Sin City now has its own convention dedicated to the worlds of science fiction, fantasy, imaginative art in all its guises and influence on technology. From rockets-to-the-moon to your garage band podcast, traditional art to CGI and digital graphics, movie magic, independent film to imaginative literature old and new. Robert J. Sawyer is the author guest of honor and internationally known master of gothic art Brom is the artist guest of honor. Oscar-winning vfx technician Joe Viskocil will be the media guest of honor.

Check out demonstrations of the leading software and pick up pointers from the pros. There will be movies, panels and demonstrations, things to buy and things to try and parties.

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F5 is a new two-day creativity festival coming to New York City April 16 and 17. F5's eclectic lineup is built around "creative collisions" -- moments of lasting insight and inspiration that come from venturing outside your comfort zone and smashing into other ?elds. That's why F5's speakers include people like MSNBC's Rachel Maddow; photographer/?lmmaker Charlie White; game developers Media Molecule; science journalist Jonah Lehrer and alternate reality gaming guru Elan Lee. Of course, F5 will also host Stash favorites like Psyop, Shilo, Prologue, Digital Domain, Tronic, Digital Kitchen, 1st Ave Machine, Simon Robson, Dvein and others. In addition to a slew of inspirational speakers, F5 is also presenting the RE:PLAY ?lm festival -- a slate of original short-short ?lms created by some of the world's best talent. The RE:LAX bar at Roseland Ballroom will be in full effect, helping you lubricate yourself into the weekend. And Media Temple will cap everything off Friday evening with an epic after party. For more details and to buy tickets for F5, visit the F5 website: http://f5fest.com/.

The Savannah College of Art and Design hosts the fifth annual Game Developers eXchange April 16-17 in Savannah, Georgia. The two-day event brings together game developers, educators and students with experts to share their behind-the-scenes knowledge of the game industry. GDX 2009 features four areas of interest in game development: game art, game design, level design and audio. Conference participants can expect entertaining and informative lectures, discussions, interactive design workshops, a reception and the chance to catch up on new and exciting developments in the industry. Additionally, GDX offers attendees access to some of the most dynamic and innovative professionals in the gaming industry. More than 20 industry professionals will be on-hand to share their expertise and knowledge. Among this year's list of distinguished guests are industry giants Clint Hocking, Design Director of Ubisoft, and George "Fat Man" Sanger of Team Fat. The two join art-game genius Jason Rohrer as keynoters for the event. Other speakers include Andrew Bains, senior level designer of the "Gears of War" series from Epic Games; Jason Arnone, art manager at Harmonix; Richard Dansky of Red Storm Entertainment; Susanne Meiler of Destineer Studios and Mark Nelson of Big Huge Games. For a complete list of speakers and to register to attend, visit www.scad.edu/gdx or call 912.525.5218 for more information.

This special media event puts the spotlight on the soundtrack. First held in 1998, it has featured creatives working at the highest levels of media and the arts including Walter Murch, Ren Klyce, Lynne Ramsay, Graham Hartstone, Christina Kubisch, Ken Loach, Carter Burwell, Tom Holman, Lucrecia Martel, Gabriel Yared, Richard Leacock, the Brothers Quay, Manfred Eicher and many others. This year's program features director Mike Figgis, multi-talented composer and dj Nitin Sawhney, documentary directors Kim Longinotto, Gideon Koppel and Michael Grigsby, and US avant garde filmmaker Phil Solomon. Three gifted sound designers -- Pat Jackson, Steve Munro and Daniel Deshays -- will explore film sound design in detail. They will be joined by sound artists Akio Suzuki - speaking with composer and writer David Toop - and Hildegard Westerkamp; neurologists Tim Griffiths and Lauren Stewart in discussion with Peter Howell (member of the former BBC Radiophonic Workshop), radio producer Piers Plowright and film educators Roger Crittenden and Stephen Deutsch. Peter Strickland will reflect on the production of the soundtrack for his first feature, KATALIN VARGA, whose sound team won "Outstanding Artistic Contribution for Sound Design" at the Berlin Film Festival. And Chris Petit, director of RADIO ON and a speaker at the 2005 SOS, will close out the event with a personal perspective on the use of song and music with image. This is a special opportunity to tune yourself in to how soundtracks are created and, more importantly, how they affect your audience. The SOS has gained a worldwide reputation by raising the profile of creative screen sound production. It now attracts an international audience of leading sound and music practitioners from over twenty-five countries who are drawn to its distinctive program revealing the soundtrack from unexpected perspectives. It is a truly international meeting - the only event of its kind in the world. Biographies of all the speakers can be found on the website, http://www.schoolofsound.co.uk/. Registrations are still being accepted. Contact them to assure your place before sending payment. For information about the program, fees and registering: www.schoolofsound.co.uk, sos@schoolofsound.co.uk, +44 (0)20 7724 6616.

The Los Angeles Chapter of ACM SIGGRAPH presents the one night only event: "When Real is Not Enough". This presentation is the third in an ongoing series of panel discussions that examine where the race to photorealistic, realtime graphics and immersive experience is headed in our lifetime and beyond. This incarnation will focus on the creation of virtual humans.

DAY/DATE/TIME:
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
6:30 - 7:30 Social Hour
7:30 - 9:30 Program

LOCATION:
UCLA Design | Media Arts EDA Space
The Broad Art Center
UCLA Main Campus
Los Angeles, 90095-1456

PRESENTERS (subject to change):

Patrick Kenny - Virtual Human Research Scientist
USC Institute for Creative Technologies (Bio: http://la.siggraph.org/biography/kenny-patrick)

Diane Piepol (and WRINE producer) - Project Director, USC Institute for Creative Technologies
LA ACM SIGGRAPH Chapter Chair (Bio: http://la.siggraph.org/biography/piepol-diane)

Oleg Alexander - Lead Technical Artist, Image Metrics (Bio: http://la.siggraph.org/biography/alexander-oleg)

Kawaii Kon, held at the Hawaii Convention Center, will have an expanded dealer's room this year, along with more focused video rooms, and more video gaming. They have lined up guests in the anime and manga industry from both the United States and Japan. Belt out your favorite song in the various karaoke events, or take a seat in the manga library and find yourself a new book. Kawaii Kon has announced the following guests so far: Laura Bailey, Robert and Emily DeJesus, Caitlin Glass, Illich Guardiola, Vic Mignogna, Monica Rial and Travis Willingham Information: http://www.kawaii-kon.org/home/. Tickets are now available at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/137570477/.

The deadline for session and speaker proposals for the 2009 MI6 Game Marketing Conference is Friday, January 9. For the past three years, the MI6 Conference has been the place for inspiration, insight and information around best practices in marketing, promotion and advertising for the gaming industry. And with this year's theme "Mastering the Momentum" you should expect nothing less. Maintaining two consecutive years of 20% growth in the industry will be the driver of discussion at the 2009 event where attendees will gather for discussions about gaming's unprecedented impact on the entertainment industry and how to most effectively harness the unlimited potential to come. Take advantage of this opportunity to share your expertise and experience with the 2009 conference attendees. Submit your best session ideas and speaker suggestions at www.mi6conference.com/submissions/. MI6 is the world’s largest video game marketing conference, bringing together leading industry executives for two days of dialogue, discussion and debate about the international business of video game marketing. Now in its third year, MI6 has emerged as the must-attend event for creative and strategic marketing executives dedicated to serving existing markets and identifying new ones.

The Stoke Your Fires Festival of Animation will return in 2009. This year's animation festival builds on the success of the 2008 event by hosting a month of animation themed events at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery. The festival itself takes place on April 2-3, 2009 and will see professional animators come to Stoke-on-Trent to take part in seminars, lectures and masterclasses to share and develop their understanding of the industry. The festival also has a major international competition element. Last year saw more than 100 submissions from animators across the globe. The Best Animated Short was awarded to Aardman Animations' THE PEARCE SISTERS which now has more than 35 awards worldwide. The competition is not limited to professional animators. The 2008 competition saw many pieces of original and engaging work by student animators. Speakers include Sarah Muller (BBC), Dave King (Animation Director), Sebastian Barker (VFX Specialist), Darren Robbie (Aardman) and Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall (Cosgrove Hall). The organizers of the 2009 festival would like to invite submissions in the following categories: Best Animated Short Best Professional Regional Animation "Made in the Midlands" Best Animated Commercial Best International Animation Best In-Game Animation Best Student Animation See www.stokeyourfires.com for more information about how to submit work to the competition.

MIPTV is the global content market for creating, co-producing, buying, selling, financing and distributing entertainment across all platforms. It provides a unique opportunity to meet the key decision-makers and discover future brands on a global level.

MAXON Computer's BodyPaint 3D will be the focus of a comprehensive Visual Arts Track at the 2009 Game Developers Conference (GDC), aimed at artists eager to learn how to easily create custom 3D textures for current and next-gen games. The session, entitled "Real World Texture Painting Tips for Game Developers," will be led by Kris Orpilla, a character modeler and texture artist at Electronic Arts (EA) in The Sims Studio division, where he brought his expertise to bear on the newest EA hit, SIMANIMALS. In addition to his work with EA, Orpilla is also a frequent guest lecturer at Ex'pression College and holds a masters degree in game development from the Academy of Art in San Francisco. In this session, Orpilla will reveal workflows that are used in-house at EA to quickly generate in-game assets such as those deployed on SIMANIMALS and other leading game titles. Attendees will also learn how MAXON BodyPaint 3D easily integrates into current Photoshop, Maya, Softimage and/or 3ds max workflows. MAXON BodyPaint 3D capabilities deemed especially beneficial by Orpilla include: -- Performance -- shaves off nearly a third of the texturing time compared to other 3D packages -- User interface -- allows for easy workflow customization -- Ability to physically paint onto digital assets -- allows artists to explore variations in visual styles very quickly. Brushes let artists set up dynamics to create an unlimited number of effects. -- Cross compatibility with Photoshop The tutorial will be held on March 27 from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in San Francisco's Moscone Center, Room #2000. For additional information and guidance on working with MAXON software, GDC attendees are encouraged to visit Cineversity, where they will find over 1,000 tutorials, including MAXON-specific product training and a multitude of artist-provided video tutorials.