ResPower Super/Farm Render Farm Supports Maya 7

ResPower announced the immediate support for Maya 7, the latest release of Alias. flagship 3D modeling solution.

"With this release of Maya 7, Alias has delivered a huge increase in 2D and 3D animation , effects , modeling and rendering power," according to Early Ehlinger, ResPower's President.

"ResPower is totally committed to supporting the latest and best computer graphics tools on the market. Upgrading the Super/Farm™ to meet the needs of our customers who use the Maya 7 expanded toolset is a natural and exciting move for us."

About ResPower
Founded in 2000, ResPower today houses the largest and fastest third-party computer graphics rendering solution in the world. The ResPower Super/Farm™ supports over 14 versions of nine render engines. With more than 3,000 GHz of on-demand rendering power, the Super/Farm turns any computer graphics crew into a major studio.


The Super/Farm is available for projects of every size, from one-frame graphics to feature-length movies. ResPower's client list includes Nickelodeon, Technicolor, and Country Music Television . For more information on how to render over the Internet, please log onto http://www.respower.com/

Free CINEMA 4D R9.52 Update - Also Available for 64-bit

MAXON, November 23, 2005 - Software developer MAXON is pleased to announce a free upgrade for CINEMA 4D Release 9.5. In addition to a number of bug fixes, this update boasts over a dozen optimized features and additional improvements. Since MAXON was the first developer worldwide to release a 64-bit version of its software, CINEMA 4D R9.52 is also available in 64-bit! The R9.52 update includes such improvements as changes to the Content Browser that make it even easier to use, expanded drag & drop functionality and an improved menu structure, making this easy to learn application even more efficient.

In addition, a new shader has been added to CINEMA 4D - the ChamLum shader. This shader illuminates the surface of objects with a soft, slightly fuzzy look - great for rendering realistic skin. Furthermore, a Content Browser library containing shaders, light setups and a bunch of useful goodies is also available for free download.

For more information about the CINEMA 4D R9.52 update click here.

About MAXON Computer

MAXON Computer is the developer of professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions. Its award-winning products have been used extensively in the film, television, science, architecture, engineering and other industries. MAXON products have been used for and in Polar Express, The Flight of the Phoenix, Hero, Van Helsing, King Arthur, Spiderman, Spiderman 2, Haunted Mansion, Cat in the Hat, Charlie's Angel's-Full Throttle, Star Wars 2-The Attack of the Clones, The Mummy Returns, Gladiator, Tomb Raider, the new Columbia-TriStar Film Logo, the On-Air Packages for Comedy Central, Monday Night Football, Discovery Channel Canada, Lucky, Touching Evil, King of Queens, Def on Demand, Power Puff Girls Music Video, Cher's "Song for the Lonely" Music Video, Inspector Gadget, The Emmys on CBS, TiVO, NBC, DirecTV, CBS NFL, Mad TV, Smart House, J.A.G., The WB, Fox Kids, The Fremont Street Experience and many more. MAXON has offices in Friedrichsdorf (Germany), Newbury Park (CA, USA), Bedford (UK) and Tokyo (JP).

Web Site: http://www.maxon.net

NewTek Releases Eighth Free Texture Collection

Fifty new images bring free resources for digital artists to 400 high resolution textures

(November 17, 2005) NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video products, today announced the release of the eighth edition of NewTek's free Texture Collection. As with previous editions, this new set includes fifty high-resolution images useful for textures and reference available for free download at NewTek.com. The total number of free texture and reference images available from NewTek is now at 400. The eighth edition of the texture collection contains images in the categories Concrete, Nature, Landscape, Soil and Wood. The images are suitable for use as is, and most can be easily processed for seamless tiling as well.

"The high-resolution images in NewTek's Texture Collections are an incredible resource for texture mapping as well as for reference in 3D modeling and digital painting," said Henk Dawson of Dawson 3D . "Also, while I use 3D for all of my commercial projects, there are many times where a 2D element can save a lot of time. Texture maps can often replace geometry and a background created in Photoshop from one or more source photos can efficiently fill out an image. All-in-all, the resolution and detail in these collections are just what digital artists need, and a terrific gift from NewTek to the community."

All textures are unretouched photographic images. The first 250 in the collection offer a resolution of 1600 pixels x 1200 pixels. For the sixth through eighth sets, most are at a resolution of 2304 x 1728, with a few images at lower resolutions. The textures are provided in JPEG format, for efficient download. The first seven editions of the texture collection have been overwhelmingly popular, with tens of thousands of downloads since they were originally posted. NewTek plans to release additional sets of high-resolution textures from time to time and participants can sign up for notification of the release of new sets.

Pricing and Availability
NewTek's Texture Collection, Eighth Edition, is available for free download at: http://www.newtek.com/freestuff.

Spike TV Video Game Awards 2005 Winners Announced

Winners were announced on Nov, 19, 2005, during the 3rd annual Spike TV "Video Game Awards 2005" ceremony held at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles. Hosted by Samuel L. Jackson, the two-hour "game vs. game" extravaganza will premiere on Spike TV Saturday, Dec. 10 (9:00-11:00 pm, ET/PT).

RESIDENT EVIL 4 (Capcom) took away the Vector Monkey trophy for Game of the Year as well as Best Graphics. PETER JACKSON'S KING KONG: THE OFFICIAL MOVIE OF THE GAME (Ubisoft) won three awards including, Best Performance by a Human — Male for Jack Black; Best Game Based on a Movie and Best Cast. WORLD OF WARCRAFT (Blizzard Ent.) won four awards including Best Multiplayer Game and Best PC Game.

Below is a complete list of winners.

Game Of The Year
RESIDENT EVIL 4 (Capcom)

Best Action Game
GOD OF WAR (Sony Computer Ent. America)

Best Individual Sports Game
TONY HAWK'S AMERICAN WASTELAND (Activision Inc.)

Best Team Sports Game
MADDEN NFL 06 (Electronic Arts)

Cyber Vixen Of The Year
Maria Menounos as Eva in JAMES BOND 007: FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (Electronic Arts)

Best Game Based On A Movie
PETER JACKSON'S KING KONG: THE OFFICIAL GAME OF THE MOVIE (Ubisoft)

Best Performance By A Human — Male
Jack Black in PETER JACKSON'S KING KONG: THE OFFICIAL GAME OF THE MOVIE (Ubisoft)

Best Supporting Male Performance
Christopher Walken in TRUE CRIME: NEW YORK CITY (Activision Inc.)

Best Performance By A Human — Female
Charlize Theron in AEON FLUX (Majesco Ent.)

Best Supporting Female Performance
Traci Lords in TRUE CRIME: NEW YORK CITY (Activision Inc.)

Best Cast
PETER JACKSON'S KING KONG: THE OFFICIAL GAME OF THE MOVIE (Ubisoft)

Best Original Song
"Maybe We Crazy" by 50 Cent in 50 CENT: BULLETPROOF (Vivendi Universal Games)

Best Soundtrack
GUITAR HERO (RedOctane)

Best Original Score
WE LOVE KATAMARI (Namco Hometek Inc.)

Designer Of The Year
David Jaffe for GOD OF WAR (Sony Computer Ent. America)

Pontiac Best Driving Game Award (Viewer's Choice)
BURNOUT REVENGE (Electronic Arts)

Most Addictive Game Fueled By Dew (Viewer's Choice)
WORLD OF WARCRAFT (Blizzard Ent.)

Best Wireless Game (Viewer's Choice)
MARC ECKO'S GETTING UP (Atari Inc. & Glu)

Best Fighting Game
EA SPORTS FIGHT NIGHT ROUND 2 (Electronic Arts)

Best First Person Action
F.E.A.R. (Vivendi Universal Games)

Best Military Game
CALL OF DUTY 2 (Activision Inc.)

Best Graphics
RESIDENT EVIL 4 (Capcom)

Best Handheld Game
LUMINES (Ubisoft)

Best Multi-Player Game
WORLD OF WARCRAFT (Blizzard Ent.)

Best Breakthrough Technology
Sony PSP (Sony Computer Ent. America)

Best PC Game
WORLD OF WARCRAFT (Blizzard Ent.)

Best RPG
WORLD OF WARCRAFT (Blizzard Ent.)

Albie Hecht and Casey Patterson serve as exec producers of the Spike TV "Video Game Awards 2005." Greg Sills is supervising producer, Magda Liolis is producer and Scott Fishman is the executive in charge of production. Julia Knowles serves as director.

Spike TV, the first network for men, is available in 88 million homes and is a division of MTV Networks. MTV Networks, a division of Viacom International Inc.

SOURCE: SPIKE TV

Makehuman v 0.8 (demo) Online: stand-alone, multi-platform, GPL software ex-Blender script

(pressrel)- After much work and many months of preparation, we are pleased to announce the next-generation MakeHumanC that, after five years of life as a Blender(c) python script, has finally become mature enough to be a standalone, multi-platform software program; and, of course, still free, open source and GPL.

Ideas and algorithms developed during the python coding have been translated into C and visualized, thanks to an elegant GUI completely written in OpenGL.

With this pre-alpha, we want to reward and satisfy the curiosity of those fans, who, for a long time now, have been following the development of this software and are impatient to see the first results. However, we must first explain some important points: - We have called this release a DEMO, not because of the existence of a commercial version, nor because a particular license is necessary; but, simply, because within the fixed date for this pre-alpha, the program's ability to save your creation is not implemented.

The beta release version, scheduled for 20 November, will include this ability for both the MakeHuman specific and .obj formats, the latter for import by several widely used 3D modeling programs. - Being a pre-alpha, many elements are still incomplete.

Morphings must be improved and calibrated, many icons will be created or modified, and the current GUI buttons must be considered temporary.

Facial expressions are not yet active, although there are some MakeHuman Emotion Expression System (MEES) morphings now available for experimentation. However, this version gives, already, a good idea of what we have accomplished:
- Over 750 basic parametric morphing targets.
- Uses less than 10 MB RAM.
- Very low CPU usage (on some computers, this value does not even register)
- Professional renders with RenderMan compliant engines.

MakeHuman v0.8 Pre-Alpa Website Link

Autodesk introduces its flagship Discreet Flame visual effects system on Linux-based workstations.

Autodesk has launched its Discreet Flame visual effects system on dual-core workstations running the Linux operating system. The Discreet Flame system is already available on workstations running the IRIX operating system. As a result, film studios, broadcasters and post-production facilities will have more flexibility and choice in shaping their digital content creation pipelines.

For more than a decade, the Discreet Flame system’s hallmark speed and creative toolset have set the standard for high-quality digital content creation. The system has helped digital artists realise ideas for hundreds of blockbuster films, television shows, television spots and channel brands. The system gives artists continuous innovation in a fully interactive 3D compositing environment that is packed with advanced creative tools for video, standard-definition (SD) and high-definition (HD) TV and 2K digital cinema post production.

Kevin Tengan, head of 2D systems at Los Angeles-based Rhythm & Hues Studios, said, “With the exception of our IRIX-based Autodesk Discreet systems, Rhythm & Hues Studios is predominantly a Linux shop. We’ve now integrated the new Linux-based version of Discreet Flame into our facility to create a more manageable, homogenous computing environment. The speed of this system is amazing, as is the stability. We’ve already completed three spots with it, one of which involved several client-assisted sessions. Our client was also blown away by the Flame capabilities on the dual-core workstation." Television spots were delivered for both the discount retailer Target Corp. and SeaWorld adventure parks.

Dave Smith, managing director at UK-based post-production facility Absolute, said, “The Discreet Flame system has been a big part of our business. The Flame system running Linux is a turning point for the industry. Autodesk’s use of high-performance, dual-core Linux workstations provides us with more flexible and cost-effective platform choices going forward. The system’s new tools, such as layer-based paint in batch, are great too because they increase our design flexibility.”

Autodesk’s Discreet Flint visual effects system and Discreet Smoke editing system are also available on Linux-based workstations, making Autodesk one of the world’s leading providers of digital content creation tools for the Linux operating system.

“Autodesk is dedicated to providing our media and entertainment customers with highly optimised Discreet systems that operate on the latest-generation workstations,” said Bill Roberts, director of product management for Autodesk’s Media & Entertainment Division. “Dual-core workstations offer fast, interactive performance that empowers digital artists to realise their creative visions faster than ever before; ultimately allowing the facility to be more productive.” Dual-core processor technology allows users to execute multiple tasks simultaneously at a faster rate than traditional single-core processor technology.

Autodesk’s Discreet Flame and Discreet Smoke 2K systems are currently available on SGI IRIX-based workstations. Autodesk anticipates that the following Discreet systems will be available on Linux-based workstations this coming January:

Discreet Flame and Discreet Smoke 2K systems.
Discreet Flint high definition (HD) and Smoke HD systems.
Autodesk will showcase a number of the aforementioned Discreet systems this week at the following events:

NAB Post +: Visit the Autodesk booth (# 302) at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City, USA from Nov 15-17, 2005.
International Broadcast Equipment Exhibition (Inter BEE): Visit the Autodesk booth (# 7105) at the Nippon Convention Center in Makuhari Messe, Japan from Nov 16-18, 2005.

source: cgsociety

Cast Enters Kung Fu Panda

DreamWorks Animation announced that two-time Academy Award-winner Dustin Hoffman, Jackie Chan and Ian McShane (TV’s DEADWOOD) are joining Jack Black in the cast of KUNG FU PANDA. In addition, award-winning actress Lucy Liu is in talks with the studio to voice another main role.

Black (SHARK TALE) heads the voice cast as Po the Panda, the laziest of all the animals in the Valley of Peace. With powerful enemies at the gates, all hope has been pinned on an ancient prophecy that a hero will rise to save the day. But among all the martial arts masters who come forward, none has shown the mark of The Chosen One… until now. When Po unwittingly shows up in the midst of the competition, the masters are shocked to see that this unmotivated panda bears the mark. Now it is up to them to turn this gentle giant into a kung fu fighter before it’s too late.

Dustin Hoffman will voice the role of Shifu, the by-the-book and tough-as-nails Kung Fu master, who has been given the unenviable task of turning the undisciplined Po into a kung fu fighter. Jackie Chan will lend his voice to Master Monkey, a strong, agile and dedicated kung fu warrior, who serves as a daily reminder to Po of everything he is not… yet. Ian McShane will be the voice of the villainous Tai Lung, a ferociously powerful snow leopard, who breaks out of prison, intent on using his kung fu skills to destroy the Valley of Peace. Lucy Liu is in discussions to be the voice of Master Viper, another of Po’s teachers, who can be coy and feminine when she needs to be, but can then uncoil the lethal kung fu warrior within.

Slated for release in May 2008, KUNG FU PANDA is being directed by John Stevenson and Mark Osborne and produced by Melissa Cobb.

source: awn

Pixar’s Jim Morris to Receive VES Board of Directors Award

Pixar producer and former ILM senior exec Jim Morris, currently overseeing an Andrew Stanton (FINDING NEMO) feature to be released in summer ‘08, will receive the Board of Directors Award from the Visual Effects Society. This award will be presented at the 4th Annual VES Awards on Feb.15, 2005, at the Hollywood Palladium, and follows last week’s VES announcement that Pixar founder John Lasseter will receive the 2005 Georges Melies Award for artistic excellence and lifetime achievement.

“As you might imagine, I am extremely honored to receive this award from the VES,” said Morris. “I feel very, very privileged to have had the opportunity to work with so many talented filmmakers and artists both in the VES and on so many wonderful films, and I am deeply moved to be recognized by my colleagues in this way.”

Morris will be honored for his indispensable role as the founding chair of the VES, an organization started in 1997 by Tom Atkin in response to the explosive growth in the visual effects art form. According to Carl Rosendahl, VES chair, “Jim’s management experience was vital in creating a strong organizational foundation for the VES, while his exceptional reputation in the field served as the key recruiting force for membership. The VES’ continued success can truly be attributed to his vision and steering, and for that the board of directors unanimously named Jim as the recipient of our most personal award.”

Morris joined Pixar in early 2005. His previous post was president of Lucas Digital Ltd., topping his 17 years at Lucasfilm. Morris served as gm at ILM on more than 150 movies, including STAR WARS’ EPISODES I and II, the first two HARRY POTTER movies, JURASSIC PARK, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, FORREST GUMP, SCHINDLER’S LIST, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, THE MUMMY, MEN IN BLACK and many more.

Morris had previously served as ILM’s exec in charge of production, where he supervised all of the company’s productions, including the Oscar-winning TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY and BACK TO THE FUTURE, PART III, among others. Morris first joined ILM in 1987, producing visual effects sequences for films and commercials. THE ABYSS, which also earned an Academy Award for best achievement in visual effects, and ALWAYS are among Morris’ producing credits.

Before joining ILM, Morris was exec producer at Arnold & Associates, where he produced commercials for clients such as Atari and Chevron, and oversaw the company’s three offices. Prior to that, he was exec producer at One Pass, where he headed the commercial production department. He also worked in the production departments at J. Walter Thompson and Foote, Cone & Belding in San Francisco. Morris has also worked as a producer-director for PBS, working on documentaries and educational programs for the network. He launched his career as a cameraman and editor at the NBC affiliate in Syracuse, New York.

Morris has served as a board member for a number of academic institutions and motion picture organizations. In 1997, Morris was named founding chairman of the VES and went on to serve three terms in the organization’s top post. He is currently a commissioner for the San Francisco Film Commission.

Morris earned a B.S. degree in film, from the Newhouse School, Syracuse University. He also holds a M.S. in television and radio from the same institution.

Founded in 1997, the Visual Effects Society (www.visualeffectssociety.com) is a professional, honorary society, dedicated to advancing the arts, sciences and applications of visual effects and to improving the welfare of its members by providing professional enrichment and education, fostering community and promoting industry recognition. The VES is the entertainment industry’s only organization representing the full breadth of visual effects practitioners, including artists, technologists, model makers, educators, studio leaders, supervisors, PR/marketing specialists and producers in all areas of entertainment from film, television and commercials to music videos and games. Comprised of a diverse group of about 1,250 global members, the VES strives to enrich and educate its own members and members of the entertainment community at large through a multitude of domestic and international events, screenings and programs.

Pixar Animation Studios (www.pixar.com) combines creative and technical artistry to create original stories in the medium of computer animation. Pixar has created six of the most successful and beloved animated films of all time: TOY STORY, A BUG’S LIFE, TOY STORY 2, MONSTERS, INC., FINDING NEMO and THE INCREDIBLES. Pixar has won 18 Academy Awards and its six films have grossed more than $3.2 billion at the worldwide box office to date. The Northern California studio will release its next film, CARS, on June 9, 2006.

China Gets Game

China Gets Game
A ceremony was held earlier this week in Shanghai to launch a state-level base for the development of the fledging online game animation industry in China, reports ASIA PULSE.

Located in the Zhangjiang High-tech Zone in east China’s Shanghai municipality, this is the third such kind of 3D industrial base for online game animation in the country following those set up in Sichuan and Guangdong provinces.

More than 200 domestic and overseas software corporations specializing in web games and animation will operate in the zone. As well, some 300 high-tech companies and 60 research centers in the zone will also contribute to the growth of the industry in China.

The base was established under the approval of the Press and Publication Administration of China, which is promoting the development of the online games and animation industry.

The income of Shanghai-based web animation firms accounts for about 70%of the country’s gross volume in this field.

Shanghai will also see the opening of the country’s first cartoon-theme shopping mall by the end of 2005. The Toonmax Cartoon Shopping Center, covering 10,000 square meters of floor space in Shanghai’s downtown business district, is a joint project of Toonmax TV, China’s first, fulltime cartoon company and channel for all ages, and Songyu Group.

Toonmax TV has already established cooperative relationships with more than 30 Chinese and international cartoon brands, such as Disney and Toys & Wonders Ltd. for the shopping center.

source: awn

Rendercore Unveils Remote Rendering Solution for CINEMA 4D 9.5

Rendercore Inc. now has complete integration and support for MAXON CINEMA 4D 9.5 on Rendercore’s state-of-the-art render farm, based in downtown Los Angeles.

“We integrated MAXON’s latest release of CINEMA 4D 9.5 with our proprietary remote rendering management tool RenMan so that clients can automatically upload CINEMA 4D 9.5 project files for job submission and remote management,” said Brian Kim, td for Rendercore. “RenMan is the only solution in the market offering anywhere, anytime access, for monitoring and controlling of computer graphic files rendered over a distributed computing network for CINEMA 4D 9.5.”

“We strive to continue to expand and improve our remote rendering service ability and capacity to complement our cutting edge remote rendering infrastructure,” Henry Choi, president of Rendercore said, “This is the latest in a series of innovative tools we have developed and implemented for our creative clients. We are increasing capacity and the range of tools available, to enable our clients to work more efficiently and effectively.”

Added Chris McBride, Computer & Video supervisor of U.K.-based AVC Prods., “AVC was asked to produce the end title sequence for the movie DOOM. The three-minute animation was to invoke the sense and feeling of the game while still providing a creative new look. CINEMA 4D was used over Maya due to ease of use, we found we needed a large team of animators and modelers on the project and CINEMA 4D was a common skill base for our team. As the project progressed, we found the limitations of such a small render farm with single frames taking up to 16 hours to render. It was clear that we were going to need an external resource to help us render this out to meet our deadline. We were introduced to Rendercore by recommendation from a smaller farm in the UK. From the moment we contacted Rendercore, our worries about reaching the 10-day deadline were dispelled.

“The team at Rendercore took us through the process step by step making it a painless process. Basing the render times on our previous experiences we were concerned about the deadline and constantly kept hounding the Rendercore team, I need not have worried, every day a status report was sent by email giving an accurate update of the render. From start to finish the project was completed within a week, an astonishing achievement. The icing on the cake was the delivery method, we needed to get the files over to NBC Universal in Los Angeles urgently, Rendercore was only too willing to help by copying the files onto an external hard drive and personally delivering the project to NBC Universal, typically summing up the ethos of Rendercore by always going the extra mile for the client.”

Los Angeles-based Rendercore (www.rendercore.com) offers seamless remote rendering solution services with 400+ Intel Xeon 3.0X GHZ CPUs providing significant computing capacity for its cutting edge render farm infrastructure. The company developed industry’s first remote rendering solutions software, and provides on-demand super-computing services and related consulting services such as 3D computer graphics rendering, implementation of customized render farms graphics and on-demand remote rendering services.

source: awn

Architectural Rendering Redefined

LightWork Design and Arc Technology previewed enhanced rendering capabilities for the Arc+ Architectural CAD software at the Batimat Exhibition in Paris this week.

The collaboration between the two companies will result in the LightWork rendering engine being fully integrated into the Arc+ software, for higher-quality rendering and increased photorealism of modeled objects.

LightWorks rendering technology can be found in more than 80 software applications and the company boasts its product is in use by more than one million people worldwide.

A timeframe for the implementation of LightWork's rendering solution with Arc+ has not been announced. For more information about LightWorks, visit the company web site at www.lightworkdesign.com.

source: cgworld

Game Developers Conference 2006

The Game Developers Conference 2006
March 20-24
San Jose, California

The official event "by game developers for developers" of computer, console, mobile, arcade, online games, and location based entertainment, the GDC attracts over 12,000 attendees and provides educational, networking, and business opportunities for game development professionals driving the $11 billion video game industry.

It is the main global forum where programmers, artists, producers, game designers, audio professionals and others involved in the development of interactive games gather to exchange ideas, network, and shape the future of the industry.

This market defining conference features over 300 lectures, panels, tutorials and round-table discussions on a comprehensive selection of game development topics taught by leading industry experts. In addition, the GDC expo showcases all of the game development tools, platforms and services. The conference also includes the eighth annual Independent Games Festival, where new, unpublished games compete for the attention of the publishing community.

What's Next
Next-gen game development will revolutionize every aspect of the gaming industry. From increased production complexity, team sizes, and budgets to new ways to reach the mass market, GDC:06 will answer the questions critical to the industry's success.

Learn lessons from next-gen, handheld, and current game development, explore collaborations with the film industry and gain access to the people, technologies, and tools that define what's next for our industry.

Conference Highlights
Look for these sessions at GDC:06. They're sure to be standing-room only!
The Game Design Challenge: The Nobel Peace Prize

Eric Zimmerman
(gameLab)

C++ on Next-Gen Consoles: Effective Code for New Architectures

Pete Isensee
(Microsoft Xbox)

Valve's Design Process for Creating Half-Life 2

Brian Jacobson
(Valve Software)

Advanced Tool Writing for Character TDs

Judd Simantov
(Naughty Dog Inc)

Crazy Taxi v. Simpsons Road Rage: Litigating a Gameplay Method Patent

Stephen Rubin
(Law Office of Stephen Rubin)

Big Screen to Game Console: Case Studies

Doug Cooper
(DreamWorks Animation)

For complete descriptions of the over 300 lectures, seminars, roundtables, tutorials and keynotes for the GDC 2006, click here.

Register For GDC:06

At GDC:06 you'll get a first-hand glimpse of What's Next…

• Learn lessons from next-gen, handheld, and current game development


• Explore new production techniques, collaborations with the film industry, and ways to reach the mass market


• Attend in-depth one- and two-day tutorials including the popular Microsoft Developer Day


• Discover emerging technologies and interact with hundreds of innovative companies at the GDC Expo

Register online by February 15, 2006 and save up to 35% on GDC:06 Conference Passes.

For the most up to date information on more than 300 sessions, keynotes, tutorials and roundtables at GDC:06, click here.

Hotel Reservations and Travel Information
The Game Developers Conference offers discounted hotel rates to all attendees and exhibitors. Rooms are limited, and discounted rates are based on availability. Make your reservations by Friday, February 17, and mention the Game Developers Conference for the conference rate.

For information on hotel, transportation, parking, shuttle buses, and more, visit here!


source: GameDev website

Anim!Arte 2005 Wants the Best in Student Animation

Anim!Arte 2005 – Brazilian Student Animation Festival
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
December 5-10, 2005
Deadline: December 2, 2005

Anim!Arte 2005 celebrates the best in student animation from around the world. The best international animation done by a student (outside Brazil) will win the original Animarte´s Tropical Trophy. For more information, visit www.vouanimarte.com.br.

source: awn

Animation Art Auctioned Online to Help Katrina Survivors

Native New Orleanian Mo Willems is hosting “The Pigeon’s Auction For Children Affected By Katrina.” The online auction begins Nov. 15 and runs through Nov. 25, 2005. Willems asked a group of friends who happen to be renowned children’s authors, illustrators and television creators to join him in auctioning off original art, signed books and signed memorabilia to benefit the Foundations for Recovery, a Louisiana-based group that has organized funds for children and education affected by Hurricane Katrina and Rita.

Artists participating include:
Brad Bird (Director of THE INCREDIBLES)
Dave Barry (Pulitzer Prize-winning funny man)
Eric Carle
Kevin Clash (SESAME STREET’s Elmo)
Eoin Colfer (of Artemis Fowl fame)
Tony Diterlizzi
Dave Eggers
Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo
Oscar winner Pete Docter (director of MONSTERS, INC.)
Caldecott honoree Margaret Chodos Irvine
Caldecott Medalist Emily Arnold McCully
Noel McNeil (Bear of BEAR IN THE BIG BLUE HOUSE)
Tamora Pierce
Caldecott honoree Brian Pinkney
Jon Scieszka
Caldecott honoree David Shannon
Caldecott honoree Brian Selznick
Caldecott honoree Lane Smith
Andrew Stanton (director of FINDING NEMO)
Tom Warburton (creator of CODENAME KIDS NEXT DOOR).

Willems will be auctioning some SHEEP IN THE BIG CITY stuff and an original drawing from DON’T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS.

The auction is located at www.mowillems.com or stores.ebay.com/Pigeon-Auction.

Pixar Releases RenderMan For Maya 1.0

Pixar Animation Studios has released RenderMan for Maya, the studio’s next-generation 3D rendering plug-in. Now all Maya artists can enhance their productions with the functionality and prestige of Pixar’s Academy Award-winning RenderMan.

With its seamless integration into Maya’s workflow, Pixar’s RenderMan for Maya is designed for intuitive ease of use while providing digital artists with the competitive advantages of RenderMan’s reknown quality and performance.

RenderMan for Maya is specifically engineered to deliver high-end feature film quality standards to a new and broader audience, and is the result of an extensive development effort placing as much importance on workflow integration as on pure rendering functionality. Proven during extensive production and beta testing throughout 2005, RenderMan for Maya has received outstanding reviews from its advance testers:

“Everyone knows that Pixar’s RenderMan has long been the cornerstone of professional film visual effects work,” said David Dozeretz at Persistence of Vision Ent., formerly of Industrial Light & Magic and the founder of the STAR WARS Pre-Visualization Department. “Now, for the first time, RenderMan for Maya allows visual effects facilities of every size and incarnation to harness the power of RenderMan at a remarkable cost. It’s fast, easy to use and the quality is, as always, simply stunning.”

“We are changing our current pipeline to render everything in RenderMan for Maya,” said Gustavo Braga of Conspiracao Filmes Ltda, Brazil. “As the plug-in is so easy to learn and use, our artists are in love with it and it’s clear to us that RenderMan for Maya is a major step forward.”

“We already decided we would buy it the day it is released…” said Alain Xerri, head of R&D at Sparx*FX, France.

Available on both Mac OS X and Windows XP, RenderMan for Maya can be purchased directly from Pixar’s online store at https://renderman.pixar.com/store/ for $995. Optional floating licenses are available on purchases of five or more copies at no additional charge.

Pixar Animation Studios (www.pixar.com) combines creative and technical artistry to create original stories in the medium of computer animation. Pixar has created six of the most successful and beloved animated films of all time: TOY STORY, A BUG’S LIFE, TOY STORY 2, MONSTERS, INC., FINDING NEMO and THE INCREDIBLES. Pixar has won 18 Academy Awards and its six films have grossed more than $3.2 billion at the worldwide box office to date. The Northern California studio will release its next film, CARS, on June 9, 2006.

source: awn

Pixologic Offers Free ZBrush Plug-Ins

Joe Seig post this beutiliful work on Pixologic's forum

Pixologic has released Zapp Link, Displacement Exporter, and Multi-Displacement 2, free plug-ins for use with its ZBrush digital sculpting software. Zapp Link enhances the program's texturing and illustration capabilities by automating the connection with programs such as Photoshop, Painter, and Illustrator. Displacement Exporter automates and enhances ZBrush's displacement exporting features, with the ability to export 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit floating point grayscale or RGB maps.

Multi-Displacement 2 can be used to generate 32-bit, floating-point maps with real-world coordinates in the displacement map. You can also generate multiple displacement maps for a model by using UV regions. ZBrush is priced at $489 and the plug-ins are free to registered users.

Get the plug-ins from the Pixologic web site at http://zbrush.com.

Mammoth Additions in High Def

November 10, 2005--Mammoth HD is offering 12 new additions to its Mammoth HD Library of more than 200 collections and 2400 clips, produced in an all-digital pipeline

The newest collections include The Bhutan Series 1-3, filled with monks, monasteries, culture, lifestyle, music, and art; Greg Hosman's San Francisco series; and Paul Ambrose's Steam Trains. Available formats include 1080i, 1080/24p, 720p, HDV, and SD. Collection pricing starts at $795.

Mammoth HD offers pther stock footage, 3D animation, and motion graphics in 1080i, 1080/24p, 720p, HDV, and SD(480p). For more details, visit Mammoth HD at www.mammothhd.com.

Resident Evil Helmer Travels to Castlevania

Resident Evil

Paul W.S. Anderson, who developed a name for turning videogames into feature films such as RESIDENT EVIL and MORTAL COMBAT, has been hired by Steven Paul's Crystal Sky Pictures to turn Konami videogame franchise CASTLEVANIA into a feature, reports VARIETY.

Anderson will write and direct the film. Paul and Crystal Sky president Benedict Carver will produce alongside Impact Pictures’ Anderson and Jeremy Bolt.

The story will chronicle the origins of Dracula and the vampire-hunting Belmont Clan. Mid-2006 is set for production to start and no cast has yet been set.

source: vfxworld

Chicken Little Rules the Box Office

Exceeding all expectations, CHICKEN LITTLE, Disney’s first full 3D-animated feature, debuted with an impressive $40M for the weekend ended Nov. 6, 2005. It marks the best opening for a Disney animated feature since LILO & STITCH’S $35.3M back in 2002. Apparently even adults flocked to the movie. In addition, the launch of CHICKEN LITTLE in digital 3D proved very promising as well, turning in an estimated $2.1M in 85 U.S. locations. Universal’s JARHEAD (with vfx from ILM) debuted in second with a strong $27.7M. Lion’s Gate’s SAW II (with vfx from C.O.R.E.) slipped to third with $16.8M and $60.1M so far. Following in the fourth spot was THE LEGEND OF ZORRO (with vfx from Peerless Camera Co. and Digiscope).

The Sony sequel carved out $10M for a two-week cume of $30.3M. Fifth place belonged to Universal’s PRIME, which tallied $5.1M and $13.3M. DreamWorks’ DREAMER: INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY (with vfx by Hammerhead) came in sixth with $4.7M and $23.8M. Shooting up the chart to seventh with $3M was Warner Independent Picture’s GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK.

The George Clooney-directed feature has a cume of $10.9M. Paramount’s THE WEATHER MAN occupied the eighth spot with $2.8M and $8.6M. Buena Vista’s SHOPGIRL rose to ninth with $2.5M and a cume of $3.4M. Holding at10th was Buena Vista’s FLIGHTPLAN (with vfx Lola Visual Effects and Peerless Camera Co.), which turned in $2.2M for a cume of $84.4M. Box office information obtained from boxofficemojo.com.

Rendercore Releases Remote Rendering for 3D Studio Max 7.5

Innovative remote rendering technology, "RenMan" to increases remote rendering options

Rendercore Inc.,the worldwide leader in remote rendering solutions,today announced complete integration and support Autodesk's popular 3D Studio Max 7.5 on Rendercore's state-of-the-art render farm, based in downtown Los Angeles, CA.

"We integrated Auto Desk's latest release of 3D Studio Max 7.5 with our proprietary remote rendering management tool "RenMan" so that clients can automatically upload 3D Studio Max 7.5 project files for job submission and remote management. RenMan is the only solution in the market offering anywhere, anytime access, for monitoring and controlling of computer graphic files rendered over a distributed computing network for 3D Studio Max 7.5", stated Brian Kim, Technical Director for Rendercore.

"We strive to continue to expand and improve our remote rendering service ability and capacity to complement our cutting edge remote rendering infrastructure," Henry Choi, President of Rendercore said, "This is the latest in a series of innovative tools we have developed and implemented for our creative clients. We are increasing capacity and the range of tools available, to enable our clients to work more efficiently and effectively," he continued.


"Being a freelance artist I am often asked to come up with the best quality product in the shortest amount of time. In a lot of cases I am able to get my rendering done on my own boxes, but every once in a while a project comes along where render need to be done yesterday. For my latest project this was just the case; I had hundreds of frames that need to be delivered in a matter of hours... this is where Rendercore came to the rescue. In a matter of minutes the Rendercore support staff was able to guide me through the process of uploading and submitting my file for rendering. Within 30 minutes all of my frames had been rendered and downloaded in a convenient .zip file and I was able to deliver the finished project on-time and on-budget. I highly recommend Rendercore to anyone, it's fast and highly economical. It turned this one man show into a one man army," commented Joel Lelievre, technical director of Intrinsia VFX Studio(www.intrinsia.net)

About Rendercore

Founded in Hollywood in 2002, Rendercore offers on-demand, remote rendering services and solutions for the customers from such diversified industries as entertainment, architecture, engineering and industrial design who demand robust computing resources.

With over 3Tera Hz of computing power built into the latest Intel Xeon and AMD Opteron dual core processors, a cutting edge super computing infrastructure and the industry's first remote rendering software, Rendercore's render farm provides instant on, outsource rendering capacity for users of Alias Maya, 3D Studio Max, Cinema 4D , Lightwave , Brazil r/s, Turtle, Final Render Stage-1.

Rendercore's location in downtown Los Angeles is right on the Internet's backbone and has bandwidth connectivity of OC12, enabling clients around the world to work as transparently and effectively half way around the world as they do using internal render engines within their facility.

For more information, please visit:http://www.rendercore.com

SuperToon Series Storms Europe With Maya MasterClasses

Seminars offer industry solutions for animating toony characters using Maya Techniques

(November 07, 2005) Alias has announced its SuperToon European Roadshow of Maya ® MasterClasses, kicking off December 5, 2005 in Paris. The series continues in London and Copenhagen, December 7 and December 9 respectively. Event registration is now available online at www.alias.com/masterclasses with early bird pricing available until November 15.
This successful series was first seen at SIGGRAPH â 2005 and features presentations by industry experts including: Jeff Bernstein of Disney Feature Animation , Joe Harkins of Sony Pictures Imageworks and Chris Cordingley of Disney Feature Animation as presenters. The following three MasterClasses will be offered in each of the cities on the SuperToon European Roadshow.

Class Descriptions
Super-Toon Series | Modeling and Rigging Toony Characters
This course will discuss the differences in character development between animated features and visual effects . In addition, it will focus on effectively modeling cartoon characters, as well as creating stable setups for stretchy limbs, squashing bellies, character silhouettes and adjustable line of action.

Super-Toon Series | Toony Facial Rigging
This course will examine the anatomy of the cartoon face and will discuss topology, designing a facial system, translating emotion into setup, high-level controls and squash and stretch, as well as integrating the facial setup into the master rig.

Super-Toon Series | Animating 2D Characters in 3D
This course will cover topics such as: 2d vs. 3d planning, applying the principles such as real squash and stretch, cartoon timing and snappy animation , cool cheats, emotion, silhouette and line of action.

Pricing
Single Session (one ticket)
Regular ¬90.00 Early bird - ¬70.00

Two Session Bundle (includes two tickets)
Regular ¬140.00 - Early bird ¬110.00

Three Session Bundle (includes three tickets, Learning Tools and one month FREE of Silver Membership)
Regular ¬180.00 - Early bird ¬140.00

Four Session Bundle*Paris Only (includes four tickets, The Art of Maya ™, 3rd Edition, One Month's Silver Membership FREE and a session on animating with Alias MotionBuilder)
Regular ¬200.00 - Early bird ¬180.00

About Alias

As the world's leading innovator of 3D graphics technology, Alias develops software for the film and video, games, web, interactive media, industrial design, automotive, architecture and visualization markets. Alias has headquarters in Toronto and a custom development center in Santa Barbara with offices worldwide. Please visit the Alias web site at www.alias.com or call 1-800-447-2542 in North America. International contact numbers include: Northern Europe, Middle East and Africa, +44 (0) 1494 441273; Germany, East & Southeast Europe, 0049 89 31 70 20; France, Spain and Portugal, +33 1 44 92 81 60; Italy, 39 039 6340011; Japan and other parts of Asia Pacific, 81 3 5797 3500 and Latin America, 770 393 1881.

source: alias website

Softimage Announces TD Love Tour

November 7, 2005--Softimage loves "Love." Fresh off the 3DLove Tour, the company is ramping up for TD Love, a series of free training seminars designed to help attendees optimize a visual effects pipeline with XSI, do in-depth facial animation, and model using Pixologic's ZBrush and XSI.

Targeted at technical directors and experienced 3D artists, the seminars will feature experts from CG Soup, Pixologic, and the Softimage Special Projects Team, demonstrating how to use Softimage XSI V5, ZBrush 2 and Softimage Face Robot to produce 3D art in a realistic timeframe.


Sponsored by Dell, Intel, and Microsoft, scheduled cities include: New York, Vancouver, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Toronto, and Montreal. For more details and registration information, visit www.softimage.com/tdlove.

New York, USA

December 1, 2005
Location (tbd)
More details and registration coming soon.

Vancouver, Canada

December 6, 2005
Location (tbd)
More details and registration coming soon.

Los Angeles, USA

December 8, 2005
Location (tbd)
More details and registration coming soon.

London, UK

January 10, 2006
Location (tbd)
More details and registration coming soon.

Paris, France

January 12, 2006
Location (tbd)
More details and registration coming soon.

Montreal, Canada

January 17, 2006
location (tdb)
More details and registration coming soon.

Toronto, Canada

January 19, 2006
Location (tbd)
More details and registration coming soon.

Endorphin 2.5 Ships

November 7, 2005--Natural Motion is now shipping Endorphin 2.5, the company's 3D animation software based on Dynamic Motion Synthesis Technology. Beta testers such as Giant Killer Robots and CIS Hollywood have added the software to their respective production pipelines, and the results both companies excited about the enhanced productivity it offers.

"Endorphin 2.5's new active animation features have proven invaluable for creating believable character performances," said Jason Porath, effects technical director at CIS Hollywood. "We've been able to take the realism of motion capture and mold it into a completely different environment, while maintaining the same fidelity of character movement.

Endorphin also allows us to finish animation work much faster than motion capture or keyframe animation. We recently used it for an entire sequence of shots, with each shot requiring between five and 20 background characters, whose performance had to match to live action. We'd initially estimated a month or two for this sort of work based off our experience with motion capture and keyframe animation, but using endorphin we were able to finish it in around a week."

"endorphin 2.5's new motion transfer events and balance behaviors allow us to create realistic custom character animation much faster than the previous version," said Tim Coleman, character set-up supervisor at Giant Killer Robots. "Endorphin 2.5 is also very effective when it comes to developing multiple variations on complex animation sequences, such as several characters interacting with one another dynamically - and the time involved in editing these complex performances is a fraction of what it would take with hand keyed or motion capture animation.

Endorphin also integrates seamlessly into our pipeline; we treat it as we would processed motion capture, importing the motion into and out of Alias Maya via the FBX format. By adding a few additional custom scripts, it's very easy to work with endorphin and Maya side by side."

Endorphin 2.5's feature list is hefty, offering Dynamic Blending, Motion Transfer and Active Animation Events, an Enhanced Collision Mode, Enhanced Character Edit Mode, and more. The software is priced at $9495, or it can be rented on a monthly basis for $1595 per month. Natural Motion is planning to offer a free Endorphin 2.5 learning addition later this month. Visit the company web site at www.naturalmotion.com.

endorphin Siggraph 2005 Show Reel (2:37) AVI (6.6MB)

Autodesk Technology Goes Prime Time in House, Lost, Nip/Tuck and other TV shows

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., Oct. 27, 2005- Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) today announced that its media and entertainment systems and software are shaping more than 40 television shows for the 2005-2006 television programming season. From returning favorites such as Lost and Nip/Tuck to provocative new shows like Prison Break and Rome, Autodesk's technology is relied upon by broadcasters and post-production facilities to realize edge-of-your-seat entertainment.

Mark Driscoll, founder and president of Hollywood-based Look Effects, said, "Everyone knows that Autodesk's visual effects tools provide creative freedom. What's interesting is that this freedom is two-fold. We use the tools to deliver visual effects-driven shows like CSI New York. At the other end of the spectrum are the 'hidden visual effects' shows like The O.C. These types of shows require subtle effects like seamless transitions, color adjustments and green screen replacements. Autodesk's Discreet Flame and Discreet Flint systems enable us to flawlessly deliver both audible wows and undetectable story advancements." Look Effects also uses its Autodesk systems on Criminal Minds, Arrested Development and Malcolm in the Middle.

A52, an Emmy award-winning visual effects and design company, employed Autodesk's Discreet Inferno and Flame visual effects systems on the main title sequence for Rome, a new historical drama. This HBO and BBC co-production envelops viewers in the mystique of the Roman Empire of 52 BC. Created entirely in-house at A52, the title sequence combines live-action and computer-generated elements, including digital graffiti, grain and colors. Autodesk's systems were instrumental in crafting a chariot race from varied-rate footage that required extensive 3D tracking, and for creating a camera fly-through of a dye wall. In addition, the Inferno system has a big role in crime and medical dramas, which use extensive visual effects to play out murders and surgeries.

Post-production facility Digital Dimension recently won an Emmy award for its work on Lost. Digital Dimension used Autodesk 3ds Max animation software to create the chilling crash sequence that set the scene for the entire series.

Autodesk technology - including 3ds Max animation software, Autodesk Combustion visual effects software, Discreet Fire and Smoke editing systems, and Discreet Inferno, Flame and Flint visual effects systems - is being used by customers on numerous returning hits and new shows:
* Charlie Jade and Tripping the Rift (Cinegroupe)
* !Huff, Barbershop, Big Love, Charmed, CSI New York, Deadwood, House, Monk, NCIS, Nip/Tuck, Rome, The Unit and Veronica Mars (Encore Hollywood)
* The Flight That Fought Back (Imaginary Forces)
* ER, Gilmore Girls, Grey's Anatomy and The West Wing (Level 3 Post)
* 10.5 (Meteor Studios)
* Everwood, Hot Properties, Joey, My Name is Earl, Out of Practice, Related and Two and a Half Men (MFX)
* Book of Daniel, Desperate Housewives, How I Met Your Mother, Malcolm in the Middle, Misconceptions, Smallville, The O.C. and What I Like About You (Modern Video Film)
* Cerburus (Pixel Blues)
* Deadwood, Close to Home, Cold Case, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Prison Break and The Sopranos (R!OT)
* Stargate: Atlantis and Stargate: SG1 (Rainmaker)
* CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, House and Medium (The Post Group)
* Battlestar Galactica, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Prison Break and Threshold (Zoic Studios)

Female Anatomy 3D Models Now Available from Zygote

New female anatomy 3D model collection generates photo-realistic medical illustrations

Zygote's Female Anatomy 3D Model Collection 3.0

Zygote Media Group, provider of world-class 3D biomedical models, images and animations, today announced the launch of its new Female Anatomy 3D Model Collection 3.0, which is exclusively being offered through Zygote's online store http://www.3dscience.com. "Historically, 3D models involving human anatomy have been lacking when it came to female anatomy," said Bryan Brandenburg, CEO of Zygote Media Group. "We are proud to offer the most accurate and complete female anatomy 3D model collection available." Artists, animators, bioengineering designers, biophysicists, physicians, pharmaceutical and medical device companies will be able to utilize the 3D Female Anatomy Models for generating breathtaking medical clip art, medical illustration and other 3D scientific visualizations. New features of the Female Anatomy 3D Model Collection 3.0 include an accurately detailed muscles system, deeper sulci and gyri of the cerebrum and surface corrugation of the cerebellum, with the major arteries and veins of the brain. The crown jewel of the Female Anatomy 3D Model Collection 3.0 is a next-generation heart derived from MRI and CT data. Textures derived from actual human specimens and cardiac cycle animation files are available separately.

Pricing and Availability
The collection is being introduced at $9,995 with a regular retail price $13,995. Financing is available. The Zygote Female Anatomy 3D Model Collection 3.0 may be purchased through http://www.3dscience.com.

Free medical clip art and stock medical illustrations may be found at:
http://www.3dscience.com/free_medical_clip_art_stock_medical_illustrations.asp

SuperToon Series Storms Europe With Maya MasterClasses

Seminars offer industry solutions for animating toony characters using Maya Techniques

Toronto, Canada - November 4, 2005 - Alias has announced its SuperToon European Roadshow of Maya ® MasterClasses™, kicking off December 5, 2005 in Paris. The series continues in London and Copenhagen, December 7 and December 9 respectively. Event registration is now available online at www.alias.com/masterclasses with early bird pricing available until November 15.

This successful series was first seen at SIGGRAPH â 2005 and features presentations by industry experts including: Jeff Bernstein of Disney Feature Animation, Joe Harkins of Sony Pictures Imageworks and Chris Cordingley of Disney Feature Animation as presenters. The following three MasterClasses will be offered in each of the cities on the SuperToon European Roadshow.


Class Descriptions
Super-Toon Series | Modeling and Rigging Toony Characters
This course will discuss the differences in character development between animated features and visual effects. In addition, it will focus on effectively modeling cartoon characters, as well as creating stable setups for stretchy limbs, squashing bellies, character silhouettes and adjustable line of action.

Super-Toon Series | Toony Facial Rigging
This course will examine the anatomy of the cartoon face and will discuss topology, designing a facial system, translating emotion into setup, high-level controls and squash and stretch, as well as integrating the facial setup into the master rig.

Super-Toon Series | Animating 2D Characters in 3D
This course will cover topics such as: 2d vs. 3d planning, applying the principles such as real squash and stretch, cartoon timing and snappy animation, cool cheats, emotion, silhouette and line of action.


Pricing
Single Session (one ticket)
Regular ¬90.00 Early bird - ¬70.00

Two Session Bundle (includes two tickets)
Regular ¬140.00 - Early bird ¬110.00

Three Session Bundle (includes three tickets, Learning Tools and one month FREE of Silver Membership)
Regular ¬180.00 - Early bird ¬140.00

Four Session Bundle*Paris Only (includes four tickets, The Art of Maya ™, 3rd Edition, One Month's Silver Membership FREE and a session on animating with Alias MotionBuilder)
Regular ¬200.00 - Early bird ¬180.00


source Alias site

Fusion Cooking with Version 5

3D objects feed into 3DMerge and 3DRender

Fusion 5 - with the word "Digital" now dropped from the product name - was first shown publicly in 2004 and has received a good reaction from effects artists who have had a chance to see it in person. There are some dramatic changes in the new version....from the underlying file architecture to the new 3D compositor to new masking tools.

In the coming months, we'll be taking a more detailed look at this release of software, but in the meantime here is an overview of the major new features.

3D Compositing

2D images can now be applied to planes and moved in 3D space. Multiple 3D objects are then merged via the 3DMerge node and fed into a 3DRender node -- converting the pipeline back into a 2D image. Some of the key features of the 3D support in Fusion 5 are:

• 3D Particle System
  
• Lights: Ambient, Point, Directional, Spotlight (can cast shadows)


• Camera Import from Max, XSI, Maya, and Lightwave


• FBX support for camera, lights, and geometry/texture data

Masks

Masks are another area which saw major changes in the software. The masks are now nodes in the schematic like other nodes -- though their output is a single channel and not RGBA. Each mask node also has a mask input so that multiple mask nodes can be combined before feeding into the mask input on an RGBA tool. In addition to the new way masks are handled in Fusion 5 workflow, artists now have access to double polyline masking so that each shape can have a different inner and outer softness. What is nice about the way these are implemented in Fusion 5 is that initially the inner and outer softness lines are linked -- as well as centered on top of the main mask spline (aka no softness applied). This way, if you only want softness on one side of the mask in some areas, you simply drag out from the main mask on one side and you have one sided softness for that point. In other apps, I've found that starting out working on a shape with identical softness on each side of the spline is more problematic -- you end up having to modify way more points than you have to do with the way this is handled in Fusion. You can also add points on one softness curve without having to add a matching point on the other softness curve.

Bspline mask types are also available -- as is the ability to switch back and forth on the fly between bspline, polyline, and bezier mask types. The mask maintains its shape when doing so (within the constraints of the type of mask).

ASCII File Format

Composition files (formerly known as "flow" files) are now ASCII-based instead of binary files. This allows facilities to access data within the files via internal or external scripting mechanisms. For large facilities, this is a big step forward. That being said, a serious downfall of this is that it does break compatibility with previous versions -- you are not able to load pre-Fusion 5 files into the current release. So keep your old/current version of Fusion around...you'll need it to access these older files. It would be nice to see eyeon or an enterprising third party create a translator for these older binary files, because you never know when you'll need to access an older setup. It would also be useful for compositors who have built up an arsenal of custom task flows for various operations.

Instance Tools

There are now "instance tools" within compositions, allowing you to create a copy of a node and have this copy reflect all changes you make to the original node. Consider creating a color correction node (parent) and wanting to apply this to a different image. Create an instance of the parent node and attach the second image to this instance node. Now when you adjust the color values of "parent", changes are reflected in the instance. Furthermore, you can unlink certain values/sliders in the instance node from the parent. So if you wanted to apply RGB Master Gain a bit differently in the instance, you could deinstance this value and change gain independently -- but still have all the other values linked.

Other Changes

OpenEXR support has been expanded to support multi-channel files.

There is a new "white balance" tool, which allows the user to select an area of pixels in an image which should be neutral and have the software auto color correct the image.

You can quickly drag the cursor from one slider to another in order to create an expression linking the two. This is very similar to the click and drag expression behavior found in After Effects.

Those familiar with Photoshop as well as Flame's batch navigator will recognize Fusion's new flow navigator -- a small box in the corner which allows you easily maneuver around a large schematic.

Artists can connect to bins on other systems over the network instead of only on the local machine.

New vectorscope and waveform views, as well as smaller subviews which can show histograms, inspectors, navigators, or other informational views.


QuickTime Overviews

For a look at these new features in more detail, there are some teaser movies about Fusion 5. The following QuickTime movies from eyeon were created by Isaac Guenard to highlight feature changes and improvements in the new release.

Fusion 5 Overview, Part 1

Fusion 5 Overview, Part 2

3D Environment

Color Correction in Fusion5

Masking

source: eyeonline

Daz Productions Keeps on Giving

Daz Productions, developers of 3D software and models, are giving back this holiday season with Mr. Finnegan's Giving Chest, a wonderful Christmas book illustrated in 3D, featuring Dick Van Dyke as Mr. Finnegan.

"One of my favorite hobbies is creating computer-generated art and imagery," says Van Dyke. "I'm a big fan of Daz Productions and was amazed with the illustrations they were able to create with Daz Studio.

The book, written by Daz President Dan Farr, utilizes Daz Studio (available as a free download from the Daz web site) and content from the company's online store to illustrate the tale. The initial composites were imported into Daz Studio where lighting, cameras, poses and other elements in the scenes were refined. Daz collaborated with NVIDA to use OpenGL to interact with large scenes in real time, and quickly produce test renders. Final renders were created with 3Delight, Daz's software rendering option.

See more illustrations from Mr. Finnegan's Giving Chest visit www.givingchest.com, or download a free copy of Daz Studio at www.daz3d.com.

source: cg world

Click 3x Creates VFX for "Psychedelic" Living Things Video

Click 3x created an animated rock poster populated by the Living Things as well as many other curious creatures in providing visual effects and animation services for Bom Bom Bom, the band’s first video from its debut release Ahead of the Lions on Jive Records. Visual effects artist Mark Szumski, reminiscent of the colorful rock artwork of the 1970s.

In the video, heavily textured and colorized images of the band are layered over psychedelic background graphics and animated circus imagery, including elephants, camels and marching bands. Many of the visuals have a hallucinatory feel as a semi-nude woman looms over the skyline of a city with lions lounging on rooftops. “I wanted the video to have a psychedelic, storybook kind of feel,” explained Sigismondi, “extremely colorful yet touching on some dark and serious issues.”

Szumski pieced it all together from live action performance elements shot by Sigismondi and stock material gleaned from the Web and other sources. “Floria also provided us with some incredible graphic elements created by the British illustrator Steve Wilson,” noted Szumski. Wilson’s work, featured on Neiman-Marcus shopping bags, MTV and elsewhere, itself draws on rock artwork and circus imagery and was one of the inspirations for the video, Szumski added.

For Szumski, the biggest challenge lay in choreographing the profusion of imagery in a coherent and meaningful way, and devising clever transitions between scenes. “We wanted to take it beyond the idea of a simple two-dimensional rock poster aesthetic, which would have been rather limiting,” he said. “Instead, we layered things in three dimensional space which both made the look more interesting and opened up possibilities for more effects .”

In the video’s wild finale, the band appears on a stage with Living Things frontman Lillian Berlin in stilts. Acrobats twirl overhead; horses, camels and zebras dance on stage; fireworks explode and confetti falls from above. “I have never worked so hard on a project in my life,” said Szumski, “but I’ve also never had so much fun.”

The results, said Sigismondi, by far exceeded her expectations. “Mark worked beyond the hours and dedication I expected and it really shows,” she said. “He is fast, but cares about the details.”

Click 3X is located at 16 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10010. For more information, call (212) 627-1900, or visit www.click3X.com.(go here to see the video)


Living Things “Bom Bom Bom” Credit List

Band: Living Things (Lillian Berlin, Eve Berlin, Bosh Berlin)

Production Company Revolver Film Company
Director Floria Sigismondi
Executive Producer Jannie McInnes
Executive Producer Kelly Norris Sarno
Director Rep Niva Chow
Producer Merrie Wasson
Production Manager Brian Fletcher
DP Tico Poulakakis
Art Director Sue Tebbutt
Wardrobe Stylist Carol Beadle
Make-up/Hair Pamela Neal
Editor Jaron Albertin
Illustrator Steven Wilson (Pearce Stoner Associates)

Visual Effects : Click 3x
FX / Animation Mark Szumski
Exec. Producer/Partner Jason Mayo

Add’l Animation Tronic Studio
Susan Armstrong (567VX)

Online Fini Films

LightWave 3D Artists Bring Home Two Emmys

For seventh year in a row VFX Emmy winner includes LightWave Visuals; regional Emmy to 3D series

NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video products, congratulates the LightWave artists who this year won a 57th Annual Primetime Emmy award and an Upper Midwest Chapter Emmy. For the seventh year in a row, a winner of one of the Special Visual Effects category Emmys used LightWave 3D as part of their effects arsenal. Kevin Kutchaver of HimAnI Productions was among the artists receiving the Emmy for Outstanding Visual Effects for a Series, for the effects on last season's pilot episode of Lost. The artists at Wet Cement Productions received an Emmy from the Upper Midwest Chapter of the National Television Academy in the category Outstanding Graphics and Animation - Non-News, for their work on season one of Auto-B-Good, a 3D animated children's series which is currently airing on public television .

"We're very pleased to extend our congratulations to these talented and creative artists as they receive this extraordinary recognition," said Jay Roth, President of NewTek's 3D Products Division. "These projects represent the range and flexibility we have designed into LightWave from the ground up. The perfect photoreality required by the shots for a live-action production and a colorful and stylized imaginary world for children made real and alive, attest to how LightWave 's modeling, animation and rendering capability frees the artist to achieve any vision they can conceive."

Kevin Kutchaver is an industry veteran with more than 21 years experience in visual effects , and credits in 150 film productions, including Hellboy, both recent Scooby Doo films, and X2. For Lost, LightWave was used by Kutchaver's HimAnI team for a variety of 3D elements, environments and mattes, including the noted scene wherein shaking and cracking trees marked the passage of a mysterious, powerful being, sent chills down viewers' spines and revealed that the castaways were on no ordinary island.

"We have always used LightWave at HimAnI, and at the previous company I founded, Flat Earth Productions," said Kutchaver. "We used LightWave back then to help us push the TV envelope with up to 300 shots per episode and 500 per month for series such as Hercules and Xena. These days we do a wide variety of film and television work, and for both, LightWave 's ease of use and feature set let us bring in our shots on time, with absolute quality and exactly the look our clients need. Not to mention it's a lot easier to break 20-foot palm trees in the computer than in real life!"

Wet Cement Productions is based in Edina, MN, and creates family-friendly entertainment for a worldwide market. Auto-B-Good is a series of short stories set in a town where the citizens are automobiles of all vintages, and designed to teach lessons in character for children. All the animation for the series was accomplished with LightWave 3D . Wet Cement Productions is currently finishing up work on season 2 of Auto-B-Good, which will start airing the first week of January 2006.

"It is LightWave 's toolset that has allowed us to realize our dream of telling meaningful stories for a global audience," said Charles Meyer, Executive Vice President and Director of Wet Cement Productions. "NewTek is responsive in meeting the needs of users in a variety of fields, and has made LightWave the versatile and powerful tool that we can use to create entire imaginary worlds just the way we see them in our mind's eye. LightWave lets us bring our productions in on time and on budget - while our artists win awards for the quality of creative vision they've been able to put into the work."

Since 1993, this marks the 13th Primetime Emmy win by artists who relied on NewTek's Emmy-winning LightWave 3D as a key tool in their animation /visual effects arsenal. LightWave users have also won regional Emmy awards in a variety of categories. Previously NewTek had reported that three of the five nominees in the series category for this year used LightWave , but subsequently learned that among the different effects companies involved with the show, HimAnI used LightWave on the nominated pilot episode of Lost, bringing the total to four of the five nominees. For the years 2000 through 2004, all five series category nominees were produced using LightWave 3D as a key VFX tool.


57th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards
Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series

Lost - Pilot (Part 1 & Part 2) • ABC • Touchstone Television
Kevin Blank, Visual Effects Supervisor
Mitch Suskin, Visual Effects Supervisor
Archie Ahuna, Special Effects Supervisor
Jonathan Spencer Levy, CGI Supervisor
Benoit “Ben” Girard, CGI Supervisor
Laurent M. Abecassis, CGI Supervisor
Kevin Kutchaver, Visual Effects Compositor (HimAnI Productions)
Steve Fong, Visual Effects Compositor
Bob Lloyd, Visual Effects Compositor

Upper Midwest Chapter, National Television Academy
Outstanding Graphics and Animation - Non-News

Auto-B-Good - Wet Cement Productions
Charles Meyer, Director
Joth Loder, Animation Director
Mark Dunshee, Technical Director
Matt Meyer, Lead Animator

Ghost 3D updates Max plug-ins

Ghost 3D MicroScribe 3D Digitizer

(Castro Valley, CA) – GHOST 3D, LLC announces the availability of 3ds max 8 (Autodesk) plug-in versions for its line of 3D modeling, conversion, digitizing and reverse engineering products. GHOST 3D products continue to provide digital content creators, designers, engineers, and 3D professionals in Games, Manufacturing, Television, Film, Design Visualization industries with powerful easy-to-use 3D content creation, scan-surfacing, design, editing & output for DCC/CAD/CAM. The newest versions of GHOST 3D’s products include Scribe-iT CAD, Power Modeler Pack, Power Digitizer Pack, ResErect, Scribe-iT DCC and Surf-iT. Additional products are soon to be announced.

GHOST 3D’s Power Modeler Pack and Surf-iT offer a full suite of modeling tools providing 3D content creators and designers with the ability to create accurate 3D models simply using both 3D and 2D design and drawing techniques. Each product incorporates speed and diversity in Spline surface modeling systems with non-linear parametric conversion features. Users can frame out complex surfaces quickly and accurately by drawing, refining and editing using Spline-based patches, convert to subdivision surfaces, editable subdivision polygon objects, NURMS, NURBS, mesh, and then export to popular file formats. Surf-iT and Power Modeler Pack ensure outstanding content that can be used with most tools in the 3D production pipeline. Additional highlights include parametric drag-and-drop 3D-Spline objects, advanced surfacing, and loads of speedy editing enhancements to instantly produce models with superb 3D geometry.

Scribe-iT and Power Digitizer Pack provide state-of-the-art 3D digitizing, reverse engineering and 3D modeling tools that enable anyone to create high quality, accurate 3D models and geometry from physical objects. GHOST 3D’s unique and highly acclaimed digitizing tools revolutionized the way people use CMMs (Coordinate Measurement Machines) and contact 3D-digitizer devices. The company provided the premiere interactive manipulation and animation features for 3D digitizing devices on the Windows platform. Evolved from the very first digitizing solution for 3ds max and Autodesk VIZ, Scribe-iT and Power Digitizer Pack are complete solutions for designers, artists and engineers to design, create, animate and interact with physical objects in 3D scenes. The products provide the power and versatility of multiple creation modes, hybrid modeling, conversion and editing techniques, the ability to incorporate any modifier into the digitizing process. Scribe-iT and Power Digitizer Pack support CMMs, 3D scanners and digitizers through integrated GHOST 3D Systems, including MicroScribe, FaroArm devices and others. Additional versions of the solutions are planned for announcement.

ResErect offers unique Mesh, Patch, Primitive, and Spline conversion to optimized Splines, preservation of animation, rebuilding of the Splines, preparation for surfacing, and special import capability for Hash’s Animation Master patch-based models.


For more information about GHOST 3D products, technologies and upcoming projects, please visit the company’s website:
http://www.ghost3d.com.
Or E-mail:
info@ghost3d.com

About GHOST 3D, LLC

GHOST 3D, LLC is a California based 3D technology developer, production studio and service bureau (www.ghost3d.com). The company innovates custom techniques and productivity solutions for 3D modeling, 3D design, reverse engineering, 3D scanners, 3D digitizers, animation processes, rapid prototyping, DCC and CAD/CAM extensions, visualization and 3D visual effects. GHOST 3D's software solutions are used by product designers, game developers, engineers (biological to mechanical), scientists and researchers, entertainment and film artists, and DCC/CAD/CAM and visualization professionals who need to scan, design, create, animate, measure, edit, re-design, refine, convert and output 3d digital models. GHOST 3D is founded on superb engineering experience responsible for inventing unique 3D digitizing, surfacing and reconstruction solutions that are the first of their kind to be made commercially available to 3D design and animation markets. Subsets of these proprietary technologies and unique methods have been made available via custom development for hardware and software partners, OEM integration of branded solutions for hardware partners, brand-less licensing, and also commercial software and plug-ins for major 3D platforms. Commercialized products and services are available directly via GHOST 3D's web site, and through worldwide distribution and reseller channels. GHOST 3D also markets and sells proprietary and partnered solutions worldwide.

Visit website at: http://www.ghost3d.com

Corel Wins Best Software Award at RetailVision Europe Fall 2005

Corel Corporation is delighted to announce that it has won the 'Best Product: Software' award at RetailVision Europe's awards ceremony.

Corel Paint Shop Pro X was voted top in the software category by leading retailers and distributors in the European PC and consumer electronics marketplace.

Held during the RetailVision Europe Fall 2005 Event, 18 - 20 October in Dublin, Ireland, the "Best of RetailVision Europe Awards" recognise vendors' technology innovation and channel strategies.

More than 130 attending retail channel executives from across Europe voted on the winning products from over 60 entrants.

"We are honoured to receive this highly acclaimed award," said Amanda Bedborough, executive vice president, Corel International.

"We believe it is testament to the innovative, first-rate products that we develop at Corel and demonstrates our strong relationship with our partners.

We are thankful to all those retailers and distributors that voted for us."

source: dexigner

Chicken does it in Digital 3D

With the success of last year's IMAX 3D version of The Polar Express, Walt Disney Pictures has repurposed the Chicken Little CG feature, into a Digital 3D CG-animated feature, with the 'Disney Digital 3D' process. The company claims that it is to be the industry's first presentation using the process to generate a feature into true 3D space. The first step involved the rollout of Dolby Digital Cinema systems to a bevi of 84 theaters. This seems to be a project where everyone gets a run at the technologies, as ILM has generated one side views for all 1,400 shots, and Real D has brought forward several technologies like the screens, software and their glasses, in order to ensure the Chicken Little 3D can be viewed on the Real D Cinema system.

The Real D Systems rely on the projecting of frames at a left-right frame flash of 144 frames per second, which is about three times the rate of traditional film based 3D. As the frames alternate, the Real D system changes the orientation of the light to fit the polarized glasses' angle. A treated silver screen adds to the experience, bringing the perception of depth even further.

The advent of Disney's Digital 3D process is said to be just the beginning for a new experience for the big screen. AWN quotes James Cameron thus: "I think Digital 3D offers an opportunity to do something as profound for today's moviegoing audiences as the introduction of color and sound. This is the next big thing, and I think people are going to respond to these really high quality 3D images."

source: CGnetwork

Form-Z Joint Study Award Winners Announced

Autodessys, developers of the Form-Z solid and surface modeling software, recently announced the winners of its annual Joint Study Awards. The awards ceremony, which took place at the ACADIA conference in October, honored talented designers in several categories, including architecture, product and industrial design, and animation with an Award of Distinction for their winning entries.

The Award of Distinction winners include:

Architecture: Jeffrey R. Olgin, a fourth year student of architecture at Texas Tech University. His project focused on The Institute for Jazz Studies at Fort Adam's Park, site of the Newport Jazz Festival in Newport, RI.

Interior Design: Po-yi Lee, a fourth year design student at the Department of Architecture, Tamkang University, Tanshui, Taipei, Taiwan. His winning project was "Facilities for Relaxation in the Office."

Fabrication: Dan Tesene, a senior studying Fine Arts at The Minneapolis College of Art and Design, submitted the winning project of Manual Fractal and Fossils.

Urban and Landscape Design: Sebastian Guevara Sinclair, currently in the Master's Program at Escuela de Arquitectura, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile submitted the winning project focusing on urban mobility mapping.

Animation: James Diewald, Jon Pietro,
and Mike Rudelphsen, juniors and seniors enrolled in the Department of Architecture and Interior Design at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio created the winning entry "Boathouse at Montrose Harbor."

Visualization and Illustration: Mor Rotbart a second-year student of the Industrial Design Department at Holon Academic Institute of Technology in Holon, Israel, had the winning entry of "Wasp," which was his first project ever created using Form-Z.

High School Projects: Danny Salomon, enrolled in the Advanced Architecture course at the Dalton School, New York, NY, designed the winning entry "le Corbusier's Domino House.

For more details about the awards program and insight into the winning entries, visit www.autodessys.com.

ParticleIllusion 3.0 half price upgrade for Combustion users

Wondertouch has announced a special limited-time upgrade promotion that allows registered owners of the Autodesk Combustion 3 or Combustion 4 desktop software programs to receive more than 50% off the US recommended price of particleIllusion 3.0, the latest version of the company's cornerstone, sprite-based particle effects software application.

Ending on November 15, 2005, the promotion allows Combustion 3 or Combustion 4 software owners to purchase the standalone version of particleIllusion 3.0 for Windows or Mac OS X platforms, at a reduced price of US$179, saving them US$220 on the deal.

The October 2005 emitter library has also been released. Wondertouch makes available new emitter libraries as an added extra. The company also encourages particleIllusion users to create and release their own emitter libraries for sharing with the particleIllusion community.

Designed to customize and modify effects, or create entirely new particle effects to any image, animation, or video footage, particleIllusion has been used in hundreds of feature films, TV episodes, and broadcast commercials worldwide.

The particles in particleIllusion 3.0 are promoted as running faster than those in Combustion 3 and Combustion 4, even with multiple emitters running on modest OpenGL hardware. Included in the new particleIllusion 3.0 are ‘forces’, which influence particles after they are created, to create wind effects for instance.

New Super emitters are included, allowing for the automatic creation of emitters to create other emitters, to achieve new levels of realism and creativity, and an emitter library that allows easy movement of emitters between libraries on your drive. wondertouch releases a new emitter library for particleIllusion 3.0 every month. Over 1300 emitters have been released for particleIllusion 3.0, providing new users of particleIllusion 3.0 with a huge set of new effects to use immediately.

The particle color can also be eye-dropped from the background footage, allowing for a wide variety of artistic and simulated displacement effects, as well as a new "don't erase" function that essentially allows you to "paint" with particles.

Wondertouch website

NewTek Founder Inducted into SA Sci/Tech Hall of Fame

Tim Jenison

Tim Jenison among honorees for 2005 by San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative (November 03, 2005) NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading video and 3D animation products, today announced that Tim Jenison, Founder of NewTek and widely acknowledged as the father of desktop video, has been inducted into the San Antonio Science and Technology Hall of Fame. The Hall of Fame is an effort of the San Antonio Technology Accelerator Initiative (SATAI), which conducted the induction ceremony on November 2, 2005, at its annual Stars of Innovation Gala.

Jenison was one of six inductees, and was recognized for his role in developing the Video Toaster and launching the desktop video revolution, which has had a profound effect on video production world-wide.

"Most innovators take existing technology and improve on existing ideas. What makes Tim Jenison a visionary is that he shatters the current mode of thinking while creating technology that can change people’s careers and lives," said Jim Plant, CEO of NewTek.

Before the release of Video Toaster in 1990, desktop video was simply sending single frames of video out to expensive equipment and laying them to tape one frame at a time. The Video Toaster replaced over $100,000.00 worth of video gear for under $2,000.00. For just a few thousand dollars, entire new career fields opened up for people who could never before have dreamed of having their own production business, including event videography and freelance video production, and the ranks of video professionals expanded by an order of magnitude.


In addition to seeding new video production careers, Video Toaster empowered studios to do more with existing budgets, due to the inclusion of LightWave 3D . This 3D animation , modeling and rendering software was pivotal in the production of television shows such as Babylon 5, Seaquest DSV, Unsolved Mysteries and many others. Since the launch of NewTek Video Toaster in 1990, LightWave has been used in almost 200 feature films and countless television productions. For the last decade, most of the television series that have won Emmy Awards for visual effects were produced using LightWave .

Jenison’s impact on the television world was recognized by the National Television and Sciences Academy with an Emmy Award in 1993. In 2003, NewTek was again presented with an Emmy for LightWave 3D 's seminal role in the revolution of visual effects over the preceding decade. In 2005, NewTek is initiating yet another revolution with the release of the TriCaster(TM). This groundbreaking product brings the dynamics of live television to business and educational presentations, and received five "best-of-show" awards from publications and professional organizations at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) 2005 convention, including from NAB itself. Additionally, TriCaster garnered a 2005 Technical Emmy nomination.


About NewTek
With headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, NewTek is a leading provider of full-featured video editing , live production, presentation and visual effects tools including TriCaster(TM), VT[4](TM) and LightWave 3D ®. NewTek launched the desktop video revolution in 1990 with the release of the legendary Emmy®-winning Video Toaster®. The company's products are used worldwide on projects ranging from home video to feature film. Recent projects using NewTek production tools include Access Hollywood , Entertainment Tonight, ManiaTV, Battlestar Galactica, Children of Dune and The Final Cut. Clients using NewTek's video production products include NBC, MTV, Paramount Pictures, Zoic Studios, FEMA, SBC Center – San Antonio Spurs, U.S Navy Reserves, Yale University Medical School and McDonald's.

Website: http://www.newtek.com

Karen Moltenbrey Gallery

Fruit Here, Price gave Impressionism a digital twist: “I wanted the image to look like a traditional oil painting, but not look like one.” He did so by adding shadows and a metaphysical surface.

In 1988, professional painter/writer Bruce Price of Norfolk, Virginia, made his foray into the world of digital art. Since then, he has spent more than 6000 hours exploring concepts and ideas using the medium, which has become his exclusive palette. The advantages of generating art on the computer are plentiful, Price points out. For example, the virtual canvas lets an artist merge images to create something entirely new, and allows a “creative personality” to forge new ideas quickly and focus on the ones that are most appealing. “I’ve always been an experimental artist; I doodle and hope to get lucky,” he says. “The computer is a natural ally to the artistic explorer such as myself.”

For his virtual canvas and brushes, the artist uses two Macintosh G4s running ACD Systems’ Canvas and, occasionally, Pixologic’s ZBrush.

Price, in fact, believes that the future of digital content creation lies within fine art, and to this end, he is trying to show the high-end aesthetic possibilities of the medium. “I start with a blank screen and try to make something I’ve never seen before. I never use photos or scanned materials, or Photoshop,” he says. “I am not competing with other digital artists in so much as I am competing with those in Artnews (a fine art magazine). That’s why I call my work ‘digital painting,’ to suggest a continuum with oil painting and more traditional artwork.”

During the past year, Price’s works have been selected for 35 juried shows, in which he received eight awards. This past summer, he was featured in two solo shows.

A selection of Price’s works appears on these pages. More images and information about the artist can be found at www.cgw.com. - Karen Moltenbrey

PostWorks Acquires The Lab at Moving Images

"One Source" commitment makes The Lab an integral part of full-service post operation

PostWorks, New York, the east coast's most advanced and comprehensive post production resource, today announced the acquisition of The Lab at Moving Images, New York's newest motion picture processing facility. The announcement was made by PostWorks’ CEO David Rosen.

The Lab, launched in 2002, has offered development of 35 mm, Super 35 mm, 16 mm and Super 16 mm color negative film, as well as cross-processing and skip bleach processing services, in support of a great many high-profile film, television and short-form projects. The Lab has made impressive gains in the New York market, and was recently awarded the processing duties from HBO for the current season as well as eight additional episodes of their award winning series, "The Sopranos." The company has worked with virtually every major commercial production company, including RSA USA, Hungry Man and @radical media, and also names ABC, CBS, NBC, Paramount, 20th Century Fox and Time Warner among its regular clients. The enterprise becomes PostWorks, The Lab, effective immediately. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Importantly, both Domenic Rom and Chuck Roback will continue on in their leadership roles, and The Lab's entire employee list will also join the PostWorks family. It will continue to operate at its present 4,000 sq. foot location at 227 E. 45th Street, and construction is underway for an additional location that will be within walking distance from PostWorks' 6th Avenue location in SoHo.

“Over the past few years, we've built an excellent working relationship with Domenic Rom and his team at The Lab, and we view this investment as a win-win for everyone involved, especially our customers," David Rosen said. “Combining our existing capabilities with a film lab with such extraordinary personnel and a first-class reputation means that we can truly serve as our clients' single source for all of their post-production needs.”

Domenic Rom, a 25-year New York City post-production veteran whose groundbreaking work with Unitel, Duart, Sekani and Moving Images – as well as his proactive membership with the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers – has earned the respect of filmmakers worldwide, shared these thoughts on the new development. “Joining the PostWorks family gives our clients access to the services they need, like high-end telecine, data scanning and tape to film, to name a few,” Rom said. “All of our clients will continue to get dailies quickly and of the highest quality. The fact that we are able to retain all our personnel and add the top people of PostWorks is an added bonus. Combining our operation with PostWorks creates a one-stop option never seen before in New York.”

Rob DeMartin, PostWorks’ chief operating officer, stressed that The Lab's existing customers will experience the same service they've come to expect, courtesy of the supporting staff they've come to know. At the same time, he also underscored another vital benefit for all of PostWorks' existing customers who work in the film medium. “Obviously, these new capabilities will allow us to streamline the coordination between processing and telecine, making it much easier for our clients to stay on schedule.” DeMartin also indicated that PostWorks had recently expanded its telecine capabilities, doubling its existing suites which feature HD, SD and direct to disk film transfer via Spirit 2K, da Vinci 2K Plus and Pandora Color systems.

PostWorks, The Lab is also scheduled to go beyond processing with the addition of advanced printing capabilities. "Today, working with our customers who finish their projects on film, we are often challenged by issues relating to check print quality and turnaround times,” added Joe Caterini, PostWorks’ executive vice president. “When our printing capabilities come online at The Lab, the traditional and Digital Intermediate finishing processes we offer will gain absolute control over quality, on much shorter timelines.”

About PostWorks, New York
Since 1995, PostWorks, New York has emerged as the region's only full-service film and High Definition post facility. Located in SoHo, PostWorks sets itself apart by offering scalable production offices, rentals and the highest level of commitment to quality and customer service. PostWorks enlists an elite team of artists, engineers and producers and has optimized its entire operation for non-linear, High Definition and Digital Intermediate technologies. Our clients include Oscar winning filmmakers, network and cable television programs and award winning commercials and music videos. For more information, please call 212.894.4000 or visit www.pwny.com.

source: digitalproducer