Siggraph from Beyond
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I also had a chance to swing by Immersion's booth. These are the folks whose force-feedback technologies made me go out and buy a Logitech wheel for a game console I don't even own just so I could experience it on a friend's system. Well, they also happen to make professional devices as well, including the MicroScibe 3D digitizing system. The company recently released its SDK for the first time for Mac OS X. They also released MicroScribe Connections, a plugin for integrating the digitization process directly into the Maya interface. Sadly, it's available only for Windows. However, I told the company to go ahead and release it for the Mac as well, so look for that announcement soon. More info: http://www.immersion.com.
The good people at Kaydara threw the best industry party I've been to (and therefore the best anybody's been to) since the start of the depression, allowing me to put them into near-receivership through the sheer volume of my Dom Perignon consumption. The finer booze in life aside, Kaydara also had plenty to talk about in the way of software. The company has MotionBuilder 5 on the way, a high-end, real-time character animation tool. The new version will have enhanced character animation functions, including quadruped support, finger and toe controls, stretch, squash, additional neck controls, enhanced OpenGL, new file format support and a whole lot more. The company also announced that Mac OS X would be the exclusive Unix platform for MotionBuilder, citing the virtues of Mac hardware and software, especially the upcoming 64-bit G5 machines. And, of course, they also announced that Alias now supports the FBX file format with a free FBX-Maya plugin. More info: http://www.kaydara.com.[an error occurred while processing this directive]O, Luxology. Yes, we finally found out what some of the secrecy was all about. The company gave an extensive presentation on its new subdivision surface modeler, called modo. Luxology, of course, is one of the companies that got up on stage with Steve Jobs at the unveiling of the G5 to proclaim its 64-bit glories, tantalizing 3D enthusiasts ever since with mere hints of things to come. The company will be releasing more and more detailed information on its Web site in the coming weeks. And that's not all by a long shot. Stay tuned. More info: http://www.luxology.net.
And what of Maxon? Oh, well, just a little thing called BodyPaint 3D Release 2. BodyPaint is Maxon's 3D texturing and painting application. I had a chance to sit down with Maxon President and CEO Paul Babb to see about 0.1 percent of the bazillion new features in BodyPaint 2 in action. It includes projection painting; painting on multiple objects simultaneously; new UV tools; new plugins for LightWave, Maya and 3ds max; a new MultiBrush for modifying up to 10 texture channels at once; a RayBrush mode for painting on the rendered image; and so much more. Somebody hand me a hanky to wipe off the drool. You'll be happy to hear that I'll be getting my greasy fingers on a copy any minute now, so you can look forward to new tutorials from me and our resident Cinema 4D (and After Effects) psychoguru, Ko Maruyama. I'll also be providing a new batch of add-on brushes for BodyPaint 2 in our weekly download series in the very near future. In a related note, Maxon also announced that Sony Pictures ImageWorks is integrating BodyPaint 3D into its production pipeline. And the company also announced Xfrog 4 for Cinema 4D, a tool for creating trees and other foliage. The new version includes enhanced animation tools, including growth, gravity, wind and other dynamics. More info: http://www.maxon.net.Prev 1 2 3 4 Next
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