We had a nice family outing to an evening performance of the ACMA Spring Dance Recital.

[Show slideshow]

I’ve been to the Bonneville Damn many times, but this was my first visit as chaperone for a fourth grade class.

We started the day in the classroom doing some math exercises. Then we meandered through the halls to the buses.

Its amazing how loud a group of kids can get on a school bus. Their chanting to get trucks to honk their horns was quite amusing – even if the decibels exceeded legal limits.

We had a grand park ranger tour of the fish ladder and power generating mechanics. Afterwords we ate lunch next the fish hatchery. A pleasant day trip for all.

[Show slideshow]

Oh to be as shameless as a cat taking a sleepy stretch.

[Show slideshow]

When browsing the web, I found this event…

Avenge of the Zombies!
The NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium at the Portland Art Museum

Jeff White, Industrial Light and Magic Visual Effects Supervisor (and former Portlander), comes “home” to show us the Oscar nominated VFX work and behind the scenes from The Avengers.

And as if that wasn’t enough, from Portland’s own LAIKA hails Visual Effects Supervisor Andrew Nawrot, kicking off the afternoon with a look at the VFX work from ParaNorman.

I was intrigued and so was Emily. We reserved our tickets for the free event.

The day finally arrived, and both of us were blown away by the awesomeness. Imagine instead of viewing some special features at the end of your movie experience, you are instead face to face with the creative architect who is explaining the challenges and triumphs of the special effects process. Oh, I also won the door price of a cool $500 at a stock video library.

The take-away from both companies is that the more reference material and practical real world objects that can be incorporated in the vfx (visual effects) work – the better the result.

Some Laika trivia…

• They occupy a nondescript warehouse in Hillsborough, OR
• Each puppet takes 2-3 months to create
• The animator/puppeteer is a very solitary job; one scene can take then 2-3 weeks
• Typical 3d camera uses 2 lenses; Laika uses one lens that takes two shots from slightly different angles
• They used fabric as reference for the sky

Some ILM trivia…

• The Hulk stand in was affectionately nicknamed Green Steve
• Getting a realistic Hulk skin was the biggest challenge
• The second biggest hurdle was to recreate the New York setting (the live action was actually shot in Albuquerque, NM)
• The aliens wore pj’s on set – affixed with motion sensors
• Lots of detailed planning documents are needed – for example a spreadsheet of camera heights

[Show slideshow]

We were out and about this evening. We couldn’t decide on a place for dinner. We happened upon this Thai restaurant that looked appetizing…

Jasmine enjoyed cucumber salad and steamed rice. Jeff ate wonton soup and drunken noddle. Emily dined on fried tofu, spring rolls and a tofu entree.

[Show slideshow]