Favorite Prints/Posters of 2013

December 27, 2013 in Art, Posters

Here are my top 10 prints of 2013. Not all will be Mondo releases but a lot will. Also no particular order unless stated. Ok There Will be Blood Variant might be my favorite.

I think this Mark Lone piece might be underrated. It looks amazing in person and is illustrated beautifully.  Artist: Mark LoneSize: 36”x24”Printed by: THE HALF AND HALFDetails: 10 colors and 3 metallic inksRun size: 140 — I think this Mark Lone piece might be underrated. It looks amazing in person and is illustrated beautifully.

Artist: Mark Lone
Size: 36”x24”
Printed by: THE HALF AND HALF
Details: 10 colors and 3 metallic inks
Run size: 140

Being a huge Star Wars fan as soon as I saw this at Spoke Arts both at ArtPadSF I had to have it. The Original sold for $2200 Artist: Scott ScheidlySize: 11" x 14" (unframed) - 14" x 17" (framed)Printed by: N?ADetails: Fine art giclee print in … — Being a huge Star Wars fan as soon as I saw this at Spoke Arts both at ArtPadSF I had to have it. The Original sold for $2200

Artist: Scott Scheidly
Size: 11" x 14" (unframed) - 14" x 17" (framed)
Printed by: N?A
Details: Fine art giclee print in a custom painted hot pink frame
Run size: 50

I was lucky enough to attend this show that featured Ken Taylor and Tyler Stout at the Mondo gallery in April of 2013. When I finally got inside the gallery after many hours of wait this piece with one of Stouts (made the list) were the ones I was r… — I was lucky enough to attend this show that featured Ken Taylor and Tyler Stout at the Mondo gallery in April of 2013. When I finally got inside the gallery after many hours of wait this piece with one of Stouts (made the list) were the ones I was really excited about. The metallic look amazing in person and the detail is spot on.

Artist: Ken Taylor
Size: 15”x36”
Printed by:
Details:
Run size: 205 (Variant)

Here is a poster I will always regret passing on and not making an attempt to get. I always wanted an awesome Jaws poster and for some reason when this came up I wasn't crazy about it. I thought it was good but figured I would pass and maybe make a … — Here is a poster I will always regret passing on and not making an attempt to get. I always wanted an awesome Jaws poster and for some reason when this came up I wasn't crazy about it. I thought it was good but figured I would pass and maybe make a good trade for it later. Man do I regret that decision. the more I look at this print the more I like it. This captures the travel poster in a perfect way. It has the feel of a Roger Broders' travel print but Durieux's style still comes through. Another poster I will have in the future! Durieux is having a gallery show at Mondo February 7th 2014. I can almost bet that the Forbidden Planet print will be on my 2014 list. Im also hoping that the Back to the Future one will be as well.

Artist: Laurent Durieux
Size: 36”x24”
Printed by:
Details:
Run size: 525

Tim Doyle released a 9 run series of Bernie Wrightson Frankenstein prints. I subscribed to the series and received all of the and they do not disappoint! The fine detail in some of these prints are on a whole other level! The exclusive print Perishe… — Tim Doyle released a 9 run series of Bernie Wrightson Frankenstein prints. I subscribed to the series and received all of the and they do not disappoint! The fine detail in some of these prints are on a whole other level! The exclusive print Perished on the Scaffold is chilling.

Artist: Bernie Wrightson
Size: 36”x24”
Printed by:
Details: 130lb Cougar Natural Cover
Run size: 200

ILM Long Ranger VFXs

December 25, 2013 in VFX

I'm a sucker for ILM breakdown videos.

Industrial Light & Magic Visual Effects Supervisor Tim Alexander and Digital Environments Supervisor Dan Wheaton discuss the effects challenges presented on Gore Verbinski's 'The Lone Ranger.' The film's primary visual effects challenges involved the creation of the hundreds of photorealistic CG environments seen throughout the film's dramatic action sequences.

We are proud to present this video which showcases some of ILM's effects work for Gore Verbinski's "The Lone Ranger". This reel represents the work over 170 ILM artists, scientists, and engineers backed up by a world class production team. We hope you enjoy it.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers

December 19, 2013 in Art, Posters

Just scored these two bad ass prints by Aaron Horkey today!

*Poster by Aaron Horkey. 19.25"x39" 7-color screen print. Hand numbered. Edition of 245. Printed by Burlesque of North America.*

*Poster by Aaron Horkey. 19.25"x39" 14-color screen print. Hand numbered. Edition of 505. Printed by Burlesque of North America.*

Mondo Mystery Movie 11 (MMM XI)

December 17, 2013 in Art, Posters

This past weekend I went to LA for the Mondo Mystery Movie! The movie was Die Hard which people had been guess since day one. The artist was Laurent Durieux and here is the poster! I got the metal version which looks more amazing every time I look at it.

Mondo Mystery Movie XI in Los Angeles. The secret film was revealed to be action classic DIE HARD with a stunning poster from artist Laurent Durieux. Attendees were treated to limo rides around Nakatomi Tower, broken glass in the theater and a special appearance by Reginald Veljohnson. The poster was made available in regular, variant, metal & glass editions.

When entering the theater they said to take your shoes off to respect the historical theater. When entering to get to your seats they had spread glass in the aisles. Looked really cool and a great way to add some showman ship!

Obama Visits Dreamworks Animation - Full Speech

November 26, 2013 in VFX

Seems kind of sad that he thinks there are so many jobs in the US for VFX artists. Hopefully he has been mad aware of the subsidies that are killing the visual effects industry. I hope the protest was successful today! If you are interested in the VFX war against subsidies go to VFX Soldier.

President Obama speaks to film industry workers about the economy after touring Dreamworks Animation studio

Currently working on Space Station 76!

November 19, 2013 in VFX, Film

Go here and like the projected I am currently working on!

Reynold Brown, amazing poster designer

November 18, 2013 in Posters, Art

I bid on this amazing poster by Reynold Brown but did not win.

Reynold Brown is probably one of my favorite poster artist. Reynold's worked in a time when his posters where almost always better/bigger than the movie. The monsters where never as big or gruesome as the posters depicted. You probably have never heard of him, but you definitely have seen his work. I've posted a few of his posters below.

The Brain that Wouldn't Die is a pretty good flick. I'm not sure if I was just in the right mood but I really enjoyed the movie. Yes her body is under the table with a hole for her head but its still a good movie.

Its not a Reynold Brown but I do own this gem from Mondo done by Francesco Francavilla

Stephen Fishler

November 14, 2013 in Posters

If/when I win the lottery I will be hassling this guy to sell his Frankenstein 6 sheet! Rarest of all movie posters! Stephen Fishler fell ass backwards into it. Jealous!

Cool little story of how the most rare movie poster was discovered.

Metropolis CEO Stephen Fishler discusses his extraordinary find of the sole surviving six-sheet poster from the original 1931 Frankenstein. Visit us at www.metropoliscomics.com

Pacific Rim

November 13, 2013 in VFX

I was lucky enough to be invited to a VES event this summer where John Knoll was speaking about Pacific Rim. He went over and "easy" shot (showed us and everyone laught at the thought of that particular shot being easy) which involved Gypsy Danger walking through the ocean. Some intense ocean sims which could not have been "easy" at all. Then he went over the hard shot. He stepped through the Hong Kong battles scen which I believe was about 20 min! After he was talking about the thirtieth different render pass he stopped saying something to the effect of "that was about half of the passes." I would love to see some of those Nuke scripts! Bad picture of the event below.

I posted some VFX breakdown and behind the scene videos below. First video is a 30+ min from FXPHD.

"We visit ILM to discuss the Pacific Rim production pipeline with John Knoll, Eddie Pasquarello, Lindy De Quattro and Hal Hickel. The pipeline uses NUKE, Houdini, KATANA, Modo, Alembic, Arnold/RenderMan and ILM's 3D and fluid destruction and muscle sim tools."

"Storytelling studio Mirada was the creative and technical force behind the two-minute prologue of Guillermo del Toro's robots vs. monsters epic, Pacific Rim. Mirada was co-founded by del Toro along with award winning director Mathew Cullen, Executive Producer Javier Jimenez and Academy Award winning DP, Guillermo Navarro."

Eric White

November 12, 2013 in Art

One of my favorit paitners had a new gallery oppening this past weekend in LA. I really wanted to go but I the 49ers where calling me.

Eric White | All Of This Has Not Occurred | Opening November 9th from 6 - 9 PM. Going to the Mondo Mystery Movie Dec 14th so I am going t0 try ans stop by then.

"The Lab TV spent the day with Eric White in his New York Studio. Directed by John Poliquin Cinematography by Alex Hill Produced by Darya Kosilova Edited by Anna Quinlan Music by Greg Bevis For more from The Lab TV visit http://tv.thelabmagazine.com For more from The Lab Magazine visit http://thelabmagazine.com"

Would love to own an original White one day, but for now this is what I got!

NO NEUTRAL THOUGHTSSigned and Numbered Giclée Limited Edition of 5015 x 15 inch image 18 x 18 inch archival 100% rag paper — *NO NEUTRAL THOUGHTS*
Signed and Numbered Giclée
Limited Edition of 50
15 x 15 inch image
18 x 18 inch archival 100% rag paper

Game of Thrones Season 3 Breakdowns!

November 05, 2013 in VFX

****Spoilers*****

I love Game of Thrones even though I need cliff notes when I watch.

Nuke Curve Tool

November 04, 2013 in VFX

The curve tool is great for a few things. I am going to show you how to use the autocrop feature of the curve tool.

The curve tool is under the very first tab in the nodes panel in the image section. You can always hit Tab and type curves and it will come up.

What the autocrop feature does is it looks for an alpha then crops your bounding box to fit the alpha channel. This can save some time in render and just over all workflow.

Below is the same image but its alpha channel and bounding box.

I hook up the curve tool to the node I want it to analyze and under the curve type I change it to auto crop then click go!

Once it is done analyze you will get a data set under the AutoCropData tab.

Screen Shot 2013-11-04 at 12.03.25 PM.png

Now all you have to do is add a crop node and hold command/ctl and click the animation menu from the curves animation menu to the crop animation menu.

Here is our new bounding box! Now instead of reading a 4k or 2k plate for the whole image it will only update what is in the bounding box!

Here is what my end result nodes look like.

This trick can save you a lot of time when using large images. Sometime it can also take a while to analyze so you have to figure out if the analyze wait is worth the end result.

Ballpoint Pen!

November 01, 2013

Saw these on 411posters.com. I am always amazed at what people can do with ballpoint pen! These are done by James Mylne Print goes on sale Nov 5th. Will be hard to pass up.

After trolling the internet I found a few more on Mashable

Nuke relink

October 29, 2013 in VFX

I have seen a few gizmos that relink your read nodes in nuke. I prefer to use a StickyNote, that way I don't have to rely on anything being installed if I switch to a new computer.

Create a StickyNote and in the name field type filepath . In the label field type your file path to your project mine is: volumes/SSD_Video/FISK/Fruitvale. My computer is a mac so I have volumes/. If you have a windows machine this could be D:

Screen Shot 2013-10-29 at 2.25.27 PM.png

As a work flow I usually create a couple of StickyNotes and copy and paste the text from one to the main StickyNote. So I have my home computer which the label is work/work/ and I have my work computer /SSD_video/Fisk. When Im at home I paste the work/work/ in the main StickyNote and vise versa when I go to work I paste /SSD_video/Fisk.

Now all you need to do is and some text into each read node you bring in.

In the read node add [knob filepath.label]. This path is a continuation from the StickyNote so really your path is split in half. First half on the StickyNote then the read node picks up the other half. So [knob filepath.label] is taking the place of volumes/SSD_Video/FISK/Fruitvale and files it in from the StickyNote.

Hulk, Bear!

October 15, 2013

Comic book men did one great thing this week for me. Reminded me of this great episode where the Hulk fights a bear!

Banksy Better out Than in.

October 14, 2013 in Art

Man I would have loved to have come across this stand and by some original banksy's. Guy who bought for probably just set himself up a nice retirement.

Mary Blair

August 27, 2013

I was on some of my favorite auction sites the other day looking for art when I came across Mary Blair's work. Blair worked on one of my all time favorite Disney animation movies, Alice in Wonderland.

Mary Blair was a concept artist for Disney from around the 1940's till she quit around 1953 after working on Peter Pan. She then went on to do freelance work. The simplicity of Blair's style and her use of colors seems to draw me to her work. She uses the right palette to tell the story every time. Blair's work also seems to have some sort of innocence to it while still giving the sense of great technique. Some of her work below.

Alice in Wonderland (1951)

I hope in the near future I can be lucky enough to own one of Blair's original concept art from Alice in Wonderland. It would be a great addition to my small art collections.

Check out this 14 min documentary about the trip that changed Blair's style and in turn Disney's

Final Destination 5 VFX

August 13, 2013

The Final Destination series are so over the top and cheesy and thats why love them. Great death scenes that are so ridiculous and gory. Seems like it would be a fun job to come up with ways to kill people for these movies.

Found this on the you tubes. Its kinda nice that there is a side-by-side but can be distracting too.

Creating the Hulk pt 1

January 15, 2013

What was involved in creating The Hulk for Marvel's The Avengers? ILM's Visual Effects Supervisor, Jeff White, Associate VFX Supervisor, Jason Smith and other key crew members take you behind the scenes in a two part look at the CG creature effects work done on the film.

Avengers

January 14, 2013

We are proud to present this video which showcases some of ILM's Oscar nominated effects work for the 2012 hit film, "Marvel's The Avengers". This reel represents a small fraction of the work created by over 200 ILM artists, scientists, and engineers backed up by a world class production team.