AWN Headline News

Animators in the TV, Film, and Video Game industries are achieving realistic 3D character animation economically and quickly using the suite of motion capture tools available from Motion Analysis Corporation of Santa Rosa, California. At SIGGRAPH 99, the company demonstrated the latest versions of its products.

"We have customers using our ExpertVision system to capture 1,000 moves aweek to produce a 22-minute TV show in only 10 days using just a dozenanimators. The economy and efficiency of producing digital entertainment

Nothing Real, a leading Los Angeles-based software provider ofhigh performance tools designed for the digital image creation market,is showcasing its flagship compositing software product Shake at this year's SIGGRAPH.

Shake is a next-generation compositing system that offers a broad rangeof 2D features for film, broadcast, interactive games and multimediaeffects applications. Shake offers dramatic speed and efficiencyadvances over traditional compositing packages, without the need forspecialized hardware.

Vicon has announced the latest in motion capture technology - Vicon 8Rt. The final reduction in the production pipeline has been achieved with the Vicon 8 system, producing accurate optical motion capture in real-time. This marks a significant breakthrough in motion capture technology as Vicon 8Rt is not a previewer, but actually produces full body motion capture data without the wait.

One of the fastest growing areas of the booming entertainment technology industry is special effects, and with standards being raised daily by innovative uses in TV, film, and computer games the need for qualified effects artists increases. The Center for Digital Imaging and Sound (CDIS), a private technical arts college celebrating 20 years in operation in British Columbia, has jumped on the opportunity.

Pratt Institute's Department of Computer Graphics & Interactive Media (CGIM) has begun the development of a Research Lab to explore the development of virtual worlds, stereoscopic 3D imaging, and other outside-the-box possibilities.

CGIM is also pleased to announce that Professor Claudia Herbst joined our fulltime faculty. Prof. Herbst's previous position was at the Walt Disney Company, where she trained the company's computer graphics artists.

Key members of Pratt Institute's Department of Computer Graphics & Interactive Media (CGIM) faculty and student body will be participating at SIGGRAPH 99 as follows:

Prof. Michael O'Rourke has been invited to conduct a full-day 3d computer animation workshop at SIGGRAPH 99.

Two of Prof. Don Ritter's interactive installations have been accepted into the Millennium Motel program at SIGGRAPH 99. The installations are "Intersection" and "TV Guides," described at:

www.users.interport.net/~ritter/intersection.html

The six month Bristol Animation Course is now available at the University of the West of England, Bristol. It is supported by several animation studios in the region, including Aardman Animations. The course aims to train animators in the craft skills of character and performance animation, enabling them to work in a professional animation studio. The course delivers a Post Graduate Certificate in Extension Studies. According to UWE, 85% of past students have been employed in the industry. There are five places for 2D and five for model animation.

The Visual Communication Design department of Austin Community College offers a work intensive program in the areas of Graphic Design and Multimedia production. The two year Associate of Applied Science degree includes classes in Computer Production Art, Typographic Design, Illustrative Techniques, Graphic Design and Basic Drawing. The Applied Multimedia Technology certificate offers extensive training in 2D and 3D Computer Animation, Motion Graphics, World Wide Web Design, Multimedia Authoring, Interface Design and Photoshop Techniques.

Vicon has announced the latest in motion capture technology - Vicon 8Rt. The final reduction in the production pipeline has been achieved with the Vicon 8 system, producing accurate optical motion capture in real-time. This marks a significant breakthrough in motion capture technology as Vicon 8Rt is not a previewer, but actually produces full body motion capture data without the wait.

Commotion, the award-winning visual effects application, is now available for Windows NT. Commotion version 2.1 marks Puffin Designs' first release for Macintosh and Windows NT. This highly anticipated release is a direct result of requests from thousands of NT-based effects artists who wanted to use Commotion on their platform of choice. Both versions are functionally and visually identical, enabling users to work in either environment without having to find work-arounds for interface or workflow differences.