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First full-length 3D animated character movie is heading to Cannes film festival

It is becoming increasingly impossible to ignore India’s entrance into the world of digital content creation.

It all began with outsourcing. Many in the industry in America were biting their nails, worrying that 3D animation would one day go the way of manufacturing: large-scale outsourcing to countries where the employees are hardworking, well educated, and dirt-cheap. In fact, already a lot of 3D gaming and animation has already been outsourced to countries like India and South Korea.

All that outsourcing is beginning to turn into something else in countries like India: an indigenous digital content creation industry. No story tells that better than the newest milestone in the Asian digital content creation industry, the release of Friends Forever, India’s first full-length feature film to star a 3D animated protagonist. It mixes live action with the 3D animated Zampano, who helps the other live-action actors get through the problems in their lives.

Zampano, the star of Friends Forever, which will show at Cannes 2006

The production company that is releasing Friends Forever, Celluloid Dreams Pvt. Ltd.', was recently in the news for something else. It had just been announced that RedOctane, Inc., from San Jose, CA, will be outsourcing a lot of its preproduction work to Celluloid Dreams, including storyboard development, script, and character design.

This is how production firms like Celluloid Dreams got their start – by doing projects for American outsourcers. Now they’re ready to step into the fray and make it big on their own.

This is essentially how many East Asian “tiger” economies took off to begin with. They imitated and outsourced American products until they were good enough to do it on their own. Now it’s plain to see that the strategy worked out well: Japanese automobiles dominate the world market, and countries like South Korea grew their economies more over the past 50 years then any other country in the world.

The world is taking notice of the beginnings of an indigenous Indian industry. Friends Forever, the movie mentioned earlier, is making its worldwide debut at Cannes Film Festival 2006.

To be honest, I don’t expect too much from this particular movie. Although I haven’t seen it yet, given that it is India’s first full-length feature film with a 3D animated hero, the industry probably has a lot of growing to do until it is on par with Shrek.

But this is just the beginning. I have no doubt that it will get there.


Last Week’s DCC News in Brief

3D Design Tools

DAZ Productions Inc., a leading developer of professional quality 3D models and software, announced that it has acquired Eovia Corp., developer and publisher of leading 3D animation, modeling and rendering solutions, based in Mountain View, Calif. Effective immediately, DAZ Productions has taken ownership of Eovia Corp. including its entire development, marketing and sales divisions and all the technology rights to Carrara(TM), Eovia's 3D modeling, animation and rendering software. DAZ Productions has also acquired all technology rights to Hexagon, Eovia's 3D modeling software, from Eovia Europe S.A. DAZ Productions is not acquiring Eovia Europe S.A. [ Read more...]


Video Editing

Adobe Systems Incorporated announced that customers including E! Networks, Jaguar, and Image Line are using Adobe video solutions to create and extend rich media content for television, DVD and the Web, resulting in increased viewership and brand awareness. In addition, an AccuStream iMedia Research study of Content Delivery Networks reveals that Macromedia(R) Flash(R) video has now overtaken Apple's QuickTime(R) and RealNetworks' RealPlayer(R) in the delivery of web-based streaming media traffic and today is growing faster than Windows Media(R) Player(1). As the preferred format for secure, high-quality streaming media, Flash video is being used in high traffic web properties such as Comcast, Fox, and New York Times. [ Read more...]

Avid Technology, Inc. announced version 5.5 of Avid Xpress(R) Pro software and unveiled Avid Mojo(R) SDI, the newest member in Avid's line of Digital Nonlinear Accelerator(TM) products. Avid Xpress Pro v.5.5 software now delivers HD capabilities for both Mac and Windows-based systems. The new Avid Mojo SDI works seamlessly with Avid Xpress Pro, providing high-quality, advanced analog and digital SDI (Serial Digital Interface) I/O connections for professional video and audio projects. [ Read more...]


Storage

Silicon Graphics introduced the SGI(R) InfiniteStorage 6700 system explicitly designed to deliver industry-leading throughput of streaming data in real time-up to 3 gigabytes per second (GBps) sustained, for read or write. Targeted at industries such as broadcast, 4K digital intermediate (DI), science and government industries, the SGI InfiniteStorage 6700 system's real- time isochronous architecture features 4Gbit Fibre Channel connectivity. The SGI InfiniteStorage 6700 is a new, next-level, high-performance version of the rich-media SGI InfiniteStorage RM660 introduced for broadcast and production in late 2004. [ Read more...]

As demand grows for higher resolution digital content from high-definition to 2K and 4K, and for more versions of that content for film, television, Internet and mobile delivery, entertainment production facilities have been turning to Silicon Graphics to help solve their big data content management challenges. SGI has leveraged its high-performance computing and storage expertise that helps government and defense agencies, research universities and Fortune 1000 companies worldwide, to assist Media companies manage the massive amounts of content data impacting their ability to be more productive and profitable. [ Read more...]


Books Releases

See the best to be the best. Every year, Ballistic Publishing brings together the world's leading digital artists to create EXPOSÉ, a compilation of the finest digital art in the known universe. In its fourth year, EXPOSÉ 4 celebrates the talents of artists worldwide, featuring 317 artworks from 241 artists in 49 countries, selected from over 5,000 submissions. EXPOSÉ 4 is now available to pre-order from Ballistic Publishing. [ Read more...]


Medical Imaging

Planar Systems, Inc., a worldwide leader in flat-panel display systems, announced it has selected ATI Technologies Inc. to provide advanced graphics processing technology for its medical imaging products. ATI is a global leader in the design and manufacturing of innovative 3D graphics, PC platform technologies and digital media silicon solutions. In an ongoing strategic effort for growth in digital imaging initiatives, Planar delivers the Dome AX4, built with the new ATI FireGL(TM) V3400, which is a commercially-available workstation graphics board created to dramatically accelerate the speed at which users can load, review, report and communicate patient cases with clinical colleagues. [ Read more...]


Online Content

Streamload, a leading provider of online digital media services, has been recognized by the Webby Awards as an “Official Honoree” for the company’s Streamload MediaMax™ web site. Hailed as the "Online Oscars" by Time Magazine, the Webby Awards honors sites exhibiting remarkable achievement. [ Read more...]


Show News

From virtual open heart surgery to a forehead retina system that could help the blind to fountains and gaming, the SIGGRAPH 2006 Emerging Technologies program will feature a broad range of installations from research labs, universities, independents, and industry giants that explore the possibilities of what might be the next layer of interplay between humans and digital systems. [ Read more...]


Graphics Cards

OPTi Inc announced that the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas issued a ruling Monday, April 24, 2006 in the ongoing patent infringement action between OPTi Inc ("OPTi") and nVidia Corporation ("nVidia"). The ruling arises from a special proceeding required under U.S. patent law called a "Markman hearing," where both sides present their arguments to the court as to how they believe certain claims at issue in the lawsuit should be interpreted. [ Read more... ]



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-- Jacob Heller, DCCCafe.com Contributing Editor.

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