The Foundry, a developer of visual effects solutions, has launched Furnace 3 for Shake. Available for Linux and OSX, the release features ten brand new image processing plug-ins designed to significantly enhance workflow and productivity for Shake artists.
Furnace 3 is a product of The Foundry’s continual research into advanced image processing algorithms, notably motion estimation technology. The new plug-ins include a sophisticated DeBlur solution, which automatically removes motion and out-of-focus blur, MatchGrade for automatic color histogram matching and Tracker, a multi-point tracker which can track the most challenging regions within a moving image.
Since arriving on the scene in 2002, Furnace have been adopted by such leading post production facilities as Double Negative, Rhythm & Hues, Weta Digital, Pacific Title and Art Studio, Moving Picture Company, Cinesite U.K., Framestore CFC, Animal Logic and Gray Matter. Foundry products have recently been used by digital artists on projects including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Batman Begins, King Kong and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
“Furnace is one of the most advanced toolsets available for Shake artists,’ comments Simon Anderson of Photon VFX in New Zealand. “Furnace 3 gives you a superior collection of plug-ins that deliver quick and easy solutions to everyday tasks, giving you great results and saving hours. I wouldn’t be without it.’
New Plug-ins included in Furnace 3 for Shake are ColorAlign, which automatically removes any discrepancy in the alignment of the three color channels in an image; Depth, which generates a relative depth matte from a sequence; DeNoise, which reduces noise without introducing any of the artifacts typically associated with noise reduction; DeBlur, a tool for automatically removing global motion blur or out-of-focus blur; MatchGrade for automatically grading one image to match another and performing severe histogram corrections; MotionBlur for adding motion blur to a sequence; MotionMatte, which generates a segmented version of the foreground and associated alpha matte with minimal user intervention; PlanarPatcher for tracking planar regions and creating new image elements such as hand-painted frame repairs and accurately patching them over a complete clip; Splicer, which stitches together arbitrarily shaped images or parts of an image; and Tracker, a multi-point tracker designed to track the most challenging of regions, including those where of occlusion scale/rotational changes occur.
Furnace 3 node-locked is priced at $4,000, while Furnace 3 float can be had for $6,000. Existing customers can upgrade to the node-locked release for $2,000 and the floating version for $3,000. More information on this and other Foundry products can be found at www.thefoundry.co.uk.
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