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invaZion09 is starting and accepting entries now for their 3D Stereo Shortfilm challenge.

Due to the help of computers in animation, creating 3-D stereo movies became much easier and more affordable than ever. In fact, adding depth to screens is by far the greatest leap in cinematopgraphy since stereo audio and color. More than that, it´s the next logical step. That´s what we believe in. That`s what the future is all about.

Entries must be received by more3d (end of March), with the winners to be announced at fmx/09 in May.  Even if you don’t really plan to attend, they have some great tutorials and a sample camera rig configuration for Stereoscopic rendering that are freely available for download.

via INVAZION 09.

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TG Daily has had a talk with John Nack & Russell Williams of Adobe Photoshop’s product team about the possibilities for GPGPU acceleration in their applications.  Photoshop was one of the first products to implement GPGPU acceleration in a few key areas, and while users are hoping for more, Adobe is very careful to commit to any new features.

They have a great discussion of the power and limitations of GPGPU acceleration and how it won’t be the end-all panacea to improving computer performance.

TG Daily – Adobe: The GPU is not a universal app accelerator.

Science

FireUser blog has a great writeup on what you can expect from our favorite CAD & visualization packages when they make the switch to the new OpenGL3.0 standard.

Now that OpenGL 3.0 is well on its way to a desktop nearby, you may be curious about what types of changes to expect from your favorite 3D applications. There are two main categories of improvements for OpenGL 3.0, changes that introduce new tools and changes that allow for performance enhancements. Well, let’s take a look!

FireUser Blog: OpenGL 3 – what types of changes to expect from your favorite 3D applications.

Science

Jer Thorp has created a fantastic set of visualizations, now available on Flickr, that use the new Article Search API from the New York Times to show the connections between the top ideas of each year from 1984 until the present.

NYT: This was 1984 on Datavisualization.ch.

Science

Just found this interesting infographic visualization of the recent Credit Crisis.  Nothing really new for people familiar with the recent financial situation, but a great infographic visualization.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized.

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VFXWorld has a story up about Zoic Studio’s work on the new episodic drama Dollhouse airing on Fox.  Most of the work is basic Greenscreen effects, with the exception of the “mind wipe” scene.

The one consistent visual effects trope in Dollhouse is the mind wipe process, in which an “Active” is put in a chair that literally zaps their memories into a recorder that’s archived by the Dollhouse proprietors. Audiences get to see what that process looks at from Echo’s perspective.

….. >> VFXWorld / Feature Articles << …...

Graphics

AppScout tipped me off to a strange website “so_many_a_second” where data you select (or enter) is visualized as “raining” at the specified rate onto the screen.

The concept is simple: Choose any item from the site’s (limited) inventory to see how many “units” of that item are sold, produced, or destroyed worldwide during every second of every day. That’s when the rain sets in: The item’s corresponding graphic will cascade from the top of your screen at a speed that matches its per-second usage, instantly transforming abstract data into a striking visual downpour.

They provide some preset statistics, but also provide a way to add your own data and even do side-by-side comparisons.

Who’s Counting? Visualize Data with So_Many_A_Second – AppScout.

Science

At 26Variable.com they’ve fed data of the S&P100′s recent economic collapse into a google Motion Chart and created a nice interactive display of the top100 crumbling.

There’s alot of data to see there, and alot of ways to see it, so prepare to spend some time once you get there .

26 Variable.

Science

NPR’s “All Things considered” has a collection of clips and photographs detailing the process behind the Facial VFX used in Benjamin Button.

Building The Curious Faces Of ‘Benjamin Button’ : NPR.

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The LA Times is showing a great Flash Animation from the folks at ILM showing some of the concept and setup work they did for Iron Man.

Iron Man’s armor from the inside out | Hero Complex | Los Angeles Times.

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