Louis Katz | Visual Effects Blog

Happy New Year!

2011-01-08T12:55:00.000-08:00

Hello VFX peeps. I'm currently at Zoic Studios in Los Angeles. I've worked on several projects in house since October. Falling Skies, No Ordinary Family, The Whole Truth, and V for the most part. I am finally quite comfortable in Nuke. I am currently booked until February 18. Zoic has some very talented Artists and excellent Production folks.

I hope everyone is well and let's make some commercial, episodic and movie magic in 2011!

Cheers,
Louis

Update

2010-10-04T13:22:00.000-07:00

Starting Monday I start work on a Spielberg project. Nothing more I can say I think.

Cheers,
Louis

Mark Ronson's Bang Bang Bang Music Video

2010-06-27T11:35:00.000-07:00

Please check out Warren Fu's latest music video for Mark Ronson, Bang Bang Bang. I pitched in and did a few shots in After Effects.

Rolling Stone says 'Summer's Hottest Video':
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/17386/119965

High Quality on Warren Fu's vimeo page:
http://vimeo.com/12581076

And... a classic we did a few years ago for THE STROKES:
http://vimeo.com/2523140

Enjoy,
Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

John Hurt

2010-04-14T06:05:00.000-07:00

I ran into John Hurt at my favorite local restaurant / bar L'ASSOMOIR in the Old Port of Montreal. Got him a shot of Jamison, we talked, and I gave him my card. Then 3 chicks and the owner joined us... He's filming Immortals (aka Dawn of War and Gods of War).

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000457/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1253864/

-Louis

Jake Gyllenhaal in local Montreal Coffee Shop

2010-03-03T06:32:00.000-08:00

$6 Canadian Dollars for a latte and chocolatine, and I saw this guy:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0350453/

He's done a few movies I like, and one I worked on...

Guess which ones?

-Louis

Digital Tutors

2009-11-30T13:20:00.000-08:00

I highly recommend anyone who wants to learn software to sign up for Digital Tutors. The tutorials are very well done and organized nicely. I am getting back up to speed on XSI and learning Nuke from scratch. In only a few short days I almost know enough of the apps to do what we're going to need on Resident Evil 4: Afterlife (3D).

Find them at:
www.digitaltutors.com

MONTREAL

2009-11-22T18:53:00.000-08:00

I am going to be working in Montreal for 6 months as a CG Supervisor at Rodeo FX on a live action 3d stereo film. The city is incredible. The French influence is lovely. I am staying in the Old Montreal. It's a wonderful district to walk around. I need to lose those DreamWorks 15 pounds...

-Louis

Amazing aerial footage with small Go Pro HD Camera

2009-11-22T18:52:00.000-08:00

http://www.goprocamera.com/hdheropreview/

Enjoy,
Louis

kuler - color wheel for the future

2009-08-15T21:28:00.000-07:00

http://kuler.adobe.com/#themes/rating?time=30

Enjoy,
Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

Projection on Buildings

2009-08-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

I wish I thought of this first. Genius and so easy to do!

Projection on Buildings from NuFormer Digital Media on Vimeo.

Enjoy,
Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

Carousel

2009-08-08T12:11:00.000-07:00

"Director Adam Berg responded with an idea for an epic ‘frozen moment’ cops and robbers shootout sequence that included clowns, explosions, a decimated hospital, and plenty of broken glass and bullet casings."

View the film:

http://beta.stinkdigital.tv/work/view/selected/carousel

How they did it:

http://media.fxguide.com/fxguidetv/fxguidetv-ep057.m4v

PHRAZES

2009-07-16T16:22:00.000-07:00

Warren Fu asked me to convert Mandala art into 3D.
Find the result here:
http://www.juliancasablancas.com/

Enjoy,
Louis

Illusion Arts Tribute

2009-06-24T18:04:00.000-07:00

http://www.illusionarts.com/

http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/06/04/illusion-arts-tribute/

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118004410.html?categoryid=18&cs=1

http://mattejourney.blogspot.com/2009/06/illusion-arts-closes-its-doors.html

I know a few matte painters who worked at Illusion Arts. They always had good things to say about the place.

-Louis

Ralph Bakshi: Surviving In Tough Times

2009-04-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

How to unmultiply layer in Photoshop

2009-03-22T07:26:00.000-07:00

Following is the manual steps to unmultiply an image in Photoshop the hard way:

Let's say you have a cloud with transparency for example.

- Have the original painted (or not more likely these days) cloud with transparency in Photoshop open.

- If you have a layer mask, delete it, an apply it.

- Ctrl (PC) or Command (MAC) click on the layer to select the layer's transparency.

- Save the channel as an alpha. Make sure it's the only alpha.

- Now duplicate the cloud layer with transparency once. Take the duplicated layer and merge down (ctrl or command e). That's 2 cloud layers merged. Duplicate that and merge. You have 4. Duplicate that and merge. You have 8. Duplicate that and merge. You have 16. Duplicate that and merge. You have 32. Duplicate that and merge. You have 64. Duplicate that and merge. You have 128. Duplicate that and merge. You have 256. Duplicate that and merge. You have 512. Duplicate that and merge. You have 1024. Duplicate that and merge. You have 2048. Duplicate that and merge. You have 4096. Good enough. The power of 2. Gotta love it. I suggest you make a Photoshop Action for easier future use.

- Now I suggest you add a layer below the cloud layer and make it a general sky color, or the average color of the actual cloud's background. If you've truly unmultiplied the cloud it wouldn't matter what color you made the background. Pink, black, white, or green. It just gives you more peace of mind that it's goint to cut out of that color. Some Artists use whatever the background was. That's a waste of disk space. But it can be useful for reference when lining up in 3D.

- Now flatten or merge the rgba image. You have an unmultiplied cloud texture for Maya / Mental Ray. Use .tga for mental ray. Unless they fixed it. Used to be mental ray didn't support .lzw .tif's. Annoying. .tga works for maya or mental ray rendering.

Side note. After Effects can view and save unmultiplied images. Shift click on alpha in comp window. Very convenient. Wouldn't you think that the After Effects team and Photoshop team at Adobe could have lunch one day and share that code? PHOTOSHOP NEEDS TO BE ABLE TO VIEW AND SAVE IMAGE(S) UNMULTIPLIED. THOMAS KNOLL, JOHN KNOLL, HELLO! Not ranting, just trying to get the word out. Write them! Put on your blog(s). Photoshop should just do this out of the box.

Enjoy,
Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

Matte Paintings

2009-03-14T14:21:00.000-07:00

The Holodeck, As Re-Imagined in 2010

2009-03-07T08:28:00.000-08:00

World Builder from Bruce Branit on Vimeo.

One day of shooting, 2 years of post production.

Enjoy,
Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

How Benjamin Button Got His Face

2009-03-05T18:28:00.000-08:00

Enjoy,
Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

At ILM blah blah blah

2009-03-01T12:10:00.000-08:00

http://www.vfxhack.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/the-we-syndrome.png

You could also swap 'ILM' with 'SONY' or 'WETA' or 'PIXAR' and it's just as funny...

-Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

The Crisis of Credit Visualized

2009-02-24T17:07:00.001-08:00

The Crisis of Credit Visualized - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0zEXdDO5JU

The Crisis of Credit Visualized - Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhDkZjKBEw&feature=related

-Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

Cell Phone Reunion

2009-02-11T11:30:00.000-08:00

I bought an iPhone and returned it after one week as cool as it was. Why? Can't text with one hand. Too big for pocket and wallet together. If I was a woman with purse, sure... Too hard to type accurately. I don't need an iPhone to make fart noises. I have lungs and lips. Pay me 99 cents and I'll do it for you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OD8OcPGScRU

Enjoy,
Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

The Orphanage

2009-02-04T22:46:00.000-08:00

http://prolost.blogspot.com/2009/02/ten-years-of-orphanage.html

"The Orphanage will be suspending operations indefinitely." -Stu

I'll always consider The Rebel Mac Unit at ILM the real 'Orphanage'. Stu taught me a lot at ILM back in the day. He deserves much thanks... I still add grain by hand and get it perfect with his After Effects recipe some 10 years later.

-Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

The Spirit of Spawn at ILM

2009-01-31T08:38:00.000-08:00

I worked on Spawn at ILM at the age of 22 with Scott Leberecht and Steve "Spaz" Williams. Every production I work on since gets more political, boring, and I feel the need to carefully watch every word and step I make. For the better?

Enjoy,
Louis
www.louiskatz.com

GIGAPAN

2009-01-24T16:32:00.000-08:00

..
..
Super High Resolution photo of the 2009 Inauguration

http://gigapan.org/viewGigapanFullscreen.php?auth=033ef14483ee899496648c2b4b06233c

I want this camera for matte painting source!
This reminds me of Eric Hansen's www.xrez.com
..
Enjoy,
-Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

Jedi Days

2009-01-24T07:16:00.000-08:00

OK, enough about Obama!

Jedi Days

Having worked with a few folks in this video it was scary and cool to see their character during the making of Return of the Jedi.

NOTE - I am not a fan of Star Wars since The Empire Strikes Back. Too bad George really f*ed up the new ones. Way to go George! It was great to work on the visual effects though.

Enjoy,
Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

Obama, Historical Inauguration Videos, and Goodbye Bush

2009-01-20T06:18:00.000-08:00

--
This is not visual effects related, but it's much more important.

I am deeply proud Barack Obama is about to be sworn into office today. Growing up in Minnesota, teased for being Jewish (a minority in our small town) I can relate to the emotional impact this day is having on not only Americans, but the world. Hopefully a bit of respect and hope is restored in the world view of The United States of America.

'It's a New Day' indeed!

--

*****

President Barack Obama 2009 Inauguration and Address

My favorite moment at 3 minutes and 8 seconds in the video, "I thank President Bush for his service to our nation..." Talk about awkward moment.

--

I will miss David Letterman's "Great moments in Presidential Speeches."

Letterman - Farewell Tribute to Great Moments in Presidential Speeches

***** Historical Inauguration Videos *****

President Franklin Roosevelt 1933 Inauguration

President Truman 1949 Inauguration

President Eisenhower 1953 Inaugural Address

President Kennedy 1961 Inaugural Address

President Nixon 1969 Inaugural Address

President Reagan 1981 Inaugural Address

President Clinton 1993 Inaugural Address

President George W. Bush 2001 Inaugural Address

--

Goodbye George W. Bush. We all make mistakes in life, but not many of us this big:

--

Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

Sighting of Superman!

2009-01-17T01:31:00.000-08:00

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

Enjoy,
Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

Why I don't go to theaters as much as I used to.

2009-01-09T22:12:00.000-08:00

http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2009/01/2008-box-office.html

I was reading this article and it made me realize why I don't go to the theater as much as I used to. It's not the fact I have Blu-Ray and HD at home. Seriously... I simply don't enjoy it like I did when I was a teenager or in my early 20's. It was exciting to see a movie and was inspired. So much so I told myself I must go work at ILM. I did at the age of 22. I think it's part of aging where it's more and more difficult to be impressed or inspired. Simply because you feel like you've seen it all or you've seen the same plot lines told over and over.

Or... is it the filmmakers selling out and theater's fault?

Popcorn? Rip off and is annoying when the schmuck(s) behind you are smacking away ruining the first 20 minutes of a movie. Give me a theater where popcorn is not allowed. Gum? Gummy Bears? Forbid. I wish I lived in Singapore for that reason. I know, careful what I ask for. Bluetooth headseats in theaters (or anywhere for that matter)? Why do I need to see that super bright blue blinking light when the guy (or gal) wearing it can't? Soda? Watch King Corn. You'll never drink soda again. Hot dogs and people sneaking in food? Stinky! Having to park and walk through a cheesy mall to get to your theater. Gross carpet and sticky floors. Bad commercials. Cell phones are the least of the problems in movie theaters...

This is why I only watch movies at Visual Effects Society screenings, DreamWorks, with friends, or at home now. I can't deal with the general public in a theater. Give me a theater where there is no food and a 'Manners Marshall', but drinking allowed, such as a Comedy club, and I'll go more often. And pay a premium to do so!

Related, but way off beat, do you ever walk into a Best Buy and think when you hear the super loud bass playing rap in the corner of the store, "When do you start annoying yourself?"

-Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

B2 Bomber (aka Flying Wing) before Rose Parade 2009

2009-01-01T18:20:00.001-08:00

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Enjoy,
Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

A 'Little Joy' for the Holidays

2008-12-19T09:57:00.000-08:00

-------------------------------------------------

Happy Holidays,

I am proud to announce the release of a new music video Directed by Warren Fu. Warren has outdone himself again.

Little Joy: No One's Better Sake - HD

About the FX:

I helped Warren do a few fx shots on the cove. We found pictures of Christmas Lights online, applied a kaleidoscope filter, tracked in a spinning precomp to the walls, and color corrected to make it appear as if it was on set. Hopefully it's not obvious.

Warren's signature graphics to the beats in the song is very present in the video. The video is "Rocksteady meets 1970's PBS". If you ever get to see in full rez or on my laptop you'll appreciate all the 70's subtlety Warren created.

Chris Stillman in San Francisco did the SEEOUTLOUD logo animation.

Press:

"The Stroke's drummer Fab Moretti's team-up with Rodrigo Amarante and Binki Shapiro has lead to one of our absolute favorite albums of 2008."
From My Old Kentucky Blog
http://myoldkyhome.blogspot.com/2008/12/new-video-little-joy-no-one-betters.html

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/node/148058

Director:
Check out www.seeoutloud.com to learn more about the Director and see photos from the shoot!

Feel free to spread the Joy!

Enjoy,
Louis
www.louiskatz.com

Maya Batch Rendering on Mac or PC

2008-12-15T11:03:00.000-08:00

Forget Render Pal (Not your pal), Maya / Batch Render (which is not batch rendering), or rush. This is the way to go for Maya rendering at home or school while you sleep on one or multiple machines.

Maya Batch Render on Mac:

Open TextEdit and make a file called maya_render (or whatever you want, and no extension).

Make sure it's plain text.

No spaces in paths, or your screwed.

Copy and paste the template below. Edit for your project.

Open Terminal from applications / utilities (or your dock if you made shortcut).

Type in cd (and drag your folder with maya scenes to terminal).

Type chmod 777 maya_render (or whatever you called it). This will make file executable.

Go back to folder and double click on maya_render. It should render now!

/Applications/Autodesk/maya8.5/Maya.app/Contents/bin/Render -h (for render options)

-r mr (mental ray)

-s (start frame)

-e (end frame)

-rd (render directory to store images)

#--------------------------------------------------

#!/bin/sh

/Applications/Autodesk/maya8.5/Maya.app/Contents/bin/Render -r mr -verb -s 1 -e 10 -rd /cityknock/batch_render_test/ /cityknock/batch_render_test/test_a.mb

/Applications/Autodesk/maya8.5/Maya.app/Contents/bin/Render -r mr -verb -s 1 -e 10 -rd /cityknock/batch_render_test/ /cityknock/batch_render_test/test_b.mb

NOTE - You may need to modify path to your version of Maya, i.e. 2008.

Maya Batch Render on PC:

Make a .bat file, edit, and double click on .bat to run.

maya_render.bat
render -verb cgloft_logo_RND_beauty.mb -s 1 -e 100
render -verb cgloft_logo_RND_matte.mb -s 1 -e 200

mental_ray_render.bat
render -r mr -verb cgloft_logo_RND_beauty.mb -s 1 -e 100
render -r mr -verb cgloft_logo_RND_matte.mb -s 1 -e 200

Enjoy,
Louis

Dear Adobe

2008-11-27T14:47:00.000-08:00

Adobe, your After Effects team listened to me years ago when I said users should be able to drag and drop imported footage on an icon that creates a comp automatically.

Now please listen to me again on 3 fronts.

1. Develop a true 3D application before George Lucas buys out Autodesk and controls the entire CG industry.

2. Please port at least Photoshop to Linux so we don't have to login to a Windows Box for Adobe Products and Linux box for everything else. This will also be good for the environment. As if we care. Wait, we do because it's popular to care, right?

3. Listen to Dan Goldman. He is on the forefront of simple, easy-to-use video interactivity here:
http://vimeo.com/2345579

Thanks,
Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

Midnight Son

2008-09-29T09:38:00.000-07:00

A rough cut of Midnight Son with temp fx has been sent to Sundance. We are crossing our fingers the film gets accepted. We plan to finish the film by end of the year.

Eduardo Sanchez (BLAIR WITCH) has joined the project as Executive Producer.

Check out www.midnightsonmovie.com for updates.

NASA JPL Tour

2007-11-25T09:33:00.000-08:00

Our department recently had the luxury of touring NASA Jet Propulsion Labs (JPL).

They showed us several state-of-the-art applications and stunning imagery.

The highlight of the tour was new timelapse 3D stereo footage of the sun. Forget anything in visual effects the past 20 years, the footage was stunning. Solar flares, broiling surface, and the fact it was stereo made it even more immersive. If you weren't sold on stereo being a viable viewing method, you would be now. At least for documentary style footage or events. The footage was captured with new high end filters on large telescopes. When the scientists got the footage back they stared at it for 3 hours. We wish we had the much time in the tour to do the same. The footage should be available on Blu-Ray and/or HDVD at some point.

We also saw an incredible amount of imagery of our solar system. Most notably the crater on Mars the rover is exploring. The big canyon the size of the United States, the dark side of the moon, and other planets / moons.

Especially amazing was a small room with a 4K projector taking up the entire wall. They showed us new software, that is self explanatory to navigate our solar system, using all the latest high resolution images from a variety of missions.

Sadly, the budget of NASA is roughly equilavent to 3 days in IRAQ.

NASA has a presence in SecondLife. Take your avatar their and check it out. It looks more like a trade show booth, than a destination, but may be interesting to kids wanting to learn a thing or two about NASA.

-Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

The Making of The Visual Effects for The Strokes "YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE"

2007-06-10T16:31:00.000-07:00

I met the Director, Warren Fu at George Lucas' Industrial Light and Magic (also known as ILM) working on Star Wars : Episode I several years ago. Back then I taught Warren how to do laser blaster shots in After Effects. A few years later Warren Directed a piece for Alliyah and I helped him with the visual effects.

I hadn't heard from Warren in a while, but Warren called me just in time for The Strokes music video. I had recently finished work at SONY Pictures Imageworks on Superman Returns. After wrapping up a few independent projects in the San Francisco bay area the Holidays were approaching and I wasn't exactly sure what I'd be doing next. A little serendipitous I'd say.

Warren showed me an animatic, or essentially a rough cut of his ideas with drawings, music, 2D animation, rough graphic screens, all done and cut together by him. It was one of the most comprehensive animatics I'd seen. Warren asked if we should do miniatures or computer generated (CG) scenes for the final shots. Although I love miniatures, I needed the work so of course I said we could do everything CG.

We began by blocking in rough shapes of the shots in Maya together. 39 shots. Primarily there was a ship exterior, crater, and ship interior. Once we had rough shapes to scale and proportions Warren was happy with we did 3D animatics with camera moves. With a new cut of the 2D and 3D animatics we recruited artists to help us out. I brought together a team of industry talent in the bay area and Warren called artists in Los Angeles.

Warren spent most of December in San Francisco. In January Warren convinced me to come down to Southern California and work with him. Unfortunately, his Venice studio was not large enough to accommodate the two of us, so his parents offered their home to use as a temporary work studio. We coined the place FuWalker Ranch...

I had Brian Lanier, a hard surface modeler building the ship exterior. Warren had his buddy Jakeeli in LA do the radar and doors for the same ship.

We had Cosku, a friend of mine, originally from Turkey providing effects work consisting of smoke, steam, and nuclear blasts. All done in Maya.

Another artist on my team, Magnus Hollmo from Sweden did a beautiful job painting three phases of textures consisting of bump, color, and specular for our ship.

Warren contracted out a company in LA, Laundry that did beautiful particle and space travel work for our stargate sequence, as well as a few other shots.

We did a displacement map and texture for the crater.

Warren did an incredible amount of work in addition to providing constant feedback to me and our teams.

We wanted a company in Canada, founded by a friend of mine from ILM, Mathieu Raynault and his compositing buddy Sebastian with Nina Fallon Producing, called Rodeo FX help us with matte paintings. We were over budget at that point so hopefully we can utilize them on our next project. They can be found at www.rodeofx.com

While Warren was busy with all kinds of tasks I primarily focused on the ship interior, model, shaders, and lighting. All the shots were rendered in Mental Ray with ambient occlusion, a myriad of lights, and raytracing. With only a few computers at our disposal we faced a major challenge. RENDERING...

I had some resources in the bay area for rendering, but it wasn't nearly enough with an average render time of 45 minutes per frame, 960x540 resolution X 5 minutes of animation at 24 frames per second, and an average of 7 render passes per shot. You do the math.

Warren jumped on instant message, asked around and his good buddy Nick at Technicolor in Burbank came through for us! We brought all our master maya scenes and reference render pass files along with 7 gigs of textures with lots of animated graphic screens rendered in the shots, so we see them in blurred reflections. They copied the needed files to their servers, changed the texture path with a script so all the render nodes in their render farm would find the textures. After a few days we had renders!

Josh Madison rendered our massive teaser shot up in the bay area with his personal render farm.

When the rendering budget ran out we also rendered on the Fu family computers for nearly 2 weeks.

Compositing was our next challenge. Warren to my knowledge hadn't really composited CG render passes prior. I explained and showed him how to deal with alphas, premult vs mult issues, when to apply color corrections, and dealing with 8bit. Over the course of the project I educated Warren on what floating point, various color spaces, and bit depths provide. If we were doing a film project, floating point would have been essential. The overhead of pipeline setup, rendering and compositing in floating point was not an option for us on this project however. Fortunately the new After Effects has a lens blur tool allowing us to achieve a more realistic blur for our depth of field shots. At the completion of this project Warren could easily teach compositing if he wanted to.

We hope you enjoy the cinematic experience when it hits the big screen, or little one for that matter.

To learn more about The Strokes please visit:
www.thestrokes.com

The Strokes "YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE" Premiere

2007-06-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to announce the world premiere of a cinematic interpretation of The Strokes "YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE" and tribute to Stanley Kubrick's "2001, A Space Odyssey." This is my first Visual Effects Supervisor project I can honestly say I am proud of. It has roughly 40 all CG shots. Directed by Warren Fu.

http://www.vimeo.com/2523140
- Watch the video.

www.thestrokes.com
- New site for The Strokes designed by Warren Fu.
- Higher quality compression will be there after 2 week exclusive on imeem.

Best viewed in a dark room, maximized website, sound cranked up, and no distractions. Feel free to e-mail me your comments and I'll forward to the Director.

Credits:
http://thestrokes.com/sections/CREDITS/YOLO.html

Enjoy,
Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

Press:
http://obtusity.blogspot.com/2007/05/danger-stranger-strokes-you-only-live.html
http://blog.muchmusic.com/thenewmusic/archives/2007/05/lasting_impress.php
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/page/forkcast/43180-the-strokes-you-only-live-once
http://www.videostatic.com/vs/2007/week22/index.html#entry-34686384
http://www.shotsringout.com/?p=359

The Making of the Visual Effects:
http://katzfx.blogspot.com/2007/06/making-of-strokes-you-only-live-once.html

The Strokes New Music Video Teaser Trailer

2007-05-26T17:38:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to announce the new music video for The Strokes. It has 39 all CG shots. This is my first Visual Effects Supervisor gig I am proud of. Directed by Warren Fu.

Feel free to view the teaser trailer at:

www.thestrokes.com

www.thestrokes.imeem.com

ITunes is all 'That' to indie producers

2007-02-28T12:15:00.000-08:00

I knew it wouldn't take too long for a company with vision to do this:

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117960257.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

Go Apple and Independent Filmmakers!

The music industry should've done this a long time ago. Instead of charging 20 bucks for a useless CD with one 1/2 way decent song they should've charged $1.99 and I'd still buy CDs. Then maybe Tower Records would still be in business. DVDs should now be $5.99 and they'd still sell as well.

-Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

DAYDREAM Music Video

2007-02-27T22:14:00.000-08:00

Please take a few minutes and enjoy this little music video I threw together last year. Add a positive comment and a 5 star rating to keep things fair. No don't, it's not fair to ask for that. Fair enough, do as you wish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1CWXx6MBvg

DAYDREAM
Directed by Louis Katz
Music by Paul Oakenfold
Clips by Artbeats

Stay tuned for a new music video for The Strokes in a few weeks. We're almost done!

Enjoy,
Louis

MacBook Pro 17"

2007-02-26T21:47:00.000-08:00

I just bought a mac for the first time in years. For the simple reason the new macs will allow one to install and boot Windows. I haven't used a mac since working in the Rebel Unit of Industrial Light and Magic years ago. I won't be using formZ or Electric Image this time however. Maya and After Effects in Windows XP. Truly, a dream come true.

-Louis

Congratulations to John Knoll and Industrial Light and Magic

2007-02-26T06:06:00.000-08:00

ILM wins the Best Visual Effects Oscar for Pirates of the Caribbean II. No surprise there.

Music Video Update

2007-02-09T20:31:00.000-08:00

Hello-

About two weeks left. 39 shots. Zero finals... Lots to composite starting Sunday. Technicolor in LA ended up rendering for us on this project. They're saving our a**. Warren Fu (Director) and I ended up bringing on more people recently. We have been working at what we call FuWalker Ranch in LA, a large house in Diamond Bar with everything we need for the production.

I wish I could tell you for what band. Stay tuned for debut soon.

-Louis

Production Pipeline Wisdom

2007-02-09T18:33:00.000-08:00

File Naming Conventions

General Rule (what, when, who, why):
what_version_user_comment.ext

What?

What that means is exactly how it sounds. When you have to decide 'what to name a file' always answer the following:
What it is. Version. User. Optional comment after the version. File Extension (Even if you're on a mac)

The key is to describe what it is accurately, keep that consistent, start version with v01, and add a username and comment 'after version' if necessary. A comment can be any number of things. Such as what you did to the file, who worked on the file, notes, info, resolution, color space, format, etc. Comments track history to what was done to a file, who worked on it, and gives anyone else picking it up a clue into what's next perhaps.

Let's say we have a project with 50 visual effects shots. If we have 50 shots, 10 artists working on the show in different cities using FTP, using their own naming conventions, times hundreds of files per shot, imagine organizing those files and making the deadline.

I'll elaborate. We'll call the show 'Cats and Dogs', and it has 50 visual effects shots. It has a cat being chased by a dog outside a house. It has a house with a yard and a computer generated cat and dog.

Some examples:

cats_and_dogs_contacts_v01_joe_created.xls
cats_and_dogs_contacts_v02_louis_updated.xls
cats_and_dogs_contacts_v03_louis_tweaked.xls
cats_and_dogs_contacts.xls (What is this? Latest published copy of ~v03_louis_tweaked.xls file for everyone on crew to view. Maybe keep updated on-line)

cats_and_dogs_bid_v01_standard_bid.doc
cats_and_dogs_bid_v02_revised_because_client_freaked_out.doc
cats_and_dogs_bid_v03.doc
cats_and_dogs_bid_v04_producer_updated.doc
cats_and_dogs_bid_v05_ready_to_send.doc
cats_and_dogs_bid_v06_for_client.doc

Notice the prefix before the version is consistent. That's key. This will keep the files organized through the entire production. Just grab the latest version, make your changes, save new version, add a name and comment if needed. You might be saying, "Just use Google Docs and Spreadsheets?" That assumes everyone has a Google account or you'll be able to force everyone
to sign up and use a Google account. Good luck there.

Why v01? You might be thinking, "why not v1". Make 11 files with 1, 2, through 11, and look at them in Windows Explorer. See how they're not organized? You might be thinking, "I might go higher than 99, so why not just use 001?" That's the exception to most cases. If you reach 100 just move 01-99 into an old sub folder and name your 100th files v100. At SONY I had a comp at version 1004. No joke. Not because I did 1004 actual versions, but the shot was so much work, I just kept saving the comp script every 5 minutes to a new version to track history. Comp scripts, text documents, and referenced files are small. Don't be scared to just keep saving up. At Design Reactor our animator got to version 150. He couldn't believe it. On the music video I worked on the main master scene for ship interior is at version 250. But most files will never go to 99. Keep that in mind...

NEVER use the words final or new in any filenames. Except in comment(s). I can't tell you how many times I've received a file called whatever_final.psd or even final.psd WTF? You know there will be a final2.mb Then which one will be final? The first one, or 2nd? New2, New3. Which one is actually new? Anyone's guess. It would be fine in a comment for a file such as, cats_and_dogs_contacts_v07_louis_new_artists_added.xls

Visual Effects Production Pipeline Examples:

Modeling:
cat_model_v01_joe_imported_drawings.mb
cat_model_v02_joe_rough.mb
cat_model_v03_added_detail.mb
cat_model_v04.mb (See, no comment necessary...)
cat_model_v05_jane_deleted_history.mb
cat_model_v06_jane_checked_for_all_quads.mb
cat_model_v07_louis_organized_layers.mb
cat_model_v08_louis_optimized_scene.mb
cat_model_v09_louis_shaders.mb
cat_model_v10_louis_made_basic_rig.mb
cat_model_v11_louis_rigged.mb
cat_model_v12_louis_ready_for_animation.mb
cat_model.mb (Copy of latest file with version this time so in the animation file we know what rig is referenced)

cat_rig_v13_louis_rig_updated.mb
cat_rig_v14_louis_rig_updated.mb
cat_rig.mb (Animator will need to swap to this rig when ready).

dog_model_v01_louis.mb (Maybe your modeler is so good only one version is ever needed. Doubt it.)

house_model_v01_louis_rough.mb
house_model_v02_louis_more_detail.mb
house_model_v03_louis_pre_smooth.mb

Textures:

Photoshop working files:

house_facade_front_bump_v01_louis_4K.psd
house_facade_front_bump_v02_jane_4K_log.psd (log color space if working in film)
house_facade_front_color_v01_louis_4K.psd
house_facade_front_spec_v01_louis_4K.psd

Published Textures for Maya (rle lossless compression on):
house_facade_front_bump_4K.tga (MAP for latest linked version in Maya)
house_facade_front_bump_2K.tga (Good to have representations. Various resolutions)
house_facade_front_bump_1K.tga

house_facade_front_color_4K.tga
house_facade_front_color_2K.tga
house_facade_front_color_1K.tga

house_facade_front_spec_4K.tga
house_facade_front_spec_2K.tga
house_facade_front_spec_1K.tga

If you have a whole team of artists, modeler, rigger, texture artist, previz, supervisor, animator, and compositor all working separately simultaneously, I suggest this:

cat_model_v00_brian_test.mb (Use 000 for test files so it's never considered the latest)
cat_model_v01_rough.mb
cat_model_v02_david.mb
cat_model_v03_for_Rigger.mb
cat_model_v04_for_Rigger.mb

cat_rig_v01.mb
cat_rig_v02_tim.mb
cat_rig_v03.mb

cat_shaders_v01_louis.mb
cat_shaders_v02_added_sss.mb
cat_shaders_v03_hair.mb
cat_shaders_v04_beauty_shaders.mb

cat_turntable_v01.mb
cat_turntable_v01.0001-0120.tif

Animation:
shot_anim_version_user_comment.mb
aa01_anim_v01_louis_previz.mb (Might have rough rig referenced in maya)
aa01_anim_v02_louis_director_changes.mb
aa01_anim_v03_joe_added_new_rig.mb (Swap to better rig with updated shaders...)
aa01_anim.mb

Rendering:

C.L.A.S.S. (Cameras, Lights, Animation, Settings, Save...)
"Use some class when setting up renders..." -Louis Katz
The word 'class' has saved my a** so many times.
When setting up maya renders check the following:

Camera:
Does persp camera have output settings in attributes turned off?
Is only the camera you want in the scene set for output? Are the clipping planes setup so it will render your scene. This will bite you in the a** if you don't check.

Lights :
Are the lights you want visible (fill or sun) turned off and on? Are they the right values?

Animation:
Is the timeline set right? Handles? Is what you want visible in layers, groups, and when you scrub, what is supposed to be rendered? Is there anything you can hide to save render time? Is the frame range set in render globals?

Settings:
Render globals setup? name.#.ext, padding 4, .tif, frame range, mental ray, production raytracing 2 0 4.

Save...
If you've checked the Camera, Lights, Animation, and Settings, you're ready to Save and render. Are you saving with the proper file naming conventions? Such as aa01_cat_004_ambo.mb?

Render Passes (Good to keep consistent with animation version referenced in file):
aa01_house_v04_fill.mb (fill = fill lights)
aa01_house_v04_ambo.mb (ambo = ambient occlusion)
aa01_house_v04_sun.mb (sun = directional raytraced key light)
aa01_house_v04_mat_fence_ground_doghouse.mb (RGB mat of 3 separate objects)

aa01_cat_v04_fill.mb
aa01_cat_v04_ambo.mb
aa01_cat_v04_sun.mb
aa01_cat_v04_mat_body_eyes_claws.mb
aa01_cat_v04_ground_shadow.mb

aa01_dog_v04_fill.mb
aa01_dog_v04_ambo.mb
aa01_dog_v04_sun.mb
aa01_dog_v04_mat_body_eyes_claws.mb
aa01_dog_v04_ground_shadow.mb

aa01_fx_dust_v04.mb

Output Example (Use name.#.ext padding 4, .tif in maya):
aa01_yard_v04_fill.0001-0120.tif
aa01_dog_v04_fill.0001-0120.tif
aa01_cat_v04_fill.0001-0120.tif
aa01_fx_dust_v04.0001-0120.tif
etc.

After Effects Composite Example:
aa01_comp_v01.aep
aa01_comp_v02.aep
aa01_comp_v03_color_corrected.aep

After Effects Output Module Render Example (Composition / Add Output Module in Render Queue):
aa01_comp_v03.[####].tif (High quality output)
aa01_comp_v03.[####].jpg (For lots of screen graphics textures)
aa01_comp_v03_960x540_anim_half.mov (If you have the diskspace)
aa01_comp_v03_480x270_web_h264.mov

After Effects tips:
* File / Project Settings... Starting Frame Number 1. Frames. 24 fps.
* Edit / Preferences... Label defaults all none. Then make hidden layers red. Animated green.
* Turn on 'Show Rendering in info palette'. Handy...
* Select all layers in a comp and hit U (Uber) key to show all animated channels.
* Work, Setup Output Module, Save... Then Render. Reopen without save to the same file so you don't lose the output module setup.
* Skip existing frames for image sequences so you can render on multiple computers on the network.

Project Folders:

General Project:

z:\cats_and_dogs\assets\models
z:\cats_and_dogs\assets\models\cat
z:\cats_and_dogs\assets\models\dog
z:\cats_and_dogs\assets\models\house
z:\cats_and_dogs\assets\textures
z:\cats_and_dogs\assets\textures\cat
z:\cats_and_dogs\assets\textures\dog
z:\cats_and_dogs\assets\textures\house
z:\cats_and_dogs\docs
z:\cats_and_dogs\movies
z:\cats_and_dogs\reference

Shots:
z:\cats_and_dogs\shots\aa00 (Keep this with default folders as a template to copy/paste)

z:\cats_and_dogs\shots\aa01
z:\cats_and_dogs\shots\aa01\afx
z:\cats_and_dogs\shots\aa01\images
z:\cats_and_dogs\shots\aa01\maya
z:\cats_and_dogs\shots\aa01\maya\scenes
z:\cats_and_dogs\shots\aa01\renders\
z:\cats_and_dogs\shots\aa01\renders\aa01_yard_v04_fill\
z:\cats_and_dogs\shots\aa01\renders\ aa01_dog_v04_fill
z:\cats_and_dogs\shots\aa01\renders\aa01_cat_v04_fill
z:\cats_and_dogs\shots\aa01\renders\aa01_fx_dust_v04
z:\cats_and_dogs\shots\aa01\reference
to...
z:\cats_and_dogs\shots\aa02
z:\cats_and_dogs\shots\aa03
z:\cats_and_dogs\shots\aa04
to...
z:\cats_and_dogs\shots\aa50

Or c:\ drive if you work local...

Backups:
Always keep your most important files, or all if possible, in two locations updated. Buy an extra firewire drive. They're inexpensive these days. Archive to DVD when possible.

Wisdom:
"A little time at the head saves time at the tail." -Louis Katz

In other words spend the time at the beginning of a project to make sure you and anyone else on your team follows these conventions to keep everything organized. When it's 4am and you've got 10 shots to composite before you're ready to show the client coming in at 8am you'll be glad everything is organized.

E-mails:
When sending e-mail ALWAYS use capitalization, proper grammar, and punctuation. There's no excuse for laziness. It takes the reader(s) longer to read your poorly written dribble than for you to get used to actually doing what you learned in grade school. Don't think you're too powerful, too busy, or too lazy to properly format your words.

Work Habits:
Don't eat at your desk. Take lunch. And take it at the appropriate time. You need the hour away. You'll be more productive if you get outside and take a walk with your coworkers. The best ideas come to mind when you're not sitting at the desk dropping food into your keyboard.

Instant Messaging:
I suggest you not use Instant Message for work. You'll spend all day on that thing waiting for someone to type a reply instead of making your shot(s) look better. If necessary, use it to get in touch with somebody and then transfer to e-mail for official communication.

Text Messaging:
Do not text message while driving. Even though I do.

RSI:
The most common reason you will develop RSI is a cheap desk with keyboards high up on the desk, and a chair that doesn't go high enough to keep your arms level. Your shoulders will also develop pain in this situation. Solution? Ask HR (Assuming there is one) for a keyboard tray and find a chair that keeps your arms level and at 90 degrees. Ideally adjustable desks that raise and lower the entire desk, adjustable keyboard tray, and herman miller chair will save your life. And again, if you sit all day on IM, that's not helping either. I'll write more on ergonomics in another blog.

Feel free to e-mail me any production pipeline questions and I'll add to the blog.

Comments?

Enjoy,
Louis Katz
Visual Effects Supervisor
www.louiskatz.com

Recent work on www.louiskatz.com

2007-02-09T18:28:00.000-08:00

Shots I contributed a fair amount of work for Superman Returns and Fantastic Four are uploaded on my site.

Find links at www.louiskatz.com

Enjoy,
Louis

Founder of The Visual Effects Society

2007-02-09T18:23:00.000-08:00

I met up with Tom Atkin, founder of The Visual Effects Society (VES) this week. Tom is an extremely knowledgeable source of wisdom and knows what makes a story work in Hollywood.
Without Tom, we wouldn't have a Visual Effects Society.

The industry is busy preparing for this weekends VES Award Ceremony. I went on-line to vote for my favorite visual effects shots literally the morning after I was hanging out with Tom, and the deadline had passed... UH OH. Maybe they'll kick me out? Would that be ironic? If there is a visual effects shot in 2nd place because it needed just one more vote. Blame me.

-Louis

Charlotte's Web Visual Effects Supervisor

2007-02-09T18:00:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure of meeting up with John Andrew Berton Jr., Visual Effects Supervisor of Charlotte's Web this week. I am writing this after just viewing Charlotte's Web with my 9 year old son.

The visual effects work was simply beautiful. Everything from modeling, texturing, shaders, lighting, animation, use of depth-of-field, and compositing was extremely well done.

John taught me a lot about what it means to be an Independent Visual Effects Supervisor. It's not just sitting in dailies and providing feedback.

I remember on a flight to LA not too long ago I ran into John and we sat next to each other on the plane. John's ability to explain the sheer joy of simple things in life, such as playing games with his son or the details of NASCAR, is unmatched. He and Tom Atkin convinced me to take my son to a NASCAR event someday. Something I never imagined taking an interest in.

I regret not going to work in Australia at Rising Sun Pictures the last few months to help in the visual effects effort on Charlotte's Web. However, by not ultimately going to Australia I had the pleasure of having more time with my son in the bay area.

My hat is off to John for the incredible work he supervised at various vendors around the world. Not only does the movie Charlotte's Web teach us what's important to value in life, John does, whether it's whether it's games, NASCAR, or visual effects work.

-Louis

Music Video Render Farm

2006-12-29T11:26:00.000-08:00

The CG Supervisor of the martial arts film is off to Japan for a month so he is lending out his render farm for use on the music video. My fiance' came home and said our dining room looks like an IT department. Linux network controller, PC server, and 5 rack mounted machines with various configurations.

It doesn't compare to ILM's roughly 70,000 procs with a another 70,000 coming in 2007, but it's better than a laptop in a coffee shop.

Music Video

2006-12-06T08:03:00.000-08:00

For the next 6 weeks I will be supervising and working on a music video. The Director is very talented and easy to work with. We worked at ILM together on a few projects several years ago. He is going to the trouble of moving his operation from LA to SF for the duration of post. Unfortunately I can't say for what band or style until it's released. Look forward to the video early 2007. There will be a making-of shot as well.

Through the Looking Glass

2006-11-20T17:27:00.000-08:00

I went on-set to a trailer shoot Sunday in Sacramento for an up and coming Director, Alexander Sadri. He graduated from the University of Southern California; same school as George Lucas. 40 shots in 12 hours. A few visual effects shots.

Before we finish the trailer feel free to check out the website:
http://www.lookingglassmovie.com/

Missing Pixels

2006-11-10T18:31:00.000-08:00

I spoke today at THE ACADEMY of ART UNIVERSITY in San Francisco to the Missing Pixels club. As far as I understand it's a club that discusses the animation and visual effects industry. One goal of the club is to find projects for students to work on, hence the name.

I talked about my career, the industry, and showed various DVDs:
* Louis Katz 2005 reel.
* Design Reactor's latest virual marketing film, The One.
* Vladimir Leschinski's Visual Effects Supervisor reel for Dr.PICTURE in Russia including Night Watch, Day Watch and Wolfhound (HD series) visual effects work.
* Scott Leberecht's Natural Selection.

I asked the students to introduce themselves and what their major is emphasizing.

I spoke about the visual effects work we need for the film Origin. I have a feeling a few or more of the students present will volunteer to help out.

The President of the club, Patrick Johnson was an extremely nice guy. I believe he wants to become a Visual Effects Producer.

Please visit http://www.missingpixels.org to learn more...

Natural Selection on iTunes

2006-11-08T11:49:00.000-08:00

Natural Selection, an award winning short film I worked on for my buddy Scott Leberecht is available on iTunes.

Open iTunes and go to Movies/Shorts Films/Shorts International/Natural Slection.
Starring Lee Arenberg (Pirates of the Caribbean, I, II, and III).

More about Scott:
www.midnightsonmovie.com

It's a BIG AD!

2006-11-08T10:57:00.000-08:00

http://download.massivesoftware.com/client_work/cubbigad.lo.mov

Superman Returns DVD and SONY Blu-ray

2006-11-08T10:29:00.000-08:00

Superman Returns releases to DVD and Blu-ray November 28. One day before my birthday! I can't wait to have a visual effects reel in Blu-ray, or ahemmm HDVD format. I will have Fantastic Four and Superman Returns shots added to my reel.

I remember when I was a kid my Dad showed me the first Sony CD player in 1984 I believe. He built a custom room in his stereo store in Marshall Minnesota just to show it off. The entertainment industry changed that day. I truly hope Blu-ray wins. Even if it's more expensive. And not because I worked at SONY.

-Louis

My Dad sent me this link:
http://www.cedmagic.com/history/sony-cdp-101.html

Martial Arts Film - Origin

2006-11-08T10:23:00.000-08:00

Hello-

I am supervising roughly 60 visual effects shots for Origin. 20 easy, 20 hard, and 20 very hard shots. Stay tuned for updates on the project. Feel free to e-mail me and volunteer if you're interesting in helping out.

http://www.symphonyofthefallen.com/origin/

Thanks,
Louis Katz
katzfx@aol.com
www.louiskatz.com

Design Reactor :: Recent Projects

2006-11-08T10:13:00.000-08:00

Design Reactor has recently completed several projects including:

- The One: An on-line film starring Hector Ruiz, CEO of AMD. This Matrix Parody is part of a larger virtual tradeshow experience that won Adobe's, flash site-of-the day award.
http://virutalexperience.amd.com

- Subaru commercial: CG car for an upcoming 30-second national spot.

- Modeling and animation for seven Motorola mobile phones.

- Modeling and animation for a new Palm Treo consumer product.
http://www.designreactor.com/palm/

Design Reactor :: Animation & Visual Effects

2006-11-08T10:08:00.000-08:00

Design Reactor's Visual Effects Department

The increasing sophistication of visual effects continues to accelerate the convergence of entertainment and technology. High end animations and motion graphics are now becoming an integral and expected part of a brand's visual vocabulary. To meet this growing creative, technical, and cultural demand, Design Reactor's Visual Effects department provides premiere animation and visual effects services for the web, broadcast, and film.

Design Reactor's Visual Effects Department creates world class animations and effects for companies of all sizes. Bridging the gap between Hollywood and the web, we provide a team of experienced, industry-leading effects artists who can meet the most demanding creative and technical expectations, deadlines and budgets. Led by visual effects supervisor Louis Katz who worked on feature films such as Superman Returns, Star Wars Episodes I and II, and Men in Black, Design Reactor delivers world class digital content.

Please visit http://www.designreactor.com to learn more.

Welcome | Sales and Marketing Visual Effects

2006-11-08T06:22:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Visual Effects blog.

Sales and Marketing Visual Effects
Make no mistake. This is no easy task. Getting the work done in visual effects is not the hard part. Finding the work is. As you'll find out by reading this blog.

Cold calls. Most people would rather not make cold calls. I have to admit I was nervous and skeptical at first. Fortunately I taught classes a few years ago so I was fairly comfortable in front of a large group attempting to hold the attention of an audience for 3 hours straight. A cold call usually lasts about 30 seconds. It's not that hard.

What helps is a "yes, no" answer trail script. Just jot down bullet items of where you want the conversation to lead. One page. What's funny and interesting is the conversations never actually follows the predetermined paths. The conversations that last longer than a minute end up lasting usually 5 to 30 minutes. I always end up saying what I wanted to say regardless. The point is, "Now that I have your attention, we are available for work!" Luckily the folks I've been calling in my industry I already know so they don't hang up. So far...

--------------------------------

Look forward to more posts related to the Visual Effects industry as time goes on.

Thank you for visiting.
-Louis Katz
http://www.louiskatz.com