real-time revolution
3D World explores the real-time graphics software revolutionising the production of video content, visual effects, VR and interactive experiences
Discover Notch, the real-time graphics software
Trusted by the world’s biggest artists, brands and events, Notch is the first tool to enable the creation of both interactive and video content in one unified real-time environment. “Real-time graphics were considered hard and came with the assumption that you had to know how to code. Notch was born from an idea that puts creatives back in control,” says a spokesperson for the developer.
After leaving university, founder Matt Swoboda ventured into the gaming industry, and alongside games he also worked on other creative projects such as music videos, art installations and demoscene productions. All of these projects enabled him to work with real-time technology and after leaving the gaming industry behind, Matt sought to change the bad reputation of real-time graphics.
thus Notch was born, delivering a realtime engine, iterative process, and speed of rendering that ensured a better workflow for creators. By allowing for live changes and real-time previews, it made projects more fun and experimental than ever before. there are two products available: Notch Builder, a real-time visual creation tool and Notch Playback, which displays content made in Builder.
the tool features a unique iterative process combined with a real-time rendering engine, offering content producers and motion graphic artists a whole new way of working. the toolset, ui and the rest of the experience should feel familiar, but with one key difference: it’s in real time. Creators can animate a scene, light, render, composite and edit it all in one package, as well as being able to look at the full and final result in real time.
Nowadays Notch’s users include live events, interactive installations, artists, broadcasters, the visual effects and motion graphics industry, advertising agencies, film and television. in 2018 alone the software has powered visuals for Swedish electronic house duo Axwell /\ ingrosso’s world tour, Disney’s Frozen:
The Broadway Musical, and ibm’s annual Amplify conference in las Vegas.
When asked about the secret of its success, the Notch team puts it all down to a combination of being flexible, easy, scalable and reliable, everything that a real-time software needs to be. the developers also go the extra mile to enable creators, offering over four and a half hours of structured training videos as part of the Notch Academy. elsewhere they have a variety of tutorials, workflow time lapses and an evergrowing Notch reference manual available to a thriving community of users.
Recently Notch has released a new update that further improves usability with over 450 new features and 200 fixes. Notch Builder 0.9.21 is the first update to fully embrace 64-bit capabilities. Previously only available with a 32-bit runtime, the new version allows for significantly larger datasets, including 3D models and animation, textures, images and audio.
After high demand from their community of users, Notch has also added a rigid body physics feature. it allows solid geometric objects to move around using physics. A new video codec entitled Notchlc has also debuted in the update. Designed for motion graphics, it’s the fastest codec to render out of Notch.
With a host of new keyboard shortcuts, Artnet rendering, straight alpha rendering, semi-automatic scene optimisation, Javascript improvements, and CSV file loading, Notch continues to advance the possibilities of real-time production.
As 2018 draws to a close the developers are looking towards their upcoming event, Notchcon. two packed days of Notch content will take place at Plexal in london, uk on 17 and 18 January 2019. Advanced techniques and inspiration will be shared across more than 30 sessions by internationally acclaimed Notch users. there’ll also be two tracks of tech talks, community sessions, project breakdowns and social events. it presents creators with the ideal opportunity to meet the team behind Notch as well its vibrant community of users.