Now here’s something I didn’t expect. SGI is preparing an OpenGL Training Course over in California where students get a nice 5-day course on OpenGL, GLEW, and GLSL.
Students learn to view and model in 3D, and to create animated, wire frame and solid geometery, under interactive control from input devices. Students add lighting, textures, and other effects to increase realism. New OpenGL 3.0 topics include using vertex buffer objects for better performance and an introduction to the programmable shaders and GLSL for advanced shading techniques using vertex shaders and fragment shaders. This course discusses both the fixed and function pipeline and an introduction to the newer programmable shader pipeline with OpenGL.
I find it ironic and humorous that the company that was sadly always one step behind is now offering a “cutting edge training class” on OpenGL3, rather than the current OpenGL4. Nonetheless, looks like a great course covering a wide variety of topics.
Skillset Animation has put together a nice little free handbook called “The Core Skills of VFX”, aimed at students in the UK looking to get into the VFX industry. Even if you’re not in the UK, it’s a great look at the skills and expertise you’ll need to get going, and some nice tips on how to stand out from the crowd.
The handbook is relevant to both students and tutors; it is designed to assist universities and colleges to raise the standard of VFX courses available and therefore the new talent available in the UK.
The Stanford Medical University has a new toy from Anatomage that provides lifelike interactive visuals with a multitude of anatomical datasets.
The new virtual dissection table takes advantage of 20th-century technological advancements in imaging, such as X-rays, ultrasound and MRIs, and combines them for use in a 7-foot by 2.5-foot screen. At Stanford, the table is being tested as a way to further enhance that age-old teaching method — the dissection of human cadavers.
Costing $60,000, it’s part of a new wave of technology that integrates VR, touchscreens, 3d visuals, high-resolution data scals, and more into a realistic educational tool. In addition to simply using it for education, Stanford is working on a “Searchable Digital Anatomical Library” that they can use with it to offer their extensive library of medical scans to other institutions.
If you’ve ever wanted to learn the visualization language “Processing”, now’s your chance. Every day during the month of May, the Vormplus blog has entries for “Processing Month”, covering everything from the mundane (creating points, drawing lines) to the advanced (Data queries and interactivity). Looks like something to bookmark!
At a recent BAFTA meeting, several experts in various VFX fields got together for a series of “Master Classes” on stage, covering things from low-budget VFX tricks to case studies of some big projects.
Organised by Directors Guild, funded by Skillset Film Skills Fund as part of “A Bigger Future 2″ and in partnership with BAFTA, this event incorporated a day’s worth of inspirational masterclasses presented by leading figures in the visual effects industry.
In this series of videos and podcasts recorded on the day, experts in the VFX field reveal the creative and budgetary opportunities that become available when using visual effects in film. Choose from the range of sessions below covering all aspects of visual effects creation including creative development, 2D to 3D conversion, the impact on filming and budget considerations.
The University of Central Florida has worked with Daden Limited to build accountancy orientation exercises in Second Life using PIVOTE. The exercises let students access course material and trainign videos while actually doing their work in-world.
Andrew Jinman, Daden’s PIVOTE Product Manager said “This project was a great example of “Learning by Doing” – Taking the students through a step-by-step of how to use bespoke course content, grounding it within the context of course material to reinforce the knowledge learnt. It was wonderful to observe such enthusiasm by the students and immediate results.”
Results so far have been great: 47% fewer forum discussions for assistance, and 12% more project submissions. Get the full details after the break.
The Georgia Tech NVIDIA CUDA Center of Excellence is preparing a nice 2-day long tutorial on GPU programming and heterogeneous computing, including both CUDA and OpenCL. The event will only cost you a $100 registration fee and the cost of your room and time, making it one of the best ways to get into GPU programming.
Realizing the success of Nvidia’s CUDA university initiatives, AMD recently announced a new OpenCL University Kit, a collection of materials that can be used in any university environment to teach OpenCL programming.
“Teaching students to effectively leverage the OpenCL standard involves all the intricacies of parallel programming plus support for a new class of heterogeneous computing devices built on a variety of hardware technologies,” said David Kaeli, professor and associate dean of undergraduate programs, Northeastern University College of Engineering. “The OpenCL University Kit introduced by AMD is an easy tool to enable educators to quickly introduce OpenCL learning into their curriculum, helping them strike a balance between teaching syntax and higher level architectural issues.”
The kit includes 13 lectures, with instructor and speaker notes, as well as code examples. Combined with the recently announced ‘Accelerated Parallel Processing SDK‘, (the new name for the old Stream SDK) it’s a great way to get into OpenCL development.
Now here’s something I didn’t expect. SGI is preparing an OpenGL Training Course over in California where students get a nice 5-day course on OpenGL, GLEW, and GLSL.
Skillset Animation has put together a nice little free handbook called “The Core Skills of VFX”, aimed at students in the UK looking to get into the VFX industry. Even if you’re not in the UK, it’s a great look at the skills and expertise you’ll need to get going, and some nice tips on how to stand out from the crowd.
The Stanford Medical University has a new toy from Anatomage that provides lifelike interactive visuals with a multitude of anatomical datasets.
If you’ve ever wanted to learn the visualization language “Processing”, now’s your chance. Every day during the month of May, the Vormplus blog has entries for “Processing Month”, covering everything from the mundane (creating points, drawing lines) to the advanced (Data queries and interactivity). Looks like something to bookmark!
At a recent BAFTA meeting, several experts in various VFX fields got together for a series of “Master Classes” on stage, covering things from low-budget VFX tricks to case studies of some big projects.
The Georgia Tech NVIDIA CUDA Center of Excellence is preparing a nice 2-day long tutorial on GPU programming and heterogeneous computing, including both CUDA and OpenCL. The event will only cost you a $100 registration fee and the cost of your room and time, making it one of the best ways to get into GPU programming.
Realizing the success of Nvidia’s CUDA university initiatives, AMD recently announced a new OpenCL University Kit, a collection of materials that can be used in any university environment to teach OpenCL programming.
VizWorld.com 
Comments