As Siggraph 2008 winds down, it’s time for me to take one last, brief mention of some of the more interesting technology and developments at the show. Be sure to read upcoming issues of millimeter and Digital Content Producer magazines for more in-depth information.

While some may claim that there is nothing new at the show, if you walk the aisles with an open mind you’re sure to find trends and new gear that fits the bill. more

Laptops are on track to soon replace desktop units as the most popular personal computer type. Over the past couple of years, more powerful mobile CPUs and GPUs have made lighter weight laptops prime candidates to become the machines of choice for pro graphics and NLE users too.

While they didn’t have a booth on the show floor, Dell still garnered interest by the introduction of two potent new members of its line of pro-oriented, ISV-certified mobile workstations, which turned up on display in Intel’s and NVIDIA’s booths. more

IRIDAS, the world leader in RAW playback technologies, is drawing crowds to the PNY booth (#747) at Siggraph 2008. Visitors are experiencing first-hand the image fidelity of IRIDAS’ RealTime RAW 2.0 in SpeedGrade and FrameCycler. By leveraging the power of the new graphics cards from NVIDIA by PNY, IRIDAS provides real-time de-Bayering of RAW content allowing filmmakers to review and color correct content at up to 4K resolution straight from the digital cinema camera. Read on at The Briefing Room

More Siggraph 2008 news from The Briefing Room

mental images, a global leader in rendering software and visualization tools today announced that the latest version of their industry-leading rendering software, mental ray 3.7, is now integrated as part of the recently announced Autodesk Maya 2009 software digital content creation package. The release of Maya 2009 will mark the first availability of mental ray 3.7, which will subsequently be integrated by other key mental images customers.

Many of the new features and improvements in Maya 2009 and mental ray 3.7 are intended to provide considerable speed and memory usage performance gains over previous versions. Read on at The Briefing Room

More Siggraph 2008 news from The Briefing Room

Sony Electronics is unveiling a new workflow solution for faster processing of high-resolution effects and computer graphics. This new technology platform, named ZEGO, is based on the Cell/B.E. (Cell Broadband Engine) and RSX technologies, and is designed to eliminate bottlenecks that can occur during post production, especially during the creation and rendering of visual effects. Read on at The Briefing Room

More Siggraph 2008 news from The Briefing Room

Demand for better graphics performance and programmability within the professional notebook market continues to increase as animators, designers and engineers work with larger 3D models, datasets and images. NVIDIA, a worldwide leader in visual computing technologies, continues to address the demand with the introduction of a new series of NVIDIA Quadro FX mobile GPUs, featuring an NVIDIA CUDA Parallel Computing Processor. Read on at The Briefing Room

More Siggraph 2008 news from The Briefing Room

Creaform, developer and manufacturer of the well-known Handyscan 3D line-up of handheld and self-positioning laser scanners, once again pushes the limits of portable 3D scanning and introduces its newest and most innovative product: the VIUscan, a self-positioning handheld and high resolution portable 3D color scanner. Read on at The Briefing Room

More Siggraph 2008 news from The Briefing Room

Massive Software announced Massive 3.5, a new upgrade to Massive, the artificial intelligence (AI) driven animation system. Massive 3.5 follows up on Massive 3.0 with new features, including Agent Fields and improved integration and hair and fur dynamics. Read on at The Briefing Room

More Siggraph 2008 news from The Briefing Room

Duiker Research, creator of the Color Symmetry plug-in suite, announced Color Symmetry 2.0. Version 2.0 encompasses new capabilities that make it possible to create and emulate production looks, accurately view color and correctly exchange color data across a variety of film- and emerging all-digital production pipelines in motion pictures, television, commercials and games. Read on at The Briefing Room

More Siggraph 2008 news from The Briefing Room

Eyeon quietly doubled its product line at Siggraph with the announcement of its new Generation product line, which includes all sorts of management tools for artists, integrated composting/editing tools, and so forth.

“We’ve been pretty busy,” marketing chief Donovan Zulauf conceded. And the company’s reliable compositing technology, Fusion, has been in the thick of that frenzy. Eyeon is showingFusion 6 at Siggraph, expected to be shipping later this year, and now incorporating a stereoscopic and multi-layer imaging system, and a new 3D system that Donovan was particulary proud of. more