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a midtempo, hypnotic trance thing it's for an Aboriginal coming-of-age story. We need a didgeridoo in D-minor Found it. Start with MasterSearch, the world's most efficient and powerful music search engine. Audition music and create projects. Download broadcast quality songs and email results. Lost found it. Gossip Girl found it. American Gangster found it. Find. Music. Fast. Only at MasterSource.com ® Marc Ferrari 818.706.9000 marc@mastersource.com Josh Kessler 212.841.8700 josh@mastersource.com Abby O'Neill 310.358.4426 abby@mastersource.com Contact us for FREE custom music searches sent right to your inbox in minutes. Sound Like Nobody Else. A Universal Music Publishing Group 28 Post • October 2009 www.postmagazine.com A L I E N I N S P I R AT I O N Music plays a big role in Sher vin Shoghian's creativity. This compositor from Vancouver's Image Engine (www.image-en- gine.com) says, "Sometimes I'll hear a piece of music and it conjures up images in my head and that acts as a catalyst for me to create images or design a piece." He also finds inspiration in interesting graphic design and points to a limited edi- tion book put out by studio Attik in the UK as something not to miss. "Ever y several years they produce this book series called Noise, NoiseFive is the latest, which is a collection of graphic ar t pieces. I flip through the pages and it inspires me in terms of color, composition, style and fram- ing. That's the kind of thing that makes me want to push my limits." And like others interviewed for this ar ti- cle, Shoghian cites photography as impor- tant to stimulating his creativity. "The way the frame is used to capture a subject or how the photographer uses light inspires me." And reality also plays a role. He points to something that ILM's Dennis Muren, a multiple Oscar-winner, once said. "Someone asked him where he finds his in- spiration, and his reply was (I am paraphrasing here), 'Just walking around and observing life, going to the zoo and watching how crea- tures interact or looking at people or taking photos.' He said, effects and creativity star t to get stagnant with the repurposing of old effects, so instead of renting Jurassic Park or War of the Worlds for reference, ar tists should get outside in the world and look at real life and have that inspire them." And reality played a big role in the work that Image Engine supplied for the hit indie film District 9. The studio supplied 311 VFX shots, most of which were of the aliens. "The big inspira- tion we had there was looking at real-life things such as insects; how they move, their colors, the way the light hits their exoskeleton and bounces off," describes Shoghian. "We had this book at Image Engine that we refer- enced a lot. It contained photographs of all these real insects and we copied their design and color palette. It also helped the artists get an idea of how the colors interact in real- world environments. We also used this pros- thetic mannequin of an alien that we would take outside and just look at how light bounces of him and how his skin colors react to the type of day it is. Seeing these real- world elements can really help the ar tists push realism and come up with ideas." Shoghian says a lot of it comes from look- ing at what was shot and what the director's intent was. "Other elements the artist needs to be aware of is what was filmed. Looking at the scene and analyzing the lighting of the DP, the framing, the acting of the actor and what the director's intension and motivation for the shot. The compositor can then take these motivations and create a shot that complements these aspects and create a seamless visual effects shot." In addition to all the aliens in the film, Image Engine handled about 15 shots of the alien's mothership — a big station in the sky — but ended up handing those over to Weta so they could keep working on the aliens.They also provided several mechanical shots, such as helicopters, trucks and Casspirs, as well as some generic shots in- cluding bullet hits and tracer fire. Image Engine's main tools were The Foundr y's Nuke for the compositing and Autodesk Maya for 3D animation and mod- eling. The studio also called on DNA Re- search's 3Delight render package, Photo- shop, Maxon BodyPaint, Pixologic Zbrush and Autodesk Mudbox. All software, except for Photoshop, ran on Linux machines. And while Shoghian realizes how impor- tant the technology is, he is also afraid of its importance on young compositors."Speaking to peers and students out of film or anima- tion school, they dwell on the technical side of compositing — which software package is better, what program has all the magic but- tons. It's becoming a rare thing to talk to ar tists and not worr y about the technical stuff — just talk about the art and the color, the framing and the motivation for the scene. I am always trying instill that in the people I work with.The technical par t plays a role in creating the image — software is just a tool, but it's not everything." Along with all of District 9's aliens, Shervin Shoghian and Image Engine provided about 15 shots of the mothership before handing it over to Weta. Audi's Tunnel via Lowe Roche and Artjail: real cars composited in a 3D tunnel. THE ART OF COMPOSITING