The AVATAR Adventure in IMAX3D – a short review.

Avatar Is a Stunning Stereo3D Work of Art—Here is Why. Aside from a spiffy special presentation poster at the door of the feature,  what is my takeaway from the ⁦IMAX 3D presentation of AVATAR?  My history with stereo3D filmmaking informs me a lot about the process, and I’ll go into a little …

VFXarcheology: Part 6 — The Un-solved Star Wars Caper

This entry is part 6 of 8 in the series VFX_archaeology

  A Legend Lost Not Found Updated 04/17/19 In 1977 Star Wars stunned the world, and changed cinema forever. It was a long, hard slog for creator George Lucas, who suffered physical ailments, and the possibility of financial ruin due to to all the challenges of the film. All the …

VFX Archaeology: Part 4 — Nurnies and Greeblies

This entry is part 4 of 8 in the series VFX_archaeology

You can’t talk about #greebles without mentioning, likely the most iconic miniature ever shot, the #starwars #stardestroyer at only 3 feet long -@FonHDavis   Context is Everything Modern cinema maintains a series of technical terms via oral tradition, that really no longer make sense. How many people really itnow the origin of terms like …

VFX Archaeology — The Lost Empire Strikes Back

This entry is part 2 of 8 in the series VFX_archaeology

Exploring the Evolution of a Lost Shot From Script to Screen [Image from the Empire Strikes Back Blu-ray. Color correction emphasizes blue spill that was normally lost to viewer.] The near final shot of The Empire Strikes Back (TESB) of the Millenium Falcon flying off into the sunset — or rather …

The Force Awakens, and the State of 3D conversion

Star Wars: The Force Awakens Stereo Conversion is Awe Inspiring and You Should See It. In a darkened IMAX3D theater I saw Star Wars: the Force Awakens for the second time. My first viewing was at the Motion Picture Academy screening with JJ Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy, Roger Guyett, and many others. …

Fringe to Falling Skies — The Unwanted Rise of Digital Makeup

This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series The dMFX Chronicles

It Came From the 1990’s Okay, this will take a little bit of back-story… In 1997, I started to write an article in conjunction with Digital Domain’s Andre Bustanoby (fresh off of Titanic VFX) for the (now archival) website VFXHQ.  This article was to chronicle what we saw as the beginning of a new …

The Missing Millennium Falcon?

This entry is part 1 of 8 in the series VFX_archaeology

Evolution of a Design This article contains an image recreated from memory of an actual  photo in an ex-ILMer’s archive — it is a re-creation for research purposes only, and not an official StarWars art piece. (However, the design has been verified to exist in the LFL archives by an insider.) …

The VFX War: Part 4 —The California Drought

This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series The VFX War

The Great Dust Bowl 2 There is little to no rain in California. For the last several years the once verdant fields of this great American state (both in size and productivity) have produced fewer crops as water restrictions expand every year. Los Angeles, is a desert, and has always …

The VFX War: Part 3 — The Slight Heard Round The World

This entry is part 3 of 5 in the series The VFX War

Hollywood’s Juvenile Response to Brilliance. For 2014 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences promises in a Variety article to “get the visual effects presentation right this year.” They are in reference to last year’s global debacle of a presentation after The Life of Pi was played offstage as …

Saving VFX: Part One — A Possible Way Forward

Splitting Up to Carry On. Government kickbacks are not the only concern weighing on the Visual Effects (VFX)  industry. We have innovated our way into solving everyone else’s problems, taking on the burden that used to belong to other departments. VFX have threatened the jobs of other parts of the …

Saving Mr. Binks

Focusing the Hatred of the Galaxy, a Digital Star is Born! There are long diatribes on the Internet tearing George Lucas to shreds for the creation of Jar Jar Binks.  Such vile hatred for a character in a movie —an individual that does not exist — is curious.  Normally this level of …

The VFX War: Part 2 — Fish In A Barrel

This entry is part 2 of 5 in the series The VFX War

We Are Eating Ourselves. It’s almost as if someone planned it. A Macivelian overlord sat down one day, scheming how to drive down prices, institute near slave-driven hours (without compensation as often as possible) by arbitrarily putting a date on a calendar, increase their profits, pay for no benefits, accept …

The Story Begins

Welcome to the blog. What is PunkWerks, one may ask?  Officially this is an offshoot site of Agrapha Productions, but it is not directly related to the VFX content the company provides — it is one of the side effects of a life of art.  Those projects and ideas that …