OWC 16GB RAM and 240GB SSD Drive Upgrade for 2011 Mac mini By Heath McKnight
Other World Computing (OWC, www.macsales.com) sells some the best and most affordable upgrades for Mac users, such as RAM, hard drives and more. I've heard stories of just how fast a solid state drive (SSD) is compared to a standard drive found in a Mac, and I wanted to see for myself. More RAM and a faster hard drive is always great for video editors to work faster and more efficiently. Plus, can my new 2011 Mac mini really accept 16GB of RAM? Read on to find out....Read More »
GPU Computing Gems Jade Edition By Wen-mei W. Hwu, Mark Harris and Michael Garland
The NVIDIA Fermi GPU architecture introduces new instructions designed to facilitate basic, but important, parallel primitives on per-thread predicates, as well as instructions for manipulating and querying bits within a word. This chapter demonstrates the application of these instructions in the construction of efficient parallel algorithm primitives such as reductions, scans, and segmented scans of binary or Boolean data....Read More »
The workstation market continues to experience healthy growth, hitting new high in the fourth quarter of 2010 By Alex Herrera, Senior Analyst for Jon Peddie Research
The fourth quarter of 2010 saw the workstation market take a noteworthy step forward in its journey back from recessionary lows, setting a new high water mark for quarterly unit volume. Worldwide, the industry shipped 903.7 thousand workstations, representing a solid - yet still moderate - 6.4% sequential gain. Continued tempered growth should bode well for the workstation market....Read More »
MAXON DELIVERS RELEASE 12 By Ko Maruyama
In Hollywood, there is little doubt that MAXON's CINEMA 4D is the 3D motion graphics artist's best friend. For years, I've been telling you about how easy it is to use, what brilliantly stunning images it produces, how quickly it renders through projects, it's offering of dynamic animation, and, most recently, about its increasingly powerful set of motion graphics tools which fit neatly into production pipelines. So, what could possibly be better than all that has come before? Plenty....Read More »
Photoshop CS4 Image Adjustments in Depth: Curves adjustment By Jan Kabili
The most powerful way to adjust tones in an image is with curves, which can be used to adjust brightness, contrast, and even color in an image. In this clip, host Jan Kabili discusses how to use the curves adjustments to adjust up to 16 different tonal values with a single adjustment. She covers the curves interface and applies a single adjustment to an image. ...Read More »
Photoshop CS4 Image Adjustments in Depth: Tonal values By Jan Kabili
In this clip, host Jan Kabili discusses correcting tonal values, which are the darks, lights, and midtones that make up the underlying tonal structure of every image, whether it is a color photography or a black and white image....Read More »
3.06 GHz 17-inch MacBook Pro 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 »
C4D QuickTip : MoSpline 01 By Ko Maruyama
MAXON's CINEMA 4D R11.5 is full of new features, including several new tools that you'll find in Mograph. In addition to the spline tools that were introduced earlier, MoSpline is a dynamic way of introducing creative spline data to your scene. For some projects, a little tweeking may be necessary. Here's how......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 »
Wacom Intuos4 graphics tablet system By John Virata
Wacom graphics tablets are the standard to which all other graphics tablets are judged, and for the most part, there aren't a whole lot of competitors that can match the usability and fit and finish of a Wacom. The Intuous 4 is a medium size tablet that features an 8.8 x 5.5 inch drawing area on a 14.6 x 10 inch platform. It sports 2048 pressure levels with +/- tilt sensitivity of 60 degrees....Read More »
PNY's Carl Flygare talks graphics cards at SIGGRAPH09 By John Virata
Graphics cards play a central role in the creation of animation and special effects that artists see annually at the SIGGRAPH show (in New Orleans this year) and what consumers seem to desire more of in their daily exposure to digital entertainment, be it via the movies, video games, ride simulators, even TV. Over the last several years, artists have been pushing the envelope in what they can create with the tools that are available to them. ...Read More »
Apple refreshes MacBook Pro line By John Virata
Apple, Inc. today introduced a refreshed laptop line starting with the MacBook Pro line that starts at $1199 for a 13-inch MacBook Pro with 2.26 Core 2 duo with 2GB RAM, 160hard drive and a SD card slot, the first for an Apple notebook. The top of the line 17-inch model ($2499) features 4GB DDR3 memory, a 500GB hard disk drive, and NVIDIA 9400M or a 9600M GT and an ExpressCard slot. ...Read More »
Bud Light Lime Serves-Up Summer State of Mind in High-Profile Broadcast Spots from Stardust and DDB Chicago
Bicoastal U.S. creative production company Stardust Studios is very proud to detail its close collaborations with the creative team from DDB Chicago for Bud Light Lime. For the project, one :30 and two :15 design-intensive broadcast spots entitled "The Summer State of Mind" created by Stardust debuted on May 10 during high-profile U.S. primetime broadcast coverage, like the 2009 NBA playoffs, and continue to air widely....Read More »
Stardust Delivers Ice Breakers Spot for ArnoldNYC
Under the direction of EVP and senior creative director Sig Gross and his colleagues from ArnoldNYC, bicoastal U.S. creative production company Stardust Studios recently produced a colorful spot for Hershey Canada's Ice Breakers Mints....Read More »
Modbook from a MacBook Pro By Ko Maruyama
A few years ago, we saw a company called Axiotron out of El Segundo California come up with a Mac tablet which integrated the Wacom tablet technology (similar to the Cintiq) and the Apple MacBook. This is a great solution for those of us who loved to work with software that really took advantage of the stylus. Before the Pro version ships, Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, and Maxon's BodyPaint 3D were among some of the tools I tried out on the current 15-inch ModBook....Read More »
Zaxwerks Serpentine By Ko Maruyama
While you may know Zaxwerks previous offerings, the latest plug-in for Adobe's After Effects is the evolution of some of the best parts from its predecessors. Although the company's other plug-ins offer interesting options for 3D designers, Serpentine gives After Effects artists need ability to create those 3D animations that are most frequently requested in motion graphics....Read More »
C4D QuickTip #04 By Ko Maruyama
You know there are many different ways to use your materials, many different ways to create materials - well here are some easy ways to not only get your bitmap textures in, copy them to multiple channels, but also turn texture tags on and off without removing them! THREE TUTORIAL VIDEOS one quick tip each...Read More »
R11 C4D QuickTip #02 By Ko Maruyama
You don't have to rely on the F9 key, or the attributes window to set keyframes. You can set keyframes directly in the editor window. Sure you can......Read More »
Introducing the Red Bull Big Tune Webisodic Series and BET TV Special
Innovative motion design and production company Monkeyhead is very proud to detail its opening titles and custom graphics package created for the Red Bull Big Tune documentary webisodic series, and for the forthcoming Big Tune Documentary Special set to air in April on BET. ...Read More »