I'm assuming you're using Nuke as your compositing package. If you're not.. Well, uhm.. That could be a problem.  Anyway, grab a PostageStamp node.  Attach it to a dot or stack of nodes or simply a read node.

Under the PostageStamp options, click Hide Input and deselect the node. Goodness, now we can move that PostageStamp anywhere and it references that stack! But, wait, I don't know what it is, what the original file was, and let's say I do (I really do, all the time).

In the label section of the PostageStamp, enter the following:

[lindex [split [basename [value [topnode].file]] .] 0]

Competition comes in many forms, but the predominant one that most of us are familiar with is the local competition.  It's seldom that we up and move to entirely different countries, but when we do, we are competing with the local talent, which have a number of advantages over us.

1) Familiar and established relationship with companies
2) Solid base of operations
3) Understands local hourly and salary rates, and what to charge
4) Knows the local standard of living, what is necessary to live and get by
5) Work visas and permits unnecessary for employment

Some of these advantages will remain local advantages. Others, however, we can sway into our favor.  One such way is understanding the rates of the region you are in. Through our wages system, you can specify which regions of the world you'd like to focus on. This is one small step in realizing your foreign worth. The much bigger step is settling on a price, not so much as just what you're worth, but also what you are capable of. Years of experience are generally the best way to determine what one can do in a production environment.

Many artists that start in the creative industries have no clue what they should be paid. This can have huge ramifications down the line, both on the employee and employer side. Employers can hire very junior artists for next to nothing, while said employee may work extremely hard to impress the employer for the next big thing.  Established employees or contractors can do this very same thing, by charging more, delivering less quality work, or taking advantage of the employer by working longer hours to get a job done and billing more.

Over the years there's been a lot of talk about unionization, wage equality, the worth of an artist, and likewise, the worth of your health as one. Back in the day when I started VFXWages four years ago, I wanted to help equalize the payout for both artists and companies alike. It was a heady topic, a lot of people predicted I would fail. Of course, there were no unions that would take VFX. There was talk, but everyone can talk (Hey, remember VES 2.0?). There hasn't been true actual commitment to a cause similar to VFXWages. Why do I keep harping on this failed task? Well, because it was actually useful, and it could have made inroads into equality among artists irregardless of where they were in the world. Why did it fail? Well, several reasons, the biggest being time, and the second being money, neither of which I had sufficient quantity of.. All this talk about unions, they have the cash, they have the manpower, why haven't they created something like VFXWages? Does it go against their code of conduct? Seriously, I don't know. They have the people in their current union, they can poll their members, and they could technically pull it off. It wouldn't just help artists, it could have helped companies. Hell, the Animation Guild just recently posted off of Twitter that disclosing your wage wasn't illegal. I told everyone that when I started! The Anim Guild also polls it's members about wages, which is great.

I've heard countless stories from friends around the world at their respective companies regal me stories of junior employees earning 80-90% of what they make as seniors. This won't be able to sustain itself.  As an employer, would I rather hire a senior freelancer at $50/hr with 10+ years experience, or a junior at $40 with three years?  Who do you think will be better at the job? The economics of this industry trouble me. You can only get paid so much for doing the same job. Either you move on to a company that will pay you more (which has happened and is continuing to happen), ou increase your skillset and actually do more, or decide to chase the subsidy and job around the world, which many of my friends have done. On that note, if I was a good artist, and I charged the going rate for an artist of my experience level, I would be VERY competitive. I would continually be hired at my rate, and it would increase based on my experience.

This is not a US versus Canada versus India versus China problem. This is an internal problem. Students, don't bill $50/hr when you're not worth it. You might be able to get it now, but that gravy train will eventually come to an end. Be prepared. There is a level of hubris in the industry right now, with everyone taking advantage of the company. "Oh, I'm only here for this one show, I'm gonna milk it for all it's worth". The next year, that company is gone, and now you have to work at half that rate in town.

Companies may come and go, but your reputation and the price you put on it stay forever.

Some other big news was that IATSE was actually starting to follow through with organizing VFX. Head to VFXsoldier's site to read more, and there's always the Twitter option. I'm on Twitter as well, but I've been much less vocal than some of my other brethren in the industry, as I'm tied to Digital Domain, and don't talk much about the subject in general. There are other places to get union information, and this site doesn't have much to do with it. Instead, I try to still give you insight into the work that I'm doing and what it means to work as an artist in this industry.

Tupac at Coachella was a huge hit, and it showed that DD still has some chops in making jaws drop. There are other great things happening in the pipe, but I will have to share them later in the year! Because of Tupac, DDMG has rebounded, and is now at $7.79 as of today. You can see the spike, and I attribute it to the performance at Coachella.

After The Avengers I was tasked with helping out the team with G.I. Joe for a little while and then with Jack The Giant Killer (we're listed in IMDB as a vendor). While the movie has been pushed almost a year to March 2013 I will most likely not be on it for the remainder of this year.

Today is a short update, but there will more frequent updates in the near future!

I love Vancouver. I lived up there for six years, and I felt at home. Great weather (aside from the rain), easy access to outdoor amenities, and it was just a really great place for an international city that is still in North America, and easily accessible by Californian VFX artists. Making a decision to move up north is not a small feat, especially in this rough and tumble world of the quick buck, cheap labor, and inadequate contracts. Here's one reason to think twice.

Demographia, a property-affordability survey published by Illinois-based consultant Wendell Cox, estimates that median real-estate prices in Vancouver are 9.5 times median household income. Only Hong Kong and Sydney are less affordable by that measure. (New York comes in at 5.1.)

The Canadian Real Estate Association says the average house price in Canada in April was C$372,544, up 8% from last year. In Vancouver, it was more than twice that, at C$815,252, up 21% from a year ago.

Far more insidious is the impact housing unaffordability is having on employers and the broader economy. 

You hear stories of smart, young people leaving for jobs elsewhere. At the same time smart, young people from elsewhere aren't coming here for jobs. The price of real estate and cost of living are too high, while pay is simply too low relative to other parts of the country. Business in Vancouver, a local newsweekly, delves into the dilemma in its latest issue with the story "Home truths hurt talent search." 

I only did one quick shot, and actually helped out a little on another. It was a very quick turnaround. 

My skeleton cube is still going strong, this is the year I finish it! Be sure and follow the Tumblr if you have and account. The website is skeletoncube.com, which is just a fancy redirect to skeletoncube.tumblr.com. I've already decided on my next project, but some people want to see a different one, particularly something like this! I'm deciding on a puzzle box that will encompass the skeleton cube, which is also skeletal. I'm hoping to take the design of a Japanese puzzle box  mixed with a Hellraiser box, and create something unique, which will fit the cube. So you need to solve the puzzle box to open it to solve the cube. Am I insane? Time will tell on that front, as I still have a miniature steam engine to complete.

And here's the six minute making of.

http://www.fxguide.com/fxpodcasts/fxpodcast-real-steel/

A highlight from the bottom.

Stage 7: Have great compositors

DD used a similar multi-pass compositing approach as it had done with its Makebot Nuke plug-in for I, Robot. But as the Real Steelcharacters had no real translucency, the process was easier, although artists still did a multi-pass approach as a multi-channel OpenEXR.

Compositing has certain key tasks, such as:

• match the black levels

•match the highlights

• balance the mid tones match the softness, motion blur and atmospheric conditions that integrate a shot

• allow light wrap

• match lens curvature and properties.

But, as you can imagine from the company that gave birth to Nuke, the DD compositors did a lot more than just standard multi-pass compositing.  For example, in the end stadium shots there was a need for massively large stadium crowds. DD's composite team delivered live action real stadium crowds, yet they never had more than 500 extras on set. One location in Detroit was used as two locations in the film.

Last night I attended the Foundry's Midsummer Night Event of Nuke and Mari at Dreamworks in Glendale. After a harrowing hours drive from Venice to Glendale on a motorcycle, I arrived on the dot at 7pm, just as the event was starting. Let me tell you, the 10, 405, 101, and 134 at 6:30 is a PITA.  For some reason, everyone was out there. It took Gresham two hours to drive from Venice to Glendale, and he arrived the same time I did. Any way, on to the presentation.

After a brief introduction about the event and Dreamworks, our MC introduced Kevan O'Brien, Creative Specialist at the Foundry, to talk about the new cool stuff in NukeX 6.3. While I've played intermittently with the beta, I haven't gotten my hands dirty on it since I've been deep in production on a commercial using 6.2. Some of the shiny new features include a particle system, integration with Mari, enhanced spline and gridwarp tools, improved degraining (which I had the chance to use extensively during Real Steel), audio guides within Nuke, a Planar tracker, and some other niceties. But don't let me tell you, read the NukeX 6.3v1 Release Notes. Each presenter had about 20 minutes to talk about their particular piece. 

From there, Joe Farrell from Scanline VFX took over. He and I worked together at Digital Domain, as well as on previous projects in Vancouver, at least a decade ago. He presented a well documented case study of the work Scanline VFX did on Hereafter.  I had a great experience with Clint Eastwood on Flags of our Fathers, and it looks like Joe had the same on this film. Eastwood regularly works with the same crew. Joe presented the making-of certain sequences in the film, predominately the beginning tsunami sequence, which is impressive in it's own right.  The techniques presented were very similar to how Digital Domain works. This makes sense, as there is a lot of cross-pollination of ideas and workflow throughout the industry. A lot of Scanline's custom tools that I saw in the presentation we also have at Digital Domain, they are slightly different, but do accomplish the same goal.

Jack Greasley, Mari Product Manager, took over next as he introduced the new Mari 1.4 and the just released Mari 1.3.  I've never used Mari before, but the technology behind it is quite nice, and the Nuke>Mari bridge that they showed on stage is sure to help out in the future. Brandon from Bad Robot describes it in more detail in the next presentation.  I was introduced to ptex for the first time as well, and while it's been around for a while, I never use it in my day to day compositing life. It looks extremely promising.

Super 8 Bad Robot Productions Supervisor Brandon Fayette was there to talk about the Nuke>Mari bridge, and let me tell you, it's definitely something that I see being used for future environmental projection and matte painting work. He also showed the new Denoise tool in NukeX 6.3 with plate footage from Super 8, and that got a lot of cheers and wows from the audience. It is as awesome as he made it out to be. We were using the alpha for a long time, and the same one he was using, I'm sure. After his entertaining presentation, the floor was opened up for questions, and from there, mingling!

I met a bunch of people that I worked with in the past who were there to see what was new. Gresham, Howard, Martin, Emi, and Rohini were but a few! After a few words of where everyone was at and what they were doing, I did the drive back home in 20 minutes. Not too bad when there's no traffic.