Softimage Acquired, iZ3D Movie Player, Dr. Jon Peddie Debated

[PressBot]

Autodesk has signed an agreement with Avid Technology to acquire nearly all their Softimage assets for approximately $35 million. Softimage develops 3D technology for the film, television and video game markets. Their flagship product is called SOFTIMAGE|XSI. It’s a 3D animation software solution used by leading media and entertainment companies. Sample companies include Digital Domain, Ubisoft, SEGA Corporation, CAPCOM, Animal Logic and The Mill.

Autodesk Media & Entertainment provides animation, visual effects, editing/finishing and color grading solutions for the 3D market, including entertainment and design industries.

Affected core Softimage products include:
[*]SOFTIMAGE|XSI: Including XSI Essentials, XSI Advanced, XSI Academic, XSI Mod Tool and the XSI software development kit. XSI is production-proven 3D animation software for games, film and television. It offers a complete 3D modeling, animation, rendering and development environment for visual effects and custom tools.
[*]SOFTIMAGE|Face Robot: A complete software solution for easily rigging and animating 3D faces. Face Robot enables studios to create life-like facial animation at incredible speeds.
[*]SOFTIMAGE|Cat: This advanced character animation system is a plug-in for Autodesk 3ds Max software. It is intended to be integrated into the 3ds Max product line.
[*]SOFTIMAGE|Crosswalk: This interoperability solution is intended to be integrated with Autodesk’s own interoperability technology.

To clarify, while Autodesk has committed support to stereoscopic 3D technologies, the 3D discussed in this arrangement is more associated with the traditional volumetric 3D referred to in the graphics industry.

Additional news to share is that iZ3D has put out version 1.04 of their S-3D movie player. You will need to download the codecs separately, but now you can play your favorite movies in stereoscopic 3D on your iZ3D monitor. Remember that movies need to be encoded in an S-3D format to get the visual benefit. You can download the player and manual HERE[/b].

We plan to put some pictures up from the 3D Film and Interactive Festival[/b] tomorrow, and we are hoping that our video footage came out ok to share with you.

Dr. Jon Peddie of Jon Peddie Research shared some remarks about stereoscopic 3D entertainment that got our attention, and you can read my views on his statements HERE[/b].

Finally, if all goes to plan, we will have two very exciting news stories to share with you this coming Monday. You know how it is when things are quiet at MTBS...we are busy working on something...something BIG!

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[Neil]

The following is an excerpt of a blog article.  Read Full Article

Autodesk has signed an agreement with Avid Technology to acquire nearly all their Softimage assets for approximately $35 million. Softimage develops 3D technology for the film, television and video game markets. Their flagship product is called SOFTIMAGE|XSI. It’s a 3D animation software solution used by leading media and entertainment companies. Sample companies include Digital Domain, Ubisoft, SEGA Corporation, CAPCOM, Animal Logic and The Mill. Autodesk Media & Entertainment provides animation, visual effects, editing/finishing and color grading solutions for the 3D market, including entertainment and design industries. Affected core Softimage products include: SOFTIMAGE|XSI: Including XSI Essentials, XSI Advanced, XSI Academic, ...