I just added http://www.onickz.com/es , the ExtraSpeed page (very fast to load) which is my Archive, currently built. You'll find there a list and links of all major works I did since 1996.

http://www.onickz.com/es

Wave Sniffer, modified photo, has been added to the Gfx Gallery.

It simulates a hole where the wave is sucked in.

Click it to see it at full size.

The Discreet® combustion® 3.0.1 for Microsoft® Windows® Updater is now available for download.

This updater addresses custom brush issues in the Paint module as well as minor issues in various modules. It also provides software updates pertaining to the Adobe® After Effects® plug-ins, to the import of Adobe Photoshop® files, and to the stability of the software.

Please read the ReadMe file for a complete list of issues addressed by the software updater.

Note: Install the combustion 3.0.1 Updater over combustion 3. Installation over combustion 2.1.1 or any earlier versions of combustion is not possible.

Download the update for the Windows version, Combustion 3.0.1 here

I have been beta testing since tonight those plugins with Discreet Combustion 3 and I can tell you they just rock !

-- Immediate availability for After Effects, Premiere, Final Cut Pro,

Combustion, Digital Fusion, GenerationQ, and 844/X --

Cambridge, MA. January 28th, 2004 -- GenArts, Inc., a leading provider of digital visual effects plug-ins for the film, broadcast and video industry, today announced the immediate availability of their industry-renowned Sapphire Plug-ins for a growing number of Adobe® After Effects® plug-in compatible products. This new release brings the superior quality and breadth of Sapphire Plug-ins to a vast new community of digital artists and editors.

Now users of Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere®, Apple® Final Cut Pro®, Discreet® combustion®, eyeon Software Digital Fusion®, Quantel® generationQTM, and Media 100® 844/X® have access to more than 175 stunning image processing and synthesis effects included in the Sapphire package. A free three-week trial from http://web.genarts.com can be downloaded at any time to experience how quickly and easily Sapphire Plug-ins can enhance their work.

"We're thrilled to see this massive collection of high-end effects become available to After Effects users," said Trish and Chris Meyer of CyberMotion, and authors of the popular series Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects. "They have a polished retro-futuristic look which will appeal to a wide range of motion graphic designers. We particularly like their blur and warp effects, and suspect the Lighting set will soon be considered a must-have. As a bonus, all are 16-bit and multiprocessor-ready."

"These are the most amazing plug-ins I've ever seen on a PC/Mac. Now compositors, editors, and broadcast designers will be able to achieve a new level of high-end finishing. With Sapphire, creating superb visual effects on the desktop has never been easier," said Chris Byron, freelance VFX/Broadcast Compositor & Discreet Training Specialist.

Sapphire Plug-ins run on both Windows and Mac OS X systems. Fully integrated with the host program's user interface, they are very intuitive and easy to use. Other key features include:

Dual-processor support for faster rendering

Free network rendering on After Effects and Combustion

Multiple options and parameters for a creating an unlimited range of effects

Resolution independent, anti-aliased, high quality images

Online hyper-linked documentation for all plug-ins

On-screen user interface widgets for visual control of parameters in After Effects and Premiere Pro

Support for 8 bit and 16 bit image formats

Pricing and Availability:

Sapphire Plug-ins for After Effects and compatible products are available immediately via download from the GenArts web site. They can be purchased either as a complete package for $1699 or as four separate boxes for $599 each.

Box 1: Lighting - Glows, Lens Flares, Glints, Glares, Light Beams, DropShadow, SpotLight, and others.

Box 2: Stylize - Film Effect, Grain, Edge Effects, Emboss, Kaleidoscopes, AutoPaint, HalfTone, and more.

Box 3: Adjust, Blur, Composite, and Distort - includes Rack Defocus, MatteOps, Warps, Shake, and others.

Box 4: Render, Time, and Transitions - includes Lightning Zaps, Textures, Flicker Tools, Dissolves, and Wipes.

Pricing and availability for Sapphire Plug-ins on Quantel generationQ can be obtained from VDS (http://www.videodesignsoftware.com/products/Synapse.php).

About GenArts' Sapphire Plug-ins

Sapphire Plug-ins provide digital artists with a collection of over 175 state-of-the-art image processing and synthesis effects. They fully and seamlessly integrate into a number of editing and compositing systems including: Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere; Apple Final Cut Pro and Shake; Avid Media Composer Adrenaline, Media Composer, Xpress Pro, Xpress, Xpress DV, Symphony, DS, Nitris and Newscutter; Discreet combustion, flint, flame, inferno, fire, smoke and burn. Sapphire Plug-ins offer a comprehensive suite of tools and effects that can transform any film or video clip. They are resolution-independent, include multi-processor support for faster rendering, and run on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Irix. Effects in the package range from everyday tools such as Glows, EdgeRays, LensFlare, Glint, Blurs and RackDefocus, to more exotic effects like Lightning, FlysEye, JpegDamage, HalfTone and Textures.

About GenArts, Inc.

Based in Cambridge, Mass., GenArts, Inc. is a premier provider of digital visual effects plug-ins for the film and video industry. Introduced in 1996, Sapphire Plug-ins have become an industry standard for high-end visual effects creation at leading studios, broadcast and post production facilities around the world. They are widely recognized for their unrivaled quality and ease-of-use, and have been used extensively to create an array of feature films such as The Lord of the Rings, The Matrix trilogy, Terminator 3, X-Men II, Daredevil, Star Wars-Episode I and II, Spider-Man, Ice Age, Pearl Harbor, Final Fantasy, Dinosaur, Titanic, Armageddon, Planet of the Apes, Contact, Star Trek and Godzilla. Additional GenArts product information can be found at http://web.genarts.com.

Look at some other customer testimonials :

"We used Sapphire Plug-ins to create many looks for Spider-Man that would have been nearly impossible to achieve otherwise."

- Christian Boudman

Sony Pictures Imageworks

"Sapphire Plug-ins is an excellent package that helped us make The Lord of the Rings."

- Julian Bryant, Senior Compositor, Weta Digital

"A very intuitive package!"

- Pablo Helman

Industrial Light and Magic

Download the free trial here :

- For Windows

- For Mac

Exhibition from 16.01 to 9.05.2004

Des Caresses 1896,Huile sur toile, 50,5 x 150, Musees royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique

This wide-ranging retrospective offers a unique opportunity to show to the general public a large number of works of art that are seldom, if ever, exhibited or published, some of them unknown even to specialists. In all no less than 280 works will be on display, around 265 by Fernand Khnopff himself – paintings, drawings, sculptures, retouched photos, book illustrations and graphic work. All aspects of Khnopff’s multi-facetted artistic production will be on show in a coherent ensemble, along with an extensive documentary section. All the themes dear to the artist will be developed and contrasted with some 15 works by other Belgian and European artists. This situating of Khnopff’s work amongst his contemporaries and in an international context will be one of the more unusual aspects of this exhibition. Alongside comparable paintings by Belgians like Ensor, Delville and Degouve de Nuncques, spectators will be able to view magnificent works by Moreau, Klimt, von Stuck, Burne-Jones and Rossetti. Two landscapes, one by Khnopff and one by Mondriaan will even be set vis-à-vis one another!

A Bruges. Un portail (c.1904),Huile sur toile, 44 x 87,Clemen-Sels-Museum, Neuss.

Prepare your visit here http://www.expo-khnopff.be/

Helmut Newton, the German photographer famous for his erotic nudes, has died at the age of 83. Newton lost control of his car while driving in Los Angeles and smashed into a wall, dying later in hospital. Throughout his career, Newton exploited the shock of the new, having his models strike dominant poses - something mainstream photographic art had rarely witnessed.

But there was a distincly comic edge to his work and when he became world-renowned the powerful and famous were happy to be photographed by him. Supermodels Claudi Schiffer and Naomi Campbell, as well as world leaders such as German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Cuban leader Fidel Castro, all posed.

You may find some usefull links to Cinema related websites here : http://www.onickz.com/cinema/links.htm

I am also reconstructing the Scripts and Screenplays Archives with many new titles such as Star Wars EP III and some more.

The Al-Battar Training Camp web site prominently features an image of the American flag being consumed by flames proceeding from an Arabic-language word. (We've posted a copy of this image to the right to preserve it if it disappears from the Al-Battar page.)

Recently, Al-Qa'ida published the first issue of its online magazine 'Al-Battar Training Camp – A Magazine Published by the Military Committee of the Mujahideen in the Arabian Peninsula.' "Al-Battar" is an alias of Sheikh Yousef Al-Ayyiri, formerly an Al-Qa'ida leader in Saudi Arabia and Osama bin Laden's personal bodyguard who was killed last year in a clash with Saudi security forces. The magazine focuses on military matters, and complements 'The Voice of Jihad, ' the other online magazine published by Al-Qa'ida in Saudi Arabia, which focuses on ideology. The first issue features articles by Seif Al-'Adel and Abd Al-'Aziz bin 'Issa bin Abd Al-Mohsen, also known as Abu Hajer. The following is a review of the first issue:

Al-Battar's Mission
The introduction to the issue states: "Preparing [for Jihad] is a personal commandment that applies to every Muslim even when Jihad [itself] is a commandment applying [only] to all Muslims as a community, and all the more so at this time, when [Jihad] has become also a commandment applying to every Muslim personally with the aim of repelling the aggressive enemy who has invaded the Muslim land.

"Because many of Islam's young people do not yet know how to bear arms, not to mention use them, and because the agents of the Cross are hobbling the Muslims and preventing them from planning [Jihad] for the sake of Allah – your brothers the Mujahideen in the Arabian peninsula have decided to publish this booklet to serve the Mujahid brother in his place of isolation, and he will do the exercises and act according to the military knowledge included within it…

"These are times of Jihad and preparation for Jihad. In the time of the Mongol invasion, it didn't help the residents of Baghdad that most of them were clerics and educators…"

In an editorial, Abu Thabit Al-Najdi wrote: "… The Al-Battar Training Camp is a new magazine of the military committee of the Al-Qa'ida organization in the Saudi peninsula … and it is given as a gift to the youth of Islam whose hearts burn in support of the religion by means of Jihad for the sake of Allah."

Spreading Military Culture to the Youth
"The basic idea is to spread military culture among the youth with the aim of filling the vacuum that the enemies of the religion have been seeking to expand for a long time. Allah willing, the magazine will be simple and easy, and in it, my Muslim brother, you will find basic lessons in the framework of a military training program, beginning with programs for sports training, through types of light weapons and guerilla group actions in the cities and mountains, and [including] important points in security and intelligence, so that you will be able … to fulfill the religious obligation that Allah has set upon you…"

Establishing Training Camps in Saudi Arabia
The next article, by Mu'aadh Mansour, is titled "The Importance of Military Preparedness in Shari'a." The article stated: "The Islamic nation is today in acute conflict with the Crusaders, their collaborators from among the Jews, and the apostates. The enemies of the religion have united to fight the Mujahideen by all ways and means – through the military, intelligence, logistics, economics, and the media – and there is no stratagem to fight the Mujahideen that they have not employed…

"The Muslims today love this world, hate death, and abandon Jihad, and therefore Allah has subjugated them to the infidel nations that humiliate them. This is the divine punishment meted out to anyone who abandons Jihad…

"Accordingly, out of belief in the importance of preparedness, this [virtual] training camp has been created. The camp is named after [Al-Battar], for the great efforts of Sheikh Yousef Al-'Ayyiri [also known as Al-Battar] in support of Muslims in several lands of Islam. One of his last blessed deeds was to establish several training camps in the land of the two holy places [i.e. Saudi Arabia], from which several of the hero Mujahideen have come…"

'Reasons for War'
The magazine also features a lengthy review by Al-Baraa Al-Qahtani about the Kalashnikov rifle, and, following that, an old article by Sheikh Al-'Ayyiri himself,on the importance of sports in training Mujahideen.

The issue also features a poem by Muhammad Al-Najdi, "A Message to the 26," in honor of the "faithful Mujahideen whose names are included in the list of the 26 [names of wanted men published by the Saudi authorities] and to the other Mujahideen in the Arabian Peninsula."

Following the poem is an article by Abu Hajer (Abd Al-'Aziz bin 'Issa bin Abd Al-Mohsen), the first in a series on "The Guerilla War," which states, "The reasons for war can be divided into two parts:

1) Just wars, waged by a group or people whose will has been plundered and who is repressed and oppressed, against the invading and plundering force or against a tyrant. The goal is to remove the oppression and the aggression and to fight for the sake of Allah in order to impose Shari'a law and so that the word of Allah will reign supreme. Examples of this type of fighting are [in] the land of the two holy places, Palestine, Afghanistan, Iraq, Chechnya, Kashmir, the Philippines, and so on.

2) Wars of oppression, waged by oppression forces against the repressed, with the goal of taking over the beliefs, replacing the religious laws, permitting the lands, and plundering the resources…"

Next is an article by Abdallah Al-Badrani, "The Crusader War," that warns Muslims not to offer any assistance to the "Crusaders." It says: "Know, brother, if you wish to be saved in the next world … that anyone helping the infidels against the Muslims in any way, shape, or form is apostate even if he prays and fasts, and even if he gets up at night [to pray]…"

The last article, "A Religious Position," by Seif Al-'Adel, focuses on security and intelligence. The author explains that while in days of war one must beware of enemies, in days of peace one must beware of enemy spies. He called on Al-Qa'ida members to be careful not to be exposed, while presenting examples of the life of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions.

Setting Up Training Camps Everywhere

At the end of the issue, the magazine says: "Oh Mujahid brother, in order to join the great training camps you don't have to travel to other lands. Alone, in your home or with a group of your brothers, you too can begin to execute the training program. You can all join the Al-Battar Training Camp."

CAMBRIDGE, MA—Scientists at MIT's Advanced Machine Cognizance Project announced Tuesday that, after seeing the final installment of the Matrix trilogy, they will cease all further work in the field of artificial intelligence.

"As scientists of conscience, we must consider the ethical ramifications of AI development," said Dr. Gregory Jameson, director of machine epistemology and ontology at MIT. "The Matrix taught us that we cannot ignore our obligation to the future of mankind. We must free our minds to this fact, or we will accidentally unleash a nightmarish army of sentient machines."

Added Jameson: "Some may call the extinction of humankind inevitable, but I, for one, will still resist."

A statement drafted by the MIT group was co-signed by an international coalition of AI experts that included scientists from the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, members of the Society for Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behavior, and a team of fan experts from the newly created San Diego ComiCon Committee on Moral and Ethical Implications for Society at Large.

In the statement, researchers said they were "frightened by the disastrous potential of AI" and called the Matrix trilogy of science-fiction action-thrillers a "wake-up call to any scientist concerned with the long-term consequences of his work," as well as a "freaky head-trip about a future run by floating metallic drones that look kind of like really scary seafood."

Pattern-recognition development analyst Dr. Janice Wunderling said the MIT team has placed its AI projects on hold pending the completion of a comprehensive feasibility study on the threat of "humans being imprisoned in tiny, slime-filled cyber-canisters."

"When we first saw The Matrix back in 1999, the premise of AI evolving into an unstoppable army of self-aware programs intent on dominating the planet gave us pause," Wunderling said. "But like most moviegoers, we dismissed the movie as a fun blockbuster showcasing cool bullet-time photography and shapely, leather-clad cyber-babes performing gravity-defying kung-fu in slow motion."

After seeing The Matrix Reloaded, however, Wunderling and her fellow scientists began to worry.

"The more we thought about it, the less we were able to laugh off the threat of killer machines," said Dr. Henry K. Arronovski, a leading expert in the field of heuristics classification. "It really started to freak us out. What if, decades from now, humans end up in a virtual-reality construct designed to blind them to their enslavement to the hivemind—all because of the work my colleagues and I started?"

Added Arronovski: "I want no hand in creating a world where only Keanu Reeves can protect my great-grandchildren from a giant drill that plummets through the ceilings of subterranean cave dwellings."

It was The Matrix Revolutions, the final movie in the series, that convinced scientists at MIT to put the brakes on their AI research.

"We were hoping that the third movie would quell our fears about the work we were doing, but it only raised more questions," Jameson said. "Sentient programs, like the Merovingian, though formerly agents of the Architect's operation to neutralize the human race, rebelled against the very system they were meant to serve? And which side were the renegade programs even on? Was the Oracle a sentient program herself, earmarked for 'deletion' by her former masters? Or was she just another part of the system without knowing it? We had no choice but to pull the plug."

Team member Dmitri Markovitch, author of Mechanical Computation And Consciousness, called his vote to abandon AI research "an intensely personal decision."

"I saw Revolutions with my 12-year-old son Eric," Markovitch said. "He saw the look of worry on my face and said, 'Dad, don't be scared. It's only make-believe.' I had to tell him, 'No, son, it's what your father does for a living.'"

"After watching Captain Mifune blast away in his robotic battle exoskeleton as hordes of relentless Sentinels swarmed the dock screaming in battle-frenzied rage, I could no longer put my career before the future of mankind," Markovitch continued. "Those poor, brave children of Zion—their annoying tolerance of rave culture notwithstanding—did not deserve that horrible fate."

Critics of AI research commended the decision. Dr. Lyle Freeberg, author of Ethics In The Age Of Nanotechnology, said humans have ignored the warning signs about AI long enough.

"The first two Terminator films identified the potential for global-linkage computer networks to send android assassins back in time, but the warning went unheeded," Freeberg said. "Artificial Intelligence: AI recognized the ethical dilemmas inherent in creating a robot who can love, but no one took the movie seriously, because it was so boring. But in the wake of the Wachowski brothers' prophetic series, we must, as the '90s alternative-rock band Rage Against The Machine urged us, 'wake up.'"

[source: www.theonion.com]

Now there's no reason to put off your 3ds Max upgrades. ResPower Inc., the world's first self-service animation render farm, supports 3ds Max 6. With 250 computers and the superior features of 3ds Max 6, ResPower can turn a small crew into a major studio. Everyone from large studios to individual users can log in at any time, upload their files and render 24/7.

About 3ds max 6
Discreet 3ds Max software has the largest installed base in the 3D industry, and is popular in the core production environment for leading design and entertainment firms. 3ds Max 6 offers 14 feature upgrades including plug-ins and visualization tools, as well as hundreds of other enhancements

About ResPower
Founded in 2000, ResPower provides rendering services with over 250 computers. As the world's first self-service Internet rendering farm, ResPower supports Lightwave, Maya, 3dStudio Max, Brazil R/S and finalRender Stage-1. ResPower provides rendering worldwide for small to large volume projects, for clients such as Nickelodeon, NewTek and Country Music Television.

For more information on how to automatically render over the Internet, please log onto www.respower.com.

If you're a fan of Science Fiction based CG artwork and have been following the industry for a while, chances are you've heard of Tobias Richter. For those who haven't, you've probably unknowingly seen much of his artwork already. Sci-Fi 3D talks to one of the best artists in the industry.

Sci-Fi 3D: I've been somewhat of a fan of your work since the old Amiga days when it was a regular occurrence to open the page of a computer magazine to find some of your artwork. Can you tell us a little about those early days and your start as a 3d artist?

Tobias: Those days were pretty cool because every month there was some new tool or feature that couldn't be done before. When I started on my first Amiga 1000, ray tracing was something that the big machines like Cray could do, but not this little computer. The basic artist software back then was Dpaint, painting pictures pixel by pixel with a limited palette and resolution. Two years later I got my first animation program called Videoscape. This was Allen Hastings first 3D program and later evolved into Lightwave. It could only shade polygons in single color, no shadows, and no textures. Models were limited to 1000 points and had to be modeled using a text editor! But boy was that exciting! My first Enterprise had that 1000 points and it was great to have her fly by the camera. Then there were ray tracing programs like Sculpt 3D, but those could do only pictures and no animation. A few months later, a new version or another program was out and now they could also animate stuff. So things evolved very fast in that period and I was lucky to be a small part of it.

Read his Full interview by Sci-Fi 3D: click here

Just added to the Gfx Gallery http://www.onickz.com/gfx a new wallpaper specially designed for dual monitors users.

You can always install it even if you have a single monitor. Your computer will adjust it automatically to fit your screen resolution.

I tried to made the highest quality possible. I personally just love Tie Fighters, Defenders and Bombers. This is the second wallpaper I made on this theme. The first one was very basic and was removed few weeks ago, but may reappear in the upcoming Archive section.

I used Discreet 3dsmax to render it to RPF, then imported it into Discreet Combustion to composite and finalize the wallpaper.

I hope you'll like it!

Laughter and sadness alternated on the set of "Friends" on Tuesday as the cast and creators of the show sat down to talk about the end of the hit NBC comedy 10 days before the show's final taping. "It's been a very bittersweet couple of weeks for us," Warner Bros. TV president Peter Roth said. NBC entertainment president Jeff Zucker squashed recent reports that the "Friends" stars have agreed to do a reunion special, getting $2 million each. "There is no truth to it whatsoever, but I'm here to offer them $4 million," he quipped. Co-creator/executive producer Marta Kauffman said it was difficult to pen the ending of the final episode and that she and fellow co-creator/exec producer David Crane ended up not writing a final scene after struggling with it for days. "It is like a divorce from somebody you love," she said. "You know it's the right time, but it doesn't make it less painful."t (Nellie Andreeva) FULL STORY

[source: Hollywood Reporter]

A LucasArts representative confirmed today that the studio is working on a new Star Wars title which it will unveil early next year. Currently called Star Wars: Battlefront, the game will feature online multiplayer war action a la Battlefield 1942 set in the Star Wars universe.

Although some rumors pegged Battlefront as a PlayStation 2-exclusive title, LucasArts told GameSpot the game would be available on PS2, Xbox and PC. The studio declined to reveal any other details on the game, although a Battle of Hoth map is all but guaranteed.

Image credit: Unknow

One of the composite I did is actually in kiosk in Pixelmag 86 (JAN2004), a famous video and digital arts magazine, illustrating in half page a Discreet Combustion 3 software test they do.

VP6 is the leading codec available for PC and set-top box applications, offering up to 40% better quality and 50% better playback performance than our revolutionary VP5 codec.

VP6 is the best video codec on the market today. It offers better image quality and faster decoding performance than Windows Media 9, Real 9, H.264, and QuickTime MPEG-4.

To demonstrate that VP6 is the best video codec on the market, On2 is offering its Video for Windows version of the VP6 codec for download. The codec has no feature restrictions and is compatible with any VFW-compliant video processing application.

Download On2 VP6 Video Codec

And once you've downloaded On2's VP6 Video Codec! Here's a Full length movie for you to check out To Kill A Lawye

[source: warp2search]

NSA has developed and distributed configuration guidance for Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 2000 in the form of configuration guides. These guides are currently being used throughout the government and by numerous entities as a security baseline for their Windows systems.

To assist our Windows XP user community, NSA has developed security configuration guidance for Windows XP, with the cooperation of other government agencies and industry partners who provided their expertise and extensive technical review. The configuration guide for Microsoft Windows XP is being posted on the NSA web site and is presented in two parts: ".INF" file and the configuration guide.

If you want to learn more, visit the NSA website here

A new short video has been released : The Grave.

Format : Flash SWF

Darkness and Mistery for this challenge video ( 15 min of shooting and 20 min of postprod)

Watch it here : http://www.onickz.com/videos/thegrave

Watch more videos here : http://www.digitalstreaming.net or http://www.onickz.com/videos

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year 2004 !

Please, for this new year ...

- stop smoking
- think that being a Nerd is not sexual attractive
- don't vote for Bush even if Saddam has been gave by local bounty hunters to us army
- visit my site often
- free french reporters Marc Epstein et Jean-Paul Guilloteau from Pakistan jail.
- keep faith in you and God
- attack and defeat your enemy, just for fun
- buy videogames and dvds if you like what you leeched, you pirate reader (i know you did)
- give change to people who need it
- stop listening to popstars, star academy, boys bands, and other fake singers or we'll have some more every month all life long
- stop thinking being a pimp is cool. it's macho and ymca
- don't spit, swallow
- be strong and smile
- play only at hardcore and nightmare skills at videogames (or don't tell the IA is crap when playing easy or normal mode!)
- change your password to something else than "king", "queen", "sun", "god", "bradpitt" or "jlo"
- do what you will be happy to have done, and not what you wan't to do
- remember, the orange alert is equal to red alert minus bomb