Last time we had a Pepsi commercial on here, it was done with Brazil r/s by Toxic Design Studio.
Now here's one done with V-Ray by Digital Dimension

Based on Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables"; 68 days of animation and modeling, 156 hours of rendering, and probably untrackable hours of research have led to 9 minutes and 10 seconds of animation in Gavroche - a single-man (Jean-Claude Rosay) production in 3ds max 4.1.
As a beginner, he might not win an Oscar with this - but he's got our 15 Minutes of Fame(!)

Semillitas, a relatively new animation studio using 3ds max, has opened up its website - showing off two fine animations, rendered with Brazil r/s.

3DWorld reviews Facial Studio from Di-O-Matic :  4.5 / 5 stars for Facial Studio

Duane Loose, 3ds max Application Engineer for discreet's Santa Monica office has created a website: www.duaneloose.com.
Check it out! Feedback [to the author] is welcome.

Raph.com updated with two great images. One by Toby Olsson, Max3D news site webmaster. Congrats Toby!!!

Infinity Textures was updated to version 2.3 with about a dozen nice enhancements

Greenworks has released version 3.5 of its procedural plants and trees generator. The new version offers enhanced export capabilities and now supports 3ds and lwo object formats. Update is free to registered users. More information at Greenworks.de.

McNeel has released a service pack for their Rhino 3D NURBS modeler with some bug fixes and a few improvements.

For a little while now, several people have been asking about for max tutorial sites. Short of Max3D and 3dcafe, there only used to be one big one - but with many a broken link.
Fortunately, a virus alerted me of 3rd Dimension Tutorials, which appears to be kept fairly up to date.   [ more... ]

We reported on this one before, but the website and the trailer/demo has since been updated. Well worth a peek (heed the warning in the previous post's comments).

“Digimation® To Sell Eyematic® FaceStationT, Eyematic's Professional 3D Facial Animation Toolset

LAS VEGAS, Apr. 8 - Eyematic announced today that Eyematic FaceStation 1.5 is now available for purchase through Digimation, Inc. Eyematic, a leading provider of visual communication software, made the announcement in conjunction with the release today of FaceStation 1.5. Digimation is Discreet's Preferred Plug-in Publisher and has developed and distributed graphics software since 1992.   [ more... ]

Dominik Dryja of InsideCG mailed in with this cool news :
“We have another great Live Chat at www.CGChat.com with Igor Posavec. He is a popular and very talented 3D Artist from Germany. For more information on the chat visit http://www.insidecg.com/feature.php?id=97 .
Igor has also Exclusively disclosed to us his new and fabulous artwork that to date has not yet been announced or posted anywhere else in the world. His new Artwork is breathtaking and can be seen at our most current Artist Spotlight at : http://www.insidecg.com/feature.php?id=96 .

In other news we have also recently posted an Interview with Francis Tsai an Art Director and a popular Conceptual Artist. http://www.insidecg.com/feature.php?id=94”

LightWave [7.5] Packs in New Features - Includes New Multi-Platform Duo-Dongle and Special Upgrade Pricing for All LightWave Users

San Antonio, TX – April 25, 2002 – NewTek, Inc., manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video production products, continued their tradition of affordable innovation today by releasing LightWave 3D [7.5], a feature-packed new upgrade to their award-winning LightWave 3D modeling, rendering, and animation package. The upgrade is available free for current version [7] owners, and is available for download immediately from NewTek at http://www.newtek.com and their worldwide partners. Additionally, the software will ship with both Macintosh and Windows versions in the same box and a new USB duo-dongle that will work on either platform. New York City [was] the location of the gala launch event for LightWave [7.5] today, Thursday, April 25th.

Di-O-Matic updated their website with a new look, and new videos of Facial Studio at work.

“Yet another snazzy TurnTool feature sees the light of day.”   [ more... ]

A great animation coming from France, created by Sylvain Tardiveau in 5 months time using 3ds max, Character Studio and RealFlow.

Check out some impressive images and animations (1-2) created by Richard Rosenman using the VRay renderer.

Service Pack 1 for Discreet's Viz4 has just just been released. Get it from the the discreet site.   [ more... ]

Pixar and Disney announce 3 new films in progress, "Finding Nemo", "The Incredibles", and "Cars". Read the press release here.

Creativepro reviews Amapi 3D and Carrara Studio.
Digital Producer takes a first look at Lightwave 7.5.
Digit Magazine reviews Flash MX.

Looks like 3dEurope will give it another try soon.

Interactive Data Visualization have been developing SpeedTree, a tree simulation technology that will be soon made available for 3ds max and VIZ. SpeedTree will offer both 3ds max users and real-time 3D developers a way to get realistic, customized and animated trees (that blow in the wind in real-time) into their work without the huge resource and rendering requirements of high-detail virtual trees. Comprising only a few hundred or a few thousand polygons, a tree developed with SpeedTree can be used in both offline and real-time work, and is even suitable for gaming where realistic trees can greatly enhance the gamer’s experience. The 3ds max plugin will be distributed by Digimation at a list price of $395.

Terrain Material v4.0b1 by Johnny Ow - Recompile for R4: controls placement of different materials based on the elevation, slope and exposure of the rendered pixel.
DotXSI Exporter v1.3 by Softimage - Max2XSI exporter: Added support for native skinning, meshes affected by the Skin modifier will be converted to a XSI envelope.

Just a few tidbits on Newtek :
LightWave 7.5 to be demo'd in New York
LightWave 7.5 update details ? (PDF)
NewTek not just slashing prices

Some more mysterious screenshots of 3dsMax luna have appeared online here.

Newtek announced that shipping of the PAL version of its desktop video effects, editing and live switching system will start on May 1, 2002. The new Toaster is optimized for the Pentium 4, which makes it possible to process multiple streams of real-time, uncompressed video for editing, live switching, or streaming to the Internet. The Video Toaster 2 consists of software, a capture card, and cables. A live switcher, SDI connections, and Genlock are optional.

Digit Magazine reviews Combustion 2: "...an amazing package, and easily the best compositing software in its class."
CGW reviews Softimage XSI 2.0: "One nice addition is a series of customizable rigs for two-legged characters. You simply load the base skeleton and fit it to your character's mesh, click a button, and the skeleton automatically configures itself."

Some of the Siggraph 2002 papers to appear can already be found on the web.
Tim Rowley has a bunch rounded up as usual.

CGW has an article on the latest developments in the MMOG arena.

Architects can use the web to present real-time virtual walkthroughs of their designs

UPPSALA , Sweden , April 15, 2002 - Cycore, the market leader in interactive 3D for e-business today announced the worldwide availability of Cult3D VIZ Exporter 4.0™ software, a ground-breaking addition to the Cult3D suite of products. The Cycore Cult3D Exporter software allows users of Autodesk VIZ 4 software to export models created in this award-winning 3D design visualization tool directly to Cult3D with built-in collision detection and navigation, for instant publication on the Web or electronic documentation. Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK), the world's leading design software and digital content company will begin shipping Cult3D VIZ Exporter with each copy of Autodesk VIZ 4 sold.

Press Release

x-bit labs have a review (test) of the performance two dual-processor platforms under 3ds max 4, one AMD, and one Intel.

“AMD AthlonMP processors showed their best here. However, the mainboard with slow AGP port made Socket A platform lose in most wireframe benchmarks. During final rendering when the "AGP factor" didn't have any influence on the results, Dual Socket A platform managed to get 10-20% ahead of Pentium III despite larger L2 cache of the latter.

However, when you will be deciding on what system to get for your 3ds max 4 needs, you should bear in mind that the results provided here are valid for platform and processors working at the same frequencies. I didn't aim at testing the fastest CPUs available, as you can buy Athlon 2000+ (1667MHz) and Pentium III 1.4GHz and a bit later new models will come out and the picture changes. Also we should bear in mind that Intel processors boast higher overclocking potential, which may also tell on the performance in 3ds max 4.”

ArchVision have put version 3.0.1.7 of their RPC plugin available for registered users, which fixes a memory leak (memory leaks cause crashes after enough leakage).

In addition, they've created a MAXscript with which users can 'spray' RPC content onto arbitrary meshes (e.g. trees on rolling golf course terrain).

Read the article at Digitalproducer.com.

Discreet have made a 'statement of direction' for 3ds max available on their website in response to price mangling from competing developers.   [ more... ]

London-based animation studio Finkbom Ltd. completed three new pieces of work made with usage of 3ds max.
The first, a promo (QuickTime, 15MB) of Wesley Chu's "Flight of the Bumblebee" for Warner Music Intl., was rendered with the 3ds max scanline renderer.
The other two (QT, 2.5MB) are 2 new ads for the UK launch of the Honda Jazz, which were rendered with Brazil r/s.

Also check out their excellent showreel (QT, 35MB).

AWN takes a look at the future of U.S. Copyright laws and the consequences this could potentially have in the animation field in the near future. Read the article.

New Features in this version of Phoshop include a Healing Brush tool that simplifies the photo retouching process by allowing users to effortlessly remove dust and scratches, a new Scripting Plugin that supports JavaScript, Visual Basic and AppleScript to automate Photoshop operations, a 'natural paint' engine and a spell checker (!). Read the whole PR and check out the recent review at Digit Magazine for more.

"Five weeks to go.... and gone!"
Rio de Janeiro-based CG-studio Conseqüência with the help of Leo Santos from Twister studio have produced the first all-CG cartoon style video clip from Brazil in only 5 weeks. This video was made for a brazilian rock star called Frejat. Check out the animation! Some really impressive work done with 3ds max. The music is quite good, too. :-)

CG Focus reviews Next Limit's RealFlow v1.3 fluid dynamics simulator.
Digital Producer reviews Flash MX, Macromedia's latest update of the Flash authoring program.

Marco Spitoni has posted some information on how he used Max to create his animated short "The Hunt".

Raphel Benedet's 3D Artists website updated.

Nival Interactive to use LifeStudio:HEAD, LifeMode's advanced facial animation engine in a new turn-based strategy game Silent Storm

Moscow - April 12, 2002 - Nival Interactive and LifeMode Interactive announce the conclusion of a licensing agreement which grants Nival the rights to use LifeStudio:HEAD, a high-end real-time facial animation package provided by LifeMode Interactive, for creating amazingly lifelike characters in Nival's innovative 3D combat tactics RPG, Silent Storm.   [ more... ]

Vicon, developer of motion capture cameras, is shipping the MCam2, a megapixel camera capable of capture rates of up to 1000 fps. Read the whole PR.

Eyematic has released a new version of their facial animation software. FaceStation identifies key facial features automatically without markers and seamlessly imports resulting animations into 3ds max. Read the whole PR.

Read the whole PR.

3D artists Rune Spaans and Frode Ekeberg of Toxic Design Studio completed a new commercial for PepsiCo Nordic (the Norwegian branch of PepsiCo).
The animation (QuickTime | DivX 5) shows the filling of a Pepsi Twist bottle in a futuristic setting, and was created with usage of 3ds max and Brazil r/s.

Press Release (in Norwegian)

“NewTek Uses Free Discovery Edition and $395 Educational To Create The Next Generation Of 3D Artists And Animators

NAB - Las Vegas, NV -- April 10, 2002 -- NewTek, Inc., the company that revolutionized the world of visual effects and 3D animation, announced today two options for students who want to learn 3D graphics - the LightWave Free Discovery Edition - a no cost version of LightWave with limited saving and watermarked rendering- and a full-featured educational version of LightWave 3D® available to students for $395US, The software is compatible with both Macintosh and Windows-based computers.”

Press Release

Caligari Corp. has create a special version of trueSpace for Adobe's Atmosphere - called... trueSpace for Atmosphere

A person only identified as 'junen' dropped me a link to the interesting website of Singapore-based Simeon Rex - creators of the show with the same name.
“East meets West in this sci-fi twist to original ancient folklore. This union of ancient myths and legends from all over the world come to life to engage in a cosmic battle of magic versus technology, aided by a lethal blend of martial arts and high-tech weaponry. Add unique character designs, witty repartée and an intricate tale of suspense into the mix - the result is a refreshing blast from the past into our distant future!”
Made with the assistance of 3ds max, of course.

Stephane Marty and Olivier Perrot re-iterated the release of VLightMAX - a connection/bridge plugin (for R3 and r4) between 3ds max and VirtuaLight - a renderer capable of many advanced features not found in the scanline renderer.

CGChannel reviews Entropy. (Registration required.)
Video Systems reviews Grain Surgery.
Creative Cow reviews Vegas Video 3.
Digit Magazine reviews Vegas Video 3.
Creative Mac reviews Final Cut Pro 3.

According to a post by Phillip Miller at the Discreet Webboard, there will be no changes in the price of 3ds max, and Discreet will not (at least for the time being) react to what has been called "a desperate competitive measure" with a price reduction. Softimage has not announced price cuts either, nor has Side Effects Software. The cards are on the table - at least a few of them.

Jon Roberts of Unofficial 3D has updated the Commercial Rendering Farm Information pages with more up-to-date information on rent-a-renderfarms and hardware solutions.

Digital Element ( of World Builder fame ) have released an Adobe Photoshop (6) plugin which does sky background, volumetrics, 'reflections', and then some.
Check it out at the Aurora Overview Page

On wednesday, eyeon Software will announce version 4 of its effects/compositing application Digital Fusion - not much on its features, but rumour has it that a sidegrade for Combustion users may be coming up.

In addition, Fusioneers will be releasing their Gaia 3D camera/lighting/objects plugin for Digital Fusion later (estimated Q3) this year.

As announced earlier, Right Hemisphere have released Deep Paint 3D 2.0, as well as Deep UV (former Texture Weapons).

“Deep Paint 3D 2.0 is the result of extensive research and development with leaders in the film and game development industries such as Weta Digital of "Lord of the Rings" fame and Electronic Arts. Deep Paint 3D 2.0 includes more advances in projection painting technology allowing artists to work more efficiently with larger models and manage changes during the texturing process.”

Press Release (PDF | DOC)

Charlie White is running about at NAB and will be reporting from the show; two reports are up already :
NAB Preview 2002
NAB Report: Monday   [ more... ]

Digital Producer has a brief but interesting article on the origins of Motion Capture.

Digit Magazine reviews Electric Image Universe 4.0.
Digital Producer reviews Adobe LiveMotion 2.0.
Digit Magazine reviews Photoshop 7.0.

Newtek have a few live streams up from NAB - free registration, windows media streaming.
Find it at Newtek's NAB Page
(just don't expect any much of a responsiveness)

ATI Technologies and Pinnacle Systems Announce Strategic Partnership

MARKHAM, Ontario - ATI Technologies Inc. (TSE:ATY, NASDAQ:ATYT) and Pinnacle Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: PCLE) have agreed to join forces to combine ATI's graphics technologies with Pinnacle's video technologies for future product developments. Pinnacle will utilize ATI's leading edge graphics and video technology as its hardware platform for future prosumer video editing solutions. ATI will bundle Pinnacle's award winning consumer video editing software with its future WONDER-branded products.

Press Release

• Discreet Unveils New Effects, Streaming and Infrastructure Solutions at NAB 2002
• Discreet Announces Latest Versions of inferno, flame and flint at NAB 2002
• Discreet's Content Adaptation Solutions for Streaming, Proliferate at NAB 2002
• Discreet Debuts New Infrastructure And Background Media Management Solutions At NAB 2002

Lake Forest, CA, April 8, 2002 -- Vicon, a developer of motion capture systems, announced that Academy Award-winning film production studio Rhythm & Hues, noted for its character animation and visual effects work on such feature films as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Cats & Dogs and Dr. Dolittle 2, has acquired as its first investment in motion capture technology a dedicated facial capture system from Vicon

Read the press release at Computer Graphics World

Wacom Introduces Cintiq 18sx Interactive Pen Display, First With 18.1" LCD and SXGA 1280 x 1024 Resolution
Pressure-sensitive Unit with Direct Draw-on-Screen for PCs and Macs Features 48% Larger Display, New Grip Pen, and 360° Rotating Stand

DIGIMATION BECOMES THE WORLDWIDE, EXCLUSIVE LICENSOR OF VIEWPOINT’S 3D MODEL CATALOG

License Arrangement Brings Together the World's Largest 3D Model Library and the Leading 3D Plug-In publisher with a Total Base of More Than 200,000 Users Worldwide   [ more... ]

Sonic Foundry will announce Sound Forge 6.0 at the NAB trade show next week. The new release of Sonic Foundry's audio editing and mastering software will offer many new features and enhancements such as nondestructive audio editing, multitask background rendering, user interface enhancements and new video render options.
Read the whole PR.

The previously mentioned promised update of TerraGen arrived on March 31st.
Major points : Fixed varioud atmosphere banding bugs, improved water reflections, fixed 'climbing quads' problem, water depth filtering.

Digit magazine will host an Advanced Photoshop Techniques seminar next month in London. Topics will include professional image-editing, including color control, retouching, masking, and more. The seminar costs £49.99, and places are limited. More information at Digit Magazine Online

The list for this year's SIGGRAPH courses is now available. Check it out!

Well, this question has been answered.

"Company [Discreet] official sends "End of Life" letter to resellers"

Discreet will be discontinuing the edit NT-based nonlinear editing system effective June 30, 2002.   [ more... ]

Amiga users may remember the name Scala. It was one of the first companies to really make something serious out of the term multimedia more than a decade ago (1987 to be precise :-). Scala InfoChannel 3 has been released, it allows users to author and schedule professional TV-like multimedia for many types of display applications. From retail dynamic signage to entertainment, education and business communications. Content may be published through: the InfoChannel Network, Web, CD-ROM, email, stand-alone file, HTML, Video or by printing presentations in a variety of formats. Visit Scala for more.

The National Association of Broadcasters convention (NAB) is coming up on April 6-11, 2002, at the Sands Expo Center and Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada. Discreet will be showing off its Systems and Software products in booth S-4409; in addition, several of Discreet's 3rd-party software developers will be showing off their products in both the Discreet Sparks pods and in the IBM booth (L-20151). Read on to see the complete list of Max plugins and complementary programs that will be shown at NAB.   [ more... ]

Pixar has just announced the inclusion of RayTracing and GI in their new RenderMan® Release 11. This seems to be done through a hybrid system that integrates selective raytracing into the reyes architecture. Read the press release here.

A plasma section is now up on Discreet's products page. It includes feature information, a comparison with 3dsmax, and an example gallery.

Discreet has announced plasma, a professional 3D animation software for creating 3D content for Web graphics, and interactive 3D. Features include polygonal modeling, bones and IK, Vecta 3D and scanline rendering, and Max Havok. plasma is scheduled to be available for purchase in late May 2002 for US$650.
A full press release is available here. Discreet has yet to put up an official product page on their site.

Check out the news section, there have been updates to Brazil's roadmap and to the purchase information pages. There's also a nice article from Millimiter magazine. The Splutterfish team will be at the NAB convention (April 7-11, Las Vegas) in the Discreet Sparks Pod showing the latest version of Brazil.

London-based The Mill, one of Europe's biggest digital post-production houses, is opening a new facility in New York which will offer services to the commercials VFX market. Mill Film's Shepperton-based facility is looking for 3ds max animators.

CG Focus reviews Combustion 2.
Digital Producer reviews After Effects 5.5.

According to early reports, one of the first notable consequences of AW's Maya 3D software price reduction, has been an increase in enquiries to psychologists in the California area due to a widespread, almost contagious identity crisis among users of the software.

"Patients visits are on the rise. They display what we've come to call the 'low-ender's syndrome'" said J. Keszler, a jungian psychoanalyst from Los Angeles. "It seems they had a strong identification with being the 'high-end' stratus of a certain group. That perception appears to have been directly associated with the amount they paid for their software. The recent A|W announcement has shaken that belief at it's core. We find users keep mumbling the phrase 'low-end' in disbelief. Such a rapid shift is a terrible shake-up for anybody's identity." Common symptoms reported by psychoanalysts are an unreasonable fear of being removed from the Highend3D.com website and a refusal to accept AW's new prices, insisting on paying much more then what the company is now asking. "It's understandable", says Mr. Keszler, "the first reponse to these attacks on identity is usually denial".