SynthEyes 2011 Dashes on Stage

Offers Exciting New Texture Extraction Toolset

* King of Prussia, PA. December 13, 2010.

Andersson Technologies LLC has shipped SynthEyes 2011, which emphasizes new capabilities in set reconstruction, especially texture extraction. Texture extraction can create textures for arbitrary 3D meshes; extract textures for layered 3-D environments for compositing; create panoramic background plates while removing moving or occluding objects or wires; or generate clean plate sequences.

Here are some of the highlights of the new release:

• Texture-extraction system creates new low-noise textures, panoramic backdrops, and clean plates from image sequences --- it's a game-changer!
• Add-a-card operation adds a 2D card aligned with its enclosed trackers, with automatic outlier elimination
• SimulTrack window monitors multiple trackers and multiple frames on them simultaneously
• Automatic tracker key generation and automatic smoothing after key adjustment creates new supervised-tracking workflows
• Offset channels and cloning for trackers to aid creating trackers for fine mesh details and in problematic locations
• Tracker radar helps identify problem spots ("useful and looks cool" is one comment)
• Overall Distance constraint for smoother and more controllable solves, especially for object and other low-perspective solves
• Controllable post-solve filtering via a new control panel
• Projection screens with chroma or alpha key in the perspective view
• New outlined-solid and cartoon wireframe shading modes in the camera & perspective views

Over fifteen different videos showing these new features are posted at http://www.youtube.com/user/SynthEyesHQ, with more being added regularly.

Users are delighted with the new features. Tweets compositor James Pina: "So SynthEyes new texture extraction is fantastic. The extraction feature will prove to be invaluable on a couple upcoming paint jobs."

Paul Ghezzo, CG Supervisor at Zoic Studios, adds "Zoic is pleased to announce the use and integration of SynthEyes 2011 into our digital production pipeline. SynthEyes 2011 was essential for solving complex tracking needs on broadcast productions of 'V' and 'Falling Skies' as well as the feature release of 'Premium Rush.' SynthEyes allows Zoic the power, speed, and exacting detail demanded by quick turnarounds for features, commercials, and episodic broadcast productions."

* Background

SynthEyes offers a complete high-end feature set, including tracking, stabilization, 3-D stereo tracking, texture extraction, mesh building, and motion capture. It handles camera tracking, object tracking, object tracking from reference meshes, camera+object tracking, multiple-shot tracking, tripod (nodal, 2.5-D) tracking, mixed tripod and translating shots, zooms, lens distortion, and light solving. It can handle shots of any resolution---DV, HD, film, IMAX---in 8-bit, 16-bit, or floating point data, and can solve shots with thousands of frames. A special feature simplifies and speeds tracking for green-screen shots. The image preprocessor can help remove grain, compression artifacts, off-centering, or varying lighting.

SynthEyes offers complete control over the tracking process for challenging shots, including an efficient workflow for supervised trackers, tracking quality visualization tools, combined automated/supervised tracking, incremental solving, and a hard and soft path locking system. Users can set up a coordinate system with tracker constraints, camera constraints, a line-based single-frame alignment system, or manually. SynthEyes exports to about 25 common animation and compositing packages, standard.

* Credits

Selected recent projects with SynthEyes tracking include Avatar, Boardwalk Empire, Flash Forward, Human Target, Iron Man 2, Jonah Hex, Secretariat, Tron: Legacy, V, and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.

* Pricing and Availability

The pro 64-bit version is only 599 USD; the entry-level but fully-featured 32-bit version is an truly amazing value at 399 USD. SynthEyes 2011 is available now for Windows and OS X. SynthEyes also runs on, and is in production use on, Linux systems using WINE. The company website offers a free demonstration version of SynthEyes at https://www.ssontech.com

* The Company

Andersson Technologies LLC is located near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania and headed by computer vision and robotics expert Dr. Russell Andersson. SynthEyes is in its eighth year assisting visual effects professionals, with customers in over 70 countries.