Products - 1/03
Video Encoding
Mac Discreet is now shipping cleaner 6 video encoding software for the Mac. The product works as a complement to nonlinear editing tools such as Apple's Final Cut Pro, Adobe Systems' Premiere, and Avid's Xpress DV, providing encoding for popular digital formats including Apple's QuickTime, Windows Media, and Kinoma. New features include support for MPEG-4 and Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) audio compression through QuickTime 6, a two-pass variable bit rate (VBR) encoding for MPEG-2 that lets users create high-quality video for DVD, watch folders for encoding directly from the desktop or across a network, and optimization for the G4 Velocity Engine. The product is available for $599.
Discreet; www.discreet.com
Video Previewing
WinMac Synthetic Aperture has added support for Mac OS X to Version 2.1 of Echo Fire, its digital video previewing package for Adobe Systems' After Effects and Photoshop. Additional upgrades include more flexible video output options and clipboard previews that enable video previewing for applications that lack this functionality. Echo Fire 2.1 runs on Mac OS 8.6, 9.x, and Windows 2000/XP, as well as on Mac OS X 21. The cost of the software is $275.
Synthetic Aperture; www.synthetic-ap.com
World Maker
WinMac The MojoWorld 2.0 software line from Pandromeda includes MojoWorld Generator, MojoWorld Generator Demo, MojoWorld Transporter Pro, and MojoWorld Transporter. MojoWorld software enables users to create, explore, and animate entire fractal planets for use by graphic artists, special effects professionals, and synthetic landscape enthusiasts. Version 2.0 adds the ability to create and animate outdoor scenes at any resolution with pixel-level detail, and to save the scenes and planets in small files that can be easily shared online. MojoWorld Generator 2.0 costs $249. The Transporter Pro, which adds rendering resolution and allows scenes to be created without the Pandromeda logo, is $49.99. Both the demo and Transporter are available as free downloads.
Pandromeda; www.pandromeda.com
JANUARY
6-10
Macworld Conference and Exhibition, held in San Francisco. Contact: IDG World Expo;
www.macworldexpo.com
Jan 30-Feb 1
The New York Digital Video Show and Visual Effects World, held in New York City. Contact: Mindshare Ventures;
www.nydvshow.com
FEBRUARY
3-6
Imagina.03, held in Monaco. Contact: Imagina, www.imagina.mc
MARCH
4-8
Game Developers Conference 2003, held in San Jose, CA. Contact: CMP Media; www.gdconf.com