Computer Graphics World articles from February 2004

Computer Graphics World archives from February 2004

Serious games.(editor's note)(Editorial)
February 1, 2004... A year ago in this column, I lamented the fact that interactive computer graphics, namely gaming technology, was not living up to its potential in areas like education and training, but instead was being squandered on marginal applications like...

Boxx Technologies unleashes SDBoxx [pro].(workstation)
February 1, 2004... SDBoxx [pro], a nonlinear editing system from Boxx Technologies, ships complete with Adobe Systems' Premiere Pro, Encore DVD, and Audition. Offering support for NTSC and PAL video formats, SDBoxx [pro] features 10-bit uncompressed, 4:2:2 SD...

Side effects software upgrades Houdini.(animation)
February 1, 2004... Houdini 6.1, the latest version of Side Effects Software's popular program, boasts a wealth of new features based on feedback from artists and animators in the field. Designed to provide increased control and speed, Version 6.1 boasts an...

XGI Technology enters market.(graphics processor)
February 1, 2004... XGI Technology made its US debut during CES in Las Vegas last month. A graphics chipset supplier, XGI Technology is an independent company formed through a combination of the technology assets and intellectual property of Silicon Integrated...

Corel ships Graphics Suite 12.(design software)
February 1, 2004... Corel's most recent software release, CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12, begins shipping this month. This latest version of CorelDraw sports new, intelligent tools designed to help users work faster. With Version 12, Corel aims to reduce the number...

Laptop makes debut.(workstation)
February 1, 2004... Eurocom has launched the D870P, a mobile workstation well suited to 3D modeling and high-end gaming applications. The Eurocom D870P is powered by the ATI Radeon Mobility 9700 graphics engine with 256MB of DDR video. The system sports a...

Media 100 launches new Mac product.(video)
February 1, 2004... Media 100 is shipping what is said to be the company's first Macintosh design in eight years. The Media 100 HD is a 10-bit uncompressed, native HD and SD editing system powered by GenesisEngine technology, called HDX. Thanks to HDX, Media...

The art of swordsmanship.(film)
February 1, 2004... Using 21st-century digital craftsmanship, Digital Dimension artists created photorealistic CG weapons for the epic film The Last Samurai, about a Civil War veteran who visits Japan to train its military in the use of guns as the Japanese...

Lyrical lip-synching.(video)
February 1, 2004... Velocity Design Group in New York City helped HBO coordinate a sing-along for a television branding campaign featuring 35 of the network's hottest stars from shows such as The Sopranos and Sex and the City. In the spot, the individual actors...

Markets recover, markets evolve.(market outlook)
February 1, 2004... The crash of 2000 resulted in setbacks for every segment of the high-tech industry, including the digital content creation (DCC) market. Corporate cutbacks on equipment upgrades and advertising spending translated to lower demand for...

In brief.(news)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2004... Splutterfish (Venice, CA) has announced that its Brazil Rendering System Version 1.2 provides support for Discreet's 3ds max 6. E frontier (Tokyo, Japan) has acquired Curious Labs (Santa Cruz, CA), maker of Poser. According to a recent merger...

Form follows function: it's time to re-design the environment for creative arts studies.(Education)
February 1, 2004... When the leading schools of art and design were built before the turn of the last century, great care was taken to ensure proper light exposure, flexibility of space, and durability of structure in their art studios. As a result, these studio...

HD on the desktop: a voice of experience offers praise and caution for desktop HD editing systems.(DV)
February 1, 2004... Brian Greene of Greene HD Productions (Arlington, TX) has been working with high-definition video since 1995, which is long enough to qualify him as one of the more experienced veterans of the still-young HD format. While many video...

Illusions of grandeur: the Triplets of Belleville's unique look was created with the help of 2D and 3D tools.(film)
February 1, 2004... One of the most imaginative films of 2003 has risen from the ashes of what some people have bemoaned to be a dying art: 2D feature animation. By taking advantage of at least one unique quality of 2D animation--the freedom to exaggerate--Sylvain...

Like lightning: Calibre creates a bizarre cast of digital characters in record time for the live-action television show Ace Lightning.(Broadcast)
February 1, 2004... Despite the capabilities of state-of-the-art animation software and talented computer artists, starring roles in weekly live-action television shows have been virtually nonexistent for digital characters. This is because of the daunting...

A growing trend: widely available prosumer video products are producing a new crop of independent filmmakers.(Video)
February 1, 2004... Amateur filmmaker and director Matt Giraud spent what seemed like a lifetime chasing a dream, hoping that the three years he spent filming, editing, and then shopping his documentary to distributors would have a happy ending. And it did....

Renaissance art: a CG re-creation lets viewers get up close and personal with a unique 15th-century masterpiece.(Art)
February 1, 2004... In 1432, painter Jan van Eyck completed a towering work of art, titled The Adoration of the Lamb, in the then-new medium of oil paint. Approximately 570 years later, digital artists working in the contemporary medium of computer graphics...

Art studio.
February 1, 2004... "I have been an artist since I was a child," says professional digital artist J.L. Mendez of Tenerife, Spain, who creates CG "paintings" under the moniker Atman Victor. What began as a creative outlet and a method of achieving a higher grade...

Kaydara MotionBuilder 5: new upgrade offers power, low price.(Animation)
February 1, 2004... Kaydara, a pioneer in animation and motion capture, always has offered very high-end and fairly pricey software. MotionBuilder 5 is priced at $995, making quality motion editing available to a much wider audience. Strictly an animation...

Vegas+DVD: Sony Pictures Digital debuts an extraordinary NLE.(Video Editing)
February 1, 2004... The nonlinear editor (NLE) market is crowded and competitive. With everyone claiming to be the best, feature sets expanding, and the level of power and flexibility exploding, it is becoming more and more difficult for professionals working with...

On the Mac platform.(Visual Effects)
February 1, 2004... [Mac] Discreet has announced the availability of its combustion 3 visual effects and 3D compositing software for Apple Macintosh systems. Carrying a suggested price of $995, combustion 3 for the Mac is targeted at Mac users who produce Web...

Synthetik solution.(Visual Effects)
February 1, 2004... [Mac] Synthetik Software has released Version 3.0 of its Studio Artist graphics synthesizer, which has been optimized for Mac OS X and OS 9 operating systems. In addition to more than eight hours of QuickTime video tutorials and instructional...

Creating crowds.(Animation)
February 1, 2004... [Win - Linux] Softimage debuted Version 1.5 of SoftimagelBehavior, its crowd effects software. Upgraded in response to customer feedback, Behavior 1.5 boasts an SDK, a powerful Integrated Development Environment, and what is reported to be the...

Juiced-up collection.(Stock Option)
February 1, 2004... Digital Juice's VideoTraxx is said to be the largest single volume of royalty-free stock film and video footage available today. Indeed, VideoTraxx boasts more than 3200 unique clips, equating to 220GB of stock footage across 34 DVDs. The 100...

Auto camera tracking.(Camera Tracking)
February 1, 2004... Andersson Technologies LLC has unveiled SynthEyes 2004, its new 3 D camera-tracking software offering both automatic and supervised tracking. In fact, users can automatically track and solve a DV shot with more than 100 frames in less than a...

TripleHead and TV Output.(Graphics Card)
February 1, 2004... Matrox Graphics has unveiled the TripleHead upgrade kit for its Millennium P650 graphics card. Enabling users to drive three displays from a single Millennium P650, Matrox Graphics' new kit includes a DVI-to-dual HD-15 cable and TV output...

NAS-SAN hybrid.(Storage)
February 1, 2004... SGI (Silicon Graphics, Inc.) has introduced the InfiniteStorage NAS 2000, its latest network-attached storage (NAS) system. Already adopted by Reel FX Creative Studios, a 3D animation and visual effects studio, InfiniteStorage NAS 2000 offers...

Expressly for editors.(Book Corner)
February 1, 2004... Authored by Rick Young, director and founding member of the UK Final Cut Pro Users Group and an Apple solutions expert, Focal Easy Guide to Final Cut Pro 4 is intended to aid professional video editors, producers and independent filmmakers,...

A virtual guide.(Book Corner)
February 1, 2004... Virtual Humans is a new book from Peter Plantec, a psychotherapist and digital graphics artist. The text assists readers in creating Web-based virtual assistants that guide visitors through a Web site. It instructs readers how to create an...

Photoshop video-book.(Book Corner)
February 1, 2004... >From Andrei Doubrovski, a professional photo restoration artist and technician, comes As Simple As Photoshop (ASAP). ASAP, a video-book offered as a 103MB EXE (Windows only) or Adobe PDF file, includes 198 embedded movies with a total run time...

On the road.(Server)
February 1, 2004... Acme Portable Machines has launched a new family of portable servers with the release of the GMII-102. The portable system sports 2.0GHZ or 3.0GHZ Intel Pentium 4 processors and eight expansion slots in a compact solution measuring roughly the...

Itanium-based innovations.(Workstation)
February 1, 2004... RackSaver has premiered its NemeSys 12 workstation based on the 1.4GHZ Intel Itanium 2 processor. Now available for purchase at a base price of $7995, the workstation sports an ultrahigh-bandwidth system architecture, dual-monitor...

Events.(Calendar)
February 1, 2004... 22-24 CTIA Wireless 2004, held in Atlanta, GA. Contact the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA), www.ctiashow.com. 22-26 Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2004, held in San Jose, CA. Contact www.gdconf.com. ...

A new hybrid: once restricted to the rarefied realm of film, stories with CG and live actors are about to go prime time.(back drop)
February 1, 2004... Q What's the secret to creating a series with both CG and five characters? A hybrid show requires technical expertise and strong artistic vision. But it will ultimately succeed or fail for the same reasons that apply to any TV series....