Goober is back from an early retirement with this knowledge. Sure sounds like he had a good time with this. The Museum of Flying is a bit of a cartoon world, that's where Glen and I went when we were at the Starship Troopers premiere... So pay attention, Goober is the real deal...
Just got back from the big Maya launch event at the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica.
In case you don't know, Maya is the "next generation" 3D CG animation from Alias/Wavefront that's taking the computer graphics world by storm.
It's currently being used to generate CG character animation for twelve major feature films.
Walt Disney Feature Animation showed off some of its own use for the software by showing off some characters and scenes from its upcoming CG Dinosaur Project; (I don't recall the title). Really kick-ass stuff - definitely Lost World quality, but with superior character.
The other sequence that wowed the hard-to-impress crowd were some CG scenes from the upcoming "Spiderman 3D" attraction for Universal Studios (?) in Florida. Completely CG versions of our favorite webwalker, plus Doctor Octopus, Hobgoblin, a female character named Scream, and a giant villain made out of water named Hydraman. Cool fights in vast cityscapes will take place on thirteen screens - with the audience riding in a suped-up motion contol vehicle.
As impressive as these scenes were, it just made you even more eager to see James Cameron get control of those Spidernan rights and suit up Leonardo DiCaprio in his webbed tights already!
Character work from Pixar's "A Bug's Life" and various other upcoming projects were also showcased, but I was too busy trying to beat the rush at the parking valets to see it all.
