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Digital
Media FX News Archives
Note:
Digital Media FX content is legally ©copyright 2001 and may
not be republished or rewritten without the expressed written
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Friday
- November 16, 2001
- Harry Potter Opens to Mixed
Reviews
- Caligari Announces
trueSpace 5.2
- Top Selling Animation and
FX DVDs
- News Link of the Day
- Denver FX Company Takes Emmy Home
Harry
Potter Opens to Mixed Reviews
(by digitalmediafx.com) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's
Stone opened today amongst mixed, but mostly positive, reviews
and much fanfare. Several showings of Harry Potter sold
out (due to advanced and online ticket sales) prior to it opening.
Many analysts are predicting a record breaking $75 million or
more as it opens in a record number of theaters and plays on a
record number of screens.
Here
are select quotes from three new reviews:
Kenneth
Turan of the Los Angeles Times - "...What saves Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is what created it in the
first place: J.K. Rowling's enrapturing imagination. At those
sporadic moments when the film allows us to share in Harry's wonder,
it lets us recapture our own as well. We all would love to go
to Hogwarts, and now, albeit imperfectly, we can.
Mark
Caro of The Chicago Tribune - "The movie also may inspire
a case of the CGI blues. The baby dragon and rampaging troll (think
Shrek on steroids) are as rubbery as computer-generated beasties
usually are, and the visual trickery is too apparent for you to
feel like the kids and troll really share the same space...All
that said, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" remains
an enchanting tale..."
Bruce
Newman of the San Jose Mercury News - "...Sorcerer's Stone'
spends so much time curtsying in the direction of the author and
her hard-core fans that you begin to wonder why they didn't just
have Rowling sit in the middle of the screen and read aloud for
2 1/2 hours..."
Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is rated PG for some scary
moments and mild language.
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Caligari
Announces trueSpace 5.2
(edited press release) Caligari Corporation has announced
trueSpace 5.2 with a new Facial Animator tool that generates animated
human facial muscle movements directly from speech or text input
using high level animation controls. This new version of Caligari's
3D modeling program also features Key Frame Editor animation enhancements.
"Facial
Animator uses our new sophisticated neural network-based automatic
Lip-Sync engine and provides great tools for advanced character
animation," said Roman Ormandy, president of Caligari. "trueSpace5.2
users will be able to enliven their characters with realistic
facial expressions to accompany character voices. These new tools
will make talking, singing, shouting, and other character dialogue
appear highly realistic."
Facial Animator
can use a generic model of a human head or a model provided by
the user. The model can then be matched to a real human face with
trueSpace5.2's new texture editor that uses two photographs of
an actual human face and converts them into a fully textured 3D
model.
The new Lip-Sync
capability enables users to automatically create facial animation
directly from speech by generating speech-related human facial
muscle movements for the entire human face. Users can also easily
combine speech animation with key-framed animations for high-level
control of character emotions. Smiles, frowns, and expressions
of anger, relief, or other emotion can be simply created by adjusting
slider values.
In addition
to Facial Animator, trueSpace5.2 also includes an enhanced Key
Frame Editor. All vertex and bone animation parameters are now
available for editing in track and function curve views, and animation
tracks can be assigned to individual vertices or bones. All function
curves for a single animation parameter are now displayed simultaneously
on one screen for easy editing.
trueSpace5.2
combines high-end modeling, rendering and animation power with
an intuitive interface that allows for real-time direct manipulation
in a hardware-accelerated, integrated, 3D perspective workspace.
Used extensively for product design, web design, graphic design,
and multimedia, the software delivers advanced features including
hybrid radiosity rendering, a full complement of NURBS-based modeling
tools and advanced surfacing features. trueSpace5.2 also offers
both linear key-framed animation and non-linear physics-based
animation with properties such as wind, gravity, and collision
detection.
trueSpace5.2
will be available in December 2001 for $595 with 60 days of technical
support. Current trueSpace5.1 users will be able to upgrade for
$99; the upgrade is free for proTeam subscribers. For more information
contact Caligari by telephone at 800-351-7620 or 650-390-9600.
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Top Selling
Animation and FX DVDs
(by digitalmediafx.com) Here is a list of the current top
selling animation and FX DVDs at Amazon.com. Animation and FX
DVDs are in 10 of the top 20 positions for sales. Tomb Raider,
particularly has climbed the chart in the last several weeks.
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News Link
of the Day - Denver FX Company Takes Emmy Home
According to the Denver Business Journal:
"...Cyberdyne
Systems Corp. won an Emmy award the first time it was nominated
for one, but the victory was bittersweet.
The Denver-based
graphic design company received the honor for its 30-second, animated
sequence that opened a Disney TV program called 'Sea of Sharks.'
Designers basically 'painted' an underwater scene on a shark..."
Click
here for the full story.
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