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Saturday, November 20, 2010

Camera Sequencer toolset in Autodesk Maya 2011


+ The Gnomon Workshop releases a new DVD from VFX Supervisor John Clark, where he presents the Camera Sequencer toolset in Autodesk Maya 2011. The Camera Sequencer provides artists a non-linear workflow to shot, edit, and assemble complete shots directly in Maya. In Maya's Camera Sequencer: Digital Shot Progression, John uses his years of experience as a VFX supervisor to not only demonstrate the technical aspects of the Camera Sequencer, but also explain why a toolset like this is so important in today's animation, pre-visualization, and layout pipelines. In this DVD, John presents the new Camera Sequencer in Autodesk Maya, a toolset that allows users to create camera shots in a non-linear editing-style timeline within Maya. Using the Camera Sequencer, the viewer will learn production methods of building full sequences in Maya, shot-by-shot, which can then be playblasted as movies for editorial and animation. John begins by exploring the Sequencer menu and tool bar, and doing a general run down of all the exciting new functionality. Using a simple cycle of animation, he uses the Sequencer to "shoot" the animation from various camera angles, and edits the resulting shots until they begin to tell a story. Learn how to use the non-linear editing functions of the Sequencer - cutting, trimming, scaling and sliding shots on tracks, and look at methods to create and group alternate camera setups for easy presentation. John will also show you how to import a set of storyboards which have been exported from Final Cut Pro, and how to build a sequence of animation from these storyboards. This lecture will give animators, previs and rough layout professionals the ability to create full sequences of animation directly within Maya, quickly and efficiently.
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OptiTrack's S250e Ethernet Motion Capture Camera Now Available


+ Today marks the immediate availability of OptiTrack™'s high-performance motion capture camera, the S250e. Providing exceptional speed and precision in a highly compact form factor, the S250e is the first full-featured Ethernet motion capture camera in the world for under $2,000 USD. "OptiTrack has always offered the most affordable motion capture technology on the market," said Jim Richardson, NaturalPoint® co-founder and lead engineer for the OptiTrack motion capture line. "With the release of the S250e, we are reshaping the CG production landscape, coupling that aggressive pricing strategy with a continued investment in core optics and image processing technology. The result is a motion capture camera that offers unprecedented performance for its price point." The S250e boasts 250 FPS capture, SVGA resolution, expansive field of view, on-board image processing, software-controlled IR filter switching, and some of the most advanced M12 lenses in the world - all housed in a compact aluminum and soft-touch polycarbonate case. First demonstrated at SIGGRAPH 2010, the S250e is designed to serve the film, broadcast, game cinematics, sports training, military and defense, biomechanics, and university research industries.
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mocha Pro


+ Imagineer Systems today announced the immediate availability of its newest 64-bit VFX software, mocha Pro. Leveraging more than 8 years of engineering research and development, mocha Pro delivers all the planar tracking and rotoscoping tools from its award winning mocha, adds compositing tools for match moving, auto image and wire removal, clean plate generation, lens distortion correction and stabilization, to deliver an all-in-one master VFX tool set. Imagineer Systems also announced today it has made significant enhancements and added capabilities to mocha for After Effects, the Company’s stand alone tracking and roto tool for the After Effects community. Now re-named mocha AE, this award-winning VFX tool now extends its support to both the After Effects and Final Cut Pro communities. With this development, mocha AE now help solve problematic shots that challenge the built in tools of After Effects and Final Cut by bringing advanced planar tracking and matte creation tools in a simple, easy to learn interface. While Adobe After Effects CS4 and CS5 continue to ship with free copies of mocha for After Effects, these customers are offered a streamlined upgrade path to the new mocha AE v2.5.
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NewTek LightWave Drives First Creature Animations Shown in New "Capturing Avatar" Documentary


+ The newly released “Avatar” Three-Disc Extended Collector’s Edition DVD and Blu-ray from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, features a special documentary titled, “Capturing Avatar.” Included, is Rob Powers, vice president of 3D development at NewTek and member of the original “Malibu Five,” the first five individuals to join James Cameron’s team in the production of “Avatar.” The documentary shows the earliest six-legged creature animation test Powers created for “Avatar,” using LightWave 3D®, and Powers discusses the film’s Virtual Art Department (VAD). While working on “Avatar,” Powers founded the first ever VAD, using LightWave™ in the creation of virtual environmental assets for the world of Pandora in the blockbuster film.
Six-legged creature concept animation by Rob Powers displayed here in the new LightWave 10 interface. As the first concept-animation artist working on the film, Powers used LightWave to generate the original creature rigs and test animations in his initial role as animation technical director. “From the earliest period of ‘Avatar’ development, LightWave enabled me to model, texture, rig, and render quality concept animation tests, very quickly,” explained Powers. “LightWave also proved to be an efficient tool for the virtual production process, as well. I wouldn't have been able to create such great imagery over the length of the project without LightWave in the production pipeline.” Powers is currently working with NewTek’s software development team to produce innovative tools and new, interactive functions that will be incorporated into future versions of LightWave. The next major release—LightWave 10—is expected to ship Q4 2010.
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Tuesday, November 02, 2010

RenderMan for Maya 4.0 and RenderMan Studio 3.0


+ Pixar Animation Studios today announced the release of RenderMan Studio 3.0 and RenderMan for Maya 4.0. Both new versions offer substantial gains in performance, enhanced workflows, and new state-of-the-art technologies for rendering visual effects and animation. RenderMan for Maya 4.0 provides any user of Autodesk’s Maya with fast and easy access to the core rendering technology developed by Pixar and used to create the stunning visual effects seen in the majority of today’s feature films. This latest release delivers significant increases in performance from a host of core optimizations to the internal renderer, including the addition of unlimited threading. Additionally, RenderMan for Maya 4.0 includes enhanced interaction with Maya’s Render Layers, a new unified interface for RenderMan Controls, and support for Maya Fluids.
RenderMan Studio 3.0 includes all of the above while also featuring powerful new shading and lighting tools. RenderMan Studios 3.0 includes the latest version of Pixar’s shader authoring toolset Slim 9.0, providing excellent integration with RenderMan for Maya, a new production-quality shader library, co-shader support, Ptex support, and more. Also included is a new relighting tool built on RenderMan’s re-rendering API. In addition, RenderMan Studio includes Tractor 1.0, Pixar’s new distributed render management solution, featuring an innovative architecture designed with the flexibility and power to manage small or large, multi-core render farms. To complement the release of RenderMan Studio 3.0, Pixar is also pleased to announce the impending availability of a fully updated version of the RenderMan Courseware, providing in-depth, production-focused tutorials describing all the latest features. RenderMan for Maya 4.0 is compatible with Mac OS 10.5 and 10.6, Windows 7, Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit, and Windows Vista 64-bit HPC Server. In addition to the above, RenderMan Studio 3.0 is also compatible with Linux 32-bit and 64-bit. Tractor 1.0 is included in RenderMan Studio and is also available as a standalone product. Tractor 1.0 is compatible with Mac OS X and Linux 32-bit and 64-bit, but can deploy tasks to Windows 7, Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit, and Windows Vista 64-bit HPC Server also. For more information please visit www.pixar.com and for tutorials describing all the latest features, please - Click Here

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Unfold3D V7


+ After 8 months of research and development, polygonal design has announced a new major release of automatic unwrapper Unfold3D, in version 7.0. The latest upgrade brings a lot of nice improvements, especially in the unwrapping core itself, which now contains a brand new algorithm, called ISOMAP. It will be really hard for us to make better in the next release, since that new unfolding algorithm gives almost stretching-free results, and as before, in less than a second.This release also brings a tool to paint the most visible zones of your model, Unfold3D adapts the UVs automatically without any efforts, increasing the final map resolution on theses zones. As ours users requested, this release brings also local UV optimization. It allows you to correct and optimize only a vertex/poly/edge/island selection set of your UVs. For more information and full features list, please - Click Here

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New Maya 2011 Tutorial Video Course Available Online


+ Software training company Apex Web Media has announced a full solution for beginners who want to learn Autodesk Maya 2011. As a gradual, hands-on introduction, the 11.5 hour training video series includes a walkthrough of common commands and tools and a number of creative demos that show modeling and animation techniques put into action. The lessons are meant to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the program than typically offered by the short, subject-based tutorials found online. While such free tutorial videos often show how to perform special tricks or effects, they fail to present Maya as a whole, often leaving newcomers left wanting more. In this Maya 2011 tutorial course, lessons begin with basic setup and navigation and move through the fundamentals of polygon construction, textures, rendering and rigging. Taught by instructor and 3D designer Jason Welsh, all 177 Maya tutorials are presented in a high quality format with full playback controls. The training is Mac and Windows compatible, which allows users to access the training from essentially any computer. At the same time, work files are included to allow Maya users to follow examples directly as they are presented on screen. Subjects covered include Polygon Structure, UVs and Hypershape, Rendering Animation, Point and Ambient Light, Shadows, Animation Timeline and Keying, Rigging Bones and Muscles, Dynamics and more. The Autodesk Maya 2011 course ships to own on CD for $99.95 or streams in its entirety to online subscribers of a special $30 per month membership plan.
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