Village Gamer

Toronto – Although the economy has slowed and the unemployment rate has risen locally and nationally, employers are still hiring in the information technology sector. MSEmploy Canada — Canada’s only Microsoft-focused job and training portal – is sponsoring a Career Fair in Mississauga on May 6 to connect job candidates with expanding IT companies.

When: May 6, 2009 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Where: Microsoft Canada Head Office at 1950 Meadowvale Blvd.  Mississauga, ON

The focus of MSEmploy Canada and the career fair are positions associated with Microsoft technologies, such as .Net, SharePoint, Hyper-V, and Dynamics. Some of the types of jobs being sought are .Net Developer, System Engineer, Technical Support, Project Manager, and Network Administrator.
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Tickets Go On Sale Today At Noon

Vancouver ACM SIGGRAPH makes a big-screen splash to celebrate its sixth anniversary, presenting one of DreamWorks Animation’s bright lights, Director/Writer Eric Darnell, fresh from the success of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Start the evening in style mingling at the licensed industry mixer with free snacks and drinks. The first 50 through the door receive a free movie poster. Eric Darnell will be on hand at the mixer signing copies of the book for sale: The Art of Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. At 7:30 pm get set for the main presentation and a screening of this visionary experimental director’s latest animated film.

6:30 pm – Book signing & industry mixer*
7:30 pm – Directing Madagascar w. Eric Darnell
8:30 pm – Q&A & door prizes
8:45 pm – Intermission
9:15 pm – Screening: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa (free)

* All ticket holders are automatically registered to industry mixer and screening.
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Vancouver – On May 7th, AnnexPro invites you to come and learn how Autodesk Digital Entertainment Creation (DEC) tools accelerate the workflow of creative professionals in games development as well as animation and post.

Autodesk Technical Specialists Marcel deJong, Mark Schoennagel and Mark Noland will show you how real-world production challenges are solved using Autodesk tools that make you more proficient, productive and give you a competitive advantage, while providing excellent return on investment.

Common processes such as modeling characters and set extensions will be explored. In addition, character rigging and animation exchange will also be featured. Last but not least, rendering tools that culminate in the finishing of shots via Autodesk compositing solutions will be demonstrated.  Featured products include: Autodesk Mudbox 2009, Autodesk Motionbuilder 2009, Autodesk Toxik 2009, Autodesk Softimage 7.5, Autodesk Maya 2009 and Autodesk 3ds Max 2010.

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Vancouver – This past Saturday night we attended the best digital art event in town. Anomaly 2009 was held at the District 319 Theatre, and with attendance of well over 200, was an awesome night of networking and learning.

Daryl Mandryk

Attendees could watch live CG demonstrations given by such talented digital artists as Daryl Mandryk (Propaganda), David Tran (Smoking Gun), Jesse Turner (Threewave), Jeff Simpson (Big Sandwich Games), Peter Zoppi (Treyarch, Rythm & Hues, Luna Pictures) and Marco Menco (Image Engine), as well as interact with the artists, who were more than willing to talk about their techniques and share their knowledge. There were also two showcase exhibits set up featuring the beautiful work of Offload Studios and Avatar Sculpture Works.

The evening began with speed sketching, featuring Jesse Turner and live model Jenny Magenta. Accompanied by live music, everyone was encouraged to draw along with either traditional or digital tools.
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Vancouver – Keynotes from Canadian videogame development luminaries Don Mattrick, Ray Muzyka, and Greg Zeschuk will kick off two days of best practices for building better games with better teams. With sessions designed to improve collaboration among designers, programmers, visual artists and writers, GDC Canada is a must attend event for the entire team.

The conference schedule has now been finalized, and with a wide variety of topics, there is something for everyone, from games as a brand to outsourcing and from audio to writing. The full schedule with more information can be viewed on the GDC Canada website.

Featured Sessions:

8 Things Game Developers Can Learn from BMW
Speaker: Otto Ottosson (Threewave Software Inc.)
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Vancouver –  Clio is officially “Best in Show” according to the world of legal technology. The web-based practice management software-as-a-service (SaaS) product took home top honors at both New York LegalTech in February as one of Bob Ambrogi’s LegalTalkNetwork’s “Ten Tech Stars”, and more recently, the ABA TECHSHOW in April by landing on TechnoLawyer’s “Best in Show” list.

Clio’s meteoric rise began on October 1, 2008 when the product was launched at the ABA’s Solo/Small Firm Fall Meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The product, created by Themis Solutions out of Vancouver, BC in Canada, was developed as a web-based alternative to traditional desktop practice management software packages such as Time Matters and Amicus Attorney. With Clio, Themis Solutions quickly developed traction among its target market – solo and small firm attorneys – a segment that had been vastly under-served by existing legal technology offerings.
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Sault Ste. Marie – Four Algoma University students have won the approval of critical judges and qualified for the Dare to be Digital video game design competition being held this June to August in the United Kingdom. Sunny Atwal, Eric Stock, Pedro Melendez, and Chris Iaconis from Algoma University and one student from the University of Abertay Dundee in Scotland have been accepted to take part as a team in the annual competition.

Dare to be Digital bills itself as the United Kingdom’s premier video game design competition for students. Now in its tenth year of operation, Dare to be Digital is an annual summer event that allots teams of students ten weeks to design and build a video game prototype. At the conclusion of the ten weeks, the teams are brought together at a showcase event where their games are evaluated by industry experts. The competition is open to all university students across the UK and also regularly attracts international competitors from nations such as China, India, Japan and Malaysia.
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Waterloo – SuperMegaUltraGroovy today introduced Capo, a remarkable new Mac OS X application that helps aspiring musicians learn to play their favorite tracks. Capo slows down songs from iTunes without changing the pitch, letting users hear every note and chord and play along at their own pace.

“Capo helps you become a better musician,” said Chris Liscio, founder of SuperMegaUltraGroovy. “By slowing down your favorite music, and learning to play songs clearly at a rate you’re comfortable with, your playing technique will improve as you work your way up to full speed.”

Capo allows users to adjust the speed and pitch of audio, independent of one another. Pitch adjustments can be made finely, to match an instrument’s tuning, or coarsely, to change the song’s key. In addition, users can set markers, and create loops, to aid their learning. All these settings can be saved in Capo documents, so that users can later return to where they left off.
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Montreal – Bandzoogle.com, the leading website builder tool for musicians, has announced its member artists have exceeded $1 million in music and merchandise sales direct from their websites–a milestone made sweeter for members by the fact that Bandzoogle doesn’t charge fees or commissions on those sales.

“The fact that Bandzoogle lets artists keep 100 percent of their sales sets us apart from the vast majority of e-commerce solutions for musicians,” says Chris Vinson, president of Bandzoogle. “And our team is proud to have helped our members reach this million-dollar milestone,” he says. “It demonstrates how our tools are helping musicians succeed on the web.”
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Banff – The Banff World Television Festival (BANFF) announces the new Kids & Animation series featuring top television program creators, broadcasters and executives in children’s and animation industries. The 30th edition of BANFF takes place at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Canada, June 7–10, 2009.

“We developed the Kids & Animation series out of our continuing effort to create innovative festival programming together with more opportunities for building new business relationships,” commented Peter Vamos, BANFF Executive Director. “We are proud to launch this new series led by some of the best in the industry of animation and children’s television programming.” The Kids & Animation series is designed to address new programming formats along with the current trends and issues facing the youth focused and animated television industries. Sessions will run concurrently with the regularly scheduled sessions on Tuesday, June 9 and will include networking opportunities, broadcaster briefings and spotlights on key players in the industry.
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