Industrial graphics

R
Posted By
ronviers
Feb 19, 2007
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345
Replies
4
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Closed
Hi,
What role does Photoshop play in the special effects used in a movie like ‘Ghost Rider’? I have only seen the trailers, and I suspect they use specially rendered scenes for trailers, but it looks like they have done a superior job of blending the effects into the background. I just looked at ‘Hulk’; I found the movie unwatchable even though it has Jennifer Connelly in it, and found the effects blending to be spectacularly bad – and this movie is not that old. It seems unlikely that technicians would use PS to do frame by frame edits to finish a scene. But I can see how they might use PS to create something like bookend frames and some other software to do tween frames. I suppose its possible that PS is not used at all but something like it would have to be used and it doesn’t seem reasonable that an effects company would code another product when PS can be purchased for only 600usd – which must be peanuts for Lucas.

Thanks,
Ron
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M
marathon
Feb 19, 2007
On 19 Feb 2007 00:46:52 -0800, in comp.graphics.apps.photoshop wrote:
Hi,
What role does Photoshop play in the special effects used in a movie like ‘Ghost Rider’? I have only seen the trailers, and I suspect they use specially rendered scenes for trailers, but it looks like they have done a superior job of blending the effects into the background. I just looked at ‘Hulk’; I found the movie unwatchable even though it has Jennifer Connelly in it, and found the effects blending to be spectacularly bad – and this movie is not that old. It seems unlikely that technicians would use PS to do frame by frame edits to finish a scene. But I can see how they might use PS to create something like bookend frames and some other software to do tween frames. I suppose its possible that PS is not used at all but something like it would have to be used and it doesn’t seem reasonable that an effects company would code another product when PS can be purchased for only 600usd – which must be peanuts for Lucas.

Photoshop is generally used for scene backgrounds (stuff that remains static). The heavy lifting is done by motion designers (as opposed to graphic designers) and CGI techs/designers. They generally work in 3d applications like Autodesks Maya, Combustion/Shake etc.
R
ronviers
Feb 19, 2007
On Feb 19, 11:07 am, "ST.D.AL" wrote:

Photoshop is generally used for scene backgrounds (stuff that remains static). The heavy lifting is done by motion designers (as opposed to graphic designers) and CGI techs/designers. They generally work in 3d applications like Autodesks Maya, Combustion/Shake etc.

I found that Café FX does the special effects for ‘Ghost Rider’ (and Pan’s Labyrinth (which I have not see but looks good)) so I checked their website to see what kind of people they are hiring and sure enough right after Render Wrangler (whatever that is) was the a Senior Level Character Rigger / Technical Director – Maya. So clearly Maya is the thing to know. BTW, they made a point of mentioning that there are 5000 resumes in the queue, not that I had any illusions of working there but it is disappointing that so many people so much more qualified than I am are available for those positions. The amazing thing is that a student version of Maya is available for only 341usd. Not that that is cheap but cheaper than Photoshop.
MR
Mike Russell
Feb 19, 2007
wrote in message

[re working at cool places]

BTW, they made a point of mentioning that there are
5000 resumes in the queue, not that I had any illusions of working there but it is disappointing that so many people so much more qualified than I am are available for those positions.
….
I used to work for one of those places: Lucasfilm. Most of the people there are straight staffers – not brilliant at all but in there because they knew someone who already worked there. Ignore the numbers. Personnel is a bunch of drones. If you really want it, and keep at it, you can get in. I started as a sysadmin and moved on to other projects.
—
Mike Russell
www.curvemeister.com/forum/
R
ronviers
Feb 20, 2007
On Feb 19, 5:30 pm, "Mike Russell" <
MOVE> wrote:

[re working at cool places]

I used to work for one of those places: Lucasfilm. Most of the people there are straight staffers – not brilliant at all but in there because they knew someone who already worked there. Ignore the numbers. Personnel is a bunch of drones. If you really want it, and keep at it, you can get in. I started as a sysadmin and moved on to other projects.
—
Mike Russellwww.curvemeister.com/forum/

At some point I would like to be part of a serious but fun group, where everyone works hard and pulls in the same direction, but I realize how rare those opportunities are. I also know that, for me at least, it is not about getting what I want but earning what I get.

Thanks for the support,
Ron

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