Hey everyone. We have just update our site to WordPress 3.0. Everything seems to be running smoothly, but if you notice any problems please post them in response to this post or send me an email. Thanks!

- Michele

Fifteen features shortlisted for the VFX Oscar Award.
Sunday, 13 December 2009

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 15 films have been selected as semifinalists for Achievement in Visual Effects for the 82nd Academy Awards.
The films are listed below in alphabetical order:
• Angels & Demons
• Avatar
• Coraline
• Disney’s A Christmas Carol
• District 9
• G-Force
• G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Sherlock Holmes
• Star Trek
• Terminator Salvation
• Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
• 2012
• Watchmen
• Where the Wild Things Are

In early January, the members of the Academy’s Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee, who selected the semifinalists, will narrow the list to seven.
All members of the Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view 15-minute excerpts from each of the seven shortlisted films on Thursday, January 21. Following the screenings, the members will vote to nominate three films for final Oscar consideration.
The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced on Tuesday, February 2, 2010, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2009 will be presented on Sunday, March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

- CGSociety

I went linked each movie title to its IMDB page for your convenience

Scott Patton, a senior member at ZBrush Central, posted some stills of his work on Avatar.

The original post can be found here:
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=079195

“I started working on Avatar 3 years ago and was working with Zbrush 2 ( that means no subtools!!) I had to work on a fairly slow laptop so that I could work directly with Jim Cameron on the mocap stage.
I was really green as a 3D artist but jumped in with both feet, after all this time I still really love the stuff we produced at Stan Winston Studio / Legacy effects.

I was part of the group of artists that Designed the Na’vi characters I was responsible for working out Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) Digital sculpts with expressions as a proof of concept for the look of the Na’vi people. I also did the designs for Norm (Joel Moore) as well as the Grace ( Sigourney Weaver}.
We also designed the Viper wolfs from a sketch of Camerons.
And fleshed out and detailed the head of the Banshee and figured out how it would function, that was a Neville Page design

Here are some of the Images that I did for the film Hope you like them, It was a long while ago, it’s amazing how far CG has come from way back when these were done.”

The images are too large to fit in the text area so here are links to the images.
Neytiri Facial Expressions NF_V-2_03
Neytiri Zoe Pose NF-S_V-1_002a
Jake Avatar Facial Expression JE-S_V-1_01
Jake Avatar JE-S_V1_02
Avatar Same eye-Chin Project 880
Avatar xsi screen grab Same eyes chin
Banshee New Vents New Jaw Bone V-6_01.1
Banshee V-6_02
Banshee Full Open New Vents V-6_05
Image – No Title Given
Avatar – Norm 3D Turnaround V-S_002
Project 880 Norm-Avatar
Avatar – Norm V-s-c_001
Avatar-Grace V-S-1_002
V-S-1_003
Avatar-Grace V-S-1_001

Coolfire Media is looking for a Web Development intern for next semester.

If you are interested please send your resume to me at michelenarup@gmail.com or give it to me in person.
Deadline for applications is December 18th.

An online portfolio of your work would be a plus if you have a website! Please send your website URL with your resume.

All applicants should have a working knowledge of HTML, CSS, Photoshop, Illustrator, and the MAC OS.
You should also have experience in or taken a class in Web Development.

It is not required but any experience in PHP, Javascript, Flash, or Action Script would be a plus.

You can check out Coolfire on the web here: http://www.coolfiremedia.com/

If you have any questions email me or reply to this post.

Thanks!

- Michele

Jim Singer (Media Coordinator for the Galaxy Radio
Station) is currently looking for someone to help with design the
station’s web site. It is a paid position and are looking for someone
with the following experience:

Website design/developer position at the Galaxy is now open to help with the
www.webster.edu/galaxy site. Responsibilities include working with the
Webmaster, and we prefer that you are good at Flash, CSS, PHP, Making
Graphics, and working with HTML. Paying position is for 10 hours per week.

If any students qualify, please let them
know we are looking for one person for this position? Contact “Jim Singer” .

Hey guys,

Originally I was planning to have this posted yesterday.  Sorry for the delay.  In case you missed the tutorial I gave Wednesday night on basic coding and jQuery I wanted to post the download link.

Go to http://wusiggraph.com/siggraph/tutorial/jquery.zip in order to download the files you need.

Inside the “files” folder there will be a .pdf file of the entire tutorial printout from Wednesday night.

The final version of the tutorial should look like this: http://wusiggraph.com/siggraph/tutorial/jquery_final/

If you have any questions or comments please email me or post them in response to this post.

- Michele

Breaking into the Video Game Biz with Blizzard Entertainment!

Brought to you by the School of Communications & Webster SIGGRAPH

Date: Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009
Time: 12:30PM-3:00PM
Location: The Library Conference Room @ Webster University
Food: Free Pizza and Soda!
Limited Seating: RSVP NOW!

http://www.webstergamers.com/

About the Event:

Kriste Stull from Blizzard Entertainment will give Webster University students an inside look of what it is like to work in the video game industry, at Blizzard Entertainment specifically, and what it takes to get employed there.

Our speaker, Kriste Stull, is a 6 year video game industry veteran and Lead Recruiter for Blizzard Entertainment. Prior to working at Blizzard Entertainment, Kriste was employed by Electronic Arts, another highly successful video game company. She was initially hired as University Relations Manager for EA-Los Angeles and then promoted to Senior Recruiter where she was responsible for hiring for all facets of development-art, design and engineering. Prior to working for Electronic Arts, Kriste was a University Liaison at the University of Advancing Technology (UAT) where she worked closely with the gaming industry to bring game companies and professionals to the UAT campus for tech forums. UAT grooms students specifically to go into gaming and digital animation fields. Students have only a vague notion of what goes on at a video game company, what it takes to work there, and what it takes to get hired there. The video game industry is a very discerning and demanding one and Kriste’s presentation will provide an invaluable opportunity for students who wish to pursue a career in this field.

Best known for blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft® and the Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® series, Blizzard Entertainment is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard Entertainment’s track record includes eleven #1-selling games and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company’s online-gaming service, Battle.net®, is one of the largest in the world, with millions of active users.

Blizzard Entertainment is the creator of the wildly successful video game series World of Warcraft (WoW). From Wikipedia: With more than 11.5 million monthly subscriptions, World of Warcraft is currently the world’s most-subscribed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers. In April 2008, World of Warcraft was estimated to hold 62 percent of the massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) subscription market.

Job: Updating social media networks: Twitter and Facebook

Time commitment: 5 or 10 hours per week

Pay: $12/hour

Contact: Farzad

Know anyone interested in doing a small Flash project?

Project: Create a very simple image/video collection with a lightbox, very simple. The graphic design is already done, just need someone to code it and make it work.

Compensation: $700

Contact: Farzad