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

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

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Enjoy,
Louis Katz
www.louiskatz.com

A 'Little Joy' for the Holidays

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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

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

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

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

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