Home » Archives for September 2009
In a recent issue of Wired Magazine they presented the “Media Pyramid”, establishing guidelines on gaming, social media, and entertainment in our modern society.
Practicing good nutrition keeps your mind sharp, your body fit, and your life long. The same could be said for consuming media. (Seriously, knowledge is power.) When you add it all up, the average American spends roughly nine hours a day glued to some kind of screen, and like your diet, quality is as important as quantity. Here are Wired’s suggested servings for optimal media health.
via Balance Your Media Diet.
Graphics, Science infographic, socialmedia, wired
In London this November, the 6th European Conference on Visual Media Production will be bringing in experts around the world to discuss the technologies and processes used in movies, video games, and 3d worlds.
Now in its sixth year, this unique event brings together practitioners in media production from the film, broadcast and games industries with leading academics and researchers in imaging and graphics.
The two-day conference will provide a dynamic forum for the exchange of knowledge between researchers, media industry specialists and entertainment content creators working at the cutting-edge of visual media production.
Early registration ends September 30th. Read the full announcement after the break.
Read more…
Graphics, Science conference, cvmp
Over at “Brand New”, it’s SGI’s turn on the chopping block and they have a scathing review of the new SGI logo.
There was something decidedly high-tech about the old logo, with its awkward “g,” like something only a nerd could have come up with. Actually, all the letters were just plain weird with their hybrid rounded and flat edges but they communicated an attitude and personality. In contrast, the new logo is, simply, flat. A trio of uninspired letters sitting around and waiting for the next bankruptcy to happen and be replaced with another set of boring letters. So the dot of the “i” is green, woo-frickin’-hoo. There is smart simplicity and there is boring simplicity and, while it’s generally hard to discern between the two, this one is clearly the latt
via Vanishing Visual Effects – Brand New.
Graphics logo, sgi
The Vancouver ACM SIGGRAPH has announced SPARK Animation `09, to run from September 16-20 at the Vancouver International Film Center. They’ve got 9 films, dozens of speakers, and a big party planned for Saturday night!
This year we’ve got 3 days’ worth of world-renowned animators, art directors and filmmakers presenting their work – people like Dave Burgess, Head Character Animator on Monsters vs. Aliens, who will be joined by Director Conrad Vernon as they discuss the making of their film. Then there’s Production Designer Ricky Nierva, who joins Director of Photography Patrick Lin to discuss the making of Up, and Ricky will also be offering a Masterclass in Character Design at the Opus Room. Space for this Masterclass is limited so don’t delay, sign up now!
via Vancouver ACM SIGGRAPH: eNews September 7, 2009.
Graphics animation, conference, siggraph, spark, vancouver, vfx
The Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas has a new attraction from Obscura Digital that combines gesture control with 3 HD projectors to create a giant multi-touch, multiuser, 18-foot wide wall.
The basics are 3 HD projectors behind an 18 foot multi-touch wall. The difference here is that the whole thing is one 6000 (almost, it is actually 3×1920 projectors, so it is a bit less)pixel plate, with over 100 4K-6K images/videos being displayed at one time. No “deep zoom” needed, everything is real-time. Also unique is the way we scale across GPUs seamlessly.
via Obscura Digital’s “out of the lab” blog.
Hardware obscura digital, projector, renderwall
“Information is Beautiful” has done it again by adapting the classic Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs to the digital age with their new “Hierarchy of Digital Distractions”, cataloging all the things in the web2.0 “always-on” instant-access world that come before work.
In this diagram, each level in this hierarchy trumps the next.
So, if you get a new msg on Facebook, but your landline rings, you’ll take the landline call. You might have a spasmodic moment of ‘uh? wadd I do’. But, usually, you’ll take the call.
Similarly, if you get a new SMS whilst opening a new online dating message, you’ll be hard pressed not to read that SMS. It’ll take a great force of will. You may attempt to do both simultaneously. But if you really observe yourself closely, one will take priority – even if it’s only by milliseconds. The SMS will win your attention.
via The Hierarchy Of Digital Distractions | Information Is Beautiful.
Science infographic, pyramid, socialmedia, web
CGSociety has announced three new CGWorkshops starting up soon, with registration currently open.
- Architectural Visualization with Roger Cusson
- Face and Figure Painting with Don Seegmiller
- Compositing in Nuke with Steve Wright
All three courses are $499 each, and start soon so go register now while there’s still time!
Courses.
Graphics vfx, workshop
Starting with a mere Z-sphere, Damir Martin shows the process used to create the spectacular dinosaur model (Shown above) in zBrush, and then composite it into a real photograph with Photoshop.
Modeling of the Dinosaur in ZBrush.
Graphics makingof, photoshop, zbrush
Jordu Schell, Lead Character Designer of the Na’Vi for James Cameron’s Avatar film, discusses some of the iterations he went through for the design and how he found CG modeling lacking and reverted to physical sculpted maquettes.
How many characters did you design overall?
Oh gosh. I did a design of the lead female. I did — I don’t know, I would say I did probably about 15 total maquettes of the characters, and I did a bunch of maquettes also of the creatures that are in the film. Most of those maquettes — all of those maquettes — were based on designs that come from other artists that I kind of massaged into a more realistic realm taken from the drawing.
PS: We’ve been trying to setup a similiar interview with Jordu ourselves here at VizWorld, but he hasn’t responded to the first round of questions we submitted via email. Hopefully we’ll pull something together with more in-depth details on the design.
via Avatar Concept Designer Reveals the Secrets of the Na’Vi – Avatar – io9.
Graphics avatar, maquettes, modeling, movie, sculpting
A fun fast-paced new commercial for the 2010 Lincoln MKS with “Ecoboost” showcases the work of Digital Domain.
VizWorld.com 
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