Posts Tagged ‘3D IMAX’

It was announced this week that James Cameron’s box office destructor Avatar will be released again, just over 8 months after its initial run that started in December last year.

It seems as if the film’s $750 million box office success hasn’t satisfied 20th Century Fox, as it could have earned even more if almost every 3D screen had to stop running Avatar and start running Disney’s Alice in Wonderland because of contractual obligations. Read the rest of this entry »

AVATAR made its world premiere in London last week and today Los Angeles eagerly waits for the U.S premiere, which is taking place tonight (December 16^th), in the famous Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. Tonight is set to be a night of firsts. AVATAR will be screened for the first time in the USA to a select audience. As well as that, the venue hosting the premiere will see their infamous opulent theatre screen its first ever 3D film. Read the rest of this entry »

The December edition of Esquire magazine is a special “augmented reality” edition where readers use custom-designed software and a webcam to interact with the pages being viewed and get access to 3D animated video content. The term augmented reality was first used by Tom Caudell in the early 1990s. Then, as now, it means adding audio, animation or graphic layers to live video and was used back then by Boeing workers to help them sort factory parts. It’s since been used in everything from adverts to gaming. With the December edition of men’s magazine Esquire, augmented reality has reached the printed page. After experimenting with things like origami (May edition) and e-ink (October 2008 edition), Esquire began considering the possibility of making a whole interactive magazine edition in the Spring of this year when The Barbarian Group were called in to help. After toying with lots of ideas, Esquire settled on creating a 3D cover, a weather-changing fashion portfolio, a time-sensitive funny joke from a beautiful woman, plus a song, a photo slideshow, and an ad from Lexus. The challenge was to bring them all together for one edition. Robert Downey Jr. was asked to perform a routine in front of a green screen for animation studio Psyop. Then two more sequences were shot using Jeremy Renner and Gillian Jacobs before Psyop added the animation, frame-by-frame. To use the magazine, readers need to download a C++ application from a page on Esquire’s website. The software recognizes a black and white patterned marker on the printed page picked up via webcam and translates it into a video sequence enhanced by 3D animation on the computer screen. Tilting the page towards and away from the webcam yields different situations. For instance, the cover shows Downey Jr. sitting on the box marker. Pointing the box straight at the webcam sees the Iron Man star jump off the box. Tilting and turning the magazine results in different scenarios being produced on-screen (see below), all controlled by the reader. Other markers feature throughout the December issue and revealing them to a webcam initiates similar augmented reality sequences, but for the purposes of generating some intrigue, I’ll not divulge any more. You’ll have check them out for yourself. Esquire says that this is just the beginning, plans are already underway for page recognition without the need for special markers and even mobile phone generated interaction. Source: Esquire.com

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Roland Emmerich tells MTV he is developing an Independence Day sequel, and he also hopes to film it as two-back-to-back movies. Emmerich says that the reason for two movies is that he wants “to do a bigger [story] arc” which will “continue the story” and begin “twelve, thirteen, fourteen years” after the first one ended. Emmerich is even floating around a title for the new films: “ID4-Ever” followed by “Part I” and “Part II” . Will Smith would likely return, and the story would again be set on planet Earth, presumably mostly rebuilt since the last time we saw it, when a new invasion again threatens the world. No other story details have been revealed, but I would assume that it wouldn’t be an Independence Day sequel if most of the original characters didn’t return. I wonder where Bill Pullman’s President Thomas J. Whitmore might be a decade and a half later. Is he still in office? Who knows, America might’ve changed the law to extend the President’s term of office. I’m sure a lot of things will be very different than the world we knew before. This would be an alien invasion movie set in a changed world, post 7-04. I would love to believe that Emmerich is sane, but his movies have led me to believe otherwise. And when Emmerich starts making monstrous claims about the future of the Independence Day series, I must question if there is anything more than some ideas he impulsively came up with during an interview with MTV. Does he actually believe 20th Century Fox would fiance a series of back-to-back big budget disaster movie sequels in this economy (In Emmerich’s defense, we are talking about the same studio that funded Avatar)? I’m guessing that he’s just throwing the idea out there, and seeing if fans respond. He’s looking for a reaction. But who knows if Fox would be willing to fund one Independence Day sequel, nevermind two, if Emmerich’s latest disaster film 2012 doesn’t deliver at the box office. Source: www.Movieblog.mtv.com

CBS’s TV.com Using Cooliris’s “Embed Wall” 3D Visual Navigation Interface on its Shows Page. Cooliris claims its’ interface allows users to scan significantly more media than standard interfaces. Wednesday, visual navigation specialist, Cooliris, announced that CBS-owned broadband video/community site, TV.com (TV.com features full episodes, clips, entertainment news, show summaries, polls, forums and more), is using its flagship Cooliris Embed Wall as the interface for its shows page aswell. On TV.com, the interface lets users browse a wall of thumbnails, or filter by genre to select episode summaries, guides and videos. Earlier this year, Cooliris announced that it had secured over $15 million in Series B funding from a group of investors that includes Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, DAG Ventures, The Westly Group and the T-Mobile Venture Fund. Source: http://www.itvt.com

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I have been highly skeptical of 3D movies for some time now. I have considered them a fad and a gimmick. I have never seen anything that convinced me that 3D movies (or stereoscopic movies as the real losers like to call them) are anything more than a way of getting people into movie theaters. I have never seen anything that showed me that 3D could be used in a really innovative, truly revolutionary way. Until I saw that Jackass 3D is on Paramount’s 2010 release slate. This is the moment that 3D has been waiting for. Avatar is just the John the Baptist for Jackass 3D‘s Jesus Christ, preparing the way, getting enough theaters converted to digital so that Johnny Knoxville can come right into your face. And they may very literally cum right into your face. With the 3D process you will be in the movie. You won’t just be watching Steve-O shitting in his pants, he’ll be shitting in your pants. You won’t just be passively observing Bam Margera being a complete cock to his family, you’ll also be punching his big fat sleeping father. You won’t just be laughing when Johnny Knoxville wipes out and breaks a bone, it will be your jaw that shatters. This is the best news I’ve heard all day and I’m not being one percent satirical. I think that Jackass is a work of genius performance art, and while I think that Jackass 2.0 wasn’t as good as the first film (or the best of the series), the possibility of having these guy’s dicks, blood, feces, vomit and other horribleness coming out of the screen right at me is just about the peak of what 3D technology can ever deliver. Source: http://www.chud.com

TOKYO — Cutbacks at Sony are bearing fruit, but a second year of losses means there is “more work to be done,” chief executive Howard Stringer warned Thursday at a pair of briefings for the media and investors. “Ownership of both content and hardware gives us an advantage, an example being how Blu-ray won the format battle. Our big movie titles also helped us win the projector battle with 4DK over 2DK,” said Stringer, who pointed out that the two largest US distributors (AMC and Regal) have signed up to install 4DK digital projectors on 11,000 screens, with 3D capabilities on the way. Stringer insisted the new “horizontal group structure” would ensure decisions are no longer taken in isolation. The promise of synergy between contents and hardware, and the breaking down of silos, has been a consistent theme of Stringer’s tenure. He was at pains to point out this was happening now – quoting a game reviewer from the New York Times who had praised the “end-to-end entertainment statement” of “Uncharted 2,” the PlayStation 3, and a 46” XBR9 television. “Driving costs out of the company to rightsize the operations, saving 330 billion yen ($3.7 billion) this year, and targeting a 20% reduction in procurement costs, which last year totaled 2.5 trillion yen ($28 billion),” was also central to the strategy, explained Stringer. Sony also aims to regain the leading position in the LCD TV market, predicting profitability by 2010, and a 20% market share by 2012, and develop an “evolving TV” concept. These will be screens equipped with “richer internet connectivity”, which will allow for increased after-sales revenue through downloaded contents. The company predicts that 3D products, described by Hiroshi Yoshioka as “a pillar of our strategy,” will bring in 1 trillion yen ($11.2 billion) in sales by 2013. Networked Products and Services division head, Kazuo Hirai, said the company was targeting a further 15% in cost reductions next year to achieve profitability in the group that includes the game division which Hirai previously led. “The PlayStation Network (PSN) online platform is growing strongly and now has 33m registered customers, tripled sales last year, and features 2,417 movies and 15,042 TV programs,” said Hirai. A new online service, provisionally titled Sony Online Service, is to deliver contents directly to a growing range of connected Sony products, initially utilizing the PSN platform.  Sony is aiming for network service sales of 300 billion yen ($3.7 billion) from 350 million units of networked products, by 2012, according to Hirai. Sony has laid-off 19,500 staff this year. Sony stock slid 2.2% on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, which closed before the strategy statements, compared with a 1.3% fall for the Nikkei 225 index

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Sirius 3D’s ColorsCode 3D Division will be the hands working behind UK’s Channel 4 3D Week. 3D week just started last November 16, 2009. In line with the said promotion, Sainburry’s Supermarket, exclusively, will be giving out 10 million ColorCode 3D glasses. Channel 4’s 3D Week along with the glasses can be enjoyed at home. 3D Week features Hannah Montana, the Queen’s Coronation, Derren Brown the Magician and a lot more. What’s more? If the stereoscopic depth is too much, a viewer may just remove the 3D glasses and it could be enjoyed in 2D. Viewers who will not able to get the exclusive 3D glasses will still be able to view 3D Week features since all is watchable in 2D. “Our 3-D glasses have amber and blue filters built into them: amber for colour information, blue for depth. The great advantage of ColorCode 3-D is that, compared with the old-style anaglyph (red/green) glasses used for early 3-D movies or the polarised glasses used in 3-D cinemas today, the technology allows content to be watched using the naked eye and, in these circumstances, still provides an acceptable viewing experience. Additionally, for the Channel 4 event, we developed our technology further, implementing a special broadcast processing so that anyone watching 3D Week while wearing the glasses will get a noticeable 3-D effect – not just those on a high-quality digital connection, but also those on an analogue connection, on a lower-bandwidth SD connection, or using a digital receiver connected with an antenna cable, S-video or composite rather than HDMI. Furthermore, we have developed a live 3-D transmission system with ColorCode 3-D encoding in real-time, so that Channel 4 can incorporate live broadcasts into the 3D Week schedule,” Steen Iversen said, CEO, Sirius 3D ApS. More of this article at colorcode3d.com.

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A anonymous company that produces computer-generated images for publications including but not limited to Time magazine has brought a High Court action alleging another firm is reproducing and selling its material. Moorefilm Ltd, which produces and sells computer-generated 3D medical illustrated images and animations to a large range of clients and distributors through Getty Images, the world’s largest distributor of images, is seeking restraining orders against a firm set up by former employees. Mr Justice Roderick Murphy granted Moorefilm Ltd, trading as 3D4medical.com and medicalrf. com, permission to bring its injunction proceedings at short notice against WKG Media Ltd, trading as the Science Picture Company, and against Eoin Winston, Eoin Kavanagh and Michael Grant. The court was told the three individual defendants were former employees of Moorefilm who left the company on good terms but had since used Moorefilm images and animations on its website. The three defendants had denied the claims as false and unsustainable in correspondence with Moorefilm, the court was told. Seeking the short service order on an ex-parte basis (one side only represented), Gabriel Gavigan said his client Moorefilm was seeking an injunction restraining the defendants from using and selling what it claims are its 3D models. A number of Moorefilm’s images had appeared on covers of Time, National Geographic and Newsweek magazines, Mr Gavigan said. It is alleged that during his employment with Moorefilm, Mr Winston was given a back-up drive of all of Moorefilm’s models to keep at his home in the event of a break-in or fire at the offices. When he finished his employment, he had not returned the disk drive despite giving assurances he would do so, Moorefilm alleges. In an affidavit, John Moore, ceo of 3D4medical.com, said WKG Media was incorporated by Mr Winston and Mr Kavanagh while employees of Moorefilm. Mr Grant was the company secretary. He said correspondence was entered into with the defendants last June when the defendant company launched its image collection for sale on its website. Mr Moore said that collection was based on information obtained while in Moorefilm’s employment. Source: http://www.irishtimes.com

The MIT Technology Review has unearthed a new laser-based 3D mapping robot that can produce similar results to those  of  its $100,000 competitor for a fraction of the cost. Funded by the US Army, researched and developed at the Stevens Institute of Technology have now demonstrated the Remotely Operated and Autonomous Mapping System (ROAMS, for short), which employs a mirror-based LIDAR system that bounces a laser off a rapidly rotating mirror and gleans environmental information from how long it takes for each pulse to bounce back. An array of video cameras and IR proximity sensors add to this recon bot’s sentience, though at this point  you will still need to be within a mile’s range to operate it. So not quite yet ready for solo space travel, but more then capable for gathering data on our own planet. by Vladislav Savov

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