Not at Work 2007

Last year, at about this time, a group of us at Weta decided to get together and have a photography exhibition at the Thistle Hall gallery space - It went really well. So we decided to do it again this year. Yay! Check it out.

Not @ Work poster. (photo, poster design credit - Ula Rademeyer)

Featuring Work by:

Simon Jung • Mel James • Maung Maung Hla Win • Jed Soane • James Ogle • Francisco De La Torre • James Van der Reyden • Ken Gimpelson • Matt Mueller • Peter Baustaedter • Allen Hemberger • Kathleen Beeler • Tom Mikota • Nick Booth • Marcus Schoo • Alfred Murrle • Peter Godden • Roger Wong • Johan Aberg • Erin Horton • Ula Rademeyer • David Phillips • William J. Earl • Colin Alway • Dmitri Krasnokoutski • Alexis Casas & Shane Cooper • Julian Butler • Andrea Merlo • Sarah Wilson • Fenella Stratton • Aaron Cubis • Lance Thornton • Mark Norrie • Stephen Rouche • Florian Fernandez • Kevin Romond • Wolfgang Niedermeier • Simon Brown • Richard Addison-Wood • Hovig Alahaidoyan • Lucas Putnam • Steve McGee • Tim Hey.

Links:

Thistle Hall community venue
Weta Digital

King Kong Owns Visual FX Oscar

So Monday arvo Weta Digital gathered down at Waitangi Park (location already famous for it's outside reverb slamming free dub gigs and wicked skate park), to celebrate the oscars. Weta Digital and Workshop drank themselves silly when the winner for acheivement in visual effects was announced. Further shots were in order when best sound mixng and Best sound editing were announced representing the Park Road Post Sound massive. Solid soundmix for such a solid Ape!

more info on the oscar winnings and "Wellywood" (aye guys) can be found here

Weta wins another BAFTA

Congrats to the awesome team at Weta Digi and Workshop for such primo work on King Kong.

We went up against the likes of Batman Begins, Narnia: The Lion, the witch and the Wardrobe, Charlie & the Chocolate factory and Harry Potter and came out on top!

after the premiere.

heres a couple of shots from after the Kong premiere.

King Kong opens today!

So thats it!

Went to go see it yesterday, its absolute madness to think that only a year ago Weta started production work for the effects for this movie and there it was, yesterday morning up on the big screen for us all to see. And yeah, it totally rocks man. All i can say is get out and see it already! Congrats to all involved!

Now that the movies done its high time for a good nap.

Models 2005 crew

Big it up! here is the crew I worked with creating digital models on King Kong for the last 1 and a half. pitty Greg sharp ain't this photo, looks like Greg will have to comp himself in the bg ha! Anyway the models journey is over and I won't be back with the models crew untill the next cool film comes along. For now I'm sloggin it out in the 2D realm as a paint artist painting in Niomi Watts legs and whatnot.

mocap fo-sheezy

So today i got into a mocap suit to do some motion tests and body scanning. Joy. Probably the first time since the start of this year i think. Always nice to experience the process from the opposite side of the computer i have to say, what with my time spent working with the motion as opposed to performing it!

Heres a photo, so that i can humiliate myself on the net. Styley latex huh? It was hellishly tight let me tell ya, to perform motion capture is not for the faint of heart!

James assumes the Zoolander robo-attack-stomp stance.

Motion Capture has never been described better, (or at least funnier) perhaps, than in The Simpsons. To quote a line from the infamous episode "Homr": "That motion capture suit is just what this country needs... Just think of all the hilarious motions going un-captured! Like this!"

Homer Mocap fo-sheezy.

Images courtesy of http://simpsonsite.blogspot.com (the funniest of The Simpsons blog)

James & Phil on IMDB

At last, our profiles have been updated on imdb.com, the "Earths Biggest Movie Database"...

check out our filmographies here for James and Phil. (pretty similar really!)

Counting down the weeks...

Well, been really busy working on the motion capture for Kong in the last few weeks (read months), ditto for Phil in the 'ol models dept, and the weeks till delivery are just flying by. Wish I was able to update the blog a bit more.
But anyway - here's a look at the nutters that I work with, our comrades, if you will. While some of them I personally don't work with on a day to day basis, they are all part of the greater team that is the Motion Capture, Motion edit and Animation team on King Kong.

The Kong Animation and Motion Edit dept

The Kong Motion Capture and Motion Edit dept, headed by our man Dejan Momcilovic (middle centre)

Also, be sure to check out kongisking.net for updated info on the movie as it progresses! Including the production diary: 11 weeks to go... to see the mocap and edit depts in action....

mocap cars!

Here is the motion capture crew. Well not exactly THE mocap crew (duh) ..but the mocap crew's cars, These are the people i work with from day to day. However on this particular day everybody decided to be weird and park in a strange way when they arrived in the morning. John started it.. i think.

so i recorded it for prosperity.

Introducing the Weta Digital mocap team:

Honda Legend - Lisa Wildermoth: Mocap 1st Assistant Director.
Honda CRX Si - Jake Botting: Stage Manager
Honda Integra VTi-R - John Curtis: Pipeline Engineer, and code whizz
Holden Vectra - Emily Pearce: Stage Assistant and Video whizzz
Honda Prelude Si - Me: Studio Technical Director.

I, Robot. got credit?

I,Robot is finally out now, so Phil and I went to check it out on friday, and yeah - it was quite good, actually.

So why mention an apparently random Will Smith blockbuster on the moggey blog? Well it just so happens that Weta Digital did alot of visual effects work for this movie, although Phil scored a place in the end credits and i didn't. Weta were only allowed to put so many credits in the film, but hey, thats show buisiness.

Gutted? nah, the reason for this is even though the mocap studio at Weta DID work on this movie, it was only really a little bit, you see the bulk of the I, Robot mocap was done by those fine fellows over at MA Studios, last year when we were finishing up work for the Return of the King.

So anyhoo.... we went to cinema, paid for a ticket (gasp!) I wore my I,Robot "Weta vfx crew" hat and checked out the film... Weta Digi reprazent y0!