Date: Tue, 5 May 1998 10:04:01 -0400 From: Eric J Pierce To: boston-vr-announce@world.std.com Subject: BVRG May '98 Meeting: Industrial Light And Magic The May 1998 BVRG meeting is the same as the SIGGRAPH/Boston meeting. Check out the details below. See you there! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- SIGGRAPH/Boston Meeting Announcement Pin-Face - How ILM Produces an Animated Commercial Marc Cooper Industrial Light and Magic Thursday, May 14, 1998 Bartos Theater, MIT Media Lab, Cambridge networking, 6:30pm, presentation 7:00pm Abstract SIGGRAPH/Boston is pleased to present a speaker from Industrial Light and Magic. ILM is the award-winning (multiple Oscars and Cleos, that is) company owned by George Lucus that is famous for all the visual effects we see in the movies such as the Star Wars series. We all have seen those pinboard toys where you can press your hand or your face into the back and leave an "pin-pression" of it on the front. But how do you simulate that functionality using computer graphics? Marc Cooper, a technical director at ILM will explain the various technical and artistic challenges encountered in making over eight thousand virtual pins perform for a commercial called "CPA Pin-Face" for the Certified Public Accountants Association. In addition he will review some of his work from the last Star Trek movie, Star Trek: First Contact. This meeting will be the first of two meetings co-sponsored by SIGGRAPH/Boston, GBC/ACM and the Boston Chapter of the IEEE-CS. SIGGRAPH/Boston will host the meeting Thursday, May 14 where Marc will present a detailed presentation of how he and his associates at ILM produced the CPA Pin-Face commercial. On Friday, May 15, Marc will present an overview about ILM and what it takes to produce animation and visual effects for the movies and TV. He will describe how several visual effects were produced from such films as Lost World, Dragonheart and Star Trek. Come to the meeting to see what a day is really like at ILM. (It might not be a much fun as we all think...) About the Speaker Marc Cooper is a Technical Director at Industrial Light and Magic of Marin County, California. He has worked on numerous feature films including Casper, Dragonheart, and Flubber. He has just completed work on Dreamworks next film; Deep Impact. Marc has been at ILM for 4 years. Prior to working at ILM, he worked as a research programmer and systems administrator at the NASA Lewis Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio and as a visualization programmer for the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois. He has a degree in Computer Science from the University of Illinois. When Thursday, May 14, 1998. Networking time at 6:30pm, announcements and feature presentation at 7:00pm. Where Bartos Theater, MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA. Directions to Bartos Theater, MIT Media Lab. From the West: From the Massachusetts Turnpike: Exit at "Brighton/Cambridge". Follow signs to Cambridge. The Doubletree Hotel will be on your right. Go straight over the bridge into Cambridge (on River Street) and take your first right onto Memorial Drive. The Charles River will be on your right. Go straight on Memorial Drive, staying to the center of the road and going over the overpass at the Boston University (B.U.) Bridge (past MicroCenter). Pass under the next bridge, which is the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge. The first street after that bridge, to the left, is Ames Street--but it is one way in the wrong direction. You will have to take the second left (sign says Kendall Square) onto Wadsworth St. Take the first left onto Amherst Street. On Amherst Street, take the third right onto Ames Street. The Media Laboratory is the second building on your right. It is a large contemporary white tiled building. Bartos Theater is on the ground floor. By Subway: Please check the subway map at your boarding point. You want to take the Red Line to the "Kendall/MIT" stop. You can transfer without additional fees from any other subway line at the appropriate subway station. At the Kendall/MIT stop, you will surface at Main Street in Kendall Square. Landmarks include Au bon Pain, the Marriott Hotel, the MIT Coop and MIT Press Bookstore (across Main Street from the others), and Legal Seafoods Restaurant (at the west end of the block). Facing Main Street, with the Marriott and the MIT Coop to your back, proceed right (west) towards Legal Seafoods. Walk to the first traffic light. This is the intersection of Main Street and Ames Street. Turn left onto Ames Street. The Media Laboratory is the second building on the left at 20 Ames Street. Bartos Theater is on the ground floor. Parking: There are rarely any on-street parking spaces on the MIT campus. The only garage that is convenient to the Media Laboratory is the Marriott Hotel garage. The entrance to this is on Ames Street, between Main and Broadway. Media Laboratory MIT Building #E15, The Wiesner Building 20 Ames Street Cambridge, MA 02139 617-253-0338 ************************************************************************ SIGGRAPH/Boston Contacts WWW: http://www.siggraph.org/chapters/boston SIGGRAPH/Boston maintains a mailing list for e-mail announcements of meetings. Send e-mail to siggraphdistrib-request@cs.umb.edu if you want be added or dropped from this list. ====================================================================== Boston VR Group - A Gathering of Minds for Cyberspace Development: The Group meetings are a great way to meet others who are "actually" developing Virtual Environments. Whether you have an interest in the discussions, 3-D modelling, interactively generating and/or coding virtual worlds, or somewhere in between, there lots to do and talk about!!! Boston VR Group Philosophy: The purpose of the Boston Virtual Reality Group is to provide an ongoing venue for developing virtual environments as well as a forum for bringing scientists and developers together with VR enthusiasts/potential users. Through actively exploring both the technology and its cultural implications, exposing each to the other's thoughts and ideas, and "learning from" and "sharing with" industry leaders, we can help shape the future of this medium. ====================================================================== FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: ------------------------------ Director BVRG: Brenden C.Maher Speaker Requests: brenden@molec-geodesics.com voice: (617) 277-1326 HOW TO SUBSCRIBE TO AND UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS LIST: --------------------------------------------------- To subscribe to the boston-vr-announce e-mail announcement distribution list, send the following line in the body of your message to majordomo@world.std.com: subscribe boston-vr-announce To unsubscribe yourself from this list send the following line: unsubscribe boston-vr-announce ======================================================================