Wacom announced that it is bringing touch control to its Cintiq 22HD interactive pen display. Combining multi-touch with Wacom's renowned pen technology, the new Cintiq 22HD touch offers an immersive on-screen experience and a more intuitive and natural way to work. Additional features including a 21.5 inch full HD display, an ergonomic rotating stand and 16 customisable ExpressKeys, make the Cintiq 22HD touch ideal for creative professionals such as graphic designers, animators and game developers. The new model expands Wacom's existing line of Cintiq models, that includes 13HD, 22HD, 24HD and 24HD touch. The Cintiq 22HD touch is priced at 1899.99 GBP incl. VAT. [source]

Red Giant Software's audio and video syncing application PluralEyes 3 still awaits its Windows version release, but the release date is behind the corner, assure Red Giants on their blog: "We want you to know that it is absolutely in development, and coming soon. We have a beta team using it. We used it ourselves in the making of our new film, Spy Vs. Guy (see the Behind the Scenes here). Even though it's in beta, it does a pretty good job of syncing." There you have it. [source]

GenArts released Sapphire 7, new version of its set of visual effects plug-ins for Autodesk, Avid, After Effects, Final Cut Pro, Nuke, OpenFX, and Sony Vegas Pro platforms. This new release provides users with greater control, increased speed, and an expanding arsenal of effects; empowering users to create higher quality effects in less time. Key innovations in Sapphire 7 include new and enhanced effects; CUDA GPU support for more plug-ins and optimized GPU code to provide overall speed increase; more presets; preset sharing across host platforms; and real time rendering in Avid version. The prices start at $1,699 US, a demo version is also available. [source]

Epic Games revealed its brand new Unreal Engine 4 "Infiltrator" real-time demonstration, which highlights the latest technology for next-gen game development. At the Game Developers Conference, Epic has been showing Unreal Engine 4's latest tools and high-end rendering features, such as physically based materials and lighting, full scene HDR reflections, advanced GPU particle simulation and much more. [source]

E-on software announced the immediate availability of LumenRT 4 Studio. LumenRT 4 Studio is a comprehensive system for transforming 3D models and designs into rich, nature-filled videos, images and real-time immersive experiences. With LumenRT, ideas come alive and designs are more fully understood by all participants. By presenting and sharing a more complete design experience, LumenRT users have reported transformative results with higher client win percentages, improved quality, and fewer downstream errors. Version 4 adds new capabilities and enhancements including: Bentley MicroStation integration, Revit plug-in, generic 3D file import, animation editor, night-time skies, moving vehicles as well as enhanced and expanded plant library, and more. 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 and Mac OS X. [source]

Side Effects Software released Houdini 12.5 which offers a wealth of new and enhanced features including Cloud FX, Ocean FX, OpenVDB volume sculpting tools and an optimized lighting and rendering pipeline with built-in support for delayed-load Alembic primitives. The new Cloud FX tools offer an artist-friendly way of building, sculpting and rendering cloud formations. This workflow utilizes sparse volume sculpting tools created as part of the OpenVDB Open Source initiative. The integration of these tools is the result of a direct collaboration between DreamWorks Animation and Side Effects Software. The Ocean FX Wave tool deforms geometry into animated oceanscapes using volumes. Users can visualize the results in the viewport and either render the geometry as is or export an animated texture to use as a displacement map. The lighting and rendering pipeline in Houdini 12.5 has been significantly enhanced with relighting options and optimizations in IPR. Primitive support for file types such as Alembic resulting in much lighter data passing to either the viewport or the Mantra renderer. These enhancements make Houdini much more robust when working with huge data sets... Version 12.5 includes many additional features including Volume lights, new Bullet RBD constraints, a new PolySoup primitive type for optimizing large models, point primitives, a powerful Surface remesher and more. [source]

The LightWave 3D Group, a division of NewTek, Inc., announced a new Architectural Design Bundle that couples LightWave 11.5 3D modeling, animation and rendering software with WTools3D's LWCAD 4.5 CAD tools for LightWave. The bundle includes a powerful set of features that architects, set designers and interior designers can use to cost-effectively create professional 3D visualization and animation for the most demanding design projects. The Bundle is now available priced at $1545 US. Customers who purchase this bundle will download LightWave 11.5 directly from the LightWave website and receive a coupon code to download LWCAD 4.5 directly from the WTools3D website. All software and support for LWCAD 4.5 is provided directly by Wtools3D. Registered LightWave customers can upgrade to the Architectural Design Bundle for $745 US. [source]

Continuing to add to its family of products for managing media from the set to the screen, MTI Film announced the release of a new Windows-based standalone transcoding application, Cortex::Convey. It supports input of all popular camera file formats, editorial files and intermediate file formats, including DPX, OpenEXR and H.264, for transcoding to review, editorial and intermediate formats such as Avid DNxHD/MXF 1:1, DPX file sequences and QuickTime, as well as fully-authored DVDs and Blu-ray discs. Cortex::Convey takes advantage of both CPU and GPU processing with NVIDIA CUDA to transcode most files at real-time or faster, many at over 100 fps. Template-driven automation removes the need for time-consuming, repetitive tasks and ensures consistent results from job to job. Pricing starts at $995 US. [source]

Steinberg announced the availability of Nuendo 6, the new version of its widely acclaimed post and audio production software. Featuring the most advanced native mixing console ever crafted, an industry-leading ADR taker solution alongside fully integrated EBU-compliant loudness metering, Nuendo 6 redefines the standards for professional audio post. Nuendo 6 is now shipping to dealers and distributors worldwide and can be purchased in the Steinberg Online Shop. Updates from older Nuendo versions as well as crossgrades from Nuendo Live are available as download products in the Steinberg Online Shop. Steinberg also provides users with more than 90 minutes of in-depth video tutorials, on their official YouTube channel. [source]

Ableton released Live 9, new version of its music creation software, and Push - Ableton's first hardware instrument for Live. New Live adds session automation functionality; new browser that puts all instruments, effects, samples, and plug-ins in one easy-to-navigate view; a large selection (3,500 in the Suite edition) of production-ready sounds; new Glue Compressor effect; new Harmony, Melody and Drums to MIDI tools extract natural-feeling MIDI directly; tools to transpose, reverse and stretch MIDI notes or warp clip automation and add curves to automation envelopes; integrated Max for Live; and more. Prices start at $99 US / 79 EUR (Live 9 Intro download version), $449 US / 349 EUR (Live 9 Standard), and $749 US / 599 EUR (Live 9 Suite). Upgrades to Live 9 Standard / Live 9 Suite vary in price depending on the Ableton products users already own. Push is sold at an MSRP of $599 US / 499 EUR. [source]