Village Gamer

Returning to the Vancity Theatre after a successful 2007 run, The Animation Show is an annual feature-length compilation of the best animated shorts from around the world, exclusively curated by Beavis and Butthead creator Mike Judge. The Animation Show launched in 2003, making it the first festival of animation created and produced with actual animators at the helm. A sister series of high quality DVDs now supplement the theatrical tour with additional insights and brand new lineups of films—while the main Show remains a unique and unforgettable annual program that is usually gone forever once it is out of theatres. This year’s Animation Show is anchored by especially commissioned work from animators around the world. The show will include the films listed below, plus special surprises. For more information on the films and to purchase tickets, please see the event page on the VanCity Theatre web site. All tickets are $10.00 each.

Show Dates & Times:

Saturday, Nov 29 at 7:00 pm & 9:00 pm
Sunday, Nov 30 at 7:00 pm & 9:00 pm
Wednesday, Dec 10 at 9:15 pm
Thursday, Dec 11 at 9:15 pm

Today in a panel hosted by Vancouver’s ACM SIGGRAPH chapter the secrets, successes, procedures and challenges faced by the Blizzard Entertainment cinematics team were shared with the first of two sellout audiences.

Presented by Matt Samia (Senior Director of Cinematics) and Jeff Chamberlain (Cinematics Project Lead), the programme opened with a brief photographic tour of the Blizzard Entertainment campus in Irvine, California. The audience was then walked through the entire cinematic development process from concept and storyboarding through to final render passes and the finished product. In the course of this three hour panel, we were able to look right into the creative minds behind the Starcraft, Diablo and Warcraft franchises.

It is always educational to see behind the scenes at successful studios, getting a look at how they blend lo-tech and hi-tech means to continually push the envelope in animation and CG achievements. Matt and Jeff were also very forthcoming with advice to students and young people already working in the industry in regards to software products as well as skillsets. They also mentioned that there are a few Vancouver Film School alumni employed at the Blizzard campus, and Blizzard recruiter Kenny Carvalho was at the theatre to answer questions from interested designers.

Along with the other attendees, I am grateful to the ACM SIGGRAPH Vancouver Chapter for putting on another great event – and of course to the sponsors for supporting these panels and presentations. The sponsors for tonight’s panel were: 31337 Recruiters, VANarts, Hothead Games, Stash DVD Magazine and Annex|Pro.

The call for submissions to present lectures, roundtables and panel sessions for the 2009 Game Developers Conference Canada (GDC Canada) is now open through midnight, Friday, November 28, 2008. Presented by Reboot Communications and Think Services, organizers of the industry-leading Game Developers Conference, GDC Canada will take place at the Vancouver Convention and Exposition Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada May 12-13, 2009. GDC Canada will provide insight into the thriving Canadian game development community and will serve as an opportunity for developers to share best practices for fostering excellence and quality games within their region and distributed globally.

The Game Developers Conference Canada emphasizes studying the challenges and opportunities of creating games with long production cycles, large development teams, and multi-platform releases. The tracks for GDC Canada are structured according to production stages of game development and submissions should address the most pressing game development challenges that fall under the following development stages:

• Concept/Preproduction
• Production
• Finalling
• Post-Launch

Some of the Submission Guidelines Are:

The GDC Canada Advisory Board is looking for high-level, specific content that will fit into one of the tracks listed above. An extended abstract will be necessary for the advisory board to determine whether your talk will be a good fit. Concise, precise language and a discernable thesis will also help your chances in the review process.

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Vancouver Film School to Host Weekend with Game Industry Luminaries – Ubisoft’s Clint Hocking Announced as Keynote

November 18, 2008 – Vancouver, BC – Building upon the sold-out 2008 event, the third-annual Game Design Expo, hosted by Vancouver Film School (VFS), Canada’s premier post-secondary entertainment arts institution, is shaping up to be even bigger and better. Set for February 7 and 8, 2009 at the Vancity Theater at the Vancouver International Film Centre, the weekend will be headlined by Clint Hocking, Creative Director at Ubisoft Montreal (Splinter Cell, Far Cry 2), a popular speaker at industry events, and will feature an exciting lineup of talks and panels with the leading minds in game design.

The event begins with Industry Speaker Day on Saturday, February 7, aimed at game industry professionals and enthusiasts alike. Hocking’s keynote will pave the way for presentations by designers and producers from top companies like Epic, Insomniac, Radical, and Relic. An industry panel with panelists from EA, Obsidian, Propaganda, and more will round out the day.

Tickets to Industry Speaker Day are CDN $75 for the full day and are expected to sell out quickly when they go on sale today, November 18, 2008. For ticket purchases and the latest information and schedule, visit gamedesignexpo.com.

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Choose from a wide selection of original paintings, photographs, prints, ceramics, sculpture, wearable works and more. This is your opportunity to purchase creations from Emily Carr’s up-and-coming artists and designers.

This year’s sale is produced by studioshop, Emily Carr University’s online store. Visit the site before or after the sale for online shopping from home!

Friday, November 21 from 1pm to 8pm
Saturday, November 22 from 10am to 6pm

Concourse Gallery, North Building
Emily Carr University
1399 Johnston Street
Granville Island

Admission is free.

Annex|Pro, a well-known value-added technology solutions reseller based in Vancouver, is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a series of educational seminars. Congratulations to Kerry, Byron and the whole team at Annex|Pro!

November 24 – Eyeon Generation World Tour: Eyeon Generation is a breakthrough family of products that satisfy the demand for an end-to-end VFX environment and delivers timeline editing with up to 4K disk based playback, backed by 20 years of Fusion compositing development. The Generation workflow seamlessly integrates and collaborates with all eyeon products as well as removing the interoperability bottleneck with other products.

November 25 – Matrox MXO2 – Streamline Your Apple Final Cut Studio Workflow: Discover the Matrox Hardware Advantage with MXO2, a portable, affordable, and complete I/O device for the Mac. Be among the first to see this award-winning device in action.

November 26 – Render Farms 101: From Rendering to Reality in no Time: Want to learn more about render farm management? PipelineFX expert Troy Brooks has extensive experience in film and game development workflows, and will show you why using the right tools will improve productivity and increase content quality while optimizing hardware resources.
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Karemaker Sculpture

Vancouver – Earlier this week the artists and developers of Action Pants, Inc. took over Ginger 62 on Granville street to showcase their varied artistic talents. The purpose of this showing, organized by Action Pants’ Marketing Manager Wendy Boylan, who emphasized that “the artistic talents possessed not only by our staff, but by many others who also work in the videogame industry. These artists, programmers and support staff are an integral part of the Vancouver arts and culture community, which is why Action Pants holds external studio space in the Eastside where our staff are encouraged to work on their art whenever they get a chance.”

Paul Tanner Artwork

Upon entering the showing, visitors were greeted by a pair of large Tiki masks, which I thought had been carved in wood. On closer inspection I found that the artist, Paul Tanner had carved them from styrofoam and then painted them to resemble aged wood. These large masks are easily of a high enough quality to be used in any type of display, from a museum scene to a movie scene. Paul’s other work which was on display included a sharp-shooting skeletal being and a Hulk-sized drummer, shown in the photo on the right. The sculpture to the left was created by environment artist Sean Karemaker. With such amazing attention to detail, one can look at this creature and almost expect him to continue his advance across the terrain.

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Ubisoft will be visiting Richmond Centre Mall in Richmond, BC on November 14 and 15 then heading over to the West Edmonton Mall for November 22 and 23rd. Gamers are invited to come out and experience Shaun White and Rayman Raving Rabbids TV Party on the Wii as well as Far Cry 2 on the Xbox 360.

Vancouver – New Media BC, in partnership with the Revenue Services Group will be presenting a seminar about the SR&ED (Scientific Research and Experimental Development) tax credit and refund incentive program designed to encourage product development and innovation among Canadian businesses.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008
12:00-2:00pm
577 Great Northern Way, Vancouver BC
$10 for Members / $20 for Non-Members

At this seminar, you will learn:
– If business activities that make up your day-to-day operations qualify for an SR&ED refund or tax credit
– The amount of money you can expect to receive
– How to access this funding
– When banks will accept anticipated SR&ED funding as present security
– The inside story on the CRA’s internal SR&ED refund approval process

Who should attend?
If you are interested in accessing SR&ED funding or SR&ED – secured bank financing, this seminar is relevant to you.

-Networking catered lunch is included
-Space is limited

Register Here

Last night we attended Video Games Live at The Orpheum, and while we knew from other KillaNet Community members that the show would be awesome, the only way to truly appreciate the show is to experience it first hand. We took part in the pre-show as volunteers, running the Guitar Hero 3 challenge as well as the Costume Contest. The evening was full of surprises and debuts, as music from the upcoming Need For Speed: Undercover was performed for the first time in public, including a track by Vancouver’s own indie band Splitting Adam.

Of course being in Vancouver, what would Video Games Live be without a guest appearance by Victor Lucas, who is partners with Tommy Tallarico on Electric Playground and Reviews On The Run. Victor unveiled a certificate from The Guinness Book of World Records recognizing Electric

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