Focus: Game Development MAXON's CINEMA 4D R14 New Features Offer Expanded Options
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 »

Focus: Animators Pogo Connect Tablet Pressure Finally?
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 »

Focus: Graphics Designer Wacom's Bamboo Pocket Stylus Take it to make it
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 »

Focus: Post/Production Twixtor: 30p to 24p in After Effects RE:Vision Effects does one thing, image manipulation. And they do it very well
By Jeremiah Hall Twixtor, from Re:Vision Effects, Inc., has been around for a while. It works with Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro (X and 7), Autodesk combustion, flame, Maya Composite, Avid, Foundry Nuke, Sony Vegas Pro, and several others. It changes speed, timing, and frame rates of footage (frame rate conversion is currently only available with After Effects or Combustion). Twixtor does this by warping and interpolating new frames from the original footage using RE:Vision's proprietary tracking technology to calculate every individual pixel's motion in a sequence. ...Read More »

Focus: Post/Production NAB Professional Gear: Wacom Wacom's Intuos5: Get in touch with your designs
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 »

Focus: Broadcast Apple's Richard Townhill Calls to Discuss the Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3 Update By Heath McKnight I just got off the phone with Apple's Richard Townhill, senior director of applications marketing, who took the time to update me on the latest major update to Final Cut Pro (http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/), ver. 10.0.3. Apple is delivering multicam support, broadcast monitoring via third-party PCI-e cards and boxes (in beta, along with Thunderbolt), advanced chroma keying features, XML 1.1, the ability to import layered Photoshop graphics (PSD), and media relinking. ...Read More »

Focus: Post/Production Colorista II A first look at Red Giants anticipated new release!
By Kevin McAuliffe When it comes to a program like After Effects, competing with Color Finesse 3 (that comes with AE CS5) can be tricky, but if there is one company out there determined to do it, it's Red Giant Software and their flagship color correction application Colorista. ...Read More »

Focus: Business Media 3.06 GHz 17-inch MacBook Pro Flagship MacBook Pro does not disappoint
By Heath McKnight I recently had a chance to review the latest, top-of-the-line unibody MacBook Pro from Apple; with a 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 8GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and many other great features, this is the fastest Apple laptop I've ever used. ...Read More »

Focus: CAD HP Z400 workstation On a pure price performance level, the system is hard to beat
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 »

Focus: Animators MAXON CINEMA 4D R11.5 A new version that feels like an integer release
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 »