Here's a quick @beforesmag THREAD on some of the special presentations studios and companies are doing at @siggraph#siggraph2022 in Vancouver...
First up, it's the @autodesk Vision Series (I'm particularly looking forward to 'Camila Cabello & the Toughest Green Screen Shot I’ve Ever Undertaken') cvent.autodesk.com/event/bcf9e9f7…
HEY, here's a THREAD 🧵 on the engineering behind that eyeline system used on 'Avatar: The Way of Water' from the in-depth @beforesmag article (including how it was nearly a drone instead of a cablecam!) ...
VP supe Ryan Champney: “We already had a mo-cap system going as well, so we thought we could just give the drone a point in space & the mo-cap system would self-correct it, i.e. you could push it away and it would fly back. We ended up not going that route just because of sound.”
Champney & his team instead gravitated towards the cable suspended aerial camera systems offered by Supracam, commonly used at sporting events in which a camera housing mounted on 4 cables is rigged to offer sweeping mo-co camera moves around stadiums and other locations.
Look, 'Speed 2: Cruise Control' -- celebrating its 25th anniversary today!! -- was not a great film (shock horror) but I will forever remember the very cool VFX website that Rhythm & Hues established to demo their work. You can find it here: rhythm.com/speed2/
I spent HOURS on that website because it was one of the only ones at the time with very cool Flash-related or gif related befores/afters, and gave a fun insight into how VFX shots were done. Like the plane, and propellor shots in the film
Also recommend finding 'Making of Speed 2' doco around the place (it was on VHS Widescreen release of Speed!) which showcases Rhythm's work, and that of @ILMVFX which did amazing job on the cruise liner scenes (implementing some very neat reflection occlusion for ship windows).