Another whiteboard

Codeproject.com has some whiteboard projects to look at. An html5 canvas based whiteboard looked interesting. Besides the code, the author also helped by documenting a bit about how it works. Screenshots were included. They show the drawing board and a chat message box for text conversations. Drawing functionality included making a line, erasing, and clearing the entire space. The writeup also describes that he decided against polling to update the server due to scalability and user experience issues. He mentions the terms HTTP Push or Comet as alternatives, but he picked the WebSocket feature of HTML 5 for ease of implementation. However, his code still needed to "chunk" the message data into pieces small enough to transfer via the socket.

Bournemouth University

YouTube has some videos of students in the Master of Digital Effects at the National Centre for Computer Animation.

From their page:

Using digital tools to create visual effects for film and television. Visual effects are typically shots or sequences of images that cannot be created live in front of the camera, but have to be created using production and post production processes.

The core of digital effects is the combination of captured live action with synthetic images, though sequences that are created could be all CG or all live action. The digital tools can take a variety of forms, including 3D softwares and compositing softwares. The main softwares taught and used by the students are: Houdini,Nuke, PFTrack.

Objective of the programme

Creating future industry leaders. People who, with time and experience, will become the next generation of visual effects supervisors and designers.