VFX Engine Weekly | | Craft rewind · befores & afters Contact's impossible mirror was three plates You think the camera is ahead of Ellie. Then she opens the mirror. Ian Failes' new explainer revisits the Contact shot that turns a run for medicine into a reflection. The young Ellie is played by Jena Malone. Sony Pictures Imageworks combined a running plate, a cabinet plate with blue screen replacing the mirror, and a final bathroom reflection. The team removed the focus puller, tracked the running image into the opening door, and added the mirror edge and surface detail. Watch the handoff at the cabinet. The trick is in how the plates meet, while the urgency of the scene keeps you looking at Ellie. | The briefs | AI VFX · October 29 · Beeble SwitchHDR 2.0 adds EXR color-space choices |  |
Beeble has added SwitchHDR 2.0 to SDR to HDR, with clips up to 480 frames and EXR output in ACES2065-1, ACEScg or Linear Rec.709. Output up to 2160p is available on Professional and Team plans. For a comp test, check the handoff in the color space your show uses. These are vendor-stated capabilities, not a quality benchmark. See the details → | Animation and FX · October 30 · Wētā FX Moana: making Te Kā and Te Fiti feel real |  |
How do you turn an animated lava giant and an island goddess into believable live-action characters? Wētā FX's new Moana featurette has the crew discuss recreating Te Kā and Te Fiti from real-world elements. It is a closer look at character animation and effects, with a clear challenge: preserve the original designs while making them belong in a photoreal Pacific setting. See the details → |
|
Nobody's coming to approve your idea
People assume that real businesses get built by other people with more resources. It's how great ideas get stuck in notes apps and conversations.
But you don't need six months and a developer's salary to validate your concept. You just need a weekend. Describe what you want to exist and Lovable builds it: a real site, a real product, ready to accept real payments from real customers. Not a mockup to show people. An actual thing they can use.
You don't need anyone's sign-off to get started. Take $5 off your first month.
Discount of $5 applies to first month of any paid plan. You need to sign up via this webpage in order to claim the discount. The discount applies to new and returning users without an active paid plan. Terms apply.
Production · October 30 · Animation World Network A practical Cyclops still needed digital work |  |
In Trevor Hogg's The Odyssey interview, Andrew Jackson describes combining a 36-foot puppet, Bill Irwin's performance and CG. DNEG's Cyclops work covered 260,000 frames, including eye adjustments across the filmed takes. A useful bidding reminder: count the material that needs processing, as well as the final shots. See the details → | Character art · October 30 · 80 Level Lobo: paint the damage you did not sculpt Eric Liu walks through his Lobo bust from ZBrush to Substance 3D Painter and Marmoset Toolbag. For jacket wear missing from the high-poly sculpt, he painted damage into the height channel with negative values, then painted shadows to suggest depth. A specific technique to try on your next material pass. See the details → | From the platform | Two openings to explore this week. Browse by craft, studio and location. Open the job board → | | | Student spotlight Xuan Shen Xuan Shen, a Lost Boys FXTD graduate, shares Houdini work spanning particles, rigid bodies, pyro and vellum. | Priyank Murarka Founder, VFX Engine. Jobs, craft and community at VFX Engine → |
|
