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October CHIEF EDITOR karen@CGW.com Editor'sNote Rerun Relief The Magazine for Digital Content Professionals E D ITO R IA L Karen mOltenbrey Chief editor karen@cgw.com • (603) 432-7568 36 east nashua road Windham, nH 03087 COnTRIbuTIng EDITORs Courtney Howard, Jenny Donelan, audrey Doyle, George maestri, Kathleen maher, martin mceachern, barbara robertson WIllIam r. rIttWaGe Publisher, President and CeO, COP Communications SA LE S lIsa blaCK national sales manager Classifieds • education • recruitment lisab@cgw.com • (903) 295-3699 fax: (214) 260-1127 Kelly ryan Classifieds and reprints kryan@copcomm.com (818) 291-1155 editorial Office / la sales Office: 620 West elk avenue, Glendale, Ca 91204 (800) 280-6446 P R O D u c TI O n KeItH KnOPF Production Director Knopf bay Productions keith@copcomm.com • (818) 291-1158 mICHael VIGGIanO art Director mviggiano@copcomm.com CHrIs salCIDO account representative csalcido@copprints.com • (818) 291-1144 Computer graphics World Magazine is published by Computer graphics World, a COP Communications company. Computer graphics World does not verify any claims or other information appearing in any of the advertisements contained in the publication, and cannot take any responsibility for any losses or other damages incurred by readers in reliance on such content. Computer graphics World cannot be held responsible for the safekeeping or return of unsolicited articles, manuscripts, photographs, illustrations or other materials. Address all subscription correspondence to: Computer graphics World, 620 West Elk Ave, glendale, CA 91204. subscriptions are available free to qualified individuals within the united states. non-qualified subscription rates: usA—$72 for 1 year, $98 for 2 years; Canadian subscriptions —$98 for 1 year and $136 for 2 years; all other countries—$150 for 1 year and $208 for 2 years. Digital subscriptions are available for $27 per year. su bscribers can also contact customer service by calling (800) 280 6446, opt 2 (publishing), opt 1 (subscriptions) or sending an email to csr@cgw.com. Change of address can be made online at http://www.omeda.com/cgw/ and click on customer service assistance. Postmaster: send Address Changes to Computer graphics World, P.O. box 3551, northbrook, IL 60065-3551 Please send customer service inquiries to 620 W. Elk Ave., glendale, CA 91204 2 October 2009 L ike everyone else nowadays, I have very little free time on my hands. Nevertheless, I try to find an hour or so to watch my favorite television shows. It is what I do during my wind-down time—the precious minutes at the end of what are becoming very long days. Usually there are not enough minutes to catch all my prime-time favorites, but then again, that is what TiVo and DVRs are for. In May, when the television season ended and reruns began, I planned to catch up on these shows. But something unexpected occurred: some new series debuted for the summer. I am not talking about Big Brother, the yearly summer reality series that sucks viewers into its vortex for three nights a week. Rather, I am talking about unique programming that made me look forward to an evening indoors. And as a bonus, the shows featured a heavy dose of visual effects. My favorite of these shows was NBC's Merlin, an import from the UK where the drama series began last fall. Merlin places a slightly new spin on the famous Arthurian legend, taking viewers to the early days of Camelot, when Arthur was a spirited young man and Merlin was only beginning to hone his magic skills. "We wanted to produce something that merged the legend with big, family entertainment," says producer Johnny Capps. "We didn't want to make a 15th-century version of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table." Nevertheless, the production was epic in proportion, and the visual effects grand. There are dragons and griffins. Castles and walled cities. Villages and mountain vistas. Magi- cians and witches. Tornadoes and plagues. Good and evil. Think of it as "Harry Potter meets Middle Earth," as some have accurately described it. And the key ingredient is the digital magic created at The Mill in London. Often the effects are composited elements, and at times they are 3D. The Camelot castle is an actual castle: the Chateau de Pierre- fonds, a French national monument that has been digitally enhanced for the show's pur- poses with set extensions and so forth. The CG star of the show is a dragon, a remaining vestige of magic before it was banned in the kingdom by Arthur's ruling father. Merlin is often seen speaking to the wise beast, which is chained in a deep, dark cavern. And the dragon speaks to Arthur, thanks to techniques refined at The Mill. While the second season of this magical show has begun in the UK, it will arrive in the US much faster this time around, with the second season set to begin in the US this winter. Another summer show was Warehouse 13, which debuted on the Sci Fi Channel, and is described as "part The X-Files, part Raiders of the Lost Ark, and part Moonlighting." The show, which wrapped recently, follows Secret Service Agents assigned to the government's secret Warehouse 13, a holding area for all things supernatural. Keyframe Digital in On- tario, Canada, created an average of 120 to 150 VFX shots per episode. For one episode, titled "Duped," the studio developed a self-illuminated greenscreen to create one of the warehouse's historical artifacts, Lewis Carroll's famous magic mirror. Keyframe mainly used 3ds Max for the CGI and Combustion for compositing and 2D effects. Tracking was done in Boujou. As I write this editorial, the fall season has just begun. There are some new dramas and new comedies, but none of these are steeped in visual effects. In the past, TV shows that demanded a host of VFX work seemed to disappear quite fast from the prime-time lineup, some far quicker than others. Let's hope that this summer's magic moments will lay the groundwork for more VFX work on television. n