Cream of nuts and bolts

VFX artists assemble!

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 03:36:37 -0600

VFX artists assemble!

A nice summation of the state of VFX workers in Hollywood, and...

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 23:45:19 -0600

A nice summation of the state of VFX workers in Hollywood, and the outcome of the 2012 Academy Awards for visual effects. The tide began to turn this night…

RIP Petro Vlahos; a genius who invented the Ultimatte process,...

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 22:31:07 -0600

RIP Petro Vlahos; a genius who invented the Ultimatte process, popularly known as blue-screen compositing, as well as many other motion picture technical innovations. He was 96.

4K or not to 4K: A little post about how we perceive image...

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 23:18:27 -0600

4K or not to 4K: A little post about how we perceive image resolution. Hint: buy some good speakers instead.

Another master of the craft has departed. Matthew Yuricich...

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 23:58:00 -0500

Another master of the craft has departed. Matthew Yuricich created some of the most memorable cinematic illusions of the late 20th century. Click the image for examples of his work, or click here for a more extensive career retrospective and tribute.

The basics.

Sat, 05 May 2012 20:38:49 -0500

The basics.

fuckyeahdinoart: Carnotaurus III by ~DyingQuasar

Sat, 05 May 2012 20:36:57 -0500

fuckyeahdinoart:

Carnotaurus III by ~DyingQuasar

Ten minutes of footage from the elaborate remake Space...

Mon, 09 Apr 2012 00:25:32 -0500

Ten minutes of footage from the elaborate remake Space Battleship Yamato 2199. Everything looks great. It would appear the studio is merely updating the original with slightly modernized designs for the characters and hardware, and state of the art animation techniques. The story seems essentially unchanged, with perhaps somewhat expanded scenes.

jtotheizzoe: Decommissioning The Space Shuttles The...

Tue, 03 Apr 2012 22:54:30 -0500

jtotheizzoe:

Decommissioning The Space Shuttles

The Atlantic gives us what might be the most inadvertently sad slide show of the week. More pictures of machinery that will make you sad at the link.

Previously: Let’s listen to Dr. Tyson. We’ve stopped dreaming, and it’s time to start again and get back into space. But why stop with near-Earth orbit? Been there, done that. Dream bigger!

Jim Cameron went to the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean...

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 13:13:00 -0500

Jim Cameron went to the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean and shot these home movies. He paid for a large part of the trip, including custom submarine, himself. I don’t want to hear any bitching about the quality of his films, or his alleged penchant for dickishness. When you get shit done with this level of commitment, putting your money where your mouth is- you can pretty much brag all you want. Also, I had pancakes this morning!

Awesome trailer for the new Battlestar Galactica series, Blood...

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:52:14 -0500

Awesome trailer for the new Battlestar Galactica series, Blood and Chrome. Let’s hope SyFy gets a clue, and puts this on cable instead of relegating it to webisodes.

fuckyeahsolarsystem: infinity-imagined: Jupiter and its moons;...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:40:55 -0500

fuckyeahsolarsystem:

infinity-imagined:

Jupiter and its moons; Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.

One of the first photos that got me lots of followers was this one right here, of Io. Seriously, I might just need to do a whole week (maybe in the Summer - I’m waaay to busy right now) dedicated to the different moons in our solar system.

I did do a week dedicated to Io in 2010.

jtotheizzoe: We Stopped Dreaming Neil deGrasse Tyson once gave...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:40:32 -0500

jtotheizzoe:

We Stopped Dreaming

Neil deGrasse Tyson once gave an epic rant about our bewildering unwillingness to provide more than a fraction of a penny of the American tax dollar to space progress. We aren’t talking about “space exploration” as a singular effort here, I really mean space progress.

We must acknowledge that despite our space program’s birth as an extension of the Cold War, it has evolved into the most publicly accessible source of scientific inspiration in our culture. I’d love to claim that biology could somehow take that crown, but I’ll give the nod to the space folks … because it’s true.

Evan Schurr has created this mashup of Dr. Tyson’s words with a visual history of space exploration. It was inspired by the Sagan Series by Reid Gower (which you should watch, repeatedly). The torch of inspiration for tomorrow’s discoverers is firmly in the hands of Dr. Tyson. Can we commit to one penny of our tax dollar to fund tomorrow?

“How much would you pay … for the universe?”

(↬ Scrunchthethird)

Crowdsourced Movie Studio Creates a Bold New Kind of Sci-Fi Series

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:39:59 -0500

Crowdsourced Movie Studio Creates a Bold New Kind of Sci-Fi Series:

ericalba:

Using volunteer #vfx artists from around the world. What do you think?
#Vfx

lanciare: Surely the place where green was invented (by Zeb...

Thu, 15 Mar 2012 21:39:28 -0500

lanciare:

Surely the place where green was invented (by Zeb Andrews)

Goodbye, Moebius: May 8th 1938-March 10th 2012 Another great...

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 13:42:00 -0600

Goodbye, Moebius: May 8th 1938-March 10th 2012

Another great artist and creative inspiration has passed. Moebius will be remembered for his unique visual style and many contributions to comics and movie concept design, including the early French issues of Metal Hurlant (reprinted here in the U.S. as Heavy Metal), Alien, and The Fifth Element. . He was 73.

Moebius official website (French): http://www.moebius.fr/

jtotheizzoe: crownedrose: Jane the tyrannosaur - from a pile...

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 07:00:05 -0600

jtotheizzoe:

crownedrose:

Jane the tyrannosaur - from a pile of bones to an active predator

Okay, this is a really awesome video for two reasons. One is because it’s AWESOME, and two is because I saw this with a group during the palaeontology event I attended before anyone else out there (other than WitmerLab, of course). It was fantastic to be part of the unveiling of the video to the public. Dr. Lawrence Witmer is a fantastic palaeontologist and great guy to watch lecture. Gotta love the new technology they’re coming up with over in Ohio!

No, seriously guys … it goes from a pile of bones to a bug-eyed chomper in mere seconds. Which, considering that it ends up looking like the most surprised predator in history, is both hilarious and fascinating.

Awesome technology. If anyone knows of any more sims like this with other species, send ‘em my way.

Woola wants you to see his new movie, because it’s all...

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 23:35:36 -0600

Woola wants you to see his new movie, because it’s all about jumping real high and running super fast along with your pet human, John Carter (played by some dude named Taylor Kitsch).

Really, this one is a lot of fun. Take the kids, have a good time, don’t be all cynical and stuff.

Boston Dynamicscontinues to amaze/frighten me with these uncanny...

Tue, 06 Mar 2012 07:00:06 -0600

Boston Dynamicscontinues to amaze/frighten me with these uncanny quadrupedal prototypes. Imagine a herd of these cresting the top of a hill, making haste toward you. Crikey.

ianbrooks: It’s Tornadoing Men by Do-Ho Suh Invoking the power...

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:48:16 -0600

ianbrooks:

It’s Tornadoing Men by Do-Ho Suh

Invoking the power of many joined in ideology, this swirling vortex of tiny men stacked on eachother’s shoulders is hung from the ceiling in densely packed strains, the varying colors resembling a slowly churning Doppler effect.

(via: colossal)

Breathtaking.