GenArts Sapphire 5TM on Autodesk Smoke for Mac OS X is now available. Based on Sapphire 5, Sapphire for Smoke for Mac OS X offers Macintosh editorial artists over 130 Sparks featuring the image quality, speed and compatibility so essential to conforming and finishing shots.

Why is GenArts Sapphire so essential to Smoke Artists?

Sapphire amps shot quality.
Sapphire is unrivaled when it comes to image quality. In fact, looks created with Sapphire are so organic that they dramatically enhance the quality of Smoke’s built-in effects.

Sapphire buys more time to finesse shots.
Sapphire is fast and instinctive. Not only can a user set shots faster with intuitive, real-time controls, but the GPU acceleration in Sapphire 5 provides the fastest render speeds in the industry. This gives users the extra time they need to perfect a shot.

Conform and finish scenes with confidence.
From Avid or Final Cut to Flame, After Effects or Nuke, Sapphire is deployed across the widest range of host platforms so users can conform and finish scenes with the confidence and consistency that only Sapphire-level compatibility can deliver.

For more information click here.

Continuing their commitment to offer a wide variety of royalty-free stock footage in one simple, customized search, Artbeats announced the addition of three new footage brands to their library. Expanding the selection of high-quality options to over one hundred different brands allows Artbeats customers access to new footage from Martin Lisius, Johner Motion and GlamourKey. These brands, and many others, are available for viewing and purchase through the Artbeats FootageHub.

Martin Lisius: Award-winning veteran storm chaser Martin Lisius presents a notable collection of tornadoes, hurricanes and other extreme weather.

Johner Motion: Sweden-based Johner Motion provides thousands of Scandinavian inspired lifestyle and establishment clips.

GlamourKey: Offers the industry’s first green screen footage shot with the RED One camera.

For more information click here.

Providing an opportunity for artists and game designers to enhance the sample Craft Director Studio (CDS) tools integrated within the 2011 versions of Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk 3ds Max Design and Autodesk Softimage software; Craft Animations announces the discounted availability of the complete CDS tool suite. From now through Sept. 30, 2010, all artists utilizing 3ds Max 2011 or Softimage 2011 are encouraged to visit www.craftanimations.com to take advantage of a nearly 40 percent CDS discount.

Used by widely recognized gaming and visual effects companies including Pixar, Digital Dimension, Electronic Arts and NAMCO BANDAI, the complete CDS suite includes nine specialized virtual cameras and seven vehicle tools that increase interactive control and simulation, and provides the ability to enhance cinematics through a modular, configurable system that replicates a specific rig’s animation within a given project. 3D artists may literally “drive” a vehicle, or “direct” a camera within the creative environment, garnering a more realistic effect in less time.

The promotional CDS tools included on the Installation DVDs shipped with 3ds Max 2011, 3ds Max Design 2011 and Softimage 2011 software includes the Craft SoftMotionCam, Craft ObserverCam, Craft MultiStateCam, Craft HumanizerCam, as well as four Craft Pre-rigged Models.

For more information click here.

eyeon Software has always been keenly responsive in developing their software based on industry and artist demands. For years, facilities have been trying to solve demanding production requirements by brute force and many assets. It is clear that eyeon’s newest artist-driven approach to production yields far more benefits than have to date been realized. Facilities will no longer need to endure complex translations and data wrangling between pipeline departments; on-board tools now allow artists to complete shots themselves rather than continually farming the shots out. This new methodology generates a better synergy between departments, providing a more collaborative environment with unprecedented speed, which is soon to become the industry norm.

Fusion 6.1’s extensive supercomputing approach utilizes the powerful, low-cost GPU to create assets and layers in real time. The extensive tool set that imports scenes from 3D animation packages allows for a much tighter integrated workflow between departments and applications. This open flexibility also increases industry support for technologies such as RenderMan and RED Camera MYSTERIUM X. Relighting and sophisticated finishing offer more control and transparent collaboration between the compositing artists. OpenCL supercomputing is a fresh and innovative use of today’s massively parallel GPU. By speeding up computationally extensive operations such as Defocus, Fusion 6.1 allows the artist to instantly visualize sophisticated mathematical operations that compile code on-the-fly for use by the new generation graphics cards.

Open thinking Fusion 6.1 answers all production trends. Some of the new features include:

OpenCL GPU Supercomputing

RenderMan support

Python scripting

RED camera MYSTERIUM X support

Particle system and geometry enhancements

Particle caching

Relighting enhancements

Full importing of scenes with matched animation curves

Importing of stereo cameras

FBX multi level materials support from all major 3D applications

Film Grain tool

Hue Curves and colour suppression tool

Local file caching options

Increased metadata support

Coordinate transfer modifier enhancements

For more information click here.

Media 100, a provider of advanced editing systems for the corporate, broadcast, postproduction, and new media industries, announced that Media 100 Suite Version 1.6 is now available. Version 1.6 supports Calibrated Software’s Calibrated{Q} MXF Import, AVC-Intra Decode, and DVCProHD Decode products, allowing Media 100 Suite editors to directly open MXF files, import and playback AVC-Intra media, and playback media created in the DVCProHD codec. In addition, Version 1.6 includes Boris XML Transfer Version 2 for Media 100 Suite, giving users the ability to export Media 100 Suite timelines to Adobe After Effects CS5.

Media 100 Suite Version 1.6 new feature highlights:

AVC-Intra Support. Version 1.6 provides a new file menu option for Calibrated Software’s Calibrated{Q} MXF Import for OS X. This product allows Media 100 Suite editors to open MXF files directly. When Calibrated{Q} MXF Import is used in conjunction with Calibrated{Q} AVC-Intra Decode, editors can quickly import and edit files from cameras that record in the AVC-Intra codec. In addition, Calibrated{Q} AVC-Intra Decode allows Media Suite 100 editors to play media created in the AVC-Intra codec.

DVCProHD Playback. Version 1.6 integrates with Calibrated Software’s Calibrated{Q} DVCProHD Decode product, giving Media 100 Suite editors the ability to play DVCProHD media on systems that do not have Apple Final Cut Pro installed.

Support for Adobe After Effects CS5. Version 1.6 includes Boris XML Transfer Version 2 for Media 100 Suite, providing full support for Adobe After Effects CS5 in 64-bit mode.

Intelligent Folder Import. A new intelligent folder import option recognizes certain file and folder patterns – for example, the Panasonic P2 folder pattern that commonly holds AVC-Intra media – and selectively imports files from those folders.

Faster Rendering. Version 1.6 features faster rendering of multi-layer Boris RED filters.

For more information click here.

Due to shipping and manufacturing cost increases, the Avid products listed below will increase slightly in price after July 10, 2010. To receive the best pricing, users are encouraged to order prior to July 10, 2010.

Avid Xpress DV/Avid Xpress Pro or Avid Media Composer pre v4.0 to Avid Media Composer v5 – $495 through July 10th / $695 after July 10th (through September 30th).

Avid Media Composer v4.0 to Avid Media Composer v5 – $495 through July 10th / $695 thereafter (through September 30th).

NewsCutter (all versions) to Avid NewsCutter v9 – $495 (through September 30th).

Symphony (all versions) to Avid Symphony v5 – $995 (through September 30th).

Media Distributors is one of the fastest growing Avid Elite Resellers globally, and is ready to serve all of your production and workflow requirements.

For more information click here.

Metaglue Corporation, a company that has pioneered MXF and metadata, announced the immediate availability of MXFactory Version 3. MXFactory creates Avid compatible MXF files from a wide range of video formats. It can be used as both a stand-alone system and in integrated workflows to speed up the ingest process.

Initial shipments of MXFactory V3 are already in use at facilities creating 3D content and also re-versioning existing 2D material.

For more information click here.

A new beta version of version 1.2 of PluralEyes for Final Cut Pro is now available. This version stabilizes the new features that have been added during the beta and adds a new one: instead of having to name the sequence to be synced pluraleyes, users can now pick the desired sequence from a list.

Changes from the release version include:

Option for single output sequence

Option to replace audio (great for dual-system applications)

Select sequence to be synced

Support for locked tracks

Note: The name of the beta application is PluralEyes12b and it can be installed and run alongside the 1.1 release.

For more information click here.