SIGGRAPH 2008: New Tech Demos
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.
Tagged With: Technology
How Do You Cram A Black Hole Into A GPU?
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.
Breaking Claymation Ground With Mary And Max
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).
Reebok Calls On Viewpoint Creative For In-store And Online Infotainment
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 Announces New Facial Performance Division, Alter Ego, At SIGGRAPH
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.
West Hollywood Film Festival Awards Super-Res Film
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
Career Coach: Keep Up with Technology
In this month's column, Pamela Kleibrink Thompson emphasizes the necessity of learning the latest tools.
Yippee-Ki-Yay, Moviegoers! Die Hard Comes Back To Life At The Academy
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.
Gamecaster Licenses Virtual Camera Control Technology To Elliott Animation
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.
Academy's Tech Council Selects Students For 2008 Internship Program
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.
Digital Musings From the Editor:
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's Virtual Camera Control Technology Patent Approved
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a Notice of Allowance for Gamecaster’s U.S. patent application.
Japanese Magic Lantern Show To Light Up Academy Theater
Celebrating the centuries-old Japanese magic lantern tradition of Utsushi-e -- a blend of moving images, light, color, music, storytelling and traditional art -- the Minwa-za Company of Tokyo will make its American premiere performance on Wednesday, July 2, at 8 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood.
The program, presented by the Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, will re-create and examine the uniquely Japanese art form using reproductions of lanterns and slides of the Edo era.
2001 in 2008: A Cinematic Odyssey
Begins: May 21, 2008
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will take audiences on a special behind-the-scenes journey into the making of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY during a program hosted by special effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull and actor Tom Hanks, on Wednesday, May 21, at 8 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Presented by the Academy's Science and Technology Council, "2001 in 2008: A Cinematic Odyssey" will feature never-before-seen images of and an onstage discussion about the technology used in the making of Stanley Kubrick's Academy Award-winning sci-fi epic.
Autodesk Acquires Assets of REALVIZ
Autodesk Inc. today announced that it has completed the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of REALVIZ S.A., the privately held developer of image-based content creation software. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
In Business, Visual Effects, Business, Visual Effects | Headline News | Geographic Region: All, Europe
2001 in 2008: A Cinematic Odyssey
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will take audiences on a special behind-the-scenes journey into the making of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY during a program hosted by special effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull and actor Tom Hanks, on Wednesday, May 21, at 8 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
Presented by the Academy's Science and Technology Council, "2001 in 2008: A Cinematic Odyssey" will feature never-before-seen images of and an onstage discussion about the technology used in the making of Stanley Kubrick's Academy Award-winning sci-fi epic.
Computer Games and Allied Technology 08
Begins: April 28, 2008
Computer Games and Allied Technology 08 is an Annual International Conference and Symposium theming on
Codemasters And RTT Announce Strategic Technology Alliance
Codemasters, developer and publisher of award-winning video games, and Realtime Technology, a leading provider of 3D realtime rendering and visualization technologies and services for the automobile, aircraft and consumer goods industries, today announced a strategic partnership of technology and knowledge cooperation.
HP, DreamWorks Preview Breakthrough Color Display Technology
HP and DreamWorks Animation previewed a display technology at NAB Monday that helps solve a longstanding obstacle for digital content creators: affordable and consistent color accuracy between devices.
The result of an unprecedented collaboration between the two companies, the HP DreamColor Technology computer display provides accurate, predictable color and a simple color management process to assure vision-to-production color consistency in a widescreen liquid crystal display (LCD).
The Digital Eye: Gaming as the Driving Technological Force
In this month's edition of "The Digital Eye," Autodesk's Maurice Patel explores how gaming is driving VFX and Design Visualization through performance, interaction and immersion.
2008 Media Summit New York
Begins: March 11, 2008
The 2008 Media Summit New York is the definitive international conference for media, entertainment and technology leaders. The Media Summit is presented by The McGraw-Hill Companies, co-sponsored by BUSINESSWEEK and Standard & Poor's and produced by Digital Hollywood. The event will occur at McGraw-Hill's headquarters, 1221 Avenue of the Americas in Manhattan.
K2 Network Gaming Co. Of The Year
The Technology Council of Southern California named K2 Network 2008 Entertainment & Gaming Company of the Year.
The awards were presented at the Tech Council's annual gala event on Thursday, in downtown Los Angeles at the historic Millennium Biltmore Hotel.
Now in its fourteenth year, the Technology Industry Awards recognize Southern California-based technology leaders that have made outstanding contributions to the industry over the past year.
Chuck Dages To Oversee Emerging Technology for WB Home Ent.
Chuck Dages, who oversees Emerging Technology for Warner Bros., has been shifted from Technical Operations to Warner Bros. Home Ent. Group. He retains the title of EVP and continues to have oversight of Motion Picture Imaging (the studio's postproduction facility for film mastering, restoration and digital imaging for movies and television) and the Advanced Media Editorial department (which prepares feature films for distribution on airlines, cable networks and broadcast television).
In Games, People, Visual Effects, Games, People, Visual Effects | Headline News | Geographic Region: All
Mobile Braveheart & Shooter Games Come to Artificial Life
Hong Kong-based Artificial Life Inc., a provider of award-winning mobile 3G technology and applications, announced that it has signed a worldwide licensing deal with Paramount Digital Ent. to release two exclusive mobile games based on the multiple-Academy Award-winning movie BRAVEHEART and the recent box office hit SHOOTER.
The advanced mobile games will be of the action genre with real-time strategy features and enhanced 3D graphics. The games are scheduled for release and sale globally in early 2008 via on-deck telecom carriers and off-deck resellers.
Triangle's First Videogame Technology Showcase and Career Fair
Begins: November 17, 2007
North Carolina's Research Triangle Park, home to some of the world's leading companies in the $38 billion global videogame industry, is hosting its first videogame technology showcase and career fair. Local videogame companies will be recruiting to fill more than 100 positions in technical, marketing and sales departments. The event will feature more than a dozen companies and university departments within the greater Triangle area that are creating technology and content for the videogame and interactive media industries.
Participants include: * Emergent Game Technologies
