samedi 28 février 2009

MAX GABL from Basel to Los Angeles

Here is an exclusive interview of Max Gabl, a swiss matte painter who left Basel to Los Angeles. There, he will work at Digital Domain on Clint Eastwood's FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS or Quentin Tarantion's KILL BILL 2. Now, he's working at CBS Digital on TV shows like STAR TREK and PUSHING DAISIES.

Between two mattes, he give me some times to answer my questions. Happy reading.

VinceFX: Can you tell us a little about you and how you come to work at LA ???
Max: I have been painting from a very early age. As A kid I was fascinated by painters such as Velazquez, Leonardo and Van Eyck, which I copied, knowing that realistic painting is what I wanted to do. After Gymnasium I went to the Kunstgewerbeschule Basel (Ecole des Arts, Bale), where I had graphics and painting. I wasn't really happy with the curriculum there so after Kunstgewerbeschule I started studying painting in-depth by myself, copying old masters in the Musee de Louvre and Museo del Prado in Madrid. In my mid twenties I worked as a commercial illustrator, layout and graphic artist for advertising agencies, and as a digital artist for a small company that made animated movies for commercials. I also did oil portraits and taught airbrushing classes.

I did a lot of things since it was impossible to make a living as an artist in Switzerland specializing in one thing only. In the early nineties, when work in Switzerland became even more scarce due to the collapsing of many advertisement agencies, my wife (then my girlfriend), who is a costume sketch artist and costume designer, and I decided we would try to move to LA to find work in the movie business. Money earned from art that I sold at an exhibition and my wife's savings, got us to LA where we lived for half a year in 1994, trying to connect and find an employer/sponsor, but it didn't work out.

Before returning home we played the greencard lottery and luckily my wife won one, so a year later we immigrated. I worked my way up starting as set painter, miniature painter, storyboard artist, scenic artist (painting large realistic backdrops for movies), concept artist, and since about five years as matte painter.

VinceFX: Which software did you use ???
Max: I use Photoshop, Painter, Cinema 4d/Bodypaint, SketchUp, After Effects, Illustrator. Sometimes I paint textures the old fashioned way on canvas and photograph/scan them.

VinceFX: What's your best experience til now ???
Max: I love my jobs almost always but my most memorable experiences and highlights are connected to the people I meet and the crews I worked in. At Digital Domain, I remember the jokes and beers that followed us from the restaurant at the beach to the desk at work right next to our screens, where they would still be after we woke up from our extended after-lunch naps ... Of course this only happened after a job well done.

I also had a great time at CBS, when I worked for two years on Star Trek (remastered). Great crew there and the reactions of the Trekkies (StarTrek fans) to anything we did was just amazing. The smallest touch created thousands of comments on blogs and web sites worldwide, every painting I made was discussed by hundreds of people.

VinceFX: What are your projects ???
Max: My matte painting film credits include Stealth, Flags Of Our Fathers, Racing Stripes, The Celestine Prophecy, Primeval, Underdog.

My TV film credits include Star Trek, Kings, SIS, Ugly Betty, new Amsterdam, Pushing Daisies, The Bronx Is Burning, Boldly Going Nowhere, The Curse Of King Tut's Tomb, Supernova, Blackbeard, Mysterious Island (all HD).

My scenic backdrops film credits include The Terminal, Kill Bill 2, Hulk, The Haunted Mansion, Mystic River, The Scorpion King, The Stepford Wives, Spanglish, Live From Baghdad, and more.
A great thanks to Max, don't hesitate to visit his demoreel, she's very impressive with many breakdowns.

Beside, you'll find on the website TrekMovie, a great text on CBS Digital and their work on the STAR TREK TV show.

dimanche 22 février 2009

Job - Online Video

First job offer on the blog and others will follow !!!

Online Video is looking for a senior colorist.

Click here to see the offer.

IRON MAN's Flash animation by ILM

ILM offer us a small flash animation of IRON MAN.

Many informations and specifications are accessible by clicking on some parts of the armor.

Click here to see the animation.

mercredi 18 février 2009

KOMPOST from Swiss Alps to the Big Apple

Here's the presentation of an atypical studio who works between Switzerand and New York. His two foundators, Oliver Conrad and Glan Klainguti, have both grew up in St Moritz and then they moved to the Big Apple.

There they founded Kompost un 2004. One of their latest work is the animation for the SF1 show Music Star.

The studio shows a great interest for the mix of techniques like the stop-motion with 3D animation.

Here are some examples of their works:


Visit the Kompost website to see the videos.

dimanche 15 février 2009

SwissMadeVFX in the press, second part !!

New press coverage for the blog !!

That's in the SFX Magazine.
The news is on page 5 in the February issue.

Happy reading

Eric Schaechter, the globetrotter

Here's the presentation of a artist who liked to travel a lot like his CV prove it.

Born in Mexico with the swiss nationality, Eric worked for many postprod studios in Mexico like Ollin Studio and Rushes Mexico. He also works in Quebec VFX House Hybride then goes to Germany at Deli Pictures and finally arrive in Australia atThe Lab in Sydney.

Eric is a senior flame/inferno artist. He mostly worked for commercials but did some feature like SPY KIDS 2 and 3D at Hybride.

Following you'll find some screenshots of his demoreel:

You'll find his website here.

I'll made an interview of Eric soon.

jeudi 12 février 2009

SwissMadeVFX in the press !!

The blog's first press coverage !!
You may read it in the Cine-bulletin's February issue on page 15.

Happy reading

mercredi 11 février 2009

LAND of the Lost: Superbowl teaser

The last Superbowl give us a lot of exclusive teasers like the next TRANSFORMERS, the reboot of STAR TREK and, what interest us now, LAND OF THE LOST.

The visual effects are handle by Rhythm & Hues with Bill Westenhoffer as visual effects supervisor and Pascal Chappuis as sequence supervisor. He's working on the sleestaks (image 3) but also the dinosaurs.

Here are some screenshots of the teaser:




Le site d'Apple gives a HD version for the teaser.

Quick note

Welcome on the english version of my blog,

I'm currently translating all the news I've made in the french version till the next week

It will take me some times to achieve it...
If you want to see the old news of the blog, go on the french version

Sorry for that

Vincent Frei

Presentation of RGB Prod

RGB Prod just put his demoreel online so I take that opportunity to present you this new studio.


RGB Prod, located at Aubonne, is brand new and in a full developpment which services include the making of advertising movies and visual effects, all in HD. The studio handle also many others aspects like storyboarding, audio and CG.

RGB Prod works with a lot of freelancers to realize his projects.

Here are some demoreel screenshots, go on their website to see it.

IRON MAN, breakdown by ILM

ILM shows a (too) brief breakdown of some shots of IRON MAN. We can see the huge clean up and wire removal work. The final shots are really impressive !

The video is here.



The movie is in course for the Best Visual Effects Academy Awards.