Dumbworld: A Sacramento Based Blog on Entertainment, Media and Art

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Motion Loops gives away a free motion graphic every week.  Check it out.

Dumbworld- Entertainment- Media- Art

I went and watched Benjamin Button this week and really liked it.  I have to admit, your boy even got a little misty eyed.  I’m a big David Fincher fan (Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac), and although it started out a little slow, he did not let me down.

Wired magazine has a pretty good breakdown on what went into transforming Brad Pitt into Benjamin Button.

the director had to find a way for Button (Brad Pitt) to “reverse-age” convincingly. CG was the answer: Make a 3-D model of Pitt’s visage, fast-forward it five decades, and stick it on the torso of a diminutive actor. Problem is, current-gen performance-capture techniques — sticking a bunch of dots onto the actor’s face, recording their movement, then applying the data to a 3-D model — miss subtle nuances; the resulting virtual visages often look stiff and creepy (see: The Polar Express).

Enter Steve Perlman from special effects company Reardon.  See the Wired slide show here.

Also, Oliver Peters has a pretty good blog on the editing workflow for Benjamin Button.  Also, don’t miss Oliver’s 12 tips for better film editing.

Dumbworld- Entertainment- Media- Art

I took a Motion class yesterday, and I am kind of embarrassed that I haven’t played around with Motion more. I learned how to do a number of motion graphics and visual effects that I had seen others do but never tried myself, although I had always had the tools at my fingertips.  Pitiful.

Also, half way through the class I figured out that the instructor was Mark Spencer, the author of this article that I linked to a couple of days ago.  Small world.  At the end of the class, I answered a question on Motion correctly (I guess it pays to pay attention) and won a copy of Mark’s book, Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Studio 2.  No more excuses, I guess.

Also, Mark has a blog on Motion that you might want to check out.

I can barely find my way around either program (from a lack of trying)- but tomorrow I am taking a class on Motion.

Also, I have a book on After Effects that I have told myself that I am going to crack open one of these days.

Mark Spencer from Provideo Coalition has a breakdown on some of the pros/cons of both programs.

Feel free to comment on which program you prefer and why.