While
kikkin it with the Motion Graphics User Group in Los Angeles, Pinnacle
Systems, Northern Lights, and Linda Kane gave me the inside scoop to
their tools and techniques.
Steven Walker introduced the mechanics of using Northern Lights'
Blaster. Northern
Lights, is known in the industry for producing plug-ins
for the 3D package Electric Image.
Walker talked about the usage of Blaster in the building explosion shot that's on Northern Lights' website. The discussion focused on
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design concepts
and various approaches used to turn storyboards into the final shots.
Steven used Northern Light's Blaster plug-in to create elements of an
exploding building effect for the film Ticker. He used Blaster, camera
mapping techniques, compositing in After Effects and much more to create
the shot.
Steven's technique for animating the fog radii was various lights in
Electric Image to
create a moving mask which he used to control Artbeats pyro and cloud
chamber clips. Steven's work can be found at www.walkersj.com.
Steven is a freelance artist who has worked on numerous projects including "Spawn", "Titanic", "Star Trek: Insurrection", "Titan A.E.", CBS Sports opening, Claritin commercials, and the Dodgers Jumbotron. Northern Lights founder Blair Burtan covered the features and details of the Blaster plugin itself.
Lee Croft from Pinnacle Systems explained the CineWave system. This is a combination of Pinnacle's Commotion, Hollywood FX Bronze (for 3D transitions), Apple's Final Cut Pro, and the TARGA Cine hardware card which supports DV, component analog, D1, and high definition (including 1080p/24) video formats plus 20-bit digital audio, uncompressed, in 4:3 or 16:9 formats. These varying formats are supported through different breakout boxes, which can run at the same time (for example, you could have standard and hi-def simultaneously). Pinnacle Systems sponsored the meeting.
Last, but certainly
not least was a demo presentation of Linda
Kane. Linda has won an impressive total of 46 awards in her
distinguished career including 3 Emmys for Art Direction, 39 BDA Awards
(4 of them Gold), was the first recipient of the BDA/Quantel Special
Achievement Award in 1994, and was named one of the 15 Most Influential
Female Designers by the BDA in 1996.
She accredits her tool of choice to be Quantel. When asked if the new
surge of desktop NLE's have an affect on her getting clients, Linda
stated " High profile clients have such a time sensitive demand
for last minute changes that the fastest imitated real-time NLE's could
not meet their demands. But, when they do, they'll just by 5 or 6 to
add to their existing Quantel family." She appreciates Quantel
products because she doesn't have to focus on the mechanics of how it
works, just the art of creativity.
Linda has come to be well known for her innovative design and typographic work and for producing and art directing top to bottom redesigns. She recently launched her own design studio Linda Kane Design (LKD).
The meetings are hosted by Trish & Chris Meyer of CyberMotion, Lachlan Westfall of Quiet Earth, and Dan Warvi of Fox Family. For more information contact MGLA at http://www.mgla.org/
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