High-end 3D software developer Alias|Wavefront began shipping Maya Fusion 2 last week. Maya Fusion is Maya's NT-based compositing and effects software, which is integrated within the Maya UI to give artists the power to combine their live action footage with their Maya CG elements realistically.

Alias|Wavefront released Maya Real Time SDK (Software Developers Kit) at the Game Developers Conference in San Jose. The new release demonstrates the first comprehensive "Art to Engine" solution for creating interactive content on next-generation games platforms. The Maya Real Time SDK is designed to allow games developers to deliver film quality characters and graphics in their titles for new games platforms such as PlayStation 2.

SOFTIMAGE has announced that the latest upgrade to their flagship SOFTIMAGE|3D animation system was available for download from their Web site. This upgrade represents a milestone for SOFTIMAGE, as it is the first upgrade the company has chosen to distribute on-line (rather than wait 6-8 weeks for reproduction, duplication and distribution).

France-based company REALVIZ recently announced the release of its new

ImageModeler photo-modeling software. This release comes after the release

of several other photo-modeling systems designed to turn objects in 2D

photographs into 3D models. Unlike other solutions on the market, however,

ImageModeler is a high-end application aimed at professionals, and this is

reflected not only in the programs toolset, but in the quality of the

models it produces. The creation of a 3D model in ImageModeler is simple --

Last week Alias|Wavefront unveiled a new upgrade to its powerful 3D

animation system Maya, an upgrade which will add a major new feature to the

software, particularly useful to games developers. Trax is a new non-linear

animation editing solution which will allow games developers to manipulate

extensive amounts of animation and blend it together in a way that can be

reproduced in the final game play. Trax features include reusable time

independent motion clips, blending of hand animation, data filtering and

Intergraph Computer Systems recently announced that they are dropping the

prices of their range of Zx10 ViZual Workstations. The Zx10 is Intergraph's

latest range of high-end workstations that are built around Wahoo

technology and are powered by Intel Pentium III 750 MHz/100 MHz front side

bus processors. A wide range of graphics options are available, from

high-end 2D to mid-range 3D and the industry's fastest high-end 3D graphics

-- Intense3D's Wildcat 4110 VIO Graphics. Now this technology is available

This week both Corel and Adobe announced that they were adding support for

Macromedia Flash to some of their flagship products. Adobe will be adding

support for Flash to their popular web development tool GoLive, which means

that Adobe users should be able to easily integrate Flash animation into

their existing GoLive projects. Corel also announced that it would be

adding support for Flash to Corel LINUX and CorelDRAW 9. Corel LINUX will

be the first Linux OS to include the Macromedia Flash Player as a standard

Interactive Effects, producers of high-end visual effects systems Piranha

and Amazon Paint, recently announced the release of Piranha 3.1 for Silicon

Graphics Workstations. The new version expands the systems' capabilities in

areas such as video support, digital audio and disk/graphics performance,

as well as adding new features such as Mipmap Texturing, high speed soft

edged rotosplining and improved image tracking capabilities. Also new to

Macromedia, the leading provider of web design tools, recently announced a

major upgrade to its famous FreeHand design and layout software. FreeHand 9

is set to change the way designers approach their work by offering a

powerful toolset for their vector graphics, regardless of whether their art

is intended for print or Web. FreeHand 9 is expected to ship in March on

both Macintosh and Windows platforms, and will be offered as both a

stand-alone product and in the new Macromedia Flash 4 FreeHand 9 Studio,

Versions of Boris Graffiti LTD and Boris FX LTD are now bundled with selected Avid Xpress DV non-linear video editing and delivery systems. Graffiti LTD, one of the most flexible title animation toolsets available, provides superior creativity and workflow for Avid system users by extending the titling capabilities in Avid Xpress DV. Boris FX LTD enhances the Avid Xpress DV toolset with the same dynamic special effects found in the award-winning Boris FX.