The main concern for me as a Technical Director is always the final product. The last ten percent of production tends to become the deciding factor between a very good animation and a truly great one. Alias|Wavefront’s Maya Version 2 is a program that puts more power in the hands […]
Apple Final Cut Pro Adobe’s New Competition
To say that any one software editing program will be the only one you’ll ever need is a pretty big statement to back up, but Apple’s come pretty darn close with Final Cut Pro. This software package provides easy but comprehensive editing tools and a multitude of adjustable filters and […]
Discreet Edit* 4.5 A Welcome Addition
Non-linear editing has been around for quite some time (if you measure in digital years anyway), and there is not a lot that distinguishes one system from another. Lightworks, Avid, Media 100, Premiere, Softimage|DS and fire* all do the same thing at different levels. What you are paying for is […]
Puffin Designs Commotion
If you have used Commotion in the past you are probably aware 1.5 is a well-designed tool that fills a number of voids in the desktop production environment such as matte creation, rotoscoping and real-time playback of uncompressed files. Commotion 2.0 and the new filters from Puffin Designs continue the […]
Right Hemisphere Deep Paint
Sharpening a pencil and guiding the pointed lead across a paper surface. Feeling the tooth of the paper grab the lead, creating a line. Touching clay and feeling its texture between your fingers as form is born from shapelessness. Mixing colors on a palette and dipping your brush to pick […]
SGI 320 NT Workstation Includes Striking Differences
The SGI 320 isn’t likely to be mistaken for a simple NTbased clone. Although it is built largely around the same technology found in other Intelbased workstations, the 320 is crammed with differences both subtle and striking. At first glance, the highly stylized and sculpted case will strike most people […]
XI Computer MTower XPD – When Specialization Pays Off
XI Computer doesn’t sell entry-level systems at Montgomery Ward’s. The company only sells graphics workstations and those are sold only direct or through a small group of VARs. This specialization is one of the reasons XI is among the leaders in getting new technology to market, and getting it right. […]
Medea’s 4 and 6 Drive RAIDS Storage for Your Storage
The idea behind the Medea Drives is a very good one: put all the drives and RAID controller hardware in a single box so you can have a RAID without using one of the precious few PCI slots in the new Macs (or PC’s.) I got the new drive, opened […]