Village Gamer

Actor Martin Sheen has confirmed that he will write the foreword for the 2009 Learning for a Cause Anthology published from Lester B. Pearson High School titled “Raising Humanity”. The book, which will feature the creative work of nearly 150 high school students, will explore what it is to be human through poetry, fiction, non-fiction, drama and art. The book’s objective – to inspire readers toward creating a more human and humane world.

Learning for a Cause, founded in 2004 by noted educator Michael Ernest Sweet, has published four full length publications of student writing to date. The books feature students writing on issues of socio-political concern in an effort to inspire positive change. The educational non-profit has been featured on CTV, CBC, NPR, Vermont Radio, Canadian Teacher and many other media. In 2008 the Quebec Ministry of Education filmed a special documentary featuring the teaching model.
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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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Companies Offer Solutions for Photo Specialty and Wide-Format Printing Markets

Ottawa – Corel Corporation today announced that it has signed WYNIT, Inc., a leading national distributor of computer peripherals and consumer electronics, as a new partner in the U.S. and Canada. Serving customers in a variety of markets including photo specialty and wide-format printing, WYNIT now offers the entire Corel digital media and graphics software lineup including the recently released Corel^® Paint Shop Pro^® Photo X2 Ultimate and Corel® VideoStudio^® Pro X2, along with CorelDRAW^® Graphics Suite X4 and Corel^® Painter™X.

WYNIT is also the exclusive distributor of the Wacom® Cintiq® 21UX which it offers bundled with Corel Painter X. Designed to maximize the creative power of Wacom’s industry leading pen tablets, Corel Painter X is the standard for digital painting and illustration for professional photographers, illustrators and designers.
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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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MISSISSAUGA – Nov. 12 – Siemens Canada was presented with the Technology Award at the Sheridan College Big Picture Gala event, held on October 23 in Brampton, Ontario. Siemens President and CEO, Guenther Scholz, was on hand to accept the award on behalf of Siemens and its 6,000 employees in Canada.

“Siemens is honoured to receive this award from Sheridan College, as it reflects our strategy of exploring innovation through education,” said Scholz. To meet the challenges of the 21st century, future generations will require new kinds of knowledge. Siemens promotes advanced education and further training of young people. “Our partnership with Sheridan College is part of our commitment as a knowledge-based company to sustainable economic development and a forward-looking society,” he said.
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Montreal – Ubisoft announced today that it has acquired from Activision Blizzard the assets and all of the personnel of esteemed Malmö, Sweden- based studio Massive Entertainment®, as well as the real time strategy brand World In Conflict®.

Created in 1997, Massive employs over 120 developers and was ranked as one of the top 50 best game studios in the world by Game Developers Research in 2008. The studio is world-renowned for its expertise in the RTS genre and for the quality of its innovative proprietary technologies. World in Conflict® was acclaimed by critics, receiving the Best Strategy Game of E3 2007 award, as well as being named Best Online Multiplayer Game of 2007 by IGN, and Most Innovative Game of 2007 by Gamespot, among many other awards.

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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

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Greenhouse Interactive today announced that the Nitrogen Software Development Kit (SDK) is now available free of charge to independent developers seeking to enhance their games selected for the Greenhouse digital distribution service. Major tools offered in Nitrogen include the social networking functionalities of ‘triumphs’ and ‘standings,’ which will allow developers to reward players for their in-game accomplishments and then display them for the rest of the Greenhouse gaming community.

Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode Two, scheduled to launch this Wednesday for Windows®, Mac® and Linux®, will be the first title on the service to implement the new Nitrogen SDK and offer gamers triumphs and standings to enhance their gameplay and Greenhouse community experience.

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