Answer: Sony SXRD 4K digital cinema projector. 4K. That’s the point. The thing that sold me on digital cinema back in the day (the 2K day) was seeing Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron digitally projected–stunning.

Now audiences at the Electronic Theater can see animation at twice the resolution. For animators who are all about nuance and impact there is nothing like digital to push the point.

Keep your eyes open and see if you can see the difference in Andy Lomas’ fractal piece (pictured). Sony says it’’s the only piece that could be rerendered to 4K in time for exhibition. Next year the call for entries will let people know that they are welcome to submit in 4K, so…I guess you all need to buy more RAM. more

A number of years ago, I attended a press conference where the founder of SGI strutted before an NAB audience of broadcast and post executives, stating in no uncertain terms that in a few years his company would “own” the industry. SGI’s big, bold booth made a statement commensurate with his claim. It was the 1990‘s afterall, when the high-end computer graphics market for feature films and commercials took off, due in no small part to this upstart Silicon Valley success story with it’s high flying, free spending attitude.

Fade out/fade in to Siggraph 2006. I spent 15 minutes trying to find the company‘s sole representative, now holding forth at a table in a partner‘s booth. Times have changed. SGI has been declared dead many times over the years since that original presentation by Jim Clark. Its share price has plummeted, staff has been cut again and again. Their luxe Mountain View campus was sold to Google a while back; a bankruptcy filing was made this past May. more

Sony‘s professional display products are turning on and turning heads in several exhibit areas of the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival here in Bean Town this week. The Sony technologies on display range from SXRD 4K large venue and LCD business projectors to displays for digital signage applications.

“SIGGRAPH is the perfect place to fully exhibit the capabilities of our professional display products,” said John Kaloukian, director, Sony Electronics professional display group. “The growing use of computer graphics and interactive technologies in motion picture animation, simulation, CAD/CAM work and post-production has increased the need for displays and projectors that fit a range of professional requirements. The products in our line-up were designed with just that flexibility in mind and that‘s what will be on display at the show.” more

Emmy award-winning Toon Boom Animation Inc. announced the pre-launch of Toon Boom Studio V3.5. Toon Boom Studio V3.5 enables users to animate with more power and ease, bringing significant improvements to animation techniques, special effects creation and color palette management. In addition, V3.5 offers a more user-friendly interface with a welcome screen and help wizards, as well as timeline improvements.

Highlights of this latest release include:

• Animated elements to quickly animate drawings




• Real-time Drop Shadow effect to create rich-looking animation




• Improved tools such as Select Scene Operator, Contour Editor, Color Transform as well as Texture and Gradient Mapping to facilitate the animation process




• Enhanced interoperability with other software with PDF export




• Simplified User Interface to work more efficiently

more

NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video products, today announced the first stage of extensive enhancements for LightWave 3D on the Mac. The migration of LightWave 3D to Universal Binary provides NewTek with a foundation for upcoming advancements in 3D technology for the Mac community. Live demonstrations of this new technology on Intel-based Mac systems will take place at the NewTek booth (1518) and press suite at SIGGRAPH 2006. more

Hey!

So here I am… Ken Seward, student animator… at my first day of the Siggraph Exhibition… and it’s pretty damn exciting…. really!

It’s kind of overwhelming… but in a good way… a chance to see a lot of the faces behind the stuff that has been such an inspiration to me… the reasons I got into this business to begin with…

Everyone here has been really nice and friendly so far… it’s great to be able to walk right up to an animator from Rythm and Hues and ask him questions… you can listen to their war stories and see their process and just generally get a rush from it all… the excitement of creating stories and images.

All the software companies are pulling out their best stuff and giving demos and eager to help you figure out new ways to use their wares… the Z-Brush show was great… and the Adobe one too. I really enjoyed the Houdini presentation… someday I’m going to have to put in some time on that one too. more

Press Release:

SIGGRAPH 2006 attendees get glimpse of future for LightWave

Boston, MA, SIGGRAPH, Booth 1518 - August 1, 2006 — NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video products, today announced that SIGGRAPH presentations for LightWave 3D will feature new technologies slated for upcoming releases of their award-winning 3D animation system. Among the new technologies to be presented are: a true, 3D photo-realistic motion blur, 3D photo-realistic depth of field, improved OpenGL capability in Modeler, additional capabilities for the new Advanced Camera Tools and improved sub-surface scattering.

“Our commitment to advancing LightWave with innovative new features and capabilities of most use to the 3D community is unrelenting,” said Jay Roth, president, NewTek 3D division. “We have just released LightWave v9 and the march continues to advance LightWave beyond anything currently available in the market. The technology preview we‘re showcasing at SIGGRAPH is just the tip of the iceberg. The beauty for LightWave users is that with the new Open Beta program we established with LightWave v9, they will get their hands on our new technologies as soon as we have them ready to test and not have to wait for an official ship date.” more

Another super hot day in Boston but at least the tradeshow floor is mercifully cool, there is a ton of good stuff to look at & demos left right & centre! Best freebie? Nintendo key ring lights that my nephews will no doubt covet. Good to catch up with the VFS booth. The Electronic Theatre was AWESOME!! Great atmosphere in there & absolutely packed - Really fun was the audience driven animal pong & etch a sketch beforehand, it got everyone in the mood. So many great films & the variety was incredible.

Anyhoo must get on with preparing my VFS talk for tomorrow.

Mark

OK-more of a pre-party. Google’s here with their new tool Sketchup, a super simple 3D, perspective based visualization tool. Great for previz or to create simple stylized animation–S.D. Katz will be reviewing it in our upcoming issue. It’s the first in what sounds like a product development push on Google’s part around “the big graphics problems they’re trying to solve.”

If you want to join the dialogue go to their demo (drinks, appetizers and ice cream); Wed. Aug. 2 3-5:30 Room 208 upstairs at the convention center.

Jobs:

User Interface Design Lead

User Interface Software Engineer

User Experience Researcher

Senior User Experience Researcher

www.google.com/jobs for more info or stop by the booth.

The floor has been a blast! The demos have really been intersting. Always fun to see what is coming out. Disney is showing some of their character rigs from “Meet the Robinsons” that I really found interesting. The amount of control and squash & stretch they are getting from the rigs these days is just amazing. I really enjoyed talking the the reps at Blue Sky and Rhythm and Hues too. Nice people that did not rush me along at all. I think I am going to to catch a little more of the Animation Theater!

-Chris Myers

www.chrismyers3d.com

Savannah College of Art and Design

Solomon Grundy