FLYfx - Now on Flame Premium 2013!


"It's evolution, baby." - Pearl Jam

Ralph Scaglione rocks on with FLYfx

NEW YORK, September 25th, 2012 -- Veteran compositor, fx-artist & editor, Ralph Scaglione, rocks on with, FLYfx. Since our evolution into a "virtual" company and ou
r upgrade to Flame Premium we have conquered some incredible technical challenges for our clients and as an overflow resource for other vfx houses.

Here at "the plant" :) FLYfx loves to be on the cutting edge - so naturally we are on the 2013 version of Flame Premium which means we have Flame 2013, Smoke 2013 and Lustre 2013! FLYfx's Flame features Sapphire, Tinder, the amazing Furnace plug-ins.  And, our recently upgraded Mac graphics setup, - including MOCHA Pro - gives us the opportunity to go completely bananas creating your digital magic.

Scaglione, being a seasoned commercial Smoke and Flame artist, is in a unique position to offer the latest Flame Premium toolset. "Clients are impressed by the power speed and flexibility of Super Smoke" says Ralph. "and our point of difference is that we are working outside of NYC which substantially lowers our overhead and allows us to push the limits of what we are doing on some of those special projects - like the one we have in house now - visual fx for a feature film!"

FLYfx has a reputation for no-compromise, cheerful solutions to the most impossible to the simplest, visual effects, design and finishing projects for commercials, film and television.

And again: Ralph is available on a freelance basis for smoke, flame, final cut pro, smoke on mac, mocha, effects supervision, vfx bidding, consultation and more!

How impossible is YOUR next visual fx project?

646-701-0103
It's evolution, baby.


: )




We interupt this 2011 Year In Review to bring you this important announcement.

Ok, here it is folks! THE BIG MEGA-HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

We wanted to wait until we announced it at the After Effects New York user group - FLYfx now has a new form of FLYing - we are the proud owners of a Steadicam Pilot and we are gonna be FLYing cameras as well as FX in the very near future!!!



If I had slept the night before I would have remembered to take a picture of us flying a camera around at AbleCine in NYC where we made the leap - but we will post pics for you asap.  This mofo is bad-ass and I can't wait to use it with our new HD cameras.  Special thanks to Emily Lepore who helped us make the decision.

FLYfx is really FLYing now!   YEAH BABY!!!

: )



The FLYfx Year in Review is in full effect - go get a late pass. LOL!

Hey there gentle readers,

Please visit our Vimeo page to see The FLYfx 2011 Year in Review - already in progress.

More clips coming - STAY TUNED!

FLYfx 2011 Year In Review.

Looking back we had a really eclectic year. a little broadcast promotion work, a dab of point of purchase work, tons of agency work, some stuff for the web, some vfx for long form shows, a little network tv cleanup, even some music video and independent film work. Wow, what a ride! I can safely say, we are ready for anything here at the plant.  Stay tuned for more posts as we take a look back at 2011.



FLYfx tweaks IAVA for Saatchi & Saatchi.






How impossible is your next VFX project? So common a question for FLYfx, we've made it the tag line of our NYC-based visual effects and design studio, FLYfx (www.FLYfx.net). It’s also the founding principle on which we've built FLYfx. With over 25 years experience, Scaglione applies the most powerful tools in the industry to tackle some of the most vexing projects for clients. “We deliver rock solid results every time, so feel free to bring your highest expectations,” he adds confidently. He’s seen it all, and with his arsenal of tools and breadth of experience, there’s no project too complex.

Included in this VFX arsenal is Autodesk's Smoke 2K 2010, Sapphire, Furnace and Tinder plug-ins as well as Mocha and Mokey from Imagineer Systems, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Lightwave and much more.

FLYfx was recently contacted by ad industry giant, Saatchi & Saatchi, who was working with The AD Council and The Now Corporation on a series of PSAs for the Veteran Support campaign. The PSAs, created by Saatchi & Saatchi pro bono, were designed to encourage Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to join IAVA’s online community at www.IAVA.org - a web site created to let veterans know that they are not alone once they return from their tours of duty.

The spot, depicting a veteran at his computer in search of colleagues with whom he can connect, becomes increasingly complex, as people literally emerge from the background, like chameleons shedding their camouflage to make themselves visible. This type of shot is typically a tedious combination of practical effects along with tracking and roto work that can take days or weeks to get right.

In the 11th hour, Agency creatives at Saatchi & Saatchi were happy with the results on "Camouflage" but the client wanted to kick it up a few notches - enhancing the effect of people coming out of the scenery. FLYfx got the call late in the day friday before Veteran's day and after revieiwing the spot we were thrilled to dive right in!

Using a combination of masking, color correction, morphing and tracking bits onto the existing effect we were able to push the people further into the landscape before they revealed themselves by emerging from their position on screen. Autodesk Smoke 2010 2K as well as Photoshop and the amazing Mocha by imagineer systems - for some of the trickier tracking challenges - all came together to push the envelope on this very cool and important spot.

Scaglione continued, “These are exactly the kind of jobs for which our clients have become to depend on FLYfx; those complex and even tedious shots that demand absolute perfection and the highest image quality. Believability is key, so you need the most powerful tools available to create smooth, seemingly impossible shots.”

The FLYfx Blog Team.

Workflow.

As we look back on our first year in business, it becomes apparent to us that our greatest strength is our ability to work with any workflow we encounter. Clients arrive with many different elements and levels of preparation, a myriad of formats and resolutions, internet downloads and uploads -- never the same thing twice. The fact that we took on each of these challenges over our first year -- and never broke a sweat -- is a testament to our senior level staff and the technical know-how they call upon on a regular basis. We welcome the new age of the producer/editor or "predator", agencies with their own in-house graphics design departments, elements from around the globe in virtually every format, funky edls, xmls and the rest. When you know your finishing house is ready to make it come together no matter how you worked up to that point and that the results will be rock-solid -- you can extend the reach of your creativity, push your post dollars further and keep stress out of the picture.

We not only welcome this new age, we say, bring it on!!!

The FLYfx Blog Team.



The FLYfx game has been improved...


We almost hate to announce it but we can't resist spilling the beans - "the FLYfx game" has been updated: http://games.flyfx.net/ - the idea is that you are supposed to find the update by accident. Why? Because we are obsessed with the "easter egg" concept - we love it when features are found by stumbling upon them (we are very silly), but again, we simply can't resist. While we are spilling beans, we can add this... the DVD of our demo reel might contain more than meets the eye, maybe, but we are not gonna say any more than that.

As far as the game goes, here's a clue, to beat level three, you probably have to find the secret way to do it or you will lose to this level.

: )


http://games.flyfx.net/

The FLYfx Blog Team.


FLYfx tracks and comps cellphone screen for Vh1 and Verizon.







This tricky little tracking job was nailed perfectly with planar tracking provided in one of our favorite apps, Mocha - by Imagineer - www.Mokey.com for more info. FLYfx's Ralph Scaglione made short work of this two sided tracking job with perfect results. "A job like this you know in two seconds that you want to employ one of the imagineer tools like Mocha. We banged this baby out in no time flat" says Ralph, "with plenty of time left over for finesse." Fun times were had by all.

The FLYfx Blog team.



FLYfx teams up with SlamMedia for MySuit






FLYfx called on the expertise of Glen Hoffman and SlamMedia Group when Marke Communications wanted the soup to nuts solution for creating six fun and informative spots for MySuit. Hoffman shot using P2 files recorded to a firestore then edited on Final Cut Pro. FLYfx's Ralph Scaglione imported xml files and conformed on Smoke 2010 2K. Says Scaglione: "It was pure heaven, soft importing P2 files then working with the batch mode right in the timeline with over 80 live HD layers for the final comps(!)." Scaglione added "What a ride!"

We love this project AND the company MySuit! Here's what they do - you go in once to get measured, then leave the store and head home to custom build your own suit -- online! What a cool idea! Thanks MySuit!!!

Visit them online at www.MySuitNY.com - you'll be glad you did.

The FLYfx Blog team.



FLYfx tracks new labels onto Mazola.



FLYfx lent a hand to Millennium Creative Group when they needed to replace a label in their Mazola Vegetable Plus commercial. We made short work of it.

The FLYfx Blog team.



Brand New Bike creates fx for Chiller at FLYfx.







Brand New Bike's John Jamilkowski worked closely with FLYfx's lead compositor, Ralph Scaglione, to create graphic elements for the Chiller network's Monday night Anime block. Jamilkowski's vision was to emulate the bleeding text treatment seen on the opening titles in the 2004 Universal Studios remake of "Dawn of the Dead". Scaglione also created the tune-in graphics which involved projecting anime images onto individual 3D letters that spelled the name of the programming block "Ani-Monday".

Cool stuff.

The FLYfx Blog team.



The PhD Project graphics.


FLYfx teamed up with Ned Steele's MediaImpact and editor Dan Bosko to create graphics for "The PhD Project", an amazing organization that encourages minority business people to become college professors. "Diversity in front of the classroom leads to diversity in the classroom and beyond." We were thrilled and inspired to work with such an amazing organization.

Thanks guys!!!

The FLYfx Blog team.