Nab News From Ifx; Piranha Now For Mac

Version 3.0 has been extensively rewritten by ILM's Scott Squires and bycoders recruited from the Alias design team. Beyond raster paint andcompositing, new capabilities include subpixel precision for paintoperations, built-in anti-aliasing, pixel-accurate camera motion blur,automated color correction, and a speedy motion tracker. Expanded real-timeplayback now uses 'Supercache' disk storage along with a RAM-basedoperation, which yields much longer sequence playout without requiring ahuge investment in RAM. For more information, contact Sausalito, California-based Puffin at (415)331-4560, or go to.

ECI's Smaller Video Transport GatewayECI Telecom optimized its mini Hi-TV for TV contribution and distributionnetworking applications over ATM networks. Described as a compact,multiservice network gateway, mini Hi-TV enables interconnection overwide-area networks (WANs) for production studios and broadcast stations. Designed to support smaller sites than ECI's Hi-TV product, mini Hi-TVdebuted at NAB '00. It provides SDI, DVB, ATSC, and SDTI studio interfaces,with MPEG-2 4:2:2 profile compression capability for real-time TV streamingover broadband wide-area networks. Mini Hi-TV would work similarly to Hi-TV, which, during 1999, was firstinstalled at several TV networks worldwide for various applications,including regional news contribution, studio-to-uplink transport, DTTVdistribution and local contribution, and CATV backbone distribution. In addition to transporting regular video feeds and compressed streams,products such as mini Hi-TV and Hi-TV also enable broadband file transferbetween servers and workstations in remote facilities on the same singleaccess line and using the same wide-area network.

Other applicationsenabled by the IP Over ATM feature include remote machine control of VTRsand other RS-422 devices across the network, as well as inband managementof all Hi-TVs in the network from a single management console. For more information, contact Los Angeles-based ECI at (310) 412-8444, orvisit. Inscriber LIVE!Studio Offers Online CG and MoreInscriber Technology, Waterloo, Ontario, rolls five video tools intoLIVE!Studio to offer a speedy, online solution to character generation. Theturnkey software/hardware package, running under Windows NT, incorporatesan online broadcast character generator, real-time motion effects, digitalstill store, a paint system with alpha channel, and an event sequencer. Other features include a template utility that hastens graphics creation; anew text engine that improves on the range of text effects; spell checker;clock; text on a spline; paint live to video; and blur filtering. Besidesthe turnkey workstation, users can buy the setup as a video card andsoftware bundle.

The software alone is available as Inscriber VMP Studio. New options introduced at NAB 2000 include a Chyron File Converter, whichconverts Chyron message files to fully editable Inscriber layout formats.Also new is an automation option that enables the display of live data in abroadcast-ready graphic layout. For more information, contact Inscriber at (800) 363-3400, or visit. YEM's Portable HD & MPEG EncoderYEM describes its Model HE-1000 HD MPEG-2 Encoder and Model HD-1000 HDMPEG-2 Decoder as the smallest and lightest available. Designed for fielduse, each of the battery-operated portables is about the size and weight ofa notebook computer. The encoder and decoder were created with technology from NTT, Japan'sequivalent of AT&T. YEM demonstrated a variety of transmission capabilitieswith the gear at InterBEE '99.

The company encoded and transmitted HDsignals by both digital microwave and optical fiber through OFDM(Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing), Digital FPU (Field Pick-upUnit), and ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) interfaces. YEM introduced the two devices, along with a battery-operated multiformatHD signal generator, at NAB 2000. For more information, contact RollingHills Estates, California-based YEM America at (310) 544-9343, or visit.

REALVIZ ImageModeler for Quick 3D Model CreationImageModeler, from REALVIZ S.A., produces 3D models from still images,whether photo-, video-, or film-based. Here's how to use it: First, film orphotograph an object from different viewpoints; at least four are needed.After digitizing and importing the images into the program, select a fewcorresponding points within each image (the program's viewfinder holds anumber of images at once). ImageModeler next establishes a spatialrelationship between all of the photos and calculates the 3D space withinwhich the object resides.

You can then edit the displayed polygonal meshfor a better-fitting result. Finally, ImageModeler attaches a combinationof the original images to the surfaces as texture maps. The resulting modelcan be exported to any third-party compositing, animation, or CAD package. ImageModeler runs under Windows NT and is the fourth application to deliverwithin the REALVIZ Image Processing Factory (IPF). The other packages nowavailable are MatchMove, ReTimer, and Stitcher.

List price of ImageModeler:$5,000. For more information about Sophia Antipolis, France-based REALVIZ'sproducts, visit its Web site at. Interactive Effects' Nonlinear HD Editing for SGIAt NAB 2000, Santa Monica-based Interactive Effects debuted Piranha Edit HDediting software for the SGI platform.

Nab News From Ifx Piranha Now For Mac Pro

Based on Piranha's HD Visual EffectsSystem, Piranha Edit provides uncompressed nonlinear editing at resolutionsincluding D1, HD 1080i/30, and full aperture 2048 x 1556. Piranha Edit supports the full line of video cards that run on SGI's O2,Octane, and Onyx IR2 workstations. Its software handles import and exportof CMX EDL files, which enables conforming and output of content from avariety of sources, including most of the common compressed anduncompressed NLE offline systems. Features include VTR control, full ansi-wipe and dissolve support, linearand nonlinear frame-rate adjustment, full trim handle support, and clipslip-and-slide.

There's full AES and ADAT digital-audio support, as well astrue multitrack recording for video/film dubbing and Foley work. PiranhaEdit's user-definable keyboard definitions simulate other editing systems'keyboards. Also previewing at NAB was Piranha Linux. The software will support avariety of recently released OpenGL graphics cards, including the new SGINvideo-based card. For more information, contact Interactive Effects at (310) 998-8364, orvisit its Web site at.

Pottstown, Pennsylvania-based Videotek's Digital Prodigy is a smallproduction switcher with five serial digital video inputs, two upstreamkeyers, DSK (downstream keyer), multilevel effects, input autotiming, and24 wipe patterns. For more information, call Videotek at (800) 800-5719, orvisit. Brooklyn, New York-based Lowel-Light's DP Daylight System is a family ofthree dimmable HMI/MSR fixtures at 200, 400, and 575 watts. The design, bythe renowned HMI expert Elemer Nyiry of UK-based CinePower, includes alightweight, triple-output ballast that can handle from 90v to 260v.

Formore information, contact Lowel-Light at (800) 334-3426, or visit.

The first ever Mario game for iPhone has launched to much fanfare from Nintendo and Apple., on any, or running iOS 8, iOS 9 or iOS 10. Super Mario Run is a one button 2D platformer. Mario automatically runs through the level, players press the screen to make him jump onto ledges, avoid enemies and collect coins. For free, the game includes a selection of levels as a trial; the full game content can be unlocked with a one-time $9.99 In-App Purchase. We’ve got a walkthrough of the three different modes and a raft of screenshots after the jump to give you a taste of what the game has to offer before you play. At a glance, Super Mario Run looks just like a normal Mario Bros side-scrolling 2D platformer from the DS. Fans of those games will feel right at home in Super Mario Run, with many of the same characters, visuals and sounds.

Goombas, toads, piranha plants and the iconic soundtrack will mean people familiar with the franchise are right at home. However, the way the game plays is very different to any previous Mario title from Nintendo. The game interactions have been streamlined to suit the on-the-go iPhone/iPad experience — you can play Super Mario Run with one hand. Video first impressions for more videos Mario runs forward automatically so the player just has to tap the screen to jump at the right moments in the courses. Mario responds differently depending on when you tap on the screen, so you have to get the timing right to pull off the perfect wall-jumps or hops to collect as many power-ups and coins as possible. A quick tap is also interpreted differently to a longer press, so the input mechanism is a bit more sophisticated than it first sounds. In many cases, Mario will jump automatically to help new players get to grips with the game but manual control is required to achieve the highest scores.

For example, an invincibility star power-up in one level is only reachable if the user achieves a jump at just the right point on a hill. Super Mario Run features three distinct modes: World Tour, Toad Rally and Kingdom Builder.

World Tour is the primary story mode where players have to complete each level in succession to advance through a total of 6 worlds and 24 courses. Mario will journey through caverns, castles, haunted houses and more in this main quest. Success relies on good timing; tap in just the right places to find hidden bonuses, power ups and pull off optimal double and triple jumps to nab the most coins as possible. If you do well enough in Toad Rally, the Toads will come and live in your personal Kingdom. This is the third mode and is essentially a trophy of your achievements playing through levels. Using the coins and Toads attained, buy buildings and decorations (pipes, flowers and stars) to impress.

It’s like a cute little town where you build houses for the Toads to live. Improve your Kingdom by collecting coins in the other modes., Super Mario Run requires a constant active internet connection to be able to play the game. Nintendo says this is to protect against software piracy however the policy limits the accessibility of the game, especially on journeys where mobile data is unreliable or unavailable., playable on iPhone or iPad. Try a few levels for free or buy the full game for $9.99. Out of the twenty four levels spanning six worlds, free users can play level 1-1, 1-2, 1-3 and part of 1-4. Users must buy the upgrade if they want to progress further.

The game requires iOS 8 or later and is available in more than 150 countries in ten languages; English, Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Russian and traditional Chinese. Check the for more info. Let us know what you think of Super Mario, the first official Mario game ever on iPhone, in the comments. (Oh, and one super secret cheat/tip for Super Mario Run: You can unlock Toad as a playable character!).