HyperDeck software update 3.7.1 is now available. New in this update: Added additional analog and digital input selections (for HyperDeck Studio Pro), added DNxHD support (HyperDeck Studio Pro), enhanced SSD support (HyperDeck Studio Pro), and fixed 720p Closed Caption issue. This update is now available for download.
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Autodesk announced the new features of the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite 2014. The versatile workflow includes award-winning 3D animation, visual effects and creative tools, Autodesk Maya 2014, Autodesk 3ds Max 2014, Autodesk MotionBuilder 2014, Autodesk Mudbox 2014, Autodesk Softimage 2014 and Autodesk Sketchbook Designer 2014, all which have been updated to offer new workflow enhancements that help artists collaborate, manage complexity and move data through their pipeline more efficiently.
With three configurations, the Suites scale to meet the demands of any sized team, budget or project. The Standard edition includes industry-recognized 3D software and offers a choice of either Autodesk Maya 2014 or Autodesk 3ds Max 2014 with Autodesk MotionBuilder 2014, Autodesk Mudbox 2014 and Autodesk Sketchbook Designer 2014. The Premium edition offers all the software of the Standard Suite, but with the addition of Autodesk Softimage 2014 3D animation and visual effects software. With the Ultimate Suite, customers have access to the value of the Premium edition, with the added benefit of including both Maya 2014 and 3ds Max 2014.
Every tool in the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suites offers new ways for artists to efficiently bring more life-like and realistic behaviors to their creations:
Autodesk 3ds Max 2014
Autodesk 3ds Max 2014 offers new solutions to answer today’s modern 3D challenges. The new Populate feature saves artists time and allows them to quickly and easily generate moving or idle crowds with life-like human reactions and activity. Additional updates include: a significantly enhanced and more efficient Particle Flow toolset; and a performance-enhanced viewport that now supports Microsoft DirectX 11 shaders. Perspective Match and Vector Map tools allow artists to extend their creative capabilities by crossing the 2D/3D divide.
Autodesk Maya 2014
Autodesk Maya 2014 helps artists and developers create content to meet the increasing expectations of modern audiences. The 2014 update includes an expanded, integrated modeling feature set; intuitive Grease Pencil; and innovative new Paint Effects features that are designed to improve productivity and enhance creativity. The Maya DX11Shader, working with enhancements to Viewport 2.0, enables artists to work in a high-quality real-time environment that closely matches final output. New Scene Assembly, a File Path Editor, and URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) support tools allows for easier building and managing of large and complex worlds.
Autodesk Softimage 2014
The new Camera Sequencer toolset offers the ability to cut between multiple cameras to edit clips, leaving the original animation data unchanged; directorial control over scenes; improved CrowdFX and ICE (Interactive Creative Environment) features enable artists to use the concept of passes and partitions in any combination with any aspect of ICE; and an improved High-Quality Viewport delivers a higher fidelity interactive experience. Autodesk Softimage 2014 now offers easier integration into existing pipelines through improved support for animation data exchange via the Autodesk FBX 2014 format.
Autodesk MotionBuilder 2014
With Autodesk MotionBuilder 2014, studios can more efficiently manipulate and refine motion capture and other character animation data for use in onset visualization, previsualization, virtual cinematography, feature film production and game development. Linux operating system support is now available, as well as new motion capture workflow options; artist-friendly methods for positioning, measuring and selecting objects; the ability to use custom viewport renderers; and an API (Application Programming Interface) for file referencing.
Autodesk Mudbox 2014
The latest update to Autodesk Mudbox offers single-click automatic and manual options to manipulate meshes or to precisely control various aspects of the output mesh with a user-directed solution. Artists can now concentrate purely on aesthetic considerations as they sculpt, without altering the underlying structure. Enhanced multi-touch workflows now include support for stencils and additional touch-enabled input devices.
Autodesk SketchBook Designer 2014
Autodesk SketchBook Designer 2014 is an intuitive hybrid paint and vector toolset that enables exploration and presentation of new ideas for characters, props and environments. Additional benefits include: sketching, painting and image compositing workflows; easy color manipulation; mixed media workflows and an industry-unique transformation tool. The dynamic, scalable user interface is optimized for both pen and mouse interaction and is designed to offer maximum creative freedom.
Availability
Availability is expected around April 2013.
IGN Pro League Live Streams SXSW eSports Tournaments with Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design today announced that IGN Pro League (IPL) used Blackmagic Design’s ATEM Camera Converters, Micro Videohub, Videohub Master Control, H.264 Pro Recorders, DeckLink Quad capture and playback cards and Mini Converters HDMI to SDI, Audio to SDI and SDI Distribution to support its professional eSports tournaments at SXSW Gaming 2013.
IPL brought in 27 top players from around the world to compete for cash prizes and rankings in “StarCraft II,” “League of Legends” and “World of Tanks.” During the tournaments, each player was stationed at a desk equipped with a computer for game play and an audience facing 54" LED screen mounted on the front. The screens displayed logos and information from IPL’s proprietary web application, such as player names and viewer votes on potential winners.
“The application is run by an open source program called Caspar, which was created by the Swedish government for broadcast graphics and adapted for IPL’s use,” said Tracy Peterson, manager, video production, eSports, IGN Entertainment. “The dynamic data is piped through Adobe Flash Player, then the Caspar system pushes it out via DeckLink Quad cards to Mini Converters, which feed the 54" screens. We use the DeckLink Quad cards so each of our four graphics computers can feed four to eight screens.”
At the heart of the operation were the Micro Videohub and Videohub Master Control, which route the Caspar graphics, switcher feed and even a direct video playback should the switcher go offline. The feeds were routed to a 21 ft. diagonal center stage screen, which also displayed logos, advertisements and sponsor information. In running a multitude of graphics, IPL relied on the Micro Videohub to change inputs without any disturbance to the viewing experience.
“‘League of Legends’ is the most popular game in the world right now, and it has a huge library of fantastic characters that the players select from. Every viewer has their own favorite, and the selection of these characters is a ceremonious moment in the event,” said Tracy. “We use in game animations and our graphics system to run a short hero animation for each character as they are selected. This portion of the show excites the audience and gets them ready for the main event, so it needs to be flawless. The graphics come directly from the DeckLink Quad cards, through the Micro Videohub and are projected onto the center stage screen. We also use the Micro Videohub to seamlessly switch from the program to the Caspar feed and back again during this sequence.
“We invest a lot of money in our stage show, which is why we stream them live on Twitch.tv and about an hour later on YouTube and our syndication channels using the recordings of each match. We use the H.264 Pro Recorders to capture high quality digital recordings that we upload directly to the Internet. The devices are easy to set up and operate, as well as work well in any environment,” he said.
One area IPL was able to reduce costs was implementing fiber thanks to Blackmagic Design’s ATEM Camera Converters, battery powered optical fiber converters with talkback, tally and mic inputs.
“The ATEM Camera Converters saved us hundreds of dollars per day per camera. In only a few events, we could justify the upgrade to fiber, and the ability to run miles of fiber was a huge bonus,” said Tracy. “We are looking into using fiber to combine three to five stage shows to create a new wrap up channel and provide analysis and tournament updates throughout the day, live. Without Blackmagic Design, we simply wouldn't be able to do all this.”
Press Photography
Product photos of Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/images. IPL images are available here.
About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, while the company’s DaVinci Emmy™ award winning color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check www.blackmagicdesign.com.
Sesame Street's Latest YouTube Videos Shot With Blackmagic Cinema Camera
Blackmagic Design announced that directors Josh and Jason Diamond of the Diamond Brothers shot Sesame Workshop’s, the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street, "Can You Tell-y Me How to Get to a Billion?" and "Counting the 'You's in YouTube" videos with Blackmagic Cinema Camera. Josh and Jason Diamond worked with DP Timur Civan on the four day shoot, and NYC based freelance colorist, Juan Salvo, used Blackmagic Design’s DaVinci Resolve to color the project.
"Shooting ProRes was a plus in that we were trying to find the best ISO to f-stop ratio. All the characters have fur and fringe, and there’s much more fine detail," said Josh. "Being able to try a couple shots in various settings then pop the SSD out and quickly pull some keys in After Effects directly from the SSD was a huge time saver. We were able to compare and contrast while setting up so we weren’t fighting with it in post. There was no secondary processing or transcoding to go through."
Spending sometimes as little as 40 minutes at a location, the team had little time to set up before they were shooting, breaking down, loading out and moving to the next location.
"We weren’t able to scout any locations ahead of time, so we showed up with a small lighting package and the Blackmagic Cinema Camera. The camera is small, light and doesn’t need a lot of accessories, and we were able to leave it rigged so it could be powered up and shooting in seconds," said Josh. "Having 13 stops of dynamic range gave us the flexibility to say 'there’s a lot of nice natural light, so let’s throw up one Kino for fill and shoot.' Also shooting in Log allowed us to protect our highlights much easier."
With a Rec 709 image on the camera’s built in display, the team viewed a Log image on a secondary SDI monitor and benefitted from being able to use both images to determine if the shot looked good or needed adjustment without having to waste time setting up a large producer’s monitor in tight spaces.
"We were able to roll in, take five seconds to look around, figure out who and where we were going to shoot and go. We even filmed at a school with three and four year olds who weren’t going to sit patiently for long," said Josh. "The Blackmagic Cinema Camera’s versatility, ergonomics and efficiency were key to our workflow for this shoot."
"I was able to hand hold the Blackmagic Cinema Camera for almost six hours without a break, which enabled us to stay on schedule, get extra takes and move between the numerous locations with minimal crew. The camera was critical to the speed we required," said Timur Civan, DP. "The Blackmagic Cinema Camera gave us the most image quality per pound of any camera out there, and we were able to deliver image quality on par with cameras costing three times as much, but at half the size weight and complexity. It has a great run and gun form factor with a big cinematic look."
Shot in ProResHQ, the footage was edited by Sesame Workshop and then sent to Juan for color grading. Since the footage was shot in Log, Juan ensured the contrast, exposure and saturation were appropriate for each distinct setting, and Resolve's Log grading tools allowed him to dial in exposure and contrast as desired.
"The latitude and tonality of the footage were excellent, and Resolve’s robust Log grading and agile secondaries made it a breeze to work with," said Juan. "In almost every shot, I used secondaries, qualifiers, Power Windows and custom curves to get the footage looking just right. And having all those functions available at the push of a button from my control surface made it a cinch in a time sensitive environment. Resolve allowed me to render out review versions and final deliverables in real time."
Press Photography
Product photos of Blackmagic Design products are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/images. The Diamond Brothers images are available here.
About Blackmagic Design
Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and film restoration software for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability, while the company’s DaVinci Emmy™ award winning color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including stereoscopic 3D and 4K workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore, and Australia. For more information, please check www.blackmagicdesign.com.