AWN Headline News

Sony Pictures Imageworks will be highlighting its major forthcoming project Stuart Little, a live action film whose star is a fully digital photo-realistic character. Imageworks isalso engaged in production on Hollow Man, Cast Away, What Lies Beneath and WhatPlanet Are You From, working with such directors as Rob Minkoff, Paul Verhoeven,Robert Zemeckis and Mike Nichols.Imageworks is home to some of the industry'stop talent, including visual effects supervisors Scott E. Anderson, Rob Legato,

Kaydara Inc. has announced the launch of FiLMBOX version 2.0, its real-time production system. Incorporating an advanced suite of interactive character animation, motion capture and audio/video tools FiLMBOX v2.0 hosts a variety of new on-line production tools, such as camera tracking, real-time video input/output, and improved character mapping. FiLMBOX v2.0 provides live integration of 3D elements for game, film and TV production into a unified digital environment,

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.