyway, we did a lot.) We were the main vfx vendor on that film,
delivering just over 20 minutes worth of vfx "magic" (pun intended.) Again,
Soft & Arnold and lots of effects in ICE all throughout.

Cheers,

   -- Alan