Some stocking stuffers

And while all this is happening, possibly even because all this is happening, the best little gleams of joy – and the best place to spend your hard earned dollars – are in the vast improvements made in all our favorite DCC products. It seems as if all the major companies colluded, and decided for some reason to barrage consumers with tremendous updates simultaneously – maybe because, in some bout of confusion, we’ll decide to buy more than usual.

Whatever the reason, the newest products out now are incredible. Let’s take a look:

Softimage

Softimage’s XSI 4.0 already was a sure stocking stuffer. Now, because of two new announced partnerships, the tool is even more valuable. The first was an alliance with Virtools, a producer of 3D authoring tools. You can now export your XSI projects into Virtool’s Dev3. Another important announcement was a partnership with Criterion, a game middleware producer. The content you create with XSI is not fully integrateable with Criterion’s RenderWare, thanks to plug-ins and new extensions.

Eovia

Eovia’s new edition of Carrara, Carrara 4, will certainly add to an already solid program for rendering, modeling, and animation. There are some nice additions to the 4th version of Carrara: there are new terrain and sky models, new functionality with texture and lighting, the Scene Wizard has been pumped up, OpenGL is faster, you can now apply shaders to a group, and there are many rendering improvements.

Alias

Alias’ Maya 6.0 is one of the industry standards in 3D modeling, rendering, and animation. Now the product is available on Mac OS X – a nice gift for all those Mac developers out there. Another nice treat is the ability to get a bundle under your tree of a BOXX computer and Maya 6, a very nice combination to have.

Discreet

Discreet is now shipping 3Ds Max 7 to all you good boys and girls. Many improvements have come with the new version, including an update to the MentalRay renderer (now version 3.3), an integration of the company’s character animation studio, and an normal mapping (an addition made with game makers in mind).

NewTek

NewTek has made it clear that it will make its award-winning LightWave 3D 8 compatible with the Intel 64-bit chip. That means that LightWave will be able to take advantage of all the incredible benefits of fast-computing that come with 64-bit processing. After all, our game machines already run on 64-bits – why not have the game making machines also run on the same standard?

So, when you’re looking to buy your loved ones a gift, keep yourself in mind. Take those few extra thousand dollars you were saving, and spend it on a little gift for yourself. Whether it be Maya for your Mac or LightWave for your 64-bit Intel processor, if you buy this holiday season, you’ll surely be pleased.


DCC Industry News – Last Week in Brief

Rapid prototyping system maker, Stratasys, says it has received the largest order from an end-user in company history. The order, which came from a major global automobile manufacturer, is a three-year equipment rental package valued in excess of $1 million.

BFG Technologies, Inc., a leading U.S.-based supplier of advanced 3D graphics cards and other PC enthusiast products, announced the BFG(R) GeForce(TM) 6200 3D graphics card featuring NVIDIA(R) TurboCache(TM) technology.

NVIDIA Corporation, a worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processors, announced that two leading 3G carriers with operations in Europe and Japan have chosen Motorola phones based on the NVIDIA GoForce(TM) 4000. The Motorola E1000, V980 and C980, all featuring the GoForce 4000 wireless media processor (WMP), are available in stores throughout Europe and Japan now.

3D Systems Corporation, a leading provider of rapid 3-D printing, prototyping and manufacturing solutions, announced the release of advanced user controls, added functionality and key feature enhancements designed to meet the requirements of its growing base of 3-D printing customers. Responding to lead customer requests, 3D Systems has enhanced its InVision(TM) HR 3-D printer with the capability of accepting .SLC file format. In addition, the Company offers a broader CAD compatibility, enabling customers to integrate third-party software with its standard InVision 3-D printer.

Pinnacle Systems, Inc., a leader in digital video solutions, named David Barnby the General Manager of the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region. Barnby, a veteran sales and marketing executive with solid industry credentials, will reinforce Pinnacle's strong digital video market position in the EMEA region. Barnby will report directly to Patti Hart, CEO of Pinnacle.

Canopus Corporation, a recognized leader in realtime video editing technology, announced an EDIUS NX for HDV $400 rebate program. Starting now and running until January 30, 2005, U.S. and Canadian registered users of Canopus DVStorm2 and DVStorm2 Pro nonlinear editing solutions, will receive a $400 rebate when moving up to the company's new EDIUS NX for HDV editing solution. EDIUS NX for HDV redefines video production capability and affordability with a groundbreaking, tightly integrated software and hardware solution for realtime HD and SD editing, effects and compositing. With its seamless realtime workflow, EDIUS NX for HDV lets videographers mix HD and SD video footage in realtime and work with unlimited video, audio and effects layers, while providing realtime high- quality, full-resolution HD video output to an HD monitor for preview.

NVIDIA Corporation, a worldwide leader in graphics and digital media processors, introduced the NVIDIA(R) GeForce(TM) 6200 graphics processing unit (GPU) with TurboCache(TM) technology.

ViewCast Corporation announced the release of an exciting new product, Osprey(R) Ease, for the rapidly growing market of video users desiring high-quality capabilities at an affordable price. Osprey Ease combines the power of the Osprey-300 video capture card with the editing flexibility and creative control found in Adobe(R) Premiere(R) Elements. The resulting product provides a cost-effective video capture, editing, streaming, and DVD authoring tool that is ideal for corporate communications departments, business video specialists, and multimedia producers.

Burton Snowboards, the world's leading snowboard manufacturer, has switched to SolidWorks(R) 3D mechanical design software for all of its new binding designs. The company has also purchased SolidWorks COSMOSWorks(R) design analysis software to ensure bindings keep riders safe and performing at their potential.

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