VizWorld.com

A clever commercial from swedish animation studio Fido shows a friendly “earthen” giant helping us get our renewable energy online.

Together with German agency Jung von Matt, they developed the main character and and the story of being big and proud of it.

“The challenge was to create a character that is not a creature that people fear nor a human being” says Jens Pfau from JVM. The biggest challenges in the four-month production time were the facial expessions, skin and hair of the character and to define that “special edge that makes the world magical.”

Originally conceived as an in-house corporate video, the clip will premier in German cinemas to mark the launch of the new Harry Potter film. “If people like him, he might have a long future, doing some good deeds.”

via cg daily news: Fido’s Energy Giant.

Graphics commercial, fido, vfx

It’s been a year since the Data Intensive Cyber Environments (DICE) group moved from UC San Diego to UNC Chapel Hill, and in that time they’ve worked closed with the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) so build a network of data repositories across the state called the “Data Grid”.

When completed, the Data Grid in action might work like this: Data on development patterns around the North Carolina would be stored at RENCI at UNC Charlotte, where researchers at the RENCI engagement center study urban growth patterns and their implications. An urban planner in eastern North Carolina would be able to access that data as well as the software tools that allow it to be viewed in a visual, intuitive format. Those same researchers also would be able to access coastal floodplain maps and storm surge visualizations stored at other data hubs and to use all of the information to plan sustainable coastal developments.

A great solution for visualization as a decision-making tool, if they can deploy it across a wide enough audience.

via HPCwire: RENCI Teams w/ DICE Group to Tame Data Deluge.

Science data, data grid, dice, renci, storage, visualization

If you use WRL, VRML, or X3D models alot then you’ve undoubtedly run into compatibility problems.  FreeWRL has jsut released a new version of their outstanding tool to work with these, and added a new “Geospatial” tool to allow you to merge your models with Geospatial datasets.

FreeWRL has had an impressive track record, is here to stay. X3D Components get added, problems get resolved. Program with GLSL Shaders using the X3D Shaders Component, put your model exactly where you want them with the Geospatial Component, or just throw triangles to the screen as Extrusions, IndexedFaceSets, TriangleSets, Circle2D, Disk2D, Spheres, Boxes, Cubes; the list goes on and on.

With royalty free open standards, your models will continue to render, year after year.

The software is supported by the Canadian Communications Research Centre, with the source code to be released soon.

FreeWRL/FreeX3D Home Page.

Science freewrl, freex3d, software, vrml, wrl, x3d

The Foundry will be hosting a Nuke User’s Group at SIGGRAPH2009 on Monday August 3rd.

Places are limited, so REGISTER NOW to reserve your space and see how VFX professionals from Laika, Digital Domain and Blue Sky Stuidos have been using Nuke.  In addition, The Foundry team will be taking you through new developments and features in Nuke 5.2, Nuke 6.0 and NukeX 6.0.  We will also give you a peek at Ocula 2 – the latest incarnation of our stereoscopic plug-in toolset for Nuke.

They’ve got a great lineup including Ben Fischler of LAIKA/house, Paul Lambert of Digital Domain, and Ari Rubenstein of Blue Sky Studios.

Read after the break for the full announcement and details.

Read more…

Graphics blue sky studios, digitaldomain, foundry, nuke, siggraph

A new training video for Side FX’s Houdini focuses on Shading and Rendering.

The most frequent request from our customers was involving rendering and shading issues with the Houdini package itself.. We assembled a list of the most frequently asked questions and compiled a video knowledge base in this 4 hour Hi-Definition feature. Online documentation for this subject is nearly non-existant. We have successfully filled the void with an intense, fast paced video. There is so much information in this video, that artists will certainly have every tool necessary to complete any render task. Additional topics such as lighting and materials are covered in great depth. When it comes to high end CG and VFX training, there is only once choice… cmiVFX. This video is available today at the cmiVFX store.

The video is available in the CMIvfx Store for a mere $50, a great offer for anyone getting started in Houdini.

via CGDigg: Your daily fresh CG news – cmiVFX Launches Houdini Shading And Rendering Video.

Graphics education, houdini, sideeffects, training, vfx

In 1983, right after the success of the original Tron movie, Disney experimented further with CG animation.  Not satisfied with the results of complete CG rendering (remember, this was 1983) they instead opted for a hybrid approach of CG environments with hand-drawn foregrounds.

This is a vintage clip from 1983, of an early CG animation test they did over at Disney, when they owned the rights to Where The Wild Things Are. This showcases the combining of traditional hand drawn 2D animation, with then-state-of-the-art 3D computer animation. This is absolutely remarkable for the time, and is quite eerie in a way. The test was directed by John Lasseter, who went on to direct and produce most of the Pixar films. If he only knew! Other than this, Disney never utilized the rights they had for Wild Things, and eventually lost them.

For 1983, it’s some amazing work.  See the video after the break.

Read more…

Graphics animation, disney, history, movie, vfx

Augmented reality is popping up everywhere, and with the new generation of mobile devices (iPhone 3GS & Android) it’s becoming something that you can take with you and access anywhere.  A few interesting applications have appeared using the geolocation features to find subways and tubes, but what else can AR be used for?

I pose this question to the masses:  If you could design an augmented reality system accessible via your cell phone, what would you make it do?

Post your answers in the comments, or the Forums!  We want to hear from you!  Best answers will be covered in a future post.  Leave a verified comment (via FaceBook, google, or one of the other supported means) and we might even contact you for an interview.

Graphics, Hardware, Science augmented reality, survey

In a new report from Jon Peddie Research, they predict that while GPU chips are suffering pretty big decline right now, they’re going to come back big next year.

The decrease in shipments for 2009 will be even worse than the 2000-2001 recession. However, 2010 promises an amazing comeback.

They attribute the surge to the booming GPGPU market being fueled by CUDA & OpenCL, along with DirectX11 making a push with the release on Windows7.

via Graphics take a hit in 09 – come blazing back in 2010 According to Jon Peddie Research.

Hardware cuda, gpgpu, jpr, opencl

The University of Illinois at Chicago is moving the classic laboratory visualization system out of the back-rooms and into the mainstream with their new Cyber-commons high-tech classroom.

“In the past, these high-performance environments have been hidden away in research labs and used exclusively by researchers,” said EVL director Jason Leigh. “This cyber-commons opens up the technology to large student populations so that we can better understand the role of high-performance and ubiquitous computing in future classrooms.”

The new classroom has 19-million-pixels of contiguous workspace, and a massive centerpiece of a 20ft by 6ft tiled display wall.

The tiled displays, connected to data sources over high-speed networks, allow students to create electronic posters in real time by providing easy access to remote Gigabyte visualization data objects, just as the Web makes access to remote lower-resolution images today. Launching, juxtaposing, and resizing the content are done using a gyroscopic mouse, or remotely using a laptop.

The display wall is driven by a single computer, but will be replaced by a cluster in the fall for higher-end visualizations of supercomputer simulations.

via Laboratory Equipment – Cyber-Commons Opens at UIC. and UIC.

Science chicago, college, displaywall, education, evl, uic

A new animated short created by a worldwide collaboration of animators using a unique application built on the popular social network Facebook will be attached to the animated feature film ‘Planet 51′ scheduled to open in November.

Announced last year at SIGGRAPH, Mass Animation invited artists around the world to animate individual shots from “Live Music.” The collaboration phase ran from Nov. 17 through Jan. 30, giving animators, regardless of experience, about 2 months to submit work that was voted on by the Facebook community at www.facebook.com/massanimation.

Given the convenient timing (announced last SIGGRAPH, and completed just in time for SIGGRAPH2009), one has to wonder if they’ll attempt another one.

Mass Animation’s ‘Live Music’ Short to Play with TriStar Pictures’ ‘Planet 51’.

Graphics animation, facebook, intel, mass animation, short, siggraph, sony