Motion Composer By Ko Maruyama
MotionComposer is a new way to create and deliver HTML5 or Flash animation. Designed by French company Aquafadas, the software is available in both Mac and PC versions to allow anyone the ability to start animating right away. Although Adobe Flash animations have recently been the subject of scrutiny, there are many advantages to using HTML5. With MotionComposer, you can easily make your content much more engaging.
...Read More »
Understanding Adobe Photoshop CS6 By Ko Maruyama
A new year; a new chance to expand your skillset. This weekend, I looked at "Understanding Adobe Photoshop CS6 for Imaging Professionals". It's a long title, and there are three differently treated fonts in the title treatment - don't let that dissuade you from peeking inside. This is Photoshop we're talking about. You've heard about it. You've purchased the latest version. And now, you want to jump in and figure out how to work it like a pro. Richard Harrington has just the book for y
...Read More »
AFTER EFFECTS APPRENTICE By Ko Maruyama
Trish and Chris Meyer have been writing books for Adobe After Effects users for several years. Their After Effects Apprentice book is currently in its third edition, which covers Adobe's current version of After Effects, CS6. This also offers lessons for those who may be using earlier versions of the software. The book is not only for the "Aspiring" motion graphics artist, but for anyone who wants to improve their all-around skills in the popular animation software.
...Read More »
MAXON's CINEMA 4D R14 By Ko Maruyama
In Los Angeles and New York, motion graphics animators have seen year over year dominance and adoption of MAXON's flagship software CINEMA 4D. Their newest release offers users improved feature sets and new tools to create 3D models and animation even easier than before.
...Read More »
Pogo Connect By Ko Maruyama
The Pogo Connect is the first stylus that allows its user to use pressure sensitivity with a touch screen device. Previously code-named Blue Tiger, the pen promises to change the way artists interact with their portable devices.
...Read More »
Wacom's Bamboo Pocket Stylus By Ko Maruyama
Today, Wacom introduced a brand new way to be creative on the go. The Bamboo Pocket Stylus is small enough to take with you everywhere, but has enough volume to feel like your professional stylus. The Bamboo Pocket Stylus fits your creativity wherever you are.
...Read More »
Adobe Photoshop CS6 for Photographers By Ko Maruyama
It may have taken only one Evening to write it, but it will take you several months to ingest all of the lessons within the pages of Martin Evening's latest, "Adobe Photoshop CS6 for Photographers". The book is a massive 800 pages long, and filled with all kinds of instruction, tips, tricks and necessary information for photographers who are looking to really refine their images.
...Read More »
NAB Professional Gear: Wacom By Ko Maruyama
For years, Wacom tablets have dominated the professional market; their name synonymous with responsive, accurate results. The new Intuos5 tablet heralds a new definition for what tablets can be. Not only is this pressure sensitive for your designer needs, but it also boasts a touch capability. Now more than ever, you'll find yourself with your Wacom all day long.
...Read More »
Filming the Fantastic By Ko Maruyama
"Filming the Fantastic" has been recently released in its second edition. The book by Mark Sawicki is not only a "guide", but a personal discussion about the ebbs and flows of visual effects trends, and stories of universal truths.Sawicki's book is a great read for directors, VFX supervisors, post-production teams, artists, and - naturally - those who gather around the eyepiece.
...Read More »
MAXON CINEMA 4D RELEASE 13 By Ko Maruyama
MAXON announced release of its latest version of software, Release 13, which marks a new era for CINEMA 4D. The current version of the software provides many new features for seasoned users, and several competitive upgrades that will bring in professionals who might use other 3D software packages.
...Read More »
iPad2 GripStand 2 Bundle By Ko Maruyama
The Newer Technology company makes a protective back and stand for your iPad 2. The Gripstand and GripBase pairing is a great way to watch your iPad content hands free, or, if you're a teacher, present items on the iPad to students without having to awkwardly holding it.
...Read More »
Dell Precision M6500 mobile workstation By John Virata
The big horsepower CPUs and graphics chips form the core of a workstation class notebook computer. A large screen, built in color calibration profiles, RAID capabilities, and a bevy of connectivity options also contribute. The Dell Precision M6500 in here for review combines the latest in mobile workstation graphics, the 1GB NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800M, with a Quad Core Intel Core i7 x920 2GHz CPU with 8 processor cores, 4GB DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM (16GB maximum), 17" Wide Screen WUXGA RGB LED LCD Panel with integrated camera and mic, and a Hitachi 250GB hard disk drive.
...Read More »
Lenovo D20 media workstation By John Virata
Lenovo's D20 is the company's top of the line ThinkStation workstation. This particular model shipped with dual Intel E5540 2.53GHz Xeon processors (four processor cores), 12GB RAM, and Windows 7 Professional. Graphics was powered by an NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 graphics card. This is your classic media workstation, configured to run the latest creative applications from Adobe Systems, Autodesk, Sony Creative Software, as well as CAD tools such as AutoCAD, Pro Engineer, and others.
...Read More »
HP Z400 workstation By John Virata
The Hewlett-Packard HP Z400 is the company's entry level workstation. While it doesn't have the whiz bang design features of the HP Z800 reviewed in March, it still does not disappoint as the benchmark numbers will surprise you.
...Read More »
MAXON CINEMA 4D R11.5 By Ko Maruyama
MAXON Computer released their newest version of CINEMA 4D, the 3D application that has quickly become the favorite of broadcast designers and animators. The name of the newest version, R 11.5 gives the illusion that the update is a minor upgrade from previous R11.2 version. However, the multitude of new features in R11.5 makes the upgrade feel like a integer release.
...Read More »
Coremelt Complete V2 By Kevin McAuliffe
You can never have enough plug-ins. Trust me, as an editor/graphic designer you always have clients that want something "cool," but have really no idea what they are looking for, so you end up finding yourself going through the plug-ins on your system to try and put something together to really "wow" them, your plug-in collection needs to have three traits.
...Read More »
Toolfarm's Professional After Effects Camera Training By Ko Maruyama
The 3D world in After Effects has always been a difficult composition space to navigate. Even if you are familiar with world navigation in a 3D application, working with the camera in After Effects may not behave the way you might expect. Like any application, there is a workflow which will make working with these tools easier to understand. Toolfarm's new training shows you how.
...Read More »
Autodesk's Mudbox 2009 By Kevin McAuliffe
The world of 3D design and animation has always had a "what came first, the chicken or the egg" mentality. What I mean by that is when it comes to someone getting into the world of 3D animation, normally (not all the time), they are either strong at the computer/technical aspect, or strong in (classical) animation, and they end up having to bulk up on either one or the other.
...Read More »
e-on`s Vue 7.5 Xstream By Jon Carroll
One thing still challenging to 3D animators and visual effects artists is the creation of realistic landscapes and integrating objects created in their animation software into those environments. There have been over time several different pieces of 3D software that were specifically intended for the creation of 3D environments, and they have used various means to incorporate their landscapes into the rendered images.
...Read More »
Motion Composer
MotionComposer is a new way to create and deliver HTML5 or Flash animation. Designed by French company Aquafadas, the software is available in both Mac and PC versions to allow anyone the ability to start animating right away. Although Adobe Flash animations have recently been the subject of scrutiny, there are many advantages to using HTML5. With MotionComposer, you can easily make your content much more engaging.
...Read More »
Understanding Adobe Photoshop CS6
A new year; a new chance to expand your skillset. This weekend, I looked at "Understanding Adobe Photoshop CS6 for Imaging Professionals". It's a long title, and there are three differently treated fonts in the title treatment - don't let that dissuade you from peeking inside. This is Photoshop we're talking about. You've heard about it. You've purchased the latest version. And now, you want to jump in and figure out how to work it like a pro. Richard Harrington has just the book for y
...Read More »
AFTER EFFECTS APPRENTICE
Trish and Chris Meyer have been writing books for Adobe After Effects users for several years. Their After Effects Apprentice book is currently in its third edition, which covers Adobe's current version of After Effects, CS6. This also offers lessons for those who may be using earlier versions of the software. The book is not only for the "Aspiring" motion graphics artist, but for anyone who wants to improve their all-around skills in the popular animation software.
...Read More »
MAXON's CINEMA 4D R14
In Los Angeles and New York, motion graphics animators have seen year over year dominance and adoption of MAXON's flagship software CINEMA 4D. Their newest release offers users improved feature sets and new tools to create 3D models and animation even easier than before.
...Read More »
Pogo Connect
The Pogo Connect is the first stylus that allows its user to use pressure sensitivity with a touch screen device. Previously code-named Blue Tiger, the pen promises to change the way artists interact with their portable devices.
...Read More »
Wacom's Bamboo Pocket Stylus
Today, Wacom introduced a brand new way to be creative on the go. The Bamboo Pocket Stylus is small enough to take with you everywhere, but has enough volume to feel like your professional stylus. The Bamboo Pocket Stylus fits your creativity wherever you are.
...Read More »
Adobe Photoshop CS6 for Photographers
It may have taken only one Evening to write it, but it will take you several months to ingest all of the lessons within the pages of Martin Evening's latest, "Adobe Photoshop CS6 for Photographers". The book is a massive 800 pages long, and filled with all kinds of instruction, tips, tricks and necessary information for photographers who are looking to really refine their images.
...Read More »
NAB Professional Gear: Wacom
For years, Wacom tablets have dominated the professional market; their name synonymous with responsive, accurate results. The new Intuos5 tablet heralds a new definition for what tablets can be. Not only is this pressure sensitive for your designer needs, but it also boasts a touch capability. Now more than ever, you'll find yourself with your Wacom all day long.
...Read More »
Filming the Fantastic
"Filming the Fantastic" has been recently released in its second edition. The book by Mark Sawicki is not only a "guide", but a personal discussion about the ebbs and flows of visual effects trends, and stories of universal truths.Sawicki's book is a great read for directors, VFX supervisors, post-production teams, artists, and - naturally - those who gather around the eyepiece.
...Read More »
MAXON CINEMA 4D RELEASE 13
MAXON announced release of its latest version of software, Release 13, which marks a new era for CINEMA 4D. The current version of the software provides many new features for seasoned users, and several competitive upgrades that will bring in professionals who might use other 3D software packages.
...Read More »
iPad2 GripStand 2 Bundle
The Newer Technology company makes a protective back and stand for your iPad 2. The Gripstand and GripBase pairing is a great way to watch your iPad content hands free, or, if you're a teacher, present items on the iPad to students without having to awkwardly holding it.
...Read More »
What if Dropbox offered time tracking, versioning, & more?
Answer: You'd have something like the just-released GridIron Flow 2.0. It can save your butt, for free. Why would you not start using it immediately?
...Read More »
Dell Precision M6500 mobile workstation
The big horsepower CPUs and graphics chips form the core of a workstation class notebook computer. A large screen, built in color calibration profiles, RAID capabilities, and a bevy of connectivity options also contribute. The Dell Precision M6500 in here for review combines the latest in mobile workstation graphics, the 1GB NVIDIA Quadro FX 3800M, with a Quad Core Intel Core i7 x920 2GHz CPU with 8 processor cores, 4GB DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM (16GB maximum), 17" Wide Screen WUXGA RGB LED LCD Panel with integrated camera and mic, and a Hitachi 250GB hard disk drive.
...Read More »
Lenovo D20 media workstation
Lenovo's D20 is the company's top of the line ThinkStation workstation. This particular model shipped with dual Intel E5540 2.53GHz Xeon processors (four processor cores), 12GB RAM, and Windows 7 Professional. Graphics was powered by an NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800 graphics card. This is your classic media workstation, configured to run the latest creative applications from Adobe Systems, Autodesk, Sony Creative Software, as well as CAD tools such as AutoCAD, Pro Engineer, and others.
...Read More »
HP Z400 workstation
The Hewlett-Packard HP Z400 is the company's entry level workstation. While it doesn't have the whiz bang design features of the HP Z800 reviewed in March, it still does not disappoint as the benchmark numbers will surprise you.
...Read More »
MAXON CINEMA 4D R11.5
MAXON Computer released their newest version of CINEMA 4D, the 3D application that has quickly become the favorite of broadcast designers and animators. The name of the newest version, R 11.5 gives the illusion that the update is a minor upgrade from previous R11.2 version. However, the multitude of new features in R11.5 makes the upgrade feel like a integer release.
...Read More »
Coremelt Complete V2
You can never have enough plug-ins. Trust me, as an editor/graphic designer you always have clients that want something "cool," but have really no idea what they are looking for, so you end up finding yourself going through the plug-ins on your system to try and put something together to really "wow" them, your plug-in collection needs to have three traits.
...Read More »
Toolfarm's Professional After Effects Camera Training
The 3D world in After Effects has always been a difficult composition space to navigate. Even if you are familiar with world navigation in a 3D application, working with the camera in After Effects may not behave the way you might expect. Like any application, there is a workflow which will make working with these tools easier to understand. Toolfarm's new training shows you how.
...Read More »
Autodesk's Mudbox 2009
The world of 3D design and animation has always had a "what came first, the chicken or the egg" mentality. What I mean by that is when it comes to someone getting into the world of 3D animation, normally (not all the time), they are either strong at the computer/technical aspect, or strong in (classical) animation, and they end up having to bulk up on either one or the other.
...Read More »
e-on`s Vue 7.5 Xstream
One thing still challenging to 3D animators and visual effects artists is the creation of realistic landscapes and integrating objects created in their animation software into those environments. There have been over time several different pieces of 3D software that were specifically intended for the creation of 3D environments, and they have used various means to incorporate their landscapes into the rendered images.
...Read More »
