Due to the success of Digital Fusion and DFX+, eyeon Software Inc. has opened two new offices eyeon USA and eyeon Europe. Los Angeles-based eyeon USA is lead by Digital Fusion guru and director of business development, Rony Soussan, who has been influential in Digital Fusion's proliferation on the west coast, and has a long history as a digital compositor. Soussan offers expertise with both the product and the pipeline, as well as advanced training.
Wildform, creators of video and animation software, have released Wild fx 3.0, a major upgrade to its Flash text animation software, previously sold under the name SWfX. The new version has more than 100 new effects, including 45 that are infinitely customizable. These custom effects can also be used as templates to create new effects, which can be saved and added to the Wild fx library. All the effects can be moved, deleted and organized in a drag and drop folder tree.
Discreet, a division of Autodesk, Inc. will be at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles May 1416, 2003 to showcase its 3D animation, modeling, character design, rendering and game modification software and integrated partner software demonstrations. Discreet will also share educational "how to" sessions in its private suite, regarding rapid game development for PC, PlayStation, Xbox, GameCube, and mobile games, the focus of the convention this year. The mobile games burgeoning market is predicted to reach more than $2 billion by 2004 and $7 billion by 2008 (Strategy Analytics, Inc. 2003 report). Discreet will also illustrate how its software is an effective bridge between Hollywood visual effects for motion pictures and the video game market, with market share in both industries.
Alias|Wavefront, an SGI company, has started a third party developer program the Conductors Program - offering three levels of participation, to help what the company sees is a strong surge in developers seeking to create plug-ins and other complementary add-ons for Maya and StudioTools software.
NXN Software, a leading supplier of asset management solutions for the digital entertainment and computer graphics industries, has appointed Ernie Cicogna as its new general manager of U.S. operations, hired Neil Leshner to manage major account sales, and promoted Katja Reitemeyer to director of account management. These appointments support NXN's ongoing expansion into the games, film and simulation markets.
Animated 3D graphics continues to be an important part of how news organizations are explaining events of the war in Iraq. Recently AWN offered a look at how CNN uses animation (Animation Goes To War, March 27, 2003) and the tools its graphics team uses. Fox News Channel also extensively uses 3D animation with a different toolset. Animator Michael Galbavy said they create terrain starting with Curious Software. This data is outputted in two ways:1) as a polygonal mesh with a high resolution texture map.
Discreet has released 3ds max 5.1, a maintenance update available to 3ds max 5 customers as a software download from Discreet's Website. The 3ds max 5.1 update offers enhancements in several functional areas such as scripting, animation, modeling, rendering and mapping. Discreet has also initiated the Discreet Subscription Program, a new service giving 3ds max 5 users an online automated method of purchasing, managing and obtaining maintenance software.
Discreet has announced the worldwide shipment of character studio 4, the character animation software that offers game developers and effects artists new breakthroughs in creating complex, realistic animated characters. Announced at SIGGRAPH 2002, character studio 4 includes significant enhancements designed to provide animators an easy-to-use system.
Crater Software has ended its four-year partnership with EnEfecto of Barcelona, Spain. Crater Software president Joe Alonso has re-acquired all assets and intellectual properties of the Montreal, Canada-based software developer, including its CTP Pro 2D animation software. "This acquisition was something I was personally looking forward to," said Alonso.
Zebra Development has released the first line of software aimed at changing the way storyboards are created. In development for two years, Storyboard Lite software will allow all levels of users to create storyboards with ease. Not only can traditional artists import, organize and modify their hand-drawn storyboards, but boards can also be created in three dimensions using a large expandable library of props and characters included with the software.
The winners of the Academy Awards for Scientific and Technical achievements for the year 2002 have been announced and Alias|Wavefront will receive an Oscar for Maya, its 3D animation, modeling and rendering production tool. Maya is widely used in feature films that incorporate 3D visual effects and animation, and was employed extensively in such films as SPIDER-MAN, ICE AGE, HOLLOW MAN and THE PERFECT STORM.
Side Effects Software, developer of the Houdini family of 3D software, is promoting its Houdini Apprentice Edition with the announcement of the Houdini Apprentice Challenge 2003, an art and animation contest based around the software. Co-sponsored by Hewlett Packard and ATI Technologies, the contest aims to support existing users and uncover new animation talent for leading studios that use Houdini.
BOXX Technologies has entered into an agreement with NewTek to bundle and distribute NewTek's LightWave3D graphics and animation software on 3DBOXX workstations. NewTek recently unveiled version 7.5 of LightWave 3D, which includes features for soft-body dynamics, particles, hair and fur and unlimited render nodes. From now until December 15, 2002, BOXX is offering its 3DBOXX customers the opportunity to purchase LightWave 3D 7.5 for a special introductory price of US$995. Visit the BOXX Website at www.boxxtech.com or call toll free at 877-877-BOXX for more details.
Discreet has released gmax 1.2, a free downloadable video game modification application used by game enthusiasts, game developers and publishers. With over 300,000 registered users since its 2001 release, gmax software has become a popular tool for gamers wanting to add custom characters, environments and animations to PC games. Leading game developers and publishers such as Infogrames, Electronic Arts and Microsoft have adopted gmax to produce gmax-ready titles with customization capabilities to enhance the title's appeal to the rapidly growing game "modder" community.
Montreal-based software developer Crater Software has released the latest version of its 2D cel animation software, CTP Pro version 1.5. In addition to reducing the list price of the software package to $1,299, the company has also released CTP Pro Lite, a limited version of CTP with the same ease of use interface, priced at $299. According to Crater Software President, Joe Alonso, "We have always looked out for the animation student and independent animator.
Digital effects studio Digital Domain has formed D2 Software, Inc. to develop, market and support digital image processing software based upon the proprietary technology developed by the company over the last decade. The flagship of the new companys software line will be Nuke, Digital Domains Academy Award-winning compositing software that operates on NT, Linux and IRIX platforms. "As a nodal-based compositing solution, Nuke is more advanced than anything currently available on the market," noted Michael Taylor, Digital Domains VP, Digital Studio.
BOXX Technologies has enhanced its OEM relationship with Sonic Foundry to offer its 3DBOXX workstation customers an array of preloaded software solutions for audio and video multimedia production. Under the terms of the agreement, BOXX is offering workstation configurations preloaded with Sonic Foundry's popular Vegas Video, Sound Forge 6.0 and ACID PRO 4.0 software.
Discreet will promote the latest release of its 3ds max animation software by touring 15 cities in North and South America. Kicking off October 8 in Dallas, the "Defy Reality" Tour will allow attendees to view in-depth demonstrations of 3ds max 5, meet animation guest speakers from the film, television, design visualization and game development industries, and receive special 3ds max promotional pricing along with the opportunity to win an Intel Pentium 4 IBM M PRO Workstation.
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.
Each week, Animation World Magazine offers new articles, special features and theme-based coverage of the art, craft and industry of animation. New this week:
- Software Piracy Sails Despite Rough Seas Ahead
Software piracy is costing the animation industry millions if not billions. Brett Rogers explains why the cost of software piracy goes beyond the losses suffered by the software manufacturers and effects everyone.
Software piracy is costing the animation industry millions if not billions. Brett Rogers explains why the cost of software piracy goes beyond the losses suffered by the software manufacturers and affects everyone.
Dear AWN Editor,
This letter hopes to cast some light on the software piracy issue and its devastating effects on the animation industry. The company I manage, Digital Video, develops and sells through authorised distributors Toonz, a digital ink and paint and camera package that is very popular in the animation industry.
As a matter of fact it happens that Toonz is very popular not only among honest professionals in the animation industry, but also among pirates! Moreover, the problem has a magnitude much bigger than most people might imagine. I'm not referring here to young people...
At the SIGGRAPH 2002conference, Side Effects Software has announced Houdini Halo, astand-alone compositing and image-editing application, which will beavailable in the fourth quarter of 2002. Houdini Halo is the newestaddition to the Houdini family of 3D software products, which alsoincludes Houdini Master, Houdini Select and Houdini Escape. Halo'sfeatures include an interactive, visual way of creating customshaders, composite operators and more, without the need to write
Venice, California-based Digital Domain, the visual effects company responsible for digital effects in recent blockbusters like THE TIME MACHINE, LORD OF THE RINGS, X-MEN and ARMAGEDDON, will announce a new software venture at SIGGRAPH 2002. According to THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, Digital Domain will be offering a public version of its proprietary compositing tool, Nuke. Digital Domain hopes to compete with Shake, the popular compositing software owned by Apple.
Discreet will be unveiling 3ds max 5, the latest release of its professional 3D animation and modeling software, at SIGGRAPH 2002 (Booth #8062). Discreet has added key new features in 3ds max 5 software including enhanced global illumination methods for subtle and accurate lighting; soft and hard-body dynamics software; and new texture mapping capabilities to marry image data to mesh models accurately.
