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AUTODESK ACQUIRES ILLUMINATE LABS INTERNAL Q&A to prepare spokespersons for conversations with external parties. Do not distribute outside of Autodesk.

Brandon — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:35:18 +0000

How much is Autodesk paying to acquire Illuminate Labs?
Terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.

How many employees does Illuminate Labs have?
12

Are there layoffs as a result of this acquisition?
No.

How will Illuminate Labs employees be integrated into Autodesk?
Illuminate Labs employees have joined the Autodesk Media & Entertainment business.

What will happen to Illuminate Labs’ offices?
Illuminate Labs’ Gothenburg, Sweden office will close and employees will move into Autodesk’s Gothenburg office. Illuminate Labs’ San Francisco office will also close and the San Francisco-based employee will move into Autodesk’s San Francisco office.

Will Illuminate Labs CEO Magnus Wennerholm join Autodesk?
Yes, Magnus Wennerholm has joined as a Consultant in Autodesk Media & Entertainment’s Games Group.

What is the potential market opportunity with Illuminate Labs’ products?

Game titles ranging from AAA console, MMO’s, handheld and social networking games.
Interactive lighting solutions for previsulization or film and broadcast customers that want to increase productivity of their lighting pipeline.
OEM technology to certain third party game engines: Unity, Gamebryo®, and Unreal® game engine

Who supplies technology similar to Illuminate Labs’ products?
This is emerging technology, some of the other players are:

Customer-developed internal tools and integrated tools
Light Sprint
Geomeric
Unreal Engine internal technology

How does this impact Autodesk’s relationship with mental images?
Autodesk’s relationship to mental images remains unchanged. Illuminate Labs’ tools provide interactive lighting solutions to the games market, which are currently not provided by mental images.

Is Autodesk changing the price of Beast or Turtle?
Beast pricing will be adjusted to align with Autodesk’s worldwide middleware pricing structure. Turtle will no longer be sold as a standalone product, as it’s intended to be incorporated into Autodesk’s future offerings for game developers.

Will the release schedules remain the same for Beast and Turtle?
Autodesk plans to adjust the release schedules of Beast and Turtle to align with the development cycles of our other games technology.

What about Autodesk® 3ds Max® software? Will Turtle also become a plug-in for 3ds Max?
It is premature for Autodesk to comment on the specifics of the Turtle technology roadmap.

How will the products be sold?
Beast will be sold in the same way as Autodesk’s other games middleware, i.e. directly through the Autodesk sales team. Autodesk will not sell standalone licenses of Turtle – it’s intended that the technology be incorporated into future offerings for game developers.

I already have Autodesk® Maya® software. How do I buy Turtle now? Will I have to keep upgrading my Maya license in order to get Turtle?
Autodesk will not be selling Turtle as a standalone product. Turtle is intended to be incorporated into future Autodesk offerings for game developers.

Will Autodesk continue to support all Illuminate Labs customers?
Yes. Both Beast and Turtle customers with current support contracts can contact support@illuminatelabs.com for support.

Will Autodesk change Beast and Turtle branding?
Beast and Turtle branding will be modified to reflect that they are part of the Autodesk brand identity.

Autodesk and Maya are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. Illuminate Labs, Beast and Turtle are trademarks or registered trademarks of Illuminate Labs AB, in Sweden and elsewhere. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2010 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

Contact Information

Autodesk

www.autodesk.com

Autodesk Acquires Illuminate Labs: Key Messages for Spokespersons

Brandon — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:29:59 +0000

Key Message #1: Technological progress is a mainstay of the games industry. Autodesk aims to help game developers be more competitive with technology for a more modern pipeline.

We want to see our customers, the creative visionaries, spend less time building workflows or solving redundant problems, and more time realizing their vision for the game.
That’s why we offer game developers a broad set of technologies that can be used for game art creation, animation and runtime environments, designed to help them solve both creative and technical challenges so they can really focus on the game.
We continue our focus on making game development more efficient for the creative visionaries who use our products:
Helping save valuable programmer time with advanced middleware technology

Helping developers to build more highly efficient workflows that can scale with Autodesk® FBX® software interoperability technology
Equipping artists with great tools for game content creation, so they can preserve their creative vision

Key Message #2: The acquisition of Illuminate Labs – a maker of interactive lighting technology for games – allows Autodesk to provide a more comprehensive solution to our customers. Illuminate Labs’ proven technology helps developers achieve better aesthetic results with advanced global illumination.

Illuminate Labs’ two products are Beast™ and Turtle game lighting solutions. The key benefit of these products: More realistic lighting in games – better visual quality achieved faster by game developers.

Beast middleware is popular for the advanced lighting of worlds, characters and objects in a game (global illumination and dynamic character relighting).

Beast is production proven: Launched in 2008, used in 40+ game titles.
The benefits of Beast:

Providing higher-quality interactive previews, which help accelerate iteration times
Being game engine-independent. Beast has already been integrated into several leading game engines: Unreal®, Gamebryo® and Unity game engines.
Beast can help enhance the visual quality of your game. Developers can achieve better artistic results with advanced global illumination.

Turtle is a plug-in for Autodesk® Maya® 3D software. Turtle provides “baked lighting”, i.e. pre-computed lighting for sophisticated rendering and baking of game worlds, characters and objects.

Key Message #3: Autodesk will develop and sell Illuminate Labs’ technology and support Illuminate Labs customers.

Beast middleware will continue to be sold as a standalone product.
Autodesk plans to incorporate Turtle into future offerings, rather than selling it as a standalone product.
Autodesk is accustomed to developing and selling middleware. In addition to Beast, we have two other types of middleware:
Supporting messages
- Illuminate Labs products are used primarily by AAA and AA game developers – many of whom are Autodesk clients.
- Beast has been integrated into several leading game engines (Unreal, Gamebryo and Unity) and is used for many types of games, ranging from AAA consoles and MMO’s, to handheld and social networking games.
- Illuminate Labs technology can serve as an interactive lighting solution for Previsualization, and for film and TV customers that want to increase the productivity of their lighting pipeline.
- Illuminate Labs customers include: A2M, Bioware, Guerilla Games, High Moon Studios, Infinity Ward, Insomniac Games, Radical Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment, THQ/Heavy Iron, Valve Software.
- Games that used Illuminate Labs products include: Dante’s Inferno™, Mortal Combat® VS. DC Universe, America’s Army 3, WET™, Gran Turismo®, Mass Effect™, Heavenly Sword™ video games
- Many Illuminate Labs customers rely on Beast and Turtle:
- To help increase the visual quality of their game
- For their powerful feature sets,
- For quicker iterations on the lighting of complex scenes,
- For ease of use and easy integration into existing pipelines
- For speed
Illuminate Labs Customer Testimonials

“We’ll use it in our future projects. I think it (Beast) will be the new standard for game lighting.”
Johannes Söderqvist, Art Director, EA Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment. 3D World, February 2009 on using Beast with Mirror’s Edge.

“Using Beast helped speed our lighting pipeline, and get better results faster. Our lighting artists were able to achieve some great results with the technology.” Reid Schneider, Executive Producer at EA

“Turtle allowed us to quickly iterate on the lighting of the 150+ levels in Dragon Age: Origins, and get great results.” Andreas Papathanasis, Senior Programmer – Dragon Age: Origins

Autodesk, FBX, HumanIK, Kynapse and Maya are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. All other brand names, product names, or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2010 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

Contact Information

Autodesk

www.autodesk.com

Autodesk Acquires Illuminate Labs – Maker of Lighting Technology for Games

Brandon — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 16:24:19 +0000

Illuminate Labs’ Technology Simplifies and Accelerates Game Development Process

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., July 21, 2010 — Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) has acquired Illuminate Labs, a privately held maker of lighting technology for game development. Illuminate Labs’ Beast middleware solution and Turtle plug-in for Autodesk Maya software enable faster iteration on a game’s creative intent, and more realistic in-game lighting. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“We welcome Illuminate Labs customers and employees to Autodesk,” said Marc Stevens, VP Games, Autodesk Media & Entertainment. “Technological progress is a mainstay of the games industry. Autodesk is committed to helping game developers be more competitive with modern pipelines. We want our customers to spend less time building workflows and solving redundant problems, and more time realizing their creative vision for the game.”

Stevens added: “Advanced lighting solutions help game developers achieve their aesthetic goals, enhancing the game’s design and story. Lighting brings games to life by defining environments, establishing mood, creating atmosphere and guiding players. Illuminate Labs’ lighting technology and workflow tailored to game development are some of the most advanced in the industry. They complement Autodesk’s games middleware offering.” Autodesk also offers Autodesk HumanIK character animation middleware and Autodesk Kynapse artificial intelligence middleware.

Magnus Wennerholm, previously Illuminate Labs CEO, said, “In just a few years, Beast and Turtle have become production-proven technologies for in-game lighting. Leading game developers like Sony Computer Entertainment, Nintendo America and THQ/Heavy Iron rely on these tools to help deliver higher visual quality in their games. My team and I are excited about the technology development opportunities that Autodesk has to offer. I believe that this acquisition will benefit both Autodesk and Illuminate Labs customers.” Wennerholm and the Illuminate Labs team are joining Autodesk Media & Entertainment.

Autodesk plans to develop and sell Illuminate Labs’ technology and support Illuminate Labs customers. Autodesk anticipates that Beast middleware will continue to be licensed as a standalone product. Autodesk plans to incorporate Turtle into future offerings, and discontinue licensing it as a standalone product. Illuminate Labs customers needing product support are requested to contact support@illuminatelabs.com. If you are interested in evaluating Beast or Turtle technology, please contact sales@illuminatelabs.com.

Business Outlook

This transaction is expected to have no impact on previously issued guidance.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including statements regarding the impact of the acquisition on Autodesk’s previously issued guidance, product offerings, product performance, product integration plans and the performance of its business. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include the following: difficulties encountered integrating Illuminate Labs’ products, employees and business; unanticipated expenses in integrating Illuminate Labs’ products, employees and business; whether certain market segments grow as anticipated; the competitive environment in the software industry and competitive responses to the acquisition; and whether Autodesk can successfully develop new products or modify existing products and the degree to which these gain market acceptance.
Further information on potential factors that could affect the financial results of Autodesk are included in the company’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended January 31, 2010, and Form 10-Q for the quarter ended April 30, 2010, which are on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

About Autodesk

Autodesk, Inc., is a world leader in 2D and 3D design, engineering and entertainment software for the manufacturing, building and construction, and media and entertainment markets. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk continues to develop the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art software to help customers experience their ideas digitally before they are built. Fortune 100 companies ¾ as well as the last 15 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects ¾ use Autodesk software tools to design, visualize and simulate their ideas to save time and money, enhance quality and foster innovation for competitive advantage. For additional information about Autodesk, visit www.autodesk.com.

About Illuminate Labs

Headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden, Illuminate Labs develops and markets rendering and baking technology especially tailored to satisfy the needs of game developers based on the proprietary LiquidLight technology. Turtle is a sophisticated rendering and baking plug-in for Autodesk Maya used for lighting and content creation in next-gen game development. Beast is a game engine-independent content pipeline tool used for advanced global illumination and dynamic relighting of characters.

# # #

Autodesk, AutoCAD, HumanIK, Kynapse and Maya are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. Illuminate Labs, LiquidLight, Beast and Turtle are trademarks or registered trademarks of Illuminate Labs AB, in Sweden and elsewhere. Academy Award is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document. © 2010 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.

Contact Information

Autodesk

www.autodesk.com

The “Certified for AutoCAD” Label An HP Exclusive

Brandon — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:08:53 +0000

Looking for the rock-solid, certified performance for AutoCAD? Look no further than the HP Z200 and HP Z200 Small Form Factor (SFF) Workstations, the only workstations in the industry to carry the official “Certified for AutoCAD” label from Autodesk.

What does it take to earn this label? It takes rigorously tested graphics cards and configurations that won’t let you down. It takes a system designed perfectly for AutoCAD users, with the processors, memory and graphics needed to get the job done at a price-point most AutoCAD users, and their managers, can appreciate.

With the HP Z200, that means a wide choice of processors including latest Intel® Core™ i3 and i5 dual-core processors or Intel i5, i7 and Xeon® quad-core processors, and either non ECC memory or DDR3 ECC memory for data integrity and system reliability as well as certified graphics solutions from ATI and NVIDIA.

So look for the “Certified for AutoCAD” label on new HP Z200 Workstations and rest easy knowing that your workstation won’t just run with AutoCAD, it’ll perform.

Go here to see incredibly low prices for a HP Z200 Small Form Factor or a HP Z200 desktop workstation.

Certified* for use with AutoCAD 2011 only, with certified graphics card installed.

See http://usa.autodesk.com/ACAD2011Graphics for a complete list.

Contact Information

Autodesk

www.autodesk.com

X-Rite MA98™ Measured Material

Brandon — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:04:44 +0000

Portable Multi-Angle Spectrophotometer

New functionality allows Autodesk Showcase to accept measurements of multi-layered automotive paint and plastics through the use of the X-Rite MA98 instrument. This “click and render” capability generates accurate, physics-based results including accurate flake characteristics in automotive paint and plastic results.

Support for the X-Rite portable, multi-angle spectrophotometer is now included in Showcase Professional. In a matter of seconds, this hardware device can measure real world glossy paints and plastics to produce an accurate Material representation within Showcase. X-Rite sample materials are included in the Materials library, and are not intended to be manually edited. Creation of new measured materials requires the X-Rite MA98.

X-Rite materials are derived from data scanned from real paint and plastics samples with an X-Rite MA98 spectrophotometer. They can be applied to objects in the scene like any other material, and can have some basic parameters adjusted.

X-Rite: Your source for accurate color. On time. Every time.

X-Rite is a world leader in providing global color control solutions for manufacturing and quality management requirements.

We lead the industry in offering service options to ensure uninterrupted performance of all X-Rite products. Training and educational resources are available globally and on line for both new and experienced users to optimize their color measurement capabilities.

Visit xrite.com for more information about X-Rite products. X-Rite customers worldwide may also call the Applications Support team at CASupport@xrite.com or Customer Service at 800-248-9748.

Contact Information

X-Rite, Inc.

4300 44th Street SE
Grand Rapids, MI, 49512
USA

tele: 800-248-9748
fax: 800-248-9748
kquick@xrite.com
http://www.xrite.com

What can AUGI do for you? Plenty – you just have to Join.

Brandon — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:00:37 +0000

http://www.augi.com/join

Here are the benefits…

Publications: http://www.augi.com/publications/default.asp

AUGI World – Our flagship publication. Distributed to all members who opt in via email notification with links to our website. It is a general focus magazine published every other month.
AUGI AEC Edge – Our newest addition to publications. It is AEC industry focused published once per quarter.
AUGI HotNews – Our email newsletter. Published monthly. It goes to all members who have opted in. This initially goes out in English and is sometimes translated into other languages and emailed to our international members.
AUGI Bulletins: Our vendor driven email blasts. We have had very successful campaigns by vendors in the past. You develop the content and We connect you up to the tools that you want to know about. Discounts, raffles and offers from the developers make these worth reading.

Face to face Interaction: http://www.augi.com/lugs/default.asp

Local Chapters – Member driven, face to face meetings. These are discussion and presentation format event. Local leadership runs these. They are self-sustaining user group meetings. This is where it all started.
Country Chapters – Organized efforts in specific geographic locations or language affinity throughout the world. We currently have 10. These are language and location based groups. They have boards of directors and coordinate in-country events.

Online Educational Benefits: http://www.augi.com/education/default.asp

The AUGI Training Program (ATP) is online supplemental training offered free of charge to AUGI members. New ATP courses are available online.
Autodesk University Class Handouts are materials from courses offered at past AU events. They are available for download from our website.
AUGI e-learning, in conjunction with CADLearning, is making video lessons available every month to AUGI members at no charge. These video lessons teach individual product concepts and features. Every month, new lessons in each course series will be available. Completion of the full course will take 12 to 18 months at the one-section-per-month rate.

Online Interaction

Forums – these are the heart and soul of AUGI. Our online discussion areas. Broken down by software title or function. The greatest online activity is seen here. We have questions and answers from all over the world. We have seven language based forums other than English. http://www.augi.com/forums/default.asp
Online Communities – These are collections of Forums, information exchanges, File exchanges and displays of users work. We have 5 at this time. http://www.augi.com/communities/default.asp
BLAUGI - The AUGI Blog – postings open to the general public about AUGI events, contests, happening and more. http://www.blaugi.com
AUGI Survey – AUGI does member surveys to gather information and benchmark users adoption of software, perspectives on support and training, AUGI programs and more. Our biggest survey is our annual salary survey. http://www.augi.com/surveys/survey.asp
AUGI Wish List – Your way to let Autodesk know what you are thinking. Through online submission and voting, we provide our “Wishes” for the future products. Your vote counts. (see Community link)
AUGI Career Center – Our location for employers to hook up with prospective employees. Post your resume and find out about job openings in your area. http://careers.augi.com
AUGI Drops – in conjunction with Drop.io, we have create a file exchange service that allows you to post files, download files, host meetings and so much more. http://careers.augi.com
Social Media – we have twitter accounts and a Facebook page. Search Twitter for multiple accounts (AUGI, AUGIatAU, AUGICADCamp, AUGIForums and BLAUGI) Our Facebook page is at http://www.facebook.com/GoAUGI
Member Discounts – we have vendors (usually software) provide discounts to our members. Sometimes in conjunction with ad campaigns and sometimes at standalone, time limited offerings. These are posted in the forums for members only. http://forums.augi.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1005

Training Events

AUGI CAD Camp – regional one day training events held in major cities in the US. A few have been held abroad in the past. This is a self-funded program based on sponsorships, advertisers and event fees. http://www.augicadcamp.com/
Autodesk University – the annual event put on my Autodesk. AUGI is provided with a booth, meeting space, production of our one hour Annual Meeting and support of other events. We also garner sponsorship for our giveaways. http://www.augi.com/autodeskuniversity/default.asp

Contact Information

AUGI

http://www.augi.com/home/default.asp

Mixamo Extends Offering to Include Animal Motions and Customizable 3D Character Models

Brandon — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:50:56 +0000

Online 3D Animation Service Enables Real-time Customization of Quadruped Animations and Fully Rigged Customizable Character Models

Building on its extensive collection of high-quality character animations, Mixamo Inc. today announced its first offerings of 3D quadruped animal motions for dogs, cats, horses, and wolves, with dragons forthcoming.

3D artists and animators in the video game, film/TV broadcast, virtual world platform, and other digital content creation markets now have access to a growing number of high-quality animal animations that can be customized in real-time using the intuitive slider system offered by Mixamo. Fully-rigged 3D dog, horse, cat and wolf models and accompanying motions are now available on www.mixamo.com.

“Mixamo’s new animal model and animation offerings benefit the 3D community tremendously – now it is possible to create custom quadruped motions easily and quickly, without compromising on quality,” says Stefano Corazza, Mixamo CTO.

Users can visit the Motions page on www.mixamo.com to download a free dog trotting motion, and view all animal motions currently offered. By selecting an animal motion, the user can then easily customize it in real-time using Mixamo’s slider interface. Finally, the user is able to download the customized motion and then integrate into his 3D environment quickly and seamlessly. All of Mixamo’s models and motions can be downloaded into Autodesk 3Ds Max, and Maya for further fine tuning and integration into user’s application.

Mixamo has also recently announced a new character creation tool, where users can create and customize a fully rigged 3D character model live on www.mixamo.com.

Using the same slider interface used to customize motions, users can customize features such as body type, muscle build, age, height, weight, gender, hair, skin and clothes color tones. All of the characters are compatible with any of Mixamo’s motions, which can be seamlessly integrated into 3Ds Max, Maya and many other 3D software packages.

About Mixamo

Mixamo Inc. is a Silicon Valley, VC-funded company founded by 3D pioneers Stefano Corazza, CTO, and Nazim Kareemi, CEO. Based on research from Stanford University’s BioMotion lab, Mixamo offers the first online 3D character animation service that provides animators, game artists and 3D professionals the power to customize and create professional-quality character animations at unprecedented speeds. Mixamo currently employs a team of outstanding computer vision experts, 3D animators, software engineers and serial entrepreneurs from around the world.

# # # #

Reader contact:
Mixamo Inc.
2415 3rd Street, Unit 239
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 255-7455, pr@mixamo.com
www.mixamo.com
www.twitter.com/mixamo

Contact Information

Mixamo

2415 3rd Street
Unit 239
San Francisco, CA, 94107
USA

tele: 415.255.7455
fax: 415.255.7477
contact@mixamo.com
http://www.mixamo.com

Pratt Institute’s Center for Continuing and Professional Studies (CCPS) has been an Autodesk® Training Center (ATC) since 1985.

Brandon — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:46:26 +0000

Program Statement

Pratt Institute’s Center for Continuing and Professional Studies (CCPS) has been an Autodesk® Training Center (ATC) since 1985. CCPS offers certificate programs in Computer Graphics, as well as providing comprehensive training by offering a full range of courses to help you boost your career, meet industry requirements, increase your productivity, and stay on top of the latest technology. One area of concentration in the Computer Graphic Certificate programs is in Computer Animation and Video. It is for those who wish to pursue careers in film , entertainment, special effects, game design and broadcast design. Study focuses on the creation and design of time-based media. Choose to focus on a variety of areas, including 2D and 3D animation, including traditional animation, digital video, and broadcast design. You study the choreography and design of complex animated sequences, with topics including creation of titling sequences, editing, compositing, modeling, rendering, and animation. Final projects are edited to form a demo reel portfolio.

The courses we offer are Autodesk® 3ds Max® Modeling and Rendering I, II; Autodesk 3ds max Animation I, II; Autodesk 3ds Max Advanced Character Design and Animation; Autodesk 3ds Max Game Level and Character Design; Autodesk 3ds Max Advanced Projects; Special FX with Autodesk 3ds Max; Autodesk 3ds Max Advanced Lighting; Texturing; character studio; Facial Animation; MAXScript; and Autodesk® Mudbox™. Also offered are Autodesk 3ds Max classes taught in Spanish during late Spring As an Autodesk® Training Center (ATC) partner we also offer a certificate program in Computer-Aided Design and Visualization which is design for architects, engineers, interior designers and industrial designers. The program encompasses the following courses into it’s track: Architectural Visualization using AutoCAD®, Autodesk® Revit®, and Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design; Architectural Design with Autodesk 3ds Max Design; Architectural Modeling II with Autodesk 3ds Max Design; Architectural Rendering and Lighting in Autodesk 3ds Max, we offer a full range of AutoCAD®, AutoCAD® Architecture, AutoCAD MEP, Autodesk® Inventor®, Autodesk Raster Design, Autodesk Revit, Autodesk Revit Architecture, Autodesk Revit MEP, Autodesk Revit Structure, Set Design for Architects and Designers using AutoCAD and more. Also offered are short intensive workshops in such areas as Autodesk® Ecotect® and Autodesk® NavisWorks®.

Update Workshops. Customized training can be provided for corporate clients as well as on-site training. Corporate discounts available.

We are an AIA Provider for continuing education for Architects and Engineers.

Pratt’s Center for Continuing and Professional Studies ATC program maintains the following Autodesk® ATC awards: Autodesk® Americas Award for Distinguished Performance 2006 Autodesk® Media & Entertainment ATC Instructional Quality Award, 2007 North America Award for Distinguished Performance in Autodesk® 3ds Max® Software Training and the Autodesk Americas Award for Distinguished Performance. We have Autodesk Certified Instructors. Programs are offered: Fall/Spring/Summer Daytime, evening, weekend schedules available Application deadline: open Please visit our website or feel free to contact us for further information regarding scheduling and pricing.

Contact Information

Pratt Institute Center for Continuing & Professional Studies

144 West 14th St., Rm 209
New York, NY, 10011-7300
USA

tele: 212.647.7199
fax: 212.367.2489
prostudy@pratt.edu
www.pratt.edu/prostudies

Toon Boom Announces Animate Pro 2

Brandon — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:34:34 +0000

Montreal (April 9, 2010) Emmy® Award-winning Toon Boom Animation Inc.
today announced the upcoming release of Toon Boom Animate Pro 2, a new version that propels professional animators into a new world of creative freedom. Animate Pro 2 is the most complete professional animation software, offering superior content creation, animation and compositing toolset for any style of animation, all within a single desktop application.

Chris Georgenes, Art and Animation Director, acclaimed author and owner of the popular Keyframer.com blog had this to say about Animate Pro 2: "I’m loving Toon Boom Animate Pro 2. Every once in a while a tool comes along that you just know you have to learn how to use because it just feels right. As an animator, Animate Pro 2 lives up to its name pure and simple. It’s a tool that oozes the technique of animating because it is developed that way.

As you become comfortable with the Animate Pro workflow it becomes clear that this tool was designed by animators for animators. It boasts features that I always wanted and in some cases wish I had thought of. If you are an animator and have or are thinking of adopting the paperless art of animation, Toon Boom Animate Pro 2 simply can not be ignored."

What¹s new in Animate Pro 2?
New feature highlights include:

Fast distribution of character parts to layers
Easy adjustment of velocity on multiple character parts
Efficient creation of richer-looking ambiance
Full-fledged SWF export with new vector effects
Direct import of scanned drawings (TWAIN)
Convenient text capability

Key benefits

Toon Boom Animate Pro is our most versatile and powerful animation software for independent professional animators. It can be used to create all styles of animation, traditional, Flash-style, cut-out or paperless. From start to finish, Animate Pro enables you to draw digitally, scan paper drawings, colour, animate, synchronize sound; perform advanced compositing using 3D camera and node-based effects; and render your projects in the leading output formats.

Feature highlights that set Animate Pro apart include:

Ability to combine the benefits of vector animation with textured pixmap, preserving artistic details while creating unique organic styles.
Built-in multiplane camera with full 3D rotation that automatically produces a real perspective effect.
Smart Colour ID system and palette management tools that make the colouring process a breeze.
Ability to create 3D stereoscopic results.
Access to over ten special effects, and the ability to apply them using powerful nodal compositing and preview your final animation, without having to use another package.

Pricing and Availability
Buy Toon Boom Animate Pro 2 now at the special pre-launch price of $1499.99 US, valid until April 16, 2010. As of April 9, 2010, all new clients will receive a Toon Boom Animate Pro 1 product code. Upon product release, all Animate Pro 2 customers will receive by email instructions on how to access their version 2 product code. All orders requiring shipping will be processed upon product release.

Information about Toon Boom Animate Pro 2 is now available online at toonboom.com/animatepro/

About Toon Boom Animation Inc.
Toon Boom Animation Inc. (toonboom.com) is the worldwide leader in animation software solutions. Toon Boom carries user-friendly animation applications for all and develops new geographies to make the animation community as global as can be. In that market segment, Toon Boom caters to the needs of children, home users, creative professionals as well as students, educators and schools.

As importantly, Toon Boom is fully dedicated to the needs of independent animators and studios, offering a wide product range from powerful pre-production tools to leading-edge animation production solutions. Relying on its extensive expertise in animation production, Toon Boom provides consulting services in the fields of optimization, pipeline integration, production assistance and custom development.

In 2005, Toon Boom was granted the Primetime Emmy® Engineering Award by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for its significant contribution made to the animation industry targeted for television. In 2006, the IT Federation of Quebec (FIQ) awarded an OCTAS 2006 in the Multimedia educational and cultural sector category, for Toon Boom Studio. In 2007, FIQ awarded an OCTAS 2007 in the Technological Innovation category, for Toon Boom Storyboard Pro. In 2008, Flip Boom was granted a Parents¹ Choice Gold Award and a New Canadian Media Award in the Excellence in Children¹s category. In 2009, Flip Boom was selected as Editor¹s Choice by the prestigious Children¹s Technology Review for excellence in design. In 2010, Flip Boom All-Star was granted a Parents¹ Choice Silver Award.

Toon Boom’s client base ranges from major studios creating Hollywood blockbuster animated films to individual animators creating their first masterpieces. Market-leading studios using Toon Boom’s products include Nelvana, Warner Bros., Mercury Filmworks, China Central Television, Toonz Animation India, eMation, Rough Draft Korea, Alphanim, BKN, Cromosoma and Enarmonia, to name a few. Some of the prestigious productions done with Toon Boom¹s technology include Les Triplettes de Belleville, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, The Rugrats, SpongeBob The Movie, Hanuman, Curious George, Go
West: A New Lucky Luke Adventure, Simpsons The Movie and The Princess and the Frog.

For more information, contact:
Karina Bessoudo
VP, Marketing
Toon Boom Animation Inc.
karina@toonboom.com
(514) 490-6479

Contact Information

Toon Boom Animation Inc.

7 Laurier Avenue East
Montreal, QC, H2T 1E4
Canada

tele: 514.278.8666
fax: 514.278.2666
sales@toonboom.com
www.toonboom.com

Telestream FlipFactory Enables Reach into New Markets for News, Sports and Entertainment

Brandon — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 23:17:01 +0000

Fast, efficient solutions solve multi-format, multi-platform, multi-destination challenges for FlipFactory customers

Nevada City, Calif., October 2, 2009 – At the recent IBC show in Amsterdam, Telestream highlighted new FlipFactory 7.0 features and demonstrated how FlipFactory enables greater productivity and efficiency for its customers. FlipFactory transcoding workflow automation applications are used by thousands of the world’s most demanding broadcast and entertainment companies, corporations and enterprises to automate transcoding and file-based media workflows.

“Our flexible FlipFactory transcoding, workflow automation products were developed with one thing in mind: to optimize productivity and efficiency for our customers, while enabling them to reach out to new markets,” said Dan Castles, CEO at Telestream. “FlipFactory streamlines processes, enabling quick and efficient content delivery in a variety of ways for multiple platforms and screens.”

New FlipFactory 7.0, slated for release this month, includes YouTube fingerprinting for improved media tracking. In response to widespread Dolby E use in HD workflows, version 7.0 adds support for both pass through and decoding of Dolby E for broadcast and editing workflows. Customers implementing this capability include ORF, Swiss TV, BeTV and Nova. Additional new format and wrapper support includes XDCAM HD 50 Mbps, DVCPRO HD Nexio, broadcast server HD MXF support, and more. H.264 closed caption support for IPTV workflows and HD VANC data preservation and insertion have also been added. A new Avid send to playback straight from the Avid timeline feature enables faster throughput from Avid systems to playback servers and systems.

FlipFactory is the fastest single-server transcoding workflow automation product on the market. It provides automatic transcoding of more than 120 video and audio file formats and wrappers, with ongoing support for emerging formats. Direct media and metadata integration and file exchange between all major professional video and audio systems, formats and wrapper variants makes FlipFactory the proven universal translator. FlipFactory also enhances media, applying preprocessing filters, branding and watermarking and provides notifications.

Discovery Communications deployed three FlipFactory systems in May 2008 to reduce the cost of delivering media to more than 10 VOD platforms with 14 different languages and 8 subtitle languages. Since implementing FlipFactory, Discovery Communications EMEA division’s operating expenses decreased while new sales opportunities for programming increased.

“FlipFactory proved beneficial with our very first large foreign language transcode request,” said Darren Breeze, Director of Broadcast Technology, Discovery Communications EMEA. “The cost savings on this job alone outweighed our infrastructure investment.”

Perform, a London-based world leader in monetizing sport and entertainment rights in digital media, relies on FlipFactory to deliver 60 versions of Barclay’s Premier League football highlights to more than 50 broadband and mobile outlets within minutes of a live game event.

“Fulfilment of this contract would not have been possible without the unique capabilities of Telestream’s GraphicsFactory which adds complex graphics as part of the FlipFactory encoding process and enabled us to meet our delivery deadline,” said Andy Measham, Managing Director of Services at Perform. “We are extremely pleased with the performance and flexibility of encoding with the FlipFactory engine and with the fantastic customer and technical support provided by Telestream and Boxer to deliver this new service in a very short time.”

Technicolor partnered with Telestream and Vivesta to provide VOD access to live TV content within 10 minutes of airing for Dutch National Broadcasters. Telestream’s Pipeline encoder provides fast media ingest into FlipFactory for fast transcoding and delivery to multiple distribution outlets.

“We recognized the Dutch National Broadcasters’ business need to get its Catch-Up TV content to the web as fast as possible,” said Chuck Parker, President of Technicolor Digital Content Delivery. “By working with Telestream and Vivesta, we have been able to deliver this live content to VOD in record time, which demonstrates our strategy to deliver video content in any format in a fast and efficient way.”

More information about FlipFactory and Telestream is available at www.telestream.net.

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Trademarked company and product names are the property of their respective companies.

About Telestream (www.telestream.net)

Telestream products make it possible to get video content to any audience regardless of how it is created, distributed or viewed. Throughout the entire digital media lifecycle, from capture to viewing, for consumers through high-end professionals, Telestream products range from components and encoding applications to live streaming and fully-automated workflow systems. Telestream enables users in a broad range of business environments to leverage the value of their video content. Telestream corporate headquarters are located in Nevada City, California, and its team of video experts is located in France, Germany, Sweden, UK and US. The company is privately held.

Contact Information

Telestream, Inc.

848 Gold Flat Road
Suite 1
Nevada City, CA, 95959
USA

tele: 530.470.1300
fax: 530.470.1301
sales@telestream.net
www.telestream.net