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.

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,

Ed Catmull, president and co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, announced at a SIGGRAPH press conference that Pixar will integrate NXN alienbrain VFX into its production process to provide media asset management for its upcoming CG film projects. NXN alienbrain VFX is the first of its kind digital asset and production management system designed specifically for high-end computer graphics projects.

At SIGGRAPH 2002, Discreet announced and demonstrated for the first time its character studio 4, the latest extension to Discreet's 3ds max animation software. character studio 4 includes significant enhancements designed to provide animators an easy-to-use system. Additions such as a non-linear animation mixer, an animation analyzer and fixer and Quaternion Function Curves were implemented to help expand users' character animation techniques and capabilities.

SplutterFish, LLC, a 3D software solutions provider, announced at SIGGRAPH 2002 the launch of its Brazil Rendering System v1.0, a fully-integrated rendering suite for Discreet's 3ds max and Autodesk VIZ.

At the SIGGRAPH 2002
conference, Side Effects Software has announced Houdini Halo, a
stand-alone compositing and image-editing application, which will be
available in the fourth quarter of 2002. Houdini Halo is the newest
addition to the Houdini family of 3D software products, which also
includes Houdini Master, Houdini Select and Houdini Escape. Halo's
features include an interactive, visual way of creating custom
shaders, composite operators and more, without the need to write

At New York's MacWorld Expo,
Alias|Wavefront announced Maya 4.5, the seventh major release of its
popular Maya 3D animation software. With this new release, Maya for
Mac OS X will be synchronized with Maya on other supported hardware
platforms. Current Maya for Mac OS X users will benefit from a
substantial number of feature additions and enhancements including
new modeling tools, integrated 3D Paint, multi-processor support for
rendering and numerous UI and workflow enhancements. "Maya 4.5 for

This week at SIGGRAPH 2002, 3D animation software developer Kaydara,
Inc. has announced that both Discreet and NewTek products will
support Kaydara's FBX file format. Discreet will integrate support
for FBX into upcoming versions of its 3D animation and visual effects
software, including 3ds max, inferno, flame and flint. FBX is a 3D
file interchange format that allows for the universal interchange of
3D data between every major 3D package and a number of second-tier
applications. "Discreet is excited by the numerous opportunities

NVIDIA Corporation announced from SIGGRAPH 2002 that it is open sourcing the NVIDIA Cg
Compiler technology under a nonrestrictive, free license. Available
in August 2002 for download from the developer.nvidia.com and
www.cgshaders.org Websites, this code will contain the parser that
reads the language and creates intermediate code for compilation, as
well as a generic back-end. Together, these components provide
everything required to create optimized Cg compilers for other

This
week at SIGGRAPH 2002 (Booth #8062), Discreet announced new product
releases for its visual effects and compositing systems inferno 5,
flame 8 and flint 8. According to Discreet, these latest versions
include software architecture modifications designed to improve
post-production workflow by offering digital artists increased
freedom, flexibility and speed. New features include support for
mixed resolutions, enabling artists to combine various film, video,
graphics and other multimedia formats within one project at any

Belmont, California-based LifeMode Interactive, Inc. has released LifeStudio: Head, a complete facial animation solution for interactive game and multimedia developers. Created using LifeMode's Macro-Muscle proprietary technology, LifeStudio: Head Tools allows artists to quickly create a wide variety of characters, complete with photo-realistic textures, real-time animation and lip-syncing.