Steve Jobs Resigns as CEO of APPLE

Steve Jobs has resigned as Apple CEO and the company has named former Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook to replace him.

"I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come," Jobs said in a letter addressed "to the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community."

Jobs's letter sais he would like to continue serving as Apple's chairman and recommended Tim Cook as his successor as CEO. "I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role," Jobs wrote. "I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you."

VFX Show podcast episode #130 "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"

Mike Seymour, Mark Christiansen and Matt Wallin discuss the visual effects and story of Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

There is additional fxguide coverage of the film over at fxpodcasts where Dan Lemmon, VFX Supervisor (WETA Digital) discusses their brilliant animation work on Rise of the Planet of the Apes in Rise of the Planet of the Apes : The Eyes have it.

Dr. Zaius says, "Click on the image below to listen to the show online or suscribe for free in iTunes you damn dirty human".

 YOU FOOLS!

Siggraph 2011 Vancouver

Nearing the close of a long and amazing week at Siggraph 2011 here in Vancouver. The show highlight for me has to be the Jury Prize winner in this year's Computer Animation Festival, Damian Nenow's incredible short film, "Paths of Hate". The long form trailer linked above gives you some indication of the look and feel of the piece. 

I've been here working with some of my best students from VCU, attending papers and presentations (the most astounding of which was on Lola's work creating "Skinny Steve" for Captain America), seeing old friends and making new ones.  

On Tuesday, I recorded an episode of the VFX Show with Mike Seymour, Ian Failles & Mat Graham, where we discussed the visual effects in "Cowboys & Aliens". It was great fun to meet up with the whole FX Guide/FX PhD crew in person and talk about the film as well as some of our impressions of the convention this year.  

Tuesday night was the infamous Lighter/Darker party in Gastown where I got the chance to catch up with several old friends and colleagues, Chris White, Dan Goldman, Ellen Pasternack, Miles Perkins, Adam Martinez, Alex Seiden, Matthew Adams & Serena Rainbow Naramore, the great Neha Wickramasekaran, and Jonathan Litt among others. I even met my new arch nemisis, a fellow San Francisco State University graduate, who seemed to disagree with every word that I uttered in a pretty amusing way, Jessica Walker.  

On Wednesday Sony Executive, Ken Maruyama was incredibly gracious and invited my students and I to come by Sony Imageworks/Animation's new Vancouver studio for a casual "meet and greet". It was great for the students and its clear to me that Ken is one of the nicest and most down to earth people in the business.  

Thursday is my last day here at the conference and I'll be attending a few more talks on subjects like, Fast Simulation, Video Resizing and Stabilization, Lighting Worlds in Unity, Dscrete Differential Geometry and Designing Curriculum for 3D Computer Animation: Innovation and Experimentation for an Evolving Discipline.

I look forward to getting home and getting some much needed rest. Its been another great year at Siggraph and I am already thinking of booking a block for August 2012 in Los Angeles. Happy trails.

I can't help it, I really enjoyed this short too. Hotdog must have something to do with it...

Columnar Basalt

Took a short day trip yesterday to a nearby lighthouse. The geological rock formations on the peninsula were amazing. The same kind of columnar basalt that we saw on the Giant's Causeway in Ireland and the Isle of Staffa in the Western Hebrides in Scotland.

Climbing Spákonufellshöfði

We climbed to the summit of "Soothsayer Mountain" yesterday.  It was an all day event and Thor made it all the way to the top!  646 Meters!

Icelandic horses!

Thor & Chrissy on the mountain.

Snow in July!

Thor & Chrissy near the summit (really, they're in that picture...)

RAM

Horses on the road by the sea.

Iceland Week 2

Its the end of our second week in Iceland.  Been shooting lots of video and taking tons of photos. We're hiring a car next week and will be traveling all around the ring road that encompasses the island. Things should get more interesting from there. Skagastrond is a nice little fishing town on the North West coast, but we've exhausted all this place has to offer in short order. The weather here is a lot like San Francisco in the Summer. Rolling fog comes in over the mountains occasionally accompanied by strong winds.  

The dashboard troll in the van (way better than a dashboard Jesus if you ask me)

The view from our kitchen.

 

Thor fishing on the pier in Skagastrond

Fog rolling in across town

The sun at 9:30pm...

 

 

VFX Show episode #126 "Super 8"

Check out the latest VFX Show where Jason Wingrove, Mike Seymour and myself discuss the visual effects in the retro movie with a heart that is JJ Abrams "Super 8".  Click on the image below to listen online or subscribe for free via iTunes.  

Midnight sun

There was a big get together with everyone at the studio last night and after dinner we took a long walk around town.  Thor got to play with his new best buddy Kanoa (an eight year old from Hawaii) and we stayed out until midnight and the sun never set.  Its very strange.

Family portrait in the midnight sun, Skagastrond, Iceland

Kanoa and Thor (instant best buddies)

ICELAND

We're in Skagaströnd, Iceland. The sun never sets so it was magic hour last night for about six hours which is perfect for long shooting days. We've got a two bedroom flat on one side of town and a huge warehouse set up as the studio. Last night we went to the local bar and watched a band play some Bee Gees, MGMT, and Beetles covers. More tomorrow.

New York!

New York votes for equal rights.  Gay marriage now legal.  Way to go New York!!

 

Cave of Forgotten Dreams

Chrissy, Thor and I went to see this amazing film yesterday. Werner Herzog uses 3D (something I'm personally not a huge fan of) to take the audience to a place they will never be able to see otherwise.  The cave paintings at Chauvet Cave in southern France are over 30,000 years old and are the oldest known representational drawings ever discovered on Earth. If you have a chance to see this in a theater in 3D, SEE IT!  You will not regret it.  Absolutely inspiring.

Herzog's interest in the Chauvet cave was prompted by Judith Thurman's New Yorker article "First Impressions". Thurman is listed as one of the co-producers of the film.

The cave is carefully preserved and the general public is not allowed to enter. Herzog received special permission from the French minister of culture to film inside the cave. Having received permission, Herzog nonetheless had to film under heavy restrictions. All people authorized to enter must wear special suits and shoes that have had no contact with the exterior. Also, because of near-toxic levels of radon and carbon dioxide, nobody can stay in the cave for more than a few hours per day.

Herzog was allowed to have only three people with him in the cave: the cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger, a sound recorder, and an assistant. Herzog himself worked the lights. The crew was allowed to use only battery-powered equipment they could carry into the cave themselves, and only lights that gave off no excess heat. The 3-D cameras were custom-built for the production, and were often assembled inside the cave itself. Herzog was allowed six shooting days of four hours each. The crew could not touch any part of the cave's wall or floor, and were confined to a 2-foot-wide (0.61 m) walkway.

The production encountered several technical difficulties in working with the 3-D cameras in a documentary setting. At the time of production, 3-D films were typically shot on stages with heavy use of digital manipulation. Often, foreground and background elements would be shot separately and digitally composited into the finished shot. Techniques for 3-D filmmaking in natural environments with a single camera and no compositing were largely undeveloped, and had to be worked out experimentally by the crew in post-production.

Before production of Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Herzog was skeptical of the artistic value of 3-D filmmaking, and had only seen one 3-D film (James Cameron's Avatar). Herzog still believes that 3-D is not suited for general use in cinema, but used it in Cave to help "capture the intentions of the painters", who incorporated the wall's subtle bulges and contours into their art. The idea to use a 3-D camera for the film was first suggested by Zeitlinger, who had imagined before ever entering the cave that 3-D might be appropriate to capture the contours of the walls. Herzog dismissed the idea, believing 3-D to be (in Zeitlinger's words) "a gimmick of the commercial cinema". After visiting the cave, however, Herzog immediately decided that the film must be shot in 3-D. After the production, Herzog stated that he had no plans to use 3-D again.

© Matt Wallin. All rights reserved.