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If you’ve worked on some fantastic cinematics, films, or anything else with Autodesk Products, then consider submitting your work to the Animation Show Reel that Autodesk plans to show in their booth at SIGGRAPH.

It’s that time of the year again! With SIGGRAPH nearing, Autodesk has begun its search for company’s 2010 Animation Show Reel.   If you’ve recently worked on an animated game cinematic, short film, feature film, commercial, broadcast, music video or episodic project using Autodesk products, don’t miss out on this golden opportunity to share your work with industry peers and potential clients at one of the year’s most anticipated events.   To be showcased at Autodesk’s booth (#501) during SIGGRAPH from July 27-29, 2010 at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the reel provides a superb opportunity for you to flaunt your talent. Featured project work will receive excellent exposure, as the reel will also be streamed live on the AREA, promoted on the Autodesk website and YouTube Channel, and played during industry events throughout the year.    Autodesk is also looking for high-resolution images for inclusion in its marketing materials throughout the year.

You can visit www.autodesk.com/siggraph2010-submissions for submission requirements, but the deadline for video submissions is Monday, May 31, 2010 and for imagery, Friday, June 4.

Graphics autodesk, siggraph

FarmVille and Mafia Wars seem simple enough, click a few buttons and then wait for your crops to grow or stamina to regenerate, but under the hood is a wealth of user analytics that has to be parsed and sorted to keep Zynga is business.  They’ve just decided to use Tableau Software to parse all this data.

“With the amount of data Zynga captures daily, our rapid-fire business intelligence and business analytics capabilities match Zynga’s analytical prowess uniquely,” said Tableau’s CEO and co-founder Christian Chabot.  “With Tableau, Zynga can unearth vast amounts of user data in real-time, which will enable them to quickly make product decisions focused on creating the best social gaming experience.”

Congratulations to Tableau for scoring this huge contract! Full press release after the break

Read more…

Science bi, tableau, zynga

Forbes Magazine asked frog design what the future (year 2020) could look like, and that led to a workshop in San Francisco where futurists, journalist, and others came together to envision it.  The result is an online feature called ‘Your Life in 2010″, and it now available online for all to revel in it’s foresight and wackiness.

In the future nearly every visible thing will be cataloged and indexed, ready to be instantly identified and described to us. Want to go shopping? In the future we won’t need big retail stores with aisles of objects on display. We’ll be able to shop out in the world (see image, above). Do you like that new car you saw drive by? Or those cool shoes on the woman sitting across the room? All you’ll have to do is look at it and your mobile handset or AR-equipped eyeglasses will identify the object and look up the best price and retailer.

While I don’t see many people getting brain implants in order to track their “Whuffie”, some of the other ideas aren’t half bad.

via Envisioning Your Future in 2020 | Blog | design mind.

Science forbes, future

If you’re into Stereo 3D media, you might want to head on over to Belgium this winter to check out the 3D Stereo Media 2010 event.  On site they’ll have artists, directors, scientists, and engineers all talking about stereoscopic 3d, as well as:

• dozens of conferences by international experts
• 4,000 m² (43,000 ft²) of exhibit area with tens of booths
• 3D stereo technology demonstrations unique in Europe and beyond
• tens of scientific posters
• live 3D retransmission of shows and more
• the 3D stereo film festival (2nd edition)
• hand-on training to stereography
• artistic and technical initiations to 3D stereo for young people
• rooms equipped with 3D stereo projection.

Head on over to their site and check it out.

via International 3D Stereo Film and Technology Festival | 3D Stereo Media 2010.

Science 3d, conference, stereoscopic

The war of words and technology wages on between Apple and Adobe about getting Flash and Flash-based technology onto the iPhone and iPad, but the intertwined history of the two companies can make it a bit difficult to separate the reality and the rhetoric.  A new infographic from Enrique Serrano tries to break it down for us.

Since so much has been said about not having Flash support in the devices of Apple (mainly the Apple iPhone and the iPad) I put together as much facts as possible about Apple, Adobe, the iPhone and Flash, plus some on video codecs including Theora, H.264 and HTML 5 video.

I hope these infographics help you better understand the big picture with the current situation of these technologies and companies.

It’s a HUGE graphic, see it after the break.

via Treble Click: Apple and Adobe – infographics. via Cool Infographics

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Hardware adobe, apple, flash, infographic

No doubt that Apple has singlehandedly created and owned the MP3 player market since the first iPod launched in 2001, and a new infographic by OnlineSchools for Mashable catalogs the growth.

Apple sold 125,000 iPods by the end of 2001; it sold a flabbergasting 225 million by 2010. Coupled with the music management/online music store one-two punch that was iTunes, the iPod turned out to be one of the most successful gadgets of all time.

In the amazing infographic below, you can see the rise of the iPod and iTunes (and how they’ve affected our lives) in the last nine years. It’s true: the rest of the MP3 market never stood a chance.

I’m not so sure I would call it ‘amazing’, but it does a good job compiling the iPod’s explosive growth.

Fullsize after the break.

via How iPod Took The World By Storm [INFOGRAPHIC].

Read more…

Graphics apple, infographic, ipod

We have talked about some of the resources that you can use to track the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Another tracking tool that you can use if Google Earth. Hopefully the new containment dome will work, which will take care of about 85% of the oil that is spewing out. Then they can work on the second leak and solve that problem.

On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the semi-submersible offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 rig workers and injuring 17 others. On April 24, it was found that the wellhead was damaged and was leaking oil into the Gulf. This significant spill poses a serious threat to wildlife, affecting as many as 400 species along the coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida.

Via : Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill

Science google, oil

One of the problems with the new MacBook Pro is that a user could not manually switch back and forth from the Intel HD graphics chip and the Nvidia GeForce GT 330M graphics card. The Intel HD graphics chip could be disabled so that the Nvidia GeForce GT 330M graphics card was the only one running. The problem was that consumed more power, and reduced battery life. Ideally a user should be able to switch back and forth manually. Anandtech has found a possible solution to this with gfxCardStatus, which is currently at version 1.6.1.

With version 1.6 comes the ability to manually change GPUs on the fly, whenever users desire. That’s right, you can manually change from the discrete GT 330M back to the more energy-efficient Intel HD graphics even from applications that otherwise cause an automatic switchover. This is a huge boon to mobile road warriors that want to wring every last minute out of their batteries if need be.

Via : gfxCardStatus 1.6 enables 2010 MacBook Pro GPU Switching @ Anandtech

Hardware apple, laptop, mac, nvidia

South Korea has announced that beginning May 19th, all four major land-based television stations (KBS, MBC, SBS, and EBS) will begin broadcasting Stereoscopic 3D programs to households in Seoul and the neighboring metropolitan areas.

Trial services will kick off with 3D broadcasts of the 2010 Colorful Daegu Pre-Championships Meeting on KBS, and we guess this bodes well for the FIFA World Cup that will be held a month later in South Africa – imagine watching your favorite players charm the world with their sublime skill in 3D glory.

Al they have to do is have a compatible 3D television, and turn to channel 66.

via South Korea 3D TV Broadcast – Korea to offer first stereoscopic 3D TV programs from May 19th onwards.

Hardware 3d, stereoscopic, television

You don’t have to work long in graphics, be it 2D or 3D, to realize you need a large library of simple textures to accomplish just about any task. Slodive has a list of 50 sites you can visit to flesh out your own library with freely available textures of all types.

50 Sites For Discovering Free Textures – slodive.

Graphics free, list, texture