Download Silhouette 3.0 Software & Manuals

Macintosh Software
Silhouette Standalone (Intel Mac Only)
Silhouette Shape Import/Export Plug-in for After Effects
(Mac versions require OSX 10.4 and above)

Windows Software
Silhouette Standalone 32 Bit
Silhouette Standalone 64 Bit
Silhouette Shape Import/Export Plug-in for After Effects

Linux Software
Silhouette Standalone 32 Bit
Silhouette Standalone 64 Bit

Software Manuals
Silhouette User Guide
Silhouette Shape Import/Export Plug-in User Guide
Silhouette v3 What's New

Labels: Demo, Silhouette FX

Version 3 of the acclaimed roto and paint system Silhouette has been released. In addition to a fully stereoscopic workflow, v3 adds planar tracking, X-Splines, comprehensive keyer, 64-bit versions, and a lot more. If it has to do with rotoscoping or paint, it's in here!

May 6th, 2008 - Available immediately is a major new release of the industry leading rotoscoping and paint system, Silhouette. v3 breaks new ground and greatly raises the bar in the post-production tools industry. Leading a list of major improvements and innovations is an entirely stereoscopic workflow. All capabilities of Silhouette including its award winning roto and paint as well as its new keying, effects and compositing features are stereo enabled. EXR integrated stereo footage can be used as well as media in any of Silhouette's newly expanded range of file formats. Clips can be previewed as anaglyphs, side-by-side or stacked.

Many of the world's foremost special effects systems are "node-based". Silhouette has always been node-based as well but the nodes have been hidden. In v3, Silhouette's node basis is brought out to the user with roto and paint being just two of the available nodes.

The keyer node quickly and simply creates mattes with minimal parameters even if you are dealing with fine hair detail, smoke, or reflections. It is easy to use, yet provides the needed tools when faced with good, bad, or ugly shots — tools such as DV/HD de-artifacting, multiple matte creation, color suppression and sophisticated matte manipulation.

The Effects node allows you to apply the many brush types available in the Paint node as filter effects to shapes or layers. The ability to apply the brushes as filter effects was previously available in Paint, but has been separated out into a separate node laying the basis for future additions.

Another major enhancement to Silhouette is its new planar tracker. A markerless image tracking system, planar tracking uses thousands of points within the areas defined by user created shapes. You can select either single or multiple layers as well as multiple shapes within layers for planar tracking. Each layer will have a different tracking result based on the shapes contained within that layer and is transformed automatically during the tracking process. Other additions to Silhouette's tracking capabilities include the import of Shake® tracker files and many new options for exporting or converting tracker information.

Silhouette's paint system (which formerly had been an option but is now standard) has been greatly enhanced. Of its stereo integration, Aidan Fraser of Laika had this to say: "I just finished one of the most difficult rig paint-out shots I've ever seen. It simply wouldn't have been possible without the stereo tools in Silhouette 3." Silhouette paint now allows four simultaneous clone sources backed by an unlimited number of clips and sources can be flipped, flopped, and automatically match moved against any layer.

v3 adds support for X-Splines, an extremely flexible yet easy-to-use shape type. On export to systems that are not X-Spline capable, the shapes are automatically and faithfully converted into Bezier splines.

Other enhancements include:

• 64-bit execution under compatible Windows and Linux operating systems enabling efficient handling of frames far larger than 4K.
• 3:2 pulldown and pullup are now supported to allow for conversion of film footage from 30fps to 24fps(pullup) and 24fps to 30fps(pulldown).
• IFF, PNG and TARGA file formats can now be loaded and saved and support for DPX rendering has been added.
• As an After Effects® version of Silhouette itself will no longer be sold, a free After Effects Silhouette Shape Import/Export plug-in has been created to import and export Silhouette shapes.
• Silhouette can now import shapes in the Shake 4.x SSF shape format.
• Shapes can now be exported in Elastic Reality format.

Pricing information is as follows: Silhouette v3: $995, Silhouette Floating License Server and 3 Licenses: $3495, Silhouette v3 Floating License - Add On: $1295. Upgrade information is as follows: Silhouette Roto/Paint Standalone to Silhouette v3 Upgrade: $195, Silhouette Roto Standalone to Silhouette v3 Upgrade: $295, Silhouette Roto/Paint AE/FCP to Silhouette v3 Standalone Upgrade: $345, Silhouette Roto AE/FCP to Silhouette v3 Standalone Upgrade: $395. For more information about Silhouette v3 please visit the SilhouetteFX page.

Labels: Silhouette FX

I wanted to say congrats to my friends at Postworks Michigan, who work on a kids show called Come On Over, which has been nominated for 8 Emmys!

I interviewed Mike and Bill from Postworks in 2007 for Toolfarm Inspirations about the post-production work on the show. Read the interview.

Labels: Inspirations

New toolsets provide pixel-level control over left and right eyes

DMN Newswire--2008-5-7--Leading visual effects software developer The Foundry (www.thefoundry.co.uk) has announced the development of Ocula, a unique collection of plug-ins providing a powerful armoury of tools that solve common problems with 3D stereoscopic imagery, boost productivity in post production, and ultimately help to deliver a more rewarding 3D-stereo viewing experience.

The new plug-ins, previewed at NAB 2008, are designed to take the headache out of 3D stereo post production by automatically replicating key processes on left and right channels, and to remove headaches from the final viewing experience by providing tools that help artists to polish and refine 3D-stereo material.

The Ocula tools are based on brand new disparity-mapping algorithms, created by The Foundry s Academy Award-winning R&D team. Disparity maps track and correlate the differences in positional space and movement between corresponding pixels in the left and right cameras, and then deliver pixel-level control over images. Knowing where disparities occur, Ocula tools apply corrections by warping, stretching and squeezing only those areas of an image that require treatment. Image manipulation using disparity maps is different to the X, Y or Z-axis shifting of images, where only whole image planes are being shifted.

Ocula plug-ins allow artists to apply a multitude of adjustments to stereo image pairs. All corrections can be made to the left and right eye channels either together or separately, and the results of these corrections ultimately help to minimise or eliminate discomfort from the 3D viewing experience.

Users can correct horizontal alignment issues with Ocula s Interocular Distance Shifter. Using disparity map data, a new "virtual view" is created between the original left and right eye positions, with the result being that objects of different fore, mid and background depths are resolved more accurately for the viewer. This is different to an X-axis shift where only the image plane is moved.

Ocula s Vertical Aligner will automatically attempt to vertically align corresponding image features in each view, to minimize or eliminate the effect known as key-stoning . This is not a single Y-shift for the whole image " with disparity mapping the correction varies across the entire image.

A key feature of Ocula plug-ins is the dramatic reduction in the amount of manual labour required when artists undertake rotoscoping work, paint effects or other operations dependent on image locality. Many position-dependent image manipulations can now be applied to just one eye with paint strokes, keyframed roto masks, and the like being automatically generated for the other eye, substantially improving productivity.

"Our new Ocula tools are designed to make the post production of 3D-steroscopic imagery easier and much more efficient than before, "said Dr Bill Collis, CEO, The Foundry. "Along with boosting productivity, and enabling precise manipulation of 3D stereoscopic imagery, Ocula plug-ins will ultimately help artists to refine footage to new levels. This means fewer headaches in post, and fewer headaches at the cinema. "

Nuke 5 is currently the only visual effects compositing system with an embedded 3D stereoscopic workflow, where left and right eye channels can be manipulated separately or together. Ocula plug-ins will be available for the next point release of Nuke, version 5.1, expected to be July 2008.

Nuke is available on Linux, Windows, and Mac platforms, and Nuke delivers unparalleled speed, an efficient multi-channel scanline rendering engine, and powerful feature set unrivalled in the desktop market. Nuke 5 is available for existing customers with valid maintenance at no extra cost, and can be downloaded now from The Foundry website www.thefoundry.co.uk.

The Foundry is a world-leading innovator of visual effects and image processing technologies that boost productivity in motion picture and video post production. On February 10th 2007, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded a Sci-Tech Award® to The Foundry s development team for the Furnace image processing suite. The company now holds a trio of Academy Award® winning products including the high-end compositing system Nuke, and keying application Keylight.

The Foundry s products support a wide range of host platforms including After Effects, Autodesk® Media and Entertainment Systems, Avid DS, Baselight, Film Master, Fusion, Nuke, Scratch and Shake. The company has also driven OpenFX, an open standard for visual effects plug-ins, now broadly adopted by host and plug-in developers such as Autodesk®, Assimilate, FilmLight, Digital Vision, eyeon Software Inc, Grass Valley, Soluciones Graficas por Ordenador (S.G.O.), Photron and others. Customers include: Digital Domain, The Moving Picture Company, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Warner Bros and Weta Digital Ltd.

The Foundry is headquartered in London, and has offices in Los Angeles.

Labels: Nuke, The Foundry

Pro Import FCP 2.04

Automatic Duck Pro Import FCP 2.04 is now available for download from the Automatic Duck website.

Version 2.04 addresses issues found since the 2.03 release last year and also adds new 'Use Existing Media' codec compatibilies for DV25, DV50 and DVProHD Avid media.

With Pro Import FCP 2.04 you can import Avid sequences that use DV25, DV50 or DVCProHD media with the 'Use Existing Media' option and Pro Import FCP will create QuickTime reference movies to the Avid OMF or MXF media files using Apple's own QuickTime codecs. This means Final Cut Pro is very happy to play back the media files and you shouldn't see any possible conflicts from the Avid Codecs.

Pro Import AE 4.02

Pro Import AE has been updated to version 4.02 and is also available for download from the Automatic Duck site.

This version corrects issues discovered since the release of 4.01 last year. This includes a recent issue with QuickTime 7.4.1 on Windows.

More Automatic Duck news

Automatic Duck president Wes Plate will be visiting a few Final Cut Pro and Avid user groups to preview some of the new capabilities coming in Pro Export FCP 4.0. More visits are expected later this year, but coming up in May and June the following are planned...

SF Cutters (San Francisco FCP UG) - May 29

Moving Pictures Collective (NY FCP UG) - June 12 (Note: Toolfarm will be there too!)

Later this year Automatic Duck is planning to visit user groups in Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Orlando and more.

Labels: Automatic Duck, Avid, Final Cut Pro, Pro Import FCP

Final Effects Complete 5.0.1 FxPlug and Final Effects Complete 5.0.1 AE are now available as free updates to FEC 5 customers. The 5.0.1 updates add seven new transitions to the 108-filter packages and provide important improvements to existing transitions. Download Final Effects Complete 5.0.1 on our demos page.

What's New in FEC 5.0.1

• Seven New Transition plug-ins, with presets: Blur Dissolve, Lens Wipe, Spherize Wipe, Griddler Wipe, Pin Wipe, Slant Wipe, and Rain Wipe.
• New Animation Tuning capabilities have been added to all FEC transition plug-ins. These new parameters are responsible for fine-tuning the pace and timing of auto-animated transitions as well as remapping and holding the effect using Ease In / Ease Out sliders.
• FEC FxPlug integrates seamlessly with Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Final Cut Express, and Apple Motion. FEC AE supports Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Autodesk Combustion, Eyeon Fusion, and Boris RED, Boris FX, & Boris Graffiti.

Labels: Boris FX, Final Effects Complete

Autodesk Acquires Assets of REALVIZ

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., May 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) today announced that it has completed the acquisition of substantially all of the assets of REALVIZ S.A., the privately held developer of image-based content creation software. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

REALVIZ was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in Sophia Antipolis, France. REALVIZ's technology provides efficient ways to generate 3D content and visual effects from photo imaging and 2D environments. Its products are used for panoramic photography, image-based modeling, match moving and optical motion capture. REALVIZ's flagship products are Stitcher software for the creation of panoramas and 360 degree virtual tours, and ImageModeler software to produce 3D models from photographs.

"REALVIZ's technology bridges 2D and 3D, linking the virtual and real worlds. 3D models can be created from simple 2D images, and virtual environments can be built from conventional photographs," said Amar Hanspal, senior vice president, Autodesk Platform Solutions and Emerging Business. "REALVIZ's technology is complementary to Autodesk's modeling, visual effects and animation products. It will enable us to increase the use of 3D technology across many industries, including architecture, film, broadcast and game development."

REALVIZ's clients include Boeing, NASA, Daimler Chrysler, Cinesite, Framestore CFC, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Warner Brothers Animation, Electronic Arts and Activision. REALVIZ technology has been used to create visual effects for Zodiac, The Host, Children of Men, Superman Returns, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and many other blockbuster films.

REALVIZ Product Integration

Autodesk intends to develop and sell REALVIZ's Stitcher Unlimited, Stitcher Express, ImageModeler and Movimento software as standalone products. Matchmover, Retimer and VTour will no longer be available as standalone products; core technology from these REALVIZ products will be integrated into future versions of Autodesk's existing products, enabling customers to bring the real world into design environments.

The following REALVIZ offerings have been discontinued: Stitcher Pro, Stitcher Unlimited DS, StoryViz, and hardware and software product bundles. Education versions of ImageModeler and Stitcher continue to be available. Student versions of ImageModeler and Stitcher are no longer available. For more information please visit http://www.autodesk.com/REALVIZ.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding the impact of the acquisition on Autodesk's earnings per share, product offerings and the performance of its business. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include the following: difficulties encountered in integrating merged businesses; whether certain market segments grow as anticipated; the competitive environment in the software industry and competitive responses to the acquisition; and whether the companies can successfully develop new products or modify existing products and the degree to which these gain market acceptance.

Further information on potential factors that could affect the financial results of Autodesk are included in the company's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2008, which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

About REALVIZ

REALVIZ is a leading developer of image-based creation software, headquartered in Sophia Antipolis, France, with satellite sales offices in Los Angeles, U.S.A., London, England and Paris, France. REALVIZ develops a suite of image-based content creation solutions for the film, broadcast, gaming, digital imaging, architecture and Internet communities. Derived from years of research efforts at the renowned INRIA Lab in France, the Company's applications enable 2D and 3D artists to easily tackle complex digital imaging projects.

About Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc. is the world leader in 2D and 3D design software for the manufacturing, building and construction, and media and entertainment markets. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk has developed the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art digital prototyping solutions to help customers experience their ideas before they are real. Fortune 1000 companies rely on Autodesk for the tools to visualize, simulate and analyze real-world performance early in the design process to save time and money, enhance quality and foster innovation. For additional information about Autodesk, visit http://www.autodesk.com/.

Autodesk, AutoCAD, ImageModeler, and Stitcher, are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc. in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product offerings and specifications at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.

Labels: Autodesk, REALVIZ