Erik-Jan de Boer, James Jacobs, Keith Roberts join VFX house
Method Studios, a Deluxe Entertainment Services Group company, has added three animation artists to its creative team–Erik-Jan de Boer and James Jacobs who join Method’s Vancouver office as animation supervisor and creature supervisor, respectively; and animation supervisor Keith Roberts who will work out of the Los Angeles studio.
Born in Amsterdam, de Boer has been creating animations and visual effects for nearly a quarter of a century. He has worked at many top British VFX houses, including the Moving Picture Company. In 1996 he joined Rhythm & Hues where his credits included The Golden Compass (an Academy Award winner in the visual effects category), The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, and Night at the Museum. This year he was among the core Rhythm & Hues team honored with a Visual Effects Oscar for his work on Life of Pi.
Jacobs is another Oscar-winning artist who received the 2013 Scientific and Engineering Academy Award for character simulation software used in Avatar. A creature expert nominated for a 2013 Visual Effects Society Award for his work on the Goblin King (The Hobbit), Jacobs has credits on numerous films, including Prometheus, The Adventures of Tintin and King Kong. A Toronto native, Jacobs has spent the bulk of his career focused on the unique challenges involved with creating compelling characters. From Method Studios in Vancouver, he is currently at work on director Wes Ball’s thriller The Maze Runner.
And Roberts, a long-time member of the Rhythm & Hues ensemble, is versed in all styles of CG animation, and his credits include “The Chronicles of Narnia,” “The Cabin in the Woods” and “The Incredible Hulk.” Originally from Yorkshire, England, Roberts most recently oversaw extensive visual effects work on the upcoming feature “R.I.P.D.” Roberts noted that at Method he is looking to divide his time between high-end feature film and commercial VFX work.
Christian Kubsch, president of Method, said that the hiring of de Boer, Jacobs and Roberts is well timed given that Method is “in the process of expanding the character animation talent across our global network.”
Method has facilities in Los Angeles, Vancouver, New York, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, London, Sydney and Melbourne.
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