A new video sharing site called “TheShowreel” aims to create a public place for content creators to upload and publicize their content, but tailor it specifically to the needs of professionals looking to create demo reels without the extra clutter that comes from sites like YouTube or Vimeo.
”This tool was something I was missing since Vimeo and Youtube does not cater to the professional market. They do not show my work the way it is meant to be seen. Also, this service is something that our freelancers have requested for a long time” says Stefan Ström, co-founder and also a senior TVC editor.
Hanna Kallin, co-founder, explains further”This site is unique in the way that there is nothing out there that gives you the resolution that Theshowreel does. Our premium clients is not looking to be seen next to online advertising and funny home videos. This is their profession, and we have now constructed a site with a function that lets you show your work to the professional market and that without being a internet expert, anyone can use it”
Capable of 1500K bitrates and support for smartphones, downloads, password protection, streaming, and more, it looks like it could be a valuable asset for those individuals looking to showcase their work in a more “professional” arena without setting up all the webserver parts themself.
GOOD Magazine collaborated with Frank Chimero to create a new “Transparency” all about the US Penal System and how it stacks up against other US endeavors and other country’s penal systems.
There are currently more than 2.3 million people incarcerated in the United States. What does that look like, exactly? That’s equivalent to putting the combined populations of Miami, Las Vegas, and Minneapolis behind bars. Why is our penal system broken? How do we stack up against other countries? We take a closer look at prisons in our latest Transparency.
India’s Prime Focus contributed only about 10% of the effects seen in Avatar, but that alone was enough to drive their stock up an impressive 10% when the success of the film hit the news.
The film, one of the most expensive ever made with a reported budget of at least $300 million, paints an eco-friendly tale set in a mineral-rich alien land characterised by visual flourishes such as dragon-like birds, glowing trees, floating mountains and blue-bodied people.
“We contributed about 10 percent of the visual effects for Avatar,” Namit Malhotra, who founded Prime Focus as a 21-year-old more than a decade ago, told Reuters by telephone.
LG has set a new record for thin LCD televisions, with a new 42-inch LCD panel with LED backlights and optical film that’s an impressive 2.6mm thick.
The 42-inch panel weighs less than 4 kilograms – making it ideal for wall mounted TVs. Moreover, the new product offers 120Hz refresh rate technology with full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution for clear and sharp image.
Not many details right now, but it’s to be on display at CES in Vegas.
Reports of what’s going on with Verari right now differ a bit. Management talks about a “reduction in force” and “reorganization”, but that the doors are open and it’s business as usual. Employees say they’ve been laid off since the 11th, with no paychecks coming and the office doors locked. One enterprising VizWorld visitor took it upon himself to visit the office and see just what’s really going on.
Looks pretty self-explanatory to me.
And if that’s not enough Verari drama for you, go check out:
the new VerariServicesGroup account on Twitter, including some interesting slams against SGI for announcing their willingness to support Verari hardware.
Popular Mechanics has an article detailed how James Cameron created the space opera Avatar using new 3-D technology. The article has a semi-biographical piece which describes how Cameron taught himself visual effects, by photocopying dissertations at the University of Southern California library, while working as a truck driver. It then gives a short history of the films that Cameron has made since then, before delving into shooting Avatar in 3-D.
Stereoscopic moviemaking has historically been the novelty act of cinema. But Cameron sees 3D as a subtler experience. To film the live-action sequences of Avatar, he used a modified version of the Fusion camera. The new 3D camera creates an augmented-reality view for Cameron as he shoots, sensing its position on a motion-capture stage, then integrating the live actors into CG environments on the viewfinder.
I especially liked Sigourney Weaver’s quote: “This is what Cameron’s inner 14-year-old wanted to see.” Avatar was the number 1 movie this week that brought in an estimated $73 million in the U.S. and $232 million worldwide. Considering what it cost to make, which is a rumored $300 million, one can hope that the movie will continue to rake in the money. You can read the article both on-line and in the January 2010 issue at the newsstands. They also have an exclusive interview with James Cameron on You-tube.
It’s common knowledge now that most of the special effects in Avatar were done by Weta, although new information says that Weta found themselves a bit over their head and had to turn to other studios, namely ILM, to help them keep the deadline. An article on CBS4 discusses how the two studios worked together both competitively and cooperatively to bring the masterpiece to the screen.
Still, with both houses working in parallel, there was certainly a bit of a race to finish a shot, Knoll said, because the team that was fastest would be able to more or less set the tone for the whole scene. “Whoever gets there first is who drives it,” he said.
“For example, in the home tree sequence, we have to fire a bunch of missiles,” Knoll recalled. “[There wasn't] anything established for what the missile trails look like. We did our own version of the what [they] would look like and Jim liked it, so that's what Weta had to match.”
Of course, in other cases, Weta would finish first, and ILM would have to match what the New Zealanders came up with. And in some cases, it was a bit of “splitting the difference,” Knoll said. Ultimately, he added, he hopes that audience members won’t be able to tell that two separate visual effects teams shared the work.
“Patton” on the ZBrushCentral forums has posted some early concept work from Avatar showcasing some of the early modeling and design work that went into the project 3 years ago using ZBrush.
I started working on Avatar 3 years ago and was working with Zbrush 2 ( that means no subtools!!) I had to work on a fairly slow laptop so that I could work directly with Jim Cameron on the mocap stage.
I was really green as a 3D artist but jumped in with both feet, after all this time I still really love the stuff we produced at Stan Winston Studio / Legacy effects.
I was part of the group of artists that Designed the Na’vi characters I was responsible for working out Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) Digital sculpts with expressions as a proof of concept for the look of the Na’vi people. I also did the designs for Norm (Joel Moore) as well as the Grace ( Sigourney Weaver}.
Chris Jones has spent the last 8 years developing a short film called “The Passenger”, and has chronicled the entire event on his website from concept to completion.
Last century, when I started making The Passenger, all I wanted was a centerpiece for my showreel. I had been working in computer games for three and a half years, but my real ambition was to work in film. A visit to Siggraph in 1998 provided the motivation to start work on the project, and the bus commute to and from the convention supplied the theme. My objective was to create a quirky, moody, spooky, action packed overblown animation spectacular that might get me a nice job.
One new feature in Photoshop CS3 and CS4 is the support for 3D objects and the ability to rotate and scale them in 3D. One use for this, which I have to admit I hadn’t considered before, is using it with 3D model libraries (like 3DVIA) to create true 3D brushes you can easily replicate through scenes.
I wanted to create a large number of new Photoshop brushes but finding the right image and having to cut, crop, and crunch the pictures became painful and boring. Thinking a bit outside the box led me to a whole new dimension in brush making. Why not use 3D models to quickly create Photoshop brushes ?!?!
A new video sharing site called “TheShowreel” aims to create a public place for content creators to upload and publicize their content, but tailor it specifically to the needs of professionals looking to create demo reels without the extra clutter that comes from sites like YouTube or Vimeo.
GOOD Magazine collaborated with Frank Chimero to create a new “Transparency” all about the US Penal System and how it stacks up against other US endeavors and other country’s penal systems.
India’s Prime Focus contributed only about 10% of the effects seen in Avatar, but that alone was enough to drive their stock up an impressive 10% when the success of the film hit the news.
LG has set a new record for thin LCD televisions, with a new 42-inch LCD panel with LED backlights and optical film that’s an impressive 2.6mm thick.
Popular Mechanics has an article detailed how James Cameron created the space opera Avatar using new 3-D technology. The article has a semi-biographical piece which describes how Cameron taught himself visual effects, by photocopying dissertations at the University of Southern California library, while working as a truck driver. It then gives a short history of the films that Cameron has made since then, before delving into shooting Avatar in 3-D.
It’s common knowledge now that most of the special effects in Avatar were done by Weta, although new information says that Weta found themselves a bit over their head and had to turn to other studios, namely ILM, to help them keep the deadline. An article on CBS4 discusses how the two studios worked together both competitively and cooperatively to bring the masterpiece to the screen.
Chris Jones has spent the last 8 years developing a short film called “The Passenger”, and has chronicled the entire event on his website from concept to completion.
One new feature in Photoshop CS3 and CS4 is the support for 3D objects and the ability to rotate and scale them in 3D. One use for this, which I have to admit I hadn’t considered before, is using it with 3D model libraries (like 3DVIA) to create true 3D brushes you can easily replicate through scenes.
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