News

For the fifth consecutive year, Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) extended its support for tomorrow’s artists, animators, designers and filmmakers by sponsoring the Visual Effects Society’s (VES) award for “Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project” at the 11th annual VES Awards held on February 5, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Chris Bradshaw, senior vice president at Autodesk, presented the honor to Jan-Marcel Kühn from Filmakademie for “Natalis.”

Natalis - Teaser from Natalis on Vimeo.

Filmakademie students Daniel Brkovic, David Kirchner and Jan-Marcel Kühn's graduation short, Natalis, travels alongside an Android into forest foliage that unveils life-altering visions of the future. Tools from the Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suite, including 3ds Max, Maya, Mudbox and MotionBuilder, were used to create lush backdrops, intricate characters and whirling particle effects.

NewTek LightWave 11.5 now available!
The LightWave 3D® Group, a division of NewTek, Inc., announced today LightWave 11.5, the newest version of its award-winning 3D modeling, animation and rendering software for artists and designers, is now available for purchase at www.lightwave3d.com. A no-charge upgrade to LightWave 11.5 is available to all registered LightWave 11 customers on the LightWave 3D website.

LightWave 11.5 includes new features and functionality that enhance creativity and streamline productivity for everyone—from individual artists and designers to large animation or visual effects studios. Some of the many new features in LightWave 11.5 include the Genoma character rigging system with modular presets, predator and prey Flocking capabilities, per-object Instancing control, and soft-body Bullet Dynamics with support for FiberFX. Also included are Interchange Tools supporting Adobe After Effects cameras and Pixologic’s Zbrush, stereoscopic and depth-of-field motion blur in the Viewport Preview Renderer (VPR), major workflow enhancements, and more.

"Leveraging the rich collection of new tools in LightWave 11.5 allows us to continue to deliver movies on time and on budget,” said Scott Wheeler, visual effects supervisor at Rogue State and LightWave beta team member. “No other software gives us the scalability to do small team projects while still being capable of handling major studio effects movies quite like LightWave. It’s a must have in our CG arsenal."



Some of the new features and enhancements in LightWave 11.5 include:
? Soft Body Bullet Dynamics: Includes soft body dynamics for effects such as cloth, rubber, jelly or other deforming properties. Bullet meshes are now also reactive to bone deformations and wind forces can be added for rippling effects.

? After Effects and ZBrush Interchange Tools: Offers a new LWtoAE button that allows you to select elements in a scene and see them in Adobe After Effects, including animation, lights and camera settings. The After Effects Camera can also be exported to LightWave to take advantage of the Camera Tracker in After Effects and to provide pixel-perfect matching between the two programs. GoZ technology for Pixologic’s ZBrush allows you to send models to-and-from LightWave with automatic node flows for textures and normal maps. ZBrush styling tools can also be imported into LightWave and attached to objects for interactive creativity.

? New Interactive Modeling Tools: Provides new functionality and architectural advancements in Modeler for faster interactivity, performance, and tool development. LightWave 11.5 introduces many new tools like UV Unwrap, Edit Edges, Place Mesh, Slice, Thicken, and Heat Shrink which emphasize the system’s power and lay the groundwork for future third-party modeling tool development.

? Fiber FX: Respects soft bodies, offers improved Z-buffer support, and adds bundling around guide chains to create advanced fiber braiding and twisting effects. FiberFX now also supports curve poly types, the sketching of curves in Modeler, and rendering directly in FiberFX without using the Strand Maker conversion.

? Genoma Character Rigging System: Introduces a new modular instant-rigging system that can be used to quickly rig a simple biped or quadruped for animation in Modeler without the need for specialized rigging tools. It offers modular rig presets that consist of skeletal parts such as spines, wings, arms, legs, hands, and feet. Complete rigs for biped and quadrupeds can easily be customized using Genoma.

LightWave 11.5 also expands its suite of Virtual Studio Tools for virtual production and adds support in the Viewport Preview Renderer (VPR) for depth-of-field (DOF) motion blur, node-edge rendering, and stereoscopic 3D. It also provides new functionality for Flocking and Instancing and offers many new workflow enhancements throughout the software.



Pricing and Availability
LightWave 11.5 now available and priced at $1495 (USD). Registered LightWave 11 customers can upgrade to LightWave 11.5 free of charge; upgrade pricing from LightWave 10 or earlier is $695 (USD). Educational pricing is also available. Visit www.lightwave3d.com/buy to purchase or locate an authorized LightWave reseller. Download a free 60-day full-feature trial of LightWave 11.5 at www.lightwave3d.com/try.

About LightWave
LightWave 3D combines a state-of-the-art renderer with powerful and intuitive modeling and animation tools. LightWave includes hundreds of cross-platform render nodes for near limitless rendering, support for Windows and Mac UB 64- and 32-bit operating systems, free technical support and more. LightWave is enjoyed worldwide as a complete 3D production solution for feature film and television visual effects, broadcast design, print graphics, architectural visualization, game development, and more. LightWave is responsible for more artists winning Emmy® Awards than any other 3D application. LightWave has been used in the creation of CG and visual effects for leading feature films and television shows, including “Skyfall,” “The Hunger Games,” The Amazing Spider-Man,” “The Adventures of Tintin,” “Avatar,” “The Walking Dead,” “Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome,” “Fringe,” “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” and more.

About NewTek
NewTek is transforming the way people create network-style television content and share it with the world. From sporting events, Web-based talk shows, live entertainment, classrooms, and corporate communications—to virtually any venue where people want to capture and publish live video, we give our customers the power to grow their audiences, brands and businesses, faster than ever before. NewTek is privately owned and based in San Antonio, Texas. For more information on NewTek please visit: www.newtek.com, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr or connect with us on Facebook.

It’s arrived! The Toon Boom printable calendar for 2013.  Download it and print it out.

Blackmagic Design Announces Blackmagic Cinema Camera 1.2 Software Update

Fremont, CA - January 31, 2013 - Blackmagic Design today announced a new software update version 1.2 for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera which adds exciting new features including time lapse recording, aperture indicator when using compatible EF lenses, as well as ExFAT formatting for SSD disks. The Blackmagic Cinema Camera has now been certified by Intel for capture and playback with Thunderbolt™ computer hardware operating under Windows™. Blackmagic Cinema Camera 1.2 software update is available to download now free of charge from the Blackmagic Design Website.

The exciting new time-lapse recording feature allows customers to capture incredibly stunning time-lapse video in CinemaDNG RAW 2.5K, Apple™ ProRes or Avid™ DNxHD. Customers have an extremely wide selection of capture rates with this new time lapse recording feature as they can select from every second frame all the way up to one frame per 10 minutes.

The addition of the new aperture indicator on the status strip and SDI output overlay for EF compatible lenses allows customers to easily check F stop settings on the LCD display screen!

With the addition of Windows for Thunderbolt, users with certified Thunderbolt hardware will now be able to use a wide range of Windows based software as well as Blackmagic Design’s UltraScope and Media Express software over Thunderbolt with the Blackmagic Cinema Camera.

Support for Windows formatted ExFAT SSD disk adds flexibility for customers to use either HFS+ or ExFAT formats. ExFAT is a Windows based operating file system that features state of the art technology, including large sized disk and file support, wide compatibility and high performance. In addition, Mac OS X also supports ExFAT disks, so ExFAT formatted disks can be plugged into both Windows and Mac OS X machines without any third party software required. Simply insert the formatted disk and the camera will automatically detect format, ready for recording!

About Blackmagic Cinema Camera

Blackmagic Cinema Camera includes a super wide 13 stops of dynamic range, large 2.5K sensor, a built in SSD recorder that has the bandwidth to capture open standard CinemaDNG RAW, ProRes and DNxHD files, a built in capacitive touch screen LCD for direct metadata entry, standard jack audio connections, built in high-speed Thunderbolt connection, 3 Gb/s SDI output, a refrigerated sensor for low noise, and has a choice of two models for either EF or Micro Four Thirds compatible lenses.

Blackmagic Cinema Camera has been designed as the perfect companion to Final Cut Pro X and Avid Media Composer NLE software. Unlike other cameras, which require the use of custom video file formats that are not compatible with popular NLE software, often making the post production process a nightmare, the Blackmagic Cinema Camera includes absolutely no custom video file formats, and every file type included is open standard. It records into CinemaDNG format for RAW files, ProRes and DNxHD for HD resolution files compatible with Final Cut Pro X and Avid Media Composer.

Blackmagic Cinema Camera includes an innovative industrial design built from solid machined aluminum metal which results in an attractive but rugged design. All of the camera, recorder and display have been shrunk down into a lightweight design thats very portable.

Blackmagic Cinema Camera Key Features

• High resolution 2.5K sensor allows improved anti aliasing and reframing shots.

• Super wide 13 stops of dynamic range allows capture of increased details for feature film look.

• Built in SSD allows high bandwidth recording of RAW video and long duration compressed video.

• Open file formats compatible with popular NLE software such as CinemaDNG 12 bit RAW, Apple ProRes and Avid DNxHD. No custom file formats.

• Includes no custom connections. Standard jack mic/line audio in, BNC 3 Gb/s SDI out, headphone, high-speed Thunderbolt I/O technology, LANC remote control and standard DC 12-30V power connection.

• Capacitive touch screen LCD for camera settings and slate metadata entry.

• Two models, EF for compatibility with EF or ZE lenses, or MFT for use with Micro Four Thirds lenses or 3rd party lens mount adapters such as PL.

• Supports 2.5K and 1080HD resolution capture in 24, 25, 29.97 and 30 fps.

• Thunderbolt connection allows direct camera capture via included Media Express software and supports live waveform monitoring via the included Blackmagic UltraScope software.

• Includes a full copy of DaVinci Resolve 9.0 color grading software.

Availability and Price

Blackmagic Cinema Camera is available now for 2,495 EUR from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide.

Press Photography

Product photos of the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, and all other Blackmagic Design products, are available at www.blackmagicdesign.com/press/images.

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.

Blackmagic Design announced the release of DaVinci Resolve 9.1.1, which is now available on the BMD support web site. It fixes minor issues and optimizes some file formats and is free of charge. For Mac OS, Windows and Linux systems. The free edition, DaVinci Resolve Lite  9.1.1, is also available.