Kenneth is an artist living in Denmark and
has worked in Television for years doing promos, title
sequences, colorgrading, and VFX work. Three years ago he quit
his staff position and started freelancing, focusing on visual
effects for film and TV series.
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| Q: Can you tell me what made
you decide to become a VFX
artist? | |
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| I have a passion for movies and a seed was planted years
ago when I saw movies like The Last Starfighter and Tron. I am
drawn to impossible shots that you have to break down to
solve. A shot is like a Christmas present. When you open it,
you might find a fast, easy solution or it might take you hours
to find the right way to do it. |
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| Q. How long have you been
working with Fusion as an artist? Where did you learn
your compositing skills, and how did you first get
started using Fusion? | |
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Coming from broadcast design I started in
After Effects but when layer based compositing became a
limitation I moved to Fusion. As a freelancer, I have to be
able to composite in several applications. I jump between
Fusion, Aftereffects, and Nuke.
I have been working
with a lot of great Fusion artists at Ghost VFX and
Gimmick VFX, here in Copenhagen. They have taught me a lot but
I have also picked up techniques from fxphd.com where a lot of
great vfx people hang out.
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Q: What are some of your favourite tools in
Fusion? | |
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Particles and the Colorgrade node.
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| Q: How long have you been
working on Red Dwarf and The Wild
Swans? | |
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Both jobs where intense.
Red Dwarf -Back to Earth
was two months with pre and post production. This was my first
globally distributed job with artists spread all over world.
We used a web application called Shotrunner to manage the
production as it was spread over several time zones. VFX
supervisor Mike Seymour had briefed me on the look of the
Dimension Cutter (worm hole) but they didn't know how to do it
in CG. During principal photography at Shepperton Studios
in London, I sent him tests and animatics to show director
Doug Naylor and the actors.
The Wild Swans was 900
effect shots, 800 chroma key shots, and 65 shots with 3D
swans, so all three Fusion artists had our hands, and
heads, full.
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| Q: You recently helped in
the completion of the film The Wild Swans, for the Queen
of Denmark, H.M. Margrethe II, in association with
Gimmick VFX. What was it like to work on such a special
project? How did Fusion help you achieve the outstanding
results? | |
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The comps where made up of several greenscreen elements and
a flat background of the room or building. To give the shot
more depth we sometimes made it into a 3D comp or sliced the
background into several elements and played with depth blur.
In other shots, we built up particle layers of fog or
rain. One tool that made a huge difference was the Primatte
Keyer. I did a lot of keying where the lead actress Alisa
stands, with her long fine curly hair in the wind. Primatte
was able to pull a key and keep the fine hair detail.
Generation was good for timeline playback, you could
get a feel for the flow and match the colors between shots.
For grouping similar shots together, I used Generation's
version function where the shots are stacked on top of each
other.
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| Q: I understand that the
Queen of Denmark was astounded and awed by the results
achieved by the team at Gimmick VFX. That must make you
very proud.
Congratulations. | |
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Thanks
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Q: What trends do you see emerging in Visual
Effects? How do you see the role of the VFX artist
changing, and where do you see yourself in 10
years? | |
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Trends - producers are not afraid of vfx anymore and don't
have to go to a vfx house for help. Sometimes it can be done
with an artist on a laptop computer. With the new digital
formats, test comps can be done on set.
I see 3D and
compositing melting together. Today artists can do
textures and lighting and often the 3D guy has made a precomp,
the line between the two departments is
softening.
In ten years I hope to do more
consulting and on-set supervision, trying to fix as many
problems as possible before they hit post.
To see
images from the making of The Wild Swans, please click here.
For more information about
Kenneth Bonde, please visit his website at, www.vizfx.net.
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