SynthEyes 1208 3D Tracker Enters a New Phase

New Versions introduced, will be shown at SIGGRAPH

* King of Prussia, PA. August 1, 2012.

Andersson Technologies LLC, the developer of the SynthEyes 3D Tracking application for Windows and OSX, is pleased to announce a number of new developments at SIGGRAPH Booth 905, August 7-9, in Los Angeles.

The latest version, SynthEyes 1208, will be demonstrated, which includes a node-based "Phase" system for controlling the solver, new survey-shot workflow features, rolling shutter compensation in solves, corner auto-tracking, and a user-interface revamp. Over 40 phase types are present, including a number that permit new kinds of coordinate system setups, such as Set Horizon, and novel ways to adjust the relative scale of shots with both moving cameras and objects.

SynthEyes is moving to a two-track rapid-release schedule, so instead of separate major and minor releases, new versions arrive first on the Advance track, then move to the Release track. Both are available to all in-support users. This way, significant new features can reach and assist customers even more rapidly. According to company founder Russ Andersson, it makes for a simpler and more predictable approach for everyone.

New Intro and Pro versions replace the previous 32- and 64-bit versions. (Some features, such as Phases, are not available in the Intro version.) Both Intro and Pro are available in 32- or 64-bit form. And, a new cross-platform option is available to users with both Windows and Mac OS X computers.

For educational institutions, a 495 USD one-year site license promotion announced previously is running through the end of August, so schools can get prepared for the start of the fall term. This license is for installation on school-owned classroom and lab computers. Volume limited-term pricing for student computers is also available, with book-like pricing.

* More about SynthEyes

SynthEyes handles camera tracking, object tracking, object tracking from reference meshes, survey shots, multi-camera and -object tracking, tripod (nodal, 2.5-D) tracking, mixed tripod and translating shots, stereoscopic shots, nodal stereoscopic shots, zooms, lens distortion, rolling-shutter shots, controllable stabilization, motion capture, and light solving. A keyer simplifies and speeds tracking for green-screen shots. The image preprocessor helps remove grain, compression artifacts, off-centering, and varying lighting. Textures can be extracted for a mesh from the image sequence, producing higher resolution and lower noise than any individual image.

SynthEyes offers complete control over the tracking process for challenging shots, including an efficient workflow for supervised trackers, combined automated/supervised tracking, offset tracking, incremental solving, multi-phase solving, hard and soft path locking, distance constraints for low-perspective shots, and cross-camera constraints for stereo. You can set up a coordinate system with tracker constraints, camera constraints, an automated ground-plane-finding tool, by aligning to a mesh, a line-based single-frame alignment system, manually, or with some cool new phase techniques.

SynthEyes exports to about 25 common animation and compositing packages, all included standard. A multi-export tool can output any number of formats in one step.

* Credits

Some recent features with SynthEyes tracking include Amazing Spiderman, Prometheus, Hunger Games, Safe, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Red Tails, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Muppets, We Bought a Zoo, and Hugo.

* Price and Availability

SynthEyes 1208 is available now for Windows and OS X. SynthEyes Pro is 599 USD; the entry-level SynthEyes Intro version is 399 USD. The cross-platform version is 699 USD. Upgrade pricing varies based on old and new versions, for example, a SynthEyes 2011 64-bit license upgrade to SynthEyes 1208 Pro is 149 USD. See the online order form for specific upgrades and non-USD pricing.

The company website offers a free SynthEyes demonstration version at https://www.ssontech.com

A one-year site license for qualifying educational institutions is 495 USD. See https://www.ssontech.com/educate.html Contact us with particulars for information on volume licenses for student computers.