More from the VES Awards

Here's a whole boatload of photos from last week's 6th Annual VES Awards. (Make sure you read the first article, "VES Awards: ILM Sweeps.") Teams from Industrial Light & Magic won six awards; four for "Transformers" and two for "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."

It was an honor to represent the entire team at ILM that worked so tirelessly on "Transfomers." And here's the full ILM credit list for the film - every single of of them (and many that did not make the final list) worked their tails off to make the film look "awe-inspiring, eye-popping, way-cool, astonishing, flawless, and out of this world."

The Kodak Theater Ballroom, on February 10, 2008.

The VES Award statuette.

The party starts.

Accepting the award for Outstanding Compositing in a Feature film is the "Transformers" team, represented by Pat Tubach, Todd Vaziri, Mike Conte, and Beth D'Amato.

"Transformers" compositing supervisor Pat Tubach.

"Transformers" sequence supervisor Todd Vaziri.

"Transformers" sequence supervisor Mike Conte.

"Transformers" roto/paint supervisor Beth D'Amato, Pat Tubach, Todd Vaziri and Mike Conte.

The statuette is strong enough to support my giant head.

Presenter John Knoll starts off the show with a fabricated story about working with Steven Spielberg. He left the stage with his pants on fire.

Accepting the award for Outstanding Animated Character in a Feature Film is the Davy Jones team from "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End": Hal Hickel, Maia Kayser, Marc Chu and Jakup Pistecky. The award was presented by "Transformers" director Michael Bay.

The ILM/Kerner team from "Transformers" accepting the award for Outstanding Models and Miniatures in a Feature Film: Dave Fogler, Brian Gernand, Alex Jaeger and Ron Woodall.

This shot from the desert highway sequence from "Transformers" won the award for Best Single Visual Effect of the year.

Shawn Kelly, animator extraordinaire, accepting the award.

Accepting the Best Single Visual Effect of the Year award, the brilliant Mike Jamieson (who lit and composited the shot), Scott Farrar, Shari Hanson, and Shawn Kelly.

Now they're being silly.

Our visual effects supervisor, Scott Farrar, accepting the award for Best Visual Effects for "Transformers."

Our visual effects producer, Shari Hanson, accepting the award for Best Visual Effects for "Transformers."


Our animation supervisor, Scott Benza, accepting the award for Best Visual Effects for "Transformers."

Associate visual effects supervisor Russell Earl joins Shari, Scott, and Scott.

Benza looks like he's all-too-familiar with that pose.

"Transformers" director Michael Bay. Insert your own caption.

Visual effects wizard Dennis Muren attempts to conjure up some movie magic, right there on the podium.

And there's Megan Fox.

Even more photos and information can be found at the following links.

• Visual Effects Society Coverage
• IESB Coverage
  
• For a complete list of winners, click here.
• Variety article: "Transformers," ILM Light Up VES
• The Hollywood Reporter article: "Transformers" Tops VES Nods

VES Awards: ILM Sweeps

That's me, hangin' onto the VES Award for Outstanding Compositing in a Motion Picture.

This weekend, ILM cleaned up at the 6th Annual VES Awards, which took place in the Kodak Theater Ballroom in Hollywood. "Transformers" took home four awards, and "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" garnered two awards.

It was a terrific night for visual effects fans. Steven Spielberg was honored with a lifetime achievement award, presented by Dennis Muren, and award presenters included Brad Bird, John Knoll, Michael Bay, "Transformers" star Megan Fox, Douglas Trumbull, Harrison Ellenshaw, and many more. There that night were other legends of visual effects having fun, like Ken Ralston, Richard Edlund, Jim Morris. Best of all, I had the opportunity to catch up with a lot of old friends that I worked with in Los Angeles, like my mentor and friend Van Ling, my Pixel Magic cohorts George Macri and Ray Scalice, Reid Paul, Bonnie Kanner, Johnathan Banta, and all the ILM'ers and... boy, it was a dizzying night! And it was over too soon.

Here we are accepting our award for Outstanding Compositing in a Motion Picture for "Transformers": compositing supervisor Pat Tubach, sequence supervisors Todd Vaziri and Mike Conte, and roto/paint supervisor Beth D'Amato.


Working on "Transformers" was an amazing opportunity for me, and a genuine honor to have been working side by side with such a great team at ILM. Big kudos go out to visual effects supervisor Scott Farrar and the brilliant visual effects producer Shari Hanson for putting together a magnificent team and for setting just the right tone for this immense project.

The complete list of the "Transformers" wins:

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture
TRANSFORMERS
Scott Farrar, Shari Hanson, Russel Earl, Scott Benza

Best Single Visual Effect of the Year
TRANSFORMERS - Desert Highway Sequence
Scott Farrar, Shari Hanson, Shawn Kelly, Michael Jamieson

Outstanding Models or Miniatures in a Motion Picture
TRANSFORMERS
Dave Fogler , Ron Woodall , Alex Jaeger, Brian Gernand

Outstanding Compositing in a Motion Picture
TRANSFORMERS
Pat Tubach , Beth D’Amato , Todd Vaziri , Mike Conte

For a complete list of winners, click here.
Variety article: "Transformers," ILM Light Up VES
The Hollywood Reporter article: "Transformers" Tops VES Nods

I'll be posting a lot of photos and stories from that night in the near future. And here it is! Click here for more photos.

VES Awards Announces Nominees

From the VES website:

Los Angeles, January 7, 2008 - The Visual Effects Society (VES) today announced the nominees for the 6th Annual VES Awards ceremony recognizing outstanding visual effects in over a dozen categories of film, television, commercials and video games. Nominees were chosen Saturday, January 5, 2008 by numerous panels of VES members who viewed submissions at the FotoKem screening facilities in Burbank.

“We received hundreds of submissions from around the world and we are proud to present nominees that push the boundaries of how visual effects can enhance the storytelling process,” says Jeff Okun, VES Chair. “Looking at the level of complexity and creativity of this year’s nominees, it is clear that the VES is the single most important pool of talent, experience and knowledge in the visual effects world.”

The nominees for the 6th Annual VES Awards are the following:
(feature film categories listed only)

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Motion Picture
I AM LEGEND - Janek Sirrs, Mike Chambers, Jim Berney, Crys Forsyth-Smith
TRANSFORMERS - Scott Farrar, Shari Hanson, Russel Earl, Scott Benza
THE GOLDEN COMPASS - Michael Fink, Susan MacLeod, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END - John Knoll, Jill Brooks, Hal Hickel, Charlie Gibson
SPIDER-MAN 3 - Scott Stokdyk, Terry Clotiaux, Peter Nofz, Spencer Cook

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture
RATATOUILLE - Michael Fong, Apurva Shah, Christine Waggoner, Michael Fu
ZODIAC - Eric Barba, Craig Barron, Janelle Croshaw, Chris Evans
WE OWN THE NIGHT - Kelly Port, Julian Levi, Brad Parker, Olivier Sarda
THE KITE RUNNER - David Ebner, Les Jones, Todd Perry, Leif Einarsson
BLADES OF GLORY - Mark Breakspear, Randy Starr, Shauna Bryan, Kody Sabourin

Best Single Visual Effect of the Year
TRANSFORMERS - Desert Highway Sequence
Scott Farrar, Shari Hanson, Shawn Kelly, Michael Jamieson
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END - Jack and Davy Duel
John Knoll, Jill Brooks, Francois Lambert, Philippe Rebours
300 - Crazy Horse Sequence
Chris Watts, Gayle Busby, Kirsty Millar
SURF’S UP - Riding the Visual Effects Tube
Rob Bredow, Lydia Bottegoni, Daniel Kramer, Matt Hausman
SPIDER-MAN 3 - The Birth of Sandman
Scott Stokdyk, Terry Clotiaux, Spencer Cook, Doug Bloom

Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Motion Picture
SPIDER-MAN 3 - Sandman
Chris Yang, Bernd Anger, Dominick Cecere, Remington Scott
THE WATER HORSE: LEGEND OF THE DEEP - Crusoe
Richard Frances-Moore, Martin Hill, Marco Revelant, Daniel Barrett
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END - Davy Jones
Hal Hickel, Marc Chu, Jakub Pistecky, Maia Kayser
ENCHANTED - Pip
Tom Gibbons, James W. Brown, David Richard Nelson, John Koester
TRANSFORMERS - Optimus Prime
Rick O'Connor , Doug Sutton, Keiji Yamaguchi, Jeff White
I AM LEGEND - The Infected Leader
David Schaub, Marco Marenghi, Josh Beveridge

Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Motion Picture
SURF'S UP - Chicken Joe
David Schaub, Moon Jun Kang, Brian Casper, Andreas Procopiou
SHREK THE THIRD - King Harold
John Cleese, Guillaume Aretos, Tim Cheung, Sean Mahoney
BEOWULF - Beowulf
Keith Smith, Scott Holmes, Pericles Michielin, Kenn McDonald
SURF'S UP - Cody
David Schaub, Pete Nash, James Crossley, Shia LaBeouf
RATATOUILLE - Colette
Janeane Garofalo, Jaime Landes, Sonoko Konishi , Paul Aichele

Outstanding Effects in an Animated Motion Picture
BEOWULF - Dragon Chase
Theo Vandernoot, Vincent Serritella, Rob Engle, Pericles Michielin
SHREK THE THIRD - Effects
Matt Baer, Greg Hart, Krzysztof Rost, Anthony Field
RATATOUILLE - Food
Jon Reisch, Jason Johnston, Eric Froemling, Tolga Goktekin
SURF’S UP - Riding Wave - CG Style
Rob Bredow, Daniel Kramer, Matt Hausman, Danny Dimian
RATATOUILLE - Rapids
Darwyn Peachey, Chen Shen

Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Motion Picture
SWEENEY TODD - The Old Bailey
Raf Morant, Julian Gnass, Nakia McGlynn, Christine Wong
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END - The Maelstrom
Frank Losasso Petterson , Paul Sharpe , Joakim Arnesson , David Meny
ZODIAC - Washington and Cherry
Wei Zheng, Greg Szafranski, Janelle Croshaw, Karl Denham
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX - The Hall of Prophecy
David Vickery, Philippe LePrince, Trina Roy, Jolene McCaffrey
RUSH HOUR 3
Barry Williams, Robert Weaver , Jay Cooper , Masahiko Tani
I AM LEGEND - Times Square Hunt
Daniel Eaton, Blaine Kennison, Ron Gress, Daveed Shwartz

Outstanding Models or Miniatures in a Motion Picture
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END - Practical and Digital Ships
Ken Bailey, Bruce Holcomb, Carl Miller , Geoff Heron
LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD - Freeway Sequence - F35 Miniature and Effects
Ian Hunter, Scott Schneider, Scott Beverly, John Cazin
TRANSFORMERS
Dave Fogler , Ron Woodall , Alex Jaeger, Brian Gernand
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX - Hogwarts School
Jose Granell, Nigel Stone
SPIDER-MAN 3 - Building / Crane Destruction Miniature and Effects
Ian Hunter, Scott Beverly, Forest Fischer, Raymond Moore

Outstanding Compositing in a Motion Picture
TRANSFORMERS
Pat Tubach , Beth D'Amato , Todd Vaziri , Mike Conte
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END - Death of Beckett
Lou Pecora, Joel Behrens, Ted Andre, Kevin Lingenfelser
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END
Eddie Pasquarello , Katrin Klaiber, Jen Howard, Shawn Hillier
I AM LEGEND - Seaport Evacuation
Darren Lurie, John Sasaki, Rita Kunzler, Fish Essenfeld
THE WATER HORSE: LEGEND OF THE DEEP - Crusoe
Areito Echevarria, Gareth Dinneen, Norman Cates, Caterina Schiffers
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX - Hall of Prophecy and Comp Shots
Jolene McCaffrey, Jelena Stojanovic, Victor Wade, Adam Pashke

Outstanding Special Effects in a Motion Picture
HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
John Richardson, Stephen Hamilton, Richard Farns, Stephen Hutchinson


http://vesawards.com/