Computer Graphics World articles from May 2002

Computer Graphics World archives from May 2002

A very good year. (editor's note).
May 1, 2002... It was a good year for computer graphics animators and visual effects artists at the 2002 Academy Awards. (It was also a good year for Computer Graphics World with respect to covering the animations and visual effects that were recognized by...

Stereotypes and sound bites. (Reel Arabs (and Everyone Else)).(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2002... Thank you for the Editor's Note "Reel Arabs" on pg. 2 of the March 2002 issue, in which you discuss the extent to which many filmmakers have vilified the Arab people. You reminded us that recognizing what individuals elect to do is more...

Consider everyone. (Reel Arabs (and Everyone Else)).(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2002... I was a bit taken aback on reading "Reel Arabs." I can appreciate your personal impressions of the world and its unfairness to certain groups--however I don't see how you could leave out Italians. The Italians have been portrayed in television...

Cartoon Arabs. (Reel Arabs (and Everyone Else)).(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2002... I was pleasantly surprised to read "Reel Arabs" in the March issue. As an Arab American, l am rarely happy with the portrayals of Arabs in Hollywood movies. Imagine watching a children's movie such as Disney's Aladdin--itself inspired by an...

An end to animation Oscars? (letters).(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
May 1, 2002... As a movie buff, 1 enjoyed your columnist's Viewpoint on this subject on pg. 10 of the February 2002 issue. It certainly seems as if we're at the dawn of a new golden age for animation. My experience with new technologies in computing is...

Correction.(Correction Notice)
May 1, 2002... The caption under the Romulus screenshot on pg. 18 of the February 2002 issue incorrectly Stated that Romulus was developed In Sweden. It was actually Developed by Shape Data Ltd. In Cambridge, England.

Walkinside enables building visualization. (product spotlight).(from Belgium's VRcontext)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... Walkinside is a new visualization program from Belgium's VRcontext that converts complex 3D models of industrial projects--such as manufacturing facilities or off-shore oil platforms--into virtual models that users can enter. According to the...

Entry-level graphics workstation from HP. (product spotlight).(Hewlett-Packard's HP x1100)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... Hewlett-Packard's HP x1100 represents the new entry level in the company's graphics workstation line. The x1100s are based on the Pentium 4 processor with DDR 266 memory, and come with up to 1GB of RAM. (HP will make 2GB of RAM an option this...

DSI Intros HandGear 3D navigation touchpad. (product spotlight).
May 1, 2002... DSI Datotech's Gesture Recognition Technology (GRT) is the basis of the company's new 3D navigation device, the HandGear touchpad. The GRT interprets hand "gestures" (contact must be made, but varying degrees of force are recognized) that are...

Kelseus's engine and plug-in for cloth. (product spotlight).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... Kelseus's Cloth plug-in for Discreet's 3ds max, introduced about a year ago, produces animated clothes for 3D figures and objects. The product is designed to provide inexpensive, simple-to-use dynamic cloth simulation for film, television, and...

Avid ships Xpress DV version 3. (product spotlight).(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... Avid's Xpress DV is a set of video editing tools that offers multiple, simultaneous, real-time streaming and more than 100 customizable real-time effects such as dissolves, titles, and motion effects. Xpress DV is designed to strike a balance...

NewTek and Alias/Wavefront lower prices. (news).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... In March, NewTek dropped the price of its flagship LightWave software from $2495 to $1595. The following month, Alias|Wavefront announced that Maya Complete, formerly $7500, will now sell for $1999, and that Maya Unlimited, formerly $16,000,...

MSC.Software.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Simulation software developer MSC.Software (Santa Ana, CA) has agreed to acquire virtual prototyping developer Mechanical Dynamics (Ann Arbor, MI).

3Dlabs.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... 3Dlabs (Huntsville, AL), maker of Wildcat and Oxygen graphics accelerators, has signed an agreement to be acquired by digital entertainment developer Creative Technology (Singapore).

Top 10 ProCDRS price/performers. (benchmark).(Buyers Guide)
May 1, 2002... Below are the 10 workstation and graphics card combinations that achieved the best price/performance scores per system for the Pro/Designer ProCDSRS-03 subset of the SPECviewperf 6.1.2 benchmark. The ProCDRS benchmark is based on PTC's CDRS...

Extreme 3D art. (viewpoint).
May 1, 2002... OK, we all know how the virtual space of the computer gives 3D artists godlike power to create objects, avatars, animations, and interactive worlds. But there are a host of professional 3D input and output methods available that still barely...

Appreciation: digital artists shed new light on the masterpieces of Johannes Vermeer.
May 1, 2002... The works of Johannes Vermeer, a seventeenth-century Dutch painter, have captivated and intrigued viewers with their masterful depictions of everyday life--a woman reading a letter, a maiden pouring milk, a woman playing a musical instrument....

Science retrospective part 5: celebrating our 25th year with images from the frontiers of discovery.
May 1, 2002... As the editors looked back at science visualizations that appeared in Computer Graphics World over the past two decades, we were struck not only by the significance of the discoveries these images help make possible, but even more so by the...

Free spirits: DreamWorks animators and artists used 3D tools to enhance a painterly 2D cel animation--or was it the other way around?
May 1, 2002... On May 24, DreamWorks Pictures, the studio that brought the world Chicken Run and Shrek, will release a film that takes animation on a new high-stakes ride. More than four years in the making by 300 artists, animators, and technicians, that...

Design driven: behind every great race car is a computer-aided design, engineering, and manufacturing team.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... America has had a long love affair with cars, especially fast cars. In fact, auto racing now ranks among our biggest spectator sports. Attendance at NASCAR (National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing) events essentially doubled during the...

Imagine this. (portfolio).(Monte Carlo Television Festival)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... Nearly 1200 participants trekked to Monaco last February to scope out the reincarnation of Imagina, first held 20 years ago and lest held in 2000. Now organized by the Monte Carlo Television Festival as Imagina.02, the so-called "International...

The devil made them do it: artists create a unique style for an animated series on ShowTime. (broadcast).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... One look and it is quite obvious that the folks at Sextant Entertainment and Peafur Production were feeling a bit devilish when they created the new animated comedy series "The Mr. Hell Show." Appearing on the recently launched ShowTime Next...

A silver lining: digital technology gives hockey fans a close-up look at the Stanley Cup. (web graphics).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... The Stanley Cup--hockey's oldest, most coveted prize--has journeyed more miles than the most seasoned of business travelers. That's because every summer, during the sport's off-season, each member of the reigning championship team gets to spend...

Shade R5/E: expression tools' modeling package goes west.(Evaluation)
May 1, 2002... WHILE IT IS VIRTUALLY unknown in the US, Expression Tools' Shade is one of the oldest 3D packages in existence. The software was released in 1986 in Japan, where it has become very popular. Many of Japan's top designers and illustrators use...

Rhinoceros Version 2.0: solids and surfaces from Robert McNeel & Associates.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... MOST POPULAR parametric 3D solid modelers are great for creating models that can be readily modified to meet changing design criteria, but they are not as good at constructing the freeform shapes commonly found on consumer products and...

Hand-drawn vectors. (Design Engineering).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... WIN With Squiggle from Insight Development Corp., architects, engineers, and designers can transform CAD-created, hard-line vector drawings into illustrations that look hand-drawn. With the new Version 4.1, users get better support for complex...

Testing virtual products. (Design Engineering).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... WIN An off-the-shelf tool that provides control engineers with a lifelike environment for testing software and hardware prototypes is now available from Lumeo Software. Lumeo Control Interface enables users to test and debug motion control...

TrueSpace for design, engineering. (Design Engineering).(Caliigari Corp's dePak offers 31 design and engineering tools)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... WIN dePak, the latest release from Caligari, brings toolkits, suites, plug-ins, libraries, and standalone programs from nine different developers to trueSpace 5 design and engineering professionals. Among the 31 tools in dePak are trueMirror,...

Engineering efficiency. (Design Engineering).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... WIN CrossPoint, a new enterprise application from Intersect Software, is designed to speed product time-to-market. Its capabilities include management of inter and intra-team commitments and deliverables, automation of management and...

Collaboration tool. (Design Engineering).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... With Oracle CADView-3D, users with a Web browser can participate in collaborative design reviews of 3D CAD models over the Web. According to Oracle, its patented streaming technology enables teams to view and mark up CAD models of any size over...

Maple add-ons. (Design Engineering).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... Waterloo Maple has released Maplets, an add-on package for its Maple 7 software. Maple 7 utilizes such technology as symbolic computation, infinite precision numerics, Web connectivity, and a 4GL language for solving mathematical problems...

Technical illustration. (Design Engineering).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... WIN Added to Corel Corp.'s product line since the acquisition of Micrografx last fall, Corel Designer 9 has been updated to facilitate the smooth integration of Designer into a technical graphics workflow alongside Corel's CorelDraw. Corel...

Geomagic studio enhanced. (Miscellaneous).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... WIN|SUN Faster processing of large, ordered data flies for scan registration, along with support for additional scanners, highlight Version 4.1 of Raindrop Geomagic's Geomagic Studio. Geomagic Studio 4.1 now supports 3D scanners and file types...

MatchMover goes automatic. (Miscellaneous).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... WIN According to Realviz, its new MatchMover 2 Professional features a built-in automatic 3D tracker for tracking 3D camera data and motion from video and film sequences. MatchMover 2 Professional contains all the features in MatchMover 2, with...

Updated tracking. (Miscellaneous).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... WIN|LINUX The latest version of 2d3's automated tracking technology, Boujou 2, features new capabilities for tracking "extreme" material and new tools for expert intervention. For instance, special adaptive feature acquisition algorithms...

Easy curves. (Modeling, Animation, Effects, Rendering).(EzCurve)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... WIN Designed as a plug-in to Alias|Wavefront's Maya, EzCurve is a corner-like drawing and editing tool that enables the drawing of three-degree NURBS curves based on colinear calculations for CV groups. Users can then smooth the corners and...

Particle-based text effects. (Modeling, Animation, Effects, Rendering).(Digital Anarchy's Text Anarchy)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... WIN|SGI Win/SGI Digital Anarchy's Text Anarchy enables users of Discreet's Flame, Flint, Fire, Smoke, and Inferno to produce text-based effects using particle systems. Text Anarchy can generate text or other characters randomly, or it can...

Growing plants and trees. (Modeling, Animation, Effects, Rendering).(e-on software's Vue d'Esprit 4.0)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... WIN|MAC Among the features in e-on software's Vue d'Esprit 4 (Vue 4) is SolidGrowth 2, e-on's tree and plant creation and rendering technology, which is designed to make every plant and rock unique when dragged into a Vue 4 scene. The software...

Noise manipulation filters. (Modelling, Animation, Effects, Rendering).(Visual Infinity has released Version 2 of its Grain Surgery suite)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... WIN|MAC Visual Infinity has released Version 2 of its Grain Surgery suite of intelligent noise manipulation filters for After Effects. With the new release, users can remove film grain, video noise, CCD noise, compression artifacts, and...

Cebas enhances finalRender. (Modelling, Animation, Effects, Rendering).(FinalRender 1.1)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... WIN Cebas Computer is now shipping FinalRender 1.1, the latest version of its rendering plug-in for Discreet's 3ds max and 3ds Viz. The new version is fully integrated with Shag:Hair and features updated and optimized area light types,...

Digital ink and paint. (Modelling, Animation, Effects, Rendering).(Mediapegs' Pegs 3.2)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... WIN|UNIX Among the many features in Mediapegs' Pegs 3.2 digital ink and paint software is a WebDrive module that enables fast and efficient conversion of broadcast files into Flash format for Internet viewing. The company also offers I-Pegs,...

DVD authoring. (Video/Multimedia).(Ulead Systems' MediaStudio Pro 6.5)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... WIN With the DVD authoring feature in Ulead Systems' MediaStudio Pro 6.5, video editing software users can output video to VCD, SVCD, and DVD. The software creates a project database to store projects for editing or to be used at a later time....

Adding 3D to video. (Video/Multimedia).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... WIN|MAC Conoa has released an After Effects plug-in that enables users to add 3D elements to their motion graphics. The plug-in supports 12 canonical shapes, including spheres, cubes, and cylinders; the shapes can be viewed through After...

A new Pinnacle. (Video/Multimedia).(Pinnacle Edition)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... Pinnacle Edition, the latest video-editing application from Pinnacle, enables corporate/event video professionals, educators, and hobbyists to directly transfer video clips from a DV or Digital8 camcorder, VCR, or TV to the Pinnacle Edition...

DigiSuite to the Max. (Video/Multimedia).(Matrox's DigiSuite Max 7.0)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... WIN Some features in Matrox's DigiSuite Max 7.0 editing platforms include real-time effects layering on video and graphics; Matrox MediaTools for real-time, automated scan and capture of DV material; and up to 15 simultaneous real-time effects...

19-inch flat panel. (Input/Output).(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
May 1, 2002... The Dell 1900FP 19-inch flat-panel monitor allows for viewing angles of up to 85 degrees from all sides. The monitor utilizes Patterned Vertical Alignment (PVA) technology, which gives it a high contrast ratio of 500:1, thereby increasing the...

Events.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... may 4-12 Seoul International Animation Festival 2002 held in Seoul, Korea. Contact: SIPRO (Seoul Industry Promotion Foundation) Animation Center; www.anifestival.seoul.kr 13-16 SimTect 2002: Simulation--Can Your Organization Do...

Gravity waves. (Insight).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2002... GRAVITY WAVES: After a star goes supernova, it doesn't just disappear. It collapses into an incredibly dense neutron star--just a dozen or so miles in diameter--that can spin wildly at speeds of up to 1000 revolutions per second. Scientists...