VFX PLANET

CGI Haters Club, Ride For 'Transformers, & VFX Directors Advisory...

nobody@vox.com(WebMaster) — Fri, 16 May 2008 08:49:30 -0700

'Prince Caspian' Looks for $80M Open

(latimes.com) Testing faith is a major theme of "The
Chronicles of Narnia" stories, but Hollywood clearly has confidence in
the fantasy film franchise from Walden Media and Walt Disney Pictures.

"The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," opening today at 3,929
theaters in the U.S. and Canada, is essentially the only movie of the
summer with a weekend to itself (even next week's "Indiana Jones and
the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" and Will Smith's upcoming "Hancock"
face a piece of road kill -- er, a "counterprogramming" picture going
wide).

Pent-up demand should help the sequel to "The Chronicles of Narnia:
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" outdo the original, at least on
the initial weekend. Consumer tracking surveys show that the
big-budget "Prince Caspian" could debut at $75 million to $80 million,
knocking Marvel Studios and Paramount Pictures' "Iron Man" from the
top of the box-office heap.

Digital Domain IPO Vanishes

(online.wsj.com) The largest U.S. IPO ever, that of Visa Inc., managed a successful debut in March, and is now trading 88% above its IPO price of $44. Others haven't been as lucky; unprofitable special-effects firm Digital Domain failed to price last month, and it has no firm date set for the future.

"If you speak with people who have been following the [stock] markets for a long time, many of them say the current circumstances in the U.S. economy are unlike any they have ever seen before. Their ability to predict where the market will go is limited due to a lack of relevant history," says Scott Gehsmann, a global capital-markets partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers. "This uncertainty is causing volatility, and volatility is challenging deal execution."

'Speed Racer' & Orig. 'Star Wars' Have Same Opening Weekend

(io9.com) In an interesting column over at AMC, scifi writer and film critic John Scalzi explains why Speed Racer is doomed not so much because of its content, but because of the changing economics of film distribution. He points out that when Star Wars went into wide release in 1977, it garnered the equivalent (adjusted for inflation) of about $20 million its opening weekend — exactly what Speed Racer earned. And it was considered a monster hit. What has changed? For one thing, Star Wars was able to stay in theaters for nearly a year.

These days, a hit film usually scores over $50 million at the box office its first week, and it's not unusual for it to have as much as a fifty percent dropoff in the following weeks. In other words, hit films are almost never created via word-of-mouth anymore. Either the studio and reviewers have created enough buzz about a film before opening day to drive insane crowds into the theaters, or the film flops.

Hong Kong Ups Visual f/x Profile

(variety.com) Special effects in Hong Kong movies have ranged from the distinctly ropey to absolutely eye-popping.

But the territory is now becoming a serious player as a vfx supplier to the local, mainland Chinese and international markets, leaving behind the days when removal of wirework was stock in trade and topline effects went to firms in California or Australia.

But if those pics failed to give Hong Kong effects the global showcase that was hoped for, there are signs that bigger, more international movies are also beckoning. Most notable of these is Universe Entertainment's $12 million "Storm Riders II," helmed by Danny and Oxide Pang. Pic, which started lensing last month, will aim for a "300"- or "Sin City"-like look using greenscreens throughout.

"It is more than an adaptation," says Universe's CEO Alvin Lam. "Visually, it will be a comicbook. CG will be dominant throughout." Lam also says they are aiming for a look never before seen in a Hong Kong movie -- though the Pangs' "Re-Cycle" was an astonishing technical triumph that preemed in Cannes two years ago and delivered a beautiful, if confusing, fantasy universe.

Effects for "Storm Riders II" will come from Hong Kong's newest vfx player FatFace Prods. The company, which was founded by Centro alum Ng Yuen-fai, moved from commercials into feature movies only with "Re-Cycle" but has picked up a string of awards.

Although genre restrictions still exist, there are now signs that more mainland Chinese movies are making use of effects -- and that more of them are turning to Hong Kong for the job.

Where Zhang Yimou's "Hero" went to the Orphanage, Australia's Animal Logic and Tweak Films for its effects in 2002, his 2004 "House of Flying Daggers" used Menfond and Animal Logic, and his 2006 "Curse of the Golden Flower" was serviced by Centro and the U.K.'s Moving Picture Co. FatFace's second feature was Peter Chan's stunning $30 million "Warlords."

Hong Kong firms face competition from neighboring China, which turns out thousands of effects and animation graduates every year, but which has lower standards and is more focused on low-cost servicing of TV.

"Hong Kong has a great future for effects," Lam says. "These days, the equipment and software is the same everywhere and anyone with money can buy it. Hong Kong's strength is its creativity -- it has good directors and great CGI directors."

Steam-Punk Sci-fi For "City of Ember"

The latest fantasy novel adaption from Fox Walden is City of Ember.
Based on the 2003 novel by Jeanne Duprau, Ember follows two kids, Lina
and Doon, who live in the City of Ember, where the sky is always dark.
As Ember's power source begins to fail and the lamps start to flicker,
they search for clues that will unlock ancient mysteries about the
city and save the people of Ember.

Take a look: http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/05/15/city-of-ember-movie-trailer/

Columbia Pictures has 'Goosebumps'

(moviehole.net) Columbia Pictures has "Goosebumps" – and not
because another "Da Vinci Code" pic is in the works. No, they've
actually snagged the rights to R.L. Stine's young-adult series,
according to Variety.

"Numerous people have tried to bring 'Goosebumps' to the bigscreen,
but luckily Scholastic never found the right fit," said Producer Neal
Moritz ("2 Fast 2 Furious")."I've been a huge fan of the property for
a long time. I met with Deborah [Forte] several times and convinced
her that Original and Sony were the best place to take it."

Sony and Scholastic see the property as a potential franchise.

"The time is ripe for doing a movie," said Forte, who dubbed
"Goosebumps" the original "safe scare" property. "The first generation
of 'Goosebumps' fans are in their early 20s now."

Studio is fast-tracking the project and is focusing on finding a writer.

Moritz said they likely will cast unknown child actors and then pepper
the film with well-known thesps in supporting roles, much like Warner
did with the "Harry Potter" franchise.

The series also spawned a live-action TV show that aired on the Fox
Kids Network in the 1990s. Episodes of that series returned to the
small screen last year on Cartoon Network.

Matt Tolmach, co-president of Columbia, called the franchise "a truly
global brand that excites kids everywhere." He added, "With so much
rich source material available to us, we expect to deliver a film that
will chill and thrill fans of this unique family-friendly franchise".

'CGI Haters Club' Will Love Swedish Hulk

(inentertainment.co.uk) We recently told you about the Universal release of The Incredible Hulk and the new international trailer and you will probably remember me banging on about the CGI which I totally hate , well a fan has come along and made his own model which I must say is much better than Hollywood's version.

Jonas Thornqvist from Sweden created this new Incredible Hulk model using 3ds max, mental ray and Photoshop software, he said that though the new movie is coming out he wanted to create his very own version, he carried on to say that it was very hard to make the model with that much mass but he did enjoy the process.

Well all I can say is Jonas you are a god and a genius because I agree that the model you created is by far much better than the CGI crap that the film has. Come on people come here and debate all you like I still stand by the fact the CGI within the film makes the Incredible Hulk look pathetic, even more so child like material. It is supposed to be a great movie fair enough but come on it is not supposed to be an animated film.

Take a look: http://www.inentertainment.co.uk/20080516/all-cgi-haters-of-the-incredible-hulk-will-love-fans-model-he-created/

Go Riding with the 'Transformers'!

(moviehole.net) Sounds like those robots-in-disguise might
be chasing down some bikers?

A casting call just arrived in my inbox advertising for a "female
motorcycle rider" to do a days work on "Transformers".

This "Very Attractive Female Actor Under 30 Years Old" must "have
extensive experience/training in riding motorcycles".

The actress would be a day-player.

WALL-E Spotted in LA is Animatronic Heaven

(nentertainment.co.uk) Oh my god this is so cute, it reminds me of Johnny 5, Disney/Pixar have developed an amazing mobile animatronics version of WALL-E to run around the Disney amusement parks, the video shows WALL-E in action and you can see why he is easy to fall in love with, that voice is well cool.

Just so you know the movie is out this year, in the UK it releases 18 July 2008, and in USA it releases 27 June 2008, it releases in many other countries this year also.

Take a look: http://www.vimeo.com/1014358

James Cameron's Plans After Avatar?

(The Hollywood Reporter) "After 'Avatar,' I want to do
something a lot smaller," James Cameron told The Hollywood Reporter on
Thursday.

A possible next project is The Dive, a true story about the romance
between controversial Cuban free diver Francisco "Pipin" Ferreras and
Frenchwoman Audrey Mestre. Under his guidance, Mestre became a free
diver who broke several world records but died in 2002 while
competing.

"It's a drama, a love story," Cameron said. "This will require
underwater photography, which will look gorgeous in 3-D."

ILM's Contribution to 'Speed Racer' Clarified

(huntingtonnews.net) Regarding Tony Rutherford's review of
Speed Racer posted [May 13 http://www.huntingtonnews.net/
columns/080513-rutherford-columnsspeedracermovie.html], it seems that
Mr. Rutherford is under the impression that Industrial Light & Magic
was the primary visual effects house on the film -- which couldn't be
further from the truth.

ILM was called in late in the post production schedule to work on a
single sequence which totaled roughly 38 shots, or 4-minutes of screen
time. Another company, Digital Domain, was the primary vendor for the
effects work contributing nearly 2-hours of the work that appears in
the film.

We certainly would not your readers to think we were taking credit for
the work of another company and to that end, I hope Mr. Rutherford's
review will be corrected as soon as possible.

If you'd like to see our work look no further than Marvel's new film
Iron Man for which Industrial Light & Magic was the primary visual
effects house on.

Thank you,

Greg Grusby
Technical Publicist, INDUSTRIAL LIGHT & MAGIC
San Francisco CA 94129

Source: http://www.huntingtonnews.net/letters/080515-grusby-lettertotheeditor.html

CG VFX: Director Discretion Advisory

(thepost.ohiou.edu) As technology advances, the
special effects created through computers become more and more
unbelievable.

t's hard to believe that the fight scenes in movies such as Spider-Man
can be so exciting, or that viewers get so attached to Gollum in the
Lord of the Rings movies, even though what's on the screen is
essentially the result of a bunch of ones and zeros.

Despite these advances, it's still hard for filmmakers to create an
entire virtual world that audiences want to see.

One of the most recent examples of this was Beowulf director Robert
Zemeckis' version of the ancient legend. The movie failed to
connect to some audiences because the world that Zemeckis created was too fake.

The technique used on Beowulf involved taking the actors' performances
and animating over them, creating a frightening effect where the
characters seemed to have hollow eyes and very little soul.

Last weekend, the Wachowski Brothers' Speed Racer opened to both
critical and commercial failure. Although the actors in Speed Racer
were still live action, the race scenes were horrible computer
animation.

If I had to guess, most audiences were probably turned off by the fact
that it seemed as if the races lacked the dramatic weight of Cars.

So how is it that filmmakers can't make a movie as exciting as a cartoon?
Because instead of using computer effects to enhance the movie, filmmakers
just used computers to fill in for their lack of storytelling.

The reason that Gollum is so compelling is not just because he's a
computer creation. It's because the story of Gollum is so sad that the
expressions on his face just enhance it.

None of that is evident in Beowulf, where the hero's lust for women —
his supposed Achilles' heel — is something of an afterthought. It
barely comes through the animation.

The more filmmakers use computers for special effects, the more
amazing the special effects have become. But if the effects become the
substitution for actual stories, films are in for a lot of trouble.

Ethan Goldsmith is a junior video production major and a columnist for
The Post. Send him an e-mail at eg973705@ohiou.edu.

Darth Vader Spared Jail

(fox23.com) A man who dressed up as Darth Vader and attacked the founder of Britain's first Jedi church was spared jail today.

Arwel Wynne Hughes, 27, donned a black cape and bin bag to confront the Star Wars obsessives while they filmed a documentary to promote their Jedi Church, which was formed last year.

He escaped prison, landing a two-month suspended sentence.

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Disney Anim Overtime, Hobbit Q&A, & Lucas and Zemeckis B-Day Boys...

nobody@vox.com(WebMaster) — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:51:12 -0700

Overtime Crunch At Disney Animation Studios

(animationguildblog.blogspot.com) I whiled away Tuesday afternoon at Disney Animation Studios. There was lots of activity going on -- story meetings, animator meetings, supervisors rushing to and fro. I was told by a staffer that more production employees are coming on board for Princess and the Frog in the near future as Princess continues to ramp up ...

The Bolt crew is working lots of overtime. Nobody seems downhearted about it (but maybe genuine fatigue hasn't set in). One European said to me: "I never got extra money for working overtime back home, so I like this fine."

It does my heart good to see a little of the moolah spread around.

Grand Theft Auto IV breaks Guinness World Records

(straight.com) Grand Theft Auto IV is not just a gleaming cube of excellence. By selling 3.6 million copies and raking in US$310 million in its first day of release, GTA IV claimed both the Guinness World Records for highest grossing video game in 24 hours and the highest revenue generated by an entertainment product in 24 hours.

This has established GTA IV as the biggest entertainment release of all time, quite a feat when you consider other blockbusters such as Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows, which took in US$220 million, and Halo 3, with US$170 million.

Rockstar Entertainment can now sit on its giant throne made of money as one of the biggest players in the gaming industry. Even with Electronic Arts trying to buy Take 2, the publisher of GTA, Bioshock and its 2K sports games, Rockstar still controls its own destiny.

Dragonball VFX Crew Deduced

(dragonballmovieblog.net) We've never really had word on who would be handling the visual effect for Dragonball. We know that Ariel Velasco-Shaw is the VFX supervisor, and we know that Image Engine and Ollin Studio were doing pre-visualization work.

Well, now it seems we have confirmation that Zoic Studios (Van Helsing, The day After Tomorrow, Spider-Man 2) is working on the film.

Go Behind the Scenes Of Groundbreaking "Clone Wars"

(comingsoon.net) Lucasfilm has announced that "Star Wars Weekends" at Disney's Hollywood Studios will give a sneak peek at Star Wars: The Clone Wars, coming to theaters on August 15:

The Star Wars adventures continue on Aug. 15 with the theatrical release of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS from Lucasfilm Animation, and this year's Star Wars Weekends at Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort will offer fans an exciting, in-depth look at the making of this big-screen animated epic.

Among the features at this year's Star Wars Weekends, which run every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from June 6 to June 29, 2008, will be "Behind the Force – Experience THE CLONE WARS," an exploration of the creation of this groundbreaking Star Wars feature film. During "Experience THE CLONE WARS," fans will get a chance to meet a representative of Lucasfilm Ltd. and, at the culmination of the presentation, see an exclusive clip of STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS that can be seen only at Disney's Hollywood Studios during Star Wars Weekends.

More: http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=44989

Imagemovers Digital VP Heads To Hasbro

(playthings.com) Hasbro has tapped movie industry veteran Bennett Schneir to fill the newly-created position of Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Motion Pictures.

Schneir comes to Hasbro from filmmaker Robert Zemeckis' production company, ImageMovers, where he worked on a number of major motion pictures, including What Lies Beneath, Cast Away, The Polar Express, Monster House and Beowulf. In his most recent role as ImageMovers Digital's VP of creative affairs, he oversaw all of the company's creative development and worked on many Disney-related projects as part of ImageMovers' 10-year deal with The Walt Disney Company to produce Disney-branded motion pictures. He began his career at Creative Artists Agency.

Hasbro recently inked a six-year strategic partnership with Universal Pictures to produce at least four movies based on Hasbro brands.

ILM's Dennis Muren Brings 70's Sci-fi Look To Wall_E

(promenadeblog.com) Because I had lost my Ratatouille poster last night I decided that the best thing you could do was to attend another RenderMan presentation, get another walking teapot, get another RenderMan sample DVD and to fill out another survey sheet. In the comments section I apologized for attending another session and that I was eager for a new poster. Sometimes you just have to be honest. Still I took a seat not directly in the front again.
The people from the jumping lamp studio

But instead of hearing the same stuff again about the integration of Massive into the Pixar pipeline by Ziah Fogel there was Afonso Salcedo, one of the lighters at Wall-E who did about 3 or 4 percent of the shots in the whole movie, "a good average". I learned much about the way of lighting at Pixar, and how they dodge using ray tracing, the Achilles heel of RenderMan. For Wall-E the director wanted a 70s sci-fi movie look so Pixar got Dennis Muren over to set up some of the basic lighting for Wall-E in the atrium with a 70mm-film camera with anamorphic lenses. They did tests on the DOF, the cushioning and the way lens flares and iris circles look. That's what I love about Pixar: Total involvement and research for every project.

Source with more: http://promenadeblog.com/index.php/2008-05-09_fmx08-day-three

Dell Phases Out Gaming Laptops

(dianzhongwang.com) Fresh from the Wall Street Journal comes some news from Dell: They're phasing out much of their XPS gaming line, including their Warcraft laptops. You might remember the Dell XPS M1730 from our giveaway contest, hand-ons analysis and reviews back when it first hit the market. According to the article, the phaseout begins next month, so if you've been thinking about getting one of these bad boys, you'd better act fast.

The website still doesn't mention anything about the phase out, but it seems likely it'll be pulled soon. the $2999 price tag still seems a bit steep to me, but it's probably better than than the initial $4500 price tag, and better than the price that would probably be asked for any versions that might appear on various auction sites once Dell officially discontinues it.

Talk To The Hobbit Boys

(joblo.com) Want to know what director Guillermo del Toro and producer Peter Jackson have planned for their adaptation of THE HOBBIT and what lies beyond? Why not ask them yourself?

Using the enchanted parchment of the internets, Jackson has extended that invitation to all fans of Tolkien's little wanderer. Find the details below, and click to find out how to get your Q's in queue!

Source: http://www.joblo.com/index.php?id=21095

To join the Unexpected Party with Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro and chat about The Hobbit, please click "Register Now" here: http://www.wetanz.com/party/register/

What's Next for Apple: 3D Gaming

(seekingalpha.com) The most influential names in entertainment are furiously working with the latest breakthrough 3D technology, and you can now add Steve Jobs to the list that already includes three-time Academy Award winner James Cameron, U2 visionary Bono, Lord of the Rings Director Peter Jackson, and Imax (IMAX) co-CEOs Richard Gelfond and Bradley Wechsler.

Apple has officially filed a patent for a 3D gaming controller that will work with the Apple TV. As reported on Appleinsider.com, in the November 2006 filing, published for the first time this week earlier this month, the Cupertino-based electronics maker notes that the three-dimensional remote control systems can detect an absolute location to which a remote control is pointing in first and second orthogonal axes (e.g., the x- and y-axes) and an absolute position of the remote control in a third orthogonal axis (e.g., the z-axis).

There have been a number of hints over the past year to suggest it may only be a matter of time before the set-top box, like the iPod and iPhone, will double as a casual gaming console.

Win the Ultimate Visual Effects Machine

(tgdaily.com) You may not have heard about this small manufacturer of VFX workstations, but there is a good chance that you saw a movie or a TV show with special effects done on one of these machines.

BoxxX is celebrating its 10 year anniversary this year and in order to celebrate the occasion, the company assembled an ultimate visual effects machine based on Intel's Skulltrail platform and Core 2 Extreme processors. To create a Special Edition of its 3DBOXX machine (8400se), the Boxx guys turned to Asetek for a new cooling system and posted a new world record score on SPEC.org for a dual-processor workstation as a result. No doubts, this overclocked workstation is a dream for any enthusiast with really, really deep pockets.

The $7700 base configuration includes 4 GB of memory, a Quadro FX1700 graphics card, an 80 GB hard drive and a DVD burner. Add 12 GB of memory, three 1 TB hard drives and a high-end Nvidia graphics card and you end up with about twice that (display not included).

This machine is 49.4% faster than latest Mac Pro system in Cinebench 10 and 37.7% faster in After Effects.

Boxx will be giving away one these machines Siggraph 2008. So, if you want to get your chance and win this system head over to the conference and

"Twilight" Sequels Shot Back-To-Back

(darkhorizons.com) There's one big problem for any actor playing a teenage vampire - teenagers age quickly, vampires do not.

With post-production in full-swing on Summit Entertainment's big screen adaptation of "Twilight", Stephenie Meyer's first novel in the series, talk already has turned to the sequels according to MTV News.

Most interesting is that those involved are talking of adapting the next two books 'New Moon' and 'Eclipse' back-to-back ala "The Matrix" trilogy with the main purpose being to film the actors before growth spurts change their features too much.

Director Catherine Hardwicke says "Our vampires can't age...if they were like 45, people would say 'What's up?. [Filming them together] could be the case. Then, you just get it done."

Producer Greg Mooradian adds "It's been discussed. I can't tell you we're at that place yet, but it's definitely been discussed. [We like the idea of] shooting them back to back, and shooting them simultaneously as they did with 'Lord of the Rings'. From a production standpoint, it's a great thing to do. But it's quite an undertaking."

Any other reasons for doing it? "The goal is to keep it moving quickly. [That will] give the audience a sense of knowing that the next installment is going to come at a really specific increment of time. We're going to go as fast as humanly possible, especially since there are at least four stories to tell. We'd like to keep a real consistency as to how quickly we are able to do it."

Stephenie Meyer added that she supports the idea of shooting the sequels simultaneously. Those involved have signed on for three films and if the go-ahead is given it's said that production on them could start very soon.

10 Hot Computer Driven Careers

#2: Video Game Developer.

With the continued expansion of the video game market into new demographics, especially with the introduction of the Wii, the video game industry continues to need solid game developers. In fact, there is evidence that video games will be entering new domains, such as the health and education industries, on much larger scales. And while video games might have their detractors, gaming has benefits: imparting therapy, teaching hand/eye coordination, planning and strategy, for starters. That said, demands for newer and more innovative video games will continue to grow. It remains to be seen how soon we'll get to holographic gaming, but video game developers and even video game testers will have plenty of opportunities.

#4: 3D Animation Technician.

The success of 3D animated movies such as The Incredibles and Beowulf require both creative and technical skills to use the necessary advanced animation systems that are sometimes hybridized with live action footage. Throw in the availability of free or inexpensive 3D applications such as POV-Ray, Bryce, Poser, Terragen and many more - not to mention high-end sytems - and there's lots of technical skills to learn.

Such technology is also used for TV shows and TV commercials, so related career opportunities will increase, given the demand for visual content.

More: http://computermajors.blogspot.com/2008/05/10-hot-computer-driven-careers.html

No Wins for "Speed Racer" Overseas

(showbizdata.com) Speed Racer hit the overseas market with all gaskets blowing. It earned just $12.8 million in 30 countries, to place third at the international box office, behind Iron Man, which remained the top film with a gross of $39 million in its second week.
Kerner Optical To Shoot 3D "Halloween Haunt"

(enews20.com) The Jim Henson series "Fraggle Rock" will become a live-action musical feature, populated by human characters and Fraggle Rock puppets.

The film produced by the Weinstein Co. Cory Edwards ("Hoodwinked!") will resemble the classic Jim Henson series.

Edwards is separately developing another project, a live-action feature adaptation of Cedar Fair's Halloween Haunt franchise, designed to be shot in 3-D by Kerner Optical and produced by Davis Entertainment, Davis Philips and Tracey Edmonds, Variety notes.

Happy Birthday George & Bob

(kvoa.com) Today's Birthdays: Movie producer George Lucas is 64. Director Robert Zemeckis is 56

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Playstation 3 Render Farms, Meet ILM's Ben Snow, & Prehistoric CG Creatures Explained...

nobody@vox.com(WebMaster) — Wed, 14 May 2008 07:41:11 -0700

Render Your Movie On A PlayStation 3

(bloomberg.com) International Business Machines Corp., the largest computer-services provider, is making lower-cost supercomputers for Wall Street firms and movie studios using chips designed for video-game consoles.

The BladeCenter QS22 uses a new generation of the chip developed for Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3. The machine is five times faster and has 16 times more memory than IBM's earlier offering, the Armonk, New York-based company said today in a statement.

Threshold Animation Studios Inc., a Santa Monica, California-based film company, will use the new computer to produce at least 18 pictures, including ``Food Fight,'' a movie featuring the voice of Charlie Sheen that will be released this year.

IBM is making supercomputers affordable to businesses in a bid to boost hardware sales, which sagged 6.7 percent last quarter. The company's share of the supercomputer market increased to 46 percent in November 2007 from 26 percent in 2002, according to the Top500 Project, a supercomputer tracking group.

Korea & France Build A CG "Empire"

(darkhorizons.com) Korea and France will co-produce a movie based on French science fiction writer Bernard Werber's "Empire of the Ants" says Korea Times.

Korean director Kim Moon S. will helm the 10 million euro project for Studio3303 Films. About 60 percent of the film will be animated while the rest will feature real-life images.

Kim will work on the script, which will be in English, with an writer while Werber will give overall feedback. Currently a rough treatment has been drafted and the film will go into production this year and is slated for release in 2011.

Meet VFX Supervisor Ben Snow

(features.cgsociety.org) It's a long way from a goat farm near Burra Creek outside Queanbeyan outside Canberra in the Capital Territory of Australia, to San Francisco, California USA.

But, it's an even bigger stretch to imagine that Ben Snow, a young movie fan growing up in this remote location, could wind up as visual effects supervisor at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) for the blockbuster film Iron Man.

In grade 11, the aspiring moviemaker read an article in "American Cinematographer" by Dennis Muren about his work as the effects director of photography for "Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back." "I decided, 'OK, I want to be a miniatures DP,'" Snow said. "But, I couldn't see how I could get from Canberra, Australia to ILM."

He took the long road, traveling first to London, then back to Australia. But, he made it. Some twenty years after he had read the article about "Episode V," Dennis Muren himself mentored Snow into his first credit as a visual effects supervisor.

The film? "Star Wars: Episode II – The Attack of the Clones," for which Snow received his second Oscar nomination.

More: http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4514

David Cronenberg in Talks for Timecrimes

(ShockTillYouDrop.com)

     David Cronenberg (A History of Violence, The Fly) is a contender to direct the remake of Nacho Vigalondo's Timecrimes. The original Spanish-language film Los Cronocrimenes is a noirish thriller about a man who travels back in time half an hour to prevent a serious crime. Timothy J. Sexton wrote the script for the new version.

Santa Rosa's RotoFactory A Hit With Hollywood VFX

(THE PRESS DEMOCRAT)             Barely two years after opening its doors, a Santa Rosa company that creates visual effects for Hollywood movies is on a roll, with a dozen films under its belt and more in the works.

RotoFactory is part of a cluster of production companies, animation studios and special effects shops around the Bay Area, which is quickly gaining a reputation as Hollywood North.

The startup is growing as Hollywood outsources its digital editing work, said Eric Christensen, RotoFactory's founder and CEO. While studios send many jobs to China and India, they're now turning to U.S. shops like RotoFactory because they do quick, quality work, Christensen said.

"We do the shot once and we do it right," said Christensen, 39, a digital artist and six-year veteran of George Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic.

RotoFactory also gets jobs from other visual effects studios in the United States.

"There aren't enough companies in L.A. to handle all the work," said Marty Shindler, a former studio executive who now is an entertainment business consultant. "That creates a really good opportunity for companies like RotoFactory that have a good stable of people, do good work and can deliver on time and on budget."

Christensen opened RotoFactory in a southwest Santa Rosa business park in 2006. It provides rotoscope and digital paint production for feature films, TV shows, commercials and video games.

Rotoscoping lets filmmakers digitally isolate characters or objects from their surroundings in a frame of film. They can be placed in new backgrounds that have been photographed separately or created on a computer.

Digital paint artists use software to create or change colors, textures, shadows or reflections in a frame of film or video. They can erase unwanted items in the background of a shot, including wires, trees, poles and film crews.

Rotoscoping and digital painting are done after a film shoot, so filmmakers can clean up or enhance the footage.

In the past year, RotoFactory worked on "Enchanted," "College Road Trip," "The Kite Runner," "Rush Hour 3," "The Spiderwick Chronicles," "The Mist" and "Jumper," among others.

More recently, the business did visual effects for "The Love Guru" and "Get Smart," both slated for release next month.

The self-funded startup now is seeking $1.5 million from investors to expand into 3-D effects, Christensen said. It also wants to set up a business office in Los Angeles.

The company struggled to get established during its first two years, he said. RotoFactory scrambled for jobs during the 100-day Writers Guild of America strike, which halted work on film projects and cost the industry an estimated $2.5 billion.

"We took a hit with the writer's strike," said Christensen.

Still, RotoFactory made a profit in 2007 on sales in the high six figures, he said. The privately-held company does not disclose revenues or earnings.

Last year's "Rush Hour 3" marked the first time RotoFactory worked directly for a major studio and got a listing in the film credits. Now it's working directly with four studios, New Line, Paramount, Universal and Warner Brothers, Christensen said.

The company developed software that lets studios and other clients check the progress of RotoFactory's digital editing. The proprietary software has helped RotoFactory build business, Christensen said.

"It puts us into the room next door," he said.

The startup employs between a dozen and 30 digital artists, depending on the project.

Christensen went to Santa Rosa's Cardinal Newman High School and earned a film degree at San Francisco State University. As a digital artist at Industrial Light & Magic, he worked on "Mission Impossible III," "War of the Worlds," "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets," among other films.

He decided to open his own visual effects business after ILM moved his division to San Francisco, stretching his daily commute from Santa Rosa.

Christensen is intent on keeping RotoFactory in Santa Rosa.

"I don't want to move to L.A," he said.

Can "Transformers 2" Release In 3-D?

(comingsoon.net)           The "2008 ShoWest Edition" of the Dolby newsletter (in PDF format) has a list of upcoming 3-D releases and includes Transformers 2 (as well as Steven Spielberg's Tintin). We're hearing that, although it's on the list, the sequel is not a lock yet for a 3-D release. A final decision will be made based on the availability of Digital 3-D and IMAX 3-D screens.

The big problem facing the Transformers sequel is that Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs comes out just five days later and would rule out a majority of the Digital 3-D screens.

CG "Cereal Heroes" Move To Paris

(BUSINESS WIRE)           Fable Works, LLC, a movie production and animation company, announced today that it is producing the original 3D-animated Feature Film Cereal Heroes! for theatrical release in 2010. The movie will be produced at Sparx Animation Studios in Paris, France and Ho-chi-min, Vietnam.

The story follows the adventures of cartoon cereal-box-mascots who are mistakenly brought to life when a plan to replace the world's fallen superheroes with characters from comic books goes awry. These unlikely "Cereal Heroes" with ridiculous powers soon find themselves alone and on the run in an unfamiliar world that only they can save from certain destruction.

"Cereal Heroes!" is a great action-adventure comedy for the whole family," said Fable Work's Producer Jean-Philippe Agati. "People of all ages will fall in love with these misfit cereal-box mascots as they attempt to save the world from the most powerful super-villains of all time."

Writer David Meinstein optioned the property to Fable Works in 2007 and is writing the screenplay. Meinstein is best known for his work as writer and producer of the fan-favorite G4 Television program, "Portal."

Noted artist Stephen Silver is designing the characters for the film which is currently in pre-production. Silver's best known work includes the character designs for "Kim Possible," "Danny Phantom" and the "Clerks" animated TV series.

Odyssey Entertainment Limited is the international sales agent for "Cereal Heroes!" and will begin pre-selling the feature at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.

Making of "MEETING A PREHISTORIC CREATURE"

(prehistoric-insanity.blogspot.com)                This entry into Boneyard 20 is probably not going to be a very typical "meeting a prehistoric creature", but should hopefully still prove entertaining.

Our diligent crew of one here at Prehistoric Insanity Digital has been kind enough to take us through the process he takes to make some of our cool CG Dinosaurs for our movies and The Tyrannosaur Chronicles (which has its own entry into Boneyard 20 here).

Our idea for the contest is that taking you through how we make our CG Dinosaurs you'll get to see how hollywood allows people to "meet a prehistoric creature". Granted our efforts aren't as mainstream, high budget, and professional as real special effects professional, but this should give you some idea how its done.

The various processes and steps included here might be for non moving pictures, but the principles are the same for animation. The only thing that happen is these steps are repeated by a person or computer frame after frame.

Now follow us through the step by step creation of two pictures being used on The Tyrannosaur Chronicles.

Take a look:   http://prehistoric-insanity.blogspot.com/2008/05/traumador-making-of-meeting-prehistoric.html

Weinsteins Prep 'Fraggle Rock'

(comingsoon.net)                  The Weinstein Company is moving forward on "Fraggle Rock," a live-action musical feature based on the Jim Henson-produced TV series.

According to Variety, TWC has recruited Cory Edwards to write the script and direct.

Edwards previously directed the animated hit "Hoodwinked!" for TWC.

Originally attached to the project as a screenwriter in the fall of 2006, Ahmet Zappa will remain on board as executive producer along with Brian Inerfeld.

Lisa Henson and Brian Henson of The Jim Henson Co. will produce.

Premiering on HBO in 1983, "Fraggle Rock" ran for five seasons and 96 episodes. Created by Henson, the show introduced the world to the Fraggles, the radish-loving inhabitants of a system of connected caves in what may or may not be an alternate world. The main Fraggles of interest were Gobo, Wembley, Mokey, Boober and Red, a group of friends with an interest in exploring and eating the tasty structures constructed by the Doozers, the tinier, more industrious natives of Fraggle Rock. The show's other central creatures include the gigantic Gorgs and the Trash Heap, which was a talking trash heap.

"One of our main priorities when we first launched the Weinstein Company was to feature a broad range of family-friendly franchises like 'Fraggle Rock,'" Weinstein tells Variety.

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Iron Man's 20 Year Render, Of Hippogriffs and Red Tape, & Narnia in 2018...

nobody@vox.com(WebMaster) — Mon, 12 May 2008 23:28:55 -0700

Sci-fi "District 9" Heads to Soweto

(thetimes.co.za) Oscar-winning film maker Peter Jackson has chosen South Africa as the location for his latest science fiction movie.

The film, District 9, has already been nicknamed "Star Wars in Soweto".

Jackson is a digital-computer- effects wizard , with the award-winning films Lord of the Rings film trilogy and King Kong under his belt.

Filming is due to begin in Soweto later this year, but will not be limited to the area.

Clandestine auditions have already been held in Johannesburg.

The film, which deals with an alien invasion, will be directed by Canadian Neill Blomkamp.

The co-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Amy Pascal, said: "Neill Blomkamp is a true talent who understands how to use visual effects in full service of the story.

"With Peter Jackson working with Neill, we believe District 9 will be a cinema highlight."

Johannesburg agent Kevin Feather said: "[Show business] is buzzing with talk about District 9."

20 Years To Render Iron Man?

(forums.cgsociety.org) A tech article about the VFX on Iron Man reports that it takes anywhere between 3-8 hours to render ONE FRAME.

So let's work this out. For arguments sake let's take an average of 4 hours a frame.

That's 96 hours PER SECOND!!

Now, I don't know how many seconds of CG there are in the film, but let's say it's atleast 30 solid minutes. Maybe i'm wrong on that, but let's just say that for arguments sake.

Now, that comes in at 1,800 seconds. Which equates to 172,800 hours of render time. Which is 7,200 days, or just under 20 years!

I'm no film historian, but I'm guessing they didn't start making this film in the late 80's? Forgive my ignorance, but what's the trick here? A million computers all strung together doing the rendering? How do they deal with years and years of render time when they only have months to get the film completed!?

Source: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=630084

"Witchblade" Coming to the Big Screen

(Variety) Platinum Studios, Top Cow Productions and Arclight Films will team on a live-action feature adaptation of "Witchblade," based on the Top Cow comic book franchise.

The comic book introduced the "Witchblade" mythology, which centers on an ornate jewel-encrusted gauntlet that gives extraordinary powers to the wearer, a specially chosen female from each generation.

The film will be produced by Arclight's Gary Hamilton and Nigel Odell, Platinum Studios' Scott Mitchell Rosenberg and Steve Squillante of Havenwood Media. Top Cow's Marc Silvestri and Matt Hawkins will be executive producers with Platinum Studios' Rich Marincic and Greenberg Group's Randy Greenberg.

The comic book franchise has sold more than 100 million copies worldwide since debuting in 1995 and spawned a 2000 telepic that turned into a weekly series that ran for two seasons on TNT.

"This property is the cornerstone of our upcoming production and sales slate," said Arclight CEO Gary Hamilton. "We hope to be able to start production in September."

The companies are already eyeing a location shoot in Australia.

Hippogriff Trainer Fights U.K. Red Tape

(business.timesonline.co.uk) It is a moot point which mythical beast is the most difficult to construct - Harry Potter's hippogriff or a convincing argument that this Government is keen to lighten the regulatory burden on business.

William Sargent, 51, has done both. His Framestore CFC has provided digital effects to Hollywood blockbusters, winning an Oscar for the panzerbjorn, or armoured polar bear, in The Golden Compass, just out on DVD.

Since 2005 he has also been chairman of the Better Regulation Executive, set up that year with the aim of simplifying regulation in both the public and the private sector.

The firm created the god-lion Aslan in Prince Caspian, which opens this summer. That Oscar-winning digitised bear in The Golden Compass has as many hairs as a real one. Framestore was responsible for the startling opening scene in the epic Troy, of the huge Mycenean fleet sailing to attack the City. The inner geek in me kicks in; the fleet was far bigger than any such Bronze Age civilisation could have mustered, surely? He laughs. "You have got to remember this is Hollywood. They didn't have Brad Pitt, either."

The company now employs 800 people and is one of the four leading special effects studios today, rivalling George Lucas's Industrial Light and Magic, which made the Star Wars cycle, and Peter Jackson's New Zealand-based Weta Digital, the creative force behind the staggering special effects in the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Framestore made Walking With Dinosaurs for the BBC; Mr Sargent once joked that "every year the BBC wants more dinosaurs for less money. It's not a bad discipline."

How does it work? "The director says: 'I want XYZ to happen.' Creating a talking lion becomes totally normal. If you look at it and you think it's artificial, we've blown it."

London is particularly well placed to gain such business, Mr Sargent insists, because Britain excels at mixing creativity with business. "This is one of the strengths of the British character. Hollywood directors love working in England." We just get on with the job in hand, he says, rather than constantly aspiring to be something else. "In Hollywood, everyone says, I've got this script ..."

He was asked to chair the Small Business Council, which advised Whitehall of the impact of government initiatives on business. From that came the Better Regulation Executive, part of the DBERR, where his job makes him the equivalent of a Permanent Secretary in the Civil Service. He is also a non-executive director on the board of the Treasury.

The BRE's job is to deliver regulatory reform by lessening administrative burdens on business and on the public sector. He is, he insists, on track for the stated aim of taking £3.5billion of costs out of the economy by May 2010.

He rattles off a range of practical measures already taken. More than half a million small companies need not hold an annual meeting. The number of health and safety forms that must be completed by employers has halved. An accident at work can now be reported to a phoneline, rather than be wearyingly documented in a long written form. Car tax can be paid, or planning applications submitted, online. School visits by Ofsted now take two days rather than five.

It is not the general perception, I suggest tactfully, that the regulatory burden has lessened since 2005."Perception always lags reality," he insists.

Microsoft Co-Founder Sells 1.2M DreamWorks Animation Shares

(Associated Press) - Microsoft Corp. co-founder Paul G. Allen has sold about 1.2 million DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. shares, or nearly a third of his remaining stake in the film studio, according to a regulatory filing Friday.

In a Form 4 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Allen reported selling the Class A shares on Wednesday and Thursday for $30.22 to $30.34 apiece, or a total of about $35.3 million.

The shares were held by DW Investment II Inc., which is owned by Allen.

Allen now owns about 3.1 million Class A shares, or a 4 percent stake based on 79.6 million Class A shares outstanding as of March 31.

Last August, Allen resigned from the company's board and sold 10.2 million shares in a public offering. DreamWorks also repurchased 4.8 million shares of Allen's stock.

First Tintin, Then Lincoln For Spielberg

(ScreenDaily.com)

   Director Steven Spielberg will start shooting his long-anticipated biopic about the country's 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, in early '09 after completing his Tintin movie.

Originally, the Oscar-winning filmmaker had planned on directing The Trials of Chicago 7, but as reported earlier, it's been delayed to work out script issues, making room for the long-discussed biopic, which Spielberg would like to be released in the the year that would have been Lincoln's 200th birthday.

Spielberg also told a reporter at the German magazine FOCUS that production on Tintin won't be delayed due to a potential actors strike since it's being done using motion capture animation.

iPhone Designer Hooks Up Wall-E

(apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com)          It's no accident that Eve, Wall-E's sleek, pod-like love interest in the forthcoming Disney/Pixar animated feature film by the same name, looks like something out of Apple's (AAPL) design department.

Writing in the current issue of Fortune, Richard Siklos reports that Jonathan Ive, head of Apple's design department and the man responsible for the iMac, iPod and iPhone, had a hand in creating the robot.

In the piece, director Andrew Stanton tells Siklos:

    "I wanted Eve to be high-end technology — no expense spared — and I wanted it to be seamless and for the technology to be sort of hidden and subcutaneous. The more I started describing it, the more I realized I was pretty much describing the Apple playbook for design." (link)

According to Siklos, a call from Stanton to Steve Jobs in 2005 resulted in Ive spending a day at Pixar consulting on the Eve prototype. Siklos writes:

    "Stanton said that it was a 'lovefest' with Ive, but that the notoriously tight-lipped design wizard offered few specific modifications. 'Apple is so proprietary and so secretive that he couldn't even really allude to where the future of technology was going,' says Stanton. 'The most he could do is nod his head to the things we said we wanted to do.' (Through a spokesman, Ive declined to comment.)" (link)

Disney (DIS) bought Pixar in 2006 in a deal that made Jobs Disney's largest individual shareholder.

Stanton, who directed Finding Nemo, says he's been kicking around the idea for Wall-E for years, even before Toy Story was made. He has summarized it most succinctly like this: "What if mankind evacuated Earth and forgot to turn off the last remaining robot?"

The movie opens June 27, which is the day the smart money is betting that the 3G iPhone goes on sale.

Screening Kicks Off "Playing God: The Art and Artists of Matte Painting"

(allamericanpatriots.com)            Beverly Hills, CA, May 8, 2008 — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will screen a Warner Bros. digital restoration of the 1938 classic "The Adventures of Robin Hood" on Sunday, June 1, at 7 p.m. at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. The program also will explore behind-the-scenes secrets from the making of the film.

Robin Hood Gallops onto Academy's Screen: Pictured are Lili Damita visits her husband Errol Flynn during the production of THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, 1938, on location at Bidwell Park in Chico, Calif., which depicted the film's Sherwood Forest setting. (Photo credit: Courtesy of the Margaret Herrick Library Via Oscars.org)Robin Hood Gallops onto Academy's Screen: Pictured are Lili Damita visits her husband Errol Flynn during the production of THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, 1938, on location at Bidwell Park in Chico, Calif., which depicted the film's Sherwood Forest setting. (Photo credit: Courtesy of the Margaret Herrick Library Via Oscars.org)

Presented by the Academy's Science and Technology Council, the evening will be hosted by Academy Award ® nominated visual effects supervisor Craig Barron and Oscar ® winning sound editor Ben Burtt. Following the screening, Leith Adams, a Warner Bros. studio archivist, will display a rare matte painting used in the film and discuss its history. Joining Adams will be archery expert Dale Smith, who will reproduce the arrow sounds from the film-using replica arrows designed by Burtt.

The film garnered Academy Awards for Art Direction (Carl Weyl), Film Editing (Ralph Dawson) and Music – Original Score (Erich Wolfgang Korngold) as well as a nomination for Outstanding Production. The most expensive Warner Bros. production to that point, the feature was an early Technicolor hit.

Barron is a veteran of Industrial Light & Magic and currently heads the Marin-based effects company Matte World Digital. He also serves on the Academy's Board of Governors (Visual Effects Branch).

Burtt won Oscars® for his sound effects work on the original "Star Wars," two Indiana Jones movies and "E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial." He also served as film editor on the latest "Star Wars" trilogy.

In conjunction with this program, the Academy's exhibition "Playing God: The Art and Artists of Matte Painting" will be open for viewing. The exhibition displays the matte artists' cinematic "tools of the trade" and features several of the matte paintings created for such films as "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), "Spartacus" (1960) and "The Birds" (1963).

Source:   http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/48747183_robin-hood-gallops-academy-motion-picture-arts-and

Magascar: Escape 2 Africa Coming to IMAX

(comingsoon.net)      IMAX Corporation and DreamWorks Animation SKG, Inc. today announced an agreement to release Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa into IMAX® theatres worldwide on November 7, 2008. The agreement completes IMAX's integration into DreamWorks Animation's release strategy for the studio's next five theatrical releases from June 2008 to May 2010.

Under the terms of the agreement, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa will be digitally re-mastered into the unparalleled image and sound quality of The IMAX Experience® and play for a special release in IMAX theatres, including select new IMAX® Digital theatres, which will begin rolling out this summer.

Narnia Franchise Targets 5 Sequels By 2018

(hollywood.com)          In December of 2005, Disney's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe became a box office sensation with a $65.5M opening weekend en route to a $291.7M domestic gross and nearly $750M worldwide. With the popularity of the first film, Red State-friendly Christian themes, organized outreach via churches and Disney's expertise at delivering the family audience, this Friday's Narnia sequel Prince Caspian, will likely exceed the franchise-starter's opening weekend, becoming the biggest opener ever for Walden Media and its billionaire financier Phillip Anschutz.

The Narnia series is certainly significant, and it will be more so with the guaranteed success of Prince Caspian. Industry tracking shows that the Narnia sequel compares favorably to last summer's Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix at the same point in its marketing cycle. Order of the Phoenix had slightly stronger numbers with 16 percent-11 percent in Un-Aided Awareness, 48 percent-42 percent in Definite Interest and 17 percent-14 percent in Overall First Choice, but 25 percent of Females 25 Plus, including a lot of Moms, name Narnia compared to 20 percent for the Potter film.

The mysterious Anschutz will be celebrating after an opening weekend of at least $60 million-$70 million. (I will publish my final prediction on Thursday.) That should guarantee at least five more Chronicles of Narnia films (Lewis wrote seven books, in all), with the finale, The Last Battle, potentially arriving in the summer of 2018.

Comic-book Movies Have Ruined Special Effects

(huffingtonpost.com)             Iron Man got me thinking about what really makes memorable special effects. Because, although entirely adequate for a movie based on a comic book, it's not digitally created scenes like ones I mention above that get talked about for years to come. In fact, the Comic book genre in general hasn't really inspired much wonder for CGI; if anything, it's provided a glut in effects that makes the films less impressive. The move to films shot mostly on green screen, or where entire characters are generated by a powerful Apple in a backroom somewhere, has increased only the amount of special f/x in films. It hasn't increased an appreciation for these lavish, technologically superior worlds.

For example, has anyone been impressed by the kaleidoscopic acid trip of the new Speed Racer, or the new Hulk in the Incredible Hulk trailer ? This thing looks like it cost a lot of money to create, but it doesn't exactly instill one with a feeling of awe for the magic of moviemaking. Not to mention it's a shame to sign up Edward Norton to bring the film some gravitas, and then saddle the action sequences with a hero and villain that look more suited for the soon-to-arrive Xbox 360 game than any movie.

Obviously special f/x, even gratuitous effects, have been used for good and not just evil. The T1000 was incredible, for example, as were the action sequences throughout The Matrix series. But overall, it's just not that impressive to see chunks of a movie filled purely with CGI. Maybe my old age has given me a jaded perspective along with sore knees and deteriorating vision, but movies like Iron Man, or The Spider Man movies, or Pirates of the Caribbean, make me think, "holy cow, that looks expensive," more than, "that's awesome."

The special effects that really get to me, that stay in my head for months, are the ones that seem to fly under the radar, a little more under the surface. The best example is Spike Jonze's Adaptation. The effects in this movie are just brilliant. First off, you have the most realistic and affecting car crash ever put to film. While I know this doesn't compare to the wizardry of some bigger movies, and has to do mostly with just great non-green screen filmmaking, it's nonetheless the rare scene that gets the audience asking, how the heck did they do that, which I think is the general point of great special effects in the first place; the sense of wonder.

What I find even more impressive, however, is the front of Chris Cooper's mouth. In the movie, it's missing two teeth. Not just painted black, but they are missing. Now I've seen Chris Cooper in plenty of movies before and after Adaptation, and the man has just as a nice a set of chompers as you could ask for. So through what sorcery did Spike Jonze and the producer's make him toothless?

Another great example is Forrest Gump, which in fact did win the Oscar for best Visual Effects. When I (perhaps smugly) remind friends of this, they're pretty surprised. This is the category, after all, where the Big Blockbuster's reign supreme. King Kong, with it's 45 minute interlude of CGI dinosaurs and large bugs, won in 2005, preceded by Spider Man 2, and followed by the third Pirates of the Caribbean. Gump doesn't exactly have the same feel as these films; while the Bubba Gump shrimping boat gets caught in a pretty bad storm, they don't have to fend off ghosts from the deep blue sea. But what the film does do is get rid of Gary Sinise's legs in convincing fashion, and let Forrest meet a few different Presidents in archival footage.

By their very nature these films rely on effects a lot, making them commonplace and just not that impressive. When you watch a computer generated Iron Man climb to the reaches of Outer Space, it's not nearly as impressive as trying to figure out where Chris Cooper's teeth went, or Gary Sinise's legs. It's not that I have a thing for missing limbs (although for another good example of this special effect, see Master and Commander for a grizzly amputation on a boy who, in real life, has both arms), I have a thing for special effects that make the real world seem a little more spectacular. What does a 100-foot wall of sand, with a face and fists, that is set on destruction in Spider Man 3, really do for anyone? It seems that more and more movies are made like last year's Transformer's, which showcased almost no action scenes that featured real actors, and I'm not impressed.

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VFX Outsourcing Survey, Speed Racer Crashes, & MacBook Crime Buster...

nobody@vox.com(WebMaster) — Mon, 12 May 2008 23:18:41 -0700

'Iron Man' to 'Speed Racer': Eat My Dust

(suntimes.com) LOS ANGELES -- ''Speed Racer'' was lapped at the box office as ''Iron Man'' continued to fire its jets with an estimated $50.5 million in ticket sales.

The anime-inspired race movie edged into the No. 2 spot with $20.2 million, slightly ahead of ''What Happens in Vegas,'' the Ashton Kutcher/Cameron Diaz comedy which debuted at $20 million.

Robert Downey Jr. (inset) stars as billionaire industrialist Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man, in the Paramount Pictures and Marvel Entertainment movie "Iron Man."

''Speed Racer," by Chicago's Wachowski brothers (best known for the ''Matrix'' franchise), was panned by many film critics.

Revenue for Marvel Studios' ''Iron Man'' slipped just 49 percent in its second week in theaters, a respectable showing considering its massive opening, said Paul Dergarabedian, president of tracking firm Media By Numbers.

" 'Iron Man' is basically pulling everybody's audience," Dergarabedian said. "It's really dominating the marketplace."

"Iron Man" matched its No. 1 rank domestically and notched an international gross of $165 million, bringing its worldwide total to $342.1 million.

Movie Cameras Try Crack: 64 Lasers Spinning 900 Revolutions Per Second

(ateaseweb.com) Rock band Radiohead has recorded a new video for Florida production studio 'GStar', which is also a school for aspiring production students.

GStar states that the entire shoot was done without a camera, but with a high definition laser mechanism. The HDL64E developed by Velodyne in San Francisco, used here for the very first time. It is not a camera. Essentially, it is 64 lasers mounted on a revolving turret that spins at various speeds up to 900 revolutions per second. It gives a 360 degree 3-D view of the entire area out 150 meters. The data is fed into a computer where the "camera lens" or "view point" is flown around to any point of reference that the laser has marked, including direct overhead shots. A second laser scans for direct facial close-ups. The resulting visual product is unlike anything ever filmed before.

The "Director of Photography" was Velodyne Field Applications Engineer, Rick Yoder, who helped create the original technology that was invented by Velodyne founder, David Hall. "This technology is stunning. It doesn't need any lighting!" says G-Star Studios head Greg Hauptner. "Whether it takes hold like the 'talkies' in the Jazz Singer or will go the way of 70 mm film, one thing is certain: this new laser system will revolutionize filmmaking in one form or another."

At the moment, it's unsure when the video is ready… but we will probably found out soon enough.

Speak Up About Anim & VFX Outsourcing

(indiantelevision.com) PricewaterhouseCoopers has been asked to prepare the report to understand the requirement of skilled manpower to meet the growing demand within the animation and VFX industry currently growing in India. This study is being undertaken by the government of India to judge the manpower needs for the animation, gaming and visual effects sectors to enable it to take steps to fill the gaps.

The Information and Broadcasting ministry today invited inputs from the industry, academic institutes and from students through virtual open house by responding through three websites:

industry.inputs@gmail.com

academia.inputs@gmail.com

students.inputs@gmail.com.

Digital Domain To Adapt Sexy Speed Racer VFX For Commercials

(variety.com) Digital Domain, once one of the leading names in feature film visual effects, has been mostly out of the blockbuster business for a couple of years as its management and ownership changed.

But its commercials division has been thriving, especially in car ads, setting up the company's high-profile re-emergence in, ironically, one of this summer's would-be blockbusters: "Speed Racer." Digital Domain's commercial artists developed a particular expertise in rendering sexy computer-generated cars.

DD and Sony Pictures Imageworks were the two leading shops on Warner's anime-flavored racing pic, and DD needed every bit of its skill with cars.

Making automobiles look good on camera -- be they digital or real -- is a special challenge, says DD vfx supervisor Kim Libreri. "Cars are almost exclusively reflection," he says. "It makes it hard to bring out the shape of the car. You use the reflections by putting interesting objects around them to bring out the curves of the car." DD's mandate on "Speed Racer" was to make the digital autos look like a high-end car commercial. So they raided their own staff of car-savvy digital lighters.

"The lighters not only know how to make a car look real, but look beautiful," says Libreri. That turned out to have some benefits for DD, as well as for the film. Commercial vfx are usually made in just weeks, without time to develop new tools and techniques. DD artists have just spent a year creating tools to make CG cars look sexy. "Now they're going to use that on commercials," says Libreri.

"Death Race" Rescheduled for this Summer

(comingsoon.net) Universal Pictures has moved up director Paul W.S. Anderson remake Death Race from September 26 to August 22, 2008. The action-thriller stars Jason Statham, Joan Allen, Tyrese Gibson, Ian McShane, Natalie Martinez and Jason Clarke.

Top Ten Chart Showcases VFX Commercials

(shootonline.com) Our spring Top Ten Visual Effects & Animation Chart breaks down the leading spots this quarter, starting with The Mill/London's virtuoso EFX performance for Sony's "Tumble," and then weaving its way through stellar efforts from such studios as Charlex, Method, Psyop, Zoic, The Embassy Visual Effects, Aardman Animations, Riot, Brickyard VFX and Asylum. The Chart reflects a diverse mix of disciplines spanning varied forms of animation and effects, as well as a deep Toolbox of technologies and software deployed to make each spot's vision come to life.

Take a look: http://www.shootonline.com/go/news-view.ev-web2-2985652-1210265837-2.Visual-Effects---Animation--SHOOT-s-Spring-Top-Ten-Chart-Showcases-Leading-Spots-This-Quarter.html

"REVELATION" Comes to V for Vendetta Director

(vfxworld.comz) Director James McTeigue (V FOR VENDETTA) will take the reins of Inferno's thriller REVELATION, reports VARIETY. Written by John Salvati, the plot revolves around a female journalist who finds herself wrapped up in an investigation that features strange killings and an alien abduction research firm.

Inferno's Bill Johnson is producing with Circle of Confusion's Dave Alpert and Lawrence Mattis. Exec producers are Inferno's Jim Seibel and Dave Engel.

Sales on the project will begin at Cannes next week.

McTeigue recently served as second unit director on SPEED RACER from the Wachowskis, who will produce his next directing effort NINJA ASSASSIN.

Digital Domain Paints The Town Red

(feedhere.com) As of Monday this new Mazda spot broke in a few select European countries. The digital cityscapes, CG cars, fluid simulation and compositing were all left up to Digital Domain in this flashy number from director Carl Erik Rinsch for RSA. The only thing DD didn't create are the Zoolander-type models. Thanks to Fran for the tip.

Take a look: http://www.stashmedia.tv/feed/DigitalDomainMazdaRed.mov

40% Tax Rebate For Animated Fantasy, Guardians of Ga'Hoole

(theaustralian.news.com.au) Australia is being sold as the country providing a big 40 per cent rebate on a film's budget. Well, some films, but not all.

"I'd say we need to market our visual effects sector and definitely our talent a bit more, but the 40 per cent is key." said Caroline Pitcher, chief executive of AusFilm.

The recent row about what projects would qualify for the generous rebate for 40 per cent of a film's qualifying budget on its completion was unsavoury but necessary. It showed a film must be developed in this country to receive the rebate. George Miller's superhero movie, Justice League: Mortal, was conceived and written in the Hollywood studio system and no amount of Australian models cast as superheroes could change that.

But Zack Snyder's animated fantasy, Guardians of Ga'Hoole, will receive the 40 per cent because it originated out of his collaboration with the Sydney digital effects house behind Miller's Happy Feet, Animal Logic, even if its components barely differ from Miller's.

The 15 per cent location offset offers a rebate on qualifying Australian production expenditure on budgets greater than $15million for international films shooting here. The incentive, which was previously 12.5 per cent, has been used by films including Superman Returns, Charlotte's Web and Nim's Island, and will be given to X-Men Origins: Wolverine, now filming in Sydney.

Some will not lament the absence of culturally unspecific movies such as Star Wars and The Matrix from our studios. But they play an invaluable role in giving experience, and larger incomes, to cast and crew that then allows them to work on lower-budget local films.

Microsoft Calls On Weta Expertise

(stuff.co.nz) Multinational software giant Microsoft says it is teaming up with Wellington's Oscar-winning animation studio Weta Workshop to help disabled people use computer technology.

"Weta Workshop is very excited about collaborating with Microsoft," workshop director Richard Taylor said in a statement.

"By creating a rich set of tools and resources, we hope to give educators and students an experience that will accelerate their advancement and meet their unique needs."

Microsoft will work with both the Weta Workshop and Australian software developer Northern Territory Institute for Community Education and Development (NTICED).

The collaboration will start by making resources and tools based on Microsoft's partners in learning programme available to schools through an interactive website with animation-based content.

"Animation has the capacity to unlock the power of education for children," said Easterby Wood, a director of NTICED.

"This new collaboration will enhance the ability for students with learning difficulties around the world to discover, experience and learn for life."

Microsoft estimated 10 per cent of the world's population has "special needs" in terms of using computers for education.

Apple App Busts Bad Boys

(nytimes.com) WHITE PLAINS — The thieves were voracious, stealing flat-screen televisions and computer games, iPods and DVDs in a burglary two weeks ago at an apartment three young people shared here. Luckily, they also took two laptop computers.

One of the laptops was a Macintosh belonging to Kait Duplaga, who works at the Apple store in the Westchester mall and thus knows how to use all its bells and whistles. While the police were coming up dry, Ms. Duplaga exploited the latest software applications installed on her laptop to track down the culprits and even get their photographs.

a break in the case came on Tuesday when a friend of Ms. Duplaga's sent her a congratulatory text message on the return of her stolen computer. "She said, 'I don't know what you're talking about,' and her friend said, 'Well, you popped up as being online,' " Mr. Jackson said.

He said that Ms. Duplaga immediately signed on to another Macintosh computer and, using a feature called "Back to My Mac," was able to gain access to her missing laptop remotely. She could see that that the person who had her computer was shopping for beds, Mr. Jackson said. Then it occurred to her that she could activate a camera on her laptop and watch the thief live.

At first, the photo application revealed only a smoky room and an empty chair, Mr. Jackson said, but then a man sat down. Ms. Duplaga, again using remote technology, typed in the command to snap a photo. "When you take a picture with that computer, it shows a countdown, and when it does, this guy figures out what's going on," Mr. Jackson said. "It all clicks for him, and he puts his hand up to cover the lens, but it was too late. She had already taken the picture."

Mr. Frias and Mr. Shahikian, it turns out, had been among the guests at a party at the apartment weeks before, and were friends of friends of the victims, as Mr. Jackson put it.

"Back to My Mac" is part of an online service that costs $99 per year and allows users to gain access to their personal computer from any connected Macintosh computer with the operating system Leopard. The software that Ms. Duplaga used to take a picture of the thief, called PhotoBooth, is standard on all newer Apple laptop models, perhaps an unintended new frontier in crime-fighting.

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