Normally I hate “Vote for me” posts, but this is a special case. We are working with SXSW to bring them to Chicago for the Motion Graphics Festival and to bring Chicago to SXSW. By voting for the User Interface in Motion panel you will help us to do this!

Voting will close at 11:59 pm Central Standard Time on Friday, August 29. Panel organizers will be notified as to whether their idea was accepted (or not) beginning in mid-October.

Apple FCP T3 is coming soon…
new version of Color & Motion

If anyone wants to certify in it,
here is the schedule of Train-the-trainer classes
they cost $1400 but you get a free copy of FCP T3 ($1200)
and you can teach FCP certified training classes.

definitely check out this doc from the current version FCStudio 2
about how the programs are working together.

btw, most of the T3 books are being written by Chicago Local, Matt Geller,
here is his blog:
www.empoweringcreativity.com
go matt!

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Anyone Teaching Flash Should Know What These Programs Do:

Flex: a java & mxml programming environment that outputs flash animations
AIR: deploy HTML & AJAX & Flash as a desktop application

Also btw, Flash 9 new features:

> After Effect Style Timeline!!!!
> Actionscriptable plugin-style visual filters
like photoshop filters but scriptable in realtime
> and 2.5D… um wow.

If you are doing any Actionscript 3
definitely review:

> the Google Code project Tweener
> the new RSS syndication library as3syndicationlib
> the open-source alternative to the Flash Media Server named red5
> the new 3d engine: Papervision 3D
> and the new multi-user game engine named PaperWorld3D

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If you are at all inclined towards color correction:

I’ve just come across 2 excellent books on the topic.

Dan Margulis is brilliant, and while he is dealing with Photography in the book named Professional Photoshop: The Classic Guide to Color Correction, the applications to film are stunning.

The Second Edition of the classic
Ron Birkman’s
The Art and Science of Compositing
has just been rereleased.

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Please enter work in the 1-Minute Film Fest

public display in Harvard Square!

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The Motion Graphics Fest is coming to Orlando
www.mgFest.com

discounts for members coming soon…
become a member

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…And from JakeVsRobots’ Twitter

Forget about Ruby on Rails
a new horse… er old horse is in town:
www.coboloncogs.org

How did the Motion Graphics Festival begin? How did it develop its specific focus?

The festival began five years ago and at that time there was a real need in the film and video industry for a festival that celebrated creativity and graphical innovation without excluding work based on genre. For instance creative motion pictures created for advertising, film, and the internet were highlighted in very different forums, and works not created specifically for those delivery methods, such as realtime (VJ) work or medical motion illustration, had almost no public awareness or exhibition opportunities.

Is it hard to get a new festival off the ground?

The people that come to our festival have been craving this kind of work. There were so many artists in need of educational opportunities and people interested in this artform that the festival had a very natural growth. There have been so many volunteers and enthusiasts that the biggest obstacle has been find ways to organize all of the interested people and companies.

Is most of the work shown in theaters at the festival intended for another environment (the web, a television, etc)? Does this matter?

It matters a great deal. As marshal mchluan illustrated so well; the method of delivery is an integral part of every piece of content. This has been a curatorial challenge for us; especially considering our cross-genre emphasis. We have really appreciated organizations like Lumen Eclipse because they enable us to curate works in a way that really highlights their genius. For instance Sean Capones work was designed for public video displays in fashion stores. The work is so well done specifically because it works well in this format. It entices audiences but does not hold their attention for the length of the piece. The fact that it doesn’t hold audiences attention after a short time would be excruciating for a theater audience; but on the Lumen Eclipse kiosk it works perfectly. This kind of integration of delivery and content is exactly why genre-specific festivals failed to include so much amazing motion-picture designs.

In what other venues is work presented?

Our curatorial program constantly evolves in include what people make with motion-picture tools. Over the last five years we have been able to include most all of the work we felt deserved attention through the following programs: theater presentations, interactive/installation gallery showcases, realtime video concerts, public video/interactive kiosk displays, and online presentations.

But if someone created an amazing motion-picture designed specifically to be shown on ping-pong balls, you can bet a ping-pong tournament would be added to our program.

What is the aim of the Motion Graphics Festival, and what do you think is the most important function of festivals in general? Getting new work out there, into the market? Drawing together industry professionals/likeminded people?

Our mission is three-fold: provide public awareness of motion-picture artistry, provide a critical framework for motion-picture artistry, and create educational advancement and future opportunities for motion-picture artists.

Who attends the Motion Graphics Festival?

Our demographics for the full conference program weigh heavily towards working professional artists but also include students. The screening and art exhibits attract a wide range of enthusiasts and curious humans.

What is your background? What is it like to be part of a large art institution? Does it help or hinder your personal artmaking?

Personally I attended film school at University of Texas and have worked professionally in the new media / emerging media space for over ten years. The Art Institute of Chicago is a fantastic institution that well deserves its reputation as the best art school in the country. Teaching there has enabled me to maintain a prolific art practice and run a national festival, while consistently being exposed to new ideas and approaches by my students and colleagues. Can you tell I like it?

What are some of the highlights of the past five years of the festival?

For me the best parts have been the amazing people I have met in the process. Specifically, I most treasure: Troy and Julee of Psymbolic.com (who now co-organize the festival), Jason White and the whole team at Lift Studios (who have created our Festival opener for several years in a row), and the artists and organizations (like Lumen Eclipse) that are pushing the boundaries of what is possible with Art in this century.

In terms of activities, the curation of this broad assortment of work has always been a fun and interesting challenge. Also this year’s educational program really exploded the pedagogy of art education by incorporating aspects of professional training, academic education, and the underground arts education that is becoming very popular here in Chicago.

Who are some artists that you’re excited about currently? Are the most exciting artists in motion graphics (or more broadly, moving images) working in the commercial world? Are they working for the silver screen, the TV screen, for other multimedia environments?

Wow. I have no idea how to answer that. Honestly, I was very excited about working with Lumen Eclipse because I think you have built the most vibrant and cutting-edge collection of motion-picture art currently available.

The next genre I expect to see a lot of innovation is narrative-based web content that incorporates new media design with motion-picture design.

Where will we be in 10 years? 20 years? Is the internet going to revolutionize media beyond what it’s already done?

The 10-20 year forecast for media and the Internet is bleak. Google will become an operating system much like AOL has tried to become years ago. Nearly all of media that people receive will be personalized for the individual viewer, and will be formatted as a hybrid of content and advertising, much like 1940’s television and the now ubiquitous product-placement in Hollywood cinema. Nearly all programming will be delivered through proprietary devices much like cell-phones and satellite television receivers.

The FCC rules on media consolidation are and will continue to lead to massive vertical integration of media companies; where competition exists only between mediums, not within mediums. The idea of the Internet as a democratic platform where anyone can participate was to a large degree enabled by Microsoft’s monopoly, and as their market dominance wanes, so will the Internet as we know it. What we think of as the “World Wide Web” will be relegated to little more than a back alley on the information super-highway, much like Newsgroups and Archie have been, accessible only to experts and bots. These platforms will be replaced by much more conditioned virtual spaces.

This is why the iPhone has been such a symbolically important device. It places the competition in the media market into a new constellation; pitting telephone and broadcast mediums in a single coliseum of experience design, pure verticals of content, interface, advertising and delivery.

The best plateau artists can hope to leap to in the next ten years is custom device design (likely through open source microcontrollers) and/or private darknet delivery.

Like I said: the forecast is bleak.

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Interview conducted by Lumen Eclipse

more information on the Motion Graphics Festival

In response to: the recent city council battle over a “Promoter License” and the rare solidarity it created + the overly economic “Land of Opportunity” advertising by Bank of America + “wild cougar” shootings…

============================

“Keep Chicago Wild”

__Why now?

If Obama gets elected & we get the Olympic bid; there is going to be a flood of money into this town, at a time when the rest of the country is seriously hurting. This whirlwind will make Chicago unbearable; unless we create new & sandbag existing mechanisms to preserve this city’s favorable environment for creatives and experimentation.

__What is Wild?

Nearly anyone that has lived in Chicago for a time will remember the PBS show “Wild Chicago.” The Wild-ness of the show painted a picture of the city as a haven for diverse and extreme interests. The shows segments illustrated how the city contained niche pockets that seemed bazaar to a more mainstream audience. This kind of wild-ness requires exactly the same laws and enablers which artists and creatives require, without being industry-specific or alienating more family-focused or financially-focused citizens.

__How it will spread

The term “Keep Chicago Wild” heralds diversity. No matter how well you know this city, it always has the ability to surprise and amaze. Anytime you see something here that you have never seen before, you can again assert that Chicago is still Wild. The phrase is both a celebration of the existing wildness and a call to action to keep those things which allow city residents the freedom to explore our lives in unique and stunning ways.

All Free:

AV DRUM:
http://www.neuromixer.com/product-avdrum.php

QUARTZ COMPOSER:
http://developer.apple.com/graphicsimaging/quartz/quartzcomposer.html

NODE BOX:
http://nodebox.net

PROCESSING:
http://processing.org

PURE DATA:
http://puredata.info

art can operate as cultural instruments; affecting its users and their audience. seek programs which speak directly in terms of affection, whose operations spell clear thier cultural implication. in the age of capitalism, the only response to the constant pressure of interest rates and rental identity, is to deny the mythology that enables capitalism’s decoding. the spectacle and logo-ism does not disappear when authority does; when meaning was drained from modern critique, us humaans remained. and it is humans that us artists are concerned with, and within the human: its affection.