Category: Visual Effects

Alias will host the second annual Maya API Developers Conference in Santa Barbara, California, on June 6 8, 2005. Sponsored by HP, the three days of in-depth seminars and hands-on classes provide a rare chance to hear from Alias software developers and customers working in film and games industries, to network with industry peers and gain insight into the Maya API (Application Programming Interface).

STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH has tied SPIDER-MAN 2 for the fastest feature to reach $200M in only eight days. The final STAR WARS saga has tallied $200.4M domestically and $356.9M overseas for Fox, according to boxofficemojo.com.

Oscar-nominated visual effects supervisor Mike Fink (CONSTANTINE, the X-MEN movies) will lead a panel on the history of vfx as part of the 2005 VES-VFX Festival of Visual Effects, June 25 at 9:00 am. Fink, who is also a VES chair, is calling his panel: Visual Effects Paradiso 700 Years of Visual Effects. The annual festival by the Visual Effects Society will take place June 24-26 at the recently renovated Aero Theater in Santa Monica.

Film and game industry experts from Digital Domain, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Turner Studios and Weta Digital are scheduled to present Alias MasterClasses at SIGGRAPH, Aug. 1-5 in Los Angeles. May 31 is the early bird deadline to receive 20% off the cost of classes. Getting in early guarantees the opportunity to learn techniques that push the boundaries of creativity and improve production workflows.

London-based Framestore CFC created both the digital visual effects and the DI for THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN'S APOCALYPSE, the cult favorite comedy series that makes its way to the big screen June 3 in the U.K. Written by Jeremy Dyson, Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, and starring Gatiss, Pemberton and Shearsmith, THE LEAGUE OF GENTLEMEN'S APOCALYPSE was produced by Greg Brenman and Ed Guiney, and directed by Steve Bendelack.

SON OF THE MASK got its DVD release May 17, 2005 along with a remastered version of the manic Jim Carrey original from 1994 (New Line Home Ent., $27.95 and $19.97) with new bonus features. Jamie Kennedy stars in the sequel about an aspiring animator who dons the ancient mask and becomes an animated Tex Avery/Chuck Jones-inspired creation, along with his dog and infant son when they get a hold of the mask. Directed by Lawrence Guterman (CATS & DOGS), SON contains loads of CGI and assorted vfx by ILM, Digital Dimension, Tippett Studio and Keith Vanderlaans Captive Audience Prods.

Alias revealed that its Maya software was the chief 3D animation technology and the only non-proprietary animation solution used to realize key 3D characters and scenes in the record-breaking STAR WARS: EPISODE III REVENGE OF THE SITH.

The Force is already with REVENGE OF THE SITH, as EPISODE III of the STAR WARS saga grossed an estimated $17M for the special midnight screenings on Thursday. Bruce Snyder, president of domestic distribution for Twentieth Century Fox, told THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, "It seems like the industry got kick started last night at midnight."

REVENGE OF THE SITH began playing midnight shows in 2,900 theaters in North America. Snyder could not give a firm screen count, but noted that it could be significantly higher because of interlocking prints.