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What’s funnier than a turkey at a disco? A turkey at the disco doing the “kickin’ chicken” (patented move, trademarked)!

Dance Away your Turkey Day at Toon Disney by choosing your moves and your music. Don’t forget to tell the turkey what you’re thankful for the possibility of getting your message to flash on the disco wall!

Yes, it’s true… Plexipixel is a finalist for NWjob’s “favorite creative company” 2008. We were barely beat out by an architecture firm that has over 500 employees and 6 world-wide offices, and in the company of other hefty–as in staff number not in stature (yes, we’re calling you out for next year)–competitors like Zaaz, Filter and Big Fish.

We had a great visit the other week with some lovely people from Adobe who were looking for some design-house feedback for a future release of Creative Suite while they were in the Seattle area. We had a lot of fun and it was an honor being ask our opinion of what should be included in the next version of such a great and epic product. But we really enjoyed the compliment we were paid afterwards. They seemed really excited about how we embrace new technologies and express creativity, the collaborative way we do it and even said that we were in the “upper echelon”!

Sometimes it’s nice to have a reminder step back and admire our vision of working with great people to do great work.

Josh Lovison in Gaming Insider has been writing on developments in casual gamers’ gaming news (Bejeweled hits WoW: flash-based procrastination tools and night elves together at last! Plus: women play games while chatting on phone) which we found pretty interesting, including this little nugget:

Now Microsoft, feeling fairly secure with the core demographic for the Xbox 360, is pushing a multimillion marketing blitz to expand the console to casual players. Having dropped below the $200 price point for their Arcade version of the system, and with their Netflix exclusive, they are poised for solid sales this fall.

Also in casual gaming, a little repositioning news: Scott’s Blog notices Texas Hold ‘Em and a “mildly entertaining” Hexic have appeared on his Zune. These come with the 3.0 update, and let players use music from their own playlists to use as their game soundtrack. This would be the Hexic whose UX, design, and asset production work we had a hand in; a “quality title” and “a great way to kick off Zune gaming”.

The spooky season is upon us, and this October, you decide who controls Halloween! Every Sunday on Jetix, watch the Battle of the Halloween Heavyweights, but first, vote for your favorite biggest vs. baddest pairing to watch (this week: Mandarin vs. Iron Man or Carnage vs. Spider-Man), then tune in Sundays at 8/7C to see a full hour of the winning match-up! And if you send in a shout-out too, you might see it online!

The updated version of the award-winning ABC.com video player is now live: http://abc.go.com/player/index?pn=index. Watch your favorite new (and even “classic”) ABC shows in HD online. Watch full-episodes of “My So Called Life” and “The Last Lecture: A Celebration of Life” by Randy Pausch (something that everyone should watch) while you wait patiently for the “Lost” and “Pushing Daisy” premieres!

Kristi and I finally found some official stats from the Adidas Penalty Shootout Instant Messenger game we designed and developed last year. According to Microsoft, the game was “one of the five most successful online games in the world” with 13 million plays in the 2 months of the campaign.

With 5 million unique users playing the game, there were inevitably people like this:

“I’m going to kick him in the groin. High power! In the groin, in the groin, in the groin!”

I love how he says it’s “rather rubbish” but he does really get into the game, doesn’t he? Nice try pretending how you dislike it, Mr. Ikealord. LOL!

I had a great time at the Ion Conference last week.  What was different about this conference was that the organizers focused on the social aspect of doing business.  The speakers and sessions were good, but what stood out were the many networking opportunities integrated into the event. 

There was a half an hour space between each session.  All of the rooms were fairly close together and connected to each other by a lobby that was usually filled myriad of refreshments.  Food and drink and free time generally facilitates conversation.  That combination resulted in many conversations about the game industry, the entertainment business and otherwise with some very interesting and lovely people.    

That said, I’d like to give a shout-out to a few of the many folks I met:

• Daniel Ostenso from the Illinois Institute of Art
• Sabrina Gasson from Testronic Laboratories in the UK
• Shawn Foust, Associate at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton, LLC in Century City, CA
• Greg Lester from Colliers Interantional in Bellevue, WA
• Tim Robinson from Krome Studios, Australia
• Radha Kotamarti, Microsoft
• Chris LeFeaver, a Canadian working for Amberlight in London
• Connie Gougler, Iovation in Portland, OR
• Nathan Emerson and Andrew Maxwell from Markee Dragon in Portland

See you guys next year, I hope! 

The animators now have their own cozy little abode downstairs in Suite D.  Today was Ryan and Jenna’s first day with us.  Our old friend Suzanne Kaufman (3D animator and instructor at Digipen) is also contributing to the CO2 in that little tiny room…  We’re happy to have them all here at Plexipixel!

Kristi and Matt created the animation, designed and developed the original Photosynth site a few years ago (it’s morphed a little since then).  Photosynth was developed in conjunction with University of Washington and Microsoft researchers and Seadragon technology. 

Photosynth technology was used in the “CSI:NY” episode last night with just a small amount of Hollywood magic.  It’s a pretty crazy application so it might have seemed like a bunch of hocus pocus, but nope…  It is actually that cool.  You can even download a demo of the application and try it out yourself.