Software
VIZ
Autodesk has entered into a licensing agreement with Lagoa Technologies, Inc. for Lagoa Materials multiphysics simulation technology, which is included in Autodesk Entertainment Creation Suites Premium and the Softimage 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack. The Lagoa multiphysics simulation framework, built by Thiago Costa with Autodesk Softimage software’s ICE (Interactive Creative Environment), helps users produce realistic simulations of the dynamic behavior of liquids, cloth, foam, plastic deformations, and soft-body collisions.
With Lagoa, Softimage users can create customized simulations with control properties that help govern incompressible fluids, in addition to inelastic, elastic, and plastic deformations. Artists can simulate fine-detail interactions and collisions. They can also use Lagoa simulator data to create user-defined materials, particles, and meshes. In addition, Lagoa lets them quickly create lower-resolution, interactive setups from preset materials for more rapid effects previsualization.
Lagoa Multiphysics is included in the Softimage 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack, now available to Autodesk Subscription customers, as well as the Autodesk Maya Entertainment Creation Suite Premium and the Autodesk 3ds Max Entertainment Creation Suite Premium. The Autodesk Softimage 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack starts at $2995; each of the Entertainment Creation Suites Premium offering costs $6495.
Lagoa Technologies, Inc.;
www.lagoatechnologies.com Autodesk;
www.autodesk.com
Rendering
3ds Max with iray
The Iray rendering solution from Mental Images, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nvidia, has been incorporated into the Autodesk Subscription Advantage Pack for Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 and 3ds Max Design 2011 software. Iray enables 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design 2011 subscribers to render images with high speed and accuracy, as well as to achieve photorealism with less effort than before. During final rendering, Iray progressively refines the image until a desired level of quality is reached, providing the artist fast insight into the appearance of the final result with full control over the time it takes to render.
Iray rendering technology leverages Nvidia GPUs to deliver fast photorealism, supports the Autodesk Materials set and IES light profiles, and enables a designated object to become a lightemitting entity with texture support. The Subscription Advantage Pack with Iray technology is now available to current Autodesk Subscription customers on the Autodesk Subscription center at subscription.
autodesk.com.
Mental Images;
www.mentalimages.com Autodesk;
www.autodesk.com
Video
Speed Update
Digital Anarchy has updated its skinretouching plug-in, Beauty Box Video, to Version 1.2. The update uses Nvidia’s CUDA and other GPU optimizations to achieve rendering results that are three to six times faster than with Version 1.0. The latest edition also features user interface upgrades and bug fixes to provide a smoother, faster workflow in Adobe’s After Effects and Premiere Pro, and Apple’s Final Cut Pro. Beauty Box Video incorporates state-of-the-art face detection and smoothing algorithms, and automatically identifies skin tones and removes imperfections.
Users with an Nvidia card that supports CUDA will reap large speed increases, particularly when used with a 64-bit operating system and multiple processors. High-end video cards, such as the Nvidia Quadro FX4800, used in conjunction with After Effects’ multiprocessing can render HD footage at up to 6 fps. Beauty Box Video 1.2, priced at $199, runs on After Effects 7.0 through CS5, Final Cut Pro 6.0 through 7.0, and Premiere Pro CS4 through CS5.
Digital Anarchy;
www.digitalanarchy.com