From Oddernod via Twitter

Motion Graphics artists now have access to bicubic distortion in After Effects that lets you manipulate a flat object into almost any shape using a mesh in 3D space. Digieffects FreeForm AE is an intuitive and robust plugin that takes After Effects 3D compositing to the next level.

Features and Benefits include:

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Control: All controls for manipulation are right inside the After Effects comp window.

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Never leave After Effects: Makes it easy to create 3D effects which previously required a dedicated 3D program or high-end workstation.

Depth, Dimensions, and Displacement: True 3D displacement mapping.

Picks up where After Effects ends: Bend, twist, distort, shape your layer any way you please right in the After Effects comp window.

Presets: Ships with dozens of presets to save you time.

For more info, visit the Digieffects website

Here is the second part of my interview with Joe Fordham, director of the new short “The Glitch” and his cinematographer Tom Gleason. Here Joe tells us how he met his composer Laurent Watteau, who lives and works in Paris, online through the message boards at Film Score Monthly.com. I also ask Joe how he plans to get his film in front of an audience and any advice he might have for those thinking of making their own indie film.

Today we present Part I of our first Independent Profile of “The Glitch”, a short film directed by Joe Fordham. This is Joe’s first venture into HD, but he didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. Joe started making Super 8 films in his native Britain at a very young age. He ultimately became part of an award winning amateur filmmaking group known as Dangerous Visions. A short while later, he found himself working in London’s Soho filmmaking district, where he produced an eight-minute short entitled Board Game, which went on to win a BBC TV Showreel86 award. From there he was hired to write and direct Dogplant for Channel Four TV London.

After moving to Los Angeles Joe spent the next few years “breaking-in” to film production, again, this time the Hollywood film industry. He eventually landed work creating visual effects, creature effects and in post production on films such as Terminator 2, Men in Black, Virus and the Species series. Several years of all nighters were enough to convince Joe to pursue a writing career, and for the last six years he has been covering the international visual effects scene as a journalist and associate editor at Cinefex magazine.

Joining us is Joe’s cinematographer on The Glitch, Tom Gleason. Tom has been accumulating dramatic narrative DP credits for the last several years but he also has an extensive resume that demonstrates the breadth of his experience. This includes work as a visual effects model maker, where he built the 60’ version of the Titanic, (the one that breaks in half), one of the most impressive and widely published shots of the film. He’s also been a VFX DP, operator and 1st AC on films such as Beetlejuice. The Passion of the Christ and Mr & Mrs. Smith.

The Glitch – Official Site
Method
Laurent Watteau, Composer
CineWidgets
WithoutaBox.com
FilmScoreMonthly.com

Here is Part III of our interview with Dan Lebental.

In this segment Dan gives us some great insights into the feature film editorial process. We discuss topics such as what it’s like screening the “first cut” with the director and starting out on the directors cut, bringing the length of IRON MAN down from 3.5 to it’s final running time of 2 hours, exploring variations of the film and reinventing scenes, and something he fondly refers to as “index card death row”. We also get to talk a bit more about his long term working relationship with director Jon Favreau, getting the studio involved and the editorial muse. Finally we discuss an issue that confronts directors and editors on many visual effects films, the time quandary. Specifically, the amount of time it takes from the director’s contractual (DGA) 10 week cut to lock VFX sequences and get them in the “pipeline”.

Today we present Part II of my interview with Dan Lebental, film editor of Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment’s, IRON MAN.

In this segment Dan talks about his experience cutting on the Avid Media Composer, working with the visual effects team (upwards of 800 people) at ILM and the economics and intricacies of cutting a film with nearly 1000 visual effects shots. We go on to discuss the state of, and need for, industry accepted digital post production workflows. Finally, we talk about cutting IRON MAN utilizing the Avid DNX36 codec, and his first experience cutting a studio feature in HD. Enjoy.