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cartNews » 3D Animation a Safe Harbor blogMAXON Announces Immediate Availability of R12 of Acclaimed 3D Package CINEMA 4D
Friedrichsdorf, Germany, September 1, 2010 - MAXON Computer, a leading developer of professional 3D software, today announced the immediate availability of CINEMA 4D Release 12, the next generation of its highly-acclaimed professional 3D software application. The comprehensive CINEMA 4D Release 12 builds on more than two decades of 3D graphics development excellence and boasts dozens of new productivity enhancing features including improved rendering, enhanced dynamics, new deformers and superior character animation capabilities to allow digital artists to intuitively and easily create high-end 3D images and animations. "Today’s release marks a significant milestone in the development of MAXON‘s professional 3D software and is a testament to more than two decades of programming excellence," remarked Harald Schneider, CEO and co-founder of MAXON Computer. "Our development team made every effort to bring customer requested features that are easy to use, stable and powerful. Creative professionals from all industries will find unparalleled solutions to help them meet the challenges of today’s fast-paced production environments and create award-winning content." Key Highlights of CINEMA 4D Release 12 (Not all features are included in every configuration. Please see the Product Comparison Chart on the MAXON web site for more info)
This release also marks a widespread reorganization across the CINEMA 4D R12 product line with the introduction of four editions offering a proven workflow and feature sets targeted to professional 3D animators, motion graphics artists, architects and designers. Paul Babb, president and CEO, MAXON US adds, "The product line reorganization is a practical step that gives all customers, from hobbyist to studio professional, clear choices when deciding on the features they need to deliver high impact, creative results," he said. "Customers will also benefit from the streamlined and condensed product structure as it allows our team to better focus on developing new, exciting functionality." [US Editors’ note: The CINEMA 4D Release 12 product line will be on display in the United States at the Content & Communications World Conference next month, October 13 – 14, in New York City.] MAXON's New Product Line-Up The CINEMA 4D Release 12 product line includes breakthrough new editions that cater to the creative workflow needs of professionals in specialized 3D markets, as well as an upgrade to BodyPaint 3D, MAXON’s highly acclaimed high end painting and texture application, as follows:
MAXON will no longer be offering individual modules for purchase. System Requirements Recommended system requirements include Windows XP, Vista or 7 running on Intel or AMD CPU with SSE2-Support; Mac OS X 10.5.8 or higher running on an Intel-based Mac; 1024 MB RAM, DVD ROM drive. Standard DVD installation can take up to 2.5 GB of disk space. Pricing, Availability and Upgrade Path CINEMA 4D Release 12 and BodyPaint 3D Release 12 are available now from MAXON and its authorized dealers. NewTek Introduces LightWave™ 10
SAN ANTONIO – SIGGRAPH – NewTek, worldwide leader of 3D animation and video products, today announced NewTek LightWave™ 10, the next generation of its Emmy® award-winning professional 3D modeling, animation, and rendering software. LightWave 10 will combine ground-breaking CORE technology with enhanced Modeler and Layout to deliver the most extensive upgrade in years to LightWave's production-proven workflow. NewTek continues to innovate with LightWave 10, offering powerful new features and benefits to LightWave artists, including an amazingly photoreal real-time version of our award-winning renderer, VPR (Viewport Preview Renderer) and advanced, real-time CG hardware viewport shading, delivering Anaglyph Stereo, Ambient Occlusion, Transparency, Refractions, and Bloom. LightWave 10 will also offer extensive, new immersive real-time virtual cinematography and game development tools. These solutions evolved as a result of the virtual cinematic production techniques that were pioneered by leading Hollywood artists and technicians for films like "Avatar," "Tintin," and "A Christmas Carol." For production studios and more advanced individuals, this immersive technology includes integrated support for the InterSense VCam™, virtual camera system. The individual artist gains a similar immersive experience with LightWave 10 and its integrated support for 3Dconnexion's complete line of 3D mice. This powerful combination provides directors and artists with the ability to interact in real time within a 3D set. "As a LightWave HardCORE member, I love the power and flexibility that I get with the preview builds of LightWave 10," said Lino Grandi, feature film creature rigging and visual effects supervisor. "VPR allows me to see the complex creature rigging deformations in a beautiful real-time render. It's incredible to be able to work on a character rig and get this advanced level of visual feedback. Interactive lighting, procedural textures, reflections, transparency, radiosity, it's all there." LightWave 10 is ideal for all production pipelines-from large production facilities to small specialized studios. It offers the following new elements: Interactive Display and Rendering Tools:
Flexible Data Interchange Enhancements:
New Immersive, Real-Time and Game Tools:
Bullet Rigid Body Dynamics:
Advanced UV Mapping Tools:
"The imagery created by LightWave users and studios and the yearly awards and recognitions for that work speaks for itself," said Rob Powers, vice president, 3D development, NewTek. "LightWave has an indisputable track record in the industry and allows studios and individuals to continually turn out award-winning work on time, on schedule, on budget and with a profit. If you are doing feature film effects, prime time TV, commercial work, music videos, or a science fiction project and you're not using LightWave in your pipeline, you should reconsider your approach." About LightWave NewTek LightWave 3D® combines a state-of-the-art renderer with powerful, intuitive modeling, and animation tools. Tools that may cost extra in other professional 3D applications are part of the product package, including 999 free cross-platform render nodes, support for Windows and Mac UB 64 and 32-bit operating systems, free technical support and more. LightWave is enjoyed worldwide, as a complete 3D production solution for feature film and television visual effects, broadcast design, print graphics, visualization, game development, and Web. LightWave is responsible for more artists winning Emmy® Awards than any other 3D application. Pricing and Availability LightWave 10 will begin shipping in Q4 2010. Artists may gain access to preview builds of LightWave 10 immediately through NewTek SIGGRAPH special offers. When LightWave 10 ships in Q4 2010 it will be available for a suggested retail price of US$1,495.00. LightWave 10 upgrades will be available for US$695. Educational pricing is also available. About NewTek Benefiting producers and artists with cost-effective and groundbreaking technologies, NewTek is a worldwide leader in 3D animation and special effects tools, portable live production and video editing including LightWave 3D®, the TriCaster™ product line and 3PLAY™. NewTek has won numerous industry accolades, including two Emmy® Awards. NewTek products have been used in blockbuster films and television shows, including "Avatar," "Repo Men," "Alice in Wonderland," "Tintin," "The Dark Knight," "Iron Man," "Caprica," "V," "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," "Lost," "Fringe" and more. NewTek is privately owned and based in San Antonio, Texas. For more information, please visit: www.newtek.com. Apple Unveils New Mac Pros Coming August 2010
This morning we saw an update to the Apple site, announcing new Mac Pros coming this August. Boasting the title, "Mac. To the power of 12," Apple is calling it the fastest Mac ever, with up to 12 cores of processing power. More information can be found at http://www.apple.com/macpro/. Accelerated architecture.Choose your cores: 4, 6, 8, or 12.
The single-die advantage. Many multicore processors are composed of two separate dies, which means some cached data has to travel outside the processor to get from core to core. That’s an inefficient way to access information. Enter the Quad-Core and 6-Core Intel Xeon processors. Their single-die, 64-bit architecture makes 8MB or 12MB of fully shared L3 cache readily available to each of the processor cores. The result is fast access to cache data and greater application performance. Combine that with the other technological advances and you get a Mac Pro that’s up to 1.5x faster than the previous generation.1 Fast memory. And lots of it. System memory is often connected to a processor through a separate I/O controller. But Intel Xeon "Nehalem" and "Westmere" processors feature an integrated memory controller. By connecting memory directly to the processor, the new Mac Pro processors have faster access to data stored in memory, and memory latency is reduced.
The integrated memory controller, along with fast DDR3 ECC SDRAM at either 1066GHz or 1333GHz, gives Mac Pro an increase in memory bandwidth over previous generations. More bandwidth allows for more data to be fed to the processor faster, helping each core spend its time processing data, not waiting for information to arrive. And Error Correction Code (ECC) corrects single-bit errors and detects multiple-bit errors automatically. That’s especially important in mission-critical and compute-intensive environments. Power when (and where) you need it. The Mac Pro features Turbo Boost, a dynamic performance technology that automatically boosts the processor clock speed based on workload. If you’re using an application that doesn’t need every core, Turbo Boost increases the speed of the active ones, up to 3.33GHz on a 12-core Mac Pro, and up to 3.6GHz on a 6-core system.
Up to 24 virtual cores. The Intel Xeon processors support Hyper-Threading, which allows two threads to run simultaneously on each core. So, for example, a 12-core Mac Pro presents 24 virtual cores that are recognized by Mac OS X. Performance is enhanced because Hyper-Threading enables the processor to take better advantage of the execution resources available in each core. Path of least resistance. A bidirectional, point-to-point connection — called QuickPath Interconnect — gives the Intel Xeon processors quick access to the disk, I/O, and other Mac Pro subsystems. In dual-processor Mac Pro models, there’s a QuickPath Interconnect between the two processors as well. This connection acts as a direct pipeline, so processor-to-processor data doesn’t need to travel to the I/O hub first. It’s another way the Mac Pro boosts performance across the board. Powerfully efficient. The Mac Pro meets the stringent low power requirements set by the EPA, giving it ENERGY STAR qualification. ENERGY STAR 5.0 sets significantly higher efficiency limits for power supplies and aggressive limits for the computer’s typical annual power consumption. Faster than a speeding anything.
Even faster standard graphics. All-new high-performance graphics cards from AMD make Mac Pro graphics technology faster than ever before. Perfect for motion graphics, 3D modeling, rendering, or animation, the ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory comes standard. It not only provides faster performance compared to previous Mac Pro standard graphics cards — it’s also faster than the top-of-the-line graphics cards in the previous generation. Give your graphics a turbo boost. For even more graphics horsepower, upgrade to the ATI Radeon HD 5870 with 1GB of GDDR5 memory. An ideal choice for the most demanding applications, this card features a wider memory bus and higher-performance GPU, resulting in faster performance compared with the ATI Radeon HD 5770. Don’t keep those pixels waiting. The foundation of the Mac Pro graphics architecture is the latest generation of GPUs connected to the system via a fast and wide PCI Express 2.0 16-lane bus. Couple that with Core Animation, Core Image, and Core Video technologies in Mac OS X Snow Leopard. The result is a graphics platform that allows applications to seamlessly tap into a teraflop of graphics power.
Graphics on display. Every new Mac Pro graphics card features three display ports for maximum workspace flexibility. Two Mini DisplayPort outputs connect to a pair of Apple LED Cinema Displays with ease. And a dual-link DVI port connects a 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display or other DVI display. And with support for two ATI Radeon HD 5770 cards in the Mac Pro, you can connect more displays — up to six total. Store more.Massive storage. The Mac Pro comes with four 3.5-inch drive bays for an enormous amount of internal storage — up to 8TB when you install four 2TB Serial ATA 3Gb/s drives.1 Each bay provides its own independent 3Gb/s channel for fast access to data. And thanks to the cable-free, direct-attach installation system, adding (or replacing) hard drives is a surprisingly simple process.
New to the Mac Pro is the option to add up to four 512GB solid-state drives — or any combination of solid-state and hard drives.2 Solid-state drives have no moving parts and are capable of accessing data at speeds up to 230MB per second, which is up to twice the speed of hard drives. The result? Incredible performance on a range of data-intensive tasks, including up to 2x faster ProRes video encoding using solid-state drives compared with hard drives.3 Ready to RAID For data protection and enhanced SATA hard drive performance, add the Mac Pro RAID Card with 512MB of RAID cache, a 72-hour cache-protecting battery, and hardware RAID levels 0, 1, 5, and 0+1.2 A cableless connection and intuitive Apple software make it a snap to install this optional card. It’s the perfect solution for workgroup servers, video pros working with high-bit-rate assets, or anyone who wants to protect critical data. Even without a RAID card, Mac OS X lets you stripe two, three, or all four drives — either solid-state or hard drives — in a RAID 0 array to increase performance and create a massive volume for tasks such as video editing; or create a RAID 1 mirror to protect digital media assets from a drive failure. Double-layer burner times two. Sure it’s great to have one 18x SuperDrive at your disposal, but think how much more productive you could be if you add a second optional SuperDrive. Imagine backing up your data to two double-layer DVDs at once. Or burning Aperture projects to one DVD, while importing music from a CD into your iTunes library. With two optical drive bays in every system, the Mac Pro lets you do exactly that. Designed to be custom designed.Expansion made easy. The easy-access interior of the Mac Pro feels like the well-organized workstation it is. No rat’s nest of components here. You don’t need to turn the system on its side or struggle to reach into awkward spaces to make changes. Just remove the side panel for instant access to everything. Slide out the processor tray to add memory. Slide out drive bays to add storage. Slide a simple bar to change up to four expansion cards at once. And with plenty of I/O ports both front and back, you’ll have room for all your external devices. Tool-less PCI. When it’s time to upgrade, a quick slide of the retention bar frees up the four expansion card slots for easy access. Thanks to a thumbscrew PCI bracket, you can swap out cards without any tools. All four slots are PCI Express 2.0 for incredible performance. And since the graphics slot in the Mac Pro is double-wide, your graphics card won’t cover an adjacent slot. Slide-in storage. The Mac Pro comes with four 3.5-inch drive bays for an enormous amount of internal storage — up to 8TB.* For faster access to your data, you can also configure your Mac Pro with up to four solid-state drives. The bays are direct-attach and cable free, so it’s easy to add or remove drives. Just attach the drive carrier to a drive and slide the drive into place. There are no connectors or cables to contend with. Lock the drives with the side door latch, and you’re done. Snap-in memory. Install more memory in your Mac Pro in a snap. Literally. The easy-access interior lets you slide out the processor tray in one smooth motion, then simply snap new memory into place. You don’t have to dig around inside the computer or wrestle with wires or cables. The single-processor Mac Pro offers four slots that support up to 16GB of DDR3 ECC SDRAM, while the dual-processor Mac Pro offers eight slots that support up to 32GB. Front and back I/O. There are plenty of places to connect external devices to your Mac Pro. You’ll find two FireWire 800 ports, two USB 2.0 ports, and a headphone minijack right up front — where it’s more convenient to connect storage, multimedia devices, and high-speed peripherals.And there are even more ports on the back: three USB 2.0, two FireWire 800, optical audio in and out, analog audio in and out, and dual Gigabit Ethernet ports. For more information please visit http://www.apple.com/macpro/. Craft Animations Announces New Custom Development Service
(Gothenburg, Sweden—July 20, 2010) Fulfilling the growing need for high-quality 3D toolsets that solve even the most difficult or mundane animation tasks, Craft Animations today announces the availability of its Custom Development Service. Ideal for designers, animators, educators and engineers who require specialized capabilities, real-time integration or custom toolsets for specific task completion, the Craft Animations Custom Development Service automatically extends efficiency and functionality of any software application or simulation system. Based on Craft Animations' in-depth knowledge of specialized tool development and autonomous control systems, apparent through the company's flagship toolset Craft Director Studio, the Custom Development Service offers personalized creation of stand-alone solutions, add-ons or plug-ins based on specific customer request. Utilization of this service provides users a fully customized turnkey solution ideal for their distinctive project. "With over 25 vehicle and camera tools within the complete Craft Director Studio suite, Craft Animations is already setting the standard for high-quality specialized animation solutions," explains Deborah Lygonis, Craft Animations founder and CEO. "However, user demand has shown us the need to open up our development processes to meet the immediate needs and goals of our users. Now, we are able to serve as a partner - not just a tool developer - to help enhance options and customize tools that further simplify any unique need for complex animation." The Craft Animations Custom Development Service offers the following tool expansion opportunities:
Craft Animations will feature the Custom Development Service, as well as the entire Craft Director Studio suite, at SIGGRAPH 2010 taking place from July 25-29 in Los Angeles. Demonstrations of Craft Director Studio will be also available within the Craft Animations (#901) and Autodesk (#500) booths. For more about the Craft Animations Custom Development Service, Craft Director Studio Editions or SIGGRAPH events, please visit http://www.craftanimations.com. Pricing and Availability Artists and designers interested in taking advantage of the Craft Animations Custom Development Service should contact sales@craftanimations.com. Pricing is determined by the scope and depth of each request, and need for proprietary ownership. Tools will be available for requesting user only, unless otherwise specified. For further information, please visit http://www.craftanimations.com/products/special-development/introduction. About Craft Animations Founded in 2006 and based in Gothenburg, Sweden, Craft Animations™ AB is a leading developer of a new era of professional real-time 3D animation technology, Craft Director Studio™. Based on cutting-edge research in autonomous control systems, Craft Director Studio and it's add-ons simulate the complex physical behavior of cameras and 3D vehicles such as helicopters, cars, airplanes, boats and motorcycles. Utilized by high-profile companies worldwide such as Disney, Pixar, NAMCO BANDAI, Lockheed Martin, Ford and Toyota; Craft Director Studio streamlines production, enhances realism and increases creativity for users in the visual effects, game development, forensic reconstruction, military and defense, and architectural design industries. For more information, please visit http://www.craftanimations.com. e-on Software Announces Authorized Training Center Program
Beaverton, Ore. - e-on software, maker of solutions for Digital Nature, revealed the formation of a new program aimed at promoting the use and instruction of Vue and e-on software products at higher education universities and computer graphics institutions. The Authorized Training Center (ATC) program includes a number of specific elements tailored for higher education institutions that make it easier and much more affordable to incorporate Vue within a computer graphics curriculum. "As Vue becomes more widely used throughout the professional computer graphics community, we have seen increasing demand to support the leading CG schools and universities to train the next generation of aspiring CG professionals," said Nicholas Phelps, president of e-on software. "We are extremely pleased to have the highly acclaimed institutions, Academy of Art University and Kansas State University, as inaugural members of this important new program." "We are offering Vue classes and training as part of our CG curriculum beginning this fall 2010," said Jason Patnode, Maya lead instructor at the San Francisco, California based Academy of Art University. "A number of our students have already used Vue with great success in their CG environment projects and we intend to make Vue more widely available across the student community." Key ATC Program Benefits The following represents some of the key benefits of the new ATC program:
Accredited, higher education institutions are invited to apply for acceptance into the e-on ATC program. MAXON Announces Availability of CINEMA 4D Plug-in for Adobe After Effects CS5
(Friedrichsdorf, Germany—May 27, 2010) MAXON Computer, a leading developer of professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions, is pleased to announce the immediate availability of an updated CINEMA 4D exchange plugin for Adobe After Effects CS5. The plugin features 64-bit native compatibility for Windows and Mac OS X to allow users of CINEMA 4D to take full advantage of available hardware operating system performance for improved rendering and workflow efficiency directly inside the After Effects application. CINEMA 4D – MAXON’s leading 3D motion graphics ‘powerhouse’ – is highly praised for its ease of use, quick workflow, fast rendering, rock-solid architecture and seamless export of composition files. Its unmatched integration to leading compositing tools like Adobe After Effects, supports not only 2D compositions, but also 3D camera, light and object data. MAXON will make the new After Effects CS5 plugin available free of charge in the download section of http://www.maxon.net. About CINEMA 4D MAXON CINEMA 4D is a professional 3D software package offering everything needed to create high-end 3D images and animations for film, broadcast, architecture, games, multimedia, design and engineering. Continuing a two-decade tradition of excellence, CINEMA 4D 11.5 offers spectacular image quality and an intuitive, easy-to-use interface that puts professional results within reach of artists at all levels of CGI experience. CINEMA 4D 11.5 delivers speed and productivity by taking advantage of the latest advances in processor technology, and its modular design allows configurations tailored to the distinct needs of specialized 3D markets. About MAXON Computer MAXON Computer is a developer of professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions. Its award-winning CINEMA 4D and BodyPaint 3D software products have been used extensively to help create everything from stunning visual effects in top feature films, TV shows and commercials, cutting-edge game cinematics for AAA games, as well for medical illustration, architectural and industrial design applications. MAXON has offices in Germany, USA, United Kingdom, France and Japan. MAXON products are available directly from the Website and its worldwide distribution channel. Specially priced learning editions of the company’s software solutions are also made available to educational institutions. For additional information on MAXON visit http://www.maxon.net. HP Technology Helps DreamWorks Animation Bring Shrek Forever After in 3D to Life
Palo Alto, Calif. - The power of HP technology and the creativity of DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. fuse once again as the studio's final chapter to the Shrek film series, Shrek Forever After, hits theatres in 3D. Audiences will experience an army of green ogres, hundreds of dancing witches and all of the original Shrek characters as never seen before—in spectacular 3D. The film's technological breakthroughs are made possible in part by HP technology, which powered the development of the entire Shrek series, from start to finish. For Shrek Forever After, these technologies included HP Z800 Workstations, HP ProLiant blade servers, HP Halo Telepresence Solutions, HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array, HP StorageWorks X9000 Network Storage Systems, and HP DreamColor displays. "At DreamWorks Animation we create two to three 3D films a year, and our intention is to ensure that audiences enjoy a higher-quality premium experience with each new film," says Ed Leonard, chief technology officer, DreamWorks Animation. "HP helps us to accomplish this goal by giving our filmmakers the best tools and products so they can be empowered by technology … not limited by it." "DreamWorks Animation is famous for pushing the limits of innovation to engage with audiences in new ways," says Jeff Wood, director, Worldwide Marketing, Workstations, HP. "HP is committed to a continued investment in research and development to provide customers like DreamWorks with innovations that break through creative barriers to enable the next generation in film." Production artists at DreamWorks Animation used HP Z800 Workstations to design everything in the film from characters to lighting. According to DreamWorks Animation, the HP Z800 proved to be significantly faster than its predecessor — providing speeds up to 50 percent faster. DreamWorks Animation's render farm for Shrek Forever After, a grouping of computers that work in concert to process animation sequences, was the largest and most powerful render farm ever used in the studio's production of a computer graphics animated film. The production of Shrek Forever After required nearly 76 terabytes of data and more than 46 million render hours, in contrast to the 6 terabytes of data and near 5 million render hours needed in 2001 for Shrek. In addition to advancements in lighting technology, character development has taken leaps forward with state-of-the art effects and tools in hair. In Shrek, character hair was kept short, modelled as a solid mass and rendered with multiple strands to create the best look possible. Because of the challenges at the time, Fiona's hair was designed in one long braid with no significant movement. With the latest advancements used in Shrek Forever After, artists have the technological freedom to animate hair that helps define their characters. As a result, Fiona now has fiery locks that flow in the wind to accentuate her new role as a glorious warrior ogress. Using the most current animation tools, and having them supported by HP's products, Shrek Forever After became a living lab of new technologies being used in remarkable ways. From Z800 Workstations driving story artists using Cintiq tablets, ProLiant BL460c G6 blades for server management, to DreamColor Displays and printers to ensure color accuracy across the studios, HP supports and enables DreamWorks Animation filmmakers from the original idea until a film reaches the screen. Fun facts about Shrek Forever After
E-on Software Ships Vue 8.5
E-on Software Ships Vue 8.5Beaverton, Ore. - E-on software, maker of Digital Nature solutions, announced the immediate availability of Vue 8.5 xStream and Infinite, its professional solutions for the creation, animation, and rendering of natural 3D environments. Vue xStream and Vue Infinite are the company’s flagship solutions for the creation of natural 3D environments. While Vue Infinite is a standalone application, Vue xStream operates seamlessly inside 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, LightWave, and Cinema4D. Specifically designed for graphics professionals, these products combine a multitude of cutting edge features that easily integrate into existing production pipelines. Release 8.5 of Vue adds a number of breakthrough features:
Vue 8.5 is available free of charge for all users under maintenance. Users of Vue 8 who are not under maintenance and wish to advance to Vue 8.5 should purchase maintenance; they will receive Vue 8.5 and the Vue 9 upgrade free of charge. Customers who purchased Vue 8 xStream or Infinite within 30 days of the release of Vue 8.5 will automatically receive Vue 8.5 at no cost as part of the Free 30 Day Maintenance included with all new purchases. Site licensing discounts are available, contact e-on software for further details and pricing information. Vue 8.5 xStream and Vue 8.5 Infinite are available in English for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7, for both 32 and 64 bit, and on Mac OSX 10.5+ as a 32 bit application - Mac Intel only (a beta version of Vue 8.4 and 8.5 for Cocoa 64 bit will be released during Q2 2010). Vue 8.5 xStream is compatible with the following renderers: Mental Ray for 3ds Max, Maya and Softimage (integrated and MR satellites), V-Ray for 3ds Max and Maya, Maya Software, as well as the native Cinema 4D and LightWave renderers. Other renderers are under consideration. Vue 8.5 xStream adds compatibility with 3ds Max 2011, Maya 2011, and Softimage 2011. Teen Gaming Academy Expands to Seattle and Chicago
Campbell, Calif. - The iD Gaming Academy, a summer game development boot camp for teens, has announced two new locations for its summer 2010 lineup. Now in its 5th season, the iD Gaming Academy has expanded to Seattle and Chicago. The two-week program immerses students in game theory, development, graphics—and "behind the scenes" aspects of the industry. "We have a lot of gamers who come to us expecting the experience to be easy—but developing games requires patience, the ability to work in teams—and you’ve got to be good. The industry is growing, and the competition is strong. We give our students a leg up," says Pete Ingram-Cauchi, CEO of the iD Gaming Academy. The Academy has locations at Stanford University, Villanova University, Emory University, and now the University of Washington in Seattle and Lake Forest College in Chicago. The summer programs are strategically located close to some of the country’s premiere gaming studios including Electronic Arts, Valve, Microsoft Game Studios, Hi-Rez Studios, and Big Huge Games. The Academy incorporates tours of many of these studios into its curriculum. "We want to give them a taste for what a real gaming studio looks like and feels like," says Ingram-Cauchi. The Academy hires industry professionals with game development experience. Jay Vales is a 3D Modeling instructor at the Academy, and has professional credits working on many well known games including the massively multi-player online role playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft. Alex Liebert, another Academy instructor, is an indie game developer and owner of Aqualux Deluxe which is a Web-based action/puzzle game."It’s really gratifying to see the satisfaction in a student’s face at the moment something clicks—when they’ve wrapped their head around a tough concept and created something they’re proud of. There’s a thrill in seeing your (game) ideas come to life," says Liebert. Teen students look to the Academy to teach the building blocks of gaming. And it might be a smart choice for those considering the potential of the gaming industry as a career choice. A nod to the long term sustainability of gaming, a recent Business Week article outlined the fact that the video game industry posted $1.52 billion in March 2010 sales, up 6% over the same period a year ago. The growing importance of video games is hard to miss. A recent USA Today article stated that Erskine Bowles, head of the Obama administration's budget-balancing task force, had contacted Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to see if the company could build a video game that would allow gamers "to take a stab at balancing the budget." And recently, Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt suggested that playing multiplayer video games " is good training for a career in tech." The summer gaming camp provides instruction in different two-week courses, and enhances the gaming experience with gaming tournaments powered by Nvidia. The teen camp courses include Modeling and Animation with Maya, and Programming for Game Consoles, which allows users to develop games for delivery on the PC or Xbox 360. Other academy courses include Level Design – Unreal Engine 3, where Teens mod Unreal Tournament 3 with the same engine used for the Gears of War and Bio Shock series. E-on Software Uncovers Vue 8.5
Beaverton, Ore. - E-on software, maker of Digital Nature solutions , pre-released Vue 8.5 xStream and Infinite, its professional solutions for the creation, animation, and rendering of natural 3D environments. Vue xStream and Vue Infinite are the company’s flagship solutions for the creation of natural 3D environments. While Vue Infinite is a standalone application, Vue xStream operates inside Autodesk's 3ds Max, Maya, and Softimage, NewTek's LightWave, and Maxon's Cinema 4D. Release 8.5 of Vue adds a number of breakthrough features: Global Gamma Control: the ability to fully control the gamma in Vue ensures perfect coherence all along the user’s pipeline and will result in much higher fidelity of color and light in the final images. Users can fully control input and output gammas as well as the gamma used for displaying textures and colors inside the application. Interactive Cloud Control: cloud layers can be manipulated, rotated or resized interactively using the standard manipulation gizmos. They can also be animated using standard animation tools. Animated Planetary Cloud Density Maps: users can define animated maps to control the density of cloud layers on a planetary scale (e.g. to create animated hurricane shots). Diagnosis Render Passes: users can easily detect rendering bottlenecks and optimize render times by using the diagnosis render passes. For each pixel in the image Vue can indicate total render time of the pixel, number of anti-aliasing rays, number of texture anti-aliasing samples, total number of sub-rays in the pixel, total number of shadow rays, max recursion depth reached by a sub-ray, and number of final gather samples for that pixel. Unlimited Material Painting: the material painting tool allows painting distribution maps with any arbitrary number of materials. These painted materials can also be used as paint masks to constrain painting of other materials inside existing distribution maps. Zone Extraction: specific areas of a procedural terrain can be extracted by simply selecting a zone and converting it to a separate procedural terrain. This is ideal to create customized textures on specific areas for instance. New Terrain Sculpting Tools: Vue 8.5 introduces 4 powerful new sculpting brushes: Pinch, Flatten, Plateau and UniSlope. Also new in Vue 8.5 is the ability to use a bitmap for reference when sculpting in the terrain editor. Advanced EcoSystem Control: with Vue 8.5, artists can easily control the influence of the color variations on EcoSystem populations, drag multiple objects or plants from a browser into the EcoSystem population list, EcoSystem painting can be constrained using the underlying EcoSystem material rules (for instance, using influence of slope and altitude or the coloring rules). Improved OpenGL Engine and Viewport Display: auto-exposure is now reflected in OpenGL views, terrain maps can be viewed directly in the terrain editor, the display quality of EcoSystem instances can be changed on individual population elements, OpenGL preview displays normal mapped surfaces, the EcoPainter brush size is now displayed in xStream for 3ds Max and C4D. Vue 8.5 is available free of charge for all users under maintenance. Users of Vue 8 who are not under maintenance and wish to advance to Vue 8.5 should purchase maintenance (they will receive Vue 8.5 and the Vue 9 upgrade free of charge). If they wish, users under maintenance can immediately download a pre-release version of Vue 8.5. Users of Vue 8 who subscribe to a maintenance plan will also be granted access to this pre-release version. Vue 8.5 xStream and Vue 8.5 Infinite are expected to ship during Q2 2010. Customers who purchased Vue 8 xStream or Infinite within 30 days of the release of Vue 8.5 will receive Vue 8.5 at no cost as part of the free 30-day maintenance included with all new purchases. Vue 8.5 xStream will retail for $1,790 with one year maintenance ($1495 without maintenance). A one-year standard maintenance plan for xStream costs $395. Vue 8.5 Infinite will retail for $1,090 with one year maintenance ($895 without maintenance). A one-year standard maintenance plan for Infinite costs $295. Upgrades from Vue 7.x xStream to Vue 8.5 xStream will be available for $595. Upgrades from Vue 7.x Infinite to Vue 8.5 Infinite will be available for $395. Annual subscriptions for Educational licenses of Vue xStream and Infinite are available respectively for $149/year/seat and $99/year/seat. Upgrades to Vue 8.5 are free for owners of active educational licenses of Vue 8. Vue 8.5 xStream and Vue 8.5 Infinite will be available in English for Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7, for both 32- and 64-bit, and on Mac OSX 10.5+ as a 32-bit application — Mac Intel only (a beta version of Vue 8.4 and 8.5 for Cocoa 64-bit will be released during Q2 2010). Vue 8.5 xStream is compatible with the following renderers: Mental Ray for 3ds Max, Maya and Softimage (integrated and MR satellites), V-Ray for 3ds Max and Maya, Maya Software, as well as the native Cinema 4D and LightWave renderers. Other renderers are under consideration. Vue 8.5 xStream adds compatibility with 3ds Max 2011, Maya 2011 and Softimage 2011.
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