Category: Visual Effects

Renn Prod. and producer Claude Berri have scrapped plans to produce a third live-action feature in the ASTERIX franchise, reported the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. ASTERIX AND OBELIX IN SPAIN had been scheduled to start shooting next spring in Spain. Director Gerard Jugnot (MONSIEUR BATIGNOLLE) had been assigning directing duties and Christian Clavier and Gerard Depardieu were set to reprise their roles.

The 5th Annual Scriptapalooza Screenwriting contest announced its quarter and semi-finalists on August 7, 2003. Out of 2,947 entries, the panel of industry judges whittled down the list to 126 semi-finalists with 321 making the quarter finals list. Sponsors of the contest include Screenwriting Expo, Screenplay.com, Ink Tip and FILMMAKER MAGAZINE.

For the upcoming feature FREDDY VS. JASON, Freddy vs. Jason Prod used Eyetronics mobile scanning services. The filmmakers chose the technology so they could increase the quality of the visual effects and meet their goals within their tight 10-week production schedule.

At SIGGRAPH 2003, BOXX Technologies announced it has entered into a strategic partnership with Discreet to offer 3ds max with its XXtreme series of 3DBOXX workstations. In addition, the company announced the release of CineBOXX [review], the first component in the CineBOXX series of digital intermediate systems for real-time playback of 2K DPX and Cineon files at 24fps, as well as an upgrade to its HD editing and compositing system, HDBOXX.

TroubleMaker Studios and Janimation animators used AMD processors with hardware support from BOXX and NVIDIA, as well as software from Microsoft and Softimage on SPY KIDS 3D: GAME OVER. The third installment of Robert Rodriguez' highly successful family franchise features stereoscopic elements enhanced with 3D glasses.

Turbo Squid has announced the certification and release of cgCharacters Absolute Character Tools (ACT) 1.6 Pro as a Discreet Certified 3ds max Plug-in. ACT is a fast and stable production platform that offers a wide array of character modeling and animation features. In addition to cgMuscle objects, ACT also includes tools and objects (cgTubes) to create skinned proxy characters that deform and animate in realtime.

SPEC's Graphics Performance Characterization (SPEC/GPC) group has launched a new program that gives non-members of the organization access to its benchmarking review and publication processes. SPEC/GPC's SPECviewperf and SPECapc application-based benchmarks are considered worldwide standards for objective performance measurement. SPECviewperf offers direct performance comparisons of graphics hardware running datasets from popular CAD/CAM, digital content creation and visualization applications.