Uh, oh there’s no one here! Walking into Siggraph that first day, full of excitement and expectation, we were horrified to find the halls quiet, the tiny exhibition area dark, and the nearby area for R&D exhibits relatively quiet. What the hell, is Siggraph dying? School bell’s ringing and the crowds stream into the halls of Siggraph. These aren’t faces … Read more
Siggraph for us this year was all about open source. Not that it’s new. Lord no, all those danged acronyms have been floating around for ages. Who keeps track of ‘em all? The leading open source software applications used in content creation are developed by patron companies including, DreamWorks, ILM, Pixar, SPI (Sony Pictures Imageworks) and Weta Digital. These companies … Read more
A year ago at Siggraph, the creative community from TV, movie, marketing, game, and VFX studios came together to form the Academy Software Foundation, ASWF, as a resource for open software development in the creative fields. The Foundation was spearheaded by Executive Creative Director and Head of ILM Rob Bredow, who has shepherded several important open software and technology initiatives. … Read more
Working in the visual programming interface doesn’t mean working blind, thanks to support for visual previews. (Source: Autodesk) Autodesk announced Bifrost for Maya as an official feature included in the product on July 31st. Bifrost is another example of the increasing use of procedural techniques to enable free-form experimentation within traditional software programs or even as a standalone program … Read more
The summertime is not generally a great time for financial reports, except for, maybe, companies selling flipflops and ice cubes, but Dassault has brought in their second quarter for the fiscal year according to plan. However, like its competitors, the company is cautious for the coming quarter. As is typical for Dassault, the company is in the middle of audacious … Read more
The doors spin round. AMD has announced former Synaptics CEO, and former AMD SVP/GM of the products group, Rick Bergman will return to lead the Computing and Graphics (CG) business segment for AMD. The CG group includes PC, gaming, and semi-custom businesses for AMD’s Ryzen CPUs, Radeon GPUs, and game console products and platforms. It’s familiar territory for Bergman who … Read more
PTC has been very optimistic about its transition to subscription and its concurrent development of new business. Unfortunately for the third quarter of 2019, the company’s executive team had to do a lot of fairly excruciating explaining when the company’s sales failed to meet the company’s projections. PTC doesn’t hold back on data. In fact, they have the opposite … Read more
The focus for Modo at Siggraph 2019 was cross-platform fluidity and cross-discipline applicability. The three speakers at Modo’s Siggraph user event included designer Thomas Groppi from NEXII, rigging TD Richard Hurrey from Kitestring, and 3D artist Warren Marshall from Warren Marshall Biz. Each speaker highlighted new features in Modo that improve visualization workflows and push the use of Modo into … Read more
Maxon is modernizing on all fronts. At Siggraph 2019, the company outlined new features and tools for Cinema 4D R 21, Maxon’s flagship 3D modeling, animation, and rendering software. Maxon is consolidating all of the options available for Cinema 4D into one central version, and the company has announced a new subscription plan to replace Maxon’s comparatively high upfront purchase … Read more
The marriage of CAD and metrology is the marriage of the digital and the real-world. It is transforming many industries including AEC and manufacturing. Hexagon, which has its roots in metrology, has addressed the digitalization revolution from the sky down. Founded in 1992 in Stockholm, Hexagon acquired ERDAS for their satellite-based geospatial technology and they’ve acquired the leading lidar companies … Read more
The Open Design Alliance’s season of press releases is here and the quantity of information is greater than ever as the organization follows up on the several new directions they have taken to support interoperability and communication in the CAD industry. The organization has moved into new territory with its Visualize, Web SDK, and BIM (Building Information Modeling) APIs. The … Read more
Epic Games announced its MegaGrants program at GDC 2019. The company established a $100 million fund to support game developers, enterprise professionals, media and entertainment creators, students, educators, and tool developers who are “doing amazing things with Unreal Engine” or enhancing open-source capabilities for the 3D graphics community. The Blender Foundation had their wish granted with a $1.2 million grant … Read more
