Sony Electronics is teaming with FOX Sports and a roster of technology providers to deliver the first live 3-D presentation of next month's college football FedEx Bowl Championship Series (BCS) National Championship Game between the University of Florida and University of Oklahoma. The announcement was made during the Sports Video Group annual League Technology Summit.
Korean computer graphics company FXGear will release its cloth simulation software Qualoth in the market for sales on December 8.
FXGear has entered into a technology license and support services agreement with DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. for the use of technology behind cloth simulation. This is FXGear's first technical support services agreement with a major Hollywood film studio.
Davie Johnston is joining the exec board as Chief Technology Officer at Moving Picture Company (MPC). An accomplished engineer with a strong interest in design, Johnston has been with the company for 14 years working in all aspects of technology and engineering.
Most recently as Head of Strategic Projects, Johnston project managed the design and build of MPC's new office in Santa Monica, California. Prior to this; he was Head of Technology for the commercials and TV department responsible for running and development of the technology team.
Singapore will be the host of the world's first fully 3-D based film and entertainment technology festival taking place November 19-23, 2008. The Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) will host the festival officially named 3DX: 3D Film & Entertainment Technology Festival. Jim Chabin of 3D Partners will serve as 3DX executive producer of the five-day event taking place in Asia. The festival is supported by the Singapore Tourism Board (STB).
MADAGASCAR: ESCAPE 2 AFRICA, which opened number one at the domestic box office this weekend, was achieved through the combination of HP technology and DreamWorks Animation's creativity.
Alienware, Dell's premier high-performance PC gaming brand, launches the all-new M17 notebook, continuing its strong tradition of pushing gaming performance limits through state of the art technology, wrapped in the iconic Alienware style.
Available today in the U.S. and Europe, the 17-inch Alienware M17 is powered by the world's first mobile quad-core processor, the Intel Core2 Extreme QX9300, and is Alienware's first notebook with ATI CrossFireX multi-GPU technology, featuring dual ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3870 cards.
In this month's issue of "The Digital Eye," Rob Pieké explores the inner workings of R&D at London-based MPC, where ALICE, Furtility, PAPI and Tickle reign.
Autodesk, Inc. and Avid Technology, Inc. have signed a definitive agreement for Autodesk to acquire substantially all of the assets of Avid's Softimage business unit for approximately $35 million.
With 3-D productions on the rise, advances in stereoscopic motion picture technology enable filmmakers to reach audiences in more ways than ever before. On Friday, October 17, at 8 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technology Council will offer an in-depth analysis of 3D techniques in "Getting Perspective II: The Art and Science of 3-D Motion Pictures."
With 3-D productions on the rise, advances in stereoscopic motion picture technology enable filmmakers to reach audiences in more ways than ever before. On Friday, October 17, at 8 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technology Council will offer an in-depth analysis of 3D techniques in "Getting Perspective II: The Art and Science of 3-D Motion Pictures."
Harnessing the best of local expertise and the latest in advanced engineering technology, Weta Digital has completed their purpose-built, extreme density data center.
Animation R&D studio Kickstand has released StretchMesh, a breakthrough in character deformation technology for animation production. Kickstand's Core Deformation Technology StretchMesh calculates the local coordinates of polygonal vertices to achieve stretchy deformations that look and behave like skin without the need for complicated muscle systems or simulation.
"StretchMesh enables a whole new level of interactivity and realism in character technology," said Daniel Dawson, Kickstand Partner and StretchMesh creator.
Dr. Woo Paik, President and Chief Technology Officer of LG Electronics Inc., has received the highest technical honor bestowed on an individual by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences -- the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Emmy Award.
Eric Post reports back from SIGGRAPH's newly named New Tech Demos (formerly Emerging Technologies) to tell us what the cutting edge will be in the future.
The NVISION 08 visual computing conference, being held in San Jose, California on August 25-27, includes a CUDA Developer Conference for software developers interested in accelerating their applications using the NVIDIA CUDA software development environment, which is based on the industry-standard C programming language.
Australian film and television company Melodrama Pictures has captured the attention of international animation companies with its latest creation MARY AND MAX. In partnership with Stop Motion Pro and XDT, Melodrama Pictures has developed animation technology to create its first claymation feature. MARY AND MAX is the first feature film from the Academy Award winning team Melanie Coombs and Adam Elliot (Best Animated Short for HARVIE KRUMPET).
Looking to articulate the state-of-the-art technology that goes into their cross-training and running shoes, sports apparel manufacturer Reebok turned to Viewpoint Creative, the award-winning creative agency specializing in lifestyle and entertainment brands.
Viewpoint created an in-store/online infotainment campaign that featured five different technologies developed by Reebok. Each vignette distilled these complex technologies in a clear and visually captivating point of purchase video that worked for both in-store and online.
Pendulum's AlterEgo team will be presenting their technology at SIGGRAPH along with examples from some of their recent projects at the Vicon booth (#1101) on Tuesday August 12 at 12:15 p.m., Wednesday August 13 at 12:15 and 4:30 p.m., and Thursday August 14 at 11:10 a.m.
The AlterEgo team, armed with their most recent innovation and Vicon's new T160 cameras will be giving a demonstration of an unprecedented high-res real-time facial mocap visualization technology, during each of their presentations.
SOUNDS, the first-ever full length movie produced with Super-Resolution Technology, came home with multiple awards in several categories at the recently completed West Hollywood International Film Festival.
Competing against 400 other independent films submitted to the first annual West Hollywood International Film Festival, SOUNDS won a total of four prestigious awards including:
Best Science-Fiction Comedy FeatureBest New TechnologyBest Visual EffectsSpecial Juror Award
In this month's column, Pamela Kleibrink Thompson emphasizes the necessity of learning the latest tools.
Considered by many to be a benchmark in the action genre, DIE HARD will screen at a special 20th anniversary event on Wednesday, August 14, at 7:30 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. Presented by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Science and Technology Council, the evening also will feature an onstage panel discussion with several key members of the film's sound and visual effects teams, who will highlight the role motion picture science and technology played in shaping the movie. Film historian and author Eric Lichtenfeld will moderate the panel.
The Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has selected three students to participate in a summer internship program designed to provide real-world experience to students interested in careers in motion picture computer graphics and animation technology.
As we head into the July 4th holiday weekend, VFXWORLD looks at the striking vfx in a trio of animated features this summer, courtesy of J. Paul Peszko: WALL-E, KUNG FU PANDA and HORTON HEARS A WHO! In addition, we have the fifth excerpt from MAYA 2008 CHARACTER MODELING AND ANIMATION by Tereza Flaxman (Thomson Course Technology). This one's about NURBS Surface Tools. Have a great Fourth!
Bill DesowitzEditor
Gamecaster has licensed its patented virtual camera control technology to Elliott Animation, a full-range animation studio located in Toronto, Canada. Elliott Animation has integrated Gamecaster's technology into the studio's production pipeline, and is using the technology to film Amberwood Ent.'s ROLLBOTS, a 26 episode 3-D animated action-comedy TV series for kids, commissioned by Canada's YTV, a division of Corus Ent., Inc.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a Notice of Allowance for Gamecaster’s U.S. patent application.
