Computer Graphics World articles from December 2005

Computer Graphics World archives from December 2005

Go ahead, join in.(design of computer graphics)
December 1, 2005... Technology can be fascinating and exhausting. Too much can cause the brain to malfunction, quickly draining it of all creative inspiration. One way to reinvigorate the relationship between your right brain and technology, is to get involved in...

Apple Power Mac goes Quad.(new product Apple Power Mac G5 Quad from Apple Computer Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Apple has announced a new Power Mac G5 Quad workstation based on Nvidia's Quadro FX 4500 solutions. The new G5 desktop workstation features quad 2.5GHz G5 processors with PCI Express architecture. This is the first Apple platform to include...

Carrara 5 turns Pro with new features.(Carrara 5 Pro and Carrara 5.0 from Eovia Corp.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Eovia has introduced Carrara 5 and Carrara 5 Pro, which offer new modeling, animation, and rendering tools for more creative freedom. Both programs sport an updated interface and a new graph editor with direct access to motion curves and...

Alienware chills out with liquid cooling.(NEWS: WORKSTATION ADVANCEMENTS)(new liquid-cooling technology in personal computers)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Alienware is dropping the temperature of its desktop computers, notebooks, and workstations with liquid-cooling technology. The company claims the design lowers the noise factor and keeps the systems running 15 to 20 degrees cooler than...

Houdini 8 offers dynamic improvements.(new product from Side Effects Software Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Side Effects Software's Houdini 8 3D modeling and animation software has a new dynamics architecture that allows impact data to create complex effects such as crushing objects or staining surfaces. The rigid-body solver includes a glue feature,...

Animated attitude.(STUDIO SHOT: BROADCAST)(use of animated fries from Rhythm & Hues Commercial Studios)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2005... Rhythm & Hues Commercial Studios recently created side orders with attitude for the Jack in the Box television spot "Fry Fight." "Pencil neck. Pigtail. Corkscrew!" are a few of the exchanges between the curly fries and the natural-cut fries...

Fantastic faces.(creating facial animations by using animation software)
December 1, 2005... When it comes to faces, we know too much. Communication involves more than just understanding words; we also read expressions to understand what's behind the words. As we talk we search faces looking for clues--is the speaker happy, lying,...

Animal magnetism: a realistic CG menagerie stars in the live-action film The Chronicles of Narnia.(use of computer graphics)(Cover Story)
December 1, 2005... When C.S. Lewis's Lucy Pevensie stepped inside an armoire, pushed past the fur coats hanging there, and emerged in the kingdom of Narnia, she uncloaked a fantasy world of good and evil filled with mythological creatures and talking animals--a...

Flirting with Oscar: visual effects and animation experts choose their favorite films of 2005.(Effects/Animation)
December 1, 2005... Who will win the next date with Hollywood's 'golden boy'? Although the 78th annual Academy Awards presentation is still months away, it is never too early to ponder who will receive Hollywood's top honors and take home the golden idol...

A new chapter in 3D: CGI makes pictures pop on the pages of a children's illustrated storybook.(Giving Chest, common gateway interface)
December 1, 2005... You don't have to read between the lines to notice that Mr. Finnegan's Giving Chest, a just-released children's Christmas story book, is somehow different. While the base plot has a familiar ring with its uplifting holiday message about a...

3ds Max 8: hair, cloth, and an improved asset manager top the list of new features.(new software from Autodesk Inc.)
December 1, 2005... 3ds Max 8 is the newest version of Autodesk Media and Entertainment's 3D modeling and animation suite and is possibly one of the most significant releases from Autodesk in quite some time. The software takes a big step in the direction of...

Portfolio: Ron Crabb.(Biography)
December 1, 2005... Ron Crabb creates backgrounds, from the realistic to the fantastic, for film and video projects. This path to digital matte painting occurred by happenstance: Crabb developed an interest in art early on, and eventually found himself at a TV...

Serenity now: Zoic helps Firefly's Serenity blast off for its big-screen debut.(Loni Peristere from Zoic Studios)(Interview)
December 1, 2005... Through an ongoing collaboration, director Joss Whedon and VFX supervisor Loni Peristere have continued to raise the bar for visual effects on television. Working with Whedon, Peristere and his effects facility, Zoic Studios, received an Emmy...