Pixar’s USD system: the new super-Alembic?

Pixar’s USD system: the new super-Alembic? | CG Channel:
Pixar has posted some interesting information on its website about its Universal Scene Description (USD) system, used on its last three movies, and intended as a higher-level counterpart to Alembic.

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How do the BBC's on-screen election graphics work?

BBC News - How do the BBC's on-screen election graphics work?:
Jeremy Vine explains how green screen technology is used by the BBC to analyse the results of local elections.

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Special Effects Software Guide (Part One): CGI

Special Effects Software Guide (Part One): CGI
The special effects software guide is a three-part guide that covers most visual effect disciplines. It tells you what each discipline is, and which software can be used for it.

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dataWindow and displayWindow in OpenEXR files

dataWindow and displayWindow in OpenEXR files: All OpenEXR files contain two required attributes, dataWindow and displayWindow. Each gives the coordinates for a rectangle, the former describing the pixels stored in the file and the latter describing the viewer that the pixel data lives in. You can see these and other OpenEXR file attributes by viewing the ProEXR File Description in Photoshop.

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GraphicSpeak » The parallel universe is growing in the NAB world

GraphicSpeak » The parallel universe is growing in the NAB world:
At NAB this year, it was striking to see how many companies have taken advantage of GPU compute to improve the performance of their applications. Video, rendering, imaging, and effects are all tasks that can benefit from the parallelism of GPU compute. Nvidia’s CUDA and OpenGL have been around for a long time, but we’re also seeing the first of the OpenCL applications coming online.

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SIGGRAPH 2012 : Technical Papers Preview Trailer : CG News

SIGGRAPH 2012 : Technical Papers Preview Trailer : CG News:
The SIGGRAPH Technical Papers program is the premier international forum for disseminating new scholarly work in computer graphics and interactive techniques. SIGGRAPH 2012 brings together more than 20,000 professionals from 5 continents, 5-9 August 2012 in Los Angeles, California, USA. Learn more at www.siggraph.org/s2012.

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Workflow: Green Screen Tutorial

Workflow: Green Screen Tutorial:

If you watch just about any movie or television show today – there’s a high probability that at least one green screen shot is part of that production.   The quality of green screen and CGI environments have gotten to be so good – that’s it often tough to argue against the economics of using the technique.  In fact, while I still prefer practical locations and effects, it would be foolish not to consider green screen as a tool that can not only make your shot happen, but in many instances it will allow you to pull off shots that you could never practically (or safely) accomplish.

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MentalCore - a solution for optimizing the Maya and mental ray workflow is out!

MentalCore - a solution for optimizing the Maya and mental ray workflow is out!:
CoreCG is a New Zealand-based research and development that specializes in creative solutions for CG animation and visual effects. The company announced the release of MentalCore - a cross-platform, standalone plugin designed to help artists achieve maximum creativity and efficiency while using NVIDIA mental ray with Autodesk Maya. According to the company, the release follows two years of extensive use at Oktobor Animation, a year of beta testing by high profile film, television, and game companies, and a soft launch in December 2011.

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