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Combustion has been portrayed in many different ways by Discreet since its inception, but the company has had the most trouble trying to convince the majority of compositors that it’s a better compositing environment than After Effects.
Despite a low-key launch, the latest version of Adobe Acrobat has some solidly useful new features for creating and editing PDF exchangeable documents for use in professional Web, printing, and publishing cycles.
Epson’s 6mp R-D1 shares some features with the recently announced R3A. It includes the same bright, life-size finder magnification, and aperture priority exposure control. Its big attraction, though, is the compatibility with loads of Leica M bayonet and L mount screw lenses. It also fits a wide range of other brands – such as early screw thread lenses from Canon and Nikon – with the help of ...
This application creates camera-tracking data to help match 3D objects into the movement of standard definition (SD) video sequences. The price is attractive to new users, the interface is friendly, and there is a wizard for guiding you through the initial stages.
MojoWorld is a 3D virtual scenery generator with a twist. It was invented by Dr F Kenton Musgrave, one of the original pioneers of fractal landscapes. It’s like a beefed up Bryce, but instead of Bryce’s infinite flat planes, MojoWorld creates whole spherical planets at a time ...
I’m going to have to admit an initial bias against Visual Communicator. It’s a production system designed to make creating video-based corporate presentations – such as sales pitches and in-house training – easy enough that a marketing or sales department can do it itself.
There are plenty of differences between the current crop of 3D tools, but there are similarities, too – after 10 to 15 years of development, 3D software developers have learned what works and what doesn’t. Despite all this, Strata is one of those applications that goes against the grain of traditional 3D conventions.
Digital Anarchy’s Backdrop Designer is a resolution-independent pattern tool that simulates the texture and shading of backdrops used by portrait and product photographers. It’s a Photoshop plug-in, and the idea is ...
Anyone who’s recently used green-screen hardware professionally will be aware of Reflecmedia’s Chromatte products. Given the company’s track record, creating its own optimized keying plug-in was a natural development – though the actual coding was done by The Pixel Farm.
Both Adobe and Apple have been pushing the integration of their video, audio and DVD authoring tools with their respective Video Collection and Production Suite. Avid has hit back with Xpress Studio, a series of tools that provide an end-to-end creative studio
According to Extensis, a lot of designers and photographers are in denial about the fact that they actually need a product like Portfolio.
EFI’s Designer Edition RIP is popular with many design companies, because it produces accurate colour proofs when used in conjunction with relatively low-cost inkjet printers. Version 4.0 doesn’t represent a major upgrade, however, there are a few updated features.
Bravo II's a combination disc-duplication and inkjet printing system – ideal for churning out professional-looking CDs or DVDs for passing round your studio or sending out to clients. You create your master and the disc art, and then the Bravo II Disc Publisher does the rest.
HumanEyes 3D is an interesting new technology that creates stereoscopic images for print or on-screen viewing. It was originally invented to allow a single digital camera to capture 360-degree panoramas for stereoscopic viewing – this hasn’t previously been possible with one camera. Technically it’s not true 3D, but ‘2.5D’ as the subjects only rotate slightly, but your eyes see a realistic continuous-depth impression.
Canon’s latest, greatest A3 photo inkjet printer is overall the best traditional model that we’ve ever seen. However, if you’re willing to pay a little more, this printer can be topped. The Bubble Jet i9950 is the sequel to last year’s top-rated i9100 – reviewed and given a Best Buy as part of our group test in Digit 69. The i9950 adds two more inks ...
It’s been a while since any of the main Web-streaming software tools have been updated, but like the proverbial bus, three have turned up at once. While long-term frontrunner Cleaner sits in development hell, the last month has seen the announcement of updates to Canopus’ ProCoder, Sorenson’s Squeeze Compression Suite, and RealNetworks RealProducer 10.
Although billed with the creative tag of an interactive multimedia tool, Opus Pro 04 is clearly designed with the business user in mind. While this may not be everyone’s cup of Java, the corporate space is obviously where the money is, so a tool that addresses this market directly is definitely worth a look. The company promotes the use of Opus Pro as ...
Profile Mechanic consists of two independent programs, sold separately. Profile Mechanic Monitor can calibrate and write ICC correction profiles for CRT and LCD monitors. It provides a small USB colorimeter sensor with interchangeable supports for both types of monitor. Profile Mechanic Scanner creates correction profiles for any flatbed or transparency scanner, as well as digital cameras.
FileMaker seems to be aiming straight at the content creation market with version 7 of this database solution. There is a new field type called a Container that can be used to store digital pictures, movies, music, and other digital media – up to 4GB per field. It’s not only for the creative side of the business though, as the Container field can handle Word documents, full Excel spreadsheets, PDF files, PowerPoint presentation files, OLE objects, and more.
Despite its position as one of the lowest-cost digital SLRs on the market, the Sigma SD10 has some of the most innovative technology. Together with its SD9 predecessor, released in 2002 but still available, these are the only reasonably high-resolution users of the Foveon X3 sensor – although Polaroid offers a 2mp version on a consumer camera.
