Curious about all things HP? Well, there‘s a pretty painless way to keep up to date via the computer maker‘s new video-fueled Web site, Workstations.tv (http://workstations.tv).

Customer stories are the name of the game here, and you get an ever expanding selection from this ‘online television station‘ as the company describes it. Sure, it‘s not the most objective of reporting, but nonetheless they do a pretty good job of presenting a good variety of applications that use the company‘s workstations without too heavy a hand in promoting the house brand.

You‘ll find video footage of the inaugural international FJORG! “iron-animator” competition that‘s co-sponsored by DreamWorks Animation SKG and AMD. FJORG! features 15 three-person computer graphics animation teams from around the world competing in a 32-hour competition to create the best 15 second or longer animation using HP xw9400 Workstations.

Related News from The Briefing Room

A bold prediction slipped out of the lips of Wes Shimanek, manager of Intel’s workstation strategic marketing group, this afternoon at the Boxx Technologies booth. Wes and Francois Wolf, Boxx’s director of marketing, reviewed for me Intel’s partnership with Boxx regarding the new Boxx renderBOXX 10100 render farm series of products, designed to basically permit more powerful rendering in fewer, well, boxes, in space-constrained studios, along with remote management of such render farms.

During the course of the discussion, the ‘Holy Grail’ topic of real-time, game-engine-based rendering came up for discussion, and Wes assured me the boys in the lab at Intel are working on the issue every single day, and he boldly predicted that the transition will no doubt happen within “3-5 years.”

The Boxx folk also made the point that, these days, the entertainment space is driving technology on the hardware side into other business sectors, and used architecture as an example. Their high-end hardware, they say, is being used daily in the building and facility design space for airports, sports venues, entertainment facilities, and much more. An interesting shift from the days when entertainment technology was largely derived from other industries.

–Michael Goldman

More Siggraph news from our ongoing virtual press conference

Dassault Systèmes (DS) (Nasdaq: DASTY; Euronext Paris: #13065, DSY.PA), ), a world leader in 3D and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) solutions, has teamed up with graphics technologies leaders NVIDIA Corporation and mental images® to extend sophisticated shader technology to every user in the style and digital mock-up review processes, the companies announced today. Wider access to shading tools enables companies to create richer, more detailed simulations that yield higher quality 3D renderings that reflect the real world. more

At the beginning of their Monday afternoon press conference, Marc Stevens, vice president and general manager for Softimage, announced with a smile that the Montreal-based company had gone on a buying spree and bought Autodesk.
While no one took the bait–Autodesk is many times the size of Softimage‘s owner Avid, with a healthy balance sheet to boot–Stevens was reacting to that day‘s news that Autodesk was the one going on a buying spree with the announcement of its plans to purchase New Zealand-based Skymatter Limited, the developer of Mudbox 3D modeling software. (Somewhat similar to Pixologic‘s Zbrush software, Mudbox enables 3D brush-based modeling; users can sculpt organic shapes in 3D space with brush-like tools.) more

More Siggraph news from our ongoing virtual press conference

SIGGRAPH 2007 — SAN DIEGO, CA (August 6, 2007) – Duiker Research Corp., a California-based innovator in imaging and color tools for motion pictures. is announcing Color Symmetry, a suite of plug-ins that for the first time allows film “looks” to be easily emulated and previewed within a wide array of animation, graphics and effects packages. Color Symmetry lets companies handle color accurately and consistently across mediums, applications, platforms and even facilities. Color Symmetry additionally helps companies build robust color pipelines to support complex feature film projects right out of the box. more

More Siggraph news from our ongoing virtual press conference

During SIGGRAPH 2007, NVIDIA (booth # 513) a recognized leader in programmable graphics processor technologies will usher in the era of “personal supercomputing” with NVIDIA® Tesla™, the company‘s new line of processors for high-performance computing coupled with the latest NVIDIA® Quadro® professional graphics solutions.

With Tesla, computations that previously took hours, days or even weeks are now taking only minutes and in some cases computing in real time – achieving performance improvements that are 45 to 415 times faster than traditional processors. more

Artwork that illuminates the role the digital media plays in shaping, extending, and reflecting world views and cosmologies will be showcased throughout the SIGGRAPH 2007 Art Gallery: Global Eyes. Global Eyes will take place during the 34th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques held 5-9 August 2007 at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California, USA.

Global Eyes will explore ecological, social, and political issues in imaginative and innovative ways through a variety of submitted and curated works. This year there were more than 660 submissions from 30 countries that were evaluated by a prestigious international jury. The main categories presented during Global Eyes include animation, artist books, panel discussions, papers, digital performances, art installations, as well as monitor and wall-based works. These works aim to foster respect, tolerance, and empathy among people and nations.

“The SIGGRAPH Art Gallery is known for consistently presenting the work of the world’s most talented digital artists,” stated Vibeke Sorensen, SIGGRAPH 2007 Art Gallery Chair from the University at Buffalo. “Global Eyes is an exciting forum for showcasing alternative ways to think about nature and art, and how the two interact.”

For a video preview for the 2007 Art Gallery: Global Eyes, click here.