Press Release

SIGGRAPH 2007 announced today the inclusion of an exclusive preview of “Beowulf”, groundbreaking director Robert Zemeckis’ unique vision of the “Beowulf” saga, in this year’s Computer Animation Festival‘s Electronic Theater taking place at the 34th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, 5-9 August 2007 in San Diego, California, USA.

“In an Electronic Theater filled with truly the best of the best in each category, ‘Beowulf‘ is on the absolute cutting edge of what is being produced today,” said Paul Debevec, SIGGRAPH 2007 Computer Animation Festival Chair from the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies. “This year’s show weaves together amazing visuals from numerous disciplines into a single mind-altering experience.” more

Universal Pictures‘ Evan Almighty was designed to have visual effects of mythic proportions, and a raft of houses—including the big facilities Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and Rhythm & Hues (R&H)—contributed to this Noah‘s Ark comedy. But alongside R&H‘s photoreal CG animals and ILM‘s flood simulation was an interesting contribution from the Los Angeles-based shop TeamWorks Digital. With its veteran Visual Effects Supervisor David Allen at the helm, TeamWorks temporarily set up shop at Universal Studios to wrangle disparate digital elements in several sequences. One of those sequences included a climactic scene that was added to the film well into postproduction. To achieve it, TeamWorks used an approach that Allen considers “postviz.” To read more, click here.

The premier annual event for the world’s most innovative, accomplished, and amazing digital film and video creators. An internationally recognized jury receives hundreds of submissions and presents the best work of the year in daily Animation Theaters and the Electronic Theater (matinée and evening shows). Selections include outstanding achievements in time-based art, scientific visualization, visual effects, real-time graphics, and narrative shorts.

The Computer Animation Festival is recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a qualifying festival. Since 1999, several works originally presented in the Computer Animation Festival have been nominated for or have received a “Best Animated Short” Academy Award.

Animation Theaters
Sunday – Thursday, 5-9 August
Room 24 & 25

Electronic Theater
Monday – Wednesday, 6-8 August
San Diego Civic Theatre
1100 Third Avenue

For a video preview of this year’s Computer Animation Festival, click here.

Millimeter Senior Editor Michael Goldman sat down with Pixar’s Brad Bird, director of Ratatouille, to discuss that film and the challenges of making and executing color palettes for animated films in general. To listen to their conversation, click here .

Read the accompanying story on digitalcontentproducer.com.