VFX documentary- Empire Strikes Back behind the scenes

Perhaps the most highly regarded film in the Star Wars saga is The Empire Strikes Back. This half hour documentary by Michel Parbot  has recently appeared on youtube courtesy of starwarsarchives.com. It allows the viewer some amazing insight into how effects and sets were created in the pre-digital age. It shows the stop motion techniques used to create the AT AT and the Tauntaun riding creatures. You can see matte paintings created on glass as well as set constructions of the Hoth base and the swamp planet of Yoda. It's an amazing time capsule of what it was like when problem solving didn't involve the convenience of computers.

You can see the whole documentary here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=5aS-HIgvANE#!

Where the industry stands: The Visual Effects Crisis in Entertainment

Many viewers of Sunday night's telecast were probably unaware that just outside the ceremony a group of visual effects artists and personnel were picketing the event to raise awareness of their plight. Just recently one of LA's largest and oldest visual effects studios filed for bankruptcy, laying off (Initially) close to 200 employees in the process. The company was Rhythm and Hues, the studio responsible for the visual effects imagery for the film "Life of Pi". Luckily several VFX studios in Los Angles have taken up the slack by providing employment for many of R and H's furloughed artists and staff. Because it is such a rarified occupation, most feature film artists have a difficult time of finding employment in a field whose ranks are closing rapidly. Quite frequently, these artists are forced to find work outside the United States, usually Vancouver British Columbia or England. In the late 90's when Peter Jackson was expanding his digital effects company WETA to tackle the effects work for his Lord of the Rings trilogy, he was forced to recruit talent from the States due to the lack of trained personnel in New Zealand. Now the scales have tipped in his favor. With multiple Oscar wins for his Trilogy, King Kong and Avatar, Weta is one of the largest and busiest effects firms in the industry. It has the support of Jackson and other filmmakers such as James Cameron but it also has support of the studios.  The lack of experienced digital personnel down under is a lot less rare now. If you look at the history of many digital vendor firms, the ones with the strongest half life seem to be the ones supported by filmmakers who feed them with work. If the filmmaker is powerful and successful enough, the studios seem willing to go along. ILM and WETA survive the lean times because they have successful filmmakers backing them up.

Another business model that seems to work are with digital houses that produce their own intellectual property. These companies would be PIXAR animation studios and  BLUE SKY in Ct on the East coast.  They mainly concentrate on creating feature length animated films for families that they produce internally in conjunction with the major studios (In PIXAR's case , Disney) that distribute their product. They manage to flourish because they share in the profits.  In addition, PIXAR and WETA develop their own digital effects software which they license out to other effects firms. PIXAR's  Renderman software is considered one of the industry's top CGI rendering software on the market.

The ultimate solution to this crisis seems to be adaptability. The studios will need to adapt as much as the vendors will. Both want to make a profit. But the only way to truly make money in this competitive often cutthroat industry is to own (or at least partial own) what you produce. Most visual effects companies do not have any profit participation in what they produce. Perhaps a new business model is necessary. In exchange for massive discounts, perhaps vfx studios should offer profit sharing on high profile vfx projects thats would normally be quite costly.  Another solution would be to work with the vfx software companies to offer development deals in utilizing software on their films. In exchange they would field test and promote the use of software.

Additionally VFX companies may want to consider moving away from proprietary software locks that prevents studios  from moving or sharing costly shots to other companies so the productions can save money.

Ultimately , its up to the vendors as to how much control they are willing to relinquish. Most company's have a very weak pulse at the moment and favors are often forgotten quickly by studio heads so underbidding as a gesture seems self defeating.

Looking at the massive amount of profits these big effects films make it's quite possible there's room for profit for everyone. The question is will greed drive the industry, or will innovation.

Coolvfx Facebook archive of VFX technology

One of my adjunct webpages to my blog and twiiter page is my archive of  images recording the history of vfx technology in film and television.

i hope to expand this ultimately into a database website where people will be able to access these images and accompanying information for education purposes

If you are interested in seeing some interesting behind the pictures shots form various movies, Please feel to check it out. Would love to get everyone's opinion on it

If you are a Facebook member and like what you see, Please hit "like".

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Coolvfx-visual-effects-archive-page/394337563989731

Proposal for online presence. What is the future of technology in entertainment?

It seems like the internet is overwhelmed by tech blogs and individuals covering the field of computers and the digital effects field.

What is the purpose of covering it further?

I suppose a more relevant question would be what could I add to the conversation?

My approach in my writing has been a sort of hybrid one. I'm looking at the development of the technology used in entertainment. I plan on examining not only the trends and the technology but the history of the art itself. What are the practical uses of technology in this field? What will the advances be? Will the current economy of the industry do to effect the these trends?

I suppose my thesis on this subject would be to focus on the people who make and evolve the craft. They are the ones who drive the industry. Recent events in the field of visual effects(company closure, massive layoffs at facilities, etc) have played a huge part on how the industry will evolve.

My approach will be to examine the evolution of technology by focusing on the creators and the history. Not just in film but in video, hardware development, software, video games and television. Surprisingly, these varied fields often utilize the same tools and personnel.

Technology in Video Games (part 1)

 

Technology in video game entertainment (part1)

Evolution of the form

The transformation of the modern video game to recreational pastime to social interactive media and real life combat simulation is a complex and controversial one. Video games as entertainment have only existed in the consumer market for a few decades. Compared to other recreational pastimes like golf or poker, that’s a relatively small amount of time. Yet the form has evolved a great deal in that short period. What started as a solitary engagement and test of reflex and motor skill would ultimately evolve into one of the largest entertainment revenue generators of the late 20^th/ early 21^st century. Video games have surpassed motion pictures, literature and music as the predominate revenue generating form of entertainment in terms of gross sales. Video games are distinctive in the world of entertainment because they represent a medium that can be both passive and interactive, they can tell a narrative and at the same time the user can drive the story. This has drawn fans and audiences and divided critics as to the cultural and historical impact of the medium.

The history of the first video game and its actual application in society is often contested but it is believed it began in January of 1947 when inventor Thomas Goldsmith and Estle Ray Mann applied for a United State patent for a device that was identified as a Cathode Ray Amusement device which involved manipulated images on an early television cathode ray tube and a controller which allowed the participant to shoot a moving target on screen. Most development in this field was done at technical Universities such as MIT or experimental laboratories developing the emerging computer sciences. These early tests were nothing more than scientist and engineer’s means testing the technology at their disposal. There appears to be seeds of what would eventually become the modern video game and a definite drive to create interactive entertainment as opposed to scientific research.

Most of the early work in digital interactive entertainment was crude and experimental but many did see the potential as interactive entertainment and this is what drove the thinking of the companies and scientists that explored the potential of computers as mass media and entertainment. The most successful of these early experiments was by a group of student computer engineers lead by Steve Russell who created a game called Spacewar on a PDP-1 computer. The game introduces several major dynamics that would be adopted by many other game designers such as simultaneous multi-player interface, game scoring and early vector graphics.

Introduction to the masses

Eventually a computer engineer named Ralph Baer began experimenting with the computer graphics application realized the potentiality of the medium when converged with the emerging popularity of television consoles in the living room. He along with co-engineer Bill Harrison developed what would become the Odyssey.. Baer and Harrison built an early prototype of their video game console system later dubbed the Brown Box as it was constructed of Brown wood and included an inboard data processor and wired controlled sticks in a crude rudimentary form.

The Odyssey design used a kind of early form of the cartridge-based system later to be seen in the Atari 2600 console. In this case, players would input a printed circuit board into the machine. The PCB card contained code, which included the game data. Another major innovation was the wired joystick controllers, which allowed players to sit back and play the game from their sofas.  

Eventually Baer’s idea was picked up by the Magnavox Corporation, which was primarily known for selling television sets in North America. Magnavox’s campaign pushed the group interactivity value but ultimately the marketing for the system was confusing, as most consumers believed that you needed to own a Magnavox television in order to use the system.

Nolan Bushnell a software and electrical engineer and investor who ran an engineering firm called Syzygy Engineering built one of the earliest stand up arcade machines, Computer space, a game where one or two players pilot a rocket ship and attempt to shoot down enemy spacecrafts flying toward them. It is generally considered the world’s first commercial sold coin operated video game machine and one of the very first commercial sold video games ever. Although it wasn’t a great commercial success due to the high cost of manufacturing the units and low marketing visibility, the game was a gigantic leap forward in terms of technology and accessibility.

He later went on to start Atari, which would ultimately become the world’s largest video game hardware and software developer. The Atari 2600 system would eventually become the first multi million-dollar selling video game console. The 2600 was specifically designed as a social interactive device. It included multiple joystick ports in the front of the unit and many of the their best selling first and third party games were multi-player experiences such as Warlords, Pong, Outlaw and Tank! 

Console, arcade and computer entertainment emergence as interactive social media

The mid to late 70’s saw the emergence of social gaming in the form of role-playing systems such as Dungeons and dragons. The popularity of these of games were fueled by the group experience in which several players would adopt characters

Several software companies expanded on the original ideas from role playing board games such as the fantasy world environments but most importantly the character building aspect. This function would ultimately be adopted into the digital RPG industry and become a staple of almost all computer and console role-playing games.

One of the earliest to adopt these fantasy archetypes was Sir Tech’s Wizardry, an early example of what game players and developers would call a “Dungeon Crawler”

Much of these principals were carried over to personal computer gaming models. Once modems became affordable to the personal computing crowd, game designers began to adapt the concepts of user developing characters within a game. This variable concept is known as “leveling up” and most fantasy games would allow users to ritualistically through the play experience 

One of the most popular genres in the PC gaming field was fantasy role-playing games. An early innovative example of this was Richard Garriot’s ULTIMA series. These games were considered groundbreaking when they were first released for the Apple II in 1981 for several reasons: one they were amongst the first games to recreate in great detail a fictional world or environment. Secondly, it allowed players to develop and keep track of characters records and status. This model would become standard for all role-playing games that followed. 

Ultima spawned hundreds of games that adopted the style and function of the character based systems and helped form the game genre called the MMORPG or massively multiplayer on line role playing game. These games are based primarily on the player’s ability to develop the skills of their own character by leveling up in certain attributes, which assists in the user’s ability to advance in the game system.

One of the most popular of console games to emulate this character development style was Final Fantasy 7 for the Playstation 3. Although not a multiplayer game, FF7 created a realistic fantasy world in which you follow your main character Cloud Strife through the world of midguard, a futuristic amalgam of  middle earth and Blade runner’s future LA.

The Most popular of all personal computer MMORPGs. is The World of Warcraft developed by Blizzard software. WOW is a fantasy-based role-playing game in which user pay a subscription fee. Each user develops and controls an Avatar, which they can gradually level up with additional strengths, armor and attributes. As of October 2012 WOW has sold over 10 million user subscriptions making it the highest grossing MMORG in history.

The World Of Warcraft would ultimately become the gold standard for the on line interactive experience on the web. The designers of the game created a world in which characters are constantly updating their character in terms of appearance in skill. By also designing the game around expansion sets, they continue to renew interest in the software and keep it relevant. WOW also promotes the game as a social experience as well as an escapist one. Gamers form social groups and some players have been known to form deep personal connections . WOW continues to be a popular franchise with PC gamers although it has yet to be ported to the consoles and remains exclusively a PC property.

The earliest example of video games as an interactive social experience could be traced back to the earliest days of arcade gaming in North America.

The popularity of the arcade gaming experiences as a social phenomenon emerged in the late 70’s with Atari’s introduction of PONG and later the Atari game Tank. Both were early examples of arcade that were successful but also games that were interactive with co-players making them the earliest examples of social gaming in the digital age.

Later the Japanese company Tiato introduced the first smash arcade game to North America, Space Invaders.  In the game the player takes control of a small base at the bottom of the screen and is required to shoot down a cascading armada of pixilated aliens who move downward in waves. There was no actual narrative or end to the game. The purpose was simply to score points. However, This game was unique for various reasons but one of the most significant contributions to interactive entertainment was its internal scoring system. Players who scored highly were allowed to enter their initials. Thus began the emergence of video games as popular entertainment. Gaming became a serious hobby and a means of social interaction. Most games allowed for two player competitive interaction. Other games such as Atari’s Gauntlet, allows multiple players to play side by side as a team to reach goals. Later the arcade experience exploded with the introduction of such powerhouse properties such as Namco’s Galaga and Pac-man, William’s Defender and Robotron 2084 and Atari’s tempest and Centipede. These games created the industry’s foundation as a social experience as the arcade hits would later be transferred to the console and PC formats. Despite their somewhat quant and crude graphics by today’s standards these games are still popular and are often ported over to such gaming systems as Wii’s virtual console and XBLA on the X-box

Wiki entry- Publishing ideas

Outside of wikipedia I believe the best venue for my entry would probably be on IMDB.com in a bio section or on VFXpro.com. My article is mainly focuses on two award winning vfx artists who have mixed traditional visual effects photography (such as miniatures/in camera effects) and current digital technology. They themselves are a merging of older ideological thinking and current problem solving. They use old techniques in their work while embracing new technologies.

As the industry changes to adapt to global economic concerns the entertainment field is going through a serious downturn in terms of jobs. I'm trying to examine if its possible for North America to adapt to the competition with global markets.  Can artists such as these talented men compete against the tide of outsourcing and international low wages. Can you put a price on artistic talent and if so will studios pay for it?

Despite these set backs, some visual effects studios in the states still flourish. ILM, George Lucas' visual effects division of his own Lucasfilm (Now owned by Disney) continues to acquire huge film projects. Studios view this firm as  High cost but low risk, meaning they have the personnel and cash flow to guarantee quality and on time delivery. Smaller boutique style companies are riskier and usually only get smaller, less complicated visual effects costs, usually as a cost cutting measure.

In my thesis , I hope to examine and research what possible solutions can Hollywood do to stop the job hemorrhaging? What are the solutions? Will these companies shutting down signal a trend in other tech industries? Are we looking at a replay of the traditional animation studio shut down that happened in the 60's? Will American digital artists have to reinvent them selves?guarantee

Congratulations to "Life of PI" Visual effects team

Congratulations to  Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik De Boer, Donald Elliott
for Best Visual Effects on "Life of Pi". 
Best of Luck with R and H. Hopefully they can figure out a way to keep it afloat.

It is a shame that the academy wouldn't let him finish his speech before they played the "Jaws" music. I think what he had to say was worth hearing. Perhaps Hollywood doesn't want the public to hear what he had to say.

Having worked in the industry myself for many years, I have seen a lot of companies go under from the enormous weight of their own overhead. Without the support of the studios, it's impossible for them to survive in a globally competitive market. This is what is happening with Rhythm and Hues, the company that created the visual effects for "Life of Pi" (they also one an Oscar for their work on "Babe"). Their enormous operating costs became too great for them to sustain their overhead- a weekly payroll of anywhere between 500 an d700 individuals. Without a steady stream of work awarded to them , large companies like this cant survive. That, coupled with massive competition from overseas companies where labour is cheaper and it becomes another example of an industry being shuffled out of the States, similar to the steel and textile industries. 

What are the solutions to these problems? For one, the industry and it's vendors need to reconcile the tech with the costs and try to find a middle ground. Studios and industry representatives need to put the pressure on lawmakers to end subsidies for outsourcing. Create tax incentives for companies who keep work here in the states. But the Vendors have to give a little too. One producer recently commented on OccupyVFX's Facebook page that R and H hamstrung productions by claiming it used proprietary software it wouldn't share with outside firms. This prevented studios from farming out shots to smaller less expensive companies to save costs. There has to be a give and take. Many believe unionization will solve many of these problems. It's difficult to tell, however. Unions have always had a tenuous relationship with Hollywood in other areas. Film crews typically work long hours and many feel that without Union safeguards, the studios would take advantage for their own benefit.

How To: Week 2- Composite your own Visual effects shot!

Compositing visual effects shots professionally can be a complex and expensive endeavor. However, its a relatively simple task to create your own composites in Photoshop. And you can use things that you might have around the house.

First off, pick a subject.. Do you want to do something with a science fiction or fantasy angle. A giant monster on the loose?, a futuristic city.? Try to pick something relatively easy and not terribly complex to begin with. For demonstration purposes I have picked spaceships attacking Boston.

For this task you will need

-A digital camera with memory card

- A computer with Photoshop

- A sunny day to shoot outdoors

-A subject to shoot (miniature or person-you decide)

- Chroma blue background or white paper as background

As I time saver I have photographed a Klingon Bird of Prey Model against a white background. You can also use a bright Chroma blue background, which will make the separation against its original background easier.

   1.  Photograph miniature against background with digital camera. Any digital camera will work.

   2.  Make note of camera position and lens information. Also make note of position of lights so you    can match to the background.

   3.   Pick an outdoor setting to shoot the background plate. Try to match the lighting of your subject in   terms of where the sun will be hitting the subject.

      4. Transfer the digital files to the computer and open Photoshop.Load images into program.

    5.   Add layer in Photoshop for background. Load background photo

    6.  Add second layer for subject.

    7.  Make a separation layer from the subject layer. You do this by right clicking and clicking on make layer.

   8. Use the eraser brush to create a transparent layer around the ship. Now we can separate it from the background.

   9. Cut and paste the subject Layer over the background layer after you have separated it from its native layer

  10. Use Conform tool to position it in frame and adjust the size. Using Cut and Paste and conform you can add as many ships as you like.

  11.     Lock all layers. You should have a completed shot! Congratulations. Do it 23 more times and you have one frame of film. (Just kidding)

  The basic principals of compositing are all present in this exercise.

Wikipedia submission

SKOTAK BROTHERS

Submission to Wikipedia, The free encyclopedia

Robert and Dennis Skotak are visual effects supervisors, designers and photographers known professionally as the Skotak Brothers. Their films include Aliens (1986), Tremors (1989), The Abyss (1989) Darkman (1990), Terminator 2 : Judgment Day  (1991), House On Haunted Hill(1999) and Starship Trooper: Marauder (2007)

Professionally they worked together for most of their careers but occasionally have worked independently. In 1989 they founded the visual effects company 4ward Productions. Collectively they have won three Academy awards in the visual effects category  for Aliens, The Abyss and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In addition to his work as a visual effects supervisor, Robert is also a writer, film historian and production designer. Dennis is an experienced still photographer and digital artist.

EARLY CAREER

Both brothers were influenced early on by the works of George Pal specifically the film War Of The Worlds and the films of IB Melchior (Angry Red Planet). They eventually moved from their home state of Michigan to Los Angles, CA to seek work professionally in film production. In their adolescence they created several award winning short films, usually tackling subjects in the science fiction or fantasy realm.

One of the first projects they were hired for was to create several visual effects shots for the low budget thriller THE AFTERMATH (1977), a post apocalyptic science fiction film directed and starring Steve Barkett.

CORMAN STUDIOS/ NEW WORLD PICTURES

In the late 70’s the Skotaks went to work for Roger Corman’s New World Studios. Corman, impressed and motivated by the success of Star Wars (1977), began his own visual effects studio to provide effects for his own productions and to service other modestly budgeted film productions.

It was at the Corman studios that the Skotaks met fellow artist James Cameron. Together they worked on the visual effects and sets for Battle Beyond The Stars (1979), Corman’s response to George Lucas’ hit film. The Skotaks worked in multiple capacities on the film including set building, design, Photography, Matte Paintings. After the success of that film, The Skotaks continued working for Corman creating effects for Galaxy of Terror (1981),which Robert co-production designed with James Cameron, John Carpenter’s Escape from New York (1981) and Forbidden World (1982)

WORKING WITH JAMES CAMERON

In 1985 the Skotaks were contacted by producer Gale Anne Hurd to supervise the visual effects for James Cameron’s follow up to his surprise hit The Terminator (1984). Cameron admired their skill and abilities in many areas of filmmaking including miniature construction, matte painting and photography. They ended up spending nearly a year on England on the film. Despite the limitations of the budget and the firing of the LA Effects Group from the film, the film earned Robert his first visual effects Oscar (shared with Stan Winston and special effects supervisor John Richardson)(2)

In 1988, the Skotaks were called up again by producer Gale Anne Hurd to work on Cameron’s next film, the ambitious The Abyss . Instead of taking on the supervision of the entire film they chose to work on certain sections of the film including the Benthic Explorer crane collapse and the DSRV drop from the tanker.  Dennis Skotak was awarded an academy award for his work on the film. (2)

In 1991 the Skotaks again collaborated with Cameron on his sequel to his 1984 independent hit The Terminator with Terminator 2 Judgment day. Although the majority of the press for the film focused on ILM's morphing T-1000 liquid metal effects, 4Ward cleverly incorporated digital effects with miniature work into the “nuclear nightmare” sequence.  For the shockwave blast effect, the Skotak used Mac computers to create a particle effect that would be digitally composited with the miniature building explosions. T2 would earn Robert his second academy award for visual effects supervision in 1992(shared with Dennis Muren, Stan Winston, Gene Warren Jr)

The Skotaks would work again with Cameron on T-2 ride film as well as several key sequences in Titanic. (1997)

4WARD PRODUCTIONS

In 1989 The Skotaks along with partner Elaine Edford formed the visual effects studio 4Ward Productions. Their first project was the Gale Ann Hurd-produced science fiction Horror film Tremors.  Over the next two decades, 4Ward would create visual effects for such high profile films as Darkman (1990), Batman returns (1992), Hearts and Souls (1993), No Escape (1994), Captain Ron (1994), Tank Girl (1994), The Arrival (1996)and Hard Rain (1998)

The Skotaks had dabbled with integrating digital technology with Terminator 2 nuclear dream sequence but with House On Haunted hill (1999) they would use the new digital compositing tools on a much grander scale. They developed a technique of shooting miniatures and puppet effects on film and transferring the footage to high resolution digital tape and then compositing and manipulating the elements in a high speed composite system called The Flame. The resulting effects were impressive and millions were saved by avoiding expensive 3D CGI costs.

In 2007 they tackled their biggest project in years, Starship Troopers 3; Marauder. In this follow up to Paul Verhoven’s original 1997 film, the Skotaks would help design sets and hardware, help design creature effects and supervise all miniature and CG photography. Robert would also design the marauder suits and the boss creature, The Bethmacotyl. (6)

Today the Skotaks continue to run 4Ward from their studios in Chatsworth, California. Their most recent film was Joe Dante’s The Hole.

WRITING

Before Michigan for Los Angeles, the Skotak brothers wrote, edited and published the genre tribute fanzine, Fantascene and are currently working on a documentary on Soviet fantasy cinema. (1)

Robert Skotak is a noted film historian and has written several articles and biographies most notably Ib Melchior: Man of Imagination (3)

AWARDS AND NOMINATIONS

Robert Skotak

Academy award/ Best visual effects- Terminator 2 (1992)

Academy award/ Best visual effects- Aliens (1987)

Saturn Award/ Best visual effects- Aliens  (1987)

BAFTA Award/ Best visual effects –Terminator 2 (1992)

BAFTA Award/ Best visual effects- Aliens (1987) (5)

Dennis Skotak

Academy award/ Best visual effects- the Abyss (1990)

Academy award Nomination/ Best visual effects- Batman Returns (1993)

Saturn Award/ Best visual effects- Aliens  (1987)

BAFTA Nomination/ Best visual effects- Batman Returns (1993)

SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY (as VFX supervisors/ designers) (5)

Alien
Titanic 
T2 3D Battle Across Time 
Ghost
Dracula 
Terminator 2 Judgement Day 
, Failure to Launch ,Young MacGyver
,The Tuxedo
Joe and Max
The Skys the Limit 
House on Haunted Hill
,Hard Rain 
Stepford Wives 
Mousehunt ,
Mars Attacks!,
,The Arrival
Tank Girl
No Escape
Clifford
Mad House 
Heart and Souls,
Captain Ron, 
Honey I Blew Up The Kid 
Batman Returns
Cast a Deadly Spell ,
Darkman ,
Tremors,
Syngenor, 
The Abyss
Space Rage 
The Lords of the Deep
City Limits 
Creature 
To Be or Not to Be 
Jaws 3 D 
Forbidden World
,The Aftermath ,
Galaxy of Terror 
Escape from New York 
Battle Beyond the Stars
,The Sky is Falling: The Making of 'The War of the Worlds' 
The Alien Legacy 
Batman Returns 
Strange Invaders 
The Demon Lover
Baby Killer 
Superior Firepower: The Making of 'Aliens' 
The Making of Tremors 
Movie Magic - Action Miniatures - Fast and Furious 
Shadows of the Bat
The Naked Monster 
Bio-Dome 
Tremors 4: The Legend Begins 
Trapped Ashes(3)

REFERENCES

1..http://www.brooklynrail.org/2006/09/film/new-maps-of-heaven

2.http://www.tcm.com/this-month/article/87922%7C0/Aliens.html

3. http://www.mentorhuebnerart.com/featuredguests/filmmakers/robertanddennisshotak.shtml

4. Sci Fi Fantasy FX, 25 years of moving $ward: a retrospect of the skotak Brothers

5.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0804738/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

6. Sci Fi Fantasy Modeller, Happy Medium Press, 2008, “Battle Plan”  creating the effects of Starship troopers 3