Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/455278
www.postmagazine.com 7 POST JANUARY 2015 JOSH GOBLE CREATES WINNING VFX SUBMISSION ALBUQUERQUE, NM — Artist Josh Goble (josh@josh goble.com) recently took top honors in a video com- petition presented by CG Society and The Foundry. The contest challenged participants to create a :60, broadcast-style spot that makes use of The Foundry's tools, yet followed a specifi c creative mission — one that playfully looks at a future product from the man- ufacturer: a time machine. Goble went to school for advertising and design, and also studied 3D, enrolling in Maya classes. One of his fi rst jobs in the post industry was working at animation studio Bandelier EFX. "I learned a ton," he says of the experience, noting the opportunity to work on commercials for the local market in New Mexico and even South America. When the studio's owner Allan Stevens retired, he joined his son, Tim Stevens, at Stevens Animation. Goble would later work as a freelancer, and today works at Reelz Channel in Albuquerque. He is skilled in the Adobe Creative Suite, Maya, Cinema 4D, Modo and Nuke. While he uses a Mac at Reelz — creating show graphics and sizzle reels — his home studio is all Win- dows-based and includes a 50-core render farm. His experience working on a number of fi lm com- petitions inspired him to give the CG Society contest a whirl. "I found it on the Web through sheer dumb luck," he recalls. "A friend of mine worked at Sony and was always talking about Modo. I worked on a few 48-hour fi lm projects and saw him use it, and it looked cool. It looked like how a modeling package should work." The competition, he felt, would be a perfect op- portunity to get more acquainted with Modo without the pressure of having a paying client looking over his shoulder. He teamed up with director/writer/producer David Ferry Jr. for the production and assembled a small team of additional local talent. The team came up with an original concept. The spot features a young man, out on a date. He proposes to his girlfriend, but when things don't go as planned, he uses a time machine to give it a second try. The machine has its fl aws and the date goes from bad to worse, drag- ging up other bad dates from the past. The solution, the spot suggests, would be to use The Foundry's new and technologically-sound time machine. "Our main goal was to treat it like it was a real job," Goble recalls. They spent approximately one month planning and boarding the spot, and shot it all in one day. Ariel Rakes served as DP, shooting in 4K with a Sony FS-700, and capturing footage to an Odyssey 7Q external recorder. "The footage looked amazing. It was extremely clean," notes Goble. Since the spot had been well storyboarded, Goble knew exactly where the VFX and graphics would go. Ferry cut the project in Adobe Premiere and Goble later applied the VFX transitions. He worked at 2K making the assets and motion graphics, knowing it would ultimately be delivered in the 720p high defi ni- tion format. "I went with 2K," he explains, "knowing it would be good enough and not kill render times." He secured a beta license of V-Ray for Modo to handle the render- ing. Marc Leonard applied color correction and Ferry laid in the audio. Tim Stevens of Stevens Animation helped in providing sound eff ects. He also contribut- ed valuable feedback, adds Goble. As the winner of the contest, Goble received free copies of The Foundry's Modo, Nuke, Mari and Hiero. "There's no way I would have been able to get it to look as nice without all my friends' help on it," he adds. — BY MARC LOFTUS PUPPY BOWL KICKS OFF FEBRUARY 1ST SILVER SPRINGS, MD — Discovery begins work on its annual Puppy Bowl special each spring. The show, which airs on Animal Planet on Super Bowl Sunday, has come a long way since its original shoot in one of the network's board rooms. This year, it was shot at Chelsea Broadcast Center in Manhattan and made use of 10 cameras and another 10 GoPros, along with an elaborate stadium-styled set with dramatic lighting, smoke machines and a half-time show too. And of course, there's the water-bowl cam. John Tomlin is one of the show's executive producers and says every year Discovery works to make the special even more fun and interesting. "We really wanted to focus on the puppies, kittens and hamsters, and the animals," says Tomlin, a freelance EP who's also worked on Animal Planet's America's Cutest, Dogs 101 and Cats 101. In addition to the special's entertainment value, the program also pro- motes adoption. At press time, Puppy Bowl was in the mid- dle of post production at Discovery in Silver Springs, MD. The show will appear as a two- hour program on February 1st — Super Bowl Sunday — and will replay throughout the day. It was being cut on Avid systems. "One of the hardest things is to keep track of all the names," says Tomlin, noting that each animal gets a custom graphic. The show features more than 80 puppies alone, not to mention the cats, hamsters and other pets. "Everybody likes working on the show and makes time for it on their schedule," he adds. "It's a fun event. It benefi ts puppies and pro- motes adoption." — BY MARC LOFTUS Goble (inset) used Modo to create the VFX featured in this winning "Time Machine" entry. BITS & PIECES Puppy Bowl returns to Animal Planet on Super Bowl Sunday.