Computer Graphics World articles from August 2002

Computer Graphics World archives from August 2002

Just rewards. (editor's note).(3D computer graphics software industry)
August 1, 2002... Competitions have generated a lot of attention in the computer graphics industry lately, most notably in the form of 3D software "shootouts." Indeed, the NAB show in April hosted a shootout geared for broadcast-oriented computer graphics...

Star wars flaws. (letters).(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2002... I am responding to your Web questionnaire on digital effects in the movie Star Wars: Episode II--Attack of the Clones. You ask whether the digital effects in Episode II represent a milestone in the state of the art of...

Eye candy for the coffee table. (letters).(Letter to the Editor)
August 1, 2002... On pg. 4 of your April 2002 issue, Richard A. Bucci, a 3D artist featured in your January 2002 issue, writes how much he enjoys looking at 3D graphics and his desire to "see an actual glossy-paged book with lots of cool pictures in it." You...

Automatic animation from Eyematic. (product spotlight).(FaceStation)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... With the FaceStation suite of software tools from Eyematic, users can automatically capture and apply facial animation data. The product works by assigning 22 virtual markers around the eyes, nose, and mouth of a human face captured in a...

Right Hemisphere's asset management. (product spotlight).(Deep Exploration)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... Deep Exploration (formerly called 3D Exploration Software) from Right Hemisphere provides digital artists with tools for browsing, viewing, translating, and publishing 2D and 3D content. Users can search for and manage a large variety of...

Ascension's Nest of Birds tracker. (product spotlight).(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... The Nest of Birds motion tracker from Ascension Technology Corp. features a USB interface that is designed to make the system virtually plug and play. "You put a CD into a PC and it walks you through the setup." says Ascension's Greg Erdmann....

Caligari Ships TrueSpace6. (product spotlight).(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... Version 6 of TrueSpace, Caligari's popular and affordable ($595) 3D modeling and animation program, comes with new features designed to appeal to game developers, designers, and Web developers with an interest in collaboration and community...

Multifunction ModelView from C4W. (product spotlight).(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... ModelView from C4W, a company based in Montpelier, France, is a viewing tool that enables users to visualize and analyze most kinds of 2D and 3D product design file formats. The program allows for up to 100 files, including 3D models and 2D...

ATI announces next-generation chipset. (news).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... ATI Technologies (Markham, Ontario) has announced a new technology on which its next generation of workstation graphics accelerators will be based. The chip, unnamed at press time, will support both Direct X 9 and OpenGL and will power the...

NaturalMotion intros AI characters. (news).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Natural Motion Limited (Oxford, UK) has announced Active Character Technology, a new character animation engine for use in the film, gaming, and viz/sim industries. The technology is designed to deliver characters that are controlled by...

Wildcat III bests DRV-08 performers. (benchmark).(Evaluation)
August 1, 2002... The Wildcat III graphics accelerator from 3Dlabs, paired with both an HP and a Dell workstation, earned the best scores out of eight systems running the Design Review (DRV-08) subset of the SPECviewperf 7.0 OpenGL benchmark. The DRV-08 test...

Double headers: EA shows that its new major league players got game, thanks to digital scanning. (Cover Story).
August 1, 2002... When computer game players step up to the plate this year, they will encounter a digital baseball diamond that's been given a radical face-lift. Gone are the generic cookie-cutter players that dominated past baseball titles such as Electronic...

Of mice and models: artists create realistic digital mice for a TV ad campaign.(UK television commercials for Aero candy)
August 1, 2002... A series of UK television commercials for Aero candy stars some extremely talented digital mice who sing, dance, and even hula-hoop. Despite their efforts, the mice fail to impress chocolate buyers and scurry away dejected. The ad campaign...

Roamin' ruins: a museum film takes visitors through an ancient villa from Pompeii.
August 1, 2002... One August day in 79 AD, Gains Julius Polybius, a mover and shaker in Roman society, met his match when Mount Vesuvius erupted, heaping eight to ten feet of volcanic ash, cinder, and rock onto his spacious villa, obliterating it and the rest of...

Reality redefined: just emerging from the labs, augmented reality (AR) blends computer graphics and the world around us for a variety of uses.
August 1, 2002... Through the computerized looking glass of augmented reality (AR), like Alice in Wonderland you may see the real world virtually annotated with informative labels, or what's visible overlayed with what's usually hidden, or animated playmates...

Constructive analyses: data-centric AEC software helps architects evaluate the entire life cycle of buildings before they're built.
August 1, 2002... The notion of pre-construction, post-occupancy evaluation of buildings may sound like a hypothetical brain-teaser. But the best current AEC software actually combines the ability to manage geometry, or what a building looks like, with the data...

Integrated imagery. (portfolio).(Siggraph 2002 Art Gallery)
August 1, 2002... For many artists, completing a project provides exceptional personal fulfillment. Perhaps the only feeling that can top this kind of satisfaction is the pride of having the artwork on display for others to admire and enjoy. This year, more than...

Blowin' in the wind: animators bring down the house in a television commercial for VISA. (broadcast).
August 1, 2002... Like the fairy tale characters on which they are based, the three little pigs in PDI/DreamWorks' recent television commercial discover--albeit the hard way--that building a house of straw is not a structurally sound decision. In the whimsical...

Wildcat workstations: systems from both HP and IBM feature 3Dlabs's Wildcat.(IBM Intellistation M Pro, HP Workstation x4000)(Evaluation)
August 1, 2002... For a number of years, the Wildcat graphics card was considered the de facto standard for OpenGL accelerators. The Wildcat was originally designed by Intergraph, but 3Dlabs purchased the technology a while back and now manufactures the chips...

Multi-resolution compositor. (Digital Video).(5D Cyborg)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... WIN|LINUX|IRIX Version 2 of 5D Cyborg, 5D's effects editing system, delivers multi-resolution compositing and special effects for artists working in post-production houses. The system now comes packaged as either 5D Cyborg SD, HD, or 2K. The SD...

Virtual lens effects. (Digital Video).(Filter4 plug-in for Adobe Systems' After Effects)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... WIN|MAC|IRIX Filter4 is a plug-in for Adobe Systems' After Effects that lends an out-of-focus camera lens effect to 3D images and depth-of-field perspective to video compositions. Reiji Sakurai, a professional photographer based in Tokyo,...

Modeling by touch. (Modeling and Animation).(SensAble Technologies' FreeForm 5.0 modeling system)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... WIN FreeForm Version 5, the latest version of SensAble Technologies' modeling system, provides a touch-enabled interface for Sensable's Phantom digital modeling tool, enabling users to quickly and intuitively create complex, organic forms in...

Procedural trees. (Modeling and Animation).(Bionatics' RealNat tree modeling program)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... WIN RealNat from Bionatics is a tree modeling program developed for real-time simulations used in applications such as military training, industrial databases, GIS, forest management, civil engineering, and architecture. With RealNat, a user...

Blending 2D and 3D animation. (Modeling and Animation).(Cambridge Animation Systems' Animo 4.1 animation software)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... WIN|MAC Animo 4.1, the latest version of Cambridge Animation Systems' animation software, features improved support for 3D data within the company's Scene III module for Director. The new Scene III enables animator to apply a consistent cartoon...

Water plug-in for softimage. (Modeling and Animation).(Phoenix Tools' and Arete Entertainment' Psunami)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... Phoenix Tools and Arete Entertainment have released Psunami 1.0, a photo-realistic water animation plug-in for Softimage XSI. Psunami includes tools for simulating and visualizing various water surfaces such as oceans and lakes, including...

Updated ZBrush. (Modeling and Animation).(Pixologic's ZBrush 1.5)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
August 1, 2002... WIN|MAC Pixologic has introduced Version 1.5 of ZBrush, its modeling and paint tool. A major new feature is the ability to produce high- and low-polygon count meshes with UV coordinates automatically assigned. The price is unavailable. ...

Events.
August 1, 2002... august 1-2 Graphics Hardware 2002, held in Saarbruecken, Germany, Contact: Siggraph/Eurographics; www.graphicshardware.org september 7-12 Ars Electronica, held in Linz, Austria. Contact: Ars Electronica Center;...

Brain cell spines. (Insight).
August 1, 2002... BRAIN CELL SPINES: Medical researchers believe that the spiny structures protruding from dendrites--the small, branch-like tips of neuron cells that conduct electrical impulses in the human brain--may hold keys to understanding neurological...

Creating digital content with Intel: real solutions for real-time rendering, compositing and playback. (Special Advertising Section).
August 1, 2002... Modelers, graphic artists, animators, and programmers everywhere--from independent gaming shops to Hollywood production studios--all share one basic need: More computing power. To create and render high-end 3D special effects and...