The guys at Reallusion gave me a look at iClone3 a little while ago, as well as their philosophy that there is a market for “simple 3D” work and a merging of the ergonomics that video gamers are used to with the requirements and mindset that animators have. They call iClone3 an affordable and “complete 3D movie machine with real-time animation and actor creation tools for rendering movies with ultimate detail.” The software has a library of characters, bodies, limbs, faces, expressions, sets, and so forth, and is designed for ease of import of elements from places like the Google’s 3D Warehouse, as well as other software packages. Users can animate out of a library of movements, or do basic keyframe work, as well. more

On the convergence trail once again this afternoon, I learned a bit of the Bunkspeed story (booth #311). What intrigues me most about the company’s 3D rendering engine, created specifically for product designers and engineers (starting with the auto industry folks in 2002), is that it has potential to be a pre-viz tool for Hollywood–another example of technology crossing over from one application to the next.

Bunkspeed marketing chief Thomas Teger told me the company’s HyperShot technology, introduced last year as a simplified and way to render and move photographic images in real-time was used a while back for pre-viz and storyboarding work by a freelance artist who worked on Transformers, for example. He adds that the focus of the company remains on design applications, but increasingly, that world requires movement, and so, this year, Bunkspeed announced the addition of enhanced animation capabilities with its new HyperMove tool (slated for an October debut). HyperMove is basically a tool for moving photo-real imagery rendered in the Bunkspeed world for display purposes (driving a car, posing a cell phone on a turntable, etc), without requiring the artist to have any significant computer animation skills particularly. more

LoiLo, today introduced LoiLoScope at Siggraph, their breakthrough video editing software that redefines the video editing experience with speed, sophistication and playfulness never before seen in video editing software. LoiLoScope introduces an entirely new user interface based on an unconstrained, infinitely zoom-able workspace. Their pioneering direct interface with the graphic processing unit (GPU) lets users create and manipulate HD videos freely with one-touch operation and without time-consuming rendering. Read on at The Briefing Room

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As the Siggraph show floor closed Wednesday, millimeter Senior Editor Michael Goldman had the opportunity to sit down for a chat with the creator of Massive AI software technology, Stephen Regelous. With Massive well on its way to becoming a ubiquitous tool in the visual effects world for realistic movement simulations in crowds large and small, they chatted about additions and improvements made to the software in its new version, 3.5, introduced this week at Siggraph. Listen to a portion of their conversation.

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

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Autodesk announced Autodesk Toxik 2009 procedural compositing software. Toxik 2009 offers high-performance compositing and visual effects capabilities, particularly for large-format digital film and television projects. When combined with the new Autodesk Maya 2009 modeling software, the two products provide an accelerated and iterative 3D-to-2D workflow. Both products are being showcased at Siggraph 2008 in Los Angeles, California, August 12-14 at Autodesk booth #501. Read on at The Briefing Room

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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

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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

Luxology, developer of modern, artist-focused 3D software, announced that DS SolidWorks has entered into a technology licensing agreement to utilize Luxology’s Nexus rendering technology. As one of the leading 3D mechanical CAD software vendors worldwide, DS SolidWorks selected Nexus for its modern architecture and superior rendering capabilities. Read on at The Briefing Room

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Red Giant Software, with popular products Magic Bullet, Knoll Light Factory and Trapcode, today launched Magic Bullet Steady, a new tool to remove camera shake, jitter, and noise. Magic Bullet Steady is a plug-in for users of Final Cut Pro 6 and After Effects CS3 (Mac and Windows). The stabilizer function removes unwanted camera movement which can be distracting and disturbing to viewers. Magic Bullet Steady is also included in the newly updated Magic Bullet Suite 2008. Read on at The Briefing Room

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