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Love is a wonderful thing--so wonderful, in fact, that you may feel the desire to memorialize it in the form of your mouse cursor. Love AnimatIon Cursor lets you do exactly that. To be quite honest, the program isn't really our cup of tea stylistically; on top of that, it's not particularly easy to use. But if you're in love with love, we suppose it could be a cute addition to your desktop.

We installed Love AnimatIon Cursor and weren't sure what to do next; there was no interface, no system-tray icon, and no change in … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--In a quiet alleyway here, Ubisoft gave members of the media an early preview of Assassin's Creed: Revelations and the final travels of Ezio Auditore.

For the uninitiated, the Assassin's Creed series chronicles heroic members of a secret society of skilled professional killers that fight corruption and oppression. The games are deliberately steeped in historical research as each game educates players on the era it's set in and real power players of the period--if players choose to take a moment to read the game notes.

In the new game, Ezio, hero of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, leaves Rome behind for Constantinople in search of a weapon that could forever end a war between Ezio's assassins and the Knights Templar. Journalists had the opportunity to play the game for about three hours, uninterrupted--including the entire map of the great Middle Eastern city. … Read more

There should be no doubt that Apple's decision to block Flash from iOS in favor of HTML5 has spurred Adobe to make sure that its media-rich content-building tool and player Flash remains competitive. Flash Player 11 brings hardware-accelerated graphics support to the platform.

According to Adobe, the new Stage3D technology in the new Flash Player brings combined 2D and 3D acceleration that is up to 1,000 times faster than the previous Flash iterations. While currently Stage3D is supported only for personal computers, it should make its way to mobile devices in future Flash releases. The advancements offered by … Read more

Sprint has signed a $20 billion dollar deal for 30.5 million new iPhones, and Adobe releases Flash Player 11 and AIR 3 with accelerated 3D graphics support, and check out CNET.com's live coverage of Apple's announcement of the next iPhone(s).

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

You might soon be able to interact with both game and animation characters in 3D, thanks to RePro 3D, a technology developed by researchers from Keio University in Japan. The system uses a glasses-free 3D projector to display an image of a character floating in midair, while an infrared camera registers hand movements. Tactile feedback is provided by a wired device strapped on the user's finger to enhance realism. You can refer to the below video to watch RePro 3D in action. Another version capable of rendering a larger projection for multiple users is also in the pipeline.

Judging by the rudimentary prototype in the video, we doubt the system is anywhere near commercialization. That said, this is definitely an interesting idea, particularly for gaming.

(Source: Crave Asia via Akihabara News) … Read more

Meet MotionStudio 3D, Corel's inaugural entry into the animation and motion graphics software category. Geared more toward novices and prosumers than professionals, this capable newcomer lets you create 3D text and titles, lathe objects, and a variety of animations with relative ease.

MotionStudio's interface is intuitive, which should be comforting to motion graphics novices. The Edit Window displays your project as you work, and can reflect changes in near real-time--with virtually no waiting for rendering. Also, you can drag objects directly within the Edit Window for a more tactile way to customize basic aspects like position, rotation, and … Read more

Corel, maker of the popular VideoStudio Pro and PaintShop Pro franchises, has today released its newest title, MotionStudio 3D. As Corel's first entry into the animation and motion graphics software category, MotionStudio 3D targets multimedia enthusiasts looking to create stunning title sequences and basic 3D animations. While it's not quite a big-budget Hollywood workhorse, the program certainly appears to be good at what it does.

On top of its basic 3D titling and text animation capabilities, MotionStudio also includes a powerful, yet simple particle effects tool that recreates the appearance and movement of elements like bubbles, fire, smoke, … Read more

YouSpin360 lets you take multiple shots while moving around your subject to create an image you can view from all sides. The interface on YouSpin360 is not very intuitive initially, but once you get the basics, you'll be able to make cool-looking 360-degree shots you can show as videos--even on the Web.

You start by choosing the type of shot you want to create using the options tab that slides out from the right. Whether you want to see yourself from all sides, show a car from various perspectives so you can sell it on the Web, or make … Read more

We've all been there at one time or another. You're looking at a beautiful landscape and you want to capture it, but the view is simply too wide to capture it all with your iPhone camera. Or maybe you're selling something on the Web, but taking a flat photograph of the object just doesn't seem to do it justice.

Fortunately, with the enormous abundance of photography apps in the iTunes App Store, there are apps for these specific purposes. These apps go beyond retro images and sketch-drawn re-creations and attempt to offer three dimensions.

This week's collection of iOS apps make 360-degree images. The first creates step-by-step panoramas; the second lets you make panoramas and 360-degree views in one fluid motion; and the third helps you make 360-degree animations.… Read more