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Digital
Media FX News Archives
Tuesday
- April 24, 2001
- DreamWorks Releases New Shrek
Pictures
- Shrek Video Game
to Launch with X-Box
- Alias/Wavefront Announces
Maya 4
- News Link of the Day
- Thunderbirds are Glas-go!
DreamWorks
Releases New Shrek Pictures
(by digitalmediafx.com) After a successful star-filled Hollywood
premiere on Sunday night, DreamWorks has released some more pictures
from its highly anticipated Shrek movie. The first two
pictures are from the premiere (poor image size and quality due
to DreamWorks distribution) and the next three are from the movie:
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Shrek
Video Game to Launch with X-Box
(by digitalmediafx.com) When the Microsoft X-Box is released
this fall, one of the first titles to be released with it will
be based on DreamWorks/PDI animated Shrek. The game is
part of a five year licensing deal reached between DreamWorks
and video game developer TDK Mediactive. DreamWorks will assist
in creating a storyline for the game in allowing TDK Mediactive
to use models that were used to create the movie. The goal will
be to recreate the quality of the movie characters for the video
game characters.
"TDK
Mediactive is excited to be part of the first wave of the Xbox
experience, especially with such a high-profile license. Shrek
is a great video game character," said Vincent Bitetti, CEO
of TDK Mediactive. "This is our first future-generation console
title announcement, and we couldn't be more pleased with the support
we have received from DreamWorks and Microsoft in this endeavor."
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Alias/Wavefront
Announces Maya 4
(by digitalmediafx.com) The big 3D software players in the
Hollywood FX industry are Softimage, 3D Studio MAX, LightWave
3D, and Maya. Yesterday, Alias/Wavefront announced a new version
4.0 of its Maya software. Billed as the "sixth major release"
of the software, Maya 4 put most of its focus on ease of use,
making the learning curve a tad easier for new users.
Maya 4 contains
hundreds of state-of-the-art features and enhancements distilled
from the input of the most experienced and renowned artists in
professional 3D animation," says Chris Ford, Senior Maya
Product Manager for Alias|Wavefront.
According
to a press release put out by Maya, "Focused improvements
have been made throughout Maya to ensure that the process a user
goes through in order to learn how to complete a task or learn
a skill is best of class for 3D software. To that end, Maya's
feature set has been expanded in a manner that substantially optimizes
and streamlines production workflow."
The new version
also includes rendering improvements, character animation enhancements,
better brush-based technologies, and improved controls for game
designers.
Maya Complete
4 will be priced at $7,500 (US) and include modeling, rendering,
animation, dynamics, Artisan, Paint Effects and MEL, an open interface
for programming and scripting. Maya Unlimited 4 will be $16,000
(US) and includes Maya Fur(TM), Maya Cloth(TM) and Advanced Modeling
features. Maya Builder 4 will be priced at $2,995 and include
polygon modeling, texturing and animation capabilities for level
editors, games tool programmers, and web applications.
Maya 4 will
ship this June.
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News Link
of the Day - Thunderbirds are Glas-go!
According to BBC News:
"An expanding
media company has landed a contract to produce an animated computer
game based on 60's TV puppet series Thunderbirds.
Absolute Studios,
who also made the official game for animated feature film 'Chicken
Run', have won the contract which will see them develop the 'no
strings attached' software to complement the re-release of the
series..."
Click
here for the full story.
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