The Lord of the Rings' Gollum is one of the most talked about performances of the year. Greg Singer goes behind the scenes with the Weta crew to see how they brought this pathetic creature to life over the course of three years.
2d3's boujou software makes tracking shots where natural and CG elements need to be combined, much easier than hand tracking. Here's what three studios have to say about the product and how it fits into their pipeline.
Building on their earlier achievements, the creature and visual effects teams of Weta, Ltd. are bringing to life The Lord of the Rings trilogy with work that is blowing the industry away and garnering awards at every turn. Greg Singer reports.
Darlene Chan talks with four gaming recruiters and learns which artists and skill sets have the easiest time crossing over from more traditional forms of animation production to gaming.
While completing animation for gaming is similar in many ways to other forms of animation, there are some very particular concernslike console memory and interactivity that need to be kept always in mind. Bob Rafei of Naughty Dog explains. Includes QuickTime movie clips!
Jerry Beck muses about 2002s slate of animated feature films.
Oliver Wade reviews the book Animating Real-Time Game Characters by Paul Steed and gives the potential buyer some good advice on whether or not to make the purchase.
Toon Boom Studio V2 is an affordable 2D animation software that takes animators on a smooth ride to create projects for the Web, video, wireless and more.
How do you cope with getting laid off? How do you come to accept the fact that a paycheck isn't coming in every week? Sari Gennis has experienced it and is here to tell you the stages and how to get through them.
Demo reels and portfolios are still a good way to promote your career, but a Website is becoming even more crucial. Zahra Dowlatabadi explains why Websites are so important and how you can get started on yours today!
Loni Peristere discusses how he and three other partners created a new effects studio for television, which now works on such hits as Firefly and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Yes, it is possible to spend only $300 and make a great CGI film! Alien Song proved that. Here four animators talk about how Hash Animation:Master has unleashed their potential.
When Jean Pascal Princiaux's film, Icebergclub, screened at the 2002 International Animated Film Festival at Annecy, the crowd went wild. Find out why in this interview with the filmmaker by Annick Teninge.
Steve Oedekerk fresh off his experience of making his first IMAX film in 3D like the type of 3D where you need glasses! explains his love of these mediums and the new challenges he found.
Three game designers working for Sucker Punch and SCEA discuss how they got to where they are today.
Danny Fingeroth reviews Dan Raviv's book on the legal wrangling between two businessmen for control of Marvel Comics, which reveals the power of dollars and its impact on the art.
Phil Vischer, founder of Big Idea Productions, explains how he turned a bunch of God loving vegetables into one of the hottest commodities around. Let's face itthese legumes are cute! Really cute! Rick DeMott reports.
Software piracy is costing the animation industry millions if not billions. Brett Rogers explains why the cost of software piracy goes beyond the losses suffered by the software manufacturers and affects everyone.
Annick Teninge profiles Sparx*, one of France's leading CG studios that seems to be following in the path of the U.S. majors -- turning commercial and service work success into short film success and then moving into the feature realm.
Pamela Kleibrink Thompson sits down with co-visual effects supervisor Dan DeLeeuw to talk about one of The Secret Lab's last effects projects, Reign of Fire, and creating the film's horrible winged creatures.
Scott Jenkins reviews Combustion 2 and checks in with a production in progress to see how Combustion stacks up against key competitor After Effects.
Today's hybrids that combine traditional techniques and new digital tools are creating some fascinating looking animation. Fred Patten asks a number of innovators how they created their animation.
Bill Desowitz finishes our series on the computer-generated effects of Star Wars Episode II. This time he goes behind the motion-capture process to discover the challenges of creating a clone army.
We all knew R2-D2 was cool...but in Star Wars Episode II he turns into a swash-buckling, damsel saving hero. Bill Desowitz speaks with Billy Brooks of ILM's "rebel unit" to find out about the transformation.
Rick DeMott swings in on Sony Pictures Imageworks to find out how they created visual effects amazing enough to match Spider-Man.
