Here's the latest News and information on CG events, sofware release and new tutorial releases here at CG Academy. If you have any tib-bits that would be of interest, please send them in to... Just click on the link below to subscribe to the CGA RSS feed We have formatted our feed to give the best results in most RSS broswers. If you do find an issue with our feed, please contact via our news email address (see left panel). EBoy's FixPix IPhone Game is basically the greatest thing ever made   Looks like a fun little concept. Easy to implement and probably a little money farm (wish we'd thought of it first, damnitall!......) "Okay, so this isn't out yet, but it's hard to deny that the eBoy-designed Delicious Toys-developed game FixPix is probably the best idea anyone has ever had since the wheel or sliced bread. Maybe that's a little hyperbolic, but as you know, we are huge fans of eBoy and their mind-boggling pixel art. Now the design collective's cityscapes and fantastical scenes have been turned into an iPhone app where you can piece the 3D milieus back together by tilting your phone this way and that. As we said, the title isn't available, but there's an awesome demo site where you can play around with the concept, and it's likely FixPix could see Apple approval any day now. We can barely contain ourselves. Check out a video of the game in action after the break."   Reported By Chris Thomas On 07-05-2010 at 15:47:46   Top 10 Games We Can’t Wait To Get Our Hands On by Chuck Boston   There are some pretty juicey morsels in this list, that's for sure...... Out personal interest was piqued by Fable 3, mainly because we have never played any of the previous Fable stable (sorry....) "Star Wars the Old Republic- With all new classes and an awesome battle system this is sure to entertain the masses. There are many different classes to choose from each with a varied combat style that are balanced against each other. Each is unique in it’s own way and will have something fun and different to appeal to everyone. This will be epic no doubt and releases in 2011. Lost Planet 2, as in two words, ‘lady pirates’. That’s all I needed to see before I was convinced that this game would be awesome. Yes, that does mean that Lost Planet has more options for character customization. The vital suit is still the center of the multiplayer mode but now ranges from small battle suits to enormous spider mechs that seat an entire team. There have also been added conventional vehicles such as tanks and hovercraft. The bosses you will have to face are even bigger and badder so good luck, we can’t wait till it’s May 11th release." Click the link to read more at CGChannel.............   Reported By On 07-05-2010 at 15:29:43   Star Trek Online - Pros And Cons by Chris Wales   Ok, so this game review, it's all good and all. But the real reason for us posting this review, is the reviewers name. Chris Wales, I mean c'mon, could it get any better? "When diving into the new experience of Star Trek Online, you will notice right away one of the strongest attributes of the game: customization. Creating a character delivers vast amounts of it. Players are able to chose skin color, eye color, hair style…not impressed? Beyond the usual customizable character attributes, further mutation may take place. Also customizable are traits like facial width, length, and skull depth, body height and build, hand size, bulk, and finger length, torso length and bulk, stomach size, physical stances such as “Brawlerâ€� and “Twitchyâ€�, earrings and jewelry, uniforms, and it goes on. Now, if you’re new to MMO’s or gaming in general, this might be a daunting task. Fear not, there are many pre-programmed races to chose from as well." Click the link to read more at CGChannel..... http://www.cgchannel.com/2010/04/star-trek-online-pros-and-cons/   Reported By On 07-05-2010 at 15:15:51   Crysis 2 - Teaser Trailer - EA Games/Crytek - 2010 - Full HD by Paul Herbert   Feast your googly, game-drinking eyes....... "This is a teaser trailer for the forthcoming Crysis 2 game from Crytek published by EA Games. Working with Headstrong Games and Maverick Media on behalf of EA Games I was the lead lighting and set dressing artist on this project. The entire trailer was rendered using the Crysis engine and created in Sandbox 3."   Reported By On 07-05-2010 at 15:11:15   Academy Exhibit Covers Career, Creations Of Ray Harryhausen By: Thomas J. Mclean   Looks pretty interesting. I wonder when the old ILM fx gods will hit the tribute trail? "“The Fantastical Worlds of Ray Harryhausen,â€� a summer retrospective exhibition focusing on the careers of the visual effects pioneer, opens May 14 at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The free exhibition, which will be shown in the fourth-floor gallery at the Academy’s Beverly Hills building, will feature original models, drawings, storyboards and behind-the-scenes photographs demonstrating Harryhausen’s effects work. " Click the link to read more at Animation Magazine...   Reported By On 07-05-2010 at 14:27:55   DreamWorks Announces Dragon Sequel, 1Q Results By: Thomas J. Mclean   As the money rolls in, inevitably the sequal will roll out..... (think if it a bit like ying/yang) "DreamWorks Animation announced it plans a sequel to How to Train Your Dragon in its quarterly results announcements. Financially, the studio reported a profits were down 65 percent in the first quarter versus a year ago — an expected result given the studio had no holiday movie release to drive sales in the first quarter of this year. The details show the studio earned a profit $21.7 million on revenues of $162.1 million, up from a $62 million profit on $263 million in revenues in 2009. " Click the link to read more at Animation Magazine...........   Reported By On 07-05-2010 at 14:24:40   Why I Hate 3-D And you should too!   You know what we think about 3D, I mean 3D display tech? Well, some people call it a gimick. I'd say that's just nonsense. We ALL see in 3D, it's something we take for granted. So why should a movie NOT be also displayed in 3D too? Most people can hear, and sound is an important feature of movies today. It was not always so. We can (mostly) all see in colour. But again, movies have not always featured colour images. So, I can see where the impulse comes from. Now... that does mean that we think current 3D tech is going to be a hit. It may really just be a foot in the door. A first pass technology that gets us all comfortable with 3D as a standard component of the viewing experience. Just as with our normal vision. But, todays tech is kind of clunky. You need glasses, and batteries for those glasses. Or you need a special TV with a weird lenticular screen covering. And that means you either HAVE to wear the silly looking glasses, or sit stock still in front of the screen. So, 3D may not catch on now (or it may). But it will become a standard somewhere down the line. We'll just all have to wait for now and see if this particular throw of the mud sticks. "3-D is a waste of a perfectly good dimension. Hollywood's current crazy stampede toward it is suicidal. It adds nothing essential to the moviegoing experience. For some, it is an annoying distraction. For others, it creates nausea and headaches." Click the link to read more at Newsweek.com.........   Reported By On 06-05-2010 at 16:01:16   Nike Mercurial   Vid 3 of story below.....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 06-05-2010 at 15:50:39   Coke Quest   Video 2 of story below.....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 06-05-2010 at 15:48:15   Robots, Paint Chips, And Soccer by Matt McCorkell   You really must have a swatch of this.... (cool pun eh?) "It seems like everything is robots lately. Soccer fields transform into obstacle courses. Or the players themselves are robots…..or little birds and frogs can be made of paint samples. All together we are presenting dangerous choices for kids through cg commercials – giant killer soccer hooligan robots encouraging the consumption of huge amounts of sugar or animals/plants made from paint chips (which can’t be good for the digestive track) or sending them out to play on constantly changing robotic fields where one wrong move could send them tumbling into the abyss." Click the link to see more at CGChannel, or watch the next three vids........ http://www.cgchannel.com/2010/04/robots-paint-chips-and-soccer/   Reported By On 06-05-2010 at 15:47:16   Custom JibJab Clip Celebrates 30 Years Of Empire Strikes Back By: Thomas J. Mclean   30 years! Cripes, was it really that long ago? In a galaxy far far away? "It was just about 30 years ago that Darth Vader and the Empire routed the Rebels at Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back — and now JibJab is letting people put themselves in the movie. Thanks to a deal with Lucasfilm, the online animation site lets users upload photos of themselves to be included in a brief and humorous retelling of The Empire Strikes Back. After watching their movie, users can share the video with friends via email, Facebook and Twitter. Custom versions of the videos are available as premium downloads for users who want to save them forever on their computers or watch them on their iPhones." Click the link to read more at Animation Magazine...........   Reported By On 06-05-2010 at 15:46:37   Screenshots Emerge Of Steam Linux Client, BeOS Wonders If It's Next By Darren Murph   Poor poor, sad old OsX. Languishing with no real gaming support.... Eh what? Valve have now supported it with their Steam game delivery system? Ok, cool news, now what about Linux? I mean, OsX IS basically Linux (with a bit of Steve Jobs buffing applied of course). So, Lunux, huh!? "There's some old adage referring to smoke and fire meant to explain this phenomenon, but frankly, we're too focused on the promise of the future to go and look it up. Merely weeks after the Steam for Mac beta proved that Linux support may be in the works, along comes this: two glorious screenshots proving as much. 'Course, nothing much about this situation has changed, but having pictorial evidence that a Steam client exists in some stage for Linux is a boon for hopefuls." Click the link to read more at Engadget..........   Reported By On 05-05-2010 at 08:49:57   Autodesk Santa Monica Live Event - Thursday May 6th   You read the title, so if you are in or near LA this Thursday evening, why not make an effort to attend? Motion Media, an reseller of CG Academy products is hosting the event. So, even better, see 3dsmax/Maya/XSI 2011 and maybe buy some top quality training material along the way ;) "This Thursday, Autodesk and MotionMedia (local reseller on the West Side in LA) is hosting a live event to kick off the release of the 2011 line of Media & Entertainment products. Steven Roselle, Mark Schoennagel, and Mark Noland show off the new 2011 versions of new 2011 versions of Maya, 3ds Max, Mudbox and Softimage in a session targeted on new features and enhancements benefiting game development pipelines. 3ds Max 2011 for Games 3ds Max 2011 has just shipped and it has already received strong positive vibes from the 3D community. Game Developer’s Best 3D Creation Tool is now better than ever with new advanced productive and creative tools. In this demonstration, you’ll see new tools such as the Slate material editor, Quicksilver Hardware Rendering, Objects and Textures 3D Paint modules as well as CAT and CAT Muscle for fast rigging and animation of all sorts of characters." Click the link to read more at CGChannel...........   Reported By On 05-05-2010 at 00:12:24   Seagulls Fly And The Amazing CS5 Launch Trailer Posted by Matt McCorkell   We know, we know, it's a little late for CS5 launch fluff at this stage. But if you did miss the initial launch party poppers, here's another chance to watch the (rather fetching) launch vid. Hit it, drink some coke/pepsi/fanta/beer/cider, and nibble away on your snack of choice......   Reported By On 05-05-2010 at 00:10:44   Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland: How Illustrators Kei Acedera And Bobby Chiu Shaped The Characters’ Designs by Jérémie Noyer   Not bored with Alice in Wonderland insight articles and showcases? If not, then here is another for the pile...... "When we think about Alice in Wonderland, it’s hard not to recall Walt Disney’s classic animated film. So, when making the live action sequel, the challenge for Tim Burton and his illustrators was to imagine a wonderland of their own. Among the talented artists that collaborated with the creator of Jack Skellington stand Kei Acedera and Bobby Chiu, two Canadian illustrators working together at Imaginism Studio in Montreal. Kei Acedera is an illustrator and art director at Imaginism. She specializes in children’s books, visual development and character design for film and television. She co-produces our series of art books with Bobby Chiu. Her art oozes charm and broad-based appeal, they never fail to bring a smile to people’s faces." Click the link to read more at Animated Views,,,,,,   Reported By On 05-05-2010 at 00:06:46   18 iPhone Apps For 3D Artists   Tech Radar has gathered together an ensemble of 3D related apps for the iPhone. Hoot hoot, once again, Christmas comes early :) "We've gathered together a collection of free and paid-for apps that can help you to work smarter and faster. Even if you have resisted the allure of Apple's iPhone so far, the surprisingly large quantity of 3D apps out there may prove useful enough to make you look twice at the ubiquitous shiny fruit-marked touch-phone. We've got offerings from the likes of software heavyweights such as Autodesk and Luxology, and a whole host from unknown developers. If there isn't something here to help you with design, workflow or even just that ever sought after inspiration, we'll eat Steve Jobs' hat" Click the link to read more at Tech Radar.............   Reported By On 05-05-2010 at 00:01:25   Korean (Asia) SIGGRAPH Begins A Call For Entries   Heading over to Siggraph Asia? Wan't to get your animated short, or techy wizardy on show. Then check this out..... "The Chair and panel of the SIGGRAPH Asia 2010 have announced that the Computer Animation Festival is open for submissions. The festival accepts submissions in the following categories: • Animation Shorts (narrative, character, abstract, experimental, etc.; most animations should be in this category) • Animated Feature Films (selections or montages) • Commercials • Music Videos • Real-Time Visualization (games, mobile animations) • Scientific Visualization or Research • Visual Effects (short films, sequences, live-action feature films, etc.)" Click the link to read more.......   Reported By On 04-05-2010 at 23:55:43   'Meet Meline' Innocence and mystery drive the story for French film makers in production of 'Meet Meline' short.   CG Soc have a pretty good write up and interview with the creators of Meet Meline..... "The story of 'Meet Meline' came up very naturally. Amid the constant storm of game cinematics with alien predators and zombies, this short film stands out as a fresh change in style, composition, modeling and animation. At first, 'Meet Meline' wasn't supposed to be a short film. In fact the pair of film makers from France only wanted to make a 20 second clip as a test. The pair met at Eden Games while on projects together there, and they both saw this production was like a challenge to keep their skills sharp. So Sebastien Laban and his partner Virginie Goyons started work on the character design for a month, and at the end of that, they sat back and talked about it." Click the link to read more at CGSociety......   Reported By On 04-05-2010 at 18:08:30   MPC Play War With Clash Of The Titans Posted by cgnews   Way back in the mists of time, I worked at MPC. As it turned out, I also worked with Gary Brozenich (very nice guy), on a top secret project (well, it was secret back then....). So, what's Gary been up to of late? "Louis Leterrier has directed ‘Clash of the Titans,’ a remake of the 80’s classic featuring the war between man and the gods. MPC completed 214 VFX shots for the film including extensive creature work for the Kraken, Pegasus and Harpies, cityscapes, digi-doubles, crowds and fx. The team led by VFX Supervisor Gary Brozenich was involved from the outset working closely with the production team and director to design the city of Argos. Once the layout and look of the city was signed off, MPC’s 3D team worked on Maya to create the CG city and used matte-painting to complete the environment." Click the link to read more at cgnews   Reported By On 04-05-2010 at 17:55:40   The Lord Of The Rings: Remastered Deluxe Edition by Ben Simon   Way back when, there was an attempt made on the great peak of movie making, that is t'LOTR. In those days, CG was but a twinkling in the eye of some labs, and cutting edge VFX projects. So.... 2D it was. And, to be fair, the resulting movie really was not bad. However, the plan was to attempt the entire trillogy in one go. And, as it turned out it was too large a bite to swallow. Finanaces ran out, and a half baked product, that ended at an awkward point in the storyline, did not generate enough return to allow for a part 2 and completion. Very sad.... Anyway, now you can buy this little gem on DVD (in a Deluxe edition!). And it's certainly worth it for it's take on Gollum, and it's second example on how NOT to do Samwise Gamgee (i.e. like a halfwit bumpkin man-servant) .So off you go! "Extraordinary wizard Gandalf instructs a young Hobbit, Frodo, to return the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron, to the fires of Mordor’s Mount Doom, where its sinister power can be destroyed forever. Along the way he is joined by a band of friends and foes, not least the formidable Hobbit-turned wretched creature Gollum, who wants the precious Ring for himself… In the late 1970s, a young Peter Jackson took his seat at his favorite movie palace in New Zealand, and found himself so disappointed at the event picture he saw unfolding on screen that he vowed to remake the film when he became a world class director. The film was, of course, the 1976 version of King Kong, which Jackson would go on to attempt to remake, as a more faithful to the original 1933 film, in 1998, and finally realize his dream onscreen in 2005. But there was another film, released around the same time, which must have also had an effect on the young director to be…" Click the link to read more at Animated views...........   Reported By On 04-05-2010 at 17:46:12   CE-Oh No He Didn't!: Nokia's Anssi Vanjoki Thinks Cameraphones Are About To Make SLRs Obsolete By Vladislav Savov   Hrm, I think Mr T would comment on this. Something about pitying the fool? "From what we know of Anssi Vanjoki, he's a great guy and one that isn't afraid of admitting his company's mistakes. Alas, now we can also add to that dossier the ignominious fact that the fella doesn't seem to know how professional cameras work. Talking about the rapid improvement in cameraphone technology during a speech in Helsinki yesterday, Vanjoki said that very soon "there will be no need to carry around those heavy lenses." He's really enthusiastic about HD video coming to phones, which he predicts will be here within 12 months (if you ask Sony Ericsson, it's here already), but we just can't let that spectacular line about lenses slide." Click the link to read more at Engadget.............   Reported By On 04-05-2010 at 17:22:53   Giza 3D by CGarchitect   A few years ago, I worked on a BBC/Discovery special on the great pyramid at Giza. I was the modeller on that project, and despite what you may think, that was not an easy job. I modelled the pyramid in three separate stages of construction, with all the interior chambers, construction ramps, workers homes and so on. Great fun to work on, and a challenge to boot. Anyway, enough of me. It seems now even more Giza facts, theories and figures are being digitized, for future generations to use, expand upon and hopefully improve... "The Giza Archives Project is a digital initiative, housed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), for research on the Egyptian Pyramids and surrounding tombs at the Giza Plateau. In the last decade, it has digitized historic expedition photographs, excavation diaries and field notebooks, maps, plans and sketches from the ancient tombs and pyramids at Giza. The result is the largest database and web site ever assembled relating to the Giza Plateau. Most of the archaeological documents and photographs had been assembled over forty years of excavation by Egyptologist George Reisner (1867–1942), one of the prominent founding fathers of modern scientific archaeology, who led the Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition in Egypt. In a unique international collaboration, the Giza Archives Project partners today with all of the world's institutions that house major collections related to Giza." Click the link to read more............   Reported By On 29-04-2010 at 12:19:46   Defense And Government 3D Visualization, Simulation, And Training Market To Grow Quickly by CGarchitect   So, 3D skills will be in demand into the future? Heck, whats new. Learn 3D, be good at it, and you will have a job , my son.... "“The 3D visualization, simulation, and training defense and government market is on the cusp of another disruption. 3D capable browsers, ubiquitous 3D on the desktop, in notebooks, and in handheld devices will make 3D accessible to a large portion of the defense and government workforce,â€� says Christine Arrington, senior analyst, Acacia Research Group. “Hardware makers, application developers, and service providers will have to evaluate their business models and their development strategies to take advantage of the new opportunities that will appear worldwide over the next five years. Those who adapt will benefit those who do not will suffer.â€�" Click the link to read more at cgarchirect.............   Reported By On 29-04-2010 at 10:15:02   Spielberg, DreamWorks, Discovery Animate Future Earth By: Thomas J. Mclean   Sounds pretty interesting. It'll be fun to see what exactly thi series will forsee for the future. It's always hard to pick out what technologies will be in play 50 years in the future, let alone 100. Back in the 1940's they thought we'd be living on the Moon and Mars by now. Whilst mobile video phones were just too outlandish (see Blade Runner). Oh yeah, and again, where are our frakin flying cars? Hrmph....... "Steven Speilberg is coming back to animation having set up a miniseries for Discovery Channel. The series, called Future Earth, will speculate about life on the planet 25, 50 and 100 years from now. Spielberg will produce the series, with DreamWorks TV and DreamWorks Animation both on board the project as well. In a statement, Spielberg said he would personally be overseeing the development of the project. The Oscar-winning director, who presented the classic Tiny Toons Adventures animated series for Warner Bros., also is producing a special series for Discovery called The Rising: Rebuilding Ground Zero." Click the link to read more at Animation Magazine......   Reported By On 29-04-2010 at 10:14:40   Canon Brings Out Jackie Chan-branded Rebel T2i / 550D For Chinese Market By Vladislav Savov   A Jackie Chan branded camera? Eh, I mean, C'mon, it's got to be a Steven Seagal themed telephoto lens (with the abaility to kill, with a simple stare) or nothing! ""Eye of Dragon" must be Chinese for "better kit lens, fancier neck strap, a branded photo album, and a leather case." Because that's the totality of substantive changes you'll be getting if you opt for the upgraded Jackie Chan variety of Canon's Rebel T2i. Of course, there's also the knowledge that you'll be one of only 2,010 owners of this exclusive kit, which will set buyers back an unenviable 10,000 Yuan ($1,467). If you ask us, we'd rather just buy the body and add on the EF-S 18-135mm lens ourselves, but then we were always more partial to Bruce Lee anyway. " Click the link for more at Engadget...........   Reported By On 29-04-2010 at 10:13:10   C.G.S.A. Computer Graphics Student Awards   Are you in college, are you a budding CG Wizard? Well, if so, have a looksie at this award? "Welcome to Computer Graphics Student Awards! This event aims to provide you with an amazing opportunity to showcase your creative and technical skills to leading production companies, and get a chance to kick start your career. Prizes for this amazing event include over $67,000 worth of Internships, software, and hardware... and all you have to do to enter is upload a single video." Click the link to read more......   Reported By On 29-04-2010 at 10:05:19   Pixar Opens Studio In Vancouver Posted by Matt McCorkell   Tax breaks, oh how sweet thoust be, unto a production budget that lies, at peril, crushed by the taxes of THE MAN...... "Pixar has just added a studio in Vancouver contributing their part to the recent trend of studios adding creative divisions in Canada. Digital Domain already added a studio to Canada earlier this year and now Sony Pictures Imageworks is also planning to formally announce its Vancouver studio next month. Oh Canada…. The Academy Award-winning Hollywood animation studio Pixar, which is set to launch Toy Story 3 in June, opens its new studio in a historic Vancouver building for an invitation-only sneak peek this morning – one of the highlights of what has become an exciting year for the city’s digital-animation and visual-effects industry. At a time when U.S. production is in the doldrums here, no fewer than three American studios are opening up shops in Vancouver: Pixar, Digital Domain and Sony Pictures Imageworks, which plans to formally announce its Vancouver studio next month." Click the link to read more at CGChannel...   Reported By On 29-04-2010 at 10:04:41   Dante's Inferno the Divine Comedy, retold   Can't really say much more on this, click onwards dear readers..... "Re-imagining a piece of Italian literature that is roughly 700 years old is what surfaced as an idea for creating Dante’s Inferno by Visceral Games. As a developer, this sounds like a great idea; an established story to build upon and a widely known familiarity among potential gamers. Developing a visually appealing art style for Dante’s Inferno’s audience also proved to be a creative playground for the artistic developers at Visceral. At least, that’s how Art Director Ash Huang saw it. I asked Ash Huang what went on in the halls of Visceral Games when dealing with the task of beautifying this video game iteration of the Divine Comedy." Click the link to read more at CGSociety.....   Reported By On 29-04-2010 at 09:50:16   NEC's 3D All-in-one PC Set To Polarize The Market This Year By Tim Stevens   More 3D goodies (anyone out there tried one of these displays yet?) "It seems that even the fully-integrated desktop is not immune to the wiles of 3D. NEC has demonstrated an all-in-one desktop PC that features a Blu-ray player and an LCD display that, when paired with some inexpensive polarized glasses, adds a little depth to movie content. That's all we know about it at this point, other than a release date that's been pegged as happening sometime in 2010, with Impress indicating that it could even be sometime in the first half of this year. The question is, of course: will anyone buy it? " Click the link to read more at Engadget...........   Reported By On 29-04-2010 at 09:44:20   The Future of Digital Content Creation with the GPU sponsored by Nvidia   The latest Nvidia graphics cards, or as they are known these days, GPUs, are really not geared so totally to just producing images. Instead Nvidia (and ATi) have been working more towards what are basically parallel super-computing devices on a card. Not all tasks are suited to this kind of processing, but then a lot of tasks are. Now, traditional CPU's have been designed to process a wide range of general tasks, and of course this makes perfect sense. But with the GPU architectures, they are designed to handle simpler, very repetitive tasks, but in a parallel nature. So, many simple taks at once, rather than one general task at once. If you apply this to many graphics and simulation problems, it can be a perfect match. Like taking millions of pixels and blurrin them, or working out how many fluid cells move from step to step for fluid simulation. If converted, these simple algorythms can run many, many times faster on a GPU. Even better, you can also run multiple GPU's in one machine (SLI) and therefof build super processing machines in a typical tower stylie wotkstation. Intrigued? Then head along to this event..... "The Future of Digital Content Creation will provide attendees with an opportunity to learn about the latest developments in production workflows. See how the latest technologies and applications are taking advantage of the high performance computing power on the latest generation GPUs. NVIDIA will present how you can use highly optimized software modules including acceleration engine technology, CUDA, PhysX, SceniX, CgFX, CompleX, OptiX and iray. Featured speakers will include software providers who will discuss best practices for optimizing workflows and software. Come see how GPUs are transforming visually-rich and computationally-intensive applications such as video games, film production, broadcasting and industrial design. This panel of speakers brings together studio R&D and pipeline engineers who are approaching complex VFX challenges in new ways to build on the high performance computing afforded by the GPU. The resulting discussion would give attendees a snapshot of how these forward thinking companies are leveraging this technology to gain significant pipeline efficiencies and throughput speed increases. Panelists to discuss: 1. Amazingly fluid, real-time video editing Adobe® Mercury Playback Engine and Quadro® CS5 -- Jacob Rosenberg; Bandito Brothers 2. Highly optimized software modules including acceleration engine technology, CUDA, PhysX, SceniX, CgFX, CompleX, OptiX and iray; -- Phil Miller, NVIDIA 3. ARRI Relativity and Pixel Strings engine demo Cinnafilm/ARRI -- Richard Antley, Director, Digital Intermediate Systems; ARRI, Inc. 4. Phasespace (motion capture) using Quadro FX4800.for LED mocap -- Tracy McSheery, VP/CTO; Phasespace ****MOCAP Demo on stage 6 to follow the presentations**** " Click the link to read more...........   Reported By On 29-04-2010 at 09:41:25   Grrzzzzzrrtttt Shshshssshhhh ...a wandering minstrel I!   Hello readers, some of you may have noticed a break in transmission over the last few days. Thats because the team here are CGA have been taking a well earned break. Sun-block, sea, sand, sunburn, sangria, more sand, kebabs, sand etc. You get the picture.... But we are back now! (well, sort of...) We'll give a quick catch-up broadcast today, and then service should pretty much resume as normal.   Memories Of The Song music video   Great animationg style here, and all the work of just one person. Pretty amazing eh? "This is the Music Video I've made for my Friend, the singer 'Mono Diary' recently. It's about the song for the memory and love...."   Reported By Chris Thomas On 22-04-2010 at 18:56:52   New York City 3D in Google Earth   In January 2009, NYC & Company, the official marketing, tourism and partnership organization of New York City, launched nycgo.com and opened an information center that makes it easier for visitors and residents to explore all the vibrancy, excitement and diversity of New York City's five boroughs. I'll leave it to the Googbots to explain...... "Mirroring the integrated Google Maps on the website, our highly interactive Official NYC Information Center in Midtown Manhattan includes Google Maps–based Interactive Map Tables where you can plan your visit and a beautiful Video Wall featuring 3D imagery of New York City in Google Earth that lets you “flyâ€� through your selected itinerary. Since we opened our doors, thousands of tourists have virtually explored New York in our center before venturing out on their own. When Google let us know that they would be releasing new, high-quality 3D imagery of New York City, we were excited to help spread the word. The new imagery will be an amazing improvement to our already-stunning Video Wall and will help us to reach our goals in making New York City more accessible to visitors and residents alike. The detail at the street level, as you’ll see in the video below, makes it easier than ever to virtually experience our variety of cultural institutions, storefronts and residential and commercial buildings."   Reported By Chris Thomas On 22-04-2010 at 18:15:59   Who is the winner, Kick-Ass or HTTYD   Seems there is an Atlantic divide going on in terms of the performance of these two films. In the UK, Kick-Ass is deemed to be the box office king, whilst in the US, How To Train Your Dragon is apparently "the daddy" in terms of receips. Apparently though, both films are great. So see either, or both and you'll come out ahead either way..... "DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon surged back to top the weekend box office race in its fourth weekend of release, just barely beating out the much-buzzed-about comic book adaptation Kick-Ass for the crown. Dragon earned an estimated $20 million over the weekend, bringing its domestic gross up to a total of $158 million. The film has grossed about $177 million overseas, giving it a respectable worldwide total of $335 million." Click the link to read more at Animation Magazine....   Reported By On 22-04-2010 at 17:05:23   Gaiking Giant Mecha LadyBot   This one passed under our radar here in the UK. But... to link think back to us westerners, it seems that Carl Macek (producer on Robotech), was also involved in the production of this movie. Unfortunately Carl has passed on recently. So fingers crossed his last production lives up to his previous glories...   Reported By Chris Thomas On 22-04-2010 at 13:06:09   Disney Legend Floyd Norman Writes (and Talks) About His Animated Life   Want to hear how it was, back in the good old? "What was it like to work at the Walt Disney Studio in the nineteen fifties, be in the apprenticeship program with the Nine Old Men, and maybe even attend story meetings with the Old Maestro himself? Disney animator, artist, storyman and Disney Legend Floyd Norman spent nearly fifty years in Walt’s magic factory helping create a fair amount of that magic himself. From February 1956 to August 2000, he worked through three managements, and alongside a host of talented writers, artists, entertainers and craftsmen to help create the Disney legacy." Click the read more at Animated Views.......   Reported By On 22-04-2010 at 12:00:15   3D-Coat Ptex in external engines with no Ptex support   And one more for the pot......   Reported By Chris Thomas On 20-04-2010 at 18:36:01   3D-Coat Baking Ptex textures on to a mesh with existing UVs   See previous story, and watch on!   Reported By Chris Thomas On 20-04-2010 at 18:34:59   3D-Coat model, UV, Texture   This app seems to be promising. Right now it's a stand-alone app, with some affinity for Blender. What does it do out of the ordinary? Pretty much everything. Lots of new technologies seem to be at play here. Check out the following tutorial vids to see some of it's features in action....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 20-04-2010 at 18:27:50   Ntel Says Light Peak Coming Next Year, Can And Will Coexist With USB 3.0 By Sean Hollister   Lightpeak sounds great in principle, but, can you buy one right now? No. So, for now, the future is USB 3.0. However, Intel seem pretty bullish on getting us all to move over to LP, sooner, rather than later. Until LP hits the shelves, features on motherboards etc, USB has free reign..... "How do you sell a generation of hardware manufacturers on yet another standard? If you're Intel, you tell them that it'll transfer files at 10Gbps and is compatible with every major protocol that came before... and if that doesn't work, you simply fail to give your competitor hardware support. But PC World reports that while Intel is still dragging its feet regarding USB 3.0, it's planning to have Light Peak fiber optic devices in the market next year." Click the link to read more at Engadget...........   Reported By On 20-04-2010 at 17:57:26   Disney Research Unveils Technology Competition To Focus On Youth Education At SIGGRAPH 2010.   Sounds pretty cool. If you can make it over there, why not give it a fertle? "ACM SIGGRAPH has announced the launch of the Learning Challenge at SIGGRAPH 2010. This is an open competition sponsored by Disney Research with the goal of finding new and creative ways to use technology to make learning fun for children. Based on the principle that fun and learning should not be contradictory, teams are asked to develop an engaging, computer-based learning application that will delight, inspire, and reveal key learning concepts for children ages 7-11." Click the link to read more .......   Reported By On 20-04-2010 at 17:46:05   How To Be Make Transformers 3 if your'e Michael Bay   Ah, we all know and love Michael Bay. Er, rewind that.... Ah, we all know Michael Bay, and, if you want to emulate his highly successful Holywood directorial style, read on! "Michael Bay has the ultimate formula for summer blockbuster so far. Judging from Transformers 2 the next installment (Transformers 3) is bound to be a success. How can you bring a little of that popularity to your short film or reel? Check out The Bay Formula: Step 1: Study the Bay and learn to look beyond the babe….. If anything the Victoria Secret ads created by Michael Bay prove that he knows what guys (aged 13+) want to see. Girls, heat waves, girls, cars, and girls. Lesson learned: add girls in underwear/tight clothing to your story." Click the link to see more at cgchannel......   Reported By On 20-04-2010 at 17:41:56   Eyjafjallajokull time-lapse   So you want more Eyjafjallajokull? Of course you do (who could not?). Just hit the vid above for a rather neat time-lapse shot of ole Eyj ( as we at CGA like to call it, her). And BTW, this comes from an employee of Framestore Iceland no less.....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 20-04-2010 at 13:49:14   More From Eyjafjallajokull that Icelandic Volcano thing   Who would have thought that several hundred million tons of toxic ash and dust could have caused so much trouble eh? If there is one thing you can bet on to cause a ruckus (from time to time), then it would be a Volcano. Earth quakes can cause damage over a pretty wide area, but for only a short duration. Sunami's can be devastating, but again only for a short duration. But a Volcano can change the world climate for hundreds of years, and shape continents (just ask Western India...if you could.. you know what we mean). Anyway, here are some pretty (amazing) pics from Etytyrtjjjsdfkgtertertggglkull...... "As ash from Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull volcano continued to keep European airspace shut down over the weekend, affecting millions of travelers around the world, some government agencies and airlines clashed over the flight bans. Some restricted airspace is now beginning to open up and some limited flights are being allowed now as airlines are pushing for the ability to judge safety conditions for themselves. The volcano continues to rumble and hurl ash skyward, if at a slightly diminished rate now, as the dispersing ash plume has dropped closer to the ground, and the World Health Organization has issued a health warning to Europeans with respiratory conditions. Collected here are some images from Iceland over the past few days."   Reported By Chris Thomas On 20-04-2010 at 13:40:54   Bobby Bring Dragon To Life For Giff Posted by cgnews   Hrm, this seems to be something of a meme. Only a few short months back there was an ad campaign in the UK that used foetuses of an Elephant, Dolphin and other beasties to suitably cute effect. Now in this case, it's a Dragon. So OK, maybe theere is a fresh injection there, with a mythical creature and all. Something of a hydra project, created using 3dsmax, Maya and Nuke.... "Swedish digital production company Bobby created an incredible piece of animation for the 2010 Göteborg International Film Festival at the start of the year. ‘Dragon’ is a special short produced as an intro and played before each and every film screened at the festival. After a total of approximately 800 plays, it received a great deal of attention and was appreciated by the GIFF crowds. Dragon is a collaboration between Bobby and festivals agency SCP. The idea grew from the GIFF logo which is a full grown dragon, and was inspired by the 1960’s foetus photos created by the famous Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson." Click the link to read more....   Reported By On 20-04-2010 at 13:19:02   SHREK FOREVER AFTER 18 High Res Images   The Shrek franchise rumbles on, and by now, you'd think taking the kickey out of the Disney fairy tail universe would be getting tired, but NO! So, if you are still on the cart, why not hit the link and download some nice (HD) pics from the up'n'comming release. Walpapertastic no less.... "DreamWorks Animation and Paramount have released a bunch of new Shrek Forever After images as part of an “earlyâ€� look at the film. With a release date of May 21st, I’m a bit surprised they’re releasing so many images this early. But I’m not a marketing guy, and both studios clearly know how to open a movie. As I have said a few times, I saw the first 30 minutes of Shrek Forever After a few months ago and thought it looked pretty good. And this is coming from someone that did hated the previous two films. Will the fourth installment be good? Can Mike Myers end his run of bad films? We’ll all know next month. Until then, hit the jump to check out the 18 images we were sent:" Click the link to read more at collider.com ......   Reported By On 20-04-2010 at 13:01:14   WarGames 'Shall We Play A Game?' Computer For Sale Credit Cards At DEFCON 1   Hrm.... can't say I have a place in my home for a peice of obsolete 1980's super-computer. Still, for a museum, or hardware nut, there has to be some kind of pull, to get this peice of cinematic history sharing their bed, er..... I mean garage.... Can it really talk? I don't think so. But you could probably make a decent table out of it..... "You know what sells? Nostalgia. And while you might be from the Kin generation, you have undoubtedly heard the W.O.P.R. supercomputer utter the text-to-speech phrase, "Shall we play a game?" from the speaker resting atop David Lightman's IMSAI 8080. The 1983 film WarGames is the stuff of nerd legend, of geek folklore; a 1200 baud, acousticly-coupled, wardialing catalyst in a Hollywood blockbuster that gave phreakers mainstream cred and a real chance at Ally Sheedy. Appraised at $25,000, the perfectly preserved IMSAI 8080 and its associated peripherals will go sale to the general public soon. So embrace it, buy it, and then hand over your icon of computing to the Smithsonian where it can be admired for generations. See the 8080 after the break with a gratuitous WarGames trailer tossed in just for fun." Click the link to read more at Engadget......   Reported By On 19-04-2010 at 15:11:29   2010 CGarchitect.com Architectural 3D Awards   I'll leave the details to the CG Arch team, read on....... "CGarchitect.com is hosting the 7th annual Architectural 3D Awards to be awarded at this year's Mundos Digitales Conference in La Coruna, Spain. The Awards Competition is open to everyone in the Architectural Visualization industry to highlight the best imagery and animations done in 2009/2010. This year's awards will be divided into three categories: Still Imagery and Animation/Film and Real-Time. From the submitted entries a panel of expert judges will select the top five nominees in each category. The Industry choice category will be selected by public vote in the Image and Animation categories. The winner of each category will be awarded the exclusive CGarchitect.com 3D AWARDS trophy during the Mundos Digitales Conference." Click the link to read more at CG Architect........   Reported By On 19-04-2010 at 14:07:53   5th NVArt Competition Has Opened at Digital Artists Submit Work In The Style Of Syd Mead   This competition has been open for a few days now. So, if you want it, better get you (levitation) skates on! "For my fellow digital artists around the world, I have great news: We’ve partnered up with our friends at CGSociety for the fifth NVArt competition! The theme this year is Images of Future Transport: In The Style of Syd Mead. Submissions for NVArt open today and will close on June 30th. For detailed information on how to enter, go here. For those who don’t know him, Syd Mead is a living legend to industrial designers, graphic artists and 3D designers alike—not to mention one of my personal heroes. You can imagine how thrilled we are to have him as an NVArt judge. His prolific designs have graced the silver screen in movies such as Bladerunner, TRON, Aliens, 2010, and more. His work has inspired many of the futuristic films movie-watchers know and love." Click the link to read more.....   Reported By On 19-04-2010 at 13:59:10   New Manfrotto 504HD Tripod For 5DmkII And 7D Shooters at NAB 2010   So, you have your Canon 5DmkII, and you have your storyboard and script, now, are you going for a handheld look (soooooooo 2009...) or for a more traditional tripod mount? If the answer is the later, hit the vid above to see Manfrotto's new offering.   Reported By Chris Thomas On 14-04-2010 at 17:36:43   House Season Finale shot entirely with Canon 5DmkII   So, digitial technology seems to be breaking down one more traditional pro/am barrier. Now, you too can stomp around in your jodhopurs and berret, barking instruction from your loud hailer, directing the next blockbuster (in your head at least...). Or, you can make smaller, indie drama's and documentaries with a professional level of quality not seen before in the amatuer arena. Why? Because of the revolution that is taking place with pro-sumer digital SLR cameras and their new fernangled HD video features..... "I got this info from Petapixel.com. I have been in contact with House director Greg Yaitanes to try to get a nice in depth interview but no joy as yet! Like you I have many questions as to how that got past the issues ox X,Y,Z. Many of which we encountered whilst shooting on DSLRs for Lucasfilm last month. But first this is the house news… The season finale of the popular TV show House, which will air on May 17th, was filmed entirely with the Canon 5D Mark II. cinema5D overheard the plan last month and Greg Yaitanes, the director of the show, has confirmed it through a tweet in which we made himself open to questions." Hit the link for a psuedo interview with Greg Y at philipbloom.com   Reported By Chris Thomas On 14-04-2010 at 17:33:42   The Official V-Ray Automotive Demo Reel   Vray and cars, cars and Vray. Was there ever a match made more perfect (other than hot coffee and chocolate of course....). Hit the video above for the 2009 Vray automotve showreel (read CG/Auto pr0n)   Reported By Chris Thomas On 14-04-2010 at 17:21:02   3D Gallery Eye Candy Posted by Matt McCorkell   CG Channel is pimping iits 3D use gallery. And why not, there's some pretty cool artwork in there. Take a looksie if your busy schedule allows.... "Every week we come across great art in the 3D side of our gallery. Everything from evil biomechanical trees and one bad ass street batman to portraits of cute pugs with cigars and tortured superheroes." Click the link to see more at cgchannel....   Reported By On 14-04-2010 at 16:43:16   New Mitsubishi 3D DLPs Arrive For 2010, Is This The Mysterious StreamTV? By Richard Lawler   I managed to get a viewing of one of these new fangled 3D TV thingies recently. It was a Sony model, using active shutter glasses. I have to say, I was not impressed. I'm not sure if the kit was faulty, or badly setup (or both), but the impression of depth was not so great, and it had a pretty bad flicker. My personal feeling was, there had to be some kind of setup issue in play. I mean, are Sony (et al) really betting the farm (TV wise) on this tech? "Sure most other manufacturers are new to this 3D TV thing but Mitsubishi is already on its fourth generation, announcing the new 638, 738 and 838 series DLP TVs. New for the 2010 lineup, and possibly giving some insight to those weird HDTVs that appeared on Amazon yesterday is "StreamTV" interactive media which appears to be a new (post Wal-mart acquisition?) branding for the VUDU Apps service we spotted during CES with Pandora, Flickr, Picasa and others built in. If that sounds like a little too much then don't worry, it's not in the base 638 series televisions while the 738 models add StreamTV, an optional WiFi N adapter and video calibration options, and the top of the line 838 models offer Mitsubishi's 16 speaker built-in iSP surround sound tech along with a few other minor adjustments as upgrades." Click the link to read more at Engadget.....   Reported By On 14-04-2010 at 16:28:08   Gears of War 3 Trailer   The Gears Of War franchise rumbles on, with v3 due for release in the not too distant future. Hit the vid above for its (rather sweet) trailer....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 14-04-2010 at 15:26:53   OCZ's Z-Drive Gets Swappable NAND Sticks, Ludicrous Speed In Second Incarnation By Sean Hollister   Hrm, SSDs, we all love em. We all can't afford them. Apparently OCZ's Z drive was like an SSD on steriods, both in terms of performance AND unfortunately, price. I wonder if this new interation of the product will be more appealing the the (pro) masses.... "While Fusion-io's PCI-Express SSDs garner glowing reviews and deplete wallets accordingly, OCZ hasn't been so lucky -- even as its similar Z-Drive boasted seriously speedy sequential transfer speeds that made it desirable for video editing and the like, it was tested and found wanting in consumer applications. This time, OCZ is playing to its strengths and marketing its next batch of Z-Drives directly to the professional market." Click the link to read more at Engadget.......   Reported By On 13-04-2010 at 17:28:33   ARRI's ALEXA Busts Out Native ProRes Recording, Plans For RED Smiting By Chad Mumm   RED, ARRI, CANON, take yer pick..... "It's taken three years, but one of the big boys may finally have an answer to the RED ONE camera -- the device that took the cinema world by storm in 2007 as the first affordable digital movie cam with a 35mm, full-frame sensor, 4k resolution, and rugged good looks. Venerable camera-maker ARRI has finally revealed both the full specs for its upcoming ALEXA digital camera and reconfirms Hollywood's propensity for over-capitalization. Regarding the specs, you can color us impressed. The ALEXA is something of a follow up to the ARRIFLEX D-21, the company's first foray into digital cams, but besides writing data in 0s and 1s the two cameras share little in common. ARRI is positioning the ALEXA to compete directly with the RED ONE (and forthcoming EPIC and SCARLET cameras), so you can expect a price point in the sub-$60k range. Besides the low price tag (for a professional movie camera), a few newly-announced features may have indie-shooters on a budget thinking hard about picking up an ALEXA for their next bit-crafted, cinematic yarn. We'll break it down for you after the break" Click the link to read more at Engadget.....   Reported By On 13-04-2010 at 17:22:45   Saturn 5 You really were the greatest sight!   Some pretty incredible footage here for all your fluid dynamic nuts out there (yes you, you know who you are). Roughly eight minutes of 500 fps footage of the rockets motor, in all its glory. Hit the vid above, sit back, and slurp up some juice.   Reported By Chris Thomas On 13-04-2010 at 16:05:43   Wacom’s Cintiq 21UX A Digital Artist’s Wet Dream   We still want's one, and apparently, this guys has one (life just ain't fair...) " April 11, 2010 13 After years of waiting and $2,000 later.. I finally own a Cintiq ! Wow , this baby is huuuuge ! There’s really no space on my work table for it so I had to replace my [discontinued] 23″ Cinema Display with this . Setup on the Macbook Pro was a breeze . Just plugged it in , installed the tablet driver , reset the laptop , and calibrated the pen mapping ! Very simple and easy so you can get to the fun stuff ! Photo-whatt !? PhotoShop ! Drawing on the Cintiq is in a word.. awesomeness ! The first test is the obvious one.. Adobe’s Photoshop ( CS4 ) . I would test Corel Painter too but unfortunately I don’t own it yet . Corel hook me up ! Photoshop.. well it’s Photoshop . If you’re used to drawing on a tablet you’ll have the same experience but now instead of watching your mouse you’re drawing directly on the screen and clicking on the tool settings with your pen . One of the best things about using a Cintiq is that what you draw is what you get . When using the Intous the tablet maps it out to your screen ( at least with my settings ) . I’d usually set it up to map both screens so that I can easily drag windows between both . The problem with this is that your drawing proportions are way off ( for example , if you draw a circle on the tablet you’ll get an oval ) . You can switch between which screen you want mapped , which helps a lot but still isn’t perfect . With the Cintiq you don’t have to worry about any of this !" Hit the link to read on....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 13-04-2010 at 15:08:56   Kutsche Slides Into Wonderland by Barbara Robertson   Great artwork (2D), need we say anymore? "Are artists born or trained? Read about Michael Kutsche for a few minutes and you'll vote, 'born. "I started drawing when I was four," says the talented artist. "And I was always doodling around since then, off and on. When I was 14, I guess I got serious." Serious meant studying on his own for the most part. "I did everything art-related at home," he says. "We had a regular art class at school, but I didn't go to art school." And yet, not long after he turned 30, the self-taught artist was designing characters for Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland' from his studio in Berlin. And that commercial work has led to support for his personal work, including an upcoming exhibition at the Arludik Gallerie in Paris." Click the link to read more at CGSociety...............   Reported By On 13-04-2010 at 14:01:33   Law Abiding Engineer Using Team Fortress 2 Engine   This one is a little odd. We wonder why? But, hey, why not. Take an existing trailer (for Law Abiding Citizen) and re-work it, using a game engine. The result.... Hit the vid above to find out.   Reported By Chris Thomas On 13-04-2010 at 13:59:11   Behind The Tech Of Avatar, Distict 9, And Alice Posted by Matt McCorkell   Are you a member of VES, the Visual Effects Society? If so, they have an event planned on the techniques developed and deployed in Avatar, Alice in Wonderland and District 9. Of course, this only applies if you happen to live close to LA, USA. Or rather, near Glendale to be precise.... "VES is set to host an event focusing on the behind the scenes technology used in the creation of Avatar, Alice in Wonderland and the Motion Capture of District 9. If you want to know how they pulled off the life-like animation and performances of the Navi this is definitely the event to see. The PGA, VES, and Motion Capture Society present a panel to explore the latest advancements in Motion Capture Technology. From Virtual Cameras to Virtual Worlds and beyond, we will explore the virtual camera technology that was developed for James Cameron’s “Avatarâ€� and Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderlandâ€� as well as Facial Capture Technology used on “Avatarâ€� and in the Broadway production of “Shrek the Musicalâ€�. The Motion Capture work done on “District 9â€� will also be presented." Click the link to read more at cgchannel......   Reported By On 09-04-2010 at 14:41:28   Autodesk Integrates Craft Director Studio into 3ds Max and Softimage 2011   How cool is this, even more goodies for 3dsmax 2011. Looks like Autodesk really are living up to their word on pushing development of 3dsmax ahead. More and more though, it's easy to see that 3dsmax is definately being tailored for video game use, whilst Maya is intended for movies and FX? "Craft Animationsâ„¢ and Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) today announced the integration of certain Craft Director Studioâ„¢ plug-ins within the 2011 versions of Autodesk® 3ds Max®, Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design and Autodesk® Softimage® software. Based on cutting-edge research in autonomous control systems, Craft Director Studio provides interactive control and simulation of cameras and vehicles, which helps greatly reduce animation production times. "Craft Director Studio provides artists with advanced, in-the-box, rigging and physics simulation capabilities, which helps them to animate cameras and vehicles more quickly and realistically," said Stig Gruman, Autodesk vice president of digital entertainment. "It also allows artists to use a variety of input devices to create on-the-fly animation, helping make 3D animation as easy as playing a game." Craft Director Studio is designed to help simplify the production challenges of 3D artists, industrial designers and architects working in the following areas:" Click the link to read more...   Reported By On 08-04-2010 at 16:33:25   Fantastic Mr. Fox by Ben Simon   Directing from afar. Sounds odd to me, but on this occasion seems to have worked....... "Despite the aggravated proclamations of its animators and heavily dropped rumors that director Wes Anderson was hardly to be seen on the “setâ€� of this stop-motion animated adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, there is, ultimately, no question whose film this most certainly is when regarding the final result. Anderson says he “livedâ€� the production for two years, and it’s clear he certainly supervised the vocal recordings, but while his thumbprints may not show up on the characters’ animation itself, his fingers are all over the rest of the movie, from its visual design to the music and editing." Click the link to read more at Animatedviews.............   Reported By On 08-04-2010 at 16:31:14   Disney Puts 'Tron Legacy' Sequel In Motion (exclusive) Due out in December   A sequal, in the works, already? Hrm... sounds like Disney are pretty confident their TRON franchise is about to explode into pretty vigorous bloom it seems..... "“Tron Legacyâ€� isn’t due until December, but Disney already is putting a sequel on its monorail track. Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz, the “Lostâ€� writers/executive producers who worked on “Legacy,â€� have begun writing a sequel to the studio’s sci-fi tentpole. No details have been released because it is so early in the process. Notwithstanding the question of whether the movie will be a hit, other topics to ponder are whether the sequel will focus on spinoff characters or center on a new adventure set in the “Tronâ€� world. Insiders have suggested that Kitsis and Horowitz are working on a way to round the story into a trilogy." Click the link to read more at heatvisionblog......   Reported By On 08-04-2010 at 15:51:09   Pixel 8-Bit Armageddon   This one is wizzing around the internets. And why not, because its pretty 8-bit-homagetastic and cool to boot. So cool I nearly dropped my thing on a spring.....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 08-04-2010 at 14:59:29   Scottevest Debuts 'iPad Compatible' Clothing Line available now!   For the man, woman, child, whatever who has everything. Why leave yourself open to attack whilst on the street. Yes, thats right, hide away your new shiny iPad in one of these oh so charming vest thingies..... "If you're the kind of person who has no problem walking into the Apple Store on Walnut Street dressed in some urban approximation of safari gear, you'll probably go wild for Scottevest. The company sells travel vests and jackets that feature a million gadget-friendly pockets and little conduits for wires and such, meaning that even the geekiest among us can have a somewhat acceptable-looking PAN, if that's what you're into. And now its SeV Travel Vest is iPad compatible! Available July 1st for $100, please feel free to hit that source link to pre-order today. We will continue to look into the rumor that this is actually a re-badged Joojoo vest." hit the link to read aaawn...   Reported By Chris Thomas On 08-04-2010 at 14:04:18   2D Gallery Eye Candy! at CG Channel   CG Channel is pimping their gallery of 2D artwork. Why not dip in, to see what our Photoshop and ZBrush (et al) brethren have been up too? "Haven’t stopped by the gallery in a while? CG Channel has an incredible repository of images worth checking out. Below I’ve attached some of the more recent entries into the 2D section of our site. Click on the thumbs below to see the larger versions or to leave comments and critiques." Click the link to see more at cgchannel....   Reported By On 08-04-2010 at 12:46:41   IRIDAS To Introduce SpeedGrade DI And FrameCycler DI 2010 At NAB Posted by Newsdesk   I think the headline says it all? But if not, read on below.... "Munich, Germany, March 31, 2010 … IRIDAS an industry leader in Stereo 3D, color correction and production workflow technologies, today announced that SpeedGrade DI and FrameCycler DI 2010 will debut at the NAB show in Las Vegas, April 12-15 (Booth SL 7927). The 2010 versions of IRIDAS’ flagship products include advanced Stereo 3D tools, improved RAW support for digital cinematography cameras and a completely revamped user interface, based on the IRIDAS Merula UI engine." Click the link to read more....   Reported By On 08-04-2010 at 12:38:09   Meet Meline The Making Of   And as promised, here is the make of Meet Meline. Enjoy......   Reported By Chris Thomas On 08-04-2010 at 12:32:16   Meet Meline   It really is amazin what people are creating these days as personal "shorts". Meet Meline is a charming story of a little girl, that meets a strange creature whilst playing in a old barn. Hit the video above to watch on. And above, we have also posted the "making of" video. Oh lucky you's   Reported By Chris Thomas On 08-04-2010 at 12:04:30   CINTIQ 21UX Tablety, Screeny Thing   Hrmmmm, me wants...... not sure I can stretch to the $2k asking price though. Anyone out there have a spare one we can have? "The combination of a color LCD with industry-leading pen input capabilities allows photographers, designers, animators and other creative professionals to work naturally and intuitively directly on the surface of the large-format, 21.3" screen. The new Cintiq 21UX detects 2048 levels of pressure, giving you even more control over pressure-sensitive pen effects such as line weight, opacity, and exposure. With Wacom's new Tip Sensor, the pen now features a lower activation force that captures even the most subtle nuances of pressure." Click the link to read more at Wacom.....   Reported By On 07-04-2010 at 14:30:04   Leica M9 Hands-on; Or, The Tao Of Leica By Chris Ziegler   Can't say I've ever laid hands on one of these, and by the mention of the price, it looks like I never will...... "For most amateur photographers, Leica's legendary M System represents a virtually unobtainable holy grail, a line of cameras so unspeakably expensive, rare, and coveted that even having the opportunity to hold one -- much less own one -- is a somewhat unrealistic goal. Why is that, exactly? It's a combination of things, really; sure, Leica's brand cachet undoubtedly factors into it, but in reality, it's much, much more than that. For our money, nothing demonstrates that better than a day or two with the M9, the company's latest flagship rangefinder with an 18 megapixel CCD sensor sourced from Kodak." Click the link to rear more at Engadget....   Reported By On 07-04-2010 at 12:29:30   Henry Selick Returns To Disney By Peter DeBrug   CG is very very good as a medium in terms of animation, but it's very good to see that the traditional methods are being brought back into play at Disney. First the Princess and the Frog, and now stop-motion is going to be a regular feature at Disney-Pixar in the near future. One thing that mad my heart sink of late was seeing CG duplication of stop-motion techniques. I mean, whats the point of that? If you are going to do stop-motion, then do it...... "Henry Selick is coming home -- to the Mouse House, that is. The "Coraline" director, who began his animation career at Disney in the late '70s, has struck an exclusive long-term deal to make stop-motion features for Disney/Pixar. Disney Animation topper John Lasseter's decision to bring Selick into the Disney/Pixar fold is another boost for the painstaking hand-crafted technique, while representing expansion beyond strictly computer-animated fare for the company." Click the link to read more at Variety...   Reported By On 07-04-2010 at 12:12:54   Lucasfilm Plans Animated 'Star Wars' Series By Nellie Andreeva   Luke: Oh yeah, man, like I laughed my head off, when like dad, just you know, just lopped my hand off! Chewie: Gnargh hu grwaoh! Liea: Ha ha ha.... yeah, he really knew how to throw a party eh Luke? Luke: (chokes on Tattooine desert worm juice shot). Huh, he he he he, yeah, still brings tears to my eyes! Ah, all the fun that goes on in the Star Wars universe on their off time. A million voices being silenced at once aside, it seems Lucasfilm is going ahead with a new lighter hearted look at the Star Wars schting...... "After two hit "Robot Chicken" parodies of "Star Wars," "Chicken" masterminds Seth Green and Matthew Senreich get to do the real thing. Lucasfilm Animation on Monday announced it is developing a new animated "Star Wars" series that will take a comedic and irreverent look at the characters from the sci-fi franchise and feature creative involvement from Green and Senreich as well as writing from Brendan Hay ("The Daily Show")." Click the linink to read more, in a galaxy, far far away.....   Reported By On 07-04-2010 at 11:16:42   The 5 Miserable VFX Jobs That Make Movies Possible   Man, this article is soo, sooo bitter. It has to be said, there are indeed sucky jobs in the CG industry, and it does have it's down sides (what industry does not?). However, it IS possible to get into VFX straight as an artist i.e. by showing artistry and skill. Look at CG Talk on any given day of the week, and you will see students, and those just working in their bedrooms, that are putting out amazing work. In the end, if your reel rocks, you'll be welcomed in the front door, straight into an artists job (with pretty low pay to start, but that should get better over time). Others, well, they are not so stellar, and so come into the industry via the back door, so to speak. Now, these jobs are a foot in the door, but should not be long time positions. You can get a job in roto, learn the ropes at the studio, look at work you may be good at, and then you SHOULD be able to move on, in say six months to a year, maybe by moving into a more technical role, maybe simulation (fluid effects) or as a cloth wrangler (for clothing). If not, leave that studio and try elsewhere (NOT as a Roto artist though) and if you cannot move on and up, take it as a sign you are a square peg, looking for a round hole. "So I am a visual effects (VFX) artist, putting fake things into movies with computers (often referred to as CG effects). You think you know me? You don't know me! You know that CG makes things like Gollum and dinosaurs and pretty much everything in Avatar, but most of the CG you've seen in your life, you didn't know was CG at all. For instance, did you know that there was only one real helicopter in Black Hawk Down? Or that most movie sports stadiums are filmed completely empty, or that no buildings were harmed in the filming of the Bourne trilogy? If not, then we know we did it right. If you ever find yourself saying, "That's a pretty cool CG effect there!", that means we f?!#!d it up." Hit the link to read on, and lap up two straight pages of bile.....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 06-04-2010 at 11:24:01   Researchers Develop Fast Methods For Making 3D City Models   Automated modelling of a cityscape. Sounds pretty neato, as long as it works as advertised..... "There is a growing demand for three-dimensional city models, but creating these models is expensive and labour-intensive. Shi Pu and Sander Oude Elberink of the University of Twente, The Netherlands, have each developed a method to largely automate this process, using topographic information from the land registry in combination with laser measurement data." Click the link to read more.....   Reported By On 06-04-2010 at 11:15:15   Talent Agents A New Force In The Video Game Industry?   We have never really had good experiences with agents. Generally they treat you like a number, forget who you are, where you are working, and end up becoming a nasty interjector between you and a client. Maybe that's just a bad agent, or agency of course. Or maybe agents make more sense when you are being paid $1,000,000 per year. Is that how much people are bein paid for game dev these days? Really? "The New York Times posts an interesting read on how talent agents may be the next big thing in recruiting in the video games industry. You might balk at this idea, but it’s happened to every other major entertainment industry…and it’s happening to video games too. Agents have been trying to plow this turf for over a decade, succeeding with helping industry giants like Electronic Arts navigate Hollywood. But a deep cultural divide between the slick, Armani-suit-wearing agent crowd and rumpled computer-code-writing gamers has proven difficult to bridge." Click the link to read more at the New York Times   Reported By On 06-04-2010 at 10:30:14   PrimeSense Revealed As Project Natal Tech Partner by Leigh Alexander   Wii must have a controller system, just like theirs..... "PrimeSense, a 3D sensing and recognition technology company, says its tech is being used in Microsoft's Project Natal gesture-controlled input system. "PrimeSense has delivered an important component to the technology, helping us deliver revolutionary controller-free entertainment experiences in the living room," says Ilan Spillinger, Microsoft VP of Xbox 360 hardware. Microsoft plans to launch Project Natal this holiday. According to the Israel-headquartered company, the Project Natal sensor was developed based on the PrimeSensor reference design. The company makes sensing and recognition tech for consumer devices from home computing to consumer electronics." Click the link to read more at Gamasutra.....   Reported By On 06-04-2010 at 10:05:18   IPad Reviews the first verdicts come in   By now some of you will have an iPad, but for those who do not, the reviews are in. Why is this of import to us CG heads? We'll, love it or loath it, the iPad is likely to become a major portal for our artwork, still and animated, over the comming years..... "If the bulk of your computer use involves giant documents, highly controlled editing or lengthy writing, the iPad won't work for you. What it does work for, said Mossberg, is consuming - web reading, video, music, gaming, newspapers and magazines and books, as well as short-form writing and social networking: "My verdict is that, while it has compromises and drawbacks, the iPad can indeed replace a laptop for most data communication, content consumption and even limited content creation, a lot of the time. But it all depends on how you use your computer."" Click the link to read the reviews at The Guardian (UK)   Reported By Chris Thomas On 06-04-2010 at 09:22:02   In-Depth: Reflections On The Pinball Hall Of Fame by Kris Graft   Ah, dinga dinga, chung chung, doink.... or something like that, the sounds of the pnball machine. In some ways, they are a kind of steampunk version of what was to come. Electro-mechanical games machines, that populated games arcades in the years before the electronic kind were to take over. Still things of beauty, and bloody hard to play and master to boot.... "Just off of the Las Vegas strip and across the street from the Liberace Museum is an inconspicuous building that is home to around 150 pieces of machinery capable of stirring up nostalgia, even in visitors who missed the heyday of these bulky contraptions. A plastic sign is tied at the corners near the top of the building: "Pinball Hall of Fame." After spending the last couple days in a city that has such an array of glowing, pulsating signage, I expected something more ostentatious. Typically you'd think any physical location of a "hall of fame" would want to scream, "Look at me, I'm important!" This just looks plain… like part of a strip mall." Click the link to read more at Gamasutra....   Reported By On 05-04-2010 at 11:57:07   Nature by Numbers by Cristóbal Vila   A pretty nice little CG short, based on the beauty of math(s). "A SHORT MOVIE INSPIRED ON NUMBERS, GEOMETRY AND NATURE. Go to etereaestudios.com if you are looking for more information: the theory behind the movie (Fibonacci, Golden Ratio, Delaunay, Voronoi…), stills and screenshots showing the work in progress. There are lots of free training materials and 3D workshops, too ;-)" http://www.etereaestudios.com/   Reported By Chris Thomas On 01-04-2010 at 18:09:50   Why Mentoring In The VFX Industry Is So Important by Leonard Teo   Passing on the batton. it's usually a very very long duration pass, but it is indeed very important.... "It’s easy for today’s young filmmakers to forget that the art of the cinema goes back 132 years; television 83 years; and interactive media 23 years. Today’s students might think the latest high tech tools are all they need to succeed in the rapidly-changing visual effects industry; and they’ll be sorely disappointed when their ignorance of time-tested filmmaking technique puts them in the dole queue. That’s why mentoring is so important to the future success of young VFX professionals. I recently sat down with Zoic Studios’ Syd Dutton to discuss the importance of industry pros passing along their knowledge to the next generation." Click the link to read more at cgchannel......   Reported By On 01-04-2010 at 16:40:08   Glich in the Grid Teaser Trailer   "Glitch In The Grid is a story about young artists dealing with life, love, work and weariness during the new American recession.,qe>   Reported By Chris Thomas On 01-04-2010 at 16:35:37   Chris Evans To Sling Captain America's Shield By: Thomas J. Mclean   Soon to be seen in Scott Pilgrim vs The World (a project close to our heart), Chris Evans has been given the daunting prospect of bringing one of the super heroes most iconic characters to life. Cap'n America no less..... "Actor Chris Evans has signed on to play Captain America. Evans, who played another Marvel icon, the Human Torch, in two Fantastic Four films, will play the shield-slinging hero in three solo films and Marvel’s planned Avengers crossover movie. Evans beat out a hefty list of contenders for the role that included John Krasinski, Michael Cassidy, Patrick Flueger, Scott Porter, Wilson Blethel and Chace Crawford. He will first appear as Cap in The First Avenger: Captain America, which will be directed by Joe Johnston and is set for release in 2011." Click the link to read more at Animation Magazine...   Reported By On 01-04-2010 at 16:33:44   Autodesk Webcasts: Dragon Age, Super Bowl Spots by Leonard Teo   Could be worth getting in on this. Origins has some pretty sweet art in it, as does it's mini-sequel, Awakening..... "BioWare’s Lead Animator Clove Roy and Lead Character Artist Shane Hawco discuss the challenges faced in creating digital actors for BioWare’s newest award-winning role-playing epic Dragon Age: Origins. This presentation will provide an in-depth look in how Autodesk 3Ds Max enabled BioWare to tell a complex story through an interactive narrative complete with hundreds of emotionally engaging digital actors." Click the link to read more at cgchannel.....   Reported By On 01-04-2010 at 16:06:22   Magna Carta's Kim Talks 'Tug Of War' Between Realism, Exaggeration In Art   "Even before his games launched outside of Korea, War of Genesis and Magna Carta artist Hyung-Tae Kim had already drawn a significant global fanbase thanks to his rich, distinctive style. His female characters are popular subjects for fan wallpapers, renowned for their beauty. And refreshingly, he favors softness, not unrealistic thinness, in the way he depicts them. Speaking as part of today's Gamasutra feature, Kim says it's his attention to body fat that make his characters so beautiful: "The most important part of the character is actually fat," he tells us" Click the link to read more at Gamasutra.....   Reported By On 01-04-2010 at 15:56:55   NVIDIA Announces The Dates For The Next GPU Technology Conference. by CGSociety   Get your GPU goggles on, because there's a techy graphics fest approaching...... "NVIDIA has announced the next GPU Technology Conference (GTC) will take place on Sept. 20-23, 2010 in San Jose, California. Building on last year’s inaugural conference, GTC 2010 will feature an even broader and deeper selection of technical sessions, tutorials, technology previews, and industry and academic presentations. Three concurrent GPU-focused summits will take place under one roof:" Click the link to read more...   Reported By On 30-03-2010 at 17:27:07   Engelbart's Chorded Keyboard Reborn As Stunning Red Jellyfish By Sean Hollister   The Chorded keyboard, kind of a neat idea, but maybe one for the future, when we all have larger brains to handle this kind of contraption...... "In December 1968, Douglas C. Engelbart introduced the world to two brand-new computer peripherals of his own invention. The first was the computer mouse -- which, as you're well aware, revolutionized user input two decades later. The second, the chorded keyboard, still has yet to take off outside the Braille community. But after forty years, Doug Engelbart hasn't given up on the latter device; he recently commissioned an industrial designer, Erik Campbell, to modernize the antiquated keyset into this lovely jellyfish-inspired, five-fingered keyboard replacement." Click the link to read more at Engadget...   Reported By On 30-03-2010 at 17:20:24   Sofia Vergara Joins 'Smurfs' (exclusive) By Jay A. Fernandez   Me - oW! x 2 (who would have thought, in a Smurf movie?) "“Modern Familyâ€� star Sofia Vergara is picking up her share of film work, too. The Colombian bombshell has been cast in “The Smurfs,â€� the Raja Gosnell-directed adaptation of the ’80s cartoon series that Columbia Pictures will release in summer 2011. Vergara will portray Odile, a powerful executive at a high-end French cosmetics company who is the boss of the live-action character played by Neil Patrick Harris." Click the link to read more..   Reported By On 30-03-2010 at 17:19:39   Supermicro New Servers Achieve 48 Processor Cores In 1U by CGarchitect   Me - oW! "Super Micro Computer, Inc. (NASDAQ: SMCI), a leader in application-optimized, high-performance server solutions, today launched its first wave of servers optimized for the new 8- and 12-Core AMD Opteronâ„¢ 6100 Series processors (codenamed "Magny Cours"). This launch includes Supermicro's new 2U Twin2 systems with four hot-plug DP computing nodes that support up to 96 processing cores, quad-processor 1U servers that support up to 48 processing cores in 1U, and new GPU-optimized systems. In addition to these innovative system architectures, Supermicro is also introducing advanced new UP, DP and MP solutions in standard 1U, 2U, 4U and tower form factors." Click the link to read more....   Reported By On 30-03-2010 at 14:01:49   Mari a new texturing tool from The Foundry   It seems the Foundry (Nuke), has a new texturing product up their sleeve (it's currently entering Beta).... "Mari is a new product for the Foundry, developed by the R&D and texture departments at Weta Digital. Mari has been forged by Weta in the heat of the production of films such as Lord of The Rings, King Kong and Avatar. Mari is a full 3D paint/texture tool able to handle up to 30K textures and produce production ready assets while remaining responsive and interactive. The product is not a modeling tool such as Mudbox - rather it is focused just on texture painting. The application allows hundreds of production textures to be painted on a model, but rather than be limited to just a static neutral pose, you can import an animation sequence and still interactively work on the texturing. This is important as seams and stretching can often only appear when the character or asset is in motion in a real scene, which is exactly why Mari has this feature - it is a direct result of Production requests from the original Weta team." Hit the link to read the full lowdown....   Reported By On 30-03-2010 at 12:56:27   Lara Croft And The Guardian Of Light Part Of New Downloadable Strategy   Lara Croft, the original digital pneumatic pin-up, "lives" on at Crytal Dynamics..... "Crystal Dynamics' Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light contains many firsts: It will be the first outing for the iconic adventurer that lacks the Tomb Raider moniker; it's also the studio's first console digital download release, and its first project since Square Enix acquired it last year. Studio GM Darrell Gallagher explained to Gamasutra the reasoning behind the title shift, and said that Crystal Dynamics isn't re-branding Lara with this game so much as branching the franchise -- while remaining, so far, within a consistent universe for the heroine." Click the link to read more at Gamasutra......   Reported By On 30-03-2010 at 10:32:29   Would Dew Believe It? It's slightly eeeww and a little bit ahhhh....   Here are some pretty amazing photos of insects (apparently asleep), bejewelled with water droplets. Hrm... we think sleeping is a code word for cold stone dead. But we'll give the photographer the benefit of the doubt. Still, pretty amazing images... Hit the link for more droplety magic.   Reported By Chris Thomas On 30-03-2010 at 09:11:15   Unwrella: Optimal Automatic Unwrapping By Max Underground   Unwrella claims to be an automatic UVing tool for 3dsmax and Maya. We have no idea how good it is, but if it lives up to it's claims, it sounds like a god-send..... "Unwrella is an exact unwrapping plug-in for Autodesk 3DSMAX and Autodesk Maya. It is a single click solution which allows you to automatically unfold your 3D models with exact pixel to model surface aspect ratio, speeding up texture baking UV map production significantly. * Automatic one-click solution – Just apply the Unwrella modifier * Precise – Preserves user created UV Seams * Smart – Reduces texture mapping seams almost completely and minimizes surface stretching * Efficient – Chunks are kept large and are arranged on the UV surface with maximal use of available space * User-friendly – User defined pixel based padding between UV chunks * Excellent for all kinds of models (organic, human, industrial)" Hit the link for Unwrella's site. Where a demo download is available....   Reported By On 29-03-2010 at 11:30:35   How To Train Your Dragon Interview with Shaggy Hornsby, Supervising Animator   And one more vide from the Dreamworks PR machine. And why not!   Reported By Chris Thomas On 26-03-2010 at 18:47:16   How To Train Your Dragon Interview with Sabrina Riegel, Supervisor of Surfacing   Hit the vid to view on....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 26-03-2010 at 18:43:44   How Pixar Creates Great Films And Balances Art, Tech And Success by Ben Parr   Ok, so questions of who's go the biggest bananas out of the way. Pixar certainly know their stuff. This article, at Mashable tunes us into an interview with Ed Catmull, who was discussing how Pixar balances art, tech and economics.... "Here at The Economist Innovation Conference in Berkeley, California, hundreds of thought leaders have gathered to discuss the process, politics and economics of innovation. How do you create an innovative technology? How do you balance innovation and economics? What fosters great ideas? On stage earlier today was Ed Catmull, the president of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, who spoke to a lot of these points. He was interviewed by Economist correspondent Martin Giles; He also answered question from the audience. Here’s a small sampling of his thoughts on how innovation and innovative companies are created." Click the link to read more....   Reported By On 26-03-2010 at 17:32:06   5 Ways DreamWorks Animation Is Better Than Pixar By Josh Tyler   Ah, the age old questions. Which is better, apples or pears? Or, do you prefer beer or wine? Or maybe, what tastes better, sweet or salty? Or, who rules the roost in CG animation in 2010, Dreamworks or Pixar? "Pixar launched the world of computer animation with Toy Story, but DreamWorks Animation wasn't far behind. Other animation studios have come and gone, but since the beginning of the CGI feature format back in the 90s it's been DreamWorks and Pixar going head to head, and since the beginning there's been almost no question that Pixar is better. DreamWorks movies may make tons of money, yet everybody knows Pixar's the king of animation. After all, they've never made a Shrek the Third. Maybe that's true, but Pixar isn't better at everything. " Click the link tio read more.....   Reported By On 26-03-2010 at 17:28:48   Tromso Students Put Together The Best Interactive Display Wall We've Seen Yet (video) By Vladislav Savov   Ah, the old wave your arms around like a crazed kung fu master, type GUI, makes a return..... "Take everything you thought you knew about multitouch and throw it out. Okay, keep the Minority Report stuff, but throw everything else out. What we're looking at here is a 22 megapixel display, stitched together from the output of no less than 28 projectors (7,168 x 3,072 total resolution), which just happens to respond to touch-like input in a fashion even Tom Cruise would find fascinating. You don't have to actually touch the wall, floor-mounted cameras pick up your gestures in 2D space and a 30-node computer setup crunches all the computational and visual data to deliver some buttery smooth user interaction. For demo purposes, the makers of this system grabbed a 13.3 gigapixel image of Tromso and took it for a hand-controlled spin. See the mesmerizing show on video after the break." Click the link to read more at Engadget...   Reported By On 26-03-2010 at 15:10:42   Welcome To The Skape Of Things To Come   This looks akin to video game tech. In this case though, put to use visualizing large city-scapes. Pretty sweet....... " Skape enables you to view and download highly realistic 3D environments, for visual concepts and interaction with building information from unlimited vantage points. Internally, Skape provides the context which allows you to assess the impact of a development and resolve issues early in the development lifecycle. Skape saves you time, reduces your costs and allows you to do your job more effectively. Externally, Skape turns vision and concept into reality, enabling key stakeholders - whether potential clients, planning authorities or the local community - to relate to and support your ideas. " Click the link to read more.....   Reported By On 26-03-2010 at 15:08:19   Sony's 3D Glasses Rated At 55 Alice In Wonderland Viewings Per Charge By Tim Stevens   Active shutter or Polarised lenses. Which will be the standard in 3D TV and cinema? Well, again, anyone wishing to stake a bet is a foolish man/woman right now. Anyway, Sony are leaking out some info on their own tech, which bet on the Active Shutter pony. Looks like we'd better buy some more shares in Eneloop..... "As we get closer and closer to being run over by a wave of 3D televisions, Blu-ray players, and assorted peripherals, we can start to see more of the details of that oncoming rush. Most recently revealed is the battery life of Sony's active shutter glasses. As we've reported before, Sony is diving face-first into 3D technology for the home and each face that wants to follow along will need a pair of $133 TDG-BR100 or TDG-BR50 glasses perched upon it. Both models will manage 100 hours of active viewing before running dry -- less than half the 250 hours Panasonic is pledging for its peepers, but more than double the 40 hours for NVIDIA's option. 100 hours sounds like a lot, sure, but coming hot on the heels of Nielsen's 35 hours per week of television report, we're thinking you'd better keep that recharger nearby. " Click the link to read more at Engadget.......   Reported By On 26-03-2010 at 13:49:28   The Wolfman Production Focus   As it says. Tap it, to unwrap it..... "No one seems to know (or is willing to admit) where the politics came from but there they were, rearing an uglier head than the blood soaked makeup Rick Baker created. But as the fur flew from the hidden corners, the artists continued to do their best against the odds. It was an unusually long and convoluted process. "My initial designs, I did in 2007," said Baker. "I did ComicCon two yeas ago where there was a big announcement about The Wolfman coming out that April, but they missed that release date." They missed several more as the moons circled by." Click the link to read more at CG Society....   Reported By On 26-03-2010 at 13:45:17   Digital Storytelling 2010 Visual Effects - Into New Dimensions   So, will 2010 be the year in which 3D cinema took off? We don't know, but will guess, probably not. Anyway, this seminar will discuss the new tech that is making waves in cinema and TV. So, if you are in the locale (Oslo, Norway), why not pop in, and get up to speed? "Digital Storytelling 2010 : Visual Effects - Into New Dimensions will be the fifth annual seminar on the creative use of technology in film and television, focusing on visual effects and digital set design in feature film and television. Speakers from the Norwegian, Scandinavian and International film community will gather in Oslo to present their work. Digital Storytelling and The Norwegian Film Institute invite VFX artists, producers, directors and writers to this year’s seminar and workshop on the use of visual effects in film and television." Click the link to read more.....   Reported By On 26-03-2010 at 12:32:37   How To Train Your Dragon Theatrical Trailer   As it says, click to view.....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 26-03-2010 at 10:28:38   Microsoft Plans Project Natal 'World Premiere' This June by Chris Remo   How long has it taken Microsoft to come up with an alternative control system (i.e. a Wii-alike controller). Answer, a loooooong time. They will be show-casing it at E3 in LA in June. So, pop over (if you can) and see what the fuss is all about..... "A year after it was first announced, Microsoft will fully unveil its Project Natal motion-sensing device for Xbox 360 this June during the E3 Expo in Los Angeles. Microsoft is calling the event the "World Premiere" of its device, and is likely to roll out the first round of Natal games, a price range for the peripheral, and possibly a final name, as Sony did during its PlayStation Move press conference this month. Microsoft has indicated "Project Natal" is merely a code name, and not necessarily the name under which the package will be marketed." Click the link to read more at Gamasutra.......   Reported By On 26-03-2010 at 09:29:51   Adobe Creative Suite 5 Sneak Peek by Leonard Teo   CS5 is looming. We've found that in the past, some apps have received pretty major features from one version to the next. Whilst others have languished in pools of stagnating mini-featurettes (Namely Premiere Pro). Lets have a quick looksie at what is in store after the next ring of the bell..... "Adobe Creative Suite 5 will launch on Monday April 12, 2010 at 8am Pacific (11am Eastern). Adobe is hosting a bunch of sneak peek videos at some new features over on its website. No doubt, more to come." Click the link to see more at CG Channel.....   Reported By On 25-03-2010 at 13:16:19   Warner Bros To Open Game Studio In Montreal Posted by Leonard Teo   Ah ha! It seems the good old Canadian tax break has drawn in yet another studio to the land of the Moose & Maple. Well, interestingly in yesterdays UK budget, tax breaks have now been afforded to UK based games developers. Possibly this will even the playing field a little, moving forward...... "In a press conference today, Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment has announced that it will open a game studio in Montreal. According to news issued by the Montreal Gazette: The Burbank, California-based company makes video games such as The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn’s Quest. It will be setting up a studio in a locale to be announced in the coming weeks. The company said the quality of talent being trained in the city’s universities and the tax benefits of coming to Quebec were among the main reasons the company chose to locate here. The studio will employ 300 people by 2015, according to a prepared statement by Warner Bros." Click the link to read more at CG Channel....   Reported By On 25-03-2010 at 13:13:03   Retailer Leaks Details On AMD's Upcoming 12-core Chips   Hrm.. more luvurly cores (not the Irish folk/pop band, you know, processing cores...) to unleash on our renders. I can remember the days, when a PC was lucky if it was furnished with just the one core, two if you had a snazzy dual CPU mb. Now with one of these little fellas, you'll have twleve (!) cores. My god, think of the possibilities!! "An online retail store is taking orders for Advanced Micro Devices' upcoming 12-core Opteron processors, code-named Magny-Cours, ahead of the official launch. Provantage is taking orders for Opteron X12 6100 series chips that run at clock speeds between 1.7GHz and 2.4GHz. The chips have 12 cores, with 16MB or 18MB of cache, and draw between 65 watts and 105 watts of power. Chip prices range from US$293 to $1,491 depending on clock speed, cache size and power. The most expensive chip is the Opteron X12 6176 SE processor, which runs at 2.3GHz, has 18MB of cache and draws 105 watts of power. It is priced at $1,491. AMD did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the chips and pricing. The company has already started shipping Magny-Cours processors to server manufacturers, which will be announcing products as early as next week." click the link, to use one of your cores, to read on at PC World......   Reported By Chris Thomas On 25-03-2010 at 11:35:14   'Up' And 'The Cove' Win Humane Society's Genesis Awards By Lee Margulies   Hrm.... looks like UP, apart from being a pretty good movie (and a real tear-jerker to boot) is also putting forward some good morals on animal care..... "Two weeks after winning Oscars, "Up" and "The Cove" received additional honors Saturday at the 24th annual Genesis Awards, which honor media depictions of animal protection issues. "The Cove," which chronicles the slaughter of dolphins by fisherman from a Japanese village, was named outstanding documentary film." Click the link to read more at the LA Times....   Reported By On 25-03-2010 at 11:17:03   Google's 1Gbps Broadband Offer Brings Out The Crazy In Municipal Officers Around The States (video) By Vladislav Savov   1 Gigabit internet connections are few and far between. In the USA, Google is offering to setup a test network with those speeds in a single city, with the aim of tesing out new net technologies at those speeds. So... how do you get on that bandwagon? You ask Google nicely, and maybe do something really silly to get their attention also. It seems the internets are driving people loco..... "You'll be aware by now that Google's cooking up an experimental high speed broadband network, which is currently in the process of collecting applications and nominations from interested communities. Given the limited coverage planned -- anywhere between 50,000 and 500,000 people -- there's understandably a lot of competition to get your small town on Google's radar, and city officials all around the USA have been doing their utmost to grab some publicity for their locale. Duluth mayor Don Ness can be seen above taking a dip in Minnesota's icy Lake Superior (with his unfortunate underling Richard Brown taking a fish to the face), while others have held parades, danced, invented a "Google Fiber" flavor of ice cream, and even swam with sharks for the sake of that precious fiber. Duluth, however, is the only place officially endorsed by a senator, and you can see Al Franken promote the city's virtues on video after the break." Click the link to read more at Engadget.....   Reported By On 25-03-2010 at 11:05:39   Five Years On Mars Jed Schwartz Productions   Whilst 3dsmax, Maya and XSI rule the roost of most popular 3D packages. Houdini has eeked out a valuable niche for itself in FX heavy projects. JSP in the USA has used it to great effect on this project for Discovery and NBC. "While audiences are used to seeing virtual characters and worlds beyond their imagination created using computer graphics, the use of CG for medical, scientific and industrial visualization is often forgotten. That is not the case with Jed Schwartz, the owner of New Hampshire based Jed Schwartz Productions (JSP). His studio specializes in visual effects and 3D animation for visualization projects and has an impressive client list including companies such as Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Discovery Channel and NBC. In this recent project for the National Geographic Channel, Jed helps chronicle the adventures of the Mars Rover Spirit as it tackles the alien Martian terrain. His team was tasked with compiling close to forty shots totaling twelve minutes in length that re-enact the Spirit forging its way across the rocky, desert-like surface. They were required to create a meticulously detailed photo-realistic recreation of this landscape especially those troublesome obstacles which from time-to-time hold up the exploring rover. " Click the link to read more at sideFX   Reported By On 25-03-2010 at 10:30:11   The Visual Effects Of Surrogates Article by Ian Failes   Not actually seen this production on our radar. Apparently though it is pretty VFX heavy...... "Now available on DVD, Jonathan Mostow's Surrogates depicts a world where human beings have given over their lives to almost-perfect robotic replicas. Although more crime drama than action piece, the film still contains around 800 visual effects shots. Visual effects supervisor Mark Stetson oversaw an ensemble of facilities on the show, including Synthespian Studios, MPC Vancouver, Brickyard VFX, Sandbox F/X and ILM, with practical work by Howard Berger's K.N.B. EFX Group. Surrogates follows the investigations of FBI agent Tom Greer (Bruce Willis) into a plot to kill all surrogates and their owners. Set in Boston only slightly in the future, the film steered clear of heavy CG environments or robotic creations. Mark Stetson's mandate was always for the visual effects to have only a supporting role. "We focused more on how to portray and finish the surrogate versions of our characters. We looked for opportunities to enhance the idea that surrogates were pervasive in society, with glimpses of the surrogate factory, and hints that the telecommunications grid had expanded to accommodate all the traffic."" Click the link to read more at VFX blog...   Reported By On 23-03-2010 at 17:29:45   NVIDIA Announced Version Release 3.0 Of The CUDA Toolkit. by CGSociety   You know, it's only a few days now until nVidia release their new Fermi hardware to the market. And funnily enough, just before that point, they have bumped their CUDA Toolkit version..... "NVIDIA has released the latest version of their CUDA Toolkit. New features for developers include: support for new GPUs based on Fermi architecture, C++ support, GPGPU/Graphics interoperability (delivering Direct3D 9, 10 and 11 and OpenGL for both CUDA and OpenCL), improved developer tools for Linux, etc." Click the link to read more at CG Society....   Reported By On 23-03-2010 at 17:26:17   Fear And Loathing In Farmville social gaming round-up from GDC   Social gaming, I mean, where's the attraction eh? Having to interact with people! Ergh....... "[Former Civ IV project lead and Spore designer/programmer Soren Johnson gives an in-depth round-up of social gaming at GDC -- and the complex, often contentious response from developers.] GDC 2010 is now in the books, and it will be a hard one to forget because the whole conference seemed to be obsessed with one thing, which I summed up in this tweet. Or, as designer David Sirlin puts it here: “Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook.â€� Off the top of my head, here are the highlights and lowlights of this fixation:" Click the link to read more at Gamasutra.....   Reported By On 23-03-2010 at 17:24:24   Shotgun And Tweak Release Intergrated Production Tracking And Playback Tools Posted by cgnews   Do you need to track your projects? Well, Shotgun has become a favourite at some studios (though apparently it's pretty pricey). And now, it seems they have added integrated playback tools into the mix..... "Shotgun Software and Tweak Software today released an integration package for seamless interoperation of their VFX and animation production tools, Shotgun and RV. The combined solutions make it fast and easy for studios to track, organize, play, and review their work. This integration provides one-click viewing of media in RV right out of Shotgun, and provides Shotgun-aware tools inside of the RV player. “I was an early adopter of both Shotgun and RV and used them successfully on a feature animation project. I always thought it would be great to have the tools work together, but now that they are integrated, the result is even better than I imagined. Once you can easily compare versions of a shot in RV directly from Shotgun, or automatically launch a shot in context of its neighboring shots, you can’t go back and work the old way,â€� said Stephane Deverly, C.T.O, Duran Duboi." Click the link to read more at CG News...   Reported By On 23-03-2010 at 17:18:07   Quantum Film threatens to replace CMOS image chips   Hrm... those sounds like fightin words to me... All we'll say is, we don't really want that much more physical resolution in our cameras these days. What would be of much more use would be super fast exposures. Because lets face it, we have all struggled at some point or another to take decent photos in low light conditions. Anyway, this tech seems to pave the way for much cheaper and able sensors. Which is no bad thing....... "Just as photographic film was mostly replaced by silicon image chips, now quantum film threats to replace the conventional CMOS image sensors in digital cameras. Made from materials similar to conventional film—a polymer with embedded particles—instead of silver grains like photographic film the embedded particles are quantum dots. Quantum films can image scenes with more pixel resolution, according to their inventors, InVisage Inc., offering four-times better sensitivity for ultra-high resolution sensors that are cheaper to manufacture. " Hit the link to read the full spiel....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 22-03-2010 at 14:44:03   Freelancing In The Free World more trouble than its worth?   MAXUnderground has put together I nice trio of links to articles on the subject of Freelance CG workers within the USA..... "A number of articles have been published lately on the classification of freelance artists in temporary jobs, states’ pressure to collect taxes, and the difficulties this raises for both studios and freelancers. Find out more at Motionographer, Visual FX Digital Artists Guild and the New York Times." Hit the link to follow those links on MU, and read on....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 22-03-2010 at 12:52:51   Shrek, Chomet And Besson Set To Shine At Annecy By: Ramin Zahed   Annecy Festival 2010 is on the horizon. Read on to see whats on the menu this year..... "Screenings of Sylvain Chomet’s The Illusionist, a “work-in-progressâ€� sneak peek at Luc Besson’s feature The Mechanics of the Heart and the European premiere of DreamWorks Animation’s Shrek Forever After are all part of the star-studded 50th Anniversary Edition of the Annecy Intl. Animation Festival, which takes place June 7-14. John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Nick Park are all expected to attend this year’s landmark edition, according to Variety." Click the link to read more at Animation Magazine...   Reported By On 22-03-2010 at 10:14:05   NVIDIA GeForce GTX 480 And 470 specs and pricing emerge   Here's a little dribble of new info on the up and comming Fermi based Geforce GPU video card range...... "We're only a week away from their grand unveiling, but already we've got word of the specs for NVIDIA's high end GTX 480 and GTX 470 cards. Priced at $499, the 480 will offer 480 shader processors, a 384-bit interface to 1.5GB of onboard GDDR5 RAM, and clock speeds of 700MHz, 1,401MHz, and 1,848MHz for the core, shaders and memory, respectively. The 470 makes do with 446 SPs, slower clocks, and a 320-bit memory interface, but it's also priced at a more sensible $349. The TDPs of these cards are pretty spectacular too, with 225W for the junior model and 295W for the full-fat card. Sourced by VR Zone, these numbers are still unofficial, but they do look to mesh well with....." Hit the link to read on at Engadget.....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 19-03-2010 at 17:18:04   Anatomy Of Apple Design by Transparent House   What can we say, if you like Apple, hit the vid for some Apple pr0n...... "Transparent House used its visualization capabilities to create a tribute to a company they greatly admire on the occasion of the iPad release. The idea was to show a glimpse into the history of this product giant by modeling some of the innovative products they've developed in their 3+ decade history. The animation was done entirely using 3Ds Max and V-Ray render and took about 10 days to complete. Professionally done 3D visualization is the perfect tool to present concepts or new products in a beautiful, photoreal style, while creating a mood with music and conveying a message, through on-screen text or narration. This animation was an artistic exercise and not intended for commercial use. The animation is not affiliated with Apple or any third-party companies. We hope this animation will be used mainly as an educational tool for the 3d visualization or/and design industry." Click the link to read more... http://vimeo.com/9820827   Reported By On 19-03-2010 at 15:34:18   The Princess And The Frog by Ben Simon   The Princess And The Frog is hitting DVD and Bluray shelves in the not to distant future. Here is a review of said yarn, from Animated Views. We missed TPATF when it was on the big-screen, so we could be popping down to the store to grab a disc as soon as we can. It may not be CG, but it's certainly good art and animation... "The classic fairytale of The Frog Prince is turned inside out when, instead of the amphibian becoming human royalty when kissed, the spell is reversed and the girl becomes a frog as well! Soon she finds it’s not easy bein’ green, and the pair hop around the swamps of the New Orleans bayou attempting to put their fates right against the sinister Shadow Man, the voodoo master Dr Facilier… There used to be a time when the Walt Disney Studios made fairytale movies. Walt Disney himself never made a “princessâ€� movie…the stories that featured princes and princesses, friendly forest creatures and the other conventions typically associated with these types of films were strongly rooted in old folklore, mythical figures and, yes, fairytales. When Disney desperately needed a post-war hit, he only went back to the well to produce Cinderella because it could be fashioned into a similar success as Snow White, not because it simply featured another girl who becomes a princess. It could even be said that many of Walt’s films featured the fairy touch: certainly Pinocchio, moments in Fantasia, Peter Pan and Alice In Wonderland all share the same ethos of storytelling." Click the link to read more over at Animated Views,,,,   Reported By On 19-03-2010 at 15:22:53   ROKKAN And 2K Games Relaunch For Games Website Posted by cgnews   Seems 2K Games have given their web-precence a bit of a buff...... "2K Games reunited with digital creative agency, ROKKAN, to redesign and relaunch their official site – www.2kgames.com. The goal of the new site was to provide a seamless intersection of games, news and community. At the cornerstone of this creative process was a key objective – staying true to 2K Games’ brand and pushing the limits of interactive entertainment like no other in the industry. “Our mission was to create a unique site that was completely different from 2K Games’ competitors. Everything, down to the page layout, use of images, animation, and GUI, stands out from the sea of video game publisher websites,â€� said Charles Bae, Executive Creative Director of ROKKAN." Click the link to read more....   Reported By On 19-03-2010 at 14:34:29   Sport Refief running for charity   This is completely non GC. But we make no appologies, as it's for a VERY good cause. In the UK each year, many people undertake a sponsored run, under the banner of Sport Relief, to raise money for Childrens charities world-wide. This year, a friend of ours, Ires Dalton, is taking part in the Bristol run. So, if you are feeling generous, why not hit the link, sponsor her, and make some well deserving childrens lives a little (or lot) better, in their near future. We've already slapped down our cash. So please, if you have a little time, why no pop down a small sponsorship of £5 or $7 say. On Ires's page, just hit the Sponser Me link, and you can then give your sponsorship using most main credit/debit cards, or PayPal. Please give, every little helps....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 19-03-2010 at 11:04:14   3D Must Be Real 3D, Not That Fake 3D Say Sky TV   Interesting, it seems Sky TV, one of Europe's largest TV providers, is putting their foot down in terms of what they consider to be "3D". It seems 2D to 3D conversions simply will not be accepted by them. We have to agree, it's the right stance...... "Sky bans 2D to 3D conversions Thursday, 18 March 2010 Sky has stated it will not accept any 2D to 3D conversions for any content submitted for Sky 3D, writes Adrian Pennington. In the first release of its specifications for 3D production the broadcaster has ruled that no more than 10% of any programme can be 2D HD. "To enable the 3D programme to retain the highest quality throughout, a minimum of 90% must be native 3D footage," Sky states. "Where non-HD footage is utilised, it should sit within the editorial context of the programme. The 2D originated footage must be HD, be of segments not exceeding one minute, converted in a suitable manner to fit the 3D content and be of shots where there is minimal benefit from a true dual camera 3D acquisition." To avoid any doubt Sky declares that conversions of 2D HD content to 3D is "not acceptable and may only be proposed by prior agreement with understanding of the editorial techniques and conversion process involved.""   Reported By Chris Thomas On 18-03-2010 at 14:59:25   Arion GPU Powered Renderer   This renderer certainly looks interesting. It also works with pretty much every 3D app you can shake a sttick at. Hit the link, and watch the example video they have there. It seems to be a pretty cool tech. Oh, and btw, the image above looks a little crude, as this is an interative real-time preview render. Leave it longer, and the render gets more refined.... "What is Arion? Arion is the hybrid-accelerated and physically-based light simulator developed by RandomControl. It inherits all our expertise in light simulation and makes it run on steroids, thanks to our very unique approach to massive CPU+GPU+LAN computation. Arion is: * an interactive WYSIWYG editing application. * a super-high performance production renderer. Arion's unique approach Arion uses all the GPUs -and- all the CPUs in your system simultaneously, not wasting a single flop available. Additionally, Arion can use all the GPUs and all the CPUs in all the other computers in your network forming a cluster for massive computation. In that regard, Arion is a grid-computing solution to the problem of light physics simulation. Simultaneous GPU+CPU+LAN, combined with our exhaustively optimized code, is what we call hybrid acceleration."   Reported By On 18-03-2010 at 13:22:30   ShoWest 2010: Disney•Pixar's Toy Story 3 Debuts! by Edward Douglas   News in from ShoWest about Toy Story 3...... "One of the big selling points for the 2010 ShoWest was the fact that Pixar Animation would be debuting a work-in-progress version of Lee Unkrich's Toy Story 3 months before its release on June 18. This continues the strategy begun by Disney and Pixar last year when they surprised many by showing the first half of Pete Docter's Up at various comic book conventions over three months before its release. The big difference with Toy Story 3 is that Up was an unknown, a new and original premise rather than a long-awaited three-quel to two of Pixar's early hits as well as a movie that's been shrouded in secrecy for the many years since it was first announced. That said, the movie wasn't quite finished yet and was screened in 2D, but lost nothing on the capacity audience of exhibitors lined-up to see it at the Paris Hotel's Le Theater Des Arts and the Jubilee Theater at Bally's." Click the link to read more at Comming Soon.....   Reported By On 18-03-2010 at 12:46:48   AUO's 65-inch 3D HDTV Panel By Sean Hollister   I remember the days when a 24" TV with mono sound was good enough for anyone. Those days though are long gone. Take this little fella for example.... "While it might have been a pipe dream back in '09, Taiwanese display manufacturer AU Optronics is firmly committed to blasting our eyeballs in 2010, with a monstrous 65-inch HD LCD panel ready for all the 3D and pseudo-3D content (we're looking at you, G-Force) you have on offer. AUO isn't hedging its bets on this one, either; at FPD China 2010, the company announced that they're using a polarized solution with cheap, $2 to 3 glasses to generate the 3D effect. Sure, polarized is the preferred method for most theatres, but it's often more expensive than active shutter tech for an in-home user -- and can come with some serious visual tradeoffs like permanent ghosting or halved vertical resolution." Click the link to read more over at Engadget....   Reported By On 18-03-2010 at 11:09:41   3dsmax 2011 User Interface Customization   This video shows some of the new GUI improvements, such as the new feature, caddies. Hit the vid to see more....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 17-03-2010 at 08:56:22   S.M.E. Memories in Green   Those with a long memory may recall the design for a Schematic Material Editor (SME) that I (Chris Thomas) and Marsel Khadiyev of Ephere put together some years back. Our goal was to produce a workable SME that would push 3dsmax forward. We wanted to include features that others SME's such as Maya's Hypershade and XSI's Rendertree did not really address. The result was a working prototype that you can see here.... Lets look at the similarities to Slate.... 1. On the left is a colour coded palette of nodes. These included Materials, Maps and Controllers (float, quat, script, noise etc). In this screen-grab you can see Materials, 2D maps and 3D procedural maps. 2. In the middle are colour coded nodes for Materials and Maps. input types on the nodes are shape coded (Circle = map, square = single float, diamond = RGB floats. Bezier curves are used to connect nodes and can be drag'n/dropped to make connections. Above each node is the renderball or swatch, which can be collapsed for neatness. In fact the entire node dropdown and pop-ups can be collapsed to make each node compact, as needed... 3. Screen right you can see we hijacked the lower half of the original Material Editor (Medit) to be used as a parameter access tool (if it ain't broke..). Now, were we ahead of our time or what? Do you think our ideas were influential?   3dsmax 2011 Slate Schematic Material Editor   Rocking along on the heels of that last vid, is one showcasing the new Slate materials editor in 3dsmax 2011. This is going to be a major boon to anyone out there who likes to push the envelope with their material dabblings. Hit the video above to see it in action.... You know.... it really does look sooo familar... Now where have I see that layout before?   Reported By Chris Thomas On 16-03-2010 at 23:54:02   3dsmax 2011 Object Paint Tool   The Object Paint tool in 3dsmax 2011 may not appear to be such a big feature on first appearance. But as this presentation video from Autodesk shows (with sound this time!), it's actually a pretty nifty feature. With live adjustment of already painted objects and using mesh edge selections to define paths along which objects should be distributed. It pretty much rocks (for us modelling nuts at least...) Enough waffle though, hit the video above to see it in action.....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 16-03-2010 at 23:45:52   Game Developers Conference 2010 Diary Paul Hellard   Want to catch up with the events over at this years GDC? Then read away, it's certainly been a pretty interesting event this year. And boy, Sid Meir certainly looks a lot younger (than I had imagined him, by now, if you see what we mean...). "This year’s GDC was a great show. The event brought together experienced game developers, publishers, artists and an all-time record of 18,250 attendees for its 2010 event. More than 400 lectures, panels, summits, tutorials and roundtable discussions. Many of the panels were actually quite good but there was a fifty-fifty chance of getting one of the bad ones during the first couple of days. Things started picking up significantly when the show floor opened on Thursday. The Fable III panel with Peter Molyneux and Josh Atkins was one of the highlights of the entire event revealing a lot of new information about Fable III." Click the link to read more over at CGSociety.....   Reported By On 16-03-2010 at 17:50:49   Teal N Orange The modern curse of colour grading   Ha yes... fashion, it's something so ugly, that they have to change it every 15 minutes. And one such fashion has been the trend over the last ten years or so to grade movies in those lovely complementary colours of Teal and Orange. Colour grading CAN be used in an artistic manner, to add something to the story or mood. But used unchecked, it's just another sad old fashion wannabe look.... "Those of you who watch a lot of Hollywood movies may have noticed a certain trend that has consumed the industry in the last few years. It is one of the most insidious and heinous practices that has ever overwhelmed the industry. Am I talking about the lack of good scripts? Do I speak of the dependency of a few mega-blockbuster hits to save the studios each year, or of the endless sequels and television retreads? No, I am talking about something much more dangerous, much deadlier to the health of cinema." Hit the link to read on....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 16-03-2010 at 17:49:10   Disney Wrings The Pink Out Of 'Rapunzel' by Los Angeles Times   What's in a name? Well, a lot it seems. So much so that Disney is apparently re-naming Rapunzel to Tangled in a bid to bring in, you know, boys...... "After the less-than-fairy-tale results for its most recent animated release, "The Princess and the Frog," executives at the Burbank studio believe they know why the acclaimed movie came up short at the box office. Brace yourself: Boys didn't want to see a movie with "princess" in the title. This time, Disney is taking measures to ensure that doesn't happen again. The studio renamed its next animated film from the girl-centric "Rapunzel" to the less gender-specific "Tangled."" Click the link to read more over at Animated Views.....   Reported By On 16-03-2010 at 16:34:24   GDC: Onlive Cloud Gaming by CG Channel   This is pretty exciting we think. The prospect of having a games machines, on ANY screen at home, with an HDMI connection and access to a broadband connection. We will all have to see how, or if this pans out. But it certainly could be an industry changing technology. Read on...... "Last GDC, the guys from OnLive had a huge announcement at GDC and went very quiet for a year. They’re back and now they have a launch date. So basically, OnLive is a cloud gaming platform — that means that rather than having a PS3/Xbox36o/whatever console hooked up to your TV where you buy games and install them, you run them on the server cloud and it streams over the internet. All you need is a little OnLive set top box which has limited amounts of processing power. This has many advantages. Games don’t need to be installed to play, as you’re effectively playing them on the server. You also won’t need to rush out and buy a new console, as OnLive keeps adding more servers to the cloud. All you need is a fat internet connection and sustainable connection. OnLive uses streaming video technology, so the tech resides on the server and you’re effectively just seeing a video being streamed down." Click the link to read more at CG Channel...   Reported By On 16-03-2010 at 16:07:45   Indie Games Summit Peter Rizkalla   Are you into the emerging indie games scene? If so, read on...... "“Hi I’m Randyâ€� is the first thing that we saw on the screen when entering room 135 in North Hall. Independent game designer and owner of indie game company Tiger Style Randy Smith opens with the Indie Gamemaker Rant! It actually didn’t turn out to be a rant as I suppose they originally wanted but rather turned out to be an informative discussion on gameplay design. The theme of the dialogue could be summed up in what Randy called “Immediacy with Depthâ€� which basically explained the balancing act of how good game design immediately grabs the player’s interest while introducing depth in the gameplay." Click the link to read more over at CG Society   Reported By On 16-03-2010 at 16:01:20   3dsmax 2011 New SLATE Material Editor   As promised, here is the second sneak preview video from Autodesk, for 3dsmax's new material editing system, Slate.....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 16-03-2010 at 10:15:46   3dsmax 2011 Entertainment Creation Suite   Ah ha! don't know quite how we missed this, but along with all the other 2011 announcements from the last few days, here also is a new bump up of 3dsmax (2011 of course)...... You can hit the link below to head over to The Area, to read the feature list. Or... even easier, view the videos featured in the following stories. Let's make a start with a feature that is certainly close to our heart here at CG Academy. Slate, the new node based material editor.... "3ds Max 2011 Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2011 3D modeling, animation, rendering software includes the following new and enhanced features: * Slate, a new node-based material editor, enables you to more easily visualize and edit material component relationships. * Quicksilver hardware renderer enables you to create high-fidelity pre-visualizations, animatics, and games-related marketing materials in less time. * Graphite modeling and Viewport Canvas tools help accelerate modeling and texturing tasks. * The new 3ds Max Composite feature offers high-performance, HDR-capable compositing tools and is based on technology from Autodesk® Toxik® software. * 3ds Max 2010-compatible format enables you to save scene files to help manage the transition to 3ds Max 2011." Hi the link below to read more, at The Area.... http://area.autodesk.com/3dsmaxentertainmentcreationsuite2011   Reported By Chris Thomas On 15-03-2010 at 18:16:41   GDC: Uncharted 2 Wins Big At 10th Annual Game Developers Choice Awards by Gamasutra   Not actually played Uncharted as yet. Probably because I do not own a Playstation OR X-Box (oh he shame.....) "Naughty Dog's critically-acclaimed Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was the big winner at the 10th annual Game Developers Choice Awards, presented at a ceremony this evening at UBM TechWeb Game Network's 2010 Game Developers Conference (GDC), receiving a total of five awards, including Best Writing and the coveted Game of the Year award. Another major honoree, 5th Cell received the award for Best Handheld Game and the Innovation Award, for its creativity-fueled portable game, Scribblenauts. Zynga, creators of the wildly addictive and popular Facebook game, Farmville, received the honor for Best New Social/Online Game, marking the first winner for this inaugural category." Click the link to read more over Gamasutra.....   Reported By On 15-03-2010 at 18:02:27   Undone By Haley Morris By Jerry   "Hayley Morris is a director and animator at Curious Pictures in NYC. Her short stop-motion animation Undone won best animated short at Slamdance 2009. Hayley joined Curious in June 2008 after graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her senior film project, “Undone,â€� is a tribute to her grandfather, who suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease." Click the link to read more over at Cartoon Brew.... http://www.cartoonbrew.com/shorts/undone-by-haley-morris.html   Reported By On 15-03-2010 at 16:39:14   FF XIII Director - Production Drove Content Decisions, Elements Will Return GDC Report   The Final Fantasy franchise rumbles on. Some still love it, whilst for others, the ardour is waining. If you have any interest though, read on for an interview with it's current director, Motomu Toriyama.... "At Game Developers Conference 2010 in San Francisco, Gamasutra had the chance to speak in-depth to Final Fantasy XIII director Motomu Toriyama about the game. Released this week, the game has drawn both strongly negative and positive reviews and fan reactions. One area of criticism that the game has consistently faced is that major traditional RPG elements that the series is known for, such as explorable towns, are not present in the game that was released. Toriyama chalks this up to a mix of his own personal strengths, the advent of the challenging production required by high definition consoles, and production of the Crystal Tools engine which drives the game." Click the link to read more over at Gamasutra.....   Reported By On 15-03-2010 at 11:40:22   Tron Legacy Trailer   Many who work in the CG industry today, will have been inspirted to do so by the work of Disney, way back in the eighties, with their seminal movie, TRON. Oddly of course, much of TRON was not actually CG, but instead hand animated, or produced via practical effects techniques. Still, it set a flame in many young childs imaginations. And lo, here we are, near 30 years later, and the sequel is immenent. In all fairness, it almost certainly will not be as revolutionary as it's predecesor. But still, TRON Legacy has got to be a must see for any die hard CG tops out there (including us...) hit the link to view the trailer over at Apple Trailers...   Reported By On 15-03-2010 at 11:33:30   Kikis Delivery Service DVD Review at Animated Views   As it says on the tin. Click to read on "A young witch goes away to train in the ways of magic, but learns even more important lessons about growing up. Thanks to her own admirable qualities, she finds a pathway to success. one were to try to categorize Hayao Miyazaki’s film’s, then I suppose that Kiki’s Delivery Service would be his “girls’ movieâ€�. That would be the easy thing to do; but that would be just as unfortunate as describing Princess Mononoke as simply his “environmental movieâ€�. The label really is not nearly big enough. Miyazaki’s films are for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you are a little girl or a big boy; good stories are good stories." Click the link to read more over at Animated Views...   Reported By On 15-03-2010 at 11:08:19   Unity 3.0 Game Authoring system Announced story by CG Channel   Hrm.. looks pretty cool.... "New and Enhanced Features in Unity 3.0 Among a host of updates in this release are major updates to Unity’s rendering capabilities, its physics features and significant optimizations to its core systems to make targeting multiple platforms easier than ever for developers. For improved performance and fidelity in its rendering, Unity now includes fully integrated licensed technology from Illuminate Labs and Umbra Software. Used in games such as the highly regarded Mirror’s Edge, Illuminate Lab’s Beast lighting software provides Unity developers with a complete global illumination solution for photorealistic scene lighting. Ensuring exceptional performance for games with large, open scenes and complex geometry, Umbra’s occlusion culling software is also fully integrated in Unity 3.0. Both Umbra and Beast are included in Unity Pro at no additional cost." Click the link to read more over at cgchannel.....   Reported By On 15-03-2010 at 10:59:28   Autodesk Announce Softimage 2011 Posted by CG News   And it looks like (nor surprises here), Softimage 2011 is due for a release bump in the near future also.... "Autodesk, Inc. announced Autodesk Softimage 2011, a comprehensive 3D application featuring a unique, multithreaded GigaCore architecture and innovative tools: the Interactive Creative Environment (ICE) and Face Robot facial animation toolset. Softimage is also an ideal companion product to both Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max software pipelines with its easily programmable effects simulations, advanced character rigs and lip-synched facial setups. (Automatic Face Robot Lip-Synching – Quickly generate facial animation based on an audio file with new automatic lip-syncing in Face Robot. A new dedicated view for controlling the phonemes and visemes offers function curves to help modify their contribution. With this new functionality, the Face Robot toolset delivers a more complete, automated solution for facial rigging and animation.)" Click the link to read more over at cgnews...   Reported By On 13-03-2010 at 11:22:23   Maya 2011 Particle   That Duncan Brinsmead has been at it again. In this case, at it, is producing some rather interesting tests using Maya 2011's Fluids and general dynamics upgrades. Have a look, there seem to be some pretty nifty additions in there...... "Maya2011 has now been announced. You can find the “what’s newâ€� list here: what's_new_in_2011 While the focus of this release was the transition to the QT based user interface, there are lots of other nice features and enhancements. Here are some of my favorites of the ones I worked on. Fluid Auto Resize I have found that this really changes the way I work with Maya Fluids, especially for flame and explosion simulations. This automatically contracts and expands fluid boundaries to track the contained density. It also takes emitters into account, so one can simply position the emitter anywhere desired and at the start frame the fluid will fit to the emitter location even if the emitter is outside the fluid. For effects like torches it feels like the fluid is no longer confined to a box. As well the simulations tend to run much faster because there are fewer voxels to compute, cache and display. One can also...." Hit the link to view the samples, over at The Area   Reported By Chris Thomas On 12-03-2010 at 19:47:14   An Interview With John Musker And Ron Clements By Luke Bonanno   Have you seen The Princess And The Frog? If so, this may be of interest...... "If you're enough of a fan of Disney animation to know the names of the people who make it, then you're already well aware of Ron Clements and John Musker. If not, you certainly know their work. The two men came to Disney in the late 1970s while in their early twenties. After wetting their feet on projects like Pete's Dragon, The Small One, and The Fox and the Hound, Clements and Musker were placed in charge of The Great Mouse Detective as two of the 1986 film's four directors and ten writers. From there, the two took the lead as the writers/directors of the beloved musicals The Little Mermaid and Aladdin. After helming Hercules and Treasure Planet, the duo disappeared from Disney, like everything about traditional animation seemed to. But they and the medium return on The Princess and the Frog, an acclaimed fairy tale in the style of the '80s/'90s Disney animation Renaissance." Click the link to read more....   Reported By On 12-03-2010 at 19:34:15   ILM - Back In The Day Home Video   We are really not sure from whence this springs. But it seems on a few days during the production of Star Wars, someone had a home movie camera on site at ILM. It has been edited to highlight all of those shown. Again, happy days it seems. hit the link to watch onwards......   Reported By Chris Thomas On 12-03-2010 at 15:07:30   Star Wars Behind the Scenes Snaps   Fancy a little nostalgia? Maybe a little Star Wars nostalgia? Well, hit the link to see some pretty rare, behind the scenes Star Wars (A New Hope) pics. Happy times.....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 12-03-2010 at 15:04:46   Beautiful Grim Posted by Matt McCorkell   There is some great artwork over there. Check it out.. And please also, donate if you can.... "Artists from around the video game and movie industries have come together under a common theme: Beautiful Grim. Organized by Mythic concept artist Mike “Daarkenâ€� Lim and Dreamworks Animator Leif Jeffers, the fundraiser came together when Mike’s girlfriend, Cat Rey went through a bilateral mastectomy and 16 weeks of chemotherapy. Everyone knows that health care in the United States is substandard. In the end bill you receive can be devastating to your life and livelihood (even with health insurance). Money raised will go to support those costs and any excess amounts will be put directly towards a breast cancer charity." Click the link to read more over at CG Channel....   Reported By On 12-03-2010 at 14:38:10   Valve Confirms Mac Versions Of Steam, Valve Games by Chris Remo   Rejoice (MacHeads) for Valve is bestowing upong you, some of its STEAM! "Valve will release a version of its Steam digital distribution service for Mac next month, along with Mac-native versions of its own games, the company confirmed today after days of hints -- and owners of Valve games will have access to both platform versions. The Source engine, which Valve uses to develop all its internal titles and also licenses to third-party developers, will incorporate OpenGL in addition to DirectX, to allow Mac support for all Source developers. "We looked at a variety of methods to get our games onto the Mac and in the end decided to go with native versions rather than emulation," said Steam development director John Cook in a statement released ahead of this week's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco." Click the link to read more over at Gamasutra....   Reported By On 12-03-2010 at 14:33:10   Maya 2011 Release Announced   Maya 2011's release is just around the corner (April). And it looks like Autodesk have been very busy on this release. We'll take a looksie and give you some feedback on the new features. Promise..... For now, hit the link to read up on the major features on The Area   Reported By On 12-03-2010 at 10:37:10   Cartoons On The Bay Lifetime Achievement Honor Awarded to Don Bluth   Here's a tenuous link. Video games, Dragons Lair, Don-Bluth? Well, Mr Bluth is to receive an awars. Yeah, go Don! "The annual Italian animation festival Cartoons on the Bay has released its list of program tributes, Pulcinella Award nominees and panels for its upcoming edition. The 14th edition of the four-day event (April 15-18), which takes play in the Rapallo, Portofino and Santa Margherita Ligure (the Golfo region of Tiglio) will offer the usual mix of TV previews, special tributes, one-on-ones with directors, producers, TV execs and charming contests and local flavors. Widely acclaimed American animator Don Buth will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s edition of the festival. Bluth, who set a new standard for independent animators by breaking away from Disney in 1979, setting up his own studio (Sullivan-Bluth) in Ireland, and directing animated pics such as The Secret of NIMH, An American Tail, The Land Before Time, Anastasia and Titan A.E. as well as the laserdisc game Dragon’ Lair has been invited to speak at the event" Click the link to read more over at Animation Magazine....   Reported By On 12-03-2010 at 10:33:02   Tilty-Shifty New York   Tilt-shift camera shots. We've featured them before, and hey, they ARE cute and fun. Well, here is another, this time of a bustling New York. My favourite has to be those ickle helicopters. Bless.....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 12-03-2010 at 10:30:52   Acer Working On Frameless Laptop With Touchscreen Keyboard? By Thomas Ricker   In the future, we will all be able to levitate at will, and we will all own a bezell-less laptop, with a touch-screen keyboard. Thats what my dad always told me anyway..... Hrm... Well, looks like the levitation will have to wait a while. But the future lappy may be just around the corner... "Would you believe that Acer is working on a frameless laptop with touchscreen keyboard? As far-fetched as the idea might be, it's certainly plausible, expected even. The idea, as rumored by DigiTimes, involves doing away with the display's frame by printing colors directly onto the back of the display's reinforced glass substrate from Corning (a la Gorilla Glass presumably). Coupled with a touchscreen keyboard, the rumored device should be impossibly thin by traditional laptop comparisons. Keep in mind that we've already seen this Frame Zero concept pictured above from Fujitsu and Acer's arch-rival ASUS has been showing off its dual-display laptop prototype with touchscreen keyboard for months." Click the link to read more over at Engadget.......   Reported By On 12-03-2010 at 09:45:28   Alice's Gross Grows To Whopping $116 Million By: Thomas J. Mclean   Looks like Alice In Wonderland is raking it in for mr Burton (et al), and thats despite a rather nasty spat (initially) with some UK cinema outlets (ODEON!).... "Alice in Wonderland blew away expectations with a smash opening weekend gross of $116 million. The stereoscopic 3-D Disney movie, directed by Tim Burton and featuring extensive visual effects and animation, shattered the record for a March opening. It also set a record for the opening of a 3-D movie, previously held by Avatar’s $77 million opening weekend. Screenings across the nation were selling out, as audiences queued up for a chance to see the film. Alice also did extremely well overseas, grossing $94 million in 40 territories, for a worldwide weekend total of $210 million." Click the link to read more over at Animation Magazine......   Reported By On 09-03-2010 at 13:05:21   Hard Drive Evolution Could Hit Microsoft XP Users by BBC News   Here's a pretty useful heads up from the BBC. Aparently, hard disks are going to shift over to a new formatting system in the near future. If you are using Windows Vista, 7, OsX, Linux and so on, no problem. However, older XP installs will have some issues.... "Hard drives are about to undergo one of the biggest format shifts in 30 years. By early 2011 all hard drives will use an "advanced format" that changes how they go about saving the data people store on them. The move to the advanced format will make it easier for hard drive makers to produce bigger drives that use less power and are more reliable. " Hit the link to read on at BBC News.....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 09-03-2010 at 12:01:38   Valve Confirms Portal 2 For Holiday 2010 by Kris Graft   Hooray! The little engine that could (Portal) is to return to our small screens. We're so glad you survived! "After more than a year of ongoing rumors and more recent teasing from Valve Software, the Half-Life studio confirmed that Portal 2, the sequel to 2007's revered puzzle-shooter, is coming this holiday. The original Portal released with Valve's Orange Box compilation, which also included Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2 along with its two subsequent episodes. The Orange Box released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC, although Valve did not confirm platforms or specific release dates for the sequel." Click the link to read more over at Gamasutra.....   Reported By On 08-03-2010 at 17:35:35   First Look: Wise Owls Fill A Fantastic World In Guardians   It looks like Zack (Slice em, Dice em) Snider has a new project on the go..... "The sultan of splat is scaling it back. Zack Snyder, who hasn't seen an on-screen bone he didn't want to crack or a neck he didn't want to slice, takes a break from the brutality to direct his first animated feature, Legend of the Guardians. Based on the 15-book series Guardians of Ga'Hoole (Warner Bros. changed the name, worried that the masses wouldn't know Ga'Hoole from a hole in a tree), Guardians is a cross between Watership Down and The Lord of the Rings. PHOTOS: Exclusive first look at 'Legend of the Guardians' The film, based on the first three books of Kathryn Lasky's series, follows Soren (voiced by Jim Sturgess), a young barn owl who is kidnapped by the owls of the St. Aegolius Academy for Orphaned Owls, or St. Aggie's. The academy is supposed to be an orphanage, but instead it brainwashes its pupils into becoming soldiers who will ultimately clash with the wise, peaceful owls of Ga'Hoole." Hit the link to read on at USA Today....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 08-03-2010 at 17:25:34   Montreal International Games Summit Speaking Opportunities   The tin, you know, eet say it all. "The Montreal International Games Summit is happening again this year on November 8th-9th in downtown Montreal (Canada). They’ve just put up the call for speakers, so if you fancy yourself speaking at the conference, head on over to the website and send in the speaker form!" Hi the link to read on at CG Channel.....   Reported By On 08-03-2010 at 17:25:25   Oscar Honors Up, Logorama In Animated Categories By: Thomas J. Mclean   Logorama, which we featured a few days back, has gone on to win the best animated short at this years Oscars. Nothing to do with us, we are quite sure of that...... "The surprises were short when it came to the animation-related categories at the 82nd annual Academy Awards. Up won the best animated feature Oscar, beating out Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess and the Frog and Secret of the Kells. Director Pete Docter accepted the awards, saying the film “came from homeâ€� and dedicated the win to the filmmakers’ families. While Up’s victory was far from unexpected, Logorama defied expectations to win the best animated short film award. "I have to thank the 3,000 non-official sponsors that appear in the film,â€� said producer Nicolas Schmerkin in accepting the award. Logorama beat out a heavy favorite in the Wallace and Gromit short A Matter of Loaf and Death, as well as French Roast, Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty and The Lady and the Reaper." Click the link to read moe over at Animation Magazine......   Reported By On 08-03-2010 at 17:08:28   And Then There Was Salsa   What can we say. Here is a great idea, excellently executed..... Now, where did I leave my Nachos?   Reported By Chris Thomas On 08-03-2010 at 17:04:41   Stylo by Gorillaz   Yes, the best band that does not exist (Gorillaz) has just released a new album. Here is Stylo. Which features some CG band members, some doughnuts, and Bruce Willis. Say no more......   Reported By Chris Thomas On 08-03-2010 at 16:57:09   Lara Croft Returns Without Tomb Raider Name by Eric Caoili   Lara Croft, unfeasibly large curves and all, lives on it seems (at Crystal Dynamics). "Crystal Dynamics announced Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light, a new downloadable game from the Tomb Raidseries that cuts out the Tomb Raider name from its title for the first time in the franchise's 13-year history. This is also the series' first digital-download release and the first Tomb Raider game from Crystal Dynamics since Square Enix acquired the developer's parent company Eidos Interactive last year and transformed the London-based publisher into Square Enix Europe. Crystal Dynamics' last Tomb Raider game, Tomb Raider: Underworld, released in late 2008 for multiple platforms and received lower-than-expected sales, which Eidos blamed on the slumping economy and a Christmas schedule packed with high-profile releases. The publisher then laid off some 30 Crystal Dynamics workers and tasked the studio with concentrating its focus on the Lara Croft franchise." Click the link to read more at Gamasutra...   Reported By On 08-03-2010 at 13:07:11   Machinarium Production Focus   Have you played Machinarium? No? Well its a pretty cool inddependantly produced video game (PC), put together by a collective of artists and programmers. It's good to see smaller scale (and inovative) projects such as this, can make their own way in todays games market. The internet has finally made us all publishers, eh? "Jakub Dvorský started Amanita Design in 2003 when he finished Academy of Arts in Prague with a free online flash game called 'Samorost' as his thesis project. In 2005 animator Vaclav Blin joined the studio and 'Samorost 2' was created. Since then we have found several excellent collaborators - musician Tomas 'Floex' Dvorak, programmer David Oliva, painter Adolf Lachman, sound maker Tomas 'Pif' Dvorak and animator Jaromir Plachy. The gang was almost complete." Hit the link to read on at CG Society.....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 08-03-2010 at 13:00:32   Oscars 2010 and the winners are.....   Not much to say here. Looks like the Academy was pretty balanced in its awards this year, with something for everyone. Avatar did win in some cats, but not for best picture. One major landmark is Katherine Bigelow's win for Best Director, as she is the first woman to do so... Anyway, you can draw your own conclusions. Hit the link to see who got what....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 08-03-2010 at 10:08:13   Intermediate Animation 1: Floppy's Surprise has been released   Now for some news of our own... Those of you who have been following our Animation series will be glad to know that the third title in that series, Intermediate Animation 1: Floppy's Surprise is being released today. By now the series will have grounded in you in the fundamentals of pure animation (simply making things move realistically) and also on how to bring to life characters in your own storylines. In this third title, Simon Thistlethwaite will take you through an extensive (8.4 hours!), production quality character animation. From the blocking stage, where you lay down the overall narrative, motion and character acting. Through to animation passes that add polish to each section of the animation. And finally through to a final, highly polished character animation. This tutorial is pretty mammoth in size, at over eight hours in duration. This is the nature of animation, where adding all the verious nuances of character, mood and motion simply takes time, an artistic eye and skill. So, champing at the bit to carry on with your Animation training? if so, get over to our E-Store, order away, and be learning within minutes, via our download delivery system. Right now this title is only available via download. Though we are planning to have DVDs pressed for this title, Ben Cloward's new title (news on that soon...) and Simon's previous Animation series release. More news on that as and when it happens.   Reported By Chris Thomas On 06-03-2010 at 23:00:24   Logorama: The French Short That Rewrote The Rules By: Ramin Zahed   Animation Magazine have an interview with the producer and directors of Logorama. "Of all the five shorts nominated in the Best Animated Shorts category, the 17-minute-long Logorama is perhaps the most enigmatic. A fascinating homage to American crime movies with a subtle commentary on corporate consumerism and capitalist society, the short won the prestigious Kodak Prize at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. Directed by Francois Alaux, Herve de Crecy and Ludovic Houplain, the brilliantly conceived short is set in a Los Angeles-like city and centers on two Michelin Man cops fighting an evil Ronald McDonald clown against a landscape of familiar corporate logos and mascots. We recently had the opportunity to chat with the short’s producer Nicolas Schmerkin and directors Alaux and de Crecy to find out more about the making of this creative short:" Click the link below to read more at Animation Magazine..... http://www.animationmagazine.net/article/11219   Reported By On 05-03-2010 at 12:33:20   Canon Captures Your Coffee in a 70-200mm telephoto lens   Canon have been handing out (to press) novelty coffee mugs. Now, they look great, and are hyper convicing. One word of caution, if you have one.... Check twice before you start pouring in hot water eh? Because if it's the real thing, man, that's a lot of money down the drain..... "OK, not really, but Canon was indeed giving out these novelty coffee mugs -- in the shape of an EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens -- at the Winter Olympic's press center, and here's Microsoft's Josh Weisberg (Director of Rich Media Group) showing off his swag to the whole world. Yes, we're just a bit envious. So anyone got a spare Canon L-Series lens that we can tamper with? Or maybe that big-daddy Sigma lens if you're game with sharing coffee? " Hit the link to read on at Engadget......   Reported By Chris Thomas On 05-03-2010 at 12:28:20   Activision Cuts Infinity Wards Head Off? Posted by Matt McCorkell   Fernanglings are afoot at Activision...... "News has been flooding the kotaku and other gaming sites since the disappearance of studio heads, Vince Zampella and Jason West. Activision has not made any official announcements. But they did just make this nifty press release: The company intends to expand the Call of Duty brand with the same focus seen in its Blizzard(R) Entertainment business unit. This will include a focus on high-margin digital online content and further the brand as the leading action entertainment franchise in new geographies, new genres and with new digital business models. “2010 will be another important year for the Call of Duty franchise,â€� stated Mike Griffith, President and CEO of Activision Publishing. “In addition to continued catalog sales, new downloadable content from Infinity Ward and a new Call of Duty release, we are excited about the opportunity to bring the franchise to new geographies, genres and players.â€�" Click the link to read more at CG Channel....   Reported By On 05-03-2010 at 12:27:22   100 Years Of Special FX   Has it really been 100 years already? Really? Whew, I mean it only seems like yesterday..... Hit the vid above to watch a selection of those FX. And you get a special prize, of... goodwill, if you can identify all of the movies shown. Can you do it?   Reported By Chris Thomas On 05-03-2010 at 11:08:02   CG Will Eat Itself or something like that.....   Anyone out there remember the UK band called Pop Will Eat Itself? Well, it seems that same sentiment could be at play here in CG land. Someone has posted a review of Avatar (a mostly CG movie). The odd thing? The review is also by a CG character. Still, if anyone could have sympathy with the actors in Av, then this would be the dude.... Hit the video to watch on....   Reported By On 05-03-2010 at 10:57:54   The History Of 3D Studio By Dave Baker, Neil Blevins, Pablo Hadis and Scott Kirvan   Ah, I can remember opening that large carboard box, reading the manual and tutorials from end to end, and finally being able to model and animate pretty complex scenes (for the time). Make no mistakes, 3D Studio was an industry changing product. At the time producing 3D graphics required SGI workstations, the cheapest of which was some £5000 (back in 94 or so) and the software was usually in the tens of thousands. Suddenly you had 3D Studio, that could be run on a £2000 PC, and only cost a few thousand...... "3D Studio was released to the public in October 1990. The 3D arena at the time was populated by a diverse range of software running on various platforms: LightWave 3D, Sculpt-Animate 4D, Imagine, Topas, Electric Image, Softimage|3D, Wavefront Advanced Visualizer and Alias PowerAnimator, among others. Back then, the words PC and multimedia were not used in the same sentence, and few people would’ve dared to place their graphics software bets on PCs. The first version of 3D Studio was created by four developers, and its low cost, versatile functionality, and expandability via a plugin architecture would make it the most widely used 3D software in the world. We had the great pleasure of interviewing Tom Hudson, who has been one of the main developers of 3D Studio, as well as the author of the software’s precursors, Solid States and CAD-3D. In this interview, done some months away from the software’s upcoming 20th anniversary, Tom shares fascinating details on the development of Autodesk 3D Studio and 3DS Max, as well as his views on the current state and future of the CG Industry. Be sure not to miss the extra info written by Tom that can be found by clicking on some of the images, and which sheds light on many of 3D Studio’s iconic illustrations. We hope you enjoy this dive into the waters of 3D history." Click the link to read more at Max Underground.....   Reported By On 05-03-2010 at 10:44:07   Dragon Age Producer: Expansion Strategy Driven By Fans by Chris Remo   Did you play Dragon Age: Origins? If not, pop out now and grab yourself a copy, its great. Anyway, that aside, it seems Bioware have an expansion for it to be released in the very near future. Eeeep! "Later this month, BioWare will release Dragon Age: Origins -- Awakening, a full-scale expansion pack for last year's already-massive original fantasy roleplaying game. And unlike most post-release content these days, which is frequently sold in small downloadable chunks, Awakening is a $40 retail package, with SKUs for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 as well as a PC downloadable version. Gamasutra caught up with online producer Fernando Melo to discuss the thinking behind selling Awakening as such a significant expansion. He explained that, while the actual content within the add-on has been in the works since before Origins was released, the delivery method took longer to determine -- and fan feedback contributed heavily to the final decision." Click the link to read more at Gamasutra....   Reported By On 05-03-2010 at 10:33:16   CityEngine 2009.3 In Review By Sergio Rosa   Sergio Rosa has a review of the current release of CityEngine. In short, it's a procedural city generator that can export it's results to 3dsmax, Maya and aother platforms. Could be a great tool for arch-vis or games studios? "In December 2008, I had the chance to review CityEngine, a procedural city generator by Procedural Inc. Last year, they released CityEngine 2009, as well as dot-versions of the application. For this review, I’m using version 2009.3 (released late last year). For those who don’t know, CityEngine is a software application that facilitates the creation of large-scale cities, allowing the user to create them procedurally (meaning that the user sets different sets of rules and the city is created according to those rules). These rules control size and construction of buildings, streets, elevation, and even city areas. Cities created in CityEngine can be exported to any 3D application, thanks to the variety of exporters available. The CityEngine interface is made up of different “tabs.â€� This allows you to rearrange the interface to fit your needs, close and minimize tabs, and also detach each tab as a floating window. This is especially useful if you are on a dual monitor setup, as you can detach the viewport and maximize it on one screen while you keep your editors on the other one. " Click the link to read more at Renderosity....   Reported By On 05-03-2010 at 09:43:01   Wacom Has Introduced The Cintiq 21UX, The Redesigned Interactive Pen Display. CGSociety   Hmmmmm, we'd love to have one of these. Still, they are pretty pricey still...... "The Wacom Cintiq 21UX has doubled the pen performance in pressure curve and opacity control. The 21UX is capable of capturing the slightest nuance of pen pressure against the LCD surface, as well as offering 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity. Other innovative enhancements include rear-mounted Touch Strips that are ideally placed for fingertip access while working. Each Touch Strip has an accompanying thumb-controlled Touch Strip Toggle button that controls up to four different user-assigned functions per application such as zoom, scroll, brush size adjustment and canvas rotation. In addition, the overall design has been refined and updated in an all-black color scheme, providing a sophisticated and handsome look." Click the link to read more. at CG Society....   Reported By On 03-03-2010 at 14:02:15   Luma Pictures Percy Jackson Round-Table By: Mercedes Milligan   An number of involved fellows discuss what went on (FX) on Percy Jackson: Lightning Theif..... "Vincent Cirelli (vfx supervisor), John Cassella (senior fx TD), Richard Sutherland (CG supervisor), Raphael Pimentel (animation supervisor) and Steve Griffith (vfx producer) give us their insights on Venice, Calif.-based Luma's mythical effects work on Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. The team contributed nearly 90 shots for the film and tackled insane challenges like Medusa's writhing head of snakes and Poseidon's watery transformation. Snakes on the Brain Under the guidance of the production's vfx supervisor Kevin Mack and their own exec visual effects supervisor Payam Shohadal and vfx supervisor Vincent Cirelli, the crew at Luma turned the lovely Uma Thurman into a gorgon with a mane of over 70 snakes, each with unique looks and personalities, not to mention rigged 3D scales that flare and flatten to compliment the snake's body movements." Click the link to read more at Animation Magazine...   Reported By On 03-03-2010 at 13:32:18   Alice In Wonderland By Todd McCarthy   Variety's reviewer (Mr McCarthy) does not seem to think a great deal of the recently released Alice In Wonderland.... Our own view is, if youu fancy it, go and see it. Movies are VERY subjective beasts.... ""You've lost your muchness," Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter remarks to his newly shrunken teenage friend, and much the same could be said of Tim Burton in the wake of his encounter with a Victorian-era heroine of imaginative powers even wilder than his own. Quite like what one would expect from such a match of filmmaker and material and also something less, this "Alice in Wonderland" has its moments of delight, humor and bedazzlement. But it also becomes more ordinary as it goes along, building to a generic battle climax similar to any number of others in CGI-heavy movies of the past few years. A humongous Disney promo effort and inevitable curiosity about the first post-"Avatar" 3D extravaganza will pull wondrous early B.O. numbers, although long-term forecast could become clouded by the imminent arrival of further high-profile kid-friendly features." Click the link to read more Variety......   Reported By On 03-03-2010 at 13:31:22   Best Of Indie Games: Playing With Just One Button by Leigh Alexander   Indie games... ah, it's good to see that people can still make small scale, inovative titles, and make some money from it. Reminds me more of the 80s and 90's in game production, where smaller studios could still compete. Anyway, enough retro waffle. If you are interested in current inie games, read on.... ""[IndieGames.com: The Weblog co-editor Tim W. rounds up some of the week's top free-to-download and commercial indie games from the last seven days on his sister 'state of indie' weblog.] This week on 'Best Of Indie Games', we take a look at some of the top independent PC Flash/downloadable titles released over this last week. The delights in this edition include a pair of Gamma IV showcase entries, a clever puzzle platformer with just one level to play, a single-button arcade game created in the span of a week, and a real-time strategy game that features both marines and zombies in the same package."" Click the link to read more at Gamasutra......   Reported By Chris Thomas On 03-03-2010 at 13:28:55   Going Free Boosts Turbine's DDO Revenues 500 Percent by Leigh Alexander   Looks like the micro-payment model of game revenue is working for Turbine, at least on their "free" to play D&D Online: Eberron Unlimited..... "Going free-to-play is paying off for Turbine, which says its Dungeons and Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited has gained over one million new players since its September 2009 launch -- as the game's paid subscriber base has more than doubled. Turbine took formerly subscription-based DDO to a primarily free-to-play model last year with the Eberron upgrade, unveiling a microtransactions-driven store for in-game content. The company says that its players transact in the new store at three times the industry average, and that the franchise's revenue has grown 500 percent since the change-over. Turbine did not attach a dollar value to its revenue claims." Click the link to read more at Gamasutra.....   Reported By On 03-03-2010 at 13:27:50   VES Awards Honor Avatar, Up By: Thomas J. Mclean   The VES awards have come and gone. Who were the winners after this years spin of the wheel? "Avatar was the big winner at the eighth annual Visual Effects Society Awards, taking home six honors. Disney-Pixar’s Up was the top honoree for animated features, taking three awards. The VES Awards were presented last night at a gala ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. More than a thousand attendees attended the awards, which presented the VES Lifetime Achievement Award to director James Cameron and the Georges Méliès Award for Pioneering to Ed Catmull." Click the link to read more at Animation Magazine....   Reported By On 03-03-2010 at 13:14:27   Hayes Davidson SkyLine (London); An Interactive System That Allows You To Create, Test And Explore London Skylines. CGSociety   Hayes Davidson (London) have put together a technology for visualising London's skyline, past, present and future...... "For those of us who know what the skyline of London looks like, Hayes Davidson has released an online tool that you can experiment with the skyline of that fair city. With Hayes Davidson Skyline, you can choose from: 'Past' - a low skyline with some height in the City, '2010' - the view today, and 'Consented' - London with consented proposals built, incl. Heron Tower, Doon Street and The Shard. You can also drag a building from the building selection bar up towards the skyline. " Click the link to read more at Cg Society.....   Reported By On 03-03-2010 at 13:11:50   Bioshock2 Production Focus from CG Societys Vaults   Here's a production focus on the animation production techniques and tech used on Bioshock2.... "The name Bioshock is now synonymous with outstanding in-game visuals, innovative gameplay aspects and more story twists than a ballet dancer’s under shorts. The first Bioshock was released less than two years ago and already it has established a huge fan base and an outstanding reputation. The graphics made the first Bioshock a video game marvel. They introduced players to a gorgeous, under water city called Rapture. The Bioshock team invested ridiculous amounts of time working on just the water effects and the work did not go unnoticed. Critics were thunderstruck at how gorgeous the water looked; the ruined 1930s-style art deco environments of Rapture and the eerie and gruesome character designs of the various Splicers that inhabited Rapture. Don’t even get me started on the design work of the Big Daddies. It’s no wonder that a sequel was in the works. People were crying out for a sequel even before the release of the first one! Jeff Weir was the animation supervisor of Bioshock 2 so is the best person to fill us in on all the design and animation work that is going into Bioshock 2 as well as the ‘plasmidy’ goodness that we can expect from the gameplay." Hit the link to read more at CG Society   Reported By Chris Thomas On 26-02-2010 at 14:18:50   Spotlights - User Profile - Dark Hoffman By CG Talk   An interesting look at Vue here, via fx artist Dark Hoffman (currently at MPC London) "Please meet Dark Hoffman, a Vue artist currently working for MPC London. Dark started in the VFX industry when he was only 17, and learned all the secrets of floor effects (rain, wind, fire...), props and miniatures. After several years spent on the "Babylon 5" TV show, Dark turned to production art and matte painting. He started this new career with Digital Domain. Although completely swamped in the production of "Prince of Persia" and "Robin Hood", Dark takes the time to share with us his passion for Vue. Dark tells us how he got to use Vue in feature films such as "2012", "Fantastic Four 2", "GI Joe", "The Wolf Man", "Alien vs Predator 2: Requiem", "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", the video game "Dantes Inferno" and many, many more projects! Dark has been a Vue evangelist for many years, working at Digital Domain, Hydraulx, Framestore, Animal Logic, Asylum, Rhythm & Hues to name a few." Click the link to read more......   Reported By On 26-02-2010 at 12:40:41   Inside Krakatoa And MAXScript by Borislav Petrov   Borislav Petrov has an update on his blog. The subject is mainly about up and comming new features in Krakatoa. "When I started this blog, I promised insight into Krakatoa, MAXScript, Life, The Universe and Everything. Well, there is no better time for that than this year. 4 days ago I turned 42, and for anyone who holds the Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy dear to his heart, this age sounds quite cool. Except it probably isn't. You see, the other day my parents told me they read or saw an interview with James Cameron and he mentioned he was still feeling like an 8 years old. Oh my, I told them, so I am older than The King Of Pandora!? I have always felt like 16, except when I was actually 16 when I felt like 20. Crazy eh? Anyway, I don't think I will have more answers about Life, the Universe etc., but I can surely talk about the few things that I know about. For example we are beta-testing Krakatoa v1.5.2, so I might mention some things about it."   Reported By Chris Thomas On 25-02-2010 at 16:51:09   The Next Big Cameron Flick? by CG Channel   Just what does J Cameron have planned next. First up, a holiday we'd guess. But then....... "While a lot of rumors have been flying around about the future of Pandora, one film that Cameron had been planning seemed to fall by the wayside. MTV news recently cited a John Landau interview which points to Battle Angel Alita coming to the theaters after Avatar 2. Guess that means for those of you waiting for that Alita movie since before Avatar will have to wait a bit longer. Hopefully not another 10 years…but definitely sometime after Avatar 2." Click the link to read more at CG Channel......   Reported By On 25-02-2010 at 14:22:39   GadgetTrak Retrieves 95 Percent Of Stolen Laptops, Puts RoboCop To Shame (video) By Vladislav Savov   Picture it, your on the go, delivering some CG to a client at a remote location. You are sitting in a cafe, waiting for a train. Then poof, you turn your back for a moment and when you look back, your beloved lappy has gone... ! "Want your stolen gear back? Don't call some gung-ho superhero who's as likely to blow up your small grocery store as he is to catch those perps, call GadgetTrak instead. The little startup company has grown since we last heard of it back in 2007, and is now operating a $25 per year tracking service that has delivered a statistically significant 95 percent success rate on reuniting gadgets with their owners. Available for Mac OS and Windows laptops, as well as mobile phones (BlackBerrys, WinMo, and iPhone) and even removable USB storage, the software's intelligent enough to remotely activate your webcam and ping the incriminating info back directly to you -- no data is sent to GadgetTrak. Check out some recent news coverage of the software and its implementation in local schools after the break.qe> Click the link to read more at Engadget.....   Reported By On 25-02-2010 at 14:22:15   Up, Kells, Simpsons Rack Up Awards By: Thomas J. Mclean   Awards awards. Why wants them anyway (.........) "It was a big weekend for awards, especially on the other side of the pond, where the Oscar-nominated films Up and Secret of Kells and TV perennial The Simpsons racked up animation honors. At the BAFTA awards in London, Disney-Pixar’s Up won best animated feature, beating out Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox. Up also won the best music category for Michael Giacchino’s score, but lost out in the best sound honor to The Hurt Locker, which dominated the evening." Click the link to read more at Animation Magazine......   Reported By On 24-02-2010 at 17:56:15   Longtime Industry Executive Mark Beaumont Passes Away by Chris Remo   It looks like one video gamings old gard has left the building..... "Mark Beaumont, a 28-year veteran of video game publishing who most recently served as COO of Capcom North America and Europe, passed away today. The news first began circulating among industry figures' Twitter posts, and MCV later reported Beaumont died of a heart attack this morning. Beaumont began his video game industry career at Atari in 1982, but joined Activision in 1983 and stayed with the company for five years, becoming the general manager of its Activision Entertainment brand. He went on to serve for several years in an executive vice president roles at Time Warner Interactive, which was later sold to Midway." Click the link to read more at Gamasutra......   Reported By On 24-02-2010 at 14:54:02   SVI Stereo 3D Renderer For 3dsmax By Max Underground   Looks like an interesting tid-bit here for 3dsmax..... "Animations, Visualizations and Models in Autodesk® 3ds Max® – brought to life in the third dimension and displayed in stereo. The SVI Stereo 3D Renderer for Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2.2 delivers an affordable edge. Prepare three-dimensional content for output to any auto-stereoscopic or stereoscopic display– directly in Autodesk® 3ds Max® - without having to process it with external software. Download the fully functional 7 day trial, and explore for free". Click the link to read more over at MU.......   Reported By On 24-02-2010 at 14:50:26   3dsmax Excalibur Caddies tech demo video   It does look like "caddies" (as Autodesk are dubbing this feature) are going to be a major thing in a future 3dsmax release. What do they bring to the table? Well, checkout the video and see for yourself.... Public opinion is mixed on this feature. But then it often is with 3D software. It seems people are never happy with changes, unless they are major, and pretty mind blowing. In this case, this is more of an accessability tweak, allowing you access to commonly used parameters, at your fingertips, as it were. On Maya you have the hotbox, and this lead to the Quad menu's development in 3dsmax. A similar idea, and one that has become standard and loved by both sets of users. Will "Caddies" be welcomed into the fold in the same way? I'd say, we'll have to "suck it and see" before casting ANY opinion on this feature. But right now, it does look like the feature could be of use....   Reported By Chris Thomas On 24-02-2010 at 11:05:14   Leech Plug Disconnects When Your Gadget Is Charged, Does Ma Earth A Favor By Engadget   We all these days (well pretty much) have rechargable devices that go on to drain power, even when the device is fully charged. We'll, these guys have come up with a solution :) "The TrickleStar line of products does a good job of killing vampire power drain already, but all of those still require you to lift a finger and flip a toggle switch to "off" in order to stop the flow of energy when nothing is there to be charged. Conor Klein's Leech Plug, however, does the dirty work for you. Thanks to an integrated timer circuit and a mysterious array of "electromechanics" within, his AC outlet physically ejects the charging cord when the device on the other end is done charging; granted, that leaves you with quite a mess in your dining room floor, but hey, at least you're doing your small part to keep this fragile planet from imploding on itself, right? Peek the video after the break." Click the link to read more at Engadget.....   Reported By On 24-02-2010 at 09:35:01   Gorillaz - Plastic Beach Teasing'n'Pleasing (a little)   Freakier than a starfsh, dressed as Elvis, playing harmonica out side of your local metro station. Well, almost as weird anyway... The Gorillaz are back, and they are pimping their wares, or at least teasers towards their new video/album. Hit the link for some rather intruiging vids, Gorillaz style......   Reported By On 23-02-2010 at 18:03:03   Digital Storytelling 2010 by CGarchitect   Sweden, birthplace of IKEA and Dime bars, becons you to come forth and take part in a festival. The subject? Virtual sets and that........ "“Digital Storytelling: Into New Dimensionsâ€� will be the fifth annual seminar on the creative use of technology in film and television, focusing on visual effects and digital set design in feature film and television. Speakers from the Norwegian, Scandinavian and International film community will gather once again in Oslo to present their work. The Digital Storytelling seminar and workshops is arranged in partnership by Norwegian Film Institute and takes place at the Tancred Cinema, Filmens Hus, Oslo Norway. The event targets professionals in the film industry, with emphasis on directors, producers, production designers, visual effects artists as well as designers and architects interested in digital film design. The workshop targets top level Norwegian VFX and CGI professionals, and is held following the seminar." Click the link to read more at CG Architect........