Category: Technology

RE:Vision Effects has announced that they now offer Mac OS X support for ReelSmart Twixtor and ReelSmart Motion Blur, the company's effects plugins for Apple's compositing software Shake. ReelSmart Twixtor enables users to speed up or slow down image sequences. Twixtor synthesizes unique new frames by warping and interpolating frames of the original sequence employing RE:Vision's proprietary tracking technology that calculates motion for each individual pixel.

Armaverse Armatures has unveiled its new line of Phase 3 stop-motion animation armature kits and parts. Dubbed "Humature" by Armaverse, the six-inch human armature is 100% stainless-steel and allows for smaller sets, lighter characters and easier animation. A revamped head support closely follows human form and makes a convenient base for replacement animation. According to the manufacturer, the precise human proportions of the Phase 3 Humature give completed characters extremely realistic movement with correct 90-degree articulation at the knee and ankle joints.

Spanish software comapny Next Limit has released RealFlow 2, a physical-based particle system that simulates a variety of fluid states based on advanced Computational Fluid Dynamic techniques. RealFlow make use of real fluid equations in a flexible way to accurately simulate a wide range of fluids like liquids, gases and viscous matter. Enhanced by a new streamlined user interface that includes time-sliders to preview fluid simulations over time, RealFlow 2 also offers an improved internal engine for greater particle management.

Alias|Wavefront announced that it is now offering the mental ray for Maya plug-in at no extra charge to all Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited customers. The mental ray for Maya plug-in, previously priced at US $3,995 is available free to all Maya customers beginning with Maya 4.5. Maya 4.5 customers can now download mental ray for Maya 1.5 public beta at www.aliaswavefront.com/maya/getmental. This announcement covers all platforms which Maya is available for, including Mac.

House of Moves motion capture studio (HOM) will now provide facial scanning services at its Los Angeles studio, thanks to a newly signed deal with 3Q inc., a developer of 3D scanning technology. In addition, HOM is now the first non-exclusive third party distributor of 3Q products to the entertainment industry. 3Qs unique scanning approach projects a random light pattern on the subject and captures it with precisely synchronized digital cameras set at various angles. The scan itself takes only two milliseconds per frame.

Digital Film Tools, an offshoot of Los Angeles-based visual effects studio Digital FilmWorks, has announced the release of zMatte, a full-featured blue and green screen keyer for use with Adobe After Effects and After Effects compatible programs, Apple's Final Cut Pro, and Avid Editing Systems. Using proprietary matte extraction techniques and 16 bit processing, zMatte quickly and simply creates mattes with minimal parameters. ZMatte's features include multiple matte creation; blur, shrink and wrap functions; color suppression; and shadow, midtone and highlight color correction.

Toon Boom Technologies Inc. has released the final version of its 2D animation application Toon Boom Studio v.1.2.1 for Mac OS X v.10.2. This latest version of Toon Boom Studio takes full advantage of the features and improvements available in "Jaguar," Apple's major update to the OS X operating system. Toon Boom Studio is a 2D desktop application for creative professionals in character animation, Web design and advertising. The update is available for free to all licensed owners at www.toonboomstudio.com.

Discreet's burn, a new Linux-based background rendering software for visual effects systems, recently debuted at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) in Amsterdam. burn is designed to reduce time to project completion by utilizing PC-based render stations for processing effects. Using burn, rendering is completed offline in a Linux-based render farm, freeing up Discreet online effects workstations, which will allow artists to focus more on the creative process.

Electric Rain, Inc. has announced the release of Swift 3D version 3.0, a standalone application allowing designers to build and export 3D animations to the Macromedia Flash (SWF) file format, as well as other major vector and raster formats. This latest version provides realistic vector rendering with new RAViX III rendering options, photo-quality raster export and SmartLayer Technology for direct integration with Macromedia Flash MX.

The world's largest online plant library just got bigger with the addition of 50 new plants. Plant modeling and simulation company Bionatics has increased its library to more than 250 plants, including plants from North America, South America, Europe, Japan and the Mediterranean. Increasing its plant diversification in response to client demand, Bionatics offers foliage for a variety of environments (mountains, coastline, roads, forests, parks and gardens, ponds, and countryside) for architects, 3d studios, video game developers, real-time and landscape simulations.

Maya 4.5, the seventh major release of Alias|Wavefront's popular Maya 3D animation software is now available for the Windows, IRIX and Linux operating systems, with Maya Complete 4.5 for Mac OS X available on September 23, 2002. Maya 4.5 boasts a number of major technological developments such as Maya Fluid Effects and modeling improvements, the largest collection of API enhancements since version 1 and version parity with Maya Complete 4.5 for Mac OS X.

Realviz has announced that MatchMover 2.5 Professional is now available. The software is a professional solution used to track 3D camera data and motion from videos and film sequences. With this new version, users can move smoothly back and forth between automatic and manual tracking with no interruption of workflow.