Millimeter April 2003Editor's NotesIn MemoryBy Cynthia Wisehart, Editorial Director On a personal note, this month I want to write about the deep loss of a much-appreciated colleague who died suddenly, shortly before we went to press.... FeaturesConfiguring Comandanteby Michael Goldman Before bringing his video conversation with Cuba's Fidel Castro to HBO (at press time, HBO announced it was delaying the documentary's TV debut indefinitely) and the Sundance Film Festival, director Oliver Stone...... Creating Virtual PerformersBy Ellen Wolff Of all the recent developments in computer animation, few hold the promise of Disney's Human Face Project, spearheaded by one of CGI's genuine pioneers, Lance Williams.... Extreme RealityBy Cody Holt There's an action sequence at the beginning of XXX — the improbable 2002 extreme sports thriller — in which Vin Diesel's character poses as a valet to steal a red Corvette from a California state senator who wants to ban videogames and rap music.... Build Your Ownby S. D. Katz With mortgage rates at all time lows, maybe it's time to plow what's left of your 401k into a little real estate. Or you could load up Bryce, Vue d'Esprit, or WorldBuilder and roll your own piece of digital paradise.... Serving Two Mastersby Philip De Lancie Looking back two decades to the launch of the compact disc, it's easy to forget how iffy the carrier's prospects were in the first few years. Players were too expensive for anyone other than “early-adopters,” and labels, smarting from a post-disco implosion, weren't ready to spend much on production for a format whose sales appeal was still unknown.... Step by StepSpongeBob SquarePantsby Ellen Wolff On Nickelodeon, SpongeBob SquarePants is a 2D cel-animated hit. But with the debut of Paramount Parks' SpongeBob SquarePants ride film, the popular blockhead is being given — literally — another dimension.... ClipsStylish Time-LapseMichael Goldman A :30 promoting the Sony Playstation 2 game Dark Cloud 2 plays with traditional notions of time-lapse photography.... MiniDV MovieBy Michael Goldman The migration of MiniDV into the realm of feature filmmaking took a new turn recently when filmmaker Dan Mirvish completed principal photography on a low-budget feature film called Open House, making it the first movie ever made using Panasonic's new AG-DVX100 MiniDV three-CCD camcorder, according to Panasonic officials.... The Teleport EffectMichael Goldman Cinesite Hollywood's decision earlier this year to drop its visual effects division to concentrate exclusively on digital film mastering makes X-Men 2 the company's effects swan song.... Hot SpotsHot Spotsby Trevor Boyer A selection of the hottest agency work submitted monthly to Millimeter.... Cool GraphicsFields and Framesfields & framesby Dan Ochiva Pixar recently installed one of the largest ever renderfarms to handle its animation and rendering chores, according to Intel. Built by San Diego-based... HotwareBeta SightVicon 8i & Vicon iQ Softwareby Richard Hince Artem Digital Staying on top of new technologies is a big part of staying on top of your game, especially when your business revolves around providing services to game developers and other entertainment production entities.... Fade to Black |
