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Sander de Regt, aka ShadowMaker SdR, talks
to eyeon about being a director, a writer, a VFX artist, how
he does what he does, and why Fusion is his tool of
choice.
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| Q: Can you tell me a little
about yourself? | |
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My name is Sander de Regt. I'm 34 years old. I am from The
Netherlands. I'm married and have two children. I'm a
screenwriter, occasional VFX artist and full time lover of all
things Fusion.
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| Q: What made you decide to
become a VFX artist? | |
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I actually became a VFX artist out of necessity. I went to
film school from 1993-1997 to become a director but then I had
the mad idea to make a 27 minute science-fiction musical as my
graduation film.
Back then our school had about 12
Amiga 2000s, one Amiga 4000 and one Pentium 133 MHz with 32MB
of RAM running Lightwave 4 or 5.
There was no After
Effects for the PC yet but I still needed to create 50 shots
that combined live action with 3D space ships.
At that
time, nobody I knew had done anything like this in our school
and the only person that was remotely capable of doing the
work was, well...me.
We had an outside company
digitize our Betacam footage, output it to sequential
TGA-files, and I made my composites straight into Lightwave.
When my graduation film was screened I received very
positive reviews. Unfortunately, none of those was for the
writing or the directing but the VFX did receive some praise.
Almost then and there, my directing career stalled but the
door to a career in VFX opened. I stepped through it, which
led me to my first Fusion job.
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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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In January of 1998, I was contracted to do the visual
effects for a television adaptation of the classic Dutch
children's book Otje. In this show there were, amongst other
things, about 100 bluescreen shots of puppets that needed to
be composited into the footage. Originally, they had intended
to do these effects with an image switcher in an online suite
but since almost all of these shots either had puppeteers or
rigging inside the shot that option was out.
Luckily,
the company that had digitized the footage for my graduation
film was also the distributor of Digital Fusion at the time
and they introduced me to the glorious interface of Digital
Fusion 2.5 Post. I had never pulled a single key or removed a
single rig but I dove head-first into this job and found that,
even in this early tile-and-pipes incarnation, Fusion's
workflow fit right into the way my mind works.
It was
a very good match between artist and software and Otje proved
to be a formidable training ground. Even though the results
were sometimes a little rough round the edges (quite
literally, since it was shot on interlaced DVCPro) it was a
big success and the series is still shown on television from
time to time.
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| Q: What artist/event/person
inspires you? | |
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As much as I'd like to be a renaissance man with a very
broad knowledge of the arts, I get most of my inspiration from
films. I have a very eclectic taste in movies, from classics
like North by Northwest and Singin' in the Rain to the Muppet
Movies, Smokey and the Bandit, and Strictly Ballroom. I watch
them all and I get very different things from each of them.
Nothing lifts my mood like the crane shot in the song Singin'
in the Rain or makes me cry like the song Suddenly Seymour
from Little Shop of Horrors.
But like so many people
of my generation, it was Star Wars that started it all. When I
was growing up, I never saw the original trilogy in theaters
but book stores sold Star Wars comics, toy stores sold Star
Wars action figures, so Star Wars was everywhere and when I
finally got around to seeing the actual movies I loved
everything about it. Yes, even the Ewoks.
You may
recall that they made some very good 'making of'
documentaries. I watched those religiously as well. It showed
me that films get made by a lot of people and I really wanted
to be one of them.
I started making short films with
my parents' Video8 camera and some friends from school. Those
films got me into film school and the rest, as they say, is
history.
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| Q: What shows have you
contributed to in the past?
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After Otje, word slowly got out and little by little I
started getting more work doing titles and a couple of VFX
shots here and there.
Between 2000 and 2007, I created
somewhere between 300 and 500 shots for more than seven
feature films ranging from Volle Maan (Full Moon) to the
Zoop-trilogy, a popular Dutch children's film franchise. All
these shots were done in 2K, all by me from my home studio,
and every single one of those shots went through Fusion in one
way or another.
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| Q: Why do you use
Fusion? | |
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Because I can use it for almost everything. Wire removals,
keying, masking, grading, particles, and 2.5D projected matte
paintings. I even use it as a non-destructive alternative to
Photoshop. Of course, the fact that it was the first
compositing software I ever used plays a part in it as well
but over the years I've never seen anything in other
compositing packages that made me consider switching.
I know that AE is a powerful application in the right
hands but I never managed to get my head around the whole
layers concept. I never know what effect affects what layer.
In the demo version of Nuke, I couldn't even get a loader to
show in the viewer. I realize that this is because of my lack
of knowledge but I 'got' Fusion straight from the start and it
gets the job done for me, each and every time.
Another
reason for me to work with Fusion is the great on-line
community. Mailing lists like the Fusion-L mailing list (link here) and the DF user group on
the Pigs Fly forum (link here) are great resources for
Fusion artists. Over the years, I've learned quite a lot from
the people on those lists and I hope to be able to give back
to them as well.
In addition to this, I also really
appreciate the fact that Fusion is written by a relatively
small team of developers. The way eyeon handles things like
tech support and feature requests feels more personal than
I've experienced with other companies. To me, that
accessibility is a big plus.
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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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The fact that Avatar made over a gazillion dollars
probably made sure that stereo will be around for at least the
next couple of years, so I expect that to be a trend for a
while. As far as the rest of visual effects, I think we've
almost reached the point where literally anything is possible
even on lower budgets. I think we will be seeing less
'gimmicky' effects than in the past, where every new
development was used and overused until everyone got tired of
it and started searching for the next big thing. The
advancements in technology have really democratized
filmmaking - and visual effects work too.
Everyone with the right amount of talent (and time)
can make wonderful films and effects these days. If you look
at the on-line galleries of 3D sites, you'll see wonderful
designs and paintings that, in the past, only a few artists
could accomplish. I feel this is the same for visual effects.
Because of this I do think that there will be big
divide in the VFX industry. I think there will be less and
less room for the medium sized VFX facility. Shows will
probably be either small enough to be handled by boutique
shops that have 1-5 employees or so big that they can only be
handled by multiple large scale facilities.
As for me
personally, in recent years I've transitioned away from VFX
and focused on becoming a full time writer of screenplays for
television and feature films. So far, this has worked out
pretty well. I've worked on various shows ranging from sitcoms
to children's television series. The fall of 2010 will see the
release of the first 'real' feature film I've written, Foeksia
de Miniheks.
Since writing takes up most of my time
these days, I've effectively become a semi-retired VFX artist.
I do try to maintain my VFX skills for the occasional project
that comes along.
Since they've such a big hit, I'd
also like to create some more Fusion related puppet videos
like the 'It's not easy keying green...' video I did when
Fusion 6 was released. You can see the video on YouTube, here.
If I can come up with fun subjects, I'd like to create
something like a Fusion 101 with puppets. This would combine
my love for writing, directing, compositing, and Muppets. ?
One thing is for sure, whatever my future brings,
Fusion will most likely be a part of it. |
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