id Software 20th Anniversary Feature

UK film tax credit update

Based on recent announcement UK government continues to support the film and VFX productions in UK with further enhancing tax credit for lower as well as high budget productions from april 2014. There is also support for digital content Research & Development through Technology Strategy Board and education in the same sector via Skill Investment Fund.

Variety
http://variety.com/2013/film/news/u-k-government-ups-tax-credit-for-bigger-budget-pix-1200921539/

UK goverment website
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/autumn-statement-5-december-2013

* image courtesy Thor The Dark World, visual effects by Double Negative

VFX Soldier steps out from anonymity

FXGuide.com made an exclusive interview with Daniel Lay who is apparently the guy behind the VFX Soldier blog famous for its critisism of film tax breaks and also for posting other stories and happenings from the darker side of visual effects industry.
http://www.fxguide.com/fxpodcasts/fxpodcast-267-i-am-vfx-soldier/

Ftrack Locations

This has been shown a while ago by Ftrack but I wanted to post it on this blog. Ftrack Locations is new feature being tested and coming probably as the next feature of Ftrack. It makes the sharing of published files between users very easy, withough having to tweak the API as being a default plugin feature. Current FtrackPlugins would store files locally to selected disk, which would usually not match the same folder of other user. Below is a demo of the new system:


Working with multi-site and/or freelancers using ftrack from ftrack on Vimeo.

Online computer game coaching

Wow, computer gaming enters new level. You can have your personal paid coach to improve your gaming skills. The best paid coach in League of Legends takes 30 Euros/ h. Well, games become quite a hobby for many people and e-sports keep getting bigger audience every year. Some would rather watch a Dota2 match on twitch.tv then soccer on classic TV channel.
http://school.egg-one.com/en/league-of-legends-lessons

MPC goes for site license of Fabric Engine : Splice

Leading VFX vendor Moving Picture Company recently went into full site license deal for 3d tools development platform from Fabric Engine. Software under name Splice API is a commercial solution for application independent development of tools like Real Time Renderer, Geometry Deformers, Animation Solvers, Procedural Geometry Generation, Crowd Simulation and others. Package offers python scripting and compilable yet simple language KL which allows developpers and TDs to focus on the algorithms and not worry about memory and compilation issues. Fabric Engine has developped its own compilers and aims to support seamless GPU support using the same code. Performance is one of the main focuses of this development platform. Ultimately Splice API can bring down costs of high end tools development which is either not viable for many studios or costly for others maintaining teams of programmers often developping the same tools in every studio only to get the basic libraries with profit in production as longer term goal. Fabric Engine developped a software which could change that. Press release is below:
http://fabricengine.com/2013/12/mpc-purchase-global-site-license-of-fabric-engine/


Fabric Engine & MPC Global Site License interview from Fabric Engine on Vimeo.

Ironhide Games interview

Ok this is an older interview. Ironhide Games got my attention as I am recently playing their extension Kingdom Rush Frontiers, I thought - these guys are doing great game, which is fun and I want to find out more about them.
Same as with Carbon Games, this is another small game team, bunch of guys who followed their dream and made it. Btw. they are from Uruguay, south America.
(make sure captions are on if you dont speak spanish)