The 2011 Digital Entertainment Conference will be on October 13th from noon to 6pm Eastern Time, but with one important difference this year: It’s completely online. If you’re an artist living in the US, you can stream all of the talks directly to your PC for free.  And this isn’t some hokey fly-by-nite conference either, they’ve got some big names:

Industry professionals presenting at the conference will be:
· Daniel Gregoire, CEO and founder of Halon Entertainment, providing an overview of how his team developed custom tools in Autodesk Maya software for manipulating earth, air, fire and water for M. Night Shyalaman’s “The Last Airbender”
· Mike Mennillo, lead fight animator for Ubisoft, covering the use of Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk MotionBuilder software, as well as Autodesk HumanIK middleware in the development of the soon-to-be released video game “Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood”
· Three speakers from LOOK Effects, discussing how the studio provided full-service visual effects for the sixth and final season of ABC’s “Lost” using Autodesk Maya and Autodesk Flame software

It’s brought with support from HP and AJA Video, as somewhat of a proof of concept and pipeline test. Registration is required, although the event is free.  Get the full details after the break.

Autodesk Hosts Digital Entertainment Conference Online
Participants Learn How Autodesk 2011 Software Enables Next Generation Digital Entertainment Creation

What: Autodesk, Inc., with the support of HP and AJA Video Systems, will host a one-day, online Digital Entertainment Conference this month. Featuring presentations by top industry professionals and Autodesk technical experts, the conference will showcase how modern pipelines can help studios enhance creativity and increase productivity.

Industry professionals presenting at the conference will be:
· Daniel Gregoire, CEO and founder of Halon Entertainment, providing an overview of how his team developed custom tools in Autodesk Maya software for manipulating earth, air, fire and water for M. Night Shyalaman’s “The Last Airbender”
· Mike Mennillo, lead fight animator for Ubisoft, covering the use of Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk MotionBuilder software, as well as Autodesk HumanIK middleware in the development of the soon-to-be released video game “Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood”
· Three speakers from LOOK Effects, discussing how the studio provided full-service visual effects for the sixth and final season of ABC’s “Lost” using Autodesk Maya and Autodesk Flame software

Live and on-demand demonstrations of Autodesk’s Digital Entertainment Creation (DEC) products will be offered during the conference. Live sessions will focus on workflows in Autodesk Maya Entertainment Creation Suite Premium, as well as Autodesk 3ds Max Entertainment Creation Suite. On-demand sessions will offer tips and tricks to help maximize creativity and manage pipelines, through in-depth demonstrations of Autodesk Softimage, Autodesk Mudbox, Autodesk MotionBuilder and Autodesk Smoke For Mac OS X software.

When & Where: The conference will be available online on Oct. 13 from noon to 6 p.m. EDT at: http://www.autodesk.com/digital-entertainment . A complete agenda is now available on the conference site.

Who: The Autodesk Digital Entertainment Conference will be free and open to artists living in the Americas; however, registration is mandatory. To register, visit http://www.autodesk.com/pr-digital-entertainment . Artists based in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific can register for a similar event that will be held on Oct. 12 at http://www.autodesk.co.uk/virtualevent .

About Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc., is a leader in 3D design engineering and entertainment software. Customers across the manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, and media and entertainment industries — including the last 15 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects — use Autodesk software to design, visualize and simulate their ideas. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk continues to develop the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art software for global markets. For additional information about Autodesk, visit http://www.autodesk.com