Nelly Luckett : BA (Hons) Computer Animation Arts, UCA Rochester

Yesterday was once again the amazing vertex conference. A few people from my year attended last year and we found it incredibly useful, so wanted to attend once again. Unfortunately we only managed to get day 1 tickets, as the full passes for both days seemed to sell out incredibly quickly! Maybe everyone is cottoning on to how good a show this is! The day 1 agenda comprised of a talk from Dylan Sisson on the abilities and features of both the newest version of RenderMan (Pixar’s in house rendering engine) and how this applied to the creation of Toy Story 4 with some exciting insights and clips to demonstrate some key areas. This was incredibly exciting for me as some of the capabilities really blended well into the creation and editing of simulations etc, which falls into the remit of Projection Mapping, which is what I am potentially aiming for post-graduation. I’ve included my notes from this session below. This was then followed by a panel discussing whether photorealistic ...

Today, myself and a few others from second year, visited the Vertex 2019 VFX conference in London. This was an incredible opportunity and very very informative. I got a lot out of the event, making lots of notes and getting some ideas for new pathways. Below are the notes I took in the sessions. I am definitely going again next year, and need to go to more events like these. Matte Painting Talk Composition Use focal points to your advantage Different sized shapes  Perspective 1,2&3 point perspective is fundamental Getting perspectives right will make every drawing work Texture and assets also need to be in perspective Values Composition values Depth & scale Match black and white values to placement in scene Keep a black layer on top - blending mode colour - value checker - VERY IMPORTANT - match curves Use values to guide eye through the image Adding a large, out of focus in the foreground can make the design much more effective Use histog...