Category: Technology

Alias|Wavefront is celebrating due to the fact that their award-winning 3D animation system Maya was used to create the top four selling December 2000 titles for the PlayStation 2. Research by PC Data Inc. shows Electronic Arts' MADDEN NFL 2001 leading the list of top-sellers with SSX: SNOWBOARD SUPERCROSS (EA) second, TEKKEN TAG TOURNAMENT (Namco) third, and NHL 2001 (EA) fourth. All of these titles were developed by companies using Maya for the creation of game graphics such as characters, environments and effects.

Digital Film Tools has released Composite Suite 1.5, a comprehensive set of special effects plug-ins for Avid Editing Systems and Adobe After Effects. Composite Suite includes 14 effects plug-ins that were until recently, only available in-house at Digital FilmWorks. It features selective color correction, matte generation, natural lighting effects, as well as specialized tools for combining imagery such as fire, smoke and explosions.

Discreet has started shipping a new version of their real-time broadcasting graphics system frost. Along with other Discreet digital workflow solutions, frost has been used by eight major networks (NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, CNNi, CNN Headline News, Fox News and ABC) for live-coverage graphics during the surprise developments in the 2000 U.S. Presidential Election. Now, version 2.5 streamlines on-air graphics development and workflow even further.

Digimation has recently started shipping Phoenix 1.5, an upgrade to their original fire simulation plug-in for 3ds max developed by the Chaos Group. Phoenix was developed for simulating real fire and it allows 3ds max objects to appear as if they are engulfed in flames. By simply choosing any object or particle system as the emitter, Phoenix has the ability to wrap it in a complete volumetric flame. Phoenix allows full control of the colors, lights, transparency and the shape of the flames. The fire results will stun in both realism as well as overall control.

DPS has released their stop-frame animation software DPS AniMate for use with the dpsReality Studio Digital Disk Recorder (SDDR) and dpsVelocity non-linear editing system. DPS AniMate is a software package developed by DPS to enable stop-frame animators to build up animations quickly and easily. DPS AniMate, dpsReality and dpsVelocity can be used as stop-frame video assist or direct-to-disk systems.

DigiCel, Inc. recently released FlipBook PT, their new pencil test software for Windows. The new software follows the classical approach to cel animation letting animators scan and shoot or draw their artwork directly into a traditional exposure sheet and play it back instantly. The user can then adjust the playback rate, synchronize the soundtrack and even edit the exposure sheet while the scene is playing, then see and hear those changes immediately. This is also useful for storyboarding, animatics and track reading to improve lip synch.

RE:Vision Effects Inc. recently released Shake, Spark and AVX plug-ins of ReelSmart Motion Blur 1.8. This now lets Nothing Real Shake; Avid Media Composer, Symphony and Xpress; and Discreet inferno*, flame*, flint*, fire* and smoke* users take advantage of the plug-in. ReelSmart Motion Blur applies natural-looking motion blur to a video sequence by automatically tracking every pixel and applying blur in the amount and direction of the calculated movement. RE:Vision's tracking technology is at the heart of ReelSmart Motion Blur, so there is no handwork involved.

Cycore and bioVirtual recently announced that they had teamed up to create a tool to convert animated 3D humans into interactive 3D images for use on the Web. As a result of this partnership the two companies have released "3DmeNow with Cult3D Exporter" - a tool that allows anyone to create interactive photo-realistic 3D human models, characters and avatars, for use in entertainment, security and scientific applications quickly and easily. 3DMeNow with Cult3D Exporter is based on Cycore Cult3D and the 3DmeNow technology from bioVirtual.

Kaydara Inc. will be releasing their real-time character animation system, FiLMBOX, on Apple's highly anticipated Mac OS X platform. FiLMBOX for Mac OS X will provide both a hub for 3D data and a strong set of real-time 3D authoring tools, allowing Mac users to pre-visualize, storyboard and develop character animation. FiLMBOX is a real-time character animation system designed to provide the basis of a complete digital media pipeline.

The recently released Avid|DS Version 4.0 has received advance praise from the post-production facilities involved with testing the new system. The major new release has been hailed for its performance, feature improvements and timesaving capabilities. Among the most highly anticipated features in the new version is an optional remote processing capability that enables users to continue working on a project while computationally intensive tasks are being processed in the background, thereby avoiding interruptions to the creative process.

Crater Software has released the latest version of their flagship 2D animation package CTP. Among other things, version 1.4 now offers complete compatibility with Macromedia Flash, making the cartoon production tool ideal for animators looking to publish their work on the Web. "Enhancing CTP 1.4 with Flash compatibility was clearly the next step to take," explained Crater Software President Joe Alonso, "With an overwhelming majority of Web users with Flash installed on their browsers, it has gone from a mere file format to the new standard in Web media delivery.