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Category: Visual Effects

Headline News

New VICON System Quadruples Motion Capture Camera Resolution

VICON, developer of Academy Award-winning motion capture systems, has released VICON MX T-Series.

The MX-T Series includes an all-new camera design and new Giganet device with cameras available in a variety of resolution options, including the T160 (16 Megapixel), T40 (4 Megapixel) and T20 (2 Megapixel). The T160 16-megapixel camera represents a four-times resolution increase over existing professional optical motion capture solutions.

Digital Headline News

Advertising and the Art of Digital Cinema

Advertising and the Art of Digital CinemaNew York, New York, USAJune 5, 2008

IRIDAS will join an illustrious group of companies on June 5, 2008 at a special event for the advertising industry presented by Simpson Films (SFI). Vision Research, makers of the Phantom camera; post facility Company 3; editing houses Version2 and Cut+Run; and IRIDAS will join Young and Rubicam and other leading New York ad agencies at SFI's studios in Long Island City.

Headline News

Digital Musings From the Editor:

With the DVD release this week of THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN mini-series from Universal Home Ent.,Tara Bennett spoke with David Vana of UPP Prague about the visual effects challenges, which encompassed 1,000 shots with only four weeks to complete the work. Meanwhile, we have the latest excerpt from MAYA 2008 CHARACTER MODELING AND ANIMATION, "Nurbs Curve Editing." And coming soon: INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL.

Bill DesowitzEditor

Artists Headline News

Digital-Tutors Founder Nominated For Autodesk Maya Master Award

Digital-Tutors Founder and CEO, Piyush Patel received a nomination for Autodesk Maya Master Awards, an annual program recognizing top artists and technical specialists making outstanding contributions to their respective areas for the advancement of technology, art, and visualization.

Film Headline News

Transformers Blu-ray To Arrive September 2

TRANSFORMERS, the $700 million smash hit from DreamWorks Pictures and Paramount Pictures, in association with Hasbro, rolls out in a fully-loaded, two-disc Blu-ray presentation on September 2, giving fans the chance to discover that there's definitely "More Than Meets The Eye" to the legendary Autobots and Decepticons. The highly-anticipated release is Paramount Home Entertainment's first to incorporate BD Live capabilities.

Studios Headline News

Universal Studios Shows Us The Black Lagoon

Drawn from Universal's crypt of classic monsters and updated with spectacular Broadway production values and special effects, CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON -- THE MUSICAL will rise, live, on stage at Universal Studios Hollywood beginning spring 2009.

Film Headline News

rhinofx Recruits VFX Veteran Jim Rider

rhinofx recently signed VFX Supervisor/Artist Jim Rider to reinforce their growing feature film division. With considerable experience across the entire realm of effects projects, Rider's talents include motion control, Flame, compositing, and animation.

Universal Headline News

Iron Man Writers To Tackle Last Ludlum Novel

Universal is moving forward on a screen adaptation of BOURNE author Robert Ludlum's novel THE SIGMA PROTOCOL, per VARIETY.

They have hired IRON MAN writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway to write the screenplay, based on the late author's final novel. Strike Ent. partners Marc Abraham and Eric Newman will produce with Paul L. Sandberg.

THE SIGMA PROTOCOL is about a young investment banker who discovers a secret organization manipulating the global economy. When he attempts to expose the scheme, he's targeted for death.

Headline News

Donnie Darko Sequel Adds To Cast

Cult hit DONNIE DARKO sequel S. DARKO has added Elizabeth Berkley and Briana Evigan to the cast, says THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

Chris Fisher will direct and Ash. R. Shah is producing. Other cast members include Ed Westwick (CW's GOSSIP GIRL) and Justin Chatwin (THE CHUMSCRUBBER) join Daveigh Chase reprising her role from the original as Donnie Darko's sister Samantha.

Headline News

Garbage Singer Turns CEO In Sarah Connor Chronicles

Scottish rocker Shirley Manson, lead singer of Garbage, will play the CEO of a cutting-edge tech company in Fox's TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

The character of Catherine Weaver will be a regular role for the singer. The sci-fi series, starring Lena Headey as Sarah Connor, Thomas Dekker as her son John Connor and Summer Glau as terminator Cameron Phillips, was the highest-rated new scripted series of the shortened 2007-2008 season. It will return with new episodes in the fall.

Headline News

Ninja Assassin Starts Production In Berlin

Filming is underway on NINJA ASSASSIN, directed by James McTeigue (V FOR VENDETTA) from a screenplay by Matthew Sand and J. Michael Straczynski.

Joel Silver, Grant Hill, Larry Wachowski and Andy Wachowski are producing, with Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni and William Fay serving as executive producers.

Principal photography is taking place at Babelsberg Studios and on location in various parts of Berlin.

Season Headline News

Sci Fi Channel Announces Summer Lineup Of Hit Series

This summer, Sci Fi Channel features the returns of some of cable's hottest shows. On the reality front, viewers can look forward to all-new investigations with the team from the immensely popular GHOST HUNTERS INTERNATIONAL as well as the return of the hilariously irreverent SCARE TACTICS, hosted by comedy superstar Tracy Morgan.

Software Headline News

NVIDIA Gelato Pro GPU-Powered Rendering Software Now Freely Available

NVIDIA Gelato Pro 2.2 rendering software, NVIDIA's advanced GPU-accelerated rendering software for professionals, is available as a no-cost download at www.nvidia.com/gelatozone.

Well suited for rendering of 3D digital content and design, Gelato Pro software now replaces the basic version of Gelato software, which was previously available directly from NVIDIA.

Speed Headline News

Digital Musings From the Editor:

Summer movies mean big videogame tie-ins, and this week Janet Hetherington reports on how IRON MAN, SPEED RACER, LEGO INDIANA JONES, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN and others create their own unique adventures. Also, summer movies require extensive previs, and we have an inside look at some of the planning and problem solving that went into IRON MAN, SPEED RACER and INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. Plus, we additionally have Alain Bielik's interviews with Dean Wright and Wendy Rogers about raising the vfx bar on PRINCE CASPIAN.

Headline News

Cast Your Vote For A Maya Master Or 3ds Max Master

Over the past several months people in the 3D computer graphics community have nominated artists as Maya Masters and 3ds Max Masters. To find out about each of these talented individuals, either click on the name of interest to jump down to more information, or simply scroll through the entire list at the bottom of the page.

Here is your chance to vote following three rules:--Think about their work and contribution, not just the software they use--Vote for only one nominee--Vote once only

Headline News

DataDirect Storage Used For The Dark Knight

Leading post-production house Pacific Title & Art Studio used DataDirect Network's S2A storage platforms to produce dynamic theatrical trailers and vfx for Warner Bros. Pictures' THE DARK KNIGHT, which opens in U.S. theaters nationwide on July 18.

Effects Headline News

Red Giant Releases Trapcode Horizon, Launches New Website

Red Giant Software, publisher of a line of professional digital video tools, including Magic Bullet, Knoll Light Factory, and all Trapcode products, today released Trapcode Horizon.

This new Adobe After Effects plug-in is a unique mapping tool that ties the After Effects camera to a 3D world. After Effects users can use Trapcode Horizon to create photorealistic backgrounds and QuickTime VR-like experiences.

Headline News

Full Transcript of Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro Hobbit Chat Available

The full online chat from Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Torro about THE HOBBIT is available here.

A highlight was del Toro's discussion on the use of CGI in the movie, which he will direct:

Headline News

James D'Arcy Cast As Lead In Virtuality

James D'Arcy will play a psych officer in VIRTUALITY, Fox's two-hour backdoor pilot from BATTLESTAR GALACTICA creator Ronald D. Moore, UMS and BermanBraun, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

Peter Berg will direct the sci-fi project, which is set aboard the Phaeton, Earth's first starship, on a 10-year journey to a distant solar system. To help the crew handle the long trip, NASA gives them advanced virtual reality modules, allowing them to assume identities and go anywhere they want.

Headline News

Asylum VFX And Anonymous Create A Collage For Canon

The Asylum VFX team, Anonymous' Andrew Douglas, Grey New York, 10 photographers, 300 football players, and 70,000 photos all aid in creating a picture perfect world for Canon U.S.A's digital camera line.

The creative process was inspired by flipbook animation. The spot created a unique methodology in both live-action and post that used a hardware/software pipeline combination of Canon, Adobe Lightroom, Avid, Final Cut, and Inferno.

Headline News

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Mystical Parlor Games

Twentieth Century Fox Licensing and Merchandising and Dark Horse Comics present two magical products that are sure to provide hours of sleepless slumber parties this fall. Joss Whedon's mythology comes alive with the official BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER Tarot Deck and the BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER "Conversations with Dead People" Board.

Million Headline News

Jones Has $25 Million So Far, Enough for About 500,000 Fedoras

INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL made a reported $25 million domestic gross from 4,260 theaters on Thursday, according to VARIETY.

It's a strong, but not record-breaking opening for the film, which will have a long Memorial Day weekend plus one day for its official opening weekend. Paramount is distributing the film, which opened day-and-date around the world, for George Lucas' Lucasfilm.

Version Headline News

RE:Vision Effects Releases Twixtor 4.5 FxPlug Version For Final Cut Pro

RE:Vision Effects is now shipping Twixtor 4.5 for Apple Final Cut Pro in an FxPlug version, which is Final Cut Pro's native effects plugin architecture.

Twixtor enables users to speed up, slow down image sequences with visually stunning results. In order to achieve its unparalleled image quality, Twixtor synthesizes unique new frames by warping and interpolating frames of the original sequence, employing RE:Vision Effects' Academy Award-winning technology that calculates motion for each individual pixel.

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