Southpaw to unveil new Digital Asset Management Solution, TACTIC 3.0, at SIGGRAPH 2010.

Southpaw Technology will unveil TACTIC 3.0 at SIGGRAPH 2010. The new version will provide studios with a more open, flexible solution for speeding the creation of digital assets across highly complex digital productions, like those found in feature film, visual effects, animation, and cinematics.

Illuminate Labs' Beast and Turtle technology to assist Autodesk in Maya and Max game development.

Autodesk has bought Illuminate Labs, a privately held maker of lighting technology for game development. Illuminate Labs' Beast middleware solution and Turtle plug-in for Autodesk Maya software enable faster iteration on a game's creative intent, and more realistic in-game lighting. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. 

Stan Winston family and Gnomon join forces to establish The Stan Winston School of Character Arts.

The Gnomon School of Visual Effects, has revealed that it is partnering with the family of the late character creator and effects visionary, Stan Winston, to establish the Stan Winston School of Character Arts. 

Autodesk today announces the launch of an online competition to find the best design visualisation talent in the UK.

Are You a 3D Star? Time to Showcase Your Talent

Here at Autodesk, we all love to see see great 3D design and visualization work produced by talented individuals on the web. In fact, we love it so much, that we wantYOU to help us share it with the world – right here on our blog.

cmiVFX launches its latest Visual FX Training Video for the Foundry's Nuke Product line called Nuke Shading and Lighting FX.

Nuke Shading and Lighting FX

Mackevision announces release of Picture Shooter, an online, photo-real, virtual-product ''photography'' service.

https://ps.mackevision.de/picture_shooter_demo/

Shave and a Haircut 5.5

Now Available for Maya 2009 2010 2011/ 32/64 Bit Linux / 32/64 Bit Windows and OSX 32/64

We currently support Mentalray, RMS, and Vray for Maya (NEW)
we also support dozens of renderman workalikes

300, Barnyard, Charlie's Angels II, Charlottes Web, Dr. Who, Dream Keepers, Exorcist: The Beginning, Halflife 2, Hellboy, Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix, Into The West, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, King Kong, Moon Girl, Pirates of the Caribbean : World's End, Sin City, Space Chimps, Superman Returns, The Magic Roundabout, Ultraviolet, Underworld Evolutions, When Animals Attack, XMEN-2

"Overall, Shave and a Haircut 4 has been vastly improved and kicks Maya Fur in the metaphorical groin"

SIGGRAPH App

The official SIGGRAPH 2010 application provides a complete schedule of SIGGRAPH 2010 programs and events, plus all the detailed information you need to plan your week, day, or next hour at the conference: speakers, topics, locations, date, time, Computer Animation Festival screenings, exhibitor data, and more.

SIGGRAPH Parties

The Unofficial CGTalk Meetup

Sunday July 25th, 6:30pm

Westin Bonaventure. 

Bona Vista Room

The most unofficial get-together of them all.

No freebies but lots of people.

Disney Animation Studio brings The Foundry's Mari to work with Paint 3D.

The Foundry has entered into a unique relationship with Walt Disney Animation Studios to advance 3D texture painting techniques announced Bill Collis, CEO, The Foundry. 

Boomer Labs announces the release of their new production tool SuperMesher.

SuperMesher is a 3DSMax plugin that allows you to cache animated geometry regardless of its topology and number of objects including pFlow particles. The cache is baked out to a separate file which can be loaded into any version of MAX 2009 or higher. No reference is held to the original objects so they can be deleted or modified without consequence. Because the result is one single mesh, SuperMesher automatically generates appropriate material IDs and Multi-Sub materials. 

The plugin is available in both 32bit and 64bit versions for MAX 2009, 2010 and 2011. 

SeaWorld

Fusion CI Studios adopts Prime Focus Software's Krakatoa for SeaWorld TVC VFX.

In a new SeaWorld commercial, a young girl’s finger reaches toward the screen and, breaking the fourth wall, skims the liquid surface as beautiful ink-in-water effects ripple. The viewer is suddenly brought into a magical oceanic world where dolphins dance, elaborately costumed performers fly and birds sweep across the screen. Each of their motions are met with a flurry of colorful inky swirls, created by Los Angeles’ Fusion CI Studios using Prime Focus Software’s high-volume particle renderer, Krakatoa.

Win an Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite with 3DWorld in their latest contest.

Win an Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite

Send us an original piece of artwork, that hasn't previously won any competitions or awards, to win a copy of Autodesk’s Entertainment Creation Suite

This issue, 3D World and Autodesk are offering you the chance to win a copy of either the 3ds Max or Maya version of Autodesk’s Entertainment Creation Suite, worth $4,995 (£4,600). All you have to do is send us an original piece of work that’s worthy of being showcased at Autodesk’s 3December event in London at the end of the year, where the winner will be announced.

Video Interview with Bob Whitehill – Stereoscopic Supervisor on Toy Story 3

You may remember back in March, along with a group of other awesome bloggers and YouTubers from around the world, I got to visit Pixar, see a very early screening of Toy Story 3 and the short that sits before it, Day and Night and meet the creators of the phenomenal movie that is released in UK cinemas this Monday, 19th July. It’s been a long time coming but I can now finally show you the interviews that I collected while I was there. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting videos from the archives and interviews with Pixar Achivist, Christine Freeman, Stereoscopic Supervisor, Bob Whitehill, Supervising Animators, Bobby Podesta and Mike Venturini, Production Designer, Bob Pauley and the Director and Producer of Toy Story 3, Lee Unkrich and Darla K. Anderson.

SIGGRAPH 2010 Cheat Sheet

SIGGRAPH promises production sessions, best CG short films, technology, and, of course, product demos galore.

The exhibition floor opens Tuesday morning and runs through Thursday afternoon. Look for announcements from all the major vendors in the days leading up to the show, and get hands-on experience at the show.

As Masson says. You have to go to get the hands-on, face to face experience. If you are short on coins, you can buy a one-day basic pass for only US$45 or a one-day computer animation festival pass for $50. Check the cheat sheet to pick your day/s. Meanwhile, here’s the rest of the 'damage.'

NVIDIA helped ILM create epic battle scenes in 'The Last Airbender'

Paramount Pictures' latest film, 'The Last Airbender,' features extraordinary battle visual effects created by Industrial Light & Magic, with the help of NVIDIA Quadro pro graphics technology.

'The Last Airbender', released on July 2, features dramatic sequences in which characters are empowered to harness the four ancient elements of fire, air, water and earth and manipulate them as weapons in battle. Giant fireballs, tendrils of water, walls of earth and overwhelming air blasts are a few of the digital simulations created by ILM as part of the film's 485 visual-effects shots resulting in over an hour of screen time.

Di-O-Matic uncovers next-generation 3D facial animation solution, Maskarad.

Automatic markerless facial performance capture software for Windows

Teaser

Intro to Maskarad

Whether you're creating games, or producing animation for TV or film, Maskarad lets you easily create expressive, realistic facial animations from video. In fact, Maskarad automatically converts the details and nuances of an actor’s video to animation data ready to be used in your favorite 3D package to easily animate your own character rig.

ZBrush 4 announced for Windows And Mac OSX

Z4 on 8-9-10


ZBrush 4
Windows and Mac
LAUNCH DATE 8-9-10 


Also included:
Updated versions of all major plugins, and GoZBrush support
for Modo, Cinema 4D, 3DSMax and Maya for Windows and Mac systems.

Real 3D or Fake 3D

Many film studios are trying to cash in on moviegoers' craving for 3D films. However, many studios are "faking it" by converting 2D films into 3D post-production. Worse, the studios are not being upfront in their advertising, with some people feeling ripped-off after paying extra fees for the "3D Experience."

SIGGRAPH Technical Papers

One of the best things about SIGGRAPH is the sense, rightfully so, that you can discover the next new things in computer graphics, the trend, the technology that will become part of our lives in a few short years. This is most evident in the prestigious Technical Papers sessions.