Native Instruments introduced ABBEY ROAD 50s DRUMMER, a new KONTAKT instrument featuring the sound of two classic drum kits from the 1950s. The kits provide the distinctive drum sound of the era, which was necessary to compete with the electrified instruments gaining popularity at the time. Recorded with both state-of-the-art and period equipment at Abbey Road Studios in London, 50s DRUMMER also includes a groove library, mixer presets, and a new set of brush articulations, delivering the authentic feel of rock and roll, rhythm and blues, country, and jazz from the 1950s. ABBEY ROAD 50s DRUMMER is available at the NI Online Shop for $99 US / 99 EUR. [source]

The new Kinect sensor that will be delivered as part of Microsoft Xbox One later this year, will be followed by a new generation of Kinect for Windows next year, announced Bob Heddle, director of Kinect for Windows on the Kinect for Windows blog. The new Kinect will include a high-definition color camera as well as a new noise-isolating multi-microphone array, Microsoft's proprietary Time-of-Flight technology, expanded field of view, improved skeletal tracking, and new active-IR capabilities. More here. [source]

The Blender 2.67a update features over 100 bug fixes since the 2.67 release. Read a complete list of changes here. Download the new binaries for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux at blender.org. [source]

Digital Tutors released a new Introduction to Maya 2014 tutorial for its subscribers. It contains over 10 hours of introductory training to get familiar with the latest release and learn about tools and techniques for modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, dynamics, lighting, rendering and more! [source]

RE:Vision Effects announced the initial release of RE:Match for 64-bit versions of The Foundry's Nuke (5.0 or later) and eyeon Fusion (5.2 and up). RE:Match takes intuitive color and texture matching to a whole new level by addressing common problems on multicam and stereo shoots. RE:Match is a set of plug-ins to match one view of video or film to another so that it looks as if it was shot with the same camera and settings. RE:Match assumes that both image sequences are taken roughly at the same location but perhaps were not shot at the same time or from the same point-of-view. RE:Match for OpenFX hosts Nuke and Fusion, is priced at $395 US, floating licenses are $592.50 US. Volume discounts available. [source]

Autodesk has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Tinkercad, an easy-to-use browser-based 3D design tool. The addition of Tinkercad to Autodesk will help broaden the popular Autodesk 123D family of apps and supports Autodesk's vision to help anybody imagine, design and create anything. The acquisition will also revive the Tinkercad service and community, despite a previously announced shutdown by its founders and creators. [source]

E-on software announced the availability of LumenRT 4.1 Studio, its comprehensive system for transforming 3D models and designs into rich, nature-filled videos, images and real-time immersive experiences. Version 4.1 adds several important improvements including enhanced support for exporting larger Bentley MicroStation models; new animated water materials; improved Revit export with more complete textures; export of point lights from Revit; and improved Mac OS X performance. LumenRT 4 Studio retails for $795 US for single user licenses with discounts available for multiple user and corporate licenses. The optional LumenRT Publisher retails for $995 US with discounts up to 90% for multiple user quantities. For Windows (XP, Vista, 7) and Mac OS X (10.6+). [source]

EditShare, makers of the professional non-linear video editor Lightworks, announced the availability of Field 2, its next-generation portable shared storage solution with integrated asset management. The turnkey platform includes file ingest, advanced project sharing/bin locking, and archiving capabilities in an all-in-one, high-performance and rugged chassis. Ideal for on-location shoots, ENG trucks and remote offices, the new Field 2 is durable, light and compact, meeting the most stringent airline carry-on regulations. With an optional integrated Flow SDI ingest card, users can record up to two channels of HD in industry-standard codecs such as XDCAM-EX35, Avid DNxHD and DVCProHD. Flow's edit-while-capture capability lets users start editing the moment they begin recording. With an optional lightweight expansion unit, a single Field 2 configuration can scale to 32 terabytes. And using the integrated EditShare Sync Tool, users can send data from a remote location back to home base over a simple Internet VPN connection. [source]

Steinberg announced the availability of the Cubase 7.0.4/Cubase Artist 7.0.4 maintenance updates. This fully supported update adds over 20 improvements such as enhanced visibility in MixConsole, new MIDI functions and Chord Track improvements and resolves more than 45 user-reported issues. The update is now available for download from the Steinberg website. [source]

The 2013 Cannes Film Festival, which runs from May 15 - 26th, will open with the latest adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, The Great Gatsby directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The 3D film was cut by award-winning editors Jason Ballantine ASE and Matt Villa ASE on Avid Media Composer. "During the shoot we had an editing station permanently on location and during post we had two fully operational cutting rooms running concurrently and in perfect sync; one in Sydney and one in LA," explained Matt Villa, co-editor of The Great Gatsby. "We called upon many tools from the Avid family to deal with the 3D material and they never faltered. Productions of this scale can be unrestrained and unpredictable, but Avid never fails in being stable yet flexible enough to get these jobs done." [source]