Win Allegorithmic has upgraded its maps modeling plug-in, MaP|Zone, for Adobe's Photoshop, Adobe's Illustrator, and Jasc Soft-ware's Paint Shop Pro to Version 1.5. The upgrade sports more than 300 new preset effects, including fully editable, non-photorealistic rendering styles, filters, texture effects, color patterns, and grayscale maps. The latest version also features improved speed, anti-aliasing, and support for 16-bit images. MaP|Zone 1.5 is available at a cost of $99. Users of MaP|Zone 1.0 or 1.1 can download a free upgrade from the company's Web site.
Allegorithmic; www.allegorithmic.com
Irix RE:Vision Effects has debuted RE:Flex, a new morphing and warping plug-in set for users of Discreet's Flint, Flame, Fire, Inferno, and Smoke. RE:Flex includes two plug-ins—RE:Flex Warp and RE:Flex Morph—that support 8 and 12 bits per channel and batch processing. RE:Flex directs warping through drawing tools with splines and polylines, rather than through a grid of mesh points. And RE:Flex is reportedly the first morphing program to combine hand feature-matching with automatic image registration. After users position the hand-matched shapes, RE:Flex automatically aligns the remaining sections of the image. RE:Flex is offered for Irix systems at a cost of $995.
RE:Vision Effects; www.revisionfx.com
GESTURE RECOGNITION
WinMacLinux FingerWorks has unveiled its Zeroforce iGesture Pad series of gesture-based user interfaces for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux platforms. The company's ultra-thin, hand-size touchpads serve not only as a mouse, by supporting such functions as point, click, drag, scroll, and zoom, but also as a multi-finger gesture input device. Priced at $159, these single-hand MultiTouch interfaces offer password-generation and gesture-customization utilities, enabling users to map any gesture to any function—including cut, copy, paste, undo, save, and exit—in a favorite software application.
FingerWorks; www.fingerworks.com
VIDEO
Adtec Digital's Soloist 3 digital media server combines the functions of a digital video re-corder, player, switcher, and server in a single solution. Soloist 3 boasts advanced video scaling, broadcast time delay, and multi-layer features with multiple-region text and graphic overlays. Equipped with a two-slot design, Soloist 3 enables MPEG 1 and 2 encoding from analog and Serial Digital sources, and trans-coding of DV formats from NLEs with FireWire.
Adtec Digital; www.adtecinc.com
3D SCANNER
Roland DGA has introduced the LPX-1200 desktop 3D laser scanner bundled with Pixform Pro reverse modeling software. Well suited to animation applications, the LPX-1200 boasts rotary and planar scanning modes, 5x8-inch scanning volume, an accurate non-contact laser sensor, and support for polygon-to-NURBS conversion. Streamlining the data editing process, Pixform Pro aids users in merging scans, changing the shape around curved surfaces, sharpening edges, extending shapes, adding thickness, and performing Boolean operations. Roland's LPX-1200 with Pixform Pro is priced at $21,995.
Roland DGA; www.rolanddga.com
Book Corner
Charles River Media has released a new text, 3ds max 6 Essentials: A Real-World Approach, on Discreet's popular 3D software tool. Written by David Kalwick, a Discreet Certified Instructor, the new book guides readers through complete 3D projects, teaching them how to use the software's essential tools and features. 3ds max Essentials includes a detailed overview of the user interface, the program's fundamentals, useful tips, and practice tutorials. 3ds max Essentials: A Real-World Approach is available in the US at a cost of $49.95.
Charles River Media; www.charlesriver.com
Game Physics, by David H. Eberly, is the latest volume in the Morgan Kaufmann and Interactive 3D Technology Series of reference texts. Game Physics provides an introduction to ideas and techniques behind the development of physically realistic 3D graphic environments. The author presents key problems, solving them with mathematical and physical concepts. Algorithmic foundations, code examples, and working source code combine in a large collection of physical simulations.
Elsevier Science; www.elsevier.com
Addison Wesley Professional announced the availability of GPU Gems: Programming Techniques, Tips and Tricks for Real-Time Graphics, which carries a retail price of $59.99. The full-color, 816-page text is a collection of articles on practical real-time graphics techniques based on the research and practice of developers from Alias, Brown University, Industrial Light & Magic, Nvidia, Softimage, and other notable universities and corporations. Among the topics covered in the book are natural effects, materials, and lighting and shadows. GPU Gems is accompanied by a CD-ROM offering examples and sample programs.
Addison Wesley Professional; www.awprofessional.com