VFX Notes: Ep 2 – F9, stylization in animation, VFX forums and z-depth

Hugo and Ian are back with episode 2 of the podcast.

In episode 2 of VFX Notes, Hugo Guerra from Hugo’s Desk and Ian Failes from befores & afters discuss what they’ve been watching (hint, it’s fast and furious), look at the major leaps in stylization in animation, discuss z-depth and talk about the best VFX forums on the web.

Listen in at Apple Podcasts and at Spotify, or via the embedded video of us below, which includes clips and images. Also below, a quick overview of the episode, and some detailed show notes. Also, here’s the RSS feed.

Episode run down

01:18 – An ode to Hugo’s dog, Pammy
03:05 – F9
14:59 – Marvel TV shows and Loki
24:24 – E3, Xbox and conferences during Covid 19
28:53 – Stylization in animation
41:06 – Ebsynth, StyleGAN and CANVAS from Nvidia
44:38 – What is Z-depth
54:27 – VFX Forums

1. What we’ve been watching

F9

– Justin Lin’s tweet which breaks down the ‘pulling the car through a shop via a giant magnet’ shot

Marvel streaming shows

– befores & afters coverage of WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Cardinal

– Wikipedia entry on Cardinal

Gaming

– XBox E3 show in 4K

– Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart developers interview

2. The biggest VFX tech thing right now

Stylization in animation

– befores & afters coverage of The Mitchells vs The Machines and discussion of some of the stylization in the film, below

– Disney Animation’s Meander Animation tool and short details about new short, Far From The Tree

– Pixar RenderMan ‘Stylized Looks’ discussion between Christos Obretenov and Dylan Sisson, below

– Lollipop Shaders website

– Cartoon Brew coverage of Into The Spider-Verse

– Ebsynth website

– StyleGAN from Nvidia, Wikipedia details, and new CANVAS app from Nvidia

3. Ian’s VFX tech question for Hugo

What is z-depth?

– Some Wikipedia details on depth maps and z-buffering

– Hugo’s Desk: How to use ZDepth and stock footage to create a fake Fog in Nuke, below

4. Things we’ve seen on the web that people should check out

‘VFX forums’ on the internet

– alt.movies.visual-effects, now available at Google Groups (best to search for historical entries on this)

– CG Talk is CGSociety’s forum

– /vfx subreddit

– Discord channels to search for (some are private): Hugos’ Desk, CG Wiki, CAVE Academy, Keep Calm I’m in VFX