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A free webinar from NVidia and GoToMeeting will feature the new “Fermi” architecture and it’s capabilities for GPU computing, along with the previously mentioned “Mad Science Promotion”.

NVIDIA’s next generation CUDA architecture, code named “Fermi” is the most advanced GPU computing architecture ever built. Join us for a live webinar to learn about the new Tesla GPU Compute solutions built on Fermi and the dramatic performance capabilities they offer customers who are tackling the most difficult, compute-intensive problems. In addition you will learn about our limited time offer, the Mad Science Promotion, whereby you may qualify for a promotional upgrade to a new NVIDIA Fermi-based Tesla product when you purchase a NVIDIA® Tesla™ C1060 GPU Computing Processor or a S1070 1U GPU Computing System today.

The webinar is next Wednesday (December 16th) at 10AM PST.  Registration is on their website.

via GoToWebinar : Webinars & Web Events Made Easy. Award-Winning Web Casting & Online Seminar Hosting Software.

Science fermi, gpgpu, nvidia, webinar

Recently Westpac, one of the only 4 large banks in Australia, raised its variable mortage rate 0.45 percentage points, double the level of the Reserve Bank’s 0.25 percentage points and significantly more than their competition.  To quell the uprising press and consumer complaints, they sent an email to customers explaining the rate hike which included an interesting video.

Included in the email was an infographically animated video titled “Cool Bananas”, justifying the bank's decision to raise interest rates by comparing the business of banking with selling banana smoothies. Just as a storm hits and destroys a banana field, and increases the prices of banana smoothies, the banks were hit by a crisis of their own, increasing their cost of lending. For those outside Australia, the chosen theme subtly points to an Australian phenomenon in its recent past, namely the banana shortage caused by Cyclone Harry in 2006, which increased banana prices across the country by 400-500%.

Infosthetics has the video on their site.

via Banking versus Banana Smoothies: An Infographic Movie Controversy – information aesthetics.

Graphics financial, infographic

DisplayLink, creator of the cute little USB Monitor Drivers that allow you to turn single-display systems into multi-display systems with ease, has just brought in a new CEO in Craig Ensley, former COO of Peregrine Semiconductor, and raised $8M in capital.

The DisplayLink gadget has a chip and software that configures the system automatically so that you can then use the two displays as a single work space. It expands the area where you can work and makes you more productive. DisplayLink calls this “true virtual graphics” and it can now connect up to six displays.

Still a relatively small company at 60 employees, the technology is showing up in more and more places.  With both wired and wireless USB devices, they’ve got huge potential.

via DisplayLink hires new CEO, raises $8M for multiple-display technology | VentureBeat.

Hardware displaylink

The new kid’s movie “Playmobil: The Secret of Pirate Island” from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment takes the lovable kid’s building block toys and brings them to life in a CG adventure.  The animation was done entirely in MachStudio’s StudioGPU and in a new press release they tout the advantages of the real-time aspects of the tool:

“Thanks to MachStudio Pro, we could see when there was too much bloom in one shot or not enough blur in another. We didn’t have to wait 40 minutes to see the glow on a treasure chest full of coins,” said Quinn Tetterton, executive vice president at XLT and creative producer overseeing the project. “It’s a great asset, because you can actually experiment during crunch time and get away with it. We could not have done The Secret of Pirate Island in the limited amount of time we had without MachStudio Pro.”

Extra Large Technology (XLT) did the work, and they too love the time savings:

“MachStudio Pro basically skips the entire software rendering process,” says Zeth Dubois, CG supervisor at XLT. “Normally, lighting and rendering is a torturously long process. In a typical workflow, artists approximate lighting with their desktop software, make low-quality or regional test renders, then cross their fingers and send their files to a render farm, waiting hours or longer to see results.” Dubois continues, “But with MachStudio Pro, artists quickly get the feedback they need to make meaningful creative choices without getting bogged down in trying to figure out the technical issues.”

The the 90-minute film was completed in 18 months, and is available now.  See some great pictures of the movie, after the break.

via StudioGPU MachStudio Pro Streamlines Creation of First Playmobil Entertainment DVD for Sony Pictures.

Read more…

Graphics machstudio, movie, sony, studiogpu, vfx, xlt

Traditionally scientists would board boats or launch satellites to gather information about the earth’s oceans, but modern installations make use of remote sensors and the internet to let them analyze the data from the comforts of home.  Yesterday NEPTUNE, currently the world’s largest ocean observatory, launched a new web portal Oceans2.0 to make it even easier.

“It’s really an environment where people not only can chat with each other and exchange information, but also work together on data, create their own projects, and create their own little groups of users,” said Benoît Pirenne, associate director of information technology for NEPTUNE.

Based on the Yahoo! User Interface, Oceans 2.0 also boasts applications for data analysis and visualization, and a wiki.

via Feature – Observing oceans online.

Science gis, neptune, ocean

A mammoth tome of over 600 pages, the Encyclopedia of Visual Effects from the Apple Pro Training series has a reputation of being one of the best collections of visual effects know-how and knowledge ever consolidated into a single text, making it this week’s Recommended Resources.

This is the ultimate recipe book for visual effects artists working in Apple Shake, Adobe After Effects, and Apple Motion. An impressive lineup of Hollywood and independent effects pros have pulled together this compendium of the coolest and most useful effects from A to Z (“Adding Clouds” to “Z-Depth Effects”). The book includes everything from practical everyday commercial techniques to breakdowns of well-known shots from blockbuster films. Readers learn to create light sabers from the artists who created them for Star Wars Episode 3; learn to freeze time from the wizard who invented the effect for The Matrix; and learn to create matte paintings from the pros who did them for Lord of the Rings. Coverage includes rotoscoping, painting, warping and distortion effects, dramatic lighting, adding lightening and fire, matchmoves, 3D CG integration techniques, advanced blue- and greenscreen techniques, and much more. DVD-ROM included. Foreword by Ron Brinkmann.

While it’s a bit dated (Shake is dead, afterall), the fundamental techniques and theories are still valid across several products.

Graphics apple, book, feature, resource of the week, vfx

Teen emo smash hit Twilight will have their next sequel, “Twilight: Eclipse” released on IMAX simultaneously with the regular release on June 30th, 2010.  Unfortunately, the producers didn’t go the extra step of actually shooting the film for IMAX and will be relying on IMAX’s remastering technology:

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse will be digitally re-mastered into the unparalleled image and sound quality of “The IMAX Experience” with proprietary IMAX DMR(R) (Digital Re-mastering) technology. The crystal-clear images coupled with IMAX's customized theatre geometry and powerful digital audio create a unique environment that will make audiences feel as if they are in the movie.

No doubt the release of Twilight will create a nice infusion of cash for the IMAX theaters, but it’s disappointing that they’re simply remastering rather than shooting actual IMAX footage, like was done for the most recent Batman film.  Are you willing to pay premium IMAX prices for nothing more than what’s in the regular theater?

via The Twilight Saga: Eclipse to Hit IMAX Theaters – ComingSoon.net.

Graphics imax, movie, twilight

A new partnership between TurboSquid and Mixamo will create a new class of models in TurboSquid, “Mixamo-certified” models that are certified for use with Mixamo’s online animation service.  This is a great way for you to tap into the massive model collection that TurboSquid offers and combine that with the high-quality animation tools Mixamo provides.

“The combination of high-quality, certified TurboSquid models and Mixamo animations provides users with a powerful and easy way to develop first-rate characters in motion,” says Stefano Corazza, co-founder and CTO of Mixamo. “As the largest worldwide provider of 3D content across several industries including video games, design and architecture, and virtual worlds, TurboSquid aligns perfectly with Mixamo’s ongoing strategy to provide 3D professionals with the next evolution in character creation technologies.”

Currently only 10 3dsMax Biped system characters are available, but more models will come online regularly.  Full details in the press release after the break, and at the Mixamo site.

Read more…

Graphics mixamo, models, turbosquid

Joanna Leng just posted in the VizWorld Forums (What? Don’t tell me you forgot we had forums!) the “Call for Submissions” for IGI Global’s newest Handbook of Research on Computational Scinece and Engineering: Theory and Practice, and they have a long list of areas that they need contributors, including my personal favorite:

– Visualization: review the state of the art of well known application areas, new applications to visualization, design and development, user assessment, collaborative environments, computational steering, visualization in interactive physics (simulation as a part of virtual reality and games)

In addition, they want submissions on case studies, sociological issues, programming paradigms, and hardware trends.  Proposals are due by January 7th, and full details are on their site.

via Handbook of Research on Computational Science and Engineering: Theory and Practice.

Science book, research

Students at the University of Virginia used a visualization tool called “VisualEyes” to visualize archival records – deeds, land books, appraisals, maps, and more – of the residents of Vinegar Hill around the urban renewal project of the 1960′s that demolished the once-thriving African-American neighborhood.

“VisualEyes is a tool that makes it easy to author graphically rich and interactive Web sites using primary sources and data to support inquiry and argument,” Ferster said. “We have been impressed at the quality of the student-generated work and its ability to contribute to the community.”

This visualization by student Kate Wellons looks at where the residents of Fourth Street moved after urban renewal. The red lines are homeowners, while the tenants are drawn in blue.

The presentation, “VisualEyes Vinegar Hill”, is on exhibit at the Charlottesville Community Design Center on the Downtown Mall.  You can visit the websites for The Vinegar Hill Project and VisualEyes for more information.

via U.Va. Students Present Visualizations about Vinegar Hill Urban Renewal.

Graphics, Science art, history, visualeyes