Village Gamer

The Canada Media Fund (CMF) will hold a webcast Wednesday, February 23, 2011, to explain the changes to the 2011-2012 Guidelines and to answer possible questions raised by the changes. This broadcast will be hosted by Stéphane Cardin (Vice President, Industry and Public Affairs) and Nathalie Clermont (Director of Program Management). The presentation will be in 2 stages: first in French from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. ET and then in English from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. ET. You are invited to review the Summary of Changes to the various Convergent and Experimental Stream programs. Comments and questions can be sent via email, asked on Twitter on the CMF Facebook page.

Please click on the following address to test drive the webcast page on your computer:

CMF-FMC Webcast

To view the webcast, Flash player from Adobe is all you need in your browser. You will be asked to provide your name and email address to access the broadcast page. (Please note that you may need to sign in again on the day of the webcast).

Vancouver-based TIO Networks Corp. has successfully launched the Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s (PG&E) “mobile bill pay app”. This mobile payment app is an industry first by a major Utility and provides up to six million PG&E customers in Northern and Central California with the convenience of paying their utility bills on an expedited basis through their iPhones and iOS devices.

“Almost immediately from the pre-launch phase in late December 2010, we have had strong consumer interest as several thousand PG&E customers have already downloaded the App and are paying their bills” said Hamed Shahbazi, Chairman and CEO of TIO Networks. “We will be expanding the payment platform to include Android and Blackberry versions in the near future. This product was a collaborative effort with PG&E and we appreciate their strong commitment to the project.”

Millions of PG&E customers can now download the TIO mobile application from Apple’s app store for free, and enjoy the convenience of bill payment on the go, anytime and anywhere. The TIO payment application features a user-friendly interface on iOS powered devices for real-time access to a customer’s account balance and intuitive instructions, in either English or Spanish, for fast payment with Visa, Master Card or through a customer’s bank account.

Sofame Technologies Inc., a Montreal-based manufacturer of environmentally efficient industrial hot water systems and cost effective heat recovery equipment, has turned to Autodesk® to solve a pressing business need: Growing Sofame’s presence in the competitive global marketplace. Sofame’s sights are set on offering rapid delivery of its award winning industrial boiler efficiency systems.  In 2010, Sofame began a program of outsourced manufacturing, which required product redesign and standardization to speed-up manufacturing, eliminate errors, and above-all, reduce costly hours of manual work.  Autodesk Consulting will now work with Sofame to improve its engineer-to-order (ETO) business processes.  New Autodesk solutions will further reduce engineering time as well as produce vessel drawings and P&ID’s more quickly. Sofame plans to shorten sales cycles, and handle more projects with the same number of people.

Beginning Sunday April 17th HBO Canada, a multiplex channel of Astral’s The Movie Network (Eastern Canada) and Corus Entertainment’s Movie Central (Western Canada) is taking subscribers inside a land where summers span decades, winters can last a lifetime, and a bloody battle rages for control of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros and ultimately, the Iron Throne.

Based on the bestselling fantasy book series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones is a 10-part epic fantasy series that follows kings and queens, knights and renegades, liars and noblemen as they vie for power.

Created with active collaboration from author Martin, the series combines elements of the fantasy genre with a simultaneous focus on character and psychology. HBO shot the series primarily in Northern Ireland and worked with expert language creator David J. Peterson to develop an expansive language for the Dothraki, a race of nomadic warriors.

Featuring a vast cast set to portray the inhabitants of Westeros, Game of Thrones stars (in alphabetical order): Mark Addy as King Robert Baratheon; Alfie Allen as Theon Greyjoy; Sean Bean as Lord Eddard “Ned” Stark; Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen; Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as Ser Jaime Lannister; Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister; Michelle Fairley as Lady Catelyn Stark; Aidan Gillen as Petyr Baelish (“Littlefinger”); Jack Gleeson as Prince Joffrey Baratheon; Iain Glen as Ser Jorah Mormont; Kit Harington as Jon Snow; Lena Headey as Queen Cersei Lannister; Isaac Hempstead-Wright as Bran Stark; Harry Lloyd as Viserys Targaryen; Richard Madden as Robb Stark; Rory McCann as Sandor Clegane (“The Hound”); Sophie Turner as Sansa Stark; and Maisie Williams as Arya Stark.

Game of Thrones is executive produced by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss; co-executive producers Carolyn Strauss, Guymon Casaday, Vince Gerardis, Ralph Vicinanza and George R.R. Martin; and producers, Mark Huffam and Frank Doelger. Directors include Brian Kirk, Tom McCarthy, Daniel Minahan, Alan Taylor and Tim Van Patten.

Reminder: There are 15 days left to get your nominations in for the Canadian Video Game Awards.
Reminder: There are 15 days left to submit entries for the 2011 Design Edge Canada Regional Design Awards
Reminder: Digital Media practitioners, don’t forget to fill in the industry survey over at Pixel to Product.

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot confirmed in today’s conference call to investors that there will be a new Assassin’s Creed game this year, however we will all have to wait until May for more details.

Winnipeg studio Infinite Ammo, the co-developer of Aquaria, has posted a dev diary update for Marian and the Fantastic World of Dreams, and the game thus far looks great. In this very detailed dev diary you read about the process of meshing 2D with 3D and the trials the team has experienced thus far as the game unfolds. You can also hear a sampling of the game’s soundtrack as you read the diary post.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMSGTmlu_Xg]

If you are unfamiliar with Infinite Ammo’s project, the game’s main character is Marian, a beautifully carved marionette who rips her strings from the grasp of ‘The Narrator’ and to become her own master. She becomes caught in the dream world between life and death, learning to her own puppet strings as a tool in her quest to discover her true identity, and in fitting with today’s universal Valentine’s Day theme, she may even find true love.

Rocket5 Studios has released the first teaser trailer for that studio’s upcoming iOS game XS Force, which the creators will be demoing at GDC 2011. XS Force is an explosive arcade shooter starring characters inspired by some of the biggest action movie stars of the 1980?s, and this trailer lets you get a glimpse of one of the XS Force heroes.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RycrCjPeIOk]

Rocket5’s previous titles for the iPhone and iPod Touch include Giant Moto and Holeshot Drag Racing as well as amusement apps Alien Booth and iSpoof Walken.

Source Studio has announced new DLC for the recently updated Proto Galaxy. Proto Defense, the first DLC release for Proto Galaxy, will soon be available for free via the game’s Steam page. Check out what’s coming in this expansion:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZpW8IKPG2k]

Released in October 2010, Proto Galaxy is a turrent defense game that allows up to four players to team up and save the galaxy from an alien force determined to enslave humanity. As Earth’s last line of defense, you must put an end to the attacks and rebuild a home for the survivors.

Distribution360 has acquired rights to distribute the Cartoon Network U.K. version of Skatoony to French and German-speaking Europe as well as Spain. The company will also distribute the North American version of Skatoony—produced by marblemedia—to the same territories. Skatoony (U.K.) airs on Cartoon Network U.K.; Skatoony (North America) was commissioned by TELETOON, and premiered on the Canadian kids network in English and French this past October. Skatoony is the first animated/live-action quiz show adventure that pits tweens and ‘toons against each other in four frantic, trivia-based rounds. Set in a fantastical television studio in the fictional town of Showtown, the series is anchored by the cartoon duo of host Chudd Chudders and his lounge-singing sidekick, The Earl. Each week, they attempt to put together another show, while all manner of mad happenings occur around them. Skatoony Interactive features the “Skatoony Home Game,” a multi-player game where kids play Skatoony in real-time against other kids online.

“We’re excited to be distributing both versions of Skatoony to international markets,” says Stéphanie Röckmann-Portier, Managing Director/Head of Sales, Distribution360. “We’re looking forward to offering broadcasters a library of versioned episodes in order to identify content that best suits their needs.”

“Working with Distribution360 gives us the opportunity to exploit new territories for Skatoony,” says Michael Carrington, Chief Content Officer, Turner Broadcasting. “It’s a fantastic fast-paced game show which is sure to delight new audiences across Europe.”

In addition to Skatoony, D360’s kids slate also includes Splatalot, Ambition Skatecamp, This is Daniel Cook, and This is Emily Yeung for distribution to international markets.

Communitech’s annual Tech Leadership Conference on March 2, 2011 is the place to be for anyone in high-tech — to hear keynote speakers author Geoffrey Moore and futurist Watts Wacker, share views with journalist and author Scott Berkun, and gain insights from a high-tech power panel moderated by former Global national news anchor Kevin Newman. More than 500 people are expected to attend the largest such one-day event in Southwestern Ontario.

“It’s an action-packed day that will focus on the new fundamentals of business in an era where the power of the crowd shapes everything from marketing practices to purchase consideration, and leading-edge innovation continues to drive rapid change,” said Iain Klugman, president and CEO of Communitech.

The Tech Leadership Conference will feature a ‘BIG Conversation’ between Canadian industry leaders — MKS CEO Philip Deck, Sr. VP OSI John Ruffolo, and CTO OpenText Eugene Roman with Geoffrey Moore and moderated by Kevin Newman — addressing the major shifts occurring in the tech industry. Startup companies will also pull back the curtain on latest innovations moving from stealth mode to commercialization in the annual Tech Expo staged at the conference.

Geoffrey Moore is best known as the author of the ground-breaking book “Crossing the Chasm” and is a managing director at TCG Advisors and a venture partner at MDV. Tech leadership attendees will hear from Moore how disruptive innovation can have a positive impact on their business plans. Lecturer, best-selling author, political commentator and social critic Watts Wacker will bring a futurist’s perspective to the Tech Leadership Conference, focusing on navigating the sea of change in business.

Scott Berkun — author of three best-selling books, contributor to publications such as Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and The Guardian, and a blogger for Harvard Business and BusinessWeek — will investigate the myths of innovation.

Breakout sessions at the Tech Leadership Conference include the following topics and leaders:

* Myths of Innovation: Scott Berkun
* Developing Your Digital Roadmap: Dan Christian, DanoDigital
* Recruiting Trends: Sharon Rudy, SpencerStuart
* Under Construction: The Sales and Marketing Organization of the Future: John Neeson, Sirius Decisions
* Life After Exit Leadership Panel: Steve Woods, Google; Yvan Couture, Primal; Ron Neumann, Dejero Labs; moderated by Greg Barratt, Communitech.

Congratulations to Toronto-based SecureKey Technologies Inc., who has received an investment from Intel Capital, Intel Corporation’s global investment organization. SecureKey designs hardware and software solutions to enable the strong cryptographic capabilities of debit, credit and identity smartcards including those within NFC based phones to be used for online authentication and online purchases. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.

Canon Canada is launching a national print and broadcast campaign, developed with JWT Canada that is uniquely Canadian – for Canadians by Canadians. The campaign, with additional online elements to be incorporated in the next several months, aims to deepen Canon Canada’s emotional connection with its consumers through the telling of important shared moments in life.

JWT Canada undertook strategic sessions with the various business units, which resulted in the notion that people need and want Canon imaging products when the output really counts; be that a photo of your child’s graduation, a retina camera that can detect early warning signs of diabetes or print-outs for an important client presentation. The campaign takes the focus off the product attributes and shines a light on the people who use Canon products.

DigiBC, the Digital Media and Wireless Association, announced today that its president, Michael Bidu, will leave the organization April 30, to pursue new entrepreneurial opportunities in mobile health.

“I’ve enjoyed the many challenges of running our association for almost a year and a half and appreciated being able to use my entrepreneurial skills to reshape the organization, create and stage many significant industry events, and manage the successful merger of two industry associations.

“DigiBC is now a young and dynamic organization, recognized by key stakeholders at home and abroad as BC’s leading industry association for digital media and wireless. We are focused on the convergence of digital media and wireless, and represent over 1,000 companies that employ more than 16,500 well-educated employees, and generate over $3 billion in annual revenues.”

Bidu was appointed head of WINBC in September, 2007 and worked tirelessly to create greater recognition for the wireless industry, and to create innovative industry programs and events for members. In his first year, he revived Mobile Monday Vancouver – a monthly gathering of some of the leaders, entrepreneurs and best minds in the local wireless and digital media industry.

In 2009, the boards of both WINBC and New Media BC agreed that a merger – as DigiBC – would create a stronger industry and better reflect the worldwide trend to convergence. Bidu and the two boards very quickly completed the merger – with minimal disruptions to the activities of either sector.

Bidu also created and produced two Pacific Northwest Wireless Summit Conferences, plus a number of events for Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympics, including the multi-million dollar public-private partnerships that led to VXperience and Showcase and the Multimedia Gallery at the BC Canada Pavilion. Both were started from scratch, only months before the Olympics. Thanks to support from more than 100 digital media and wireless companies, both events launched successfully and on time. The results were seen or experienced by more than 100,000 visitors. Bidu also architected and produced VIDWeek 2010, another first for the BC digital media and wireless industry, attracting national and international attention to our province.

“Michael accomplished a lot during his tenure, and his drive, passion and vision were instrumental in bringing about the successful merger of WINBC with New Media BC,” says DigiBC chairman Paul Lee. “We thank him for all his work and wish him all possible success in his new ventures. Wireless Health is one of the eight strategic recommendations our board made to the Government of Canada last summer to Improve Canada’s Digital Advantage. I am pleased to see that BC is leading the way.”

Bidu will continue to lead DigiBC’s activities while the association’s board seeks a suitable replacement. He will also be appointed chair of a new committee that DigiBC is setting up to focus on the convergence of wireless, digital media, and medical research and to find solutions that will reduce the cost of health care delivery while providing a better customer experience.

“My goal is to take the BC Wireless Health Initiative, which we started back in 2009, to a new level of innovation and commercialization provincially, nationally and globally,” says Bidu.

“I thank the Board of Directors of DigiBC, the members, the numerous community and industry sponsors, the supporting local, provincial and federal government organizations, the media and the many volunteers for all their past help, and for their continuing support of what we achieved together in the past three and a half years. I will seek for your support in the future and know I can count on it.”

Editor’s 2 cents’ worth: I’d like to see either Lynda Boyd or Rochelle Grayson back in the leader’s seat at DigiBC. Those two ladies know how to get things done.

Happy first anniversary to Snowed In Studios. The Ottawa studio is currently working with Eidos Montreal on the upcoming Deus Ex: Human Revolution and recently worked with Artech Studios on The Undergarden for Atari. The Snowed In team has also worked with two other studios on our Favourites List, Behaviour and TransGaming. Here’s to many more years of gaming goodness for the team at Snowed In!

Vancouver indie developer Josh Brown has released his first Android title. Vertigo Towers is a physics based 3D action puzzler with 3 game modes which requires the player to match sets of three or more bricks and create chains for huge points. Vertigo Tower is OpenFeint-enabled complete with a Leaderboard and Achievements. There is both a paid version (1.99 USD) and a lite version available in Android Marketplace. I would buy this game if it became available for iPod Touch.

Relic and THQ have opened up the Warhammer®40,000®: Dawn of War®II – Retribution™ BETA to anyone who has bought a Dawn of War game through STEAM or has registered a Dawn of War II product on their STEAM account. In addition, gamers can get access to the beta by registering on the Dawn of War Community site and following the instructions under the Beta Key giveaway tab.

Featuring all six multiplayer races including the new Imperial Guard faction, the beta will run through the end of February to test the new Steamworks network and matchmaking features and help balance the multiplayer mode. All new units for each race will be available in the beta along with the new multiplayer maps that will ship with Retribution. The Dawn of War II – Retribution multiplayer beta is currently planned to run until midnight on February 24th, at which point the developers will take all feedback into account to create a day-zero balancing patch.

The Cavechild checked out the Retribution Beta last week, and his thoughts thus far are: HOLY WTF WIN! FREAKIN’ EPIC OMG WEEEEEE. That pretty much sums it up, there is more and all but that is for another time.

Retribution is very very VERY pretty, it a new thought out army panter so that you can see what many of you squads will look like, they made it a little less shiney and more grungy like the old dawn of war which is freaking amazing! The sound in the game, the effects, ambiance, voices, yelling, gunfire, tanks, orcs and so on are very clear even in the middle of a giant war with 2 Imperial guard armies taking down Orcs, more Orcs and some weird looking Eldar.

In my opinion the Imperial Guard are just a little OP considering I was able to beat down the Orc Warboss pretty easy, same with the Eldar Farseer. The game play is the same as the two games previous so none of you have to worry about changing style and how to do things. If I remember correctly you are allowed to import everything for Last Stand mode which is you versus a ton of AI which aren’t too hard then casually grow in difficulty. Dawn of War II: Retribution is by far one of the best games for 2011 and the year has only started…

Congratulations to the Mass Effect 2 team on all of the hardware they picked up at last evening’s AIAS Awards, winning in three categories: Outstanding Achievement in Story,  Role Playing / MMO Game of the Year and Game of the Year – and of course congratulations to Bioware co-founders Doctors Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk on their induction into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame. Congratulations also to the FIFA 2011 team over at EA Sports for picking up the Sports Game of the Year award.

Frima Studio titles Widgets Odyssey I and Widgets Odyssey II are now available in Europe as a single game bundle for the super low price of £1.74 / €1.99! As PlayStation®Mini titles, Widgets Odyssey I and Widgets Odyssey II are playable on both PlayStation®3 and PlayStation®Portable. Both titles are rated as PEGI 7 (ESRB rated E for Everyone).

In the Widgets Odyssey saga, five robots aboard their space vessel have just one simple mission…to save the universe from the tyrannical Yagor and his evil henchmen! Armed with the unique abilities of Spad, Cosmo, Bruce, Helmut, and Monk, players will guide each robot along their exciting adventures filled with puzzles, mazes, minigames and intense platforming challenges.

If you’re in the Vancouver area on March 9th, you may be interested in attending BCTIA’s TechBrew event being held at the Stanley Park Pavilion. The mega-mixer invites entrepreneurs, investors, professional service providers or anyone interested in technology companies to meet, talk, and make new connections in a casual setting. Featured companies at the March event include: D2D Campaign Solutions, Gogiro, ikamobile, Jostle, Nexterra Systems Corp., NGRAIN, REV, Rx Networks, SewerVUE, Snap Technologies, Solegear Bioplastics and Wishpond. Tickets for TechBrew are $34.95 for BCTIA members, $44.95 for Non-Members or $19.95 for Students.

bant, an iPhone based application to help adolescents improve diabetes self-management by capturing, analyzing, and sharing their blood glucose data, is being tested by teenagers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) Diabetes Clinic in Toronto. The pilot program will assess the impact that social networking and rewards that encourage and reinforce self-management behaviours have on young teens as they become more independent in managing their diabetes. The pilot will run for three months.

bant was developed by University Health Network (UHN) in collaboration with SickKids and with input from patients, families, doctors, nurses and engineers. The multidisciplinary teams from SickKids’ Diabetes Clinic and Division of Adolescent Medicine worked closely with colleagues at UHN to design the application. bant is partially funded by the Saint Elizabeth Health Care ACT research grant program.

People with type 1 diabetes need to maintain their blood glucose levels as close to normal as possible to decrease diabetes-related complications, such as kidney and heart disease. Optimal blood glucose is very hard to achieve; requiring frequent measurement of levels, detailed analysis of the results, and continued adjustments of the treatment plan.

A free version of bant is already available in 10 languages at the Apple App Store. An advanced version of the application has been developed for use in the pilot which will use a LifeScan OneTouch Mini blood glucose meter to collect and wirelessly transfer readings directly into bant using a Bluetooth adapter developed by the UHN team. The data are then displayed and organized visually. Teens can customize the tool to categorize readings according to their activities and daily schedule to enable accurate decision-making and medication adjustments. They will also be able to share their experiences in a private social network within the app and earn experience points leading to rewards in the form of iTunes redemption codes to purchase music and other apps. bant is integrated with TELUS health space, Powered by Microsoft HealthVault, giving pilot participants the ability to store, review, and control the sharing of their personal health information with their care team and family members.

Sierra Wireless has unveiled a multi-purpose wireless gateway that defines next-generation intelligent machine-to-machine (M2M) networking. The powerful Sierra Wireless AirLink™ GX400 gateway offers a leading-edge combination of features, including cloud-based device management, extensive hardware and software enhancements, mil-spec ruggedness, GPS and associated location-based services, and advanced configuration options with comprehensive expandability for both hardware and software features.

Flexible and powerful enough to meet the needs of a wide range of applications in the transportation, industrial M2M and enterprise markets, the AirLink GX400 will make solution deployment faster, easier and less expensive for mobile system operators, OEMs, application service providers and end customers. With the AirLink GX400, system integrators can standardize on a single gateway platform to serve the needs of all of their customers.

Sierra Wireless also announced AirLink Management Services (AMS), which will facilitate comprehensive cloud-based device management for the AirLink GX400, as well as other AirLink intelligent gateways and routers. Based on the Sierra Wireless AirVantage™ Platform, this powerful hosted device management service means small and large deployments can affordably take advantage of the comprehensive AMS management features from any location with Internet access.

Sierra Wireless boosted processing performance five-fold, basing the AirLink GX400’s design on an ARM 11-class microprocessor architecture operating with high-capacity DDR memory. This provides a powerful foundation for exploiting existing and new features and functionality. Other hardware enhancements include external antenna connectors, Ethernet, Serial and USB “OTG” (On-the-Go), as well as an expansion slot to accommodate future integrated add-on capabilities such as additional physical interfaces and wireless local and personal area networking and communications.

via University of Alberta ExpressNews: A joint research project between the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Education and the Department of Computing Science has found that, for high-school girls, the fun is in making video games, not just playing them.

Computing science professor Duane Szafron and fellow U of A researchers Mike Carbonaro, Jonathan Schaeffer and Maria Cutumisu say that women in computing science are rare, but their study shows that if you want to get more females interested in computing science, you have to rewrite the program, so to speak.

“There’s been a huge push throughout North America to try and get girls to go into computing science, but [educators are] having a lot of challenges convincing them,” said the Faculty of Education’s Carbonaro. “The findings are important, as they demonstrate a way to motivate girls’ interest in computing science”

In their study, the researchers wanted to see whether girls would gain as much interest in game development as they boys in the class control group. To facilitate the experiment, they introduced a group of local Grade 10 students to a program called ScriptEase, a tool that allowed them to develop and design their own games. A key factor in the study was having male participants who had more experience than the females in gaming.

Duane Szafron and Maria Cutumisu Photo: U of Alberta

Szafron says that there is an inherent creative component to computing science, and that having a student design and construct something using the tool is one way to allow them to investigate that aspect of computing science. “We thought we should have female students create games and see if they are just as excited about making games as male students and see whether it’s an attractor to computing science that is independent of gender,” he said.

Their findings indicated that female students enjoyed creating games as much as their male counterparts; further, they preferred game construction to activities such as story writing. Further, he noted the female students gained and used practical skills that are crucial to understanding computing science.

“The female students built games that were every bit as good as the male students made, even though the male students had more experience with playing games,” said Szafron. “In terms of the quality of the games developed and the abstraction skills that the students learned, which could translate to knowledge of competing science—and in terms of the amount of fun that they had—there was no difference between the two groups.”

According to Carbonaro, computing science teachers need to look at redesigning the types of projects and content they use in class to make them more “female-user friendly.”

“If you want more females in computing science, you need to radically change the curriculum. You need to provide activities that are more gender neutral so that they’ll be attracted to the discipline.”

The research study was recently published in Computers and Education.

Montreal-based Di-O-Matic has revealed details about Voice-O-Matic v1.61 for Maya. Created to meet the needs of 3D character animators all over the world who require an easy-to-use, lip synchronization plug-in for their Autodesk Maya software, Voice-O-Matic is used by top 3D animation studios to achieve highly accurate voice-to-character matching. Voice-O-Matic v1.61 for Maya is available now for US $349.

Di-O-Matic heard your call animators. Spending hours to create lip sync animations for CG characters is tiring, and manually generating every lip movement is a long and tedious task. That’s why Voice-O-Matic was designed! Combining a user friendly interface with a highly efficient and time saving system. Some of the most admired CG characters including Batman, Spider-man and Superman carry Voice-O-Matic at the heart of their facial animations.

Designed for animators by animators, Voice-O-Matic v1.61 for Maya only requires an audio file to automatically produce an accurate lip sync animation. Afterwards, the results can be easily tweaked to perfectly match any style of animation. Voice-O-Matic v1.61 for Maya works with any type of character setup and with every language. Voice-O-Matic has also already earned its stripes with its use in leading feature films, popular television shows, commercials and award winning video games.

Oscar Marquez, coordinator of the 3D department at Cromosoma reveals “Not only did we manage to increase our productivity with Voice-O-Matic v1.61 for Maya, but it allowed us to focus on other aspects of our animated series. What we liked most about Voice-O-Matic is that it can be set up easily, the lip sync of several characters can be done at the same time and we barely need to modify the animation curves. If you make a good setup and integrate it properly you can have very good results. Thanks to Voice-O-Matic, we could do all the lip sync we needed in the series with just 10 mouth shapes and only one control for the most extreme poses.”

No matter which type of character setup you wish to use: from blend shapes to complex bone-based rigs, and no matter the language for which you wish to create lip synchronization, Voice-O-Matic v1.61 for Maya delivers, and can save up to 80% of the time it takes to manually animate lip synchronization. 3D animation artists can benefit by using both the automatic phoneme matching features and the manual tools to fine-tune the animated character to achieve highly customized results.

Interactive entertainment company Ludia today announced its ‘The Bachelor: The Videogame’ App is available on the App Store for iPhone, iPod touch for $2.99 USD and iPad for $4.99 USD. Based on the hit franchise created by Mike Fleiss, hosted by Chris Harrison and airing Mondays 8:00–10:00 ET/PT on ABC, the app features characters inspired by the actual Bachelors and Bachelorettes from the top rated series’ “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette,” including current Bachelor Brad Womack and the most recent Bachelorette, Ali Fedotowsky.

Fans of “The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette” can now live their own show experience anywhere, anytime, as they compete in a collection of exciting mini-games and challenges to win the attention and, ultimately, the heart of the Bachelor or Bachelorette. Players vie for the final rose, playing as either a female or male contestant.

“The Bachelor is one of the most successful dating competitions in the reality genre, and we are pleased to bring the romance and heated competition that are the hallmarks of the TV show to iPhone, iPod touch and iPad users,” said Alex Thabet, Founder and CEO of Ludia Inc. “This release reinforces Ludia’s strategy of delivering highly entertaining games, based on the most popular television brands.”

Features of The Bachelor: The Videogame App include:

* Play to earn the love of the Bachelor or the Bachelorette, guided by Chris Harrison.
* Characters based on favorite Bachelors and Bachelorettes, including Brad Womack, Jake Pavelka, Jason Mesnick and more!
* 23 mini-game challenges to play in one-on-one or group date scenarios.
* 3 levels of difficulty to chose from.
* Humorous “Fantasy Suite” videos where your performance in the game determines the outcome; will you share an embrace in the hot tub or be hung out to dry?

For those looking for employment, Ludia currently has several positions that need to be filled.

The S-3D Gaming Alliance has just released the 2011 edition of the U-Decide Initiative. U-Decide is credited as the only S-3D gaming report shaped by consumer opinion, industry analysis, and hands-on experience. The initiative gives readers a candid outlook of what needs to happen to make stereoscopic 3D gaming successful in the long term.

“DDD is a leading provider of 3D game conversion software for the PC market, and our success is dependent on delivering what gamers want. The U-Decide report provides this helpful insight and more, and we recommend it to anyone that also markets to the growing S-3D gaming community,” said Chris Yewdall, CEO of Dynamic Digital Depth. Read the rest of this entry »

Reminder: one week left to register for Prime Time in Ottawa

Pursuant to yesterday’s announcement by Shaw Communications in regards to their delaying Usage Based Billing, a reply from the corporation has shown up in my email box in regards to their upcoming “User Meetings”

Thank you for the Email dated February 8th, 2011.

We’re glad to hear you are interested in Usage Based Billing and want to join the conversation with regards to managing bandwidth usage. We are still setting up venues and times for the discussion so at this point we cannot say when or where they will be but we will contact you with an invitation as soon as these details have been worked out. We do expect to be sending out invitations next week so look for that in your Email.

We hope this answers your question but if you do require further assistance please feel free to contact us again by Email, Chat or Phone.

Today is release day for the third and final episode of Assassin’s Creed: The Fall, a comic book based on the Assassin’s Creed franchise and created by Karl Kerschl and Cameron Stewart. All three comics in the series are available at comic book stores or can be ordered online at the Ubiworkshop store.

For those unfamiliar with the comic series storyline, readers follow 19th century Russian assassin Nikolai Orelov as he strives to claim an artifact of immense power from the hands of the Templars, leading to a climactic and violent showdown with the ruthless Tsar Alexander III aboard a speeding train. Nikolai’s modern-day counterpart is a troubled young drifter who tries to cope with unsettling visions of a possible past life – visions that have irreversible consequences for the present.

Interactive Ontario has announced that registration for INplay 2011 is now open, and early adopters can benefit from the Kick Off ticket price of $629.00 (plus HST), which is available until February 23rd, when prices increase to $719.00 (plus HST). INplay is a conference that “connects kids creative industries with insights and opportunities in the interactive space,, encompassing all facets of the industry from the video game business to the broadcast industry, from toys to toons.”

This year’s INplay event will be held in Toronto on May 17th and 18th, and will feature three main tracks:

* Inspiration – creativity and content stream
* Investment – business stream
* Insights – research stream

INplay 2010 was held at Toronto’s Liberty Grand, welcoming 334 participants to the experience and featured three keynote presentations and 27 educational sessions lead by 106 international speakers.

Brock University has put out a call for papers for its third biennial conference on the Interactive Arts and Sciences. This year’s theme is Interacting with Immersive Worlds, with a focus on exploring the growing cultural importance of interactive media. The conference subject matter offers sessions in four different tracks:

The Challenges at the Boundaries of Immersive Worlds: creative exploration and innovation in immersive media including ubiquitous computing, telepresence, interactive art and fiction, and alternative reality.
The Critical Approaches to Immersion: look at analyses of the cultural and/or psychological impact of immersive worlds, as well as theories of interactivity.
The Immersive Worlds in Education: examine educational applications of immersive technologies.
The Immersive Worlds in Entertainment: examine entertainment applications of immersive technologies, such as computer games. Read the rest of this entry »

Tiny Hippos released a small update to its Ripple Emulator product today. The Version 0.4.8 update includes Compass support for PhoneGap and Accelerometer bug fixes. Ripple is a multi-platform mobile environment emulator that runs in a web browser and is custom-tailored to HTML5 mobile application testing. Ripple aims to reduce the challenges being faced by mobile developers caused by today’s platform fragmentation in the marketplace.

AChecker 1.1 by ATutor has been released. Built with the assistance of the Ontario Government’s Enabling Change Program, AChecker is a free open source Web content accessibility evaluator used to assess Web pages for conformance with international accessibility standards. This release adds a number of significant new features, including:

*CSS Evaluator: Access the validity of external stylesheets, embedded stylesheets, and inline styles while evaluating the accessibility of a Web page.
*Colour Contrast Evaluation: Ten new accessibility checks have been added to evaluate foreground and background colour contrast to ensure text is readable by everyone.
*Paste HTML from Clipboard: Evaluators can now paste the source HTML of a Web page into AChecker to have it evaluated. This makes it possible to assess pages that are not accessible from the Web, such those on an Intranet, or on a local personal computer.
*Updater: Administrators can now keep their AChecker installation up to date in between releases with the AChecker Updater. The Updater lets them apply patches to fix bugs, to add new features as they become available, and to add new accessibility checks as they are created.
*AChecker Translator Site: There are currently English and Italian translations of AChecker. Sign-up for a translator account on atutor.ca if you don’t already have one, and help translate AChecker into your language.

Following in the steps of its award-winning predecessors, Teach My Toddler and Teach My Baby, Teach My Preschooler is the third product from the Toronto-based Teach My brand and recently named one of Dr. Toy’s 100 Best Children’s Products and received iParenting’s Greatest Products of 2010 award.

Developed with education consultant, Judith Rowlands, M Ed., Teach My Preschooler is designed to give preschoolers a head start, develop fine motor skills, encourage parent/child interaction and increase school readiness skills. The kit is divided into four sections; Ready to Read, Print, Count to 100 and Early Math. Each section is fully-coordinated with books, flashcards, posters, a print guide and a magic drawing board.

“There is an increasing demand among parents to find simple, educational products without the technology of lights, sounds or music to help their children master the basic fundamentals of learning,” says Christy Cook, mompreneur and founder of Teach My. “Teach My Preschooler is a back-to-basics, all-in-one learning kit that provides modern, educational tools to help preschoolers master reading, printing, numbers to 100 and early math.

Teach My aims to take the guesswork out of early learning. The award-winning Teach My Baby is the first and only all-in-one learning kit for babies 6 to 18 months. The kit introduces First Words, First Numbers, Self and Sound & Touch. For children 18 months to 3 years, Teach My Toddler, is designed to help toddlers master the basics: alphabet, numbers, shapes and colors.  Teach My kits are available online and at specialty retailers across North America for $49.99, and will be at Booth #5748 at the NY Toy Fair.

PNI Digital Media has selected the Strangeloop Site Optimizer to accelerate its Digital Media Platform, which allows the world’s largest retailers to offer personalized products such as photo prints and photo books, ordered online and produced on demand for pick up and purchase at a consumers preferred retail location. The PNI Digital Media Platform connects 14,000 retail locations, 9000 of which offer a one-hour pick up of photo prints and photo gifts ordered online. The implementation of the Strangeloop Site Optimizer came just in time for PNI to take advantage of the peak holiday season, which typically sees more than 5 million image uploads and more than 150,000 orders during a single day.

“We tested Strangeloop’s Site Optimizer after a careful review of all the delivery-based web acceleration technology available in the market,” said Aaron Rallo, President of PNI Digital Media. “We were immediately impressed with Site Optimizer’s ease of deployment, performance benefits, and its ability to scale across our enterprise.” Read the rest of this entry »

Trend Micro has announced the 2nd annual “What’s Your Story” video contest. The contest combines the powerful tools of Internet reach and user generated video to encourage young people to tell their stories and share ideas about online safety.

The Contest’s three entry categories mirror some of the largest challenges to being safe online: Being a Good Online Citizen, Using a Cell Phone Wisely, and Maintaining Your Online Privacy. Canadian residents (outside of Quebec) aged 13 and older can create and submit a video of two minutes or less about how best to stay safe when engaging in online activities such as texting, instant messaging, or using social networking sites.

“What’s Your Story is a creative, fun and relevant way for everyone from teachers to aspiring film makers, their friends and families to become more involved in their own online safety,” said Lynette Owens, director, Trend Micro’s Internet Safety for Kids & Families. “The level of engagement that teens in particular exhibited last year convinced us to expand the reach of this year’s contest beyond Canada and the U.S and into the UK. We are delighted to be joined this year by some of the world’s leading organizations advocating for youth online safety. Together, we believe ‘What’s Your Story’ promotes the positive use of the very thing we are trying to keep kids safe on.”

Trend Micro Internet Safety for Kids & Families has teamed with some of the world’s leading organizations that either provide access to kids online or advocate for their safety. The 2011 judging panel includes: Childnet International, Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, Facebook, JENNiRADIO, myYearbook, Q2/UK, and Webwise Kids.

Unlike other video contests that rely on static and subjective criteria, “What’s Your Story” actively engages participants throughout the entire process through an on line review process. Video makers can share their submissions and encourage others to view and vote, which means voters also become active participants in the process. Only the highest-rated and most-viewed videos will be considered for prizes by the contest judges.

Ontario teens KJ Proux and Matt Bendo were finalists in the Being Safe on Line category for their video Pull the Plug on Bullying. A 30 second version of the video was shown 18 times daily on the CBS Superscreen in New York’s Times Square during the month of November 2010. Canada is one of the most connected countries on the planet and the highest percentage of regular on line users are teens. According to Statistics Canada, close to 99 percent of teens living in Canada use on line tools in their daily lives.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOwArod2d0s]

What’s Your Story 2011 will award a grand prize of $10,000.00 U.S. to the winning entry, with special $500 US categories for schools and individuals who submit entries. Contest submissions are due by April 5th and winners will be announced on April 26th.

Trend Micro also has a grant programme to provide financial, in-kind donations, or volunteer support to eligible organizations or initiatives that help educate families, parents, kids, teachers and schools on using the Internet safely and securely.

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, Amazon.ca has released its second annual ranking of the Top 20 Most Romantic Cities in Canada. They are:

1. Victoria 2. Guelph 3. Calgary 4. Saskatoon 5. Oakville (new) 6. Regina 7. Kingston 8. Kelowna 9. Nepean (new)
10. Burlington (new) 11. Winnipeg 12. Richmond Hill (new) 13. Edmonton 14. London 15. Kitchener (new)
16. St. Catharines (new) 17. Burnaby (new) 18. Thunder Bay 19. Richmond 20. Ottawa

This list was compiled by comparing Amazon.ca sales data of romance novels, sex and relationship books, romantic comedy DVDs and Michael Bublé CDs since Jan. 1, 2011, on a per capita basis in cities with more than 100,000 residents.

A closer look at Amazon.ca’s “most romantic” data reveals that:

* Victoria proves brains are sexy too, not only earning the honour of all-around Most Romantic City 2011, but also as the biggest consumer of romantic books.
* British Columbia is home to the top spot but more than half of the most romantic cities (11 in all) are in Ontario.
* Canada’s metropolises (Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver) fail to make the cut this year, bested by smaller challengers like Nepean, Oakville and Richmond Hill.
* Last year’s winner, Saskatoon, falls to No. 4, though still remains a healthy lover of romance novels.
* Crazy Love: Though not quite placing in the Top 20, Brantford, Ontario, holds the distinction of being the single-biggest per capita purchaser of Michael Bublé CDs.
* Kingston is the place where residents are most likely to curl up in front of a romantic DVD, with Calgary and Nepean as the close runners-up.
* Always the bridesmaid: Calgary is the most consistent consumer of romantic products, landing in the top three of every category surveyed – though never No.1.

The above data is interesting, but just for the record, the original press release from Amazon’s HQ in Seattle listed Calgary as being in British Columbia, so if you’re waiting on an order shipment…

Toronto animation school Max The Mutt™ has redesigned its Classical & Computer Animation & Production Diploma program. The updated 4 year curriculum focuses on character animation based on Warner Bros and Disney guidelines. With the school continuing to grow, Max the Mutt™  is opening additional facilities at 1139 College Street.

This Career College currently at 952 Queen Street West was founded in 1996 in a small studio by professional artists and animators. Max the Mutt’s founder, Maxine Schacker is an accomplished artist whose work has been exhibited in Montreal, Toronto and New York. She studied with world-famous Instructor of Drawing and Anatomy, Robert Beverly Hale, at the Arts Students League of New York.

As the success of the animation program grew, the school added programs in Illustration for Sequential Arts, and Concept Art for Animation & Video Games.  Most of the instructors at Max the Mutt™ are current, working professionals who teach on a part-time basis. All want to teach at Max the Mutt™ because of the serious, professional students, small classes, and ability to input the curriculum.

The new facility will house most of the courses for years 2, 3 and 4 of the animation diploma program and some of the 3 and 4 year courses for Concept Art students. Max the Mutt™ Productions Inc. will also be housed at this location. An additional benefit of the new location is an exciting art gallery. Max the Mutt™ plans to have ongoing shows of work done by students, alumni and faculty. A spring exhibition will celebrate the opening of the new facility showcasing work by the Max the Mutt™ faculty.

The updated 4 year animation curriculum includes a stimulating experience of working in a studio environment. Students from Max the Mutt™ will enter the industry with hands-on production experience, a skill that is extremely attractive to the industry.  The goal at Max the Mutt™ is to create and maintain a vibrant, ethical community dedicated to passing on skills to upcoming generations.