This looks pretty sweet! We'll be at the Digieffects headquarters next week and we'll find out more. In the meantime, from Chris @ Mettle:
Shapeshifter AE - New 3D plug-in for Adobe After Effects. We are busy working on series of plug-ins for Adobe After Effects and we would really love to have your help. We will need Beta testers to help us make these products the best that they can possibly be. This is a sneak peak of the first product; Shapeshifter AE. This... plug-in goes way beyond basic text extrusion but enough said... for now :) We will be posting a URL where Beta testers can submit their info shortly. Stay tuned.
Adobe Labs posted a new item today, Configurator, which is a utility that enables the easy creation of panels (palettes) for use in Adobe Photoshop CS4. Sounds useful.
The new beta of Telestream Flip4Mac WMV 2.2.1.7 is a set of QuickTime components that make it possible to play, import, and export Windows Media video and audio files using QuickTime-based applications on Mac OS X.
Improved WMV playback in Safari
Improved Safari and Camino compatibility
Fixed security issues reported by Drew Yao of Apple Product Security
Improved output results when using DV .mov source in Studio and Silverlight
Fixed Flip4Mac Studio "Parameter out of range" issue
Fixed transition rendering issue when using Flip4Mac 2.2 with Final Cut Express
Adobe Labs has new beta releases of Dreamweaver, Fireworks and Soundbooth.
Anyone can download and try the software for at least two days after installation while existing customers of Dreamweaver CS3 and Fireworks CS3 can request a serial number to activate the respective beta for the duration of the prerelease period. For those interested in the Soundbooth beta, we are allowing any customer with any CS3 product serial number (including but limited to Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, etc.) request and receive a beta serial number and activate the Soundbooth beta.
A new form.Z DXF/DWG (beta 1) translator is available. This updated plug-in adds support for the DWG 2007/2008 format and includes export of DWG materials. There are also a number of improvements in the handling of text elements. This plug-in is compatible with any version of form.Z 6.5. It is available to all registered form.Z and form.Z RenderZone Plus v6.5 users. Follow this link for download information
They've been talking about it for a while and today, Photoshop Express has hit the tubes. How is this free online Photoshop going to affect business? This version is stripped down compared to the full version. I think this is a great sales move. New users will try this out and realize they need something more powerful and get the full version. Sounds like a plan to me.
Press Release: Adobe Launches Photoshop Express Public Beta
Free Online Software Brings Photoshop Technology to Anyone Taking Digital Photos
SAN JOSE, Calif. - March 27, 2008 - Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced Adobe® Photoshop® Express public beta, a free Rich Internet Application (RIA) available to anyone who wants to store, sort and show off digital photos with eye-catching effects. During the public beta period, Adobe will solicit Photoshop Express user feedback on product features and functionality, which will continue to evolve over time. As the newest addition to the Photoshop family line, Photoshop Express has taken much of Adobe's best image editing technology and made it simple and accessible to a new online audience. Photoshop Express allows users to store up to 2 gigabytes of images online for free, make edits to their photos, and share them online in creative ways, including downloading and uploading photos from popular social networking sites like Facebook.
"Photoshop is trusted technology that has changed the visual landscape of our world. Now, Photoshop Express allows anyone who snaps a digital photo to easily achieve the high-impact results for which Adobe is known," said Doug Mack, vice president of Consumer and Hosted Solutions at Adobe. "Photoshop Express is a convenient, single destination where you can store, edit and share photos whether you're at home, school or on the road."
Simple, Fun and Accessible With Photoshop Express, digital photos can be uploaded and sorted anytime, edited non-destructively to always preserve the original image, and shared from anywhere, on any Web browser. In a few easy clicks, Photoshop Express empowers anyone to make standard edits, such as removing blemishes and red-eye, converting to black and white, cropping and resizing, and much more.
No experience is required to add special effects that will impress friends and family. In keeping with its one-click approach, Photoshop Express offers tricks like Pop Color which selects an object in an image, mutes the background color of the photo and allows the user to swap the object's color so it jumps off the page. Sketch effects help photos look like drawings and the Distort feature allows you to distort facial features or objects within the images for a comical or artistic effect. Even users with limited photo editing knowledge can simply select what looks best from a line-up of sample photos with visual hints showing different variations of the added effect.
Photoshop Express offers a variety of creative sharing options, including uploading and showing off photos and slideshows in your own online "Gallery" hosted by Adobe, or conveniently embedding or linking photos to social networking sites and personal blogs without having to leave the application. Slideshows never looked better with animation that makes photos float and fly across the screen, allowing for viewer interactivity and unique presentation styles.
Adobe Photoshop Family Adobe Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop CS3 Extended are at the heart of the Photoshop family, joined by solutions for users at every level who want to bring out the best in their digital images. Photoshop Lightroom addresses the workflow needs of professional and serious amateur photographers. Photoshop Elements provides exciting tools and sharing options for photo hobbyists.
Photoshop Express is the latest step Adobe is taking to leverage the advanced technology that underpins its awardwinning creative products and deliver it to new online communities. In early 2007, Adobe also announced the availability of Adobe® Premiere® Express, an online video editing and mash-up tool on partner sites such as MTV and Photobucket. Adobe Premiere Express leverages the functionality found in Premiere Elements, a fully-featured desktop video editing program.
Free and Available Now Adobe Photoshop Express beta is available now for free via any Web browser at http://www.photoshop.com/express. Photoshop Express was created with Flex, Adobe's free, open source framework for building RIAs. Flex applications provide a consistent, rich user experience across operating systems and all major browsers, including Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and others. An Internet connection and an up-to-date Flash® Player 9 are all that are required to experience Adobe Photoshop Express. In its early phases, Photoshop Express is available to US residents-only in English.
Users may experience slow performance if accessed outside of the US. Future plans include availability in other languages and countries.
Update to award-winning 3D animation system includes addition of hair and fur along with new real-world lighting system and advancements in global illuminationSan Antonio, TX - February 20, 2008 - NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading video and 3D animation products, today announced LightWave® v9.5, a major update to its award-winning 3D application, LightWave 3D®. LightWave® v9.5 new capabilities include a complete hair and fur solution, new lighting system and many improvements to animation, global illumination, rendering and workflow. The update will be available to registered owners of the LightWave v9 series at no charge. The LightWave v9.5 Open Beta program is scheduled to begin early March; LightWave v9 owners who wish to participate may register now by visiting: http://register.newtek.com/.
"As promised with the LightWave v9 series we've added major capabilities with each of the updates we've delivered so far and LightWave v9.5 is certainly no exception,"said Jay Roth, president, NewTek 3D Division. "With the addition of a complete hair and fur solution, all new real-world lighting system and GI that is significantly faster with even more beautiful results, LightWave v9.5 has something to offer the 3D community regardless of the specialty - from game developers to character animation to architectural visualization."
LightWave v9.5 Update Includes:
Character Animation Enhancements New Hair and Fur System
Enhanced IK and Animation Systems
New Collada, FBX and OBJ I/O
New IK Calculation Options for Faster Performance
New Bone Type - Joints
New Objective Options for IK
IK/FK blending
Multi-threaded Mesh Deformation Evaluation
Modeler
UV Unwrap/UV Relax
Symmetry Tolerance
Lighting, Rendering and Surfacing Enhancements
All New Lighting System
New Light API
IES Lights
New Spherical Light
Area and Linear Lights Enhanced
Renderer
Faster Sampling System for GI
Improved GI Quality
New GI Controls to Customize the Render
Disk-Based GI Cache
Node Editor Enhancements
Interpolated Soft Reflections/Refractions
Support for New Light API Functions
Oren-Nayar Shading Option for Many Materials
Optimizations for Materials and Shaders
SDK and LScript Improvements
New Light Plug-in Class for third Party Lights and Light Plug-ins
SDK Support for New GI Functions and Disk Cache
SDK Support for New IK and Animation Capabilities
Set Surface Properties Through the Surface Global
UI and Workflow Enhancements
Enhanced Scene Limits
Updated Scene File Format
EXIF Metadata Support
OpenGL GLSL Enhanced for New Lighting System
Image Viewer Consolidation
In addition to the new capabilities in LightWave v9.5, the LightWave v9 series has delivered enhanced performance in a number of areas including improved global illumination with higher quality and faster rendering, expanded OpenGL capabilities with new depth of field preview, advancements in the new camera tools and the node and materials editing system. Further, there are now over 24 hours of free LightWave training available online at www.lightwave3d.com. Visual effects artists who used LightWave's world-class rendering system and other capabilities in recent major projects such as Jumper, The Ruins, 300, The Guardian, VFX Emmy®-winning Battlestar Galactica and other hit series, such as The Sarah Connor Chronicles, CSI, CSI Miami, The History Channel's Dogfights and the up and coming high definition game, WarDevil, depend on LightWave to produce state of the art visual effects on time and on budget.
Pricing and Availability
LightWave® v9 is available now at suggested retail price of $895US. LightWave v9.5 will be available as a free update to registered LightWave v9 owners. Registered owners of LightWave 3D® [8] or earlier are eligible to purchase an upgrade to LightWave v9 for $395US.
About NewTek
With headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, NewTek is an Emmy® Award-winning and leading provider of full-featured video editing, live production, presentation, animation and special effects tools including TriCasterTM, TriCaster PROTM, TriCaster PRO FXTM, TriCaster STUDIOTM, VT[5]TM, SpeedEDITTM, 3D ArsenalTM, and LightWave 3D®.
Coming over the next few months, you're going to see some amazing new things coming from cineSync, so stay tuned for the new features as they're announced!
In the meantime, we're releasing a beta version of the upcoming 1.2.4 release to all existing cineSync users, as the first step in rolling out the cineSync upgrades and improvements in the coming weeks and months. The beta is cosmetically similar to the existing 1.2.3 release, but for the Mac users, it now has full support for Leopard, as well as support for the newer Intel MacBook Pros. Windows users should see improvement in image saving, and management of large sessions is improved across both platforms.
Given the amount of changes involved in the new release, we've decided to release it first as a public beta. We're keen to have you try it out, give it a thrash and let us know what you think. Any feedback you can provide will be most appreciated and the best feedback will win a free month's subscription!
Of course, we have to stress that this is a beta version, so we'd recommend trying it out before you launch into a session with a star client, but it has been comprehensively tested and you should find it's a smoother, sleeker and more powerful beast than ever before.
This beta version is using a new cineSync server and as such you will need to adjust your firewall settings if you would like to try this beta version.
The beta server's IP address is: 203.0.153.235
This change is only for the beta version and is not required for the existing cineSync 1.2.3 release, or the upcoming full release of 1.2.4.
All feedback should be directed to support@cinesync.com and is most appreciated.
The cineSync 1.2.4 beta is free for all existing cineSync customers. If you do not yet have a cineSync account, but would like to trial the new features of cineSync 1.2.4 beta, please email for a demo. Anyone interested in gaining a first look at the new cineSync Pro - coming very soon - should register their interest on our website at www.cinesync.com/pro
cineSync Pro represents a major evolution in the capabilities of cineSync, adding support for stereoscopic playback, mono and stereo HD output (to a projector or broadcast monitor), synchronised colour tools, 3D LUT support, synchronised masking and aspect ratio controls and a number of other exciting features. For the first time, cineSync Pro will also be available on Linux.
For more information, sign up for our mailing list at the official website of the cineSync HD Pro Suite at or contact cineSync Project Manager Rory McGregor on 61 8 8400 6475 (Australia).
Red Giant has set up a Magic Bullet Beta Application. I would recommend signing up only if you have time to really test the software. It's going to be incredible. Marvellous. Amazing, astonishing, astounding, awe-inspiring, extraordinary. Glorious, great, wonderful. Yep, I know how to use a thesaurus.
Intel-based Macs Running Final Cut Pro Gain the Benefits of High Visual Fidelity and High Bit Depth Precision Offered by CineForm Intermediate Software
Solana Beach, Calif., March 6, 2007 - CineForm®, Inc. announced today that it has released an unrestricted public beta of its CineForm Intermediate software codec for Intel-based Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" systems running Apple's Final Cut Pro. CineForm Intermediate is now offered as an extremely high-quality QuickTime movie running under Mac OS X. These QuickTime movie files offer 10 bits of arithmetic precision with spatial resolution up to 2K (2048 x 2048). Intended for Professional and Prosumer applications that demand high visual fidelity without the need for specialized hardware, CineForm Intermediate QuickTime files are visually identical to the .AVI files CineForm has supported on the Windows platform for many years. Further, CineForm QuickTime movie files are completely cross-platform (Windows or Mac) compatible, and may be created and played on either platform.
"CineForm's compressed Digital Intermediate workflow has become synonymous with high visual fidelity and efficient software performance on the Windows platform", said David Taylor, CEO of CineForm. "With Apple's recent move to Intel CPUs, the Macintosh, where perhaps 70% of independent film productions originate, has now become an extremely high-performance platform for our software. Combined with the broad market reach of Final Cut Pro, we're enthused to offer our online workflow to the largest content-creation community while also enabling cross-platform file and workflow compatibility".
In additional news, Wafian Corporation (www.wafian.com) is now shipping its HR1 direct-to-disk HD-SDI recorders with the option to record directly into Cineform Intermediate QuickTime movie files. This allows Wafian customers to choose either Mac OS X (Final Cut Pro) or Windows (Adobe Premiere Pro or Sony Vegas) as the primary editing platform.
Product Overview
The CineForm Intermediate codec for Mac OS X offers the same visual fidelity as its Windows counterpart, with 10-bit precision, 4:2:2 chroma, and up to 2K spatial resolution. Numerous workflow features plus codec performance will be updated regularly throughout the beta period, including adding support for CineForm RAW, spatial and temporal image resampling, plus HD-SDI and HDMI acquisition interfaces. The software requires an Intel-based Mac and is compatible with Final Cut Pro. CineForm QuickTime files created on either Windows or Mac OS X machines may be moved between platforms with full compatibility. CineForm intends full support for the next version of Adobe® Production Studio for Mac OS X when it is released later in 2007.
Pricing and Availability
CineForm Intermediate software for Mac OS X is available now from CineForm's website (www.cineform.com) as an unrestricted no-charge public beta for all users with Intel-based Macs. The beta period will last into May of 2007, after which CineForm will announce pricing and feature details for its production release.
About CineForm and CineForm Intermediate
CineForm, Inc., located in Solana Beach, California, develops software products for use by media professionals in high-resolution acquisition and post-production applications. Powered by CineForm Intermediate, CineForm's acclaimed products provide unmatched visual fidelity and real-time performance within an editing environment while enabling an online compressed digital intermediate workflow that runs on affordable Windows or Macintosh PCs. For more information, contact CineForm at 858-345-2645, or visit CineForm's website at www.cineform.com.
Public Testing Program to begin: all registered owners of LightWave 3D® version 9 invited to participate in the final testing phase of the latest Mac-based technology.
San Francisco, CA, Macworld, - January 9, 2007 -- NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video products, today announced that the Universal version of LightWave 3D will be available in March 2007. LightWave 3D for the new generation of Intel®-based Macs takes full advantage of the advancements in the operating system and development environment from Apple, providing noticeable speed and performance improvements for Mac users. The Universal version enables LightWave® to run on both the PowerPC G4 and G5 CPUs and the new Intel-based Macs. Optimized performance will be provided for Mac users natively on both series of CPUs.
"3D artists always push the limits of hardware and software," said Jay Roth, President, NewTek 3D Division. "Running LightWave 3D on the new Intel-based Mac systems, we’ve been blown away by the results of our preliminary testing comparing the new top of the line Mac Pro versus the top of the line PowerPC series. The performance gain we’ve seen in our test is an amazing 2x improvement in render speed. LightWave is tuned for multi-core support and increased OpenGL performance making the combination of LightWave and the new Mac Pro unbelievably impressive."
"The blazing speed of our Intel-based Macs offers a significant performance advantage for applications reliant on intense graphics," said Ron Okamoto, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. "We're pleased that NewTek has joined the thousands of developers using XCode and other innovative Apple tools to develop Universal versions of their applications."
The move to a Universal application provides NewTek with a foundation for upcoming advancements in 3D technology for the Mac community. The first 3D application from NewTek beyond LightWave to take advantage of this new technology is 3D Arsenal, NewTek’s 3D offering specifically designed for video editors.
Pricing and Availability LightWave® for the Intel-based Macintosh is being prepared for the Open Beta phase. Participation is open to all registered owners of LightWave v9. Qualified owners may access the Open Beta download through the NewTek online registration system. LightWave v9 is available now from resellers and distributors worldwide for a suggested retail price of $795US for full units and $395US for upgrades from previous versions of LightWave. The Universal Binary version of LightWave will be provided at no additional charge to registered owners of LightWave v9 when the product ships in March 07.
About NewTek With headquarters in San Antonio, Texas, NewTek is a leading provider of full-featured video editing, live production, presentation, animation and special effects tools including LightWave 3D® , winner of the 2003 Primetime Emmy® Engineering Award, TriCaster™ and VT[4]™. NewTek launched the desktop video revolution in 1990 with the release of the legendary Video Toaster®. The company's products are used worldwide on projects ranging from home video to feature film. Recent television and film projects using NewTek production tools include Ant Bully, The DaVinci Code, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Serenity, Sin City, Fantastic Four, The 4400, Stargate: SG1, Stargate: Atlantis, Battlestar: Galactica, Prison Break, LOST, CSI, Access Hollywood and Entertainment Tonight, Recent game titles include Shadow of the Colossus, Black, Ridge Racer 6, Burnout Revenge, Driver: Parallel Lines, Quake IV and Heroes of Might and Magic 6. Website: http://www.newtek.com.
Company Also Previews Adobe Bridge and All-New Adobe Device Central
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 14, 2006 - Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) will introduce a beta version of Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 software, the next release of the world standard in digital imaging, on Friday, December 15th. Adobe is delivering a widely available Photoshop CS3 beta to enable customers to more easily transition to the latest hardware platforms, particularly Apple's new Intel-based systems. The beta is available as a Universal Binary for the Macintosh platform, as well as for Microsoft® Windows® XP and Windows Vista computers. The final shipping release of Adobe Photoshop CS3 is planned for Spring 2007. The software can be downloaded at Adobe Labs, in the early hours Pacific Standard Time on December 15.
Packed with new features, Photoshop CS3 beta also includes a pre-release version of a major upgrade to Adobe Bridge, as well as a preview release of the all-new Adobe Device Central. Photoshop customers can use Adobe Device Central to design, preview, and test compelling mobile content, created specifically for smaller screens. This new tool, integrated in the Photoshop CS3 beta, simplifies and accelerates the creation of mobile content through a preview environment and built-in device profiles.
"This is an exciting time for the Mac, and Adobe wanted to ease the move to new Intel-based systems with a preview release of Photoshop CS3," said John Loiacono, senior vice president of Creative Solutions Business Unit at Adobe. "We didn't want to leave Windows customers out of the party, so the beta is available to everyone in the creative industry's most passionate user community -- no matter what their platform choice. We still have some surprises in store, but this beta gives customers an early chance to see the power of another great Photoshop release, optimized and tuned to run natively on the latest hardware and operating systems."
To utilize Adobe Photoshop CS3 beta, customers require a serial number from either Adobe Photoshop CS2, Adobe Creative Suite® 2, Adobe Creative Suite Production Studio, Adobe Design Bundle, Adobe Web Bundle or Adobe Video Bundle. Adobe Photoshop CS3 beta is available in English only. Customers who have a valid serial number for all other language versions of qualifying Adobe products can download the software. Without a serial number, users can still download Adobe Photoshop CS3 beta, with the product expiring after two days. Customers must register online with Adobe or have an existing Adobe.com membership account to access the software.
In related previews of future technologies, Adobe has also released two new web tools as beta releases. Adobe CSS Advisor is a new web-based community site to easily identify and resolve browser compatibility issues. Web designers and developers can contribute their own issues, comment on existing issues, or become an editor to participate in driving the site's future. The site is accessible at: www.adobe.com/go/cssadvisor. Also introduced is a beta release of Adobe Spry framework for Ajax, a designer-focused solution for adding the interactive power of Ajax when developing rich, dynamic web-sites. Adobe Spry framework for Ajax is available at: www.adobe.com/go/spry.
System Requirements
For Adobe Photoshop CS3 beta, recommended system requirements are as follows. For Macintosh: Mac OSX 10.4.8 or 10.5, 1 GHz PowerPC® G4 or G5 processor, Intel based Macintosh. For Windows: Intel® Xeon® , Xeon Dual, Centrino® or Pentium® 4 processor, Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or higher, Microsoft Windows Vista. Both platforms require 512 MB RAM and a 1024x769 resolution screen. Photoshop CS3 beta will expire soon after the launch of Photoshop CS3 in Spring 2007. Details on final pricing, system requirements and availability have yet to be determined.
About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information - anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit www.adobe.com.
