Technology
CHROME Imaging Releases Photonyx 1.5.
A new Switzerland-based company, CHROME Imaging, recently announced
their solution to the wonderful world of post-production Photonyx
1.5 is now shipping. CHROME claims that the software, which is priced
at a mere US$675, was designed to address the high-end post-production
market. The program features RealTools, a painting palette which
simulates real world tools such as crayons, airbrush and charcoal.
But moving on to compositing, Photonyx features "Virtual Screens"
technology which offers realtime zoom and pan on images of 100MB
and upwards, and allows one to compose multiple layers, channels,
masks, paths and text with unlimited undo and redo. The software
also allows one to composite via Z-Buffer and Object-ID channels,
while alpha channels are automatically loaded. Although Photonyx
sounds very impressive (especially for the price) calling it "high-end"
may be going a little far (the software is unlikely to give inferno*
a run for its money), however, the software, I'm sure, will be a
great asset to students, hobbyists, and smaller production studios
with lower budgets.
RE:Vision Effects Announced ReelSmart Motion Blur. RE:Vision
Effects recently released ReelSmart Motion Blur, a plug-in for After
Effects 4.0, Commotion 2.0+ and Final Cut Pro. The plug-in is designed
to apply more natural looking motion blur to effects shots and video
sequences within After Effects. ReelSmart Motion Blur automatically
tracks every pixel in the shot which takes the handy-work out of
the process. Features include reduced strobing, fewer artifacts,
and a tool which lets one blur one image sequence using the motion
of another sequence. The plug-in is available now at a price of
US$89.95.
BOXX Delivers RenderBOXX. BOXX Technologies recently unveiled
their RenderBOXX NT and Linux rendering system, which relies on
Intel Pentium III 800MHz processors to 'bolster' rendering times.
Currently shipping is the RenderBOXX 4000 series with single or
dual processors, and a price tag starting from US$2365. The focus
of the 4000 series is to streamline workflow for visual effects
and video game professionals, and because RenderBOXX is very easy
to set, has a completely open rendering system (it does not require
special rendering material libraries or plug-ins to reduce rendering
time), it really is set to speed up productivity in the 3D animation
business.
Artbeats Releases Lifestyles. Designed for those who produce
commercials, music videos, industrial projects and similar broadcast
pieces, 'Lifestyles - Mixed Cuts' is a stock CD which is packed
full of video clips of people. The royalty free collection of video
snippets includes the faces of adults and children, plus a wide
variety of situations including a birthday party, a mother and daughter
out for a walk, professionals in a board room and even a transient
walking along train tracks. The uses are endless. Commercials and
music videos are obvious, but for the visual effects professional
who feels the need for a challenge, the shots can be used in compositing
and other effects sequences. The animator could use the footage
as reference for various moods and actions. The footage was originally
shot on 35mm with the purpose of making the content as generic as
possible; one can use the same clip for a health insurance commercial
and a music video with a little imagination. The CD is priced at
$499.00 and is a worthwhile addition to any video/animation professional's
library.
Toon Boom Releases USAnimation 5.0. Toon Boom Technologies
recently released a new version of its 2D cel animation software,
USAnimation, which is used by top animation studios all over the
world (Disney, DreamWorks, Warner Bros., Paramount, Film Roman,
etc.). Version 5.0 brings a wealth of new tools to animators, including
the new 3D camera, or USAnimation's Real-Time Scene Planning module
(which can be used at any time after scanning). Within this new
module of the system, users can manipulate 2D elements in a 3D environment,
changing positions and trajectories of elements and cameras, and
then view the results in real-time. This means that complicated
camera moves, such as multi-plane zooms, can be tested without waiting
for the render results. USAnimation now also supports the Flash
format, which means cel animators can take advantage of USAnimation's
advanced features to produce animation for distribution on the Web.
Toon Boom is pitching USAnimation 5.0 as the product that will not
only increase productivity, but also the quality of animated productions.
And with new features like the Real-Time Scene Planning module,
it might just be able to do that.
Macromedia Introduces Freehand 9. Macromedia, the leading
provider of web design tools recently announced a major upgrade
to its famous FreeHand design and layout software. FreeHand 9 is
set to change the way designers approach their work by offering
a powerful toolset for their vector graphics, regardless of whether
their art is intended for print or Web. FreeHand 9 is expected to
ship in March on both Macintosh and Windows platforms, and will
be offered as both a stand-alone product and in the new Macromedia
Flash 4 FreeHand 9 Studio, which means that web designers and Flash
animators can take advantage of FreeHand's advanced vector drawing
tools.
Interactive Effects Releases Piranha HD 3.1. Interactive
Effects, producers of high-end visual effects systems Piranha and
Amazon Paint, recently announced the release of Piranha 3.1 for
Silicon Graphics Workstations. The new version expands the systems'
capabilities in areas such as video support, digital audio and disk/graphics
performance, as well as adding new features such as Mipmap Texturing,
high speed soft edged rotosplining and improved image tracking capabilities.
Also new to version 3.1 are several new levels of scripting control
-- users can now control rendering and expression-based animation
with scripts, taking advantage of Piranha's upgrade from TCL 7.4
to 8.2 in the new release. Interactive Effects have added more "performance
enhancement-type" features to other areas of Piranha, polishing
up and adding to an already award-winning, and widely used, visual
effects system.
Corel And Adobe Get Flashy. This week both Corel and Adobe
announced that they were adding support for Macromedia Flash to
some of their flagship products. Adobe will be adding support for
Flash to their popular web development tool GoLive, which means
that Adobe users should be able to easily integrate Flash animation
into their existing GoLive projects. Corel also announced that it
would be adding support for Flash to Corel LINUX and CorelDRAW 9.
Corel LINUX will be the first Linux OS to include the Macromedia
Flash Player as a standard component. With the inclusion of the
Flash Player in Corel's Linux distribution, users will automatically
be able to view Flash content on the Web without having to download
a player. Corel will also develop a CorelDRAW exporter for Flash
so that users can make use of their existing CorelDRAW work and
bring it into Flash to add animation and interactivity. With two
major players in the computer graphics industry embracing Flash
technology, Macromedia must be very proud to see their baby becoming
a standard in Web interactivity.
Intergraph Cuts Zx10 Prices. Intergraph Computer Systems
recently announced that they are dropping the prices of their range
of Zx10 ViZual Workstations. The Zx10 is Intergraph's latest range
of high-end workstations that are built around Wahoo technology
and are powered by Intel Pentium III 750 MHz/100 MHz front side
bus processors. A wide range of graphics options are available,
from high-end 2D to mid-range 3D and the industry's fastest high-end
3D graphics -- Intense3D's Wildcat 4110 VIO Graphics. Now this technology
is available at Intergraph's lowest price ever, with Zx10 workstations
starting at US$3,995. The reason for the price drop? Intergraph
would like to offer their "award winning systems" at prices
that won't break the budget. Well I don't know about that, but I
do like the design of the towers. Groovy!