Digit (February 2005)

132 Pages·2005·11.905 MB·English

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THE FUTURE OF DIGITAL DESIGN
FEBRUARY 2005 £5.99
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www.digitmag.co.uk
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ABSOLUT BRANDING
Working on some ofthe world’s biggest brands is an
exercise not just in creativity, but diplomacy, patience,
bridge-building, and cultural understanding. What works
forone market is wrong – oreven amusingly insulting –
foranother. Even colourusage, ordesign structure, can
have a range ofunforeseen consequences ifyou lack
the depth ofunderstanding.
Yet it isn’t just the audience who represents the
biggest battle. Clients, often dotted around the globe,
each have regional agendas and targets – and can run
the gamut from being obstructive to inspirational. And
through all this, you need to create a multi-layered,
message-rich indentity that often needs to be summed
up in a single logo orphrase.
Global brand building is an enviable task, but one
that can leave design teams in dispair. Get it right, and
the international recognition ofyourworkis like winning
the world cup. Get it wrong, and it’s backto the suburbs
ofthe global village, failed brand in hand.
TEAMDIGIT
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contents february
ISSUE 83
32
coverillustration: by Sean, www.aeriform.co.uk
96
52
reviews news
82 Olympus E-300 6 BAFTA Awards nominees announced:Contenders 17 Graphics-card powered NLE ships:3D Edit features
86 Eovia Carrara Pro 4 include Preloaded, Poke, The Pavement and more 3D effects, 3D transitions and even a 3D interface
88 E-on Software 7 Ad Aid jumps on Band Aid wagon: Ben Kingsley 18 3D landscape tool is Infinte:Vue gains modular
Vue 5 D’Esprit on why you don’t have to play the single to contribute plant and lighting tool, and renames Pro to Infinite
91 Alias MotionBuilder6 10 Holographic packaging:It’s now commercially viable 19 Softimage 4.2 behaves:Softimage|XSI gains tools,
92 Nikon SuperCoolScan 13 Game advertising: With TiVo killing TVadvertising, the with Advanced version bundling a crowd simulator
9000 ED ad industry looks to ‘virtual billboards’in video games 20 Stock:feast youreyes on the latest stock-image
94 Pixologic ZBrush 2.0 14 Events:The only guide you need to creative events collections and fonts to aid yourcreative work
16 Edius Pro 3 adds format options:Real-time HDV 24 Pulse:quirky gadgets, essential exhibitions,
editing from software, oraccelerated by hardware and cool toys to while away yourdown time
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features
32 BRAND DESIGNS
Working on the world’s largest brands is seen as a
designer’s idea ofeitherHeaven and Hell. Actually, it’s both
40 UNDER THE COVERS
Magazine coverdesign is a darkart which has finally been
understood and rules set – but it’s breaking them that works
48 CITY PARADISE
Hidden underneath the streets ofLondon is a surreal world of
strange people and subterranean aliens created by Gaelle Denis
40
52 BRINGING DTV TO THE MASSES
Aardman weaves togethera collage forthe BBC’s campaign
56 SONY’S VIRAL BLASTER
Kempt shoots it up with an online game forSony TVs
58 INSIGHT: SPECIALMOVES
How being special beats offering every service
64 INTERVIEW: IAN ANDERSON
The emperorofthe Designer’s Republic
64
74 FONT MASTERCLASS
You’re no designerunless you’re a typographertoo. Here
we explain the best forms ofmodern usage and convention
96 COMPOSITING SUITES
The latest tools provide special effects on middling budgets.
We locate the best foryournext project
102 INKJET PHOTO PRINTERS
Top A4 and A3 inkjet printers forpro photographers tested in Labs
ONLINE: one a week at www.digitmag.co.uk
Digital camera product guide Multimedia search comes of age
Thinking ofbuying a digital camera? Be The big players are developing tools to help
sure to checkout ourcomprehensive guide you find the video you want on the Web
Netscape browsergets an overhall Graphics forgamers guide
The new beta version impresses with a Digit looks at 20 top 3D boards. Here’s our
revamped lookand new functionality guide to giving yourgaming a boost
66
regulars
27 Matthew Bath:why coverdesign is 112 Competition: Win a 3Dlabs top-flight
about more than just text and images graphics card, plus three MP3 players
29 Simon Jary:why new technology 113 Buyers Guide: the industry’s biggest
can be old hat already guide to creative products
30 Letters:speak, attack, defend, and 123 Back Issues: hole in yourDigit
rant – creative communication ahead collection? Fill it here
66 Showcase:the cream ofyourcreative 127 Next month: find out what’s
workas readers show off in store forthe March 2005 issue
80 Subscriptions: quench yourthirst with 128 CoverCD: complete guide to this
102 a regularsubscription to Digit, to go month’s applications and demos
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Cinema hits
Polar Express
Maxon has revealed
its Cinema 4D tool
was used in the
Alias sketches details
Hanks CG movie
PolarExpress, with
the 3D package of its digital art compo
used by the movie’s
matte painters to
create photorealistic Alias has launched the Expose Yourself2competition – a global
worlds. Maxon’s digital creative contest aimed at artists, illustrators and designers,
BodyPaint 3D tool
with over$10,000 worth ofprizes, and a top award of$5,000. The
was used fortexture
mapping. Polar contest is geared to users’ofAlias’SketchBookPro software – a
Expressin now on trial version can be downloaded with which to create yourentry
general release. with – and entrants need to submit original, unpublished work
www.maxon.net before the competition closes on January 31, 2005.
The ten finalists will get a Wacom Intuos 3 graphic tablet, and a
full license ofSketchBookPro. Along with the cash prize, the winner
will have theirwinning submission cast in an upcoming “hip hop
dance game”from A2M. A gallery ofsubmissions can be viewed.
Expose Yourself 2, www.sketchbookpro.com/contest
US graphics market set
Ninty scores
with DS kit
for an economic boost
Sales of the
Nintendo DS
handheld gaming Forgraphic-design companies, the saying “When America sneezes,
device are the world catches cold,”could well be one virus worth catching.
going betterthan
A study from US-analyst Strategies ForManagement reckons the US
expected, prompting
Nintendo to raise its graphic design industry is set fora boost, with turnoverrising from
full-yearshipment $11billion in 2004 to $13 billion by 2009. The report – The US
forecast. The Graphic Design Business 2004-2009– found that while US graphics BAFTA Interactive
company now
companies employ 60,000 people today, that will jump to 68,000 in
ahnavtiec isphaitpepse idt w2.i8ll 2009 – with nearly 15 percent ofthe industry’s graphic-design firms BAFTA Award
million units in the being newly created each year.
US and Japan by The report also found that most design studios are small
the end of 2004.
set-ups, with 75 percent employing between 1-4 people, and almost
www.nintendo.co.uk
90 percent having less than ten employees. The US is a hotbed of T he British Academy ofFilm and
freelancing, according to the report, with 74,000 freelancers in 2004 Television Arts has revealed the
– and that’s expected to jump to 86,000 by the end ofthe decade. nominations forboth the BAFTA
And freelancers are raking in the cash – up from $3.8 billion in 2004 Interactive Awards and the BAFTA Games
to over$3.8 billion by 2009. Awards, with winners being announced in
Strategies For Management, www.sfminc.com March 2005.
The BAFTA Interactive Awards are held
Epaper does The past yearhas been to honourinnovation and creativity in the
the rounds a milestone forvideo new-media industries, says BAFTA, with this
game design, with the year’s awards seeing over400 entries, up a
Epson is developing
flexible display likes of The Sims 2 third overthe previous year. The boost in
from Electronic Arts,
technologies that it entries follows November’s BIMA Awards,
showing a growing
expects will lead to confidence in the which also saw a surge in new-media work,
saleable electronic
merging of design prompting industry figures to hail a return
paperbefore the
end of the decade. and interactive ofconfidence to the interactive industry.
entertainment.
The company wants Categories include interactive art,
to develop the learning and children’s learning, factual,
technology to the
music, online entertainment, DVD,
point where an
A4-sized sheet, interactive TV, design, and film.
forexample, would Nominations forthe coveted gong
last several months include Hi-Res! and Christian Aid for
before it becomes LifeSwitch(www.lifeswitch.org), Blast
inoperable.
Theory forUncle Roy All Around You
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London Art
Fair coming
Forartists looking
forinspiration of the
canvas kind, then
the upcoming
London Art Fair
could fit the bill.
Featuring over100
leading UKgalleries,
and workfrom the Ad Aid jumps on
likes of Damien
Hirst and Rachel Band Aid wagon
Whiteread. All the
workshown is for
sale, forthose with As a support act to Band Aid 20, some of the
deep pockets. biggest names in advertising teamed up to
londonartfair.co.uk
form Ad Aid with the aim of promoting the
Band Aid 20single and future products. Ad
Aid includes creatives such as CDD’s Walter
Campbell of Guinness’Surfersad, TBWA’s
TrevorBeattie of Wonderbra’s Hello Boys
ad, AMV’s PeterSouter, and JWT’s NickBell.
Jonathan Glazer, directorof Sexy Beast, has
Yahoo! Web directed the first campaign which is fronted
video search by SirBen Kingsley in the characterof Don
Yahoo is pushing Logan, the intimidating gang leaderin Sexy
one of the frontiers Beast. More ad campaigns are planned for
forsearch engines the future products, such as Live Aid DVD.
and has launched
a site forsearching
video content on
the Web. The site, at
http://video.search.
yahoo.com/, lets
users narrow their
nominees detailed query results by
file formats, such
as AVI, MPEG,
QuickTime,
Windows Media,
and Real, by size.
(www.uncleroyallaroundyou.co.uk), the BBC and Categories forthe awards include the
Preloaded forSpooks 3 The Grid(see Digit best games in racing, sports, action and
80), Poke forits AlexanderMcQueen site adventure, children’s, and online. Creative
(www.alexandermcqueen.com), The Pavement and technical elements will form a key part
MPC returns C4
forthe Shaun ofthe DeadDVD (see Digit ofthe event, with gongs up forgrabs in
79), and The Matrixfranchise in the film categories such as animation, technical
back to its roots
category. Othernominees include MTV, direction, art direction, original game, and
EMI, and the London StockExchange. audio. The categories span the gamut of NVidia gets
The awards will be held at the Café devices, including consoles, handheld, PS3 graphics Channel 4 has revealed a new brand identity
Royal on March 2, 2005, and judges will and mobiles. Nvidia will supply that heralds a return to its original CG logo –
be made up from key interactive industry BAFTA says the this year’s nominations the graphics chip which has been updated by MPC. The new
figures, according to BAFTA. reflect what has been the most exciting in forthe successorto logo, which retains the original, nine-piece
It’s been a massive yearforgames- the history ofthe medium. Nominations the PlayStation 2 stencilled ‘4’, uses the latest in CG effects
being developed by
design, according to BAFTA, as it rolled include workon Rockstar’s Grand Theft to pull a range of real-life elements together
Sony. The deal gives
out the nominations forthe Games Awards, Auto: San Andreas, Value’s HalfLife 2, Sony the right to to form the logo. The logo can be seen
which it says will recognize the best in Bungie’s Halo 2, EA’s Burnout 3: Takedown use the chip in its being created from elements in range of
video-game entertainment. and The Sims 2(pictured above), and digital consumer environments, such as a cornfield, urban
products. The chip
BAFTA says the games industry boasts Sony’s Killzone. street, and high-rise estate. MPC designer
will include a
ground-breaking talent in the field ofdesign The awards will be held on March 1, version of NVidia’s and CG supervisorRussell Appleford created
creativity, and the BAFTAGames Awards 2005, at the Café Royal in London. GeForce processor wireframe models of the logo in Alias Maya,
will give creative teams the recognition they A complete list and links to nominated and will be made in with the blocks then rendered and tracked
deserve formaking interactive games the workis available at the BAFTA Web site. Japan at a Sony to the backgrounds using 2d3 Boujou.
factory.
fastest-growing form ofentertainment. BAFTA, www.bafta.org MPC, www.moving-picture.com
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awards
Summit calls
for entrants
T he eleventh annual Summit Creative Awards has been
launched, which aims to recognize the creative commercial
output ofsmall and mid-sized advertising, multimedia, and
creative companies worldwide with billings ofless than $20 million.
Organizers say the awards, which draw a high calibre ofentries
from around the world, provide a public spotlight on the innovative
workcreated by some ofthe world’s smalleragencies.
“Some oftoday’s most brilliant marketing campaigns are coming
out ofsmall to mid-sized companies,”said Jocelyn Luciano,
executive directorofthe Creative Summit Awards.
“Ourgoal is to help provide visibility to this amazing workthat
might be otherwise overlooked. We want to ensure that the best of
the smallercreative companies receive the attention and worldwide
recognition they deserve.”
The awards are broken down into 18 categories, including a
new category aimed at student submissions. Winners are selected
based on strength ofconcept, quality ofexecution, and the ability to
communication and persuade, say organizers. There are gold, silver,
and bronze prizes up-for-grabs, with only a single gold in each
category.
Judging is panel-based, with judges drawn from top, worldwide
agencies from around the world. Previous judges have included
creatives from J WalterThompson, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Hong
Kong’s XM. A list ofprevious winners – plus examples ofthe
winning work– is available at the Creative Summit’s Web site.
To get an entry kit forthe 2005 awards competition, visit the
Web site orcall 001503 2979979. Deadline forsubmissions is
January 28, 2005.
Creative Summit Awards, www.summitawards.com
Adobe plugs projects New year interactive and CG projects debut
Acrobat hole
Adobe has patched
two bugs in its
ubiquitous Acrobat
Readerapplication
that could allow an
attackerto take over
a user’s system via
a malicious pdf file
attached to an email
message. The bugs
affect Windows,
Mac OS Xand Unix.
Adobe released a fix
in version 6.0.3 of
both Acrobat and Reinventing the online magazine experience Web-traffic forthe Cimex-managed portal BlurStudio – featured last issue forits work
Acrobat Readerfor was the taskset by new USlaunch Giantfor need2know has soared by over1,000 per on Warhammer40,000– has finished the
Windows and Mac The Mechanism – and the result is a non- cent following the launch of the national Beat biggest CG project in the company’s. It has
OS X.
linearnavigation that encourages exploration Bullyingcampaign, according to the company. produced 40 minutes of CG forDisney’s first
www.adobe.co.uk
through multiple avenues. New York-based It says that since the launch of the portal’s 3D Mickey Mouse movie, Mickey’s Twice
The Mechanism used an XML-driven new microsite on bullying, the editorial Upon a Christmas. “Ourgoal was the bring the
Macromedia Flash-based interface that allows team has been swamped with emails from best that 3D has to offerwithout sacrificing
easy updating to colourpalettes, navigation youngsters praising the site. The microsite any of the magic that has made Mickey the
icons, and text, as well as music and news. uses rich-media case studies on bullying. most-loved characterin 2D animation for75
Giant, www.giantmag.com Need2know, www.need2know.co.uk/beatbullying years,”said BlurStudio producerAl Shier.
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Computer, Inc., registered in the US and other countries.
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The Embassy uses Modo
for dancing robot Citroen
Straight 8’s Vancouver-based The Embassy has revealed it used 3D-newcomer
strict films Luxology Modo to help create a photo-realistic, CG spot featuring
a 3-doorCitroen carthat turns into a robot. Which then dances,
The Straight 8 film
performing some “ratherimpressive hip-hop dance moves”
event has been
launched, and is Holographic packaging according to a statement. The Embassy worked with London-based
aimed at brave film- Euro RSCG, using Modo to clean a scanned high-res mesh ofthe
makers who want to and covers a step closer car, and apply mo-cap data to the robot model.
chance to be shown
The Embassy, www.theembassyvfx.com
at Cannes in 2005.
The event challenges British holographic specialist Spatial Imaging has won industry
filmmakers to make praise forits development ofa holographic printerthat can output
a 3min 20sec epic large-format holograms at commercially viable speeds. The machine,
on Kodachrome
called the Lightspeed DHP, can produce single image holograms
film, with no editing
allowed. Deadline and seamless holographic patterns at up to 24-x-24 inches at speeds
forentries is ofin excess of2,000 pixels persecond and a resolution of2,000dpi.
January 31,2005 The technology is achieved through new optical methods, says the
www.straight8.net company. The technology is capable ofvery bright holograms, and
can produce pixels ofany chape, include hexagonal, logo, orletter
shaped. The company is pitching the technique at packaging design,
and says otherapplications include hologram covers formagazines
(as shown in a mock-up ofEmpire, above) books, and posters.
Spatial Imaging, www.holograms.co.uk
3DS Max Seabraes Yards forms
correction technology
new design media site
In the Octoberissue
of Digit (issue 79), Disney backing Blu-ray
we inadvertently Tayside is aiming to be a centre ofcreative excellence with the
wrote that Mental launch ofSeabraes Yards – dubbed Dundee’s new creative media Disney and its Buena Vista density DVD), forPCs and
Ray is available as
district. The December2004 launch ofthe 20 acre site is billed Home Entertainment division optical disc players. HD-DVD
a plug-in for3DS
Max. Discreet has as one ofScotland’s most important investment projects, with a have thrown theirsupport backers argue that while Blu-
pointed out that projected investment of£50 million injected into the area overthe behind the Blu-ray high- ray discs can store more data,
the Mental Ray next decade. The aim is to create a site that will woo creative media definition disc format, providing the HD-DVD standard is better
rendering engine is
businesses – with plans to create accommodation formedia studios, anotherbig name forBlu-ray suited forhigh-definition
integratedinto both
3DS Max 6 and the plus a mixofprivate housing and student accommodation. Up to backers to attach to their storage because it uses more
new 3DS Max 7. We 260,000 square feet ofspace is being created formedia companies, campaign. efficient codecs to write data
are happy to correct with a further100,000 earmarked forthe vision@seabraes building – Blu-Ray is a standard for to the discs.
this oversight. a new creative centre that is due to open early in 2005. the next-gen of optical video Several Blu-Ray products
www.discreet.com
“Tayside has long been widely recognized as a hotbed of discs promoted by Sony and have been released, while HD-
innovation and talent,”said Scottish Enterprise Tayside chief others, and is designed to store DVD products are scheduled
executive Sona Cormack. “More than 2,000 people are already high-definition video content. to appearnext year. With two
employed in the creative media sector, and these industries will Each disc can store up to 25GB competing standards backed
continue to play a key role in the growth ofthe region’s economy.” of data on a single-layerdisc by prominent PC and consumer
Seabraes Yards, www.seabraesyards.com and up to 50GB of data on a electronics companies, the
dual-layerdisc. support of majorstudios such
Netscape to Rival equipment vendors as Disney is crucial to the
support IE Toshiba and NEC are pushing a chances of eitherformat
AOLhas released different standard, known as emerging as a standard.
a new Netscape HD-DVD (high definition/high Disney, www.disney.com
Web browserthat
supports Microsoft’s
IE browserengine,
which it reckons
offers the best
chance to view
the Web accurately.
If a Web site does
not display well in
Netscape, it takes
two clicks to display
the page using the
IE engine.
www.netscape.com
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