Week
of April 27 1998
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May
1
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Extensis
Corporation has released PhotoAnimator,
a stand alone application for creating GIF
animations for the World Wide Web.
PhotoAnimator automatically generates
in-between frames and transitions and has
multiple undo/redo and multiple layers.
Users can view, import and export
Photoshop layered documents.
The program will scale, rotate, flip and
invert images over any length of time.
Transition effects include merge, fade,
wipe and barn door. PhotoAnimator
optimizes file sizes by creating global
color palettes and discarding redundant
data. Prior to exporting the file, users
can view the file size and download time
based on choices of connection speeds.
Extensis PhotoAnimator 1.0, for Macintosh
and Windows, is available from the
Extensis Web site for an estimated street
price of $99.95. For a limited time only,
PhotoAnimator will be available online for
$69.95.
Extensis has a gallery
of
examples
at their web site.
Extensis has also announced a contest for
animation created with PhotoAnimator. The
Extensis PhotoAnimator team will judge the
entries and reward the best submission
with the entire Extensis line of design
tools, worth over $2000 But all
submissions must be less than 15k in GIF
format. Height and width don't matter,
just don't go over 15k in file size (15360
bytes if you want to be picky). Deadline
to enter is July 15, 1998, and you can
find the entire
rules
on the web.
CNET
reports
that Kodak and Intel have announced a
joint marketing and development alliance
to promote digital imaging. The agreement
includes joint product development, and a
joint $150 million marketing
campaign.
CNET also reports
on
announcements
from Divx. This article is generally
positive and suggests that Divx could be a
real problem for DVD.
For a more personal perspective,
David
Elrich
reports
on his perspective of the recent Divx
announcement for E-Town.
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April
30
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NewTek has announced
Aura,
a software program designed as a
professional tool for animation, video
paint and video layering. It will be
released in May.
AudioTuneUp
2.0 fixes
audio problems in some Macintosh models
running Mac OS 8.1 (and Mac OS 8.0 where
noted.)
- On
PowerMac G3 and PowerMac 4400 models
attempting to record from the external
microphone using QuickTime does not
work. This applies to G3 Macs under Mac
OS 8.0 as well.
- On
the PowerBook 3400c, PowerBook 2400c,
and PowerBook G3 models sound sometimes
does not play when running off of
battery.
- On
the PowerMacintosh 5400, PowerMacintosh
5500, Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh,
PowerBook 2400c, PowerBook 3400c, and
PowerBook G3 feedback occurs when
attempting to use some applications to
record audio from the internal
microphone.
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April
29
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MacWEEK's
Mac The
Knife
reports that MetaCreations
is working with Microsoft on a new
streaming 3-D Web technology dubbed
MetaStream and due to be announced in May.
More disturbingly, they report that the 3D
package
Infini-D
is to be rolled into Ray Dream Designer.
If this is true we are really disappointed
as Infini-D remains our favorite general
purpose 3D tool.
Streaming 3D may be the way of the
future:|
MacCentral
reports that at the RealNetworks
Conference '98, Cosmo Software
announced
an initiative aimed at enabling the
streaming of VRML (Virtual Reality
Modeling Language) files synchronized with
audio, via RealNetworks' RealSystem G2
architecture.
Oz
Interactive
has released OZ Live 1.0, a client and
server solution that enables the delivery
of real-time streaming 3D animation
synchronized with audio, video and
RealFlash.
OZ Live uses the Real Media Architecture
(RMA) and is an extension for the
RealPlayer 6.0 client. OZ Live Server adds
OZ Live support to the RealServer, and OZ
Live Creator is an authoring toll that
converts 3D files (including VRML) to the
OZ Live streaming file format.
[After receiving a notice about
this release we went to the Oz website to
try and find out more about the
announcement and the products the company
offers. We have to rate their website as
very poor; it was very hard to work out
what they were doing and what they had to
offer. -Ed.]
QTVR
Matte
is a plug-in for Adobe After Effects which
allows you to manipulate QuickTime VR
panoramas from within the After Effects
Environment, and add layers containing
QTVR panoramas to a composition. Version
1.0b1 is a free public beta which expires
on 1 June 1998.
Cosmo Software (a division of Silicon
Graphics) has released Cosmo
Player
2.1
beta, their VRML plug-in. It's now
available for Power Macintosh.
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April
28
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MacWEEK has a beta test review of
Photoshop
5.
This new release offers a history palette
(also present in the upcoming ImageReady)
as well as Text layers that remain
editable until rendered to pixels, and
automatic drop-shadows.
If you're familiar with DVD, or if you own
a DVD player, then you'll be excited to
learn that Paramount has announced that
they will support the DVD format, as well
as DIVX.
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April
27
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Apple is formally
shipping HyperCard
2.4
HyperCard 2.4's new features include
HyperTalk scripting support for QuickTime
movies, QuickTime VR scenes, and the World
Wide Web.
HyperCard 2.3.5 customers can upgrade to
the new version free of charge from the
HyperCard
website.
HyperCard 2.4 will be available for U.S.
$99 via The
Apple Store
Rumors are floating about that
Macromedia's
long delayed video editing software
Final Cut is being shopped
around.
Final Cut, at least as it has been
described so far, is a high-end editor
that would be priced in the $3000 price
range. In the days when Macromedia was
intent on overtaking Adobe, this program
probably made a lot of sense. But
Macromedia's recent financial problems
might have prompted them to stick to the
knitting; after all, what does Final Cut
have in common with Flash or
Director?
The long delays in delivery might also be
related to the (rumored) desire to divest
themselves of the software.
One rumor even has Apple being interested
in buying the software, though why they
would want to do that is beyond
us.
New Media has a very positive
review
of the Iomega
Buzz
box. A video capture card that costs just
$199.95.
Unfortunately, we went and checked the
"Known issues" and discovered that the HP
Pavilion 7000 series (amongst others) does
not work with the Buz. So we'll have to
buy another computer to try it out!
Buz will not work with machines whose Bios
does not follow the PCI 2.1 specification
and machines that use lower quality video
cards that do not support
overlay.
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