Meet the Studio: Blur Studio

[thesuit]

Wow!
Ok first and only question... please comment details on the mud effect during one of the final scenes of "In the rough"...

[sphere]

Hey,

- Any word on a future feature film project?
- What's the biggest lesson learnt from your time with Blur (one per artist)?

Thank guys! :D

[tki]

Great! great GREAT! Ok...

What is the Key things that People needed to have to work within the Blur Domain and whats the longest time it took to finish a project from start to finish and what was the major problems faced.

this question is to all...

Thanks Blur...

[Mysterious X]

first of all congratualtions for the wonderful job your doing and keep on trying and you'll nail the oscar soon :thumbsup:

my question is when will we be able to download the full version of Gopher Broke ?

[zman]

Cool, you guys are one of my favorite studios.
I know you use (or at least used to use) max. I'm just interested to know what you think of it comparing to other programs (I am talking mainly for pipeline comptability and stability in large projects). I also know you have an RnD team and i wonder what they think of max's source (comparing mainly to maya).
i am asking this mainly because alot of ppl i know from large studios keep on claimming that maya is way better for those things and i cant convince them to see the light :)

anyways, you guys rule :thumbsup:

[comic-craig]

What do you like for in aspiring talent- with regards to 3D artists? What is the kind of demo material that amazes you? What doesn't impress you?

[overcontrast]

This is great. Hello BLUR guys, first of all, u guys rock, i'm a big fan of urs. okay i have so many things to ask. heres some that i can remember

- I wanna know how you organize a team who will work on a short or game cinamatics. And how many people do u work with in projects like 'Gopher Broke' or 'In the Rough'?

- What are the softwares you use to do dinamics?

- Do you guys use a lot of GI? or what kind of lighting do u mostly prefer?

- What software do u use for rigging?... i dont think Max's built-in rigging/skinning system is not good enough for your kind of works. or do u use any inhouse sotwares for that?

- as many wants to know, what are your future plans? is there any ned masterpiece in making?

well thats about it... i'll be waitng for ur replies

[tevih]

This is exciting! http://cgtalk.com/images/smilies/thumbsup.gif Love you guys!

Gopher broke really blew me away with the stunning visuals and an excellent and entertaining performance all held together by a simple story line. It really shows that a simple story can be wildly fun if its done well. So, how do you decide which story to choose for your shorts? And how do you see the potential a simple idea can have?

[FUG1T1VE]

Hello folks at Blur.

Is it possible that we will be seeing a "trend" of other studios, setting up their pipelines to create their own shorts. Given that it took you guys 3-4 weeks to complete the Warhammer cinematics. Maybe not a trend, but given the success of your shorts it has certainly made some people go "hey, we can do it too".

If so, how would it affect the independant folks creating their own shorts.

Thats it for now.
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions.

[marciowski]

Hello,

I´d like to know how many animators you have there. Not all 3d people. Just the animators. And How many do you need to do a feature film?
By the way... When will you make a feature film?


kisses

[Voldron]

Where did you guys go to school or have you just learned alot by doing it? What do you use for compositing? Last question.........Have you used any other 3d packages besides 3DS Max?


Thanks in advance

[Infinity3d4life]

First off you guys are spectacular.

I would like to know if you could give some pointers for someone trying to start an animation studio of their own.. Maybe some of your experience, and things to look out for...

[geneticlone]

wow you guys are definatly the next pixar this stuff is so awsome and original i can't get enough great work and keep going. I am wondering if you guys are going to make a feature film and if you guys could give us any details. Anyway awsome and luck to all in the future.

By the way I always loved the wolfenstein cinematics they made the game what it is lol :D

[Ducimus]

Greetings, I have been a a great fan of all the work you guys/gals have produced over the years...

The visuals are stunning and the animation is top notch...

I am currently in Animation and are anxious to get out into the fray of things...

Hopefully my demo will make it to you...

I have just a few questions:

#1) Does Blur work only with 3dsmax, if so are there any plans on expanding to different software such as XSI?

#2) I am also a digital Grunge/Graphix/PhotoManipulation Artists, I have seen some bits about your 2D side, I am wondering what kind of opertunities lie with Blur in a 2D Advertisment feild?

Cheers

Jonathan Jacobs-Durocher

[Viper]

I'm gonna go with the flow and first congratulate you guys on every single project you've done so far. All the shorts, plus the game cinematics and so on are all really awsome. I'm definately a fan...if a feature film does ever come out, you have my ticket :D

As for questions, I think most of it has been covered, but I wanted to know, if having a college background is often necessary when hiring someone?

Also, do you guys look for specific skills too? For instance, if someone can't really texture well, but can do great modelling work, or lighting work, he might be considered?

Finally, does drawing godlike (IE: Feng Zhu) is a necessity to all positions? Or having basic notions, maybe enough to pass on an idea, is enough? Granted, the person meets other requirements...

I'm really just curious about your hiring guidelines. I'm thinking of getting in the industry, and wanted to have an idea on how a studio like yours goes with that stuff :) Thanks in advance :)

[NoSeRider]

http://academy.smc.edu/

What do you think about this school for animation?

I know you'd preferr CalArts Alumni, but I keep seeing people that teach at CalArts also teach at the Academy......You're in Venice, the school is in Santa Monica...I was hoping you would have some insight.

Thanks!

[butlafer]

Hey blur!!!

Blur is a place I would dream of working sometime after I am done with college. What things could I do or should I do to be about the competition? examples would help!

Thanks, keep up the awesome graphics

matt butler

[-Vormav-]

Meet the studio? Heh, nice surprise.

Anyway, might as well throw a few questions out.

-I hate to come off as a nuissance or anything (I'm sure you get these kinds of questions every day), but I'm particularly interested in how internships are handled through you guys. I guess I'm just assuming they're offered, though I didn't really see anything on it through your website.
It's really hard to gauge exactly what level a studio expects an intern to be at when just starting out; people mostly just tell you that you need to be very good, and that you probably shouldn't keep your hopes up. When it comes to finding a job, I can just take a look through the galleries here, and get a pretty good idea of the competition I'm up against, and how good I'm going to need to be. But then, most of the better stuff in these galleries is coming from people with a significantly greater amount of experience than your average intern.
Could you offer some insight on this, perhaps? Maybe some examples of the kind of work that has gotten people internships at your studio in the past (again, based on the assumption that you offer internships)? Obviously, there's going to be more to it than how pretty your renders are. I'm starting to feel like I have the technical knowledge to be able to take on an internship, but can't say much beyond that.

-You all obviously have your Max pipeline worked out well enough to be able to produce film-quality animations. I'm sure I've read interviews in the past where some of you have spoken of the way that using Max has strengthened your pipeline, but are there ever any cases where some aspect of Max completely breaks the development cycle apart - where you've started concidering adding additional 3d apps to the pipeline? Some apps just do some thing better, but then with a studio like Blur, I would guess that the artists are always able to find ways to get around some of the problems well enough for it to not affect the workflow too greatly.

-Somebody needs to give your web designer a pat on the back. That menu bar is quite sexy. ;) Of course the same comment applies to all of the animations as well, but web designers need a little bit of recognition too.


Probably more to follow. But I'll keep things simple for now. :)

[Kramerica]

:buttrock:Hey, Blur. As everyone has said, I hold your work among the greatest out there, and am eagerly awaiting the first feature film. Whenever I get the dreaded "dream job" question, I find your studio coming up more and more in my response.

I am very intersted in how you came together and initially started Blur. What's the breakdown of your core staff, and how many projects do you generally work on at once?

Also, I know this may be an unanswerable question for legal reasons, but any ideas a brewin as far as feature film goes? Anything you know you're NOT going to do? Anything you might be willing to reveal about what kind of film you'd like to make? Animated cartoon? Science fiction?

[RockinAkin]

I think everyone else has already covered any questions I had...

So I'll just take this opportunity to congratulate all the amazing artists at Blur.
Thanks for the inspiration - keep up the great work!

[tilite]

hello hello bur...

to all u guys responding to this?... nice lil task u have here, enjoy... :thumbsup: lol.

it funny that this pops up today not even 10hrs ago i sent an email to Bobby Beck threw his site asking where i could find a downloadable copy of Hubert's Brain and Vanilla Pudding. After i went to your site and was planning sending and email to you guys to find a downloadable copy of your films, but fatiuge assaulted and i had to go to bed:sad: . I was hoping that seems cgnetworks has preview of 3 of your fine films it wouldnt be that bizarre to download them from somewhere? (i ask this because it is soooo much easier to download the film once and stop wasting my downloads on viewing all of these once a week:) )

ok so i think im safe with that question above but i do hope this post doesn't become redundant now.

i wanted to ask what in the next short the studio is working on and if there was a url to check it out?? and also what is there to look out for in the future for blur??

oh 1 more thing (i promise) i wanted to know what u guys think is quality inspirational animation... and by that a couple urls to artist and animations. And if like your films they are 'protected'?? pfffft please just mention them and ill do my own research:thumbsup: .

Dont hold back... even if u guys can just bounce and inspire each other instantanously i know you all have a atleast small collection!! ok this wasnt planned it popped into my mind so u cant hpld it against me.. i just mention the studio life of Blur... what is it like to work in a studio with so much respect and expectation?? im sure u can scrounge together a dig camera... take a few pics!!

ok taken up way to much of your time and other cgtalk users so i apologise, (but respond :bounce: hehe)

and congrats on all of you achievements to date and best of luck for the future

cheers
tom

[Peddy]

Congrats on getting even more attention =]

The cinematics you guys and gals at Blur made are the kind of material that make me want to buy a game, most evidently with the Dawn of War cinematics. I'm not too keen on the idea of Warhammer (the original game), but the cinematics were done so well that I almost couldn't not buy the game. Same goes with the Hellgate: London cinematics I saw the other day.
And I'm sure I'm not the only one who appreciates how much a good cinematic adds to the potential of a game. However, we all all aware that Blur aspires for greater things, such as feature films, but if such an endeavour doesn't arrive as soon as the studio would like, are game cinematics and short films enough to sustain the (or any company, for that matter) company until the studio has enough corporate presence to create an I.P? What does it take for a studio to make the jump from short film to feature film, to fully independant production?

[blaXX++]

Well this is a first for me, asking questions to the pro's!

First of all:

-Where do you get your inspiration?
-How do you get the motivation to keep the shorts at maximum quality?

Could you give any tips or pointers for CG artists wanting to do the same sort of stuff you guys do now?

[Paul D. Taylor]

Hi everyone! Since there are a bunch of us from Blur here answering questions I'm only going to field the ones that I think I can answer best. So big picture studio stuff I'll leave for Tim Miller to answer. And knitting questions I’ll leave for Dave Wilson. Just and FYI. ;P



thesuit-

Wow!
Ok first and only question... please comment details on the mud effect during one of the final scenes of "In the rough"...


Thanks, thesuit. I'm very proud of the way the FX turned out for ITR. The FX guys kicked major ass. As you probably know, organic FX like water, mud, and hair are pretty difficult to pull off well in 3D. That's why we chose to do all three in this short! Haha. But seriously, the shorts are a vehicle for technical R&D as well as for stretching our creative storytelling muscles here at Blur.

The mud illusion was achieved by layering several simple FX. First there is a displacement on the ground geometry as the character passes by. Then there is a particle system on top of that for the spraying water. On top of all of that, there is a 2D animated texture of rain water flowing along the ground. Also, if you look closely (you can see it on film) the ground texture changes as the character wipes the mud up. Lastly, we swapped out a muddy version of the caveman (Brog) so the audience is tricked into thinking his face got splattered. Even though you never actually see it happens. When you combine all of that with the CG rain coming down, splattering and materials adjusted to look wet with the proper specular highlight AND lighting... it starts to look pretty convincing.


sphere-

Hey,

- Any word on a future feature film project?
- What's the biggest lesson learnt from your time with Blur (one per artist)?


We're getting a lot of calls for possible features since Jeff Fowler's short, Gopher Broke got a nod from the Academy. Thanks Jeff... I mean Mr. Fowler! Hehe..

TEAMWORK. Yup. That's the one for me. You just can't do this level of work alone. At least I can't. Besides, it's fun to work with other people with amazing talent. Not only do you learn a ton and have a blast with your friends, but you play jokes on them when they are crashed out on the couch at 4am. :P


comic_craig-

What do you like for in aspiring talent- with regards to 3D artists? What is the kind of demo material that amazes you? What doesn't impress you?

This is really a Tim Miller question since he hires people. But one thing I will tell you that is a reality at any studio you apply to, is ONLY PUT YOUR VERY BEST WORK ON YOUR REEL/WEBPAGE. Read that again. No really. Ok, here is a good way to make sure you understand it. When you are done cutting your reel together cut it in half. This is a trick I learned from editing my writing but it works with demo reels. That stuff that is so precious to you because you spent 100 hours on it may be hurting your reel and chances of getting work! Check out this hypothetical conversation:

EMPLOYED ANIMATOR
Wow. That's a big stack of reels.

STUDIO OWNER
Yup. Not much so far though so don't worry about your job yet.

EMPLOYED ANIMATOR
(nervous laughter)
hahaha... Hey, that guys stuff is pretty cool.

STUDIO OWNER
(rewinding tape)
Yeah, I thought so too but look at this.

EMPLOYED ANIMATOR
Yesh. That's bad. Looks like his old student work.

STUDIO OWNER
Yup. Gotta wonder about this one's eye if he's putting that on the reel.

EMPLOYED ANIMATOR
Yup. Well, back to work!


overcontrast-

This is great. Hello BLUR guys, first of all, u guys rock, I’m a big fan of urs. okay i have so many things to ask. heres some that i can remember

- I wanna know how you organize a team who will work on a short or game cinamatics. And how many people do u work with in projects like 'Gopher Broke' or 'In the Rough'?

- What are the softwares you use to do dinamics?

- Do you guys use a lot of GI? or what kind of lighting do u mostly prefer?

- What software do u use for rigging?... i dont think Max's built-in rigging/skinning system is not good enough for your kind of works. or do u use any inhouse sotwares for that?

- as many wants to know, what are your future plans? is there any ned masterpiece in making?

well thats about it... i'll be waitng for ur replies

Since we did ITR and Gopher at the same time animators got to read the scripts and choose which project they preferred to work on. For the most part I think they got on the projects they preferred.

We use 3D Studio Max, Adobe Photoshop and Premiere, and Eyeon's Digital Fusion.

We didn't use any GI for ITR. I think GI is cool but it can be overused and a bit of a crutch if you aren't careful. It can also be very slow if you have a complex scene and are rendering to film or HD res. (Both ITR and Gopher were 1920x1080). We do use it on other projects as a layer for its deep shadow capabilities. For example, the Warhammer 40k cinematic used GI in the character pass. But for ITR we used a lighting rig comprised of a simplified light dome (giving us the GI effect with faster rendering), key light, rim light, fill light, and special eye lights that excluded everything but the eyes because I wanted the eyes to look alive all the time.

One thing we wanted to push on both shorts was our character pipeline. We use Character Studio and Biped for a lot of game cinematics because it handles mocap so well. But for the shorts we made a custom skeleton with max bones and, believe it or not, we used Max’s skin modifier! Of course, we have some pretty snazzy max scripts that have been written by our scripting studs! We did this for two main reasons. One, we knew the shorts would be keyframed and use no motion capture. And Two, we wanted to really push the squash and stretch. Biped can do it, but it's painful and you wind up counter animating a lot of stuff.

FEATURES are the holy grail! I think one of the coolest things about Blur is that we want to do the Pixar style stuff as well as the genre stuff like sci-fi, fantasy, and horror movies in CG. I love bouncing between both worlds, from Warhammer 40k to ITR style stuff. And one day, if the planets align I'd love to work on a CG horror film in the vein of H.P. Lovecraft's Call of Cthullhu!


FUG1T1VE -

Hello folks at Blur.

Is it possible that we will be seeing a "trend" of other studios, setting up their pipelines to create their own shorts. Given that it took you guys 3-4 weeks to complete the Warhammer cinematics. Maybe not a trend, but given the success of your shorts it has certainly made some people go "hey, we can do it too".

If so, how would it affect the independent folks creating their own shorts.

That’s it for now.
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions.

Well, I think the trend was set by Pixar already years ago. At least for CG shorts. Blue Sky winning the Oscar for Bunny certainly gave them a shot at doing features and now they've done two. I think we all know the up side to doing shorts, the biggest being there is no client interference because you are the client! But the downside is there is no money either! Haha. And to do a short well on all levels, story, direction, editing, animation, modeling, lighting, rendering, FX, etc, etc. it takes a lot of dedicated people willing to sweat blood and tears. I'm not saying that one person in a garage can't do it alone. I think very talented artists do. But if you want to compete with the big boys like Pixar, Dreamworks, and Blue Sky... well, then you need a lot of resources and a studio willing to back your crazy dream, right? So, yeah, I think there will be more people making shorts as it gets easier to do, for sure. But there will always be an illusive bar that the Bigger fish set because they simply have more cash to spend. Best bet is to make the STORY as good as you possibly can. A good story, well told will make up for a lot of technical shortcomings, IMHO. That “well told” part is a key point (or secret)! Seriously. In the hands of a master storyteller, like

As for the Warhammer cinematics being done in 3-4 weeks... The guys that worked on that BLED to get that thing done in that time frame. I was one of them, but I didn't bleed as much as Dave Wilson and his crew of scene assemblers. Don't get me wrong, our pipeline destroys but it was defiantly a labor of love that gave that beast life! And we all begged for Tim Miller to accept the job to boot! I'm a big Warhammer 40k fan. I still have part of my hand painted Ork army on my monitor here at work! Hehe.


kisses



Voldron -

Where did you guys go to school or have you just learned alot by doing it? What do you use for compositing? Last question.........Have you used any other 3d packages besides 3DS Max?

Thanks in advance

I graduated from the Academy of Art University (used to be College) in San Francisco with a B.A. In traditional illustration. When I went to college they were just bring in computer classes on my last year! I took on class called like Pixel Paint 101 or something before I graduated. But I got an internship at a studio called Storyboard Express my last two years of school and they had a bad-ass 286 IBM clone with Crystal Topaz 3D on it and some funky Pinnacle paint system that I just started learning because nobody else wanted to. Haha. From there it was all self-taught as I moved to the mighty 3DS dos ver 1. I've dabbled in other 3D packages but have always returned to max for any serious work. Just a preference. I think it's ultimately the skill of the artist, not the software that matters most.



Infinity3d4life-

First off you guys are spectacular.

I would like to know if you could give some pointers for someone trying to start an animation studio of their own.. Maybe some of your experience, and things to look out for...

Thanks, Infinity3d4life! I've got some advice for you! For you see, I had TWO companies before I finally gave it up to join Blur. I'm sure Tim will have great advice on how to succeed but sometimes it's nice to hear about other peoples failures so you can learn from their mistakes! Haha... Ok, on to the advice –

The first thing I'd say is ask yourself why are you starting a studio and not joining an existing one? Everyone has their own reasons and I think if you are going to do something as important as starting a studio you should do some soul searching first. This question might lead you to...

What is your ultimate goal for having your own studio? Money? Power? To direct your own movies? To own your own intellectual properties? To tell your stories? To make cool images and animation? I think a lot of people (me included) jump into “the American dream” of owning their own business without thinking of the down sides. Like, looking for work CONSTANTLY. Never having any free time. Being responsible for employees. Having to run the boring business side of a studio, taxes, payroll, hiring, firing, sick days, etc, etc.

Also, if your goal is to say, direct your own movie then who is going to run the studio while you are focused on your movie? Partners? Ok, who do you trust enough to partner up with? Your bestest buddy since the age of 5? That's what I did and after two years we decided the business was ruining our friendship so we dissolved the company to save it. (One of the reasons anyway).

Do you have the right personality for running a studio? I think it takes more than being a creative person. How are you with your own personal finances right now? Balance your checkbook? Got the cheapest cell phone plan? Do you like to lead people? Speak in front of 20, 30, 50, employees?

Do you want the responsibility of hiring and firing employees? Are you a softy that won't fire someone not pulling their fare share of the workload if need be? Easier said than done when that person has a wife, kids, mortgage, etc.

OK, after saying all of that, I don't want to sound too negative! If you think you have what it takes to start a business and maintain it... go for it! And if you aren't sure, my advice would be work for someone else’s studio and learn... or start freelancing and see if you dig on that. Oh, and Good Luck! ;)

Well, that’s all from me tonight folks. I’ll answer some more tomorrow! Great questions so far! Hope I've helped.

[requiem]

Hello everyone over at Bur. Thank you for taking the time to answer questions.

I'm currently graduating and finishing up my modeling reel. I'm finding that the bulk of my reel is cartoonish characters (like my avitar) and I'm wondering if a lack of realism is a bad thing.

What do you look for in a modeling reel?

Thanks for your time.

Jason

[UnSa]

Hey Blur,
first off I want to say how much I love your work and how inspiring it really is to see what you guys can come up with. I'm a junior student in high school right now and I'm seeking good Colleges where I can excel in 3d. I was curious to know if Blur knows any good colleges where they would recommend me going. Also, does Blur set up tours of the studio? I live in Los Angeles and would love to come by and see how Blur opperates. Thanks!
-Colin Duffy, 17

[Heber]

hi guys, i absolutely love your work its very inspiring to me, i have some questions regarding modeling in particular:

1-do your modelers create models than can perform in various situations and extremeties or do you create models than can work for the shots that they need to be in and then repair in post?

2-What do you look for in a good modeler? are you looking for someone who can model characters or environments really well and can do just that? or do you like to see range , aka someone who can model and build in all different kinds of styles?

thanks for taking the time guys.

-Heber Alvarado

[thesuit]

Cool.
Heres a couple of technical questions I'm dying to know.


Does BLUR use referencing for their characters in a normal animation pipeline? If so, do you work on different stages of production at the same time using referencing technique or do you have a more linear workflow
How many Brogs do you think you have around for the ITR production? So far, normal brog, wet brog, muddy brog... do you make special rigs for special situations or a master rig that works wonders?
Thanx for taking the time to answer. Keep the good work comming.

[rickmann]

Well this is a first for me as well!!


My questions which may have been ask in many different ways is: Do you see your animators using other tools other than 3DS Max, like Maya or Softimage, or do you prefer them to use properitary software built by your programmers? Also as a person with not too many drawing skills to you ever hire animators (in general) based soley on there skills applied through a computer?

Thanks guys for aspiring so many with your workmanship!!

Rick

[Pyke]

Hello Blur!

Just wanna add into the fan-boyism here, and say that you guys are all fantastic, and If given the oportunity (and were I not a guy), I would gladly have your respective children.

OK-Enough of the wierd stuff! Question time:

* I've read in previous articles about your work that you use mo-cap in some of your shorts (Warhammer, Rockfish, Wolfenstein...). Do you guys have your own motion capture studio, or do you outsource your stuff?

* There are several studios that have a definitive 'you are a texture artist...texture, you are a modeler-model' mentality. Is Blur like this, or is it more of a jack-of-all-trades studio?

* How many people now work at Blur? Do you seperate into different 'groups' when handeling multiple projects, or are you guys already in different sections?

* With your foray into features-are you going to continue doing game cinematics and shorts?

* This question is specifically for Dave Wilson: As a South Africa (or any person from another country) looking at getting into Blur-how did you do it? Apply from SA, get accepted, and then go Visa hunting? Or were you already in the states when you applied for the job? What is Blurs policy on hiring 'foreign' staff? And how on earth do you live without Biltong? :)

And finally!

* On average, how many cups of coffee are consumed on a daily basis? :)

Just want to say again what an inspiration Blur studios is! And I hope to be working with you guys-one of these days!

-Chris Bischoff-

[jason-slab]

hey hi

i'm not gonna say much more than, u guys are doing some amazing work and i'm looking forward to seeing your upcoming projects!!

|jason

[lukx]

Hello Blur
First of all, RESPECT for all you're doing.
I got one question:
How is it at the begining. I mean how did you know how to do things. I mean compositing effects, knowing stuff about using proper resolutions and so. Everybody have to start and let's say you finally got a client who want to do comercial with you how did you know at the begining how to work, what to do first, and how to do it?

[Tim Miller]

Hey,

- Any word on a future feature film project?
- What's the biggest lesson learnt from your time with Blur (one per artist)?

Thank guys! :D

I'm gonna try and answer questions one at a time....otherwise I think I'll get corn-fused.

I checked out Paul Taylors (aka Flappy Fish) answers and I already feel inadequate! He answered a ****load of stuff already! But I'll try and throw in my 2 cents....

Feature films. Lots of talks--no deals signed as yet. We've got Rockfish in development with Vin Diesel's One Race Films and we're talking to virtually ALL the major studios in Hollywood about feature projects. BUT.....this shit takes a long time....and I don't take ANYTHING seriously until the ink is dry on the contract....and not even then! :deal: I will say that I think big shit is in the pipe. :thumbsup:

Lots of buns in the oven and I've very hopeful that some of them will get bake up warm and tasty, well holler out when it's REAL. But how could it not happen with so much talent concentrated in one space! :buttrock: I'm honored to work beside the folks at blur.

[Tim Miller]

Great! great GREAT! Ok...

What is the Key things that People needed to have to work within the Blur Domain and whats the longest time it took to finish a project from start to finish and what was the major problems faced.

this question is to all...

Thanks Blur...

Not sure I understand that first question....do you mean what do you need to work at blur? If so the answer would be 1. Talent 2. Endurance 3. Bullet proof ego 4. Talent 5. Great teamwork skills. 6-100. More talent. In my experience hard work can NOT make up for lack of raw talent. I get emails and reels everyday from animators swearing they'll work their fingers to little bloody nubs if we give them a shot at. But if you look at thier reel or samples and they don't have "The Eye" then it just doesn't matter--no amount of hours will make thier work great. Just better. Sad but true.....

I think Disney's "Mickey's Twice Upon a Xmas" was our longest gig at 14 months.

[KingMob]

Hi People

I am just a humble character modeling type here at blur, and definetly the newbie of the bunch, so I will just answer questions pertaining to that stuff. The others guys are way more interesting...and oh so dreamy.



hi guys, i absolutely love your work its very inspiring to me, i have some questions regarding modeling in particular:

1-do your modelers create models than can perform in various situations and extremeties or do you create models than can work for the shots that they need to be in and then repair in post?

2-What do you look for in a good modeler? are you looking for someone who can model characters or environments really well and can do just that? or do you like to see range , aka someone who can model and build in all different kinds of styles?

thanks for taking the time guys.

-Heber Alvarado

1. We usually try to do as much as we can with the models int he time frame given, usually haivng a base idea of what the character will need to do, very rarely do we actually fix them after they are rigged and in scene, tho occasionally that does happen for certain extremes.

2. I can not say what they look for, but I can say at Blur they want variety, and you have to be able to both texture and model (and anything else you do is a plus) usually breaks down to two groups, character modelers and environment modelers, and most of them (environmnet) also do scene assembly so lighting and such is key. Different styles is a great thing to, cause at Blur we do everything from Warhammer and X-Men to In the Rough and Mickey stuff, tho most people are put where they are strongest.




Well this is a first for me as well!!


My questions which may have been ask in many different ways is: Do you see your animators using other tools other than 3DS Max, like Maya or Softimage, or do you prefer them to use properitary software built by your programmers? Also as a person with not too many drawing skills to you ever hire animators (in general) based soley on there skills applied through a computer?

Thanks guys for aspiring so many with your workmanship!!

We are primarily a Max place, but we do use other peices of software for certain aspects of the pipeline. I use Zbrush and Bodypaint a lot, but for the most part we do as much as we can in Max.

I dunno about the drawing skills for Animators tho...Tim will have to field that one.


Hello Blur!

Just wanna add into the fan-boyism here, and say that you guys are all fantastic, and If given the oportunity (and were I not a guy), I would gladly have your respective children.

OK-Enough of the wierd stuff! Question time:

1.* I've read in previous articles about your work that you use mo-cap in some of your shorts (Warhammer, Rockfish, Wolfenstein...). Do you guys have your own motion capture studio, or do you outsource your stuff?

2.* There are several studios that have a definitive 'you are a texture artist...texture, you are a modeler-model' mentality. Is Blur like this, or is it more of a jack-of-all-trades studio?

3.* How many people now work at Blur? Do you seperate into different 'groups' when handeling multiple projects, or are you guys already in different sections?

4.* With your foray into features-are you going to continue doing game cinematics and shorts?

5.* This question is specifically for Dave Wilson: As a South Africa (or any person from another country) looking at getting into Blur-how did you do it? Apply from SA, get accepted, and then go Visa hunting? Or were you already in the states when you applied for the job? What is Blurs policy on hiring 'foreign' staff? And how on earth do you live without Biltong?

And finally!

6.* On average, how many cups of coffee are consumed on a daily basis?

Just want to say again what an inspiration Blur studios is! And I hope to be working with you guys-one of these days!

-Chris Bischoff-

1. We have our own Motion Capture stage but I couldnt tell you any specifics on it...its big...padded walls and shiny balls(hehe)

2. A 'modeler' (character wise)at blur is also responsible for texturing and lighting for sample stills, surfacing, hair, and even basic rigging(and boy do I mean basic...tho it still manages to take me a while hehe) for posing.

3. I think we have about 65-70 full time artists...Tim would know the specifics on that.
Project leads pick out their teams of character modelers, environment and scene assembler and fx artitsts, oh and concept artisits, then that team works on that project. This makes it sorta fun cause you get to work with a variety of people in your time at blur, always learning something new...huzzah.

4. Tims gonna have to answer that one... The game stuff is a lot of fun tho. Lots of variety.

5. I won't answer for Dave (he would slap me) but I will say we have a large variety of people from all over the land.

6. Enough that I always have to brew new pots when I want a fresh cup... and I always want a fresh cup :D

[Tim Miller]

first of all congratualtions for the wonderful job your doing and keep on trying and you'll nail the oscar soon :thumbsup:

my question is when will we be able to download the full version of Gopher Broke ?

I'm sorry to say it might be a good long while. You guys KNOW we really like to share our shorts with the animation community. But we may be developing Gopher into a larger project with a studio and they'd prefer that we keep it's exposure limited. It kinda sounds like we're selling out a bit--and we are. :shrug: But the chance to tell a bigger story seems worth it. It sucks that we can't share it.

[RAINpit]

1000 kudoz to u blur people
one studio that still kicks a.. in this pool of CG.
love the fact that u's sticking to simple tools doing some seriously amazing stuff.
as for mr. miller, i think u'r the only guy i've ever heard using the word f.. in an official
interview, that was hilarious (i think it was on some eyeon tape, anyway, funny as hell).
love the don;'t give a sh.. attitude (works alot for the whole studio i think)

questions, sh.. i'd have a hundred, but i'll spare u my sharp spear, and just ask a few directly related to smthng others haven't asked:
like: how's xsi workin' for you guys?
what do u think about it and how do u feel workin with it?
does it integrate well into the pipeline?
what do u use it for besides crowd/character anim?
ain't it a cutie ?

PS. this is not a question, this is a direct threat :))
don't screw up the story for Rockfish, whenever that gets done, whatever gets done
make us proud.

keep on doing the kick ass work u guys do
love ya

[Lunatique]

I had sent Tim a message before, and I'm not sure if he received it. I'll repeat it briefly here, but without the details:

Would you guys be interested in doing a project using a non-internal director and his screenplay? My Promise project was supposed to be produced at Optidigit, but it has been put on hold due to funding problems. I'm shopping around for likely studios to pick up where Optidigit left off.

[Tim Miller]

What do you like for in aspiring talent- with regards to 3D artists? What is the kind of demo material that amazes you? What doesn't impress you?

Not trying to be flip when I say it's all about the WORK. Talent....pure and simple. Screw the cover letter.....forget the fancy packaging....don't bother with the clever "gag" or tricky gimmick....show some great work. A good judge of creative talent should be able to spot genius in a very small amount of submitted material--so only show the best stuff you have.

Over the years I've noticed that the FANCIER the packaging the worse the reel. When I open a submission where somebody OBVIOUSLY spent a lot of time and energy on the presentation--nice box, lovely cover letter, slick demo labels, etc. I immediately think, "Okay, this reel is gonna suck--they're trying to put a pretty frame on a crappy painting." And it's true 90% of the time. The really good people don't have time for all that fancy shit--they're busy making great CG.

Of course I seen a lot of bad work presented badly too. :)

[Pyke]

So I should cancel that scented cover letter page then? :D

[Tim Miller]

I had sent Tim a message before, and I'm not sure if he received it. I'll repeat it briefly here, but without the details:

Would you guys be interested in doing a project using a non-internal director and his screenplay? My Promise project was supposed to be produced at Optidigit, but it has been put on hold due to funding problems. I'm shopping around for likely studios to pick up where Optidigit left off.

I got it....sorry about the delayed answer. It's been a bit crazy around here with all our E3 shizzat delivering. The short answer would be, "not so much." Truthfully we have a LOT of ideas ourselves and we're developing several original concepts....and then there's more coming in from bonafide Hollywood sources. My first allegience is to the folks here who have fallen on thier swords for blur time and again.....so if we do any non-big Hollywood studio funded stuff it will most likely come from the talented folks INSIDE the asylum. I wouldn't say NEVER, but it would have to be pretty ****ing amazing to make us turn off that course. When a big studio wants to come in and pay us to do a feature THEY have in development.....well....that's a different story. Sorry! :shrug:

[Tim Miller]

Hello,

I´d like to know how many animators you have there. Not all 3d people. Just the animators. And How many do you need to do a feature film?
By the way... When will you make a feature film?


kisses

We have approximately 20 character animators on staff.

How many for a feature? Can't say with any accuracy--# of animators is dependent on the length of the schedule and the complexity of the animation. I can safely say that we'd probably need a least a FEW more for a feature. :)

We'll make a feature when somebody coughs up enough cash for us to do one. I've tried many times to get the animators to work for free so we could get started NOW....but for some reason they just won't go along with that plan. Bunch of pussies. :rolleyes:

[lukx]

I'm sorry to be out of topic but I've noticed that most of guys here are trying to drag out Blur Studio of using 3dsmax. I really don't get it.

[eddieellis]

you guy's rock and im not going to stop until i get a job with you..:thumbsup:

[siquier]

Hello Tim and the rest of Blur
I just want to show my respect and admiration, I wish you good luck in the next Oscar´s nomination.
Say hello to my friend Daniel :)

[arizaga]

Hi boys from Blur, My name is Luis, I'm from Spain and I'm 27 years old, 8 years working with CG, I've followed your work since a lot of time, I love it, you have made the 3d world more and more interesting along this years also you've created thousands of fans that are waiting for your next game cinemantics, short film or movie. I'm one of them of course http://cgtalk.com/images/smilies/smile.gif. I've some little questions for you guys:

1) Are you planning to do a last jump to the cimena industry with a large film like dreamworks, pixar... or your work is more aimed to the videogame industry where you are a leader?

2) Do you work in some case with freelance employees from other countries throw the net? In that case Do you accept a colaborative freelance that works for free?
(People that don't want to be payed only be a little part of your great work and that your name appears in his/her curriculum or be a part of your team in the future).


Thanks for your time.

[destroyfred]

hi blur,

first of all I would like to congratulate you for all your work. You are more
and more famous here, in France. I am currently student in a CG school
and everyone remains admiring in front of your exceptional work.
All your movies are incredible. You are my favorite company with pixar.

I would have so much question to ask you...

hmmm first how much employee have you got and which is the number of
French artists ? which is nationality the most represented ?

2- I had the occasion to read that to realize your short collect all
the suggestions of your employees in one "ideas box" and that the best
of these ideas was retained. Is it true ?

3- Do you recruit sometimes trainees?

4- For our film of end of study we also had to realize a jungle. And I
must say that "in the rough" is an enormous source of inspiration.
Which councils could you give us to conclude this project ? (here is a
wip of the jungle)

5- And which councils would you give to a person, like me, who wishes
to work in a company as talented as your ? (and even if possible in your :))

..... I still have so many questions... but that's all for now :)
And... CONGRATULATION ! You are an example for each artist all over the world.
thanks for your reply.
Frédéric FOURIER

[mattmos]

Hey Tim, Paul, and everyone at Blur,

1, I saw both In the Rough and Gopher broke at the Animated Encounters festival in Bristol recently, and thoroughly enjoyed them both! The level of detail can really be appreciated at film size. Is there any reason that Gopher Broke was the only film nominated for an oscar? I thought In the Rough was also an oscar-worthy film.

2, At the same festival I asked Jeffery Katzenburg whether he saw any point in creating short films at Dreamworks, and he basically replied that there was no economic reason for doing so. He could see the benefit to the artists but couldn't justify the cost. If you do grow to feature size do you still think you will be able to produce shorts or do you think they will be side-lined gradually?

3, If you are intending to grow to tackle feature-film work how are you planning to avoid the pitfalls of smaller studios growing beyond their capacity?

4, Lastly, if you were looking for an animator would you be more impressed by a kick arse short film or a reel of solid animation tests showing weight, timing, all the essentials?

Thanks for your time and keep it up! You're an inspiration :)

Matt

[jampoz]

Well Well... Blur Studio... happy to join the party!

First of all I'm gonna say how much I appreciated Rockfish, everybody is talking about Gopher and In the Rough but let's not forget Rockfish, it was really good!
Of course they're all great in their own ways and that's what I love about Blur, you guys can put something unique in each one of your works, which is pretty rare I must add

What now, questions? Uh yeah, let's ask questions

1- Why BLUR? I hope we all know what a Blur is, but why did you pick that?

2- Know about Exile-Films (http://www.exile-films.com/)? They pretty much failed but you guys could produce an outstanding WH40K movie, why don't you ask Games Workshop?

3- Need an Italian guy who can cook great pasta and make serious coffee... and can model stuff in the spare time?

4- Ever thought about joining a Software House and produce your own game? They do the code and supporting design, you do the kick ass graphics/animations plus, of course, short movies here and there

5- Any project for your next short? You're not going to sign any contract here, just feel free to talk about future projects if you can, would be interesting!

6- What's the average age in there? Guess something around 30 'cause you need the talent but you also need experience to join the group, don't you?

7- You are going to update your site with the new E3 animations, now. (Fear my Jedi tricks)

8- Uh yeah, forgetting about the Blur Beta page full of cool Max plug-ins, what happened? Will you ever work again on that?

Thank you for reading thru all this shit, know we all love you for being such an amazing inspiration, keep it up! :thumbsup:

[Lunatique]

I wouldn't say NEVER, but it would have to be pretty ****ing amazing to make us turn off that course.

Would you like to take a look at some material?

[Voldron]

This isn't a question but rather a sort of praise thing



CAN WE GIVE IT UP TO BLUR FOR ANSWERING OUR QUESTIONS!


Thanks to the guys at Blur for taking time out of their day to answer our questions and not being completely aggravated by it. Or it could be the massive amounts of coffee we know they drink to get their work done that is keeping them calm lol.



Now this is a question:

Do you guys use MOCAP?

[Zac256]

you guy's rock and im not going to stop until i get a job with you..:thumbsup:
Why stop then? Only the beginning my friend. :)
-Zac

[eddieellis]

Why stop then? Only the beginning my friend. :)
-Zac

Because BLUR has always been the place where i have aspired to get too, ever since i started on the road to a 3D career. So when im there i'll know i have accomblished all my 3D dreams. :thumbsup:

[ryusen]

Hi Blur people.. You're the men.. You kicked everybody's asses so hard, I still can feel the pain.

Anyway, here are my questions:

1. How advance are your character rigs? Can we still open them with our maxes, if by any chance we have the opportunity to get our hands on them? Can you elaborate how you rig a character, part by part (for example, how to switch IK/FK *hint*)? :applause:

2. How do you do facial rigging? Do you use spline, bones or morpher, or all of them?

3. When you decide to hire someone, do you put them through training first, or just flood them with all the s**t load of work you can find? :curious:

Congrats to all Blur peeps who do what they love, make my day a little better and get paid for doing all that.

[HellBoy]

Hi Blur Team

I apologise if these questions are kinda odd, they're not planned :buttrock:


Assume the studio were hiring people, what would be the major things you would advice people to have/studied
after graduating, how hard is it to get into a great studios like Blur

to Ian Joyner, for the people who model, is 2D skills necessary?

to Paul Taylor, whats involved in your position, as in CG Supervisor and Directing

thanks guys

[FloydBishop]

Hey everyone,

Thanks to everyone for setting this up. CGTalk needs this kind of thing, and it's nice to see it happening.

Anyway, here are my questions, in no particular order:



What was the "breakthrough project" for your studio? I don't mean the one that got you the most accolades, but the one early project that you are most proud of and maybe represents the first project that shows best what you are all capable of?
What was the biggest hurdle in starting up your studio?
Is there anything in production or day to day business that you wish you could go back to and take another shot at?
Have there been any clients that you've worked with in the past (no names or anything) that you would never work for again? If so, why? (again, no names or specifics)
I also wanted to add that by putting out consistently great work, working on projects you obviously enjoy, and keeping your crew around from project to project, you guys are setting a bar in the industry that I would hope many more would try to match.

[jampoz]

I'm sure they have fun doing animation, but working for only 3-4 weeks on stuff like the WH40K intro must be frustrating, you guys even said you wanted to add more things and couldn't do it 'cause of the time limit

Fun once you finish, but must be frustrating to work SO hard and SO fast

[AmirP]

Hey everyone from Blur :)

Im glad to see your doing a Q&A, I love your work

My question is, in your "In The Rough" short film, you've built an amazing environments, Im curious about how you manage to do it ? how much work does it take and how meny people ? The result was amazing !

Thanks in advance

[neutronrobot]

Here's an easy question for you guys:

Will "Gopher Broke" be available in it's entirety on the web anytime soon?

I know it wasn't posted because of Academy award rules about shorts, but is there a reason it can't be made available now?

Also, as stated by someone above, I'd love to hear more about your custom animation rigs and facial set ups.

You guys are the best!

[gaborca]

Hi Guys,

My name is Gabor Marinov and I work at Digic Pictures. It's a small but very enthusiastic VFX/CG Animation studio in Hungary.

First I'd like to congratulate you, your work is really spectacular and we all like them very much here. It's absolutely fantastic how you've grown and how you handle the various jobs while keeping the very high quality.

My question is connected to that topic too. Are you using any commercial project management system? Or do you have an inhouse one? And how about asset management? Are you using Alienbrain or any other CMS system?

Thanks,

Gabor Marinov
www.digicpictures.com (http://www.digicpictures.com/)

[Tsahi]

howdy blur ppl.
aside from all the artistic, technical and cinematical compliments that i can shed for you
(and so many did before me), i'd like to say that for me, you guys are really a studio to
look up to, in terms of studio goals and development. and thats mainly what i wanted to ask:

- in this highly competitive and expensive industry, its hard to keep your head above the water,
let alone do things you really love or believe in, and not just work for the money.
you guys, seem to be going by your goal in great persistance and success.
how do you manage to do it ?
you've been there for over 9 years, and started it because you didn't like what you had to do out there, for other bosses....
how do you manage to get funding for "fun" projects from the heart ?
it is widely believed that shorts don't pay, but that they are a mean to prove yourself feature-worthy.
it seems you guys are proving the second part of that belief right.
so what about the first part ? how do you manage to pull out all these shorts, if a client didn't order them in advance ?
do you take strictly "for the money" projects on the side ? how do you balance between the two ?
it seems to me, that to anyone aspiring to establish a studio, and create good stories and animation,
this is one of the biggest issues to deal with.
since you are almost the only example of a growing studio that did it,
i'd love to hear about it.

- and a small second question, that might have been asked here before-
whats the chance for foreigners with no US passport, to get accepted to work with you
and obtain a work visa ? (assuming the applicant is good enough to be accepted).
are you accepting applicants only from the US or that are already working in the US ?


keep up the excellent work, and setting an example for the whole animation world.

Tsahi.

[SCIFI-3D-zoo]

I just read that you guys did the HELLGATE trailer too?? I think that is my favorite so far.

[destroyfred]

yes i've also just seen this and it is amazing job. but i prefer dawn of war :)

[TraceR]

Just figured I'd throw my name in here. You guys are amazing and I really admire your work. I loved the WH4K reel.

I would love to work for someone like you when I graduate collage. I am only in highschool now, so I plan to work as hard as I can now so that I will have some experience when I go to collage. I know this is a very difficult industry to get a job in.

I know this has probably already been posted, but how would you suggest the best way to get a job with a top name studio such as Blur? What do you guys look for when hiring? Do you take into consideration collage degrees, or are you just focused on portfolios and resumes? What kind of roles do you most look for?

Thanks,


Zach

[neofg]

Hi all at Blur Studio!
It's a priviledge to ask something to you experts in this wonderful art...
I have a tecnical question... I find really difficult to work with 3D environments(lands , sky and clouds...etc...) In particular I find difficult the horizon zone. Do u have a suggestion for how setup and paint a 3d environment?

PS.= I.E. The project where I have this problem now, is a plane (the mytical Hiroshima's Enola Gay) that fly with camera that move around him. Now, I modelled it in Maya, I try to make a 360° environment in terragen with a bit of post 4 make it real,and I mapped it on a sphere, but I don't like the result...Background appear flat.
:sad:
I go crazy... Can u gimme'suggestions?

[emptyvoxel]

Thanks Tim, Paul, and Ian for answering our questions and giving us a peek inside of your world.

My question is concerning the diversity at Blur. How many, if any, female modelers, animators, texture artists or compositors do you have on staff, and can you estimate how many demo reels you get from women?

In my opinion one of the major elements missing from animation (and most modern forms of storytelling) today is a female perspective, much as it was missing in other areas of creative employment such as industrial design and web design until recently. As grizzled veterans, have you seen a rise in the participation of women in this industry, or has the interest level remained steadily low throughout your experience?

(can of worms warning!) Any opinion why?

Also, it was great to see Rockfish on the big screen at the Animation Show 2005. I know you have said that Gopher Broke will probably be unscreenable for a while, but I would like to put my vote in to see In The Rough on the 2006 edition.

Thanks for your brief and very valuable time.
~T

[Sollesnes]

Hey people at Blur Studio.

- Roughly, how many shorts/trailers and so on have you made?
- Was there any reason for starting Blur Studio? Did it just happendt by working with friends, A long time plan, or did you just think "hey, i'll start a kick ass animation studio"?

Thanks for answering everyones question. :)

Best Regards, Øystein Sollesnes

[Snake Eyes]

What did you use (programs) to create the Warhammer video ?

[urgaffel]

Hey guys, a quick question about employment and Visas from me.

What's your policy on hiring people from outside USA? Do you go through the whole visa dance or do you prefer to keep it simple and hire people that already have either a visa or a us citizenship?

I'm wondering since I've been wanting to work for you for almost as long as I've been using 3d studio (started on release 2.0 for DOS :D). And being a swedish citizen it feels like the chances of getting hired by you or any other studio in the states are pretty slim since most don't want to bother with the expenses and trouble getting a visa entails...

Looking forward to seeing Gopher Broke in the future and keep kicking ass :)

[dominicqwek]

Hi Tim,

1. In your experience, when hiring foreign talent to work in Blur, is a degree crucial for acquiring a visa? Would a diploma coupled with a few years of work experience suffice? I have had a few interviews with US-based companies and after they check with their lawyers, they say it is worth way too much effort to bring in someone into the states with the credentials i just mentioned.

2. What do you catch artists often doing in office apart from work?


Thanks! :)

[maninflash]

Hi,

I have a few question about animation that I'd like to ask Jeff Fowler. These are very basic questions so I hope I wouldn't bore you :)

1. When animating a character in different emotions, for example in a scene he is happy, in the next, he is sad, do you think the animator should use the body weight to communicate emotion (make him heavier when sad or lighter when happy) or should the weight of a character remains constant throughout the film?

2. On walks, specificaly a walk that shows personality and attitude, what are the questions you ask yourself before and during animating?

3. Where do you find inspiration for the poses/gestures of a character?
do you put yourself inside his head or does it come from memory and observation of real life and live action films? for example, the little dance the monkey does in the "Monkey Pit", where did you get that idea from?


And...

4. what would be the most important animation-principle for a student to nail down? I know they are all equaly important, but if you could only pick one, which one would it be?

And lastly...

5. Who's your all-time favourite animated character? and why?


thanks :)

[seespotmove]

You guys do fantastic work....

a simple critique of my work from you would mean a great deal.

http://www.seespotmove.com/animation.htm

thanks,

[jerry123]

hi,i have a somewhat banal question,but i found out its actually pretty tricky.
i find that as a studio that produced lots of very succesful shorts and no larger scale
features,its seems the right place to ask

im an animator,but i go around on all the rest pretty reasonably too,and now i feel like
having my very own 5min short.

the point is,im having a problem getting a proper story,since you usually will have an idea
that will be way too wide or complex for a 5 min short,my question is how do you keep it
simple and restrained...meny bad shorts have that problem that they just go all over the
place,and its either very boring,not very clear,or just plain annoing...
it may sound stupid,but its actually pretty complicated to get it just right.
most your shorts seem to work great,very small story,very simple...

are there any methods?are there specifics you should avoid,or care for?
what makes you see that"this ones gonna work"?
in case you dont have any direction at all(in terms of subject),how do you build it?
do you start whith a character and then build a story around it,or try have a story
and then build what you need for it?
are there any prefered or better ways of aproaching it?
how do you build a small simple idea to have a point?(otherwise there wont be a point
watching it).
how do you make your story fit the fact its animated?(or doese it matter at all,i meen,
should a short be fitted for animation or treated the same as live ones?)


thank you.

[DaveWilson]

Ok, here goes...... I may skip over a few that Flap and Miller have already answered...

SPHERE:
- What's the biggest lesson learnt from your time with Blur (one per artist)?

When sleeping on the library couch, head towards the bookshelves feet towards the door.

TKI:
What is the Key things that People needed to have to work within the Blur Domain and whats the longest time it took to finish a project from start to finish and what was the major problems faced.

I think Tim has already answered this one.

Mysterious X:
first of all congratualtions for the wonderful job your doing and keep on trying and you'll nail the oscar soon

Thanks, we're definately gonna keep on trying :)


zman:
Cool, you guys are one of my favorite studios.
I know you use (or at least used to use) max. I'm just interested to know what you think of it comparing to other programs (I am talking mainly for pipeline comptability and stability in large projects). I also know you have an RnD team and i wonder what they think of max's source (comparing mainly to maya).
i am asking this mainly because alot of ppl i know from large studios keep on claimming that maya is way better for those things and i cant convince them to see the light

Thanks Dude. We still use Max, I was personally using lightwave before I joined Blur and started to use Max, I think it's great, no problems switching over at all. I came from a small studio in South Africa and it's amazing to have scripters here constantly provide us with kick-ass tools to get our job done faster and make it all look better. It's just awesome to walk over to some of our guys and say "Hey, I've been thinking, it would be great if we had this tool which would....." and then a few days later..... there it is. It's amazing. I can't really make any comparrisons between maya and max since I've never used Maya, but all I can say is that we are really in NO way limited by using max, if we ever do find that we need to makes things better in Max, we're always able to, but at the end of the day it ALWAYS comes down to the talent of the artist or skill of the scripter using the package.

comic_craig
What do you like for in aspiring talent- with regards to 3D artists? What is the kind of demo material that amazes you? What doesn't impress you?

Again, I think Miller has answered this, but a short kick-ass piece of JUST your best work is most likely to get you in. Even 30seconds of amazing work is often enough. We've hired quite a few people just based on work on their website, that just being stills and a few tiny clips of animation.

overcontrast
This is great. Hello BLUR guys, first of all, u guys rock, i'm a big fan of urs. okay i have so many things to ask. heres some that i can remember
- I wanna know how you organize a team who will work on a short or game cinamatics. And how many people do u work with in projects like 'Gopher Broke' or 'In the Rough'?
- What are the softwares you use to do dinamics?
- Do you guys use a lot of GI? or what kind of lighting do u mostly prefer?
- What software do u use for rigging?... i dont think Max's built-in rigging/skinning system is not good enough for your kind of works. or do u use any inhouse sotwares for that?
- as many wants to know, what are your future plans? is there any ned masterpiece in making?
well thats about it... i'll be waitng for ur replies

Thanks!!! Once we've bid out a project supervisors will pick their team based on what they need. It normally begins with a CG Supervisor and an Animation Supervisor on a project, CG Supervisors handle pretty much everything but the character animation. The Animation Supervisor handles much of the story work, day to day animation supervision, mocap shoots etc... Cg Sup will handle, modeling, texturing, lighting, rendering, compositing, clients, etc etc...

Jeff and Paul can let you know exact numbers on the shorts, but we do often ramp up a little more towards the end of productions, so we can keep the quality high and meet our deadlines.

Yeah we have been using Brazil's Skylight for Ambient Passes on Characters with some custom light rigs thrown in there too to accompany it, but we've started to switch over to HDRI lighting on some of our character passes now too. GI is great, but it's great in certain areas, we still use normal point and spot lighting ALL over the place, nothing beats a great eye for awesome lighting.

We do have custom rigging tools we've developed here at Blur, but I'll let those more appropriate than I give you those answers.

As always, we're on the move towards a Feature Film, we're all VERY excited about it!!

tevih
So, how do you decide which story to choose for your shorts? And how do you see the potential a simple idea can have?

Everyone in the studio can submit ideas for a short story and the Supervisors vote for the best one, then after Miller has gleefully re-read his 200 times and skimmed over everyone elses, the best short wins and is made into that years shortfilm.

FUG1T1VE
Is it possible that we will be seeing a "trend" of other studios, setting up their pipelines to create their own shorts. Given that it took you guys 3-4 weeks to complete the Warhammer cinematics. Maybe not a trend, but given the success of your shorts it has certainly made some people go "hey, we can do it too".
If so, how would it affect the independant folks creating their own shorts.

I think one of the reasons we were able to get the Warhammer project done in 3 weeks was because we have been around for a while and our pipeline has been refined down to the point where we can handle stuff like that. Don't get me wrong, we carried our bleeding bodies over the finish line to get it done, but there was nothing but big smiles on our faces when we did. I had so much fun supervising and working on that project, everyday was like Christmas seeing all the cool shit we were producing. I don't know if we would have been able to get that sort of project done in that short amount of time at that quality 2 years ago, the tools we've developed over the past 2 years, especially with regard to Scene Assembly are amazing and they've really allowed the incredibly talented artists here to just focus on making their shots look cool!

I don't know if you'd just be able to set up a studio and immediately start banging stuff out like that that quickly. I think we were just ready for a project like that when it came along, and it was a great test to see just how far we could push our pipeline, and ourselves :) Plus the talent on that project was amazing, 10 years of getting some of the best artists out there resulted in Flappy and I being able to have our team of "untouchables" as I liked to call them making us incredibly proud every day on that project. It was AWESOME!

marciowski
I´d like to know how many animators you have there. Not all 3d people. Just the animators. And How many do you need to do a feature film? By the way... When will you make a feature film?


I think Miller got to this one.

Voldron:
Where did you guys go to school or have you just learned alot by doing it? What do you use for compositing? Last question.........Have you used any other 3d packages besides 3DS Max?

I studied Computer Science at the University of Cape Town, dropped outa that :) Then a small traditional animation school in Cape Town for one year, after that I worked at various studios in Cape Town and then moved out here, I learnt a lot all along the way, but my learning curve just sky rocketed when I got out to Blur, the environment here is so conducive to interaction between artists that it's difficult NOT to learn something new everyday, I had a great mentor when I got here too, lil Timmy Wallace helped me get rid of my max training wheels in no time at all :)

Infinity3d4Life
First off you guys are spectacular.
I would like to know if you could give some pointers for someone trying to start an animation studio of their own.. Maybe some of your experience, and things to look out for...

Uh..... don't :) No, I didn't care too much for the business side of what I do, I always just wanted to really focus on the creative end, a small degree of it is fine, but having to deal day in and day out with corporate crap can get your creative side down. If I was to give some advice, I would just say read flappy's reply :) He He, no seriously, he is right though, at the end of the day you gotta do what makes you happy.

Ducimus
The visuals are stunning and the animation is top notch...
I am currently in Animation and are anxious to get out into the fray of things...
Hopefully my demo will make it to you...
I have just a few questions:
#1) Does Blur work only with 3dsmax, if so are there any plans on expanding to different software such as XSI?
#2) I am also a digital Grunge/Graphix/PhotoManipulation Artists, I have seen some bits about your 2D side, I am wondering what kind of opertunities lie with Blur in a 2D Advertisment feild?

Thanks! Yeah we really only use Max, we have a few licenses of XSI which we're using to test out a few ideas, but no big plans to move off Max just yet.....
As for the 2D field ? Not too sure there, our Design Department may do some of that but I am not 100% sure, Jen might be best suited to this. We do do some promotional material, magazine covers, billboards, posters etc... but it's usually an add on to 3D work we're already doing for our clients.

Viper
I'm gonna go with the flow and first congratulate you guys on every single project you've done so far. All the shorts, plus the game cinematics and so on are all really awsome. I'm definately a fan...if a feature film does ever come out, you have my ticket
As for questions, I think most of it has been covered, but I wanted to know, if having a college background is often necessary when hiring someone?
Also, do you guys look for specific skills too? For instance, if someone can't really texture well, but can do great modelling work, or lighting work, he might be considered?
Finally, does drawing godlike (IE: Feng Zhu) is a necessity to all positions? Or having basic notions, maybe enough to pass on an idea, is enough? Granted, the person meets other requirements...
I'm really just curious about your hiring guidelines. I'm thinking of getting in the industry, and wanted to have an idea on how a studio like yours goes with that stuff

Thanks! A college background is definately not neccessary, all comes down to talent.
For sure we look for specific talents, we do split up the production here, generally modelers do their own texturing. Like I said earlier most environment modelers move on to lighting and scene assembly but Character modelers generally just stick to character modeling. If you ARE particularily strong in one area, then go for it, tailor your reel to that, but yes, we do hire specific skillsets.
Drawing is not a neccessity at all. hiring guildines are simple.... you're talented, welcome to Blur :)

NoSeRider
http://academy.smc.edu/ (http://academy.smc.edu/)
What do you think about this school for animation?
I know you'd preferr CalArts Alumni, but I keep seeing people that teach at CalArts also teach at the Academy......You're in Venice, the school is in Santa Monica...I was hoping you would have some insight.

I'll check it out, although Miller would really be the one to comment here.

butlafer
Blur is a place I would dream of working sometime after I am done with college. What things could I do or should I do to be about the competition? examples would help!
Thanks, keep up the awesome graphics

I think Miller has kinda answered this already.

-Vormav-
-I hate to come off as a nuissance or anything (I'm sure you get these kinds of questions every day), but I'm particularly interested in how internships are handled through you guys. I guess I'm just assuming they're offered, though I didn't really see anything on it through your website.
Could you offer some insight on this, perhaps? Maybe some examples of the kind of work that has gotten people internships at your studio in the past (again, based on the assumption that you offer internships)? Obviously, there's going to be more to it than how pretty your renders are. I'm starting to feel like I have the technical knowledge to be able to take on an internship, but can't say much beyond that.

We don't really do internships, I think Miller would be best suited to answer your questions here. He does occasionally take on people to prepare his cabbage diet lunch for him, stroke his fragile ego, read his shortfilm submissions and tell him how great they are and to rub his belly while he works to keep the hunger pangs down, but he can elaborate on the whole internship thing for you.

-You all obviously have your Max pipeline worked out well enough to be able to produce film-quality animations. I'm sure I've read interviews in the past where some of you have spoken of the way that using Max has strengthened your pipeline, but are there ever any cases where some aspect of Max completely breaks the development cycle apart - where you've started concidering adding additional 3d apps to the pipeline? Some apps just do some thing better, but then with a studio like Blur, I would guess that the artists are always able to find ways to get around some of the problems well enough for it to not affect the workflow too greatly.

We've always managed to work around any problem we've had software wise, the scripters here are awesome at helping us solve problems that we can get done with our usual tools. Discreet is also pretty good at updating us when we run into issues, I can't tell you how amazing it is to work at a studio where when you pipe up about something that isn't working properly or could be better the developers actually listen and fix it for you, that concept was just unfathomable for me before I reached Blur.

-Somebody needs to give your web designer a pat on the back. That menu bar is quite sexy. Of course the same comment applies to all of the animations as well, but web designers need a little bit of recognition too.

I'll make sure our Design Department sees this then :) Thanks !

Kramerica
I am very intersted in how you came together and initially started Blur. What's the breakdown of your core staff, and how many projects do you generally work on at once?

Tim can answer how Blur started for you, but breakdown wise, I'd say 20 Animators, 5 Dedicated Character Modelers, 20 Modelers and Scene Assemblers, A few dedicated rigging guys, 6 Dedicated FX Artists, Couple of Layout Artists, Handfull of Producers, 3 Concept Artists.... I'm sure I am missing something, and I really plucked these numbers out of the air.....

DivideByZero
I think everyone else has already covered any questions I had...
So I'll just take this opportunity to congratulate all the amazing artists at Blur.
Thanks for the inspiration - keep up the great work!

Thank YOU!

tilite
it funny that this pops up today not even 10hrs ago i sent an email to Bobby Beck threw his site asking where i could find a downloadable copy of Hubert's Brain and Vanilla Pudding. After i went to your site and was planning sending and email to you guys to find a downloadable copy of your films, but fatiuge assaulted and i had to go to bed. I was hoping that seems cgnetworks has preview of 3 of your fine films it wouldnt be that bizarre to download them from somewhere? (i ask this because it is soooo much easier to download the film once and stop wasting my downloads on viewing all of these once a week

Are you asking where you can download copies of our shorts ?

i wanted to ask what in the next short the studio is working on and if there was a url to check it out?? and also what is there to look out for in the future for blur??

We have selected and begun preproduction work on our next short, but nothing is publically available yet. As for the future, we're all holding thumbs for the feature film.....

oh 1 more thing (i promise) i wanted to know what u guys think is quality inspirational animation... and by that a couple urls to artist and animations. And if like your films they are 'protected'?? pfffft please just mention them and ill do my own research

Hmmm, to be honest I couldn't metion one thing in particular that inspires me, everyday I am either sent some new amazing animation I've never seen before, or I find something awesome up on CGnetworks. There's just too much out there...... I will however see what I do have stashed on my PC at home and maybe a few old inspiring pieces of work will come to mind. Sorry nothings popping up there right now other than I'm only on page 2!!! of this questionaire :( I'm SO slow......

and congrats on all of you achievements to date and best of luck for the future


Thanks.

[DaveWilson]

Peddy
Congrats on getting even more attention =]

He He thanks ;)

The cinematics you guys and gals at Blur made are the kind of material that make me want to buy a game, most evidently with the Dawn of War cinematics. I'm not too keen on the idea of Warhammer (the original game), but the cinematics were done so well that I almost couldn't not buy the game.

Thanks, that was an awesome project to work on, Glad you enjoyed it !

Same goes with the Hellgate: London cinematics I saw the other day.

That was Jed and his superstar team on that one, they did an amazing job with the amount of material they had to get through in the short time they had to do it. His ass is a little sore from all the love pats now, and he's finally back from E3 after spending everyday oogling at his work at the Namco booth, although, I know he was really just drooling over the Namco girls.

And I'm sure I'm not the only one who appreciates how much a good cinematic adds to the potential of a game. However, we all all aware that Blur aspires for greater things, such as feature films, but if such an endeavour doesn't arrive as soon as the studio would like, are game cinematics and short films enough to sustain the (or any company, for that matter) company until the studio has enough corporate presence to create an I.P? What does it take for a studio to make the jump from short film to feature film, to fully independant production?

CASH! No the shorts are great for showing what we can do when it's just US, just Blur, totally 100% Blur, the shorts are a great way of showing the quality we're ready to put towards a feature. We've been gearing our pipeline towards long format storytelling for a while now, all the tools and pipeline modifications we make are geared towards feature film production.

blaXX++
-Where do you get your inspiration?

Everyday when I come into work and see all the cool shit around me!

-How do you get the motivation to keep the shorts at maximum quality?

I demand manly love from Tim Miller ! Ok, seriously, it's just something we LOVE doing. We know we could stop at one point and call it done, but we keep saying "Oh, man what about if we just add this in and that". Al Shier and Jeff Fowler were great on Gopher in terms of keeping us all happy and pumped, even after some long nights, it's always fun. When I look back at some last tough stretches on Warhammer and Gopher, to be 100% honest, they have been some of my most fun and memorable moments here at Blur.

Could you give any tips or pointers for CG artists wanting to do the same sort of stuff you guys do now?

Just keep at it, it takes a LOT of dedication and Talent. I know that's like the cop out answer, but seriously, the arists here are as good as they are because simply put they're talented and they work hard to stay at the top of their game. I personally feel if I am away for 2 weeks I have a lot of catching up to do :) It's just that fast ;)

requiem
I'm currently graduating and finishing up my modeling reel. I'm finding that the bulk of my reel is cartoonish characters (like my avitar) and I'm wondering if a lack of realism is a bad thing.

Nope not at all ! Especially here, we do a WIDE range of work.

What do you look for in a modeling reel?

Just good modeling skills. Attention to detail. Clean Meshes. Texturing skills.... you can really see straight away if someone has talent and knows what they're doing.

UnSa
first off I want to say how much I love your work and how inspiring it really is to see what you guys can come up with.

Thanks!

I'm a junior student in high school right now and I'm seeking good Colleges where I can excel in 3d. I was curious to know if Blur knows any good colleges where they would recommend me going. Also, does Blur set up tours of the studio? I live in Los Angeles and would love to come by and see how Blur opperates. Thanks!


I am not sure of all the good colleges, but I know there is a thread somewhere here on CGTalk about that, or am I wrong ? We do do tours here too, generally schools come and tour through, I am not sure about individual tours though, I don't think we do that.

Heber
1-do your modelers create models than can perform in various situations and extremeties or do you create models than can work for the shots that they need to be in and then repair in post?

We do both, if we need different models for extreme cases then we do go ahead and alter the models for those shots, we do however try and create a model that will cover everything we need on a project. We also do do some repair in post, and some in scene assembly too.

2-What do you look for in a good modeler? are you looking for someone who can model characters or environments really well and can do just that? or do you like to see range , aka someone who can model and build in all different kinds of styles?

Character and Environment or Hard Surface modelers (i.e. Props Vehicles) are generally seperated, there are those here who can do it all, but most of our Character Modelers just stick to characters, simply cause it makes them better just getting more and more experience modeling characters and often they just enjoy the characters more.

thesuit


Does BLUR use referencing for their characters in a normal animation pipeline? If so, do you work on different stages of production at the same time using referencing technique or do you have a more linear workflow
We don't reference the characters that much, there are specific cases where we do. We are able to work on different stages of production at the same time, although it's not ideal, but one of the main tools allowing us to work on Animation and Scene Assembly at the same time, for example, is that we use Point Cache to drive the meshes in the Scene Assembly file, which updates as soon as the animator bakes the animation out of their animation file, in which they would have their rigged and skinned character, also allowing the scene assemblers to work in their files with no rigs at all, since the mesh is totally driven by the PointCache.


How many Brogs do you think you have around for the ITR production? So far, normal brog, wet brog, muddy brog... do you make special rigs for special situations or a master rig that works wonders?
Flap will have to answer this one for you.

rickman
My questions which may have been ask in many different ways is: Do you see your animators using other tools other than 3DS Max, like Maya or Softimage, or do you prefer them to use properitary software built by your programmers? Also as a person with not too many drawing skills to you ever hire animators (in general) based soley on there skills applied through a computer?


We use max and our own custom tools we've developed, and yes we do hire based soley on 3D skills.

Pyke
Just wanna add into the fan-boyism here, and say that you guys are all fantastic, and If given the oportunity (and were I not a guy), I would gladly have your respective children.

Ha Ha, Thanks, I think.

* I've read in previous articles about your work that you use mo-cap in some of your shorts (Warhammer, Rockfish, Wolfenstein...). Do you guys have your own motion capture studio, or do you outsource your stuff?

Yeah we have our own Vicon 8 system.

* There are several studios that have a definitive 'you are a texture artist...texture, you are a modeler-model' mentality. Is Blur like this, or is it more of a jack-of-all-trades studio?

You're really whatever you want to be here, if you've got the skills and want to try something new, not just say modeling anymore, and want to try animation and you can prove it, you can do it. Most modelers do do their own texturing though. We don't usually split those, I mean who would really just want to have the job of unwrapping UV's ALLL DAAAY LONG. :(

* How many people now work at Blur? Do you seperate into different 'groups' when handeling multiple projects, or are you guys already in different sections?

Ah, I see Ian got to this already.... I should read ahead more......

* With your foray into features-are you going to continue doing game cinematics and shorts?

Pretty much, until we don't have the bandwith anymore, but I think we'll definately not close the door alltogether on Cinematics and Shorts, obviously the goal is to produce the feature, but cinematics have been our bread and butter for a long time and the shorts are just awesome to work on.

* This question is specifically for Dave Wilson: As a South Africa (or any person from another country) looking at getting into Blur-how did you do it? Apply from SA, get accepted, and then go Visa hunting? Or were you already in the states when you applied for the job? What is Blurs policy on hiring 'foreign' staff? And how on earth do you live without Biltong?

I was pretty lucky with getting out here, Miller found my website and emailed me asking if I wanted to come aboard, that was really as simple as it was. Blur was AMAZING in getting me out here, it was a LONG process getting my Visa but Blur kindly sorted most of it out for me.

We have no official policy on hiring foreign staff, Miller looks ALL the time for talent, if he finds it in Finland, South Africa or some other far away land he's more than happy to bring you aboard if he thinks you've got what it takes, Visa can be a problems sometimes though, but if it's possible he'll do what he can to get you out here.

Yeah.... Biltong..... Sigh. Although there are some speciality butchers in L.A. that sell it, I even found a bar that makes BoerieRolls, MilkTart and sells Castle Lager the other day ;) Was just like home..... until I got back on the 405.

* On average, how many cups of coffee are consumed on a daily basis?

None by me, my stash of rooibos is still lasting me :) and that Redbull stacked fridge gets me through the late nights.

Just want to say again what an inspiration Blur studios is! And I hope to be working with you guys-one of these days!


Thanks Dude !!

jasonslab
i'm not gonna say much more than, u guys are doing some amazing work and i'm looking forward to seeing your upcoming projects!!

Thanks Jason!

lukx
First of all, RESPECT for all you're doing. I got one question:
How is it at the begining. I mean how did you know how to do things. I mean compositing effects, knowing stuff about using proper resolutions and so. Everybody have to start and let's say you finally got a client who want to do comercial with you how did you know at the begining how to work, what to do first, and how to do it?

I think Miller's gonna have to hit this one.

RAINpit
as for mr. miller, i think u'r the only guy i've ever heard using the word f.. in an official
interview, that was hilarious (i think it was on some eyeon tape, anyway, funny as hell).
love the don;'t give a sh.. attitude (works alot for the whole studio i think)

Miller's vocabularily is actually very limited, so he's adopted the "I don't give a shit" attitude to cover up for all his profanity, but we still love him.

like: how's xsi workin' for you guys? what do u think about it and how do u feel workin with it?
does it integrate well into the pipeline? what do u use it for besides crowd/character anim? ain't it a cutie ?

Only a very select few guys here are working with it, it's more like, we're just trying a few new ways of doing things.

don't screw up the story for Rockfish, whenever that gets done, whatever gets done make us proud.

Don't worry that's Miller's baby and he'll do you proud I am sure, I think I see him re-reading his script again with that gleefull smile......

eddieellis
you guy's rock and im not going to stop until i get a job with you..

I like it !! :)

PHEW, that was a lot longer than planned :) , Ok, well I guess that'll have to be it for now.... i better get back to work before Miller comes over and craps all over me.
Thanks for all the kind words and great questions.... I'll get to some more of them tonight.

Cheers, Dave.

[jampoz]

Holy poly it's just like stepping into Blur Studio and grab each one of 'em from the hair "now tell me this and that, speak!"

Rude but lovely, it's working and it's great!
Thank you guys! :thumbsup:

[madmanmagic]

I see many references to Flap's answers to questions, but I can't find Flap?

[DaveWilson]

Sorry Flappy or Flap, that's Paul Taylor.

[Glenfx]

Hi, i wanted to ask you guys, i just saw a cinematic animation from the game "Hellgate London" and is said it was made by Blur studios thouh it doesnt contain the credits.

If you created that amazing piece of animation:

I wanted to ask you guys, how do you approach each animation?, i mean, you have really different styles that go from cartoony to very realistic ones.

I also saw many details on each model, is most of it displacement? do you use Zbrush?

Another question i have is, how do you animate human characters? motion capture and keyframes, or its completly keyframed?

i have more questions, but i dont have much time.

Cheers

[andreasng]

Greetings Blur

What we have seen from you guys have been quite diverse, I really love that. But when you someday start earning the big $, are you then going to follow the great companies' (disney,dreamworks,pixar(sometimes),etc. etc.) path and become undaring and unexploring, making the same thing again and again, because you know thats the recipe for succes???

Or do you not see the great companies like that?

Would you ever consider trying out some really graphic style? Or will you always make stuff that looks real (maybe charicatured, but not graphic) ?

Have you ever considered bringing in some programmers and start making games ? Your ideas seem quite game-friendly. (rockfish would make a great consept)

... Anyways I really adore your work... IMHO OMG WTF everything looks absolutly amazing. Gods speed to you all!!!

[agravois]

Thanks for taking the time to drop some science, blurfolk! Your work just gets better and better & I've always appreciated the prodigious tool sharing you've done in the past via blurbeta.

My questions are about pipeline:
How linear and/or locked-off are the phases in your schedules? It's hard to avoid the temptation to fix this model or add that shot late in the game. I've found that one simply can't spend too much time on the animatic... but that postpones animation, motion capture, and to a lesser extent, scene modeling. Where do you strike the balance?

Also, how much do you rely on producers? That is, do you have one or more producers per job, tracking assets & shots, organizing artist time, etc, or are the artists primarily self-scheduled and organized? Does the CG supe do all the producer tasks?

Do you generally use one Max file for multiple shots or is it one shot-one file? If you don't rely heavily on x-refs, how do you maintain asset consistency across shots and sequences? (Maybe you lock down the models early? If so, HOW?!)

Finally, how do you manage render passes within Max? What are the tools like? Are they comparable to XSI's render passes (if you are familiar with those)?

Thanks for the wisdom!

[hhssuu]

Hello Blur,

I'm a max user and I love the stuff blur makes using max. So here are my questions:

1. I know you've got programmer to make custom tools for specific jobs so max really has no limitations at blur. But with no custom tools what aspects of max would you think need a bit of improvment?

2. Another question is, ther are so many ways of facial setups these days: morphs, bones, spines etc. What do you guys use and what do you think is the most flexible?

That's all, and i really love the shorts you guys did. And i love the way you guys make max look great.

[tki]

Thanks Blur,

Ur answer was really tight.... Sorry if i wasn't clear but u got me any how..


thanks......

[Jed]

Hi, i wanted to ask you guys, i just saw a cinematic animation from the game "Hellgate London" and is said it was made by Blur studios thouh it doesnt contain the credits.

If you created that amazing piece of animation:

I wanted to ask you guys, how do you approach each animation?, i mean, you have really different styles that go from cartoony to very realistic ones.

I also saw many details on each model, is most of it displacement? do you use Zbrush?

Another question i have is, how do you animate human characters? motion capture and keyframes, or its completly keyframed?

i have more questions, but i dont have much time.

Cheers


Animation on Hellgate was a mix of mo cap and keyframes. We used keyframes on everything where mocap was not possible : quadrupeds, superhuman backflips, etc ... The mocap we use is usually heavily tweaked by hand afterwards anyway.

We only used displacements on one character, the big-mouth demon with no eyes in the first sequence, but we used normal maps exported from Zbrush on all the other demons. Normal maps usually give us enough detail, and we've always had better results with characters that have lots of modeling detail than displaced lo-poly cages.
The two heroes have no displacements or normal maps but were going above a million polys at render time.

[young_927]

Hey blur~

you guys are one of my fav studios around~! really artist driven~ :)

one question i have is,,
since you guys do lots of different projects..
do you guys have lot of down time between projects?
if you guys do? what do you guys work on ? or do some people get laid off? like contract basis?


thanks!~

[overcontrast]

sorry for asking another questions. but i really wanna know this.

When you guys begin with BLUR studios, how did u financed it. Was it your own pocket money or was it loan or something. Or was it like some kind of project with some awesomely talanted people wanting to work for free for some higher ambition?And when u started how did u grow? Did u use to do any comarcial works for TV? or what sort of work did u guys use to do when u first started?....

thanx for ur time.... love u all :thumbsup:

[tilite]

thanks for getting back to me and most importantly not ending the conversation with blunt words and allowing me to waste more of your time.... here it goes

it funny ...//...once a week

Are you asking where you can download copies of our shorts ?

haha.. yes that excatly what im asking. thought if i put a spin on it, it may not sound like im jus trying to rip the blur shorts... but yes, can i get them anywhere?

i wanted to ask what in the next short the studio is working on and if there was a url to check it out?? and also what is there to look out for in the future for blur??

We have selected and begun preproduction work on our next short, but nothing is publically available yet. As for the future, we're all holding thumbs for the feature film.....

NOW THAT IS SOMETHING I MUST SEE!! well why dont you just fund your own... then you have full creative control, haha. i'll tell you what ive got $20 that may get u started and im sure it enough to buy myself into a ping-pong ball suit and have your way with me! realistically i wish you the best of luck and make sure the whole world knows about it when it happens.. it will:thumbsup:

oh 1 more thing (i promise) i wanted to know what u guys think is quality inspirational animation... and by that a couple urls to artist and animations. And if like your films they are 'protected'?? pfffft please just mention them and ill do my own research

Hmmm, to be honest I couldn't metion one thing in particular that inspires me, everyday I am either sent some new amazing animation I've never seen before, or I find something awesome up on CGnetworks. There's just too much out there...... I will however see what I do have stashed on my PC at home and maybe a few old inspiring pieces of work will come to mind. Sorry nothings popping up there right now other than I'm only on page 2!!! of this questionaire :( I'm SO slow......

if you could look that would be awesome! i'm sure your could send a dvd data vd to australia on the company account :thumbsup: oh poor effort on the questionaire replys you really should be on page 5 by now - but im glad you are taking your time, giving us proper answers is what makes this thing so damn great!!!

and congrats on all of you achievements to date and best of luck for the future


and congrats on all of you achievements to date and best of luck for the future

Thanks.

nps i mean it you guys do great work and deserve to be praised!
cheers
tom

[elfling bard]

Hi my question is more music oriented. I found your animations quite distinctive and inspiring.

Do you have music composers in-house or work with composers in your area or elsewhere in the world?

If you do work with composer out of town, I will send my demoreel to you.
I really enjoy your work!

Thank you

[[blur] brobison]

quick question for Dave Wilson:
why are you such a rail whore?

[Viper]

Dave, thanks for the answers mate. Blur just scored a few more positive points on my list heh. I have to get my act together and do more work again...been kinda lazy :)

I have another question, but this time related to techiniques...Can you give a quick description of how you do natural enviroments? Like for instance the enviroments on Rockfish, was that displacement mapping or something else?

Also, when doing multiple characters for an animation, do you guys do a base mesh and modify it from there like Pixar did in The Incredibles, or do you take a diferent aproach? I of course mean for the more secondary characters. For main ones, I'm sure you do them separately...but take for instance all the zombies in Hellgate: London...was that one mesh modfied to make the others? And then if doing Human characters would the aproach be the same?

Thanks for the time...It's really cool what you guys are doing here :)

[belail]

This is just something I've been wanting to ask someone from Blur for a while so I'm happy to see the opportunity present itself. Whatever happened to Mindbridge and Out of Time? I'm more interested in Mindbrige since I seem to remember hearing that Warren Ellis wrote a script for it something like that. I saw some designs and 3d renders for both a while back but haven't heard anything about them since.

Thanks.

[jason-slab]

quick one

how many compositers do u guys have? and do u only use DF?
ok another one, and how many VFX/particle guys do u have?
ok ok one more:), what is your prephered output for renders from 3d, tiff? and do u usually use 8, 16 or 32bit?

|jason

[phreakmonkey]

Good stuff. Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions.
For some reason scene assembly really catches my attention. Maybe it's because I've rarely heard this term used before.... or have I just been stuck in a closet?

+What exactly do scene assembler's do?... I guess... other than assemble scenes.
+Are there any specific skills needed that comes with scene assembly? Obviously talent...but what else should someone be good at to be a good scene assembler.
+Since environment modelers cross over with scene assembers, do environment modelers cross over much with hard surface modeling? correct me if I've misunderstood some things.
+Any hopes of ressurecting MindBridge? Concepts, and producton done on that were looking sweet.

Thanks in advance for your replies and spending the time. If its 2