A funny and ingenious use of 3d to portray (an imaginative?) reality. This ad for Wilkinson is constructed in the same manner as a recongnizable movie-trailer. And they have followed the “trailer” up with a site familiar to that offered by a mainstream movie. Exploring the characters, goodies, even a downloadable game. The French became a slight barrier for me (Babelfish can’t translate Flash embedded text yet?), but I it does look entertaining. See it here (flash – mov available here.)

Cropped screenshot from the movie-trailer.

(Via Ventilate)

Björk is giving anybody who want the chance to make her latest music video, basicly a competition to find the video she likes best. On the competition site you can even download a 3D model of the sculpture or outfit that is already in the album photo. What is great about this competition for a profiled artist like Björk is that it gives all eager video-creators a fair chance to prove themselves.

I found out about this competion at CreateDigitalMotion, they also inform that Apple and Modest Mouse have a so-called “green-screen” contest. More about the contest and for raw-material downloads check out Apple’s Eduction Community Pages.

Greenscreen footage is great for students, since proper lighting and recording becomes rather pricy. (See my small greenscreen project with a static anchor/host type greenscreen here.)

This short film, viewable at VMIX, includes some impressive Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) created by Andrew Huang. In December I mentioned The Making of Walkers Android,  Walker’s commercial also including some CGI.

Screenshot from the short film.

(Via Gizmodo)

I am not quite sure if this action fight scene actually is an advert for a company, but there is definitely some focus on the Nike shoes in this short titled Sigg Jones. Apparently the French company Supinfocom created this impressive 3d action filled short.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The above clip is on YouTube, but is available in WMV which I’m guessing is actually higher quality from Supinfocom’s own site.

(Via Drawn)

The below 3D desktop solution from BumpTop illustrates a rather nice interface for working in a 3D “office” desk environment. It’s what I would categorize as EyeCandy.

But the solutions might not necessarily be all that positive, so much control, too ways to “lose” yourself? It is too early to draw any definite conclusions about BumpTop, as its not available yet. But my belief is that 3d desktops in general give the user too many, fancy and distracting, alternatives. Below is their YouTube demonstration.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For more 3D desktop examples check out TechEBlog’s: Feature: Cool 3d Desktops.

I’m afraid to say this, but after using Avid 3D seriously this past week, the impression I am left with is that this application should still be in Beta mode. (Official Avid 3D pages: Norway or US/international (Directory Listing Denied at the moment, are they perhaps ashamed of it?)

Avid 3D’s user interface is heavy, complicated and seems to be dominated by several half-finished solutions. Cameras, objects and lights all have programming-like names, instead of something explanatory like Camera 2, you are given programming parameters and libs.
The application will crash in odd circumstances. Some of its so-called friendly and drag’n’drop features do work some of the time, but just as quickly turn around and cause havoc.
Lastly there is little to none Avid 3D documentation and tutorials online. The odd forum post may mention Avid 3D problems, though you are pretty much left on your own after you have gone through the few tutorials that exist.

Since Avid 3D actually does have something good about it, I am not all negative towards it. It comes as a nice and cheap addition to the Avid Packages we have licensed here at school. Another nice advantage I do appreciate with Avid3D is the possibility for rendering your animations with Alpha-channels intact.
For people who are not interested in creating models from scratch, but want to be able to move models around in three dimensions, Avid3D has a number of nice finished models. Which all can easily be moved around in space, without much previous 3D knowledge other than watching the nice video tutorials which follow the Avid3D DVD.
An extra bonus is the particle effects that is built into Avid 3D.

If its any consolation Avid 3d is released in version 5.6, but we just can’t afford every single update here at school. I hope and expect some of these quirks are fixed now. Alex Alexzander has reviewed the whole Avid Toolkit, and has a section with a positive review of Avid 3D 5.6.

After my post “Starting to Use Photoshop Brushes?” I was reminded of other features I have barely touched for years. Displacement Maps is another feature that I often forget and I know many others seldomly use. This tutorial gives a nice example of Displacement Maps in use: Use The Displace Filter & Displacement Maps To Make A Realistic flag.

This guide is written for use in Adobe Photoshop Elements, but should work just as well in the full version of Photoshop. The website PhotoshopSupport also seems like quite a good resource regarding Photoshop, but I have just briefly glanced though the site.

Computer Aided Drawing (Design?) technical drawings etc. but using guidelines in Adobe Illustrator… I have been using Illustrator a bit more often lately because of its wonderful vector capabilities. And I came across some rather interesting tutorials and lessons for Illustrator and Photoshop this morning. Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop Tutorials & Lessons. (These are a lot more technical than your average eye-candy “tuts” of the fancy tutorial sites.)

I am probably not going to run off and try to draw that car, but it was fascinating seeing the process. And you never know if some of the techniques can be used in other connections. I think a real CAD application or 3D program would be better than “freehand” in Illustrator but nevertheless interesting.

CB Model Pro is a 3D application in beta, a tool for creating 3 dimensional content for both Windows and Mac. The application is developed by Cosmic Blobs, and promotes the phrase “3D For All”. Something which is an aspect to commend, especially since far too many 3D applications are so heavy and complicated that unless people take a course or spend countless hours the chances are many will drop out.

To continue using it free of charge after 15 days you apparently have to register. From what I have read this application can’t be compared to more professional 3D programs. The alternative free open source application Blender has some of the same capabilities in addition to being much more all round. For some of the latest Blender related builds checkout GraphicAll.
As I have mentioned before the 3D application Cheetah3D (solely for Mac) is the only 3D application I am in the progress of learning so far, and I am still exploring its many possibilities.

Via Digg.

A Gentleman’s Duel is a movie trailer clip from Blur Studios and has some of the ingredients that quickly captures audiences attention.

Personally I am greatly impressed with their 3d and characters. Even though I do not like to admit it, the sound and accompanied music enhances the experience even more. I am looking forward to see the whole short film.
Video below from YouTube.:

Click here to view the embedded video.