Aric Ackerman joins The L.A. Studios Inc. as ceo and will be responsible for the overall management and growth of the company's LA Studios and Margarita Mix audio post-production facilities. Based in the company's studios in Universal City, he will also oversee the Hollywood and Santa Monica-based studios. Former ceo, Jesse Meli, continues with the company as president emeritus, consulting on business development opportunities.
It's Oscar time again this Sunday, Feb. 25, and VFXWORLD has once again invited the three nominated vfx supervisors to chat about each other's work and last year's accomplishments. You can read all about it in Thomas J. McLean's Q&A with John Knoll (PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MANS CHEST), Boyd Shermis (POSIDEON) and Mark Stetson (SUPERMAN RETURNS). Good luck to all the nominees!
Bill DesowitzEditor
Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI) has purchased 50.1% of FrameFlow, the visual effects and animation studio based in Chennai, India, for about $5 million. FrameFlow worked on Sonys CLICK last year.
As part of the deal, FrameFlow will become Imageworks India and will work with SPIs main production facility in Culver City, California.
Digital-Tutors, an Autodesk Certified Publisher, announced the availability of INTRODUCTION TO SHAVE AND A HAIRCUT FOR MAYA, the newest release in an expanding library of interactive training for emerging digital artists using Shave and a Haircut, the cutting edge technology that has been used in feature films such as KING KONG, X-MEN 2 and UNDERWORLD 2.
Directed by Tony Bill, produced by Dean Devlin and starring James Franco, FLYBOYS is about the adventures of the Lafayette Escadrille, young Americans who volunteered for the French military before the U.S. entered World War I, and became the country's first fighter pilots. The two-disc Collectors Edition DVD (Fox Home Ent., $39.98) is currently available. FLYBOYS is one of the first features to make use of the Genesis digital camera and boasts nearly 750 vfx shots, including 3D environments during the aerial dogfight scenes.
Digital Dimension completed 162 shots as the lead visual effects provider for the DreamWorks comedy NORBIT, magically transforming Eddie Murphys slender frame into the 400-pound female lead, Rasputia (also played by Murphy). A large portion of Digital Dimensions shots involved head replacements where Murphys face, made up to look like Rasputia, was composited onto the performance of a body double.
First International FJORG! CompetitionSan Diego, California, USAAug. 7-9, 2007Deadline: May 1, 2007
The best CG animators in the world are invited to participate in the first international FJORG! competition -- an iron animator event to be launched at SIGGRAPH 2007.
Competing teams will be called on to try to create the best character-driven animation the world has ever seen, within a limited window of 32 straight hours, while overcoming multiple staged distractions in a test of skill, talent, creativity and physical endurance.
Fox Atomic has snapped up the timely sci fi comedy spec script, SPACE INVADER, and attached Will Arnett to star and produce, VARIETY reported. Peter Principato and Paul Young, via their Principato Young Ent. company, will also produce the film written by written by Mike Lisbe and Nate Reger.
Toronto-based animation studio Yowza Digital Inc. recreated the infamous riot that erupted during the 1968 Democratic National Convention for the new documentary film CHICAGO 10. Written and directed by Brett Morgen (THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE, ON THE ROPES), CHICAGO 10 was chosen as the opening night film at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
Sonys adaptation of the Marvel comic, GHOST RIDER, starring Nicolas Cage, with vfx from Sony Pictures Imageworks, set a Presidents Day record with $52M over the four-day weekend ended Feb. 19, 2007, which is also the best opening so far this year. Opening in second place was Buena Vistas BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA, with vfx from Weta Digital, which took home $28.5M. Dropping to third was last weeks box office champ, NORBIT, the Eddie Murphy comedy from Paramount/DreamWorks, which added $19.9M to its two-week cume of $62M.
NVIDIA Corp. released a public beta of the NVIDIA CUDA Software Developer Kit (SDK) and C-compiler for computing on NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs). GPU Computing with the CUDA SDK is a new approach to computing where hundreds of on-chip processors simultaneously communicate and cooperate to solve complex computing problems.
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN, the second live-action/CG movie adaptation of C.S. Lewis' beloved series of literary classics, began principal photography Feb. 12 on location in Auckland, New Zealand. The production, once again a joint venture between the Walt Disney Pictures and Walden Media, continues the franchise that commenced with the very successful, Oscar-winning 2005 release, THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, which went on to earn more than $745 in worldwide theatrical release.
Music video director Carter Smith will helm the horror film, THE RUINS, for DreamWorks Pictures and Red Hour Films, according to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld are producing for Red Hour.
RUINS, based on the bestselling novel by Scott Smith (A SIMPLE PLAN), is set in the jungles of the Yucatan, where something evil lives among the ruins.
Red Hour optioned the then-unpublished book in May 2004 and had Smith write the screenplay. Shooting begins in late May in Australia. Chris Bender is also producing.
With lots of award kudos for Martin Scorsese and anticipated Oscar glory to come, THE DEPARTED bows on DVD Feb. 13, 2007 (Warner Home Video, $34.99). The reworking of the Hong Kong thriller, INFERNAL AFFAIRS, not only turned out to be the directors best commercial success but also a brilliant return to form. Irish mobsters in Boston. Betrayal and redemption. Operatic and full of wit. Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin and Martin Sheen.
BOXX Technologies Inc., has a plan to provide users with a smooth transition to Microsoft Windows Vista by fully testing and certifying all BOXX Workstations and renderBOXX products for use with Vista.
Dennis Hoffman has joined Rainmaker Visual Effects as head of production, a comparable position he most recently held at Digital Domain. Hoffman will report to Brian Moylan, managing director, Rainmaker Visual Effects.
"As Vancouver increasingly becomes a destination for high end visual effects, Rainmaker is pleased to have someone of Dennis caliber and experience join us as we move into more demanding and challenging projects, stated Warren Franklin, ceo of Rainmaker Ent. Inc.
James Cameron provided additional casting and production details concerning AVATAR in an interview with AIN'T IT COOL'S Harry Knowles. Sigourney Weaver, Wes Studi, Peter Mensah, Joel David Moore, C.C.H. Pounder are among the new cast members. Having completed three days of live-action shooting in Hawaii, Cameron said he is headed back to L.A., where he will begin "pre-capture" CG shooting with Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana. Cameron will work with the actors in his performance capture system to get the performances he wants within the angles and shots that he has composed.
Thomsons Technicolor will be opening its first studio-based digital intermediate (DI) facility, built at Sony Studios in Culver City, California.
Its a busy week at VFXWORLD: Mireille Frenette and Benoit Guerville report on the changing face of 3D at Imagina 2007 in Monaco, where mathematics and simulations were the rule. In The Digital Eye, Geoff McAuliffe and Dave Waller of Brickyard VFX discuss the ins and outs of on set supervision for effects-intensive commercials. Alain Bielik finds out what it took for Sony Pictures Imageworks to create the ultimate CG fire in GHOST RIDER, and Tara DiLullo discovers the Weta wonders behind Disney/Waldens BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA, both opening Friday.
Skymatter Ltd., a high-end provider of 3D software tools, announced the immediate availability of a free trial of Mudbox 1.0.4, the company's advanced 3D sculpting software. The free trial offers all the capabilities of the professional version and can be downloaded at www.mudbox3d.com/downloadTrial.html.
Mudbox is a next-generation, high-resolution, brush-based 3D sculpting software application designed for the professional digital sculptor.Since its public beta debut in December 2005 and official release in
Peter Ellenshaw, the Oscar-winning visual effects pioneer and matte artist who worked his inventive magic on such classic Disney live-action films as MARY POPPINS, 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE, TREASURE ISLAND and THE BLACK HOLE, passed away at his home in Santa Barbara on Monday (Feb. 12, 2007) at the age of 93.
Autodesk has announced 3ds Max 9 Extension: Productivity Booster. The update will enable Autodesk subscription customers to work more efficiently with more than 30 productivity enhancements in the areas of animation and Biped, rendering, UI and usability. Additionally, increased interoperability with AutoCAD 2008, AutoCAD Architecture 2008 and Revit Building 2008 will help design visualization customers share data with other architecture professionals more easily than ever before.
Ubisoft announced a new phase of development for its operations in Quebec, Canada. The company, which currently boasts more than 1,600 in the province, could invest up to an additional 295.6 million euros over the next six years with the goal of building up a team of 3,000 employees by 2013. This forecast exceeds current development objectives for 2005-2010 by an additional 1,000 jobs.
Disneys PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MANS CHEST was the big winner for Industrial Light & Magic at the 5th Annual VES Awards, winning in all six categories for which it was nominated, including Outstanding Visual Effects, Saturday night (Feb. 11, 2007) at the Kodak Grand Ballroom in Hollywood.
Atmosphere Visual Effects has begun vfx work on BABYLON 5: THE LOST TALES, a made-for-video movie produced by Warner Home Video and Warner Bros. Television. Atmosphere's Andrew Karr is serving as vfx supervisor.
Titled VOICES IN THE DARK, the movie will feature two all-new stories written and directed by the original creator of BABYLON 5, exec producer J. Michael Straczynski. Doug Netter returns to the BABYLON 5 franchise as exec producer.
