Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/663385
4 cgw m a r c h . a p r i l 2 0 1 6 S P O T L I G H T THE FOUNDRY POUNDS OUT MODO 10 The Foundry has launched the Modo 10 Series, built on a next-generation 3D modeling, texturing, and rendering platform that delivers new feature sets in a series of three installments for a single price. The Modo 10 Series tool set streamlines and automates complex tasks. The launch begins with the Modo 10.0 V.1 installment (available in the second quarter of this year and followed by 10.1 and 10.2), which allows artists to create content and be confident that their assets will look virtually the same in Unity or Unreal Engine. IKINEMA LIVEACTION 2 SIMPLIFIES VIRTUAL REALITY, MOCAP IKinema is rolling out the second generation of its LiveAction retargeting and solving soware for VR and virtual production, featuring an integrat- ed full-body rig editor that allows developers to create content and experiences directly in Unreal Engine 4 without the use of third-party tools. Designed for live performance capture in the virtual space, IKinema LiveAction allows content creators to accurately retarget actors' move- ments to animated avatars, regardless of their relative proportion, and to view their interaction in highly rendered virtual environments in real time. It features the same core technology as Action, IKinema's solution for postproduction. The technology also benefits consumers of VR content, allowing them to animate characters in real time as well as interact with their virtual environments. In addition to the rig editor, LiveAction v2's real-time features include: automatic correc- tion of sliding feet, locking them to the ground; automatic correction to floors and obstacles to eliminate feet and hand penetration; and noise reduction and correction filters that automatical- ly clean defects in mocap during live streaming. CHAOS PATENTS SCANNING TECHNOLOGY Chaos Group has introduced a new scanning technology that can produce an exact digital repli- ca of a physical material with sub-millimeter precision, available through VRscans, Chaos Group's new full-service material scanning business. While using digital graphics to prototype projects has been the standard for years, the ability to present products with 100 percent accuracy has not. In the past, approximations were used, forcing artists to spend countless hours getting 90 percent of the way there. With VRscans, companies can now send in their material samples, and what comes back is the most accurate representation of a digital material yet. Once processed, the materials are returned with a .vrscan file that arrives ready to render in V-Ray. WORKSTATIONS OUTPERFORM PCS The workstation proved once again it is not slave to the same market forc- es dragging down the broader PC markets. Where industry reports indicate double-digit percentage decline in PC shipments in 2015, Jon Peddie Research (JPR) reports that the workstation market fell only 0.8% in the fourth quarter of 2015 (year-over-year), and about the same for 2015 overall. All told, the industry shipped around 1.04 million units in Q4 2015. Why would two sister platforms expe- rience such different market dynamics? Senior Analyst and "JPR Workstation Re- port" Author Alex Herrera explains: "PC and workstation products are built off much of the same core technologies, but the work- station is designed and built with different priorities in mind – maximum reliability and application-optimized performance for high-demand, visual applications." Herrera continues: "Many mainstream PC users have found that their primary applications still run fine on machines three or more years old – or even run ac- ceptably on phones or tablets – so there's little motivation to pay for a new one. But the same is not at all true for users in areas like CAD, digital media and en- tertainment, geoscience, and finance. These buyers need and value the return that a new, higher-performance machine can provide in increased productivity." Market shares for the big-three workstation OEMs – HP, Dell, and Lenovo – don't tend to fluctuate much quarter-to-quarter. But there had been notable stories the past few years: Lenovo climbing slowly but steadily, and Dell stabiliz- ing aer a long decline at the hands of HP. Dell's workstation business had not only successfully stopped the decline, it had been managing to pull back a bit of share over time, from a low of 30.7% up to 35.9% in Q3 2015. courtesy Chaotic Atmospheres MARKET SHARES Q4 '15