‘Rise of the...
As expected, DreamWorks Animation made an early splash at the Cannes Film...
Archive
SIGGRAPH Recruiters Hum ‘O, Canada’
A look at which studios are looking to hire at the big CG confab. SIGGRAPH may be the preeminent annual meeting of international computer graphics cognoscenti, but they typically need to travel to a U.S. city to attend. This year’s choice of Vancouver, British Columbia seems particularly fitting, however, given [...]
SIGGRAPH – The Quiet Revolution
A timely SIGGRAPH panel examines the pros and cons of distributed production. SIGGRAPH is always a showcase for whiz-bag images of digital destruction, virtual flames and flowing, photo-real hair. This year, a less obvious but profound development in modern image making is also receiving attention at a panel discussion entitled [...]
Streaming the Supernatural
Filmakademie students find an infrared ‘Key’ Perhaps nobody knows better than student filmmakers that ‘necessity is the mother of invention.’ For a group at Germany’s Filmakademie Baden-W’rttemberg, the challenges of making a student film with unique visual effects led, quite directly, to the development of a camera technology they call [...]
Randy Cartwright’s Timely iPhone App
Veteran animator Randy Cartwright knows a thing or two about timing. Having worked on such diverse films as Aladdin, Charlotte’s Web, Shrek and Pirates of the Caribbean, he’s tackled a broad range of animation challenges. But he’s always missed having one simple tool that would make the frame-by-frame art of [...]
A Fruitful Challenge for Asian-Pacific Students
Dedicated professionals from Lucasfilm, Rhythm & Hues and Rising Sun Pictures help launch Autodesk’s successful animation boot camp. The pros came from Singapore, America and Australia, bringing animation expertise gained on The Clone Wars, Happy Feet, Terminator Salvation and many more high-profile projects. Lucasfilm Animation’s Ben Huber, Rhythm & Hues’ [...]
Toons for Tunes
Although MTV has long abandoned music videos, a new crop of imaginative music videos are keeping the genre alive by using stylish animation and cutting-edge vfx. ‘Number One with a bullet’ is a classic music business moniker for a chart-topping song. But the phrase takes on new meaning when applied [...]
San Jose State Students Capture Bin Laden
With the aid of SJSU students, writer-director Scott Sublett’s Flash-animated feature hits the festival circuit and gets a DVD release. September 2009 marked a milestone for students at San Jose State University in Silicon Valley, California. That’s when Cinequest Distribution released the DVD of Bye-Bye Bin Laden, a Flash-animated feature [...]
Guinea Pigs to the Rescue
VFX guru and helmer Hoyt Yeatman discusses the gee-whiz 3-D effects of G-Force. It all started in a five-year-old boy’s imagination. Several years ago, the son of Oscar-winning effects artist Hoyt Yeatman brought a guinea pig home from school, and then started imagining the animal as a commando. ‘He was [...]
Buddy, Can You Spare a Job?
VFX company recruiters reveal how to get’and keep’a job during the economic downturn. Panels focusing on how to get a job are always among the best-attended at SIGGRAPH. But this year’perhaps reflecting the tough economic times’there will also be a panel focusing on keeping a job. Among the panelists will [...]
CG on the Fly
SIGGRAPH spotlights real-time animation People who work with real-time animation don’t often see their work projected at SIGGRAPH. Whenever real-time projects have appeared in the conference’s premier show, the Electronic Theater, they’re usually pre-rendered game cinematics scattered amongst vfx-driven movie sequences’an arrangement that Microsoft’s Evan Hirsch calls ‘a two-game sorbet.’ [...]
BBC Says Good-Bye to...
The BBC Trust has confirmed that children’s programs will no longer be shown...
Nextrendz Releases Stylus for...
If you’ve been looking for ways to get an edge over your friends as you play...
