Animation Artist
Magazine Acquired
Animation Artist Magazine
has been acquired by Digital Media Online (www.digitalmedianet.com). Click here to read the full press release. Animation
Artist Newsletter subscribers were given advanced notice of the
acquisition last night in a personal letter from Joe & Vicki
Tracy. To read that letter, click here.
Famous Technologies
Introduces New Facial Tracking Software for WindowsNT
FAMOUST Technologies,
a leading developer of award-winning facial animation software,
introduced today at NAB 2000 vTrackerT 1.5. facial tracking software
for Microsoft® Windows NT®. vTracker captures motion data from video
for use with FAMOUSfaces Animator and Maya, 3D Studio MAX, Softimage,
or LightWave 3D, for use in creating animated characters for film,
television, games, location-based entertainment, live-action performances,
and the Internet.
vTracker measures
the 2D movement of a performer's face using small, colored markers
that are applied directly to the face; and motion data can captured
and saved for use with FAMOUSfaces Animator and popular 3D animation
programs. vTracker can track from a live video source, or the marked
actor can be recorded to tape, digitized, and tracked offline. It
simultaneously records audio and video thumbnails of an actor's
performance to aid in lip-syncing and enhanced keyframing, making
vTracker an extremely flexible tool for animation and video production
studios.
"There are
many powerful features in vTracker, including lip syncing and eye
tracking," said Zac Jacobs, VP of Marketing at FAMOUS Technologies.
"Eye tracking is a special ability to track pupil movement
using image filters applied to the eye region of the performer.
With this and the other features we offer our customers, FAMOUSfaces
with vTracker can literally turn a camcorder into a complete facial
motion capture system without the need for an expensive facial mocap
system."
vTracker analyses
a video stream from an AVI file or live video input by tracking
blue and green markers placed on an actor's face. The marker movement
is converted into channel data and sent over a network to drive
channels within FAMOUSfaces Animator, or, alternately, recorded
directly by vTracker.
A number of advanced
features enhance the capabilities of vTracker, including a stabilization
algorithm that allows the use of a hand-held video camera as a capture
source. Also, taking advantage of FAMOUSfaces Animator's multiple
tracker capability, vTracker can be used in conjunction with any
number of additional trackers, like puppetry devices, for increased
performance realism. vTracker can also be used for live performance
animation and location based entertainment.
Pricing and Availability
FAMOUSfaces vTracker for Microsoft® Windows NT® is currently shipping
and priced at $4,990 (US), or offered as a bundle with FAMOUSfaces
Animator for $7,990 (US). For more information, please call FAMOUS
Technologies at 415-835-9445, fax 415-954-7199 or visit the company
web site at
www.famoustech.com.
Tuesday,
April 11, 2000
A Thank You From
Animation Artist Magazine
We have received dozens
of congratulatory emails from readers regarding Digital Media Online acquiring our online magazine.
Thank you to everyone who took the time to write as it reaffirms
the great community of users who visit this site. We look forward
to continuing our service to you. -- Joe & Vicki Tracy
Box Office Results
Here are the Box Office
results for last weekend's animated films:
The Road to El
Dorado
$9.1 Million ($2,819 per
screen average)
3rd at the Box Office (down from #2 last weekend)
Total to Date: $25.1 Million
Fantasia
2000
$1.3 Million ($23,990 per
screen average)
13th at the Box Office (up from #14 last weekend)
Total to Date: $40.2 Million
Toy Story 2
$226,398 ($728 per screen
average)
23rd at the Box Office (same as last weekend)
Total to Date: $242.9 Million
The Tigger
Movie
$170,513 ($557 per screen
average)
28th at the Box Office (down from #19 last weekend)
Total to Date: $43.8 Million
SAG and Saban
in Dispute
According to The Hollywood
Reporter, "The Screen Actors Guild has filed a formal 'claim
and request for conciliation' in a contract dispute with Saban Entertainment
over the dubbing of Digimon: The Movie. Saban's Bugboy Prods.
hired SAG actors under the guild's dubbing agreement to dub the
Japanese animated film into English. Under SAG's dubbing contract,
no residuals are paid to American performers who simply dub foreign
language films into English. SAG, however, claims that Saban has
done much more than simply dub Digimon: The Movie into English."
The SAG claims that
there were significant alterations and additions made to the dialogue,
versus a straight dub. (thanks to E. Lurio for passing along
this news tip).
Newsletter Tonight
There will be a new addition
of the Animation Artist Newsletter tonight. To subscribe to the
free email newsletter, click here.
Wednesday,
April 12, 2000
Dinosaur Worldwide Release Update
Disney's Dinosaur
will be opening as follows (note: except for the U.S. and UK, this
list is tentative):
United States: May
19, 2000
Australia: June 15, 2000
United Kingdom: October 20, 2000
Netherlands: November 16, 2000
Denmark: November 17, 2000
France: November 29, 2000
Anime Club Drawing
Fans at WSU
University wire is reporting
the following:
"The members
of Washington State University's Anime Club started to filter in
at 7 p.m. One of them hung a poster on the wall that stated: 'Japanese
Anime and Manga. These ain't looney tunes, fan boy!' Anime, or Japanese
animation, and Manga, the comic books it is based on, has been gaining
fans in the United States.
But anime is not
understood that well, said Ray Jussaume, an associate professor
in rural sociology and the adviser for the anime club.
When the former
adviser for the club went to Japan, the club had to find a new adviser.
In their search, a lot of the faculty they approached were surprised,
Jussaume said.
'What? You want
to show cartoons?' was their reaction, he said.
Anime clubs have
appeared in universities such as Harvard, Cal and MIT. It is a serious
popular art form, Jussaume said.
The club showed
two selections Wednesday night as an introduction to anime. Black
Jack, the story of a renegade doctor, and Nausicaa of the
Valley of the Winds."
Click here to read the rest of the article.
Thursday,
April 13, 2000
Animation Artist
Front Page Undergoing Transition
Animation Artist Magazine's
Front Page is being
redesigned (phase one appeared today) to make access to main (and
regularly updated) sections much easier. During this transition,
your feedback is vital to make sure that the design better meets
your needs. Please take the time to send your comments and suggestions
to Editor.
Maya 3 Information
Released
Alias|Wavefront, an SGI
company, announced additional details about its upcoming release
of the Maya version 3 software. New features will include a universal
rendering policy that enables Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited customers
to "float" the Maya Batch Renderer across any number of
machines on Windows NT, IRIX and Linux platforms.
Maya 3, the fifth
major release of Maya in less than three years, incorporates numerous
user interface and workflow improvements. This release continues
Maya's focus on feature synergy, which allows for the cross use
of tools throughout the entire production process. Major enhancements
in Maya 3 include: Trax, the non-linear motion compositor for video,
film and games users; fully integrated Subdivision Surfaces, Maya
Artisan texture paint; rendering enhancements; plus, across the
board improvements in user interface and workflow.
"Maya 3 contains
across-the-board enhancements that will delight our current customers
and further distance ourselves from competitive offerings,"
said Chris Ford, product manager for Alias|Wavefront. "The
advent of universal rendering is a celebration of the breadth of
these new enhancements, which now positions Maya 3 as the best in
class tool for next generation game development and the most powerful
solution for digital content creation."
Maya Complete 3
and Maya Unlimited 3 with universal rendering will ship this summer
for Windows NT and Silicon Graphics(R) IRIX, with the Linux renderer
to follow.
Maya Complete 3
has a SRP of $7,500 US, Maya Unlimited 3 has a SRP of $16,000 US
and Maya Builder 3 has a SRP of $2,995 US (Maya Builder does not
include Universal Rendering). Prices will vary outside of the U.S.
Mainframe Names
New VPs
Mainframe Entertainment,
a computer animation studio producing long-form CGI for television
and feature films, announced the appointment of two new VPs this
week. Dan DiDio has been appointed to the position of Senior VP
of Creative Affairs and Asaph Fipke has been appointed to the position
of VP Creative Development. Both are based at the company's Los
Angeles business development offices.
Mainframe Brings
Back ReBoot
Mainframe Entertainment
announced this week that it will bring back its most popular computer
animated TV story, ReBoot, in two two-hour made-for-TV movies next
year. The two movies are being produced in partnership with youth-oriented
Canadian cable broadcaster YTV Canada, Inc. for broadcast in the
Spring and Fall of 2001.
ReBoot was the first
ever half-hour computer animated TV series produced in the world.
Originally seen on North American television in September of 1994
on YTV in Canada and on ABC Television in the U.S., the series ran
three seasons (39 episodes) and was eventually seen in over 70 countries
around the world. The show remains one of YTV's top-rated programs
and garnered impressive U.S. audiences in a daily strip on the Cartoon
Network over the past year.
"ReBoot fans
around the world have never given up hope that we would continue
the story," says Mainframe President and CEO, and ReBoot co-creator,
Ian Pearson. "Even though season three wasn't seen in the US
until the last year, the fans have never deserted the show. ReBoot
has always attracted a wide audience of both kids and adults because
of its multi-level stories and ensemble cast. With these new TV
movies we get a to say a great big `thank-you' to our fans, and
mark my words, they will not be disappointed. Fans may, in fact,
be shocked, as we answer some of those questions that have been
on their minds for years."
The first TV movie
is entitled "Daemon Rising," which picks up the storyline
where season three of the TV series left off. The second movie is
yet to be titled.
Friday,
April 14, 2000
Ready for The
Lion King 3?
Wednesday's Daily Variety
reports that Jeff Ahlholm and Colin Goldman have been hired to write
"The Lion King 3." This is the first professional writing
assignment by the pair. Daily Variety states, "the Mouse House
plans to ship the animated direct-to-video pic sometime next year.
Studio feature animation execs are Sharon Morrill and Brian Snedeker."
REALVIZ S.A.
and Softimage Announce Strategic Distribution Partnership
REALVIZ, a leading developer
of image processing software announced today a distribution agreement
with Softimage Co., a subsidiary of Avid Technology, Inc. Softimage
will distribute worldwide the REALVIZ Image Processing Factory bundle,
which contains MatchMover, ImageModeler and Stitcher. The bundle,
exclusively tailored to Softimage users, will offer new tools for
3D modeling, animation and special effects not previously available.
The Image Processing
Factory for Softimage applications includes: MatchMover, a 3-D camera
tracker for seamless integration of computer generated 3-D objects
into video or film along a camera path; ImageModeler for creating
photo-real 3D models, textures and lighting from still photographs;
and Stitcher for creating fast, high resolution panoramas for environment
maps and backgrounds. The Image Processing Factory also allows SOFTIMAGE|3D
animators to easily bridge the gap between 2D and 3D production
workflow.
All REALVIZ Image
Processing Factory applications are currently available for the
Windows NT platform. ImageModeler is available for an MSRP of US
$5,000, MatchMover is available for US $6,000, Stitcher is available
for US $2,000, and ReTimer is available for US $2,000.
Fantasia 2000 Hits Theaters on June 16, 2000
Disney is releasing Fantasia
2000 to widescreen theaters on June 16, 2000. The exclusive
engagement of Fantasia 2000 on IMAX screens ends on May 1,
2000. Fantasia 2000 has made an astounding $40 million in
IMAX theaters since January 1, 2000.
Saturday,
April 15, 2000
"Max Steel"
a Hit for the WB
In its 5th broadcast
on Kids' WB!, Sony Pictures Family Entertainment's (SPFE) newest
CGI animated series "Max Steel," beat all other kid competition
including broadcast and cable, ranking #1 in its 9:30 a.m. time
period on Saturday, April 1 among Households, Boys 2-11, Boys 6-11,
Teens and Male Teens, it was announced today by Sander Schwartz,
President and Bob Higgins, Senior Vice President Creative Affairs.
Averaging the five
weeks since its premiere, "Max Steel" has also ranked
#1 in its time period against all Saturday morning kid competition
among Boys 2-11 with an average of 6.8 rating / 22 share; Boys 6-11
with an average of 7.8 rating / 26 share; Teens with an average
of 2.6 rating / 18 share; and Male Teens with an average of 4.0
rating / 26 share. Since its debut on Kids' WB!'s Saturday morning
line-up,
"Max Steel"
has been the 2nd highest rated series on any network among Boys
2-11, behind Pokemon in all its time periods. The program's continued
ratings success comes on the heels of Kids' WB!'s second season
renewal. The network has ordered 13 additional half hours to begin
airing in fall 2000.
MetaCreations
Sells Poser
MetaCreations announced
yesterday that egi.sys AG has purchased Poser®, the award-winning
3D-character animation and design tool for digital artists and animators.
Under egi.sys AG,
Curious Labs, Inc. will develop, publish, market and distribute
future versions of the Poser product. CEO Larry Weinberg, the creator
of Poser, together with Steve Cooper, president, and Seath Ahrens,
vice president of research and development, are co-founders of Curious
Labs. Steve Cooper was the Poser product manager at MetaCreations
and Seath Ahrens co-lead engineer. Curious Labs expects to hire
additional marketing, sales, service and support professionals from
MetaCreations, together with developers and engineers who have been
associated with Poser to ensure the smooth transition and continued
development of Poser.
"We are very
excited to be working with egi.sys to establish Curious Labs as
the new home of Poser," said Larry Weinberg, CEO at Curious
Labs. "It is already clear that egi.sys shares in our vision
of bringing affordable and compelling creative tools to people everywhere.
With egi.sys' research, technology and distribution capabilities
in Europe, and with almost all of the development and marketing
team of Poser intact in the United States, we will be well positioned
to continue to innovate and grow this proven product line that has
already proven itself successful under MetaCreations."
MetaCreations will
continue to handle customer service for Poser until April 30, 2000,
after which time egi.sys AG will provide full customer support.
Universal Studios
Selects RenderBOXX for 3D Film
BOXX Technologies, a
leading developer of solutions for advanced digital production,
announced last week that Century III at Universal Studios Florida
has selected RenderBOXX as the high-end rendering system for its
upcoming 3D film production created exclusively for Madame Tussauds',
New York. The show, which will be projected in a 360-degree domed
theatre setting, is scheduled to open later this fall at Madame
Tussauds' in New York City's Times Square.
The Madame Tussauds'
project, which is being produced at the Century III teleproduction
facility at Universal Studios Florida, combines live-action
photography, classic film footage and image generation and simulation
to create a full-color 3D show that virtually transports audiences
through many of New York's most memorable moments. Audiences will
be able to see and hear the show in 360-degrees on a 40-foot domed
screen and six-channel stereo surround system.
"Because of
the unique nature of the 360-degree projection system, we are required
to render 150 frames for each projected second of film," said
Vince Pedulla, Century III at Universal Studios Florida. "This
requires many more hours of rendering than would normally be needed,
and adding the large size of the dome negative to the equation gives
us a real rendering challenge.
Sunday,
April 16, 2000
Estimates Put
"El Dorado" at Fifth
The weekend movie estimates
are in and "The Road to El Dorado" is estimated to have
brought in $6.2 million to finish in fifth. Last weekend it brought
in $9.1 million to finish third.
A Look at DreamWorks
Head of Animation
The Kansas City Star
has published an article about DreamWorks head of animation, Ann
Daly. The article starts:
"For young
Ann Daly, summers spent with relatives in Kansas City's Brookside
neighborhood meant frequent trips to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of
Art and nights at Starlight Theatre.
'I had no idea how
valuable those experiences would be,' Daly said in a recent telephone
conversation from Los Angeles' DreamWorks Studio, where she is head
of animation.
The Kansas City-born
Daly now realizes how seemingly arbitrary choices over several years
have led to her current job, where she shepherds the development
of a half-dozen big-budget animated films while marketing her studio's
current offering, the colorful "The Road to El Dorado,"
a tale of two Spanish con men in search of riches in the New World."
Click here to read the rest of the article.
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