PreSonus is shipping Notion 5, a major upgrade to its popular notation software. This new version makes it easier than ever to write ideas quickly and includes a new video window, new effects from PreSonus Studio One, an enhanced chord library, a custom rules editor, and many notation and publishing improvements. Notion is the only notation editor that supports Mac OS X, Windows, and iPad and the only one that can run 64-bit on both Mac OS X and Windows. This is the first update since Notion joined the PreSonus family: the user interface has been redesigned to more resemble Studio One and other PreSonus software, and Notion 5 comes with PreSonus' Native Effects Limiter, Compressor, and Pro EQ plug-ins. Version 5 also adds Mac Retina display support and Windows 8 touchscreen optimization. Now available in English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish at an expected MAP/street price of $149 US. Academic pricing is available. [source]

Digital high-speed imaging systems specialist Vision Research has announced the release of the Phantom v2511, the most light sensitive, flexible and highest-performance ultrahigh-speed camera on the market. The Phantom v2511 can capture up to 25,600 frames-per-second (fps) at full 1MP resolution, making it the fastest member of the Phantom ultrahigh-speed digital camera line. The v2511 also features improved sensitivity, offering sensitivity as high as ISO 6400 (daylight illumination) for color images and ISO 32,000 for monochrome images. In addition to lessening the challenges of low-light scenarios, the improved ISO gives consumers the option to use a faster shutter speed, which can reduce motion blur and result in clearer images. Users may also find that they can now use lenses with smaller apertures, which are typically less expensive and easier to acquire. The camera back panel provides easy access to all camera connections and controls, including two HS-SDI ports and a 10GB Ethernet connection along with the standard 1GB Ethernet connection. It also comes equipped with Vision Research's CineMag interface, which allows the user to save a high-speed shot from camera memory to non-volatile storage in a matter of seconds. With the ability to save 1GB/s of data to an attached CineMag, a 96GB shot can be saved in about 1.5 minutes. The new v2511 also has many advanced features that have become standard as a result of customer feedback, including an image-based auto-trigger that allows the camera to be triggered from the motion of the live images, making infrequent or unpredictable events easier to record on camera. The Phantom v2511 starts shipping in late August. [source]

Digital-Tutors announced that on July 22, their lead modeling instructor, Justin Marshall will be conducting a live webinar in conjunction with Autodesk. If you're in the process of or have the desire to start developing your own indie game, be sure to take advantage of this free event. Justin's live tutorial is part of Autodesk's Meet the Experts Webinar series, which features some of the best from various industries. The focus of this session will center on the indie game development pipeline: creating 3D game characters using Maya LT as well as techniques such as retopologizing and baking out texture maps. The webinars are scheduled to be an hour long and will begin July 22nd. To register for one of the webinars and find a time that works best for you, visit the webinar registration page. [source]

Blackmagic Design announced announced the immediate availability of Camera 1.8.2 software which adds three new Apple ProRes file formats for the Blackmagic Cinema Camera, Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera and Blackmagic Production Camera 4K. This new software update adds three additional Apple ProRes file formats: ProRes 422, ProRes 422 LT and ProRes 422 Proxy. This means customers using Blackmagic Design cameras will be able to get significantly smaller video file sizes allowing much longer recording durations on the same media card, all while preserving full frame 10-bit 4:2:2 quality. Using ProRes 422 Proxy it is possible to record 230 minutes of 1080 HD video on a single 64GB SD drive. The Apple ProRes 422 formats are designed specifically for multi-stream non-linear editing, minimal generation loss and fast export. Camera update v1.8.2 is available now free of charge from the Blackmagic Design website. Users simply need to download it, and install the update from their Mac OS X or Windows machine using a simple USB cable connection to the camera. Once the update is complete, customers will see these new formats available in the camera menus. [source]

Panasonic's P2 plug-in set for Avid systems running on Windows and Mac OS X systems, has been updated to version 4.2. The update adds support for HD Proxy and 720/50p, 60p modes (Mac OS X), as well as support for latest Avid NLEs (Windows). Basic functionality (AVC-Intra and DV to DVCPROHD import) is free of charge, advanced functionality requires unlocking one of the extended function keys: AVC-Proxy ReLink (AJ-PS001G); AVC-Intra Export (AJ-PS002G); AVC-LongG Export; or AVC-LongG Import (AJ-PS004G). More here. [source]

Adobe announced the release of Source Han Sans, an open source typeface supporting Japanese, Chinese and Korean, as well as Latin, Greek and Cyrillic alphabets. It was developed in collaboration with Adobe's key partner Google and contracted foundry partners across East Asia (Changzhou SinoType, Iwata Corporation, and Sandoll Communication). Source Han Sans marks a record-breaking typeface in terms of size, scale, complexity and support for Japanese, Chinese and Korean all within the same font family. It provides designers and developers creating content for international audiences one uniform font to use in print and Web files no matter the language - eliminating the need to license multiple fonts. Source Han Sans marks the first open source font family to support each of the languages, as well as regional variants, within the same font family, supporting languages spoken by 1.5 billion people. It is available in seven weights in full fonts, as well as region-specific subsets, equaling a total of 42 typefaces, designed for screen devices and print. Source Han Sans is available for immediate desktop use via Adobe Typekit and also via the Typekit service included with Adobe Creative Cloud. Users can also download Source Han Sans for free through SourceForge or GitHub. Google is releasing this font under the name Noto Sans CJK as part of their Noto pan-Unicode font family. [source]

COLORWAY is a Windows- and Mac OS X-based application that aids creativity and focuses the decision making process, recognizing that a team of people involved in making design decisions have different goals and expertise. COLORWAY streamlines the iterative design workflow bringing clarity and efficiency through fast, non-destructive material and lighting changes in 3D scenes. COLORWAY Presenter is a free, approachable application that enables customers or colleagues to review and control 'looks' in real-time. Clients can also review and make modifications within predetermined material and lighting options. COLORWAY kits are also free and enable users to set up, prepare, render and export scenes for COLORWAY, making it easy to tag materials or lights to be editable in COLORWAY. The application enables to make changes to your 3D scene's colors, textures, decals and even lighting set-ups in real-time, GPU powered environment. The changes are made without the need to re-render, and are stored independently of the source image. [source]

A new update to V-Ray 3.0 for Maya Beta is now available. Users may now define render regions using an object selection or image mask using the Render Mask feature, use Maya 2015 under Mac OS X, or take advantage of the simplified render settings user interface. The new beta also features an enhanced VRayFastSSS2 / VRaySkinMtl materials, faster rendering performance with tiled textures, optimized primary visibility with Maya Hair and V-Ray Proxies, and reduced memory usage for hair and particles. For more information, check the full feature list for this update. [source]

Red Giant Software released a maintenance update for Magic Bullet Looks 2.5 and Denoiser II. The Magic Bullet Looks 2.5.2 release adds support for 5K footage, and Final Cut Pro X 10.1.2, and fixes several issues, incl. an issue with 1440x1080 footage in Sony Vegas; a crashing issue with non ASCII character file paths; as well as a crashing issue with offline computers. Red Giants are also working on a fix for an issue causing Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2014 with Magic Bullet Looks crash when opening saved projects and trying to resume editing. You can get the update here or use Red Giant Link to update. [source]

Native Instruments released CIRCUIT HALO, a new MASCHINE Expansion that combines intricately-sampled hardware synths (Roland Juno 60, Casio VL-Tone, Prophet 5, Yamaha DX7, Sequential Circuits Pro One and Six-Trak, and a Korg MS-20) and drum machines with contemporary patterns. CIRCUIT HALO's sound set combines multi-sampled synths, classic drum machines, custom glitch modulation effects, and new presets for the included MASSIVE and REAKTOR PRISM synths. CIRCUIT HALO is available now for $49 US / 49 EUR and runs exclusively in the MASCHINE 2 software on MASCHINE STUDIO, MASCHINE, or MASCHINE MIKRO. A compact version for iMASCHINE is also available via the in-app store. [source]