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Ron Thornton (visual Effects Designer)
Ron Thornton (1957–2016) was a pioneer in the field of computer-generated visual effects for film and television. He is best known for pioneering the use of Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) in the industry, through his work on the ''Babylon 5'' series, which was the first television series to use CGI for all its visual effects. Thornton and his team won an Emmy award in 1993 for their work in the field. During his career, Thornton also worked with teams providing visual effects for many major science fiction productions, including ''Doctor Who'', ''Blake's 7'', ''Star Trek'', and ''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''. Early career Thornton was born in London in 1957, studying at West Kent College, and subsequently worked at Gatwick Airport as a flight dispatcher. After seeing the movie ''Alien'', Thornton realised, "it dawned on me … that somebody could actually make money building plastic spaceships! That was quite amusing to me…" Thornton built a few spaceship models, showin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
VFL/AFL
The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It includes teams from clubs based in the eastern states of Australia: Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, and includes reserves teams for the east coast AFL clubs. The league evolved from the former Victorian Football Association (VFA), and it has been known by its current name since 1996. For historical purposes, the present-day VFL is referred to as the VFA/VFL, to distinguish it from the present-day Australian Football League, which in turn was known until 1990 as the Victorian Football League and is thus referred to as the VFL/AFL. The VFA was formed in 1877 and is the second-oldest Australian rules football league, replacing the loose affiliation of clubs that had been the hallmark of the early years of the game. Initially s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psion (company)
Psion PLC was a designer and manufacturer of mobile handheld computers for commercial and industrial uses. The company was headquartered in London, England, with major operations in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, and other company offices in Europe, the United States, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. It was a public company listed on the London Stock Exchange () and was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. Psion's operational business was formed in September 2000 from a merger of Psion and Canadian-based Teklogix Inc., and was a global provider of solutions for mobile computing and wireless data collection. The Group's products and services included rugged mobile hardware, secure software and wireless networks, professional services, and support programs. Psion worked with its clients in the area of burgeoning technologies, including imaging, voice recognition, and radio-frequency identification (RFID). They had operations worldwide in 14 countries, and custom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with their own set of rules and award categories. The two events that receive the most media coverage are the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Daytime Emmy Awards, which recognize outstanding work in American primetime and daytime entertainment programming, respectively. Other notable U.S. national Emmy events include the Children's & Family Emmy Awards for children's and family-oriented television programming, the Sports Emmy Awards for sports programming, News & Documentary Emmy Awards for news and documentary shows, and the Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards and the Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards for technological and engineering achievements. Regional Emmy Awards are also presented throughout the country at various times through the year, re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Perry Kivolowitz
Perry Kivolowitz (born 1961) is an American computer scientist and business person. In 1985, he co-founded Advanced Systems Design Group which built hardware for the Commodore Amiga. This company was renamed Elastic Reality, Inc. and became well known as a digital imaging software provider. In 1987, Kivolowitz invented the recoverable ram drive In 1995 this company sold to Avid Technology, Inc. In 1996 he received an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement for the invention of shape-driven warping and morphing as exemplified in the Avid Elastic Reality package once in widespread use. Dr. Garth Dickie was a co-recipient of this award. Kivolowitz is a principal in SilhouetteFX LLC. In December 2018, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences granted an Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement to Silhouette. He co-founded Profound Effects, Inc. (2001–2008), Hypercosm Inc. (1999–2001) and KSK Electrics, LLC (2013–2015). Kivolowitz was accep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
D-1 (Sony)
D-1 or 4:2:2 Component Digital is an SMPTE digital recording video standard, introduced in 1986 through efforts by SMPTE engineering committees. It started as a Sony and Bosch - BTS product and was the first major professional digital video format. SMPTE standardized the format within ITU-R 601 (orig. CCIR-601), also known as Rec. 601, which was derived from SMPTE 125M and EBU 3246-E standards. Format D-1 or 4:2:2 D-1 (1986) was a major feat in real time, broadcast quality digital video recording. It stores uncompressed digitized component video, encoded at Y'CbCr 4:2:2 using the CCIR 601 raster format with 8 bits, along with PCM audio tracks as well as timecode on a 3/4 inch (19 mm) videocassette tape (though not to be confused with the ubiquitous 3/4-inch U-Matic/U-Matic SP cassette). The uncompressed component video used enormous bandwidth for its time: 173 Mbit/sec (bit rate). The maximum record time on a D-1 tape is 94 minutes. Because of the uncompromisi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
LightWave 3D
LightWave 3D is a 3D computer graphics 3D computer graphics, or “3D graphics,” sometimes called CGI, 3D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data (often Cartesian) that is stored in the computer for th ... program developed by NewTek. It has been used in films, television, motion graphics, digital matte painting, visual effects, video game development, product design, Architectural visualization, architectural visualizations, Virtual product development, virtual production, Music video, music videos, Previsualization, pre-visualizations and advertising. Overview LightWave is a software package used for rendering computer graphics, 3D images, both animated and static. It includes a fast rendering engine that supports such advanced features as realistic reflection, Radiosity (computer graphics), radiosity, Caustic (optics), caustics, and 999 Parallel rendering, render nodes. The 3D modeling com ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Copeland
John Anthony Copeland (born September 20, 1970) is a former American college and professional football player who was a defensive end in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons. He played college football for the University of Alabama, was recognized as an All-American and was a member of a national championship team in 1992. He was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the first round of the 1993 NFL Draft, and he played his entire pro career for the Bengals. Early years Copeland was born in Lanett, Alabama.National Football League, Historical Players John Copeland Retrieved February 16, 2012. He attended Valley High School in Valley, Alabama,databaseFootball.com, Players John Copeland. Retrieved February 16, 2012. where he played high school football for the Valley Rams. College career Copeland initially attended Hinds Community College in Raymond, Mississippi, but later received an athletic scholarship to transfer to the University of Alabama, and played ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foundation Series
The ''Foundation'' series is a science fiction book series written by American author Isaac Asimov. First published as a series of short stories in 1942–50, and subsequently in three collections in 1951–53, for thirty years the series was a trilogy: ''Foundation''; ''Foundation and Empire''; and ''Second Foundation''. It won the one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966. Asimov began adding new volumes in 1981, with two sequels: ''Foundation's Edge'' and ''Foundation and Earth'', and two prequels: ''Prelude to Foundation'' and ''Forward the Foundation''. The premise of the stories is that, in the waning days of a future Galactic Empire, the mathematician Hari Seldon spends his life developing a theory of psychohistory, a new and effective mathematics of sociology. Using statistical laws of mass action, it can predict the future of large populations. Seldon foresees the imminent fall of the Empire, which encompasses the entire Milky Way, and a Dark Age lasting ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Asimov
yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (1922–1928)American (1928–1992) , occupation = Writer, professor of biochemistry , years_active = 1939–1992 , genre = Science fiction (hard SF, social SF), mystery, popular science , subject = Popular science, science textbooks, essays, history, literary criticism , education = Columbia University ( BA, MA, PhD) , movement = Golden Age of Science Fiction , module = , signature = Isaac Asimov signature.svg Isaac Asimov ( ; 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. A prolific writer, he wrote or edited more than 500 books ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Foundation Imaging
Foundation Imaging was a CGI visual effects studio, computer animation studio, and post-production editing facility. History The company was founded by Paul Beigle-Bryant and Ron Thornton. It pioneered digital imaging for television programming using Newtek's LightWave 3D, originally on Commodore Amiga based Video Toaster workstations. Dissolution The company was dissolved after work on season one of ''Star Trek: Enterprise'' had been completed and the company assets were sold off in a public auction on December 17, 2002 by Brian Testo Associates, LLC. Legacy The company's pioneering work on Babylon 5 popularized using the software package Lightwave 3D on US TV shows for CGI visual effects, which led to it becoming an industry standard throughout the 1990s. Key animators from the company and Emmy Award-winners Adam "Mojo" Lebowitz and John Teska remain major figures in the visual effects field for their work on shows such as the rebooted Battlestar Galactica and Lost. Notabl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Video Toaster
The NewTek Video Toaster is a combination of hardware and software for the editing and production of NTSC standard-definition video. The plug-in expansion card initially worked with the Amiga 2000 computer and provides a number of BNC connectors on the exposed rear edge that provide connectivity to common analog video sources like VHS VCRs. The related software tools support video switching, chroma keying, character generation, animation, and image manipulation. Together, the hardware and software provided, for a few thousand U.S. dollars, a video editing suite that rivaled the output of contemporary (i.e. early 1990s) professional systems costing ten times as much. It allowed small studios to produce high-quality material and resulted in a cottage industry for video production not unlike the success of the Macintosh in the desktop publishing ( DTP) market only a few years earlier. The Video Toaster won the Emmy Award for Technical Achievement in 1993. Other parts of the origi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
