Joseph Lawson has been in the field of Visual Effects for over 20 years, with credits on iconic movies and shows like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Star Trek: Enterprise, and many films from The Asylum (the Sharknado series). The father-son team at Lawson Digital Arts bring us their latest work with On Fire (dir. Peter Facinelli & Nick Lyon), a thriller inspired by true events about a family escaping from a raging forest fire. With the movie in theaters nationwide, we sat down with Joseph to talk about visual effects.

P: Congrats on On Fire‘s reception! We’re looking forward to seeing it on the big screen.
J: Thanks so much! We’re proud to be part of On Fire using ProductionCrate elements as part of our VFX toolkit!

P: The VFX team for On Fire was relatively small for a feature-length, natural disaster movie; What kind of challenges did this present? Were there any benefits?
J: My son and I are probably the only father-son VFX team I know of in the world.  We have a lot of experience tag-teaming and working with each others strengths to make shows like On Fire come together.   We’re also hyper organized which helps us do a lot more than average. Tons of lower budget film experiences has taught us how to leverage budgets to make things look like more than the budget by the time folks experience them. As a director myself it’s possible to know what helps organically tell the film-maker’s story in a way that integrates visually without being too much VFX flashy. Ideally most folks won’t always realize we’re there at all. The biggest challenge was going from what was a project with 150 planned to 389 delivered shots.  A lot of fire effects planned for on set came to us out of genuine safety concerns. Fortunately we have a robust internal pipeline and organizational setup using ShotGrid that enables us to do a project of this scope.  The producers also gave us a generous amount of time to do the work.  The benefit of our two-person team (with some tracking/matte help from Joseph’s friend Elijah Morrow) is we have the visual shorthand and shared respect to trust each other with any task.

P: What made you want to pursue visual effects? What was your gateway to working professionally?
J: When I was 12 living in Okinawa I was a huge Star Trek fan. Some friends and I did Super 8mm short films so I knew I wanted to be a director. Doing our special effects got me hooked on that. Silent Running, Space:1999 and Star Wars, of course, confirmed my life goals. After a career in broadcasting radio and television including commercials with effects and being a weather announcer, I started a graphics business that did animation in Montana using LightWave 3D. I married my darling Kelly then got a job on Roughneck’s: The Starship Troopers Chronicles at the legendary Foundation Imaging (Babylon 5, Hypernauts).  This brought us to Valencia, California where we raised our son and daughter while I worked for various studios over almost two decades.  That included everything from The Global Asylum as VFX supervisor for seven years (and directing five of their movies) to Rhythm & Hues plus Digital Domain and so many great places and projects. With over 200 IMDB listings and growing it’s hard to give them all individual proper credit due.


P: What do you consider the biggest sea change in the time that you’ve worked as a VFX Artist/Supervisor?
J: There have been so many changes but one huge one is the availability of tools to a wide range of artist.  The hardware has gotten faster and cheaper, the software more capable and the availability of tools like ProductionCrate that provide elements and more to we creators quickly via internet makes it possible for us to create from anywhere there’s adequate speedy connection like our place here on the North Coast of Oregon.  And it’s all only getting better for those with tools, talent and desire to create.

P: What made Blender & After Effects the ideal tools for creating the VFX in On Fire?
J: Blender has become a perfect tool for freelance and boutique shops looking for a wide range of ever growing/improving capabilities.  We still leverage other software like LightWave when needed.  After Effects has always worked well for us and since we have so much experience; So many presets and plug-ins, it’s hard to change.  With AE’s color capabilities coming of age during On Fire we were able to integrate elements better than ever before.

P: Were there any lessons learned while working on a project like On Fire? Were there any unexpected hurdles?
J: Every show has its unique challenges, and for On Fire it was having to integrate so much fire into practical footage that was initially planned for live on set. We couldn’t do that because the forest floor was tinder-dry, forcing us to do even the smaller fire work in post.  That was also the biggest unexpected hurdle along with a lot of invisible effects like clocks, monitor screens, crew paint outs.  It was a long post period for a reason!

P: Which shot/sequence are you most excited for people to see?
J: The family fire chase sequence is pretty scary cool narrative and works.  A lot of my sons 100 percent CG shots are fantastic throughout the movie. I’m so proud of the artist he’s grown to be since starting almost a decade ago at age 14. That’s all him! He has an astounding future!

P: Did working on shots set mostly at night present any unique obstacles?
J: It actually made our job easier, especially because Chris Wilks and his stunt/effects team (along with the amazing lighting crew) set up some fantastic light sources to dramatically tell the director Nick Lyon’s and writer Ron Peer’s story.  We added the fires where needed and motivated by them. The main challenge it caused was tracking and lots of roto.  TONS of roto.  The lady on fire sequence was one of the toughest for both yet most of it integrates well.  Scary stuff.

P: What are your favorite VFX shots/sequences that you didn’t work on?
J: My favorite sequence Joseph worked on were some CG point-of-view shots during a family driving sequence.  The burning buildings and trees are all CG with a mix of fire and spark elements including ProductionCrate selling it.

P: Who are the masters you looked-up to and learned from?
J: Of course, we all stand on the shoulders of giants and my inspirations are decidedly old school names.  So many hardworking TV and movie artists but especially Ray Harryhausen, Douglas Trumbull, Brian Johnson, Greg Jein, and John Dykstra’s whole ILM team from Star Wars. Then computer pioneer and later friends Ron Thornton, Adam Mojo Leibowitz, Mark Kochinski, Glenn Campbell and SO many other great coworkers who always inspired me with how much better they were and gracious to all me to learn from.  Too many great folks to list here.  I continue to be humbled and learn from them all even now.

P: Most movie audiences only see the end product and not what it used to look like; what are some common VFX responsibilities that most viewers wouldn’t even think about that need to be done?
J: Pre-visualization, shot choreography and design, database set-up and organization and shot progress/delivery tracking, plate downloads, preview and final uploads, thumbnail captures, timeline scrubbing, bidding, prep, tracking, roto, invisible/clean up effects, deciding on elements, prepping things like frame rates, outputs and color space in compositing, plug-in management, constantly learning new software updates and plug-ins, working with clients, zoom calls, invoices, taxes, our own IT work, storage and disk space management, keeping up on hardware and software… and much more like having a family life!

P: Do you have any wisdom for aspiring visual effects artists?
J: Learn your craft.  Love your chosen field.  Follow your passion with all your heart.  Appreciate what time and resources you have to do the best you can for any given project then forgive yourself enough so as to learn what to do better next time.  Build friendships.  Be reliable.  Under-promise, over deliver, be fair and be pleasant enough that people WANT to work with you again.  Have fun!  Otherwise why are we in this at all?

P: How/where/when can people support On Fire?
J: On Fire is in theatres nationwide! We’re proud to have helped the fantastic teams of artists and actors who gave their art, talents and passion honoring first responders and acknowledging the toll of real world tragedy with this heartfelt emotional family story. 

Download 4K Spark VFX assets here.

ProductionCrate has updated its VFX asset library, with over 250 spark effects now available to download and use in any personal or commercial project.

The addition of sparks in explosions, bullet impacts and crashing cars undeniably intensifies the visual spectacle of an action sequence.

Blazing trails of burning hot embers provide incredible contrast and detail, enriching a scene with its turbulent chaotic appearance. They are the icing on the cake of any pyrotechnic special effects and have become a go-to ingredient for many filmmakers to make their action-packed films memorable. Spark effects, when used well, can often elevate a scene to an iconic level, with Michael Bay taking the spotlight in; Transformers, 6 Underground and Pearl Harbor.

“The pyrotechnicians were having fun on this one!” Chris Kelly recalls, while reviewing the footage, “They kept saying things like ‘Oh, I didn’t expect that to happen’ or ‘let’s see what it looks like if we combine these two!’ clearly having a lot of fun. We got some great content out of it that would be nearly impossible to recreate.”

For visual effects artists, sparks offer an avenue for enhancing the realism of explosions and destruction simulations. Using these effectively tackles the challenge of digitally replicating the imperfect chaotic behaviour of explosions seen in the real world. While artists familiar with Houdini are capable of creating spark simulations, this task requires countless hours of R&D and rendering. Using live-action stock footage VFX elements allows editors to immediately apply authentic sparks to their video within minutes; making it an effective solution for projects facing a deadline.

By browsing ProductionCrate’s library of stock footage spark elements, you can instantly preview exactly what each file contains. With the vast selection available to download, you’ll identify the perfect spark effect that your project needs. Whether you need a brief bullet impact, or a star-wars style death star explosion, ProductionCrate aims to cover all creative requirements

These stock footage elements are meticulously prepared by carefully calibrating the recorded footage from the studio. This is done to meet the several requirements for creating professional VFX assets that are ready to be used in feature films, music videos and games. ProductionCrate ensures that all of its content is delivered with these consistent and reliable standards.

4K video resolution gives these video assets a greater range of flexibility. With this, you’re free to position any 4K spark asset around your composition whilst retaining incredible visual quality. The freedom to scale up, rotate and position the spark asset anywhere in the scene without introducing pixelation makes this worthy of even high-end projects exported at a high resolution. This 4K resolution is also crucial to match the realism of the original background footage, allowing artists to naturally integrate this into scenes effortlessly.

The spark VFX assets were recorded at 96FPS on 2 RED cameras. This high framerate captured all of the incredible behaviours seen in sparks, including crackling microbursts, rapid embers bouncing against surfaces, and the explosive initial blast during ignition. To achieve a greater sense of scale, these spark assets are being delivered at 30FPS. These pyrotechnic explosion effects now appear to be several metres high, making them suitable for large car explosions, missile impacts and exciting car chases. To convert these spark effects back to real-time speeds, set their framerate to 96FPS, or adjust the speed to 320%. Slowing down the sparks even further will make them appear even larger in size.

“Our top priority is for these to be composited in seconds, without any technical knowledge or refinement required”, David Blaker explains whilst demonstrating how effortless ProductionCrate has made the process. “It’s really important for us to know that any artist can use these without further instructions, no matter if they’re editing a gunfight or a space battle”.

A huge contributing factor to the quality of these assets comes from the clean-up process. The footage has been thoroughly processed to remove artefacts, background elements, inconsistencies, unfavourable behaviours and various other corrections; providing a clean and polished VFX asset that exclusively features the essential sparks. Further processing has been accomplished to perfectly eliminate any hard edges on the edge of the frame – no sparks will be immediately cut off as they fly out of the footage. This especially helps when the spark effect has been positioned far from the camera or scaled down until edges become visible. Wherever you position your effect, you will have confidence that it will just work with no hassle.

Some assets are designed to fill the entire screen as overlays, whose borders have not had feathering applied. This can easily be re-applied by adding a mask around the edges and feathering the edges to achieve a soft blend.

Complex chemical reactions and the black body spectrum cause real-world sparks to radiate a vast array of colors. It is fair for anyone to assume that sparks simply glow a hot firey yellow. But once observing the pyrotechnic explosions taking place up close, Chris decided it was important to preserve the unique oranges, reds, greens and yellows in the final assets. The imperfections in how sparks are illuminated offer unprecedented realism that is difficult to achieve digitally. However, it is possible to use the tint effect to easily adjust the color of your sparks to match a red sci-fi laser blast or a green magic spell.

During the production of these assets, several categories were produced, each featuring a diverse range of spark behaviours. ProductionCrate aims to meet the requirements of any scene imaginable, and so ambitiously build the largest variety of spark asset styles to date. These include:

Spark burst VFX

These spark explosions are perfect for impactful energetic events. Typically beginning with a sudden expansion of red hot embers, before rapidly decelerating from dragging through the air, the dynamic character of these spark VFX assets make them a favorite of the collection.

Careful adjustments were made to these spark burst stock footage elements to ensure that they worked as modular effects. The timing of all the bursts synced with the first frame, allowing mashups of several spark burst effects to be as easy as stacking the clips together.

Large aerial variations are available that have the iconic appearance of the classic death star explosion. These may also be used for various air-burst effects, such as helicopter explosions, asteroid collisions or electricity pylon destruction.

Ceiling spark VFX

Featuring falling sparks and embers, the ceiling sparks give artists flexibility in the placement of their pyrotechnics. Perhaps an incandescent light bulb is exploding due to a power surge, or chaos is unfolding on the engineering deck of the USS Enterprise. Use these spark video effects to add drama to your music video; saving the need to purchase expensive pyrotechnics and follow complicated safety requirements.

Various ground interactions have been included in several of these spark special effects. Sparks bouncing and breaking apart as they collide with these surfaces create a spectacular appearance that once again is very difficult to replicate in a digital simulation. The illumination cast onto the ground by the sparks has also been retained, helping artists seamlessly blend the falling sparks into their footage.

Bullet impact VFX

Quick and easy to composite, these bullet impact VFX stock footage elements are the go-to for building an action scene. These bullet impact effects feature sudden explosive bursts of sparks that rapidly dissipate in the air as they spread out, providing a visual punch that elevates the intensity of a shot.

These can be used for far more than just bullets; artists can creatively insert these into sword clashes, car crashes, robot fist-fights and laser impacts. With over 100+ bullet impact effects available on ProductionCrate, compositors will never run out of variety when using this in a climatic thriller setpiece.

Constant sparks effects

Perfect for factories filled with heavy industrial machinery, these constant spark effects feature a constant directional stream of sparks. Rapidly discharging from their source, the constant spark stock footage is perfect for creating train-derailment wreckage or intense rocket thruster flames. Multiple durations of these are available to download, ranging from one to ten seconds.

Wild sparks effects

Miscellaneous setups were recorded, often purely experimentally to see what interesting things would happen. One pyrotechnic had the idea to hang a spark gerb on the end of a loose rope. The thrust created caused the spark emitter to fly around wildly, creating a chaotic and exciting effect that Chris decided to keep. Another shot saw a firecracker let loose, detonating several times around the ground. Various setups such as these were processed and included in this spark VFX bundle to offer fun options that can not be found elsewhere, and ProductionCrate is eager to see how these are used in projects.

Charges

These speciality spark effects feature a rapid discharge of an explosive fuse. Useful in planned demolitions, heists and SWAT ambushes, these charges often follow the geometry of interior surfaces, such as floors and doors.

How to add spark VFX to your video

ProductionCrate promises to provide assets that are compatible with the most diverse range of video editing software. Multi-layer compositing software is recommended for the best experience, such as Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Hitfilm, Nuke and Davinci Resolve. These VFX editing programs allow anybody to perform a vast range of creative adjustments to meet your artistic vision.

For this tutorial, we will be using Adobe After Effects, although the principles can be replicated in any editing software. Begin by adding the background image or video to the composition, with this particular background being sourced from Pexels.

Once you’ve browsed ProductionCrate’s collection of 4K spark VFX assets and found your perfect pyrotechnic, download the effect and import it to your project. From here, you will be able to insert the effect onto your footage simply by layering it over your background.

If you have downloaded a pre-keyed version of a spark effect, you’ll immediately see the results. You may experiment with different blending modes, such as Add, Lighten and Screen, each affecting the behaviours of colors differently. David used Lighten, allowing the darker red tones in the sparks to remain visible against the bright background.

Depending on the geometry of your scene, you may need to mask out any objects that should be obscuring the sparks. In David’s case, the platform of the train station confines the spark explosion to a smaller size, and so with two subtraction masks, we can account for this.

At this stage, you may already be happy with the quality of your spark VFX! The process of adding Hollywood-grade spark VFX only takes a few seconds with the power of pre-keyed stock footage elements. You’re now free to combine the sparks with even more elements, such as smaller bursts, falling embers and explosions. Additionally, you can color correct your sparks to match the tone and temperature of the scene.

If you’re working on a commercial or professional film, you may want to elevate the quality of your work with an additional reflection layer. If you’re unsure whether this is worth it, check out the comparison down below. Reflections offer an additional layer of scene interaction that visually integrates your spark stock footage into the environment. While most composited VFX requires a shadow, illumination effects such as sparks require the opposite, as their light is expected to illuminate surfaces in close proximity.

Begin by duplicating the effect, and flipping it vertically. Already you’ll see that we’ve taken the first step in creating a fake reflection.

Clearly, this does not look correct – in the real world, we expect reflections to be darker on rougher surfaces. We will need an additional layer to inform the reflection layer on how bright it should be, otherwise known as a Matte. Copy the background footage, and name it something appropriate. You may precompose any layers if you need to perform additional masking or positioning.

In your spark reflection layer, add an exposure effect. This helps you adjust the strength of the reflection. A color filter effect will allow you to intensify the coloring of the reflection, as the washed-out white colors in a spark effect may in reality be really bright orange. The final ingredient is the Set Matte effect. When using the background matte layer’s luminance values, we’re approximating the brightness of the reflection based on the brightness of the background. A great example of this in action is on the metallic rail tracks – its bright appearance in the photo indicates that it is a reflective surface, and so we want this to greater influence the opacity of the spark reflection.

Depending on the roughness of your ground, it can be useful to blur the reflection sparks before these effects are applied. This helps evenly distribute the intensity of the light, simulating the  the bumps, crevices and dented surfaces that break up the reflected light.

Those are the main principles that create an incredible spark explosion effect. You can improve this effect even further with the addition of glow effects, smoke, lingering flames and debris. You can find these additional effects and thousands more in ProductionCrate’s library of 10,000+ assets.

ProductionCrate is excited to see what content artists around the world are able to create with this new collection.

Download ProductionCrate’s media kit for the Spark VFX collection here.

To run LaForge, you will need:

• Adobe After Effects
• ProductionCrate desktop app (download here)
• LaForge Installer (download here)

Login Manager

Install the ProductionCrate Login Manager on your desktop or Mac device. This is our tool that allows you to activate and access ProductionCrate’s extensive range of plugins, scripts and tools from a single location.

You will be taken to a welcome screen where you can log in to your ProductionCrate account. If you have not got a ProductionCrate account, you can register here. Even with a Free account, you can access thousands of our creative assets, scripts and plugins.

Once logged in, your desktop will be validated. Keep the ProductionCrate app minimised in the background, as Forge will only work while this is running.

Installing Forge

Open the LaForge installer, and follow the instructions. Ensure that both Adobe After Effects and Premiere Pro is closed.

Download the free photorealistic 3D castle kit for your 3D projects here.

For a limited time, you can access an incredible 3D castle kit to use in your projects with no price at all. With over 60+ unique modular 3D assets, this pack provides an unlimited degree of freedom to create the perfect medieval empire.

We value the countless benefits of modularity for packaged 3D content. This takes away the tedious time-consuming work of creating every single wall, doorway and window by hand. Instead, you’re provided with easy to use inter-compatible assets; leaving you only with the task of piecing together your artistic vision. Do you need a tall castle? Just duplicate the available modules and stack them up! Do you want your castle to circle around your kingdom? Pick your module and duplicate it with an array! The possibilities are endless.

The kit includes three main categories of content, each featuring a diverse range of incredible 3D models to help you construct any castle imaginable.

Castle Structure 3D Models

These are the backbones of your fortresses. Spanning from small humble homes to enormous palaces, you’re in total control over the composition of your kingdom. Each of them carries a unique style to offer you the freedom to go down any direction you wish to take. You can combine the large circular kingdom with the irregular sprawling tower to create an even more sophisticated arrangement; there’s no limit to how far these castles can grow.

Churches, cathedrals, manors and mansions are part of the medium-scale structures found in this category. These fit perfectly in the areas surrounding your castle, however, you are free to seamlessly merge these with the main body of the castle for further customization. Despite them being smaller in size, you’ll find the detail in the geometry and textures are of unbelievable quality for a free asset.

This collection has been pre-built using the 3D models found in the Castle_Components file, which features a large array of various components such as castle windows, castle doors, chimneys, balconies, rooftops and walls. By using the highly detailed premade castle structures, you’ll be saving yourself the trouble of assembling the 3D castle models from scratch.

For maximum flexibility, these buildings have been designed to appear special from every angle. This allows you to rotate, scale and position multiple copies of the same castle structure while avoiding introducing any visual repetition. No longer are you faced with the artificial appearance seen in many 3D renders, your castles will feel natural and built from the ground up with originality in every corner.

Not only are we including the most impressive large-scale castle structures, but to cover the surroundings of your kingdom we built out several small 3D medieval homes. Fit for a peasant, these 3D medieval houses feature wooden doorways, a selection of windows, a tiled rooftop and even a chimney.

From the beginning, we understood the importance of designing these to be friendly towards procedural city generation. By following a style that found the perfect balance between uniqueness and similarity, these medieval homes can be instanced thousands of times and produce a city that feels truly authentic. The minimal geometry combined with the high level of texture detail makes this the perfect model to use in your medieval city; maximising visual quality while minimising the impact on performance both in the render and while using the viewport.

Scattering and instancing is a common practice found in many 3D software, such as Blender, 3ds Max, Cinema4D and Maya. This takes in a selection of objects and duplicates them on the surface of another. In the case of a 3D digital medieval city, we would want the surface to be a large landscape in the form of a 2D plane. Setting your desired number of feudal houses to a high value such as 3,000 will immediately and automatically place this many buildings around your scene.

Advanced implementations such as Blender’s geometry nodes will provide a multitude of precise controls to fine-tune your scattering. You can control the variation in size, rotation, scale and even introduce advanced filters to break up the uniformity by adding clusters of large-scale buildings, or even trees. All of the exposed parameters can immediately change the way your city is generated, allowing you to identify the perfect settings for your artwork’s vision.

Castle Wall 3D Models

No kingdom is safe without an impenetrable range of defences around it. Taking inspiration from real-world castles walls, we’re offering the most versatile medieval castle wall kit you’ll ever need.

The castle wall category features three different styles of walls. Firstly, a plain and minimal wall featuring a basic walkway across the top, providing suitable defence for any small town or village. Additional wooden fortifications are the highlight of the second option, making it a great choice for a new settlement or a town in the middle of a forest. The closed roof gives this wall extra height and stands out from the rest. Thirdly, a reinforced medieval wall with strengthened columns of brick lining the outside. Shadows cast by this depth-filled wall structure make it the perfect companion for large scale castles and kingdom walls. Each theme then itself has a counterpart that includes a castle entrance, such as wooden gates or a metal portcullis.

Along the top of the castle wall 3D models are an array of parapets, strategically placed for soldiers to hide behind when sheltering from projectiles. Your army of archers can line up along the top of these walls and fire their arrows down into the oncoming army. Additional battlements, such as arrowslits, are textured into the walls to offer phenomenal realism and detail into your 3D castle siege diorama.

Piecing these together has been designed to be an effortless process akin to building a model railway. Simply slot together the tileable castle wall 3D models, and duplicate your pieces endlessly to create any perimeter required. Each vertex of the 3D medieval wall assets is targeted precisely to match the adjacent piece, leaving you with a perfectly sealed model. Each theme features a set of three angle variations: a straight wall, a 45-degree bend and a 90-degree bend. This delivers exceptional flexibility when it comes to expanding your castle walls to perfectly fit your landscape.

We recommend duplicating the straight castle walls into a long array, and using a modifier to force this long structure to procedurally bend and follow a spline. This spline, unlike the discrete angle variations, can twist, turn and arch with an infinite degree of freedom. Changes made to the spline instantly update the deformed wall structure, making it a powerful solution for medieval map creators.

Castle Tower 3D Models

Add scale to your castle with these versatile castle tower 3D models. These fortified 3D castle turret models come in all shapes and sizes, and help your structures stand out from their surroundings with their immense vertical size. These can be placed inside your kingdom, or even on the walls themselves. Whether you need a dungeon, beacon or watchtower, your needs will be met by choosing from the huge selection of castle tower 3D models.

The free castle turret models come in 3 main categories. Square shaped towers offer brutal sharp minimalistic corners that create impressive shadows in your 3D renders. Round towers offer similar proportions in a circular shape, creating a beautiful gradient between the lit and shaded parts of the tower thanks to the incredibly realistic brick textures. Finally, the largest towers are three times as wide as the others, making them ideal for the central towers within your castle walls.

For maximum blending into your scene, the base of these towers and many other 3D models in this free castle kit are textured with a dirty surface. This helps you integrate it into your scene and not worry about setting up custom decals or ambient occlusion. You only need to worry about the composition of your castle, instead of any technical maintenance.

Texture Variations

To immediately make this pack 4 times greater, we’ve included a set of material options to use in your castle. Immediately change the entire appearance of your 3D castle by swapping in the textures from your favourite set. We’ve included light bricks, brown bricks, dark bricks and old bricks. Each option was photo scanned and processed into photorealistic materials, all featuring metallic, roughness and normal maps at an incredible 8K resolution. The distinct differences between these options make them perfect for establishing a different setting, time period and tone for your 3D artwork; whether you need to portray your castle as a prosperous empire or a dark fortress.

USD Compatible

A new industry standard is arriving that promises to become the next innovation in file sharing. USD, initially developed by Pixar, aims to become the most powerful file format by encoding all the necessary information important to maintaining the integrity of a 3D asset. This information includes scale units, orientation, materials, textures, hierarchy and countless others properties. While USD compatibility is still in development for most 3D software, it’s rapidly evolving and improving in software such as Blender, Cinema4D, Maya and 3DS Max. You’ll immediately notice the benefits of importing through USD by how quickly the process makes your workflow. Just hit import, and your 3D castle will have all materials and textures automatically linked – no need to import a million files by hand!

ProductionCrate endeavours to provide the highest quality 3D models for artists worldwide, enabling unlimited creativity for all. Releasing this incredible castle kit for free is a chance to thank our community for supporting our mission to change digital art forever. We would love to see how you use these, so make sure to tag us on Twitter and Instagram with your artwork.

If you would like to see more 3D model kits, check out our 3D city road kit.

Ocean Visual Effects

Compositing underwater ocean scenes similar to Aquaman, Jaws and Finding Nemo has become effortless with our range of VFX assets.

Ocean Sound Effects

Enhance the immersion of your ocean scenes with ambient sound effects.

Ocean 3D Models

Bring physically-accurate photorealistic 3D models to your ocean environment for ultimate creative control.

And much more!

Bring physically-accurate photorealistic 3D models to your ocean environment for ultimate creative control.

This diverse range of digital content allows anybody, whether you’re a studio professional or a solo indie developer with little experience, to be able to create the impossible. Your very own ocean scenes are now only a few clicks away. So sign up, and start downloading!

Download loopable COVID-19 backgrounds, overlays and effects for your videos here.

We have recently received many requests to help editors create their videos covering the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

In response, we created a brand new collection of assets and stock footage that will help you create your information videos, PSAs, news reports, infographics and more. We have also created 2 unique 3D models of the COVID-19 virus.

These digital assets have been built to save time, as you only need to drag and drop them into your project. This can be done in almost any editing software, such as Premiere Pro, After Effects, Sony Vegas, Hitfilm, Final Cut Pro and more.

To maximize detail, the assets are provided in resolutions ranging from 1080p to 4K, ensuring you maintain a high-quality professional look in your project.

Many of these stock-footage elements are even loopable, meaning they can repeat for an unlimited amount of time without any “cuts” at the end.

3D Artists can access 2 unique COVID-19 virus models here

You can also download the coronavirus videos in 4 different file formats to maximise compatibility including:

• MOV – Maximum quality, with pre-keyed alpha backgrounds for instant application
• .MP4 – Compatible with most software, with a built-in green screen
• ProRes – Best format for Apple devices
• PNG – Individual frames in a file, with pre-keyed alpha backgrounds.

ProductionCrate is a collection of over 10,000 stock video elements, VFX assets, sound effects, 3D models, graphics and more, helping over 700,000 creators like you. Feel free to explore our huge collection of content!

With the help of these stock footage elements, we hope you’ll be able to level-up your projects. We ask you kindly not to spread any misinformation related to COVID 19. Remember to stay safe!

You can also enjoy our recent interview with ShutterAuthority here.

Download 4K Grenade VFX assets for your action movies here.

Grenade props are expensive, especially if they’re only going to appear in your video for a few seconds.

ProductionCrate is a growing library of over 10,000 professional digital assets, here to help save you time and money.

Our newest bundle includes 50+ 4K grenade VFX assets, all ready for you to download and add to your projects without any hassle.

The full range of grenade types included are:

• M18 Smoke Grenade VFX
• M67 Grenade VFX
• M84 Stun Grenade VFX
• Type 97 Grenade VFX
• WW2 M24 Stick Grenade VFX

Several animation types are available in these video effects. This gives you the flexibility to create consistent continuity by editing together several shots from multiple angles.

Grenade Fly-by VFX

These stylish action-packed assets are perfect to create a slow-motion effect.

Their built-in light wrap and adaptive lighting allow them to easily be composited. Contrast and colour correction can then be applied to seamlessly blend the object into your scene. You’ll be amazed at how simple it is to create such an epic shot!

Grenade Landing VFX

A huge portion of this bundle aims to help your VFX interact with the scenery. Realistic lighting and matte-shadows allow effortless integration into your footage. Our large variety of camera angles lets you pick out specifically which one meets your requirements.

Grenade Looping VFX

For unlimited possibilities, these looping grenade video effects give you full control over the speed, position and animation the grenade follows. Feel free to animate them in any direction using keyframes, a tool available in most editing software.

You can also use these to extract still-frames that can be edited into your scene, replacing any need for a real prop.news

How to add grenade VFX to your video

• After downloading the grenade asset that best fits your video, open up your preferred editing software that supports multiple layers. Some examples include After Effects, Premiere Pro, Hitfilm, Nuke and Sony Vegas Pro.
• Import your background footage, which can be a video or still image. You can then position it on the timeline of the video editor.
• Now import the grenade effect, and insert it to the layer above the background. You’ll see your result instantly. With ProductionCrate assets, it’s that simple!

From here you can perform any further colour corrections, such as adjusting the contrast, in order for it to blend into the background better.

We’re very excited to see what action-packed visual effects you can create with these grenade assets. If you want even further control, you can create your own customised animations by downloading our grenade 3D models. 

Download the 4K particle shockwave VFX assets here. 

We’ve expanded our collection of particle shockwave effects, all ready to download and import to your video.

These stylish assets feature sudden radial bursts of wispy smoke, being a perfect addition to your visual effects and motion graphics.

To maximise the detail, the particle shockwaves are available in up to 4K resolution. This allows you to scale and position these effects anywhere in your composition while maintaining high quality.

These are best composited using a screen or additive blending mode. In some of our file formats, the particle shockwaves have the alpha channel built-in. speeding up your compositing workflow.

We provide these in 4 file formats:

• Zipped PNG sequence
• Zipped ProRes
• MOV (PNG)
• MP4

This will allow you to import these particle shockwave effects into almost any video editing software, including After Effects, Hitfilm, Nuke, Vegas Pro and more.

Not only can these be great for motion graphics, but also for visual effects, such as in meteor impacts, sci-fi weapon muzzle flashes, or explosions!

Download these particle shockwave VFX assets today, and access the thousands of other assets available from ProductionCrate’s digital asset library.

If you’re interested in our similar content, check out our magic power accent VFX.

Download HD Magic Spell Beam VFX assets here.

ProductionCrate has launched a brand new collection of magical assets, inspired by the VFX from the Harry Potter franchise!

These incredible effects can be used in most editing software, with our top recommendations being After Effects, Hitfilm and Premiere Pro.

Using a screen blending mode is the easiest way for you to apply these effects with minimal effort.

These intense effects have been built with several different varieties, meaning each of your characters can have their individual styles. So whether you want an electrical theme or a fiery blast, this new effect bundle has you covered!

If you’re an After Effects user, applying a solid composite + puppet pin to the beam will give you control over the origin point. This creates the epic fluid appearance that we see in the movies.

You can also adjust the colour, brightness and speed of each effect, giving you unlimited variety.

Additionally, we’ve included some mind-blowing magic clash VFX assets. These are the explosive effects seen when two opposing forces collide in a dangerous wizarding duel.

This is the spectacular value of the magic effect bundle shine, as these can be blended on top of the magic beam effects to create an incredible composition. We’re especially proud of the liquid variety, which are an iconic visual from the Harry Potter movies.

To complete the pack, we’ve included an essential mix of magic flashes. These can be used when a wizard is casting a spell, or even deflecting one.

The quick yet detailed effects are perfectly designed to not look overdone, making it incredibly easy for them to blend into your action sequence.

Some of our effects work best when using auto-orient, which keeps layers pointed towards the camera when in 3D space. This can be accessed via Layer -> Transform -> Auto-Orient -> Towards Camera. When using this, combined with standard 3D beam layers, you can create the most incredible effects that are easy to customise and composite!

We hope you enjoy using these magic VFX assets. All of these are available for our Pro members, while free users can still access handpicked content!

If you want to learn even more movie-making magic, check out our Thor lightning VFX collection!

Download Crate’s Free Hologram Script here

This Script has been updated for AE CC2021 on 12-17-2021

Create a Free or a Pro account, then simply click the link above to download! This script was built with an older version of After Effects, but is completely compatible. If you have errors appearing, please go to File > Project Settings > Expressions and change your expression engine from JavaScript to Legacy ExtendScript

Creating holograms in After Effects is about to get a lot more fun with the release of our latest script.

These effects are one of the most requested on ProductionCrate, our library of thousands of digital assets to help build your creative endeavours. We know that often you will need to control what’s projected in the hologram, which is why we released this tool to help you do exactly that.

Not only can you download it for free, but using it to create your After Effects hologram is a one-click process!

Every feature that you could possibly need was built into the script. This includes:

• Color
• Glow
• Projection Rays
• Chromatic Aberration
• Scan Lines
• Displacement
• Flicker
• Signal Interference
• Framerate
• Pixelate
• Blur
• Sharpen

All properties are fully customisable, meaning no matter what style you were aiming for, you’ll get there.

If you wanted to save your customised hologram, you can also click Animation -> Save Animation Preset to be able to apply it to any other shots you may have.

And if you wanted to save time, you might be interested in checking out the presets that we have built into the script. You can navigate through these by clicking the arrows on the pop-up window. These have been built to mimic some of the most recognisable movie holograms, referencing Star Wars, Iron Mans HUD, Aquaman and more.

To download and install the script, open up After Effects and navigate through File -> Scripts -> Run Script File. Find a folder you wish to keep the script, then extract both the images folder and “Crates Camera Script.jsx” to the new location. Double click the .jsx file and you’ll be ready to create your holograms in an instant!

If you’re wanting to save even more time, you can download these HD hologram VFX assets for your video.

Download 3D Rock Models here

Photorealistic 3D rock models are truly hard to come by. Perhaps they’re low-poly? Textured with unwanted visible seams? Or they simply don’t meet the level of detail we see in the real world.

That’s where we come in.

ProductionCrate is building the highest-quality collection of rock models and giving artists the chance to download them for your 3D projects. 

We’re proud to say that all of our rock models have been perfected to match professional standards, utilizing cutting-edge photogrammetry techniques to create truly unbeatable assets.

The rock models use .OBJ encoding, which is the most widely accepted file format in the 3D software market. This means that you can import these rocks into Blender, 3ds Max, Cinema4D, Element3D, Maya and more.

Our full list of specifications includes:

• .OBJ format
• 70,000-200,000 polygons
• 4K – 8K textures
• Diffuse map
• Bump map
• Specular map (where needed)
• No visible seams

The meshes have also been optimised for your ease of use, while also ensuring that all of the details in the geometry are kept. This means you can render faster while not sacrificing any quality. 

Built-in bump maps bring the surface of these high-quality rock models to a whole new level of detail. 

If you want to improve your lighting setups, take a look at our stunning studio HDRI’s!

Story: The Great Unseen Equalizer in VFX

There is an art to using VFX as an unseen tool. So much consideration goes into the curating of what you, the viewer, see at any given moment, that it is easy to forget about what you don’t see in a shot. But more often than not, what you don’t see is where the best and most impactful story moments lie.

In VFX, just because we can do anything and everything doesn’t always mean we should. So often audiences and media focus on what we can see and what is shown on screen in VFX. When The Avengers and Game of Thrones are the baseline for visual excellence, the bar is pretty high. Freeze frame any moment from those shows and the still image is a renaissance painting.  (Unless there is Starbucks cup.)

But ultimately consideration for VFX emerges from a directorial, editorial story perspective. A visual should not exist simply for the sake of existing.

Curious about what are some of the ways to use VFX with restraint or purpose in more subtle and useful ways?

Back to the Basics and Classics

A sense of film history is the best tool you can use when figuring out your shot. Think back to a world of Alfred Hitchcock and Rod Serling; a world of storytelling where it is not so much what you show, but what you don’t and how that restraint can serve the better purpose of your story.

Take for example, one of my most favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone, Eye of The Beholder (Watch it on Hulu.)

The Twilight Zone was created during the infancy of television, an episode conceived in 1960, almost 60 years ago. In Eye of the Beholder, the filmmakers obfuscate, misdirect, and use light and contrast as an unspoken character. The claustrophobic visual language creates a foreboding slow build, leading to a masterful, gasp worthy reveal.

Yet, you would think that since it’s almost 100 years old, it should be primitive in its filmmaking, with all that limitation of technology. Rather the opposite,  Eye of the Beholder manages to pack a gut-punch allegory on Nazism and conformity, against the backdrop of a totalitarian state, using mostly shadows, concerted camera movement and actors backs to camera. Even with such heady topics, nothing in the production feels cheapened, nothing feels lost to age, it holds up remarkably well as a gem of perfection.

With just light and camera direction The Twilight Zone achieves masterful commentary about the perceived value of homogeny in beauty. What we, the viewer, don’t see informs the story just as much as what we are allowed to see. This gives so much weight to the double-blind reveal. What does her face look like? Is she a monster?! What do the doctors look like? Eye of the Beholder remains riveting and engaging television by any modern measure. If they can do that with so little, there’s nothing you can’t do.

Technically Difficult and Time Consuming? Yes, if it serves story.

Way back in 1948, Alfred Hitchcock audaciously sought to create a seemingly single take film.  Rope was an amazing and difficult orchestration, with entire magazines of film taking up the length of each take. Hitchcock’s use of “the television technique” was unheard of and novel and considered by many “daring” for a mainstream director at the time.

This single take (“one shot”) approach popularized by Hitchcock has been adapted, paid homage to over and over since then, which only stands to show how clever the concept was in its infancy. From The X-Files to Birdman to Mr Robot, each new attempt at this concept acknowledges its roots and predecessors then ups the ante and reliance on VFX to create the seamless intended story effect. The most recent entry in this category may be to the 59 minute 3D shot in Long Day’s Journey Into Night.

Don’t be discouraged if something technically difficult requires testing, rehearsal, pre-vis and blocking. A deliberate approach harkens back to my thoughts on Mise en Place for production. When you are able to plan for VFX during production process versus an afterthought, you’re putting they story front and center.

Mr. Robot is unique and well known for capturing accurate technical details about computing and hacking, so it’s no surprise that an immense amount of technical preparation went into creation of the episode with a special focus on the shots and camera movement.

This breakdown video shows everything from general environment clean up, stitching, tracking and compositing of multiple takes. All this is required to create a seamless and invisible shot. Read more from the director of Mr. Robot’s eps3.4_runtime-err0r.r00.

Imagine if Alfred Hitchcock had the same kind of VFX capability. In Rope, Hitchcock wound up re-shooting the ending segments, because he was dissatisfied with the color of the sunset. Today, perhaps he would ask his team environment painters (Digital Matte Painters) to paint and adjust the background accordingly.  

Use Constraints to Elevate Story

Figuring out how to “make it work” in filmmaking is a feature not a bug. Famously there is a story about a director that wanted to shut down an entire freeway for a large multi-car crash scene. With a logistical nightmare of permits, stunt men and traffic the Producer griped “Can’t we just make it a reverse shot in a telephone booth?”

Never has there been a more honest and funny acknowledgement of such constraints than in a movie sequel like the Phil Lord & Chris Miller‘s 22 Jump Street – in which, if you didn’t know, is an entire movie is based on the construct of what a sequel is, and what happens in sequels. It’s fun.

Police Captain Dickerson, played by Ice Cube, makes it crystal clear in this movie, there is no budget for a big police chase like last time. As a reminder, Jonah Hill’s character yells to turn the car “whichever way is cheaper!”

This is called “making it work.” With a wink and a nod, 22 Jump Street opts to make all the action happen off screen.

It’s a funny moment with loud off screen banging and crashing. If this were a large tent-pole movie perhaps there would be hundreds of interior shots of CG robots and equipment being destroyed in real time. As the cars exit the other side of the building, Channing Tatum’s character quips: “Wow, there was a lot of expensive stuff in there.” We’re all in on the joke now.

The next time you feel you have to “show it all” think about these examples of unseen story in VFX, remember your filmmaking roots, commit to the vision, see it through and make something awesome.

Check out this fantastic video showing off some great hidden VFX. Remember, Visual Effects are a tool, just like any other. Don’t be limited in how you utilize them.

David Fincher utilizes Visual Effects to achieve what he cannot in a real-life scenario.

Every industry has its yearly, go-to event, a time when the movers and shakers convene on the new-ness of talent or product.

In comics: Comicon. For VFX and computer graphics: Siggraph.  Gaming: E3. Consumer electronics: CES. I could go on — But have you ever heard of NAB?

The National Association of  Broadcasters trade show was once nothing more than a broadcast technology showcase for industry insiders. Now billed as “the ultimate event for media, entertainment and technology professionals looking for new and innovative ways to create, manage, deliver and monetize content on any platform,” NAB is all grown up.  

NAB has become a clearinghouse for technology ideas and an excellent venue to connect with peers on emerging video and film-related technologies. If you’ve never been, it’s actually something very special. For one lone April week in Las Vegas, Nevada, NAB becomes its own city, with an Olympic pavilion type feel throughout.

Never been to NAB? Here are the things you should do:

Go with purpose

The most effective NAB outings are missions in problem-solving. Why are you here? Remember mise en place? Now is a great time to plan for opportunities coming down the pike. Maybe your company needs to look at investing in a new studio space and gear for an emerging e-sports requirement, or maybe new cameras. Either way, you should seek out information to validate or disprove a workflow idea you may have about gear for your production.  And even though NAB is a trade show, it’s still a great time to talk to your peers about how they plan to do things, too! Speaking of…

NAB is an amazing networking opportunity

Through my years of attending NAB, I’ve come to meet and know people from throughout the US and the world.  Year after year, I am able to visit with artists, VPs of sales, to creative directors, to technology consultants, from all over

Looking for someone with a unique skillset? You’ll likely find someone who knows someone. Ask around. Be sure to bring business cards. Yes, it’s old school, but it’s really reliable and a tangible reminder for your new contacts of your meeting.

I recommend finding some of the more diverse organizations and their networking events. There are countless meetups both officially sanctioned and impromptu for every corner of our industry. Just google “NAB Meetup” to see.

If all else false, just strike up a conversation. Everyone is wearing their badge with their name and company. It’s amazing who you might see walking around if you pay close enough attention.

Evaluate gear / Demo the hype / Talk to the manufacturers

As with every trade show, there’s quite a bit of marketing hype. NAB is a time when manufacturers of cameras, storage, and workflow tools put out press releases about their latest offering. Marketing does not equal capability of a delivered product. NAB is often the very first public roll out of a new product. This means hands on time. If you are evaluating a specific piece of gear for your organization (say a video switcher for an e-sports broadcast) researching it at NAB is an excellent choice! You’ll see it set-up, you can observe it’s functionality in person versus reading a white paper (boring!)

There’s a high likelihood product managers, engineers, and designers are at the manufacturer booth to field specific questions. Bonus points if you email and schedule time ahead. After all, that’s why all these companies are here at this trade show. They have paid for the space and want to get you talking. They want to answer your specific questions and showcase their solutions. Take advantage. You’ll never get this much consultation in a single room in LA.

Do the conferences. Expand horizons and learn new techniques

Some people treat NAB as a time to learn exclusively. It all depends on the role you play in an organization. When the engineers and the IT guys wander the exhibition floor, the artists and creative directors might find a quiet place in a pavilion to talk workflow. Or maybe the production folks are here to see that big Hollywood director and his DP and the camera maker talk about how they made “that shot” for this year’s Oscar contender.

From content strategy to technology there really is a session for everyone. If you work in or touch any part of the funnel of video – there is a session for you.

Like this one for example, which we need more of (!) “Stop, Collaborate, and Listen: Fixing Post with Communication: Filmmaking is a team sport and communication is everything, yet departments within post tend to exist in “silos” with little effort spent or time permitted to understand the needs of others downstream.

Check out the competition

NAB is an excellent time to look at the way people are building their solutions. If you work in media production it is not surprising how quickly a new approach can change the game.

In the marketplace of ideas, it is always instructive to see how others are handling technology for a creative process. When a new technology hits, there are usually 3 or 4 players that are trying to sell the idea on “right way.” Go check everything out so you can make a truly informed decision before you invest time or money.

Bring Clients or potential clients, schedule to meet them on the floor!

You’d be surprised how much impact you can make by scheduling time for an in person meeting, in a different city, with someone you’d like to do business. Even if that person lives down the street. Without exaggeration, I have lived and worked 10 miles away from clients, but was only able to carve out the time and solution when we got together at NAB. People are busy. But when NAB comes around they literally clear the calendars for this entire week to explore business opportunity, meet and learn. Use this to your advantage; don’t just wander the exhibition floor aimlessly.

Plan for long days, schedule pillars, but know when to switch gears.

Sneakers, extra socks? Have a battery backup for your phone? Water? Great! Self-care is an extremely important part of getting the most out of your NAB. It might seem silly at first, but if you build an itinerary and schedule your morning you’ll be able to pace walking the entirety of two exhibition halls, and any meetings you might schedule.  Don’t stand for 18 hours if you don’t have to.

Connect with a technology consultant (like me!)

This is a lot of information and you don’t have to go it alone. It’s okay to delegate some of the information gathering and synthesis of next steps to a technology consultant who can introduce you and your team to more complex approaches while distilling down the noise. Ask your technology consultant to help you meet and connect with people at NAB, they likely have a rolodex of people from their time in the industry and can help you connect the dots and come up with solutions that work.  Be aware, some people charge for their time and connection. Be clear about what kind of engagement you need and what they are offering.

Make the Vegas nightlife work for you

There is a culture of working dinners at NAB.  Many continue their learning, exploration and work into the evening hours until work segues into nightlife. Las Vegas has a way of making all this seem glorious – but don’t over do it on night one –  I’ve seen countless brilliant panel members muddle through their Monday morning panels. Yeah it’s exciting and this is fun, but not if you have a migraine.

Ultimately NAB is an expansive event that has something for everyone in the industry. If you’ve never been, or it’s your tenth time, what are you waiting for?  NAB starts this Saturday! Take a look the schedule.

Creating callouts for your video can often be a complicated and time-consuming process, though all that is about to change…

We’ve created a free powerful script for Adobe After Effects that can do all the work for you in seconds: Crate’s Callouts!

Download the Free Callout Script here.

Callouts are the small infographic labels that overlay a video, highlighting an important feature to inform the viewer of a name, statistic or the anatomy of a seal:

The script is packed with a huge bundle of presets, all fully customizable and ready for you to composite onto your video. This means that if you work for an organization or run a YouTube channel, you will be able to match the branding by adjusting the colours of the templates with one click!

To get started, you’ll need to first use a Null object to mark the position of what you want to be featured by the callout. The best part about this script is that it can be completely animated, so if you need the callout to follow a moving subject then this is the script for you.

For the next step, we’ll need to install our script. Extract the files from the download, and drop the “productioncrate-callout-script.jsx” file into your After Effects > Scripts folder You then can run the script by heading through File -> Scripts -> Crate’s Callout Script.jsx.

Now let’s take a look at what features we have at our disposal:

Arrows: Navigate through the presets to find the one you want.

Track Layer: Select the Null object you want the callout pointer to follow.

Title + Subtitle: Here’s where you input the text you want to be displayed.

Animation direction: Which way would you like the callout to come in from?

Color tools: Adjust the look of the preset to match your brand.

Smart Color Change: This nifty feature will automatically adjust any other colours that can be controlled to match your theme.

In/Out: What period (in seconds) do you want the callout to be on screen?

Base Point/Outline: Control the shape of the feature mark.

F: Click this to open up the text composition after creation, so you can adjust the font manually.

Once you’re happy with all the settings, hit “Create”, and you’ll save hours of time while the script creates your dream callout card within seconds!

Each preset has been carefully designed animated to give it the most professional appearance possible, helping you increase your production value at no extra cost!

If you want to control and customise the callout card after it has been generated, that is no problem! There will be a control null generated in your main composition window, clicking on this will reveal all of the various colour settings that you can adjust instantly in the effects window.

We’re excited to see how you make use of these free After Effects callout presets. If you’re interested in how else you can boost your workflow, take a look at our Lower Thirds script.

Every profession has a special way of preparing for the task at hand, and we’re no different in the world of media and content creation.

Ever see a professional chef organizing ingredients or sharpening knives in the preparation of dinner service? That’s called mise en place, which translates to “everything in its place.” Mis en place is every chef’s guiding principle to order and productivity. In the kitchen, all parts are laid out at the beginning so chefs don’t have to stop what they’re doing to chop garlic for each dish as it’s ordered. Each ingredient is ready for them at the outset making their dinner service swift and hassle-free.

So, what’s the best way to chop our proverbial garlic in media production? Mise en place your production!

Let’s look at two real-world examples of planning that leverage production experience, client requirements, and automation.

1. FILE IT UNDER “SIMPLE”

Department Coordinator Amy has just wrapped field production. DIT (digital imaging technician) calls from the other room, six hard drives in hand, “Hey what folder on the server do you want this on?”

It’s a tense moment, but Amy breathes a sigh of relief, she says, “I’ve got this.” Amy recalls, with a little bit of pre-planning she was able to create and implement a simple folder structure on her storage for this and every project in her studio, no matter the requirement.

Let’s look at the structure Amy made, and talk about why.

• NAME / CLIENT IDENTIFIER
  This is top-level folder. For every client, you’ll have this folder.
  • SEASON / EPISODE / PROJECT NUMBER
    You may have more than one project for any given client. This is a sub-folder that contains a place for all the working elements of the production for each department.
    • BACKOFFICE  
      A place for admin tasks for the production. Accounting, bids, invoices, vendor and asset tracking, seating charts, call sheets, etc.
    • ASSETS  
      A home for raw assets like branding and logos, likely provided by the client.
    • EDITORIAL
      Editorial handles Video QC, delivering AVID Bins, Premiere files, LUTS. All these tasks have subfolders.
    • ELEMENTS
      In visual effects, stock elements are used for everything from atmosphere, smoke, gunshots to texture, blood splatter and fire, etc. Because of their tie to graphic work, these elements have a separate home than the other assets. (Note: there are a ton of subfolders you can create for VFX specific tasks, renders, sims, outputs and such. For now let’s keep it simple.)
    • FOOTAGE
      Source footage from the client or your production. Could be a RED camera codec, or a series of .EXR files. Subfolders _ORIGINAL and _TRANSCODED are included.
    • REFERENCE
      Reference is all the material and canon of the project that exists before you begin. This could be noted from set, source materials, reference from clients like previous episodes or style guides, show bibles on tone and presentation.

How did Amy know to create all these folders? She queried teams at the studio and came up with a universal basic folder structure. Good Work Amy!

Amy supports 10 shows, she doesn’t want to go through this manual process of creation every time a production comes through the door. With the help of her IT department, she deploys a simple script file that automatically generates the folders!

Not everyone has the infrastructure or support Amy does. But that’s okay you’re more than halfway there by coming up with and creating a folder structure, naming schema, project numbering, and a consistent way to version your work. You have actually created meaningful terms (meta-data) to search against.

Also, you don’t have to be on the IT team to script a folder structure. Anyone can recursively create a nested directory structure to include all the subfolders, with a “make directory” command in terminal. Amy’s studio only uses Apple computers. Here’s a simplified way she created those folders.

mkdir -p /nameclientidentifier/seasonepisodeproject/subfolder/

If you want to learn more, read this incredibly helpful and detailed post about using all the commands to create folders.

2. LOCK REQUIREMENTS  – WHERE THERE IS A WILL THERE IS A WAY

Ambiguity kills productivity. Live action reality Producer Carlos knows it. He’s having lunch with a potential client when they say “the DP wants to do the whole project natively in 6k.” If Carlos was unprepared, he would worry his studio may not be able to take on this work.

Part of production planning is to know there’s always more than one way to skin a cat. In meetings with uncertainty, it’s best to be open steps outside of your comfort zone, and understand how flexible you can be in helping the vision.

Put yourself in Carlos’ shoes. He could be indecisive and go back to the client and say “we can’t do this!” or “you change this requirement.” Instead, producer Carlos meets with his team to vet the opportunity further. Carlos’ goal is to land the business, ensure profitability without upending the entire operation.

Carlos planned. And so can you. Before every meeting ask yourself the following questions:

How can I best prepare for the requirements of this client?  Tone, style, expectation. Do your homework. Be ready to understand what they are laying down. Be familiar with their work and the way they want it.

What resources can you leverage? This is what you know you have and can use. Locations, assets, equipment, infrastructure, talent, crew, etc.

What don’t you know? All the unknowns should be quantified. Timing, Budget, Codecs, workflow, etc.

Using these questions Carlos and his team put some R&D time into enabling a 6k workflow last year and have a comprehensive plan to offline and online certain elements of the workflow to accommodate the existing resource they have. It was part of a “ready-to-go” plan should a client ask for a bleeding edge approach.

At the follow-up meeting, Producer Carlos, accurately tells the client his studio can take on the work. He doesn’t even raise it as an issue, he knows he is leveraging the skill and infrastructure of his company. The client is onboard! It was only through Carlos’ understanding of requirements, his experience and pre-planning that he was able to use his skills of Mise en place to win the business, without incurring downtime or infrastructure investment.

By exercising basic tenants of Mise en Place, anyone can break down and understand all the repetitive but necessary tasks of a production. And isn’t that a relief?

Chris: Hey Jack, what are you working on right now?

Currently working on some content for some well known YouTubers under my little company, Trash Panda FX, most recently with the Sidemen, KSI and RackaRacka. Some other ones coming in I can’t say just yet but it should be a good time. (ProductionCrate will be helping us smash some amazing FX on these too!)

The video has since been released, check it out below! Tons of FootageCrate VFX were used, like the Floating Rocks, the Magical Fire and Lightning

We always enjoy working with you, the DBZ vs. Avatar video  that RackaRacka released was an insanely fun project to build VFX for.

What’s your VFX workflow like?

You try your best to make for a nice and sorted pipeline so everything moves smoothly. Get the shots and scenes nicely labeled and organised in folders and spreadsheets for artists to access, along with assets, camera data and anything required for their shots. Organise teams for clean up, comp work and FX to get it all to come together at the end.

One of the best attributes any artist/producer/filmmaker is to be a problem solver.

No matter how amazing your workflow/pipeline is, you will 110% come up against inconceivable problems. Being able push through and meet deadlines is a huge part of it.

You’re based out of Australia, and we’re here in California. Our workflow together has been great, even with the time difference. Do you mostly work with VFX Artists online, or do you work with some artists in-person? Do you have a preference?

It used to be more in person – but recently has been switching heavily to online. Which is great as it brings in awesome talent (such as ProductionCrate) and provides opportunities for people be part of some big projects without having to compromise leaving their home/family/friends.

I just prefer to work alongside reliable and talented artists who I believe can smash out shots regardless of location.

You’ve done a lot of work for some big YouTubers, what is your favorite project?

They’re all great. It’s weird, I think the quality of work is better than it has ever been. But my favourite has to be a throwback to Lord of the Rings vs Game of Thrones. My acting was phenomenal and I got to slice an arm off (2:20)

Haha, yeah I love that video. I remember seeing a behind-the-scenes of that short where Danny is trying to give you some direction (not that you needed it, being a phenomenal actor and all). That video has over 7 Million views! What’s the most viewed video you’ve worked on?

Was that the footage of me slipping on blood and cracking my head…hahaha

I think Richy from Royal Stampede was telling me the Tank gold digger prank has a total of close to a billion views, (including facebook shares, youtube, insta)  which is crazy.

Can you give us some insight into what it’s like to do blockbuster VFX work? I know you’ve done work on Tarzan (2016), Pan (2015) and the Babadook (2014)

The smaller the company, the better. You feel less like a cog in a machine.

There is also more opportunity to grow and try things as you’re forced to become a generalist to help carry the workload. With bigger companies, you’ll get to work on bigger productions with great talent – but you will get burned out and discarded. It’s brutal the way some of my friends have been treated. But VFX artists have to be some of the best people you will ever meet and work alongside.

I know you use ProductionCrate content in a lot of your work (good choice!), any favorite assets or requests for content?

well where do I begin!

The explosion asset that was used on that most viewed video mentioned earlier was a Crate element!

So definitely helped contribute to the viral success of that video.

When you’re racing shots out – you can’t go into the deep of making something custom and need to churn 10 shots out in a day.

Some of the FX on there can blow you away and save you from deadlines. As for requests, just keep doing what you guys are doing because you’re killing it!

Thanks, Jack!