VizWorld.com

Thanks to “red” for pointing out that at least two of the purported real-time Fermi renders were misrepresented, and actually part of a trailer created for the Playgrounds Festival.

Together with animation studio Onesize we made a kickass trailer for the Playgrounds Festival (festival for digital audiovisual art).

In terms of technique, Onesize wanted to have more control over the slow motion in post production, still be be able to decide camera angles and motion. To do this we used the camera mapping technique in 3D combined with photograpy. So everything you see is photography and 3D, no filming was done whatsoever.

Photography was done by our director Jasper Faber (revolver.nl/jasper), directing and post by Onesize (onesize.nl). Sound/music by Studio Takt.

See the full trailer after the break.  As for the third picture (of the blue triangle), it hasn’t been located elsewhere yet (to my knowledge, anyway).  It could be legitimate, but with the other two being a hoax, odds aren’t good.

Read more…

Hardware fermi, nvidia

Just found this on Spreeblick, a flow chart visualizing the lyrics of the classic hit “Hey Jude”.

Flowchart: Hey Jude | Spreeblick.

Graphics flowchart, infographic, music

The Particle Flow Tools Box from Orbaz has been PhysX accelerated for some time, but only in the 32-bit version of 3ds Max.  The latest version, version 1.05, now supports the true 64-bit version.

“1.05 version of Box#2 Pro uses 64-bit PhysX SDK v.2.8.3. That allowed us to switch completely to native PhysX libs for both 32- and 64-bit versions. The new version works without restrictions on 64-bit flavors of Win XP, Vista and Windows 7. The update is not a beta, and it is available to all licensed users of Box#2 Pro.

via Particle Flow Tools Box 2: now with true 64-bit PhysX | PhysXInfo.com – PhysX News.

Graphics 3dsmax, nvidia, orbaz, particleflow, physx

Uh oh, the MSM is on to us!  In a piece called “A new way of looking at the world,” CNN Tech explores the boom of visualization tools and results, with emphasis on social media apps as visualization enabler.  Stamen-designed Crimespotting, Ben Fry’s All Streets and work by Nathan Yau of Flowing Data are highlighted among others.

CNN Tech | A new way of looking at the world

Graphics cnn, infovis

Niklas Brandin has a new tutorial over at CGArena illustrating the use of Maya’s nParticles system to create snow on top of a model.

Making snow in maya 2010.

Graphics maya, tutorial

The massive laser-based stereoscopic TV from startup HDI, which we covered first here, has just made the impressive transition to manufacturing, putting it on track for an early 2010 release.

October 28, 2009 – Los Gatos, CA – HDI Ltd. announces it has entered into a manufacturing agreement to mass produce their proprietary 100-inch diagonal Laser-Driven 2D/3D Switchable Dynamic Video Projection Televisions. HDI Ltd.’s 2D/3D switchable system delivers a stunningly superior 2D image, with a 50% greater resolution than today’s digital cinemas, and derives its greater-than-high definition stereoscopic 1920 x 1080p “3D” image quality from two RGB laser-illuminated Liquid Crystal on Silcon (LCOS) micro display imagers. At full 1080p HD, the HDI Ltd. screen refreshes at 360 fields per-second on each eye, the fastest refresh rate on any mass produced television or projector.

You can get the full announcement at EnGadget.

Hardware 3d, hdi, laser, stereoscopic, tv

A huge announcement from the Visual Effects industry today, Sony Pictures Imageworks will work with Foundry to combine their proprietary technologies.  Imageworks is bringing their proprietary lighting software “Katana” to the table, while Foundry is of course bringing their compositing system “Nuke”.  But the deal won’t benefit just the two of them:

Bill Collis, CEO of the Foundry, told Daily Variety: “The most likely course is (Katana) will be integrated into Nuke over time. Nothing dramatic is going to happen in the short term, but over a period of years, we’ll incorporate these Katana technologies into Nuke.”

A new version of Nuke including Furnace plugins and features is expected before year’s end.

via Imageworks tools deal with Foundry – Entertainment News, Film News, Media – Variety.

Graphics foundry, imageworks, katana, nuke, software

EVGA’s Halloween Announcement came and went, as just like predicted they announced a new “CoOp” card that combined dual NVidia GPU’s for graphics & PhysX processing.

The card combines a GeForce GTX 275 (240 processing cores, 633/2268/1296MHz core/memory/shader) and a GeForce GTS 250 (128 processing cores, 738/2200/1836MHz), with the latter one only being used when in-game PhysX processing is required.

via EVGA GeForce GTX275 CO-OP PhysX Edition Makes Official Debut – Expreview.com.

Hardware evga, nvidia, physx

Some photos have surfaced of the upcoming ATI Radeon 5970 card, their dual-GPU implementation of the Evergreen GPU.

What might be a bit concerning is the length of the card – this design was 13.5-in long and had issues fitting into this full size Antec 1200 chassis.

AMD already got a hold of the guys who posted this so the performance numbers that were along side the photos were taken down before we got to see them.  Also, AMD told them that the HD 5970 card seen was an early engineering sample leaving hope that the final retail card will be a bit shorter.

See all the photos at PCPerspective.

PC Perspective – Photos of upcoming Radeon HD 5970 dual-GPU card leak.

Hardware amd, ati

Looks like the movie of “Green Lantern” is, pardon the pun, greenlit and underway, but will consist if a huge number of visual effects.

Campbell said: “It’s daunting. Just the process, something like 1,300 visual effects shots, it’s mind-blowing, quite honestly.”

Campbell explained that the amount of FX work was due to the Green Lantern’s powers generated through his mystical ring.

All of the VFX work has really hit the bottom-line on the project, prompting them to get a little creative looking for ways to trim the budget.

All the digital wizardry will be expensive – and although Warner Bros hoped to shoot in Sydney and take advantage of tax concessions, the budget was pushed to unacceptable levels by the strengthening Australian dollar.

This forced the studio to look for new locations, and it settled for New Orleans. Filming is to begin there in April.

Campbell said: “It’s a very interesting city…with a damn good tax rate.”

No word on if the movie will be set in New Orleans, or merely filmed there.

via Martin Campbell talks ‘mind-blowing’ visuals for Green Lantern – Coventry Telegraph – The Geek Files.

Graphics greenlantern, movie, vfx