Darrin Hofmeyr

Jason Schleifer, Head of Character Animation at Dreamworks, has an amazing blog that after a year or two have recently rediscovered. Why I had forgotten about it, I don’t know. Anyway, he has some great posts about time management, managing a team and more…

This post is just one of many that are starting to inspire.

“An incredibly helpful man told me that a manager’s job is to basically identify and remove the roadblocks and problems that are inhibiting your team from getting their jobs done.”

Apparently the movie we worked on at BlackGinger has grossed an amazing RMB 100  million in its opening weekend in China.

Read the CNN article here

The Chinese movie, Aftershock, based on the 1976 Tangshan Earthquake, is being released on IMAX on July 22nd and BlackGinger did 100 odd shots for it.

We worked primarily on the earthquake sequence within the dormitory, in the trailer you can see that all the destruction sequences, except the final full building collapse are ours. We also did about twelve shots in the opening dragonfly sequence which is not in the trailer.

I am very proud of the team for effort and quality of the work we delivered. GO TEAM AWESOME!

This was BlackGinger’s first major destruction movie and so now we have another toolset under our belt. Whales and Earthquakes – maybe soon a whale IN an earthquake – WOOP!

HDR test with a Red cam 3d rig from E3D Creative on Vimeo.

This is an exceptionally clever use for a Stereo Camera Rig. DOP’s are going to have lots of fun if they can get this setup…
From the Vimeo page – “Shot with our 3d MegaRig set to zero IO with 2 Red One cameras that have not been upgraded to MX. 2 Ruby lens set to 16mm. 1 camera opened up to f4 the other at f20…resulting in a depth of field disparity, but not that bad, should’ve used ND I know. Then we put them together in After Effects CS4 using some tricky luma key.”
I just wonder how long the tricky luma key took?

A great calendar to break down the World Cup into groups, venues, dates or countries. See when and where a team is playing all by dragging your mouse around the wheel.
LINK

South Africa squad:

Goalkeepers: Itumeleng Khune (Kaizer Chiefs), Moeneeb Josephs (Orlando Pirates), Shu-Aib Walters (Maritzburg United)

Defenders: Matthew Booth, Siboniso Gaxa (both Mamelodi Sundowns), Bongani Khumalo (SuperSport United), Tsepo Masilela (Maccabi Haifa, Israel), Aaron Mokoena (Portsmouth, England), Anele Ngcongca (Racing Genk, Belgium), Siyabonga Sangweni (Golden Arrows), Lucas Thwala (Orlando Pirates)

Midfielders: Surprise Moriri (Mamelodi Sundowns), Lance Davids (Ajax Cape Town), Kagisho Dikgacoi (Fulham, England), Teko Modise (Orlando Pirates), Reneilwe Letsholonyane, Siphiwe Tshabalala (both Kaizer Chiefs), Thanduyise Khuboni (Golden Arrows), Steven Pienaar (Everton, England), Macbeth Sibaya (Rubin Kazan, Russia)

Strikers: Katlego Mphela (Mamelodi Sundowns), Siyabonga Nomvete (Moroka Swallows), Bernard Parker (FC Twente, Netherlands).

In February last year I posted about Matt Harding who dances around the world in my post – Where the Hell is Matt.
It appears he has been doing the diski in SA recently and here is the result.

If you enjoy his dancing and seeing the people of the world having fun… check out his site here

You remember this beauty of a t-shirt and the awesome reviews:- “Unfortunately I already had this exact picture tattooed on my chest, but this shirt is very useful in colder weather.”
Now here’s the watch to wear with it!
The Zenith Men’s Defy Xtreme Tourbillon Titanium Chronograph Watch
With glowing reviews and a massive 40% off, who would not jump at spending the $88,000 (with Amazon you save $57,000) to have this bad boy displayed on your arm:-
“this watch is the best, it is fastest of all – it beats all other watches hands down. it beat my fossil by over an hour in just one day. It even beat my atomic clock by about 64 minutes. looks pretty and runs fast – awesome deal with free shipping”

I am feeling quite patriotic today so decided to post something World Cup inspired. I was looking online for the theme song(s) or anthems for this years World Cup that you will hear a lot of over the next three months and came up with the Coca-Cola anthem “Waving Flags”  as well as the Shakira (apparently) official Anthem/Song of the 2010 World Cup “Time for Africa”. At least it aint “Shewolf”
If these don’t get you in the mood then I don’t know what will.

So after hearing the songs that will be blasting from the fan parks, take a listen to some you might hear at the other eclectic venues like pubs and clubs around the country.

Jack Parow “Cooler as Ekke”

Robbie Wessels “Liewe ouers”

JR featuring HHP “Make the circle bigger”

and finally Die Antwoord “Enter the Ninja”

South African Kulture!!