Graphics plug-ins: what's new for SIGGRAPH?

Post, July, 2005 by Christine Bunish

Graphics plug-ins continue to expand capabilities and erase boundaries for digital artists worldwide. Developers are putting their tools into the hands of new users, releasing versions for Mac-based operating systems, Apple's Shake environment and Avid's new AVX 2.0 plug-in architecture. Some plug-ins are becoming 64-bit capable. Others are improving their core offerings while adding new features. Still more are easier to use than ever before. What's new will be making news at SIGGRAPH.

FLUIDS, GASES AND RENDERING

Coming this fall is RealFlow 3.5, the new release of the physics simulation software from Next Limit Technologies (www.nextlimit.com). Used to create realistic fluid effects, RealFlow is a complete solution to simulating fluids, solids, gases and everything in between. It works seamlessly with most popular 3D animation packages, such as NewTek LightWave, Autodesk 3DS Max, Alias Maya, Softimage|XSI, Maxon Cinema 4D and Side Effects Houdini.

"This is a major new release with user interface and workability improvements," notes Bryan Milne, director of Toronto's Ilumina (www.ilumina.ca), the North American distributor for Madrid-based Next Limit. "The product has migrated from its scientific roots to become a more user-friendly artist's tool for the entertainment industry."

The entertainment industry has already recognized RealFlow's abilities. It was used for lava simulation in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, tapped by The Orphanage and Cafe FX for chapters of Sin City, by Jim Henson's Creature Shop for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and by Blue Sky Studios for Robots.

RealFlow 3.5 will give artists access to all parameters through a simpler interface, Milne promises. Mesh generation, performance and stability will be improved, and users will now be able to create virtual cameras inside RealFlow instead of importing cameras from their 3D applications.

In addition, RealFlow 3.5 gives users the ability to previsualize the fluids before they run their simulation. "Traditionally, it takes time to generate the simulation," Milne explains. "But with 3.5, artists will be able to predict the fluids before the simulation."

RealFlow's developers in Spain are currently at work on V.4.0, which will be "a complete rewrite of the application," says Milne, for release next year.

At SIGGRAPH, Next Limit will also introduce its new Maxwell Render, a standalone product for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, which includes a set of plug-ins for most popular 3D applications. Maxwell Render is a rendering technology based upon the real governing physical equations of light transport. It produces incredibly realistic illumination results without having to resort to illumination tricks used by other rendering software.

MATTE EXTRACTION

By the time SIGGRAPH convenes, Red Giant Software (www.redgiantsoftware.com) will be shipping Primatte Keyer 3, "probably our biggest upgrade for Primatte in several years," says company founder Sean Safreed. The plug-in, for Adobe After Effects, Avid and Autodesk Combustion, deals with issues surrounding matte extraction for blue- and greenscreens and other difficult keying challenges.

Primatte Keyer 3 features new key-correct technology, which enables users to apply input correction to fix chroma problems found in DV and HD media, making those formats suitable for keying. It also includes a number of built-in compositing helpers on the output side such as alpha correction tools, tools for edge lighting and color matching of the foreground to the background plate.

"Everything is integrated into one plug-in for an easier workflow," explains Safreed. "Customers have wanted an easier way to use Primatte and a more seamless environment. And we've had a number of requests to use the product on lower-quality sources such as DV."

Red Giant has also announced that Film Fix for Mac, optimized for G5 and OS X Tiger, will be available by the end of July. It has been available on Windows since February. Designed for documentary filmmakers and post production houses requiring film and video restoration tools, Film Fix is used for fixing flicker, removing dust and dirt particles, and stabilizing footage originated on film and video-resolution material transferred from film. V.2 of Red Giant's Magic Bullet Editors tool, a film-look tool for Apple Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid AVX and Sony Vegas, is also being released. Featuring realtime GPU acceleration, V.2 adds realtime film-look capabilities by using Nvidia's GeForce 7800 GTX board.

FLAG WAVING

Known for its fast and friendly 3D software, Zaxwerks (www.zaxwerks.com) has unveiled its new 3D Flag plug-in for creating flag animations for news, sports, corporate, advertising or entertainment projects. With 3D Flag, any picture or movie can be turned into a realistic flag animation.

"Our company has been very title- and logo-oriented for the last 10 years, and we were looking to expand what we can do in 3D in a really easy way," explains president Zax Dow. "Flag animations look really cool but are a big problem to make. They've required 3D programs costing many thousands of dollars and very experienced animators with special technical bents. You don't set keyframes for a flag: Gravity, wind and physics affect it. And shooting a real flag is difficult and tedious. Since flags are so beyond the reach of most people, after a while they don't even think of putting them in their pieces.