Digital-Tutors has released THE ARTIST'S GUIDE TO XSI 7. This marks the latest training DVD created in partnership between Digital-Tutors and SOFTIMAGE for the second consecutive year and bundled exclusively with SOFTIMAGE|XSI 7, the newest version of the complete 3D package for modeling, animating, rendering, and character development.
A new German-Israeli artist-in-residence program for young Israeli filmmakers is set to launch in 2009. The project "Berlin -- 3 Months 24/7" is the result of an initiative undertaken by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, and the scholarship will be awarded in cooperation with the German Federal Film Board (FFA) in the form of a stipend.
Kirsten Niehuus, managing director of the Medienboard, and Peter Dinges, CEO of the FFA, announced the project to the general public at the Jerusalem Film Festival last week.
Digicel Inc. and Larry Lauria's Toon Institute have partnered to present Animation FUNdamentals -- affordable online animation lessons for aspiring artists and animators.
The lessons are geared to meet the level of the participants.
Animator/director and instructor Lauria, said,"When Kent Braun and I brainstormed on this project -- our goal was to make animation lessons available to folks in junior high and high school. Then, as we developed our curriculum, we found that any age or ability could take these lessons."
Luxology has made available MP3 PLAYER: RAPID VISUALIZATION AND PROTOTYPING, a new video album that demonstrates how modo 302's toolset can be used to complement and enhance the product design process.
Created by Luxology's Training Division Director, Andy Brown, this training series offers step-by-step instruction on rapidly giving form to design concepts using Subdivision surfaces in modo. The video album also covers the process of preparing a model for 3-D printing and creation of final presentation images.
SOFTIMAGE training partner Digital-Tutors has released SHADER PIPELINE WITH XSI AND XNA -- the newest release in a growing library of interactive training for emerging digital artists using SOFTIMAGE|XSI, a complete 3-D package for modeling, rendering, and character animation, and XNA, Microsoft's industry-leading software, services, resources, and communities focused on enabling game developers to be successful on Microsoft gaming platforms.
i3DTutorials has released their latest training product, INTRODUCTION TO DYNAMICS IN SOFTIMAGE|XSI. This latest offering from the growing i3DTutorials library of SOFTIMAGE|XSI training products, takes users through the entire process of simulations with rigid bodies, soft bodies, constraints, and more.
Learn in detail the inner workings of dynamic simulations and get first hand training in the art of using dynamics in SOFTIMAGE|XSI to achieve life like simulations that would otherwise be too difficult and time consuming using traditional animation methods.
The Israel Film Festival has inaugurated an annual scholarship fund that will donate money raised from its yearly Gala Awards Dinner to support scholarships for Israeli film students to study cinema in six major film schools in Israel.
This year's just concluded Festival, which showcased new films and an unprecedented Retrospective in celebration of Israel's 60th anniversary, along with a sold-out Gala Awards Dinner, was its most successful in its 23 year history. More than 16,000 moviegoers attended the Festival from June 11-26 in Los Angeles.
Following his passion to help aspiring animators find success in their careers, Carlos Baena, Pixar animator and Animation Mentor co-founder, discusses "Demo Reel Dos and Don'ts" in a free one-hour webinar on July 9. Animators will learn how to make their demo reels stand out and how to avoid common mistakes, plus have a chance to ask Baena a few questions.
Participants can sign up for the webinar by going to www.AnimationMentor.com/webinar/.
The Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has selected three students to participate in a summer internship program designed to provide real-world experience to students interested in careers in motion picture computer graphics and animation technology.
All Gnomon Workshop DVDs are now available as full-length digital downloads.
New DVDs and downloadable releases:
--MENTAL RAY: FUNDAMENTALS WITH MATT HARTLE (Fully Updated)--INTUITIVE ANIMATION WITH ROBERT KUCZERA--INTRODUCTION TO 3DS MAX WITH CETIN TUKER--ILLUSTRATION TECHNIQUES VOLS 1 AND 2 WITH DAVE DORMAN
DVDs are still available to purchase through www.thegnomonworkshop.com.
i3DTutorials, an Autodesk authorized publisher, announces their latest training product for 3dsMax 2009, INTRODUCTION TO RENDERING IN 3DSMAX 2009.
This latest offering from the growing i3DTutorials library of 3dsMax training products, introduces newcomers to rendering and lighting with Autodesk’s award winning computer animation software. INTRODUCTION TO RENDERING IN 3DSMAX 2009 teaches a new generation of 3dsMax artists how to take advantage of powerful rendering and lighting features.
Keeping with his mission to help eager animators around the world learn and become experts in the art of character animation, Shawn Kelly, a senior animator at Industrial Light & Magic and co-founder of AnimationMentor.com, has launched the blog ANIMATION TIPS & TRICKS.
An animated robot and his spacefaring companion are leading a campaign by NASA and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures to promote interest among schoolchildren in science and technology.
NASA and Disney have signed a Space Act Agreement for a series of educational and public outreach activities related to Disney-Pixar's new movie, WALL-E, opening in theaters nationwide on June 27.
Luxology has released two additional modo 302 video albums created by their Training Division. The albums, entitled CONCEPT CAR and CARTOON KID, are provided in HD resolution and provide step-by-step instruction on how to efficiently use modo software to model, paint and render.
AJA Video Systems is experiencing rapid growth in the educational sector with a rise in adoption of the company's popular KONA, XENA and Io HD products at top educational institutions.
ZSPHERE MODELING IN ZBRUSH from Digital-Tutors is the latest release in a library of interactive training for emerging digital artists using ZBrush 3.1, the integrated modeling, texturing, and illustration environment developed by Pixologic.
Developed for artists utilizing ZSpheres, a method to creating, building, and sculpting characters, ZSPHERE MODELING IN ZBRUSH provides four hours of project-based training for artists learning a time-saving workflow to modeling with ZSpheres and building complex organic models using production-applicable tools and techniques.
Sixteen advanced Communication Design and Technology students from Parsons The New School for Design recently concluded a one semester motion capture course taught by Curious Pictures mo-cap artists Cory Alderman and Michele Matt.
Alderman and Matt, in collaboration with Anezka Sebek, Parsons' Associate Professor and Director of the school's MFA program in Design and Technology, created a 15-week course that instructed students in motion capture acquisition and animation.
TRANSCRIPTIONS: ANIMATION is a collaboration between the National Gallery in London, Complicite and Central Saint Martins' Postgraduate Diploma Character Animation, an innovative project, in its second year, which involves the students producing one-minute films inspired by a painting in the gallery's collection as part of their course.
The Academy Foundation's Institutional Grants Program has awarded a total of $500,000 to 58 film-related nonprofit organizations -- including universities, museums and career development programs -- throughout the United States and in Canada.
Since its establishment in 1968, the foundation, which is the educational wing of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, has distributed more than 573 institutional grants.
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.
It's a dream come true for Buzz Lightyear as Disney Parks and NASA send the 12-inch-tall action figure "to infinity...and beyond!"
Buzz Lightyear will blast off aboard Space Shuttle Discovery on mission STS-124. Lift-off from Kennedy Space Center is scheduled for 5:02 p.m. ET on May 31.
Toon Boom Animation and educational publisher FableVision have released Animation-Ish, an innovative software program that allows people of all ages to unleash their creativity through easy, "do-it-yourself" animation.
RenderMan Fundamentals CourseLondon, U.K.June 23, 2008
Escape Studios, Pixar's European distributor and training partner for RenderMan, is offering its RenderMan Fundamentals course in conjunction with Pixar's official RenderMan courseware.
As one of The Foundry's authorized training centers in the U.K., Sphere VFX now offers a range of new Nuke 5 training courses.
The courses are based around The Foundry's latest version of Nuke, which features a brand new user interface, Python scripting, support for stereoscopic workflow, the ability to read, process and write over a thousand channels per stream, and broad support for the openEXR file system.
Registration for summer courses at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects has begun. New courses for this term include:
--Game Design and ScriptingHarness the Unreal editor's visual scripting language, Kismet and Matinee Editor to produce richly interactive environments.
--Imaginative LandcapesInvent rich, new worlds from the imagination for use in finished concept art.
--Animation for GamesLearn to create animation assets for games with Autodesk Maya.
--Studio Matte Techniques
