B1 Media has completed 69 visual effects shots, including 3D and live-action, for the History Channel’s “Egyptian Book of the Dead.” Morningstar Entertainment produced. “Book of the Dead“ focuses on a young man’s quest to find the true meaning behind the ancient text and happiness in the afterlife.

B1 took original HD footage shot on greenscreen and keyed out the backgrounds. Concept art created by B1 was then used to create digital matte paintings for backgrounds (many of which without reference). Using camera projection, the matte paintings were mapped out with 3D geometry and the live action footage was composited into the backgrounds. For one sequence, B1 hand illustrated wall drawings, rescanned, did paint up and animated them.

“The creative challenge,” said VFX Supervisor and Producer Brian Metcalf, “was to realistically recreate the ancient environments while imagining what the afterlife would have looked like in the minds of the Egyptians.”

“B1 has done an amazing job of realizing our original vision for ancient Egypt and the ‘Book of the Dead’,” said Morningstar Executive Producer Gary Tarpinian. “Brian Johnson and his VFX team took our original ideas and brought them to a whole new level thanks to their great ideas and outstanding CGI craftsmanship.”

B1 Media Brings “Egyptian Book of the Dead” to Life, Film and Video Magazine, USA, September 28, 2005.

The Greco-Roman museum in the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria has been closed and will remain so for two years to allow restoration work to proceed, the Supreme Council of Antiquities said Wednesday.

Culture Minister Farouk Hosni said the work will include restoration of the museum building and its library. The museum's showcases will be improved to ensure better display of the artifacts, he said in a statement faxed to news organizations.

The Greco-Roman museum houses a large number of Egypt's antiquities from the period roughly falling between 300 BC and the Arab conquest in the 7th century. It was built in 1895 and has been renovated several times.

Its building was last restored about 20 years ago.

Greco-Roman museum in Alexandria, Egypt, closed for restoration, AP via Canada.com, Canada, September 28, 2005.

A Belgian University Research Centre received 2,500 year-old Egyptian mummies on September 12 for a body scan which could help scientists rebuild their faces and hopefully clarify some of their well-kept ancient secrets.

One of them is believed to be King Re’s barber and porter, Priest Ousirmose, whilst the other is totally anonymous. It is hoped that the CT scan will finally determine this mummy’s gender and identity. Even their origins are unclear. All that is known is that they were once part of a 19th century Belgian collection.

Egyptologist at the the FNRS, (National Funds for Scientific Research) Dimitri Laboury, believes both mummies were priests from ancient Egypt`s upper middle class in the 7th or 6th century B.C....

2,500-year-old mummies scanned in Liege to reveal secrets, Zee News, India, September 15, 2005.

cf. Les Momies de Liège uu CHU!, Université de Liège, September, 2005.   Google Translate.

A virtual reality pharaoh's tomb is being developed in Swansea so school children can journey to ancient Egypt.

Pupils visiting the Egypt Centre at the city's university will test what they learn in a 3D interactive setting.

Created by locally-based web and 3D animation firm Waters Designs, it will be housed in the £500,000 VR Cave at Technium Digital at the university...

Egypt Centre to have virtual tomb, BBC News, UK, September 26, 2005.

Minister of Culture Farouk Hosni approved an LE 3 million Egyptian-Italian project to renovate and develop archaeological sites in the area of Kom Mady in Fayoum.

Dr. Zahi Hawass, Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities said that more excavations would be carried out at the old temple area that used to be designated for ancient Egyptian worshippers of harvest Gods.

Sands covering the cemetery adjacent to the temple would be removed and the site would be renovated, he added.

He said that the project would be completed within 12 month period, pointing out it aims at providing facilities required to list the area on the local and international tourist maps.

Egyptian-Italian project to list Fayoum monuments on world map, State Information Service, Egypt, September 28, 2005.

Aswan Governor General Samir Youssef has ordered the investigation of a senior antiquities inspector responsible for the Pharaonic noblemen's graves on the west bank of the Nile.

In the meantime, the inspector has been demoted to a humble administrative post as a punishment for neglecting his duties.

The Governor is having the performance of all the archaeologists, inspectors and security guards working in Aswan in this sector reviewed, in preparation for the new tourist season.

In related news, General Youssef has also allotted an area of land near the river in Aswan to be used for camel rides and as a car park for taxis.

He has also given instructions for the creation of a new guidebook for Aswan, as well as repairing roads, paths and walkways to benefit visitors and constructing a new jetty for tourist boats to berth.

Senior antiquities inspector suspended, The Egyptian Gazette, Egypt, September 28, 2005.

The ancient Egyptian treasures — including those from the tomb of King Tut — that make up the exhibit "King Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of Pharaohs" is heading to Chicago, and so should you. The show, currently on display in Los Angeles, will go to The Field Museum, a sprawling structure on the shores of Lake Michigan with a collection dedicated to natural history and anthropology, in May 2006. Why see it in the Windy City? Because the show will be displayed with the Field's own collection of 1,400 artifacts from ancient Egypt. (Tickets, $25, will be available in advance by calling 866-343-5303 or online at fieldmuseum.org.)

Fifty-Two Weekends: Arts & Entertainment, The Boston Globe, Massachusetts, USA, September 25, 2005.