[Fsf-friends] Elephants Dream : Worlds First Open Movie released

[Tinku Sampath]

   ' ELEPHANTS DREAM '
   ' Elephants Dream ', worlds first Open Movie which was finally
   realized using powerful graphic rendering engine such as Blender is
   released to public under Creative Commons license. The short film was
   created by the Orange Open Movie Project studio in Amsterdam during
   2005/2006, bringing together a diverse team of artists and developers
   from all over the world.

   You can download the movie in different formats. Sound tracks and
   images are also available. A video documentary is also ready for
   download.
   I am including the official press release.
   ______________________________________________________________________

   Press Release
   May 18, 2006
   For Immediate Release
   Elephants Dream, internet release of the first 3D 'Open Movie'
   (Blender Foundation, Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - The 3D animated
   short 'Elephants Dream' will today be released as a free and public
   download. This is the final stage of a successfully completed Open
   Movie project which has been community-financed, using only Open
   Source tools, and opening up the movie itself as well as the entire
   studio database for everyone to re-use and learn from. The movie and
   production files are licensed as âEURœCreative Commons
   Attribution 2.5", which only requires a proper crediting for public
   screening, re-using and distribution.
   In the past weeks, the donating sponsors have received the dual DVD
   set of this project in their mailbox. This DVD set remains for sale
   via the blender.org e-shop as support product for future Open Movie
   projects. The Blender Foundation is committed to start working on
   similar projects soon.
   The movie files and download mirrors can be accessed here:
   [1]http://www.elephantsdream.org/download
   Elephants Dream is the culmination of the Orange Open Movie Project,
   produced by the Blender Foundation and the Netherlands Media Art
   Institute. The project was conceived to help develop and establish the
   capabilities of the Blender 3D open source tool for the creation of
   cinema quality animation.
   The film tells the story of Emo and Proog, two people with different
   visions of the surreal world in which they live. Viewers are taken on
   a journey through that world, full of strange mechanical birds,
   stunning technological vistas and machinery that seems to have a life
   of its own.
   'Elephants Dream' features the voice talents of renowned Dutch movie
   actors Tygo Gernandt and Cas Jansen, as well as an original score by
   German composer Jan Morgenstern. The short brought together the
   talents of a team of artists from countries as diverse as Syria,
   Germany, Australia, Finland, and the Netherlands. In addition to the
   performances of the cast and creative efforts of the lead artists,
   Elephants Dream has had the assistance of hundreds of individuals
   across the world who contributed a variety of work such as programming
   additional functionality for Blender, creating textures used in some
   of the scenes, and providing international translations for the DVD
   release.
   The files have been released on two DVDs with the movie in PAL, NTSC
   and HD formats, a making-of documentary, and all of the studio files.
   The DVDs were shipped in early May 2006. As promised, shortly after,
   the movie and database of source material is now available for public
   download as well.
   Studio Orange team:
   Director: Bassam Kurdali (Syria /USA),
   Art Director: Andreas Goralczyk (Germany)
   Lead Artists: Matt Ebb (Australia), Bastian Salmela (Finland), Lee
   Salvemini (Australia)
   Technical Director: Toni Alatalo (Finland)
   For more information:
   [2]
   http://www.elephantsdream.org
   [3]http://www.blender.org
   Contact:
   Ton Roosendaal
   Chairman, Blender Foundation
   Email: ton(at)blender.org
   ______________________________________________________________________

   - Tinku Sampath

References

   1. http://www.elephantsdream.org/download
   2. http://www.elephantsdream.org/
   3. http://www.blender.org/