Thinkbox Software Releases Stand-Alone High-Volume Particle Renderer, Krakatoa SR

Los Angeles, CA (March 11, 2013) - Thinkbox Software announces the release of Krakatoa SR, a stand-alone version of Thinkbox Software's high-volume particle renderer for Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems that can be integrated with any 3D content creation application. 

Previously available for Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk Maya 3D software, Krakatoa is CPU-based, highly optimized, heavily multi-threaded, and can be used successfully on most hardware running Windows or Linux operating systems, including laptops and render nodes, without dedicated high-end graphics accelerators. Krakatoa SR exposes both a Python-based interface and a C++ API to connect to various professional 3D applications such as The Foundry’s Nuke or Side Effects Software’s Houdini. 

Key features of Krakatoa SR include: 

• Point or voxel representation of particle data, with various filter modes, motion blur and depth of field camera effects, and HDRI render passes output to OpenEXR files

• Support for both additive and volumetric shading models at the same time, with per-particle control over color, emission, absorption, density and more

• Support for various light scattering algorithms, high-quality self-shadowing and occlusions from both geometry and DTEX maps

• Particle loading of Krakatoa .PRT file sequences, RealFlow .BIN file sequences and .CSV file sequences, with the ability to offset, retime, combine and modify already cached particles

• Procedural particle creation from polygon mesh volumes and mathematical algorithms

• Particle repopulation for render-time conversion of low-count simulations into high-count particle clouds  

“We want artists to be able to deploy our tools in any way they can possibly imagine,” said Chris Bond, founder, Thinkbox Software. “Krakatoa SR enables even more applications to leverage our software’s powerful volumetric particle rendering capabilities and we’re eager to see what our clients produce once they start adopting it.” 

“Integrating Krakatoa SR with our existing toolset was easy and we were able to get it rolling without much effort,” said Arun Ramasamy, Software Engineer, Anatomical Travelogue, an award-winning creator of incredible high-end 3D visualizations based on actual human data. 
“We received constant support from the Thinkbox development team and it worked so well that we are developing Krakatoa into a functional particle rendering pipeline inside eyeon Software’s Fusion.” 

“Krakatoa SR allows us to exploit the power of the Krakatoa particle renderer through a ridiculously simple API,” added Sven Thomas, Software Engineer, Anatomical Travelogue. “We can just choose the channels we need, stream the particles to the renderer and see the results at an amazing speed.” 

Haggi Krey, Visual Effects Supervisor at Ambient Entertainment, has been using Krakatoa SR for work on the upcoming animated film Tarzan, which is scheduled for release in 3D later in 2013. 

“When we switched our fluid pipeline to Naiad for Tarzan, we had been searching for a way to do high quality particle rendering and were extremely excited to get our hands on Krakatoa SR,” Haggi explained. “We were able to implement Krakatoa SR based on the open source OpenMaya framework and Partio library and now we can read any particle system from almost any software and render in Krakatoa. Without Krakatoa, it would be impossible to get the required quality on some of our shots.” 

Krakatoa SR is compatible with the network rendering licenses used by the other Krakatoa implementations (Krakatoa MX and Krakatoa MY). 

Please visit www.thinkboxsoftware.com/sales or call 1-866-419-0283 to request a 15-day evaluation license, or for more information about Krakatoa SR, including pricing. 

About Thinkbox Software

Thinkbox Software provides creative solutions for visual artists in entertainment, engineering and design. Developer of high-volume particle renderer Krakatoa and render farm management software Deadline, the team of Thinkbox Software solves difficult production problems with intuitive, well-designed solutions and remarkable support. As an artist-driven company, we create tools that help artists manage their jobs and empower them to create worlds and imagine new realities. Thinkbox was founded in 2010 by Chris Bond, founder of Frantic Films. http://www.thinkboxsoftware.com/ 

Media Contact: 

Frances Ratliff
Raz Public Relations  
310-450-1482  
frances@razpr.com

Thinkbox Software Releases Krakatoa MY For Autodesk Maya

Los Angeles, CA (February 21, 2013) - Thinkbox Software today announced the release of Krakatoa MY, the high-volume particle renderer for the Autodesk Maya 3D software running on Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems.

Krakatoa is Thinkbox Software’s production-proven volumetric particle renderer previously available for the Autodesk 3ds Max 3D software. Krakatoa is CPU-based, highly optimized, heavily multi-threaded, and can be used successfully on most hardware running Windows or Linux operating systems including laptops and render nodes without dedicated high-end graphics accelerators.

Krakatoa MY seamlessly connects Autodesk Maya with the Krakatoa renderer and provides a number of features designed to accelerate artists’ workflow when manipulating millions of particles. Krakatoa MY shares the same rendering core with Krakatoa SR (Stand-alone Renderer) and Krakatoa MX (3ds Max) and will produce identical results given the same input data and settings.

Key features of Krakatoa MY include: 

• Point or voxel representation of particle data, with various filter modes, motion blur and depth of field camera effects, and HDRI render passes output to OpenEXR files
• Simultaneous support of both additive and volumetric shading models, with per-particle control over color, emission, absorption, density and more
• Support for various light scattering algorithms, high-quality self-shadowing and occlusions from both geometry and DTEX maps
• Dedicated particle loader object supporting Krakatoa .PRT file sequences, RealFlow .BIN file sequences and .CSV file sequences, with the ability to offset, retime, combine and modify already cached particles
• Dedicated PRT Volume and PRT Fractal objects inside the Maya viewports provide procedural particle creation from polygon mesh volumes and mathematical algorithms
• Particle partitioning tools for caching multiple versions of the same simulation to combine into high-density particle clouds
• Particle repopulation for render-time conversion of low-count simulations into high-count particle clouds 

Waterfall particle set courtesy of Adam Guzowski/Evermotion

“Versatility and performance have made Krakatoa a favorite tool among studios of all sizes for years. With the release of Krakatoa MY, we are thrilled to bring Maya users access to an efficient pipeline for particle effects creation, something they have been requesting for some time. We love feedback from our clients and are more than happy to go above and beyond to make whatever they want a reality so it’s exciting to see Krakatoa MY come to fruition,” said Chris Bond, founder, Thinkbox Software.

Thinkbox Software will demonstrate Krakatoa MY at the Autodesk User Group event organized by Autodesk, Gnomon and RFX in Los Angeles, CA on February 28th, 2013. To register and for more information, please visit http://rfx.com/events/70

 Krakatoa MY requires its own dedicated workstation license for interactive use inside of Autodesk Maya, but is compatible with the network rendering licenses used by the other Krakatoa implementations (Krakatoa SR and Krakatoa MX). Workstation and render license bundles are available at a reduced price.

Please visit www.thinkboxsoftware.com/sales or call 1-866-419-0283 to request a 15-day evaluation license, or for more information about Krakatoa MY, including pricing.

About Thinkbox Software
Thinkbox Software provides creative solutions for visual artists in entertainment, engineering and design. Developer of high-volume particle renderer Krakatoa and render farm management software Deadline, the team of Thinkbox Software solves difficult production problems with intuitive, well-designed solutions and remarkable support. As an artist-driven company, we create tools that help artists manage their jobs and empower them to create worlds and imagine new realities. Thinkbox was founded in 2010 by Chris Bond, founder of Frantic Films. http://www.thinkboxsoftware.com/
 

Media Contact: 

Frances Ratliff
Raz Public Relations  
310-450-1482  
frances@razpr.com

Thinkbox Software Unveils Ember, A New Method for VFX Creation

Los Angeles, CA (July 30, 2012) –  Thinkbox Software, developer of Deadline, Krakatoa, Frost, Genome, and other creative solutions for VFX artists, announces Ember, a volumetric data manipulation toolkit that enables powerful workflows around the creation and post-processing of simulations from various sources. Ember is currently being developed as a plug-in for Autodesk 3ds Max, and is planned as a standalone tool in the future. An early version of Ember will be demonstrated at the SIGGRAPH Conference, August 5-9 in Los Angeles at booth #937.

Ember is a set of tools for creating, loading, and processing volumetric data in the form of fields, voxel grids and point clouds. It integrates with a large number of third party simulation packages including Sitni Sati’s FumeFX, Chaos Group’s Phoenix FD, Next Limit’s RealFlow and Exotic Matter’s Naiad, in addition to Thinkbox Software’s suite of VFX tools. Ember lets the user combine volumetric data in creative ways, allowing for post-simulation reprocessing that offers higher artistic control over the final results and reduces the production time by reusing and repurposing simulation data assets. 

“We are very excited about what Ember can do,” said Chris Bond, president of Thinkbox Software. “It promises to both accelerate the creative process and open new possibilities for VFX artists, allowing them to employ completely new approaches to synthesizing, editing and changing their volumetric and simulation workflows. ” 

Ember’s key features will include:

• Scalar and vector fields creation from mathematical functions, texture maps, geometry level sets, particle systems and point clouds data.
• Volumetric data input and output to/from various sources, including FumeFX and FXD files, Field3D files, Thinkbox PRT, RealFlow BIN and CSV files.
• History-independent and history-dependent field processing, discretized or gridless advection of fields and particles using various solvers.
• Node-based workflow shared with other products like Krakatoa and Genome, including dedicated modular operators for caching on various grids, performing gradient, curl and divergence calculations, and more. 

“We’re very excited to introduce Ember into our pipeline,” said Chad Capeland, Technical Director at Anatomical Travelogue, Inc. “Krakatoa already revolutionized our workflow once, and we can’t wait to see how Ember’s flexibility can do that again. We know we can always depend on Thinkbox to deliver useful and user-friendly tools.” 

Thinkbox Software will be demonstrating Ember – along with Krakatoa, Frost, Genome, XMesh, Deadline and Draft – at booth #937 at SIGGRAPH, August 5-9. Stop by the booth or visit http://www.thinkboxsoftware.com to learn more. 

Thinkbox will start beta-testing Ember in the second half of August. To apply to the beta please email beta@thinkboxsoftware.com 

 

About Thinkbox Software

Thinkbox Software provides creative solutions for visual artists in entertainment, engineering and design. Developer of high-volume particle renderer Krakatoa, render farm management software Deadline and Frost particle mesher, the team of Thinkbox Software solves difficult production problems with intuitive, well-designed solutions and remarkable support. The artist-driven company creates tools that help artists manage their jobs and empower them to create worlds and imagine new realities. Thinkbox was founded in 2010 by Chris Bond, founder of Frantic Films. http://www.thinkboxsoftware.com

Media Contact: 

Karen Raz,
Raz Public Relations  
310-450-1482  
karen@razpr.com

Thinkbox Software Releases DRAFT at SIGGRAPH 2012

New Image Automation Engine Streamlines Workflows; Integrates Directly Into Deadline

Los Angeles, CA (July 26, 2012) –  Thinkbox Software today announced the release of Draft, a lightweight compositing and video processing tool designed to automate typical post-render tasks. Draft is a plug-in for Thinkbox’s Deadline render farm management software that automates the creation and processing of QuickTimes, thumbnails and other deliverables in a pipeline. Draft will be unveiled at the SIGGRAPH Conference at the Thinkbox Software booth (#937), at the Los Angeles Convention Center August 7-9, 2012. 

Key features of Draft include:

• Prepare renders for editorial without any user intervention
• Generates slates using metadata provided by a production management database such as Shotgun Software
• Automatically converts renders to a variety of formats as needed
• Resizes, composites, and converts images
• Text annotation system that renders slates and templates for video clips
• Python API offers endless customization to generate tailored video assets 

“Draft allows you to streamline your workflow by saving you from having to manually create QuickTimes, thumbnails, contact sheets, or other production elements,” said Chris Bond, founder of Thinkbox Software. “Whatever you render is automatically converted into formats you need or assembled as QuickTimes and information from your database can be automatically imported –an artist can submit one render and get a dozen different deliverables pushed out automatically, allowing you to focus on the art.” 

Draft has been in beta at several VFX houses, including Encore VFX in Hollywood. 2D Supervisor Jane Sharvina explains: “In a production environment focused on episodic TV work, Draft is invaluable. With hundreds of shots to deliver each day, having the client deliverables as well as the internal review clips already generated by the time the shot is reviewed is a huge help. It not only frees up editorial, but it also ties into Shotgun so we have no questions about getting the correct version number.” 

Draft is free for clients on an active support & maintenance subscription with Deadline. For more information, visit http://www.thinkboxsoftware.com/

About Thinkbox Software

Thinkbox Software provides creative solutions for visual artists in entertainment, engineering and design. Developer of high-volume particle renderer Krakatoa, render farm management software Deadline and Frost particle mesher, the team of Thinkbox Software solves difficult production problems with intuitive, well-designed solutions and remarkable support. The artist-driven company creates tools that help artists manage their jobs and empower them to create worlds and imagine new realities. Thinkbox was founded in 2010 by Chris Bond, founder of Frantic Films. http://www.thinkboxsoftware.com

Media Contact:
Karen Raz
Raz Public Relations
310-450-1482
karen@razpr.com

Thinkbox Software To Announce DEADLINE 6.0 at SIGGRAPH 2012

New Features Include Complete GUI Redesign, Cloud Support and More

 

Los Angeles, CA (July 24, 2012) – Thinkbox Software announced the updated version of the company’s popular render farm management solution for Windows, Linux and Mac OSX-based render farms, Deadline 6.0. Deadline 6.0 will be unveiled at the SIGGRAPH Conference at the Thinkbox Software booth (#937), at the Los Angeles Convention Center August 7-9, 2012.

Deadline is a hassle-free render queue management solution that offers a host of options for render farms of all sizes, and the flexibility to run the software on the industry’s widest range of platforms and rendering packages. The latest version of the popular tool enhances user performance and lays the foundation for the next generation of render management capabilities. 

Key new features in Deadline 6.0 include:  

• Redesigned GUI: New interface allows efficient and complete control over how data is viewed and the data is constantly live so there is almost zero refresh delay.
• Back-end Flexibility: Redesigned back-end architecture supports multiple database models for broad scalability and data security.
• Cloud Support: Integrates with third party cloud services so users can now directly control and manipulate remote slave renderers.
• Improved Cross-Platform Compatibility: Completely revised interface across all platforms enables a consistent, robust and flexible user experience across Linux, Windows and Mac OS.

"Performance was a major goal when we were developing Deadline 6.0," said Chris Bond, Founder, CEO and President of Thinkbox Software. "The Deadline 6.0 repository can now be run in the cloud which gives the users flexibility of using cloud computing resources, local machines or any combination they desire to process their tasks. The monitor operates in real time and is constantly refreshed for the most accurate view of the data both locally and from multiple physical locations. In addition to being cloud-friendly, the new back-end architecture also allows you maximum performance, reliability and security."

During SIGGRAPH, Thinkbox Software will host training sessions and demos on the show floor in booth #937. Call 1-866-419-0283 or visit www.thinkboxsoftware.com/sales to book a class or demo, or for more information about Deadline, including pricing. 

About Thinkbox Software

Thinkbox Software provides creative solutions for visual artists in entertainment, engineering and design. Developer of high-volume particle renderer Krakatoa and render farm management software Deadline, the team of Thinkbox Software solves difficult production problems with intuitive, well-designed solutions and remarkable support. As an artist-driven company, we create tools that help artists manage their jobs and empower them to create worlds and imagine new realities. Thinkbox was founded in 2010 by Chris Bond, founder of Frantic Films. http://www.thinkboxsoftware.com

Media Contact:
Karen Raz
Raz Public Relations
310-450-1482
karen@razpr.com