Category: Visual Effects

Jeff Blake has signed a long-term contract with Sony Pictures in which the respected industry veteran will continue to serve as chairman of worldwide marketing and distribution for the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group through 2012.

In addition to his role overseeing the studio's worldwide marketing and distribution division, Blake continues to serve as vice chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment.

HP and DreamWorks Animation previewed a display technology at NAB Monday that helps solve a longstanding obstacle for digital content creators: affordable and consistent color accuracy between devices.

The result of an unprecedented collaboration between the two companies, the HP DreamColor Technology computer display provides accurate, predictable color and a simple color management process to assure vision-to-production color consistency in a widescreen liquid crystal display (LCD).

Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies have greenlit the live-action epic adventure M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN'S THE LAST AIRBENDER, which will launch over the Independence Day weekend in 2010, opening on Friday, July 2, 2010.

Shyamalan, the creator of the Oscar-nominated THE SIXTH SENSE, SIGNS and the upcoming THE HAPPENING, will direct and produce the epic action-adventure based on a script that he penned.

Digital-Tutors today announced the availability of HDRI WORKFLOW WITH XSI AND PHOTOSHOP, the newest releases in a growing library of interactive training for emerging digital artists using SOFTIMAGE|XSI, a complete 3D package for modeling, rendering, and character animation, and Adobe Photoshop, the world-renowned photo and video editing software.

Digital-Tutors is a SOFTIMAGE official training partner and Adobe Photoshop certified expert

Duiker Research Corp., creator of the Color Symmetry plug-in suite, has announced Color Symmetry Version 1.5 with Universal Look Authoring. Color Symmetry is a complete solution for emulating film looks and handling color consistently within industry-standard animation, graphics, effects and post-production packages.

Version 1.5 supports a growing number of post workflows and formats as well as today's increasingly creative look development demands.

Key new features include:

REAL-TIME SHADERS WITH XNA is now the first release in a series of interactive training titles for aspiring artists using XNA, Microsoft's software, services, resources, and communities focused on enabling game developers to be successful on Microsoft gaming platforms.

REAL-TIME SHADERS WITH XNA from Digital-Tutors offers nearly four hours of project-based training for technical artists learning a time-saving workflow to XNA and the essentials to creating real-time shaders.

In an effort to optimize support for RED Digital Cinema workflows in post production, AJA Video is adding RED-specific video outputs for some of the unique frame sizes that the REDALERT and REDCINE software applications can produce.

This additional support for RED will be included in the version 6.0 software driver for the award-winning KONA 3 video card. The version 6.0 software update will be a free upgrade for KONA 3 users, and will be available for download in late May 2008.

Whodoo EFX has designed, created and produced over 80 digital visual effects for the independent feature film ANAMORPH, starring Willem DaFoe and Scott Speedman, set for release April 18 by IFC Films.

Whodoo, under vfx supervisor Helena Packer Burnson, worked in association with acclaimed Senior VFX Supervisor Richard Edlund for the ANAMORPH project. The new film is a smart thriller, directed by Henry S. Miller, with Marissa McMahon as producer.

Ghost House Pictures will launch a new film acquisitions company this fall to extend the Ghost House brand to home entertainment, per THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER.

Ghost House Underground will release 12 to 20 films a year, mostly through Lionsgate -- owner of the SAW franchise and AFTER DARK series on DVD.

Ghost House Pictures is a horror genre company led by Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert and Mandate Pictures president Nathan Kahane. The new venture will team with Grindstone, a major distributor of direct-to-DVD films.

The Pixel Farm announced the launch of the next version of its resolution independent, automated moving image review and clean up system, PFClean, at NAB 2008.

Fast becoming the tool of choice for DI facilities and Film restoration companies alike, version 4.0 has more than 1,000 new features and enhancements.