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Welcome to the "All Over The Page," a column as diverse as our industry and as cutting-edge as the people out there making things happen. We have no barriers here. The subject is content creation -- and we cover everything from Digital FX and Miniature Models to Make-Up FX and Motion Capture! Our only requirement is that it needs to be factual and happening now!
If you have a lead, a project to plug or just want to know who's doing what, e-mail me at Scoop@DigitalMediaNet.com

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Software Anyone?
       Heads up, tech-heads! For those of you that were not at the L.A. SIGGRAPH (www.siggraph.org) meeting on Tuesday, you missed a doozy! Berkley Researcher, Paul Debevec, (www.debevec.org) announced that his research on High Dynamic Imagery and use of the Radiance (http://radsite.lbl.gov/radiance) renderer would be incorporated into the next release of NewTek's LightWave3D.

        What does this mean for LightWave? Well it could provide NewTek (www.newtek.com) with a much-needed edge over other systems . . . at least in the rendering department.


And Elsewhere in the War of NT Sales . . .
        Yes, the rumors are true! In an attempt to sway MAX users -- Alias|Wavefront (www.aliaswavefront.com) has just announced a "limited" cut in price. The offer? Maya Complete is yours for $3,995. (www.aliaswavefront.com/entertainment/buymaya.html) (This offer is valid for North America only).

        Let's pause on this for a moment and reflect -- shall we? Maya originally consisted of four modules. When initially ported to NT, Maya had a price tag of $15,000 with $7,500 additional for Artisan, and another $7,500 to upgrade to MayaFX to use the Particles and Dynamics. After a short time in circulation, the number of modules increased and the basic Maya package price dropped to $7,500 with Dynamics and Artisan thrown in. Catch all that?

        Now with competition being as it is -- and of course with that recent partnership with Digital Fusion -- Alias|Wavefront has integrated the modules, with a limited edition of Digital Fusion (or Composer LE if you prefer IRIX) and created two separate packages: Maya Complete and Maya Unlimited. Maya Unlimited is the same package as Complete, but adds the Advanced Modeler, Maya Cloth, Maya Live and Maya Fur.

   Hold on, there's more . . . Free operating system? For those of you who weren't paying attention, some old news worth noting! Alias|Wavefront is following Side Effects Software (www.sidefx.com) onto a new platform, Side Effects having shipped a Linux version already with its Houdini 3 release.
       To spell this out for you even more -- Linux is not only FREE but it is a more stable operating system than NT.

        Anyone want odds?

 

 

  
Why Is This Woman, er, Smiling?
click on image to find out

    
NT Once Again Provided with a UNIX Tool!
        While Maya's render is still too slow and MAX's renderer doesn't have that photorealistic edge -- Pixar's (www.pixar.com) PhotoRealistic Renderman (Prman to you and me) for NT is ready for shipping. That gap between large UNIX-based houses and NT houses has basically closed.

        Renderman, the hands-down leader of industry renderers, has been the driving force behind Jurassic Park's dinosaur skin, The Abyss' water tentacle, the T-1000, not to mention award-winning Tin Toy, Geri's Game, A Bug's Life, both Toy Story and Toy Story 2, and most recently, Stuart Little.

        The houses that use NT have been long denied the amazing amount of control that is given when you can write relatively simple shaders and activate them -- rather than having to develop complex, GUI-based plug-ins. Finally, the playing field is level.

        Oh, and by the by -- Animal Logic (www.animallogic.com) in Australia has already developed a tool for 3D Studio MAX to talk to Renderman.

Tune In Next Time
 Sundance? NAPTE? Who's doing what? Your guess is as good as mine! Stay tuned and we'll clue you in!