The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced it will invite 134 people to join as members.

Included in the Visual Effects category are:

Christopher Bond, Matthew Butler, Chris Corbould, Rob Engle, Scott Gordon, Hal Hickel, Van Ling, Shane Mahan, Steve Preeg, Tim Webber, Edson Williams

Full press release after the read more

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…in release candidate form. The just issued eyeon newsletter serves up the fact that the long awaited Fusion 6 is now available for download to “all artists and studios with a current subscription license.” The idea behind the RC release is to get the software in the hands of artists to do final bug and compatibility checks. The new release contains many enhancements including improvments in materials and textures, rendering 3D scenes, stereoscopic tools, DOD/ROI tools, R3D support, and more.

We’ll have a full review of the new release up shortly from fxphd prof and beta tester Matt Leonard, but in the meantime visit eyeon’s website for more information.

fxguide is in Singapore this week for CG Overdrive and Broadcast Asia. Mike Seymour is giving two workshops (each running over 2 days) on the Benefits and Challenges of Digital Acquisition. These are being held on the 16th/17th and then repeated on the 18th/19th at Broadcast Asia – held at the Expo centre as part of Broadcast Asia. Click here for a pdf
Mike is also giving a shorter one off lecture on Friday : A Case Study of a VFX Pipeline with Red Camera as part of the CG Overdrive conference. Date: 19 June, Time: 10am – 12pm at: Singapore Expo Hall 9.
We will also be interviewing key other speakers for fxguidetv and fxpodcast this week, starting with senior concept artist Feng Zhu, of FZD School of Design, next on fxguidetv.

Yes, you read that correctly, The Mill has released a free iPhone application that allows the user to apply looks or emulate primary color grading tools found in a grading suite. The app has preset looks like “golden” and “bleached” as well as controls for lift, gain, gamma and saturation that can be applied across RGB or to individual channels.

They also have set up a “Mill Colour Image Gallery” on Flickr where you can submit images and the colourists will pick the best image every three months and award prizes.

More info from the help files, where to find the app and the Flickr group, and some screen shots after the jump.
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When we interviewed Jeffrey Okun from the Visual Effects Society at the end of May for a podcast he broke the news that the VES was working on getting health care options for VES members. He mentioned that this has been a top request from members. Today members were emailed with information about that plan and there is also information on the VES website. In a nutshell it is the same coverage as is available to members of the Producers Guild and Television Academy and is available for individuals and small businesses. Congratulations to all those on the Benefits Committee of VES who worked so hard to make this happen.

We get a lot of press releases about screenings, many from the Academy. Talk about one that jumped out at us! A screening of a “newly struck 35mm print” of the “The Abyss”, with a panel discussion “with the film’s Oscar®-winning visual effects team, John Bruno, Dennis Skotak and Hoyt Yeatman, and nominees Mikael Salomon (Cinematography) and Lee Orloff (Sound) as well as John Knoll, the movie’s computer graphics designer who specialized in the development of the Pseudopod creature elements.”

Oh Academy, you had me at “newly struck 35mm print”. Details and full press release after the jump.
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This August the fxguide crew will be in full force to cover Siggraph 2009 in New Orleans. Siggraph is always a great place to network, see what is coming in future technology or update your skills. The last time the show was in New Orleans it was an amazing combination of work and play. If you have been on the fence about attending we have observed that hotel rates are very low. Check out the Siggraph site for details, registration and housing info.

After the jump you will find a just released video previewing some of the imagery from the technical papers.
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Hot on the heels of its management buyout, The Foundry has completed a major deal with Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm Ltd’s multiple Academy Award-winning visual effects studio. ILM has purchased a site licence for Nuke.
ILM’s visionary work has earned thirty-seven Academy Award® nominations for Best Visual Effects.

Lucasfilm’s chief technical officer, Richard Kerris, commented, “ILM has a history in providing breakthrough imagery for production, and to do that our artists need to be equipped with the best possible tools. We believe Nuke is a forerunner in the compositing field. The Foundry’s investment in research and development and its customer-focused approach have produced a flexible, artist-focused toolset. We are excited to work with The Foundry and to see where these new possibilities will take our work.”

“Nuke allows us to leverage our 3D pipeline while remaining in the compositing environment, which puts a great deal of power into the hands of the compositors,” explained Pat Tubach, ILM’s compositing department supervisor. “We work on very complex shots and the remarkable speed at which Nuke operates means our artists can focus on the art of visual effects and not have their creativity impeded by a software speed limit.”

Bill Collis, CEO of The Foundry, commented, “ILM is a huge force in the world of visual effects and we are thrilled that they have chosen to add Nuke as a key tool in their compositing workflow. We are very excited to see where our working relationship takes us.”

In this week’s fxpodcast we have an amazing show – we speak in depth to both Ben Snow of ILM and Brain Gernand of Kerner Optical about Terminator Salvation. Ben discusses things such as a whole new lighting “energy conserving” renderman system at ILM and Brian discusses both miniatures and pryo – and the complex mortar tree used for the spectacular ending of the film. As we have been doing lately – we really drill down on just a couple of shots for a really in-depth discussion of both digital and physical effects. For more shots from the film click the link on this panel, there are more images after the jump of the shots we discuss in the podcast.
NB: Be warned this fxpodcast contains major spoilers.

Visit the fxpodcast page for direct downloads and RSS feed links. To be notified automatically and have the episodes downloaded in iTunes, subscribe via this link.
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Our Digital cinematography & production podcast red centre episode #36 is live and ready for download. This week’s podcast we talk frame rates, Canon firmware and the front line with the Canon 5DMkII with 1st LT Tyler Ginter – Platoon Leader 55th Combat Camera Company. In this amazing discussion we find out about the work Combat Camera do in war zones filming video and taking stills with the Canon 5D MkII.
(Also a reminder to check out Ep #35 and our detailed discussion on RED colourspace).

Visit the red centre page for direct downloads and RSS feed links. To be notified automatically and have the episodes downloaded in iTunes, subscribe via this link.