Swiss Made VFX (English version)

SWISS MADE VFX !!!

2009-12-06T14:25:00.001+01:00

Hi everyone,

the blog change is moving !!!
All will happen at: SWISS MADE VFX

Thanks !!!

Vincent

TERMINATOR SALVATION: Raffael Dickreuter's showreel !!!

2009-12-04T10:53:00.001+01:00

The DVD and Blu Ray release of TERMINATOR SALVATIONis the occasion to see the Raffael Dickreuter's showreel, he was previz animator on the show at Pixel Liberation Front.

On the pictures that follow you will see the difference between the previz and the final footage.

On the 2nd picture, you can even see the real bikers that served as reference to ILM's animators for the motos-terminators !!!

The showreel is available, here !!!

For info, the Raffael's next project is THE GREEN LANTERN directed by Martin Campbell !!!

HorsForm animate La Premiere's TV spot !!!

2009-12-02T16:32:00.001+01:00

For some weeks, you can see the new La Premiere's TV spot on TSR.

This superb animation was accomplished by the studio HorsForm in Fribourg.

The looks are based on the press campaign created by François Dulex, HorsForm has reinterpreted them and animated them on After Effects.

Here are some screenshots:

You can see the whole animation, here.

Swiss Made VFX in Daily Movies !!!

2009-11-29T16:32:00.002+01:00

Swiss Made VFX is on the pages of the Daily Movies December's issue !!!

You can find the magazine anywhere (cinemas, shops, bars, …) for free in the Swiss french part and in PDF format on their website, here.

We are on page 6 !!! With our logo, you won't miss it !!!

Good reading

A big thanks to Daily Movies !!!

SWISS MADE VFX ASSOCIATION !!!

2009-11-27T12:11:00.002+01:00

Hi everyone,

we have a big news to announce to you:
Swiss Made VFX is now an association !!!

The association was founded by Vincent Frei (freelance compositing), David François (senior freelance compositing), Jean Deppierraz (Sapristi Studio) and Miklos Kozary (Elefant Studios), and our goals are:

- The promotion of Swiss artists working in visual effects (website, interviews, forum, news).
- Putting in contact these artists by various annual meetings.
- Creation of a professional directory
- Partnership with festivals (NIFFF, …)

The memberships (per year) are: 20.- CHF for student / 40.- CHF for individual / 80.- CHF for companies.
The membership fee will be used exclusively to maintain and enhance the website and to organize the events.

For any requests of information or membership, please contact us at contact@swissmadevfx.com.

We hope to count you as member of the association

Best regards,

Vincent Frei
President of the association

One Year Party: the pictures !!!

2009-11-26T12:36:00.002+01:00

A very big thanks to all who come to celebrate the first anniversary of Swiss Made VFX !!!

Here are some pictures:

This weekend, I'll made a big announcement for Swiss Made VFX !!!
For the curious, there is an indication on one of the pictures ;)

Come back this we !!!

Le Truc gets an EDI award !!!

2009-11-19T22:44:00.001+01:00

A big thanks to the studio Le Truc that has just obtained an EDI award for the visual effects of the Audemars Piguet corporate movie !!!

The movie was directed by Julius Berg and the photography was signed by Hans Meier (who also gets an EDI). All produced by Pointprod.

Le Truc did all the 3D shots for the watches with 3DS Max, the movement was entirely modeled. Boujou was used to track specific shots. And the compositing in 4K was done on Nuke (the shooting was done with RED).

The postproduction time was 2 months.

You can see the movie, here !!!

SWISS MADE VFX - ONE YEAR PARTY D-4: The place !!!

2009-11-17T18:16:00.002+01:00

4 days left before the party to celebrate the one year of SWISS MADE VFX !!! The place is called Chez Edy and you can find it on the Bärenplatz. You will find all the informations on the website. We are waiting for you there at 4pm this Satursday. I'm looking forward to meet you there !!

2012: interview of Goran Pavles

2009-11-11T21:23:00.004+01:00

The new end of the world movie of Roland Emmerich, 2012, is just released today.
It's a whole vfx festival which has more than 10 vfx houses implicated and that was necessary to deliver more than 1300 shots !!

Among the studios, there is Double Negative who did the Vatican and the Yellowstone sequences and there is also Uncharted Territory (founded by Volker Engel, a long time collaborator of Roland Emmerich) who did the destruction of Los Angeles and the fly over Las Vegas (almost 400 shots). Scanline VFX did the huge wave submerging the Himalaya.

Here is an interview of Goran Pavles who has worked on the show as TD artist at Uncharted Territory:

- Can you introduce yourself ??
So my name is Goran Pavles. I'm 25 years old, born in Croatia and living in Basel for 18 years or so. Started CG five years ago as a hobbyist. Working as accountant at that time.

- What was your job position on 2012 ??
I was one of the many VFX Artist at Uncharted Territory. You can call it TD Artist. We all did get pretty tricky tasks and enough time to get them look how the supervisors want. So everybody was developing his own little tools and setups.

- On which sequence have you worked on ??
Uncharted Territory did the L.A.-Limousine sequence. From the point where the earthquake starts, up to the point where they arrive at the Santa Monica airport.
Second Sequence was the Vegas one. There I had just a little part to do.

- 2012 is a big massive destruction movie, what was the biggest challenge on it ??
I think the biggest challenge was to fill so much different things into those full CG images, that they do look believable. For us Artists it was kinda "easy", we got a task and had to solve it. I think to manage all those shots, to keep continuity, and match all the elements of each frame to work together is the hardest thing. There are unbelievably many elements in each shot. There were 3 people dedicated just to keep overview of who is doing what, what has he to do next and keep everything updated.

For me personally the challenge was to find a more or less procedural way of working, so I could adapt the simulations to the supervisors wishes. I had this huge ground element that was breaking, and it was not possible to simulate it in one go. At least not in reasonable time. Splitting it up into many smaller simulations, but still keep it work together was kind of a tricky thing.

- Did you have encounter some difficulies and how did you achieved them ??
Hell Yea, Every day!
There are always unexpected things that slowdown your work flow and ask for crazy workarounds. I was lucky that I knew a little scripting. So I could write something that helped me out. We were also a lot of artists coming from different softwares with different experiences. So there was always somebody to ask and who knew how to solve a problem or just had an idea how to workaround it.

- Which softwares did you used ??
We used 3ds Max 2008, Thinking Particles, FumeFx, Final Render and Nuke.

- How long did you work on this show ??
I've been 6 months over there

- What was your best memory ??
I think the whole thing is a great memory. The working climate was really nice. Uncharted is a great company that does not try to save each cent and creates a very nice working atmosphere. Also to see this other world on the other side of this big blue is very interesting. It's one thing to go there for a week and see the interesting tourist parts. But a whole other thing to stay there for a longer time and live there the way Americans do and see the good and bad parts of their system.

- What's your next project ??
No further plans at the moment.

- Thanks a lot for your time !

You can see a long movie clip of the destruction of Los Angeles in HD, here !!!

KOMPOST: new website !!!

2009-11-03T22:37:00.000+01:00

The studio Kompost has just put online his brand new website !!!

With a beautiful layout, you will find all the informations about their works and projects.

You will also find a blog with all the studio's news !

AVATAR: brand new trailer and featurette !!!

2009-10-29T19:47:00.003+01:00

One week after his theater release the brand new trailer of James Cameron's AVATAR is coming on the web !!!

That's more than 3 minutes of pure magic that we can see !!!
The trailer is available in HD, here, and here are some pictures of it:

In addition to that, ComingSoon is purposing a 4 minutes featurette !!!

I recall that Jean-Denis Haas is working on this show as animator at ILM !!!

TOY STORY 3: shots of Simon Christen

2009-10-28T20:44:00.000+01:00

To follow my past news trailer, here is some precisions: we can see some shots animated by Simon Christen !!!

These are the first 3 shots of the trailer (The door which opens, Andy playing and the mother who speaks to the camera).

As well as 2 shorts later (Rex running towards the door and when he says: " I' m gonna get played with ").

Presentation of Le Truc

2009-10-22T19:23:00.000+02:00

Let's go on in the presentation of the VFX houses with Le Truc.

This studio based in Geneva is specialized in 3D.
It was founded in 2007 by ancient students of the prestigious CG school SupInfoCom of Valenciennes.

Le Truc works in the domains of animation, the print but also webdesign.

Here are some pictures of their demoreel::

Please go check their site internet for more information !

Presentation of Boutiq

2009-10-20T20:49:00.002+02:00

Here's a short presentation of a motion design and animation studio, Boutiq.

The studio is based at Zurich and was founded in 2006.
His team with international experience is composed of a mix of directors, animators and artists.

Here are some screenshots of their demoreel:

Please go see their website for more informations !

SWISS MADE VFX - ONE YEAR PARTY D-7 !!!

2009-10-18T18:31:00.006+02:00

Quick recall: Next Saturday, at Bern starting at 4pm, will be the 1st SWISS MADE VFX anniversary !!!

The precise place will be announced monday or tuesday.

Please confirm your coming as soon as possible !!!
For that register directly on the events on Facebook, LinkedIn or mail me !!!
I'm looking forward to see you there ;)

Vincent

Presentation of MDI Production

2009-10-14T21:48:00.003+02:00

Founded in 1995 by Franco Gaudiano, mdiproduction is a 3D production and postproduction studio based at Neuchatel.

mdiproduction counts among his customers some of the biggest watches makers like: Breitling, Breguet, Blancpain, Bulgari, Jeager-lecoultre, Tag Heuer and Longines.

For the technical part, mdiproduction is a 220m2 studio with two HD/SD edit suite, a 35m2 greenbox, 6 workstations and a renderfarm for the 3D render.

mdiproduction has just opened a blog.

Don't hesitate to go on their site for more informations.

TOY STORY 3: the trailer !!!

2009-10-12T20:34:00.002+02:00

After UP, Simon Christen is now working on the highly anticipated TOY STORY 3 !!!

The trailer has just come on the Web in HD !!!

ELEFANT STUDIOS: The polar bear

2009-10-08T11:31:00.001+02:00

Elefant Studios shows to us his new Greenpace's ad.
It's impressive, in full 3D and almost with a strong message !!

Here are some screenshots:

You can see the ad, here.

VERSO: the trailer !!!

2009-10-05T18:31:00.003+02:00

The trailer for the new movie directed by Xavier Ruiz, VERSO, with Carlos Léal, Laurent Lucas and Stress is available ici.

The visual effects were done by Demain La Lune and are of different kind:

- the main and end titles
- font effects
- adding weapon visor
- adding blur and reflects
- subliminal shots
- restorations
- adding some car lights on police car (for wide shots)

Here a some trailer screenshots:

The release dates are November 19th 2009 for the swiss german and February 2nd 2010 for the french part.

Freelance Wanted in October !!!

2009-09-22T10:43:00.002+02:00

Here's a job offer from Kompost

////
We love good concepts, because they work without a because.

About Kompost:

Kompost is based out of new york and switzerland, working closely with talented artists from around the globe. Together we strive to set new standards in the fields of art and design.

Currently we are looking for a freelance After Effects and C4D or Maya motion designer with strong design skills.

DATE: around the 10th of October until approx. 22nd of October

Must be proficient in:
AfterEffects
Cinema 4D or Maya
Photoshop/Illustrator

Experience: 2-5 years

Work will be done in-house in our St. Moritz Office, Travel, Meals and Accommodation will be provided. Your Day rate will be separately discussed.

If interested, please email a PDF resume and a link to your reel or website to work@kompostnyc.com

Please put "Motion Graphics/Designer" in the subject line.

Thank you very much and best regards.
////

FABRICE VIENNE from Fribourg to Montreal

2009-09-19T22:59:00.002+02:00

Here's the presentation of Fabrice Vienne, who choosed to leave Switzerland (and Fribourg) to go to one of the best postproduction places: Montreal !! After a full year of intensive studies at NAD Centre (National Center of Animation and Design), Fabrice is hired by Buzz Image in 2006.

He start as modeler and then work on spiders sequences as animator on THE COVENANT directed by Renny Harlin. He work as animator / generalist on THE FLOOD.

In 2008, Buzz separated from his film division (now know as Oblique). Fabrice choose to work for the commercial division and work on a big full CG project, BOLO LA PELLICULA, for a market store company in Mexico. On this project, he did the layouts and help for the rigging, animation, texturing and modeling. Since then, he is generalist in a team of 12 artists.

Below, they are some BOLO screenshots and behind the scenes pictures (Fabrice is on the last two).

He is working on the next episode of BOLO.

The making-of for this episode is available here.

Go see the Fabrice Vienne's website for more informations about his work.

TRANSFORMERS 2: exclusive interview of Jean-Denis Haas

2009-09-13T17:25:00.003+02:00

Here is a brand new exclusive interview for TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN which complete the other one did by Natasha Devaud by giving an eye on the animation and CG aspects of the show

Jean-Denis Haas work since 5 years at ILM, his resume contains big shows like STAR WARS: EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST, TRANFORMERS or STAR TREK.
As you have seen it in a past news, Jean-Denis is working on the next movie of James Cameron, AVATAR !!!

He gives us a some of his times to talk about his work on the show

Hello Jean-Denis, can you tell us what was your position on the show ??

 I was one of the lead animators on the show. 

In what consist your job ??

 Transformers 2 was my first show as a lead, so my job requirements changed a bit. Usually you are assigned shots and you animate the characters within that shot according to the direction of the client. As a lead animator I was overseeing certain sequences and made sure that the animators working on shots within those sequences had all the information and help they needed. 

On which scenes have you worked ?? 

Most of my work was focused on the underwater sequence where I helped with previz and animation of shots. I also animate a few shots with Ravage, Optimus Prime & Megatron in the forrest fight, Jetfire, etc. 

How is the preparation for a typical shot ?? 

You check in with a lead or supervisor who will give you the specific direction for your shot. That way you know what's going on and what the action or acting beats are for your character(s). Then you start planning out your shot by either acting it out, shooting video reference or using other tools. Whatever helps you out to get a good idea of what you want to do. Once you're clear about that, you start blocking out the shot.

 For the animation, have you used iMocap or keyframe animation ??

 I have used both. Some actions can't be mocapped (or would be very difficult and time consuming to do so) and you end up doing it by hand, others will benefit from motion capture takes because you get a lot of subtleties in your animation, which help it make the movement more real.

 What was the references for the animation ?? 

Animators would either act out their scenes or we would study footage found online or through other media. The footage used ranged from fighting bits to acting moments.

 Is Michael Bay very specific what he want with the animation or he let the animation supervisor doing that ?
I would say both. He is really good about collaborating with the artists. So either you would get very specific notes from him or he would ask us to come up with something interesting that fits the tone and style of the movie. He has a very good eye for cool shots so either way his comments are very helpful.

 What was the most difficult characters to animate ??

 That all depends on the definition of difficult. A character can be difficult to animate because of its size, the way it's constructed or any other physical feature, and how it fits and relates with the environment and/or live action plate. Some characters also had more complex acting moments like Jetfire or Optimus Prime. So I would say all the characters might have difficult aspects to them from time to time.

 Have you encounter any problems ??

 I haven't had any major problems, but that's because the tools and the production team here at ILM are really good at providing you with as many solutions as possible to any potential problems. You never end a day with a feeling of "I can't fix this problem." Obviously you will always encounter complications on a show, but those are usually technical in nature because we push ourselves to do better work than on previous shows.

 How many times did you have for this show ??

 I worked on Transformers 2 for a couple of months.

 What is your next projects ?? 

Currently I'm working on James Cameron's "Avatar".

Thanks a lot for your time !!

THE WOLFMAN: the trailer

2009-09-10T20:48:00.001+02:00

Following the interview of Pascal Chappuis last week, here is the trailer of THE WOLFMAN.

Pascal is sequence supervisor on this show which will be released in 2010.

The visual effects houses are Double Negative, MPC and of course Rhythm & Hues.

CARGO: the premiere

2009-09-09T14:07:00.004+02:00

Don't miss tonight, at 8pm, on STAR TV an exclusive documentary on CARGO directed by Ivan Engler !!!

You'll see interviews, film clips and behind the scenes footages !!!

The documentary should be available soon on the StarTV's website...

The movie will be released September 24th.

LAND OF THE LOST: interview of Pascal Chappuis

2009-09-02T23:04:00.002+02:00

Pascal Chappuis who is working at Rhythm & Hues give us an exclusive interview of his work on LAND OF THE LOST directed by Brad Silberling.
Before that he has worked on THE GOLDEN COMPASS and THE INCREDIBLE HULK.

I'm sorry the interview is in french only

Salut Pascal. Quel était ton poste sur LOTL ??
J'étais Sequence Supervisor. Ce qui veux dire que je suis en charge d'une dizaine de 'TD lighting' et d'une dizaine de 'TD Compositing' sur une séquence entière du film. En général de 100 a 120 shots.

Sur quelles séquences as-tu travaillé ??
J'ai hérité de la séquence dans le temple quand Marshall et son pote viennent secourir Holly suspendue dans une cage au-dessus d'un brasier. La séquence se termine avec Marshall se faisant avaler par le Dinosaure.

As-tu rencontré des difficultés ??
Ce show a été particulier par le nombre intensif de matte painting ou remplacement d'arrière-plan. Cela devient catastrophique à la vitesse à laquelle ils tournent ces films et le nombre de fois où il faut remplacer ce qu'il y a derrière les 'liannes' du décor ou de la fumée sur le set. Il faut donc créer ou étendre les arrières-plans en 2d pure ou en 3d projections, découper les zones où ils doivent se trouver et retrouver de la fumée proche de celle du jour du tournage à intégrer par dessus pour que tout fonctionne.
Ma séquence aura été intensive dans ce genre d'effets invisible a la fin.

Combien de personnes composait ton équipe ??
Mon équipe était en Inde cette fois. Je revenais d'une année passée avec notre équipe à Bombay. J'ai commencé ce show depuis là-bas et je l'ai fini depuis Los Angeles mais avec mes gars sur Bombay. Une ou deux personnes sur place à Los Angeles pour compléter l'équipe pour certaines urgences et tout roule.
Une expérience particulière que celle de 'diriger' une équipe à distance par vidéo conférence. Très enrichissant et certaine fois assez difficile.

Avez-vous eu un temps de postproduction confortable ou le délai était un peu court (ce qui tant à se généraliser malheureusement) ??
Très très court. Peut-être par notre faute, pour ne pas avoir réaliser l'ampleur du travail avec le nombre d'effets invisible qui venait se rajouter aux effets plus standard de bestioles 3D gesticulant dans tous les sens. Mais bien des rires au dérisoire de certaines scènes qu'on nous demandait de faire.

Il semble que le public n'ait pas adhéré néanmoins. Une bombe au box office américain malheureusement. Le film 'Hangover' l'aura tué. Certainement un mauvais marketing pour un film difficilement cernable. Les Studios n'ont pas touché le public cible avec leur campagne ou plutôt n'ont pas su pour quel public ce film se destinait. Un flop financier en a résulté. C'est les règles du jeu du cinema a Hollywood. Quasiment du Poker.

Quel est votre pipeline logiciel ??
Propriétaire en majeure partie avec un gros complément par Houdini.

Quel est ton prochain projet ??
Je suis sur 'The Wolf Man' avec Anthony Hopkins et Benecio Del Toro tout deux en loup-garous. Sortie prévue en Février 2010 aux US. Nous aidons simplement sur une centaine de shots. Le show est en grosse partie fait par des compagnies londoniennes.

Un énorme merci à toi pour ta disponibilité !

Neil Maccormack - An english in Geneva

2009-08-31T21:02:00.000+02:00

This time I'll present to you an american working as freelance in the visual effects in Switzerland, in Geneva to be precise.

His name is Neil Maccormack, gifted concept designer and 3D modeler. He's working with LightWave. We can see many of his works in the prestigious collection Exposé !!!

Here are some of his works:

Go see his studio's website, Bearfoot Films, for more pictures and informations.

AVATAR: A swiss on Pandora !!!

2009-08-23T16:08:00.001+02:00

The movie of the year, James Cameron's AVATAR, is at last visible with a teaser trailer and with a special screening of 15 minutes (Avatar Day). The images are really awesome !!!

Many VFX houses (Weta Digital, ILM and Framestore among others) are working on this show which will be released in mid-December.

A swiss, Jean-Denis Haas, is working as 3D animator at ILM on the show.
Before that he has worked on movies such as STAR WARS: EPISODE III, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST, TRANSFORMERS ou encore STAR TREK !!!

Here are some screenshots from the teaser (available on Apple):

More informations soon but before that don't miss the website of Jean-Denis Haas, HERE !!!

Extreme Tourbillon by Le Mob

2009-08-19T23:07:00.002+02:00

The motion design studio Le Mob purpose to us their brand new commercial Extreme Tourbillon for Nestlé !

Take a look here.

UP: exclusive interview of Simon Christen

2009-08-15T17:29:00.002+02:00

Here's an exclusive interview of Simon Christen who works at Pixar !!
He talks to us about how it come at Pixar and his work on UP.

Don't forget to see his great showreel (on the "animation" part) on his website.

Hi Simon, can you tell us how did you come at Pixar?
I was interested in CG from early on and started playing around with Photoshop and later 3D Studio Max while studying at the Gymnasium in Bern.
After countless hours in front of the computer and many personal CG projects, I decided I wanted to try and make it my career. Searching the internet I found a school in San Francisco, California - Academy of Art University - which seemed to be really promising. The school offered a 4 year BFA program and being with close proximity to Studios such as Pixar, PDI and ILM, I hoped there might be some good teachers teaching the classes.

So I moved to San Francisco and started Art school. After 2 years I got accepted into the advanced Animation classes, which at the time were taught by Pixar animators. I worked on numerous animation exercises and was able to put my first demo reel together. During a summer semester I was able to work as an intern at a small Computer Games company and get some industry animation experience.

After graduating I applied for the Pixar Animation Internship and was extremely fortunate to get accepted. It was an incredible learning experience and we worked again on different animation exercises ranging from Luxo interacting with a ball to dialogue tests. After 3 months the internship was coming to an end and all of us interns were of course hoping to get picked up. I was offered a Fix Animation position on "Ratatouille". A dream came true for me. For the next 10 months I was fixing shots for the movie and getting to see how a real production works. Unfortunately after "Ratatouille" was over they didn't have enough space to keep me on the team, so I sent my reel out and got picked up as an animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios where I got to work on "Bolt". It was again a great experience and interesting to see how another studio works. After "Bolt" was wrapping up I reapplied at Pixar and got hired back on, this time as full time animator on "UP".

What was your job position on Up?
I was an animator responsible for character animation.

On which sequences and characters have you worked on?
As an animator at Pixar you are responsible to animate an entire scene including every character within. Therefore you get to work on multiple characters which is challenging and interesting at the same time.
There were a bunch of smaller scenes throughout the movie but the two bigger chunks of shots were:
Where Carl is holding on to the hose hoping Russell, Kevin and Dug didn't die after the house fell off the dirigible. He rushes forward to the edge trying to take a peak, has a second of uncertainty before the trio swings happily forward and Russell shouting "That was cooooooool". Russell then starts to climb up the hose.
Another chunk of shots I worked on is towards the end where Alpha attacks Dug and eventually gets stuck in "the cone of shame".
At the very end of the show I was running out of work and I got to animate all the pages of the adventure book for the end credits. :-)

What was the most complicated character to animate?
In Up I would have to say Russell. I struggled a lot with the shot where Russell is climbing up on the hose. His arms are just too short to be able to reach far enough. It involved a lot of “cheating” to get it to read the way I wanted it.
Also Kevin was tricky.

Which software did you use?
At Pixar we animate in a program called Marionette which is proprietary software.
It works much the same like Maya, but has some cool additional features.

Have you encounters any difficulties?
Difficulties with the software or with animating? Either way, both offer plenty of opportunities to be challenged. The software is very sophisticated but you still run into hiccups from time to time. The good thing is that the software is constantly updated and bugs are taken care of very quickly.

Animation itself poses a lot of difficulties and for me it is a daily challenge to come up with interesting acting choices and turning my ideas into polished finished animation. Sometime it helps to step away from it for a little bit and then come back to it later and start fresh again.

What's your next project?
I just finished working on a teaser for the re-release of “Toy Story” and “Toy Story 2” in 3D.
Currently I am animating on Toy Story 3, which is scheduled for release in the US June 18th 2010

Thanks a lot for your time !!

CARGO, the trailer !!!

2009-08-12T20:24:00.002+02:00

At last, the trailer of CARGO is out !!!

And that's really really impressive !!! Great pictures and lot of VFX shots !!!

Here are some images:

The trailer is available on the website of the movie !!!

Please make some comments on the forum !!!

That's it !! The forum is open !!

2009-08-06T20:38:00.001+02:00

Hi everyone,

at last the Swiss Made VFX forum is just open !!

Come and join us here !!

CARGO, the movie posters

2009-08-02T15:48:00.003+02:00

Waiting the trailer of CARGO, here are the movie posters of the film:

And the release date: the 24th september 2009 !!!

SwissMadeVFX: the Twitter feed and more

2009-07-29T21:38:00.002+02:00

For all the Twitter addicts, click here to go the the SwissMadeVFX's feed !!!

On the right, you'll find the links to the SwissMadeVFX pages on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Come join us and participate to the discussions, meet the others members and also received directly the updates !!

TRANSFORMERS 2: interview of Natasha Devaud

2009-07-25T21:33:00.003+02:00

As for the first movie, ILM did the visual effects along with Digital Domain (the vfx house belong to Michael Bay). Asylum also did some VFX.

ILM did the most complicated and impressive sequences of the show like the opening sequence, the forest battle and of course the enormous final battle.
The VFX supervisor was Scott Farrar who supervise the first movie and also Minority Report, A.I. or Men in Black.

Natasha Devaud explain to us her work on TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN directed by Michael Bay.

Hello Natasha, can you tell us on which sequences you have worked on ??
Hello. I got on the show pretty late in the game and only spent a couple of months on it, so I did a few shots wherever necessary, but weren't attached to any particular sequence. I did some shots with Jetfire on the airplane field, some around the fight between Megatron and Fallen on top of the pyramid, and some with quite a few guys in the desert for Jetfire's death.

After Iron Man and Terminator Salvation, you works again on robots ??
Is that just coïncidence or it's because you like very much robots ??
It's certainly not because I'm a big fan of robots, although they can be quite fun to light. It seems to be the current fade, like we had the big ship series (Master and Commander, Poseidon, Pirates) or the fantasy series (Harry Potter's, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Spiderwick Chronicles).

What was the most complicated sequence to do ??
The biggest and most complicated sequences on the show were the formation of Devastator and destruction of the pyramid, and the forest fight sequences.

Have you utilized the lighting and render techniques developped for Terminator Salvation ??
Not quite. Both shows were running simultaneously for the most part and Terminator Salvation was the test show for the latest lighting technique. But Transformers 2 had it's own challenges and novelties.

Did you used Nuke on this show ??
Can't say.

How did you manage so many robots at the same time ?? The render times should have exploded !
The rendering times were indeed quite impressive. We try to minimize the rendering times by limiting the geometry to what's visible on screen or simplify some of the materials or geometry if the characters are far away. Most robots are rendered seperately as it's often not even possible to load several of them in one session.

Have you encounter any problems ??
The biggest challenge was the IMAX aspect of many of the shots. We had to determine what resolution we had to render at (it ended up being 4k), and how to handle the elements and comps during the production to suit the IMAX resolution, so the details would look just as sharp as on the rest of the shots.

How many times did you have to finish the effects ??
ILM's involvement on Transformers was 15 months, but the whole production lasted about 2 years.

How was it to work with Scott Farrar who has a long experience in the pre- digital era ??
Very good. I've worked with Scott on a few other shows, he has a very good eye and always has very pertinent comments. His extensive experience, digital and pre-digital, is very valuable.

Thanks a lot for your time !!

CARGO, the first VFX images !!!

2009-07-15T10:20:00.002+02:00

The opening of the new CARGO's website is the opportunity to see a lots of new images. Some of them shows VFX !!!

The result is really amazing and the set extension works is perfect !!!
It's a real pleasure to see that kind of images for a swiss movie !!!

The trailer will be available in the next few days.

Go see the new website, here.

Le Petit Dragon and Sapristi Studio shine at NIFFF

2009-07-12T12:07:00.002+02:00

Le Petit Dragon directed by Bruno Collet (co-produced by Vivement Lundi! and Nadasdy Film) was twice awared at the latest NIFFF edition. He recevied the H.R. Giger award Narcisse for the best swiss short and the Taurus Studio award.

This 8'30'' animated shortfilm which is a mix with a live actor, an animated puppet and visual effects (2D and 3D) needed 5 months of shooting and an HD postproduction between Sapristi Studio and 3xPlus studio (Paris).

Sapristi Studio did the main title and an T-Shirt animation (the 3D was done on Softimage XSI and the compositing with After Effects).

2012, massive VFX destruction

2009-06-28T16:42:00.000+02:00

Roland Emmerich purpose us with 2012, his new vision of the End of the World.
The trailer HD is here.

Be prepare to see the most impressive massive destruction scene on big screen !!!

A swiss is working on the VFX, it's Goran Pavles from Uncharted Territory.
He works on the scene where the road breaks up (Picture 2).

Here are some screenshots:

Sapristi Studio, compositing and animation from Lausanne

2009-06-21T14:33:00.001+02:00

Here are some images from recent projects of Sapristi Studio.
They are the second studio to be present for the conferences of IMAGING THE FUTURE at Neuchatel !

Don't miss them !!!

Elefant Studios, high range VFX

2009-06-17T14:42:00.002+02:00

Here is a quick presentation of Elefant Studios from Zurich.
That's one of the two swiss VFX studio to be present at IMAGING THE FUTURE in the beginning of July at Neuchâtel !

The studio is composed of less than 10 persons.
Their services are 3D, compositing including motion design but also print.

Here are some screenshots of their demoreel:
For more informations, go see their website !

And don't forget to come see them at IMAGING THE FUTURE !!!

IMAGING THE FUTURE 2009: the complete program is online !!!

2009-06-14T11:32:00.000+02:00

The complete program for the conferences of the IMAGING THE FUTURE 2009 is now online !!

The official website has just open.
You'll find all the needed informations and links.

Don't forget to book the July 1st and 2nd to come in Neuchatel !!

It's free !!

TERMINATOR SALVATION: interview of Raffael Dickreuter !!!

2009-06-10T17:22:00.001+02:00

Here is a brand new exclusive interview about Terminator Salvation !!
That's Raffael Dickreuter of Pixel Liberation Front who give me some of his time for my questions.

Hi Rafael, Can you tell us what was your position on this show ??
I worked as a previs animator in pre production at Warner Bros Studios as well as postvis animator during shooting and post production on the film.

Can you explain to us in what consist the pre-viz ??
Previs is a process where you visualize shots or entire sequences that are usually very difficult to film and figure out how much they will cost. you recreate film sets in a virtual environment and create shots using animation techniques that then are used by the film crews, the director and the studio to film them and make them work.

On which sequences have you worked ??
I worked on the long sequence that started with the harvester grabbing people out of the gas station, the mototerminator chase till all the way the plane and hunter killer fight in the air. as well as the sequence where John Connor shoots down a HunterKiller for the first time to test the signal that is supposed to kill the Terminators.

What softwares did you use ??
Pretty much the standard softwares that is used for previs which is Maya and After Effects.

Is the final result is true to your animations ??
Yes and no. As a previs animator you are involved very early in the project long before even actors are cast. the sequences that we as a team of Pixel Liberation Front worked on evolved over a period of several months to what happens now to be the end result in the film. Its a creative process where many ideas are being tried out. Overall the shots ended up being very close to the previs and postvis. To maybe understand how long a film takes to make, we basically worked on previs about a year and half before the movie has come out. As you can see it takes a very long time from first storyboards, to previs, filming, post production till it finally ends up on the screen.

How was the collaboration with the director McG ??
He is a very intense guy I can say that. but a lot of fun and very passionate. He definitely was a big Terminator fan and wanted to make sure that the movie turned out great. I worked with him mostly on the lot of Warner Bros Studios, besides workign with Chris Batty, the previs supervisor, as well as Charlie Gibson, VFX Supervisor. In pre production we worked a lot with Director of Photography Shane Hurlbut who is a lot of fun, great guy. In the postvis phase we worked also with Conrad Buff, the film editor, who actually alreay edited Terminator 2 back in the day. We collaborated with him to make the Mototerminator sequence work.

What is your next project ??
I am not sure yet. Next up is a vacation going to good old Switzerland.

Thanks a lot for your time.

Pictures source: Kulturplatz documentary

Documentary about Raffael Dickreuter online !!!

2009-06-07T14:20:00.002+02:00

If you've missed the documentary last wednesday night on SF (Kulturplatz) for his work on TERMINATOR SALVATION, dont' worry Raffael purpose it online on his website.

It's in swiss german. But the pictures speak for themsleves.
It's the occasion to see many work in progress pictures !!

Don't miss this really interesting doc (almost 7 min) !!!

TERMINATOR SALVATION: interview of Natasha Devaud !!!

2009-06-04T22:20:00.004+02:00

This new Terminator movie has a huge level of effects, 1300 shots !! ILM did almost 400 of them among the most complex.
The others shots are divided between Asylum (face remplacement), Rising Sun Pictures (submarine sequences and some Hunter Killer explosions).
Imaginary Forces did the titles design and the terminator's POV. Matte World Digital was in charge for the matte-paintings. Kerner Optical (who was before the ILM model shop) and New Deal Studios did the models.
The pre-viz was done by two studios, Proof and Pixel Liberation Front.
The special effects makeups were done by Legacy Effects (that was Stan Winston Studio but renamed that way for a tribute to the master).

The visual effects supervisor for the movie was Charles Gibson (Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy) and for ILM it was Ben Snow who is very familiar with CG robots. He supervised IRON MAN and he's now supervising IRON MAN 2 !!

Natasha Devaud, senior TD, answer some of my questions about his work on the movie:

Hi Natasha. Can you tell us on which sequences you have worked ??
I worked on the sequences with the hydrobots (these snake-like robots underwater) and inside the factory. I also did the look developpment of the hydrobots and several digital doubles from live actors.

In what consist your job ??
As a TD (technical director), I gather the work of the layout people, the animator and creature dev people (sim of cables, skin, ...), and add all the textures and lighting to the characters, which I then render to hand out to the compositor.

The work of the TD is bit like the center point of a shot, with most of my time being spent creating realistic lighting to make the CG effects blend seamlessly into the background.

After TRANSFORMERS and IRON MAN, ILM is the reference for CG robots. What was the challenge this time ??
One of the big challenge was the CG Arnold. Very tricky. And also the nature of some of the shots where the lighting on the background plate would be different at every frame. Given the metallic and reflective nature of the robots, these constant changes had to be applied on them as well.

To which step did you use the puppets of Legacy Effects ??
We used them as references to develop the textures, materials and look in general, and the way they react to the light.

For the animation of the robots, have you used IMocap (motion capture device developped by ILM on Pirates of the Caribbean 2) ??
No, it's all hand animated.

The render of the robots are impressive. How did you get this result ??
We used a new technic of lighting, image-based.

Did you have encounter some problems ??
Arnold was quite difficult, and as mentionned earlier, the fact that the environment was constantly changing on some of the sequences.
On the animation side, the biggest challenge was to make these robots look as realistic as possible in their movements while giving them a sense of heavyness due to their size. Some of the interractions between the cg effects and the live-action background was also quite challenging. Think about shots where we had to add heavy damage to real structures.

What was the most complicated sequence to achieve ??
Probably Arnold. But pretty much every shot has its challenge.

How was the collaboration with Charles Gibson and McG ??
I didn't interract directly with them, but I think, it went very well. The crew on the ILM side was excellent, led by Ben Snow who's a great visual effect supervisor.

What's your next project ??
Can't say yet as I'm not sure myself. I just finished Transformers 2 and will take a few weeks off.

Thanks a lot for your time and help. Congratulations for your great work !

An another interview about this movie will be soon online !!
Raffael Dickreuter of Pixel Liberation Front give me some of his time for my questions !!

Raffael Dickreuter: TV documentary on Terminator Salvation

2009-06-01T14:07:00.003+02:00

Raffael Dickreuter of Pixel Liberation Front was interviewed by the swiss german television for his work on TERMINATOR SALVATION. The documentary will be broadcast the 3rd June at 22h50.

Here the presentation of the show:

The animator of TERMINATOR SALVATION, Raffael Dickreuter create actions sequences for Hollywood blockbusters. These amazing battle sequences between human and machines have the mark ot he swiss.
With the pre-viz, the directors can planify the actions sequences and can save production cost.

Don't miss it !

Go see the Raffael's website for more informations.

IMAGING THE FUTURE 2009: the vfx guests !!!

2009-05-29T15:46:00.002+02:00

Here are the first informations about the 4th edition of IMAGING THE FUTURE (1st and 2nd July 2009) beside the NIFFF.

As previous editions, the conferences will talk about videogames, virtual reality and visual effects. There will be many and quality guests.

Following, you'll find a introduction about the VFX's guests:

For Switzerland, there will be Marco Fischer and Dany Bittel of Elefant Studios and Jean Depierraz of Sapristi Studio. Each studio coming from on different side of the country.

On the international part, we have the pleasure to have two great visual effects supervisors with Rodolphe Chabrier (Dobermann, Blueberry, 99 fr) of Mac Guff Ligne and Hugues Namur (Le Boulet, Ne te retourne pas) of Mikros Image !

And for the matte-paintings, it's a true master that will be present: Jean-Marie Vivès (City of lost childrens, Alien Resurrection, Blueberry) !! He will be accompanied by a young gifted matte-painter Justine Gasquet (Lord of war, Babylon AD, Speed Racer).

The full list of guest and the programm will be available soon.

Please book already the dates for the conferences !

I recall that it takes place at Neuchâtel (Switzerland) and it completly free !!

Some french movies...

2009-05-22T16:09:00.002+02:00

Let's continue with the trailers on which I've worked this time.
It's UN PROPHETE directed by Jacques Audiard and OCEANS directed by Jacques Perrin.

The first on was done at MacGuff and the second at Def2Shoot(others VFX were made at Buf and Mikros).
This movie was the occasion for me to learn Eyeon Fusion.

More informations about those movies once they are released.

LAND OF THE LOST: new trailer

2009-05-17T17:20:00.001+02:00

Another trailer's news, this time it's for LAND OF THE LOST.

We can see new VFX shots from Pascal Chappuis, sequence supervisor, and his team at Rhythm & Hues.

Here are some screenshots:

TERMINATOR SALVATION: plenty of new VFX shots !!!

2009-05-11T21:40:00.001+02:00

Warner just put online a new trailer of TERMINATOR SALVATION ! It's a 4 minutes clip with a lots of new VFX shots !!!

Two swiss artists have worked on the show, Natacha Devaud, senior technical director, at ILM and Rafael Dickreuter, previz animator, at Pixel Liberation Front.

Here are some screenshots:

It's impressive, that will be hard to wait for the release !

X-MEN ORIGINS WOLVERINE and HatchFX's mattes

2009-05-07T20:32:00.003+02:00

Here's a small interview of Deak Ferrand which present to us his work on WOLVERINE and in exclusivity some behind the scenes pictures (sorry, it's in french).

Bonjour Deak, peux-tu nous dire combien de mattes-paintings as-tu fais sur ce film et sur quelles séquences ??

Un grand "crane down" sur une ville de favelas qui est utilisé a plusieurs reprises dans la séquence en partie.
Un plan où Wolverine est en route vers Las Vegas (très drôle, le Studio voulait que l'audience comprenne qu'il allait vers LV donc fallait mettre le panneau qui se trouve en ville en dehors de la ville! Beaucoup de gens reconnaisent le signe illumine est rigolent bien!).
Quelques autres sans beaucoup d'intérêts.
Nous avons été appelés après des reshoots à Vancouver fin Janvier pour une livraison début Mars.

- Quels logiciels utilises-tu ??

Nous avons utilisés Photoshop, Softimage XSI et After Effects.

- Est-ce que tu prend en charge un plan dans sa totalité ou tu fais juste le matte-painting ??

Absolument le plus souvent possible..... du concept, au shot final!
C'est ça qui rend le travail plus intéressant!

- Un grand merci pour ton temps ;)

Merci Vincent! A très bientôt!

For more informations, go see their website.

Thanks to Deak and Cheryl for the pictures.

Mark Hermitte's demoreel

2009-05-02T17:16:00.001+02:00

Following the interview of Mark Hermitte, here's his demoreel.

You can download it here (35Mb).

For more informations, go see his website.

CARGO: some behind the scenes pictures

2009-04-22T15:36:00.001+02:00

Here are some new behind the scenes pictures of CARGO, the biggest VFX swiss film since very long time.

Please notice the huge size of the sets.

The film is directed by Ivan Engler and Ralph Etter.

The pictures have been taken by Timon Schaeppi.

The CARGO's website is here.

Mark Hermitte's interview

2009-04-18T17:05:00.001+02:00

Mark Hermitte is a SFX makeup artist and also VFX artist.
Here's a long and interesting interview of him.

I'm sorry, the interview is in french, I don't have the abilities to translate correctly it in english!
I'll do it once I've found a translator.

Thanks for your comprehension.

Voici une longue et passionnante interview de Mark Hermitte, maquilleur et artiste VFX, basé à Genève avec sa société, DigitArt.

- Bonjour Mark, peux-tu te présenter en quelques mots ??
En quelques mots... Marc Hermitte. Né à Genéve en 1964. Maturité en langue, Art déco...

J'aime beaucoup trop de choses alors je me disperse souvent. Je n'ai pas touché un ordinateur avant 1998, l'année de mon départ au Canada. Avant ça peinture, dessin, sculpture et moulage. La conjugaison de ces bases artistiques m'a emmené vers les maquillage d'effets spéciaux après que j'ai vu "Alien" de Ridely Scott. J'ai finalement décidé d'investir un peu d'argent pour suivre le cours de Dick Smith. Ce type est une légende, il a mis le pied à l'étrier à Rick Backer et a inspiré 2 ou 3 générations de maquilleur. Dick Smith c'est les prothèses en latex mousse multipièces (une première à l'époque!) de Dustin Hoffman dans "Little Big Man".

Imaginez ma tête quand il m'a appellé à Genève pour vérifier quelques renseignements à propos du cours!!!

- J'ai vu que tu as travaillé à Vancouver, pour quelles boîtes et quels films ??
Je suis parti au Canada , à Vancouver, pour ouvrir une boîte de maquillages d'effets spéciaux avec un copain qui travaillait à l'époque pour Toby Lindala (X-Files, Millenium, etc.)
Notre compagnie s'appellait SFX studios... L'image de synthèse avait commencé à m'intéressé à cette époque mais on avait pas mal de boulot pour démarrer notre affaire et je pratiquais assez sporadiquement.

Nos principaux clients: "The outer limits" (Au delà du réel), "Freedom", "Immortal", "Smallville", "First wave", "Scary movie 1" "Valentine" avec Denise Richards, "So weird" (Walt Disney), "Cold Squad" etc. Beaucoup de feuilltons TV américains sont tournés à Vancouver, la main d'oeuvre y est meilleur marché, les décors variés et la ville ressemble à n'importe quelle ville américaine.

Je travaillais surtout au labo , sculpture des prothèses, peinture, designs. Un film c'est souvent 6 mois à un an de préparation mais les séries Télé, c'est l'enfer. 15 jours par épisode , 2 épisodes se chevauchant en permanence.

J'aime beaucoup l'urgence de départ, à savoir: -lire le script, découper les effets et trouver quelque chose de neuf à chaque fois,réaliser tous les production designs en un après-midi, passer quelques fois la soirée à préparer des tests pour convaincre le producteur le lendemain que notre effet va fonctionner. Ce que j'aime moins c'est le stress de fin de parcours quand tout doit être sur le plateau le matin à 7 heures et que vous vous demandez comment un tel miracle va pouvoir se produire. On a passé jusqu'à 55 heures sans dormir! C'est vraiment fréquent dans ce milieu!

- Quels sont tes logiciels de prédilection ??
Un jour mon attraction pour la 3D a pris plus d'importance. J'avais essayé 3Dmax mais pour moi qui venait d'un monde plus artistique que technique ça a été très décourageant. Je ne comprenais pas grand chose, tout me semblait contre productif, compliqué. et puis j'ai découvert Lightwave... Quel plaisir de modéliser en Sub-D!!! Des outils intuitifs, on pousse, on tire, on extrude sans avoir à taper une seule donnée numérique, pas d'axe à définir!!! De la pâte à modeler!!! Et le moteur de rendu, à l'époque sûrement un des meilleurs!

Encore aujourd'hui je partage ma modélisation entre Lightwave et Modo. Pour l'animation je travaille quelque fois avec project messiah, j'ai utilisé Motion builder, 3Dmax , Maya et XSI chez certains clients. Xsi est un excellent soft et je pense l'utiliser davantage dans l'avenir..

En ce qui concerne le compositing, j'utilise souvent After FX et Digital Fusion. Je perds quelquefois du temps quand je travail car j'aime bien expérimenter, essayer de nouvelles manières, de nouveaux softs au lieu d'appliquer les formules qui marchent. Ce n'est pas toujours à mon avantage!!!

- Quels sont tes projets ??
Depuis mon retour du Canada je travaille sur des productions indépendantes comme "La peau de l'ours" de Gilles Daubeuf, des projets de long et moyens métrages avec mon compère Mauro Losa et pour vivre je réalise des images d'architecture et de visualisation scientifique et médicales. Je produis de plus en plus d'illustrations. Je peux avoir l'attitude de "l'artiste" qui peint ce qui lui passe par la tête sans chercher forcément à plaire à un client.

J'aime exprimer mes opinions sans qu'un commanditaire vienne me censurer ou tout changer. Je travaille aussi sur des projets de mini formats d'animation et de courts-métrages.
Et j'essaye d'être le plus présent possible pour mon bébé qui est de très loin ce que mon atelier a produit de mieux.

- Un grand merci pour cette interview et pour ton temps.
Merci et à bientôt!

Here are some Mark's drawings:

For more informations, go see his website.

CHROME Imaging, color grading made in Swiss

2009-04-12T17:10:00.002+02:00

Here's a more technical news with the presentation of Matrix's system color grading from CHROME Imaging based in Geneva..

Founded by Dan Tatut, the company purpose a full image control system from capture to restoration and of course color grading for film and HD.

One of the many CHROME's customers is the postproduction studio Freestudios. Logical because Boris Rabusseau, colorist and VFX supervisor of the studio, helps to the developpment of the Matrix system.

Here are some software's screenshots:

For more informations, go on the official website.

The Heritchers, the new challenge for the swiss animation

2009-04-08T21:21:00.001+02:00

Moka Studio is working on an exciting project, the first animated TV show using the Motion Capture system !

It's called The Heritchers and will tell us the adventures of a unusual family in Valais.

For the techincal part, maya will be used for 3D animation and AfterEffects for the compositing. The project is supervised by Nicolas Elsig at Moka Studio.

The production is looking for financial help.

A pilot episode will be available soon on the offical website of the show.

Go take a look to discover more about the Heritchers.

HatchFX on Red Cliff

2009-04-05T20:46:00.001+02:00

The release of John Woo's Red Cliff some days ago is the good opportunity to see the matte-paintings from Deak Ferrand's HatchFX studio.

IMAGING THE FUTURE 2009

2009-04-02T23:17:00.002+02:00

The sun and the heat are back and so the festivals period too.

It's a great pleasure to announce to you that I give my help to the new edition of Imaging the Future at the NIFFF 2009.

As each year, the symposium will be rich of meeting and guest.

I'll give your more infos as soon as possible !

OneStep MDA presentation

2009-03-29T18:07:00.002+02:00

Here's a presentation multimedia studio's One Step MDA based at Neuchatel. It was founded by Daniel Potuznik in 2006.

The range of the studio's services is very large. It includes website creation, learnings and of course 3D animation. The studio use Lightwave 3D and After Effects for the compositing.

OneStep MDA just finished a Breitling's movie (Historique 2009). That will be soon on the studio's website.

Some new things at Moka Studio

2009-03-22T21:01:00.000+01:00

Moka Studio put a new version of his website and a demoreel.

Here some screenshots:

For more infos, click here.

Mikros Image is hiring !!!

2009-03-19T19:12:00.001+01:00

Mikros Image is looking for senior NUKE artist available as soon as possible for the compositing on feature film.

If you are interested, please contact Emilie Fraboul.

CARGO: coverage about the visual effects

2009-03-17T20:27:00.004+01:00

The swiss TV show StarTV just made a coverage about the visual effects of Ivan Engler's feature film CARGO. I recall that's the first science fiction movie in Switzerland!

It's in swiss german but the pictures speaks for themselves:

Raffael Dickreuter, 3D artist and teacher

2009-03-11T21:40:00.002+01:00

Here's the presentation of Raffael Dickreuter, 3D animator (among others skills because he's also Massive artist, Motion Capture TD, ...) and founder of XSI Base.com, the world's largest Softimage community.

He founded XSI Base.com in 2002 and after his studies at University of the Arts in Zurich, Raffael join the team of Pixel Liberation Front (company specialized in previz) at Venice, California, in 2006. There he works on many blockbusters like SUPERMAN RETURNS, THE INCREDIBLE HULK and IRON MAN. But he also work on video games for EA and commercials for Pepsi or KIA.

Now, he's working on McG's TERMINATOR SALVATION.

Below you'll find some work examples of Raffael and Pixel Liberation Front:

Beside all that, he teach character animation and XSI instructor at SAE Institute at Zurich in 2005-2006 and now at the Univsersity of Southern California (USC).

Go see his website for more infos.

Presentation of Sapristi Studio

2009-03-09T15:27:00.003+01:00

Sapristi Studio is based in my native town, Lausanne and his young creative team is headed by Jean Depierraz.

Here's a small presentation of the studio:
Sapristi is a creative studio specialized in the production of high-quality visual products for the sectors of advertising, television, cinema and special events – among others.

A pioneer in its domain in the French-speaking Swiss territory, Sapristi Studio was founded in 1997 to meet the new demand for innovative digital and 3-D animations. The Sapristi team is composed of highly specialized creators of digital effects and designers – as well as producers/directors: in short, all the know-how necessary for the design and production of your projects

Go check their website to see more of their projects and the demoreel.

Deak Ferrand, a universes creator

2009-03-09T15:22:00.002+01:00

Deak Ferrand is a swiss artist of Geneva. He's a well known matte-painter for more than 10 years. He founded his own studio Hatch FX. Recently he finished concept design and matte painting work on HELLBOY 2.

Some works examples of Deak below:

Here's a brief presentation (source: Utopiales) :

Born in Geneva, he first studied classical painting and sculpting, then worked as designer for a few years. Eventually he moved to Canada, attending courses at Montréal's NAD Centre (National Centre for Animation and Design), and was appointed animation projects and digital sets manager on the production of films and TV advertisements for the Image Buzz Group. In 1995, Deak was summoned to Los Angeles to work in the new offices of Buzz, soon renamed RIOT, which he left in 2001 to create HATCH, his own visual effects company.

You can find the whole presentation here.

Don't hesitate to go on HatchFX's website to see many demoreel with before/after.

Pascal Chappuis, a swiss between India and USA

2009-03-09T14:28:00.003+01:00

Pascal is part of those swiss artists with really impressive CV. From 10 years now, he's working at Rhythm&Hues. In 2007, he become sequence supervisor and work on THE GOLDEN COMPASS (Academy Award for Best visusal effects in 2007) and THE INCREDIBLE HULK. He also worked at the India divison of Rhythm & Hues.

Since the beginning of this year, he's back in Los Angeles and works on LAND OF THE LOST.

You can find a bigger presentation of Pascal here (in french).

Full moon on Geneva

2009-03-09T14:07:00.002+01:00

Here's the presentation of a vfx house based at Geneva, DEMAIN LA LUNE, that I know from a while. I work with them on the Victor Jaquier's shortfilm, CRONOS & RHEA.

On this shortfilm, they did all the 3D animation, the compositing of the house model (created by Cédric Charrey of LeStudioDigital) and the external matte-paintings. Below, the house composited. You can see the shortfilm on the Victor Jaquier's website.

DEMAIN LA LUNE is composed by David Hodgetts, Julien Andrey et Boris Rabusseau (who then join Freestudios). Since a year, Frédéric Naville has join the team.
The studio works on many different projects from features film like Xavier Ruiz's NEUTRE to shortfilms and commercials.

DEMAIN LA LUNE recently finished the shortfilm DANS LA PEAU of Zoltan Horvath. They have a long collaboration with this director. They worked on the most of his shortfilms. Below, you'll find the DANS LA PEAU's trailer. On this shortfilm, the artists have created beautiful tatoo animations.

Natasha Devaud, a swiss woman at Lucas

2009-03-09T14:02:00.001+01:00

Since more than 12 years, Natasha, from Vevey, align the big blockbusters at ILM as technical director. His CV is impressive with movies like IRON MAN and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST.

Cliquez here to see a more complete presentation (in french)

(source: La Gruyère).

Olivier Amrein, the numeric globetrotter

2009-03-09T13:59:00.002+01:00

Olivier Amrein is a digital artist from Lausanne multi-task working both in 2D and 3D. He's also a globetrotter and did some digital works in China. Now he's working for RGB Prod at Aubonne.

To know more, go on his website.

Emmanuelle Walker, a womand touch in the swiss animation world

2009-03-08T18:52:00.003+01:00

With Natasha Devaud, here's Emmanuelle Walker, prove us that there are also women in this work.
Don't miss AFTER THE RAIN, it's a great shortfilm, lots of magic !

Born in 1983 in Switzerland, Emmanuelle Walker moves to Montréal, Canada when she was 11 years old. She learn traditionnal animation at Cegep of Old Montréal. There she directs his first shortfilm, RIEN NE SERT DE COURIR QUAND UN PINGOUIN PART A POINT.

Then she works in the Montreal's animation world as concept designer, animator on many productions like TV shows, music videos, animated documentaries, shortfilms, ... During this time, she also direct his second shortfilm, A COZ for a environemental movie contest, she wons the best movie animation's prize.

She cross the ocean and enter at the Gobelins, at Paris, directly in the last year of formation where she learns 3D. She co-direct AFTER THE RAIN with 4 others students. She's now working in the animation world again but in Paris.

Go see her website and her demoreel.

TERMINATOR SALVATION, brand new trailer !!!

2009-03-04T19:03:00.002+01:00

Waner Bros just release the new trailer of TERMINATOR SALVATION with a lot more new visual effects shots.

I recall that ILM is doing the major part of the VFX and Natasha Devaud works on the project as technical director.

Below are some trailer's screenshots:

The trailer is available here.

Vincent Frei, demoreel Features films 2008

2009-03-04T18:52:00.001+01:00

All the features films on which I've worked are on theaters, so I can show you my new demoreel.

All the projects were made at Duboi with their in-house compositing software, Dutruc.

You can see it on my website.

Presentation of Simon Eltz

2009-03-01T17:56:00.005+01:00

After finishing his animation degree at HGKL in 2005, Simon Eltz is hired by Swamp studio at Luzern. There he works on many shortfilms.

Then comes the great step, he moved to Paris and will worked on the animation film LUCKY LUKE - TOUS A L'OUEST for Xilam Films.
Back in Switzerland, Simon works on shortfilms and music videos. Beside that, he directs many shortfilms.

Since many months, Simon returns to Paris and works on the animation film LE CHAT DU RABBIN directed by Joan Sfar. On this movie, he tried the 2D computer animation instead of classic animation.

Go on his website to see many drawing and demoreels.

Bastien Grivet, young talented matte painter !

2009-03-01T16:32:00.004+01:00

After some confirmed artists presentations, here's the presentation of a young but very talented artist, Bastien Grivet. He has many others skills but I will focus on the matte painting part.

Born in 1989, Bastien discovers drawing with his father. In 2004, he enter the "Ecole des Arts Décoratifs de Genève" for a multimedia conceptor's formation..

In 2006, he win the 3rd price of the luxury watches Girard Perregaux's animation contest and the Geneva Mapping Festival's 1st price in the domain of Vjing.

His interest for the matte paintings appears when he visit an Christian Lorenz Scheurer's exihibition at Yverdon in 2007.

Last year, he worked for the game company UbiSoft. Then Bastien just join the team of DontNod Entertainment as concept artist.

Don't miss the Quicktime's breakdown of the matte painting above.

Click ici to see his others great works.

Le Mob, animation studio from Zurich

2009-03-01T16:15:00.004+01:00

Based in Zurich, the animation studio Le Mob was founded by two acclaimed directors Bart Wasem and Neil Stubbins.

On the list of their projects, we found many animations works form ARTE, MTV, Red Bull or SF (Schweizer Fernsehen).

Click here to see more of their projects.

To this duo, we have to add for the compositing part, Matthias Zurbriggen from Valais.

Here are some screenshots from their brand new demoreel:

Go on Le Mob's website for more.

MAX GABL from Basel to Los Angeles

2009-02-28T22:11:00.003+01:00

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.

Job - Online Video

2009-02-22T19:39:00.002+01:00

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

2009-02-22T19:34:00.002+01:00

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.

KOMPOST from Swiss Alps to the Big Apple

2009-02-18T00:15:00.002+01:00

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.

SwissMadeVFX in the press, second part !!

2009-02-15T20:02:00.001+01:00

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

2009-02-15T19:39:00.003+01:00

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.

SwissMadeVFX in the press !!

2009-02-12T14:25:00.003+01:00

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

Happy reading

LAND of the Lost: Superbowl teaser

2009-02-11T16:57:00.003+01:00

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

2009-02-11T16:47:00.003+01:00

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

2009-02-11T15:57:00.000+01:00

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

2009-02-11T15:51:00.000+01:00

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.