Technology
Crater Software Welcomes Chromacolour
Int. Crater Software has made an agreement with Chromacolour
International which will see Chromacolour's industry leading colour
palettes incorporated into Crater Software's popular CTP animation
system. CTP is already providing animation studios with a cost effective
solution to 2D cel animation and cartoon production, however, the
software will benefit even further from having such a well known
and widely used colour palette available for artists and animators
to utilize.
Metacreations Announces KPT 6. Metacreations, the developers
of cult 3D package Bryce and popular 2D paint program Painter, announced
that a new version of its famous KPT plug-in for Photoshop was now
available. The new version is made up of 8 filters -- Materializer,
Equalizer, Gel, LensFlare, Turbulence, Reaction, Projector and Goo
-- plus, there are two bonus filters: SceneBuilder and SkyEffects.
The plug-in does, as in previous versions, share the consistent
easy to use interface across all of the filters. It also shows previews
of effects in real-time, and all filters feature robust preset libraries.
KPT 6 is available now at US $199.95.
FAMOUSfaces 1.5 Now Shipping. Famous Technologies has announced
that version 1.5 of its stand-alone facial animation system FAMOUSfaces
is now shipping. The program, which is aimed at film, broadcast,
games and location-based entertainment developers now boasts some
amazing new features. The software allows character animators to
create realistic facial animation using one of, or a combination
of any of the following input devices: motion-capture, video, puppetry
devices, voice recognition or cluster targetting. New in version
1.5, animators can use the product as a plug-in to their favourite
animation system (such as 3D Studio MAX 3 or Lightwave 6), and input
the facial motion data directly to their models. The new version
also features realtime game animation -- this in-game technology
now gives game designers a powerful solution to key-framing, with
the aim of saving them time and money. FAMOUSfaces has adopted a
different approach to that of other facial animation systems, an
approach which could almost be described as facial animation capture.
One major advantage of this approach is that the animation and dialogue
match perfectly, but one disadvantage is that the technology is
designed to mimic human facial movement, and can be a little too
sterile for cartoon-style 3D animation. Nonetheless, FAMOUSfaces
is a time-saving cost effective solution for realistic facial animation
which will suit the needs of smaller, and larger animation studios
perfectly.
Knoll Light Factory Now Available For Avid. The popular Knoll
Light Factory plug-in from Puffin Designs was released for Avid
Xpress, Media Composer, and Symphony -- the trimmed version of Knoll
Lens Flare Pro is titled Knoll Lens Flare AVX. The software allows
users to create lens flares with an unprecedented level of precision
and control. Based on the Lens Primitives in Knoll Lens Flare Pro,
the plug-in consists of a number of filters which include elements
modeled on professional camera lenses and various light sources.
AVX also includes an EZ filter which allows users to choose from
39 pre-built effects which can be used to create lens flares for
anything from glowing rocket engines to Star Trek-style photon torpedoes.
The plug-in comes from the brilliant mind of John Knoll, an ILM
visual effects supervisor whose credits include Star Wars: Episode
I, Star Trek First Contact, AND Mission Impossible. Knoll
was also a co-creator of industry standard paint program Adobe Photoshop.
For more information visit www.puffindesigns.com.
3D Studio MAX 3 Shipped To Over 100,000 Users. Discreet's
3D Studio MAX 3 is currently being used by more than 116,000 artists
world-wide, a number signifying the major upgrades rising to an
industry standard package in film, broadcast, games, multimedia,
and design industries. The new upgrade boasts many new features,
but the ones that have brought the product into this popular position
so soon after its release are most definately the new 'world-class'
renderer, and the infinitely extensible production environment.
Many of these 100,000+ customers are taking advantage of 3D Studio
Max 3's integration with Discreet's paint*, effect*, and edit*.
In short Discreet is providing some great production tools and the
numbers are proving this justly.
Interactive Effects Lead Avid Customers Into The Light. With
Avid's announcement that they are effectively 'dropping' their continued
development and support of Media Illusion and Matador, Interactive
Effects has stepped in to offer customers using those products a
new solution. Interactive Effects is already an established provider
of digital tools for visual effects artists, filmmakers and broadcasters.
Their flagship product, the Piranha HD Visual Effects System, is
in use by many top studios all over the world (Pixar, Industrial
Light + Magic, and Pixel Envy to name just a few). However, this
unexpected and somewhat bold move could help them to expand vastly
their user-base, securing Piranha as the top visual effects system
in operation today. Interactive Effects is offering all Media Illusion
and Matador users an option to switch to the Piranha HD Visual Effects
System at a discounted price of US$25,000. This price is exactly
half the recommended retail price of $50,000, proving just how serious
Interactive Effects is at taking over Avid's huge number of new
media and visual effects customers. Not often does an opportunity
like this arise for a company in this competitive industry -- an
opportunity to quite literally take over a large corporation's user
base in a matter of months. Interactive Effects has an opportunity
to shift the balance of the industry significantly, and make their
mark as a leader in providing visual effects solutions to professionals.
With an update of Piranha due out in 2000, Interactive Effects is
showing strong signs of growth. There's only one question lingering
in this quite extraordinary situation....what does Avid think about
all this?
Sumatra Flies Through First Production Tests. SOFTIMAGE|Avid's
Sumatra, which is set to redefine computer animation, has been used
in a UK production for the BBC called "Everyman." The
animation system, which is currently in beta, was used by Aldis
Animation to create the 20 second title sequence of the show. Kim
Aldis, the founder of Aldis Animation said that Sumatra increased
the company's productivity, while at the same time giving them "more
flexibility to experiment creatively." Sumatra is due to be
released at the end of the first quarter, 2000. It is the first
truly non-linear 3D animation system and includes some very advanced
features. As well as a whole set of powerful animation features
(which allow users to animate by hand, hiding away all of the technical
information, or vice-versa), Sumatra also boasts multi-threaded
interactive rendering - all rendering properties (textures, materials,
even motion blur and caustics), update instantly at any size or
resolution. The new animation system also features an integrated
post-production solution, providing a path for end-to-end 3D/2D
integration. Concepts like Render Passes allow animators to render
elements of their animation seperately, and those layers can be
used in compositing. To top it all off, Sumatra lets animators and
programmers customize the software using the ActiveX programming
language. Sumatra is set to have a huge impact on the 3D animation
and visual effects industry, and with the recent sucess of its use
in production, the tool has, before its release, proved itself.
Digital Video S.R.L. Releases Toonz Linetest. Digital Video
SLR announced the release of Toonz Linetest, a pencil test tool
that is designed to preserve the animator's original concept. Linetest,
which relies heavily on the Toonz exposure sheet technology, offers
a wide range of editing tools to manipulate frames, levels and sequences.
One can insert new drawings, change the step of the animation, and
replace already grabbed images. One can also enlarge, reduce and
rotate images, or create complex movements with ease thanks to the
Camera Stand window; while the Preview window lets one check the
final result and save a QuickTime movie of the animation. Linetest
also works seamlessly with all other Toonz features and applications,
and as soon as work in Linetest is done, it will be automatically
reloadable into Toonz. For more information on Linetest visit www.linetest.com.
Toonz is distributed by SOFTIMAGE|Avid.
LIPSinc Releases Ventriloquist For MAX 3. LIPSinc. announced
that they have released a version of Ventriloquist, their lip-synchronization
plug-in, for 3D Studio MAX version 3. Ventriloquist is a voice-recognition
lip-synching system which drives the animation based on the input
of audio files. Timing and keyframe data within Ventriloquist for
MAX are linked together automatically, providing easy access and
manipulation for animators who feel the need to 'tweak' Ventriloquist's
work. The voice recognition system is based on LIPSinc.'s own voiceDSP
technology. VoiceDSP analyzes speech and automatically outputs the
precise corresponding mouth, jaw and lip-position data in three
dimensions. Output data is then generated as a stream of precise
morph targets that accurately recreate lip-synched animation. Although
this voice-recognition lip-synching technology is not new, this
is the first time it has come at an affordable price for smaller
studios and animators. Ventriloquist is available at only $595.
LIPSinc Releases Echo. LIPSinc., the producer of Ventriloquist
for 3D Studio MAX, announced that they have launched a new lip-synching
program called Echo. Whereas Ventriloquist is a plug-in for 3D Studio
MAX, Echo is a standalone program which outputs in flipbook, dope
sheet and function curve animation data for animation platforms,
interactive 3D game engines, and multimedia applications. Timeline
Studios, a company founded by best-selling author Michael Crichton,
is using Echo in the company's first title, slated for release at
the end of 2000. Timeline Studio's Vice President, Rick Towson,
has stated that Echo will save the company hundreds of hours of
lip-synching time. Towson also commented that the output quality
is superior to the needs of the production, leaving them room for
improvement and allowing them to provide a higher-quality finished
product. Echo works on a voice recognition system called voiceDSP,
which analyzes speech and automatically outputs the corresponding
mouth, jaw and lip-position data in three dimensions. This data
can then be exported in the desired manner. A studio-quality product,
LIPSinc. is offering customization of this product, which has a
starting price of US$10,000.
After Effects Ices Real Time SDI Video. ICE, the developers
of ICE Tools for After Effects and Media Cleaner, have announced
shipment of BlueICE SDI Video, an add-on daughter card to ICE's
BlueICE hardware for real-time, uncompressed, frame-accurate video
capture, playback and print to tape. BlueICE SDI Video allows Adobe
After Effects users, to digitize, preview and layoff to tape in
real time - all while remaining in the same After Effects environment
in which they composite and create visual effects. BlueICE is available
in both PAL and NTSC standards, and is currently only available
for MAC OS, although an NT version is planned for release early
in 2000. BlueICE SDI Video is priced at US$1,995 and is available
from ICE resellers worldwide.
