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Category: Visual Effects

Digital Headline News

Total Immersion Brings Augmented Reality To Arizona Science Center's New Exhibit

Fireworks aren't just for the Fourth of July. Total Immersion has created an augmented reality experience for a new permanent gallery called "My Digital World," which opened on September 1 at the Arizona Science Center in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. And for the engaged visitor, the payoff is almost incendiary.

Headline News

Tarantino's Bastards Nab Diane Kruger

Diane Kruger (TROY, NATIONAL TREASURE) has been cast in Quentin Tarantino's INGLORIOUS BASTARDS, in a role that had been rumored to be Nastassja Kinski's, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

Kruger will play Bridget Von Hammersmark, the glamorous German actress who aids a group of American soldiers on a World War II mission to kill Nazis to infiltrate a movie premiere. Kinski was in talks with Tarantino, who flew to Germany to meet with her, but a deal was not reached. Kruger, who, like Kinski, is German, will speak in German and in English for the role.

Effects Headline News

MECHnology Produces VFX For ABC Family's The Middleman

Burbank, California-based MECHnology Visual Effects Studio finished the first season of ABC Family's THE MIDDLEMAN, producing almost 400 visual effects for the series.

Based on the comic book series, written and produced by Javier "Javi" Grillo-Marxuach, the series follows Wendy Watson (Natalie Morales), a struggling artist working at a temp agenc, who is recruited by The Middleman (Matt Keeslar) and trained to be the next Middleman.

Headline News

Richard Shackleton Appointed Nuke Product Manager At The Foundry

VFX software developer The Foundry has appointed Richard Shackleton as the new product manager for Nuke, its compositing system. Shackleton has more than 15 years experience of product development in the visual effects/editing markets, having previously worked in similar roles with well-known manufacturers, including The Foundry. He takes over from Matt Plec, who has become Nuke product designer.

Headline News

Ricky Schroder To Tame Hellhounds

Ricky Schroder will direct HELLHOUNDS for the Sci Fi Channel, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Set in 500 B.C., Kleitos (Scott Elrod) battles the hellhounds of Hades to rescue his love from the Underworld and bring her back to life.

The film, with a script by Paul A. Birkett, will be CG- and vfx-heavy. Shooting starts this weekend in Romania. Canada's Muse Ent. and Romania's S.C. Studiourile Media Pro are co-producers. Muse's Michael Prupas will exec produce with RHI Ent.'s Robert Halmi Sr. Robert Halmi Jr. will handle distribution.

Work Headline News

Finish Sways To The Kooks' Latest Music Video

Byron Wooffindin of Finish just completed the post on the new single SWAY by The Kooks.

Directed by Marco Puig of Amarillo Films, it is an intense song about loss, which is showed physically through the metaphor of a room ripping itself apart. Taken from their acclaimed second album KONK, SWAY has been shot in black and white, on grainy stock to match the emotions and drama of the song.

Visual Headline News

Eden FX To Have Busy TV Fall

Eden FX, a Hollywood-based visual effects house for feature films, television programs and commercials, has a busy start to the fall 2008 television season.

For the upcoming Fall 2008 season, Eden FX will be creating CG visual effects for the hit TV series CHUCK, LOST, THE GHOST WHISPERER, 24, NCIS, PUSHING DAISIES, and ARMY WIVES.

In addition, the company is also currently creating visual effects for the feature films THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON (December 25) and THE ROAD (November 26).

Headline News

AJA KONA 3 Helps Fuel Edit Platform For Burn After Reading

AJA Video Systems' KONA 3 video capture and playback cards were used during editing of Ethan and Joel Coen's latest comedy thriller, BURN AFTER READING, to streamline the film's Final Cut Studio editorial pipeline.

BURN AFTER READING premiered Wednesday at the Venice Film Festival, and is set for U.S. theatrical release on September 12, 2008.

Visual Headline News

Visual Effects Primetime Emmy Voting Event

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will present the third Annual Special Visual Effects Primetime Emmy Voting Event, a program showcasing the five episodic and five long-form Visual Effects nominees on Thursday, September 11, at 6:30 p.m. at the Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre in North Hollywood. For the third consecutive year, the event is sponsored by Autodesk.

November Headline News

Australia Moves Back A Week

Baz Luhrmann's big budget romance AUSTRALIA will be released in the U.S. on November 26, more fallout from the HARRY POTTER shift to 2009, per VARIETY.

AUSTRALIA was set to be unveiled November 14, just after its Australia premiere on November 13. The film will now open in both countries on November 26.

Starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman, the film is the saga of an English woman who comes to the Australian Outback and falls in love with a cattle rancher during World War II. The move by Twentieth Century Fox gives Luhrmann more time to finish.

Wars Headline News

Star Wars Galaxies Online Trading Card Game Launched

LucasArts and Sony Online Ent. have launched the STAR WARS Galaxies Trading Card Game and its first release: "Champions of the Force."

"Champions of the Force" marks the first-ever STAR WARS trading card game offered exclusively online. Available to both current and former STAR WARS Galaxies subscribers, the STAR WARS Galaxies Trading Card Game provides players an entirely new gameplay experience by combining the challenge of a trading card game with the adventures and community of the massively multiplayer game.

For the first time online, players can:

Headline News

NVIDIA Achieves Folding@home Milestone With CUDA

NVIDIA GPUs are contributing more than 1 petaflop of processing power to Stanford University's Folding@home distributed computing application as of last week, according to the statistics published by Stanford. Active NVIDIA GPUs deliver more than 1.25 petaflops, or 42 percent of the total processing power of the application which seeks to understand how proteins affect the human body.

Headline News

Digital Musings From the Editor:

With VFXWorld editor Bill Desowitz away at the nVision event in San Jose, it's my pleasure to share with you what you can look forward to on VFXWorld. Closing out August, Ellen Wolff has an early look at the highly anticipated new LucasArts game, STAR WARS: THE FORCE UNLEASHED. Alain Beliek talks with the visual effects artists at Buf about their work on BABYLON A.D, and XSI expert Ed Harriss will give us his take on the latest update. Goodbye summer, bring on the fall.

Rick DeMottManaging Editor

Film Headline News

Star's Hand Injury Written Into Transformers 2

A car accident last month injured TRANSFORMERS 2 star Shia LaBeouf's hand enough to alter the film: the injury will be added into the film, due out next summer, according to SCI FI WIRE.

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN will incorporate the injury mainly to protect the actor's safety. Co-writer Roberto Orci told SCI FI WIRE earlier this week, "Shia just got back to the set last week. We incorporated his injury into it. Not because it was absolutely necessary, but [director] Michael [Bay] in particular wanted to be able to protect him on the set."

Headline News

Rushes Post Respect Viral For Contentment Worldwide

Digital content house Contentment Worldwide approached Rushes to complete post on a humorous viral spot for The Football Association. This is Contentment Worldwide's first viral work for The Football Association since being appointed to provide filmed content across a range of campaigns.

This :90 launch film for The FA's Respect program features celebrities, including actor Shaun Williamson, GMTV's Ben Shephard, former footballer Les Ferdinand, TV presenter Gethin Jones, top referee Howard Webb and England Football Manager Fabio Capello.

Film Headline News

Horror Film Developed Online Headed For Distribution

The first feature film to be developed entirely over the Internet and distributed in theatres nationwide, PERKINS' 14, is currently in post production, in preparation for a release in January 2009 as part of the After Dark Horrorfest. What a year ago may have been a fleeting YouTube sensation now has the potential for box office success. The film is produced by After Dark Films and Massify, the online production network founded by Brett Icahn and Kenneth Woo.

Imax Headline News

3D Entertainment Hires Former National Geographic IMAX Film Sales Director

IMAX industry veteran Patricia Brandino has joined 3D Entertainment Distribution in the newly created position of VP, Film Sales. Effective September 7, Brandino will be responsible for theatrical sales of the company's current and future film catalogue in North America, including Jean-Michel Cousteau's DOLPHINS AND WHALES 3D released domestically at IMAX 3-D theatres earlier this year. She will report directly to Francois Mantello, the chairman of 3D Entertainment and its distribution unit.

Blu-ray Headline News

Universal Pictures Int'l Ramps Up Blu-ray -- Hulk First Up

Universal Pictures International Ent. will release THE INCREDIBLE HULK on DVD and Blu-ray on October 13, marking the studio's first international day-and-date wide debut of a Blu-ray new release feature film.

The film will be released on DVD and Blu-ray in the U.S. on October 21.

From Marvel Studios, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, starring Edward Norton, Tim Roth and Liv Tyler has earned $250 million in worldwide box office. Bonus features on the Blu-ray will include the U-Control application and interactive features via BD-Live.

Artists Headline News

i3DTutorials Releases Mastering The Art of ICE Volume I

i3DTutorials announces their latest training product for SOFTIMAGE|XSI, MASTERING THE ART OF ICE VOLUME I: BREAKING THE ICE. This latest offering from the growing i3DTutorials library of SOFTIMAGE|XSI training products, teaches artists how to use one of the most stunning features of SOFTIMAGE|XSI 7, the new Interactive Creative Environment, known as ICE.

Approaching ICE from an artist's point of view, learn to harness the power of ICE step by step. Learn about the ICE Tree, the tools and features that give the artist more power than ever before with ICE's amazing workflow.

Headline News

Digital-Tutors Releases Character Setup In XSI

SOFTIMAGE training partner Digital-Tutors has released CHARACTER SETUP IN XSI for artists using SOFTIMAGE|XSI 7. CHARACTER SETUP IN XSI provides seven hours of project-based training for artists learning the essentials to character rigging and enveloping and a time-saving workflow to fully utilizing XSI 7's robust character setup tool set.

College Headline News

Fringe And Terminator Simul-Stream Premieres On FOX.com

For the first time, FOX will stream the premieres of TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES and FRINGE exclusively for on-campus college students at www.fox.com. Only students on college campuses accessing through a college internet domain (.edu) will have the opportunity to watch the episodes online simultaneously with their primetime premieres.

Headline News

rhinofx Completes VFX For Mercedes' Summer of Love Campaign

rhinofx recently collaborated with Merkley + Partners and Oscar-nominated director Mehdi Norowzian of Joy Films to create the vfx for a series of :30 spots for the Mercedes-Benz SUMMER OF LOVE campaign.

rhinofx designed a complete 2D palette of color to help visually romanticize various Mercedes vehicles as the center of carnival attractions. In the spots, visitors enjoy effects-enhanced Mercedes-Benz themed attractions and effects, which help position vehicles at the center of the Tunnel of Love water ride and showcase brand-new Mercedes-Benzes in the go-kart track.

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