Google is diligently expanding the reach of it's Google Street initiative, which recently became part of Google Maps. When we were virtually browsing around the hood we stumbled upon... ourselves.
The link below shows the street view of Sony Pictures Imageworks, and we were not a little surprised to see our car (nick named the White Elephant by Roger) in it. Telling from the construction work going on on the Culver Studios Lot this pictures must have been captured the latest sometime around june.
Here is the link: maps.google.com
Saturday, December 15, 2007
We have been Googled
Saturday, December 01, 2007
CNN: Beowulf: A beast in 3D
CNN features Beowulf.
Ancient literature meets the future of filmmaking in "Beowulf," a 3D spectacle using the latest technology.
The featurette
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/11/22/3d.beowulf/
The video:
http://edition.cnn.com/CNNI/Programs/screening.room/
Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Beowulf?
Michael Harrison judging Beowulf myth incarnation on their kid-friendlyness....
Errrr...?
http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2007/12/whos-afraid-of.html
Thursday, November 08, 2007
12 Animated Features Submitted for 2007 Oscar® Consideration
http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2007/07.11.08a.html
Thumbs up for Surf's Up and Beowulf!
Beverly Hills, CA — Twelve features have been submitted for consideration in the Animated Feature Film category for the 80th Academy Awards®.
The 12 submitted features are:
“Alvin and the Chipmunks”
“Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters”
“Bee Movie”
“Beowulf”
“Meet the Robinsons”
“Persepolis”
“Ratatouille”
“Shrek the Third”
“The Simpsons Movie”
“Surf’s Up”
“Tekkonkinkreet”
“TMNT”
“Alvin and the Chipmunks,” “Beowulf” and “Persepolis” have not yet had their required Los Angeles qualifying run. The submitted features must fulfill the general release requirements and meet all of the category’s other qualifying rules before they can advance in the voting process.
Under the rules for this category, a maximum of 3 films can be nominated in a year in which the field of eligible entries numbers at least 8 but fewer than 16.
Films submitted in the Animated Feature Film category also may qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture, provided they meet the requirements for those categories.
The 80th Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, January 22, 2008, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2007 will be presented on Sunday, February 24, 2008, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network beginning at 5 p.m. PT.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Planktoninvasion
Some upcomming animation work from Belgium! Always great to see! I am very curious.
Earth's first life forms and direct descendant's from the primal soup; want to reclaim their rightful place in the world. In order for them to re-conquer the planet, they need a global water world. They plotted a dark strategy and assigned a special task force to execute the operation; codename 'Global Warming'. No matter how microscopic in size, despite the insignificance of their actions, the fact they never conquer more than a dozen square meters beach or the mind blowing stupidity of their reasoning, they blindly believe in the success of their mission!
This is the never-ending story of Plankton Invasion.
http://www.planktoninvasion.com
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Beowulf TV commercial
Pretty unique way of advertising the upcomming movie Beowulf... Beowulf vs 300 (Sparta) in a shout contest (http://www.beowulfmovie.com)
Monday, October 22, 2007
over Surfende penguins en passeieren
Na lang wachten komt deze woensdag 24 oktober Surf's Up in de Belgische cinemazalen. Voor zij die gaan kijken is het misschien leuk om te weten dat er een aantal easter eggs in de film verborgen zitten.
Zoals programmeurs easter eggs verstoppen in software (virtual easter egg: Wikipedia), zo verstopt het filmmakende volkje ook van alles in de beelden die ze maken. In het geval van Surf's Up is het een UFO geworden 4 keer heel kort in beeld verschijnt.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Next one up: Beowulf
Since I finished working on Surf's Up I started working on Beowulf. In contrast to Surf's Up, which is an animated cgi (computer generated imagery) feature film, Beowulf is full cgi but not animated. Beowulf is using a process called performance capture: real actors wear a special suit with trackers stuck on it and act every shot. In addition to the track markers on the suit a maze of smaller markers (called beads) are glued on the actors face to capture the facial expressions.
Below is an example of a motion capture session. Unfortunately not one with Angelina Jolie, that is classified information, for Imageworkers' eyes only ;).
This session is actually from The Matrix.
Beowulf's cgi looks realistic in contrast to stylized or cartoony cgi (for example Surf's Up or Ratatouille). Sometimes realistic enough to make people believe that what they see is live action.
Beowulf is directed by Robert Zemeckis, who's know for Forest Gump for which he won an Oscar for best director, Back to future, Cast Away, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, The Lift to name a few.
The actors line up includes:
Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, Ray Winstone, Robin Wright Penn, John Malkovich
Beowulf is closed to being finished and sheduled for theatrical release November 16, 2007
It will for sure spark lots of discussions about the movie making process. I would love to hear what you think of it.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Penguins everywhere!
Invasion of the penguins!
Surf's up (www.surfsup.be) is releasing in Belgian theatres on October 24. Go check it out! And here is some good advice when you leave the parking lot afterwards!
Surf's up (www.surfsup.be) is releasing in Belgian theatres on October 24. Go check it out! And here is some good advice when you leave the parking lot afterwards!
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
No water, No work
Today was an unexpected day off. When I arrive at work it was busier than usual around the premisses and in the garden of the studio. Lot's of people hanging out, chatting at an early hour that is usually packed with dailies, touchbase meetings, rounds, and what not.
When I got to my desk I noticed it was slightly hotter in side than normal. Got to my email to find a zillion of mails, with alaring titles like network branch down, filer pegged, database server shutdown, Culver City water pressure issue, restrooms out of order, cue taken offline, AC capacity reduced, ...
What is going on? Scrolling all the way down I read that it all began with some construction work going on in Culvercity. Someone had hit a main tube of the watersystem, which burst, causing the waterpressure to drop to a very low level over big parts of the city. First thoughts...fine... no water... that's not too bad. We are not cooking, nor brewing coffee (at least not professionally), we are a hightech company. Electricty loss would be bad.... NOT!
The sudden los in waterpressure made the airconditionning system fail. That had to be reduced in power and eventually be shut down. Still, we can work in an environment that is a few degrees hotter than usual... but wait... what about the cooling of the machine room? No cooling, means that servers, filers, routers and renderracks had to be shut down. First partially, soon pretty much all of them. There number, we are talking about thousands of computers in a confined space, makes that they produce so much heat that if they wouldn't actively be cooled, they would fail because the heat. Talking about a melt down...
They brought in huge watertrucks and a number of portable toilets (the type that is used on events). Everyone was told they could leave till 13.00 When we came back, workstations were still hung, files unaccessible, email down. A few hours later the first systems were brought back online. Limited capacity. Movies that are near their deadlines (we are talking a few weeks) get priority. We got to go home. Our systems wouldn't be fully operational before the next day. No high tech without low tech. But we enjoyed the time off. That's for sure.
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Drama in the high skies
Dramatic skies over West-Hollywood this weekend as a storm front moved over the Southland. First time we witness a night's long worth of rain.
Like everything in Hollywood the weather is high contrast too once in a while. This weekend it was pouring down, quickly followed up by sun piercing through open cloudless patches.
Like everything in Hollywood the weather is high contrast too once in a while. This weekend it was pouring down, quickly followed up by sun piercing through open cloudless patches.
Friday, September 14, 2007
Diesel le look le plus cool.
A classic ad from a while back. Diesel Jeans.
Diesel for succesfull living. (of course!)
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Evert 'pikt' zijn cadeau op...
Vorige vrijdag kwamen Evert-Jan en Marjan langs om Evert's afscheidscadeau van de Duval Guillaume E collega's op te 'pikken'.
Het object in kwestie belandde via een Ebay veiling vanuit Florida bij ons en geraakt niet meer op tijd in Brussel voor Evert's afscheidsfeest. Geen nood echter, EJ en Marjan hadden een roadtrip door California gepland die hen tot in Los Angeles zou brengen.
Hier staat het origineel: http://www.subservientchicken.com/
en Marjan ziet hem ook zo graag...
de eerste instructies worden prompt opgevolgd.... was da hier voor een kiekenskot
Het object in kwestie belandde via een Ebay veiling vanuit Florida bij ons en geraakt niet meer op tijd in Brussel voor Evert's afscheidsfeest. Geen nood echter, EJ en Marjan hadden een roadtrip door California gepland die hen tot in Los Angeles zou brengen.
Hier staat het origineel: http://www.subservientchicken.com/
en Marjan ziet hem ook zo graag...
de eerste instructies worden prompt opgevolgd.... was da hier voor een kiekenskot
Monday, August 06, 2007
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Beowulf trailer is out.
Here it is, the long awaited trailer of Beowulf. The movie is directed by Oscar winning George Zcemicks and stars Angelina Jolie, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright Penn, amongst others. It is the second project I worked on at Sony Pictures Imageworks. I will tell a bit more about the unique process that was used to create this movie in the near future. Enjoy the trailer...
http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/beowulf/
and more goodies on the official Beowulf site: http://www.beowulfmovie.com
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Jaw-dropping Photosynth demo
You got to see this. An great example that computer graphics technology is not only affecting our lives when we go to the movies or play computer games.
Watch this technology demo:
And try for yourself after that (only works on Windows XP or Vista unfortunately). You need to install an browser extension, but it is well worth it.
http://labs.live.com/photosynth/
Friday, June 29, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Cheap flights!
No idea what this should be categorized as, sky surfing or kite diving? Spectacular nevertheless. Don't try this at home kids!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)