Commotion, the award-winning visual effects application, is now available for Windows NT. Commotion version 2.1 marks Puffin Designs' first release for Macintosh and Windows NT. This highly anticipated release is a direct result of requests from thousands of NT-based effects artists who wanted to use Commotion on their platform of choice. Both versions are functionally and visually identical, enabling users to work in either environment without having to find work-arounds for interface or workflow differences.

Several films produced by RIT students will be screened at this year's SIGGRAPH conference including 'Head Quarters' by Jason Donati, 'Evolution in the First Person' by Elouise Oyzon and 'division' by George Nadeau. RIT will have an alumni, students, faculty and friends reception on Tuesday evening. Marla Schweppe, Duane Palyka and Johnny Robinson, all of the School of Film and Animation will attend the conference. In collaboration with the RIT School of Printing, students in the RIT School of Film and Animation have produced flipbooks again.

Toonz Animation India Pvt. Ltd., a new animation production studio, has purchased 11 licenses of Cambridge Animation Systems' Animo 2D software. All the systems run under Windows NT.



"We selected Animo because it satisfies all of our digital animation needs, whether for commercials, television series or feature films," says Bill Dennis, president and CEO of Toonz Animation.

Sierra Design Labs will be demonstrating its industry leadership in switchable multi-format high definition and standard definition video disk recorders. Ultra SCSI and Fibre Channel connectivity, as well as 1080P /24 support will be shown for the HD1.5Plus. The new HDCAM-compatible HD270, developed in conjunction with Sony, joins the Panasonic HD D5-compatible HD360 disk recorder in Sierra's family of versatile HD/SD recorders.

Key members of Pratt Institute's Department of Computer Graphics & Interactive Media (CGIM) faculty and student body will be participating at SIGGRAPH 99 as follows:


Prof. Michael O'Rourke has been invited to conduct a full-day 3d computer animation workshop at SIGGRAPH 99.


Two of Prof. Don Ritter's interactive installations have been accepted into the Millennium Motel program at SIGGRAPH 99. The installations are "Intersection" and "TV Guides," described at:


www.users.interport.net/~ritter/intersection.html

REALAX introduces new modules and features of its powerful 3D-realtime tool RXscene.


The widely recognized and extremely easy to use 3D-tool allows the quick and
simple creation of 3D-realtime simulation. Existing 3D construction data can be
imported in RXscene, combined with computation data using the RXscript-API,
and simulated in realtime. The virtual test environment is ideally suited for
Digital Prototyping and Digital Mockup (DMU). Different camera positions

Viewpoint Digital will be showing its new Premier Catalog and updated Library Program. In addition, Viewpoint will be featuring its new textures library as well as the popular Model Bank, and will also be demonstrating its Interchange 3D file format translator. For more information, contact Viewpoint Digital at www.viewpoint.com or via phone at (800) DATASET.

One of the fastest growing areas of the booming entertainment technology industry is special effects, and with standards being raised daily by innovative uses in TV, film, and computer games the need for qualified effects artists increases. The Center for Digital Imaging and Sound (CDIS), a private technical arts college celebrating 20 years in operation in British Columbia, has jumped on the opportunity.

Leading the delivery of interoperable Storage Area Networks (SAN) to the marketplace, DataDirect Networks Inc. has introduced SANware, a series of certified SAN application suites that incorporate hardware, software, professional services and support to solve customers' unique storage management needs. The company's SANware Application Suites were developed as a turnkey solution to address end-user requirements of proven and tested SAN solutions that minimize system downtime and ensure smooth implementation.

Crater Software, a Spanish-Canadian software development collaboration, announced plans to launch a series of "satellite" versions of CTP, the company's 2D animation software, at this years' Siggraph. The launch of four CTP Satellites - Paint, Scan, Render and the already-released Pencil-test - will coincide with the release of CTP Version 1.3, also being showcased at the show.