Thursday was the Halo 3 party, which by all accounts, was amazing. (I only know this 3rd hand, because I fell asleep at 8:30pm while I was 'resting up' for it!)
Anyhow.. before we got to that point, I was lucky enough to watch two Softimage client presentations at ADAPT.
The first was Ron Martin fro Stage 3 Media who presented the web-based sci-fi show "Sanctuary." If you haven't seen the show - take look - http://www.sanctuaryforall.com/ . Created in Vancouver, Canada by many of the team behind Stargate SG1, Sanctuary is an online series shot entirely in HD.
VFX Producer Ron Martin presented some of the challenge that the team at Stage 3 media faced with creating the show, including the business challenges in running an on-line distribution model. If you read up on the vision behind Sanctuary, you'll see that the creators did not enforce a strict digital rights management policy on their product - they want their fans to be able to share. At the same time, a studio has to make enough money off a web series to be able to continue to afford to fund the project. There is no doubt, that Sanctuary is a popular product. Legal and illegal downloads have reached over 1 million viewers for the first 8 episodes.
Sanctuary has broken several barriers on the web broadcasting front, and the team at Stage 3 media will continue to do so on the web-based business model.
Our other guest presenter in town for ADAPT was Greg Punchtaz of Janimation. Greg took a different presentation tactic than Ron, instead focusing on his career in make-up and vfx. What was extremely interesting for me (and the audience too!) was seeing some of the early work from Greg, and how he started his career on iconic projects like Robocop & Nightmare on Elm Street 2.
Greg talked about his experiences working with industry greats like Phil Tippett (ADAPT's keynote speaker) and Rick Baker. Little-known fact - Greg and Aaron Sims were high school friends in Texas who used to practice make-up effects on their friends. One year for Halloween, classmate John Norris (now Aaron's production partner) was sent home because he was deemed "too gruesome."
Overall, ADAPT was great fun - and hat's off to the team behind it. It was a great conference, and so cool that it was in Montreal. Thanks to Greg and Ron for flying in to present here, and thanks to Pierre Yamond & Daniel Leduc (Hybride), Rob Moodie (Buzz Image) and Marc Bourbnnais (Modus FX) for the Montreal-based customer presntations.
Keep your eyes open for announcement of the dates of ADAPT 2008.
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