There’s now a new forum on blender.org, for discussions or feedback on Elephants Dream and other Open Projects, as organized by the Blender Foundation.
It’s been a long time since this site was updated, part of the natural way of things as we move further and further away and on to other new and interesting things. Recently, the team from the studio (unfortunately minus Basse, who’s flight was cancelled due to a airline strike :( ) got back together in Amsterdam again for the Blender conference. We gave a presentation ‘Making Elephants Dream’, which is available here on Google Video or via BitTorrent. In it we mention a few things, including our version of what the story is about, and also some of the easter eggs and tributes that we hid inside, so if you’re interested, go and check it out!
Of course the rest of the conference was great too, and the tech team have done a great job in recording, editing and presenting these videos in excellent quality. A list of videos of the other sessions, some including us again, is available for Google Video and for BitTorrent, with more videos still on their way.
The next generation of DVD formats are on their way, and one of them is HD DVD, supporting HD 1920×1080 video, high quality surround sound, and many advanced interactive features. Today, Michael Becker from Skywalk Mastering GmbH / Imagion AG in Germany sent us an email telling us that his company had produced the first ever European HD DVD title: Elephants Dream.
I am very happy to let you know that we worked very hard over the last weeks to produce an “Elephants Dream” HD DVD. This is the first(!) ever European HD DVD title and it will introduce the start of the next generation format in Europe. As the whole European PC and movie magazines are waiting for a first HD DVD title in Europe this will be a hugh success for your movie and I am sure this will go through the press worldwide.
Today there are worldwide (USA / Japan) only approx. 40 titles available. The HD DVD format was released in April this year in Japan and might be the new HD disc Format for the future. A European start of the format is planned for approx. October 2006. The process to programm and author an HD DVD is very complex this is why no title has been produced in Europe so far (tools are not ready right now).
Not only that Elephants Dream is the first European HD DVD release it is also (as far as I know) the most complex HD DVD title ever release worldwide and the picture quality is really great. The disc includes most of the new HD DVD functionalities such as “on the fly menus”, Picture in Picture features and some HD / SD comparison functions. We expect that the disc will have cult status very soon and promote the Elephants Dream movie.
The full press release is available here at their Elephants Dream HD DVD microsite. The story has already been covered by German technology news websites heise.de and mediabiz.de.
The HD DVD is for sale for € 14.90 which covers their production costs. It’s wonderful that people are taking advantage of the Creative Commons license like this, it’s exactly what’s encouraged. This is very positive and benefits all parties, increasing Orange and Blender recognition throughout the industry and providing a great showcase for the talents of the Imagion staff.
Yes, if you’ve been reading other news sources, you’ll know this is a bit late, but better late than never! We’ve all been taking a breather and getting on with some other things in the meantime (including Ton organising an awesome ‘‘Open Source Pavilion’ booth for the SIGGRAPH tradeshow, which will feature Elephants Dream).
Anyway, we still need to do a nice big publicity/news roundup, but until then, there are a few new videos from the DVD set online for your viewing pleasure. The making of documentary is now available, along with the commentary tracks. Watching these may not only give you an insight into what went on during the project, but also give you a picture of what we thought is going on in the movie, straight from our own exhausted mouths :) These are available under the CC-Attribution 2.5 license. Thanks Joeri for putting these online!
Update 28 June: We now have downloadable versions of the making of available.