Computer Graphics World articles from July 2003

Computer Graphics World archives from July 2003

Hyperinteractive? (editor's note).(SIGGRAPH, the International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques)(Editorial)
July 1, 2003... For years, SIGGRAPH (the International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) has tended to focus more on graphics--specifically, realism in graphics and, even more specifically, realism in graphics in film--than on...

Ultimatte's new bluescreen compositing engine. (compositing).(Ultimatte 10)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Ultimatte Corp. has been developing bluescreen and greenscreen compositing technology for more than a quarter-century. The company's latest hardware device, the Ultimatte 10, incorporates a new matte engine that can composite finely detailed...

Updated plant plug-ins from bionatics. (modelling and simulation).(natFX 1.8)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Bionatics specializes in procedurally based plant modeling and simulation software. The company has recently issued a new version of its natFX pro gram--Version 1.8 for Discreet's 3ds max--that has been updated with features designed to appeal...

New video editing from Matrox. (digital video).(Matrox RT.X100 Xtreme )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The Matrox RT.X100 Xtreme is a hardware-based real-time editing and DVD-authoring package that includes a video editing card, Adobe Systems' Premiere 6.5, and Sonic Solutions' DVDit SE soft ware. The product is designed for use by...

Form.Z modeler now works with plug-ins. (modeling).(from autodessys)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The most dramatic change to the form.Z 3D modeling program from autodessys is an internal restructuring that allows the software to accept plug-ins and scripts. In fact, the overhaul is so extensive, notes the company, that many operations that...

Multimedia authoring with Anark Studio 2. (web authoring).(Anark Corp)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Anark Studio is multimedia authoring software that allows users to integrate 2D and 3D imagery, video, and a variety of interactive content. Version 2 includes work flow ira provements, a greater variety of content delivery options, and OpenGL...

Vamped up. (broadcast).(Zoic Studios' 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer')
July 1, 2003... It seemed appropriate that the artists at Zoic Studios in Los Angeles worked late into the night to create the visual effects for the final episode of the long-running cult television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Since the 20th Century...

Smart environments. (sensors).(Viktoria Institute's Smart-Its miniature context-aware computers )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The promise of ubiquitous computing--of a world filled with intelligent objects that react to their environments to better serve human needs--has been hindered by a lack of enabling technologies. Indeed, the sensors, computers, and...

Mobile entertainment. (market outlook).(Jon Peddie Research's 'The Mobile Computer as an Entertainment Device' study)(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
July 1, 2003... Despite headlines proclaiming the PC industry in decline, sales of computers have continued to grow, albeit more slowly in the last couple of years. At the same time, there has been a shift in the types of computers being sold and the uses for...

George Lucas has launched a new company dedicated to the creation of computer-animated films.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... George Lucas has launched a new company dedicated to the creation of computer-animated films. Lucasfilm Animation will operate separately from Industrial Light & Magic (San Rafael, CA), Lucas's special effects company....

Vicarious Visions (Troy, NY), developer of computer games such as Crash Bandicoot.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Vicarious Visions (Troy, NY), developer of computer games such as Crash Bandicoot, has announced the purchase of all rights to the Intrinsic Alchemy technology originally developed by Intrinsic Graphics (Mountain View, CA) as a middleware...

Sony Computer Entertainment America.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Sony Computer Entertainment America (San Mateo, CA) has announced plans to deliver its first handheld gaming device, the PlayStation Portable, or PSP, in 2004. The new device will compete with Nintendo's Game Boy and will feature 3D graphics on...

Postproduction house PostWorks New York (New York City) has acquired the Tapehouse Companies (NYC) and all of its affiliates.(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Postproduction house PostWorks New York (New York City) has acquired the Tapehouse Companies (NYC) and all of its affiliates, as well as SMA Real-time (NYC), and a 50 percent share in audio posthouse Caterini Studios (NYC).

Bonding experiences. (Multimedia).
July 1, 2003... Theme parks, video games, books, movies, the Web, toys, theater, concerts, CDs, DVDs, personal video recorders, wireless phones--we are surrounded by an endless range of entertainment experiences and technologies. Yet these forms and formats...

TRON 2.0: twenty years later, TRON re-emerges as an interactive experience with souped-up graphics. (Gaming).
July 1, 2003... Long before The Matrix portrayed reality as the elaborate construct of an intelligent computer, cyberspace was born on the big screen in the 1982 release of Disney's TRON. In the film, computer hacker Kevin Flynn was digitized and thrust into a...

Body building: industrial light & magic uses CG tools to create and animate an angry, 15-foot-tall muscle man for The Hulk. (CG Superheroes).
July 1, 2003... It takes a great actor working with an inspired director to crete a character that successfully portrays inner conflict. But when the script calls for that character to be 15 feet tall, full of rage, and for the most part unspeaking, the role...

X-cellent FX: particle systems help the marvelous mutants of X2: X-Men United show their stuff. (CG Superheroes).
July 1, 2003... Opening to a record-breaking box office of $155 million internationally in its first weekend, 20th Century Fox's X2: X-Men United gave the summer movie season a welcome kick-start. With the audience having already met the cast, director...

New wrinkles: a novel technique for animating leather helps get Daredevil dressed to thrill. (CG Superheroes).
July 1, 2003... Of all the digital superheroes dazzling movie-goers this year, none had to appear more "human" than Daredevil. That's because the title character of this summer's action film acquired his powers less from the assimilation of non-human abilities...

Submarine dreams: the makers of Deep Angel use the Internet and a high-tech hook to fuel a futuristic fantasy. (Web Animation).
July 1, 2003... At its simplest level, Deep Angel is a story about a man, a woman, a world at war, and a very fancy submarine. It's a story that could be made into a movie, a television show, a computer game, or a series of online animated episodes, but it...

Atypical stereo: armed with new stereoscopic digital video technology, director James Cameron returns to the deep to make ghosts of the Abyss. (Digital Video).
July 1, 2003... In 1995, film director James Cameron went the extra mile--to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean--to research the wreck site of the Titanic for his 1997 blockbuster film of the same name. Yet, the more he probed, the more questions he had about...

The SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival, Part 1. (Art Studio).
July 1, 2003... The SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival is an internationally recognized event that engages and inspires artists and technologists alike. This year, 76 pieces--selected from 635 submissions for their creative and technical excellence--will be...

Maya 5: Alias/Wavefront trims up the flagship.(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2003... With Maya 5, Alias|Wavefront has tried to answer the needs of artists and production studios with a more refined implementation of current work flows. This newest upgrade of the modeling and animation software doesn't try to attract a larger...

World Builder Pro 3.5: creating the great outdoors.(Digital Element's landscape generation program)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 1, 2003... World Builder is a landscape generation program from Digital Element that enables users to make and place mountains and terrain details such as rivers, lakes, and oceans, then fill the resulting landscapes with a great variety of flora--all as...

Configuration control. (Asset Management).(NXN Software's alienbrain Studio )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... [Win * Unix] NXN alienbrain Studio provides asset and configuration management for digital entertainment and computer graphics projects. The system offers version control, system configuration, and project and work flow management, along with...

Editing to go. (Digital Video).(Avid Technology's Avid Xpress Pro )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... [Win * Mac] The new Avid Xpress Pro nonlinear editing software package works with Avid's portable Mojo hardware to provide real-time video, film, and audio editing for both Windows XP and Macintosh OS X platforms. The system includes support...

Effects and desktop NLE. (Digital Video).(NewTek's LightWave 3D 7.5 desktop nonlinear editing application)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... [Win * Mac] NewTek makes the popular LightWave modeling and animation software, as well as the Video Toaster desktop nonlinear editing application. LightWave 3D 7.5, the current version, comes with soft-body dynamics, particles, hair and fur,...

Fluid simulations. (Modeling And Animation).(Next Limit's RealFlow 2.0)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... [Win] RealFlow 2 from Next Limit is a particle system based on computational fluid dynamics technology. The software calculates varying fluid states and allows fluids to interact with changing polygonal environments, thereby enabling 3D artists...

Unified rendering. (Modeling And Animation).(Alias/Wavefront's Maya 5.0)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... [Win * Mac] Alias|Wavefront's flagship modeling and animation tool Maya is now in Version 5. Chief among the enhancements are a unified work flow for a variety of rendering options, better import/export capabilities, and improvements to...

Work flow updates. (Modeling And Animation).(Softimage Softimage/XSI 3.5 )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... [Win * Linux * Irix] Softimage|XSI Version 3.5 is designed to provide artists and developers with a wide range of modeling, animation, simulation, rendering, and compositing tool sets. The latest release includes new features for increased...

Shape snatching. (Modeling And Animation).(Eyetronics ShapeCam system and ShapeSnatcher Suite software)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... [Win * Mac] Eyetronics offers a variety of 3D scanning and modeling technologies and services. The company's ShapeCam system for static 3D scanning includes a digital camera and a specially designed flash device. Photographs captured with the...

Effects assets. (Modeling And Animation).(Side Effects Software Houdini 6.0)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... [Win * Linux * Irix] Houdini 6 is the latest version of the effects family of products from Side Effects Software. Houdini's digital assets feature enables technical directors to create and manage libraries of reusable characters, effects, and...

Animation, compositing, and more. (Modeling And Animation).(Discreet's products )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... [Win * Irix] Discreet produces modeling and animation tools such as 3ds max and character studio, as well as effects and compositing systems like inferno, flame, flint, and combustion. Editing and finishing products include tire and smoke,...

3D Data transformation. (Modeling And Animation).(NGrain's NGrain Transformer, NGrain Knowledge Module and NGrain Mobilizer; also the NGrain Constructor software development kit )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... [Win] Software from NGrain Corp. enables the real-time modification and manipulation of complex 3D data on desktops, laptops, and even tablet PCs. NGrain Transformer makes it possible to repurpose 3D data from over 35 file formats--including...

Modular animation. (Modeling And Animation).(Maxon Computer's Cinema 4D 8.1)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... [Win * Mac] Maxon Computer makes Cinema 4D Release 8.1, a modeling, animation, and rendering tool that was for several years one of the only such programs at its level for Macintosh users. The software now comes with a variety of optional...

Better particles. (Modeling And Animation).(Wondertouch's particleIllusion 3.0)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... [Win * Mac] Wondertouch has introduced particleIllusion 3.0, the latest version of its particle effects program that is designed to balance power with ease of use. Users create visual effects based on the software's 2D, sprite-based particle...

Character motion. (Modeling And Animation).(Kaydara's MotionBuilder 5.0)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... [Win * Mac] Kaydara has introduced Version 5.0 of MotionBuilder, its flagship 3D character animation software. The new release comes with a completely revamped Storytelling Timeline that integrates 3D animation with audio, video, and camera...

Desktop mocap. (Motion Capture).(NaturalMotion's endorphin virtual motion capture software)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... [Win] NaturalMotion makes endorphin Virtual Motion Capture software, which is based on the company's Active Character Technology. With endorphin, game developers, animators, and others can endow 3D characters with real-time intelligence and...

Camera tracking. (Tracking).(2d3's boujou 2.1)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... [Win * Mac * Linux] The latest version of boujou, the 3D camera tracking package from 2d3, runs on Mac OS X-based systems, bringing the company's automated shot-tracking technologies to Mac-based artists and production facilities. Version 2.1...

Workstation graphics. (Graphics Cards).(ATI Technologies' FireGL line )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... ATI Technologies makes the FireGL line of workstation graphics accelerators, including two new additions to the product line that the company plans to announce shortly. ATI's product line includes entry-level, mid-range, and high-end cards that...

Portable MoCap. (Motion Capture).(PhaseSpace's Tryclops Motion Capture System )(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The Tryclops Motion Capture System from PhaseSpace is designed as a rugged, portable, scalable, and affordable motion-capture option for game developers, robotics manufacturers, and filmmakers. The multi-camera system captures active LED...

Capture to scale. (Motion Capture).(Vicon Motion Systems Vicon 6 system)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The new Vicon 6 system from Vicon Motion Systems is designed for smaller production facilities and users such as independent game developers. The Vicon 6 includes Vicon's new VCam, a camera designed to capture the widest possible volume within...

Opteron boxes. (Systems).(Xxtreme 3DBoxx workstations, RenderBoxx render nodes and ServerBoxx servers)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... Boxx Technologies has introduced systems based on the new AMD Opteron 200 series processors. The company now offers Xxtreme 3DBoxx workstations, RenderBoxx render nodes, and ServerBoxx servers based on the Opteron. Boxx also has a system...

Turnkey VR. (Virtual Reality).(Visbox's the VisBox)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2003... The Visbox company offers the VisBox, a turnkey projection-based VR system that incorporates head-tracking and stereo display. The VisBox is a general-purpose VR system based on an open-source development environment that supports OpenGL, SDL,...

Modern makeover: TRON 2.0 takes the lead in turning classic films into original computer games. (backdrop).
July 1, 2003... Q When creating the game TRON 2.0, was it important to remain true to the vision of TRON, the movie? A Yes. We wanted to do something for the fans who have kept the property alive--it's amazing that virtually nothing has been done with the...