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- ITGS – Areas of Impact Home and Leisure Digital Entertainment: Films The talent behind the visual effects
- ITGS – Areas of Impact Home and Leisure Digital Entertainment: Films
- Transforming a photo into a 3D model Compelling and convincing
- Mickey Mouse was an early artificial creation who became a star
- ITGS – Areas of Impact Home and Leisure
- A statue of Yoda will greet visitors to the digital studio Digital Entertainment: Films Digital studio for Star Wars show
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- About one-third of digital camera users in the UK are not backing up their photographs, reveals research.
- I think it will be ok if we lose a couple of billion photos of chopped off heads and red eyes
- BACKING UP YOUR SNAPS Experts recommend keeping a second copy of images They could be stored on a second hard-drive
- The traditional album is another option
- ITGS – Areas of Impact Home and Leisure Digital Entertainment: Digital Photography Analogue appeal in a digital age
- I often say God must be a lover of instant photography because the major issues...are pretty much solved
- ITGS – Areas of Impact H ome and Leisure
- An online database of the UKs remaining independent record stores has been launched in an effort to stem a decline in the sector.
- Spotify launched in Sweden in 2008 and in the UK last year Digital Entertainment: Music Is streaming the future of music
- Some believe streaming will overtake downloading to become the most popular form of digital music.
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Digital Entertainment: Films Digital cinema releases up by 50% The number of movies released in cinemas around the world in a digital format has doubled, experts have said. There were 97 digital releases in 2005 compared with 47 in 2004, according to media analysts Screen Digest. They said China had the highest number of releases with 29 followed by the US with 27 and Italy with 17. The most widely released films came from Fox, Warner and Disney, which analysts said had "enthusiastically" embraced the digital format. Their report said one the obstacles to a wide scale roll-out of digital cinema has been the lack of movies in digital format. "That has been a natural consequence of the lack of readiness of the market," the report said. The final Star Wars film was released digitally in 25 countries, while Harry Potter Goblet of Fire made it onto digital screens in 18 countries. Screen Digest predicts that by the end of 2006, all major releases by Hollywood studios should be in a digital format. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4902258.stm ITGS – Areas of Impact Home and Leisure Digital Entertainment: Films The talent behind the visual effects It is a measure of the kind of staff that Industrial Light and Magic employs. Mr Hickle transferred to ILM from Pixar, where he had worked on Toy Story, just for the chance to work on the Star Wars prequels. Industrial Light and Magic was founded by George Lucas in 1975 when he needed specialised effects for Star Wars and learned that 20th Century Fox had shut down its own visual effects team. The firm made its name by developing motion capture cameras, which made realistic and epic space battles possible on the big screen for the first time. Since then, the company has become synonymous with innovation in visual effects - from the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park to the computer generated tentacles and barnacles on Davy Jones' face in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Not content to bask in the glory of Pirates 2, the animators and technical staff are busy finishing the visual effects for the third film in the series. Eye patch The office walls at ILM are covered in flags sporting the Jolly Roger and even LucasFilm icons such as Yoda have been co-opted - one model in the building now wears an eye-patch. Pirates 3 visual effects supervisor Roger Guyett says ILM has always prided itself on pushing the envelope. "We are doing about 800 visual effects shots on Pirates 3. It's a huge movie and we are definitely pushing it even further. "ILM has been doing this for a long time and are still at the forefront of the visual effects business and the kinds of projects they get mean they are always at the cutting edge of the spectrum. "You are always being challenged creatively and technically." Mr Guyett says that the scale of ILM has allowed it to spend more time and money on research and development. "Often we take on projects like Davy Jones from Pirates 2, the wave in Poseidon - the stuff that other companies can't deal with." Miles Perkins, director of marketing and communications at LucasFilm, says Industrial Light and Magic has developed its reputation for "breaking new ground with projects and delivering them on time and on budget". 'Physical simulation' "In terms of the technology and ideas we use it's amazing how much software we have developed for Pirates 3," explains Mr Guyett. "A lot of that is based on physical simulation. We have really smart people at Stanford (University) who help us." My Guyett says film-makers will increasingly turn to visual effects firms to create digital landscapes and digital actors. "If you look at Mission Impossible 3 the idea of going to Shanghai and filming stuff was appealing but a lot of stuff in the film was created with digital environments." If director JJ Abrams had wanted to film in Shanghai he would have faced obstacles such as heavy smog, a ban on helicopter flight and the fact that lights in city are switched off after 10pm. Although ILM has pioneered completely CGI characters - such as The Hulk and Yoda - Mr Guyett says there is little appetite among the public for lead roles given over to digital personas. "People are worried about synthetic actors," says Mr Guyett, "but I don't know if people want to see that." "But if it means you can do stuff that otherwise endangered people, then it's a good idea," he adds. Thirty two years after it was founded and George Lucas is still helping lead the firm, explains Mr Guyett. "George Lucas, who owns the company, has really supported the work that is done here. He hasn't seen it as a company just to make money. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6587903.stm ITGS – Areas of Impact Home and Leisure Digital Entertainment: Films D  igitally 'replacing' Hollywood's stars
The Aguru Dome, which captures the human form in detail Hollywood is on the verge of breaking into an entirely new virtual world. Scientists have developed systems to make digital doubles of actors which are so realistic that audiences will never notice the difference. Computer-generated visual effects have long since been used by film-makers to create space ships and monsters. But the latest technology allows them to create models of real people that can be seamlessly morphed into action scenes featuring human actors. "We're just at the cusp of being able to create the actors, the heroes and the stars of the film, using computer graphics as well," says Dr Paul E Debevec, a graphics researcher at the University of Southern California.
The process of creating a digital double starts with the actor subject, posing for an extremely high-tech photograph. The Aguru Dome, a futuristic-looking photo booth, has been developed to scan a person's face in extraordinary detail. "It's the world's highest resolution face capture system," says Paul Carroll, an engineer with Aguru Images. "It captures not only the shape of your face but the way light interacts with your face from every angle." The actor's head locked in place, lights flashing from 546 directions and 93 computers operating, the device produces one of the most accurate images of any camera system in the world. The data is then used on a computer to manipulate the image. Once animated, film-makers can create action sequences featuring the actor, which never actually happened. "They are completely compelling and convincing," says Mr Carroll. For now, the technology is not designed to replace human performers entirely. It will be used when film-makers need to re-shoot scenes when the actor is no longer available. The star of the movie may have moved on to another project or changed their physical appearance for a new role.
The scientists also believe they have developed a way to mimic that special human faculty to express emotion. "We have the ability right now to bring the emotions off of a performance that somebody just does on video," says Dr Debevec. "If necessary a very good animator can actually move the mouth and eyes around to give a great performance as well. "They are effectively the puppeteer of one of these photo reel digital actors." The Aguru Dome has just gone on the market and will be delivered to the first customers next month. Some Hollywood studios have already tried out the technology although no movies have yet been released featuring the device's digital doubles. "This combination of technologies is just at the brink where in the next couple of years we'll see it really work and we're all going to be pretty amazed by it," says Dr Debevec. Film-makers are also using motion capture technology to make a relatively cheap rough cut of a movie. Digital versions of unknown actors are created so they can shoot a full-length 'pilot'. "You go through the entire script with digital props and car crashes with digital robots, says Tracy McSheery, an engineer with PhaseSpace, a company that specialises in motion capture systems.
"You can show it to test audiences and vet the entire production to make sure that it's exactly what you want before you spend the million of dollars and months of time and then find out it didn't quite have the look or feel that you were hoping for." But will the technology ever become so sophisticated that it puts Hollywood stars out of a job? "There's totally the possibility that you can create something that never existed, that becomes a popular star of motion picture," says Dr Debevec. "This has been done with Mickey Mouse, to begin with, and Bugs Bunny and all of these animated characters. The only change now is that they'll be able to look like real people instead of cartoon characters." But cynics argue that digital characters could never replicate the on-screen nuances of a skilled method actor. "The best, most powerful and most easily-programmed computer in the world is the one between our ears," agrees Mr Carroll. "For a while yet, the cheapest way to make movies will be for real people to follow the directions of the director. Sure, CGI effects are cool and will advance a lot as the years pass, but actors will be with us a long while yet." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7573966.stm Wikipedia Definition: A virtual human or digital clone is the creation or re-creation of a human being in image and voice using computer-generated imagery and sound. The process of creating such a virtual human on film, substituting for an existing actor, is known, after a 1992 book, as Schwarzeneggerization, and in general virtual humans employed in movies are known as synthespians, virtual actors, vactors, cyberstars, or "silicentric" actors. There are several legal ramifications for the digital cloning of human actors, relating to copyright and personality rights. People who have already been digitally cloned as simulations include Bill Clinton, Marilyn Monroe, Fred Astaire, Ed Sullivan, Elvis Presley, Anna Marie Goddard, and George Burns. Ironically, data sets of Arnold Schwarzenegger for the creation of a virtual Arnold (head, at least) have already been made. ITGS – Areas of Impact Home and Leisure
Digital studio for Star Wars show Star Wars creator George Lucas has opened a digital animation movie and television studio in Singapore. The studio's first project will be Star Wars spin-off TV series Clone Wars, due to be screened in 2007. The company says it aims to lead the animation industry and train "a new generation of digital artists" at the Singapore studio. Lucas said the TV series would be based on the time between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Lucas announced plans for two Star Wars TV series in April, when he said Clone Wars would become "a 3D animated" series of 30-minute shows. Develop techniques A live-action series featuring characters from the six Star Wars movies is also in the planning. The opening ceremony for the Singapore studio included a traditional dance, a blessing by a feng shui master and the unveiling of a statue of Yoda. Around 40 staff from 19 countries will initially be employed at the base.
Though heralded as the first feature length film to be produced entirely on computers, it's the human input that makes "Toy Story" work so well. A deceptively simple story 'peopled' with charming, funny, and well-realised characters and highly enjoyable fare for anyone who ever owned a toy. - 1995 ITGS – Areas of Impact Home and Leisure Digital Entertainment: Digital Photography D  igital cameras 'not backed up'
About one-third of digital camera users in the UK are not backing up their photographs, reveals research. But at the same time, the survey of 2,227 consumers revealed 89% of those quizzed now own a digital camera or camera-phone. And just under half are taking more than 10 snaps each month. Information security company Symantec, who commissioned the poll, said there was a huge potential cache of digital images that could be lost. Lee Sharrocks, consumer sales director of Symantec UK, said: "Digital photography has continued to grow rapidly in both popularity and volume, and with many people now taking more than 400 photos a year, we appear to have some budding photographers in the UK. "Unfortunately it only takes one computer virus or accident to critically damage a PC, with the possible result of losing stored data forever." Online albums The survey also found that people are changing the ways they view their snaps. The traditional photo album may be in demise; about seven out of 10 are printing less than a quarter of their images, while 30% said that they did not print out any hard-copies.
The report found 17% were backing their pictures up online on sites such as Flickr and Photobucket, which enable people to save and share their images with fellow net users. Nearly 40% said they used e-mail to send their pictures to friends. John Long, from the Digital Imaging Group of the Royal Photographic Society, said the digital camera and the internet had changed the face of photography. "People don't print their pictures any more - they put them on their computer or on a CD. Technology has moved on and lots of people would now prefer to look at their pictures one at a time on a TV or computer screen."
"It's so easy now. In the past, every time you put a colour negative film in and pressed the button, it was costing you money. "With a digital camera you can take as many pictures as you like - most memory cards will take perhaps 200 pictures - so when you get back home you can delete the ones that are no good." But, he said, this didn't necessarily mean the standard of photography was improving. Another report by research company IDC has revealed US shipments of digital cameras grew by 17% in the last quarter, totalling 6.3 million units. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5241294.stm ITGS – Areas of Impact Home and Leisure Digital Entertainment: Digital Photography Analogue appeal in a digital age A  group who call themselves The Impossible Project are trying to reinvent analogue instant film made so popular by Polaroid in the 1960s and 70s.
Its cameras were best-sellers, and in 1974 an estimated one billion "Polaroids" were taken. But when digital photography took off, Polaroid saw its sales fall. In 2008, they decided to stop making instant film altogether. In the cavernous rooms of one former film factory in the Dutch town of Enschede, giant assembly machines now lie dormant. Old parts and packaging are piled high, their Polaroid rainbow logos slowly disappearing beneath layers of dust. But in one room, a group of men gathers around a machine. Talking excitedly, they diagnose problems and swap parts, and after several hours the machine comes to life, noisily injecting chemicals into small paper sachets. Watching them is Austrian entrepreneur Florian Kaps, a director of The Impossible Project. "It's all about reinventing and restarting the production of instant film," he said, "creating a new material to exactly meet the demands of the modern photographer that loves analogue instant photography." Starting from scratch The Impossible Project began last year at the closing ceremony for the old factory. At the time, Mr Kaps had a successful online business selling Polaroid film and accessories.
"What we're hoping to do is support those that are still in the market," Kim Bayley, ERA director general told the BBC. "It's hard to tell whether it's going to stem the tide, but I think, to be honest, we've seen most of the fallout in the sector and the stores which are left are probably the best of the best." But the problems affecting High Street stores have not just been limited to the independent sector. According to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), which represents the British recorded music business, in 2008 there were 7,753 shops selling recorded music, including 115 Zavvis, 807 Woolworths and 60 Borders stores - all names which have now ceased to exist. Meanwhile, existing High Street names have not been immune to competition from online and supermarket rivals. HMV is coming to the end of a three-year "transformation plan" launched in response to falling sales of CDs and the growth of illegal music downloads. As part of the strategy, it has taken a 50% stake in online music store 7digital, expanded its presence in the live music market by buying venue owner MAMA Group and even opened a pilot HMV Curzon-branded three-screen digital cinema in Wimbledon. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8512404.stm ITGS – Areas of Impact Home and Leisure
Is streaming the future of music? With free, legal access to almost any music at any time, streaming services like Spotify and We7 are a dream for many music fans. Some believe streaming will overtake downloading to become the most popular form of digital music. But there are still big questions over whether such services can make money - and whether record labels will let them work. You're at your computer, listening to a new album, or an old favourite, or a playlist of songs a friend has suggested you might like, over the internet. You pick up your mobile phone and keep listening, and your playlists automatically come with you. Your car stereo is connected and knows your favourite songs too. And when you get home again, so do your games console and web-enabled TV set. That is the utopian vision of listening to anything, anywhere that has been peddled for years. But that day is nearly upon us, if the music streaming services are to be believed. Directory: file -> view view -> Western Europe after wwii view -> Author study: paul fleischman view -> Qpa1 7ela study Guide view -> Arctic Oil/Gas Neg view -> November 1970 Approximately 150,000-500,000 deaths Bhola Cyclone Bangladesh view -> Grade Level: 6 Unit of Study: Caribbean glce view -> Citation: Duffield, Katy view -> Table of Contents Lesson # view -> Chinese Wind Energy Disad Download 0.62 Mb. Share with your friends:
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