Ok people lets talk.
I would like for this subforum to continue to do well, and for that I need to hear you input.
What would you like like to do?
What can we do do improve the forum?
What can we do do improve the challenges?
Consider this an open mike,
looking forward to your comments.
-R
Time wise, I think many people pulled out of the last challenge because they did not have enough time to finish it, it was really a pity I could see that there where some entries which could have been amazing.
To improve the challenges why not a “FX recreation”, trying to recreate a type of VFX from a movie which is chosen by whoever. Like bullet time from the matrix :rolleyes: (lol, which has been done to death) or the when the stargate dials in, in SG-1.
I also get the impression there is an emphasis on trying to be realistic as possible when it involves modeling element’s for scenes, the emphasis should be more on the fx than the models in the background.
I like the idea of an FX recreation, though another thing i’d like to see more is to do some cg meets live action shots, though i know a lot don’t have a camera so that could conflict with some, so maybe two types of challenge could be made, one using full cg, and one cg/live action type of shots.
I’m looking at this forum and these challenges as basically exercises to build up demo reels. As such, I think the following principles are important:
That said, camera tracking, photogrammetry, complicated effects work, and seamless compositing in a one-man team is a pretty tall order. Especially since most effects-based stuff use the more expensive versions of the various packages out there.
My suggestion is to keep the live footage-based ones pretty simple, and focus on the compositing. It’s a skill that many people here sorely lack, and even more don’t realize is an integral part of this business. Many, many houses ONLY do compositing work – no 3d.
As for the more complicated effects, I say keep them fully 3d, that way one doesn’t have to deal with live action shenanigans on top of everything.
Recreating effects seen in major movies is a good idea, since lord knows I’ve had to do it more than once. I would say, don’t directly ape it – new camera angle, etc. Put your own spin on it. But if someone’s done it once, there’s information out there on the effect, stuff one can put to good use, and stuff one should probably know anyway.
Yeah i also do like the idea “Fx Recreation”… infact in my last challange i got inspiration from mckay’s Blade Trinity work and i did try to recreate it…
I think so many ppl rarely have time to put input in this challange.
but recreation of Fx might can attract so many ppl.Like u choose any Fx scene from the movie and we have to recreate that kind of scene again with different location or blah blah …(little mcuh upto us…) like the man disappearing effect from the war of the worlds movie, or Like running between dinos from kingkong…blah blah…
and yeah keeping it live action + CG makes the challange more interesting rather then completly CG sometimes.
i also like that idea but what about… " Recreate your favorite movie Fx " and no " recreate lazersabe fight like in starwars" …that would be cool cuz the entries will be very diverse and will be fun tu see the diferent ideas… also a " Make anything you like " … i think that will have a lot of participation i know like 5 people that doesnt want to participate in this challenge cus they dont have any idea with the ocean… 
I think having long deadlines will definetly allow for better entries, and finished ones for that matter, but at the same time will make the majority of the community kind of throw it in the backburner – like they’ll know there’s a visual fx war thingy, and see it on the front page… but then forget about cause they don’t hear about it for 2 months. So I’d say post it up front more often by having small rotating battles also…
How do you guys feel about having two simultaneous competitions at a time – the long haul one being the 2 monther, where it should be like they have been now… well thought out projects where teams are encouraged, and then also have rotating small battles where maybe every 2-3 weeks there’s a more specific technical effect people should be going after, where you could do them more yourself, like a flamethrower, or tornado or something… maybe a simple compositing exercise… and/or have those small battles related to the big war – ie for this last one, it could’ve been the ocean shader (which is what turned up the most) then the next one could be realistic foam with water spray, then the next be adding a ship with wake, and realistic bouyancy or something. I think this would be kind of cool because like Bonedaddy said," a one-man team is a pretty tall order" I think that goes for a lot of it, but keeping the small battles to something a single person could do, then making the wars a full on project with the compositing and the rotoscoping and greenscreening and whatnot.
Besides that as an idea, i think a recreation is a great idea, but we should all have to do something very similar so that we could actually judge who’s is better than whos, ya know? This also kind of leads into having supplied footage that we have to work with. I don’t have easy access to a dv cam… so it’s kind of a pain for me to get some live action footage, though I’m dying to work with some. Full cg stuff is great too, as we’re seeing more and more of it being fully cg… And then this leads into what exactly is visual fx? I think the topics you’ve been going with are on-track for the most part of what people will actually want to do… I wouldn’t want to model a person, then rig and animate that person doing something for a vfx shot… even though that’s often a very integral part of vfx…
I’ll shut up now… i think you guys get my points…
–Solitude:)
Ok ill try to adress some points:
[ul]
[li]Supplied Footage:[/li]It would be wonderful to use it, but first we need sources.
Any ideas?
[li]Fx Recreation:[/li]I like originality and one of my concerns is that copying something that has been done to death (bullet time) will stiffle originality. Maybe we could do a challenge called : “Re-think Bullet Time”.
Or do you guys prefer something called FX-TAXIDERMY and recreate some new/classic FX sequences. IE: The Predator FX, the desitegration FX of the remake War of the Worlds, Bullet time, Escape the TX FX from The Ring, The water tentacle from The Abyss .
[li]Rotating Challenges: [/li]What do you guys think of this ideas?
[li]Comp Only Challenges: [/li]For that we again need some footage.
The question is where do we get it?
[li]Team Entries:[/li]As Bonedaddy crealy said, soem challenges are clearly a tall order for a one man team. How do we encourage more team entries?
[/ul]Great points people so far.
Lets keep this conversation going.
-R
Hi Roberto and all other enthousiast FXWar generals and soldiers! :twisted:
Some things I’d like to say about the way its going:
), and the level of ambition/passion you put into your work. I always want to make it to a nice end product with a story and a cinematic feel on it, but other people might have annother ‘goal’/mission. ) are targeting for. I like the composition wars in every case better, as you then can finally bundel your creativity into a nice movie. ) Other ideas for ‘this people of Hollywood’: Rick Heinrichs, Janusz Kaminski, Terry Gilliam, Peter Jackson, Stanley Kubrich and such ‘great people’ out of what you’d have a great range of originality and creative freedom.
My fingers need a drink now! I hope my vision on this challenges is valuable for the further ones! All the best to all fellow-FX(Wars)-people!
-Gijs
Or do you guys prefer something called FX-TAXIDERMY and recreate some new/classic FX sequences. IE: The Predator FX, the desitegration FX of the remake War of the Worlds, Bullet time, Escape the TX FX from The Ring, The water tentacle from The Abyss .
That’s an even better idea. Recreating classic FX and doing recent FX shots using your own ideas for the look.
I think the deadlines are more than enough time. The real world has much harsher ones – last week, I had to learn Maya Cloth and Fur from scratch well enough to make a photoreal simulation of someone fluffing out a golf course. I managed to do it in four days, by the skin of my teeth.
This week I’ve got to learn Realflow and Mental Ray shader development from scratch in order to create a photoreal soda commercial. Probably by the end of the week.
It’s all in budgeting your time, and learning how to best do your tests. That’s the true key to being an effective FX TD. In my opinion, one month is plenty of time for this sort of thing.
Lol…Bonedaddy I feel for you. A couple of weeks ago I came back from lunch, and my supervisor asked me “can you have fluid effects fire by 5:00?”.
It was 2:00
I never touched fluids
We’re basically an all XSI house
:eek:
Personally I’d like to see more dynamics based challenges. I didn’t participate back then…but I really enjoyed the trebuchet and rollercoaster challenges.
Also…doing a challenge with a supplied piece of footage (ie…an effect shot where the criteria is that everyone has to use the same footage) would be cool. They’d definitely need a theme or whatever, but that way everyone is on the same playing field and has access to the same raw materials (since us camera-less folk “miss out” sometimes when the other entries are able to do shoots ;))
The FXWars need more strippers and stripper oriented challenges.
Seriously though, Roberto, you’ve heard what I’ve been thinking about for the FXWars.
Major Sponsors, Organized (and Specialized) Teams, A better/more clear site interface to post our progress online (such as the CG Challenges website), And a standard bi-monthly challenge schedule (6 weeks to work, 2 weeks to post, vote, and promote).
It’s nice to see that the FXWars are still alive and that more people get involved in it.
I hope it grows without forgetting what is good about these challenges…short time frame to do a cool shot, on a specific type of effect. To me the CGChallenges from cgsociety are too long, 3 months…is way too long for me.
I also like the idea of a compositing challenge…as it’s a major plus for whoever does FX…to integrate your own FX. Light it correctly…and composite it correctly.
Anyways, Roberto congratulations for having this cool forum still up and Long Live the FX Wars man!
I hope it goes the best way possible!!
Xavier.
Well, I do not have that much experience in the industry but I am currently a student that I will keep on the low right now. However since Ive started which has only been 8wks now. We have worked on a few challenging projects. which at the time seemed ridiculous but I quickly found out how much work it was and how much you can do if you have the proper focus ie time etc.
I also had, the wrong idea of what and FX artist really is. I guess you can summarize it as doing the little things like greeking, photogrammetry, compositing, camera mapping, wire removal, cleaning plates etc. It more about the grimmy type of work not designing Golum and what not. I kinda see fx artists in another light now. My instructor always says it all about hacking and making it believable in the shortest amount of time.
I also think the challenges should be fun but also centered on material an employer can see on one’s reel as valuable. Also it would be nice to encourage folks who are willing to do the challenges to finish it and get valuable feedback regardless if they win or not. I think it should be about the process not pretty t-shirt at the finish line.
Another good point – people join too late or whatever so the battle/rotating competitions would be cool… maybe 6 weeks for a finished fx war, and maybe 2 weeks for the battles… 3 battles per war… kinda works out I think… They get plugged more often (one every two weeks, with the chance to lead into the main war, and they give more chances for other people to join in. and of course I think they should maybe be related like I said earlier…
It’d still be really nice for some supplied footage. I wish there was a place online for just some random plates… It’s gotta be the hardest thing to find right now. 
Just posting to agree on the supplied footage and live/action + fx comping. Surely someone has access to decent footage. How about getting the Reel | Stream/Adromeda guys onboard for a little cross promotion (see the 4:4:4 thread in the cinemetography forum- completely lossless HD footage - sweet for keying
Definately NOT a fan of recreating movie scenes. Where’s the creativity? In the process? Boring I think.
I have no problem with the way things are being done so far.