Computer Graphics World articles from May 2007

Computer Graphics World archives from May 2007

NAB, in high definition.(National Association of Broadcasters conference)(Editorial)
May 1, 2007... Once again, Las Vegas was the hot spot for multimedia professionals working in broadcast and related industries. This year, along with new releases, the product news was focused heavily on workflow and upgrades and offerings positioned to help...

NaturalMotion ships Morpheme.(PRODUCTS: ANIMATION)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... NaturalMotion, developers of the Euphoria and Endorphin Dynamic Motion Synthesis (DMS) technologies, released Morpheme, an animation engine for next-gen game development. Featuring a flexible 3D authoring tool chain, Morpheme gives animators...

Vicon unveils new mocap cameras, sensors.(PRODUCTS: MOTION CAPTURE)(MX-F40 and MX-F20 video cameras)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... Vicon announced new MX-F40 and MX-F20 optical cameras, which include the world's first camera sensors designed specifically for motion capture. The shuttered Vicon Vegas sensors enable performance data to be captured at higher speeds than with...

Automatic Duck releases Pro Import AE 4.0.(PRODUCTS: PLUG-IN)
May 1, 2007... Automatic Duck, creators of the Timeline Integration Engine software for digital media artists, debuted Pro Import AE 4.0, a major upgrade to the company's timeline translation tool for Adobe After Effects artists. Pro Import AE 4.0...

Adobe debuts its Creative Suite 3.(PRODUCTS: GRAPHICS)(Adobe Systems Inc.)
May 1, 2007... Adobe Systems rolled out its anticipated Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium and Standard editions, and Adobe Creative Suite 5 Web Premium and Standard editions. These releases of brand-new, tightly integrated design and development software...

Facing the darkness: face replacement and digital body doubles take actors to new heights in Spider-Man 3.(Character Modeling/Animation)(Sony Pictures Imageworks)
May 1, 2007... So begins the long-foreshadowed confrontation between Harry Osborn (James Franco) and Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire). The pivotal plot turn, simmering over the course of the last two films, unfolds not in a typical face-to-face exchange--as such...

All hands on deck: for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Industrial Light & Magic gives digital Davy Jones a broader role, adds to his crusty, cursed crew, and battles a spinning CG maelstrom.(Simulations)(Lucas Digital Limited L.L.C. Industrial Light & Magic Div.)(Editorial)(Cover story)
May 1, 2007... Most people in the astonished audiences who watched Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest last year thought Davy Jones was actor Bill Nighy in makeup. To pull the seaweed over everyone's eyes, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) invented iMocap...

Graphics industry's workhorses: a look at the power behind today's cutting-edge imagery.(Workstations)
May 1, 2007... About a decade ago, PC workstations began giving SGI machines a run for their money in what had been, until that time, a single-horse hardware race within the digital content creation market. It didn't take long for these attractively priced...

Growing by design: as the CAD process becomes more complex, the industry looks to expanded, compatible solutions.(Computer Aided Design)
May 1, 2007... At first glance, the CAD market has not changed dramatically from five, or even 10, years ago. Companies such as Dassault Systemes, Autodesk, PTC, and UGS are still the major players in the market. They are the companies that continue to lead...

Portfolio: Phil Straub.(of Electronic Arts Inc.)(Brief article)
May 1, 2007... A professional digital artist for more than a decade, Phil Straub received his early training as a traditional oil and acrylic painter, also working in pastels, watercolors, and graphite, before turning to computer software. "My first job was...

Web work: a glimpse at some of the complex compositing work performed on Spider-Man 3.(backdrop)(Sony Pictures Imageworks)(Interview)
May 1, 2007... Spider-Man 3 challenged not only modelers and animators (see "Facing the Darkness," pg. 8), but also compositors, who had to integrate complex CG characters, live-action plates, CG cityscape sets, and effects into more than 900 compelling CG...

No paper necessary.(STORYBOARDING)
May 1, 2007... [Win-Mac] Toon Boom Animation demonstrated its loon Boom Storyboard Pro digital storyboarding software to NAB2007 attendees. Designed for films, documentaries, games, advertising, and animation projects, Toon Boom Storyboard Pro is designed to...

Fx for Apple and Avid.(PLUG-INS)
May 1, 2007... [Mac] Noise Industries exhibited two new GPU-accelerated visual effects plug-in packages, as well as new FxPacks from its partners, during NAB2007. FxFactory 1.5 for Apple Final Cut Studio is a suite of native visual effects plug-ins for use...

Fourth furnace.(PLUG-INS)
May 1, 2007... [Win * Linux] During NAB, The Foundry presented its Furnace 4 suite of image-processing plug-ins for Apple Shake, designed to speed visual effects production workflow. Furnace 4 takes advantage of motion-estimation technology and Apical's...

Enhancing after effects.(PLUG-INS)
May 1, 2007... [Win * Mac] Gridiron Software previewed Nucleo Pro 2, an upgraded version of its tool for visual effects artists using Adobe After Effects. The latest edition supports Adobe's new After Effects CS3 Professional, as well as all versions of After...

Made for masking.(PLUG-INS)
May 1, 2007... [Win] Turbo Mask, an image-masking tool from Paravue, made its debut during NAB. Turbo Mask is designed for graphic and Web designers, photographers, and motion graphic artists working in Adobe Photoshop CS and CS Extended. Turbo Max analyzes...

Boris upgrades.(PLUG-INS)
May 1, 2007... [Win * Mac] Boris FX announced Boris Blue 2.0 and Boris Continuum Complete 5.0 during NAB. Version 2.0 of the Boris Blue real-time motion graphics solution features new 3D deformers such as Curl, Shatter, and Glow; Lens Flare, Glint, and other...

2K tools.(VIDEO)
May 1, 2007... [Win * Mac] Bluefish444 released its 2K Lust and Symmetry software upgrade for users of its HD Lust 4:4:4 video card. 2K Lust offers I/O support for 2K film resolution via high-speed data link (HSDL), enabling real-time SDI monitoring of HSDL...

Growing product family.(VIDEO)
May 1, 2007... [Win * Mac] Red Giant Software unveiled its latest professional video software tools. The newly expanded Magic Bullet product family includes the Magic Bullet Looks design solution, Magic Bullet Frames file-conversion utility, and Magic Bullet...

Eyeon for editors.(VIDEO)
May 1, 2007... [Win] Eyeon announced that Fusion supports Primatte 4 chromakey software for image compositing. As a result, Fusion users have access to Primatte's core library, floating-point precision, SSE2 acceleration, film grain removal, and new...

Avid integration.(VIDEO)
May 1, 2007... [Win * Mac * Linux * Unix] At the trade show, Signiant demonstrated for the first time the native integration of its Digital Media Distribution Management Suite with the Avid TransferManager client on Avid editing systems. The integration...