Watch the fascinating new trailer for Siggraph 2013 featuring cool new technologies, showing jaw-dropping simulations, experimental graphics and more…

The technical papers showcased in the Siggraph 2013 technology trailer will be presented at this year’s conference in California in late July.

The trailer contains some very interesting experimental technologies and there are some great topics, ranging from ‘Propagation of Light Acquiring Reflectance and Shape from Continuous Spherical Harmonic Illumination’ and ‘Scalable real-time volumetrics’ to ‘GI with Radiance Regression Functions’ and ‘New Approach to Handwriting Beautification’.

If the narration stumps you slightly, don’t worry, the real beauty is in watching the unbelievable animations: there’s an automatic animation tool, a clever new hair graphics system, and a simulation of wet, dense snow (right at the end of the trailer) – convincing stuff from The University of California, Los Angeles and Walt Disney Animation Studios.

Enjoy!

Below are just a few highlights from the Technical Papers program:

The Structure-Aware Hair Capture work by Linjie Luo, Hao Li and Szymon Rusinkiewicz is extremely clever stuff.

Their system reconstructs coherent and plausible wisps aware of the underlying hair structures from a set of still images without any special lighting. Take a look:

Also of note is the ICTGraphicsLab’s work on Acquiring Reflectance and Shape from Continuous Spherical Harmonic Illumination:

And this tech, from C. Lawrence Zitnick, tidies up your sloppy handwriting. Great, if like me, you have OCD tendencies!

Siggraph 2013 Technical Papers program

The 40th Siggraph conference will be held in Anaheim in late July.

The Siggraph Technical Papers program is the premier international forum for disseminating new scholarly work in computer graphics and interactive techniques.

At the conference, paper authors provide brief overviews of their work in the Technical Papers Fast Forward event, then they present their complete papers in 22.5-minute sessions that include 4.5 minutes of Q&A.

For more information, visit the Siggraph site

The short has a minimalist, black and white style: the only touch of colour is the red on the girl’s lips

Fast approaching is Oscars night – on 24 February – and here we look at the nominations in the category for Best Animated Short. You can watch ALL nominated films here too

There’s a lot to love about an animated short. Not necessarily backed by big bucks, these entries are often charming, innovative and sometimes personal films produced by students or independent studios. This year’s bunch of hopefuls face stiff competition – let us know what you think as you can watch the trailers for them all here now!

Adam and Dog

To kick off, here’s the animated short Adam and Dog, directed by Minkyu Lee. The film re-imagines the origins of, not just man, but of his best friend too. This time Eve takes a back seat to Adam’s dog. The film has no dialogue – just barking – but exudes cleverness and innovation. We think you will like it!

Fresh Guacamole

Fresh Guacamole is an entertaining film directed by PES. It’s almost a sequel to the endearing Western Spaghetti you may have seen from the same studio.

Head Over Heels

Directed by Timothy Reckart & Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, Head Over Heels is Reckhart’s graudate project at the National Film and Television School and in fact is the only student film in the group of nominees. People have drawn parallels with Up due to its sense of fun and the stop-motion, claymation work focuses on an elderly couple. Reckart introduces the film: “After many years of marriage, Walter and Madge have grown apart: he lives on the floor and she lives on the ceiling.” See what you think.

The Simpsons The Longest Daycare

This five-minute short directed by David Silverman sees Maggie Simpson spend the day in the Ayn Rand School for Tots. It is, of course, is very well-made and will delight all Simpsons fans.

Paperman

Directed by John Kahrs, you can find out more about Paperman by clicking here. Briefly, though, the short follows the story of a lonely young man in mid-century New York City, who tries to win the girl of his dreams with only his heart, imagination and a stack of papers!

First-time director John Kahrs led a team of 2D and CG artists who used a proprietary program called Meander to create the short. Employing a technique called final line advection, artists were able to add a level of grace and expressiveness to this animated film.

Check out our great feature on last year’s Academy Award winner for Best Animated Short – The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore.

If you’re interested in looking at more animated shorts, Natalis is a recent release, produced by Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg students, which uses motion-capturing and photorealistic rendering to great effect…

Win a desktop animation studio and enjoy loads of cool animations, courtesy of Muvizu

Muvizu, the 3D animation application from Digimania powered by Epic’s Unreal 3 Engine, has launched a special Christmas-themed treasure hunt.

The first prize includes a high-spec Alienware laptop, Sony Vegas Pro video-editing software, an Olympus digital camera, a microphone, a Kindle Fire loaded with animation reference books and loads more.

The Treasure Hunt is half-way through, but you can still catch up with the hunt on Muvizu’s homepage.

Behind each door on the Advent calendar you’ll find sweet animation videos and special Muvizu clips.

The Muvizu clips are rather important – in them are hidden clues, ones that will form a code that you will need to crack in order to complete the treasure hunt.

Digimania MD Barry Sheridan says: “We’re very excited about doing something special this Christmas. We really wanted to do something that stretches peoples’ imaginations and shows what Muvizu can do.”

“The treasure hunt is about following clues and animating quickly – things that anyone can do with Muvizu. Plus, it’s a great chance to win a desktop animation studio!”

For more information, visit Muvizu.com

Stephen Fry’s new show Gadget Man features a robot of Stephen Fry that was created and shown at the Golden Joystick Awards. Check out the video now!

We love weird and wonderful tech, hope you do too! The amazing man that is Stephen Fry just released a video of his robot self from the Golden Joystick Awards. The poster says:

Special host

Stephen Fry*

*in robot form

Stephen Fry got to sit in the comfort of his study while he sent his robot self off to the Golden Joystick Awards. The performance was quite robotic, but Fry provided the voice for the robot in real time.

The robot manages to get on stage, wave its arms around and blink, and Robot Stephen occasionally get its lips to move to the actual words.

Stephen Fry’s new show called Gadget Man features tech like this and tonight’s episode featuring the Robot Stephen, so if you live in the UK, why not catch it on Channel 4 at 8:30pm this evening?

Let us know what you think of it via Facebook or Twitter.

For more information about the show visit Channel 4 http://www.channel4.com/programmes/stephen-fry-gadget-man

Watch Stephen Fry’s robot self

▲ The results of the tense tache-growing contest between various UK Soho studios are IN!

For Movember 2012, several CGI studios took part and three set up against each other to try and raise the most money. And now, on the 30th, we have a winner!

THE SOHO MO SHOWDOWN

They’ve had 30 days to grow the bushiest ‘taches and to raise the most money and awareness for men’s health (specifically prostate cancer and testicular cancer). The winner, by a country mile, in terms of money raised is the D-Neg Mo-vie Magic team ! They raised over £5,000 during the month, putting them top of the Soho Mo Showdown mini league and a creditable 66th out of the 30,587 teams who entered nationwide. Good effort!

▲ Mo-vie Magic team captain Phil Taylor heads headgear with a moustache this deadly!

Check out the team’s Movember page – you can still donate.

Well done also to the Framestache team from Framestore who raised well over £1,000 and particularly to their star turn Antonio who filled their blog with his off-piste hair designs. Not content with growing a Mo, Antonio also offered to add to the embarrassment by sporting any hairstyle his supporters wished – in return for more donations of course!

More pics available on the Soho Mo Showdown blog!

Coming in in third place is the MPC VFX team of Mo-growers. With some stylish moustaches, this 15-strong team made heroic efforts by holding bake sales to boost their donations.

▲ Antonio from Framestache upped the ante by styling his hair like 'celebrities' to raise extra cash

And there’s mo’…

The other studios who took part in Movember this year:

AARDMAN COMMERCIALS

Website: www.aardman.com/commercials
Twitter: @AardmanAds
Donate to Aardman Commercials’ Dead Squirrels team

EDIT 19

Website: www.edit19.com
Twitter: @edit_19
Donate to the Edit 19 team

ENVY POST & ENVY ACADEMY

Website: www.envypost.co.uk
Twitter: @envypost, @EnvyAcademy
Donate to Envy’s Moustache Envy team

THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

Website: www.the-neighbourhood.com
Twitter: @neighbourhood
Donate to the Neighbourhood team

UNIFORM

Website: www.uniform.net/
Twitter: @uniformtweets
Donate to the Uniform team

Watch the amazing animation from Nasa that shows the Curiosity rover landing on the surface of Mars…

This animation from Nasa gives an excellent breakdown of the Curiosity’s insane landing plan on a second-by-second basis!

Watch the one-tonne Curiosity rover landing on the surface of Mars.

The Curiosity rover touched down on the Red Planet on Monday morning. There’s a good article over on T3, if you want to know more about the mission.

• Read T3′s NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover lands safely

For more information, visit Nasa’s website

This award goes to the VFX technicians who film the unfilmable…Check out the cool movies that made it onto the shortlist: Watch the trailers, read the making-of articles and then vote for your favourite!

The 3D World CG Awards recognises the work of the entire CG entertainment industry: from software and hardware developers who give us the tools and engines to drive creativity, to the artists and technicians involved in pushing the boundaries of CG illustration, animation, visual effects and arch-viz.

Here’s your chance to find out more about the features up for the VFX Feature Film Award.

Visual effects – and the companies that produce them – are the new stars of Hollywood. This award goes to the technicians who film the unfilmable and represent the cutting edge of the medium, where art meets technology.

Up for the VFX Feature Film Award are:

The Avengers – ILM/Weta Digital

Battleship – ILM

Hugo – Pixomondo/Lola

Rise of the Planet of the Apes – Weta Digital

Wrath of the Titans – Framestore/Method

Vote now for your favourite via the CG Awards site!

The closing date for voting is Tuesday 31 July

We will announce the winners on Wednesday 5 September, and you’ll be able to discover the winners’ responses in the November issue of 3D World, on sale from Tuesday 11 September.

This award recognises the best new content creation applications that have been released over the past year, which provide stable, useful and useable tools for the CG artist. CAST YOUR VOTE NOW!

We’ve been at the heart of the CG industry for over a decade. Now we are proud to lead a celebration of the artistry and technology that continues to wow audiences the world over.

The 3D World CG Awards recognises the work of the entire CG entertainment industry: from software and hardware developers who give us the tools and engines to drive creativity, to the artists and technicians involved in pushing the boundaries of CG illustration, animation, visual effects and arch-viz.

Here’s your chance to find out more about the software up for the New Application Award in the Technology Awards category.

Forger – Javier Edo

The app’s welcome screen provides you with one-touch access to base meshes and last saved files

Forger – a powerful, portable digital sculpting app for the iPad – is the brainchild of Javier Edo, a Pipeline TD at Double Negative.

By day he works writing tools for various departments for upcoming films, by night he enjoys sculpting characters and working on his own projects. We talk to Javier about his slick, sculpting app for the iPad.
Read the interview with Javier Edo.

If you’ve ever wished you could dive into ZBrush or Mudbox to do a quick sculpt on the go then this is the tool for you.
Read the review of Forger 1.0

Hiero – The Foundry

Senior product designer for The Foundry, Matt Plec comments, “Nuke is already a powerful compositing tool, but it’s missing a component many artists need. Hiero provides the missing link functionality currently dealt with either by expensive tools, in-house scripting or a cumbersome manual process. Hiero’s the bridge tool our customers have been asking for.”
Read more about Hiero here.

Photoshop Touch – Adobe

Photoshop Touch is an excellent all-round package that makes working on the go a joy. Newcomers may take a short while to get to grips with the tool locations, but it’s an enticing app, especially for the price.
Read the review of Photoshop Touch.

Vote now for your favourite via the CG Awards site!

The closing date for voting is Tuesday 31 July.

We will announce the winners on Wednesday 5 September, and you’ll be able to discover the winners’ responses in the November issue of 3D World, on sale from Tuesday 11 September.

This hotly contested award will go to the animated feature film that delivered the best use of CG – through stylish visuals, dynamic camerawork, top-quality character animation and good old-fashioned storytelling. CAST YOUR VOTE NOW!

The world’s leading magazine for 3D artists and animators, 3D World has been at the heart of the CG industry for over a decade. Now we are proud to lead a celebration of the artistry and technology that continues to wow audiences the world over.

The 3D World CG Awards recognises the work of the entire CG entertainment industry: from software and hardware developers who give us the tools and engines to drive creativity, to the artists and technicians involved in pushing the boundaries of CG illustration, animation, visual effects and arch-viz.

Here’s your chance to find out more about the features up for the Animated Feature Film Award.

• The Adventures of Tintin – Weta Digital

Weta Digital embarked on a new quest with The Adventures of Tintin, complete with crashing waves, pirate battles and an extremely stylish wardrobe. Renee Dunlop takes us behind the scenes in this making-of article.

• Arthur Christmas – Aardman Animation

Aardman’s Seamus Malone reveals the genesis of the recent animated feature in this article.

• Cars 2 – Pixar

Vote now for your favourite via the CG Awards site!

The closing date for voting is Tuesday 31 July.

We will announce the winners on Wednesday 5 September, and you’ll be able to discover the winners’ responses in the November issue of 3D World, on sale from Tuesday 11 September.

We’ve got three full conference passes to Siggraph Asia 2012 up for grabs. For your chance to gain access to this massive event in Singapore, simply enter the prize draw today!

The 5th ACM Siggraph Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques in Asia will take place in Singapore at the Singapore EXPO.

Win a Full Conference pass to Siggraph Asia 2012

You could win one of three full conference passes, valued at SGD 1,000, that’s about £500 each!

The Full Conference pass gives you access to all programmes and events (networking reception included) of Siggraph Asia 2012, 1 Electronic Theater ticket, and 1 Full Conference DVD.

Enter the prize draw

This year, the line-up of conference programmes will include the inaugural Technical Briefs, the continuation of the inspiring Symposium on Apps, the Art Gallery, Computer Animation Festival, Courses, Emerging Technologies, Posters, and Technical Papers.

There will also be a trade exhibition from 29 November to 1 December 2012, offering participants from hardware and software vendors to studios and educational institutions a platform to market their products and services to computer graphics and interactive techniques professionals and enthusiasts from Asia and beyond.

Watch the Siggraph Asia 2011: Computer Animation Festival trailer

Watch the Siggraph Asia 2012: Computer Animation Festival trailer

Enter the prize draw