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Maya Linux has been a long time coming. Alias has proof that not only do regular customers want Linux, high-end studios demand it. OSX is in an even better position. The architeture of Maya (a scripting language called MEL on top of a "kernel" of sorts) makes it quite portable I would think.

Here's a couple of effects links:

http://www.cgfocus.com/phproot/profiles/emilesmith /profile.php

http://millimeter.com/mag/video_serenity/

Also there were previous slashdot stories about Pixar's in-house Sketch Review Tool, (a hybrid vector/raster tool) and Microsoft Acryllic.

I believe Studio Artist is primarily vector based.

There are also many vector programs for the sign/graphics industry to control CNC routers and plotters. FlexiSIGN is one of them.

Pop up to the homepage, and that issue of millimeter also has a really interesting bit on the creation of the sword fight in the leaves from Zhang Yimou's "Hero."

Or like what they did for James Brown in Funk Blast. Funk Blast is the now defunct show/ride that was in the Experience Music Project (in the area that now houses the sci-fi musuem). The video at the end stars a 35 year old James Brown signing and dancing to sex machine. It was an impressive display of a mostly digital actor.

So is this going to relate to last years story about releasing the BBC back catalog as a public archive? If they are planning to use P2P to distribute their stuff it would make sense to use their own video codec - and by using and Open Standard they can't be accused of backing a private company and limiting distribution of their material. eg TV, radio they broadcast is recievable on standard equipment in the UK - it would fulfil their public mandate to do the same when tey release that.

Once again I am glad we do have the beeb over here;-)

I think that Honda, and the ad agency, is lying.

Rob Steiner, agency producer for Wieden & Kennedy, says that not only were practical effects more attuned to the tagline of the commercial, but CG would not have done the job visually, either. "You couldn't create that type of tension with CG," he says.

However, computers did come into play in the editing phase. Indeed, what looks to be one continuous shot is actually two, seamlessly stitched together by Flame operator Barnsley of The Mill in London.

"Our reason for shooting it in two 60-second pieces was damage limitation, really," explains Steiner. "We knew everything physically worked." But the contraption simply wouldn't fit down the length of a single wall at the Paris studio, so half was built and filmed on one side and half on the other.

With the intent of making the spot look like one continuous take, lighting and shadows in the studio had to look smooth over the full two minutes. Still, "due to constant movement, we couldn't even give [Barnsley] a good lighting reference," says Steiner.

I guess I've worked in the video production industry too long

Reading the rest of your post, I would tend to agree...

but most of the people I have been working with are switching to Macs or upgrading to G5's not because of hardware, but software and the total package.

Maybe in your company. But if that's what's happening in your company, then I would suggest you polish up that resume, and possibly take some training in free software apps.

It seems you haven't heard. Video production is going completely GNU/Linux on the backend, current Mac users are being tolerated on the front end for very technical graphic production, and everyone else is already switched, or in the process of being switched to GNU/Linux on the desktop for graphical work and everything else.

I'll put my openMosix/Debian GNU/Linux cluster of dirt cheap 1 GB+/- boxes up against the reviewed G5 box any day, as long as the jobs are run concurrently, like I normally run tasks, not consecutively like some benchmarks do. And I've been running this setup for many months now, it's not some twinkle in the eye of some slashdot dreamer.

I wasn't even aware that T3 brought anything new to special effects stage.

That's a naive statement on the state of VFX. Not particularly directed at you but a large number of people just go by the looks without knowing what goes on behind the scenes.

T3 was the subject of several SIGGRAPH (the most important conference and organization related to computer graphics) sketches and even one SIGGRAPH paper (one of the highest honors in CG research):

Smoke Simulation for Large Scale Phenomena
Big Bangs
Melting a Terminatrix
The Machines of T3
'T3' -- BETWEEN THE LAYERS
Fight the Future
Terminator 3 Evolves Historic Effect
TechTV Segements on T3 and Pirates of the Caribbean Online
T3: Man vs. Machine
Building a Believable Blockbuster

Not saying that the others weren't outstanding and innovative as well. Thye same point can be made about all the other bakeoff finalists.

DMR is the process I was referred to that reduced digital grain. Apollo 13 was the first movie to get the treatment, and that is what I saw.

Article

Not sure why it's alternatively DRM and DMR, but they must be the same thing.

The problem is that the studios, which function like an oligarchy, control basicly all forms of theatrical distribution. Sure they can make movies but how would they get them to theatres?

That's why Pixar has a deal with Disney, PDI is part of Dreamworks, Blue Sky is owned by Fox and of course Imageworks is part os a movie studio. If Pixar cut off with Disney (there's a real possibility) they would still need to make a distribution deal with Disney. Look also what happened to ILM. They were going to do a CG animated Frankenstein which Universalpuilled the plug. They were then slated to do Where the Wild Things Are but that was then pulled out and made 2D.

You need to break the grip on the movie studios first and that ain't gonna happen (at least not short term).

By the way, Millimeter had an article how movie studios (Universal) assigns VFX work:

Casting Visual Effects: How Universal Chooses FX Teams

I like the computer-rendered Animatrix 'Last Flight of the Osiris'-- was that put together by the Final Fantasy movie team?

As shown here, yes, they were done by the same team. I had also read somewhere, but cannot now find a link, that said they used the same model for the lead female in Osiris that they used for the one in FF.

According to this article, Final Flight was Square's final feature anyway. It says they dismantled Square USA shortly thereafter. I guess that's an alliterative triple play: Final Fantasy, Final Flight, final feature.

Check this article in Millimeter magazine about various 3d world creation tools... They say of MojoWorld:

Let me begin with the advice that anyone interested in computer graphics technology and its application to the imagination should really get ahold of this product. MojoWorld is as much a vision, dream, and concept of the entertainment future as it is a landscape generation application.

Zoic Studios does the CG for Firefly, Angel and Buffy (all Mutant Enemy shows).

Zoic was started in 2002 by Loni Peristere who previously worked for Radium and Digital Magic. Mutant Enemy already worked with Loni when he worked for Digital Magic and moved at the same time as Loni to Radium, so it is not a coincedence ME decided to move to Zoic after Loni left Radium.

More information about Firefly CG

A previous SGI press release for the Perfect Storm Stated that ILM had upwards of 1500 SGI processors:

They still do most of their stuff on SGI's, besides the Rebel Mac Unit, but as far as Linux they have stated that actually they are using it for workstations, not servers, they think it's lacking still for server use:

Well I'm not sure what would imply that Lucas has the final say about this. All he cares is that the ILM delivers the shots, the images. Probably finance them. But it's actually up to ILM to decide what they use. They do extensive testing on new technology to have the best production pipeline possible. They even have a special agreement with SGI, called JDEI to get to test all new equipment, plus they are a beta testing site for Alias/Wavefront. Here is the press release for their renewed JEDI agreement:

SGI is Preferred Provider of Content Creation Workstations and Servers for Industrial Light & Magic

It's actually up to the ILM engineers and management to decide what to use, Lucas is not involved in that. ILM has figured out the Linux gives them a good solution. years ago when Softimage was part of M$ and ported the software to NT, ILM did several test as to the feasability of using NT in their production pipeline, but it never panned out.

Besides their SGI infrastructure they have the Mac Rebel Unit which uses macs for stuff like texture painting, matte pintings, animatics and compositing. They just use what works, and finally Linux is good enough for production work. There are also rumors that they recently bought several Digital Tru64 boxes. They also have regular Win PCs for office work. There was even an old report that they started using Linux in the engineering dept. long ago for routers or some such thing. Here are the appropiate links:

Lucas probably doesn't care, he could be using a PC or Mac for writing the screenplays. It's up to ILM to use what is best for them.

Well not quite a surprise considering recent happenings in the last few SIGGRAPHs. Of course there is that recent article in Millimeter magazine, and for specific you can check the rendering statistics from Daniel Wexler, PDI's renderer architect: