Reminders:

• the overcast #030 has been released (link)
• May’s Machinima Audio Conference is tomorrow. Check the conference page for late breaking details regarding location.

ILL Clan Launches New Animation Studio – Joint projects with The Electric Sheep Company Continue

New York City, May 29, 2008 — After a highly successful 16-month run, virtual world content creator The Electric Sheep Company (ESC) and its critically acclaimed machinima animation division, previously ILL Clan Inc., have restructured to operate as distinct business entities.

“The Electric Sheep Company has seen an increased demand in Web-based virtual experiences, and our direction as a company has shifted to serve this demand for our clients and our own business initiatives,” says Sibley Verbeck, CEO for The Electric Sheep Company. “This focus has limited the potential for ILL Clan to service the separate growing animation market that utilizes their skills and technology. We are pleased to be in the client roll with ILL Clan moving forward and look forward to the increased business opportunities this split represents for the crew at ILL Clan.”

“Our tenure at the Electric Sheep was an incredible experience,” says Frank Dellario, ESC’s former vice president of machinima and current president of the newly re-formed ILL Clan Animation Studios. “Their support enabled us to expand our expertise to a new level and add some of the world’s biggest entertainment and marketing companies to our portfolio.”

ESC recruited the ILL Clan, then an independent company with nearly a decade of experience, as its exclusive machinima division in January 2007. Under the “Sheep” banner, the department flourished, producing landmark works for virtual-worlds clients, such as CBS, NBC, MTV, and IBM, as well as for television, including key animation sequences in two episodes of the primetime drama “CSI: NY” and a pre–Super Bowl commercial for “Two and a Half Men.”

“It was a privilege to be part of that visionary organization,” Dellario says. “Now, as we embark on this new phase, we are excited and honored at the opportunity to continue serving their machinima needs, as well as those of new clients.”
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About ILL Clan Animation Studios

As the multiple award-winning ILL Clan Inc., the company has been creating machinima since 1998 for world-class clients such as CBS, IBM, MTV, Microsoft, NBC, SpikeTV, Warner Brothers, and more. Named “Machinima Masters” by Wired Magazine, the team renowned for pioneering the field will resume its longstanding tradition of excellence in providing innovative machinima content under the new ILL Clan Animation Studios moniker. To learn more, visit www.illclan.com or contract Frank Dellario at frank@illclan.com.

About Electric Sheep Company

The Electric Sheep Company (ESC) is the leading creator of 3D virtual world content and solutions specializing in providing software, interactive design, and integration and production solutions. Founded in April 2005 and headquartered in New York City, ESC is dedicated to the complementary tasks of bringing relevant social and information products to consumers, and helping major organizations find ways to use virtual worlds to realize operational, marketing and educational goals. Clients include AOL, MTV, NBC, Nissan, Sony, Reuters and many others. To learn more, visit www.electricsheepcompany.com.

Frank Dellario
Director of Machinima Production
ILL Clan Animation Studios
www.illclan.com

P: 718-599-2591
C: 347-277-1920

SL: illbixby cerveau
Skype: illbixby

Watch it in HD at Vimeo - http://www.vimeo.com/1054468
(blow it up to full screen if you like)

Constructed for the AniBoom Radiohead Music Video Contest. Like what you see?
PLEASE VOTE for it there at:
http://www.aniboom.com/Player.aspx?v=225612

For more info and downloads in Hi Def, DivX or QuickTime, for your iPod, and so on, go to:
http://z-studios.com/films/bodysnatchers/

Some items of interest about the forthcoming release:

• Gigabytes of source footage: 55.2
• Video tracks in Vegas: 72. Average shot depth: 16 compositing layers.
• Rendering to 720p uncompressed takes 3.0 hours per minute of final film.
• Approximate production time: 250 hours
• More pieces of personally designed custom content than all my previous films combined.

If everything goes smoothly tonight, I’m hoping for a release tomorrow! You can follow the step-by-step tonight on Twitter, if you like.

Motionographer.com, the premiere hub for quality motion graphics activity, has a jobs page, and it is amazingly active. It occurred to me that there are very likely people out there who are producing machinima but perhaps have skillsets which extend beyond that, and if so you’ll be happy to know that there appears to be a lot of demand out there for skilled craftspeople in this versatile field.

From full fledged 3D artists to specialists with specific apps (Maya, Illustrator, …) to specialists in specific parts of the production chain (post production, rotoscoping, …)… there sure is a lot of work out there.

If attaining employment is one of your hopes related to your animation work, don’t overlook this fantastic resource. You can even subscribe to their RSS feed and have the job listings come right to your reader.

Johnnie Ingram (of Moviestorm, Machinima For Dummies, and Strange Company) was kind enough to set up a Machinima Events Calendar using Google Calendar, and I’m not sure how many people are aware of it yet. Things like the upcoming Machiniplex Premiere, the audio conferences, and other events are already being added. Viewing of the calendar is open to the public, so feel free to link to it, subscribe to its feed, or embed it on your website.

As for updating it, currently those who have that ability are Johnnie, Ricky Grove, and myself. I’d be very open to bringing an additional person into that editing role, if someone would be interested in populating the calendar with film festival-related info with some regularity. It would be a great service to your fellow machinima “peeps.” If that interests you, get in touch with me for more info.

Thanks, Johnnie, for thinking to set this up!