Architecture Faculty at SCET to Start Animation Course

SURAT: Faculty of Architecture at the Sarvajanik College of Education and Technology (SCET) is to start postgraduation course in 3D animation post production and special effects from second semester after Diwali vacation. Formal inauguration of the course was done by acclaimed film maker Ketan Mehta on Sunday.

The six-month course will be offered to students of architecture, engineering and other streams. According to the institute, the fees are not yet fixed but it will be lesser than the fees charged by private animation institutes.

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Seminar on 3D animation on July 26 at Hotel Tampha

India's leading animation and visual effects training institute, Frameboxx is organizing a 'Seminar on Careers in 3D Animation and Visual effects' at Hotel Tampha, North AOC, Imphal on 26th July 2009 from 9:30 am to 12:30 am.

MLA Dr NG Bijoy Singh, Former Vice Chancellor Manipur University will be the chief guest and Naba Chandra, Pricipal Imphal Arts College, Soumerjit, Asst Professor Manipur University, Navneet Singh, Director Frameboxx Animation Visual Effects and Okram Gogo Singh, AGM Frameboxx Animation Visual Effects will be the guests of honour.

This is the first time that such a seminar is being organized in Manipur for the students who wish to benefit from the thriving employment opportunities in the 3D Animation and Visual Effects industry.

The Seminar would be followed by a series of Free Master Classes and Workshops on Production Pipeline for Animation Film and Digital Painting using Photoshop.

Frameboxx would also be conducting a Scholarship Creativity Test for the interested candidates.

Source: http://www.e-pao.net/

DreamWorks: 3D movies to double data storage requirements

With a growing number of feature-length animated movies and the changeover from a 2D to a 3D format, DreamWorks Animation deployed a disk-based data archive system that reduced the time it takes artists to retrieve reference video from days to seconds.

DreamWorks Animation SKG is releasing all of its films in stereoscopic 3D, more than doubling the amount of data storage capacity required to store its movies.

The move to 3D animation also requires the company's IT shop to migrate away from tape-based storage systems to disk systems in order to keep archived films online for animators to use as references for future sequels, which is the company's mainstay.

DreamWorks recently released its first 3D animated moviem Monsters vs. Aliens, which packed its newly installed disk array from Hewlett-Packard Co. with 93TB worth of images. The company plans to release five feature films every two years. In the past, each animated film averaged less than 25TB, according to Derek Chan, head of digital operations for DreamWorks Animation.

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3D animation really rocks

YOUNGSTERS were given the chance to create a 3D animation using cutting-edge computer technology.

The 14 budding film-makers from Swindon, aged between 13 and 18, came up with their three-minute film at a studio in the Wyvern Theatre.

Entitled Prehistoric Pet Shop it focuses on a caveman who thinks he has bought a parrot egg from his local pet shop. But after it hatches he realises he’s been given a tyrannosaurus rex egg. The dinosaur then chases him out of his house.

The funny animation was made possible thanks to a £4,000 grant from First Light Movies in conjunction with the British Film Council.

The youngsters were helped along the way, using the same computer software the Madagascar animation films were based on, by twin brothers James and Mark Carroll.

The Park South brothers set up evil.twin.artworks and have successfully run their own animation studio for the last decade. They use traditional animation for television, interactive online games, music videos, corporate videos, architectural visualisation and special FX.

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3-D takes a giant leap into the future

Hollywood is looking at the future through tinted plastic glasses.

My Bloody Valentine, Coraline and the Jonas Brothers concert film were just warm-up acts. The attack of the 3-D movie revival begins in earnest next Friday when Monsters vs. Aliens, the latest computer-animated funhouse from DreamWorks, is launched into theaters.

At least 12 other titles will follow this year, including such milestones as Up, Pixar's first foray in the format; Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, a rare chance to see that disaster-prone Scrat get flattened in 3-D; and Avatar, James Cameron's return to feature filmmaking after a 12-year hiatus that will attempt to do for live-action futuristic thrillers what his Titanic did for sinking ships.

If ever a digital-age update on what was once an Ike-era novelty were going to take hold — and persuade more theater operators to invest upward of $100,000 to convert to the technology — it is now, with such already anticipated titles ready to give it a real workout.

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Studios using 3-D more to attract moviegoers

There are a whole mess of 3-D movies coming out this year that won't just be for the kiddies. The first 3-D movie of '09, "My Bloody Valentine," opening today, puts viewers up close and personal with an unstoppable killer whose tool of choice is a pickax.

The competition between motion picture studios and home entertainment systems is driving the increase in 3-D movies, said Steven Smith of Movie Marketplace. "Studios along with theater exhibitors are looking for ways to enhance the experience and drive people to theaters."

Both DreamWorks Animation and Pixar Studios have announced that all future feature films will be released in 3-D, said Nikki Kealalio, director of marketing for Krikorian Theaters. "Nearly all our theaters have one 3-D viewing room, so we will show these movies in both 3-D and 2-D."

Several Krikorian Theaters broadcasted the 2009 FedEx BCS National Championship game live in digital 3-D last Thursday and will broadcast the NBA All Stars game in February as well.

"We're going to be doing a lot more live sporting events," Kealalio said. "We will eventually start adding more 3-D rooms to our theaters so there will be more viewing capabilities."

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Dr. Toon: 2D or Not 2D

With this year's arrival of The Princess and the Frog, Martin Goodman assesses the current CG landscape to ascertain the significance of Disney's highly anticipated 2D return.

The movies have been subject to as much advancement over the years as any other form of media. The first static efforts in the late 1890s gave way to ever-sophisticated changes in techniques such as cuts, fades, zooms and POV shots, devices that we now take for granted. There is a popular myth concerning the famed silent film The Great Train Robbery (1903); audiences allegedly fled the theaters in fear, believing that they were seeing an actual robbery and trains coming directly towards them. While this is untrue, there was a scene at the end of the film in which a nasty desperado fires a pistol directly into the camera. This always seemed to get at least a few patrons ducking cinematic bullets in their seats. After that, filmmakers vied to wow their audiences through the use of spectacular fx and fancy camerawork.

Animation first appeared in the late 1890s and amazed audiences with moving pictures that were drawn by hand. People saw popular comic strips come to life, as well as some original characters that made an indelible impact on the culture itself. Seminal animator Winsor McCay averred that audiences, upon seeing his short How a Mosquito Operates (1912) believed that McCay was manipulating puppets with wires. Although this is highly doubtful, moviegoers were eventually treated to genuine magic such as synchronized sound in 1928 and full Technicolor by 1933, raising the stakes for future artisans.

To be sure, there have been misfires. 3-D movies (aside from a few early experiments) existed at least since 1922, but it was not until the early 1950s that the technique made its way into American theaters in wide release. Observers in the local movie houses reported patrons shying away from objects "thrust" at them, ducking "flying" projectiles and attempting to grab or get their hands behind objects that seemed to float in the air before them. While 3D was a nifty perceptual trick, it did little or nothing to advance the actual art of filmmaking; it was a novelty rather than a progression in cinematic language and representation. In fact, 3D stilted films by purposely setting up shots that emphasized technique over narrative and acting performance.

Computer-generated imagery was a true advancement. By all accounts, CGI first appeared in a mainstream film in 1973 when raster effects were used in the film Westworld. Early wireframe techniques soon followed, but most of the general public was not overtly aware of CGI until the 1982 Disney film Tron. Roughly 15 minutes of full computer animation was featured, and everyone who attended the film realized at some level that a revolution was underway. It was merely a matter of time, training and technological advancement until CGI became a major component in world cinema. Technicians, software engineers, film studios and even some visionary critics secretly wondered how soon a film might be composed of nothing but computer-generated images.

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Hollywood Finds Headaches in its Big Bet on 3-D

imminent full-bore return to 3-D filmmaking, upon which the movie industry is placing many of its hopes, is in danger of becoming Hollywood’s latest flub.

Some of the mightiest forces in film — Jeffrey Katzenberg, James Cameron, John Lasseter — think the multiplex masses will soon demand that all movies be shown in newly available digital 3-D. Mr. Katzenberg, in particular, has pushed the format, trotting the globe to herald the technology as a transformative moment for cinema akin to the introduction of sound.

His bandwagon has plenty of passengers, at least in Hollywood. The Walt Disney Company alone has 15 three-dimensional movies in its pipeline. Twentieth Century Fox is betting an estimated $200 million on “Avatar,” a 3-D space adventure directed by Mr. Cameron and set for December release, his first nondocumentary film since 1997’s “Titanic,” still the biggest moneymaker in movie history, without counting inflation. All told, the movie factory has over 30 3-D pictures on the way.

But analysts are starting to warn that all of that product could find itself sitting on a loading dock with no place to go. Studios, thrilled by 3-D’s dual promises of higher profits and artistic advancement, have aggressively embraced the technology without waiting for movie theaters to get on board. And without those expensive upgrades to projection equipment at the multiplex, mass market 3-D releases are not tenable.

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Animated movies return to old idea with new technology - 3-D

CLEVELAND -- Moviemakers want to put a pair of 3-D glasses on every theatergoer's nose in 2009.

The popularity from the recent surge of animated films -- which bring to life everything from cars to penguins to robots -- is taking the genre to an old but new level.

Movies in 3-D cost more to film, and not all theaters can screen them, but Dreamworks Animation has announced that all of its upcoming animated movies -- "Monsters vs. Aliens," "How to Train Your Dragon" and "Shrek 4" -- will be made in 3-D and traditional versions.

Other films are contributing to the oncoming flood of 3-D animation. "Coraline," a creepy alternate-universe fantasy from Neil Gaiman, will be the first stop-motion animated film produced in 3-D. "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs," the third in the popular franchise, will offer a 3-D version this summer. So will "Up," the Disney-Pixar comedy about a man who ties thousands of balloons to his house and floats to South America.

Proving what's old can be made new, Disney recently announced it will release the mostly hand-drawn "Beauty and the Beast" in 3-D digital in 2010. Also on the horizon are 3-D versions of "Toy Story 2," "Toy Story 3" and "Rapunzel," according to press reports.

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Animated education hits fourth dimension

Claudia Sardi, The Jakarta Post, Gianyar

Rilly steps back, pauses, and then takes a deep breath. In his head, he has already visualized a joyful, adventurous trip.

"Rilly, come on, we have to leave now," a female voice behind him cries. "Otherwise we won't get there by dawn."

Rilly sets his eyes firmly on the distant horizon and begins moving his legs, lifting his wings, pounding them faster and faster. The combined momentum of wings and feet catapults him high above the ground.

The little duck has just taken off for his first big journey.

Rilly is the youngest of a Mandarin duck family that must migrate to a warmer place to avoid the harsh winter back home. Their journey is the subject of a film being screened in the newly opened 4D animation theater at Bali Bird Park in Batubulan, Gianyar regency.

Before entering the theater, which still smells of freshly laid carpet, children and their parents are equipped with 3D glasses so they can experience the three-dimensional effects when watching the film on the theater's 6x4-meter screen.

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3-D goes big time in 2009; otherwise it's business as usual

As Hollywood unveils its 2009 schedule, the big trend can be summed up in one word: 3-D. The movie industry is jumping on that bandwagon like no time since 1953, the famous movie year in which virtually every major studio embraced stereoscopic technology then promptly abandoned it as a gimmick.

This time it's expected to take. DreamWorks animation boss Jeffrey Katzenberg (whose '09 3-D movie is March's "Monsters vs. Aliens") argues in a recent issue of Variety that the floodgate is now open and that digital 3-D is the wave of the future. "Eventually," he says, "I believe that all films will be shot in this remarkable medium."

What may be the year's most highly anticipated film, James Cameron's "Avatar," will be a wide 3-D release. The hugely ambitious, $200 million-plus sci-fi epic -- about a human hero "thrust into hostilities on an alien planet" -- has obsessed the "Titanic" director for more than a decade and finally will hit multiplexes on Dec. 18.

Meanwhile, Disney is releasing more than a third of its films this year in 3-D, including a Jonas Brothers concert film; the Pixar-animated "Up"; Jerry Bruckheimer's cute-guinea-pig comedy "G-Force"; a reissue of "Toy Story"; and a new version of "A Christmas Carol," with Jim Carrey as Scrooge.

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Conor Nolan finds 3D animation in Monster vs Aliens very exciting

THERE has been much debate recently about 3D and its potential growth in the UK. So when the Dreamworks' big boss Jeffrey Katzenberg invited me to see a preview of his new 3D animated movie, Monster vs Aliens, I simply could not resist, writes Conor Nolan.

3D is of course not new and has been around since the 1950s, but the advent of digital projection technology has allowed it to advance leaps and bounds.

As I sat down in the cinema I was given a pair of odd looking sunglasses to watch the latest Dreamworks animated flick and what an experience it was: I was treated to about 30 minutes worth of clips from Monster vs Aliens and it was dazzling.

You literally feel that you are in the thick of the action as it unfurls on the big screen and on several occasions I actually ducked and moved my head to avoid objects hurtling towards me.

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DreamWorks Animation bets big on InTru 3D technology

Jeffrey Katzenberg is a man on a mission.

That's why the head of DreamWorks Animation flew up to Boston earlier this week to meet with exhibitors, film students and members of the media. With the hope that he'd then be able to win a few more converts over to his new world view. Which holds that the future of film lies in 3D.

Mind you, this is not -- to quote Katzenberg -- "your father's 3D" that we're talking about here. Waving a pair of the old red-and-blue anaglyph lenses about, Jeffrey talked about how the old version of 3D used to " ... give some people headaches, make others nauseous. And that's supposed to be good for business?"

Katzenberg certain hopes that this new version of 3D is good for business. For he's pretty much betting DreamWorks Animation's future on this new film format. Starting with the release of "Monsters Vs Aliens" in March of 2009, all of his studio's forthcoming releases will be produced in 3D.

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Using Animation to Explore the Nanoworld

Tiny self-assembling metal cubes dance across the screen in a video posted on the Web site of the Johns Hopkins Institute for NanoBioTechnology. You could read a book — or at least several chapters — on the principles behind how these microcubes build themselves up from microscopic metallic sheets cut by lasers. Or you could watch a one-minute animated video that tells their fantastic story.

The INBT video of the self-assembling cubes is the result of the independent study course Animation in Nanotechnology and Medicine and was produced under the guidance of INBT animation/Web director Martin Rietveld, who shares his skills and experience in 2-D/3-D animation with students from throughout Johns Hopkins who want to learn to use this lively medium.

INBT's animation studio and the independent study course have attracted students from the basic sciences, engineering, the School of Medicine's Department of Art as Applied to Medicine and the Krieger School's Writing Seminars, to name a few. Some students understand the science; others are skilled in illustration or other types of visualization. "My job is to try to guide these forces into something that actually produces a movie," Rietveld says.

Students who sign up for the course should be aware of the time commitment involved in order to produce a film as well executed as the current productions, Rietveld says. Presently, there are two animated movies on the INBT Web site demonstrating the research of INBT-affiliated faculty members. One explains the self-assembling cubes used in the research of David Gracias, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering in the Whiting School of Engineering, and the other shows the interaction between a protein and a lipid bilayer, based on the work of Blake Hill, associate professor of biology in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences.

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Katzenberg to 3-D movie fans: Open your wallets

Ever since Jeffrey Katzenberg boasted this September that sometime soon "all movies are going to be made in 3-D," I've had a nagging feeling that there must be a catch to all this 3-D ballyhoo, since, let's face it, do you really want--or need--to see "Doubt" or "Milk" or most of the other Oscar contenders in 3-D anytime soon? (Though I am looking forward to the first ad that trumpets: " 'The Reader': See It Now As You've Never Seen Before--In 3-D!")

As I've said before, I am not a knee-jerk 3-D detractor. I've sampled most of the 3-D reels in recent months and can imagine a host of movies being great candidates for 3-D, including the next "Ice Age," Tim Burton's "Alice in Wonderland,"and "Iron Man 2." It's just that in an era of preplanned obsolescence, where I'm supposed to toss out all of the electronic equipment in my home (computers, TVs, cellphones, etc.) every 15 minutes, I've become a little suspicious when someone insists that even my happy movie theater-going is suddenly in dire need of being entirely reinvented, based on the vague promise that 3-D will provide a far more dazzling experience, which has been Katzenberg's sales pitch so far.

Thanks to Variety, which did a good job of covering a recent meeting between Katzenberg and a scrum of Wall Street analysts, I'm beginning to see why the DreamWorks Animation chief is really so eager to push us all into 3-D paradise. Surprise: He wants to improve his profit margins. It turns out that Katzenberg envisions us paying a $5 premium every time we see a 3-D movie, greatly enhancing both DreamWorks' and theater owners' profits. As Jeffrey's chief financial officer Lew Coleman put it: "Because the costs of 3-D are fixed, there is substantial leverage and most of the extra revenue falls to the bottom line."

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3D Animation - The Next Frontier in 3D Animation

As the frontier of 3D animation expands, animation studios are preparing for the next big thing. An internship with one of these studios may be the best way to prepare for a career in animation. First things first: you’ll want training in 3D animation from an animation school.

Taking 3D Further

Dreamworks, one of the largest animation studios in the industry, announced recently that beginning in 2009, they will begin producing all of their movies in stereoscopic 3D.

Most animation features in recent years have included 3D animation, but this new development opens a new frontier in animation. Traditionally, stereoscopic 3D films and animation features have been considered novelties. Now, with a major animation studio making it the standard, the rest of the industry will either get on board too, or wait it out to see if it catches on with the public.

In related industry news, Dolby just announced its new 3D projection technology. It can be used with conventional movie screens as well as inexpensive 3D glasses. Anyone see a future industry partnership?

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Free 3D animation tools released by Craft Animations

Craft Animations has released simplified versions of its Craft Director Tools 3D animation plug-ins. The scaled-down products include Craft 4-Wheeler Free, ObserverCam Free, and Airplane Free. The free series is intended to allow users of Autodesk 3DS Max or Maya to familiarize themselves with the suite of Craft tools, without needing to purchase the professional versions.

4-Wheeler is used for creating simulations of four-wheel vehicles, with adjustments for acceleration, top speed, steering angle, brake force, suspension and weight. Users control a vehicle in real-time with an input device, directly through the Autodesk parent program. The Airplane Free plug-in works in a similar manner, allowing configuration of weight, top speed, altitude gain, and turning speed. Aircraft are also manually controlled by the user.

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3D films: the next film revolution?

They've been the next big thing for the past 50 years, but 3D films have finally come of age. Just the thing to get bums on seats, says Chris Evans

Cinema has already been through two major revolutions in its relatively short life. First there was the transition from silent to talkie, then from black and white to colour. Now Jeffrey Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation, believes "3D is the next revolution in the cinema-going experience".

A bold statement, and one tinged with a distinct bias as DreamWorks is one of several Hollywood studios set to release their forthcoming animation projects in the new, digitised 3D format. Titles set to hit our screens include Monsters vs Aliens (2009), A Christmas Carol (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010), Shrek Goes Fourth (2010), and Avatar, due for release in December next year, which is hotly tipped to be the turning point in the 3D revolution.

It is important to point out that 3D is, of course, nothing new. It was first experimented with back in the 1950s and Imax cinemas have been showing films in 3D for the past 30 years. But now, with the advent of digital 3D technology being installed in cinemas worldwide, and the fact that the choice of films in 3D is not only broader but much better, audiences need only head to a multiplex and put on the glasses to immerse themselves in what is proving to be a wholly new way to enjoy the latest studio blockbuster.

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Avid exits 3-D animation business

Avid Technology is exiting the 3-D computer animation market.

The company is selling its Softimage 3-D software business to Autodesk for an estimated $35 million. It may close the deal by year's end.

About 90 Avid employees who worked on the Softimage business will join Autodesk with the closure of the deal. An additional 410 layoffs are expected at Avid. The combined 500 staffers represent a reduction of nearly 20% of Avid's workforce, which the company said would "better align its cost structure around the core businesses" of video and audio.

Softimage's XSI is one of three key 3-D software programs used in entertainment production. The two others -- Maya and 3ds max -- already are owned by Autodesk, which controls the bulk of the market.

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Animation boom!

Animation has come a long way, from the early phenakistoscope device of the 1800s to today’s photo-realistic, computer-generated, three-dimensional (3D) graphics.

Disney Productions’ early 2D animation film "Steamboat Willie" in the late 1920s was already considered revolutionary for animators then. But today, CGI (computer-generated imagery) animation continues to soar as the new standard in film animation.

This continuously evolving art form has captivated the imagination of new generations of artists, most especially Filipinos. Today’s young generation grew up either reading comics or watching cartoons, or both, and this may have influenced young Filipinos’ inclination towards the cartoon industry.

In the comics industry for example, publishing companies like Marvel Comics hire Filipino artists to draw for their famous comic pages. Because of the growth of the digital film and gaming industries, Filipinos are again tapped to be one of the prime professionals in the industry.

And now experts are making a big pronouncement, that in a few years from now, digital arts, animation in particular will be the next big thing. "Ang forecast is next to Nursing, magbu-boom ang digital arts in the next 10 years, mainly because of the films and gaming industry," explains digital artist and 3D animation instructor Peter Honrade.

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