Technology
Academy Announces Scientific Achievements
Oscar List. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences'
Scientific and Technical Awards Committee has announced nineteen
scientific or technical achievements to be considered for 1999 Academy
Awards. The Sci/Tech committee selected the achievements for their
outstanding impact on the motion picture industry, and although
this is just an initial list (the 19 products/developments will
undergo vigorous investigation by the committee before being short-listed
for nomination), it is exciting news for many in the animation and
visual effects industry. Achievements on the list include: Dream
Quest Images 'Hookah Hybrid Atmospheric Physics Simulator and Renderer'
(which is used to simulate and render gaseous natural phenomena
such as smoke, clouds, tornadoes and blowing sand); PDI's 'Character
Modeling System;' ILM's 'Prerender' and 'Skin Animation System;'
and Alias|Wavefront's 'Interactive Photorealistic Rendering System'
(as seen in Maya).
Improv Gives Animators The Power To Orchestrate. Improv Technologies,
Inc., a New York-based software development company, announced that
their flagship product, Orchestrate3D, will be shipping in March
2000. A beta version of the tool, which is designed to improve work-flow
by allowing artists to reuse animated content to 'orchestrate' new
animations, will be available in December. The initial release is
being developed for Maya, 3D Studio MAX, and SOFTIMAGE|3D only,
and will be solely available for Windows NT. However an IRIX version
is planned for release later next year. Previously, the ability
to build libraries of animation 'snippets' has only been possible
through proprietary software -- with Orchestrate3D this useful aid
to productivity (especially when animating similar characters time
and time again) will come within the reaches of freelance animators,
and smaller studios without software development departments. For
more information, visit www.improv-tech.com.
Lightwave OS 9 Compatible. Newtek reinforced its commitment
to the Macintosh platform by announcing that Lightwave 3D 5.6, and
Lightwave 6 are compatible with Apple's new MAC OS 9. The new OS
9 platform brings features such as QUICKTIME 4.0 support, floating
windows, and faster real-time manipulation to Mac-based Lightwave
users for the first time. Apple will be releasing OS 9 this month,
and Lightwave 6 will be available before the end of the year. For
more information visit www.apple.com or www.newtek.com.
Dreamweaver 3 Fireworks 3 Studio Announced. Macromedia, the
producers of popular web and graphics tools Flash, Director, and
Freehand, recently announced a new product bundle: Dreamweaver 3
Fireworks 3 studio. The bundle contains new versions of Dreamweaver
and Fireworks, however, both of the new versions will be available
as stand-alone applications. Dreamweaver, the most popular web authoring
tool available to designers, boasts several new features, most notably
a new feature which allows users to customize Dreamweaver itself
using Javascript, HTML, and XML. Fireworks 3 has also received several
major enhancements, including real-time previews of graphics such
as rollovers, and enhanced compatibility with Adobe Photoshop. Also
enhanced is the interactivity between the two packages -- for example,
Dreamweaver 3 ships with a photo album script which takes images
placed in Dreamweaver and re-sizes them automatically in Fireworks,
and then returns to Dreamweaver to create a full photo album web
site. You can also add Fireworks elements to your web site with
just one click in Dreamweaver. All of these new features will no
doubt reinforce Macromedia's position as the undisputed leader in
commercial web solutions. Dreamweaver 3 Fireworks 3 Studio will
be available in December; for pricing of upgrades and new versions
visit www.macromedia.com.
Want to know more about Dreamweaver
and Fireworks? Read Jeff William's article in Animation World
Magazine.
Read about how to animate using Macromedia
Flash in Tom Calthrop's article in Animation World Magazine.
Alias|Wavefront Ships Maya 2.5. Alias|Wavefront, producers
of accredited character animation and visual effects tool Maya,
announced a significant upgrade to the product; an upgrade which
brings important new tools to 3D animators and effects artists.
Version 2.5 comes complete with Maya Paint Effects: a revolutionary
new tool which allows artists to create and animate stunning organic
and painterly effects almost instantly. Paint Effects features an
extensive library of 2D and 3D preset brushes, which can be used
to create a virtually unlimited number and variety of real and surreal
organic forms such as hair, trees, flowers, feathers, fire, lightning
and stars. Also new to Maya comes Maya Builder, a tool set aimed
at maximizing performance for games designers and programmers. The
new Maya Builder software includes the polygonal modeling and texturing
tools found in Maya Complete, award-winning Maya Artisan features,
Maya's Embedded Scripting Language (MEL), and the full Maya API.
Using Maya Builder, game developers can customize Maya to suit the
needs of their production, letting them access Maya's internal data
structures for use in writing translators or custom plug-ins. For
a software upgrade released so soon after a previous version, Maya
2.5 has an immense amount of new features, many of which are geared
towards fulfilling the needs of the ever more demanding games industry.
Maya 2.5 is shipping now at a starting price of US$7,500 for the
complete version, and $16,000 for the unlimited version. Maya Builder
has an SRP of $2,995. For more information visit www.aw.sgi.com.
The Commotion About DV. Puffin Designs, the award winning
company behind Commotion LE and the Commotion Player, announced
that a new image editing and effects program for Mac and PC users
-- Commotion DV -- is now shipping. The new software is designed
to make the nitty-gritty work of making visual effects believable
a piece of cake. For example, Commotion DV features a SuperClone
brush which makes wire and rig removal, crowd scene generation/editing,
shot clean-up and much more easier. This new release also features
Puffin's fast and easy to use video play-back system, and the versatile
Rotospline tool. For more information visit www.puffindesigns.com.
Ulead Announces Media Studio Pro 6.0. A new upgrade to Ulead's
popular video editing software MediaStudio was announced, with an
interesting list of new features. The new version features an integrated
editing, painting, audio, and titling tool in the one package. Ulead
are also expanding MediaStudio's compatibility and output features
by announcing support for DV, MPEG-2, VFW and WDM capture drivers,
and IEEE-1394 support. More drag and drop effects, filters and transitions
will be present in the new version, along with new re-touching tools,
and a new floating timeline panel. This much-needed upgrade will
be available early 2000. For more information, visit www.ulead.com.
Mental Ray: Intel's First Foot. mental images announced that
its high-end Mental Ray rendering software was the first workstation
application to run on Intel's first engineering samples of the IA-64
Itanium-based platform. mental images and Intel have been working
hand-in-hand to create a version of Mental Ray that was ported and
optimized for the Itanium processor. The new platform was demonstrated
to attendees of the Intel Developer Forum in Palm Springs by Intel
CEO Craig Barrett on an early version of Microsoft's 64-bit version
of Windows, and in conjunction with Mental Ray. Itanium will be
available in the second half of 2000, with mental images' Mental
Ray ready for the new platform.
Cambridge Animation Systems Announces Animo Inkworks. British
born Cambridge Animation Systems announced a new plug-in for Alias|Wavefront's
Maya which allows users to turn their 3D work into traditional looking
2D animations. Animo Inkworks lets Maya animators export their 3D
data into Animo where it can be composited into a 2D scene using
Animo's Scene III plug-in. This new release brings high-quality
toon-shading to Maya users, and allows them to integrate their 3D
and 2D work more tightly with a high degree of customisation.
Puffin Ships Composite Wizard ILM. Visual Effects Supervisor
Scott Squires' company Puffin Designs has begun shipping a Windows
version of the already available Mac software 'Composite Wizard.'
The Adobe After Effects plug-in is a smart little program which
gives artists the power to clean up After Effects composites quickly
and easily, fixing common compositing problems such as ragged edges,
poor matte extractions, and improper focal depth cues. The package
features over 20 filters which can be used to clean up mattes, along
with 'EZ' versions of Deluxe Edge Finder, Edge Blur, Matte Feather
and Spill Killer; tools all present in other Puffin products. Developed
alongside leading post-production facilities, Composite Wizard provides
2D artists with superior compositing tools for a mere US$695. For
more information, visit www.puffindesigns.com.
Newtek Announces Lightwave 6 Free Upgrades. Customers who
choose LightWave between now and the release of version 6 will receive
free upgrades from the current version (version 5.6). LightWave
6 -- which is due for release later this year -- is said to be the
most significant upgrade to the popular program in its long history
as one of the leading tools for visual effects and digital image
creation. LightWave 6 is also the only 3D software system to run
on Mac, Windows NT, Alpha and Silicon Graphics systems. Version
5.6 is available now at a price of US$1995.00. Version 6, when released
will retail at a suggested $2495. For more information visit www.newtek.com.