Category: Visual Effects

Steven B. Cohen, a pioneer in digital technologies used to edit and screen feature films, has joined Ascent Media Creative Services in the newly created post of vp of feature film services. In his new role, Cohen will develop leading edge digital services for use in film production; including digital dailies, location and studio screening rooms, digital cinema previews and the digital intermediate process.

As February comes to a close, so does the awards season, with the Academy Awards taking place on Sunday, the 29th, thanks to leap year. Will it be the momentous coronation of RETURN OF THE KING, the final breathtaking installment of Peter Jackson's ambitious LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy? That's the prognosis.

RTzen announced the arrival of RT/shader, a visual shader, editing tool for production artists, technical artists and programmers. RTZen believes it represents the next milestone in realtime hardware shader development, since artists return to the role of primary author of shaders for realtime applications. RT/shader, which will officially launch at GDC for $1,995, uses a patent-pending technology to automatically create high-level shader language code while the user assembles the shader from standard visual components such as texture, reflection and brightness.

German firm Boll KG, lead by producer/director Uwe Boll, has picked up the rights to bring another game, FAR CRY, to the big screen, reported HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The company adapted HOUSE OF THE DEAD in 2003 and is in post-production on ALONE IN THE DARK with BLOODRAYNE and HUNTER: THE RECKONING in development for 2005. FAR CRY is a first person shooter game from Germany's Crytek. The picture is budgeted at $25 million and should start filming next year in a tropical setting. Michael Roesch and Peter Scheerer, who adapted ALONE, will write the script.

Not content with his theatrical 3D experiment, Robert Rodriguez has fine-tuned SPY KIDS 3-D - GAME OVER for DVD (Walt Disney Home Video, $29.99), which streets on Feb. 24, 2004, making it even more dynamic in the home theater. Thanks to James Cameron's revolutionary 3D camera that he developed for GHOSTS OF THE ABYSS and his upcoming feature, Rodriguez was able to utilize more 3D effects than he originally intended.

Welcome to the launch of The VFXNewswire, the weekly newsletter devoted to all things creatively and technically 3D. Like AWN's sister newsletters, Animation FLASH and AWN SPOTLIGHT, VFXNewswire is designed to keep you up to date on the latest news, articles, events, jobs, announcements and resources from the 3D world of visual effects and computer animation contained within the comprehensive VFXWorld site. VFXNewsire is also our first HTML-based newsletter.