Beverly Hills, CA — The Science and Technology Council of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has launched a summer internship program designed to provide real-world experience to students interested in careers in computer graphics and animation technology.

Pixar Animation Studios, Rhythm & Hues Studios and Sony Pictures Imageworks will each provide an eight-week internship that gives students hands-on opportunities in animation, production management, software programming and visual effects. The Sci-Tech Council will provide a stipend of $4,000 to each student. (more…)

Our visual effects training site fxphd.com has information on the upcoming July07 term, which was just announced. Based upon feedback from members, we worked hard to build upon our first year and make the term even better than past terms. We’ve got new courses with accompanying VPN software (for non-commercial use) for The Foundry’s Nuke (Version 4.7), Imagineer Systems’ Monet/Mokey/Motor, and The Pixel Farm’s PFTrack.

These are all courses asked for by fxphd postgrads and we’re happy to bring them to you. In addition, we’re bringing back a greatest hits of past courses, including Advanced Flame and a replay of Background Fundamentals from Term 2. VPN versions of Toxik and Maya are also available to fxphd postgrads. All in all, between new courses and replays of past favorites, a full 15 selections are available for fxphd members.

Checkout fxphd.com for more details.

The technique behind Super Star Rajini’s European complexion in the film ‘Sivaji - The Boss’

About the Film:
The film “Sivaji The Boss” starring super star rajini is the costliest film made in india to date.

Directed by S.Shanker, Cinematography by K.V.Anand, Music by A.R.Rahman, Produced by A.V.M Productions.

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Missing from the release last week was news that The Foundry has reduced their NUKE GUI prices by 30%. A full NUKE license can be purchased for £1750 / $3,500, while render licenses are now priced at £125 / $250 per license — about a 70% reduction in cost.

Cine Gear Expo - Codex Digital, specialist in high-resolution media recording systems, is launching a new, high-resolution portable field recorder with the potential to revolutionise digital cinematography and the production of motion pictures and high-end TV.

No larger than a toaster, the Codex Portable’s cutting-edge design is packed with powerful, ground-breaking features, and the industry’s most advanced technology – creating brand new opportunities for single and multi-camera production. The Codex Portable can record from virtually every digital camera from HD to 4K. It is quick to deploy – on set, at a sports event or up a mountain – and takes production workflow to unprecedented levels.
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The Foundry announced that a new version of Nuke has been released. It is the first release since the company took over development of the software earlier this year.

The release includes full OFX support, Framecycler Professional 2007, an improved curve editor, an upgraded version of Primatte, a brand new optical flow engine and many bug fixes. Customers on maintenance will not need a new license key to run Nuke 4.7.

Click through for a listing of improvements made to the software. (more…)

After almost a 100 audio podcasts (91 to be exact), fxguide is launching our video netcast: fxguidetv. All you need to do is click here to subscribe in iTunes or visit our fxguidetv page to download each episode.

This show is hosted by me, Angie Richards, and will bring you the latest news, info and tech about not only the latest vfx effects, but also the tools used to make them. For Each episode we will interview key industry figures in areas such as 3D, previz, compositing and more. We’ll also be including fxphd tips on key software such as After Effects, Photoshop, Nuke, Maya, Flame and many more.

We hope you guys will enjoy this new addition to the fx family of tips’n tricks, news, training and effects advice. Please use the new forums to let us know what you think and what you’d like to see. I also want to thank all the team behind the scenes for all the hard work in making the pilot, from wardrobe to editing - thanks crew!

On behalf of the fxguide crew - enjoy !

San Francisco, CA - Digital Anarchy today announced the release of ToonIt! for Film/Video.

ToonIt! 1.0 will reliably and easily create cartoon-like images from film and video footage, freeing artists from time consuming techniques such as hand painting and rotoscoping. The filters use advanced algorithms from Toonamation to create cartoon shading and lines in After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Motion and Premiere Pro.
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We’re happy to make our new fxguide site live this weekend — its been in the works for a while and the first hardware upgrade in five years. We have a new, higher bandwidth server in preparation for the release of our new video netcast fxguidetv. 

What have we changed? Quite a bit under the hood and we’re still working on things. We just wanted to get the site moved over to take advantage of the larger disks and higher bandwidth connections.

Feature Stories : This really isn’t a change, but this is what we’re calling the stories everyone has come to appreciate from the site. In-depth articles digging deeper than press releases. You can find the two most recent articles at the top of the home page in the white boxes. On the right hand side, there are picture links to other recent stories. Finally, we’ve improved our Stories Archive page — this is now called “Feature Stories” and is easily accessible via the navigation bar at the top of the site. The left column has our most recent articles, sorted by date from top to bottom. The middle column has older features you might have missed, but that we especially love. And finally, our most viewed articles are in the far right column.

fxguide Quick Takes : Sometimes we want to post a shorter news story that we found interesting, such as the minor release of some software — or maybe some site news and information. This is where you’ll find such items….and we made it much easier for us to post more frequently. This area will also include the fxNewswire press releases. We don’t plan on posting tons of press releases…just one’s we find might be of major interest to our readers.

fxForums : We’re upgrading our new forums to vbulletin, so we’ll have more features as well as a wider variety of discussion areas. You’ll be able to use the same username from the old site, but will have to update your password. Once we get the old forum messages transferred over (this will happen very soon), we’ll have instructions on how to do this. The New Posts button at the top of forums will show you posts since your last visit. We have used this forum engine for a while on fxphd and found it much improved. 

Faster Server : Our new server is much faster than the old one, with a faster connection to the net. While you might not notice it on a daily basis, this will allow us to serve our podcasts and video much better to more users.

Hope you enjoy…the code should be leaner and lighter as well.

John, Jeff, and Mike
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Los Angeles, CA – Entertainment and design company Imaginary Forces (IF) was recently called upon by Walt Disney Pictures to create a teaser for its upcoming feature, “National Treasure: Book of Secrets.”

In the “National Treasure” sequel, treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage) looks to discover the truth behind the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by uncovering the 18 missing pages from assassin John Wilkes Booth’s diary, and embarks on an adventure with many surprising twists.
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