The Foundry Announces Hiero VFX Project Management Software

The Foundry announced a new software that will soon be in Beta call Hiero.

HIERO is a desktop application for collaborative VFX workflow - a scriptable timeline tool that conforms edit decision lists and parcels out VFX shots to artists, allows progress to be viewed in context, and liberates your finishing systems and artists for more creative tasks.

HIERO has been built to work ‘out of the box’ with NUKE, and can also be custom-scripted to work with other applications in your facility.

Because HIERO is open and scriptable via the Python programming language, it is an editorial tool that fits naturally into any VFX pipeline.

If you would like to sign up for the BETA Click Here.

Thinkbox Krakatoa Cracks 7 Billion Pixels

You think you are working with large files, wait until you see what Thinkbox, along with Fusion IO and Supermicro accomplished with the new version of Krakatoa MX 2.  7 Billion Pixels per frame.  Yes, I said 7 Billion with a B.  That is pretty amazing.

I actually had the pleasure of seeing this firsthand at the Thinkbox suite in Vancouver and I have to say, I was thoroughly impressed.  Of course, they weren't using your run-of-the-mill desktop machine to make this happen, they used a 4 CPUs x 10 Cores (40 cores, 80 threads) machine with 256 GB RAM was used to test the latest Beta of Krakatoa MX 2 and explore how core configurations and available memory affect the rendering performance.

If you want to read their findings and more about the test results, click here to read the full story on the Thinkbox Blog.

VFX Eye Candy: Portal: No Escape

Not just another Fan Flick on YouTube! Check out the short below, in HD preferably!

Autodesk Maya 2012 Hotfix 4

Autodesk Maya 2012 Hotfix 4 includes several important fixes, refer to the readme for more information.

Readme: English

Important notes:

• Hotfix #4 includes an update to Maya Composite. You must uninstall your existing Maya Composite before installing this update. Mac and Linux users: the update is included in the Hotfix 4 installer. Windows users: use the separate download below.


• For installation on Mac OS X, if you have newer components on your machine (such as QuickTime or DMM), a warning message may appear at the end of installation indicating a failure. This message indicates a component failure, not a failure of the Maya installation.


• Every hotfix is cumulative; it contains the fixes from the hotfix(es) that preceded it. For example, Hotfix #2 includes the fixes released in Hotfix #1, therefore you do not need to download and install both hotfixes.

Battleship Trailer Released Today

Check out the new trailer for Battleship the movie from Peter Berg.  It's pretty vfx heavy, but I certainly don't remember that alien ship from the board game!

What are your thoughts on this remake?

The Foundry NUKE and NUKEX 6.3 now available.

The most anticipated release of the year is now available! The vast array of improvements and additions to NUKE and NUKEX 6.3 will blow you away.

This is our BIGGEST EVER release of NUKE, expanding the parameters of traditional compositing.

Production proven on Commercials and Episodic Television as well as Film, NUKE and NUKEX put more control into the hands of artists, ensuring they can stay in the software for longer and avoid round-trips to other departments.

Find out more and secure your copy today.

So, what's new?

3D Particles (X)
NUKEX's true 3D particle system integrates seamlessly with NUKE's 3D workspace.
Artists can create a range of particle effects quickly and effectively within the composite including breaking windows, dust, fire and rain. No need to go back and forth to an external 3D rendering package.
Planar Tracker (X)
Dramatically speed up common compositing tasks such as sign replacement, element inserts and clean plate generation, with NUKEX's Planar Tracker.
Any new element to be matched to a planar surface can easily be tracked, placed and animated.
Denoise (X)
Our Sci-Tech® Award winning research team have built on their 2007 FURNACE work to produce a completely new Wavelet-based Denoise algorithm, resulting in cleaner and more visually pleasing results with less artefacts.
Grid and Spline Warping
We've completely rewritten the Spline and Grid Warping tools in NUKE to make them more intuitive and accurate to use. The point and spline UI is shared with RotoPaint allowing the exchange of curves, attachment of spline and grid points to trackers, editing of animation in the curve editor / dope sheet and Python scripting support.
Audio Scratch Track
The Audio Scratch Track works with NUKE’s curve editor, allowing artists to match their VFX to audio cues and generate animation curves from audio waveforms.
Displacement Shader
This surface shader applies dynamic tessellation and displacement of 3D geometry at render time, resulting in quicker and higher quality 2D-3D stereoscopic conversion. This also has a similar effect on other 3D VFX compositing tasks such as virtual environment creation.
Deep Compositing
Deep Compositing allows artists to work with 'deep images' containing multiple opacity or colour samples per pixel. This allows rendering of CGI elements without predetermined holdout mattes, avoiding the need for re-renders when content changes.
And there's more..!

Imagineer Systems mocha news: tutorials, training, case studies & more

Imagineer Systems mocha news bites for July. Case study Identity FX and Green Lantern

"What people don't realize is, it's most often the simplest of scenes thatare the most complex to recreate in 3D space. In Green Lantern, recreating the kitchen scene was much more difficult than the action shots because the challenge wasn't to make things pop out of the screen, but to create a truly immersive experience, like the viewer is in the kitchen. mocha is huge component of what we do on shots like this." - Leo Vezzali, Identity FXread more New video tutorial Face tracking & mochaImport from MamoWorld In this tutorial, Mathias Moehl shows how he used mocha for face tracking and his After Effects script mochaImport to assist in this "monster-face" distortion technique. If you have never watched Mathias' tutorials, they are well done and offer useful tips, tricks and a bit of political humor. Make sure to visit MamoWorld for more tutorials and information on Mathias' excellent AE scripts. watch now New course from CGS Workshops Rotoscoping with mocha taught by Steve Wright Computer Graphics Society invites you to join Steve Wright, senior visual effects compositor and master trainer for a 4 week course on rotoscoping with mocha. Beyond how to rotoscope and track, students will also learn core rotoscoping skills that can be ported to any rotoscoping program - keyframing strategies, shape breakdowns, how to inspect your own roto work, and much more.  Starts August 8, 2011.learn more

The Foundry MARI 1.3v2 introduces NUKEMARI Bridge!

The Foundry builds a bridge between NUKE Compositing and MARI Paint

MARI 1.3v2 delivers a focused workflow to provide NUKE artists with MARI's dedicated 3D paint tools, making digital environment and projection work more efficient and final composited scenes more believable.

What is it?

NUKE <> MARI bridge allows compositing artists to directly address common and time-consuming challenges faced when using 3D projection techniques to build digital environments:

• Manage reference photography and paint seamless 3D projections.


• Easily fix warping and stretching artifacts.


• In-paint holes and occluded areas, often exposed from adjusted camera views.


• Remove unwanted markers and scene objects.


• Build invisible set-extensions.

Simple to setup, quick and easy to use - models, projections and images are sent from NUKE to MARI and back in a single step, or over a network when artists need to collaborate, share skills or save time.

Seamless results, intuitive painting.

Follow the link for detailed information

http://vimeo.com/22989271

Realistic Facial Animation & Motion Tracking

Check out this video of a facial animation from a company called Janimation. Pretty cool stuff.

Imagineer releases mocha v2.6

new release! version 2.6 for mocha, mocha Pro & mocha AE improved Nuke support, faster tracking & stability improvements

New point release for all current mocha products: Nuke Roto Export Improvements: now supports a 1:1 keyframe relationship between mocha and Nuke 6.2 roto keyframes.   Tracking on Windows Speed Improvements: multiprocessing optimization on Windows operating systems result in faster tracking speeds.   New SSF Batch Export Feature: ability to export unlimited roto layers in popular Shake .SSF format Improved After Effects tracking export Project Save and Load Speed Improvements   General Stability & Bug fixes · Upgrade is free to all customers with a valid mocha v2.x, mocha Pro, and mocha AE v2.5 license or support contract. Download the latest Release! Get mocha with improved Nuke Support at the Motion Media Store.

 

 

The Foundry Nuke 6.3 Beta is now available

The Foundry have released Nuke 6.3 Beta.

Important Notes:

It is available to customers with an existing Nuke license key and valid maintenance.

Be aware that this is a beta build, some features are not yet fully implemented, and its performance cannot be relied upon in a production environment.

Follow the link for complete details, introduction videos and download information.

Don't have a seat of Nuke?

You can purchase Nuke at the Motion Media online shop.

Nuke(X) evaluations are available for 30 Days.

Contact an Account Associate at Motion Media for more details.

Ph: 310. 450-4000

eyeon May 2011 Newsletter

Here's the latest from eyeon, Uncharted Territory and Anonymous, the IT'S ART challenge, sponsorship of The Ark At Eight O'Clock, and much more... - Susan Samonig, eyeon Software Inc.

I couldn't have set it better than Sue.  Follow the link to the  eyeon May Newsletter.

Add Fusion 6 to your VFX pipeline at the Motion Media online shop!

NVIDIA Customer Spotlights

If you weren’t able to make it to NAB last month, you wouldn't have made it to the NVIDIA booth.

Please check out these handy video vignettes that summarize some of the on-air graphics, film/video editing, color correction, and 3D video processing solutions they are providing.

There were several solutions for the broadcasting, video/film production, and digital content creation communities, all utilizing NVIDIA Quadro GPU technology. - CGSociety CGNews

Read the complete story and see the client videos at CGSociety CGNews

Quadro Graphics cards available at the Motion Media online Shop.

Chaos Group Phoenix FD in Action! New Videos by Michael McCarthy

A series of short videos show simulation of water, smoke and more using the Phoenix FD plug-in.

Phoenix Fluid Dynamics combines a grid based simulator with outstanding rendering capabilities that accurately reproduce fluid behavior. It’s the solution to rendering waves breaking along a shore, a lit candle, or an explosive cloud of smoke – just to name a few. The plug-in’s many features, which can imitate processes like pressure decay, thermal radiation cooling and mass-temperature dependence, have been captured in a series of videos created by VFX Technical Director and Autodesk Certified Instructor Michael McCarthy.

 

McCarthy, whose background includes work in the broadcast, feature film and gaming industry, introduces Phoenix FD with a set of tutorials that walk you through the basics of flames, fluid maps and liquids. He then demonstrates examples of possible simulations in sixteen short video clips. Such simulations include the liquid simulation of a fountain, liquid fuel to flames, and particle flow from an explosion.

To watch all McCarthy’s videos and receive updates on Phoenix FD, please register here

Get Phoenix FD for 3ds Max at the Motion Media online shop!

The Foundry Channel - Marshall Krasser from ILM and their use of Nuke on Iron Man II

 



 

 

Marshall Krasser from ILM talks FX Guide through their use of Nuke on a one of the final sequences from Iron Man II.
This demo was filmed at IBC 2010.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMgDcTO9XiE

fxguide was founded in 1999 by three working professionals who share a passion for visual effects as well as learning and sharing information. The site started around users sharing tips, tricks and information and has grown to become the leading source for visual effects information worldwide.

fxphd is a professional online training center for postproduction, visual effects, and motion graphics.

Chaos Group Customer Success Story :: Method - Halo: Reach "Deliver Hope"

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Chaos Group gives us another customer spotlight. This time its Method Studios and their work on Halo:Reach"Deliver Hope" .

click the link above to read the full interview.

"Here at Method we have been using V-Ray for Maya since the beginning of its development. It has had huge success in house for feature and commercial work large and small. Having multiple renderer support inhouse it's a head to head vs match to final only the best images."

Scott Metzger, VFX Artist at Method Studios

Based in Los Angeles, with locations in New York and London, Method Studios is a leading post production facility providing a full range of visual effects services including conceptual design, look development, on-set supervision, 3D animation/CGI, matte painting, compositing and finishing.

Get V-Ray for 3ds Max or Maya at the Motion Media online shop!

V-Ray 2.0 for Maya Beta now available!

Chaos Group Releases V-Ray 2.0 for Maya Beta Version.

V-Ray, hailed by many as the most robust and versatile rendering engine on the market, is about to see a significant upgrade for all Maya users. The 2.0 upgrade for V-Ray began its much-anticipated Beta test on March 30th, 2011.

V-Ray 2.0 for Maya is a complete rendering solution developed by Chaos Group, now with interactive rendering on GPU and CPU. This robust and highly trusted engine is the perfect tool for the 3D professionals, working in the film and VFX industry. With this new version users can expect many new improvements and updates to the existing one.

Exciting new features are now available in V-Ray 2.0 for Maya like: V-Ray RT and V-Ray RT GPU, Faster rendering of dynamic geometry (displacement, fur, proxies, hair etc), Faster rendering of render-time subdivision surfaces, VRayFur and Maya hair, VRayCarPaint material, VRayToon shader and a lot more. Detailed information and a full feature list for V-Ray 2.0 for Maya can be found here >>



The beta program will be open to all customers who already own a license of V-Ray for Maya (purchased V-Ray 1.5 for Maya) or pre-ordered V-Ray 2.0 for Maya.



Join the V-Ray 2.0 for Maya Beta Program and be among the first to test this advanced rendering technology for all Maya users. It's your help and feedback that will make this product much better.

Release plans have been set for the end of April. Get ready for the official start and share the V-Ray experience with us!

 

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Order your V-Ray Maya 2.0 pre-release, or Upgrade at our online shop!

Chaos Group Customer Success Story :: Blur Studio

Chaos Group gave us a spotlight on BLUR STUDIO and their use of V-Ray.

If you missed it click the link above.

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With the coming of the E3 Expo in June, we  went back in awe of the visually stunning work from BLUR and interview with Kevin Margo CG Supervisor at Blur Studio.

"V-Ray is a supremely brilliant rendering engine with mind bending approaches to visualizing 3 dimensional form that encourages philosophic ontological discussions about the nature and observation of reality itself."

We at Motion Media can't wait to see what  BLUR is working on for this year's E3 Expo!

BLUR STUDIO has been creating award-winning visual effects, animation and design, applying its creative skills across various mediums. We produce 3D character animation, motion design and visual effects for feature films and television, game cinematics & trailers, large format films, location-based entertainment, commercials and integrated media. Located in Venice, California, we combine the passion and excitement from our directors, animators, designers, concept artists, and writers with our clients into a collaborative creative approach that results in compelling visuals and storytelling.

Order your V-Ray for 3ds Max or Maya at our online shop!

V-Ray 2.0 for Maya Features!

The long anticipated V-Ray 2.0 for Maya is on its way to be officially released on 25th of April.

V-Ray for Maya ADV 1.5 is still in Beta. V-Ray 2.0 for Maya will be available after 25th of April.

Starting March 25th 2011 customers can purchase V-Ray Maya 2.0 pre-release and get started right away with V-Ray Maya 1.5. Customers who purchased the pre-release or upgrade will receive V-Ray for Maya 2.0 on its release April 25th.

 

Order your V-Ray Maya 2.0 pre-release, or Upgrade at our online shop!

 

Below is the list of new features of V-Ray 2.0 for Maya.

• Python callback for access to and modification of the translated V-Ray scene before rendering – this powerful feature allows you to directly modify the V-Ray scene before rendering to fit V-Ray seamlessly into your production pipeline; to access the full features of the V-Ray rendering engine and its plugins, even if they are not exposed in the user interface; to add your own custom V-Ray plugins without the need to code Maya plugins and much more.


• Support for the Substance textures in Maya 2011.5 and Maya 2012 - use the new V-Ray 2.0 with the Substance textures in Maya 2011.5 and Maya 2012 to create a wide range of procedural shaders for your projects.


• V-Ray RT and V-Ray RT GPU - the new interactive technology running both on CPUs and GPUs speeds up the shading and lighting stages of your production. With the new V-Ray 2.0 you can take full advantage of our state of the art interactive renderer. It can also be used for fast off-line rendering with support for motion blur on both CPU and GPU, and displacement, subdivision surfaces, hair and fur on the CPU.


• Faster rendering of dynamic geometry (displacement, fur, proxies, hair etc) - new internal optimizations have led to even faster rendering of dynamic geometry like displacement, proxies, fur and hair etc.


• Faster rendering of render-time subdivision surfaces, VRayFur and Maya hair - the new improved core of V-Ray 2.0 can render VRayFur, Maya hair and render-time subdivision surfaces much faster.


• VRayCarPaint material - create realistic car paint shaders complete with "Base",  "Flakes" and "Coat" layers. Full mapping support allows for amazing flexibility and a wide range of effects.


• VRayToon shader - add amazing cartoon-like feeling to your renderings.


• Support for dispersion in refractions for VRayMtl  - this option uses the new capabilities for wavelength-dependent raytracing of the V-Ray core and allows you to create stunning close ups of refractive objects with caustics that dazzle the eye.


• Automatic support for both Mari- and Mudbox-style tiled textures - V-Ray 2.0 can automatically load the correct texture bitmaps depending on the UV tiles of the rendered object.


• PTex textures - with V-Ray 2.0 you can stop worrying about UV coordinates and use PTex textures instead. This state of the art technology allows the artist to be absolutely free in his or her creative process and skip the boring UV unwrapping.


• Lens distortion through Nuke displacement maps - the VRayPhysicalCamera can use displacement maps from Nuke to completely mach the distortion of your real cameras.


• Option to turn off camera motion blur - V-Ray 2.0 gives you a separate control to enable or disable the motion blur coming from the movement of the camera.


• Support for rendering of Maya fluids - the new V-Ray 2.0 recognizes and renders Maya fluids directly, with full support for GI and light scattering inside the volume.


• Support for the Maya stereo camera in batch render mode - render your stereoscopic animations with V-Ray 2.0 and Maya batch render mode.


• The ply2vrmesh tool can convert RealFlow .bin files to .vrmesh files - with the new version of the ply2mesh tool V-Ray 2.0 users can render very large RealFlow simulations as VRayProxy objects with significantly improved memory efficiency


• Extended irradiance map viewer tool – allows the incremental merge of irradiance map files to avoid redundant information; preview of light cache files; manual deletion of unwanted samples, and usage of OpenGL display lists for more interactivity.


• Img2tiledexr tool - for mass conversion of many common image formats to tiled OpenEXR files


• Output of multi-channel scanline OpenEXR files with data-window - removes the need to manually convert the multichannel OpenEXR files produced by V-Ray to scanline-based OpenEXR files for efficient processing by compositing applications.


• Shutter efficiency for motion blur – render more realistic motion blur with manual control over the camera shutter efficiency.


• and many other fixes and improvements...

Order your V-Ray Maya 2.0 pre-release, or Upgrade at our online shop!

 

 

STORM UPDATE COMING SOON:

The Foundry gives us a tease of things to come this week with STORM.

STORM's release has been really well received, but at The Foundry we are not standing still. A STORM update will be made available this week. There will be information coming your way soon.

Learn more about STORM - We have  started an on-going video series to highlight STORM Features.

For  complete details of the STORM blast above Click Here.

Get The Foundry’s Storm Now from Motion Media’s online shop.

Try the FREE 15 day trial!  You can try any of The Foundry products FREE for 15 days, click to learn more.