Digital Musings From the Editor:
As great as ILM's work was on TRANSFORMERS (which should've won the Oscar), it's even better on REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, which you can read all about this week in my coverage.
As great as ILM's work was on TRANSFORMERS (which should've won the Oscar), it's even better on REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, which you can read all about this week in my coverage.
International award-winning Creative/Director Nando Costa, founder of top industry leading design and animation studio Nervo, has teamed with Portland-based Bent Image Lab to form, NANDO@BENT(link sends e-mail). Costa brings his entire Nervo shop to BENT, including creative partner Linn Olofsdotter. Costa, age 30, will become the fourth partner of BENT which includes: Co-Founder/EP Ray Di Carlo, Co-Founder/Director Chel White, and Co-Founder/Director David Daniels.
Red Giant Media is teaming with sci-fi writer Ben Bova's B-Four Productions to work on the writer's THE IMMORTALITY FACTOR for the big screen, per VARIETY.
Kevin Fox will pen the screenplay with Fox, Isen Robbins and Aimee Schoof producing for Red Giant and Grant Turck producing for B-Four.
The story is about two brothers, one a scientist, the other a medical doctor who are divided in their views of stem-cell research but who need to work together to save the life of a woman they both love.
Ben Cole, Landon Bootsma, Tim Mulvihill and Harry Mukhopadhyay will explore how the MPC Vancouver team helped to recreate one of the most acclaimed comic books in history, revealing the challenges they faced in assembling some of the more complex scenes and answering questions surrounding the diverse techniques used at the studio. The event, organized by SIGGRAPH, takes place; Wednesday June 17, 7:30 PM at the Vancity Theatre, 1181 Seymour Street (@ Davie). A similar presentation will take place at SIGGRAPH 2009 in New Orleans.
Max the Mutt Animation School in Toronto, cordially invites you to an exhibition of the work of our graduating students. This exhibition will feature graduating student art work and will include student films and a 3D group film directed by Stephen Barnes.
We have also included art work from our 2nd year students in our Classical and Computer Animation program, 2nd year students art work from our Concept Art for Animation and Video Games and 2nd year students art work from our Illustration, Sequential Arts and Graphic Novels program.
Our next meeting is a special one. Animators and WIA members, Nina Frenkel and Ru Kuwahata, will be giving a talk on Thursday, May 28th, looking at the works of contemporary women animators. They will be showing work by today's women animators who are creating work and putting it out there in both the commercial and festival realms, discussing their mediums, processes, content and influences.
ILM has done some incredible work with robots on TRANSFORMERS and IRON MAN and has come up with some new shading, lighting and rendering tools on TERMINATOR SALVATION to make the CG work on those shiny metal guys more efficient and accurate.
A mere month after the end of Battlestar Galactica, Universal offers the unrated pilot to prequel Caprica on DVD, and Tara Bennett gets the scoop from VFX Supervisor Gary Hutzel.
Kung Fu Panda co-director Mark Osborne reminisces about mentor Jules Engel, who will be honored with a centennial celebration at CalArts on Saturday. Osborne will participate in a roundtable discussion about Engle's influence on contemporary animation.
Tara Bennett talks to Hybride, Frantic Films and CafeFX about helping evolve Dragonball to the big screen.
Mark Tobin divulges how MPC's new commercial-focused boutique is faring in Santa Monica during the economic downturn.
Australian vfx company Rising Sun Pictures say they had nothing to do with X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE leaking online earlier this week. The ASSOCIATED PRESS reported Thursday that the company's name appears in a caption dated March 2 a few minutes into the leaked copy of the Twentieth Century Fox film.
School of Visual Arts (SVA) presents a conversation with stop-motion animators the Brothers Quay titled "The Pharmacist's Prescription for Lip-Reading Puppets" as part of the Art in the First Person lecture series. Moderated by SVA faculty member Thyrza Goodeve, the Quay Brothers will discuss their work in film and theater including their forthcoming feature SANATORIUM UNDER THE SIGN OF THE HOURGLASS. The event will take place on Thursday, April 2 at 6:30pm in the Visual Arts Theater (333 West 23 Street) and is free and open to the public.
Embarking on a new creative partnership, Click 3X recently collaborated with MTV to create a show open, packaging, and promos for "See You Sunday." Promoting four new shows in their latest block of Sunday programming, the clips incorporate live action footage of high-profile stars with unique hand-drawn animation, explosions, and VFX. To support the shows, Click animated several promos, a :30 opening and cut-down, six bumpers with integrated animation, and two live action bumpers, each playing off traditional images of circus life with high-intensity, parodied versions of classic stunts.
PRIMEVAL, ITV's critically acclaimed, hit adventure series, returned on March 28 to take a monster size chunk out of Saturday nights. With an extended run of 10 episodes, the action continues to evolve with more new faces joining the team. Also evolving are the creatures that Professor Nick Cutter and his team face each week, with a more diverse menagerie than ever before leaping out of Framestore's Wells Street offices and onto the screen.
Arsenal FX, a special effects and finishing boutique catering to a diverse global client base that spans Advertising, Film, and Sports, has announced its official launch in Santa Monica, California.
Vfx vet Jenny Fulle reports on how the global economic slowdown will affect the industry and force innovation and reinvention.
Concept Illustrator Scott Lukowski discusses his experiences on Watchmen and some other high profile movies.
Vancouver Film School graduate Yaniv Friedman has joined the busy design and branding firm, Trace Pictures, as full time designer/animator.
"Our first intro to Yaniv's work was a short film we saw on Motionographer called A BRIEF GUIDE ABOUT BRIDESMAIDS, explains Daniel Luna, Associate Creative Director at Trace. "His work was unique -- we saw some serious talent and we wanted to work with him."
The University of Westminster in London has enhanced its portfolio of courses within animation, games and interactive media with a one-year Masters of Science degree in Digital Compositing and Visual Effects starting October 2009.
Graduates from the course will be exposed to the theoretical, technical, practical and professional competences enabling them to follow a variety of careers within film, television, animation, advertising and gaming.
Bill Desowitz catches up with VES Lifetime Achievement Award winners Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall about producing VFX movies.
Ellen Wolff sat down with Phil Tippett to discuss creatures, the state of the industry and his desire to play down his title as "pioneer."
In her latest column, Nancy Cartwright finds out about Grey DeLisle's first musical performance, how she comes up with the voices and her biggest challenge so far in v.o. work.
Andrew Farago interviews the directors of the five animated shorts nominees for the 2008 Academy Awards.