Marc Petit, Sr. VP of the Media & Entertainment division of Autodesk sits down with vfxworld.com to discuss the direction their products are headed for 2008. The key idea he drives home is “realtime”. From previs with their “…research project called sextant” which they debuted at SIGGRAPH last year, to their newly acquired product “Mudbox 3d” which Petit says “…will be a standalone [but] we are also looking at better integration with Max and Maya.”

The other big push is for stereoscopy, from the creation of it in Max and Maya to grading it in Luster. Petit says they have been working closely with some customers on some large projects developing tools to assist on the creation side of stereoscopy but they’re just starting to understand what they need to create for people to manage those images. He also goes on to talk about how they are working on the concept of stereo grading as well.They will eventually have stereoscopy hit all of their products: Lustre, Smoke and Flame.

On Jan. 15 Apple released an update to their widely used media wrapper Quicktime. In the last two weeks, reports have been pouring in all over the net about rendering issues with Adobe After Effects CS3, Mpeg 4 movies not playing, and Red media (from the RED ONE camera) having stability issues inside of Final Cut PRO.  Fxguide.com has an in depth article discussing the problem, and offers a handy solution involving third party software:

So you had a quick trigger and installed QuickTime 7.4 on OSX already…but there is no obvious way to downgrade. Are you stuck? No. Thankfully, the makers of the shareware application Pacifist have provided the tools to help you with this. The basic procedure is to1. Download and install Pacifist
2. Download the appropriate version of QuickTime from Apple’s web site
OS X 10.5.1 Leopard
OS X 10.4.11 Tiger
OS X 10.3.9 Panther
3. Make sure your system is updated to the version number listed for each 7.3.1 flavor of QuickTime.
4. Drag the QuickTime 7.3.1 package onto the Pacifist icon, or choose “Open Package” and open the QuickTime 7.3.1 download. Click “Install” and make sure you “Use Administrator Privileges”. When installing, make sure you replace files when asked.

You should be good to go.

The bottom line is if you’re in production don’t upgrade your box with every auto-update that comes through.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that Eric Coleman former Nickelodeon animation executive has recently been picked up by Disney as there new Sr. VP of Television Animation.

Coleman, who has worked at Nickelodeon for 15 years, overseeing the development and production of such hit shows as “SpongeBob SquarePants” and “Avatar,” will start at Disney on Feb. 4. He will report to Disney Channels Worldwide entertainment president Gary Marsh.

Marsh goes on to say how excited they are to get Coleman and how it is a real “coup” for them.

The Oscar nominations were announced this morning. Here are the noms related to Animation/VFX:

Best Animated Feature:

• “Persepolis” (Sony Pictures Classics) Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
• “Ratatouille” (Walt Disney) Brad Bird
• “Surf’s Up” (Sony Pictures Releasing) Ash Brannon and Chris Buck

Achievement in Film Editing:

• “The Bourne Ultimatum” (Universal) Christopher Rouse
• “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly” (Miramax/Pathé Renn) Juliette Welfling
• “Into the Wild” (Paramount Vantage and River Road Entertainment) Jay Cassidy
• “No Country for Old Men” (Miramax and Paramount Vantage) Roderick Jaynes
• “There Will Be Blood” (Paramount Vantage and Miramax) Dylan Tichenor

Best Animated Short Film:

• “I Met the Walrus” (A Kids & Explosions Production) Josh Raskin
• “Madame Tutli-Putli” (A National Film Board of Canada Production) Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski
• “Même Les Pigeons Vont au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)” (Premium Films, A BUF Compagnie Production) Samuel Tourneux and Simon Vanesse
• “My Love (Moya Lyubov)” (A Dago-Film Studio, Channel One Russia and Dentsu Tec Production) Alexander Petrov
• “Peter & the Wolf” (A BreakThru Films/Se-ma-for Studios Production) Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman

Achievement in Visual Effects:

• “The Golden Compass” (New Line with Ingenious Film Partners) Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood
• “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” (Walt Disney) John Knoll, Hal Hickel, Charles Gibson and John Frazier
• “Transformers” (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro) Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Russell Earl and John Frazier

If this is your first time to Ani-Jobs.com, welcome! We are a brand new FREE job board resource that is dedicated exclusively to the Animation, VFX, and Gaming community.

Need to post a job listing and getting tired of paying an arm and a leg at other sites? Feeling like your post is getting buried among countless other posts NOT related to your field? Looking for just the right job? Then look no further! Ani-Jobs is your one-stop shop.

We’ll be continuously updating the site with new features as we go along, so if you have any suggestions or requests, please don’t hesitate in contacting us. This is YOUR community- tell us how to make it better!

~The Ani-Jobs Team