Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/110591
vfx plug-in news New hardware acceleration for Caustic plug-ins H ERTFORDSHIRE, UK — Imagination Technologies' Caustic Visualizer viewport plug-ins for Autodesk Maya and 3DS Max are designed to bring fully interactive realtime ray tracing to the working viewports of 3DS Max and Maya. Thanks to Imagination's OpenRL-based raytracing hardware and software technologies, the Visualizer photorealistic viewport provides higher visual quality than Max and Maya's normal rendering viewports, including globally-accurate lighting, reflections and shadows within a 3DS Max, Maya or Mental Ray scene. It enables artists to identify and resolve potential problems within their final renders in the early stages of modeling. Imagination (www.imgtec.com) has also introduced the Caustic dedicated raytracing acceleration boards. The high-end Caustic R2500 OpenRL PC board is offered with a copy of Caustic Visualizer, for $1,495. The Caustic R2100 board is designed for a wider range of mid- and high-end workstations, and includes a copy of Caustic Visualizer for $795. Both Caustic boards will ship with a copy of the Caustic Visualizer for Maya at launch. The software-only version of the Caustic Visualizer for Maya will be priced at $299. The beta version of Caustic Visualizer for 3DS Max will be available in Q1. E-on releases Carbon Scatter 2 B EAVERTON, OR — E-on Software (www.e-onsoftware.com), which makes tools for creating realistic nature imagery, is offering Carbon Scatter 2, an advanced instancing plug-in for 3DS Max, Maya and Cinema 4D. Derived from E-on's EcoSystem technology, Carbon Scatter 2 is a straightforward solution for creating complex and detailed populations using the native instancing technologies of the host application. On top of new, super-fast population algorithms, that allow for the creation of over one million instances per second, Carbon Scatter 2 adds the ability to populate objects all around at 360 degrees. Other features include the ability to use curves to define population areas. By adding the optional Carbon Botanica module, users can edit and create their own plant species. Over 100 3D plant species, with variations, are included, along with over 130 billboard trees. The EcoPainter brush allows artists to paint-in instances directly with their mouse. And the plug-in works with all shaders. Carbon Scatter 2 is available in English for Windows XP, Vista and 7 (32- and 64-bit), and on Mac OS X 10.5+ (Mac Intel only, 32- and 64-bit). One license of Carbon Scatter can be used with all compatible applications and renderers installed on the end user's system. Pricing is $295, bundled with the Carbon Botanica plug-in, and $195 without. Noise updates FxFactory 4 B OSTON — Noise Industries (www. noiseindustries.com) has released FxFactory 4, the latest update to the company's visual effects plug-in platform. FxFactory 4 ($399) now supports Adobe Premiere Pro CS6, in addition to Apple Final Cut Pro 7/X, Motion and Adobe After Effects. FxFactory 4 is an all-in-one expandable video toolbox with plug-ins for video stylization and looks, color correction, stills animation, keying, stereoscopic 3D and titling. Updated products include as Photo Montage, Motype 1.3, Callouts 1.3, Cleaner 2.0, Split Animator and FxFactory Pro. Photo Montage is a photo animator for FCP X, Motion, Premiere Pro and After Effects. Keyframing is optional. The Motype 1.3 title generator by Yanobox lets editors quickly create impact titles. It's compatible with FCP, Motion, After Effects and Premiere Pro. Callouts 1.3, the latest version of Ripple Training's plug-in, adds two new callouts — ConnectDirect, which creates a straight animated line between two points; and Callout-Square, which creates an animated rectangle and extending line. Callouts 1.3 is available for FCP X. PHYX Cleaner 2.0 is a repair kit for editors working with low bit-rate 4:2:0 images from a DSLR, or those looking to remove video noise or film grain. Split Animator 1.1, adds zoom animation, rotation animation, animation ease controls, border and more. YUVsoft's 3D conversion solutions M OSCOW — YUVsoft (www.yuvsoft.com) a developer of 2D-3D conversion software, is offering plug-ins that work with Adobe After Effects and The Foundry's Nuke. The 2D to 3D Suite is a family of stereo 3D conversion plug-ins that provide near-automatic construction of plausible depth maps, background creation, depth map editing and high-quality stereo generation. The suite includes the Stereo Generator Suite (which is also a standalone product), a complete toolset for high-quality stereo generation, with specialized tools for fuzzy boundary processing and 30 Post • February 2013 Post0213_026-28,30-VFXrav3finalread.indd 30 background reconstruction. The Stereo Processing Suite includes a Stereo-toMultiview Conversion plug-in that enables fast creation of video content for autostereoscopic displays. Also included are plug-ins that enable artists to refine and correct native stereo 3D content. This includes the ability to fix vertical parallax and tilts between left and right eyes, evaluate disparity between left and right eyes, upscale low resolution disparity maps, and change the parallax value of the original stereo pair. Price per seat is dependent on the number of licenses purchased. www.postmagazine.com 1/24/13 4:56 PM