Blog

Chaos Group released V-Ray 3.6 for Maya, a major update to its Academy Award-winning production renderer. Used on television and film projects like Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Stranger Things, this update introduces a new hybrid rendering system that maximizes GPUs and CPUs on high-end VFX productions. V-Ray's new hybrid rendering technology adds CPU support to its NVIDIA CUDA-powered GPU renderer. Now, with V-Ray Hybrid artists will have greater flexibility to render a scene using GPUs, CPUs or a combination of both. The rendered images will be identical, regardless of hardware. This allows artists to use any and all computing power, from high-performance GPU workstations to CPU render nodes. The new version also adds Maya 2018 compatibility. V-Ray 3.6 for Maya is a free update for all V-Ray 3.x customers. Login at chaosgroup.com to download.

Panasonic has released an official video shot on the upcoming, newly-developed AU-EVA1 digital video camera that combines high-quality technology and a lightweight, compact design, ensuring flexibility and professionalism in every filmmaking situation. Director of Photography Filippo Chiesa, colour grading by Frédéric Savoir, Amazing Digital Studios. Apart from the official video (https://youtu.be/Lgn4deS4huc), Panasonic has also published two short films, "Radio 88" Johnny Derango (https://youtu.be/Hnqq9nAM-3E), and "Near to Superstition" by Elle Schneider (https://youtu.be/vgfCNO9-PBk). All the films and their accompanying Behind the Scenes footage can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiTi9owcTE9QbEnt5w2vkDA/featured.

With the release of Mac OS "High Sierra" this month, Apple's Final Cut Pro 7 software will no longer be supported. Final Cut Pro 7 users who are looking for alternative edit software will find that switching to DaVinci Resolve 14 is very easy and only takes a few minutes. DaVinci Resolve 14 can import timelines from Final Cut Pro 7, shares many of the same keyboard shortcuts, uses a similar editing and trimming model, and gives users far greater audio and color tools. For customers looking to make the switch to DaVinci Resolve 14, Blackmagic Design has made a video to help show how quick and simple it is to change from FCP 7 to DaVinci Resolve. See it here.

This update includes many bug fixes as well as over 50 performance and stability improvements including better OpenCL performance, improved camera tracker and QuickTime metadata support, and much more:



New & Improved

• OpenCL Enable and Caching prefs now apply to individual comps.
• The Use OpenCL checkbox in Common Controls is now a three-way button, Disable/Auto/Enable (defaults to Auto).
• When OpenCL is set to Auto (in Prefs/OpenCL and in each tool), Fusion is now more nuanced about which tools use OpenCL, to get better results with slower systems.
• OpenCL Caching pref is reset to Full.
• Prefs/OpenCL status text is now formatted and copyable.
• Significant speedups for OpenCL mask blurs, DeltaKeyer and others.
• CameraTracker: "Previous Export/Clear" button now works.
• CameraTracker: Limit the number of tracks used to select seed frames, to improve performance.
• CameraTracker: Lower the default detection threshold a little.
• FileRequester: Comp path maps are now shown.
• Improved progress display when rendering stereo or spherical cameras.
• Improved performance of TimeSpeed and TimeStretcher in some simple non-interpolating cases.
• No longer saves default Gradient params to the comp.
• Improved out-of-range extrapolation of 3D LUTs.
• Added image clipping modes to DeltaKeyer. The default is 'Frame'.
• Added hover scrubbing to bin items.
• Added Bins View Mode scripting/action.
• Added Bins buttons strip.
• Added images & tooltips for Player buttons.
• Added script menu to Bins and Reel View.
• Tools are now shown in their own special library, which will be automatically re-created such that it stays in-sync with Fusion updates and plugin additions.
• If playing a single clip (rather than a reel), the entire player closes when pressing esc.
• Show the play view when opening an item/reel.
• Support alpha channel output for MXF, QuickTime, FFmpeg, YUV, DNX.
• Added support for 10bit 422 Planar YUV with full range color.
• QuickTime and MXF formats now support choosing between multiple decoders.
• Improved QuickTime metadata support for ColorSpace etc.
• Added user override of default Data level for H.264 videos in MXF loader.
• Added more Setup and Inter expressions to CustomVertex.
• Added help support for 2D & 3D viewer types & subviews.
• Added a simple stamp creation progress indicator.
• Add TimeCode and FrameRate to MXF metadata.
• Drag/drop script files to ConsoleView now executes them.
• Don't initialise Fuses with invalid IDs, and display a warning.
• Added Defragment(<filespec>) function to FuServer (Windows only, requires Admin privileges).
• Added RequestFile()/RequestDir() script funcs to Fusion.
• Add UIIcon, UIFont, UIWidget classes to UIManager.
• UIManager windows can now be located by ID.
• Events can now be sent to any Widget via UIManager::QueueEvent().
• Various UIManager Widgets now allow their font and icon to be specified.
• Added a couple of Lua libs (dkjson, lj2curl).
• Added GetMousePos() script function to Fusion
• Added bmd.readstring() and bmd.writestring() to Python support.
• Added extra hostname arg to pinghosts() in python.
• Added script ExpandShape() and GetPoints() shape funcs.
• Added fusion:RequestFile()/fusion:RequestDir() script commands..
• Added StartUndo()/EndUndo()/UpdateControls() FFI functions.
• Added External Mask Saver.fuse for Resolve Connect integration.
• Added gettime()/getuptime() script functions
• Added GetUndoStack() and GetRedoStack() script commands.
• Added FFI functions to get Valid and Image windows.

Panasonic Corporation will release the AJ-P2M064BG B Series microP2 card, a new memory card for broadcast use, this September.

The new microP2 card, a memory card designed for recording with Panasonic P2 camera recorders, features compatibility with SD memory cards, enabling use as an SDXC memory card for the Panasonic UX Series, AVCCAM camera recorders and LUMIX digital cameras. The microP2 B Series further increases the write and read speeds of the current microP2 card A Series (released in 2013), and is compatible with the SDXC V90 memory card standard. It supports the new high-quality recording mode (4K 4:2:2 10-bit ALL-Intra 400 Mbps) for the Panasonic AU-EVA1 compact cinema camera and LUMIX GH5 digital mirrorless camera.

The card features a „pSLC” technology offering a much higher reliability than standard SD cards. Additionally, 100% screening prevents initial failure, and a lifetime counter detects the card's lifetime in advance. All of these features offer high reliability for professional use. The microP2 also features a QR code and P2CID to simplify identifying and managing cards, and a large protection case to enhance secure card handling.