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Hey all. I was just tidying up to finish for the day when I had to stop and look at the latest trailer for Battlefield 1943 Iwo Jima, coming shortly to Xbox Live and PSN as a download! I wanted to show you this asap so rebooted my PC to show you all 
Off home now. Have a great evening….let me know what you think of this game…..
EArl
Video clip attached for your enjoyment…….
© 2009 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners
Tags: Battlefield 1943, Iwo Jima
It’s Harry Potter week. Harry Potter: Half Blood Prince the videogame is released…..so there is no better time to give you more insight into the magical world of young Harry in this intrepretation of the classic Warner Brothers film released shortly.
Let’s start by reminding ourselves of the official videogame trailer…..
There is a huge amount in the gaming press this week. One article to point you towards is a behind the scenes insight into the making of the videogame and a tour of the real film set. There is a great article of Game Daily, posted here. http://tinyurl.com/l55c6t
If you would love to see a behind the scenes video, with the real life actors discussing their involvement in the video game, that a look here: http://tinyurl.com/ntd4jm
I just love Harry Potter week
EArl
© 2009 Electronic Arts Inc. All rights reserved. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners
Tags: Half Blood Prince, Harry Potter
Several of you have emailed asking for more of an insight into the Awards Ceremony. As mentioned previously the main information will be posted onto Manchester University’s Animation 09 site. But here is a few snippets of the day.
Animation 09: A pictorial overview
Toby Howard, Deputy Director of the Undergraduate School for Computer Science of Manchester University, is the superb host of the day. he kept the Awards moving at a fast pace, ensuring the audience was consistently engaged.
Simon Taylor, ‘Sick of School’ picks up his first award for Key Stage 4, Individual Award, of a Laptop!
All felt inspired seeing schoolchildren, so young, blessed with so much talent, collecting their awards
It was also very heartening to see so many females winning awards and demonstrating superb creative talent. Given the games & film industry has traditionally been very male dominated, this looks set to change in future generations, which can only rein-vigour the creative industries
Louis Durrant picks up his first Award of a Laptop for ‘Hip to be Square’ for Key Stage 3 Individual entrant.
Toby Howard builds up the excitement in the auditorium as he introduces the final Awards and builds up to the EA Special Awards
Matthew Jeffery, Head of Talent Brand congratulates the students on the high quality entries and asks whether there is a future Steven Spielberg, John Lasseter or Will Wright in the room. Kate Booth, European Outreach Manager gets ready with the EA Award prizes and looks on
Matthew outlines why all the entrants should be very proud and congratulates Manchester University on a Nationwide UK Competition for 7 – 19 year olds that attracted over 800 entries. Animation 09 was a huge success and Manchester should be applauded for it’s endeavours.
Matthew and Kate present Simon Taylor with a PS3 & Games & a Certificate for ’Sick of School’. Simon won the EA Special Recognition Prize for an outstanding animated short
Matthew & Kate welcome Louis Durrant to the stage to collect the EA Overall Winner Prize: Best Animated Video of Animation 09 for the superb Animated Short, ‘Hip to be Square’.
Matthew preceded to give a presentation to the audience on Animation inside EA and the future of gaming. This was aimed to be educational and allow the audience a behind the scenes insight into videogame animation.
As part of this presentation Matthew discussed the importance of working hard at school, making the best choices when it comes to selecting options, A’Levels and Degrees to Study. In this part of the presentation emphasis was put on the importance of traditional degrees like Maths, Physics, Computer Science, Business Studies, English as the best grounding to get in the games industry. Education was providing students with too much choice and students needed to appreciate that a large number of degrees needed more thought in course structure and ensuring they prepared students for their future career. Games degrees and games design courses were prophesized as maybe not setting up students for long term success, (with a few exceptions).
The future of gaming and entertainment is being driven by technology be it the internet & web 2.0 with the adoption of Broadband; TV was changing with the likes of Sky Plus allowing live TV to be paused and TV was now viewable over the web and on handheld devices; Cinema was changing with High Definition TV’s and surround sound bringing the cinema experience into the living room; Music was now founded on downloads and creating the ’soundtrack’ of one’s life over mediums like Itunes; Gaming was being pushed not only technologically through the power of the Next gen machines like PS3 and Xbox360 but through widening and deepening gameplay experience through accessible controllers like the Wii-mote and looking to the future, Project Natal, with no need for any controller. Technology is really revolutionizing the way we are entertained was the clear message…..
Audience members were invited on stage to try to differentiate between three pictures of cars. 1 car was taken from Need for Speed videogame, another was a real car and the other was from a film CG render. Audience members consistently got the images incorrect, hence demonstrating how far gaming, film CG and reality had converged
A large part of the presentation went into animation techniques, an introduction in Motion Capture, a review of Artificial Intelligence, demonstrating complex AI and logarithms used in FIFA, behavioral patterns in gaming and a discussion into emotionally believable characters in gaming and the infamous zombie line.
Concluding the day, Matthew & Toby Howard field questions from an intelligent and peceptive audience of 7 – 19 year olds creatives.
Looks a cool day. Thanks to Toby, Matthew & Kate for the pictures.
EArl
Tags: Animation 09
Last Friday, the winners were announced of the UK Animation 09 competition, sponsored by EA. The Award Ceremony was packed with entrants from across the UK all hoping they had won a prestigious award. The atmosphere at the MOSI, (Museum of Science & Industry), in Manchester was electric as school children aged from 7 – 19, their teachers, parents, professors and media all came together to celebrate this great nationwide competition. Manchester University will be posting photos and all the Award winning videos up on their site shortly…keep an eye here: http://tinyurl.com/c5okj2
We have previously blogged on the rules, entrance requirements and goals of Animation 09. To refresh your memory click here. http://tinyurl.com/ngbwws This is one of the most exciting competitions currently being run as it really caters for all ages and it is great to see 7 year olds not only taking part in this competition but showing real talent and winning awards. Congratulations Manchester, EA cannot wait to support you in 2010.
EA sponsored the event via EA Outreach, which seeks to give back to the community. The EA Global Recruitment Team sponsored two prizes, 1) Overall Winner Prize: Best Animated Video of the Competition; 2) Special Recognition Prize for an outstanding animated short. Both winners won Playstation 3’s, with the new Dualshock Controller and Games. EA also gave a presentation and an insight into their world of Animation and the Future of Gaming, which was a true highlight for many in the audience.
It is an honour to share both ‘EA Award Winners’ videos with you today. All winners and notable entries can be found on Animation 09’s main site shortly.
The ‘EA Award Winners’ are both very worthy winners and deserve the full credit they will duly get.
‘It’s Hip to be Square’
This won the EA Overall Winner Prize: Best Animated Video of Animation 09. This great video is the talented work of Louis Durrant of Trinity School. Louis is Key Stage 3.
Take a look. I am sure you agree that Louis has a talented future ahead of him. Congratulations Louis.
‘Sick of School’
‘Sick of School’ won an EA Special Recognition Prize for an outstanding animated short. This great video, ‘Sick of School’, was created by Simon Taylorof Kingsley School Bideford. Simon is Key Stage 4.
Again, Simon has a great future ahead of him. I am sure you’ll agree the video below is superbly animated, colourful, has a strong vein of humour and is engaging to watch.
Any competition which encourages schoolchildren from the ages of 7 – 19 is a great thing. It ensures that more and more people feel at ease using computers and encourages them to study IT and Computing as they move through their education. EA is very proud to be a partner with Manchester University and support this superb initiative. Roll on Animation 10 in 2010.
Who knows, last week at MOSI, the next Steven Spielberg, John Lasseter, Will Wright or Miyamoto may have been discovered and their creative juices are now flowing and a career path is now mapped out in their talented minds…..let’s wait and see.
A big thank you to all involved for a great day… and of course thanks to the EA Outreach team and Global Recruitment Team.
EArl
Tags: Animation 09
Special Olympics
Hey all. Just received this great insight into EA’s Outreach program from Wendell Harlow, Manager, EA Outreach and Corporate Giving Canada. Wendell oversees EA Outreach in Canada, (based in Burnaby, Vancouver). Thanks Wendell.
EArl
Blogpost from Wendell Harlow, EA Outreach, EA Canada
EA Outreach is dedicated to encouraging EA Employees to be involved in the community and to supporting the causes our employees support.
Outreach Mission Statement:
EAC enlists and promotes employee involvement by championing and supporting a wide range of compassionate, cultural and educational charitable causes and programs. We invest corporate and employee time, talent and money in local non-profit foundations that better our community and promote EA’s reputation as a innovative corporate giving leader among it’s employee’s and the community at large.
Below are just some programs EA Outreach has participated. Please note, all funds raised are quoted in Canadian funds.
$43,000.00 RAISED FOR SPECIAL OLYMPICS!
Under perfect cloudy skies on Saturday, June 6th, EA hosted it’s 3rd annual Motion Ball event for Special Olympics B.C. In this fun all day tournament, participants competed in Soccer; Basketball; Beach Volley ball, Ultimate; Bocce and Badminton events. Always a very popular community event, this year we attracted 18 corporate teams; 180 athletes; 16 Special Olympians and over 40 volunteers! A big congratulations to those EA Teams who raised over $4,000.00 for Special Olympics! The event started at 9:00 a.m. and finished at 4:00 p.m., at which time medals and prizes were presented to the winning teams and individual athletes.
EMPLOYEE MATCHING GIFT PROGRAM HELPS OUR COMMUNITY
Last month, employees donated a whopping $11,000.00 to B.C. Children’s Hospital Foundation through the Matching Gift Program. With EA’s match, EA presented a cheque in the amount of $22,000.00 to B.C. Children’s Hospital Foundation during the Miracle Network Telethon that aired on Global TV Sunday, June 7th. Way to go EA!!
Arts Umbrella Digital Scholarship Program & Showcase
For the past six years, EA has sponsored a very unique and customized mentorship class for Arts Umbrella called “EA Teen Game Design Scholarship Program”. With the support, talent and dedication of various Art Directors, Art Leads, Animators and designers over the years, this program has become one of the most popular at the Arts Umbrella. This year, the class was lead by Lighting Supervisor, Tarek Elaydi And Art Director Ian Lloyd, who took turns teaching the class on alternate Sundays for 9 weeks. The year end wrap up and student showcase was held at EA on Friday, June 5th with many friends and family in attendance
COMPASSIONATE AND EDUCATIONAL TOURS
So far this year, we have hosted tours for over 45 kids who have terminal or life threatening illnesses from Canuck Place Hospice, Ronald McDonald House, the Make-A-Wish Foundation and B.C. Children’s Hospital Oncology clinic. We have reached out to over 800 grade 9 to 12 Lower Mainland High School students, by hosting on-site animation and programming educational programs and tours. A special thanks to Colin Porteous and his IT team for donating 6 used IBM Intellistrations and 6 NeC 21” CRT Monitors to Moscrop High School.
CHARITABLE GAME DONATION PROGRAM
Since the beginning of the year, we have donated approximately 500 games to over 200 Lower Mainland non-profit foundations. Local charities use our game donations to raise money for their foundations by using our games as silent auction, raffle and door prizes items.
WHAT’S COMING UP IN OUTREACH:
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