Village Gamer

California-based provider of scale-out, open source storage solutions company Gluster co-founder and chief technology officer Anand Babu Periasamy will be among the industry experts presenting at LinuxCon, taking place August 17 – 19 at the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver. On Friday, August 19 from 10:15 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., Periasamy will present “Bringing Intelligent Storage to OpenStack.” Additionally, John Mark Walker, Gluster’s community director, will host a GlusterFS Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) on Thursday, August 18 at 5:15 p.m.

During Periasamy’s presentation he will discuss the pain points of storage in cloud computing environments and specifically address the benefits of using OpenStack and Gluster. Additionally, the discussion will feature code examples and use cases. Prior to Gluster, Periasamy served as CTO at California Digital Corporation and, in 2004, led the development of the world’s second-fastest supercomputer, “Thunder,” for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Periasamy also serves on the board of “Free Software Foundation – India.”

“OpenStack has experienced blinding success over the past year, with many developers, system administrators and companies participating in its ecosystem,” said Periasamy. “We have been collaborating with the OpenStack community to determine the largest pain points and storage is one of them. My discussion will outline how Gluster provides highly-scalable and highly available VM storage functionality for OpenStack.”

The GlusterFS BoF will be an opportunity for LinuxCon attendees to discuss and learn more about the GlusterFS roadmap, recent integration work and recipes for deploying at scale. Periasamy will be on hand to share his expertise and answer audience questions.

Electronic Arts will showcase the best of interactive entertainment at this year’s gamescom in Cologne, Germany. The company’s top intellectual properties are set to delight visitors, highlighting this year’s blockbuster launches and offerings for console, mobile phones, tablets and the Web. The publisher will also be providing 350 gaming stations at the EA booth allowing more consumers than ever before to get hands-on play with each game.

Jens Uwe Intat, Senior Vice President of EA European Publishing, said, “The old model of making games every few years to coincide with new hardware launches is gone. We have a very powerful set of games for today’s consoles, and now we offer that IP to players as year-round entertainment across all of their devices and platforms. We’re looking forward to our fans’ response when they get hands-on with our line-up at the show – we think they’ll like what they see”.

Canadian-made games at the show include:

• FIFA 12: Huge space that puts players on the pitch to experience the gameplay action.
• Need for Speed™ The Run: Get behind the wheel in a race for your life from the Golden Gate to the Empire State.
• Mass Effect™ 3: Bioware’s high octane alien invasion adventure explodes in an all-out galactic war. The time has come to join the war effort and experience the industry’s most critically acclaimed RPG first-hand.
• The Secret World: Funcom producers will be showing an exciting live demo in one of many dungeons, highlighting combat, progression and boss fights.

It appears that there were loads of news announcements made while we were at SIGGRAPH with very sketchy wireless. The media room where we could have had a wired connection was two floors and a long walk away, but we wouldn’t have had long enough on the wired connection to catch up on everything. Here are just a few of the stories that broke during the past few days:

The Montreal International Game Summit announced its keynote speakers. The conference will open with Jason Rohrer, an independent Game Designer, and Richard Lemarchand, Lead Game Designer for Naughty Dog, on November 1st and 2nd respectively. Yves Guillemot, Co-Founder and CEO of Ubisoft, will have the honour of delivering the conference’s closing keynote.

Other featured speakers at MiGS 2011 include David Hego, Artistic Director for Rocksteady Studios, who will be presenting in the Arts & VFX Track. Alain Tascan, President & CEO at Sava Transmedia will be participating in the Business track while Lee Perry, Senior Gameplay Designer for Epic Games will be on the Design track. Over on the Technology track, attendees will find a presentation by Stefan Boberg, Technical Development Director at EA DICE, while the Production track will feature a presentation by David Anfossi, Producer – DX: HR at Eidos Montreal. A new track has been added for 2011, and Tom Salta, Music Composer known for producing scores featured in popular franchises such as R.U.S.E. and Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands will be the featured presenter for the brand new Audio track. Please visit the MiGS site for an up-to-date speaker list.

Ubisoft announced that PlayStation^® gamers will be able to test their assassination skills beginning on September 3rd with a multiplayer beta of the highly anticipated Assassin’s Creed Revelations that will run until September 11th. PlayStation^®Plus members and Uplay members will enjoy exclusive access to the multiplayer beta on PlayStation^®3. The multiplayer beta offers access to nine characters – The Sentinel, The Vanguard, The Guardian, The Vizier, The Thespian, The Deacon, The Bombardier, The Trickster and The Champion, three maps – Knight’s Hospital, Antioch, Constantinople, and four playable modes – Wanted and Manhunt, as well as two new modes, Deathmatch and Artifact Assault. The rest of us will apparently have to wait until the game’s release on November 15th.

Bioware’s Dragon Age franchise has expanded to Google+ games. Dragon Age™ Legends, the popular dark fantasy Play4Free® RPG developed by BioWare San Francisco (formerly EA 2D) has launched, and is the only game of its kind on Google’s new real-life social project. Dragon Age Legends extends the award-winning Dragon Age franchise and reinvents it for social play on Google+. The game blends accessible and engaging tactical combat, progression and exploration in the Dragon Age universe, and is perfect for co-operative and competitive gameplay across players’ Google+ Circles and Hangouts.

Vancouver’s WordLogic Corporation, a provider of advanced predictive text software for smartphones, PCs and other devices, has announced the availability of WordLogic Intelligent Input™ technology for licensing to manufacturers and software developers. The technology is ideal for mobile app developers, search providers, and device OEMs looking for the best possible predictive text or search technology.

WordLogic Intelligent Input™ helps make text input on touchscreen smartphones, tablets, and other consumer electronics devices faster, more accurate and helpful. Devices like smartphones, tablets, automotive infotainment systems, Internet TV, and game consoles are proliferating by the billions. They enable the Internet and employ touchscreens, body motion, infrared controllers or other non-mechanical keyboards to enter text, search and control applications. WordLogic Intelligent Input™ brings next generation text input to these text-hungry devices.

Current predictive text methods, which rely upon adjacent key prediction or misspellings, are frequently so inaccurate use that people simply turn them off. Alternatives require too much of a learning curve for mass adoption. Voice input has improved, but even server-based voice recognition is frequently insufficient in environments subject to background noise, such as groups where conversation is taking place, in vehicles, and on the street.

Gorilla Nation Media Canada has announced that it will exclusively represent the online advertising sales for European news site Figaro Medias in the Canadian market.

“Group Figaro is enthusiastic to join the Gorilla Nation family. We share the same vision of the digital business, which is to guarantee premium, innovative and engaging contents (video, chat session, etc.), to join our audience on all devices and platforms and to respond with care to our advertisers the same way we care about our content. The adaptability and the service quality of Gorilla Nation bring a new dynamic to the Figaro Medias offer in Canada,” says Eileen Lemuet, International Commercial Director at Figaro Medias.

“With the addition of Figaro Medias to our roster of sites, it shows our commitment and seriousness in increasing our offer in the French Canadian market, while complementing some of the new business sites we have recently added,” says Jean-Sébastien Tremblay, Director of sales, East of Canada, at GN Media Canada.

I will be writing up our own summary of our experiences at SIGGRAPH 2011 – there is much to digest and process from the week. In addition, I have over 1000 photos to go through and we have video footage to edit (thank you to all who participated in the Hot Seat Elevator Interviews). In the meantime, here is the official press release wrap from the SIGGRAPH Organization – with a few injections from our experiences.

SIGGRAPH 2011 is now over, but while it was here the conference welcomed 15,872 artists, research scientists, gaming experts and developers, filmmakers, students, and academics from 74 countries around the globe to Vancouver this week—breaking the city’s previous conference attendance records. In addition, 156 industry organizations exhibited at SIGGRAPH 2011—representing 17 countries with approximately half from outside the United States.

Content was once again king at SIGGRAPH with approximately 825 speakers participating in the conference through a variety of talks, sessions, panels, papers, presentations, and screenings. We would have liked to have seen a lot more of the panels and talks, and the one panel we really wanted to get into was standing room only right out the door, so we didn’t get to hear about opening a remote studio in Vancouver.

“It was both an inspirational and incredibly fulfilling week,” said Peter Braccio, SIGGRAPH 2011 Conference Chair from Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute. “Vancouver was an awesome home for SIGGRAPH and people are leaving with a renewed sense of passion and motivation both in their professional and personal lives. Vancouver delivered on its reputation as a world-class city.”

New to SIGGRAPH this year was the SIGGRAPH Symposium: The Business Think Tank, which was held on Sunday. The objective of the event was to help shape the future direction of the computer graphics industry. A sold out event, we kept hearing comments during the week about what a great event the Think Tank was. We were busy setting up our booth, so were unable to get over to the East Building to check it out.

The conference keynote was presented by science fiction author, blogger and activist Cory Doctorow. As he has done at other events around the globe, Mr. Doctorow presented his views on the state of copyright laws in the digital age, which are vastly different from our own. As we watched the presentation, we found ourselves in disagreement with many of Mr. Doctorow’s statements and conjectures. This was somewhat disappointing, as we feel it could potentially undo much of the excellent work that has been done thus far on copyright reform in Canada. In our opinion, SIGGRAPH could have had a keynote presentation that spoke more to the growth and successes Canada is experiencing in the technology and digital media industry sectors instead of an opinionated keynote that was not entirely accurate.

The SIGGRAPH 2011 Computer Animation Festival presented the world’s most innovative, accomplished, and amazing creators of digital gaming, film, and video. A total of 77 films were shown during the Festival. In addition to film screenings, the Festival included interactive sessions and exclusive learning opportunities to gain industry secrets and advice from some of the most successful professionals in the field.

SIGGRAPH 2011 Computer Animation Festival award winners include:

• Best in Show Award: The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
  Directed by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg, Moonbot Studios
• Jury Award: Paths of Hate
  Directed by Damian Nenow, Platige Image
• Best Student Project Prize: Flamingo Pride
  Directed by Tomer Eshed, The Konrad Wolf Potsdam-Babelsberg Film and Television University

Technical Papers, the premier global forum for presenting groundbreaking research from today’s leading experts. The SIGGRAPH 2011 Technical Papers program featured 82 Technical Papers, selected among 432 submissions. In addition to core topics of modeling, animation, rendering, imaging, and human-computer interaction, the Technical Papers program encouraged submissions from areas related to computer graphics, including: computer games, design, vision, scientific and information visualization, audio, and robotics.

SIGGRAPH 2011 Art Gallery: Tracing Home explored issues related to the concept of home in the networked age. From more than 300 submissions, the Art Gallery jury selected 16 pieces to be featured, including 2D images, audio, video, and data-driven and mixed-media installations. All pieces explored “home” as both a conceptual category and a physical reality, often blurring the boundaries between the two.

Have you made Vancouver home for the next six days? If so, that must mean you’re planning to be at SIGGRAPH 2011, which opens tomorrow at the Vancouver Convention Centre and runs until Thursday evening. The Conference and Computer Animation Festival goes from August 7 right through until the 11th and the Exhibition floor with (200+ displays) is open from August 9th through 11th. It is still possible to pick up single day passes, and at just $45.00, they are too good of a deal to miss out on. If you prefer, there are passes still available for the entire week. We got a sneak peek at the expo floor last evening, and it looks awesome. Check out your options on the SIGGRAPH 2011 Registration Info page.

This is the first time the flagship conference for the ACM SIGGRAPH organization has been held in Canada, and is an incredible opportunity for the Canadian digital media and film industry sectors. There are, at my count, 37 Canadian companies – or international companies with a Canadian location – with exhibit booths on the conference floor, including ourselves in Booth 1018. This does not include the number of Canadian companies who may have a booth in the Job Fair area of the conference, nor those like Corel who will be working out of LightBox’s booth. Nor does it include the Canadian studios who will be represented in our booth with their trailers and games or those being highlighted through the DFAIT and provincial economic development booths. There is without a doubt going to be lots to see, lots to learn, and many people to meet at SIGGRAPH 2011.

SIGGRAPH 2011 highlights the full spectrum of the $67 billion annual computer graphics industry, showcasing the world’s finest technology exhibits, interactive displays, and the best in animation and visual effects. Numerous cutting-edge research and commercial products are shown to the public for the first time in interactive exhibit areas. Examples include:

• Displays: Watch attendees interacting with cutting-edge 3D displays that will change their home theaters and video game experiences.
• Robotics, Wearables, and Haptics: See people engaging with robots and stimulation devices such as a wearable pregnancy jacket that allows the user to feel a fetus’s temperature, movements, and heartbeat.
• Mobile Devices: Interact with the next wave of advancements in mobile technological devices such as a “watch” that turns your hand into a mini-keyboard.

You can get a look at the expo floor map (PDF) on the SIGGRAPH web site, it is current as of August 1st, and for those who are not aware, the expo hall is on the lower level of the new convention centre.

ViXS Systems Inc. will be demonstrating the latest in the connected home digital media processing and networking technologies to cable operators  at the CableLabs Summer Conference in Keystone Aug 8 – 10.

“ViXS’ smart processors put us firmly at the center of the latest trends in set top boxes,” said Sally Daub, President and CEO of ViXS Systems. “We look forward to demonstrating how our leading-edge technology enables a large portfolio of new advanced networked media devices, including: media gateways, advanced set top boxes, and streaming media and connectivity solutions.”

Transcoding, media processing and home networking are critical to the networked digital media revolution. At the CableLabs Summer Conference, ViXS will showcase its latest solutions to leading cable MSOs. The following demonstrations will be shown in ViXS’ private demo room:

• XCode® 5195 with integrated MoCA: Headless Gateway Transcoder, revolutionizing digital home entertainment and enabling true content mobility by transcoding and streaming content on up to four high definition (HD) sources to multiple devices within the home
• XCode® 4210: Advanced Set-top Box, Blu-ray and Smart TV module System on Chip ( SOC) featuring a high level of concurrency including dual HD transcoding, dual HD display, advanced networking, full HD resolution 3D TV and 3D graphics
• Over-the-top (OTT) and content mobility solutions to address seamless connectivity to iPADs, tablets and other connected media devices

Wacom is currently running its Summer of Sharing contest for non-professional photographers and artists who use either the Intuos or Bamboo tablets. This contest is open to residents of Canada (excluding Quebec) and the United States who are over the age of 18.

To define “non-professional”, Wacom’s rules states that “entry must be enthusiast work only (no professional artwork). An enthusiast is defined as someone who enjoys their digital imagery, art and photos, but who does not make their living from the craft.

The contest is open for submissions until August 31st, with voting to start on September 1st. When you submit your artwork, you will need to tell Wacom a bit about how you created it using your Wacom Intuos or Bamboo pen tablet. The contest is open to all genres and personal styles: illustrations, caricatures, digital painting, anime, created with your favorite software.

As an added twist – this is a contest, after all –  you’ll have the chance to earn some serious cash, software, and gear. A Wacom panel of judges will hand-pick a select number of entrants to participate in our Fall 2011 program to showcase pen tablet techniques. This is a totally eclectic process, and entrants will be chosen at the full discretion of the Wacom panel, based on submissions and your answers to questions about how you use your tablet.

If you are going to SIGGRAPH 2011, you can visit Wacom on the expo floor in Booth 825.

Motives in Movement, the dramatic-content consultancy and providers of the next generation of convergent solutions for animation software developers, has completed its first Proof of Concept with cutting edge French animation company, Dynamixyz. The POC coincides with Motives in Movement founder and Heavy Rain actor Pascal Langlois relocating to Toronto, and he will be attending SIGGRAPH 2011in Vancouver. Dynamixyz will be in Booth 351.

Pascal Langlois

While Motives in Movement still operates from a London base, the recent Dynamixyz POC and relocation of the company founder to Canada demonstrates that it is in countries like Canada and France that leading edge game tech and boundary pushing projects receive significant support. This support is still lacking in the UK games industry and while it is undoubtedly deserved, it is not a reality.

Pascal Langlois explains “The fact is, in France and in Canada, there is a climate of government-level faith in this young industry. It’s founded on a belief that it’s worth investing in, to guarantee being at the heart of its future.”

The Motives in Movement and Dynamixyz relationship started at Gamescom 2010, where the two companies discovered they shared a common and unique approach to animation source material. Instead of using fundamental expressions as a starting point, both companies believe that libraries and animation tools work better with fluid, live performances resulting in the final animation being considerably more believable and engaging than existing systems. The overall process is also radically faster and more efficient.

This collaborative and new wave thinking not only proves that Motives in Movement and Dynamixyz make a good team but also opens up exciting new prospects for both companies.

Dynamixyz is a french company working in the field of high quality 3D facial analysis/synthesis. Distinguished by the French Ministry of Research, Dynamixyz has developed a unique statistical modelling technology making possible to “clone” the expressions and dynamics of a subject. This model can then be used to produce high quality facial animations at low costs. Dynamixyz also develop marker-less performance capture for the entertainment industry.

Dynamixyz and MiM, besides sharing the same point of view on enhancing facial animation, have a really complimentary approach, one providing technology and one providing the necessary high quality content and expertise.

Motives in Movement (MIM) has expertise in both high level traditional media and AAA game development. We provide ‘convergent consultancy’ on performance based library creation, Direction and Acting, for all levels of Capture. Motive’s unique ability to draw on skill sets from both industries, offers developers and animation software providers the next generation of convergent solutions. Motives in Movement now operates from both London and Toronto and is actively engaged in business development in both locations.

MPC reaffirms its commitment to long-term investment in Vancouver by building a state of the art 38,000 sq ft facility in the prestigious Yaletown district.  The building, currently in its second stage of development, is a heritage brick and timber construction situated in the heart of Downtown Vancouver, surrounded by some of the city’s best restaurants and bars.  The building is being completely rebuilt to MPC’s specifications to create Vancouver’s largest and best facility, housing more than 300 artists.

The growing Vancouver team, currently working from MPC’s Homer Street studio, will move to the new facility on completion in early 2012.  MPC Vancouver provides the same best in class VFX services to our feature film clients as provided by our London facility, using the very same tools, techniques and pipeline.

MPC Vancouver’s Head of Film, Michelle Grady said “the new building demonstrates our commitment to our customers and to our artists by offering choice of location while maintaining the level of creativity and quality that is expected from MPC.”

MPC’s status as a world-class VFX facility has been achieved through marrying some of the industry’s top creative talent with the development of industry-leading software to create stunning visual effects, and provide an infrastructure for completing multiple projects with thousands of shots simultaneously across the globe, efficiently, and with the highest quality.

At SIGGRAPH 2011 three of MPC’s experts will give a fascinating insight into the techniques and technology behind the images. The presentations will demonstrate the solutions developed to achieve the visual treats seen in effects heavy 2011 movie releases including Sucker Punch, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows as well as the challenges of developing visual effects in a truly global production pipeline.

MPC Head of Pipeline, Hannes Ricklefs examines “The Need for Standardization within Global Visual Effects Productions through Open Source and Open Standards” on Monday 8^th August from 3:45 – 5:15 pm.

MPC Vancouver Software Lead, Ben Cole presents “Kali: High-Quality FEM Destruction in Zack Snyder’s ‘Sucker Punch’” on Wednesday 10^th August from 2:00 – 2:30 pm.

MPC’s SIGGRAPH 2011 booth (463) is located in the centre of the main exhibition hall, and MPC’s recruitment team will be on the look out for talented and creative individuals to join our expanding teams around the world. With capacity set to increase at all of our facilities in order to fulfil exciting movie projects including Prometheus, Wrath of the Titans, World War Z, 47 Ronin, Journey 2, Jack the Giant Killer and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows as well as a number of openings to join our award winning Advertising team, there really is no better time to join MPC. If you have what it takes to work at a World Leading VFX Studio make your way to our booth where our recruitment team will be happy to offer advice to prospective team members.

MPC Film VFX Supervisors Greg Butler (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, GI Joe: The Rise of the Cobra, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian), Guillaume Rocheron (Fast 5, Sucker Punch, Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief) and MPC Advertising VFX Supervisors Anthony Bloor and Carsten Keller will be revealing some of the secrets behind their most recent work at the booth. (Schedule to be announced)

This year SIGGRAPH’s Computer Animation Festival celebrates its 38th year and two of the biggest commercials that MPC completed last year will be screened, Cadbury ‘Spots V Stripes’ and Sky ‘360.‘

Award-winning ‘Spots V Stripes’ features a full cast of over 60 photorealistic CG creatures. MPC worked with Director Nick Gordon, Academy and Fallon to create this spot, which has already received a Cannes Lions, VES and British Arrow award.

‘360’ was created for Sky Creative to promote their film channel. Directed by Esther Wallace and Nick Tarte and produced by Sharon Kersley, the spot travels through different genres, unveiling epic landscapes including two fully CG environments.  The screening takes place on the West Building, Exhibit Hall A on Monday 8th and Wednesday 10th August.

The Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television is pleased to announce the nominations for the 26th Annual Gemini Awards, celebrating the best in Canadian English language television and digital media.

The third season of CTV series Flashpoint leads the annual TV nominations once again with 17 nods, including Best Dramatic Series. Hot on its heels are two debutant shows, both in the Best Comedy Program or Series category, including the new HBO Canada series Call Me Fitz (with 16 nominations) and TMN/Movie Central’s Living in Your Car (with 10 nominations).

History Channel’s The Kennedys and TMN’s The Pillars of the Earth also achieved an impressive 10 nominations each, including Best Dramatic Mini-Series or TV Movie category.

The emerging Digital Media categories are led by nominations from the National Film Board of Canada with cross-platform producers Marblemedia and Shaftesbury Films also in the burgeoning competition.

“We congratulate all the nominees,” says Helga Stephenson, ACCT Interim CEO. “It is aensational to see brand new television series garner so many accolades alongside established favorites. We are also delighted that there is a strong and growing presence in this year’s Digital Media categories. The arrival of new talent in both industries is a very strong indicator of a robust future.”

For our own part, while we watch many of the nominated shows, we are VERY happy to see that Endgame also received nominations for the following:

Best Cross-Platform Project – Fiction:  Endgame Interactive, Showcase (Shaw) and Secret Location – James Milward, Ryan Andal, Pietro Gagliano, CJ Hervey, Alan Sawyer.

Best Dramatic Series – Sponsored by the Independent Production Fund: Endgame Showcase (Shaw) Thunderbird Films Inc. – Michael Shepard, Avrum Jacobson, Harvey Kahn, Alexandra Raffe

Best Achievement in Main Title Design: Endgame Showcase (Shaw) Ian Kirby, Caleb Bouchard, Aaron Hildebrant, Mark Stuckert

Best Performance by an Actor in a Guest Role, Dramatic Series: Endgame – I Killed Her
Showcase (Shaw) David Richmond-Peck

Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Supporting Role in a Dramatic Series: Endgame – Fearful Symmetry/Huxley, We Have a Problem Showcase (Shaw) Katharine Isabelle

You can find the full list of nominees on this PDF at the Gemini Awards official site.