Leading stock video marketplace adds music and sound effects to its royalty-free collection

New York, NY, October 28, 2009 — Pond5.com, the fast-growing marketplace for stock video, has significantly expanded its offering by adding stock music and sound effects to it’s collection of downloadable royalty-free stock media. This major addition provides media producers everywhere with instant access to the full array of stock content needed in today’s production workflows.

The audio side of Pond5 launches with more than 15,000 sound effects and over 3,000 production music tracks, which will complement one of the leading stock video collections on the web. Pond5 now features over 240,000 royalty-free stock footage clips, with thousands more added each week. All media can be searched, previewed, purchased and downloaded directly from the site.

“We’re extremely excited about introducing audio on Pond5,” says CEO Tom Bennett. “We think the same factors more

Many of This Season’s Most-Watched Programs Feature Autodesk Technology

Post-production houses regularly turn to digital entertainment creation software from Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK), to help bring movie-like visual effects into millions of homes in this season’s most-watched television programs. Highlights include a 3D video game universe in “House,” the evocative color finishing of “Mad Men” and the UEFA Europa League rebrand.

Ascent Media, which provides creative and technical services through its worldwide network of media facilities, including Encore Hollywood, RIOT and Level 3, uses a combination of Autodesk Flame and Autodesk Inferno visual effects software, Autodesk Lustre color grading software, Autodesk Smoke editorial finishing software and Autodesk 3ds Max 3D animation, modeling and rendering software on more than 25 shows this season, including “NCIS,” “CSI: NY” and “House” (comprehensive more

HSL continues its touring relationship with legendary Bristol-based electronic/trip-hop collective Massive Attack, supplying all lighting equipment and crew to the current UK and European tour, working with lighting designer Robin Haddow.

Says HSL project manager Mike Oates, “It’s great to be working with Robin and Production Manager James Baseley and Tour Manager Dave Lawrence and their team again. Massive Attack have been one of the UK’s most influential and creative bands over the last 2 decades, and their live productions are always inventive and interesting. This one is no exception”. more

Provides enhanced lighting for After Effects’ built-in lights

Wilmington, NC – November 3, 2009 – Digieffects,® a developer of visual effects software plugins, today announced that Falloff Lighting is available for purchase. Falloff Lighting provides enhanced lighting for After Effects’ built-in lights. Falloff Lighting is much more like that of the real world where light naturally decays or “falls off” as surfaces increase distance from the After Effects light.

According to Robert Sharp, president of Digieffects, “Falloff Lighting is a great complement to After Effects’ built-in lighting system. With After Effects it doesn’t matter how far away a layer is from a light, it is still illuminated the same amount by that light. However, if you use Falloff Lighting, objects will appear dimmer the further away they are from the lights illuminating them.

Learn more at http://digieffects.com/product/falloff_lighting more

Santa Monica, CA (November 3, 2009) – Film, television and commercial visual effects company Entity FX congratulates the makers of Michael Jackson’s This Is It on the film’s powerful worldwide debut. The documentary movie, directed by Kenny Ortega and distributed worldwide by Sony Pictures, is a behind-the-scenes look at Michael Jackson as he rehearses for his final concert. It includes complex visual effects sequences originally part of a series of mini-movies directed and VFX-supervised by Bruce Jones. These mini-movies were ultimately intended to be displayed — some in stereoscopic 3D — on a giant screen behind the live performers. Entity FX helped to create a number of these moments.

Among the effects Entity FX completed is a fantastical parade ground in which thousands of soldiers dance with military precision as the camera dollies by them. Entity FX digitally created the environment and more

SAN MATEO, Calif. – Nov. 3, 2009 – A massive project is currently underway to replace the eastern portion of the 73-year-old Bay Bridge. But architect and Luxology® LLC modo user Ronald Rael sees the bridge as a treasure, envisioning it as a public space with parks, houses and sporting facilities.

Ronald Rael is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at UC Berkeley and a partner in Rael San Fratello Architects. Rael used modo, Luxology’s next-generation 3D content creation software, to develop 3D model of his innovative Bay Bridge concept. The result is a transformational space he believes would become a San Francisco landmark, with housing units hung from the bottom span of the bridge and a trail that links public spaces along the top level.

“I love how quickly I can prototype ideas using modo,” says Rael. “I believe modo has profound implications for architecture, even though more

Acquisition Underscores Company’s Aggressive Growth Strategy and Broadens GenArts’ Product Offering to Include Particles Engine

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – November 3, 2009 — GenArts Inc., the premier provider of specialized visual effects software for the film, television and video industries, announced today a definitive agreement to acquire particleIllusion™ and all related products and technologies from wondertouch LLC. The acquisition includes particleIllusion SE, all Emitters and Pro Emitters, particleIllusion for AE, and all additional intellectual property from wondertouch LLC. As part of the acquisition, Alan Lorence, the former CEO of wondertouch and creator of particleIllusion, will join GenArts as a full-time developer.

wondertouch and particleIllusion will continue to operate as stand-alone brands, separate from GenArts Sapphire™, Monsters™ and Raptors™. Customers can continue to obtain wondertouch products and support exactly as they have in the past by visiting www.wondertouch.com. In addition, particleIllusion will be sold through the same reseller channels more

Venice, CA— 3rd October, 2009—Lightcraft Technology has announced the successful long term rental of a Previzion® realtime on-set VFX compositing and tracking system by Zoic Studios. The time and money-saving system is being used in Zoic’s on set and post work with profoundly beneficial results to VFX aesthetics and budgets.

“Lightcraft Technology’s Previzion system is a critical component of Zoic’s on stage and post production pipeline called Z.E.U.S. (Zoic Environmental Unification System,)” says Mike Romey, Pipeline Supervisor for Zoic Studios. “The system binds pre-production digital assets with on-set visualization and post production effects and compositing. On stage, the system allows us to interact with digital sets in real time with a live more

Newest Version of mocha products Streamline Corner-Pinning Data Export Directly to Red Giant Warp

GUILDFORD, UK (November 3, 2009) — Imagineer Systems (www.imagineersystems.com) today announced new software point releases of its popular planar tracking and rotoscoping software mocha and mocha for After Effects v2. Most notably with this new release, mocha v1.6 and mocha for After Effects v2 now support tracking data export directly to the Red Giant Warp After Effects plug-in.

mocha for After Effects v2 is a stand alone 2D tracking tool for the After Effects community based on Imagineer Systems’ unique 2.5D Planar Tracking technology. mocha for After Effects helps solve problematic shots that traditionally challenge point based trackers, such as footage with objects moving out of frame, lack of detail, motion blur and heavy grain. This helps the artist to generate solid tracks, giving position, scale, rotation, shear and perspective matched more

Popular Render Queue Management Software Offers Improved Scalability, Stability and Improved Mac OSX Experience

Prime Focus Software, the R&D arm of Prime Focus VFX, is actively recruiting visual effects facilities to participate in the Beta Testing program for Deadline 4.0. The soon-to-be-released version of the company’s hassle-free administration and rendering toolkit for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX-based render farms features a host of new upgrades, which beta testers will have the opportunity to experience first-hand.

Deadline provides render farms of all sizes a world of flexibility and a wide-range of management options. The latest version, Deadline 4.0, is scheduled for a late November release and will feature improved scalability and stability, an improved Mac OSX experience, and new software support for Autodesk Maya 2010, Autodesk Softimage 2010, Avid MetaFuze, and ffmpeg. Deadline 4.0 will also include customizable themes for the user more