Archive of the Graphics Category

Back from the show. I like taking a day or so after my last postings to look through everything I’ve collected, selecting some last items to include in a final wrapup. While that’s not a lot of time for deep reflection, I am at least far enough away from the hype of the moment to enable a bit of perspective.

At the NAB press office earlier this week I overheard an NAB official talk to the editor of one of the leading trade mags. He was asked about what he thought would be among the most exciting developments of the show. Instead, he begged off answering, stating that as far as he was concerned it was all just a rehash. He could find nothing new or interesting worth commenting on. more

Autodesk no longer has to get graphics support from one source and SDI support from others. With the integration of Nvidia’s Quadro FX 5600 SDI, new efficiencies open up in the workflow for Smoke 2009, Inferno 2009, Flame 2009, and Flint 2009, as well as the Backdraft Conform 2009 systems.

The Quadro 5600 SDI card (a graphics card and an uncompressed SDI daughter board) provides two channels (fill or key) of 8-, 10- or 12-bit uncompressed SDI in 2K, HD, and SD formats, analog and digital house synch and ancillary data, for support of virtual sets and other live compositing applications and direct connection to broadcast monitors, switchers, tape decks or SDI projectors.

When a company with a product line as big and deep as Autodesk makes its NAB presentation, you’ll forgive them for thinking like an auto company and describing the updated apps as their 2009 product lineup.

Trevor Boyer has already posted notes about Autodesk’s Sunday press conference. While each of the major products announced have plenty of notable and usable improvements, I’ll vote for lower price points and ability to work with compressed media as the most significant moves that herald future trends. Smoke 2009’s $64,000 tab for a turnkey hardware/software finishing machine–storage included–is a great breakthrough. For the first time, (fiscal) hope is offered to those many mid-level shops which blanch when faced with six-figure offerings from Autodesk, Quantel, et.al. (At present, this was described as an introductory price available through July 21, 2008. It’s a little unclear what happens after that; maybe if enough new buyers are attracted, the price will hold.) more

Cinnafilm, an emerging force in the development of polished GPU parallel processing, unveiled the Cinnafilm HD1 real-time film look system, a major breakthrough in film look effects for HD digital video. The new solution is the result of over four years of dedicated research to harness graphics card parallel processing. Cinnafilm HD1 is intended for creative professionals who wish to easily and cost-effectively apply the look of film to nearly any digital video source, while maintaining the highest levels of production quality and visual integrity. Cinnafilm HD1 streamlines transfer and rendering processes to provide a solution that is fast, efficient, and affordable. Filmmakers can now quickly achieve a studio celluloid look at a digital video price. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2008 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room

Harris had its press conference on Sunday. This news is coming a bit late, of course, but that’s probably because the conference was aimed more at broadcasters than content producers, so it’s a bit outside our usual area of coverage. Still, you’ll want to pay attention to this news, as it has implications for the new ways the public will be accessing and viewing video in the next few years.

Among the news about its various broadcast systems (servers, routers, DTV transmitters), Harris also discussed its MPH initiative that it’s undertaking with display manufacturers Zenith and LG. MPH, which stands for “mobile/pedestrian/handheld,” aims to send video to mobile devices via “in-band” transmission — over the air, within the existing digital spectrum available to broadcasters. more

Duiker Research Corp., creator of the Color Symmetry plug-in suite, has announced Color Symmetry Version 1.5 with Universal Look Authoring. Color Symmetry is a complete solution for emulating film looks and handling color consistently within industry-standard animation, graphics, effects and post-production packages. Version 1.5 supports a growing number of post workflows and formats as well as today’s increasingly creative look development demands. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2008 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room

There was something of a Yogi Berra moment at the Hard Rock Cafe on Sunday when Avid’s new executive VP and then the new CEO took the stage to pledge that this time we’re going to get it right.

Oh no, I thought, not another set of promises about working well with others and thinking outside the box. Well, we got those promises again. And yes there were some snickers around the floor of Hard Rock’s music venue (Avid’s traditional space over their years at NAB) at inappropriate times from the hundreds in the audience of users along with a smattering of press.

After all, neither CEO Gary Greenfield nor Kirk Arnold, executive vp and gm of Avid Video, have any video industry experience. (Give Avid’s board credit though–both of these very recent hires have solid reps for turning around high tech companies.) more

I just sat down with Boris Yamnitsky, the president and founder of his namesake Boris FX. A couple years ago Boris FX purchased the Media 100 line, keeping alive one of the most venerable nonlinear editing systems. It had been an extremely rocky time for Media 100; a company without such a devout and long-lasting user base probably would have folded up shop and discontinued its products.

Not Media 100. Under Yamnitsky’s leadership, Media 100 has advanced to 12.5 software, which was just announced at the show. The software is playing catch-up; one major new feature is HDV ingest via FireWire. The clips can’t be edited natively, but must be converted to another format, such as Media 100 HD or Apple’s ProRes. These fit the workflow of most Media 100 users, says Yamnitsky, and the higher-bit-rate formats hold up much better under the stress of digital effects. more

After years of hearing about it, we’ve learned that we at least aught to be open to using metadata, even if we’re not too clear about what it is or where it fits in with our day-to-day work life.

At the show, a number of new and upgraded products are making us think we better get with the program.

GridIron Software’s GridIron Flow offers a pretty slick solution. Due to hit public beta in a few months, it still managed to win a Best of Show at Macworld 2008. It’s digital content management software for those working on graphic design, web, and video projects. The software (Mac and PC) tracks the design process by creating a graphic image file to represent the relationship between the software on a computer and the files that software creates. more

NVIDIA announces that Autodesk continues to empower creative professionals by offering NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 SDI graphics in its newest products for effects and finishing: Autodesk Smoke 2009, Autodesk Inferno 2009, Autodesk Flame 2009, Autodesk Flint 2009, and Autodesk Backdraft Conform 2009 systems. This announcement solidifies the trend in the digital film and broadcast industries where top companies are integrating professional NVIDIA Quadro SDI graphics into their product offerings for 3D compositing, editing, and color grading in real time for 2K, HD, and SD formats. Read on at The Briefing Room

More 2008 NAB Show news from The Briefing Room