Archive of the Animation Category

This is the 2009 Reel Impressions Editing, VFX, and Animation showcase which premiered at the 2009 NAB Show in Las Vegas on a 24 ft. movie screen, projected in HD.

Reel Impressions is a joint partnership between the NAB Show and Reel-Exchange.com.

Watch the 2009 Reel Impressions Student showcase which premiered at the 2009 NAB Show in Las Vegas on a 24 ft. movie screen, projected in HD.

Reel Impressions is a partnership between the NAB Show and Reel-Exchange.com.

Reel-Exchange Community Manager Craig Erpelding talked with Bruno Sargeant of Autodesk about the possibilities Flare creates for studios at NAB 2009.

Avid Deko 5.2 enables users to easily import and play back a broader range of 3-D models and animations. Watch the video.

More videos from Broadcast Engineering TV

From Mix’s Kevin Becka

Avid’s big NAB 2009 news has to do with identity and structure. The parent company will now share its new audio/video centric logo with Digidesign, Pinnacle Systems, M-Audio, and Sibelius. Continue reading at MixBlog.

More coverage from MixBlog

The Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California (ETC-USC) has set up a laboratory where manufacturers and content creators can put stereoscopic 3D to the test. In fact, they can test any and all combinations of content (live action vs. animated), display devices, format, distribution paths, and glasses types. Called the Anytime/Anywhere Content Lab (AACL), the arena is a neutral ground that focuses especially on the consumer experience in the home.

At the Digital Cinema Summit at NAB today, ETC executive director David Wertheimer acknowledged that the industry needs to keep its stereoscopic eyes on the prize of the home market. For the entertainment industry as a whole, he said, “Home video is the tail that wags the dog.” (In theaters, the battle has in many ways been won; all major U.S. media markets have at least one 3D-enabled theater for a total of about 8,000, and all DreamWorks releases are now getting a stereoscopic theatrical release.) more

Duiker Research Corp., creator of the Color Symmetry plug-in suite, has announced Color Symmetry Version 1.5 with Universal Look Authoring. Color Symmetry is a complete solution for emulating film looks and handling color consistently within industry-standard animation, graphics, effects and post-production packages. Version 1.5 supports a growing number of post workflows and formats as well as today’s increasingly creative look development demands. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2008 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room

Today’s schedule at the Central Hall Content Theater concentrates on VFX, Animation and New Digital Workflows. Hear about animation and ambition on the Indian subcontinent at 9:15; Barry Sonnefeld and team talk about the look on Pushing Daisies at 10:45. At noon my dear colleague Carolyn Giardina of The Hollywood Reporter moderates a VES session with an eclectric group of 3D and traditional animators on the blending of techniques. Horton Hears a Who! filmmakers will take the stage at 3:30.

On the workflow front it’s the F23 and the Red Camera. The F23 session (1:15) focuses on onset workflow; at 2pm there’s a case study about Red/FCP workflow.

To find the Content Theater, look for the teal-ish tube tent in front of Central Hall with eight or so flatscreens playing a come-on loop, pass through the double doors into the building and start walking straight ahead about 100 feet, maybe less. Content Theater is off a little to your right.

I’m not an animator so my favorite part of my MyToons.com sample profile was getting to skin it with a pink hearts template that won me points with the four-year-old. One of the main things that seemed so clear in the demo I had was that My Toons was a fun and friendly place. If that sounds condescending, I’m not telling it right. The site–which allows members to build profiles and post their moving and still animations has a real ambience and personality and that seems important as more of these types of sites come online. There are some clever Web 2.0 style features, some smart implementation of groups and other things that will allow members to self impose the organization of the site, as well as building profiles that had some whimsy and personal style. It felt like a place that could catch on. Check it out and best of luck to the My Toons team.

Big, rich facilities have workflow problems too; they have to remodel workflow while midstream on projects…like Shrek. I don’t know why it surprised me to hear that over lunch in the HP booth. I already knew quite a bit about the ongoing build out of Dreamworks infrastructure; I’d just been to the facility a few months ago to see the extraordinary Halo conferencing system and listen to the power management guy tell adventure stories about heat management for billion-processor render farms. (it’s not really a billion–6000 I think). I knew they had to do the integration between the PDI facility in Redwood City and the Glendale facility while in production. So I never thought they had it easy over there; money can’t buy everything. more