The world's largest online plant library just got bigger with the addition of 50 new plants. Plant modeling and simulation company Bionatics has increased its library to more than 250 plants, including plants from North America, South America, Europe, Japan and the Mediterranean. Increasing its plant diversification in response to client demand, Bionatics offers foliage for a variety of environments (mountains, coastline, roads, forests, parks and gardens, ponds, and countryside) for architects, 3d studios, video game developers, real-time and landscape simulations.

WIZZ, a new game show for Radio Canada public broadcasting station, is using Kaydara Inc.'s 3D production tool Online 3.5 to integrate 3D character animation and live video in real-time. Bo and Pixel, the 3D characters that are part of WIZZ's cast, interact with the host and contestants in real-time and serve as virtual game pieces -- walking, running and flying their way through WIZZville's animated game board.

Maya 4.5, the seventh major release of Alias|Wavefront's popular Maya 3D animation software is now available for the Windows, IRIX and Linux operating systems, with Maya Complete 4.5 for Mac OS X available on September 23, 2002. Maya 4.5 boasts a number of major technological developments such as Maya Fluid Effects and modeling improvements, the largest collection of API enhancements since version 1 and version parity with Maya Complete 4.5 for Mac OS X.

Realviz has announced that MatchMover 2.5 Professional is now available. The software is a professional solution used to track 3D camera data and motion from videos and film sequences. With this new version, users can move smoothly back and forth between automatic and manual tracking with no interruption of workflow.

Digital effects plug-in provider GenArts Inc. has released version 1.0 of its Sapphire plug-in for Shake 2.5 for Mac OS X. The company is also reducing the price of Sapphire plug-ins for Shake on all platforms by 25%. "Shake users tell us that Sapphire Plug-ins are a natural extension to their systems, so it was important for us to make our plug-ins available for Mac OS X," said Karl Sims, GenArts' President and Founder.

Curious Labs has begun shipping Poser 5, the new version of their award-winning 3D-character animation tool for artists and animators. Dynamic cloth and strand-based hair, photo-based facial mapping, and the new FireFly render engine are some of the new features included in Poser 5.

BOXX Technologies has announced that its R and H series of high-performance 3DBOXX workstations and its RenderBOXX rendering systems now feature the AMD Athlon MP processor 2200+ with QuantiSpeed architecture and Smart MP technology. BOXX stated that the 3DBOXX and RenderBOXX series featuring the new AMD Athlon MP processor provides optimal performance for compute-intensive applications such as 3D modeling, CAD, animation and digital video editing. "Our customers are eager for processing power and continually driven by deadlines," said Rick Krause, president and CEO of BOXX.

3D software solutions provider SplutterFish has released its Brazil Rendering System v1.0 (Brazil r/s), a fully-integrated rendering suite for Discreet's 3ds max and Autodesk VIZ.

Vancouver-based Electric FX has released the public beta test of eFX Extract3D, a new effects plug-in for Adobe After Effects. According to Electric FX, the plug-in is designed to integrate 3D information with regular 2D imagery in the desktop compositing workflow, thereby enhancing the ability for visual effects and motion graphics artists to create effects based on a variety of 3D metadata, such as pixel depth (distance from the camera), object identifiers and surface characteristics.

Utah-based DAZ Productions, a company that specializes in providing 3D models for the animation tool Poser, has acquired lip sync software Mimic from LIPSinc. DAZ Productions sees the acquisition as a chance to help bring a powerful animation tool to more of the general public with a more competitive price point. Dan Farr, president of DAZ Productions, explained: "Thousands of people in the Poser community have already purchased Mimic at the $195 price and have been very happy with it.

NVIDIA, based in Santa Clara, California, has released the beta 2 version of its Cg Compiler and Cg Toolkit for Cg, a high-level programming language for content creation developers. This new version of the compiler and toolkit, includes support for the OpenGL GL_ARB_vertex_program extension, and allows developers to create shaders in the Cg language specification and implement them in the OpenGL 1.4 application programming interface (API). The NVIDIA Cg Toolkit beta 2 also contains new Cg shader examples that are NVIDIA CineFX architecture-specific.

Klasky-Csupo has implemented DigiCel's FlipBook pencil test system into the production pipeline at their Hollywood studio, replacing the Amiga/Take-2 systems. With a need for a more integrated working environment to eliminate the studio’s dependence on non-standard equipment, Klasky-Csupo's technical department investigated the options and went with DigiCel's FlipBook. For Klasky-Csupo's animators, FlipBook’s thumbnail Xsheet offers multiple editing options including the ability to edit a scene while it is playing and see the results immediately.

Softimage has made available its new set of tools for transporting data between 3D applications. The Softimage "Connect" suite of tools significantly expands the interoperability of Softimage|XSI and Softimage|3D systems with other 3D formats and applications. It brings together free or open-source tools, including converters and libraries for building custom pipelines, with commercial solutions from partners such as Right Hemisphere, Born Digital and Okino.

Using REALVIZ MatchMover Professional, UK-based visual effects and animation company Clear Ltd. has completed key effects for the music video projects Jamiroquai’s "Corner of the Earth" and Sugababes' "Round Round." Steve Garrad, producer on both projects, explains how the different elements came together. "For 'Corner of the Earth,' the aim was to create a photo-real representation of the solar system revolving around [lead singer] Jay Kay.

Graphics studio and publisher Marlin Studios has announced the release of PREMIUM 3D MODELS - CITY BUILDINGS. The 16th in a series of 3D models and texture libraries created for use by 2D and 3D graphics artists, the CITY BUILDING models consists of 182 detailed building models for use in an urban 3D environment. The 3D models are presented in the 3DS, LWO(6) and OBJ file formats and all the models are fully licensable and royalty free. A special edition of Right Hemisphere's 3D Exploration is included with each library for viewing, transforming and manipulating the models.

Adobe Systems has updated its Digital Video Collection so anyone with $1249 has the tools to complete a professional video project on the desktop from start to finish. The Adobe Digital Video Collection, which is now compatible with Macintosh OS X and Microsoft Windows XP, includes the recently announced Adobe Premiere 6.5, Adobe's digital video editing software, as well as the latest versions of Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. The Adobe Digital Video Collection is available at an estimated street price of US$1,249 and can be purchased from www.adobe.com.

Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), a division of Lucas Digital Ltd. LLC, revealed its latest Intel technology deployment of 600 Pentium 4 processor-based animation workstations. "The visual effects industry has traditionally been a land of proprietary systems and software," said Cliff Plumer, ILM’s Chief Technology Officer. "At ILM, we’re increasingly using Intel-based systems to expand our range of software choices for animation and compositing.

Leading compositing and visual effects software Shake 2.5 will be available for the first time for Mac OS X. Shake is high-performance compositing software designed for large format productions, and has been used on many high-profile feature films, including the past five winners of the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects: LORD OF THE RINGS: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, GLADIATOR, THE MATRIX, WHAT DREAMS MAY COME and TITANIC. Shake 2.5 is scheduled to be available in August for Mac OS X, Linux, IRIX and Windows.

The Intel Corporation has established the CAD (Computer Aided Design) 3D Working Group to define, develop and deploy a common format to represent 3D images on the Web. The working group is part of the Web3D Consortium, a forum for the creation of open standards for Web 3D specifications, and includes members from various segments of the 3D graphics industry, including CAD software vendors, CAD users and digital content creators.

Caligari Corporation's trueSpace6, the
latest version of its award-winning 3D modeling and animation
program, is now available. Caligari has added more than two dozen new
features to trueSpace6, allowing for more powerful modeling and
design, as well as increased functionality for game developers,
professional engineers and designers. New trueSpace6 features include
full color-coded layers to make creating complex models easier; a new
Scene Editor that combines six trueSpace editors (objects,