visualize

This show is about one of the categories for the Academy Awards: visual effects. This year, there are three films up for awards in the visual effects category: Avatar, Star Trek, and District 9. We're going to be talking with Russell Earl of Industrial Light & Magic. Russell was co-visual effects supervisor for one of those films, Star Trek, and also worked on Transformers, Pearl Harbor, Pirates of the Caribbean, and two of the Star Wars movies.

Also joining us is CNET writer Daniel Terdiman, who covers digital media, culture, and gaming for the Geek Gestalt blog on CNET.

Show notes and talking points… Read more

Recent editions of Windows offer a lot more in the way of desktop customization and interface enhancement options than was once the case, but for some PC users, especially those used to relying on third-party apps to deliver what Microsoft doesn't, even Windows 7's much-touted improvements are behind the curve. For them, desktop slideshows are so Win95; they need more features and control in their computing experience.

Nimi Visuals offers both. It's a free, compact, standalone Windows effects and customization engine that bundles together more than 59 different customization effects like transparent windows, snow, jelly windows, window … Read more

Galactica is an interactive light show, a relaxing app that lets you manipulate spacey visual effects to the sounds of ethereal background music.

As is often the case for apps like this (i.e., with arguably zero "usefulness") the value of Galactica comes down to how well it's designed and executed. Fortunately, Galactica makes excellent use of the touch screen, and the quality of the music and the app's cosmic "fireworks" are consistently good. The interface encourages playfulness, with a simple flick to send a stream of light shooting across the screen, a double-tap … Read more

In case you weren't paying attention, 2009 was a banner year for big, big visual effects movies.

And the teams that crafted the most impressive work were honored Tuesday morning, along with all the best and brightest in filmmaking, when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominations for the 2010 Oscars.

Here at CNET News we have a special place in our heart, as you might expect, for visual-effects-heavy movies because of the fantastic amounts of technology and computing power that goes into them.

As usual, the Academy chose just three films as visual-effects nominees. … Read more

Update at 8:25 a.m. PST Feb. 2: "Avatar" has snagged nine Oscar nominations: visual effects, best picture, art direction, cinematography, directing, film editing, sound editing, sound mixing, and music (original score).

When the trumpets sound Tuesday morning and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announces its annual Oscar nominations, could there be any more of a sure thing than that James Cameron's mega-hit "Avatar" will grace the list of visual effects honorees?

After all, while many people have enjoyed the film's sprawling anti-colonialism storyline, there's little doubt that what … Read more

We have to preface this by saying that we are engaged to a big graphic design nerd, and we know without asking what he would think of Visual Business Cards. There's a lot of bad design out there, and unfortunately, Visual Business Cards seems to be in the business of propagating it. Although the program is quite easy to use, we're afraid that more often than not it will result in tacky, amateurish business cards.

The program loses any design credibility it may have had by setting Comic Sans as the default font. We do give Visual Business … Read more

Multi Project Planner offers a vast array of tools to manage complex projects. It has all that you need to oversee any project, but its overwhelming options may hold some back.

The program's interface is clean and useful but a bit disorienting from the start because of an embarrassment of riches: Multi Project Planner offers so many details that its commands are difficult to memorize. Even the tutorials are confusingly dense with instructions and examples. In the end, Multi Project Planner produces readable, multicolored charts showcasing every aspect of a project, from daily responsibilities of individuals to total man … Read more

Update (11:49 a.m.): Weta Digital has been contacted for comment, and this story will be updated when and if the company responds.

SAN FRANCISCO--About a year ago, with James Cameron's science-fiction epic "Avatar" well under way, it became clear that Weta Digital, the visual effects studio doing much of the computer generated imagery, or CGI, on the project, was a bit in over its head.

At that point, the movie, which opened Friday, was about 40 minutes longer than it ended up being, and what was needed to finish the project was another company that … Read more

Microsoft said on Thursday that it would delay by "a few weeks" the launch of its Visual Studio 2010 developer tool suite and version 4.0 of the .Net Framework.

In a blog posting, developer division head S. Somasegar said the company needs more time as it continues to work on some performance issues.

Microsoft had planned to launch the product in March. The company now plans an added test version--a release candidate--to launch in February, with the final version coming a few weeks after the planned March launch.

"Since the goal of the release candidate is … Read more