VentureBeat

Here’s the latest action:

Intel cuts fourth quarter estimates — The chip maker says sales could fall by as much as 19 percent, and things look similarly bleak for chip companies Applied Materials and National Semiconductor.

IPhone takes on Nintendo and Sony in portable gaming — Among other things, the iPhone tempts developers with lowered distribution costs. There are almost 2,000 games already available in Apple’s App Store.

Google joins smart grid group — The group, called the Demand Response and Smart Grid Coalition, includes companies that make electricity meters and software for sharing information between utilities and their customers.

Game designer Richard Garriott leaves NCSoft after his successful journey into space — Garriott, who made his name with the famed Ultima series of roleplaying games, says going into space has sparked new interests that he wants to pursue.

Larry Shapiro, former creative chief at Brash, becomes president of Oddworld Inhabitants — Prior to leading Brash, Shapiro represented the makers of the “Oddworld” game series as an agent at CAA.

Technorati founder Dave Sifry launches OffBeatGuides — The site lets you build your own guidebook, then buy a physical copy or download it as a PDF.

Cyber thieves are making a killing stealing corporate data — Tech security experts tell USA Today that most corporations aren’t doing enough to control how employees use the web, leaving them vulnerable to these attacks.

Check how Zoho’s applications are doing using Zoho Status — This new transparency should give customers more confidence in Zoho’s online business software.

Harmonix founders get $300 million-plus pay day from Viacom — Almost half that money is a bonus for the Rock Band game’s stellar sales.

Is Twitterank a scam? — The web application, which measures your popularity on micro-messaging service Twitter, drew criticism for asking users for their passwords, but the app’s creator says he’s not trying to steal people’s passwords.

Java startup SpringSource acquires G2One — G2One is the company behind scripting language Groovy. Now SpringSource says it will offer support for Groovy and the related programming framework Grails.

Lorne Lanning has had a wide-ranging artistic career: He’s a classically trained canvas artist. He’s been a voice actor. He co-founded video game firm Oddworld Inhabitants and made four Oddworld games before shutting the studio in 2005. Lately, he’s been working on a new digital entertainment business.

He will be one of the speakers at Nvidia’s Nvision 08 this week in San Jose, where he will expound upon digital art. Lanning says digital art will become a much bigger business and become a viable career for budding young professional artists.

VB: You started your career as a painter in New York.

LL: I was painting. I had an art factory with artists. We got ten paintings done every eight weeks. We were preselling them for $50,000 each. That was the real art market. Some people were selling paintings for $500,000 each. When I moved to California, I got into the digital animation and then video game business.

VB: Do you think digital art (like the piece pictured left) can cross from the niche to the mainstream?

LL: You can’t sell it for that much. It’s hitting the mainstream, but in the form of screen savers and desktop art. But that could change. When people buy 120-inch TVs for their homes, they will want to do something with those screens. They’re not just for watching movies. They can display art. You can stick a memory card in there and start showing slide shows of art. This visual real estate will become much more than a motion picture machine. It will be an extension of your environment. That means there will be new business models emerging for digital animators and digital still-frame artists.

VB: What is different about digital art?

LL: I’m excited about what computing is doing to enhance one of our greatest natural resources, which is our artistic community. We have a stigma that digital art might not be perceived as real art. That’s an absurd assumption in the first place. But let’s ignore that conversation about ignorance for now. What’s happening with visual computing for artists is that it is making things possible that couldn’t be done before. Traditionally with oil painting, the chances are you spent an enormous amount of time on that. The art is not appreciated for the intent of the artist, but more for the pain and perseverance and craftsmanship of it. These sadists believe artists should doodle everything on the canvas. But sometimes the artist’s message is far more important than anything he brings with his craft. That message is what’s potent, whether it’s a novel or journalism or animation. If we hold the idea that the artist should be painting all that detail, then an artist can paint no more than 200 paintings in a lifetime. We’ve learned that excellence comes through iteration in art. You have to do a lot of art before you do something great. With digital art, I can infinitely experiment. With experimentation comes growth. The medium of the oil painting becomes a hindrance to artistic growth. Read the rest of this entry »