VFXTalk Interviews Josh Saeta, Lead Compositor at Rhythm & Hues!
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VFXTalk is pleased to share with you this awesome interview with Josh Saeta, the Lead Compositing TD at Rhythm & Hues! In this interview the VFXTalk communtiy asked Josh questions about Rhythm & Hues, his recent work on Ben Stiller’s Night at the Museum, the next-generation technology he was exposed to on Superman Returns and life in general as a Lead Compositor!
Josh has worked for a number of companies in his eight years in visual effects, including Banned From The Ranch, Tippett Studio, Square USA and Digital Domain has been involved in some of the hottest visual effects films from Final Fantasy and Matrix Revolutions to Elektra and Chronicles of Narnia. He was also nominated for a Emmy for his work on Steven Spielberg’s Sci-Fi mini-series, Taken. Josh is now working on The Kingdom, which stars Jamie Foxx and is due to release in April.
Joshua Saeta
Lead Compositing TD
Rhythm & Hues
Marina Del Rey, CA.
Josh’s VFX career started at a small house in Santa Monica called Banned From The Ranch Entertainment where he had the lucrative position of being an Office Production Assistant. Beyond learning the fine art of coffee making BFTR gave him the foundation he needed to break into FX. It was a small After Effects house where most of the work consisted of greenscreens, crowd duplication, and wire removals done in Commotion.
His first project was Soldier. From BFTR he went on the Digital Domain where he worked as a 3D tracker and set surveyor. He had the opportunity to set up tracking geometry on set, shoot stereoscopic photographs, bring it all back to DD and build tracking models; ultimately providing the animators with a solid track. Missing compositing, he went back to 2D where he went through a stream of different companies. He worked at Pixel Magic on Charlie’s Angels, went on to Square in Honolulu for Final Fantasy, bounced back to LA to work on a mini-series called Taken for DreamWorks where he received an Emmy nomination for outstanding VFX. After that he headed to Rainmaker in Vancouver, BC for Good Boy and then back down to Berkeley for Matrix Revolutions at Tippett Studio.
He finally settled down at Rhythm and Hues, and for the last three years has worked on such projects as Night at the Museum, Superman Returns, The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, Garfield, and Elektra. For more about Josh you can check out his IMDB listing here!
About Rhythm & Hues
At Rhythm & Hues we believe that the highest quality work is created in an environment where people enjoy working and where people are treated fairly, honestly and with respect. Recognizing the collaborative nature of our medium, our designers actively seek input and advice from others, but ultimately a single individual is responsible for the final design decisions.
http://www.rhythm.com
Print EmailVFXTalk is pleased to share with you this awesome interview with Josh Saeta, the Lead Compositing TD at Rhythm & Hues! In this interview the VFXTalk communtiy asked Josh questions about Rhythm & Hues, his recent work on Ben Stiller’s Night at the Museum, the next-generation technology he was exposed to on Superman Returns and life in general as a Lead Compositor!Josh has worked for a number of companies in his eight years in visual effects, including Banned From The Ranch, Tippett Studio, Square USA and Digital Domain has been involved in some of the hottest visual effects films from Final Fantasy and Matrix Revolutions to Elektra and Chronicles of Narnia. He was also nominated for a Emmy for his work on Steven Spielberg’s Sci-Fi mini-series, Taken. Josh is now working on The Kingdom, which stars Jamie Foxx and is due to release in April.
Joshua SaetaLead Compositing TD
Rhythm & Hues
Marina Del Rey, CA.
Josh’s VFX career started at a small house in Santa Monica called Banned From The Ranch Entertainment where he had the lucrative position of being an Office Production Assistant. Beyond learning the fine art of coffee making BFTR gave him the foundation he needed to break into FX. It was a small After Effects house where most of the work consisted of greenscreens, crowd duplication, and wire removals done in Commotion.
His first project was Soldier. From BFTR he went on the Digital Domain where he worked as a 3D tracker and set surveyor. He had the opportunity to set up tracking geometry on set, shoot stereoscopic photographs, bring it all back to DD and build tracking models; ultimately providing the animators with a solid track. Missing compositing, he went back to 2D where he went through a stream of different companies. He worked at Pixel Magic on Charlie’s Angels, went on to Square in Honolulu for Final Fantasy, bounced back to LA to work on a mini-series called Taken for DreamWorks where he received an Emmy nomination for outstanding VFX. After that he headed to Rainmaker in Vancouver, BC for Good Boy and then back down to Berkeley for Matrix Revolutions at Tippett Studio.
He finally settled down at Rhythm and Hues, and for the last three years has worked on such projects as Night at the Museum, Superman Returns, The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe, Garfield, and Elektra. For more about Josh you can check out his IMDB listing here!
About Rhythm & HuesAt Rhythm & Hues we believe that the highest quality work is created in an environment where people enjoy working and where people are treated fairly, honestly and with respect. Recognizing the collaborative nature of our medium, our designers actively seek input and advice from others, but ultimately a single individual is responsible for the final design decisions.
http://www.rhythm.com
Night at the Museum
Night at the Museum was an incredibly fun project to work on. The sequences we did consisted mostly of the t-rex shots, Massive crowd duplications, and greenscreens with Owen and Ben. We also did a number of exterior matte painting shots where animals were to be strolling down the street in a snowy New York City, all shot on greenscreen. Technology wise we used much the same tools from Superman for Night. Being able to import camera motion virtually eliminated the need to track in 2D, and being able to pin elements to cards and add parallax all within one node made the compositing much easier yet more accurate using zdepth information.
Superman Returns
Superman Returns really stood out as a awesome project for Josh, particularly since some of the technology used was absolutely incredible. It really sheds some light on how advanced compositing has become and where the industry is going. For example, they were able to import geometry into a comp, work with vertices on a model to attach a card or element to, import 3D cameras, texture and projection map, etc all within the composite!
Night at the Museum was an incredibly fun project to work on. The sequences we did consisted mostly of the t-rex shots, Massive crowd duplications, and greenscreens with Owen and Ben. We also did a number of exterior matte painting shots where animals were to be strolling down the street in a snowy New York City, all shot on greenscreen. Technology wise we used much the same tools from Superman for Night. Being able to import camera motion virtually eliminated the need to track in 2D, and being able to pin elements to cards and add parallax all within one node made the compositing much easier yet more accurate using zdepth information.
Superman ReturnsSuperman Returns really stood out as a awesome project for Josh, particularly since some of the technology used was absolutely incredible. It really sheds some light on how advanced compositing has become and where the industry is going. For example, they were able to import geometry into a comp, work with vertices on a model to attach a card or element to, import 3D cameras, texture and projection map, etc all within the composite!
As far as software goes, Rhythm and Hues uses proprietary software all the way around so his main compositing tool is ICY. He has also used Digital Domains proprietary tracking software TRACK3 and in his personal life uses Shake, After FX and Fusion.