studioGPU

MachStudio Pro is stand-alone, visualization and rendering software that lets 3D artists create and manipulate lights, materials, and HDR cameras in a real-time, non-linear workflow environment to achieve film quality results. It was the brainchild of a group of digital artists and engineers who saw an opportunity for streamlining the 3D production process by creating a workspace where artists could power through the creative process with less limitations on time and resources. The result is a powerful application that harnesses the power of the GPU to provide resolution independent, non-linear, real-time feedback on your desktop.

3D Models and animations are brought into MachStudio Pro from most leading CG software packages. From there, the MachStudio Pro workflow gives non-linear access to lighting, ambient occlusion, materials, cameras and High Dynamic Range (HDR) exposures (just to mention a few features) in an intuitive user interface allowing the artist to explore all aspects of the image in real-time. Lights and materials interact like brush strokes on the canvas of the camera. Processes which normally would be separated into specialized tasks in production are fluidly integrated into one creative vortex. Digital artists are limited only by their creative choices and artistic sensibilities, not by their technical acumen. We call it “working at the speed of thought”.

MachStudio Pro is much more than a hardware renderer. It completely redefines the CG workflow by providing designers, animators, architects, and engineers with a real-time environment to create, develop, animate and render their projects. The software’s robust feature-set incorporates the latest advances in GPU processing and allows everything from lighting and cameras to ambient occlusion, materials and more to be manipulated and revised in an environment where what you see is what you will get in the finished frame or sequence. MachStudio Pro complements existing design, modeling and animation software giving artists unprecedented flexibility while significantly reducing the time and cost to produce high-quality CG material.

Real-time rendering by itself is not the answer. While accelerated final frame output is very useful, the real potential is in revolutionizing the 3D artist's workflow so that the technician can focus on their own art and extend artistic abilities. This is precisely what is unique about MachStudio Pro, and differentiates it from other solutions. MachStudio Pro is a stand-alone software application that allows digital artists to work with lights, cameras and materials in a deep and intuitive non-linear 3D environment in real-time. The application is software agnostic - objects and their associated attributes can be quickly imported from most popular 3D packages through convenient embedded exporters. The underlying control, features and performance of MachStudio Pro enables the consolidation of several traditional technical and artistic roles into that of an artist/director.

MachStudio Pro was born in the crucible of production of real projects and further shaped by the ongoing collaboration between artists and engineers. A sample of the projects that have been created using MachStudio Pro include:

- Princess Twins of Legendale - DVD feature for MGA Entertainment
- Livin’ It Up with the Bratz™ - Interactive DVD distributed by Lions Gate
- Glitz ‘n Glamour - Interactive DVD distributed by Lions Gate
- PlayMobil™: The Secret of Skull Island – Interactive DVD distributed by Sony Home Video (Summer 2009)
- A-Bomb – Pilot for XLT
- A variety of ArchViz Projects for Gatehouse Capital among others.

MachStudio Pro was designed with the flexibility to work in most any 3D creative pipeline including broadcast, film, architecture, game development (cinematics and cut scenes), pre-viz, computer-assisted design (CAD), and product design. In fact, with the extremely low barrier to entry, MachStudio Pro will bring 3D visualization and pre/post-visualization to many areas and industries that have traditionally not been able to participate in its advantages.

The speed in which the artist is able to create, explore and render final footage changes the common production challenge of time vs. quality. Frames that normally take 20 to 40 minutes each to render can be rendered in seconds at comparable quality in MachStudio Pro. We feel that the final quality can actually be even better since the artist has more time to explore and refine their work, freeing the artist to be an artist and not be burdened with as many technical requirements. This also allows the producer to rationalize striving for higher quality marks because of the lower cost and less time needed to achieve them.

When the vocabulary of the process changes, the language of the image changes. A good comparison would be a reflection on how non-linear editing changed the cinematic language of filmmaking or how a product like PhotoShop redefined design and photography. MachStudio Pro redefines the 3D creation processes thereby creating a new language. Since lighting, materials and camera properties such as HDR and Depth of Field (DOF) are designed to be changed in relation to each other, a new visual language emerges in a single intuitive flow. We believe this will democratize the production process so that the winners are the artists with the best ideas and not just the ones with the most money or technical know-how.

There are huge speed and time differences that can be gained through maximizing the inherent power of the GPU. 3D content that has historically taken hours to render on remote CPUs — via either internal or outsourced ‘Render Farms’ — can now be done in minutes or even less on desktop workstations. This change will allow dramatically accelerated advancements in the digital content creation (DCC) production workflow. With MachStudio Pro, digital artists will no longer have to depend on programmers and technicians and high cost remote render farms to see the results of their artistic decisions. Artists can now express and act on their creative vision in real-time working within a film-quality 3D digital canvas. If the artist or director wishes to change elements, lighting, colors, shadows or more in a 3D scene, they can do so instantly, at the speed of thought. Moreover, the reduction in the necessary equipment, labor and associated costs will drive toward the democratization of professional 3D design work.

MachStudio Pro will run on any GPU that supports Microsoft DirectX version 9 and has at least 1GB of memory. However, we strongly recommend and have only qualified professional level cards with 2GB of memory in order to guarantee a level of performance that is commensurate with the memory requirements for the complex work and quality demands of professionals working in the 3D space.

MachStudio Pro ships for Microsoft Windows 7, Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista. The North America price for the standard version is $4,999 (USD). This includes the full software, an ATI FirePro V8750 3D graphics accelerator card, and a full year of technical support with product maintenance updates.

For users who already own a high end graphics card, a software only version is available for $3,999.

A student version of MachStudio Pro is available for $999. This includes the full software and an ATI FireGL V8650 Workstation Graphics Accelerator card. Proof of full-time enrollment in an Associate, Bachelor, Masters or Doctoral program is required to qualify for this offer.

For pricing in other regions, please contact a regional reseller. If none is listed, please submit an buy information request to be contacted directly by StudioGPU. Education and volume licensing is available upon request.