Archive translation. Specifications, services and availability reflect the original publication date. Verify current compatibility before production use.
Interactive Effects released Piranha HD 3.4 for Silicon Graphics workstations. The update expanded the system’s universal film and HDTV mastering, workflow, EDL conformity, effects and performance capabilities.
Tracking, rendering and video
- Improved tracking and stabilisation
- A new colour tracker
- A render queue for up to ten jobs
- 3:2 pulldown for converting 24 fps material
- A 2:1 re-interlace option
- Partial re-rendering
- Octane2 and Onyx DM2 HD/SD video support
Processing and control
- Administrator control over the processors available to multi-CPU rendering
- MIDI support for the JL Cooper MCS-3000 series
- Assignment of jog/shuttle controls, switches and knobs to effect parameters
- Support for 16-bit character sets including Japanese, Chinese and Korean
- User-selectable external text editor
Colour, particles and meshing
New popup palettes and a flexible colour-management panel extended the system’s colour tools. Particle improvements allowed individual particles to be drawn with image sequences and gave operators control over each particle’s start time and duration, together with 3D object instancing.
The mesher added paint-style warping, Z displacement, hierarchical mesh projections, variable mesh depth, keyframe interpolation, lens distortion and inversion, and spring-and-damper motion dynamics. The Melt tool gained a feedback effect.
Editing and interface changes
Piranha Edit added onscreen transition editing, EDL output for combined audio and video tracks, black reels for Media 100 and Avid users, rendering to a single audio file, audio-layer crossfades and a frame-accurate Lock and Roll comparison mode. A new Fast Play mode and numerous interface refinements were also included.
Further historical product information was provided by the German distributor DBS GmbH. Piranha HD belonged to the wider fields of VFX, mastering and nonlinear editing.
