Joe Pavlo, the 2005 Emmy winner for vfx supervision on BBC/HBO production ROME, joins Men-from-Mars as Senior VFX Supervisor/Head of 2D.
Pavlo's other award winning vfx supervision credits include; THE LIFE AND DEATH OF PETER SELLARS for which he won the 2004 Emmy for Best VFX and BAND OF BROTHERS (Emmy nominated in 2002 as assistant vfx supervisor).
CineTel Films has purchased the rights to remake I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE, the 1978 female revenge film reviled at the time for its depiction of sex and violence, per VARIETY.
Meir Zarchi, who directed, produced and wrote the original, owned the remake rights. Though the majority of CineTel's releases are straight-to-DVD, the company says it will make SPIT for a theatrical release.
Today Gnomon Workshop is releasing the fully updated MENTAL RAY: FUNDAMENTALS, RENDERING TECHNIQUES WITH MATT HARTLE. This DVD focuses on the fundamental implementation and functionality of Mental Ray from within Maya.
This title covers many important topics, including the Mental Ray interface, Memory and Performance, Raytracing, Motion Blur and Displacements. This DVD is a great resource for any production artist needing to get the most out of Mental Ray.
Century Communications, one of India's largest independently owned media companies and owner of leading Indian vfx company Pixion, is making its first move into the global arena with the acquisition of U.K. based, vfx house Men-from-Mars.
Tricia Helfer, the actress widely known for her portrayal of Number Six on BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, the Emmy award-winning television drama series, will speak and appear at NVISION 08.
Helfer, who plays the part of a beautiful but ruthless humanoid Cylon, will discuss her experience on the hit TV show, which makes extensive use of computer graphics technology to create stunning special effects.
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.
NVIDIA Corporation and NaturalMotion have entered a strategic partnership that will offer game developers and publishers tightly integrated animation and physics solutions.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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:
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.
