Posts Tagged ‘SIGGRAPH’

  • 13 Jan

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    SPARK FX 2010 Announces Titles!

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    Spark FX 2010 Banner

    If I had a camera mounted on my computer monitor and had it streaming a few seconds ago, you would have seen a very happy girl grinning from ear to ear with excitement. What could possibly be so awesome? Spark FX that’s what!

    ACM Siggraph is back with another year of awesome movies celebrating special effects and wow, what a line-up. As per last year’s run (where I managed to see Tron and Close Encounters of the Third Kind on the big screen), this year’s line-up is even more outstanding – hard to believe but true! So what’s on offer? Here’s a taste: E.T., the original classic The Day the Earth Stood Still, Peter Jackson’s King Kong, The Wizard of Oz and to top it all off, the awesomeness of Jaws (I can already hear the music!).

    Along with the films, there’s also a great line-up of speakers and presentations from industry professionals, including one on creating the aliens for District 9.

    If you’re in Vancouver (or area) and want in, check out the official website for details on screenings and to buy tickets. These sell quick so get them while you can!

  • 06 Jan

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    SPARK Animation Festival ’09 [Vancouver]

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    The local ACM SIGGRAPH group put on some amazing events in 2008 and thought it’s hard to believe the time is here again, this year’s SPARK Festival is shaping up to be another winner. Last year I had the opportunity to hear fabulous speakers (the highlight for me was George Borshukov’s talk on the effects of The Matrix) and catch some great films and judging by the 2009 line-up, it looks like I’m going to be camping out at the Vancity Theater for a few days.

    A few of the highlights of this year’s festival include screenings of 35mm prints of sci-fi classics Alien, The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgement Day and City of Lost Children along with a few newer titles like Pan’s Labyrinth, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. I’m particularly excited about seeing Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s film on the big screen since the DVD transfer I saw was, to put it nicely, shitty.

    If the films aren’t enough excitement, there are also a number of great talks including one with Visual Effects Artist and Designer Harrison Ellenshaw titled “What if David Lean had CGI?”. Oh yeah, there’s some great stuff on the slate for this year.

    The festival runs January 21st to January 26th and tickets can be purchased on-line at the ACM SIGGRAPH website.

    You may want to hurry because last year’s events sold out quickly!

  • 29 Dec

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    The Apocalypse Goes Animated: 9 Trailer

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    9 Movie PosterIf it’s not enough to have the voice talents of Jennifer Connelly, Elijah Wood, Crispin Glover, John C. Reilly, Christopher Plummer and Martin Landau simply add Timur Bekmambetov and Tim Burton to the advertising to get my attention.

    Shane Acker’s animated film 9 already sounded pretty cool: a post-apocalyptic nightmare in which all of humanity is threatened (in the apocalypse, isn’t humanity always threatened?), but when you add in those voice talents and the names of both Burton and Bekmambetov as producers, I can’t help but get excited at seeing the trailer. Talk about two directors with differing visions but one thing is for sure: both of them are very particular about the looks of their films so I’m assuming the same is true for this animated fare.

    This trailer doesn’t disappoint. It doesn’t give you much but it’s certainly eye catching and has me wondering how I ever missed this announcement. Acker’s full feature is adapted from his short film of the same title which was both nominated for an Academy Award in 2005 and won a SIGGRAPH Best in Show Prize (if you’ve seen any of the SIGGRAPH stuff, you know this is a pretty huge deal). The full feature was animated in Luxembourg by Attitude Studio and though I’m not familiar with any of their work, their showreels are pretty impressive.

    9 is scheduled to open September 9, 2009.

    Trailer is tucked under the seat or in impressive HD over at Apple.

    » Read the rest of the entry..

  • 28 Aug

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    SPARK Animation ’08 [Vancouver]

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    It’s hard to believe that nearly a year has passed since I first encountered my local SIGGRAPH chapter which has, over the last 12 months, provided countless hours of learning and entertainment. To kick off their ’08/’09 season, the local crew is back with “SPARK Animation ’08: Celebrating Inspiration and Innovation.”

    This year’s even will be highlighting some of the best animation of the past year including screenings of the delightful Kung Fu Panda (our review), Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!, the documentary The Pixar Story and Bruno Bozzetto’s animated classic Allegro non Troppo. Along with the screenings, there is an impressive lineup of speakers which includes award winning animators, cinematographers, video game designers and animation historians.

    SPARK runs September 10th to the 14th at the Vancity Theater. Schedule of events, speaker bio’s and ticket information is available at the event site.

    Look for me in the audience. I plan on attending a few of the sessions and perhaps even a couple of the screenings. I could do with a little skadoosh action.