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Gear for Gearheads

Jun 16, 2003 12:00 PM, By Dan Ochiva

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What's SIGGRAPH Without Shopping?

THERE ARE LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF PRODUCTS on the show floor at SIGGRAPH, and some of the coolest appear with no advance press, hovering hopefully in tiny booths on the outskirts of the name-brand marketplace. If you went to NAB, you might have noticed the character animation software from NaturalMotion at one of the card-table slots next to the far wall. Similar discoveries will undoubtedly be waiting at SIGGRAPH. We encourage you to seek out the unexpected: Walk the perimeter and look for tomorrow's anchor tenant.

As for today's anchor tenants, here's a preview of what to expect from familiar companies, many of whom have managed to keep R&D afloat in brutal economic times.

Alias Upgrades Maya, Receives Oscar

With the release of Maya 5 at NAB 2003, this eighth major upgrade adds even more ways to create digital content, including impressive fluid effects generation. Meanwhile, productivity gains abound, as the company says it has incorporated hundreds of customer-suggested enhancements. The company must be doing something right. In March, Alias|Wavefront accepted a technical Oscar for its development of Maya.

Maya 5 features extensive changes to animation constraints, one of the most widely used tools for everyday character animation. The company says the improvements will save animators time while providing improved flexibility when working with characters. Also new is an FK/IK blending interface that's described as an improved method for visualizing the blend process. Productivity also improves via the new ghosting and channel muting options, which speed up animation tasks, according to the company.

Since Maya Paint Effects can now be drawn as or converted to polygons, users can rely on their regular polygon tools and output to other renderers, including Mental Ray. Enhancements in Maya Fluid Effects include true dynamic computation of wakes and accurate simulation of ponds and lakes.

Maya 5 offers four options for rendering: the Maya software renderer, Mental Ray for Maya, a new Vector Renderer, and a Hardware Renderer. As of Maya 5, the coders unified all rendering options through a common rendering user interface and workflow.

Don't miss Alias SketchBook Pro, a neat sketching program that might be one of the best reasons to buy one of those new Tablet PCs. This inexpensive, pen-based software really does change a Tablet PC into a digital sketchpad. Users will recognize many of the intuitive paint and drawing tools first deployed in Maya StudioTools. www.alias.com

Softimage|XSI 3.5 Adds Improvements, New Capabilities

Softimage, which introduced version 3.5 of Softimage|XSI at NAB 2003, doesn't call it an animation and graphics package anymore. As XSI's capabilities have increased at a seemingly exponential rate these last 18 months, the Avid division now describes the product as a "nonlinear animation production environment."

Sure, the graphics, animation, compositing, and rendering chops are all there. Check out the automatic symmetrizing of polygons, greatly expanded support in the interface for Direct X and Cg vertex and pixel shaders, and complete integration with Mental Ray through version 3.2.

Other useful features include the ability to link and transfer multiple render passes through the integrated compositor and an enhanced SDK. New rendering features include accelerated scan line rendering, a Rapid Motion blur feature, and OpenGL-accelerated shadow maps.

Meanwhile, the show will see version 1.1 of Softimage|Behavior, an application that creates "intelligent" characters and realistic 3D animated crowds. www.softimage.com

Discreet Debuts Color Grading, Upgrades, New Business Strategy

Discreet Lustre

Discreet describes Lustre as the world's first non-proprietary, realtime 2K digital color grading system for digital intermediate work.

The company partners with software creator Colorfront out of Budapest. The Hungarian company's original color grading software was included in now-defunct 5D's Colossus product. However, Discreet reworked those color grading functions to integrate with its established workflow and interface, while adding a number of features. Based on Windows 2000 and standard PC workstations, the turnkey system's price is lower than those of Discreet's other major products.

The Lustre debut joins recently announced upgrades to Inferno 5 and Flame 8 visual effects systems, the Flint 8 effects system, and Smoke 5 and Fire 5, which handle online creative editing, conforming, and finishing.

Don't miss the very reworked Cleaner XL for Windows either. Faster execution, an improved feature set, and new interface make this mastering, encoding, and delivery program much more than just another upgrade.

At NAB 2003, Discreet announced a new product development strategy that addresses system costs and partnering. This new approach focuses on lower prices, lower total cost of ownership, and new partners such as storage manufacturer Maximum Throughput, SAN and asset management provider ADIC, and SGI. Discreet plans to provide customers with one-stop shopping, offering products and services that the company guarantees will work together. www.discreet.com

Side Effects Delivers Houdini 6

Side Effects Houdini 6

With the release of Houdini 6, Toronto-based Side Effects Software addresses the most compelling aspect of graphic design today—asset management. What good comes of all that creativity if you can't track the latest version of files strewn across a hard drive? Houdini 6's digital asset handling feature enables technical directors to create and manage libraries of re-usable characters, effects, and other elements. This allows an animator to bring together geometry, bones, shaders, and motion into a unified custom asset.

Don't worry about the underlying procedural networks, since technical managers can create high-level controls for artists and animators, who won't need to learn the details. Managing these assets via special libraries makes it straightforward when you need to insert updates or re-use assets across a production.

Other new features in Houdini 6 include global illumination, embedded online help, and enhanced animation, interface, lighting, compositing, and particle tools. Global illumination is now supported in Houdini's built-in Mantra renderer. The company says this tool allows realistic renderings that simulate the way light inter-reflects within a scene. A new hotkey-driven keyframing system speeds productivity, while added character tools include forward and inverse kinematic blending and dynamic parenting. Houdini Apprentice, a free non-commercial learning edition of the application, is also available. www.sidefx.com

Arri Speeds Film Printout

A high-speed package for the Arrilaser speeds output of the digital film recorder by up to 30%, according to Arri. Printing 2K frames (1.85 aspect ratio) out to any film stock now takes about 1.7 seconds per frame.

Arri will also announce a move from HMI to Xenon bulbs for its compact 35mm LocPro screening system. Feature film productions take the LocPro on location to screen film dailies. The device functions in a similar way to traditional film flatbed editing devices, but can also project images onto a screen.

It may not sound like big news to change the type of bulb, but Arri was responding to a steady stream of requests from U.S. postproduction houses that work on features. The color output of the HMI bulb shifted very slightly over the width of the LocPro's projected screen image. The Xenon source better matches that of typical movie house projection, so colorists and others can have more confidence in their film prints. www.arri.com

Kaydara's 5 & 10

Kaydara MotionBuilder 5.0

At SIGGRAPH, Kaydara will celebrate its 10th anniversary while also launching MotionBuilder 5.0, the latest version of the company's 3D character animation software.

MotionBuilder's layout is entirely new. The Storytelling Timeline integrates 3D animation with audio, video, and camera shots. This latest version also includes improved character animation tools, while customizable shortcuts improve workflow. Working with nVidia's programmable graphics processors allowed the coders to improve photorealistic-rendering throughput. www.kaydara.com

3Dlabs Boosts Memory and Bandwidth

Milpitas, Calif.-based 3Dlabs offers the latest in card design, building its Wildcat VP990 Pro and VP880 Pro cards around its Visual Processing Unit (VPU). These programmable cards come with 256MB of RAM on the lower-cost 880, while the flagship 990 bulks up with 512MB of RAM. (According to the company, that's the largest memory configuration currently available on a workstation graphics accelerator.)

Also look for more news on 3Dlabs' and ATI's joint collaboration on the latter's RenderMonkey shader development tool suite, a counter to nVidia's Cg development. In a March announcement, ATI said it will continue working on the core RenderMonkey framework, and both companies will develop plug-in modules that support the Microsoft HLSL and OpenGL 2.0 high-level shading languages (HLSL). The idea? To provide enhanced functionality to game developers and content creators who use RenderMonkey to create complex shader programs in 3D apps. www.3dlabs.com

Curious Software Launches Integrated OS X Graphics Package

Da Vinci Revival interface

London-based Curious Software made a name for itself by delivering fast, accurate software products for broadcasters that let them create interactive maps for news and documentaries. The recent release of the Curious gFx software isn't so surprising to those who also knew that the company's principles coded compositing software used at places like ILM.

Designed for Mac OS X, gFx integrates paint, rotoscoping, and compositing into a single interface. Various configurations address video, HDTV, and film use.

Curious Software recently announced the development of gFx Pro, a configuration tailored specifically for professional video painting, rotoscoping, matte creation, and animation for Apple Final Cut Pro. www.curious-software.com

Da Vinci Offers Software-Based Color Corrector

Well known for its popular turnkey color correction systems, da Vinci Systems will show a new standalone, realtime software color corrector. 2K Soft debuts as the company's first foray into a software-only product. Unlike the company's other color correction products, 2K Soft doesn't work in conjunction with a telecine, but provides color grading after the images are already digitized.

2K Soft reads DPX and RGB files of any resolution. The software also works directly with products from Discreet, Quantel, and Thomson. 2K Soft's interface will be familiar to users of the 2K Plus color corrector, since it employs the same Joyball Panel. Somewhat like a billiard ball, the Joyball allows more subtle color control than a mouse. 2K Soft runs on an Intel platform, as well as off-the-shelf storage, if desired. This hardware/software combo integrates well with the da Vinci Powerhouse renderfarm, according to the company.

The software color enhancement system offers the company's widely accepted color correction toolsets, including primaries with Custom Curves and Power Windows. New software features include auto window tracking, auto balance, and auto scene match. www. davsys.com

Short Takes

NXN Software shows a new version of NXN Alienbrain Studio, its flagship project management system. The software helps manage PC-based digital entertainment and content creation projects, providing efficient asset and configuration management for 3D models, textures, video, audio, and source code. www.nxn-software.com

The active area on Wacom's CintiqPartner pad measures only 6"x8", but it allows Wacom interactive pen displays to more easily integrate into multiple-monitor systems. Using it speeds operations, since the artist uses the same Cintiq pen to draw and paint directly on the Cintiq's LCD screen and then jump to a second monitor to get to palettes and tools. www.wacom.com

Eyetronics plans to demo the workflow benefits of its static, facial motion capture, and 3D reconstruction scanning services. The company's new facial motion capture service works via a variation of its still ShapeCam technique. The setup records a performance using a digital video or HDTV camera joined by a device that continuously projects a fine grid on the actor's face. A quick-to-set-up mobile system, Eyetronics says the rig makes it easy to arrange a capture session at any location, reducing overall costs and logistical complexity. www.eyetronics.com

Curious Labs debuts the Poser 5 PLUS BodyStudio 2.0 plug-in. Described as a "next generation" plug-in, the software allows pre-rigged characters and props from Poser to be imported into Maya, 3ds max, and other high-end 3D apps. With its worldwide group of users, Poser's 3D character design and animation software continues to gain adherents for its fast, straightforward figure design, posing, and animation. www.curiouslabs.com

Eyeon Software debuts the Linux version of Digital Fusion 4, its flagship 2D/3D compositing app. The Linux version of DF4 contains the same tools, features, and functionality offered by the existing Windows version. Eyeon cited user requests as the main reason for creating the Linux version. Users liked the stability and lower hardware costs of the Linux OS. www.eyeonline.com

BOXX Technologies joins the digital intermediate competition with the dual Xeon processor-based CineBOXX. How does it work? Users import high-resolution, rendered sequential images directly to the networked storage and review them instantly. This eliminates the need for file conversions or imports into a proprietary frame store. Realtime file formats can run up to 2048x1556. www.boxxtech.com

While nVidia remains quiet about what hot graphics cards it plans to debut at the show, this past May saw the release of Quadro FX 500, an "entry level" PCI slot card that, if the specs hold up, looks like it outperforms practically every card presently on the market. At an estimated $300 street cost, nVidia describes the FX 500 as "the first fully programmable entry-level workstation card." Even with the overhead of an outstanding 128-bit floating-point pipeline, 32-bit-per-pixel color depth, and full-scene anti-aliasing, the card runs up to 60fps for all but the most compute-intensive graphics. Read July's millimeter for a more in-depth look at Nvidia's ongoing graphics revolution. www.nvidia.com

Thank you: SIGGRAPH would not be possible without the tireless volunteer efforts of GraphicsNet leader Steve Van Frank and his team, who wired (and wireless-ed) the entire conference fueled only by pizza, beer, and IT passion.

Click here to register for SIGGRAPH.

© 2008 Penton Media, Inc.