This course follows up on the Vue201 course, and offers intermediate and advanced Vue artists an opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the program and to acquire new practical techniques for production work. In the first half of the course we will concentrate on specific areas and tools in Vue, while the second half will essentially be a detailed work-through of a VFX shot involving Vue – from initial planning stages to final Nuke compositing. Throughout this course we will also get a chance to explore and use the great new features of Vue 9.

This course follows up on the Vue201 course, and offers intermediate and advanced Vue artists an opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the program and to acquire new practical techniques for production work. In the first half of the course we will concentrate on specific areas and tools in Vue, while the second half will essentially be a detailed work-through of a VFX shot involving Vue – from initial planning stages to final Nuke compositing. Throughout this course we will also get a chance to explore and use the great new features of Vue 9.

This course, taught by Matt Leonard, is going to be slightly different from our other Maya offerings because we’re going to be working alongside a new and very exciting project called ‘Moving Day’. This short film is being directed by award wining director Jason Wingrove. ‘Moving Day’ tells the story of a young girl and her fight against the fairies who inhabit the garden of her new home. Our short film is literally being produced throughout the term and we’ll have first hand experience of working in post during a live project.

In Intermediate Fume FX, we jump right in the deep end, initially introducing a lot of the core concepts behind Fume FX and how Congruent Solvers work - such as Fume FX, Phoenix, Maya Fluids etc. all work. These fundamental subjects are crucial to understanding fluids, as well as getting more hands on in learning the initial steps to how Fume FX works, as well as it’s interface and a lot of it’s powerful key features.

fxphd is subscription-based online training for postproduction, visual effects, and motion graphics

If you want a serious job in the post-production or gaming industries, in feature film or video – locally or overseas – or you want to produce your own work, the professors at fxphd will teach you the real world facts and techniques you need to know. Each course in fxphd is run by a practicing vfx or editing professional — what we call a Professor. Each has been hand picked for the expert knowledge in the field. The professors come from a background of working on a wide variety of projects.

Full Collection FXPHD tutorials for Cinema4d

The recent 11.5 release of Cinema4D included many improvements to the MoGraph module, bumping it up to version 2.0. This course with popular fxphd professor Tim Clapham focuses on many of the new features in the 11.5 software, which will be available to fxphd members on the VPN.

This term, to mark our 10th Background Fundamentals, we've got a blockbuster in store for fxphd members. Throughout the term, we'll look at what it means to be a Visual Effects Supervisor. What are the pressures, the roles and how do you manage a large Hollywood film?

Pixars RenderMan has been specifically engineered to meet the demanding challenges of rendering 3D animation and visual effects. This means RenderMan is fast, efficient, and able to handle an astonishing amount of geometric complexity along with offering cutting-edge effects. Critically, Pixars RenderMan has been developed to deliver outstanding imagery during the stresses of real-world productions. This means that in your own 3D work, you can trust that RenderMan is ready for the job ... with not only outstanding features, but the power to deliver.

The main focus of the course will be using Cinema4D to create motion graphics. Through all the classes, general workflow and project management will be discussed, including organising the object manager, use of layers, XRefs, and managing layouts. We will look at practical uses for many of the available modules, including MoGraph, Thinking Particles, Hair, Cloth and Sketch and Toon. This will also involve use of Xpresso, materials, some post effects and lighting and rendering techniques. Throughout the term we will work on both tips and techniques, as well as project based motion graphics classes. Specifically taking a concept and developing the project, outputting various render passes and compositing these in After Effects.

This course, taught by Matt Leonard, is going to be slightly different from our other Maya offerings because we’re going to be working alongside a new and very exciting project called ‘Moving Day’. This short film is being directed by award wining director Jason Wingrove. ‘Moving Day’ tells the story of a young girl and her fight against the fairies who inhabit the garden of her new home. Our short film is literally being produced throughout the term and we’ll have first hand experience of working in post during a live project.

“ Our first ever course in Mari is designed to get everybody up to speed with this new and excitingly powerful 3D painting package from The Foundry. Mari is a great leap forward in professional texture painting by being both users friendly and capable of dealing with a staggering large amount of resolution. Professor Gareth Jensen been working with Mari for the past few years as it was developed at Weta Digital and has continued to use it at Double Negative where he currently works. Jensen comes from a background of physical film effects including make-up/prosthetics and painting ranging from props through to miniatures. Mari allows him to take a similar approach to texturing a digital asset by automatically seaming multi-patch UV’s giving a much more complete hands-on feel, similar to that of painting a physical model. In this course we will be covering the basics to get you up and running, including a breakdown of the tools and palettes that you will find yourself most often using. We will be covering such great tools as paint through, heal/tow and the remarkable warping tools. We will going through the concept of Mari’s shaders and channels system as well as its comprehensive masking options. Over the course of the term we will be taking an asset from start to finish. f you work like Jensen you probably like using all the tools at your disposal so we will also show how Mari works easily with other packages. I will be going over basic process of working in conjunction with Nuke and also the wonderfully simple to use camera projection set up for all your Photoshop projections. In Jensen’s 10 years of experience within the film industry, he has had the opportunity to work for both physical effects as well as digital and even began his career as a creature actor for Lord of the Rings. Having previously studied make-up and prosthetics for film in New Zealand his role in the industry further progressed with the renowned Weta Workshop where he was involved in major productions such as King Kong, 30 Days of Night, District 9, Prince Caspian and more recently Avatar. Developing his skills amongst some of the best artists in the industry, Jensen has also trained as a creature and props painter and it was during the production of Avatar that he made the decision to expand his role into the digital world. Switching over to Weta Digital as a texture and look dev artist on Avatar, Jensen has been able to work with Mari during its development and has now used it for over 2 years and is continuing to use it within Double Negatives production pipeline. His background in physical effects has left him with a strong base understanding of how to paint realistic textures and being able to use Mari as his digital medium has made this transition a lot smoother. ”

Matt Leonard has been signed up again to lead a new Maya course... this one based upon popular requests from fxphd postgrads. Maya2008 will be provided for non-commercial use on the fxphd VPN, and with this comes the new mental ray 3.6 Core. It fits in brilliantly with the planned content this term.

Prodvinutye lessons kompuzingu oriented filmmaking. Considered eligible motion tracking, keying, matte painting, mixing 3D with live video and more. One of the most popular articles in recent months over at fxguide was our story about Gareth Edward's work on Atilla the Hun. Edwards was one of the first traditional film students to combine live-action drama with digital effects. After graduating, he went on to work at many of the UK's leading post-production facilities as a freelance visual effects artist. Eventually becoming frustrated with the "factory approach" to every project, he soon branched out on his own creating many high-end computer graphics for television clients including BBC and Discovery, all of which were completed entirely on own "from his bedroom". Some of his work went on to win various accolades, including a British Academy Award and Emmy nomination.

The term will continue with elements being animated in both 2D and 3D. The indent will progress as the 3D multipass renders are output and the composite is developed. Finally, 2D graphic elements will be added and animated in post and the grading completed ready for final rendering.

Professor: Daniel Smith
Taught by Daniel Smith, this intermediate level class builds upon the Nuk203 course and takes stereoscopic techniques to the next level. We will be looking at Nuke 6.2 and using its new tools like Point Cloud generator, Dope Sheet, and Modeler tools to enhance stereo production. We will address the significant changes that have happened to Ocula and delve deeper into the robust tool.