HBO hired Venice, California-based design/production house twothousandstrong (www.2000strong.com) to produce an elegantly designed :60 retrospective promo spot. YEAR-END PROMO, broke during the premiere of ANGELS IN AMERICA, focuses on HBO's acclaimed series' THE SOPRANOS, SIX FEET UNDER, SEX & THE CITY and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM.
Alias is continuing to foster a strategic business relationship with Weta Digital beyond THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, as it looks forward to working together on KING KONG.
Using 165 seats of primarily Maya Unlimited, Maya proved invaluable as the core 3D animation software utilized in the production of THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy.
The Writers Guild of America, West and East announced its nominations for outstanding achievement in writing for the screen on Jan. 22, 2004.
Four of the seven features vying for the Best Visual Effects Oscar -- MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD (Asylum Visual Effects), PETER PAN (Digital Domain), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING (
USA Network has ordered production to begin on a new TV series, DEAN KOONTZ'S FRANKENSTEIN. Best-selling author Koontz will write the series and exec produce along with legendary film director Martin Scorsese and Flame Television's Tony Krantz. THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE remake director Marcus Nispel will helm the project.
Discreet announced that Ultimate (Ultimate Video Int.), The Netherlands, has installed high-performance digital color correction and digital intermediate (DI) capabilities based on lustre, Discreet's award-winning, realtime color grading system.
Patricia Beckmann, chair of the animation department at Savannah College of Art and Design, has been named Education Chair for SIGGRAPH 2005. In addition, Matthew Munn, a second-year graduate student in animation from Calymont, Delaware, won the 10 Second Club monthly Character Animation Competition for the month of November 2003. This online international competition posts a 10-sec sound clip at the beginning of each month.
Vicon announced Vicon iQ 1.5, a new release of the companys intelligence-based motion data processing application. Now shipping, the new software encompasses a number of production-critical capabilities to enable automated handling of motion data from capture through to animation.
Brazilian magazine, SET, has posted an interview with THE LORD OF RINGS actor Sean Astin, where he mentions being in the running to direct the FANTASTIC FOUR feature. Upon the success of his short film, THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT, which he filmed while making LORD OF THE RINGS, he has had interviews to direct 20th Century Fox's feature adaptation of the Marvel comic classic. The article quotes the budget between $100 to $130 million.
Digital Anarchy announced the availability of Primatte Chromakeyer 2.0, a chromakey compositing plug-in for Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. Primatte allows users to use blue and greenscreen masking technology with Photoshop and digital still images to create complex layered effects.
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival Presents the 6th Annual Digital Days, an interactive showcase and forum featuring screenings, presentations, seminars and classes to be held Feb. 7, 2004.
Stargate Digital, the visual effects studio based in Pasadena, Californa, has opened a new facility, Stargate Digital UK, at London's historic Pinewood Studios.
The new high-speed, deep storage digital facility is modeled after Stargate's growing and groundbreaking Los Angeles and Vancouver studios. All three studios will be linked via a state-of-the art high-speed, high-resolution digital network and will be able to quickly and efficiently work on projects and pool talent.
Turbo Squid's Stitch has been updated and renamed clothfx as a new Discreet-certified 3ds max plug-in. clothfx provides users with a multitude of advanced tools necessary to create realistic fabrics and tailor-made clothing for their characters and creatures.
TeamWorks Digital recently completed work on Warner Bros.' TORQUE, the hyper-real motorcycle racing film that opens Jan. 16. "TORQUE is a project that enabled us to provide constant input to the visual effects of the show," says TeamWorks Digital owner David Allen. "We contributed in such a way that translated the director's unique style and vision to the screen." TORQUE is directed by music video honcho Joseph Kahn, making his first feature film debut.
Pixologic's ZBrush 1.5 software received GAME DEVELOPER magazine's sixth annual Front Line Award for Excellence and Innovation in Tools for Game Development. Selected by a panel of industry-leading game developers, ZBrush 1.5 receives this award in the art category based on criteria such as utility, innovation, value and ease of use.
Sci Fi Channel and Tribune Ent. Co. have entered into a program license agreement for the GENE RODDENBERRY'S ANDROMEDA, starring Kevin Sorbo. In addition to presenting the fifth and final season of ANDROMEDA (with VFX by Northwest Imaging & FX, Rainmaker Digital Pictures and Lost Boys Studios) next fall as an original series, Sci Fi will also have the television rights to the series' first four seasons. The Tribune deal also includes all 66 episodes of BEASTMASTER, starring Daniel Goddard and Monika Schnarre, which will begin airing sometime in 2004 exclusively on Sci Fi.
Guy Hudson, who worked on the visual effects for such notable projects as ALIEN, THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, JURASSIC PARK and the DINOTOPIA TV series, passed away suddenly on Dec. 24, 2003 from a brain hemorrhage. He was 45 years old.
Hudson first came to Northern California in 1987 to work for Chris Walas Inc. Since then he has worked for such facilities as Disney, Henson Prods., Industrial Light & Magic and Western Images.
The Visual Effects Society (VES) has announced the nominations for its 2004 VES Awards.
VES membership viewing of the nominees and voting will take place on Feb. 7. Winners will be announced at the second annual VES Awards event on Feb.18 at the Hollywood Palladium. The evening will be highlighted by the presentation of the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award to George Lucas. Making the presentation will be Academy Award-winning director James Cameron.
The nominees are:
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Motion Picture
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held Jan. 8-11, 2004, in Las Vegas was huge, glitzy and overwhelming, as it should be. Whereas many of the products were more-of-the-same-slightly-better, some gadgets and trends stood out.
Paramount Pictures confirmed that it is developing a live action version of THE TRUMPET OF THE SWAN, based on E.B. White's final children's book, which would include some CGI animation. Katie Ford (co-writer of MISS CONGENIALITY) will script. This marks the second film adaptation of THE TRUMPET OF THE SWAN. Back in 2001, Rich-Crest Animation produced an animated feature directed by Terry Noss and Richard Rich.
LOST IN SPACE - THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (Fox Home Entertainment, $79.98) lands on DVD Jan. 13, 2004 in an eight-disc set containing all 29 black and white episodes of the Space Family Robinson from '65. Cheesy effects, but producer Irwin Allen offered a fun sci-fi romp that took place in '97. The first season was definitely the best. Includes the unaired pilot, "No Place to Hide" with no Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) and no robot.
Disc 1The Reluctant StowawayThe DerelictIsland In The SkyThere Were Giants In The Earth
Disc 2
THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS, the last of the Wachowski brothers' groundbreaking trilogy and vfx feast (supplied by ESC Entertainment a host of other houses) debuts on DVD April 6, 2004 (Warner Home Video, $29.95). The two-disc set will include the following bonus features in an attempt to top its predecessors:
Travel back to medieval times, where alien dragons are transported inside an earth-bound meteor, in DRAGON STORM, the two-hour original feature airing on Sci Fi Channel on Jan. 24, 2004 at 9:00 pm. John Rhys-Davies (THE LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy) stars along with Maxwell Caulfield and Angel Boris. Stephen Furst (ANIMAL HOUSE) directs.
Two enemy kingdoms must unite and, following the lead of a reclusive hunter (Caulfield), fight off the beasts before they scorch the countryside bare. VFX were provided by UFO.
Media 100 Inc., a leading provider of advanced media systems, will release the "Visual Effects" release--new version 3.0 software for 844/X in January 2004. The largest software expansion of 844/X since its inception in 2002, Version 3.0 advances 844/X with many new realtime, multi-stream capabilities:
- Advanced keying- 3D digital video effects (DVEs)- Shadow and glow effects- XML-based metadata interchange- New performance optimizations for editing longer-form, layer-intensive projects
Celebrating its 10th anniversary year, Video Symphony, a TV & Film College and Career Center in Burbank, California has been awarded National Accreditation by Washington, D.C.'s ACCET (The Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training.)
