Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Maxon delivers fully loaded Cinema 4d R11

Chris Meyer | 08/12- 11:26 AM

Next Generation Product Suite Offers Non-Linear Animation plus many other new features

MAXON Computer, a leading developer of professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions, today unveiled CINEMA 4D Release 11 (R11), the next generation of its highly acclaimed 3D animation software suite. The super-charged release is packed with advanced capabilities that deliver dramatically improved ease of use and workflow, image quality and integration into any production pipeline. CINEMA 4D R11 highlights include a non-linear animation system, new global illumination render engine and dramatically improved render speed. Customers also benefit from the powerful Projection Man matte painting system, developed by MAXON for Sony Pictures Imageworks, support for the COLLADA file format and CineMan — a RenderMan-compliant tool that connects to Pixar’s industry-leading rendering solution. Additionally, multiple improvements were made to MAXON’s popular texture painting toolset BodyPaint 3D Release 4. All of these capabilities and more serve to underscore MAXON’s ongoing and deep commitment to helping 3D digital artists further advance creativity and control.

“MAXON has spent the last 20 years developing some of the industry’s most advanced 3D software technologies; continually raising the bar for 3D animation software excellence,” said Harald Egel, CEO and co-founder, MAXON. “CINEMA 4D R11 is no exception. This release contains the next-generation features our customers worldwide have come to expect from MAXON.”

Monday, August 11, 2008

TED Talk: Where does creativity hide?

Chris Meyer | 08/11- 11:13 AM

Amy Tan digs deep into the creative process.

The annual TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) conference is a place where Big Thinkers gather annually to inspire and be inspired. Fortunately, TED tapes their presentations, and has been making an effort to post their huge archive of talks for free on the internet.

While browsing these talks, I was particularly taken by Amy Tan’s presentation on “Where does creativity hide?” It’s a humorous review of her own creative process. Although she comes from a different field (she’s the novelist behind The Joy Luck Club, The Kitchen God’s Wife and The Hundred Secret Senses), I found it very entertaining as well as insightful, as it bounced from personal creativity to deciding to what we’re going to do with our lives, using her mother, advanced physics, and world events as touchstones. I hope you enjoy it as well.

Saturday, August 09, 2008

Spotlight: Promos for FOX’s “Fringe”

Chris Meyer | 08/09- 08:47 AM

Buster Design brings the print ads to life with excellent 3D animation and sound design.

As mentioned earlier, we will be discussing motion graphics projects executed by other studios. This time around, it’s Buster Design and the on-air promos they created for Fringe, a new series premiering this September on FOX - click here to view movies of the final animations. I had the chance to chat with Brandon Pleus of Buster about what went into this project.

Tuesday, August 05, 2008

In the Spotlight

steve martin | 08/05- 12:09 PM

Emphasize your subject using this classic effect.

Learn how to call attention to an individual in a photograph, illuminate text in a book, or emphasize an item on the screen for a training demo. At Ripple Training we use this technique every day to call attention to specific areas of the screen.  You’ll even see it used in this video!

Monday, August 04, 2008

Fractal Noise Tutorial

Chris and Trish Meyer | 08/04- 10:38 AM

Using the Fractal Noise effect to create seamless background textures.

The Fractal Noise effect in Adobe After Effects has to be one of the beloved plug-ins among power-users for its ability to create everything from abstract backgrounds to realistic natural phenomena. Here are a pair of ideas (from our After Effects in Production book) for creating the former: a blocky pattern, and a soft blurry pattern that we like to use for a “lighting” effect. In Part 1 of this bonus tutorial, you will learn how we created these layers, and in Part 2 we’ll offer some tips on making the Fractal Noise effect and other sources seamlessly loop.

Sunday, August 03, 2008

Spotlight: Nordisk Panorama Filmfestival 2008

Chris Meyer | 08/03- 07:35 PM

Silhouettes and particles are two main features of this film festival promo.

Nordisk Panorama Filmfestival 2008 from André Hedetoft on Vimeo.

As we mentioned in a recent post, we’d like to start featuring projects by other motion graphics artists, including some background on what went into their creation. First up is a promo for the Nordisk Panorama 5 Cities Film Festival 2008 created by André Hedetoft. Two of the components of this promo that particularly caught our eye were the use of silhouetted figures, and the lovely particle effects.

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