Computer Graphics World articles from June 2002

Computer Graphics World archives from June 2002

Is digital media dead? (editor's note).(Editorial)
June 1, 2002... If you look at some of the recent corporate losses and listen to some of the market analysts, you're likely to believe that the digital media industry is as dead as a dinosaur. Consider the recent announcement that the world's largest media...

So many games, so little ink. (letters).(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2002... HOW do you guys start a gaming retrospective (March 2002, pg. 20) in 19927 Even 3D gaming had started before then. There was Battlezone way back in the '80s, to say nothing of Wolfenstein 3D. You gave an awful lot of space to the Myst series....

That sexy robot. (letters).(Letter to the Editor)
June 1, 2002... I enjoyed your "Broadcast Retrospective" on pg. 20 of the April 2002 issue. I was especially delighted to see your mention of Robert Abel's 1985 Sexy Robot commercial, which I believe debuted as a Super Bowl ad that year. I was extremely...

Corrections. (letters).(Correction Notice)
June 1, 2002... The article "DSI Intros HandGear 3D Navigation Touchpad" on pg. 9 of the May 2002 issue omitted the Web address for DSI Technology, which is www.dato.com. The price for the HandGear is $585. On pg. 21 of the May 2002 issue, a caption that...

Vicon iQ speeds motion capture. (product spotlight).(from Vicon Motion Systems)(Product Announcement)
June 1, 2002... No one in the digital content creation industry would deny that motion capture has become an increasingly important tool for studios that create effects for movies and television programs. Problems with motion capture--which center mostly...

RealViz builds suite for architects. (product spotlight).(RealViz AEC Studio)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 1, 2002... According to software vendor RealViz, architects and engineers have been employing the company's ImageModeler and MatchMover tools on their own to create 3D building presentations. Now RealViz, has combined the latest versions of three of its...

Alibre boosts graphics performance. (product spotlight).(Alibre Design 4.0)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 1, 2002... Alibre Design was one of the first programs to provide Web-based design collaboration for engineers and others involved in product development projects. Version 4.0 builds on the company's experience as an application service provider by...

Boris FX updates Graffiti, Red. (spotlight).(Boris Graffiti 2.0 and Boris FX Red 2.1)(Product Announcement)
June 1, 2002... The addition of vector graphics to Boris Graffiti 2.0 marks the major new feature of Boris FX's 2D/3D titling animation application. The new vector tools enable sophisticated titling applications such as text on path to be performed easily, and...

Entry-Level 3D modeling and animation with Carrara. (product spotlight).(Eovia's Carrara 2.0)(Product Announcement)
June 1, 2002... Photorealistic rendering and character animation are two of the main features that have been added to Version 2 of Carrara, the low-cost 3D modeling and animation product from Eovia. (Carrara was originally developed by MetaCreations, and is in...

SPEC/GPC overhauls viewperf benchmarks. (news).(SPECviewperf 7.0)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
June 1, 2002... SPEC/GPC's OpenGL Performance Characterization project group has released SPECviewperf 7.0, a major new version of its application-based benchmark tests. The new version has replaced some viewsets based on older or non-existent applications...

Pixar sues Exluna over patent. (news).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Pixar Animation Studios has filed a patent infringement lawsuit concerning Exluna's Entropy rendering package, which, according to Pixar, represents an unauthorized use of Pixar's RenderMan computer animation technology. A statement on the...

Top 10 ProCDRS price/performers. (benchmark).(Evaluation)
June 1, 2002... Dell workstations paired with Nvidia Quadro 4 boards recently achieved the best price/performance scores for the Pro/Designer ProCDRS-03 subset of the SPECviewperf 6.1.2 benchmark. The ProCDRS benchmark is based on PTC's CDRS industrial design...

Now playing ...: an LA entertainment/retail complex uses wide-format motion graphics to advertise in an unusually big way. (digital video).(Adobe Systems' Adobe After Effects)
June 1, 2002... Many an actor dreams about seeing his or her name in lights. But at Hollywood & Highland, Los Angeles's new shopping and entertainment destination, seeing an illuminated name would be just the beginning. Instead of relying entirely on...

The first of a two-part series.
June 1, 2002... Visual effects and Star Wars have been hand in glove since George Lucas founded Industrial Light & Magic a long time ago to create galaxies far, far away Each of the Star Wars episodes, starting with the first in 1977, has pushed the state of...

Beasts of Eden: in Dinotopia, live-action humans and digital dinosaurs live together in harmony.
June 1, 2002... In the lavish and technically complex six-hour television miniseries Dinotopia, two teenage brothers unexpectedly find themselves marooned on a fantastic lost continent where humans and dinosaurs peacefully coexist. Successfully portraying this...

Architecture retrospective: our 25-year anniversary celebration continues with architectural highlights.
June 1, 2002... PART 6 Ever since humans constructed the first, crude dwellings, architecture has fluctuated between the disciplines of art and science, form and function. It has this in common with computer graphics technology, which also attracts...

Witty gritty spider: to help spin a superhero's fantastic tale, the visual effects crew at Sony Picture Imageworks devised new computer graphics techniques.
June 1, 2002... When Spider-Man used his web to swing between buildings in the film that bears his name, the real superheroes were the men and woman at Sony Pictures Imageworks who worked on making the illusion believable. The Imageworks crew created 475...

Web-ready: Sony ports its Spider-Man movie model for use on the Internet.
June 1, 2002... Sony Pictures Imageworks may be captivating audiences with its groundbreaking computer-generated effects in the newly released Spider-Man feature film (see "Nitty Gritty Spider," page 14), but not all of the innovations are limited to the big...

Stylistic differences. (portfolio).
June 1, 2002... A few years ago, four professional digital artists working in diverse fields--from digital video to industrial design--met through Stratalist, an on-line discussion group focused on Strata's 3D product line. They soon discovered that they had a...

Entropy 3.1: advanced rendering from Exluna.(Evaluation)
June 1, 2002... EXLUNA IS A NEW COMPANY on the graphics scene, but many of its principals have a long history in the industry. Some of Exluna's engineers are from Pixar, including Larry Gritz, who also developed BMRT (Blue Moon Rendering Tools), a popular,...

MojoWorld: Pandromeda's world creation tool.(Evaluation)
June 1, 2002... MOJOWORLD, a "planet-creation" product from Pandromeda, is as much a tool that can be used by digital matte artists as it is a fun toy that allows friends and family from around the world to connect and explore digital worlds. MojoWorld...

Last enhances Sketchup. (Design Engineering).(AtLast Software's SketchUp 2.0 CAD software)(Evaluation)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Last enhances SketchUp WIN With SketchUp 2.0 from @Last Software, AEC professionals can create, view, modify, and communicate their ideas via 3D presentations, email, and the Web. This latest version offers features that provide better...

ReTimer enhanced. (Miscellaneous).(RealViz's Reamer 2.5)(Evaluation)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... ReTimer enhanced WIN With RealViz's Reamer 2.5, users can smoothly speed up or slow down any video, film, or image sequence. The software works by automatically generating new frames in between existing frames. Users can reportedly change...

3D mapping program. (Miscellaneous).(Golden Software's Surfer 8.0)(Evaluation)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... With Golden Software's Surfer 8 contouring and 3D mapping package, users can convert XYZ data into one of nine different color map types. Then, with the click of a button, the software creates fully rendered 3D surfaces that can be overlaid...

A faster Lightworks. (Video/multimedia).(Lightworks Editing Systems Lightworks Touch)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... Lightworks Touch is a superset of LightWorks' Classic Lightworks Turbo and Heavyworks systems, except it's been redesigned to be faster and more responsive to users' needs. At the heart of the system is the console, which the company describes...

Interactive pen display. (Input/output).(Wacom Technology Cintiq 18sx)(Evaluation)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... WIN|MAC|SOLARIS|IRIX The Cintiq 18sx large format, pressure-sensitive interactive pen display from Wacom Technology features a 24-bit, 18.1-inch diagonal LCD screen boasting an SXGA screen resolution of 1280 by 1024 pixels. It also features a...

Mocap camera. (Motion capture).(Vicon Motion Systems Mcam2)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... A specification of 1.3 million pixels and frame rates of up to 1000 fps are two of the features highlighting Vicon's Mcam2 motion-capture camera. The camera, which works with the Vicon8 motion capture system, also includes a shuttered digital...

Insight.(Theory of Atoms in Molecules)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2002... ATOMIC SURFACES: The "Theory of Atoms in Molecules" by chemistry professor Richard Bader says that the surfaces within molecules can be used to define both the shape of individual atoms as well as their properties, such as what part of the...

Creating digital content with Intel: real solutions for real-time rendering, compositing and playback. (Special Advertising Section).
June 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...

Sign Graph 2002.
June 1, 2002... SIGGRAPH 2002 The world's annual gathering of the international computer graphics community, where the digital future is defined and revealed. Learn the next generation of powerful hardware and software. Understand how technical innovations are...