Up Round-Up: Designing, Composing and Releasing Up

In the case of this Up Round-Up I had planned on writing separate posts for each of these articles but they’re so related that I can’t help but to make a conglomerate post.

Ricky Nierva on Designing Up: Creating a world from scratch is a tough job, just ask Up Production Designer Ricky Nierva! In his latest interview, he tackles such questions as why Pixar is so successful and if he wants to direct in the future. Also highlighted was that with his Filipino heritage, Nierva took great pride in having Russell as Pixar’s first leading Asian-American. This great read can be found over at ABS-CBN News. Don’t forget to check out the interview in video form here.

Pete Docter & Bob Peterson’s Spline Cast: It’s been a while since animator Andrew Gordon’s last Spline Cast but he’s back with two very special guests. Recorded on May 29th, it’s the Up directorial team of Pete Docter and Bob Peterson! They talk about everything from how to get to Pixar as a writer or animator, their inspirations for eveyrthing they do and stories from before/during/after production on Up. Check out the latest Spline Cast here and the main Spline Doctors page too.

Composing For Up Characters: We’ll leave you with this featurette covering Up’s soundtrack and how it enhanced the film’s characters. Composer Michael Giacchino and the rest of the Up crew explain the process, look out for Pete Docter playing the cello:

Digital Domain loses termination suit 'Button' f/x company to pay $2 mil in damages

In a verdict handed down Thursday evening in Malibu, Christian Bradley "Brad" Call has won his wrongful termination suit against visual effects shop Digital Domain and has been awarded just under $2 million in damages.

Call was awarded $659,500 for breach of contract and over $1.2 million for wrongful termination.

On the wrongful termination claim, Call alleged that he was fired by executives of DD’s parent company, Wyndcrest Holdings, after he tried to prevent DD from presenting to a potential investor financial projections he thought were fraudulent. He prevailed on that claim.

The jury was not asked to decide if Wyndcrest had actually committed fraud. DD went on to give those projections to the investor, Falcon Partners, and Falcon did make the loan to DD, but a Falcon representative testified he did not rely on those projections in making the loan.

Call had also charged DD with fraud, saying the company never intended to honor his contract, but that charge was rejected.

DD also countersued Call, claiming breach of fiduciary duty and breach of duty of loyalty. The jury rejected most of those claims, but found Call broke his confidentiality agreement with DD by failing to return emails from his home office. He was ordered to pay $60,000 to DD on that count. Some of those emails became evidence in the case after Call produced them.

The jury was unanimous on most findings.

DD’s VP and general counsel Joseph Gabriel said in a statement that the company is "evaluating its appellate options."

DD was dogged by rumors of dire financial trouble even before this verdict, due in part to disclosures in an SEC filing that said it had not been profitable since 2004.

Gabriel said the ruling is "absolutely not going to put the company out of business," though the company declined to say whether it was prepared to pay the judgment if necessary.

Wyndcrest is a private investment firm whose investors include helmer Michael Bay and former pro quarterback Dan Marino. Neither was a defendant at trial. Falcon’s other investments include Legendary Pictures.

Digital Domain was the lead shop on this year’s vfx Oscar winner, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and contributed work to current smash "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."

Jeffrey Valle and Lin Meyer of Valle & Associates represented Call at trial. DD was represented by Chad Hummel, Rebecca Torrey and Joanna Hooper of Manatt Phelps & Phillips.

Yang Xueguo :: EXPOS? 7 Tutorial

Yang Xueguo presents a quick overview of the creation of super-heated furnace in 'Tower of Evil' for an end-of-week tutorial. I gave him a little time also to show his 'Good Brush' pack he devised for his Photoshop work too. You can download it and try his pack yourself. His piece attained Master status in EXPOS? 7. Click, scratch and sniff, comment.

http://www.3dm3.com/forum/f50/online-streaming-games-www-gaikai-com-22780/

This technology looks incredible. Streaming Games.

http://www.gaikai.com/

extra link:

http://www.dperry.com/archives/news...gaikai_-_video/

Any thoughts?

This could literally change the face of gaming, software use and many other things..