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.
Side Effects Software is making its animation software more accessible to users with the launch of the Houdini Apprentice Program. This program includes the Houdini Apprentice Edition, a non-commercial version of the latest Houdini family of products. Apprentice users can run the complete family of products which includes Houdini Master, a full-featured animation and effects package, Houdini Select, an entry-level 3D module, and Houdini Halo, a stand-alone compositor.
3D product developer Immersion Corporation has announced its MicroScribe Connections for Maya software, a new digitizing plug-in designed to streamline workflow and increase design performance and productivity, will be available beginning July 22, 2002. MicroScribe Connections for Maya is the first in a new series of plug-ins from Immersion. According to the company, these plug-ins will allow animators, game developers and industrial designers who use both Maya and MicroScribe to digitize and render 3D models, animated characters and digital content easily.
A Web-slinging superhero, fire-breathing dragons and bite-sized chocolate with a hard candy shell.What do these things have in common? They were all created usingHoudini 3D animation software. Side Effects Software, developer ofthe Houdini family of software, will be presenting visual effectsartists from Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPIDER-MAN), Walt DisneyFeature Animation (REIGN OF FIRE) and Rhinoceros Visual Effects(commercials for M&M's) at its annual Houdini meeting in San Antonio,
Digital Production Management(DPM) systems provider NXN Software has expanded its Japaneseoperations by opening a new subsidiary in Tokyo and appointingindustry veteran Shigemitsu Ejiri as vice president of sales, Japan.Ejiri comes to NXN Software from Borland, Japan, where he served asthe vice president of sales. Prior to Borland, Ejiri spent 16 yearsat Nichimen Corporation, holding the position of executive directorand head of sales for four years. NXN DPM solutions are used to
Discreet's plasma, a professional animation software for creating 3D content for the Web, is now available. plasma software allows animators to work directly in a 3D space to create high-quality visuals for Web services such as instant messaging, greeting cards and interactive games. plasma features integration with Discreet's 3D and Macromedia's authoring tools including Macromedia Flash MX and Macromedia Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio, making the creation of 2D and 3D Web elements easier. plasma is available now for a suggested retail price of US$650.
Side Effects Software has announced the upcoming version 5.5 release of their Houdini 3D software. Currently in beta testing, Houdini 5.5 includes a host of new features including VOPs, a powerful, interactive node-based shader and effects builder. Houdini 5.5 also features an expanded Shader Gallery, a new compositor, a drag-and-drop interface, simplified installation and keying, and enhanced character and animation tools.
Is Adobe's After Effects 5.5 upgrade a significant improvement for animators? George Maestri thinks so. Version 5.5 expands on Version 5's introduction of 3D and now contains over 90 different effects.
At the 2002 NAB show in Las Vegas, Nevada, Discreet announced plasma -- its professional 3D animation software for creating 3D content for Web interface, graphics and interactive 3D. Discreet's plasma software will provide a 3D-animation toolset to create imagery for both Macromedia Flash Player and Shockwave Player. plasma has integration with all versions of Macromedia Flash including the recently released Macromedia Flash MX and Macromedia Director 8.5 Shockwave Studio.
Side Effects Software has released Houdini 5, the newest version of the companys 3D animation and visual effects software and Houdini Select, a lesser-priced selection of the same tools. In conjunction with the launch, Side Effects Software has also made available a free non-commercial, 4-month license of Houdini Select to be offered to individuals attending the launch events. Side Effects Software will be hosting Houdini launch events in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and London featuring guest presenters from effects studios Digital Domain and Rhythm & Hues.
Digital ink & paint software company DigiCel, Inc. has just released FlipBook Pro, the latest enhancement to their 2D animation software. FlipBook Pro features 100 levels, including the background to expand the power of FlipBook and its uses. Other features include linear, multiplane camera moves with variable ease-in and ease-out to let you set the acceleration rate out of a key frame and the deceleration rate into a key frame. Plus high-resolution processing and soft-edged shadows and highlights.
Houdini artists will soon have the option of working with Hewlett Packard's 64-bit Itanium-based systems on both the Linux and Windows platforms. Side Effects Software has announced their intention to make Houdini 5 and Houdini Select available for Itanium-based systems in the first half of 2002. "We made a name for ourselves as an early adopter of emerging technologies as the first professional 3D software developer to support Linux," said Paul Salvini, chief technology officer of Side Effects Software.
Discreets combustion 2, the latest version of its award-winning paint, animation and 3D-compositing software is now available. Unveiled at SIGGRAPH 2001, the combustion 2 software features were designed to provide artists with new capabilities and improved performance, all within an efficient workflow environment designed to make complex visual effects creation faster and simpler. combustion 2 provides new multi-format project capabilities for film and video, including 64-bit image-processing, advanced film grain tools and color Look-Up Table (LUT) management.
Software development company Silicon Grail recently announced the latest release of their compositing software RAYZ v. 2.0. RAYZ v. 2.0 is the only compositing software that incorporates Cineon tools, including CineSpeed, Cineon Grain, and CineSharpen. For implementation in RAYZ, the Cineon source code has been rewritten to take advantage of todays advancements in technology, delivering more speed and tighter integration. RAYZ v. 2.0 comes with a built-in image morphing and warping tool that is spline based and very easy to learn and use. The flipbook technology within RAYZ v.
MoCap systems manufacturer Motion Analysis Corporation has hired Jeff Thingvold as VP of application engineering and Napoleon Hambrick as VP of new media sales for North America, South America and Japan. Focusing on the new media animation sector of the motion-capture industry, Jeff Thingvold will coordinate the development of all software tools and incorporate customers' current and future needs into software technology designs. Prior to joining Motion Analysis Corporation, Jeff was the chief technology officer at Lambsoft.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has licensed Eyetronics' ShapeSnatcher software to experiment with what researchers call videorealistic talking humans that would be used in TV, film and games. ShapeSnatcher Suite 3.0 is an integrated software package that transforms an average slide projector and digital camera into a sophisticated 3D scanning and modeling system.
Autodesk announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire the software product line from Media 100, a leading provider of digital media products. With this acquisition, Autodesks Discreet Division enhances its content creation product portfolio with Media 100s streaming media software solutions -- allowing Discreet customers to create, distribute, re-purpose and publish media content for consumption via the Internet, corporate Intranets and IP-enabled devices such as cell phones and PDAs.
Immersion 3D, a division of Immersion Corp, announced a 30 day trial offer of Immersion's new VirtualHand Studio software available for download at Immersion's Website, www.immersion.com/products/3d/interaction/virtualhandstudio.shtml. VirtualHand Studio is an intuitive software tool used by designers for verifying, testing and evaluating 3D digital models in real-time. This software converts data from the subtle movement of the physical hand into a graphical hand, letting the user interact with 3D objects.
REALVIZ, a leading developer of image processing software solutions, has announced the preview of SceneWe@ver(link sends e-mail), an application that enables users to view 3D models in Web-based 360° panoramas. Combining technology from REALVIZ' ImageModeler and Stitcher, SceneWe@ver(link sends e-mail) offers multimedia artists, Web designers and Webmasters that use Macromedia Director a complete solution to creating photo-real, 3D environments that export to Director.
Side Effects Software has announced that Walt Disney Feature Animation made a significant purchase of the company's Houdini 3D animation software package. Houdini has been used in many projects at the Walt Disney Company including FANTASIA 2000, GONE IN 60 SECONDS and TARZAN. "Houdini's flexible procedural paradigm helps our artists be more creative, while maintaining an efficient production environment," said John Carey, VP of technology at Disney.
Sesame Workshop and Encore Software have signed an exclusive, five-year deal to publish Sesame Workshop-owned gaming titles worldwide. Under the agreement, Encore Software will market, promote and distribute Sesame Workshop's SESAME STREET for PC and console platforms, and DRAGON TALES for PC. This year, new Sesame Workshop PC CD-ROMs will include two ELMO'S WORLD titles and two collections featuring SESAME STREET characters. In addition, DRAGON TALES: DRAGON LAND FESTIVAL and new SESAME STREET toddler and preschool titles will debut later this year.
Xara has launched its new desktop graphics software - the online 3D Heading Maker. The 3D Heading Maker allows potential customers to test-drive Xara's 3D desktop software, Xara3D, in real-time on the Xara Website, without downloads or any required installations. Users can create, customize and save text-based 3D graphics live on the Web page. Content can then be embedded in any third-party Website with all the same functionality.
Toon Boom Technologies, a leading supplier of 2D animation software, announced the commercial release of Toon Boom Studio v1.0 for Mac and PC. Toon Boom Studio increases productivity for digital animators with improved drawing accuracy, an automatic lip-sync feature, 3D scene planning and compact Flash-compatible file rendering for greater scene complexity. The software package also incorporates the feel of traditional animation with a rotating light table, "X" sheet visual representation of the work and a "flip-book" feature.
Animation software developer DigiCel, Inc. has released FlipBook SE (Standard Edition), a 2D animation software program. The program give animators the ability to scan or shoot their drawings under a camera, in addition to drawing them on the computer itself using the programs built-in light table feature. As the drawings are captured, they are automatically positioned in a traditional style exposure and can be played back the moment capturing is completed. An editable exposure sheet lets animators experiment with timing changes while the scene is being played.
