News Stories

The 3DS gets first million-seller, free 3D Excitebike coming

4.26.2011

[Philip Lelyveld comment: the 3D Lab has Nintendogs + Cats available for guests to play]

[By Ben Kuchera, ars technica]

The Nintendo 3DS has certified its first million seller with Nintendogs + Cats, which has sold approximately 1.71 million units worldwide. This is not a surprise: the game is first-party, a sequel to an already-popular franchise, comes in multiple flavors with different breeds of dogs, and it has been heavily promoted by Nintendo. This continues Nintendo’s trend of first-party games finding success on its own hardware.

According to Fox Business, the company has sold 3.61 million 3DS systems as of the end of March, short of the 4 million unit goal. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata described the sales as “weaker than expected.”

In other news, Iwata announced that there will be a port of the original Excitebike with 3D effects given to gamers when the 3DS eShop goes live at an indeterminate time in the future. This will be a limited-time offer, and there were no regions specified. Let’s hope this isn’t limited to Japan; after all, who doesn’t want to play a 3D Excitebike?

Nintendo is sharing some mixed news, with profits down, 3DS sales lagging, but first-party games continuing to do well and a new console on the horizon. This should be a very interesting E3.

See the original post here: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/04/the-3ds-gets-first-million-seller-free-3d-excitebike-coming.ars

SMPTE DC Section Sponsors Technology Conference

4.26.2011

[ by tvtechnology.com]

The Washington, D.C. Section of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers is hosting a two-day “Bits on the Bay” technology conference June 6-7. The first day’s presentations will center on modern digital workflows and the second day will feature presentations on state-of-the-art television technologies, including Mobile DTV, 3DTV, broadcast centralization and more.

 

The event will take place at the Chesapeake Beach Resort and Spa in Chesapeake Beach, Md., with registration for the two-day event set at $50 for SMPTE members and $75 for non-members. A single day registration is also available. A block of rooms with special discounted conference rates has been reserved for participants; these are available through May 6. 

Complete conference and registration information will be posted on the Section’s website.

See the original post here: http://tvtechnology.com/article/119718

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Specification for Naming VFX Image Sequences Released

ETC’s VFX Working Group has published a specification for best practices naming image sequences such as plates and comps. File naming is an essential tool for organizing the multitude of frames that are inputs and outputs from the VFX process. Prior to the publication of this specification, each organization had its own naming scheme, requiring custom processes for each partner, which often resulted in confusion and miscommunication.

The new ETC@USC specification focuses primarily on sequences of individual images. The initial use case was VFX plates, typically delivered as OpenEXR or DPX files. However, the team soon realized that the same naming conventions can apply to virtually any image sequence. Consequently, the specification was written to handle a wide array of assets and use cases.

To ensure all requirements are represented, the working group included over 2 dozen participants representing studios, VFX houses, tool creators, creatives and others.  The ETC@USC also worked closely with MovieLabs to ensure that the specification could be integrated as part of their 2030 Vision.

A key design criteria for this specification is compatibility with existing practices.  Chair of the VFX working group, Horst Sarubin of Universal Pictures, said: “Our studio is committed to being at the forefront of designing best industry practices to modernize and simplify workflows, and we believe this white paper succeeded in building a new foundation for tools to transfer files in the most efficient manner.”

This specification is compatible with other initiatives such as the Visual Effects Society (VES) Transfer Specifications. “We wanted to make it as seamless as possible for everyone to adopt this specification,” said working group co-chair and ETC@USC’s Erik Weaver. “To ensure all perspectives were represented we created a team of industry experts familiar with the handling of these materials and collaborated with a number of industry groups.”

“Collaboration between MovieLabs and important industry groups like the ETC is critical to implementing the 2030 Vision,” said Craig Seidel, SVP of MovieLabs. “This specification is a key step in defining the foundations for better software-defined workflows. We look forward to continued partnership with the ETC on implementing other critical elements of the 2030 Vision.”

The specification is available online for anyone to use.

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