Computer Graphics World

MARCH 2010

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For additional product news and information, visit CGW.com Review SOFTWARE DIGITAL CHARACTERS Personalized 3D Daz 3D and Gizmoz have partnered to create an online marketplace for high-qual- ity, inter-compatible digital characters and accessories. The new company will deliver digital goods with lifelike characteristics for use by artists of any level working on social networks, cross-platform gaming, 3D animation, and development. Gizmoz’s photorealistic head reconstruction and online personalization service combines with Daz 3D’s full-figure content, desk- top software tools, and community to provide creative professionals, gamers, and consumers with a virtual goods design center and marketplace. The custom avatars can be managed and seamlessly transported to virtual environments or production pipelines. In fact, all characters and technologies can be used in PC and console games, social networks, video clips, and mobile applications, as well as in professional modeling, animation, and illustration projects. The merged company plans to unveil its first new prod- ucts this quarter. Daz 3D; www.daz3d.com Gizmoz; www.gizmoz.com ROTOSCOPING Mocha Upgrades Imagineer Systems has upgraded its planar tracking and rotoscoping software, Mocha and Mocha for After Effects. Mocha Version 1.6 and mocha for After Effects Version 2 newly support tracking data export directly to Red Giant Software’s Warp plug-in for After Effects, enabling a simplified workflow. Mocha for After Effects, a stand-alone 2D tracking tool based on Imagineer Systems’ 2.5D Planar Tracking technology, helps artists generate solid tracks; produce position-, scale-, rotation-, shear-, and perspective- matched tracks; and export data to After Effects. Now available, Mocha Version 1.6 is priced at $1095. Mocha for After Effects 2.1.0 is now available for $210. An upgrade to Version 2 from Adobe After Effects CS4 is priced at $110. Imagineer Systems; www.imagineersystems.com WIN MAC SCULPTING AND MODELING Virtual Clay Tactus Technologies has unveiled Protean, a 3D virtual clay sculpting and modeling software for producing fast, early-stage designs for engineering, animation, and other applications. Protean is designed to simplify real-time 3D volumetric model- ing, resulting in efficient, freeform shape and model creation. The easy-to-use, tool-based modeling structure enables rapid design and prototyp- ing, delivering design and modeling capabilities to industrial design- ers, engineers, creative artists, sculptors, architects, animators, game design- ers, marketers, bioengineers, and others. Protean emulates clay modeling and enables users to deform models by pushing, pulling, twisting, and stretching the virtual clay material. Protean- created 3D models can be imported into popular software such as Autodesk’s 3ds Max, for use in larger-scale animation or product design projects. Tactus Technologies; www.proteanclay.com, www.tactustech.com continued from page 46 add texture management to any tool in ZBrush to paint textures as you model. ZBrush can handle levels of geometry much higher than most other 3D software, making it easy to create models so rich that they’re hard to import elsewhere. To fa- cilitate this, Pixologic has developed GoZ, another important feature that allows for tighter integration with other 3D soft- ware, such as Autodesk’s Maya, Pixologic’s Modo, and Maxon’s Cinema 4D. GoZ not only exports 3D geometry, but it also ex- ports such information as bump, normal, and displacement maps. Tis allows for a model to be geometrically lit, with the detail added through simple image maps. Upon import into a third-party package, GoZ uses these image maps to set up all the shading networks for you. GoZ will take care of simple operations—such as cor- recting point and polygon order—as well as more advanced operations that require complete remapping. Te updated mesh is immediately ready for further detailing, map extractions, and transferring to any other GoZ-enabled application. For those who are using ZBrush as a paint package, the 3D nature of the soft- ware can add a lot of power. Pixologic calls this “2.5D,” and it allows you to paint in relief. Images painted in 2.5D can be fur- ther modified by changing the lighting, for instance. Additionally, Pixologic now adds a 2D sketching feature called QuickSketch. Tis is basically a sketching tool that allows you to quickly record your ideas in 2D and then move the roughs into a 3D space. Overall, I really enjoyed ZBrush. Te soft- ware definitely has a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, sculpting in 3D is a natural and intuitive process. Anyone who wants to create highly detailed and realistic models should give the software a look. n March 2010, Volume 33, Number 3: COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD (USPS 665-250) (ISSN-0271-4159) is published monthly (12 issues) by COP Communications, Inc. Corporate offices: 620 West Elk Avenue, Glendale, CA 91204, Tel: 818-291-1100; FAX: 818-291-1190; Web Address: info@copprints.com. Periodicals postage paid at Glendale, CA, 91205 & additional mailing offices. COMPUTER GRAPHICS WORLD is distributed worldwide. Annual subscription prices are $72, USA; $98, Canada & Mexico; $150 International airfreight. To order subscriptions, call 847-559-7310. © 2010 CGW by COP Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. No material may be reprinted without permission. 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