Studio Artist 4 Update

We’ve been posting information regarding Studio Artist 4 here and on the Studio Artist User Forum for awhile now. So we wanted to present some update information on what’s happening with the Studio Artist 4 release.

Quick Overview of Studio Artist 4 Features

Studio Artist 4 is the next generation of Studio Artist digital art, image and video processing software.  With version 4 we’ve now opened up the Studio Artist experience to Windows as well as Mac users.  Mac users will be pleased that version 4 is a universal binary application with faster native processing speed on both Intel and PPC Macs.  Windows users will be pleased that they can now run Studio Artist on their Windows computers. Studio Artist 4 is compatible with Apple computers running OSX 10.4 through the latest OSX 10.6, and with Windows computers running Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Windows 7.

Studio Artist 4 still provides the same graphics synthesizer editing metaphors, intelligent visual processing and smart automatic drawing capabilities developed in previous versions of Studio Artist.  But the underlying code base was extensively rewritten in version 4 to allow for support of existing features while also providing a solid platform for future development. We also added a ton of new features, enhancements, workflow and speed optimizations.

The new Studio Artist 4 workspace is much more modular in nature and can be custom configured depending on your particular workflow. You can dock and reposition your working palettes and toolbars anywhere at the edges of the main workspace. Palettes can be tab nested on top of each other to conserve screen space. Palettes can also be floated outside the main workspace, which is very useful in dual monitor and live performance setups. You can switch on the fly while working between 4 different user configurable workspace memories and a full screen display mode. Multiple levels of undo are also now supported.

Studio Artist 4 provides enhanced functionality and new features while maintaining compatibility with all of your old Studio Artist presets. The factory preset collection has also been significantly expanded, providing thousands of new presets to explore and modify.  A new Favorites preset toolbar allows you to custom organize sets of working favorites presets in a space saving moveable toolbar.  The new integrated help browser allows you to document, organize, and access presets via custom html help pages.

Studio Artist 4 includes new real time interaction features. Loop Action allows you to switch between different processing presets on the fly while they run in a live processing loop.  Effect and paint parameters can also be live adjusted while Studio Artist is auto painting or processing in loop action.  Paint Synthesizer Time Particles take on a whole new life with live editing while they are painting.  Live video capture can also be incorporated into loop action processing along with live interactive editing for live visual performance or live video synthesis.  The new Gallery Show features allow you to build custom free running art shows or automatically generate an infinite range of new presets and/or art images.

The Paint Synthesizer now has over 480 adjustable parameters and is capable of an even wider range of potential styles and effects. Hybrid vector-raster paint effects can now be created, like painting a vector region that then has it’s edges melted or smeared with water using a single paint preset. The new Live Extend path shape option allows for wild dynamic paint styles with physics based behavior. Photo mosaic, movie brush, and paint regionization features have been enhanced to expand your creative potential. The new Dual Paint operation mode allows you to combine digital painting and live image processing together to create dynamic organic paint presets as well as amazing interactive visual effects.

The Paint Synthesizer and Vectorizer now provide direct anti-aliased vector drawing and vector output.  Vector files can be output to eps, pdf, or svg vector file formats for resolution independent output.  Bezier paths can be embedded in a paint preset and then animated over time, creating dynamic animation or cross hatching effects. Bezier path editing for creating morph or warp effects has been streamlined for faster workflow.

The old Layer and Paint Action Sequence (PASeq) timeline functionality have been integrated into a single new PASeq timeline editor. PASeq batch processing features allow for enhanced professional workflow when auto-rotoscoping multiple movie files. The new Movie Layer features allow for Quicktime movie files to be embedded in multiple canvas layers when building animation effects or doing manual touchup to individual movie frames.

The Image Operation effects have been extensively enhanced and expanded. New intelligent Image Operation effects like Sketch Edge and Sketch Mass effects can now directly generate Bezier paths in addition to raster processing effects.  The new intelligent path generation features can be combined with the infinite variability of the Paint Synthesizer’s drawing engine to create an endless range of different art styles and processing effects limited only by your imagination.

The new Temporal Image Processing operation mode provides a number of new time based image processing effects.  These new temporal effects can be used for video processing.  They can also be used to generate static images from video sequences that encapsulate the motion in a video sequence into a single static image.  They can also generate a static panorama view based on the video camera’s panning and movement in a scene.  Slit scan temporal effects can be used to expand, contract, extract or remove motion from a scene as well as create amazing looking visual effects.

Much of the old MSG Evolver modular image processing editing capabilities are now accessible directly in version 4 via the new MSG Advanced Editor and MSG Evolution palettes. You can use directed evolution to generate an infinite variety of different abstract procedural art images as well as image and video processing effects without delving into the technical aspects of MSG editing. There are now over 500 MSG processors available that can be combined together for constructing custom modular image processing effects.  MSG presets can also be used to expand the Paint Synthesizer’s capabilities through the use of MSG source brushes, brush load processing, path start, and path shape generators.

More information on Studio Artist 4 can be found at the Studio Artist Tips site at www.synthetik.com/tips/wordpress.

How to Get Studio Artist 4

There have been a lot of requests from existing Studio Artist customers as well as new windows customers about when they can upgrade to Studio Artist version 4. The Studio Artist 4.0 release code is finished at this point in time. We’re still working on finishing up new video tutorials and some supplementary documentation for the ‘official’ version 4 release.

Since we’re at the end of the development cycle for version 4, we’ve decided to allow interested customers the opportunity to upgrade to version 4 early prior to the completion of the video tutorials.  We briefly mentioned this on the Studio Artist User Forum but i also wanted to post the information here so that anyone interested in taking advantage of getting an early start working with Studio Artist 4 could do so at this time.

The list price for Studio Artist 4 for new customers is $399. There is special upgrade pricing for existing Studio Artist customers. And there is also special academic pricing available as well. If you are interested in getting started now with Studio Artist 4 now please contact Synthetik Software technical support via our website.