Computer Graphics World articles from January 2008

Computer Graphics World archives from January 2008

Looking forward to 2008.(editor's note)(Editorial)
January 1, 2008... By the time readers have this issue in their hands, 2008 will have already begun. What can we expect in the upcoming months? Undoubtedly, the use of motion capture will continue to grow, and expect to see more projects featuring lifelike...

Dell readies next-gen models.(PRODUCTS: WORKSTATION)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Dell introduced two new models of its Dell Precision workstations, the Dell Precision T5400 and T7400, offering the highest levels of performance and expandability available in any of the company's workstations. Dell says it will be the...

Nvidia Quadro solutions geared video/film.(PRODUCTS: GRAPHICS PROCESSORS)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Broadcast, video, and film professionals engaged in editing, compositing, and color grading can benefit from the advanced features of new Nvidia Quadro FX 5600 and FX 4600 SDI graphics cards. These next-generation graphics-to-video-out...

Autodesk flexes its Maya Muscle.(PRODUCTS: MODELING)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Autodesk has launched its Maya 2008 Extension 1 software, which introduces Maya Muscle functionality into the 3D modeling, animation, visual effects, and rendering solution. This muscle and skin system, recently acquired from Comet Digital...

Autodesk launches combustion 2008.(PRODUCTS: COMPOSITING)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Autodesk rolled out Combustion 2008, the latest version of its desktop compositing and visual effects solution. The software has been used on the Juicy Fruit "Ant" commercial by Asylum Visual Effects, the Target "Anthem" ad by Brand New...

Bunkspeed gets hyper with HyperShot.(PRODUCTS: RENDERING)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Bunkspeed rolled out HyperShot, a 3D rendering application for Windows and Mac OS X. Users can load a 3D model into HyperShot, add materials, and then apply realistic lighting with HDRI. The result can be manipulated in any direction, while...

Phoenix integration releases CAD fusion.(PRODUCTS: CAD)(computer aided design)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Phoenix Integration unveiled CAD Fusion, plug-ins for integrating the company's flagship PHX ModelCenter software with leading CAD/CAE applications. Engineering design is typically divided into conceptual (low-fidelity models) and...

Duiker intros Color Symmetry plug-ins.(PRODUCTS: POSTPRODUCTION)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Duiker Research, maker of imaging and color tools for motion pictures, unveiled Color Symmetry, a suite of plug-ins that allow the look of film to be emulated and previewed within an array of animation, graphics, and effects packages. The...

Boxx unveils a pair of quad-core workstations.(PRODUCTS: WORKSTATION)(Boxx Technologies Inc.)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Boxx Technologies rolled out the 3D-Boxx 8400se, a VFX workstation that leverages the 3.2 GHZ Quad-Core Intel Xeon. The machine is designed for compute-intensive tasks such as rendering animation on the fly or creating high-end 3D models. To...

Frantic films adds a bit of holiday magic to Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium.(USER FOCUS: MODELING)
January 1, 2008... It's the holiday season, when parents search for that perfect toy for their good little boy or girl. At Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, the shelves are stocked from high to low with just about every toy imaginable: dolls, plush animals, planes,...

A scene that's wet and wild.(USER FOCUS: WATER)
January 1, 2008... Turbulent water plays an important role in various stages of College grad Christopher McCandless's adventures, chronicled in both the best-selling non-fiction book Into the Wild from Jon Krakauer and its film adaptation. The movie, like...

Leaders in the processor industry benefit from strong demand and price-war lull.(NEWS: MICROPROCESSORS)
January 1, 2008... In the third quarter, Intel and AMD both managed to gain share in the global microprocessor market due to robust sales of PCs and servers, and the cessation of the companies' brutal price war, according to iSuppli Corp. In Q3 2007, Intel...

A crusade: Ubisoft Montreal completes its most recent mission, Assassin's Creed, in historical fashion.(Gaming)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] MASTER OF THE GAME: LEVEL 3 Ubisoft Montreal, founded as a subsidiary of Ubisoft in 1997, started out developing low-profile projects. A decade later, the company has evolved into one of the largest game...

Casting Crusoe: for the movie Water Horse, Weta Digital created a sea creature from infancy to adulthood and placed the character into its environment.(CG Creature/Water)
January 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Despite its name, the "water horse" looks nothing at all like a horse. Implicit in its name, though, is one of the two challenges that Weta Digital faced in creating visual effects for the movie Water Horse. That...

Large as life: a 3D IMAX film provides a close encounter with prehistoric denizens of the deep.(CGI/Stereoscopy)
January 1, 2008... Gorgosaurus. Pteranodon. Tylosaur. Styxosaurus. Dolichorynchops. These monikers are as large as the creatures they belong to. And these are but a few of the massive beasts that ruled the land and seas more than 82 million years ago. During the...

Maximizing the design process: interoperability and collaboration are critical to extending a company's value chain and maintaining its competitive advantage.(CAD)
January 1, 2008... This part one of a two-part series examines the complex nature of what the industry has been grappling with for years, managing and communicating with CAD data throughout the product life cycle, and what types of solutions are available to...

Gutsy effects: the Straus brothers maximize fear in Alien Vs. Predator.(visual Effects)(Greg and Colin Straus)(Interview)
January 1, 2008... Greg Straus and his brother, Colin, are well known to readers of Computer Graphics World as founders of the VFX studios Hydraulx and Lola, where they led the visual fleets work for Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, 300, X-Men: The Last...

Never say never: John Slowsky shows that you can learn new tricks and create new opportunities for yourself.(Knowledge & Career)(Interview)
January 1, 2008... According to John Slowsky, video games took an important step toward technical maturity two years ago with the release of the Xbox 360, followed by the PlayStation 3. "It was like night and day what you could push through the pipes," says the...

In the corps: how one person turned a hobby into a career.(Knowledge & Career)(Pixel Corps' Nick Jushchyshyn)(Interview)
January 1, 2008... "The Pixel Corps was exactly the kick in the pants I needed to fulfill my lifelong dream of getting into visual effects," says Nick Jushchyshyn, VFX artist at Digital Domain. "As most beginning VFX artisans find, recruiters often are looking...

Talent scout: Promax/BDA promotes student design talent.(Knowledge & Career)
January 1, 2008... In an attempt to locate new broadcast design and promo talent, Promax/BDA, an association for creatives in electronic media marketing, promotion, and design, is holding its second Making the Cut contest, which offers students a chance to...

Acer P Series.(DISPLAYS)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Acer America Corp. has released its P series of LCD monitors for multimedia, gaming, video, and educational applications. The P series includes 19-, 20-, 22-, and 24-inch LCDs offering fast response times, clear imagery with sharp edges, no...

RenderServer DT.(RENDER SERVER)(ArtVPS RenderServer DT)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... ArtVPS has launched RenderServer DT, a desktop solution that combines AMD dual-core processor technology and Mental Ray rendering software. RenderServer DT boasts a Web-based user interface and push-button front-panel display for fast...

Quad-core Boxx.(WORKSTATIONS)(Apexx 4 Super-Workstation and RenderBoxx Classic 7500 from Boxx Technologies)(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Boxx Technologies, maker of computing systems for VFX professionals, has infused its Apexx 4 Super-Workstation and RenderBoxx Classic 7500 with AMD's new Quad-Core Opteron processor. Opteron delivers twice the processing power of dual-core...

iTRAX IP.(DATA STORAGE)(Globalstor ExtremeStor-iTrax )(Brief article)
January 1, 2008... Globalstor Data Corp. has introduced its ExtremeStor-iTrax server, which is equipped with a solid-state, 64-bit iSCSI and NAS operating system. The iTrax appears as a local disk drive on any computer connected to the LAN or WAN when used with...