A new French Max forum has been started. Everyone is welcome to join the forum.

Turbo Squid today announced the release of Service Pack 2 (SP2) for finalRender Stage-1, an advanced rendering plug-in for 3ds Max.   [ more... ]

Applications to participate in 3D GAP are now available. To learn more, go to 3DGap.com and visit the "Get Involved" page under "Mission" (you need Flash installed in order to see the menus). Also of note, Character Animation Technologies joined Discreet and Turbo Squid in providing plugins to the selected participants of the Global Animation Project.

Snoswell Design is looking for 6-8 Max-proficient TD’s to work for the next 5-6 months on a film adaptation of Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder". Two of these positions are in Santa Monica and the other 4-6 are in Adelaide, Australia. Visit CGCharacter.com for more.

Master of weathered surfaces Juan Siquier has updated his website with yet another beautiful image inspired by his hometown. Check it out!

CGChannel has an article on the VFX of Peter Weir's latest film, Master and Commander.

Digital Producer reviews 3ds max 6: "... a step in the right direction."

Splutterfish, makers of Brazil r/s, have been receiving lots of questions regarding the availability of the Brazil renderer for 3ds max 6. They have posted a press release on the subject a while ago and have sent it to us to inform our readers. Read on for the details.   [ more... ]

1394 Trade Association completes new 1394 Wireless Specification. Read the whole PR at Digitalproducer.com.

Raphael Benedet's 3D Artists gallery updated. Check it out!

CGW reviews 3ds max 6: "... one of the most robust packages on the market today."

CGW has a very interesting article on the experimental use of CG in theatrical productions.

* * * The Max Underground team would like to wish our readers from around the world
Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year! * * *

El Portal del 3D y la Animación has a brief summary of a conference held as part of Animadrid 2003 on the state of the animated features market in Spain. (Spanish)

Pierre Coffin (of "Pings", "Gary's Fall" fame) has updated his website with new animations. Check 'em out!

RenderNode interviews Justin Mitchell, Sr. Animator at Digital Dimension on The Last Samurai.

The online 3D assets shop Turbo Squid today announced a custom 3D modeling service. This service will allow clients to draw from a pool of over 6300 digital artists around the world when a custom 3D modeling job is needed.   [ more... ]

The fluid simulation plug-in Glu3D has entered a public beta stage. Glu3D is fully integrated inside 3dsmax and is waiting for professional advice, comments and suggestions to improve its functionality before releasing a bug free and really production ready version. Visit the 3D Aliens web site, download it and give your feedback in the user's forum. There are some video tutorials available at the website too. Check them to see some basic functionalities of the software.

Polish CG Vortal hosts another video-tutorial (this time 2D). 'The Hunch-Backed Angel' is an artwork made by Polish CG artist Matthew Kuciara (Tiger1313). This small tutorial in video format shows a few details about the artwork, the tools used and techniques.

There are 3 weeks left to save $25 on the commercial and educational versions of Sound Trax. Until the end of the year, save $25 on either version of Sound Trax:

Sound Trax Commercial - $150 ($175 after 1/1/04)
Sound Trax Educational - $50 ($75 after 1/1/04)

More info at the Boomer Labs website.

A new 3D related website in the Spanish language has been introduced: www.3dinfografica.com.

John Wainwright, the creator of MAXScript, has just released an introductory video course on MAXScript, designed especially for animators and artists with no prior programming experience. Details at http://www.lyric.com/maxscript101/.

Primordial Software has announced the release of Ooze, a standalone 2D morphing and warping application. Features include: support for deep color images (16- and 32-bit floating point, EXR, TIFF), an intuitive UI (real-time playback, configurable working environment) and command-line rendering for integration into a render-farm. Ooze is available for Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows. Visit PrimordialSoftware.com for more.

CGW has a very interesting article on a new trend in advertising that shows how commercials are taking yet another step away from rational decisions and into the emotional realm by leaving products' information out of the spotlight (this is obviously not an altogether new idea, the beginning of this "trend" started as early as 1890). The article also notes that film-style VFX are increasingly being used in commercials.

InsideCG reviews SILO: "...Until Nevercenter can work out the bugs and kinks, Silo is merely an average program."

Global Illumination Mapping Tutorial (click on Tutorials->Global Illumination Mapping)
Modeling a foot using Subdivs
Face UVWmap
Advanced Lighting Techniques Part 1
Advanced Lighting Techniques Part 2
Introduction to Procedural texturing - Wood
Car Rigging Tutorial

Check out the latest project of talented Romanian artist Mihai Anghelescu, created with Max 5.

RenderNode has released a free sample of their No.1 issue. Now you are able to download it (3.5MB, ZIP archive) and take a deeper look inside.

RenderNode is proud to present the first issue of the world's first commercial digital-only magazine focusing on superior application knowledge in the 2D, 3D, animation and post-production sectors. RenderNode Magazine is a collection of "how to" articles and reviews written by CG professionals from all over the world. Highlights of the first issue include a detailed article on soft-body dynamics simulation using SimCloth, Combustion and Flame tutorials and an article on Motion Control. Check it out!

Sachform Technology has announced their first contest on the Sachform website. Have a look at the contest page to get all the information. As a bonus, Sachform has uploaded a bunch of free HDRI images to their website. Visit the download page to retrieve the free HDRI imagery.

Realtexture.com started an X-mas contest. Among the prices are an X-mas T-shirt, poster prints, a new X-mas game and Realtexture products. Download the free texture pack and create something Christmas-related until Santa Claus will arrive. You will find further information and the texture pack at www.realtexture.com.