I’ve just read a fantastic post over at HD for Indies on the benefits of shooting on HD over film. The post comes as a result of a long discussion that the author had on Cinematography.net. However, while the author is very much in favour of HD, he is quite willing to put forward arguments […]

The guy who’s making the tracking markers for me got me a couple to check - just to make sure everything was good…
As I said before, he’s doing 10 with wires, and 10 without. Something I didn’t mention last time is that, of the 10 without wires, 5 would have the LED straight on from […]

Isn’t it good to have useful friends?
I’ve just commissioned a number of LED tracking markers to be made by a friend of mine who’s an electronic engineer.
He’s doing 10 that have the LED on the battery pack, and another 10 that have about a meter of wire, so there’s room to hide the battery pack […]

I need to get hold of a decent chrome ball for shooting HDRI images - I’m after a proper one, preferably with a handle coming out of the bottom, and half silvered/half grey would be ideal….
Anyone got any idea where I can get hold of one from? Preferably in the UK, but if you know […]

People… I need some suggestions…..
What should I carry with me at all times when shooting?
Stuff I’ve got on my list so far:

LX tape:

Black
White
Red (for tracking markers)

Leatherman
LED tracking markers
Tape measure
Silver ball (or half silver, half 50% grey) - anyone know where I can get one of these from in the UK?
Digital Camera

What else is essential carrying? […]

For the next few weeks, at least, I’m going to try to keep to some kind of schedule about what I write about when….
Here’s the plan:
Mondays: A Shake tutorial of some kind (I may well re-use ones I’ve written for elsewhere if I’m stuck for ideas)Wednesdays: Thoughts on one of the sequences I’ll be doing […]

As I mentioned last week, I’m going to post a few brief run-downs of previous short films that I’ve done the VFX for. Most of these are only a couple of shots, but I learnt valuable lessons on each one, and would be quite happy to share them with you.
So, here’s the list of films […]

The title of this blog isn’t entirely random, and there is a bit of a history behind it…. If you’ll bear with me, I’ll try to explain a little…
Back in about 1998, I was 17, and was at school…. I’d been vaguely interested in computer graphics for a while, having found the demo of a […]

I suppose the first blog post has to, more by necessity than any sense of tradition, be an introduction to the author, and to what the blog is setting out to do….
So here goes… <deep breath>
My name is Hugh Macdonald, I’m 24 and I work in the visual effects industry in London. (you know, all […]