Utah-based Strata once again makes it easier for designers, illustrators and animators to create high quality content with Strata 3Dpro3.8, which runs on Windows 98, Me and XP as well as Apple's OSX.

New features include:
_ Photon light refraction and reflection
_ Stochastic sampling for enhanced realism in Raydiosity?
_ Toon rendering for quick, high quality cartoon images
_ Enhanced deform for modeling and animation effects
_ Jiggle enhancements for more realistic motion
_ Power user features for streamlined workflow

Final Cut Pro 4, the next generation of Apple's Emmy award-winning editing software, will go on sale June 14, 2003 at 4:00 pm at participating Apple stores (www.apple.com). The suggested price is $999. Registered Final Cut Pro users can upgrade to Final Cut Pro 4 for $399.

SplutterFish LLC, has developed a bitmap I/O plug-in for use in Discreet's 3ds max and Autodesk Viz, in support of OpenEXR, a new open-source, high-dynamic-range image file format developed by Industrial Light & Magic.

In a further coup for German software giant Mental Images, DreamWorks will utilize its Academy Award-winning mental ray rendering program on the upcoming underwater gangster comedy SHARKSLAYER, due in theaters in 2004.

A direct competitor to Pixar's heralded RenderMan, mental ray now becomes a significant part of DreamWorks' rendering pipeline for SHARKSLAYER, the first computer-animated feature produced entirely at DreamWorks Animation facility in Glendale, Calif. DreamWorks began utilizing mental ray as part of its production process following rigorous tests in 2002.

A look at the recent E3 conference shows that Bionatics' natFX software is being used with 3ds max or Maya by five of the top gaming firms: Ubisoft, Lucas Arts, Eidos, Electronic Arts and Atari. The one-year-old plant modeler has been used on such games as RAVENSHIELD, RAINBOWSIX 3, DEUS EX II, MEDAL OF HONOR: RISING SUN AND RTX: REDROCK 2. Bionatics announced that 22 more games will utilize the software within the next year.

Rhythm & Hues and Cinesite Hollywood used Side Effects Software's Houdini to create effects in the summer blockbuster X2: X-MEN UNITED. For example, Rhythm & Hues used Houdini and Houdini Mantra to animate and render chunks of snow and tree debris flying around the X-Jet in a scene where the plane flies through the woods. In addition, Rhythm & Hues artists were able to control water sources and turbulent current effects as well as the falling shards of shattered glass. For the X-Jet, they added engine thrusts, heat distortion and dust.

As a companion to its popular 2D animation software, Toonz, utilized on the Oscar-winning SPIRITED AWAY, Digital Video premieres its new paperless software, TAB, at MIFA 2003. More suited to animation than graphic design, TAB is intended to streamline computer-based cartoon production with speed and power.

Anark Corp. unveils Anark Studio 2, the newest version of the company's multimedia authoring software. Anark Studio 2 features several product enhancements, including an upgraded timeline includes scalability, filters and a redesigned inspector palette. With the addition of Anark Player 2 and Anark Client 2, users can create Macintosh OSX files, allowing them delivery to both the Mac and PC. The update also features a screensaver export option for the creation of standalone, interactive 3D screensavers. In addition, the projector export allows for the production of standalone CD-ROM/DVD-ROMs.

Wildform, creators of video and animation software, have released Wild fx 3.0, a major upgrade to its Flash text animation software, previously sold under the name SWfX. The new version has more than 100 new effects, including 45 that are infinitely customizable. These custom effects can also be used as templates to create new effects, which can be saved and added to the Wild fx library. All the effects can be moved, deleted and organized in a drag and drop folder tree.

Particle effects software producer wondertouch has announced the release of particleillusion 3.0, a major upgrade and expansion of the company's cornerstone 2D, sprite-based application. Animators who haven't used particleillusion yet have certainly seen the results it's facilitated, in many features such as BEHIND ENEMY LINES, DREAMCATCHER, HART'S WAR, GHOST SHIP, THE CORE AND SWORDFISH, as well as in TV shows including STAR TREK VOYAGER and THAT 70'S SHOW, and in numerous commercials.

Discreet has made available a new Particle Flow Extension software for 3ds max customers registered under the Discreet Subscription Program, a component of the Autodesk Subscription Program. Discreet subscribers can use the new tool integrated into 3ds max software to create realistic fountains, fog, snow, splashes, contrails, explosions and other environmental effects. Along with standard maintenance downloads, subscriber program members receive valuable software "extensions," online learning tools, and specialized educational material.

HP has announced the availability of its Itanium 2-based workstations running with the new Microsoft Windows XP 64-bit Edition Version 2003. This is expected to lead to the development of a large number of 64-bit applications for areas such as 3D animation, CAD/CAM and imagery analysis.

Side Effects Software has released Houdini 6, the latest version of the procedural modeling and animation software that garnered a Scientific and Engineering Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences this year. Houdini Apprentice users can also download a free non-commercial version of Houdini 6, including all-new training materials at www.sidefx.com.

Sony Pictures Digital has purchased all of the desktop software products and related assets of Sonic Foundry, Inc. for $18 million cash and assumption of certain trade payables, accrued liabilities and capital leases associated with the desktop software business.

Alias|Wavefront, an SGI company, has started a third party developer program – the Conductors Program - offering three levels of participation, to help what the company sees is a strong surge in developers seeking to create plug-ins and other complementary add-ons for Maya and StudioTools software.

GenArts, Inc., a leading provider of digital visual effects plug-ins, is offering a $1,000 discount for Sapphire Plug-ins on Avid Xpress DV. Throughout the month of May 2003, the price tag for the entire package of Sapphire Plug-ins for Avid Xpress DV has been reduced to $1,800 when ordered by May 31, 2003. To find out more about this special offer, please visit the GenArts Website at web.genarts.com.

San Francisco-based RE:Vision Effects recently released RE:Fill, a plug-in set that mends holes in image sequences by intelligently filling user-specified regions. RE:Fill was designed to replace missing pixels automatically in numerous ways such as by selecting the nearest "good" pixel and mirroring pixels about a hole's edge, or cloning from another "good" region. The good region can even come from other times in the production or from another sequence altogether.

RE:Fill addresses many different production problems:

Spiral Graphics has begun beta testing its upcoming seamless textures application, Genetica (formerly known as Organica). The software company claims Genetica is the world's first seamless textures generator to be built around a node-based engine to automate seamless texture creation, promising to expedite the workflow of game artists, 3D designers and others using tiling textures or repeating backgrounds.

BOXX Technologies, a leading developer of XXTreme award-winning digital content creation systems for the design, entertainment and digital film industries, has announced support for AMD Opteron processors in its 3DBOXX workstations, RenderBOXX rendering nodes and ServerBOXX servers.