Dr. Horrible.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

From Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy, Angel and Firefly, they came up with this during the writer's strike. This is the best thing on the interwebs...I can't stop watching it. You have to buy a season pass now, but it is well worth it!

Where the Hell is Matt?

I went to check my email this morning and this video was featured on my iGoogle page. I have the low-res version, below, but if you have the means click HERE and then click on the High-Res version and do it full screen...with speakers on



Maybe it's just me, but I think that video is awesome, very moving and inspiring to me, it was a great thing to start the day off with. What did you think?

Rest in Peace Stan Winston...

Reports are trickling out the the legendary creature effects creator Stan Winston has passed away. Stan had his hand in creating some of the most memorable creatures, legends and effects of the current modern era of film. Stan's work added to the pantheon of legendary film creatures like the classic Universal Monsters and the legendary creatures of Ray Harryhausen, one of Stan's personal idols. Winston won the Oscar four times for his work on Aliens, Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, and AI and most recently worked on the brilliant visual effects in Iron Man creating the practical Iron Man suits. Winston was easily one of the greatest special effects visionaries to ever work in Hollywood and has created some of the most memorable special effects in cinematic history. This is truly a great loss and an incredibly sad day for Hollywood.

In addition to the four films that he won Oscars for, Winston worked on The Thing, Predator, The Monster Squad, Congo, Galaxy Quest, Big Fish, and Constantine. You can see much of his fantastic work over at his studio's official website: StanWinstonStudio.com.

His legend, vision and attention to detail will be greatly missed.

-Josh

Radiers: The Adaptation...

Last night at the Belcourt we hosted the Tennessee premiere of Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Adaptation. In 1982 three 12 year old boys made a shot-for-shot remake of Raiders of the lost ark, it took them 6 years to finish. We had the privilege of having filmmaker Eric Zala, one of those "boys" to be in attendance for the screening. The crowd was very energetic and gave Eric a standing ovation at the end of the film before his Q & A. It was a great evening, and a hilarious and an inspiring experience.

In his adult life, Eric had been working at EA sports as Quality Control Director for 10 years making 6 figures, but wasn't satisfied, so to the behest of his childhood buddy Chris, one of the other boys who did the shot-for-shot remake, he left his job at EA moved back to Mississippi and is pursuing making an independent film with his friend, they've finally finished thier script and are shopping it around next week. Also Producer Scott Rudin (No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, ect.) has bought the life rights of the boy's story of the making of the Raiders: Adaptation.

Here's some pics from last night, plus a picture of them as kids, a pic with Spielberg and the letter Spielberg wrote them after he saw a bootleg VHS copy of the film : O

Here's me and Eric Zala, and then a pic of the boys when they were kids and the letter Steven Spielberg wrote them.

Indy/Kinski...

Not a tutorial but a quick little exercise in using the Quickmask mode and masks in general...this is an image for the new Belcourt Blog - Nashville Film Blog - belcourttheatre.blogspot.com

Here are the original elements:

Chinese brush painting

Here is a Chinese brush painting I just finished in Photoshop. With this image I wanted to try a painterly effect and get more familiar with the brushes and "painting" with my Wacom tablet. I want to try and finish and post at least 2-3 new images a week, if not at least one. So if a week passes and you don't see something new, please give me a berating (or a gentle nudging). Click the flowers to enbiggen.

Icicles...

Here's a icicles tutorial I've been working on with a before and after. The first image is the after with the snow and icicles followed by the original image. Click on them to enbiggin.

The best movie opening-credit sequences ever

From EW.com

"The movie opening-credit sequence has become a lost art; so many movies today, especially action blockbusters, are content to plunge directly into the action and wait until the end to show you who made the film. Now, Screengrab has compiled a list, complete with YouTube clips, of the 12 best opening-credit sequences ever. It's a good selection of these mini-movies that expertly sets the tone for the feature that follows. A lot of credit buffs' favorites are here, including the ones for Scorsese's Raging Bull, Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, and David Fincher's Seven and Panic Room. Of course, you can't talk about film credits without mentioning the genre's master, Saul Bass, who revolutionized the opening credit sequence in the 1950s with his jazzy, fragmented-animation segments for such movies as The Man With the Golden Arm and Anatomy of a Murder. (Which gives me an excuse to embed this clip, which has been making the rounds this week, of what the Star Wars credits would have looked like had Bass designed them.)"

Cyborg final

Here is the final version of my cyborg lady.

Star Wars computer graphics, no not those...

Here is a look at the creation of the Death Star trench approach in the original "The Star Wars" the effects we're probably created in 1976. And he used Knobs!

"The computer graphics for the first Star Wars film was created by Larry Cuba in the 1970s at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) (at the time known as the Circle Graphics Habitat) at the University of Illinois at Chicago."

Cyborg woman...

And here is the cyborg lady I'm working on Photoshop...

Planet

Here is a planet I created with a Photoshop tutorial..right now I am working on a Cyborg woman.

My tablet arrives!

Hooray! Finally I have a new Wacom 6x8 tablet. I've never even really used one before I got mine in the mail, but just messing with it the past few minutes in Photoshop, this thing is amazing. The ability to have press sensitivity is just so awesome. Just making little highlights with varying contrasts is so great to be able to do. I can't wait to be super proficient with this thing!

New A v P

Shock Till You Drop.Com reports that there will be a new Aliens VS Predator movie that takes place in space...will it be true? Well it made $128.8 million worldwide and hasn't come out on DVD yet, so I'm going bet that it will be made and much to my pleasure.

And here's the new Mummy poster

Wondercon pics and such...

Here are some exciting pics from my trip tp Wondercon 2008 and the Evening with Ray Harryhausen & Friends

Wondercon 2008

It was an excellent time of geeking out, thanks to all the geeks.

Wondercon update..

I'm excited now.

I'm heading to SF for a extended weekend of geeking out in less than 10 days. First to see Ray Harryhausen and friends on Wednesday at the San Rafael Film Center and then a weekend filled with Wondercon geeking out including cast, crew, directors and footage and all kinds of stuff for Iron Man, The new X-Files movie, Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo, Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, Get Smart with Steve Carrell, Wall*E, the world premiere of the nre Justice League New Frontier movie and lots more...check it out Wondercon.com

Top 100 greatest 3D movies

CGSociety and 3D World present a rundown of the Top 100 3D Movies as selected by the CG community. These are based on votes by visitors to CGSociety and exclude films like Blade Runner - although undoubtedly influential - becuase they featured only traditional effects. To qualify for inclusion on our shortlist, a movie needed to meet three criteria: to have a running time of 60 minutes or longer; to have received a full cinematic release;and to include a significant element of 3D animation or VFX work, as opposed to matte painting or compositing.

They've also have a neat time line that show release dates.

Do you know what the first feature film to use computer graphics was, do you really??

Can you guess what the number chosen film was? I was a little surprise just from listening to the influences of some of the CG lover folks I know (maybe they're a little older than they think), but it makes complete sense and is deserving of a number one spot.

see the list at
CGSociety

Get me things? Here's how.

I've added an Amazon.com wish list button to the side there so all the thousands of people who come to thie blog will know what to get me.

Y: The Last Man to Become a Trilogy?

Superherohype.com reports the following:

"In an interview with the USA Today about the last issue of Pia Guerra and Brian K. Vaughan's "Y: The Last Man," the director of the comic's upcoming adaptation, D.J. Caruso (Disturbia, upcoming Eagle Eye), says it might become a trilogy of films:

Caruso says he has had "preliminary discussions" with Shia LaBeouf to play Yorick.

"For me, thematically, the most important thing and the reason I want to do this is … I don't want to say it's the end of the innocence, but it's actually a man-child who has to become a real man now," Caruso says. "I think it's a really simple, beautiful theme, but at the same time, the movie's really pop-culture entertainment."

While the original plan was to squeeze the entire series into one movie, Caruso says the film will cover the first 14 issues of the comics. He adds that this opens the door for a trilogy."

This is great news, Y: The Last Man is the best thing written in pop culture in the last few years, a single movie couldn't encompasses the whole thing...though I'd be happier with a maxi-series on Showtime or HBO, a trilogy makes me feel much better.

Hooray

After years of trying, this blog's purpose has become a success Adam now officially East Tilk right over HERE , and I have officially figured out how to log back in to my account