If you’ve been on the fence about buying Lightroom for quickly editing and touching-up photos, wonder no more as you can go download and try out the new Adobe Lightroom 4 beta for free. In addition to the usual enhancements and bugfixes, the new version offers DSLR video support for the first time.
One very interesting change to Lightroom 4 is much better support for video. DSLR video is now supported right in the application. You can playback video, trim the in-and-out points, easily export a still frame and—this is the biggie—do some actual color correction on video using some of Lightroom’s tools. It doesn’t look like it’s a full-blown color grading application (Adobe has Speedgrade for that now!) but it looks like a quick way to make a color correction and export that to a new video file or send it to a supported service like Facebook or Flickr.
Just head on over to the Adobe Lightroom site to download it and try it out. Post your findings in the comments below!
via Studio Daily Blog » Lightroom 4 Beta Is Alive and Ready for You to Download.
Graphics adobe, beta, lightroom, software
V-Ray 2.0 brings some awesome features to the table, but hasnt’ made it out to the Maya crowd yet. In fact, they’ve just announced a new “Beta” program for Maya users, bringing all the V-Ray RT, Python callbacks, and fancy shaders to the users.
Hailed by many as the preeminent rendering engine for Maya, V-Ray for Maya is about to see a significant increase in power! On March 30th, the V-Ray for Maya 2.0 upgrade will begin its much anticipated Beta testing, with a tentative release at the end of April 2011.
Join the V-Ray 2.0 for Maya Beta Program and be among the first to test this advanced rendering technology for all Maya users. It’s your help and feedback that will make this product even better.
via Chaos Group / Chaos Software official website – home – V-Ray® – award winning, production-ready 3D rendering solutions.
Graphics beta, chaos group, maya, vray
If you’re a fan of VRay in Maya already, then you’re in luck as the Chaos Group has just announced that all VRay for Maya users are eligible for the VRay RT Beta program.
In order to obtain access everyone who would like to participate in the V-Ray RT BETA Program should be a current V-Ray for Autodesk Maya user registered at the Chaos Group website. If you would like to participate in the beta program your log in information will be used as an application to the Beta program and you will be able to immediately download and install V-Ray RT for Maya.
Just drool over the possibility of interactive real-time photorealistic rendering, while you model!
via Chaos Group / Chaos Software official website – home – V-Ray® – award winning, production-ready 3D rendering solutions.
Graphics beta, chaos group, maya, software, vray
If you’re a 3dsMax User and fan of the e-on software products, then you might want to look into applying as a Beta Tester for their newest product “Carbon Scatter”.
E-on software also announced that is currently looking for talented 3ds Max users willing to take part in the beta testing of Carbon Scatter for the mental ray™ and V-Ray™ renderers.
No knowledge of Vue is required in order to become a qualified beta tester. However, candidates must possess the following qualities: persistence, imagination, and a desire to influence the final product, time, and of course testers should be proficient with 3ds Max and either the V-Ray or Mental Ray renderers.
The plugin is supposed to integrate the “EcoSystem” algorithms into various applications, allowing you to use millions of instances of models with any renderer of your choice.
via e-on software – E-on Software.
Graphics 3dsmax, beta, e-on, plugin
The latest beta of GroBoto3 for the Mac has been published and boasts a few important features:
This release contains:
- New Modeling Tool and functionality.
- SeamNet Mesh Export (unified mesh).
- Misc Interface and Bot enhancements.
The beta requires a fully functional license, which you can purchase from the store for $80.
via v3_betaDocs_Home.
Graphics beta, groboto, mac, software
Deadline users might want to contact Prime Focus for a chance to get in on the Deadline4.0 beta, beginning soon.
The latest version, Deadline 4.0, is scheduled for a late November release and will feature improved scalability and stability, an improved Mac OSX experience, and new software support for Autodesk Maya 2010, Autodesk Softimage 2010, Avid MetaFuze, and ffmpeg. Deadline 4.0 will also include customizable themes for the user interface and will be compatible with Prime Focus Software’s upcoming Deadline iPhone application, which will be available soon after the release of Deadline 4.0.
via Prime Focus Software Seeking Beta Testers for Deadline 4.0 – BroadcastNewsroom.
Graphics beta, deadline, iphone, prime focus, software
Fans of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom will definately want to head on over to the Adobe Labs for a look at the upcoming Lightroom3, and to download the Lightroom3 beta to take for a test drive.
For the development of this latest release, we’ve focused on what we believe are the fundamental priorities of our customers: performance and image quality. Lightroom has been rebuilt from its core to provide a performance architecture that meets the needs of photographers today and into the future. The raw processing engine has also received an overhaul in order to ensure that you’re maximizing the potential in your images in terms of sharpening and noise reduction. And, a number of other new areas have also had new features added and enhanced. Like any beta, Lightroom 3 beta is unfinished, which means some of the features we have planned are not in this release, and some of the features in the beta are not yet complete.
The beta is a fully functional standalone English-only version that will operate until April 30th, 2010.
via Adobe Labs – Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.
Graphics adobe, beta, lightroom, software
Seen all the hype about modo401 but haven’t been willing to plunk down the cold hard cash to check it out? No longer a problem, thanks to a free 15-day trial now offered by Luxology.
This is a no frills introduction to modo, useful for testing modo on a particular set of hardware, for example. The modo software is included with documentation for a fifteen day evaluation period.
In addition to the free 15-day trial, they’ve got a $25 “Production Evaluation” option which includes a 30-day trial, Rhino Translator, SDK, and more.
via Luxology > Try modo.
Graphics beta, free, luxology, modo, modo401, software
If you’re a user of NewTek’s Lightwave 3D, then you might want to check your Downloads section on their website. The beta for v9.6.1 is now open and features a full 64-bit version for Mac OSX, and a hole of stability improvements all around. You will have to agree to an NDA, meaning we won’t hear much about how well it works until much later, but full instructions on how to set it up are available on their site.
LightWave 3D v9.6.1 Open Beta Launched – NewTek Discussions.
Graphics beta, lightwave, newtek, software
Via the OnLive Blog, they’ve just announced that they’ve pushed the service into beta and are letting real people log in and try out games. The purpose: gathering data on network latencies, speeds, and general bugfixes.
One of the key challenges that OnLive technology addresses is providing a high-quality, fast-response gaming experience over a wide range of situations: different speeds/locations/types of broadband services, a variety of different PC and Mac configurations, several kinds of input and display devices, etc. So, a major focus of OnLive Beta is to test as many of these different situations as we can
If you don’t recall what OnLive is, you can read our previous coverage of their impressive web-based remote-gaming technology via our OnLive tag.
via OnLive Opens the Beta Program « OnLive Blog.
Hardware beta, onlive, video game
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