'The Magic of Houdini': The Various Contexts
In VFXWorlds latest excerpt from The Magic of Houdini, Will Cunninghham delves into SOPs, POPs and other silly sounding names.
In VFXWorlds latest excerpt from The Magic of Houdini, Will Cunninghham delves into SOPs, POPs and other silly sounding names.
NVIDIA Corp. announced that its NVIDIA GoForce handheld graphics processing units (GPUs), are powering some of the world's first mobile TV production rollouts.
DVB-H, or Digital Video Broadcasting for handheld devices, delivers digital broadcast quality TV to your mobile phone. NVIDIA GoForce handheld GPUs provide hardware acceleration for Mobile TV, delivering higher quality visuals than devices using only software, and with less drain on the battery thanks to new power saving technologies employed by the GPU.
Toronto-based compositing software developers, eyeon Software Inc., announced eyeon Connection at IBC 2006. This allows Fusion machines to directly access Autodesk's Media & Entertainment Stone file system over a LAN, giving the ability to interoperate with Inferno, Flame, Flint, Fire and Smoke systems without the need to import, export or publish media.
Steve Sullivan, director of R&D at Industrial Light & Magic, tells Barbara Robertson about the new interactive previs system ILM is developing.
Wildform, Inc. announced the release of a new, consumer priced Lite version of its popular presentation program, WildPresenter, which allows users to create Flash slide shows, flow charts, ads, online lessons and sales presentations.
Users can combine text, images, audio, artwork and shapes as well as add hundreds of animations, slide transitions and Flash features such as play controls, preloaders, links and mouse-overs. Additionally, users can import and then edit, combine and manipulate any Flash SWF and FLV file.
Chris Landreth finds inspiration in all images computer-generated at SIGGRAPHs 2006 edition of the Electronic Theater.
NVIDIA Corp. redefined performance expectations for graphics cards at two of the most popular price segments for PC gamers. Available immediately, NVIDIA SLI-ready GeForce 7900 GS graphics processing units (GPUs) deliver exceptional performance and cutting-edge features at the widely accessible $199 to $249 price point. Available Sept. 14, the GeForce 7950 GT GPU brings increased performance and a 512MB frame buffer to the $299 to $349 price segment.
Luxology Llc. is now offering its imageSynth plug-in for Adobe Photoshop CS and CS2 software. imageSynth is advanced technology that allows Adobe Photoshop users to quickly and easily create seamless textures, synthetic images, backgrounds and generate high-resolution images from low-resolution sources. Previously available exclusively to modo users, the imageSynth plug-in is now available to the entire Photoshop community and can be purchased directly from the Luxology website.
Renee Dunlop looks into how Movas Contour Reality Capture System changes how we look at CG characters.
Wacom Technology Corp.s patented new Intuos3 4x6 pen tablet is designed for serious photographers, designers and artists seeking optimal pen control and comfort when working with a widescreen display. The Intuos3 4x6 joins Wacoms Intuos3 6x11 and 12x19 models to form a complete range of professional pen tablets that feature active areas matched to the screen aspect ratio of widescreens and dual monitors. This latest Intuos tablet provides 20% more active area than the model it replaces (Intuos3 4x5) and its available immediately at a suggested retail price of $229.95.
Karen Raugust finds that TV ads arent going away, but they will evolve as they find their place among a multiplicity of marketing venues.
Steve Sullivan, director of R&D at Industrial Light & Magic, tells Barbara Robertson about the new interactive previs system ILM is developing.
Autodesk Inc. launched new versions of its visual effects and editing systems: Autodesk Inferno 2007, Autodesk Flame 2007, Autodesk Flint 2007, Autodesk Fire 2007 and Autodesk Smoke 2007. Focusing on connectivity and productivity, these latest versions streamline workflow and provide artists with more time for creativity. The products, which have been used to create noteworthy content for PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST, X-MEN: THE LAST STAND and LADY IN THE WATER, will be showcased in Amsterdam at the International Broadcasters Convention (IBC), Autodesk stand 7-420, from Sept.
NVIDIA Corp. announced an array of NVIDIA Quadro FX graphics that are now available in the high-performance 64-bit Sun Ultra 40 workstations. Prominent in the film and broadcast, digital content creation, oil and gas, geosciences, mechanical computer-aided design (CAD) and medical imaging industries, Sun Ultra 40 workstations deliver record-setting performance in many industry benchmarks and offer ultra-fast processing for large, complex datasets.
ARTVPS now offers RenderPipe AV5.5, the latest version of the software that enables users to create photorealistic images on their PCs and MACs by utilizing the very best in ray tracing technology.
RenderPipe AV5.5 provides a range of improved lighting features and post process image controls. These additional features enable designers to produce natural lighting effects and have greater control over the final images they create.
Massive Ent., a studio in Vivendi Games Sierra Ent. division, is using modo for WORLD IN CONFLICT, the upcoming Cold War strategy game for the PC due in spring 2007. modos flexible user interface and powerful UV tools dramatically increased the Swedish developers production of detailed realistic models and was used to produce more than 90% of the titles in-game models.
Arnold & Richter Cinetechnik GmbH (ARRI) has selected Iridas FrameCycler DI for the film scanning department at its Digital Film facility in Munich. ARRI will use the advanced application for review of uncompressed frames for quality testing of scanned material and applying initial tech-grade color correction.
GenArts Inc. announced the immediate availability of Sapphire Plug-ins version 1.08 for After Effects and compatible products. The new version features enhancements for both Mac and Windows platforms. Version 1.08 for Mac adds Universal Binary support for FCP 5.1 and all After Effects compatible host products. The new release will also run under Rosetta and on Power PC Macs for use with applications such as Adobe After Effects that have not yet been compiled specifically for Intel-based Macs.
Artbeats has released WATERFORM, a unique selection of clips that feature realistic computer-generated water drops superimposed on corresponding footage to form various common symbols and icons such as a cross, dollar sign, heart, skull and crossbones, animated shapes and more. Examples of clips found in the WATERFORM collection include: a man and woman holding hands and talking while the water drops form into a heart and three track runners jumping over hurdles as the water drops form into the #1 symbol.
REALVIZs Stitcher Unlimited 5.5 now contains ImmerVisions IVP standard file format. The ImmerVision IVP format allows panoramas to be played on multiple platforms and devices using PURE Player. Furthermore, with the PURE Player for Java and PURE Player PRO for Java viewers, creators can easily load panoramic images onto any computer or website without installing a plug-in.
Sarah Baisley reports on her experiences at Annecy 2006 where the MIFA market showcased more excitement than the festival.
NVIDIA Corp. announced new additions to the company's family of NVIDIA nForce Professional core-logic solutions designed to offer enterprise customers a high-performance, scalable platform solution for professional servers and workstations. To date, NVIDIA nForce Professional MCPs have been selected to power a variety of server and workstation platforms from leading companies such as HP, IBM, Sun, Fujitsu-Siemens and others.
Rainmaker Animation & Visual Effects has chosen Qube! from PipelineFX as its render farm management system for both the Vancouver and U.K. studios.
After careful consideration of queue managers on the market, our decision on Qube! was an easy one, said Ronald Knol, IT supervisor at Rainmaker. PipelineFX's support is outstanding and Qube! is a mature, stable and extremely scalable product. Qube! supports all our applications and platforms, and will allow us to manage our remote locations, simplifying IT and render wrangler tasks.