Computer Graphics World articles from June 2007

Computer Graphics World archives from June 2007

Triple the fun.(editor's note)
June 1, 2007... As I write this editorial, summer is nearly here--that is, according to the calendar. But if look at the theater releases, the has already begun. Kicking off the 2007 summer movie fest is a trio of "threequals," whose CG technology has set new...

Apple unveils Final Cut Studio 2, Final Cut Server.(PRODUCTS: VIDEO)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Apple polished its reputation in the broadcast realm by rolling out two major releases, Final Cut Studio 2 and Final Cut Server. A significant upgrade, Final Cut Studio 2 includes Final Cut Pro 6, which introduces Apple's ProRes 422 format...

Eye on shows its vision and more.(PRODUCTS: POSTPRODUCTION)(eyeon Software Inc. introduces Vision and Rotation)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... With its focus on image-processing solutions, Eyeon Software announced the addition of two new products, Vision and Rotation. A postproduction system for the broadcast industry, Vision's tool set has been designed as an add-on to NLEs and...

Blackmagic unveils three new offerings.(PRODUCTS: VIDEO)(Blackmagic Design Proprietary Ltd.'s Intensity Pro, Multibridge Eclipse and HDLink Pro)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Blackmagic Design made a trio of product announcements at NAB, including Intensity Pro, a new, low-cost yet high-quality video capture and playback card for professional videographers; the Multibridge Eclipse editing system; and HDLink Pro, a...

AJA launches new converters.(PRODUCTS: CONVERTER)(FS1 and GEN10 from AJA Video)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... AJA Video announced two new converters: the FS1, supporting virtually any video input or output in HD or SD, and the GEN10, an SD/HD/AES sync generator for professional video post and broadcast environments. The FS1 is a universal HD and...

Keeping the flock process on course.(USER FOCUS: DI WORKFLOW)("The Flock" movie)(Final Cut Pro, AJA Video's KONA 3)
June 1, 2007... In the recently released action/drama The Flock, a vigilant state agent (Richard Gere)--while training his young female replacement--must track down a missing girl who the agent believes is connected to a paroled sex offender he is...

Wave effects.(Sony Pictures Imageworks' Surf's Up )
June 1, 2007... At the onset of development, the Surf's Up effects team was given two main directives in regard to the water and wave effects: Make it look 80 percent real, and make the entire process capable of producing 20 minutes of final surfing footage as...

Radical, dude: Sony Pictures Imageworks creates tools and techniques for filming the world's first animated mockumentary.(3D Animation)(Surf's Up movie)(Editorial)(Cover story)
June 1, 2007... It's all about Cody Maverick, an inspiring surfer, who is the subject of a surfing documentary and the star of Sony Picture Animation's Surf's Up. If surfing were a religion, the first two commandments would be: "Live in the moment," and...

Wrangling waves.(3D Animation)(Sony Pictures Imageworks)
June 1, 2007... JP Beeghly: Hey Rob, can you get down to Dana Point within three hours? Rob Bredow: Uh, yeah. It moved up? JP Beeghly: Yup, Sean thinks the swell is coming early. Jamie Stirling and Carlos Burle are already in the air from Hawaii....

Mind expansion: artificial intelligence takes center stage in next-generation games: part one of a two-part series.(Editorial)
June 1, 2007... The great American author Henry James once posed this question: "What is incident but the illustration of character; what is character but the determination of incident?" To look for such depth in the actions of the non-player characters...

Effects driven: a new TV drama shifts into high gear with an exciting opening sequence that combines stunt photography, greenscreen work, CG elements, and more.(VFX)
June 1, 2007... For the past several years, Zoic Studios has helped fast-track movie-quality visual effects on television by creating stunning imagery for a number of series, including Battlestar Galactica, Serenity, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, CSI:...

GPU computing uncovered: high-performance computing on the GPU: where it has come from, where it is going, and why CPUs will never be the same again.(Trends and Technology)(NVIDIA G80)(graphics processing units)(central processing units)
June 1, 2007... It's official. GPUs are not just about graphics any longer. With the release of its latest generation G80 chip and accompanying CUDA driver, Nvidia's GPUs are now equal-opportunity, floating-point compute engines aimed at a wide variety of...

Portfolio: SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater.(awards of computer graphics)
June 1, 2007... Often called the Academy Awards of computer graphics, the annual SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater is a premier event for the world's most innovative and amazing digital films and video creations. This year, an internationally recognized eight-person...

Camera and color control.(SOFTWARE: VIDEO)
June 1, 2007... [Win] Win FilmLight and Grass Valley demonstrated FilmLight's Baselight system in direct control of the entire command block of the Grass Valley Spirit Classic DataCine camera. This event marked the first time a software-based...

Encoding in a flash.(SOFTWARE: VIDEO)
June 1, 2007... [Win] Kulabyte is shipping the Kulabyte Professional Flash Encoding Suite, introduced at NAB2007. The video encoding solution uses industry-standard codec engines and combines Kulabyte's Live 2-pass variable bit rate encoding and on-demand...

Fx for Final Cut.(SOFTWARE: PLUG-INS)
June 1, 2007... [Mac] Noise Industries unveiled its FxFactory for Apple Final Cut Studio 2, a visual effects tool for postproduction and broadcast professionals. FxFactory Version 1.05 includes GPU-accelerated, native visual effects plugins for Final Cut...

Red or Blue?(HARDWARE: VIDEO)
June 1, 2007... Bluefish 444 introduced its RedThing and BlueThing compact multi-standard HD-SDI to DVI-I converters, enabling HD and SD signals to be viewed on virtually any LCD, plasma, or projector display. The solutions automatically sense and size...

Collaborative encoder.(HARDWARE: VIDEO)
June 1, 2007... [Win] Kulabyte and AMD partnered at NAB to demonstrate the Kulabyte Professional Encoding Suite, a multi-core encoding system, driven by Dual-Core AMD Opteron processors in an eight-socket server. This 16-core video encoder server is said to...

It's a RAID.(HARDWARE: STORAGE)
June 1, 2007... Ciprico demonstrated a direct-attached storage system using the new PCI Express external cabling standard and based on the company's RAIDCore software RAID stack. Ciprico's RAIDCore was running on a direct-attached 20GB/SEC PCI Express 8x...

Precision with Previzion.(HARDWARE: PREVIZ)
June 1, 2007... Cinital showcased the latest motion-tracking and visual effects features in Previzion HD Studio, the company's end-to-end virtual studio solution for previsualization and visual effects creation. Previzion aids artists at visual effects and...

In store at SIGGRAPH 2007.(siggraph 2007 FACE TOMORROW)
June 1, 2007... "SIGGRAPH is about rampant diversity." These are the words of Joe Marks, vice president of technology at Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, CA, and conference chair for SIGGRAPH 2007. "You will find dozens of great new ideas, artworks,...

Art gallery: global eyes.(siggraph 2007 FACE TOMORROW)(Brief article)
June 1, 2007... Expanding awareness of people and nature; illuminating the role of digital media in shaping, extending, and reflecting world views and cosmologies; exploring ecological, social, and political issues in imaginative and innovative ways; and...

Computer animation festival.(siggraph 2007 FACE TOMORROW)
June 1, 2007... When Paul Debevec, computer graphics researcher with a Ph.D. in computer graphics, attended SIGGRAPH for the first time in 1994, he was amazed with virtually every aspect of the show. "All things having to do with computer graphics--the...

Emerging technologies.(siggraph 2007 FACE TOMORROW)
June 1, 2007... The Emerging Technologies program highlights some of the most unique, creative, and ground-breaking technologies and applications in the industry. On display at SIGGRAPH 2007 will be innovations in the areas of displays, robotics, input...