I was having lunch recently with some old friends and the conversation turned, as it often does, to a gripe session about the state of the industry.  Nothing seemed to any good any more and as I worked on my # 6-combination plate I listened with a full mouth but an open ear as one after another of my companions lamented the present day industry landscape.  To listen to these guys we were all but done, our chances were about as good as Joan Rivers swearing off plastic surgery.

We checked out the newest addition to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles library of video games; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up for the Nintendo Wii. Hit the jump to see if we thought this game was a... "shell" of a good time. (I couldn't resist!)

Kevin Geiger and local government officials look at model of planned Zhengzhou Animation Base, scheduled for completion in 2 years.

The First International Zhengzhou Animation Forum and Trade Fair in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, China, brought together provincial officials and 50 foreign visitors from the US, Europe and Asia.

NBA 2K10's NBA Spokesman, Kobe Bryant. (Credit 2K Games/NBA 2K10)

In a world where gaming satisfaction is only a minute away with the advent of high-speed internet and next generation consoles, it makes me think back to the games of old, and what our new tech could have done to salvage them.  Hit the jump for more!

Tekken 6

The holiday season means one thing: family. Fortunately Namco Bandai has provided a great coping mechanism. No, not eggnog. With the release of Dragon Ball Revenge of KIng Piccolo and Tekken 6, we've got fighting, fighting, and more fighting!  

Full Metal Panic

In an alternate world where the Cold War is not over and China is divided like post-war Germany, the para-military outfit Mithril utilizes their bio-mech suits to play the role of international police. Whether it is the desert of North Africa or the streets of Hong Kong, they defend human rights and battle the rogue organization called Amalgam.

Finally I understood I am not indestructible so I have to decide to focus myself on highlights and to give the essence of the moment. This is how I proceeded to write this Day 3 Report for VIEW Conference 2009, in Turin.

Michael Giacchino

Michael Giacchino, great anchorman, entertained us with the Italian Wedding Party he ended up without being aware of it. People dancing, drinking and singing. He is an American soundtrack composer who has composed scores for movies, television series and video games.

During his workshop he shared an avalanche of background tips and techniques on his work. For instance: Michael writes the score for a scene very quickly, even in a day. Because he gets to see the entire movie before its completed and he can map each shot and satisfy the requirements.

Here is a nice design advice, which I find very useful in many other fields, Giacchino approaches a soundtrack writing job with this question: whats my feeling for this film if I have to reduce it to one chord? It is really a great way to distill the essence of a project.

While the Maestro drives the audience with questions and answers like if they were instrument players, frames of his films went on the big screen: Mission Impossible III, UP, Star Trek. I could feel the mood being created in the hall thanks to the music playing. He is right, some movies should have only music and no dialogues...

Because, also true, as he said, if the music is working well you are not conscious of it.

Mike Springer of Google

Too much work, too little sleep. So many friends, old and new. Amazing things flying on the big screen. This is VIEW Conference 2009. But everything has a price, like not being able to make it for the first session in the morning.

Since in one of my many past lives I also taught computer graphics to American architecture students in Rome, I have quite an interest in 3D applications for modeling and visualization. So, with another coffee, I attended the Workshop: “Using Google SketchUp for Design and Geo-Modeling: A Beginner's Course” with Mike Springer, Software Engineer at that small, un-known, provincial company named Google.

SpongeBob SquarePants: Truth or Dare © Viacom International, Inc.

SpongeBob SquarePants’s been around for either a decade or ‘eleventy-seven’ years, depending on whether you go by the calendar or by the irrational number thrown around in the absorbent and yellow and porous one’s tenth anniversary special, Truth or Square.

 Scooby Doo aside, I can’t think of another TV cartoon character who’s broken into the mainstream with the same staying power as the classic Warner and Disney characters. The Flintstones and Scoob may be fondly remembered by many, but when was the last time you completely cracked up watching them? (For me frankly, never.)

Apart from laughing at the nonstop gags, I completely lost it at least four or five times during the special, which juggles two plotlines: the sponge and friends preparing for the Krusty Krab restaurant’s eleventy-seventh anniversary, and a live-action parallel story (rivaling some of SCTV’s more inspired episodes in sheer goofballiness) following Patchy the Pirate’s flop sweat-drenched attempt to put together an all-star salute to the Sponge.

The public packs into VIEW 09.

The VIEW Conference 2009 [http://www.viewconference.it/] is the 10th International Computer Graphics Conference, which started on November 4^th and will last until the 7^th of November 2009. It's held in the beautiful city of Turin, in the north of Italy, where I had the pleasure of attending this event, now for the fourth time.

Previously I have had the opportunity to tell the wonderful series of events happening at the Torino Incontra Conference Center to a magazine, a blog, and a CG portal. This year I have the great honour to talk to Animation World Network's readers.

The sparkling energy behind VIEW is Maria Elena Gutierrez who is driving a group of partner institutions, private and public sector, in investing in innovation and knowledge-sharing in the field of Technology and Creativity.