March 12 |
Nuke Training in Northern Ireland Working along side Ian Murphy (Compositing Coach) spherevfx was again pleased to have trained artist at Factory Pictures in NukeX. Factory Pictures is Northern Ireland’s leading VFX facility, located a stone’s throw away from Titanic Studios and specialise in environments, digital matte paintings and CGI. During the course we covered:
spherevfx was also able to provide consultancy on some live projects running through the studio. |
March 12 |
Showing-off Katana at the University of Ulster Matt Leonard, Head Training at spherevfx was pleased to have demoed The Foundry's look development and lighting tool Katana to staff and students at the University of Ulster. The one off special event took place will Leonard was training artist at Factory Films Belfast. For more information on Katana training click here... |
March 12 |
Working with Solid Angle: Arnold Demo Ben Greasley, Senior Training at spherevfx was pleased to have worked alongside Solid Angle providing a number of Arnold demo for visual effects studios in London. For more information on Arnold visit the website... |
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February 12 |
Nuke training in Belgium spherevfx was delighted to have trained artist at one of Belgium's top post houses, PIXMIX Studios. Over the course of the training we covered all aspects of NukeX 7.0 including:
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February 12 |
Nuke Training in Northern Ireland Working along side Ian Murphy (Compositing Coach) spherevfx was pleased to have trained artist at Factory Pictures in NukeX. Factory Pictures is Northern Ireland’s leading VFX facility, located a stone’s throw away from Titanic Studios and specialise in environments, digital matte paintings and CGI. During the course we covered:
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February 12 |
The History of VFX Lecture at Bournemouth University Matt Leonard (Head of Training) at spherevfx was delighted to have presented The History of Visual Effects to over 100 BA and MA students at Bournemouth University To book the presentation please contact us. The lecture last two hours and contains 450 slides covering films, technology, companies, innervations and more. |
February 12 |
Custom Nuke Training spherevfx was pleased to have provided Nuke training for Affixxius Production. The custom Nuke course covered a wide range of subjects including: For more information on the course, click here...
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January 12 |
Worlds first Katana Course - fxphd Matt Leonard (Head of Training) at spherevfx is delighted to be running probably the worlds first Katana for fxphd. Six months in the planning between fxphd, Sony Picture Imageworks, The Foundry and Leonard, this course is the first in a series covering this state-of-the-art Look Dev and Lighting tool. This ‘Introduction to Katana’ course will cover all the main areas of Katana for both Look Development and Lighting. Using Arnold as the main renderer, we start the course with a good overview of Katana before jumping into a mini project in week two. From there we systematically cover all the main areas of Katana from asset management to shader building and assignment, lighting, rendering and everything in between. For more information on the course, click here... |
January 12 |
'Nuke 7 and modo Workflow' Course - fxphd Ben Greasley (Senior Trainer) and Matt Leonard (Head of Training) at spherevfx are delighted to be running a joint Nuke 7 and modo course for fxphd. With the recent merger of Luxology and The Foundry this course will bridge the gap between modo and NUKE. Working our way through four main projects we explore various aspects of modo including modeling, animation, dynamics, shading, lighting and rendering. We also explore over two dozen new NUKE 7 features and see how these two industry leaders can work together to produce some great visual effects shots. For more information on the course, click here... |
January 12 |
Customer Nuke Course - Edinburgh Napier University spherevfx was delighted to have run a custom Nuke course for staff at Edinburgh Napier University. The course mainly focused on Multipass Compositing and 3D. For more information on Edinburgh Napier University, please click here... |
January 12 |
Nuke 7 Course spherevfx was delighted to have trained an artist from Norway in The Foundry's NukeX 7.0 just 4 days after it's release. The course included:
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December 12 |
ZBrush Course Updated to 4R5 spherevfx has updated it's ZBrush course adding the new features found in version 4R5 For more information on the course, click here... |
December 12 |
2nd 'A over B' Podcast Released Matt Leonard and Ben Greasley of spherevfx are delighted to announce the release of the second 'A over B' podcast. In this episode we talk:
To subscribe in iTunes click here... |
December 12 |
CVMP Conference Matt Leonard of spherevfx was pleased to of attended this years CVMP, The Conference for Visual Media Production, and worked alongside fxguide's Ian Failes to film many of the presentations. Some of this years highlights included:
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December 12 |
NukeX Course Updated to Version 7.0 spherevfx is delighted to announce we have updated our NukeX course to Version 7.0. To view the updated course, click here... |
December 12 |
Visual Effects Consultancy spherevfx was please to have recently worked with Buzzbox, a 3D Architectural Presentation specialist. Buzzbox utilizes a wide range of tools including Cinema 4D, V-Ray, SynthEyes and After Effects. For more information on Buzzbox, please visit their website by clicking here... |
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November 12 |
New Podcast from The VFX Show: 'Skyfall' Matt Leonard, Head of Training at spherevfx was delighted to have appeared again on The VFX Show alongside his friends Mike Seymour and Ed Moore In this weeks show we discuss the visual effects of Skyfall. To listen to the podcast, click here... |
November 12 |
First 'A over B' Podcast Released Matt Leonard and Ben Greasley of spherevfx are delighted to announce the release of the first 'A over B' podcast. In this first episode we talk:
To subscribe in iTunes click here... |
November 12 |
Maya Lighting and Rendering for International Post Company spherevfx was delighted to have provided a custom Maya / mental ray course for Midas Retouching, an international post production house in the heart of London. The course covered a wide range of look development concepts including lighting, shader building, optical effects and multipass rendering. For more information on Midas, please visit their website by clicking here... |
November 12 |
Working with Solid Angle: Arnold Demo Ben Greasley, Senior Training at spherevfx was pleased to have worked alongside Solid Angle providing an Arnold demo for a large broadcast company in the UK. For more information on Arnold visit the website... |
November 12 |
Custom Look Dev Course spherevfx was delighted to have provided a custom Look Development course specifically tailored to cover a number of shots the client supplied. During the course we looked at:
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October 12 |
The History of Visual Effects - The VFX Festival Matt Leonard, Head of Training at spherevfx was very pleased to have given a presentation on the history of the visual effects industry on behave of the Visual Effects Society. The two hour lecture was given as part of Escape Studio's VFX Festival and was attended by visual effects artist from across London. To book this presentation please contact us. |
October 12 |
New Podcast from The VFX Show: 'Looper' Matt Leonard, Head of Training at spherevfx was delighted to have appeared again on The VFX Show alongside his friends Mike Seymour and Jason Diamond. In this weeks show we discuss the visual effects of Looper. |
October 12 |
Arnold Course Released spherevfx is delighted to be offering the worlds first class-room based Arnold course. Arnold is developed by Solid Angle and is the primary render engine at Sony Picture Imageworks. The 2 day course covers all aspects of the software and is designed for artists either cross training from another renderer, such as mental ray, or for a complete beginner to the software. For all the information on the course, click here... |
October 12 |
Intermediate Nuke Course for FÁS Screen Training Ireland spherevfx was pleased to have worked with FÁS Screen Training and Windmill Lane Pictures in running an intermediate Nuke course in Dublin. The course was attended by professional artist with various compositing backgrounds including Flame, Shake and After Effects. The course covered:
The course also included a session by Windmill Lane on their recent Titanic project and also a presentation on The History of VFX by ourselves. |
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September 12 |
Houdini and Maya Effects Animation Course spherevfx was delighted to have run various Effects Animation courses at the University of Salford, University College Falmouth, Teesside University and Bournemouth University. The course is part of our 'VFX Training the Trainers' program which is part funded by the Creative Skillset Film Skills Fund as part of ‘A Bigger Future 2’, the UK film skills strategy. The course, which was attended by trainers and tutors in the Creative Skillset Academy Network from across the country, covered a wide range of topics including Particle Dynamics, Rigid Bodies, RBD Fracturing, Soft Bodies, Cloth, Fluids and more. The course used both Houdini 12 and Maya 2013 as it's primary software tools. For more information on this course, click here... |
September 12 |
Rig Removal and Retouch Course using Nuke spherevfx was delighted to have run a Rig Removal and Retouch Courses at the University of Salford and Bournemouth University. The course is part of our 'VFX Training the Trainers' program which is part funded by the Creative Skillset Film Skills Fund as part of ‘A Bigger Future 2’, the UK film skills strategy. The course, which was attended by trainers and tutors in the Creative Skillset Academy Network from across the country, covered a wide range of topics including Image De-graining and Re-graining, Tracking Marker Removal, Dust-Busting, Wire / Rig Removal, 2.5D Techniques and Patch Fitting. The course primarily used Nuke. For more information on this course, click here... |
September 12 |
Maya and Nuke Lighting and Look Development Course spherevfx was delighted to have run various Core Skills and Compositing Maths Courses at Teesside University, Bournemouth University and the University of Salford. The course is part of our 'VFX Training the Trainers' program which is part funded by the Creative Skillset Film Skills Fund as part of ‘A Bigger Future 2’, the UK film skills strategy. The course, which was attended by trainers and tutors in the Creative Skillset Academy Network from across the country, covered a wide range of topics including Types of Light, Light Fundamentals, Shaders, mental ray, Textures, UV's vs. PTEX's, Cameras and Terminology, Gamma and LUT's, Colour Management / Open Color IO, Rendering, CG Multipass and Compositing, Colour Correction Terminology and The Foundry's Katana. The course used a mixture of software tools including Maya, mental ray and Nuke. For more information on this course, click here... |
September 12 |
Core Skills and Compositing Maths Course spherevfx was delighted to have run various Core Skills and Compositing Maths Courses at Teesside University, the University of Glamorgan and the University of Salford. The course is part of our 'VFX Training the Trainers' program which is part funded by the Creative Skillset Film Skills Fund as part of ‘A Bigger Future 2’, the UK film skills strategy. The course, which was attended by trainers and tutors in the Creative Skillset Academy Network from across the country, covered a wide range of topics including Resolution and Image Format Considerations, Colour Manipulation, Spatial Filter Manipulation, Geometry Transformations, Filtering Algorithms, Concatenation, CG Multipass and Compositing, Colour Management / Open Color IO, Gamma and LUT’s, Premultiplied Images, HDRI's, New Technologies, CG and Live Action Integration, Stereo Terminology and Stereo Conversion. The course used a mixture of software tools including Maya, mental ray and Nuke. For more information on this course, click here... |
September 12 |
Maya, mental ray, V-Ray, RenderMan and Nuke Multipass Course spherevfx was delighted to have run various CG Multipass Rendering and Compositing courses at Teesside University, Bournemouth University and the University of Glamorgan. The course is part of our 'VFX Training the Trainers' program which is part funded by the Creative Skillset Film Skills Fund as part of ‘A Bigger Future 2’, the UK film skills strategy. The course, which was attended by trainers and tutors in the Creative Skillset Academy Network from across the country, covered a wide range of topics including Gamma, LUT’s, Colour Management, ‘Light’ Render Passes, ‘AOV’ Render Passes, Render Layers and Contribution Passes in Maya, Nuke Compositing and Working with .fbx and Alembic files. The course used both Maya 2013, mental ray, RenderMan, V-Ray and Nuke as it's primary software tools. For more information on this course, click here... |
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August 12 |
Siggraph 2012 Head of Training Matt Leonard was very pleased to have attended this years Siggraph conference as part of the fxguide team. During the week long conference Leonard attended many of the presentations and technical papers including:
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August 12 |
ZBrush course for VFX Artist spherevfx was very pleased to have run a custom ZBrush 4R4 course just 2 days after the release of the new version. The short course covered a multitude of ZBrush features and again showcased spherevfx ability to provide state-of-the-art custom training on brand new software releases. Topics covered included:
For more information on this course, click here.. |
August 12 |
New Podcast from The VFX Show: 'The Amazing Spider-Man' Matt Leonard, Head of Training at spherevfx was delighted to have appeared again on The VFX Show alongside his friends Mike Seymour and Jason Diamond. In this weeks show we discuss the visual effects of The Amazing Spider-Man. To listen to the podcast, click here... |
August 12 |
ZBrush Course Updated to version 4R4 spherevfx is pleased to announce the update to our Pixologic ZBrush course adding the features found in version 4R4. New to this release is:
For more information on our course, click here... |
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July 12 |
Houdini course at the University of Salford spherevfx was delighted to have run a Effects Animation course at University of Salford. The course covered a wide range of topics including Particle Dynamics, Rigid Bodies, RBD Fracturing, Soft Bodies, Cloth, Fluids and more. The course used Side Effects Houdini 12 as it's primary tool. For more information on this course, click here... |
July 12 |
Summer 2012 Wall Paper Released A new spherevfx wallpaper has been released with images from The Amazing Spider-Man, The Dark Knight Rises, The Bourne Legacy, Total Recall, Dredd, Looper, Resident Evil: Retribution, Hotel Transylvania, Rise of the Guardians, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, The Great Gatsby, Ted, Skyfall, Silent Hill: Revelation, Brave, Life of Pi, Frankenweenie, Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. To download, click here... |
July 12 |
Launch of University Training Initiative After months of work spherevfx is proud to announce the release of our 'VFX Training the Trainers' initiative for Creative Skillset. After having a hugely successful 2011, training more than 150 tutors across the Creative Skillset’s Academy Network on 24 courses, we are proud to release our 2012 training syllabus. This year we have split our training into two different formats: Courses and Self-Learning Packs. The courses are classroom based intensive "bootcamps", whereas the self-learning packs enable you to study at your own pace. Courses - We are providing 6 taught courses that cover a wide range of disciplines. Each course is completed over 2 days, and will be repeated at various university locations across the country. The courses are a mixture of intensive teaching and 'hands-on' exercises to give you the chance to put into practice what you are learning. The courses take place in a classroom setting with the aim of getting you up to speed with the subject matter as quickly as possible. The courses are all newly designed and up to date with the latest software and industry trends, along with new footage which has been produced specifically for these courses. Self Learning Packs (SLPs) - New for this year are what we're calling 'Self-Learning Packs' or SLPs -15 individual high quality printed booklets covering a huge selection of visual effects practices, disciplines and workflows based around today's industry standards. These SLPs are not a replacement for attending a course but rather a supplement, giving you additional information and more importantly a detailed printed overview of the subject matter, designed for you to work through at your own pace, where and when you want to. Each Self-Learning Pack comes with a dedicated set of assets specific for that pack. These include a huge array of footage (both mono and stereo), stills, LUT's (1D and 3D), HDRI's, 3D models (OBJ, FBX, Alembic), character rigs, motion capture data, multipass openEXR's, texture maps, CGI light profiles, and much more. This training is provided exclusively for trainers and tutors in the Creative Skillset Academy Network and in Creative Skillset accredited courses who are/will be delivering VFX relevant training. For more information our VFX Training the Trainers please visit the website by clicking here... |
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