I wonder how many of you have heard or Esri? Before I go on to explain why I am writting about them today, here is a quick introduction to this very interesting company.

I love Sunday. It’s my favourite day of the week: a day when I can 'veg out' and watch all the stuff on TV I don’t normally have time for. Yesterday, I settled down to watch a feature animation which had been on my ‘To Watch’ list for some time. It’s called “The Illusionist” and is a Franco-British collaboration, directed by Sylvain Chomet.

I went to see Tintin in 3D a few days ago - in itself, there's nothing unique about that, but I am both a Francophile living in England and a die-hard fan of Tintin, so I thought I would write my views about this new take on my childhood hero.

The more obsevant among you will have noticed that I didn't publish my round up for a couple of weeks - apologies for this, but I decided it was time to take a well deserved holiday. Still, I am back now, and here is my usual Weekly Round-Up of News, with stories that I have picked up over the past week. If you have suggestions for stories I missed, just drop me a line or post a comment.

Here is my usual Weekly Round-Up of News, with stories that I have picked up over the past week. If you have suggestions for stories I missed, just drop me a line or post a comment.

It seems there is an abundance of technology conferences to choose from this year. For fellow technology enthusiasts out there, this is an exciting time, as we are treated to an ocean of updates, new releases and ground breaking developments. One conference we give a particular seal of approval to is the much anticipated CVMP (Conference for Visual Media Production), now in its 8^th year running. This is a conference dedicated to the geeks of the visual media production industries, whether that is in film, broadcast or games.

Here is my usual Weekly Round-Up of news with the stories that I have picked up over the past week. If you have suggestions for stories I missed, just drop me a line or post a comment.

Pixar, renowned for their cutting edge animation, know better than anyone the advantages of saving time where possible. The technical directors and supervisors on Cars 2 were faced with the challenge of building locations for this feature length animation. Those of you who have seen the sequel will remember that the lead character, Lightning McQueen, is being sent around the globe to race in the world Grand Prix. The challenge for the Pixar creative team was to build recognizable cities, on a very broad scale.

A couple of us tutors at Escape Studios like to go to Wormwood Scrubs (yes near the Prison) to fly model aircrafts with cameras on.

MARI is a relatively new piece of software, and is becoming more popular with artists as its reputation for efficiency and adaptability becomes more widely known. As with any piece of new software there is a period of trial and error before you really get to know its full capability. It is in light of this that Henry South, lead texture artist at Framestore, is offering to share his top 23 tips when working with MARI.