According to the nVidia press release, Tesla™ GPU Computing Processor Ushers In the Era of Personal Supercomputing:

NVIDIA took a giant step in meeting this challenge with today’s announcement of a new class of processors based on a revolutionary new graphics processing unit (GPU). Under the NVIDIA® Tesla™ brand, NVIDIA will offer a family of GPU computing products that will place the power previously available only from supercomputers in the hands of every scientist and engineer. Today’s workstations will be transformed into “personal supercomputers.”

This is definitely an exciting development that we are going to keep a focussed eye on. It wasn’t too long ago that SGI (Silicon Graphics) was the market leader when it came to high end graphics hardware and stagnation in development of both hardware and software has left a gap in the market that, based on nVidia’s announcement, is going to be filled again. For product information, see the nVidia Tesla pages.

Gnomon, the well known educational resource for professional training for artists in the entertainment and design industries has launched a new website called Gnomonology that sells (very affordable) online tutorials for products such as Photoshop, Maya, Max, Z-Brush, and Houdini.

With the increasing prevalence of online video and high-speed net access, Gnomon has created Gnomonology as a resource for our professional instructors and students from around the world. Delivering high-quality tutorials and assets for a variety of tools and applications, Gnomonology strives to provide you with convenient, affordable and educational content. Our mission is simple… to empower digital artists with professional techniques that have been developed over the years of experience our instructors bring to the site. Whether you are a 2D or 3D digital artist, we hope that you find Gnomonology to be a valuable resource. Tutorials and assets for an increasingly wide range of tools will be added to the site every month.

Related sites:

• Gnomon school of visual effects
• Gnomon workshop
• Gnomon online

The Rome Reborn project over at the Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities at the University of Virginia is worth having a look at. The purpose of this project was to create a digital model of ancient Rome as it appeared in late antiquity and from the looks of the results, they certainly did a fine job on that.

For those who haven’t checked out the Photosynth Technology Preview, please do so now and you won’t be disappointed. And while you’re at it, check out the videos on the site. The project has been around for a while but is really shaping up at this point.  The basis of this new technology would certainly lend itself quite well for some higher-end developments for the creation of digital environments. The really amazing part is how gigabytes of images are found and accessed in mere seconds.

Softimage has put up a few web pages titled Top 10 Reasons to Try XSI and is using the slogan “Is your 3D performance maxed out?”. The latter must clearly be a tongue-in-cheek reference to Autodesk’s 3ds max. The top 10 reasons are reasonable but why stop at just 10 reasons? Why not make it 20, or 50 or 100?

For more reasons you can read Stefan’s 3ds Max to Softimage XSI transition tips.

Who hasn’t heard of Digg? Who has heard of CGocracy? CGocracy will certainly not become as popular as Digg but for those of us who are in the industry it could very well become an incredible resource for what’s hot and what’s not in CGI. CGocracy is described as a user driven social content site but simply saying “it’s like Digg for computer graphics” is both simpler and clearer.

If you are looking for the “3ds max to Softimage XSI Transition Tips” page that used to be on this site then follow this link to get there. This article is aimed at users of Autodesk/Discreet’s 3ds max who are transitioning to Softimage XSI and covers the fundamentals. When time allows there will be follow-up articles published which will take a closer and more in-depth look at the various aspects of Softimage XSI such as the Net View, Synoptic Editor, Scripting, and lots more.

If you are looking for the “Is .NET the future of 3D applications and development?” article that used to be on this site then follow this link to get there. Originally written and published 19-08-2002. Since the initial publication by Animagic and mantiCORE Labs several companies such as Avid/Softimage (Softimage XSI 6.0) and Autodesk (3ds max) and have recognized the relevance of .NET and have, at the end of 2006 both released products that offer some integration with .NET. It ‘only’ took 4 years.

Oscar nominated artist Ruairi Robinson has posted the full version of his live action short film, “The Silent City” for all to see. Ruairi wrote, directed, edited, and storyboarded the entire film and has done 95% of the visual effects (which, as usual, are stunning). The film stars Don Wycherley (from Batchelors Walk), Cillian Murphy (28 Days, Later, Sunshine, Batman Begins, Breakfast on Pluto), and Garvan McGrath.

Besides the high definition video, make sure you check out some of the visual effects wizardry performed by Ruairi by checking out the before and after shots. And while you’re at it, check out the humorous FAQ that is featured on his website. A little word of warning… graphic detail not suitable for children and strong language will be found anywhere in the vicinity of anything remotely related to Ruairi. But that’s the way we know and like Ruairi and we hope he never changes that edge.

So, Ruairi, you f*&$#$*#!, I see you *&*^#&^@ still haven’t learned s&^#* at all and you still haven’t adjusted your *&@**#&# and *&@*(%#. Here I thought that you might have drank yourself to death in the past years. Keep up the fun work!