The particles solution artists have been waiting for.

Sprite-Based 2D Particles Plug-In Delivers Stunning Natural Effects With Unprecedented Simplicity

Wondertouch by GenArts announced today the immediate availability of particleIllusion for After Effects (pIAE) for users of Adobe After Effects on Windows. Available as a plug-in for the first time, particleIllusion for After Effects enables artists to create gorgeous particle effects directly within After Effects, producing a more efficient workflow and significantly enhanced productivity. Like its stand-alone sibling particleIllusion 3.0, pIAE is built on the industry’s most robust 2D particle generation engine. As a result, it features the same highly acclaimed speed and ease of use that have made wondertouch products so popular with more than 10,000 compositing artists around the world. In addition, pIAE provides access to the thousands of existing wondertouch emitters — downloadable presets designed to allow users to effortlessly create natural, high-quality effects such as smoke, fire, explosions, sparkles, fireworks and countless abstract effects — without ever leaving the After Effects environment.

Studies show during tough economic times that people tend to flock in droves to theaters as a cheap form of entertainment and to ultimately try to escape reality. In 2009 that theory was proven once again. Without adjusting for inflation, 2009 became the biggest box-office year to date grossing over 10 billion dollars!

Besides the fact that 2009 was hit hard with a downturn in the economy, 2009 had a respectable cinema line up – worthy of the droves that flocked to theaters. With the recent release of Avatar; James Cameron’s first theatrical movie since Titanic, (i.e. the highest grossing movie ever) along with movies like District 9, The Hang Over, Paranormal Activity and Monsters vs. Aliens, there was something in theaters this year for just about everyone.

2009′s incredible benchmark was aided by a 28 cent increase in ticket prices from the year before that totaled to an average of $7.46 a ticket. With that fact in mind, 2009 didn’t necessarily attract the most people of all time into the theaters – but it was the most financially successful. Although the total number of tickets sold is expected to reach 1.4 billion, that figure is not expected to break the record 1.6 billion tickets sold in 2002.

With such a high number of ticket sales, I’m sure some of our readers have seen one or two films this year. So what about you? What movies have you seen?

Now Mac-based editing workgroups using EditShare storage solutions will be able to work collaboratively, accessing in real time a pool of media files.

EditShare, the technology leader in cross platform collaborative editing and shared media storage systems, announced compatibility for the Apple® Snow Leopard® release. The award-winning EditShare multi-channel ingest, shared storage and archiving solutions offer special project sharing capabilities for Broadcast, Postproduction and DI editing workgroups. “The nature of EditShare business is creative-based with a good portion of customers using Apple hardware. Fully qualifying this popular OS release for EditShare solutions was our top priority. EditShare customers tend to push the boundaries of technologies and often embrace advancements such as the new Snow Leopard,” comments Andy Liebman, President and Founder, EditShare. “So it is with great pleasure that we officially add this new OS to the list of supported platforms.”

Thanks to EditShare’s patented bin-locking / project-locking framework, Mac-based editors using Apple Final Cut Pro® and Avid® editing applications can instantly see, copy or revise the work of colleagues with the assurance that a bin, sequence or project will never get accidentally deleted or overwritten. Via a file-manager type interface, editors can clearly see all the bins and project files being used by all editors in their group. Bins and projects belonging to other editors are automatically opened as “Read Only,” and control can easily be transferred from one editor to another.

From a International Documentary Association press release.

International Documentary Association Announces  twenty-eight films to be shown in New York and Los Angeles from July 31st – August 20th, 2009. From the astonishing stories of starvation, persecution, and escape from the world’s worst human rights violator to the surprising inside story of an iconic cult, the International Documentary Association (IDA) presents this year’s DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Documentary Showcase. www.documentary.org/docuweeks09

Screening in Los Angeles and New York City July 31st through August 20th, 2009, IDA’s 13th Annual DocuWeeks™ Theatrical Documentary Showcase will present 18 feature films and 10 short films, a collection of some of the best groundbreaking documentary films from around the world. DocuWeeks™ returns to the ArcLight Hollywood (6360 W. Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles) and the IFC Center (323 Sixth Avenue at West Third Street in New York City) for this annual showcase of documentary films qualifying for Oscar® consideration.

Reprinted from a Matrox Graphics press release

Matrox Graphics today announced the availability of the Matrox M9138 and Matrox M9148 DisplayPort graphics cards. Expanding the M-Series product line, these new triple- and quad-monitor cards offer a remarkable 1 GB of memory, and with support for independent or stretched mode at resolutions up to 2560×1600 per output, users can drive business, industrial, and government applications on an exceptional multi-monitor platform. Read the rest of this entry »

Once again traveling the halls of the Las Vegas Convention Center, at NAB we made a bee line for the camcorder manufacturers to see what was available in the low end of the broadcast range.

JVC was showing off it’s new ProHD solid state GY HM-100 and GY HM-700 camcorders, that record to SDHC cards in native Quicktime format. Both models record in almost every flavor of HD video, 1080i, 1080p, 720p at various NTSC and PAL compatible frame rates. The codec used is 35Mbps MPEG-2

JVC promised to get us a review unit of the hand held GY-HM 100 as soon as they’re off the assembly lines in a few weeks. The GY HM-100 is available within a few weeks at a price point of $3,995, and the HM-700 is on sale now for $7,995.

Panansonic announced a hand-held pro model, the HMC 40. This new small format camcorder also records to SDHC cards, but belongs to the AVCCAM line, meaning it records in AVCHD. The camcorder comes with 3, 1/4 inch CMOS sensors, with a maximum bit rate of 24Mbps.

The HMC 40 will be released in August with a suggested price of $3,195. We’re also keen to take a look at it here in the offices, as we really liked their HMC-150 in the same AVCCAM family.

Canon was there showing off some new broadcast lenses, but no updates to their camcorder line were there, unless you include the Canon 5D mark II DSLR, which they showed tricked out in their booth alongside their camcorders.

There were a lot of accessories for this DLSR, including follow focus systems, rails, viewfinders and various audio attachments. There’s no doubt that the DSLR as video camera is here to stay as a category. We’ve got our Canon on 5D mark II on the test bench now.

Sony didn’t have much in the way of new announcements this year, but one thing that did catch our eye, was the HXRMC1, POV camera. It’s essentially an AVCHD camcorder with the lens detached and conntected to the camcorder by a 9 foot cable. There’s all sorts of uses as a second camera with such versatility.

The camera shoots 1080i AVCHD to Memory Stick, and includes a 10x zoom lens, and weighs only 1lb. 1oz, making it possible to stick anywhere. Uses include work as a helmet-cam, or mounted on a boom pole for some extreme POV shots.