With host Terrence "T-man" Masson, Creative Planet's
forum has become a hot topic. Check out the new threads on careers in
visual effects, crash zoom shot transitions, the shrinking miniature
FX market and the use of Macs in effects houses. Join the party and
meet the visual effects pros.
In
Our August issue, Internet And Compuer Animation, features a
number of special articles. In the Internet animation section we
feature a theoretical look at what might have happened if animation
legends such as Tex Avery had the freedom of the Internet at their
disposal. Martin "Dr. Toon" Goodman sends that one our way.
Plus, we have professionals currently working in the
Internet animation field give you tips on the latest equipment and
* Sunday, July 23 Saturday, July 28, 2000. New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A.
Last week, we announced that our first participants in the AWN
Animator Affiliate Program are Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbes,
directors of the amazing "When The Day Breaks," which won Annecy
1999's Grand Prix and Cannes' Palm D'Or for Short Film. Now, you can
download the complete program application packet, which includes all
the specifics you need to find out how you can participate as well.
All you need is Adobe Acrobat to read and print out the materials.
Station X Studios Project: Messiah 3D animation development team, composed of Station X president and co-founder Fori Owurowa, Station X co-founder Dan Milling and software developer Lyle Milton, have spawned a new Santa Monica-based visual effects production facility. The yet-to-be-named new companys business plan is to enhance and expand the character animation tools introduced with Project: Messiah at SIGGRAPH 99. The new production house will keep close ties to Station X and the three principals will remain shareholders.
* Monday, June 5 - Wednesday, June 7, 2000. Annecy, France.
Alias|Wavefront announced this week that the fifth major release of their Maya next-generation animation software will feature a universal rendering policy that enables Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited to "float" the Maya Batch Renderer across any number of machines. This new announcement furthers Alias|Wavefront's aim at synergy between all of Maya's tools throughout the production and post-production process and Alias|Wavefront's earlier announcement that Maya 3 will feature a new Trax compositing system further backs up this position.
* Friday, April 28 - Saturday, April 29, 2000. Glendale, California, U.S.A.
Walt Disney and Pixar have yet another trophy on their mantle, this time
it's the grand prix at Imagina 2000. The computer conference and festival,
which started in Monaco on January 31 and then continued in Paris on
February 2, finishing Friday, February 4, is often referred to as the
European equivalent to SIGGRAPH. The events in Monaco included the "Prix
Pixel-INA" awards competition, the Innovation Space, and various
conferences and panel discussions such as "2D/3D Animation," a discussion
In this new issue #18: Cover Story: "Return to Pepperland" by AndrewOsmond. Features: Multiplying the Monster; Newsreel: What's New inToontown; Festival Watch: SIGGRAPH '99, The Montreal World Film Festival,TDIF '99, SAFO '99, and Animart; Doin' It on the Low End: Painting Frames;Women in Animation: On a Roll: NFB Film Keeps Pleasing Jurys; Short andSweet; Education: Training on the Right Side of the Brain; Cartoons:Spliced; In Progress: Bully Dance, A Monster's Calling and Ho-Ho-Ho;
This week's updates to the Calendar of Events includes ten new events for2000, including the Nordic and Baltic Animation Festival Fredrikstad(former Oslo Festival - in May); Zagreb World Festival of Animated Films(June); as well as the L!censing (June) and SIGGRAPH (July) shows. TheCalendar of Upcoming Events is a constantly changing reference source forwhat's happening around the World of Animation. Use it to stay abreast of
The Imagina computer conference and festival is often referred to as theEuropean equivalent to SIGGRAPH. For its 19th edition, in keeping withtradition, the event will start in Monaco, January 31-February 2, 2000, butwill then continue in Paris February 2-4, 2000 with the exhibition of newindustrial developments and technologies. The events in Monaco include the"Prix Pixel-INA" awards competition, the Innovation Space, and variousconferences and panel discussions such as "2D/3D Animation," a discussion
Vivid Animation, a new high-end CGI animation studio specializing insophisticated digital characters and animated effects for commercials andinteractive media, has been formed by Jeff Lotman, CEO. "Vivid Animationopens its doors with a trio of world-class digital animators as itscreative nucleus," said Lotman, CEO. This nucleus, all of whom come fromsenior positions at Digital Domain, includes Animation Supervisor, StephaneCouture, Digital Effects Supervisor, Gonzalo Garramuno and Vivid
The Academy Award-nominated, animated short film, LUXO JR., will accompanyTOY STORY 2 for its Thanksgiving release. Directed by John Lasseter (TOYSTORY, A BUG'S LIFE), LUXO JR. debuted at SIGGRAPH in 1986 to wide praiseof its integration of classic character design with a new level of visualrealism. "LUXO JR. was the first computer animated film where the story andcharacters were more important to audiences than the fact that it was madewith a computer," said Lasseter, Pixar's Executive Vice President,
ASIFA-Hollywood and Glendale Community College present theFourth Annual Lecture Series on "Production Management" with guest speaker,Kellie-Bea Cooper. Cooper, Production Manager at Phil Roman Entertainment,has produced award winning independent shorts in both traditional animationand computer animation which have been featured by SIGGRAPH. She has alsoworked with several studios including Jim Henson Interactive and WarnerBrothers. Her background includes work in live action, interactive, Web,
Digital Processing Systems (DPS), recently released a new animation andcompositing Studio Digital Disk Recorder, dpsReality. Designed foranimators, 2D artists and broadcast designers, dpsReality is based on anewReality hardware system debuted by DPS at SIGGRAPH 99 and IBC 99.dpsReality features include a cuts editor for clip preview and final videooutput, real time graphic overlay, and four track audio with volume and pancontrol. It also ships with a modified version of Eyeon Software's Digital
It's fall and that means new TV! In this month's issue, Amid Amidi tells usabout the newest shows hitting the air. Sharon Schatz gives us insight intothe world of interactive television. Interactive television has beenavailable around the globe for years, but has only just come to the UnitedStates. We also go behind the scenes of Bob Clampett's "Time for Beany,"one of television's first daily live puppet shows, Japan's Toei AnimationStudios and one of France's hottest pilots, "Fats and Moe." We also have a
NPAR 2000 is the first internationalsymposium dedicated to non-photorealistic animation and rendering,including cartoon animation systems and techniques. It takes place at theInternational Animated Film Festival of Annecy, France, July 5-9, 2000 inconjunction with ACM/SIGGRAPH and Eurographics. The symposium will bringtogether researchers and practitioners from academia and industry, showcasecutting-edge research in non-photorealistic animation and rendering systemsand techniques, and present examples of these techniques in original
August is a full month for Animation World Magazine as we delve into thegrowing and constantly changing fields of Computer and Internet Animation.Bob Miller goes one on one with Brad Bird, director of "The Iron Giant."And Karl Cohen interviews Rob Coleman on the making of Star Wars Episode I:"The Phantom Menace." Looking to make your own computer animated short?Mike Amron discusses the cost effective software and set ups available forsuch an undertaking. On the Internet animation side of things Buzz Potamkin
Key Blue Sky staff are taking part in a number of events throughout the conference:
- "Bunny" the Oscar Award Winning short film from Blue SkyStudios will close each showing of this year's SIGGRAPH '99Electronic Theater at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.The conference and exhibition is being held from August8-13th at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
- Chris Wedge will be speaking at the Wiltern Theatre in LosAngeles on Monday, August 9th at Noon as part of theSoftimage SIGGRAPH user group meeting.
Kaydara Inc. has announced FiLMBOX matchmove, a new camera tracking system designed to automatically extract and track 3D camera information from pre-recorded video sequences. A part of the FiLMBOX v2.0 suite of products, FiLMBOX matchmove offers a host of new features - such as automatic track point selection, multiple-camera support, and real-time playback - which will greatly simplify the process of integrating 3D and video footage.
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,
BOXX, manufacturer of high-performance, high-bandwidth Windows NT-based systems for 3D, animation, film, and HD broadcast markets, has introduced the first NT-basedcompositing/editing system for HD as well as RenderBOXX, a completely scaleable NT rendering solution. The BOXX suite of solutions, which are designed to increase productivity and performance, include workstations and complete systems for 3D,rendering, film, and HDTV.
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,
CGSD has debuted the E-Town Building Library, the first in a series of libraries of buildings and other structures ready to use in visual simulation, virtual reality, games, urban planning and visualization, flight simulation, and other interactive simulations. E-Town Building Library is a set of 100 three-dimensional computer models of residential, industrial, and public buildings, water towers, electrical transmission towers, and landscaping elements.
