People new to 3D animation and computer graphics now have two beginners' guides created by Alias to help them discover the creative and professional possibilities Maya 7 and Alias MotionBuilder can offer. THE MAYA 7 BEGINNER'S GUIDE BUNDLE and the ALIAS MOTIONBUILDER BEGINNER'S GUIDE are in DVD format and available online at www.alias.com/learningtools.
Kicking off January's highly anticipated Rose Bowl, ABC Sports has tapped Concrete Pictures to produce the open for the Bowl Championship Series' (BCS) National Championship game between University of Southern California and the University of Texas. The 1:40 spot, helmed by Tripp Dixon, will feature famed college football broadcaster Keith Jackson guiding fans through the thrilling tale of the 2005 college football season.
Valve released a 64-bit version of its Source game engine technology. The first 64-bit Valve games released will be native 64-bit versions of HALF-LIFE 2 and LOST COAST, and have been developed to take advantage of AMD Athlon 64 FX processor-based systems.
The 64-bit versions of these games are being offered to all HALF-LIFE 2 owners via Steam, Valve's online platform for delivering games and digital content directly to users around the world.
For the newest ANY ROAD spot to promote the launch of the 2006 Lexus IS sport sedan, A52 was asked to "winterize" it from beginning to end.
"We have a long history of relying on A52 for complex visual feats," explained Jack Epsteen, exec producer with ad agency Team One, "and in this case, we felt that tapping into the company's artistic expertise to add snow effects to this spot would be an interesting way to back-up the 'Why live in one dimension' tagline. They met the challenge in their typical exemplary style."
ProMAX Systems Inc. and BOXX Technologies Inc. will jointly deliver a broad range of specialized media creation products for film, video and broadcast professionals.
BOXX's, is to rapidly make new performance technologies available to creative professionals to improve the efficiency of their workflow. ProMAX delivers stability, performance and high quality support in advanced integrated video systems.
Although Universals KING KONG has not yet turned into the holiday juggernaut that most industry observers predicted, it muscled its way past Buena Vistas THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE to retain its box office lead during the four-day holiday weekend ended Dec. 26, 2005.
For the latest Acrobat version of ANIMATION WORLD MAGAZINE, which is now online, the theme focuses on commercials, ids and music videos. Rick DeMott for the third year collects the best in animated and visual effects commercials, Ids and music videos in Hot Spots III. John Cawley chronicles the rise of animated virtual band Gorilaz. Karen Raugust looks at how digital video recorders challenge the traditional TV spot, animated and live-action, but also create new advertising opportunities. Joe Strike ventures out to survey the music video scene to see whos animating memorable work.
TELETOON has a host of new programming to kick off 2006.
Three kids' shows ATOMIC BETTY, FOSTER'S HOME FOR IMAGINARY FRIENDS and THE GRIM ADVENTURES OF BILLY AND MANDY will debut new episodes.
Here are some of the stories viewers tuning in to these shows can expect on ...
PBS KIDS will launch a new preschool series, ITS A BIG BIG WORLD, featuring learning age-appropriate science and geography concepts from award-winning television veteran Mitchell Kriegman (BEAR IN THE BIG BLUE HOUSE, CLARISSA EXPLAINS IT ALL) on Jan. 2, 2006 (check local listings). The series diverse group of characters and lush rainforest home are brought to life through Shadowmation, a unique, patented process combining puppetry, animatronics and computer-generated animation.
The French postal service, La Poste, has honored THE SIMS franchise with an official postage stamp. Published in limited edition of three million units, Les Sims is one of 10 stamps in the Heroes of Videogames collection featuring the industrys most beloved icons.
The set retails for 2.65 euros (approximately $3.09 USD) and is available now in French post offices and through La Poste's website at www.timbres.laposte.fr/eng.
Kids' WB! and Cartoon Network have acquired 26 episodes of the original animated series, MONSTER ALLERGY, from Italian animation production company Rainbow S.r.l.
Billy Dexter has been appointed MTV Networks first evp/chief diversity officer (cdo). This new executive position creates a senior leader of the company's global initiatives to foster the highest levels of diversity throughout every aspect of its businesses. Dexter reports to Judy McGrath, chairman/ceo of MTV Networks, and will represent diversity issues on her executive strategy team.
Autodesk Inc. has begun shipping Autodesk Combustion 4 software for Apple Macintosh. Combustion 4, Autodesk's desktop visual effects software consists of a powerful feature set, including vector paint, particles, effects, animation and 3D compositing. This new version for the Mac operating system streamlines the creative process for visual graphics creation by providing enhanced interoperability with third-party desktop applications, improved paint tools and workflow efficiency.
Sony Corp. of America has appointed Tim Schaaff has been appointed to the newly-created position of svp of Software Development, effective immediately. Schaaff reports to Keiji Kimura, evp and officer in charge of Technology Strategy of Sony Corp.
SUPERMAN RETURNS director Bryan Singer has hired documentary director Kevin Burns to make LOOK UP IN THE SKY: THE AMAZING STORY OF SUPERMAN, Variety reports.
Singer will exec-produce with Burns and is working with Warner Bros. on plans to get the feature-length doc a theatrical release and a TV viewing before Warner bows SUPERMAN RETURNS on June 30.
Singer met Burns when he was a film student and was impressed with CLEOPATRA: THE FILM THAT CHANGED HOLLYWOOD, which Burns co-directed with Brent Zacky, and EMPIRE OF DREAMS: THE STORY OF THE STAR WARS TRILOGY.
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE will be released spring 2006 in China.
The first half of BATTLESTAR GALACTICA's second season comes to DVD just in time for the holidays (Universal Studios Home Ent., $49.98). SEASON 2.0 further explores creator Ron Moore's (STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE and CARNIVALE) take on the nature of humanity and spirituality, but Sci Fi's hottest series is still about "the chase," as Moore likes to call it. The first 10 episodes are spread across three discs and Zoic serves as lead vfx house.
Bonus features include:* Deleted scenes, including 17 minutes from the premiere episode, "Scattered."
Warner Home Video often includes animated classics as bonus features with its catalog titles, but in the case of the spectacularly successful and moving MARCH OF THE PENGUINS documentary ($28.98), they've thrown in 8 BALL BUNNY.
In this memorable 1950 Warner Bros. short (directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese, Bugs helps a penguin go home via New Orleans, Martinique, the Panama Canal and the Sorth Pole. But the gag is that the penguin's home is actually in New Jersey. Along the way, they come across Bogey from THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE.
Jeff Bewkes has been named president/coo of Time Warner Inc. while Don Logan, chairman of Time Warner's Media & Communications Group, plans to retire at the end of the year and become the non-executive chairman of Time Warner Cable's board of directors.
The controversial and previously-banned episode of FAMILY GUY, "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein," will air on Canadian broadcaster, TELETOON, on Dec. 23, 2005, at 9:00 pm and 12:30 am, and again on Dec. 26 at 9:00 pm and 12:30 am.
FOX network censors originally rejected the episode, then allowed it to air in the U.S. after cutting some references they feared would be perceived as anti-Semitic. The uncut episode event was later aired in the U.S. on Cartoon Networks Adult Swim and made its way onto DVD.
The Jim Henson Co. has selected the honorees of the newly established Jim Henson Honors, an annual program that acknowledges organizations, individuals or products that reflect the core values and philosophy of Jim Henson and the company he founded in 1955.
The Studio Ghibli Museum in Japan will debut three new short features from Hayao Miyazaki. Starting Jan. 3, 2006 and running until March 13, the three films will screen in the museums Saturn Theatre.
Animazoo UK has opened a new motion capture studio on the south coast city of Brighton, in the U.K.
Already attracting a stream of international visitors, the studio offers users the latest motion capture technology with expert operators to ensure projects run smoothly. Using state of the art Gypsy systems, the studio can handle applications that are impossible with traditional studio based optical systems.
Seoul, South Korea-based Gravity Co. Ltd. announced that it has decided to invest 1 billion Japanese Yen in "Online Game Revolution Vol. 1," an investment fund organized in Japan. "Online Game Revolution Vol.1," with a total proposed investment size of 10 billion Japanese Yen, has an investment objective of investing in companies that develop online games in Japan. Movida Investment Inc., an affiliate of SoftBank Group, will operate the fund as the general partner of the fund. Several Japanese and Korean developers of online games, including CJ Internet Corp.
VFXWORLD finishes off 2005 with a look at the latest trends in digital acting and CG environments.
