Making Nothing into "Something"

Well, here we are! Embarking on a journey to create some compelling content that focuses on.... well.. creating compelling content! A wise woman once said it takes at least ten years to master any skill. ALthough I have been involved in computer graphics for over 15 years, I have only spent about 2 years creating web content and tinkering with the idea of making an online "property" or presence. A place where visual effects professionals and hobbyists could go to learn some cool tricks of the trade, share experiences, or get inspiration. There are already a few excellent portals of this kind of information, however, I feel that what is missing is concise and complete information about how visual effects can be accomplished.

What others have done, and done very well I might add, is give a nicely formatted "gloss-over" of very talented artists' work. The kind of 5 minute sound bites that we get bombarded with every day for those of us who try and watch the "news". What I have been searching for, and what leads me to attempt to build this site, is a place where visual effects shots are explained from original concept to finished output, in a way that just focuses on the details for that shot. There are so many skills that go into an effects shot - Cinematography, lighting, cg modeling/sculpting, rigging, animating, CG lighting/texturing, rendering... the list goes on... and on... It is not feasible to be a master at all of those diciplines, but it is possible to use just enough of each piece of the puzzle to create some amazing imagery. And it is essential to understand what needs to happen at every stage in order to create a great effects shot.

I have finaled over 500 effects shots professionally in the last 5 years, and the pace was too fast to be able to get the image I really wanted - compromises had to be made. There is a point in every shot where you have to cut the corner and get it done, however, when your skills are honed and you have mastery in a few disciplines, those cut corners are usually not noticed by the client. We have to face it, professional visual effects work is not fine art (although Pixar and their budgets allow it to be fine art), it is really about a sales pitch. We are selling fantasy as reality. We are taking nothing, some pixels on the screen, and making them into "something".

So a place called vfxproduction.tv is born. I am hoping to share my experiences in visual effects with others, and produce some really compelling content over the next 10 years, eventually mastering the skill of demonstrating the processes that create great visual effects. The best way to demonstrate the techniques is to show the viewer real production, real shots, and the real obstacles that are overcome to get final output. The site is not about feature sets and how to basics. It is about the shots.

- Matt Moses
vfxproduction.tv founder