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Today, I look at two further areas of interest from the Auditor Generals report: the insights it provides about the relocation of the Ontario Science Centre to Ontario Place, and the continued environmental destruction that we might expect to see taking place at Ontario Place.A recent photo of Ontario Places West Island, showing the removed trees and structures as the site is prepared for Thermes indoor waterpark and spa. The parking lot in the foreground is the site designated for the half-sized replacement for the Ontario Science Centre. As a size comparison, Thermes facility will occupy a footprint comparable to the Rogers Centre, while the mainland building for the new Science Centre is 88% smallerabout the size of that stadiums infield. Photo by Steven Evans.Planning continues for relocation of Ontario Science Centre to Ontario PlaceEven if the Auditor Generals office has questioned the value-for-money proposition of the relocation of the Ontario Science Centreboth in its 2023 and now its 2024 reportplans are continuing apace to move the storied institution to a half-sized new facility at Ontario Place.The new price tag of over $700 million for a new Science Centre includes an underground loading zone. To meet functional requirements for the Science Centre, this will likely be a two-storey underground space that also accommodates a bus loop, as well as car drop-off, bus entry, and shipping/receiving for Therme.The report notes that there was only a single bidder on the $5 million contract for a planning, design, and compliance consultant for the new Science CentreWZMH Architects is the consultant that was selected for this work. Their Output Specifications document is expected to be completed by early 2025, and the RFP planned to be released to up to three vendors in January 2025, delayed from the original projected date in the RFQ of Fall 2024.While the government has stated in the past that a new Science Centre at Ontario Place would open as early as 2028, it has now told the Auditor General that the new building is expected to open in 2029. The RFP for a temporary location suggests that a new Science Centre would not be ready until as late as 2034.That temporary location for the Ontario Science, which the government had promised to secure quickly, has not been publicly announced, although a memo to Science Centre employees indicated that it may be selecting a conference facility in Mississauga. Meanwhile, the presence of the Science Centre is currently limited to temporary pop-ups at Harbourfront Centre and Sherway Gardens.The Auditor General evidently sought to find out how much the closure of the Ontario Science Centre cost the public coffer but was refused access to this information. This withholding of information was clearly against protocol, prompting the Auditor General to issue a reminder to the government that as independent auditors, we require access to all information that could have an impact on our financial statement audit.While the Auditor General came short of stating that renewing the legacy location of the Ontario Science Centre would represent better value-for-money than relocating it to Ontario Place, the ballooning costs for a new Science Centre supports this conclusion. Moreover, the fact that key financial information about the closure was withheld from the Auditor Generals office strongly suggests that the unjustified closure was more expensive than anticipatedmaking the unpopular closure and relocation an even worse proposition to taxpayers.Continued environmental destruction at Ontario PlaceAs of October 2024, the report notes, 1,491 trees have been removed from Ontario Place. The Province is planning to remove an additional 298 trees, for a total of 1,789 trees. Only 149 trees (or 8% of the original tree inventory at Ontario Place) will be conserved on the site, the report notes. A 2022 arborist report prepared for Infrastructure Ontario had anticipated that while the Therme project would entail the removal of all trees on the West Island, 25% of the overall trees at Ontario Place would be protected.Most of the Auditor Generals recommendations were accepted by the government, but these largely consisted of pledges to improve of procurement practices in the future. The government rejected the sole recommendation concerning the current Ontario Place projecta recommendation that it implements mitigation measure identified in a draft 2023 Heritage Impact Assessment report. In its response, the Ministry of Infrastructure curtly notes the site is exempt from the Ontario Heritage Act.The recommendations of the draft 2023 Heritage Impact Assessment report seem to be relatively modest in the scope of a $2.2 billion project, but based on the governments response, we should not expect to see them implemented by matter of course. Those recommendations were as follows:Site-wide native planting and new landscape features (e.g., berms) to address the removal of extant vegetation, trees and landscape features. It is anticipated that approximately 2,900 trees will be planted within Ontario Place.New pathway system to improve accessibility, support pedestrian circulation and address the removal of the extant pathway systemNew pathway nodes and plazas with vantage points for views, to address the removal of vantage points within the extant pathway system and the obstruction of views by new buildingsNew aquatic habitat and boardwalks to create the opportunity for close-range experiences of water and mitigate the removal of the extant waterbodiesNew accessory structures that interpret the design and history of Ontario Place to address the removal of extant buildingsThis series will continue with two more parts, looking at the Call for Development process and the possibility for future, continued privatization plans at Ontario Place.Related:The Auditor Generals Report, Part 1: The cost of privatizing Ontario PlaceThe Auditor Generals Report, Part 2: The billion dollar question of parkingThe Auditor Generals Report, Part 3: ThermeThe post The Auditor Generals Report, Part 4: Collateral Damage appeared first on Canadian Architect.

Photo courtesy of canada-architecture.org.Submissions are now open for the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada (SSAC)s two student prizes.The Martin Eli Weil Prize is awarded each year to a student who submits an essay on the role played by the built environment in Canadian society. The $250 prize and certificate will be awarded at the SSAC Annual Conference, where the winner will be invited to present a lecture on their essay. The winning essay will also be published in the Journal of the Society for the Study of Architecture in Canada. The deadline for submissions is February 12, 2025.The Phyllis Lambert Prize is a biennial award presented to a PhD candidate or recent graduate with the best doctoral dissertation on the subject of the built environment in Canada. The deadline for submissions is February 15, 2025.For more information, click here.The post SSAC Calls for Martin Eli Weil and Phyllis Lambert Prize Submissions appeared first on Canadian Architect.

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Kitt Peak National Observatory is a United States astronomical observatory located on Kitt Peak in the Quinlan Mountains, 55 miles (88km) southwest of Tucson, Arizona, in the Sonoran Desert and the Tohono Oodham Nation. With more than twenty optical telescopes and two radio telescopes, it is one of the largest gatherings of astronomical instruments in the Northern Hemisphere. The observatory was founded in 1958, and was administered by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory from the early 1980s until 2019, after which it has been overseen by NOIRLab. This photograph, titled A Breeze of Color, shows a portion of Kitt Peak National Observatory at sunset, and was taken as part of a 2022 photographic expedition to all the NOIRLab sites.Photograph credit: Tom SlovinskRecently featured: Leucojum vernumJean RitchieUgandan kobArchiveMore featured pictures

December 10: Human Rights Day; Nobel Banquet in Stockholm, SwedenRal Alfonsn1508 The Papal States, France, Aragon and the Holy Roman Empire formed the League of Cambrai, an alliance against the Republic of Venice.1848 Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte won France's first presidential election, and was elected as the first and only president of the French Second Republic.1901 On the fifth anniversary of the death of their founder, Swedish chemist and industrialist Alfred Nobel, the first Nobel Prizes were awarded in Stockholm.1970 Around the northern Thai village of Mae Salong, remnants of Chinese anti-communist forces now fighting on behalf of the Thai government launched a five-year campaign against local communist insurgents.1983 Ral Alfonsn (pictured) became the first democratically elected president of Argentina to take office after more than seven years of military dictatorship.Stede Bonnet (d.1718)Mara Bibiana Bentez (b.1783)Diane Schuur (b.1953)Lalji Singh (d.2017)More anniversaries: December 9December 10December 11ArchiveBy emailList of days of the yearAbout

Sunday, December 8th, 2024Posted by Jim ThackerTutorial Modeling for Film & TV: Hard-Surface Vehicleshtml PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"The Gnomon Workshop has released Modeling for Film & TV: Hard-Surface Vehicles, a best-practice guide to creating 3D models for use in VFX production, recorded by Josh Docherty.The workshop provides over two and a half hours of video training in Maya and the Arnold and Redshift renderers, plus PureRef, Photoshop and Lightroom.Create a detailed 3D vehicle model suitable for use in VFX productionAlthough VFX artists are often supplied with scan data to work from, there are also times when 3D assets have to be created from very limited reference material, often to very tight deadlines.In the workshop, which is aimed at junior-level modelers, ILM veteran Josh Docherty reveals how to model a high-resolution vehicle without scan data, relying solely on camera lineups.He sets out practical techniques for creating a clean, robust model using Mayas native modeling tools, focusing on producing a pipeline-quality asset in a limited amount of time.Docherty also discusses how to create a 3D model that meets the needs of artists working in other departments of a VFX studio, including look dev, rigging, animation, FX and lighting.According to The Gnomon Workshop, the tutorial reveals how to push [3D] models to the industry gold standard for visual effects production.It uses reference images available on Bring a Trailer, and a free HDRI from Poly Haven.About the artistJosh Docherty is a freelance Senior Visual Effects Asset Artist with over eight years of industry experience, working on over 30 film and TV shows and over 20 commercials. He has worked for VFX and animation studios including Industrial Light & Magic, Wt FX, The Mill and Blink Industries, and on cinematics for Gunzilla Games. Pricing and availabilityModeling for Film & TV: Hard-Surface Vehicles is available via a subscription to The Gnomon Workshop, which provides access to over 300 tutorials.Subscriptions cost $57/month or $519/year. Free trials are available.Read more about Modeling for Film & TV: Hard-Surface VehiclesHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.Full disclosure: CG Channel is owned by Gnomon.Latest NewsTutorial - Modeling for Film & TV: Hard-Surface VehiclesDiscover to create a truck model suitable for use in a VFX production pipeline with The Gnomon Workshop's best-practice guide.Sunday, December 8th, 2024Autodesk open-sources USD for 3ds MaxSource code for the USD add-on for the 3D modeling and animation software is now available under an Apache 2.0 license.Saturday, December 7th, 2024Get Epic Games' free Project Titan Unreal Engine sampleDownload an 8km x 8km UE5 environment created in a massive 10-week art jam, with custom plugins and world-building tools.Friday, December 6th, 2024Maxon releases Redshift 2025.2GPU renderer gets new non-photorealistic rendering options and a USD Command Line Rendering tool for use on render farms.Thursday, December 5th, 2024Maxon releases Cinema 4D 2025.13D animation and motion graphics software gets revamped Boolean modeling system, plus updates to simulation and USD workflows.Thursday, December 5th, 2024Maxon releases ZBrush 2025.1Digital sculpting software gets new Quick Polygroup Brush, updated Anchors Brush, tighter integration with the Redshift renderer.Thursday, December 5th, 2024More NewsMaxon releases ZBrush for iPad 2025.2Adobe releases After Effects 25.1Check out Substance 3D Modeler's new Primitives systemOtoy releases OctaneRender 2026.1 in alphaOtoy releases OctaneRender 2025.1 in betaiClone 8.52 adds new AI-assisted character posing systemDownload ActionVFX's 20 free stock VFX clips of asteroidsBlack Friday, Cyber Monday and Holiday 2024 deals for CG artistsNekki releases Cascadeur 2024.3Tutorial - Maya for Animators: Body Mechanics3DGS Render 2.0 now lets you edit 3D Gaussian Splats in BlenderNevercenter releases Silo 2025 and Milo 2025Older Posts

Saturday, December 7th, 2024Posted by Jim ThackerAutodesk open-sources USD for 3ds Maxhtml PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Autodesk has open-sourced USD for 3ds Max, the USD plugin for 3ds Max, its 3D modeling and animation software.The source code for the plugin is available on GitHub under an Apache 2.0 license.Increasing adoption of USD outside VFX and feature animationFirst released in 2022, USD for 3ds Max makes it possible to use workflows based around Universal Scene Description in 3ds Max.The open-source framework for exchanging scene data between CG applications was originally developed by Pixar, and has been widely adopted in VFX and feature animation pipelines.However, it is now being adopted in industrial design and visualization, in part thanks to NVIDIAs adoption of USD in its Omniverse design collaboration platform.Pixar, NVIDIA and Autodesk itself were all founder members of the Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD), the body founded last year to guide future development of the technology.Support for USD-based workflows inside 3ds MaxUSD for 3ds Max lets studios use 3ds Max in USD-based pipelines, making it possible to import and export data in USD format, and to load USD stages directly in the viewport for editing.On its GitHub repository, Autodesk describes the add-on as supplementing 3ds Maxs XRef referencing workflows, to enhance, and in many use cases, replace existing referencing setups.The latest of Autodesks USD tools to be open-sourcedUSD for 3ds Max is the latest USD-related tool that Autodesk has open-sourced, following on from Bifrost USD, for Mayas multiphysics plugin, in 2022.(USD for Maya, the primary Maya USD add-on, has always been open-source, having been originally developed outside Autodesk.)The change should enable studios to build the add-on with the specific version of USD required in their production pipeline, and to customize the default import and export process.Autodesk has continued to develop its open-source USD add-ons for Maya actively, releasing new versions with every update to the software.Pricing and availabilitySource code for USD for 3ds Max is available under an Apache 2.0 licence. The add-on is compatible with 3ds Max 2022+. You can find a list of dependencies in the build instructions on the GitHub repo.The plugin is still officially in beta: the latest release is version 0.9.You can find pricing and system requirements for 3ds Max itself in this story on 3ds Max 2025.3.View the source code for USD for 3ds Max on GitHubHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.Latest NewsTutorial - Modeling for Film & TV: Hard-Surface VehiclesDiscover to create a truck model suitable for use in a VFX production pipeline with The Gnomon Workshop's best-practice guide.Sunday, December 8th, 2024Autodesk open-sources USD for 3ds MaxSource code for the USD add-on for the 3D modeling and animation software is now available under an Apache 2.0 license.Saturday, December 7th, 2024Get Epic Games' free Project Titan Unreal Engine sampleDownload an 8km x 8km UE5 environment created in a massive 10-week art jam, with custom plugins and world-building tools.Friday, December 6th, 2024Maxon releases Redshift 2025.2GPU renderer gets new non-photorealistic rendering options and a USD Command Line Rendering tool for use on render farms.Thursday, December 5th, 2024Maxon releases Cinema 4D 2025.13D animation and motion graphics software gets revamped Boolean modeling system, plus updates to simulation and USD workflows.Thursday, December 5th, 2024Maxon releases ZBrush 2025.1Digital sculpting software gets new Quick Polygroup Brush, updated Anchors Brush, tighter integration with the Redshift renderer.Thursday, December 5th, 2024More NewsMaxon releases ZBrush for iPad 2025.2Adobe releases After Effects 25.1Check out Substance 3D Modeler's new Primitives systemOtoy releases OctaneRender 2026.1 in alphaOtoy releases OctaneRender 2025.1 in betaiClone 8.52 adds new AI-assisted character posing systemDownload ActionVFX's 20 free stock VFX clips of asteroidsBlack Friday, Cyber Monday and Holiday 2024 deals for CG artistsNekki releases Cascadeur 2024.3Tutorial - Maya for Animators: Body Mechanics3DGS Render 2.0 now lets you edit 3D Gaussian Splats in BlenderNevercenter releases Silo 2025 and Milo 2025Older Posts

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