Blue Sky Studios is using Nothing Real's Shake as the exclusive compositing software for the new animated feature ICE AGE, currently in production. According to Andrew Beddini, compositing lead and lighting technical director on ICE AGE, Shake has been in use at the company since 1999 where it was first used to composite the animated feature, TITAN AE. Beddini explained that at Blue Sky, the overall compositing process is handled by its lighting department.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has licensed Eyetronics' ShapeSnatcher software to experiment with what researchers call videorealistic talking humans that would be used in TV, film and games. ShapeSnatcher Suite 3.0 is an integrated software package that transforms an average slide projector and digital camera into a sophisticated 3D scanning and modeling system.

Discreet, a division of Autodesk Inc., announced a variety of new products at the 2001 International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) held in Amsterdam September 14-18, 2001. Among the new products unveiled to the European community were frost 3, the latest version of Discreet's real-time 3D-broadcast graphics creation and delivery system and combustion 2, the latest version of its paint, animation and 3D-compositing software for Windows and Macintosh platforms. Both products are expected to begin shipping by end-of-year 2001.

CineGroupe Interactive developers have created a PC game prototype based on the children’s tale about a wooden puppet that wants to become a live boy. PINOCCHIO 3001, a third-person puzzle game, is based on an upcoming feature-length animated movie of the same name, which is being developed by CineGroupe Inc., Castelao Productions SNA (Spain) and AnimaKids Productions (France). CineGroupe Interactive, is using NDL’s NetImmerse to give the classic story of Pinocchio a futuristic facelift for young gamers.

Immersion 3D, a division of Immersion Corp, announced a 30 day trial offer of Immersion's new VirtualHand Studio software available for download at Immersion's Website, www.immersion.com/products/3d/interaction/virtualhandstudio.shtml. VirtualHand Studio is an intuitive software tool used by designers for verifying, testing and evaluating 3D digital models in real-time. This software converts data from the subtle movement of the physical hand into a graphical hand, letting the user interact with 3D objects.

Germany-based EGISYS AG is set to release its 3D Content Brokerage system later this year. It will be integrated within Curious Labs' Poser and Poser Pro Pack, and also be available as a standalone product. The database targets professional modelers, Web designers, animators, multimedia artists and hobbyists. With the Content Brokerage system, all 3D content and components developed and submitted through the system by individual artists will be available as commercial offerings or shareware to the entire 3D community.

Electric Image has announced a new version of Universe 3D animation system. The software is expected to begin shipping this fall for Windows NT/2000, Macintosh/OS X and Sun Solaris platforms. The update price for the new version has not yet been announced. New features include a new constraint system, paint-on weight mapping, an advanced skinning system, previews for motion blurs and depth-of-field rendering, global illuminator lighting options and optimized OpenGL support in its Modeler.

MorphInk has announced their commercial release of MorphInk 2.0, a Web-animation authoring tool. MorphInk 2.0 enables the creation and publishing of high-resolution animations playing at high frame rates (up to 30 frames per second) without increase in file size. In addition to its own ANC animation format, MorphInk 2.0 also supports other Web formats. MorphInk animations can be converted to Flash or Animated GIF. The MorphInk 2.0 package includes a stand-alone player, a Java player and ActiveX/Plug-In Web players.

DigiCel, Inc. has announced the release of DigiCel FlipBook Lite, a full-featured 2D animation program with all the same features, resolution and image quality of their higher-end broadcast quality products. Artists can use either a camera or the program's built-in light table feature to create their animations. The drawings are automatically positioned in a traditional style exposure sheet. While the scene plays, animators can experiment with timing changes by editing the exposure sheet, immediately updating the preview.

REALVIZ, a leading developer of image processing software solutions, has announced the preview of SceneWe@ver, an application that enables users to view 3D models in Web-based 360° panoramas. Combining technology from REALVIZ' ImageModeler and Stitcher, SceneWe@ver offers multimedia artists, Web designers and Webmasters that use Macromedia Director a complete solution to creating photo-real, 3D environments that export to Director.