The Last Train' is an animated short movie that was made as part of The Animation Hub, a collaboration between staff and students of the Irish School of Animation (ISA) at Ballyfermot College of Further Education (BCFE), staff and students of Trinity College’s Graphics, Vision and Visualisation Group (GV2) and the recently established animation studio Giant Creative, set up by BCFE graduates. 
The Animation Hub, which received support from the Irish Film Board and Science Foundation Ireland, ran for 3 months over the summer in 2011 and involved Giant Creative working with animation and computer science students to create a one minute animated short fusing motion capture techniques with naturalistic 3D character animation.
Directed by Giant Creative
Trinity College Project Manager Carol O Sullivan
Ballyfermot College Project Manager Gareth Lee
Technical Consultant Shane Whelan
Sound Adviser Fran Prendergast
BCFE Students Mark Fisher Owen Maloney
TCD Students Kenneth Ryall Amy Davidson
Blender 2.60a, released only four days after 2.60, solves the 12 most urgent bugs in this release.
The 2.60a release is a bugfix release for 2.60 - 3D window: Armature-bones with wire draw type were not displaying in solid view mode - r41113
- 3D window header: After collapsing the pull-down menus, no icon available to make them show again. - r41117
- Dopesheet: Fixed crash when moving keys in editor - r41128
- Audio export: 7.1 export was being miscalculated - r41132
- Game Engine: Action actuator breaks animation. IPO options can be set too frequently - r41134
- 3D Window: missing updates when changing smoke flow settings - r41151
- Node editor: missing updates when assigning/removing Materials on Objects - r41152
- Adding a new pose to the Pose Library crashed - r41175
- Fix for un-handled exception in audio library - r41203
- Incorrect keying set names 'Scale' vs 'Scaling', where 'Scale' was hard coded in auto keyframe when 'Only Insert Needed' - r41211
- Python: RNA/API, getting Event.ascii would crash - r41214
- Addons / Exporter: Quake MAP export gives an error for UV textured geometry - r2504
Download here!
(Lake Success, New York--October 26, 2011) Taking print quality and accuracy to a whole new level, Canon U.S.A. Inc., a leader in digital imaging, today announced the launch of the PIXMA PRO-1 Professional Inkjet Printer. Professional photographers can be confident that the final output from this new printer will match the photographic vision captured from their camera. Newly developed for this printer is a 12-ink system, five of which are monochrome, along with a new FINE Print Head to help deliver consistent, superb results that professional photographers demand. 
“Canon is proud to be one of the only companies to offer professionals a complete input to output photographic ecosystem,” said Yuichi Ishizuka, executive vice president and general manager, Imaging Technologies and Communications Group, Canon U.S.A. “The recent introduction of the EOS-1D X DSLR camera and now the PIXMA PRO-1 Printer, further solidifies Canon’s commitment to providing professionals with the necessary equipment in order to help them produce the highest-level possible in image quality.”
The Canon PIXMA PRO-1 Professional Inkjet Printer features a completely new ink system to help professionals achieve gallery-quality results. This new system features 12 inks (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Red, Photo Cyan, Photo Magenta, Photo Black, Matte Black, Gray, Dark Gray, Light Gray and Chroma Optimizer) which help to increase the color gamut in all directions when compared to other similar models currently in the market. Additionally, skin-tone reproduction has been improved to provide a more natural look, eliminating the magenta cast occasionally found when printing portraits.
Seeing is Believing
Many professional photographers judge the overall effectiveness and ability of an inkjet printer based upon the output for a black-and-white image. To achieve the desired results for a deeper, richer, truer black creation, the engineers of the Canon PIXMA PRO-1 Professional Inkjet Printer have incorporated five monochrome inks into the ink system. Utilizing the Photo Black, Matte Black, Gray, Dark Gray and Light Gray inks, photographers will experience smooth gradations, suppressed graininess and a reduction in the bronzing and metamerism phenomenon which shows a metallic luster such as iridescence due to the colors in reflected light. The Light Gray ink is especially effective in helping to suppress the grain in highlights. The gray monochrome inks are useful in creating a neutral print, allowing for improved accuracy to the way the image was originally captured helping to reduce the need for extensive editing.
As part of the overall ink system, a Chroma Optimizer has been included to aid in the accuracy and quality of prints. In addition to increasing the color gamut, the Chroma Optimizer further increases the black density when printing on glossy media types for a deeper, darker black. After the ink is laid down on the media, the printer applies the Chroma Optimizer to help eliminate the bumps between droplets that at times can reflect light irregularly, resulting in a more uniform and aesthetically pleasing print. Another important facet of printing is the overall lifespan of the print. Based upon independent testing conducted by Wilhelm Imaging Research, the expected light fastness of a print using the PIXMA PRO-1 Printer with Canon’s semi-gloss media is approximately 70 years1.
For the first time in a Canon PIXMA Professional Printer, the PIXMA PRO-1 Photo Printer will feature a tubular ink delivery system, with the inks housed on the sides of the printer, helping to improve the print speed when compared to existing PIXMA Pro models. With this new system, the PIXMA PRO-1 Printer can produce a 13-inch x 19-inch sized print in approximately four minutes and 20 seconds2 on Canon Photo Paper Pro Platinum, helping to increase the productivity in any photography studio. The printer also features larger ink tanks than any other PIXMA Pro printer model to date. When compared to the tanks used by existing models, these new ink tanks are 2.5 times larger. This incredible increase can decrease the amount of time users have to interact with the printer and replace the ink tanks.
To help improve the overall efficiency and workflow of the printer, an intuitive paper feed has been included with a dual paper path on the top rear of the printer for semi-gloss and glossy media and a manual paper feed on the back for fine art media. This feeding system will help to ensure paper is initially fed correctly thus eliminating skewed prints which results in wasted ink, paper and more importantly time. For the first time on a Canon PIXMA Pro printer, the PIXMA PRO-1 Printer is also networkable via an Ethernet connection allowing multiple users the ability to print to one machine. For educational institutions this feature is key so each student will be able to showcase their work in a high-quality fashion. Also, photo studios will find this especially useful when working to complete projects in a timely manner without sacrificing image quality.
Canon has also worked with the leading paper companies in the industry to create ICC Profiles designed to help users to get the best possible results from their prints. At launch a total of 26 ICC Profiles are available for users of Hahnemuhle, Ilford, Moab and several other paper types. For more information on the exact paper names, please visit: http://www.usa.canon.com/pixmapro.
An added benefit to those who purchase the Canon PIXMA PRO-1 Professional Inkjet printer is for the first time, this product can be used to qualify toward a Canon Professional Services (CPS) membership. For individual full-time working imaging professionals who use Canon equipment, the CPS program offers a range of benefits. These benefits can include (depending on membership level) professional phone and e-mail support, expedited and discounted service and repairs, service loaners, onsite support at select events and shows, plus discounts on Canon Live Learning workshops and more. For more information on the program, including eligibility requirements and benefits, please visit http://www.usa.canon.com/cps.
The Canon PIXMA PRO-1 Professional Inkjet Printer will have an estimated selling price of $999.993.
Try My Photo
The Canon PIXMA PRO-1 Professional Inkjet printer will also be a part of Canon U.S.A.’s “Try My Photo” program4. With this program, consumers in the United States have the opportunity to submit an eligible digital image of their choice to be printed on a select Canon printer to demonstrate Canon’s high-quality printing capabilities and help participants make a more educated decision when purchasing a printer. Along with the image, consumers who participate in this program can receive additional product information. To learn more please visit: http://www.trymyphoto.com/pro
About Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Canon U.S.A., Inc., is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions. With more than $45 billion in global revenue, its parent company, Canon Inc. (NYSE:CAJ), ranks fourth overall in patent holdings in the U.S. in 2010† and is one of Fortune Magazine's World’s Most Admired Companies in 2011. Canon U.S.A. is committed to the highest levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty, providing 100 percent U.S.-based consumer service and support for all of the products it distributes. Canon U.S.A. is dedicated to its Kyosei philosophy of social and environmental responsibility. To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company's RSS news feed by visiting http://www.usa.canon.com/rss.
On 02 November, Tedi Kirova and Jimmy Krastev from Chaos Group is joining the regular monthly get-together of 3ds Max people in London for an in-depth look at V-Ray® for 3ds Max. The 3ds Max London User Group gathers professional members from London's advertising, architectural and animation industries . 
Presenters will showcase the key features of V-Ray® 2.0 for 3ds Max and discuss ideas, methods and projects together with the Group’s members.
Time: 7pm, 2nd Nov
Location: Upstairs at The Plough, 27 Museum Street, WC1A
View Larger Map More detail here!
Check out Anima review article from Meny Hilsenrad - co-founder of Studio Aiko here!
DRAPER, Utah – Oct. 26, 2011 – If you think getting older is cause for alarm; spend some time with Victoria 5. Out today, Victoria 5 is the latest version of the 3D community’s favorite figure and a bold leap forward from the original model DAZ 3D pioneered in 1999. Built with DAZ 3D’s award-winning GenesisTM platform, users can now apply unparalleled levels of flexibility and realism to the shape, personality and joints of their creations, in ways that are sure to enchant their audience. Crafted entirely by hand, with extreme attention to detail, and no compromises in quality; Victoria proves that some things truly get better with age.
"Victoria 5 opens up a wealth of possibilities for our users," says Dan Farr, Chief Strategy Officer, DAZ 3D. "Her compatibility with the entire Genesis family of figures and add-ons, both current and future, means that Victoria is only going to grow more versatile as the Genesis product line continues to expand."
Since DAZ 3D knew that realism needs to extend far beyond surface textures, Victoria 5’s body was designed to retain high levels of detail, even under the weight of extreme poses. Through the Genesis Tri-AxTM weight map system, Victoria is now able to bend with greater dexterity without any unsightly UV distortion. This gives hobbyists and 3D professionals a freedom that hasn’t been seen yet in the world of 3D figures; and a chance to push the Victoria 5 figure to even greater heights.
“Victoria was the first character we specifically designed for Genesis,” adds Dan Farr. “Thanks to Genesis, we were able to create a completely original body shape without generalizing or removing any fine details. Victoria now has even more of the innate versatility that our community demands.”
Key features of Victoria 5 include:
- Custom UVs: New, optimized UV's created specifically for the Victoria 5 mesh shape allow for flawless skin detail without seams
- Original, Detailed Body Shape: more options for specificity and detail without losing the ability to blend other shapes and forms with your character
- Optimized Joint Setup: Hand painted weight maps for improved joint bending and mesh deformation beyond what the automated Genesis rig accommodates
- Compatibility with Previous Content: Previous generation clothing and add-ons can be quickly re-configured to fit the Victoria 5 Genesis figure using DAZ Studio 4’s Auto-Fit tool.
Pricing and Availability
Victoria 5 is available now and priced at $49.95. It can be purchased at: www.daz3d.com/victoria. Accompanying bundles of clothing, hair, and other add-ons are also available in the DAZ 3D store.
About Victoria
Debuting to wide acclaim in 1999, Victoria has become the most widely supported 3D figure on the planet. Used by thousands of digital artists, illustrators, game developers and animators, Victoria is directly compatible with several software packages including DAZ Studio, Carrara and Bryce. Victoria additionally offers more than 10,000 add-on products, which are available on the DAZ 3D website and other third-party sites. To date, she has been downloaded over 3 million times.
About GenesisTM
The new GenesisTM series is built upon an entirely new framework that provides ultimate per-axis weight map control for each joint; improved load and active frame-rate speeds (fps) with sub-d, single-skin 3D meshes; flexible shape blending; multiple UV layouts; and extensible parameters. All of this simply means that DAZ 3D's latest figures are the most realistic and versatile that have ever been produced. Every joint bends better, and every skin detail is more precise. Both proportions and mass of the figure can be altered in a variety of ways without ever losing the superior bending and detail within the mesh.
For additional information regarding the GenesisTM figure platform, please visit: http://www.daz3d.com/genesis.
About DAZ 3D
Based in Draper, Utah, DAZ 3D is the leading publisher of personalized 3D digital characters, software and accessories for creative professionals and 3D enthusiasts. Known for its large catalog of inter-operable and versatile 3D models and accessories, DAZ 3D is a growing technology company focused on developing next-generation 3D models and supporting tools. Founded in 2000, DAZ 3D provides a central solution to create, customize and share professional quality digital creations. More information on the company, its 3D catalog and tools, and the GenesisTM series is available online at www.daz3d.com.
Chaosgroup has interviewed with Stéphane Montel and Mhamed Elmezoued from Akama Studio Check out the full interview for more details on Their pipeline and the creative process in this dynamic and innovative studio. Read the Interview here!
MADISON, Wis. - Oct. 24, 2011 - Sony Creative Software, a global provider of professional video editing, music creation and optical disc authoring solutions, today announced it is acquiring NetBlender, a leading developer of Blu-ray Disc™ creation tools. Through the agreement, Sony Creative Software will acquire NetBlender's DoStudio product line of authoring applications to expand its current portfolio of Blu-ray Disc software products which currently includes DVD Architect™ and Blu-print®. The DoStudio product line perfectly complements Sony Creative Software's existing lineup and is ideal for users in post-production facilities, news organizations, educational institutions, corporate training facilities, cable TV outlets, Hollywood studios and for independent film producers who are looking to acquire affordably priced, high-value solutions.
"Many Blu-ray Disc authoring tools that are priced at the prosumer level have very limited feature sets compared to enterprise or studio level applications. The DoStudio line of products bridges the gap between these platforms by offering access to many of the Blu-ray special features that provide comprehensive mastering functionality at a more reasonable price structure," said Brad Reinke, Senior Vice President, Sony Creative Software. "The acquisition of NetBlender will allow us to continue to deliver industry-standard tools that address these issues, as well as having the resources to offer new capabilities such as Blu-ray 3D and Custom BD-J within this new product line. We look forward to working with and supporting NetBlender's loyal customers who have come to rely on these solutions for their multimedia production needs."
Based in Alexandria, Va., NetBlender established itself as an innovator in Blu-ray Disc tools and has garnered a strong professional authoring customer base spanning 31 countries. NetBlender's products have produced more than 2,000 retail Blu-ray Disc titles to date.
"NetBlender and Sony Creative Software share the same passion for expanding Blu-ray adoption among independent production companies and post houses worldwide," said John Harrington, CEO of NetBlender. "The combination of NetBlender's innovative products and Sony's market leadership will be a powerful force for encouraging growth in the Blu-ray industry."
Sony Creative Software and NetBlender will continue to provide customer service and technical support throughout the transition. NetBlender's current resources, products, case studies, manuals and community portals will remain active and available on the company's website until the acquisition is complete.
About NetBlender
NetBlender (www.netblender.com) was founded in 2005 by a team of DVD industry veterans and interactive media producers with particular expertise in the area of network-connected convergent media. The company designs and develops practical and professional Blu-ray technology solutions for the global BD production community. In 2006, NetBlender was nominated for the prestigious Advanced Media Technology Emmy® for its work on PBS' "The Cultivated Life: Thomas Jefferson and Wine." In 2009, NetBlender revolutionized the Blu-ray Disc and Smartphone industry by introducing BD Touch technology, which allows consumers to control TVs, Blu-ray players and cable boxes with their Apple® and Android® handheld devices.
About Sony Creative Software
Sony Creative Software inspires artistic expression with its award-winning line of products for digital video, audio, and music production, as well as industry-leading technology for DVD production andBlu-ray Disc™ authoring. Sound Forge™ Pro, ACID™ Pro, and Vegas™ Pro software have defined digital content creation for a generation of creative professionals. These signature product lines continue to advance media production by providing powerful, accessible tools. Today, there is a Sony Creative Software application for every level of expertise, including a full line of consumer softwarebased on the company's professional applications. In addition, Sony Creative Software produces the extensive Sony® Sound Series collection of royalty-free loops and samples, Sony Pictures Sound Effects Series exclusive sound effects, and Vision Series video creation assets. Further, the company provides the industry-leading tools for enterprise-level Blu-ray Disc™ authoring: Blu-code™ encoder, Dualstream 3D™ MVC encoder, Z Depth™ 3D subtitle editing application, and Blu-print® software. The company's customers span the globe and include professionals in the film, television, video game, and recording industries, as well as students, educators, and hobbyists. For more information about professional and consumer products, visit www.sonycreativesoftware.com.
New single-player gameplay! Winning over 60 industry awards, Battlefield 3 is out next week. EA's launch trailer gives you a preview of the intense single player campaign. A sinister power is rising in the Middle-East, and Marine Sergeant "Black" discovers how far he would go to defend his country.
Multiplayer Gameplay Trailer Explore Battlefield 3 here!
Augmenting Reality With Autodesk Scaleform
Eidos-Montreal used Augmented Reality — one of lead character Adam Jensen's mechanical enhancements — as a central source of game feedback to the player. Created with Scaleform, this important UI provides Adam with information about his surroundings, including which objects he can interact with and how they can be used. The team also applied UIs created with Scaleform to many of the game's interactive world objects. For example, players can interact with computers in the game. What appears on-screen is a Flash movie, rendered into a texture and then applied to the object.
“From the early days of development, we had very high requirements for the game's UIs,” explained Julien Bouvrais, director of technology at Eidos-Montreal. “With a cyberpunk setting and Adam's Augmented Reality, user interfaces were a key element to nail from the get-go. We investigated a few middleware solutions and found that Scaleform was the best choice for us.”
“Over the course of the game's development, we produced and tested many different versions of the UIs," continued Bouvrais. "One of the great advantages of using Scaleform is that users with Adobe Flash experience will feel very comfortable with the middleware. Using ActionScript in Scaleform allowed for very fast prototyping and helped us deliver the high-quality UIs that shipped in the game."
Setting the Stage With Autodesk Maya and Autodesk 3ds Max
The tremendous scope of the futuristic world in "Deus Ex: Human Revolution" includes thousands of characters. The number of models required to create and populate such a world made productivity a key concern for Eidos-Montreal, so the studio chose to equip its team with the latest releases of both 3ds Max and Maya software.
"Our strategy is to have great artists working with great tools to obtain the highest possible level of productivity," explained Frederic Chappart, technical art director at Eidos-Montreal. "Having a selection of Autodesk software to choose from gave our artists the flexibility to use the right tool for the job. The latest releases of the applications gave them access to the full potential of the software."
"Autodesk FBX asset exchange technology provided a faster and more convenient way to transfer models between Maya and 3ds Max," explained Laura Gallagher, character modeler at Eidos-Montreal. "This enabled us to move back and forth between packages, using the tools we preferred in each application. With well over a thousand characters to create, that flexibility was invaluable."
Animating the Conversation With Autodesk MotionBuilder
Eidos-Montreal felt it was important to remain true to the original title's four pillars of game-play mechanics: hacking, stealth, combat and social. The social game mechanic offers complicated conversation trees — created with Scaleform middleware — when talking with nonplayer characters (NPCs). Players are offered dialogue options when responding to an NPC. Each response may cause the NPC to react in a different way. Eidos artists needed an easy and effective method of creating conversations with multiple outcomes.
"When it came to our conversation mechanics, MotionBuilder was the tool for the task," said Francine Mangin, senior animator at Eidos-Montreal. "MotionBuilder enables users to more easily work with different takes and poses, which is necessary for a conversation system that is designed around multiple outcomes." MotionBuilder software was also used for motion capture cleanup and retargeting.
About "Deus Ex: Human Revolution"
The critically acclaimed "Deus Ex: Human Revolution" offers players multiple and vastly different ways to play. Challenging the foundations of gaming, this video game provides an immersive experience where every choice has a lasting consequence. "Deus Ex: Human Revolution" weaves a deeply emotive and captivating story, taking place in the year 2027 – a time of great innovation in neuroprosthetics, but also a time of chaos, conspiracy and a new social divide. Gamers play as Adam Jensen, a man cybernetically augmented against his own choice, who finds himself in the middle of a mysterious, global plot to which he holds the key.
About Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc., is a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Customers across the manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, and media and entertainment industries ¾ including the last 16 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects ¾ use Autodesk software to design, visualize and simulate their ideas. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk continues to develop the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art software for global markets. For additional information about Autodesk, visit http://www.autodesk.com.
About Eidos-Montreal
Founded in 2007, Eidos-Montreal is a leading video game development studio in Montreal. Embracing the philosophy to always pursue excellence in the development of games and create immersive, captivating experiences for players, Eidos-Montreal made its mark on the video game world with the release of its first video game, “Deus Ex: Human Revolution”. Eidos-Montreal is part of Square Enix Europe.
About Square Enix Ltd.
Square Enix Ltd., a part of the Square Enix Europe business unit, develops, publishes, distributes and licenses SQUARE ENIX®, EIDOS® and TAITO® branded entertainment content in Europe and other PAL territories as part of the Square Enix Group. Square Enix Ltd. also has a global network of leading development studios such as IO Interactive™, Crystal Dynamics® and Eidos Montréal. The Square Enix Group boasts a valuable portfolio of intellectual property including: FINAL FANTASY®, which has sold over 100 million units worldwide, DRAGON QUEST® which has sold over 58 million units worldwide and TOMB RAIDER® which has sold over 35 million units worldwide; and the legendary SPACE INVADERS®. Square Enix Ltd. is a London-based, wholly-owned subsidiary of Square Enix Holdings Co., Ltd. More information on Square Enix Ltd. can be found at http://www.square-enix.com/eu/en/
Audi of America has published a new video that showcases the e-tron Spyder two-seater hybrid concept car in action in Malibu, California.
The two-seater is equipped with a hybrid powertrain featuring a 300-hp twin-turbo V6 TDI at the rear axle and two electric motors producing a total of 64 kW at the front axle.
Characterized by “the most advanced and consistent evolution of the current Audi design language” – as stated by the German carmaker – the e-tron Spyder Concept was first presented at the 2010 Paris Motor Show.
The car accelerates form 0 to 100 km/h in 4.4 seconds and reaches a top speed electronically limited to 250 km/h.
Source. carbodydesign
Video Copilot has shared new Exciting Tutorial about Keying in After Effect. In this tutorial we will go beyond basic keying techniques with new tips to help preserve small details like dirt and reflections. This tutorial covers several topics including a brand new method for green spill suppression, compositing with 32bpc, adding reactive lighting, camera shake, color correction and more!
Watch Tutorial here !
Building on a sense of inspiration and anticipation, the major gestures of the design are slowly revealed. The shots are primarily abstract, focusing on details and visceral moments inside the project, to show off the design in new and unexpected ways.
Artists Cecil Kim, Nathan Ota and James Paick will share a panel discussing how they approach composition in their work by sharing examples of their process at
Composition in Art Panel and Figure Drawing Workshop Thursday, October 27th, starting at 7:00 P.M
When: Thursday, October 27th, 2011
7:00 P.M. - 9:00 P.M.: Composition in Art panel
- 1 hour, 45 minute panel discussion
- 15 minute Q&A session
10:30 P.M. - 1:00 A.M.: Gallery Girls figure drawing workshop
Place: Gnomon School of Visual Effects
1015 N. Cahuenga Blvd. Hollywood, CA 90038
View Larger Map
Panel Speakers
Cecil Kim
Cecil Kim has been working as a concept artist and illustrator in the entertainment industry for the past 15 years. Cecil received his BFA in Illustration from Art Center College of Design. After graduating, Cecil was employed at Square USA, Inc., where he worked on the Parasite Eve and Final Fantasy IX projects. He later moved on to Sony Santa Monica, where he worked for over 11 years. Cecil worked on several hit games including the “God of War” series and was the Visual Development Lead for “God of War 3″. Cecil also teaches at various institutions such as Gnomon School of Visual Effects, Art Center College of Design and Otis College of Art and Design where he serves as Concept Art Area Head. In early 2011, Cecil was awarded the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ Artistic Achievement Award.
Nathan Ota
For years, Nathan Ota has been pursuing new worlds, both dark and fantastic, to explore in his paintings. Ota has used his stand-ins — a blind bird, a drunk monkey, a one-eyed robot lost in the woods — to travel through dreamlands that hold fantasies and tragedies, even landing him in the unlikeliest destination — the world inside the artist’s own studio. Nathan majored in Illustration and received his Bachelors degree with distinction honors at Art Center College of Art and Design, Pasadena Ca. 1993. Ota currently teaches Illustration, perspective and Thesis for Senior Digital Media at Otis College of Art and Design and drawing and painting at Santa Monica City College.
James Paick
James Paick graduated from Art Center College of Design, majoring in Illustration with an Entertainment Design focus. He has worked on various projects in the entertainment industry for NC Soft, EA, Sucker Punch, Zipper, Naughty Dog, Gary Goddard Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast. He currently works under his own company, Scribble Pad Studios. During his spare time he teaches at the Concept Design Academy located in Pasadena California. He also enjoys brisk walks in the park.
(San Francisco, California--October 19, 2011) Tweak Software announces that digital production studio Digital Domain has standardized on Tweak’s RV and RV-SDI software to enable a common collaborative viewing experience from desktops to screening rooms for image, sequence and 2K stereo dailies review throughout its studios.
“Digital Domain has artists, facilities, and partners all around the world. Our goal was to create a unified and universal user experience for watching dailies and conducting collaborative reviews. Artists can be at their desks doing one-on-one reviews with colleagues at other locations, or in conference rooms or in screening rooms doing group reviews – anything is possible,” said Digital Domain Technology Project Manager Ryan Mayeda. “With RV and RV-SDI we were able to create that experience not only within studios, but across them, remotely. It’s like having one big screening room.” 
RV enables easy review of images and sequences through a flexible dailies workflow and an advanced media architecture that can automatically combine media of different resolutions, frame rates, color spaces, and audio sampling rates. RV-SDI provides dual link SDI output with embedded audio, to handle 2K stereo playback/review in screening rooms and theaters.
While artists at Digital Domain had been using RV for desktop playback, the studio had a different solution for its screening rooms. “Tweak adding support for SDI was the missing piece,” said Mayeda. “SDI is the only way for us to watch 2K stereo. It feeds into the projector effortlessly and you get perfect, artifact-free playback. RV also has a number of nice features for stereo viewing, allowing supervisors to make stereo adjustments live in the screening room.”
Digital Domain also tapped RV’s open API and SDK to integrate RV tightly with its proprietary DMX dailies system. The result is a seamless experience for users during dailies whether they are all together in one room or remotely connected from different facilities. “One of the key reasons RV was such a good solution for us was because it’s extensible by our developers – it gave us everything we needed to easily link it into our dailies system,” said Mayeda. He added, “And now that RV is going to support Python, it’s going to get even easier!”
RV and RV-SDI are fully integrated into the pipeline at Digital Domain’s Venice and Vancouver studios and were used recently for digital production on Thor, X-Men: First Class, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Real Steel. On Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Digital Domain even set up a remote system with fast connectivity to director Michael Bay’s office, so he could use RV to review work, draw, annotate, start and stop playback, and talk to artists and supervisors via videoconference. RV deployment is in initial phases in the studio’s Florida and San Francisco studios.
About Digital Domain
Digital production company Digital Domain was founded in 1993. The company has created visuals for more than 80 movies, including Titanic, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and TRON: Legacy and hundreds of commercials. Its artists have earned multiple Academy Awards©. Digital Domain recently completed visual effects for Thor, X-Men: First Class and Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Real Steel, and is in production on Jack the Giant Killer, 47 Ronin and a full slate of commercials. Digital Domain is headquartered in Venice, California with studios in Vancouver, San Francisco and Florida. http://www.digitaldomain.com
About Tweak Software
Tweak Software was founded in 2007 to develop tools that address real-world production needs of VFX and animation professionals. The Tweak partners Jim Hourihan, Seth Rosenthal and Alan Trombla spent many years at Industrial Light and Magic where they developed tools and techniques still in use at that facility today. Jim Hourihan is the recipient of two Sci-Tech Academy Awards and is best known for developing Dynamation, the first commercial particle system that was subsequently incorporated into Autodesk’s Maya software. For more information, visit http://www.tweaksoftware.com
The Blender Foundation and online developer community is proud to present Blender 2.60. This is the beginning of the Blender 2.6x series, targeted at including all work that happened in branches or patches past years.
Most notable in this release is 3D audio, UI translation, improved weight painting and a lot of animation system updates. Check the list below for highlights and the full changelog.
More information here!
Unchained features a Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG four-door set in a nighttime desert, clusters of chains strung from the car's rear doors to nearby boulders. As the vehicle accelerates from a stop, the chains clang behind before drawing tight and yanking the rear doors off in a violent, slow-motion explosion of glass and steel. When the C63 spins to a halt, it has been transformed into a sleek two-door - the 2012 C-Coupe. 
Unchained was shot on film and digitally using the Phantom camera, which required extensive 2D work to marry the formats. "We basically needed to make the clean Phantom footage look more optical and atmospheric like the film," stated MPC VFX supervisor/lead Flame artist Jake Montgomery. "We partly achieved this by adding smoke, dust, light effects and film grain."
MPC started the project by creating a 3D previz animation sequence before shooting, defining the timing, framing, and camera movement with the director and the agency. The studio shot the :30 sequence in three parts - the approaching car, the camera passing through the interior, and the shot of the car drifting away - at 1,000 frames per second using a Phantom camera, then recombined the footage in postproduction.
Full Story: Here
Matt Brealey, Creative Specialist at The Foundry shows us how to the NUKE MARI Bridge can help you address common and time-consuming challenges faced when using 3D projection techniques to build digital environments. This tutorial uses footage from Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen © Paramount Pictures.
SANTA CLARA, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 10/14/2011 -- The best 3D technology for the PC just got better with the introduction of new NVIDIA®3D Vision™ products, which deliver greater realism and immersion than ever for 3D games, movies and photos.
NVIDIA 3D Vision 2, the next generation of NVIDIA's award-winning 3D technology, features sleek, newly-redesigned, gamer-inspired glasses. It also introduces NVIDIA 3D LightBoost™ technology, a unique new display technology that dramatically improves the 3D experience by delivering images that are up to twice as bright and colors that are far richer than those provided by other 3D display technologies.
These features give gamers the ultimate 3D platform for this fall's hot new titles, including Batman: Arkham City, LA Noire and more. In addition, through the NVIDIA 3D Vision Ready ecosystem, NVIDIA is delivering the industry's broadest selection of high-quality 3D content and supported displays.
"Gorgeous, bright, crystal-clear 3D worlds are created by NVIDIA's 3D Vision 2 glasses with 3D LightBoost monitors and notebooks," said Phil Eisler, general manager of 3D Vision at NVIDIA. "NVIDIA's engineering team has made incredible enhancements in 3D on PCs, creating a breathtaking gaming experience that's better than the best Hollywood 3D movie."
"NVIDIA 3D LightBoost technology makes 3D games, movies and photos more stunning and life-like than ever before," said David Wung, senior director of product management of Open Platform Business (OPBG) Group for ASUS Computer International. "With 3D LightBoost and our new full-HD monitors, colors are richer, textures and subtle image details virtually jump off the screen, and the overall quality of the experience is something to behold. We are thrilled to be the first desktop display manufacturer to bring this new level of 3D visual quality to our customers with the ASUS VG278H."
NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 Glasses
NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 glasses were designed specifically for gamers and 3D enthusiasts. They provide deeper immersion in games through lenses that are 20 percent larger than those in first-generation glasses, resulting in a wider viewing area and increased external light blocking. In addition, NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 glasses are made of soft composite materials for a more comfortable fit with gaming headphones.
The glasses, which feature NVIDIA's advanced active-shutter and IR wireless technologies, allow gamers and 3D enthusiasts to access the broadest selection of high-quality 3D content available today, including more than 550 full-HD 1080p 3D games, more than 100 Blu-ray 3D movies and thousands of 3D videos and photos from YouTube and 3DVisionLive.com. In addition, NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 glasses are fully backwards-compatible with all existing NVIDIA 3D Vision Ready content and supporting products, including more than 70 different 3D Vision monitors, notebooks and projectors, video applications, and cameras.
NVIDIA 3D LightBoost Technology
NVIDIA 3D LightBoost is a new NVIDIA display technology that delivers up to 2X brighter 3D images than existing 3D solutions and improved color quality. It also dramatically increases environmental lighting, making gaming keyboards and mice more visible, and reducing 3D ghosting.
The first NVIDIA 3D LightBoost-certified desktop display is the ASUS VG278H, a 27-inch LED full HD (1920x1080) monitor, featuring a 3D HDMI 1.4 input, as well as a Dual-link DVI input for full HD 1080p 3D gaming. ASUS' exclusive Trace-Free II Technology features 120Hz refresh rates and 2ms response times, resulting in vivid, ultra-smooth visuals. Expected to be available by the end of October 2011, the ASUS VG278H includes NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 glasses and is priced at $699 (USD MSRP).
Additional NVIDIA 3D LightBoost-compatible displays from Acer and BenQ are expected to ship in the coming months. NVIDIA 3D LightBoost compatible notebooks include several Toshiba models -- Satellite P770/P775, Dynabook Satellite T572, Dynabook T572, and the Qosmio X770/X775 -- with others expected in the coming months.
3D Vision 2 Pricing and Availability
The 3D Vision 2 glasses kit, which includes one pair of NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 glasses and a wireless USB IR emitter, will be available from the leading retailers/e-tailers worldwide in October for $149 (USD MSRP). It will also be available on the NVIDIA online store. Extra NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 glasses are available for $99 (USD MSRP). Visit www.nvidia.com/3dvision for more information.
About NVIDIA 3D Vision
NVIDIA is the worldwide leader in 3D technology for personal computers. NVIDIA 3D Vision and 3D Vision 2 technology, which includes 3D Vision software and advanced active shutter glasses, delivers breathtaking stereoscopic 3D images for gamers, movie-lovers and photo enthusiasts when configured with NVIDIA GPUs and a 3D display or projector. NVIDIA 3D Vision technology supports the richest array of 3D content available, including more than 550 3D games, Blu-ray 3D movies, 3D photos and streaming Web video. It also enables users to upload, share and view full-resolution 3D photos, as well as enjoy 3D movies at NVIDIA 3DVisionLive.com, the world's first 3D Vision online community. In addition, NVIDIA 3DTV Play™ software enables consumers to attach their PC or notebook to 3D HDTVs and HDMI 1.4-capable audio/video receivers and enjoy all the latest 3D content in the comfort of their living rooms in full HD 3D, and with HD surround sound audio.
NVIDIA 3D Vision Pro™ technology is a combination of wireless active shutter glasses and advanced software, which automatically transform business-oriented applications into full stereoscopic 3D to improve the usefulness of the applications and increase productivity. 3D Vision Pro technology is designed for multi-user, collaborative viewing and production environments, and features long-range, bi-directional 2.4GHz radio communication.
About NVIDIA
NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) awakened the world to computer graphics when it invented the GPU in 1999. Today, its processors power a broad range of products from smart phones to supercomputers. NVIDIA's mobile processors are used in phones, tablets and auto infotainment systems. PC gamers rely on GPUs to enjoy spectacularly immersive worlds. Professionals use them to create visual effects in movies and design everything from golf clubs to jumbo jets. And researchers utilize GPUs to advance the frontiers of science with high-performance computers. The company holds more than 2,100 patents worldwide, including ones covering ideas essential to modern computing. For more information, see www.nvidia.com.
Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to statements as to: the features, impact, benefits and availability of NVIDIA® 3D Vision™ products; NVIDIA 3D LightBoost™ technology; and the effects of the company's patents on modern computing are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: global economic conditions; our reliance on third parties to manufacture, assemble, package and test our products; the impact of technological development and competition; development of new products and technologies or enhancements to our existing product and technologies; market acceptance of our products or our partners products; design, manufacturing or software defects; changes in consumer preferences or demands; changes in industry standards and interfaces; unexpected loss of performance of our products or technologies when integrated into systems; as well as other factors detailed from time to time in the reports NVIDIA files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, including its Form 10-Q for the fiscal period ended July 31, 2011. Copies of reports filed with the SEC are posted on the company's website and are available from NVIDIA without charge. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and speak only as of the date hereof, and, except as required by law, NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.
© 2011 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA logo, and 3D Vision are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability, and specifications are subject to change without notice.
(Los Angeles, California) Vicon House of Moves (HOM), a leading motion capture and animation service company, contributed to the cinematic animation and facial keyframing on the recently released video game, "Gears of War 3". Developed by Epic Games and published by Microsoft, sales for the highly anticipated third-person shooter soared when it hit shelves in late September.
Collaboration between Vicon House of Moves and Epic on the third installment of the billion-dollar Gears of War franchise began in January 2010. Epic completed all the motion capture for the game on its own stage, which features a Vicon mocap system. Prior to shooting, Vicon HOM refined Epic’s mocap pipeline for the cinematic process and delivered front-end tools to improve capture of performances.
Once captured, Epic sent the raw data to Vicon HOM. The data was then reconstructed and uploaded into Vicon HOM’s online ordering tool for Epic to log into and order takes. After takes were selected, Vicon HOM tracked, solved, and retargeted the data, which was then sent back to Epic as FBX files, which are readily supported in the Unreal Engine. Epic seamlessly imported the files, laid in cameras, and exported data back to Maya. The files were then sent back to Vicon HOM for finishing. A team of about 44 worked on the project for approximately a year and a half, resulting in the completion of over 36,000 seconds of character work.
“A project of this scope really highlights both the animation capabilities at House of Moves and the quality of Vicon mocap systems,” said Brian Rausch, Vice President of Production, Vicon, House of Moves. “By setting up their own system but enlisting the help of House of Moves, Epic was able to capture the data on their own timeline and terms with the assurance the resulting data would be transformed into the compelling footage featured in Gears of War 3.”
About Vicon House of Moves
Vicon House of Moves has been the go-to studio for film, television, game and commercial creatives for over 10 years and has recently worked on projects for clients including Microsoft, Activision, EA, Bandai, Rockstar Games, Capcom, THQ, Naughty Dog Studios, SCEA, Bungie and others. In addition to the HOM main stage, the 26,000 square-foot facility is also home to a full performance capture volume capable of recording simultaneous high-quality audio with a capture session without any interfering background noise. http://moves.com/
About Vicon
Academy Award®-winning Vicon is the world’s largest supplier of precision motion tracking systems, and match moving software. It serves customers in the CG animation industry, film, visual effects, computer games, and broadcast television, as well as engineering and life science industries. Vicon operates in four offices worldwide, including its Los Angeles-based Entertainment headquarters: a 26,000 square-foot facility equipped with three performance capture stages for Vicon’s service company House of Moves.
Vicon is a subsidiary of OMG (Oxford Metrics Group - LSE: OMG), plc., a group of technology companies that produces image-understanding solutions for the Entertainment, Defense, Life Science and Engineering markets. Other holdings include: 2d3, a manufacturer of specialized image understanding software for defense applications; Yotta DCL our highways surveying business in the UK; and Yotta MVS, a leading US provider of data collection services for the assessment of property taxation.
Vicon and OMG global clients include: Life Science leaders University of Pennsylvania, the VA Hospitals, Shriners Hospitals for Children, Titleist Golf, The Andrews Institute; Engineering industry leaders Ford, BMW, Airbus, Lockheed, Pratt-Whitney, NASA, Caterpillar, International Truck, and Toyota; and Entertainment companies Sony Pictures Imageworks, Sony Computer Entertainment, Industrial Light and Magic, Sega, Nintendo, Ubisoft, Vivendi, Electronic Arts, Square Enix and many others.
For more information about OMG and its subsidiaries, visit http://www.omg3d.com , http://www.vicon.com , http://www.vicon.com/boujou , http://www.2d3.com , http://www.yottadcl.com , or http://www.yottamvs.com.
(San Jose, California) Adobe Systems Incorporated runs promotion giving Creative Suite users on older versions of the design software a special opportunity to upgrade from their individual or suite product to the latest version – including Creative Suite 5.5, Photoshop CS5 or Illustrator CS5 – with a 20 percent discount. The offer runs through December 31, 2011 giving creative professionals a chance to upgrade to the latest in design software capabilities and performance. 
This limited offer will be honored by all Adobe Resellers and adobe.com for customers with a valid license to one of the qualifying CS2, CS3 or CS4 products below:
- Design Premium; Design Standard; Web Premium; Web Standard; Production Premium; or Master Collection
- Production Studio Premium or Standard; Design Bundle, Web Bundle; Video Bundle; or Macromedia Studio 8
- Adobe After Effects; Adobe Flash Professional; Adobe Illustrator; Adobe Audition; Adobe Dreamweaver; Adobe Fireworks; Adobe InDesign; Adobe Photoshop; Adobe Photoshop Extended; Adobe Premiere Pro
The Adobe® Creative Suite® 5.5 product line enables designers and developers to target popular and emerging smartphone and tablet platforms, as the revolution in mobile communications fundamentally changes the way content is distributed and consumed. Substantive advances to HTML5, Flash authoring, digital publishing and video tools as well as new capabilities that kick-start the integration of tablets into creative workflows, anchor the new Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 product family.
Additional information about the promotion can be found in the Terms and Conditions at: http://store.adobe.com/store/en_us/popup/offer/csupgrade.html
Please note that this promotion is separate from Adobe’s previously announced 50 percent discount on Production Premium CS5.5 and Premiere Pro CS5.5, available to users of Avid Media Composer or Final Cut Pro, which will be available through Oct. 31, 2011.
About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe is changing the world through digital experiences. For more information, visit http://www.adobe.com
One comment I frequently hear is something along the lines of “The lighting or shadows are too soft when using iray”. This can be explained in a few ways. First let’s approach this question with the assumption that the Daylight system is used, configured with the mrSun/mrSky of course. The first thing to realize is that the mrSun & mrSky in the daylight system isn’t really used by iray. It’s illuminating the scene with the mr Physical Sky shader that the daylight system prompts you to add to the scene environment as you add the daylight system to your scene.
In fact if you disable/turn-off the mrSun and mrSky in the daylight system you’ll discover that it will still render as if it was still active. So, the mr Physical Sky environment map is what’s illuminating your scene. Does this mean you should always disable the mrSun/mrSky in the daylight system or just directly apply the mr Physical Sky shader to the environment without creating a daylight system to begin with? No.
Why not? Because in order to set the time of day or have manual control over the sun placement in the mrPhysicalSky shader you’ll still have to move/place the mrSun. Plus if you disable the mrSun/mrSky it won’t give you that pretty viewport interactivity that is so useful these days. So go ahead and setup the daylight system as you would with mental ray but understand that the mrSun light source and mrSky light source are basically ignored by iray so don’t waste any time with adjusting it’s values.
Read tutorial here!
Award-Winning NLE Software Provides Comprehensive GPU Acceleration,
NVIDIA 3D Vision Support and New Titling Technology
MADISON, Wis. - Oct. 17, 2011 - Sony Creative Software, a leading global provider of professional editing and authoring applications, today announced the latest upgrade to itsVegas™ editing technology. Vegas Pro 11 adds significant performance improvements to the award-winning NLE, courtesy of OpenCL™ and highly optimized GPU hardware acceleration for video processing and rendering. Vegas Pro 11 is the world's first Windows-based OpenCL NLE, broadly supporting the open standard for core video editing operations, video effects and rendering. Other new features include NVIDIA 3D Vision support for single-display 3D computers such as the VAIO F Series 3D laptops and L Series 3D desktops, an enhanced video stabilizer tool, and new software tools for creating animated titles.
"Sony continues to be a leader in developing professional content-creation applications that are extremely powerful, yet easy to use," said Dave Chaimson, vice president of global marketing for Sony Creative Software. "With the addition of GPU acceleration, Vegas Pro 11 streamlines the video editing experience by providing smoother previews and faster rendering times, ideal for industry professionals who work on tight deadlines where every second counts. Utilizing the OpenCL standard, customers will find that even very affordable GPU solutions from AMD and NVIDIA offer workflow enhancements that provide between two and four times faster rendering speeds, with equally as impressive performance gains during video playback."
Vegas Pro 11 Feature Highlights:
- GPU Accelerated Video Processing - Working with OpenCL-supported devices from AMD and NVIDIA, Vegas Pro 11 leverages GPU acceleration for the core video processing engine, video effects, transitions, compositing, pan/crop, track motion and encoding, providing a significantly faster workflow. Details regarding these improved processes can be found at www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegaspro/gpuacceleration.
- Sync Link - More powerful than Event Grouping, this comprehensive editing feature enables users to easily organize and synchronize events on the timeline. Secondary audio and B-roll video clips can be edited independently of each other while remaining in sync with the primary clip.
- 2D and 3D Text Tools - Quickly create dynamic and visually stunning text animations and effects within Vegas Pro 11. Add 3D titles with the new Titler Pro from NewBlueFX, a great addition to the stereoscopic 3D workflow. Users can manipulate text down to the character level and on the X, Y, and Z axes. Stylized 2D motion can be applied to text events using the Titles and Text tool or with the improved ProType titler.
- Advanced Video Stabilization - Featuring motion analysis on all three camera axes, this new stabilization technology allows users to reduce jittery or shaky video caused by handheld recording devices, as well as eliminating rolling shutter problems inherent in most CMOS camera imagers. Stabilization is now implemented as an OpenFX plug-in which provides greater flexibility and power.
- Improved NVIDIA 3D Vision Support - Users can now edit on single-display 3D computers including VAIO F Series 3D laptops and VAIO L Series All-in-One 3D desktop systems.
- New Render Template Filtering - New render dialogs create a more efficient environment for searching and filtering render templates speeding up the workflow for finalizing output formats.
Industry-Leading Innovation, Broad Format Support
Sony Creative Software continues to innovate with world-class support for 3D technology and strong integrated video and audio tools through its latest version. Vegas Pro 11 improves on its ground-breaking "no transcode, no re-wrap" heritage by adding native format support for stereoscopic 3D MVC and MPO files from Sony camcorders and DSLRs. By eliminating the transcode and re-wrap process required by other applications, Vegas Pro 11 users can save valuable production time, minimize storage requirements, and preserve the pristine quality of the original source material. Other natively supported codecs and formats include XDCAM, XDCAM EX™, HDCAM-SR™, NXCAM, AVCHD, AVCCAM, RED R3D®, RED EPIC, and AVC-based .MOV and RAW files from popular DSLR cameras. Native P2 support is also available with an optional plug-in. Users now have the option to render to the AVC/MP4 file format which includes progressive file download support for streaming purposes.
Vegas Pro 11 easily handles complex projects with multiple formats and mixed resolutions, from standard definition to 4K. The intuitive, integrated stereoscopic workflow in Vegas Pro 11 enables novices as well as experienced editors to produce compelling 3D content without the added expense or complexity of aftermarket plug-ins.
"Vegas Pro meets the high standards required for our films, including managing and processing 4K 3D workflow," said Jean-Jacques Mantello, director of the acclaimed IMAX theater films "Dolphins and Whales 3D," "Sharks 3D" and "Ocean Wonderland," distributed by 3D Entertainment Distribution. "We've come to expect a consistent level of quality from Vegas Pro."
More information on Vegas Pro 11 and the entire line of Sony Creative Software products can be found at www.sonycreativesoftware.com.
Price and Availability
Vegas Pro 11 is now available for purchase at retailers worldwide and online atwww.sonycreativesoftware.com. Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for Vegas Pro 11 software is $699 USD. Upgrades from previous versions of Vegas Pro will be available for $199 USD from www.sonycreativesoftware.com. Localized French, German, Spanish and Japanese versions will also be available.
About Sony Creative Software
Sony Creative Software inspires artistic expression with its award-winning line of products for digital video, audio, and music production, as well as industry-leading technology for DVD production and Blu-ray Disc™ authoring. Sound Forge™ Pro, ACID™ Pro, and Vegas™ Pro software have defined digital content creation for a generation of creative professionals. These signature product lines continue to advance media production by providing powerful, accessible tools. Today, there is a Sony Creative Software application for every level of expertise, including a full line of consumer software based on the company's professional applications. In addition, Sony Creative Software produces the extensive Sony® Sound Series collection of royalty-free loops and samples, Sony Pictures Sound Effects Series exclusive sound effects, and Vision Series video creation assets. Further, the company provides the industry-leading tools for enterprise-level Blu-ray Disc™ authoring: Blu-code™ encoder, Dualstream 3D™ MVC encoder, Z Depth™ 3D subtitle editing application, and Blu-print® software. The company's customers span the globe and include professionals in the film, television, video game, and recording industries, as well as students, educators, and hobbyists. For more information about professional and consumer products, visit www.sonycreativesoftware.com.
Vegas is a trademark or registered trademark of Sony Creative Software Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
Production Company: Spy Films
Arev Manoukian Director
Carlo Trulli Executive Producer
Marcus Trulli Producer
Animation & Visual Effects by: DIGITAL DOMAIN
Ed Ulbrich President, Commercial Division; Executive Vice President
Tanya Cohen Executive Producer
Jim Riche Executive Producer
Richard Morton Visual Effects Supervisor
Melanie La Rue Senior Producer
Michael Shores Senior Producer
David Liu CG Supervisor
William Lemmon Coordinator
Niles Heckman Previs Artist
Derek Crosby Technical Director
Adrian Dimond Technical Director
Michael Lori Data Integration
Hilery Johnson Copeland Roto Artist
Kanae Morton Roto Artist
Ryan Apuy Digital Artist
Lee Carlton Digital Artist
Daisuke Nagae Digital Artist
Anthony Ramirez Digital Artist
Gideon Vandegrift Digital Artist
Samir Lyons Animator
Dan Patterson Animator
Jason Mortimer Lead FX artist
John Cooper FX artist
Eric Ebling FX artist
Ken Jones FX artist
Rafael F. Colón Lead Nuke Compositor
Arthur Argote Nuke Compositor
Sven Dreesbach Nuke Compositor
Niles Heckman Nuke Compositor
Aruna Inversin Nuke Compositor
Lenz Kol Nuke Compositor
Christopher DeCristo Flame Artist
Jeff Heusser Flame Artist
3D version here:
LIGA_01 has produced a show room trailer for Audi Q3 .
Using a variety of content from the Audi Q3 product films was the main focus this time on the staging and atmospheric dynamicdriving scenes.
Here, the LIGA_01 an atmospheric city has evolved from paper to within this graphically-looking scenery of the Audi Q3 as a miracle of space for the urban society of tomorrow's stage, want to find new answers to the increasingly tight space in modern cities. TheAudi Q3 creates with all of its optional features and its dynamic new spaces and uses the ever-growing paper town as a stage. 
All of the driving scenes AUDI Q3 were generated entirely in computer animation, with special focus was on the photo realistic car in conjunction with authentic camera angles and dynamic perspectives. This creates the impression that the Audi Q3 had been shot in a white backdrop. 
This effect occurs not only through the successful mood light and the high materiality of the paint, which reflects the building and theenvironment. In particular, the concentration curves in a physically sound, acceleration and braking, so a realistic driving dynamics, round off the overall impression.
Client: Audi AG
Agency: Philipp und Keuntje
Creation: Rouven Steiman
Directed by: Alexander Schillinsky, Sebastian Rätsch
Line Producer: Alexander Schillinsky
VFX Supervisor: Sebastian Rätsch
3D: Torben Dirksmeyer, Wilhelm Molderings, Tobias Sprengart, Sebastian Rätsch, Tim Borgmann
2D/3D Assistance: Martin Konietzny
Compositing: Florian Dehmel, Daniel Hummer
Avid: Florian Dehmel
October 12, 2011. Beaverton, Oregon: e-on software, the leader in Digital Nature solutions today announced the formal unveiling of its upcoming Vue 10 product line - scheduled for release early November, 2011.
Among other significant advances, this new release introduces a number of major enhancements such as spline and road tools, a new rock technology, streamlined terrain editing, a physical water shading engine along with significant improvements in overall rendering performance and artistic control.
Release Schedule and Product Lineup
E-on software expects to release the entire Vue 10 product line early November 2011*.
The Vue 10 product line is built around the same three-tiered structure:
- Vue 10 for CG Professionals: Vue Infinite and Vue xStream.
Offers CG professionals premiere solutions for creating exceptionally rich and realistic Digital Nature environments with seamless integration into any production workflow. - Vue 10 for 3D Artists: Vue Esprit, Vue Studio and Vue Complete.
Provides 3D artists with powerful modular applications to create rich 3D Digital Nature scenery and landscapes. - Vue 10 for 3D Enthusiasts: Vue Pioneer and Theme-Packs, Vue 3D SuperHero and Vue Frontier.
Published by Cornucopia3D and powered by e-on software, these products feature content-filled, easy-to-use scenic nature creation for home and family use, with Vue Frontier specifically dedicated to Poser™ and Daz|Studio™ users.
*Professional solutions will ship first, followed closely by products for 3D Artists and 3D Enthusiasts.
Next Generation Features
Capitalizing on breakthrough technologies introduced in previous versions, Vue 10 adds a number of new and extended features such as:
- Spline and Road Tools: Vue 10 includes a comprehensive spline toolkit that can be used for EcoSystems, terrain effects, building roads or creating objects. An automatic Path-finding algorithm can also be used to build realistic roads at the surface of terrains.
- Dynamic Rocks: Vue 10 features a library of dynamic rock templates that can be used to instantly create single rocks, groups of rocks, or use them in EcoSystems. Each time the user creates a rock from a template, a new and unique variation will be generated.
- Water Shading Engine and Physical Transparency: Physical water adds absorption and scattering parameters to allow for realistic light absorption in the body of water. Ocean waves now accurately affect incident light to produce realistic underwater caustics.
- Render Comparison: The new render display dialog now lets the user stack and compare previous renders. Users can overlay and compare 2 renders (including multi-pass layers) and use HDR difference tools for in depth analysis. Lightweight render clones can be created to test various postprocessing effects, without altering the original render.
- EcoSystem Phase and Lean-out Control: Vue 10 lets the user individually control the phase (animation offset) of animated elements inside EcoSystem populations for creating more natural animations. Phase is totally user-controllable on a per instance basis, using the function graph. EcoSystem Lean-out Control lets the user define how the EcoSystem instances lean out towards zones of lower density.
- Terrain Editing Improvements: Users can now precisely preview the active zones when painting with a brush that has Environment Constraints applied. A new Custom 3D terrain brush is added to the brush collection. Mask rotation can also be enabled/disabled when painting in the terrain editor. Material painting in the terrain editor is markedly improved. A new Strata3D node is added for the creation of realistic canyon walls and stratified rock formations. And much more!
- Edge-based Anti-Aliasing: A new edge-based anti-aliasing algorithm is added to complement the previous color-based anti-aliasing strategy. Both AA settings can be configured independently.
- Improved Depth of Field and Motion Blur.
- Up to 30% Faster Rendering Speed: Significant internal optimizations made to Vue 10’s rendering engine will result in dramatically accelerated rendering.
- And much more: new "Main View Defined" Aspect Ratio, Multiple Camera Aspect Ratio Variation, Improved Render Area, Texture Projection Node, Mixed Materials Alpha Channel, Collada Morph Targets...
- Plus all the new features introduced in Vue 9.5 such as GPU Anti-Aliasing, FastHybrid Depth of Field, Atmosphere Relighting, Localized Cloud Layers, Advanced Cloud Control, Interactive Texture Placement, Custom Star Maps and more.
More details on the new features as well as the complete description pages will be published at the time of release.
Vue 10 xStream / Infinite Pre-Release Versions Immediately Available
Users of Vue xStream or Vue Infinite under maintenance will receive the upgrade to the corresponding Vue 10 product at no charge, and if desired, can download a pre-release version of their Vue 10 upgrade immediately.
More information on e-on software’s maintenance plans can be found at:
www.e-onsoftware.com/maintenance
Vue 10 xStream and Vue 10 Infinite are expected to ship in the first half of November 2011. Customers who purchased Vue 9.5 xStream or Infinite within 30 days of the release of Vue 10 will receive Vue 10 at no cost as part of the Free 30 Day Maintenance included with all new purchases.
Vue 9 Esprit, Studio or Complete users who enrolled in e-on's product subscription program will receive their upgrade to Vue 10 for free as soon as the product is released (early November).
About e-on software
E-on software is the leading developer of solutions for the creation, animation, rendering and integration of natural 3D environments. Offering a wide array of Digital Nature products and applications, e-on software provides solutions adapted to every project and budget. E-on software products are used worldwide by the film, television, architecture, game, science, educational and entertainment industries.
E-on software products were used in feature films such as as "Thor", "Avatar", "Clash of the Titans", "Despicable Me", "The Wolf Man", "2012", "Lovely Bones", "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus", "GI Joe – The Rise of the Cobra", "The Proposal", "Land of the Lost", "Terminator 4, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", "Indiana Jones 4", "Monster Vs Aliens", "Australia", "The Spiderwick Chronicles", "KungFu Panda", "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" and TV series such as "Smallville", "Battlestar Gallactica", "Caprica", "Stargate Atlantis", "Stargate Continuum", and more. Read more on these stories in e-on software's Spotlights section: www.e-onsoftware.com/spotlight.
E-on software was founded on the premise that powerful graphics tools should never get in the way of the designer's creativity. By investing significant resources into research and development, e-on software is able to deliver cutting-edge, user friendly technologies that produce stunning Digital Nature scenery.
E-on software is based in Beaverton, Oregon with an European office in Paris, France.
Visit their website at http://www.e-onsoftware.com.
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