Actor Leonard Nimoy, who has gained worldwide recognition portraying the legendary character Mr. Spock in the science fiction juggernaut "Star Trek," narrates the new feature length documentary film "The Story of Computer Graphics."


"The Story of Computer Graphics" which premiered Sunday, August 8th at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, will also be shown during SIGGRAPH 99 in Room 501 of the Los Angeles Convention Center. Screening times are: 9-12 August at 9 am, 10:45 am, 12:30 pm, 2:15 pm and 4 pm; and 13 August at 9 am, 10:45 am and 12:30 pm.

Pratt Institute's Department of Computer Graphics & Interactive Media (CGIM) has begun the development of a Research Lab to explore the development of virtual worlds, stereoscopic 3D imaging, and other outside-the-box possibilities.


CGIM is also pleased to announce that Professor Claudia Herbst joined our fulltime faculty. Prof. Herbst's previous position was at the Walt Disney Company, where she trained the company's computer graphics artists.

3Dlabs, Inc. announced that NEC Corporation has chosen the 3Dlabs Oxygen GVX1 graphics accelerator as the mid-range offering for the NEC Windows NT Express5800/53Wc workstation series. Featuring Pentium III 550Mhz processors, the NEC Express5800 workstation line includes a wide range of products from entry-level to high-end systems that deliver outstanding graphics performance needed by most the complex design and engineering 3D applications.

AvatarME wants YOU!‚ is the battle cry of London-based AvatarMe Ltd. at this year's Siggraph in Los Angeles. Unveiling its revolutionary AvatarBooth, the company plans to incubate hundreds of 3D avatars from willing public at the exhibition.

The six month Bristol Animation Course is now available at the University of the West of England, Bristol. It is supported by several animation studios in the region, including Aardman Animations. The course aims to train animators in the craft skills of character and performance animation, enabling them to work in a professional animation studio. The course delivers a Post Graduate Certificate in Extension Studies. According to UWE, 85% of past students have been employed in the industry. There are five places for 2D and five for model animation.

Cambridge Animation Systems will show Animo 3 at SIGGRAPH. This latest version of Animo implements a 3D backbone into the current Animo 2D system, allowing seamless integration of 2D and 3D animation. Animo 3 enables users to load animated model and scene files from 3D Studio MAX and Alias|Wavefront's Maya. Within Animo 3, 3D elements can be translated, rotated and scaled using familiar 3D tools as well as the existing 2D tools and filters; coloring effects can be controlled; and 3D models can be animated with the 2D components.

Crater Software, a Spanish-Canadian software development collaboration, announced plans to launch a series of "satellite" versions of CTP, the company's 2D animation software, at this years' Siggraph. The launch of four CTP Satellites - Paint, Scan, Render and the already-released Pencil-test - will coincide with the release of CTP Version 1.3, also being showcased at the show.

The Visual Communication Design department of Austin Community College offers a work intensive program in the areas of Graphic Design and Multimedia production. The two year Associate of Applied Science degree includes classes in Computer Production Art, Typographic Design, Illustrative Techniques, Graphic Design and Basic Drawing. The Applied Multimedia Technology certificate offers extensive training in 2D and 3D Computer Animation, Motion Graphics, World Wide Web Design, Multimedia Authoring, Interface Design and Photoshop Techniques.

What changes can we expect to come about in the relationship between humans and large data repositories? How will intelligent environments influence our access to information? Is there really a clear boundary between the artificial and the real? And finally, how will the latest innovations in Information Technology come together to help us turn information into knowledge that is useful and meaningful?

Commotion, the award-winning visual effects application, is now available for Windows NT. Commotion version 2.1 marks Puffin Designs' first release for Macintosh and Windows NT. This highly anticipated release is a direct result of requests from thousands of NT-based effects artists who wanted to use Commotion on their platform of choice. Both versions are functionally and visually identical, enabling users to work in either environment without having to find work-arounds for interface or workflow differences.