Does anybody even still visit this blog? It’s been six years and I didn’t even remember the password to log in to write this post. Anyways, how are all of you? Hope you’ve been well. Since the last time I wrote on this blog I got married, bought a house here in LA, and had a couple of kids: A two year old and a 10 month old that I’ve recently been on paternity leave for the next couple of months. I guess you can say I traded in trying to change the world for changing diapers! Its been fun honestly. Kids surprisingly make life less stressful. Every few months I still get pinged by someone in VF ..read more

Update: You can donate to Eric here: https://www.gofundme.com/s5hw7-send-eric-to-dc Huge thanks to all of you who helped contribute to comments on NAFTA renegotiations. VFX professional Eric Rosenthal left a comment in the previous post that he might be able to go to Washington D.C. to speak out in support of trade action on VFX subsidies during NAFTA renegotiations. Great news to hear this week that he has been invited to speak! I met Eric when he volunteered to testify at Los Angeles City Hall during hearings about the lost of VFX work in California and against giving subsidies to the US st ..read more

Statement from Daniel Lay, Co-Founder of the Association of Digital Artists, Professionals, and Technicians In 2013 Daniel Lay, the writer behind the industry blog VFX Soldier started ADAPT to help fund and direct a trade effort to curtail the use of subsidies in the Visual Effects industry. The hope was to hire a DC-based law firm specializing in international trade to help prosecute a case in international trade court. The goal was to levy anti-subsidy duties against countries like Canada who offered massive government subsidies to US studios like Disney and Warner Bros. that can cover up to ..read more

Hollywood Reporter: Ron Thornton, an Emmy-winning visual effects designer, supervisor and producer who worked on such shows as Babylon 5 and Star Trek: Voyager, has died. He was 59. Variety: Thornton is best known for bringing computer-generated imagery (CGI) to television, most notably on the series “Babylon 5.” Following its series pick-up, he formed Foundation Imaging in 1992 with Paul Beigle-Bryant, who would go on to supervise visual effects for “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” “Voyager,” and “Enterprise.” He won a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding achievement in visual effects i ..read more

Today is my last day in the visual effects industry. It’s an industry that I’ve spent nine years of my life completely dedicated to, so it’s a bitter sweet kind of day. My love for animation and film began at 4 years old, when I saw the Lion King at the cinema with my dad. From that point on, having watched these cartoon animals with such believable human qualities, I knew I wanted to be involved with the magic and at the age of 18 finally enrolled onto my dream VFX course. Growing up with good people around me I never really witnessed or experienced any kind of “special treatment”. Therefore ..read more

I came across a post on Facebook by one of Ron Thornton’s friends that the veteran VFX supervisor has been hospitalized. While I don’t have all the information a gofundme page has been set up to help pay for medical expenses. If you can please help support him and spread the word about donating. https://www.gofundme.com/2pbngrnc Soldier On ..read more

Tonight a majority UK voters chose to leave the European Union which as of this writing is leading to a meltdown in financial markets and wild drops in foreign currencies agains the US dollar. There’s been a bit of chatter amongst many in VFX as to the ramifications for those who work in UK VFX facilities which is made up of many migrants from the EU. In my view, while most experts agree that #Brexit is a great evil, it might be advantageous for the UK VFX industry. The UK along with the rest of the global VFX industry relies heavily on massive subsidies offered to Hollywood studios which sen ..read more

Are people still reading this thing? Well, It’s been a year since I’ve posted on this blog and after the end of the ADAPT effort I took a long hiatus. As disappointed as I was, the post-VFX life has been great. New opportunities, I got a home, and even fooled a wonderful woman to spend the rest of her life with me. Maybe I’ll write about it some time if you’re bored. Anyways, I figured I’d come back if there was something interesting to write about and this week there was some big news: DreamWorks Animation has been acquired by Comcast. The Animation Guild’s Steve Hulett and Ca ..read more

From the press release: https://wikileaks.org/sony/press/ Today, 16 April 2015, WikiLeaks publishes an analysis and search system for The Sony Archives: 30,287 documents from Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) and 173,132 emails, to and from more than 2,200 SPE email addresses. SPE is a US subsidiary of the Japanese multinational technology and media corporation Sony, handling their film and TV production and distribution operations. It is a multi-billion dollar US business running many popular networks, TV shows and film franchises such as Spider-Man, Men in Black and Resident Evil. In Novemb ..read more

The other day I got an email from the VES asking members to suggest nominees for title of VES Fellow: The Visual Effects Society is asking for your suggestions for nominees for title of VES Fellow, which is a member who has maintained an outstanding reputation and who has made exceptional achievements and sustained contributions to the art, science or business of visual effects, as well as enabling members’ careers and promoting community worldwide for a period of not less than ten (10) years within the last twenty (20) years. Previous VES Fellows recipients include: Jonathan Erland (2010) De ..read more