Imageworks has released 5 projects as open source. The open source software can be freely used by large and small studios around the world.

Imageworks’ production environment, which is known for its photo-real visual effects, digital character performances, and innovative technologies to facilitate their creation, has incorporated open source solutions, most notably the Linux operating system, for many years. Now the company is contributing back to the open source community by making these technologies available.  The software can be used freely around the world by both large and small studios. Each project has a team of passionate individuals supporting it who are interested in seeing the code widely used.  The intention of the open source release is to build larger communities to adopt and further refine the code.

• Field3d, a voxel data storage library
• Scala Migration, a database migration tool
• OSL, a programmable shading language for rendering
• Pystring, python-like string handling in C++
• Maya Reticule, a Maya Plug-in for camera masking

Field3D
Field3D is an open source library for storing voxel data. It provides C++ classes that handle storage in memory, as well as a file format based on HDF5 that allows the C++ objects to easily be written to and read from disk.

The library was initially developed at Sony Pictures Imageworks as a replacement for the three different in-house file formats already used to store voxel data. It is the foundation for Imageworks’ in-house simulation framework and volume rendering software. It is actively used in production.

Scala Migrations
Scala Migrations is a library to manage upgrades and rollbacks to database schemas.  Migrations allow a source control system to manage together the database schema and the code using the schema.  It is designed to allow multiple developers working on a project with a database backend to design schema modifications independently, apply the migrations to their local database for debugging and when complete, check them into a source control system to manage as one manages normal source code.

The package is based off Ruby on Rails Migrations and in fact shares the exact same schema migration table to manage the list of installed migrations.  The Scala Migrations library utilizes the clean Scala language to write easy to understand migrations. Scala Migrations provides a database abstraction layer that allows migrations to target any supported database vendor.

OSL (Open Shading Language)
Open Shading Language (OSL) is a small but rich language for programmable shading in advanced renderers and other applications. OSL is similar to C, as well as other shading languages; however, it is specifically designed for advanced rendering algorithms with features such as radiance closures, BRDFs, and deferred ray tracing as first-class concepts.

The OSL project includes a complete language specification, a compiler from OSL to an intermediate assembly-like byte code, an interpreter that executes OSL shaders on collections of points in a SIMD manner, and extensive standard shader function library. These all exist as libraries with straightforward C++ APIs, and so may be easily integrated into existing renderers, compositing packages, image processing tools, or other applications. Additionally, the source code can be easily customized to allow for renderer-specific extensions or alterations, or custom back-ends to translate to GPUs or other special hardware.

Pystring
Pystring is a collection of C++ functions which match the interface and behavior of python’s string class methods using std::string. Implemented in C++, it does not require or make use of a python interpreter. Rather, it provides convenience and familiarity for common string operations not included in the standard C++ library. It’s also useful in environments where both C++ and python are used.

Maya Reticle
Originally developed at Sony Pictures Imageworks, spReticleLoc is a Maya C++ plug-in plus MEL code that creates a reticule for a camera.  It allows for various camera reference masks to be displayed when looking through the camera, such as filmback, projection gate, and pan and scan attributes.

The value of predefined parameters can be displayed in selectable areas, such as the camera focal length and name, current aspect ratio, frame number, name of the show and shot, Maya scene file name, current user name, etc.   Arbitrary textural information can be displayed as well.

More on Imageworks:

Imageworks’ most recently completed projects include G-FORCE, WATCHMEN, VALKYRIE, BODY OF LIES, EAGLE EYE, HANCOCK, SPEED RACER, BEOWULF, and I AM LEGEND.  Upcoming projects include ALICE IN WONDERLAND, CATS AND DOGS 2, 2012, and Sony Pictures Animation’s CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS.

Imageworks’ achievements have been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with Oscars® for its work on SPIDER-MAN™ 2 and the CG animated short film THE CHUBBCHUBBS!. In 2008, SURF’S UP was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. In 2007, two of Imageworks’ projects, SUPERMAN RETURNS and the all-CG animated feature MONSTER HOUSE, were nominated for Academy Awards in the Outstanding Achievement in Visual Effects and Best Animated Feature respectively. With those two nominations, Imageworks became the first studio to be recognized in the same year in these distinct areas, an indication of the diversity and quality of the company’s capabilities. Other Oscar® nominated projects include THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, SPIDER-MAN™, HOLLOW MAN, STUART LITTLE and STARSHIP TROOPERS, for a total of ten nominations.

Martin Tomka the key person behind Simartom.com has released T-Gen  2 a tree and plant generator which fully integrated into Softimage XSI.  Many Softimage XSI tools are supported to change materials, geometry or  hierarchy. Almost all parameters of T-Gen can be animated.

T-Gen 2 features:

• New core – On average T-Gen 2 is 3x-4x faster
• New Dynamics – you can now use XSI forces to simulate tree and plant dynamics.
• New distribution options – new distribution types are random and point distribution.
• New noise types – you can now use perlin noise to get more natural look of branches.

• Advanced appearance and distribution settings
• Node-based tree and plant hierarchy
• Multicore support
• Plant dynamics
• Geometry optimization
• Animatable trees and plants
• Intuitive interface
• Seamless XSI integration
• Powerful free version
• Export of plants

See also:

• T-Gen Documentation
• T-Gen Tutorials
• Feature list
• T-Gen Downloads

T-Gen 2 should work with XSI6.02, XSI6.5, XSI 7.0, XSI 7.5

(There is a bug in XSI 7.5 that prevent you from using more than 1 force. In older versions you can connect up to 100 forces.)

Speedtest T-Gen vs. T-Gen 2

Force Test (New Dynamics Feature)

Distribution Options

T-Gen Manager

Mathias Möhl shows in his 3 Minutes Video Tutorial how you can use the After Effects script MochaImport. Mathias explains also how Red Giants’s Warp plugin. Red Giants’s Warp plugin helps to compensate the perspective distortion which you may have when the track is changing the perspective.

MochaImport features:

• create corner pin
• create CC power pin
• create AE trackpoints from Mocha track
• stabilize footage
• move layers according to track
• create a precomp in which the footage is stabilized while maintaining the movement in the original composition.

You can download  MochaImport.jsx directly from Mathias Möhl web site.

Trapcode Particular 2 is now available for you. With the release of  Trapcode Particular 2 Red Giant Software also offers the Particular Preset Pack (vol 1) which is published by David Vinso.

I did have the opportunity to use the beta version of Particular 2 over some period of time and can really only recommend to update to this version. With Particular 2 you will be able to do even more magical and astonishing effects and your customers or friends may not believe what you create in post production with Particular 2.
machine

One of the new feature allows you to shade all particle types from multiple lights in After Effects. Spot, Point and Ambient lights are all supported with natural light falloff available for spot and point lights. The Video below shows a quick example. It did take only 5 min to set this up all together and render it.

With Particular 2, you no longer need your favorite 3D modeling/animation program to create virtual 3D textures or adjust lighting as text or objects tumble in 3D space. Particular 2 lets you do it all right inside After Effects (CS3 and CS4).

There are over 30 new features in  Trapcode Particular v2 can be found in detail here.

More on Trapcode Particular 2:

• Particular 2 Presentation + Tutorial (By Aharon Rabinowitz)
• Trapcode Particular v2 available soon
• Trapcode Tutorials

Aharon Rabinowitz gave a presentation at After Effects New York on Red Giant’s Software’s Trapcode Particular 2 . Aharon’s presentation includes a 20 minute overview of some of the new features, as well as a 20 minute Particular/Particular 2 tutorial on compositing particles in 3D space with camera motion.

Normality is a  (free for commercial and non-commercial use) After Effects plug-in which allows you to light 3D objects and scenes within Adobe After Effects. Normally is a spinoff of an internal plugin developed used by Studio Lampion.  Normality has been used in projects including the Paraworld and Frontlines: Fuel of War trailers by Pendulum and A Night at the Cathedral.

Normality 3 features:

(All features are supported in 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit (Float) color modes.)

• Diffuse Light
• Specular Highlights
• Matcap Shading
  
• Toon-Shading
  
• Reflections
• Refractions
• Bump / Normal Mapping
• Support of light sources
• Adjust light color, intensity, position and more directly via AE’s built-in light controls.
• Real-time preview

You can download Normality directly from Stefan Minning web site:  Windows or Mac OS X

Stefan Minning the key person behind Normality is a computer graphics artist and software developer and co-founder of Studio Lampion .

Stefan  introduces Normality in his two Video Tutorials:

Sean Safreed, Director of Products and Co-founder of  Red Giant Software shows you how to create with ToonIt a custom cartoon style and compares ToonIt to the bundled cartoon effect inside After Effects CS4.

Red Giant ToonIt uses unique Toonamation algorithms to transform your image into captivating cartoon shading. ToonIt eliminates time-consuming techniques such as rotoscoping and hand painting, and lends precise control over styles, shading and outlines. Red Giant TV did also publish a Video Tutorial hosted by Aharon Rabinowitz: Creating a Watercolor Painting Look in which Aharon turn your video into an animated watercolor painting.