modo 201 Review: New Texture Painting and Rendering
Alain Bielik discovers how Mainframe altered its design process to achieve more realistic MoCap for Tony Hawk in Boom Boom Sabotage.
Category: Technology
Face Robot 1.0 Now Available
SOFTIMAGE|FACE ROBOT v.1.0 is now available. It is the first production toolset for lifelike face animation. By solving faces for animation and reducing preparation time, Face Robot allows animators to concentrate on sculpting the details of every expression for unforgettable performances.
Toon Boom Storyboard Launched at MIFA 2006
Emmy award-winning Toon Boom Animation Inc. announced the release of Toon Boom Storyboard, the leading storyboarding system for visual storytelling. Developed in conjunction with expert storyboard artists, Toon Boom Storyboard speeds up production planning and enables studios to increase production integration.
Toon Boom Storyboard provides:* Flexible layer-based panel display with motion camera capabilities * Complete set of drawing tools, including pressure-sensitive brush tool when using a digital graphic tablet and pen
NVIDIA, Intel Offer New Solution for Windows-Based Mobile Devices
NVIDIA Corp. announced a reference design with Intel Corp. that will provide device manufacturers with a fast and easy solution for bringing powerful, media-rich handheld devices to market based on the Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system.
Rising Sun Research Releases cineSync V 1.1
Rising Sun Research, an innovative developer of tools for visual professionals, now offers cineSync v1.1, a new version of the company's remote review and approval tool. Based on Apple QuickTime technology, cineSync continues to redefine the post-production review and approval paradigm.
Vue 5 xStream Pre-Release Available for LightWave and Cinema 4D
e-on software announced the pre-release of two new versions of its xStream suite of plug-ins: xStream for LightWave and xStream for Cinema 4D.
Vue 5 xStream is a suite of plug-ins that enables the seamless integration of Vue environments into the industry's leading 3D applications. Versions of xStream were already available for Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya. As of June 1, versions of xStream for Newtek LightWave and Maxon Cinema 4D are also available. xStream for SOFTIMAGE|XSI is still under development.
Alienware's New Limited-Edition Superman Systems Take Flight
Alienware celebrates June 28 release of Warner Bros. Pictures' SUPERMAN RETURNS with individually-numbered desktop and notebook systems inspired by DC Comics' iconic superhero, Superman. The desktop and notebook systems showcase masterful artwork of the Man of Steel on the outer cases. Alienware's Area-51 Superman Edition desktop and Area-51 SUPERMAN RETURNS Edition notebook come with a certificate of authenticity. Each system also includes a specially-designed Superman desktop theme by The Skins Factory utilizing Stardock's Theme Manager software.
Iridas’ FrameCycler Standardized at ILM
Iridas announced that Industrial Light & Magic has purchased universal site licenses of FrameCycler Professional 3.5 for its facility in the Letterman Center in San Francisco, Lucasfilm Animation in Singapore and the Skywalker Ranch in San Rafael. Now artists at all three locations will have immediate access to uncompressed frame-based playback for review and analysis of their work on every workstation.
In Technology, Visual Effects, Technology, Visual Effects | Headline News | Geographic Region: All, Asia, Europe
Autodesk Certifies ATI’s FireGL Workstation Graphics Accelerators
ATI Technologies Inc. announced that its FireGL workstation graphics boards have been certified for Autodesk Inc.'s full range of design software solutions. ATI's entire top-to-bottom line of FireGL graphics boards complement Autodesk's media and entertainment, design and manufacturing products by helping industry professionals more accurately and more efficiently visualize digital models to design better products while speeding time to market.
RE:Vision Effects Adds Mac Updates to After Effects Plug-Ins
RE:Vision Effects has upgrades for its Macintosh After Effects-compatible plug-ins. Notably, all of their plug-ins that work within Final Cut Pro (that is, all of their products except RE:Flex) now run in FCP 5.1 on Intel Macs. The latest updates also run significantly faster within Adobe After Effects 7.0 on G5 CPU Macintoshes running Tiger (OS 10.4).
Upgrades are free if the main version number of a product is the same as the main version number of the license purchased.
RE:Vision Effects updated plug-ins consist of:
Pixar Releases RenderMan Pro Server 13.0
Pixar Animation Studios released version 13.0 of its Academy Award-winning RenderMan Pro Server software.
Water, Water, Everywhere...
J. Paul Peszko dives into the extraordinary advances in CG water on display this summer in Poseidon and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest.
Luxology Delivers modo 201
Luxology Llc. announced the immediate availability of modo 201, its 3D modeling, painting and rendering software built on the ultra clean modo code base. modo 201 combines significant modeling advancements with cutting-edge 3D painting and rendering technologies in a modern workflow customized to enhance productivity for 3D artists working in game development, film visual effects, video production, graphic arts and design visualization. modo 201 is available for immediate download from Luxology at modo3d.com or can be purchased from selected resellers.
AnimationMentor.com: Animation Education in Your Home
Alain Bielik dives into latest state-of-the-art fluid simulation advances and other CG modeling breakthroughs for Poseidon.
REALVIZ VTour Introductory Offer Extended
REALVIZ announced that a new patch up-date is now available for VTour. Version 1.0.1 of VTour includes a number of significant additions, including the improved capability to create Web-compatible projects, as well as an updated SPi-V3d viewer. The Patch is available free of charge to all existing VTour owners. New users may also purchase this latest version until May 31 at the reduced price of 300 /$340 (normal list price 499 /$580).
Digital Video Launches Toonz 5.0 Bravo!
Digital Video introduces Toonz 5.0 Bravo!, a 2D animation software and yet cost-effective solution for studios willing to produce paperless animation.
Rendercore Launches Mac OSX Support for LightWave 8.5
Rendercore Inc. announced the complete integration and support for Mac OSX version of LightWave 8.5 from NewTek.
"With prevalence of Mac OSX as an important part of creating photo-real imagery in the computer graphics industry, we worked diligently to include the LightWave Mac OSX version shortly after its introduction," said Brian Kim, technical director for Rendercore.
BOXX Launches 3DBOXX 8300 Series Workstation
BOXX Technologies Inc. announced the new 3DBOXX 8300 Performance Series workstation. The 3DBOXX 8300 is a high-performance personal workstation, which leverages the power of the new Dual-Core Intel Xeon 5100 Series processors running in conjunction with the new Intel 5000X chipset. With new performance features, such as a 1333MHz front side bus, 4MB of cache shared between two cores, FB-DIMMs (a cutting-edge memory technology) and powerful I/O, the new 3DBOXX 8300 Series workstation provides enhanced workflow for todays VFX professionals.
Houdini 8.1 Public Beta Released
Side Effects Software, developer of the award-winning Houdini family of 3D software, announced the public beta of Houdini 8.1. This new version features an artist-friendly Auto Rig, Muscle System, Character Picker and Pose Library, as well as enhancements to the Rigid Body and Wire dynamic solvers. CG artists from around the world are invited to download the Houdini 8.1 public beta for free from www.sidefx.com as part of the Houdini Apprentice Program.
Dell to Make AMD Switch
Dell announced that it would begin using processors from AMD in place of those from Intel to help regain lost market share. Dell said that the AMD-based Dell high-end servers with four Opteron processors would be introduced by the end of this year.
Kevin B. Rollins, Dell ceo, emphasized, however, that it is a fairly small category that has been given to AMD, and that Intel would continue to remain the supplier of most processors used by Dell.
FrameCycler DI Goes to Framestore CFC
Iridas has sold two seats of FrameCycler DI to Framestore CFC. The application provides disk-based, full-resolution playback; conform of Edit Decision Lists (EDLs) for online review of the editors' work; primary color grading for look development; and Iridas' new ReviewLink technology for interactive review session from multiple locations.
In Technology, Visual Effects, Technology, Visual Effects | Headline News | Geographic Region: All, Europe
The Animated Scene: “Paperless Animation Production” — Myth or Reality?
In this months Animated Scene, Joseph Gilland addresses the reality of paperless animation production, which used to make his blood curdle.
eyeon Makes Dreams Come True for Wish Films
Wish Films, a brand new production company based at Elstree Film Studios, has enlisted the help of eyeon Software to make Fusion an integral part of its pipeline.
Mark Ford and Stephen Charles are the driving force behind their new Wish Films studio. Recently at Lynx Video, a facility based in Denham, West of London, Ford and Charles operated the Flame/Smoke/Maya and Avid/Online suites, respectively. Successfully breaking into Wish Films, they have been commissioned to build a new post-production facility using Fusion 5.
In Technology, Visual Effects, Technology, Visual Effects | Headline News | Geographic Region: All, Europe
Toon Boom Releases Workout Series
Toon Boom Animation Inc. has released the Toon Boom Animation Workout Series. Touching on all aspects of animation creation, the Toon Boom Animation Workout Series is a dedicated program of exercises designed to help users develop the techniques and skills necessary to get the most out of the Toon Boom product family.
'Learning Maya 7': Rendering Features — Part 1
In the latest excerpt from Learning Maya 7 | Foundation, Marc-AndrGuindon and Cathy McGinnis start a three-part series on rendering.
