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.

Designed for those who produce commercials, music videos, industrial

projects and similar broadcast pieces, 'Lifestyles - Mixed Cuts' is a stock

CD which is packed full of video clips of people. The royalty free

collection of video snippets includes the faces of adults and children,

plus a wide variety of situations including a birthday party, a mother and

daughter out for a walk, professionals in a board room and even a transient

walking along train tracks. The uses are endless. Commercials and music

Toon Boom Technologies recently released a new version of its 2D cel animation software, USAnimation, which is used by top animation studios all over the world (Walt Disney TV Animation, Film Roman, Warner Bros., Klasky Csupo, Paramount Pictures, Mercury FilmWorks, Sunwoo, Cuckoo's Nest, Cinar). Version 5.0 brings a wealth of new tools to animators, including the new 3D camera, or USAnimation's Real-Time Scene Planning module (which can be used at any time after scanning).

A new Switzerland-based company, CHROME Imaging, recently announced their

solution to the wonderful world of post-production Photonyx 1.5 is now

shipping. CHROME claims that the software, which is priced at a mere

US$675, was designed to address the high-end post-production market. The

program features RealTools, a painting palette which simulates real world

tools such as crayons, airbrush and charcoal. But moving on to compositing,

Photonyx features "Virtual Screens" technology which offers realtime zoom

RE:Vision Effects recently released ReelSmart Motion Blur, a plug-in for

After Effects 4.0, Commotion 2.0+ and Final Cut Pro. The plug-in is

designed to apply more natural looking motion blur to effects shots and

video sequences within After Effects. ReelSmart Motion Blur automatically

tracks every pixel in the shot which takes the handy-work out of the

process. Features include reduced strobing, fewer artifacts, and a tool

which lets one blur one image sequence using the motion of another

BOXX Technologies recently unveiled their RenderBOXX NT and Linux rendering

system, which relies on Intel Pentium III 800MHz processors to 'bolster'

rendering times. Currently shipping is the RenderBOXX 4000 series with

single or dual processors, and a price tag starting from US$2365. The focus

of the 4000 series is to streamline workflow for visual effects and video

game professionals, and because RenderBOXX is very easy to set, has a

completely open rendering system (it does not require special rendering

RE:Vision Effects recently released ReelSmart Motion Blur, a plug-in for

After Effects 4.0, Commotion 2.0+ and Final Cut Pro. The plug-in is

designed to apply more natural looking motion blur to effects shots and

video sequences within After Effects. ReelSmart Motion Blur automatically

tracks every pixel in the shot which takes the handy-work out of the

process. Features include reduced strobing, fewer artifacts, and a tool

which lets one blur one image sequence using the motion of another

At San Francisco's MacWorld which ran from January 4-8, NewTek introduced

LightWave [6], the product's most significant upgrade in 10 years. The new

version of the already popular 3D tool boasts more new features than ever

introduced to the product in previous upgrades, many of which have never

been seen on the Macintosh system before. On the modeling side of things,

LightWave [6] introduces a whole new modeling paradigm, which gives users

control over the manipulation and animation of their models to a degree

Alias|Wavefront announced that they would be developing a version of their

Maya software for Intel's forthcoming IA-64 Itanium processor, and

Microsoft's 64-bit Windows NT operating system. The IA-64 operating system

uses a 64-bit architecture and offers the robust performance required by

data-intensive 3D visualizations and computer graphics. Alias|Wavefront is

among the first software developers to port their software to Itanium, and

in doing so it will allow its customers to take full advantage of the speed