News roundup: Firmware updates from ARRI, Atomos, Blackmagic, and Kinefinity

This week we have new software from Greyscalegorilla and ProductionCrate, and a whole host of new firmware updates from ARRI, Atomos, Blackmagic, and Kinefinity.

Greyscalegorilla introduces Tactile for Cinema 4D

Greyscalegorilla Tactile is a library of realistic 3D materials that incorporate standard material channels like diffuse, normal, and roughness, but also capture elusive real-world properties, like translucency and optical reflectance. Tactile works in Cinema 4D with Redshift, Octane, and Arnold.

What is included in Tactile Library:

• Unfinished wood
• Clay doh (children’s clay)
• Clay rough
• Clay fine
• Clay sculpting
  
  

New Free Light Wrap Plugin for After Effects

ProductionCrate just released a free light wrap plugin for Adobe After Effects to help with effective compositing.  By simulating the diffusion of extremely bright lights around a foreground, this plugin helps you to integrate the composited layer into the background. It is ideal for compositing green screen footage where the lighting conditions are unlikely to match the complex lighting arrangements of the intended background.

Whenever you are working with bright backgrounds, skies, fire video effects and any other intense sources of illumination, using light wrap can improve the realism of the scene. When your scene occurs in a particular area of an explosion, its colors may still influence the pixel’s final output due to bloom, illumination, and fog scattering. 

By exaggerating the intensity of the source of your light, you can communicate the extreme heat or blinding light your particular scene is experiencing. Digitally, a pixel can only reach a maximum luminance of 1, but to create a sense of limitless intensity the implied brightness can be reinforced by a light wrap.

Blackmagic updates its Video Assist 3.8

Blackmagic has updated its Video Assist 12G HDR models, and added support for Blackmagic RAW recording for Fujifilm X-H2 and ZCam E2, E2-M4, E2-S6 and E2-F6 cameras.

The latest update includes the following:

• Blackmagic Video Assist 5" 12G HDR
• Blackmagic Video Assist 7" 12G HDR
• Adds Blackmagic RAW recording from Fujifilm X-H2.
• Adds Blackmagic RAW recording from ZCam E2, E2-M4, E2-S6 and E2-F6.
• Adds RGB Histogram
• General performance and stability improvements

Atomos AtomOS 10.83

AtomOS 10.83 provides the latest firmware update for the NINJA V, NINJA V+, and SHOGUN CONNECT that supports ProRes RAW for the new Sony FX30, Sony FR7, and Fujifilm X-H2. Watch out for several more additions to the ProRes RAW line-up before the end of January 2023.

You can download this firmware update here.

Kinefinity confirms firmware KineOS 7.1 for MAVO Edge cameras

KineOS 7.1 has fully optimized and upgraded the SDI function where you can see the full status bar and menu while monitoring. More SDI frame rate settings and trigger recording function has been also added. 

The new update includes a whole new ProRes4444 efficiency mode. With the same high dynamic range and visual information fidelity, the material compression ratio is increased by 50% when it's operating, saving space from the SSD. 

KineOS enables cine-like shots with improved anamorphic options to adapt to more anamorphic lenses. Find more about KineOS here.

ARRI releases Software Updates for ALEXA 35 & ALEXA Mini LF

ARRI has released two new following software updates: ALEXA 35 SUP 1.0.3 Revision 7 and ALEXA Mini LF SUP 7.1.2. On the whole it is less about new features and more about fixing bugs that have been seeded with a few recent component changes. ALEXA cameras are in high demand and, with the global supply situation still challenging, ARRI is adding alternative versions of the MVF-2 viewfinder and the CODEX Compact Drive 2TB to give its users alternative solutions and keep production flowing..

The software update will not alter the functionality, performance, or reliability of the viewfinder and drives. ARRI, however, strongly recommends performing these updates to ensure compatibility with all MVF-2 viewfinders and Compact Drive 2TB units, including the new variants.