The CG animator is not only defining the character facial performance but they are also giving them a personality and individuality. From phonemes to a smile mouth, a screaming mouth, and all the movements in-between - they're digital sculptors creating a library of facial expressions. Once printed these faces live in a face library. Tim Yates, Lead Face Librarian and his team tests each face to make sure it is ready for the stage and then store it amongst thousands of other faces. Coraline had over 200,000 potential facial expressions but Norman has 1.5 million.
With ParaNorman, we have made the first stop-motion movie that uses a 3D Color Printer. The technique is similar, but what the 3D Color Printer affords you to do is to build color into the model. ParaNorman is not only a wonderful story but it is the most advanced stop motion film of all time. I think the audience members will ultimately get so involved in the story that the will forget that they are actually watching a hand crafted stop motion movie. Only after the movie is over do they have time to think "whoa how in the world did they do that?"
[FULL STORY]
I have many proud moments from this film. Most of them revolve around the success of the animation team. While it seems like it's all fun and games, what we do is incredibly difficult and taxing...mentally and physically. It takes great skill, concentration and confidence to animate at this level. Witnessing the animators on this film shoot the greatest shots of their careers on ParaNorman has proven to be most rewarding to me.
[FULL STORY]
In Part 2 of our PARANORMAN interview series we talk with Brian Van't Hul who works at animation studio LAIKA, and was also the visual effects supervisor on the company's Oscar-nominated 2009 feature "Coraline." His previous stop-motion credits include Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "James & the Giant Peach."
[FULL STORY]
What began six years ago as simply a "creative outlet" for filmmaker/animator Ian Chisholm, Clear Skies III, the third film in his machinima series about the space adventures of the crew aboard the battleship Clear Skies, has steadily built a huge online audience thanks to its memorable storyline and characters, and innovative use of the iPi Soft's Desktop Motion Capture system, which played an integral role in bringing Chisholm's vision to life.
[FULL STORY]
Well known director and cinematographer Wu Chiao is at the forefront of digital cinema in China. He has been immersed in the filmmaking process since his first day as a student of cinematography at the Beijing Film Academy. He has been the director and/or cinematographer (DP) of numerous films, setting a standard of excellence within China. George Lucas` "Star Wars II" -- the first motion picture to be shot using an HD camera -- planted the seed with Wu Chiao that quality movies...
[FULL STORY]
CBS' Evening News with Katie Couric recently began broadcasting in high definition. The network turned to Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc., which used their IP-9500e MPEG-4 AVC encoder, in conjunction with Sencore's MRD3187A Decoder, to deliver high quality HD, while using half the bandwidth.
[FULL STORY]
With High Definition television becoming more and more a part of our daily lives, consumers are now finding themselves scrambling to find content from their cable or satellite providers. Blu-ray and digital download services such as iTunes are giving people a vast amount of choice when it comes to movies and television shows, but what is happening with broadcasters? It almost seems like they are being left behind when it comes to switching their facilities over to HD to satisfy the growing consumer demand for HD content.
[FULL STORY]
Interview:
By John Virata
Love Versus Evil
Alexis Dias, a filmmaker from Bangalore, India is back with a new film tackling the subject of terror and terrorism. Dias, who works in the country's tech sector, takes on the subject in his second movie, Love Versus Evil. As with his 2006 debut film, Do We Accept the Truth, Love Versus Evil has no dialog, with the story told with an intricate series of cuts and dissolves. Dias talks about the making of Love Versus Evil, as well as what societal subject that he will tackle next., and when he will make a movie with dialog.
[FULL STORY]
Interview:
By John Virata
VegasHD offers HD broadcast services targeted at the out of town broadcaster
A broadcast production and digital fiber services company has opened in Las Vegas to give out of town broadcasters the capability to take advantage of local HD and broacsat services without the expense of driving in their own broadcast trucks. Called VegasHD and started by industry veterans Gordon Wason, Jim Rutledge and Robin Leach, the company hopes that its offerings will afford out of town broadcasters a cost effective solution to getting their stories out of Las Vegas.
[FULL STORY]
Interview:
By Mike Jones
DMN Interview with Roger Stone, Development Director, Antics Technologies
Roger Stone has 25 years experience of marketing with companies in the ITC area, including 11 years with Dell Computer Corporation ending up as Director of Online Marketing for Northern Europe. For the past seven years he has been working with startup companies, both evaluating them for potential investors and helping them to grow.
[FULL STORY]
Interview:
By Matthew David
Interview: Adobe's Director of AIR Product Management Ed Rowe
Adobe has finally launched AIR, the new run time that allows web applications to run on your desktop. DMN contributor Matthew David met with Ed Rowe, Director of AIR Product Management and asked him some questions about AIR, Flex and the future of Rich Internet Applications.
[FULL STORY]
Interview:
By Michael Ames
Quantum Corp.'s Ingo Fuchs
Broadcast facilities have huge amounts of data to manage and distribute, from the data being generated everyday to libraries of the past, all that data needs to be stored somewhere. DMN spoke with Ingo Fuchs, Product Marketing Manager for Quantum Corp., to get his take on the latest storage trends, as well as the solutions that Quantum offers to broadcast facilities.
[FULL STORY]
Probell Films is known for their indie films, especially in the (B) Horror genre.
Although Maureen "Mo" Whelan and crew are already working on t
Read More
MAXON , leading developer of professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions, today revealed the first step in its strategic
Read More
Probell Films is known for their indie films, especially in the (B) Horror genre.
Although Maureen "Mo" Whelan and crew are already working on t
Read More
Vegas Pro 10 Available Now
