Goodies

Wow. It's been more than a week since I've last posted! Things have been going crazy since then, lots of 911 work, and the beginning of vacation! We've actually finally delivered Pirates (at least from our facility), and they're currently adding sound and prepping the film for final delivery to all the theatres for the world wide release.

Last weekend was a busy one, and it was the only time during the show where I worked 18 hours in a day (the day of delivery!), as well as 10 or 12 straight days in a row. I try not to do these, and like to space out my time evenly. It's much easier to do 12 hour days for six days, than 10 hour days for seven. You need at least a day of downtime to recuperate and do something that's not related to visual effects! On Tuesday of last week, our supervisor took the final few artists left on the show until the bitter end, out for lunch. We had a blast, recounting the trials and tribulations of working on one of this summers biggest blockbusters. I don't know the exact vfx shot count that we finished, but there were two vfx supervisors, two comp supervisors, and five comp leads, for probably over 300+ shots.

Also on Tuesday I had to make the difficult decision of either accepting, or not, a comp position at Rhythm & Hues for the upcoming film The Golden Compass. It was difficult since on the same day, Digital Domain offered to make me a staff, permanent, position, with possible lead on their next show. It was an extremely difficult choice, but I'm staying at DD for the long term. The biggest advantage is Nuke (and of course, all the supplementary benefits which come in a staff position). I keep on harking the beauty that is Nuke, and it has it's merits, and it's only going to get better. Now that I'm in a more permanent role at Digital Domain, it will be much easier to suggest additions and advancements to the software which will help out the compositing artist. Even though Foundry now owns Nuke, Digital Domain will still be a Nuke house for the immediate future. Going to D2software.com now redirects you to the Foundry.

On the VES Mentoring front, my time with my OTIS student is at an end. The great part is that she's learned a lot over the past three months. My minion has also been accepted into a compositing apprenticeship over at Rhythm & Hues as well! Congratulations! I'm sure you'll do great.

The month of May is going to be fairly uneventful, but I'll be updating many of the pages on this site. Keep visiting!