SAY GOODBYE to SLIDESHOWS

Animoto is a new web application that produces MTV-style videos using your images and your music. Produced in a widescreen format, Animoto videos have the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer. And best of all, no two videos are ever the same. Ever.

Sharing these videos is easy too. You can easily embed them into your website or blog or onto social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. You can also e-mail them to friends and download them to your computer.

The guys at Animoto used to produce shows for MTV, Comedy Central & ABC, study classical music in London, play in rock bands in Seattle and develop software in Japan. They developed ANIMOTO, a patent-pending, Cinematic Artificial Intelligence that thinks like an actual editor and director. This A.I. makes the same sophisticated editing techniques used in television and in film available to everyone.

CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE: http://animoto.com

Bring on your jokes!

Train yourself in the art of 4-panel storytelling: unlimited drawing placement allows everything from understanding text positioning and panel composition to fully printable “comic-page” strips.

The built-in clip art collection allows anyone to build panels in seconds. Add bubbles, captions, colours and… publish, print and share.

More Info ...
Comic BOOM was designed with web comics in mind; publish your art on your blog, webpage or as easy to share PDF files.


Comic BOOM uses the Toon Boom drawing engine, providing unique vector pencil art that can be used and re-used without loss in quality.

FIND OUT MORE HERE! http://www.toonboom.com/products/comicboom/

FAN ART takes off!

POWER GIRL MOVIE

and

WONDER WOMAN TEASER POSTER

Many filmmakers and film fans are creating careers for themselves by producing "fan" art.

It's becoming common to see filmmakers use comic characters in their films and artists who are creating their own renditions of famous comic heroes. Fan art and fan films of copyrighted characters produced as "tribute" pieces enable newcomers to demonstrate their mastery and skill and they offer professionals a looka t alternatives.

Chris Notarile's POWER GIRL film is an exceptional example of what independent filmmakers are producing. "After mutliple "incidents" involving massive property damage to Metropolis and New York city, the JLA and the JSA agree that Power Girl should take a little vacation from crime fighting to collect herself and to allow her out of control powers to settle. And after a phone call with her cousin, Clark Kent (aka Superman), during this "time off", he suggests Power Girl get a day job to help fit in. Easier said than done." A great comical piece!



From Australian Wonder Woman artist Josh MC: "Here's a quick bit of fun I whipped up. A mate of mine mentioned my recent Wonder Woman artwork would be a great shot for a movie poster, so it got me thinking and this is a design for a teaser poster I came up with.

I manipulated the airbrushing a bit to look more like my regular WW model, actress Cobie Smulders, and gave it a slightly degraded/ancient look to go with the serious tone for the movie (well the one I have in my mind anyway).

The logo I'm quite happy with and I'm quite pleased with the tag line (see all those years at graphic design school paid off!)".

CLICK HERE TO ORDER THE POSTER - http://joshwmc.deviantart.com/art/Wonder-Woman-Teaser-Poster-90624848


Wonder Woman Teaser Poster by ~joshwmc on deviantART

DEAD STARS TO STAR AGAIN IN MOVIES?

We all know that every independent filmmaker who can afford $399.00 for Canon's HV 30 1080i camera is planning to shoot their feature film with a very low budget. The HV30 is turbocharged with 30P mode in addition to 60i and 24P. For the best in high definition at this low price (and even at higher prices), right now you just can't beat the HV 30. CLICK HERE FOR CANON SPECS - http://www.camcorderinfo.com/content/Canon-HV30-Camcorder-Review-34401.htm#

There are great implications in today's news for independent filmmakers through the magic of animation because most indy films are shot with low/no/micro budgets and that always means that the producers usually have little or no money and cannot afford to employ big name stars unless the stars agree to work for deferred pay or no pay. All this might change very fast especially if you're willing to work with dead stars...

According to Neil Dessau, chief marketing officer for Advanced Micro Devices, it is now possible to produce a new movie starring Marlon Brando with a "virtual" Marlon Brando. Of course, you would have to license Brando's personna and image from his estate (but this might not be as expensive as one might think early on in this crazy game).

Unveiling the company's new ATI Radeon graphics card here in New York Tuesday, Dessau said that the card will permit directors to control not only the lighting, staging, and dialog of movies digitally but also create virtual actors and easily manipulate their facial expressions.

The online edition of Advertising Age quoted Jules Urbach, founder of a firm developing high-quality animation as saying that it is now "possible to bring back actors from the past and realistically put them in new films."

Imagine a new film starring Bruce Lee, Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe with John Wayne thrown in for good measure! This has been possible for many years (but with lesser quality results by today's standards) since the program VIRTUAL MARILYN first sought to reproduce the image of Marilyn Monroe in films many years ago. The fact is that today's processors make the portrayals a lot more realistic and lifelike. CLICK HERE TO SEE a Demonstration of virtual Marilyn Monroe Footage (Miralab) from one decade ago - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/specialfx2/marilyn.html

In the past, we have been treated to TV commercials using digitized and edited versions of Louie Armstrong, Humphrey Bogart, W. C. Fields, Marilyn Monroe, Groucho Marks and Abraham Lincoln, to name just a few of the deceased celebrities who have been used in films. Producers sought to put Marlon Brando in 2006 movie "Superman Returns" this way and they ended up with some amazing scenes that appropriately incorporated footage and Brando's old voice tracks with his reflection in the crystals.

© 2008, Stanley N. Lozowski. All Rights Reserved.
portions © 2008 Contactmusic.com Ltd, all rights reserved

Create and print your own 3D designs

Designing for 3D printing is not the same as for print, video or games. At this site, you can learn everything you always wanted to know about how to get started.

Have you ever wanted to turn your 3D designs into reality? Enter Shapeways! Just upload your design, we print it and ship it to you - it's easy. Within ten working days you'll hold your own design in your hands.

At Shapeways we have two ways for you to turn a design into reality. If you are a 3D designer or modeler you can upload your designs to Shapeways. If you do not have any 3D design experience you can use the Shapeways Creator to shape and add text to an existing design.

http://www.shapeways.com/

How to make awesome green screen (Chroma key)!!!

This is a new updated video about chroma key (green screen). We go over what chroma key is and how it works, chroma key muslins (cheap and expensive) and how to light your green screen background. Part Two is only available on the DVD on my website named "Chroma-key Made Simple"

SEE THE BASIC VIDEO by Mark Apsolon - CLICK HERE - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6brdwY-dvU

Go to Mark's website for detailed training DVD's! CLICH HERE TO LEARN MORE by http://www.markapsolon.com

Ribbit Films’ Motion Green Screen Gets Higher Click Through Rate

Ribbit Films is the leader in high-def green screen motion stock footage. It is observing a strong shift towards video and motion formats in the world of internet advertising. The marriage of video with interactivity poses a great opportunity for advertisers to reach web surfing consumers in an effective new way.

Researchers find much higher click through rates with various forms of video advertising over stationary images. The click-through rate for online video ads up to four times greater, depending on the video format, than the click-through rate for plain GIF or JPG image ads according to DoubleClick data.

As creators of green screen motion stock footage, an increasingly popular resource for internet advertising programmers, Navarre Joseph (president of Ribbit Films) predicted this shift in advertising after opening his company in 2004. “When we first started, we were at the beginning cusp of high-def and web viewed TV programming,” Navarre Joseph said. “It’s no surprise that innovative motion advertising is becoming the medium of choice for internet advertisers. It drives brand awareness and sales so much better. . . when starring at a still computer screen, live action motion ads catch the eye really well, and advertisers have really begun to understand this.”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE by http://blog.digitalcontentproducer.com/briefingroom/2008/08/06/ribbit-films-motion-green-screen-gets-higher-click-through-rate/

© 2006 Penton Media, Inc.

Professional Spotlight: Paul Debevec on 3D

Peter Plantec interviews USC's Paul Debevec about some of his latest innovative 3D work.

Paul Debevec leads the Graphics Laboratory at the University of Southern California's Institute for Creative Technologies and is a Research Associate Professor in the USC Computer Science Department. He earned degrees in Math and Computer Engineering at the University of Michigan in 1992 and a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UC Berkeley in 1996. He began combining research in computer vision and computer graphics in 1991 by three-dimensionally modeling and rendering a Chevette from photographs.

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE INTERVIEW - http://www.awntv.com/videos/fmx-08-debevec/

JAMES JEAN

XOXO Postcard Book - There will be some advance copies at the Chronicle Books Booth at Comicon! I'll have copies available for sale on www.processrecess.com once I receive them in September.

SEE MORE WORK by JAMES JEAN - www.jamesjean.com

Stereoscopic 3D CG Art Contest for Siggraph 2008

Stereoscopic 3D (S-3D) is probably the most talked about technologies today in the gaming market, and Meant to be Seen, CGArena, and iZ3D have teamed up to launch a special S-3D CG art contest at SIGGRAPH with the help of some exciting prizes put forward by leading industry members.

Stereoscopic 3D (S-3D) refers to the ability to display true volumetric 3D content using 2D media. Some examples include explosions that pop out of the screen, and a sense of depth that makes players think they can reach inside the game. S-3D technology is quickly becoming the equipment of choice for avid gamers and has already shown as much as 3:1 revenue benefits over 2D theaters in the Hollywood cinema space with films like Beowulf 3D, Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D, and U23D.

"We wanted a fun way to show how easy it is to turn ordinary CG art into something visually exciting through stereoscopic 3D technology.

Working with Meant to be Seen and CGArena to make this happen at SIGGRAPH made perfect sense for us," said David Chechelashvili who is VP of Marketing for iZ3D LLC (and makers of the leading stereoscopic 3D display and software driver solution).

Contestants are asked to submit stereoscopic 3D images of their CG artwork to a special page on http://www.cgarena.com. The left and right images must be full color in a minimum 1680X1050 resolution (16:10 aspect ratio). To make this easier for artists, Meant to be Seen (http://www.mtbs3D.com) has written guides to help CG artists convert and/or capture their images in stereoscopic 3D.

Meant to be Seen is the foremost authority group on consumer stereoscopic 3D technology. It has quickly become the largest S-3D community in existence by working jointly with its members and partners to grow the stereoscopic 3D gaming industry through advocacy and business relationships. Their site features industry interviews, active forums, S-3D game reviews, game certification and a member driven massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) called MTBS Nations at War.

We recommend downloading and running the free stereo photo maker CLICH HERE http://stereo.jpn.org/eng/stphmkr/ because it will make your job easier.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE at http://reel-exchange.com/insider/stereoscopic_3d_contest_siggraph_072908

© 2007 Penton Media, Inc.