fxphd.com, the project-based online visual effects training resource led by visual effects professionals, is launching a ground-breaking series of courses based on vfx material it produced for the brand new RED DWARF miniseries, RED DWARF: BACK TO EARTH, which was commissioned exclusively by Dave, the home of witty banter.
"For the first time, a production agreed to partner with fxphd to allow unparalleled access to a real production. Instead of simply filming a 'making of,' we were the visual effects company for the project on set. Working with Sydney effects house FIN design on virtual sets we worked on over 260 shots for the three-part mini-series," said vfx supervisor and fxphd.com co-founder, Mike Seymour.
The RED DWARF courses are among the 37 courses offered this term on its website at www.fxphd.com which cover both post production and production. Shot entirely in the U.K. on multiple RED ONE cameras, Seymour says that fxphd wanted to provide its students with the ability to examine the leading-edge vfx work undertaken in a real world, contemporary production.
"While we love working on visual effects, we did this so that fxphd members could gain insight from a real production," commented fxphd.com co-founder John Montgomery. "This project provides the basis of several courses during the term at fxphd.com -- from compositing, to Flame, to CGI, to production."
fxphd delivered 262 shots to the production over a 27 day period, with a select team of 18 fxphd members distributed around the world working on the material. "The quality of the shots we produced is outstanding for a TV episodic," said Seymour, who also served as second unit director on the project.
The five courses based around Dave's brand new RED DWARF content are: Background Fundamentals: Inside the Production; Special Ops - Visual Effects of The RED DWARF; Maya Animation & Compositing: RED DWARF; Flame Post on RED DWARF; RED Tales from Production. During these, students can cover a range of important vfx techniques from the basic such as monitor replacement, through issues such as working with RED footage in grading, modelling and rigging 3D characters, and -- crucially how to keep production schedules on track. Other subjects being taught this term cover the use of a wide array of software packages including Houdini, Final Cut, Fusion, Shake, Massive and XSI, and subjects as diverse as digital color theory, particles and dynamics and matte painting pre-visualisation.
Students will have access to high quality footage from RED DWARF: BACK TO EARTH and other shoots, as well as other effects material, such as traditional 2D animation and advanced multi-pass 3D render. This allows them to create their own composites and build shots for their reels under the instruction of fxphd teachers. Footage ranges from NTSC and PAL all the way up to 4:4:4 1920 x 1080 imagery.
Students pay a flat fee of $330 per term, and can elect to study up to three courses, with an additional Background Fundamentals course supplied gratis (and, of course, up to two more per term can be added for an extra fee). Each course features 10 x 30 minute QuickTime tutorials, with many also featuring supplementary files and footage to work with. What's more, fxphd's virtual private network enables students to use full versions -- without watermarking -- of many of the industry's leading software packages, as long as it is for their own individual, educational use, or for generating material for their personal demo reel.
This term marks the 12th at fxphd, and the company has grown every term since starting some three years ago. fxphd has studios and offices in Chicago, LA and Sydney, with members in 71 countries around the world. fxphd.com is independently owned by practicing post professionals and aims to serve a worldwide film community.
RED DWARF is an Emmy Award winning British science-fiction-based sitcom that was phenomenally successful in its home country, running for eight series from 1988 to 1999. It followed the misadventures of the surviving crew of the mining spaceship Red Dwarf who, after a particularly bad radiation leak, find themselves alone three million years in the future. Curry-loving slob Dave Lister finds himself the last human in the universe, and is joined by the resurrected hologram of his insufferable bunkmate Arnold Rimmer, Cat (a bipedal, humanoid who has evolved from the ship's cat over the past three million years), the sanitation mechanoid Kryten and Holly, the ship's by-now senile computer.
Written by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, RED DWARF welded a host of sci-fi references from ALIEN, DARK STAR, THE HITCHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY and more, as well as satirical takes on such movies as CITIZEN KANE and REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE, to the more traditional British TV genres of satire and sitcom. The result was often very, very funny, and anticipation for the three-part miniseries revisiting the characters 10 years on, RED DWARF: BACK TO EARTH, is consequently rather high.
RED DWARF: BACK TO EARTH premieres in the U.K. over the Easter Weekend on Dave, the home of witty banter -- 9 p.m. on April 10, 11 and 12. For more information, log on to www.joindave.co.uk.
More information about fxphd.com and details on how to enrol on its courses is available at www.fxphd.com.
