If you’re a Final Cut user, then you’ve undoubtedly heard about the Apple “ProRes” codecs. Well the new version of Final Cut adds a few new options to the ProRes family, and Apple has released a WhitePaper discussing the benefits of using it.
With the release of the new Final Cut Studio, Apple has introduced three new members of the Apple ProRes family: Apple ProRes 422 (Proxy), Apple ProRes 422 (LT), and Apple ProRes 4444. These new family members increase the power and versatility of Final Cut Studio while enabling broader usage of Apple ProRes technology. This white paper provides in-depth information about all five members of the Apple ProRes family, including technical specifications and performance metrics.
The paper gets into amazing technical detail with many comparisons and graphs showing how well it does (or does not ) perform in various situations. It’s freely available as a PDF.
Apple has released a slew of new updates for Final Cut and it’s associated products, adding alot of new features and functionality. Jim Geduldick gives a quick overview over at FinalCutUser.
For me the new updates the are note worth to me are new ProRes updates for proxie,LT,4444alpha support,share function in FCPbatch window with Blu Ray support,templates now in Compressor,iChat Theater collab with clients and other via timeline,Speed Changes fixed or enhanced,way better Markers,Auto Transfer,Native support for AVC-INTRA,background exporting,free droplets and so much more.
It’s worth noting that the update is Intel only, so older PowerPC users (are there still any doing FinalCut work?) are left out of the new hotness.
Embracing the power of CG rendering in illustrations, Maxon has won a place center-stage at the upcoming Association of Medical Illustrators conference in Richmond, VA. They’ll be hosting workshops on using Cinema4D for rendering and modeling, hosted by expers in medical illustration.
“As medical illustrators increasingly turn to technology to visualize complicated medical concepts and processes, we are pleased about CINEMA 4D’s leading role in helping artists more easily create an exciting range of 3D imagery that has the potential to educate and communicate to broad audiences,” said Paul Babb, president MAXON US.
At the recent announcement for Samsung’s new “Jet” cellphone, they were completely upstaged by their visuals: A gesture-based holographic system designed by Korean firm D’strict.
Designed by Korean firm D’strict, the tech is a combination of infrared motion sensing and 3D imagery, pretty much like Microsoft’s Project Natal. It’s not quite as seamless as Natal, but given that it’s main purpose is just to add a little flash to a cellphone announcement, we’re awfully impressed—and distracted.
It’s difficult to tell from the video, but it looks like the presenter was actually standing behind a clear screen, so the visuals were projected in front of him (between him and the audience), to better create the effect that he was standing in the middle of the hologram. Check out the video after the break.
Expreview has gotten some information that while we all wait for the GT220 to hit mainstream shelves, NVidia is secretly preparing a new chip called the GT230 to be released in December.
Our information source has told us that NVIDIA is now working on something codenamed GT230 based on 40nm technology. Confusingly enough, we didn’t find any sign of GT230 from NVIDIA’s 40nm product roadmap.
Designed for mainstream market, GT230 is said to feature GDDR5/GDDR3 memory, and the number of stream processors may reach 96, or just 64 or 80 ones.
The 2009 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge, from the NSF and Science is underway, and information is available on their website with the details. Entries must be in by September 15th, and winners to be published in the February 19th, 2010 issue of Science. Awards are given in five categories:
One first place award will be made in each of the following five categories. Evaluators, at their discretion, may choose not to award first place in a category and/or to award Honorable Mention(s) instead. See Frequently Asked Questions for more specifics.
Looks like the most recent patch to EA’s Spore game has a new hidden feature: COLLADA export. With this, you can export your creates into COLLADA format, complete with textures and materials, and render them in the package of your choice.
With Spore’s just released patch 5, you can export creatures (and buildings and vehicles) from Spore into Maya (or any other 3D application that supports the Collada format). All thanks to the brilliant Dan Moskowitz.
The exported creations include normal, diffuse and specular maps, and are fully rigged and weighted. So you can pose them too.
Currently it’s only Creatures, although the article hints at buildings and vehicles coming in a future patch.
If you’re one of the lucky people making the annual pilgrimage to ComicCon2009, and you’re a fan of Visual Effects, then you definitely need to check out the list VFXWorld has compiled.
Big budget Hollywood genre films have ruled Comic-Con for years now. Fans get a chance to see footage and ask questions to the cast and crews. But with so much going on at the Con, what should you attend? VFXWorld has put together a handy cheat sheet of the most interesting VFX-related panels at this year’s event. Find out the must see events that everyone will probably be talking about afterward, so you can plan your time at the event wisely.
You can expect to see screenings of Pandorum, Kick-Ass, and Astro Boy, as well as the classic annual Star Wars spectacular which this year has special guest hosts Olivia Munn and Kevin Pereira. I’m also particularly interested in the Avatar footage screening.
fxguide has the news that Evolver, a web-based 3D character generator, is now live and accepting users. Login and build a 3D character with their web-based tools, and then purchase the model suitable for use in the modeling package of your choice.
Evolver delivers 3D characters designed for a broad range of uses. The site’s simplicity and user friendly interface makes it easy for anyone to dive in and create a 3D avatar or clone quickly and for free, exportable for use in any destination including virtual worlds, social networks, animations and more. More advanced 3D artists can save hours of production time by generating original Evolver characters and exporting high resolution models fully rigged for animation, for a small fraction of the cost of creating comparable models from scratch.
You have the option and ability to put your models in videos and social networks like Facebook and Myspace, and you can get the model transported to systems like Torque, FaceFX, WildPockets, wonderland, andOgre. If you’re interested, be sure to check out the fxguide site for a 50% off coupon.
Apple has released a slew of new updates for Final Cut and it’s associated products, adding alot of new features and functionality. Jim Geduldick gives a quick overview over at FinalCutUser.
Embracing the power of CG rendering in illustrations, Maxon has won a place center-stage at the upcoming Association of Medical Illustrators conference in Richmond, VA. They’ll be hosting workshops on using Cinema4D for rendering and modeling, hosted by expers in medical illustration.
At the recent announcement for Samsung’s new “Jet” cellphone, they were completely upstaged by their visuals: A gesture-based holographic system designed by Korean firm D’strict.
Expreview has gotten some information that while we all wait for the GT220 to hit mainstream shelves, NVidia is secretly preparing a new chip called the GT230 to be released in December.
The 2009 International Science & Engineering Visualization Challenge, from the NSF and Science is underway, and information is available on their website with the details. Entries must be in by September 15th, and winners to be published in the February 19th, 2010 issue of Science. Awards are given in five categories:
If you’re one of the lucky people making the annual pilgrimage to ComicCon2009, and you’re a fan of Visual Effects, then you definitely need to check out the list VFXWorld has compiled.
VizWorld.com 
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