Animator Steve Burger has come aboard Splash Design, New York, as its CG supervisor. He will team with creative director/visual effects supervisor Andy Milkis, who recently rejoined Splash (SHOOT, 3/28, p. 8), to build the studio’s new CG department.
Burger is no stranger to developing a CG department from the ground up; he launched the CG and Internet departments at CBC Media, Port Washington, N.Y., where he served as director of animation from 1994 to ’97. He subsequently spent six years as an effects and character animator at AFCG, New York.
His commercial and broadcast credits include spots for The Late Show with David Letterman, MasterCard, Aquafresh, KFC, PaperMate and Howard Stern’s Radio Show on CBS, as well as a Travel Channel station package and a series of Disney Channel promos.
In addition to animation, Burger has experience in effects supervising, set design, assistant directing and editing. He recently produced and directed his first live-action short film, The Journal, which was part of this year’s New York International Independent Film and Video Festival.
Leslie Eisenberg and Joan Miller rep Splash nationally for visual effects.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More