Well, as you could tell from my blogs, last week's SIGGRAPH 2009 in New Orleans was eventful despite the rather low turnout. There was a lot of buzz about stereoscopic 3-D, of course, as well as leveraging the GPU for movies, and discussion about the current state of Visualization and what it means for the burgeoning craft of previs. Keep a lookout for some longer interviews I conducted in New Orleans, including Rob Bredow, the new CTO of Sony Pictures Imageworks.

In celebration of Neill Blomkamp's film DISTRICT 9, AWNtv chronicles the no-so wonderful history of human and alien relations.

With Bill Desowitz away at SIGGRAPH, it's my pleasure to give you the Digital Musings this week. Coming soon to a VFXWorld page near you will be an interview with DreamWorks artist Gary Lee on his new live-action/visual effects short, HECTOR CORP. Next week we're excited about our interview with DISTRICT 9 director Neil Blomkamp.

Don't miss our Houdini 10 and Flare reviews from this week. And you can get all the latest from SIGGRAPH at the Animated Travels blog on Animation Blogspot.

Rick DeMott

When the world is in peril... don't call on these guys.

While I get ready for SIGGRAPH 2009 in New Orleans next week, where, among other things, I'm moderating a WATCHMEN panel on Thursday, I chatted with Hoyt Yeatman and some of the talented team at Sony Pictures Imageworks about the challenging and fun CG and stereoscopic work they did on G-FORCE. Meanwhile we have two reviews: FX TD Dean Grubb walks us through Houdini 10 from Side Effects, including the new Motion FX. And Gina Downing from Brickyard FX reviews the latest Autodesk Flare. See you in New Orleans!

Bill Desowitz
Editor

You know you love them. Trailers! AWNtv has a host of new trailers post-Comic-Con for your viewing delight. The Trailer Hitch Top Ten has the newest trailers and clips you don't want to miss. ALICE IN WONDERLAND. MARVEL ANIME.

TRON: LEGACY. STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS Season 2. NINJA ASSASSIN. GREEN LANTERN: FIRST FLIGHT and more!

Check them out at AWNtv.com.

This week in AWN's Forums, a member wants to know if the industry still using gouache paint or is it all done digitally?

HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE opened with a record five-day domestic gross of $158 million, and we have in-depth coverage of the impressive vfx, which has taken a decidedly naturalistic turn, thanks to director David Yates. We provide an overview in Part 1 with Tim Burke, the overall vfx supervisor, and the diverse work supplied by Double Negative, MPC and Rising Sun Pictures. In Part 2, we explore ILM's great fire and water simulation along with the eerie Inferi character animation.

Inspired by Ross Bollinger's wonderful PENCILMATION series, AWNtv celebrates simplicity in design.

This week in AWN's Forums, a member has some questions about a project they're working on, including how to get the character to be super-imposed in front of a locked-off video shot.