SIGGRAPH Slew of new app announcments.
1.) Apple Production suite ( suite = SWEET!)
2.) Maya Unlimited for OS X (available today)
3.) Alias acquires Kaydara (motion Builder) interesting tidbit
4.) (The following is borrowed from CGNetworks article by Leo) At NAB earlier this year, the NVIDIA film group consisting of ex-Exluna employees and industry render guru Dr. Larry Gritz, released the hardware-accelerated film renderer Gelato. Today, they announced a plug-in for Maya (called ?Mango?, of all things) which gives users the ability to use Gelato via Maya 6 with a nice interface hiding all the command-line and programming complexities underneath.
5.) Speaking of renderers, Pixar also announced RenderMan for Maya 1.0, which is basically PRMan as a self-contained Maya plug-in, for USD$995.
6.) Corel held an exclusive VIP event (co-sponsored by The Gnomon Workshop and Design Studio Press) where Painter IX was unveiled, with Ryan Church speaking about the new enhancements and how it changed his life.
7.) Silo 1.3 next week.
8.) Luxology releases more info, on Modo (release date still nothing) and adds great stuff to www.luxology.com
more to come...
2.) Maya Unlimited for OS X (available today)
3.) Alias acquires Kaydara (motion Builder) interesting tidbit
4.) (The following is borrowed from CGNetworks article by Leo) At NAB earlier this year, the NVIDIA film group consisting of ex-Exluna employees and industry render guru Dr. Larry Gritz, released the hardware-accelerated film renderer Gelato. Today, they announced a plug-in for Maya (called ?Mango?, of all things) which gives users the ability to use Gelato via Maya 6 with a nice interface hiding all the command-line and programming complexities underneath.
5.) Speaking of renderers, Pixar also announced RenderMan for Maya 1.0, which is basically PRMan as a self-contained Maya plug-in, for USD$995.
6.) Corel held an exclusive VIP event (co-sponsored by The Gnomon Workshop and Design Studio Press) where Painter IX was unveiled, with Ryan Church speaking about the new enhancements and how it changed his life.
7.) Silo 1.3 next week.
8.) Luxology releases more info, on Modo (release date still nothing) and adds great stuff to www.luxology.com
more to come...
Comments
1. OpenGL 2.0 ships. like I thought it would, OpenGL 2.0 is finally upon us.
2. Imagineer brings Monet and Mokey to OSX. Monet looks interesting as an image replacement tool.
3. Wondertouch brings the cool ParticleIllusion to OSX. Motion has good particles but Wondertouch and Trapcode 's Particular are probably superior.
4. Cinema4D R9 is announced with cloth and other features.
5. Form Z 4.5 info
6. Alias and Kaydara announce Motion Builder 6
This news is bound to cause many a scrabble in the 3D world, with people like Alias, Newtek, and Luxology left knocked sideways.
For those who might not be aware of XSI, it's one of the few high-end 3D animation software out there, it was, until version recently, costing from $6000 - $13000, then version 4 came out with a new Foundastion edition. This version wasn't a crippled one, it retains all of the necessary modelling, animation and effects tools, but with thiings like the built-in compositor missing.
Softimage are calling it 3-Democratisation, and it damn well sounds like. For animators, if you ever neded a reason to switch to Windows or Linux, this is it.
Luxology have announced Modo, but at $89, it's pricing itself well outside the market for a modeler.
If you're into 3D, get a PC and buy XSI, you can't go wrong at that price.
Just amazing
http://www.softimage.com
The biggest and most astounding news so far, is that Softimage have droped the price of XSI Foundation to $499. This has taken everyone by surprise, since this version was over $1600 recently.
Yes indeed. XSI Foundation has just distrurbed the peaceful tranquility of all 3D ISVs. For instance the excitement over Luxology's Modo is now tempered because it is $895 for just modeling while XSI Foundation has a bit of everything for $400 less money. OUCH!
If you're into 3D, get a PC and buy XSI, you can't go wrong at that price.
I'm contemplating. The edu price on XSI 4.0 Advanced is but a paltry $295 so I knew going into Siggraph that I had XSI as a lowcost option. However I won't be making a decision for quite some time so I can see if Alias responds. Softimage is certainly "throwing the gauntlet" down.
However the Renderman for Maya 1.0 is intriguing. As good as XSI is you won't find anyone choosing its built in renderer over Renderman.
Plus Maya's aquisition of Kaydara is very intriguing and dare I say a coup against the encroachment of XSI. XSI Foundation will be big at the low end but Alias has really solidified their high end offerings with the Kaydara purchase and Renderman support.
I dunno. 3D modelling is either being commodified and ubiquitous, or the industry is going to collapse, I can't decide which if not both.
Meanwhile, those of us who aren't into modelling goofy cartoon characters pay out the wazoo for a decent modeller. The ones geared towards character animation just don't have the kinds of tools that help me and have a whole bunch of tools that I can't make up excuses to use anyway.
I'm always looking for new technology for architectural drawing, modelling and rendering, but there's little development in that arena now. Everyone thinks AutoDesk has somehow locked up this department and I guess everyone and their grandmother is doing character animation. It's frustrating how the disparity grows in terms of pricing and development for these sub-industries.
Originally posted by Placebo
This is bad news for 3d companies, and great news for 3d artists.
Very bad news. I applaud Avids agressiveness here but if this was Apple the press would have a field day. This is basically "dumping" in the 3D field. Maxon and Newtek have to be catatonic right now.
It's unfortunate there is no OS X version, but I know why they haven't dome it, and I do agree (XSI is really the only software I need a PC for)
Although, I do thikn I wil buy Modo, I kinda like that they've dome, but the price is not so good, not now.
Originally posted by hmurchison
Very bad news. I applaud Avids agressiveness here but if this was Apple the press would have a field day. This is basically "dumping" in the 3D field. Maxon and Newtek have to be catatonic right now.
They wil be feeling the pain. This news is really massive, I've already sen people placing orders like there's no tomorrow. I used to use Lightwave and Alias Powre |Animator up to Maya, abd those are well served programs, but having used XSI now for a few years, I couldn't gop back to Lightwave. But this price, heck, it's a couple of weekends out on the town in terms of cost.
Originally posted by BuonRotto
$89? typo?
oops, it's $899, but there's a special on so it only costs, I think, $695 just now.
For motion you need a ATI 9800 Pro card.... is this better than the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra that currently ships with the g5 Dual 2?
iDunno.
Originally posted by iDunno
Okay I know very little about graphics cards... so bear with me.
For motion you need a ATI 9800 Pro card.... is this better than the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra that currently ships with the g5 Dual 2?
iDunno.
Yes the ATI 9800 is a more powerful card so Motion would respond better.
Originally posted by hmurchison
Yes the ATI 9800 is a more powerful card so Motion would respond better.
It is too bad you cant use PC cards with unix drivers on the mac, the fire would pretty heartily smoke most mac cards, for like 100$ less than the mac 6800
Originally posted by a_greer
It is too bad you cant use PC cards with unix drivers on the mac, the fire would pretty heartily smoke most mac cards, for like 100$ less than the mac 6800
I have my doubts about that. I've never seen real good stats from the top of the line ATI 3D cards.
Originally posted by hmurchison
I'm contemplating. The edu price on XSI 4.0 Advanced is but a paltry $295 so I knew going into Siggraph that I had XSI as a lowcost option. However I won't be making a decision for quite some time so I can see if Alias responds. Softimage is certainly "throwing the gauntlet" down.
However the Renderman for Maya 1.0 is intriguing. As good as XSI is you won't find anyone choosing its built in renderer over Renderman.
Plus Maya's aquisition of Kaydara is very intriguing and dare I say a coup against the encroachment of XSI. XSI Foundation will be big at the low end but Alias has really solidified their high end offerings with the Kaydara purchase and Renderman support.
I think XSI is loosing serious ground, and this SIGGRAPH is one of the tell tale signs. Alias however is becoming ever more powerful, and widely used. The tools just got even more attractive with the Renderman for Maya 1.0 plug in announcement, and Alias just put the smack down with the Motionbuilder acquisition. It looks like they just made it clear which of these applications is for a serious professional workflow, and which is probably better to learn for a head start in the industry. ILM, and Weta are getting serious about how much, and how important Maya is. (and this was before SIGGRAPH)
Pixologic has not announced anything new for ZBrush 2 accept the Mac version is in Final Beta testing, and is currently being optimized for speed, but I read a rumor at highend that they have a Maya pluggin for OS X, and PC in the works as well. It's apparently at the request of the team at Weta digital.
Apple has the biggest booth at SIGGRAPH. I mean THE BIGGEST OUT OF ANYONE. I'm thinking IBM's 90 nanometer problems set their SIGGRAPH plans back after they had already committed to the space. They are making a great show of it. I've been reading that everybody is ecstatic about the 30" displays.
I think the G5 is on a collision course with DCC and I think I'm going to take the blind leap into the unknown future with a new G5.
Originally posted by onlooker
I think I'm going to take the blind leap into the unknown future with a new G5.
Hurrah! I will too! I'll be there right beside you Onlooker... which card you going to go with?
At school today I was down on the PC's working on a maya dynamics file.. but I needed to do some rendering, so I took the file up to the dual 1.8 G5's (which have the built in as standard v card) and it just quit everytime I tried to open the file.... Wouldn't. Even. Open.
So I'm thinking I am going to have to shell out the bucks for the top nVidea card.
iDunno.
I think I'm going to take the blind leap into the unknown future with a new G5
You and I both man. Initially I thought I'd do just music on my Mac but Video Production became too enticing and now 3D has caught my interest. I figure I may as well become a "Jack of all Trades". Besides there are tons of training DVDs that will get me caught up and I'll have time because I'm not a big TV watcher.
I'll probably go with the Nvidia card too, but I still would like the Quadro firmware, and drivers ported to OS X. Things are looking up. I really think Apple will do something in this area with all the things that came to OS X at SIGGRAPH. They really have to.
Yeah I see something happening. Nvidia was kinda quiete but they have their new PCI Express lineup and Gelato is getting some love. Man this Siggy wasn't bad but wait until next year when Apples Pro apps see their next revisions.
Originally posted by hmurchison
Yeah I see something happening. Nvidia was kinda quiete but they have their new PCI Express lineup and Gelato is getting some love. Man this Siggy wasn't bad but wait until next year when Apples Pro apps see their next revisions.
Did you see the PCIe Quadro FX 4400 SLI setup Nvidia is going with?
link
Did you notice the Mango (Gelato plugin for Maya) Plugin?
"New "Mango" Plug-In Brings NVIDIA Gelato Hardware-Accelerated Renderer to Maya Pipeline"
link
Nvidia isn't pulling any punches. Neither is Alias. They have more stuff coming their way via SIGGRAPH than anybody.
I hope Apple uses the launch point of the 3GHz G5 to do a PCIe SLI board that just kicks butt.