American Cinematographer - August 2013 - 77

Autodesk Softimage 2014 and Autodesk
Sketchbook Designer 2014, all of which
have been updated to offer workflow
enhancements to help artists collaborate,
manage complexity and move data more
efficiently.
“Modern production teams must
manage multiple complex, visually demanding projects at any given time, and
Autodesk works closely with renowned
entertainment studios to develop the most
powerful solutions,” says Chris Bradshaw,
senior vice president of media and entertainment at Autodesk. “The Entertainment
Creation Suites provide a unified and flexible workflow, offering teams of all sizes the
ability to better manage across a globally
distributed creative workforce. Each product in the toolset saves production time
while giving artists more freedom to work
with the best tool for the job at hand.”
With three configurations, the Suites
scale to meet the demands of any sized
team, budget or project. The Standard
edition includes industry-recognized 3-D
software and offers a choice of either Maya
2014 or 3ds Max 2014 with MotionBuilder
2014, Mudbox 2014 and Sketchbook
Designer 2014. The Premium edition offers
all the software of the Standard Suite plus
Softimage 2014 3-D animation and visualeffects software. Finally, the Ultimate Suite
offers customers the value of the Premium
edition, with the added benefit of including
both Maya 2014 and 3ds Max 2014.
Autodesk has also released Extension 1 for the Smoke 2013 professional
video-editing software; the extension
features numerous enhancements to help
improve functionality, add flexibility and
increase speed.
Key features of Smoke 2013 Extension 1 include: support for Blackmagic
DeckLink, UltraStudio and Intensity series

video IO devices; Trim View and new
dynamic trimming tools for faster editing;
support for raw footage from Sony F5 and
F55 cameras; improved conform workflow
with Apple Final Cut Pro X, which allows
more accurate translation of speed changes
and the ability to conform Arri Alexa ProRes
files; improved feedback mechanisms to
help editors better track background
processes, monitor renders and identify
errors; improved performance in MediaHub
when navigating large data sets; and
improved 3-D compositing performance in
Action when working with 3-D objects,
shaders and textures.
For additional information, visit
www.autodesk.com.
Dell Optimizes Creative
Performance
Dell has introduced the Dell Precision
Performance Optimizer and the Dell Create
Multi-Vendor Cloud for Content Creators.
DPPO is software that automatically
configures Dell Precision workstation
settings to maximize performance of engineering, design and digital content creation
applications. It is preloaded with profiles for
popular applications such as Adobe
Premiere Pro, Autodesk Maya, PTC Creo
and Dassault SolidWorks and, once activated, automatically adjusts system settings
to optimize performance. Additional
features include proactive system maintenance and tracking and reporting of system
utilization, helping Dell Precision customers
enhance and speed up their design and
render times.
Dell Create is a professional service
designed to help large broadcast companies, studios, creative shops and other
media and entertainment customers
dramatically improve their content workflows with a centralized IT environment.
Dell Create aims to help customers reduce
operational costs and increase efficiencies
through the Dell-managed organization
and implementation of a customized
combination of vendor solutions, selected
to operate seamlessly together to meet the
individual needs of each customer.
Affordable and customizable offerings available through the Dell Create solution include a variety of elements from Dell’s
services, security, hardware and software
www.theasc.com

offerings, such as Dell Fluid FS for video
storage; Dell Wyse thin clients for secure,
reliable and cost-effective computing; Dell
Services & Solutions for hardware orchestration; Dell PowerEdge C servers for
rendering; and Dell SonicWALL and Dell
Quest for security.
For additional information, visit
www.dell.com.

Quantel’s Pablo Rio Supports
AJA’s Corvid Ultra
AJA Video Systems has announced
that its Corvid Ultra OEM cards are
supported on the Quantel Pablo Rio software-based color and interactive finishing
system. This is the first time that Quantel
has offered operability with any video card
other than its own, and AJA’s Corvid Ultra is
the exclusive third-party solution delivering
4K workflows with Pablo Rio. Quantel is the
latest OEM partner for AJA’s Corvid line of
video I/O solutions.
AJA’s Corvid Ultra OEM solution
supports 2K and 4K digital-intermediate
workflows with support for high frame
rates (48p and 60p) and stereoscopic workflows, as well as scaling capabilities for all
resolutions.
The Quantel Pablo Rio runs on standard off-the-shelf hardware, giving
customers the freedom to customize their
systems. Quantel also offers turnkey
systems that are sold directly to end users;
those turnkey systems will include AJA’s
Corvid Ultra.
“AJA’s Corvid Ultra offers unique 4K
workflow capabilities and fills the needs of
Pablo Rio customers by delivering support
for everything from high-frame-rate 4K to
stereo 3-D, 2K and more,” says Steve
Owen, marketing director for Quantel.
“The Corvid Ultra delivers the high-end
features and quality our customers
demand, and all at a great price point.”
For additional information, visit
www.aja.com and www.quantel.com.
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http://www.dell.com http://www.autodesk.com http://www.aja.com http://www.quantel.com http://www.theasc.com
American Cinematographer - August 2013

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