Computer Graphics World articles from June 2003

Computer Graphics World archives from June 2003

Victims of success? (editor's note).(Industry Overview)
June 1, 2003... It's no secret that computer gaming is big business. Last year, sales and rentals worldwide totaled more than $14 billion. And this year, that figure is expected to top $16 billion. What may not be so obvious are the dramatic changes...

Caligari adds animation engine. (modeling * animation).(trueSpace 6.5)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Nonlinear animation capability is the most important new feature in trueSpace 6.5, Caligari's modeling and animation package for Web designers, game developers, and illustrators. TrueSpace 6.5 has a completely rewritten animation engine that...

Maxon updates Cinema 4D. (modeling * animation).(Cinema 4D 8.1)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Maxon Computer's Cinema 4D modeling, rendering, and animation software has never had quite the popularity of its big-name counterparts--Alias|Wavefront's Maya, Discreet's 3ds max, and Softimage's XSI--in professional digital content creation...

Real-time 3D broadcast system from Kaydara. (animation).(Kaydara Online 4.0)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Kaydara, a company known for making character-animation and motion-capture tools, has introduced a new product that will enable the integration of live video and real-time animation in broadcast environments. Kaydara Online 4.0 is a software...

ATI ships Radeon 9800. (graphics cards).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... ATI's Radeon 9800 Pro visual processing unit (VPU), which is a fancy name for an admittedly fancy chip, began shipping this spring, and graphics cards based on the VPU are now available to OEM, retail, distribution, and online customers. The...

Deep Paint's better previews. (painting).(Deep Paint 2.0 from Right Hemisphere)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... The Deep Paint program from Right Hemisphere is a painting tool with which digital artists and graphics professionals can create images that appear to have depth. Photographs can also be altered to look like paintings or drawings. The program's...

Cross-media music. (web).(Industry Overview)
June 1, 2003... When MTV debuted in 1981, it changed the music industry forever. Prophetically, the around-the-clock music video cable station selected the song "Video Killed the Radio Star" to usher in a new era for music and musicians. As a result,...

Lucky Lady. (multimedia).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Holy Rollers and high rollers might seem like strange bedfellows, but Bally Gaming is betting on the pair's compatibility. Recently, Bally hired DMA Animation in New York City to create two minutes of animation for its slot machines...

Digital age. (film).(makers of Bulletprooof Monk use Eyetronics' ShapeCam digital scanner)
June 1, 2003... In the action packed film Bulletproof Monk from MGM Pictures, a ruthless, aging villain spends his life pursuing a Tibetan martial arts master. The film tells the story of Monk, whose duty for the past 60 years has been to protect a powerful...

Correction. (Spotlight).
June 1, 2003... The article "Layer by Layer" (Computer Graphics World, April 2003, pg. 20) incorrectly featured images by Frantic Films rather than CIS Hollywood, whose effects work for the film The Core was detailed in the story. The article should have...

The biting edge. (interface).(Food Simulator developed by University of Tsukuba)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Researchers at the University of Tsukuba in Japan have created a unique interface that simulates the forces, sounds, and tastes associated with biting into food. The Food Simulator device generates resistance to virtual objects based on test...

Sensory perception. (haptics).(SmartTouch developed at University of Tokyo)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... A new feedback system that converts visual data into skin sensations has been introduced by developers at the University of Tokyo. Called SmartTouch, the new haptics-based device combines a thin electro-tactile display with sensors mounted on...

Fast facts. (market outlook).(Brief Article)(Industry Overview)
June 1, 2003... NLE is Number One Eight out of 10 postproduction studios list nonlinear editing as the major type of work done at their facilities. Moving to the High End One in five visual effects studios report that they plan to buy NLE systems...

Eon Reality (Irvine, CA), a developer of interactive visual content management software, has formed a partnership with InterSense (Burlington, MA).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Eon Reality (Irvine, CA), a developer of interactive visual content management software, has formed a partnership with InterSense (Burlington, MA), a manufacturer of precision motion tracking technology, to provide an integrated platform for...

Discreet (Montreal) has announced that the name of its new real-time system for digital grading and color correction is lustre.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Discreet (Montreal) has announced that the name of its new real-time system for digital grading and color correction is lustre. The new product is based on technology from Colorfront (Budapest, Hungary), with which Discreet formed an exclusive...

Fakespace Systems (Kitchener, Ontario) announced that it has finalized its merger with Mechdyne Corp. (Marshalltown, IA).(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Fakespace Systems (Kitchener, Ontario) announced that it has finalized its merger with Mechdyne Corp. (Marshalltown, IA). Both companies develop advanced visualization systems. The entity resulting from the merger will be known as Fakespace...

Feature frenzy. (viewpoint Film).
June 1, 2003... Last month, while I was gathering information about ILM's OpenEXR image-file format, I interviewed Gregor vom Scheidt, founder of NXN, who said something in passing that stunned me. Apparently, soon after NXN announced that Pixar Animation...

NLE meets DVD. (viewpoint DV).(Industry Overview)
June 1, 2003... If you're not already creating interactive DVDs, the chances are good that you soon will be. According to a recent report from Jon Peddie Research, the market for DVD technology is exploding. The study speculates that in 2006, the total market...

The Matrix: anime-ted: the Animatrix enhances The Matrix film trilogy with a diverse collection of short animations. (Multimedia).
June 1, 2003... For the past three years, Micheal Arias has been on a mission. "I want to give adult American audiences more to chew on when they watch animation. I want to show them that animation, whether 2D, 3D, or a combination of both, doesn't have to be...

Myth making: photoreal CG imagery sets the scene for the epic story Helen of Troy. (Broadcast).
June 1, 2003... Her beauty is legendary. And it's said that in 1200 BC, hers was the face that launched a thousand ships and sparked the war between the Trojans and the Greeks. She is the mythical Helen of Troy, the half mortal daughter of Zeus, born to the...

Creepy crawlers: the web is a ladder to fame for the maker and the unsavory cast of "yeah! the movie." (Web animation).
June 1, 2003... Web Films: Part 2 The second article in our three-part series about short films on the Web features "yeah! the movie." While the animation is still a work in progress, its creator is using the Internet for feedback and publicity prior to...

The fine art of gaming: compelling imagery plays a leading role in the PC title Syberia. (Graphic Arts).
June 1, 2003... GAME PLAYERS TEND TO JUDGE a new title in terms of how much bang they get for their buck--or, more precisely, how much power they can get from their characters and weapons. Consequently, the aesthetics of a game's environments often become an...

Economy of scale: project Entropia entices gamers with breadth, diversity, and an innovative economic model. (Gaming).
June 1, 2003... For the past four years, a small team of artists, programmers, and creative businesspeople from MindArk AB in Gothenburg, Sweden, has tenaciously stuck to its goal of devising an unparalleled, virtual online world. The result is Project...

SIGGRPH Art Gallery. (Art Studio).
June 1, 2003... In honor of ACM SIGGRAPH's 30th anniversary, the conference's 2003 Art Gallery will return to its roots by featuring works that emphasize sculpture and digital prints, as well as today's growing areas of animation and digital video. "The...

Motionbuilder 4.0: Kaydara adds character to its animation package.
June 1, 2003... Motionbuilder 4.0 is the latest offering from Kaydara, a company whose name is almost synonymous with motion capture. Motionbuilder is being presented as a new program but is actually a complete rebuild of Kaydara's Filmbox 3.5 animation...

Softimage/XSI 3.0: A modeling and animation tool comes of age.
June 1, 2003... Softimage|XSI Version 3.0 is the release in which XSI comes into its own as a leading-edge package. Since the software debuted a few years ago, it has been playing catch-up with many of the other high-end packages. Version 3 greatly expands the...

Pixel control. (Digital Video).(RE:Vision Effects' Twixtor 3.0)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... [Win * Mac] Version 3.0 of Twixtor, the image-sequencing plug-in from RE:Vision Effects, offers new options to users working with problematic footage. The latest version removes ambiguities in the motion of multiple objects, and is able to...

Real-time editing. (Digital Video).(Canopus' Edius)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... [Win] Canopus Corp.'s Edius is a new nonlinear editing platform for users of the company's DVRex RT and DVStorm editing systems. The Edius software offers multiple video and audio tracks, multiple graphics and title layers, the ability to...

Linux compositing. (Digital Video).(eyeon Software's Digital Fusion 4.0)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... [Linux] eyeon Software has released a Linux version of its flagship 2D/3D compositing application, Digital Fusion 4. According to the company, the Linux version of DF4 provides all the tools, features, and functionality offered by the...

Postproduction enhancements. (Digital Video).(Pinnacly Ssytems' CineWave 4)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... [Mac] CineWave 4 from Pinnacle Systems is a hardware and software system that works with Apple's Final Cut Pro 4 video and film editing software to extend the product's postproduction capabilities. New features include expanded real-time...

Desktop DV. (Digital Video).(Boxx Technologies SDBoxx )
June 1, 2003... The new SDBoxx from Boxx Technologies is a desktop video editing system that incorporates both the Wildblue AV card from Bluefish444 and Premiere 6.5 digital video editing software from Adobe Systems. The SDBoxx is based on Intel Xeon...

Automatic tracking for the Mac. (Matchmoving).(2d3's software)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... [Win * Mac * Linux] 2d3's 3D camera matchmoving software, boujou, is now available for the Mac OS X operating environment as well as for Windows and Linux, Version 2.1 is, according to the company, several times faster than previous versions,...

Quick effects. (Modeling And Animation).(Reallusion's Effect 3D Studio)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... [Win] Effect 3D Studio from Reallusion enables the quick and easy creation of 3D animated graphics that can be added to presentations, Web sites, and email messages. Users can develop animated 3D text messages simply by typing in text, and...

Smarter characters and crowds. (Modeling And Animation).(Softimage's SoftimagelBehavior 1.1)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... [Win * Linux] Softimage has announced Version 1.1 of its behavior animation tool SoftimagelBehavior. The program allows users to quickly create "intelligent" characters and to choreograph realistic 3D animated crowds of people, animals, or...

Detailed characters. (Modeling And Animation).(Snoswell Design's Absolute Character Tools: Modeling Tool Set)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... [Win] Snoswell Design's Absolute Character Tools: Modeling Tool Set (ACT-MTS) for Discreet's 3ds max modeling and animation software is now available online through Turbo Squid. ACT-MTS enables modelers to create characters quickly, and also to...

VR tracking. (Motion Tracking).(Vicon Motion Tracker for VR)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... The Vicon Motion Tracker for VR is an optical motion-tracking system designed specifically for virtual reality, augmented reality, and object-tracking environments. The new system uses reflective markers and high-speed, high-resolution cameras...

Panoramic Web views. (Web).(Panorama Technologies' Panoweaver 3.0)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... [Win * Mac] Panorama Technologies Corp., a developer of virtual tour software, has announced Version 3.0 of Panoweaver, a package that allows users to create panoramas from "fish-eye" photographic images. With Panoweaver, users stitch together...

Fast-talking characters. (Web).(Interactive Multimedia Solutions' IMS CharacterGenerator Studio)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2003... Interactive Multimedia Solutions has introduced IMS CharacterGenerator Studio, an animation tool for Macromedia's Director MX that allows users to easily incorporate talking characters into Web, CD-ROM, DVD, and other multimedia applications....

Events.
June 1, 2003... JUNE 23-27 WWDC 2003 (World Wide Developer's Conference), held in San Francisco. Contact: Apple; http://developer.apple.com/wwdc JULY 14-18 Macworld Conference and Exposition, held in New York City. Contact: Macworld;...

Anime anthology: The Animatrix, an encyclopedia of anime styles, offers a unique new way to expand a franchise. (back drop).
June 1, 2003... Q Why did you decide to supplement The Matrix films with the nine short animations in The Animatrix rather than use more traditional approaches such as a television series? A Television production by its very nature does not allow for the...