Computer Graphics World articles from May 2003

Computer Graphics World archives from May 2003

Digital content drivers. (editor's note).(Industry Overview)
May 1, 2003... This month, in the third installment of our report on the present and future health of the digital content industry, we examine the market from the perspective of Wanda Meloni, principal of M2 Research, a digital content creation analysis firm....

Side effects reveals a new Houdini. (modeling * animation).(Houdini 6.0)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... As Side Effects Software readies Version 6 of its procedural modeling and animation software, Houdini, it has announced early access for Houdini Apprentice users. The Apprentice program lets 3D artists develop advanced skills while using a free...

RealViz updates M. (post production).(MatchMover Professional 3.0)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Version 3 of MatchMover Professional, the automatic tracking tool from RealViz, is scheduled for release this summer. This latest version, under the code name "Corsica," has already been in trial use at several postproduction houses. ...

Broadcast design cards from Digital Voodoo. (broadcast cards).(Digital Voodoo HD/Vengeance and HD/Iridium XP)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... The HD|Vengeance from Digital Voodoo is, according to its manufacturer, the first uncompressed high-definition 10-bit SDI broadcast design card with two HD-SDI outputs and one HD-SDI input. The card is compatible with all high-definition design...

Pinnacle intros post-production video editing. (video editing).(Liquid Chrome)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Digital media manufacturer Pinnacle Systems has introduced Liquid chrome, a video editing and compositing system that incorporates Pinnacle's Liquid editing application, its Targa 3000 compositing engine, and its K2 single-chip 3D DVE (digital...

The ABCs of Maya from Alias/Wavefront. (modeling * animation).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Over the past year, most of the major 3D modeling and animation software vendors have lowered prices or repackaged their powerful (and expensive) products in an attempt to woo a new category of user. One of the latest such efforts is...

Interactive investigation. (games).(Post Mortem)
May 1, 2003... In the recently released computer game Post Mortem from The Adventure Company and Microids, players step back in time to 1920s Paris as they assume the role of American expatriate Gus MacPherson, a retired private detective from New York City...

Welsh world. (film).(Otherworld)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Every schoolchild in Wales is familiar with "Y Mabinogi," a collection of ancient Celtic legends. To others, however, the adventures of the princes, princesses, wizards, and monsters in Otherworld, the upcoming animated film based on the...

On the Fence. (digital video).(Rabbit-Proof Fence )
May 1, 2003... Although it did not receive an Academy Award nomination, the critically acclaimed Australian film Rabbit-Proof Fence has garnered numerous industry honors during the past few months, including Best Film at the Australian Film Industry awards...

Flower power. (broadcast).(Colgate-Palmolive's advertisement)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Rhinoceros Visual Effects and Design in New York City, along with director Dennis Manarchy of Manarchy Films in Chicago, used computer graphics to transport a "celebrity" cooking show hostess from an "on-set" kitchen to a French lavender field...

Pass-through lighting. (displays).(Fog Screen)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... A novel large-screen technology, in which illuminated fog is sandwiched between two layers of smooth-flowing air, will be introduced this July in the Emerging Technologies exhibit at SIGGRAPH 2003 by researchers from Tampere University of...

Body brush. (user interfaces).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... A human-computer interface that transforms human body language into 3D paintings in real time has been devised by a team of developers at City University of Hong Kong. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Body Brush, which will also be...

Worldwide forecasts for commercial computer graphics applications. (market outlook).(Brief Article)(Illustration)
May 1, 2003... Worldwide Forecasts for Commercial Computer Graphics Applications APPLICATION 2003 2008 CAG 3D CAG Art/Animation $10.1($7.4) $16.3($12.5) 10% 11% Multimedia/ ...

Donovan Moxey, co-founder of voice-to-animation technology company LipSinc, which ceased operations last summer, has launched a new company, Interactive Multimedia Solutions (Research Triangle Park, NC) that will focus on providing automated voice-to-animation products for the multimedia market.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... Donovan Moxey, co-founder of voice-to-animation technology company LipSinc, which ceased operations last summer, has launched a new company, Interactive Multimedia Solutions (Research Triangle Park, NC) that will focus on providing automated...

Cinesite.(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... The California division of effects producer Cinesite (Hollywood, CA) is closing its VFX division, which developed visual effects for the film industry. The Hollywood office will now focus on long form digital film remastering, whereas the...

NCsoft Corp. (Seoul, South Korea), an online game developer, has acquired ArenaNet (Seattle, WA).(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... NCsoft Corp. (Seoul, South Korea), an online game developer, has acquired ArenaNet (Seattle, WA), a game development studio responsible for properties such as Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo, as well as the gaming network Battle.net.

Mac aficionado turned PC enthusiast: profile of The Orphanage. (Special Advertising Section).(Advertisement)
May 1, 2003... As a loyal Macintosh[R] aficionado, the last thing visual effects creator Stu Maschwitz thought he'd ever do was to replace his sexy Mac dual-800 G4 computer with a Microsoft[R] Windows[R]-based workstation. After all, he'd been on a Mac since...

Deep color. (viewpoint Film).(using OpenEXR format)
May 1, 2003... In late January, Industrial Light & Magic (San Rafael, California) released source code for its proprietary, extended dynamic range image-file format into the open source community. Dubbed OpenEXR, the format provides a possible standard for...

Worlds apart. (viewpoint DV).(Industry Overview)
May 1, 2003... For the last few years, the video world has been characterized by two important trends: the rise of the DV video format and the movement toward high-definition broadcast. Both are enormously exciting and offer those involved in the video and...

Depth perception: finding Nemo's digital creatures display real human emotion in an organic ocean realm. (Film).(Finding Nemo)
May 1, 2003... After advancing fur and cloth simulation in Monsters, Inc., it was only natural that Pixar Animation Studios--the driving force today in computer animation--would next tackle another of the grand challenges in computer animation in its most...

Raising Kaena: a landmark French feature uses a unique painterly style for its 3D animation. (Film).
May 1, 2003... Some things are worth waiting for. And, from the looks of it, the 3D feature film Kaena: The Prophecy is one of them. Five years in the making, the 90-minute adventure from Xilam Animation in Paris boldly departs from the tried-and-tree...

Web noir: Broken Saints uses Web and graphics tools to tell a story that is dark, disturbing--and compelling. (Web Animation).
May 1, 2003... Web Films: Part 1 The first article in our three-part series about short films on the Web features Broken Saints, an award-winning serial animation that was designed to be viewed online. In upcoming issues, we'll look at other ways that...

Virtual clay: Aardman extends the appeal of its claymation characters to the CG world. (Broadcast).
May 1, 2003... You're back in school and have been assigned a group project. After countless cups of coffee and lots of chitchat you find the deadline approaching and there is still no consensus on anything. It is time to go live with your presentation, and...

Vue d'Esprit. (Art Studio).
May 1, 2003... For most digital artists, re-creating natural scenery is a difficult and time-consuming process. That's because nature itself is complex, and a realistic virtual representation must reflect the same level of detail. Some artists--professional...

Character Studio 4: discreet updates its character animation software.
May 1, 2003... Character Studio is a popular character animation package from Discreet, maker of 3ds max modeling and animation software. The latest iteration, Character Studio Version 4, comes with powerful enhancements including Quaternion function curves....

Wildcat VP870: 3Dlabs' price-performer.
May 1, 2003... The Wildcat VP 3D graphics accelerator comes from 3Dlabs, now a division of Creative. (Some years ago, 3Dlabs took over Intergraph's Wildcat business.) To complement its higher-end cards and build upon the Wildcat name, the company has...

Studio in a box. (Digital Video).(New Tek's Video Toaster 3.0)
May 1, 2003... [Win] Video Toaster, NewTek's venerable broadcast production suite, has been updated with new features including real-time, multi-format editing with spline control, 3D positioning, and better integration with other production tools. Other new...

HDRI and particle effects. (Modeling And Animation).(Maxon Computer's Cinema 4D 8.1 )(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... [Win*Mac] Release 8.1 of Maxon Computer's Cinema 4D modeling and animation software incorporates support for HDRI (High Dynamic Range Imagery) in its Advanced Render module. The new feature enables users to take advantage of 96-bit HDRI...

Facial animation engine. (Modeling And Animation).(face2face Amimation's AlterEgo)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... AlterEgo from face2face is an engine that enables game developers to incorporate facial animation into a variety of game platforms. The latest version of AlterEgo allows the creation of more lifelike characters with subtler facial movements,...

Video editing bundle. (Digital Video).(Matrox RT.X10 )(Brief Article)
May 1, 2003... [Win] Matrox RT.X10 is a video editing hardware and software bundle that combines Adobe Systems' Premiere 6.5 software with Matrox's RT.X10 PCI card. The package is designed to provide fast video capture, real-time editing, and the ability to...

Cinematic literature: Broken Saints: online comic book? Something more? The Webisode's creator foretells the future of online fiction. (back drop).(Interview)
May 1, 2003... Q Is Broken Saints a new art form? A I think of Broken Saints more as a fusion of existing art forms; it was a case of building on what we already liked in our favorite media and tweaking it for a unique experience online. It has been...