Discreet has posted information regarding their annual users' event at SIGGRAPH. This year, the event will be held at the Los Angeles Marriott Downtown, on Monday, August 9 at 7pm (registration starts at 6pm). Visit Discreet.com for more.

3DPowerstore announced the release of FinalVision, a set of tools that offers Max users the ability to create realtime 3D environments and self-contained applications based on 3D scenes. FinalVision supports high polygon counts, animation data, multiple switchable cameras, different light types, collisions, atmospheric effects, and many other features. Every object type which can be displayed as polys is supported. Read on for more.   [ more... ]

Particle Flow expert Allan McKay has recently completed a DVD titled Advanced Visual Effects DVD which is being distributed by Turbo Squid. Aimed at intermediate and advanced users, the Advanced Visual Effects DVD contains lots of tutorials on how to produce complex effects and covers topics ranging from the creation of ocean whitecaps to the use of procedural materials and Reactor 2 physics. Additionally, an entire section is devoted to the use of Sitni Sati's AfterBurn 3.1. Those who have been following Allan McKay's work certainly know that the release of this DVD is very good news for Max users. Read on for the complete DVD index.   [ more... ]

Interview with Alex Scott on his role in creating the visuals for Jade Empire.

BioGraphic Technologies announced the release of version 2.1 of the AI.implant crowd simulation family of products. The new version provides support for 3ds max 6 along with a few new features and enhancements.   [ more... ]

RebelThink has announced the official release of their shader plug-in suite Natural:shaders for 3ds Max 6. The release will premiere at the Siggraph 2004.   [ more... ]

HighDynamic is a plugin for Terragen that generates HDR images from Terragen renders. HighDynamic supports the following HDR image formats: 32 bit Floating Point TIFF, Radiance .HDR, OpenEXR. The plugin is currently available only for the Mac but a Windows version is expected in the future.

New animations posted at CAT's website. Some of the entries for their SIGGRAPH reel contest are also definitely worth checking out.

Bytegeist Software has just released Ghost Trails 3.   [ more... ]

2d3 announced the upcoming release of Boujou 3. New features in the automatic camera tracking software include: new feature tracker, free-move zoom, mixed pan/free solve, improved & automatic radial distortion model, planar scene constraints including survey points and planarity of points, camera path smoothing, etc. More information at 2d3.com.

Japan-based PSoft announced the release of Liquid+ v1.2, the latest version of their non-photorealistic renderer for 3ds max. Liquid+ v1.2 renders images almost twice as fast and contains additional enhancements and some bug fixes. A demo version is available for download. Also of note, new pictures created with PSoft's plugins have been posted at PSoft's image gallery.   [ more... ]

Bionatics announced the availability of NatFX 1.9. The new version of the procedural plant modeling plugin features an enhanced hybrid modeling technology that allows users to generate realistic trees with a reduced number of polygons by mixing 2D and 3D elements.

San Francisco, CA; July 14, 2004 -- Lifemode Interactive has signed two reseller agreements with Novedge LLC to distribute the boxed version of its LifeStudio:Head 2.6, a new software designed for use with Discreet's 3ds max, throughout the USA, Canada, Mexico, and, with weltenbauer, also Germany.   [ more... ]

Magazine Names NVIDIA’s Final Film Renderer One of the 15 Most Innovative and Important Products at the 2004 National Association of Broadcaster’s Conference

SANTA CLARA, CA—JULY 6, 2004—NVIDIA Corporation (Nasdaq: NVDA), the worldwide leader in visual processing solutions, today announced the NVIDIA® Gelato™ film renderer received a coveted Millimeter magazine “NAB Pick Hit 2004” award. Selected for innovation and importance to the motion picture, television production, and post-production industries, Gelato was one of only 15 products to be named a “Pick Hit” from among the offerings of nearly 1,400 exhibiting companies at the annual 2004 National Association of Broadcaster’s (NAB) conference.

Read the press release

BSA/IDC Study Confirms Software Piracy Exceeds Film and Music Piracy

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., July 7, 2004—Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK), the world's leading design software and digital content company, announced it has recovered more than $63 million in North America since its Piracy Prevention Program began in 1989, and $3 million during the last year, from settlements with companies using unauthorized Autodesk® software. This announcement coincides with today’s release of the First Annual Business Software Alliance (BSA) and International Data Corporation (IDC) Global Software Piracy Study. As a founding member of the BSA, Autodesk educates customers and the general public about software piracy and its damaging effects on the economy and product innovation—while aggressively seeking legal recourse against copyright infringers.

Read the whole Press Release

RPManager (Render Pass Manager - commercial script) has been updated to support 3rd party rendering managers (Deadline in R5/R6, also Rush and Smedge for R6), provides enhanced support for Mental Ray (R6), initial FinalRender stage 1 support (R6) and integration with Combustion 3 and After Effects - among other additions. Visit RPManager.com for more.

Mike Gladtchenko takes a look at 3ds max 6 Bible (Amazon/Barnes & Noble), by Kelly Murdock. RenderNode has the article.

Project:Messiah Group announced the arrival of Messiah:studio 2.0 and Messiah:animate 5.0. Messiah:animate 5.0 includes features such as a new Pose System, an enhanced AutoRig with quadruped support, DirectX Export and an OnionSkin system. Messiah:studio 2.0 includes all of the above and adds rendering features such as sub-pixel displacement, normal mapping, sub-surface scattering capabilities, etc. Visit Projectmessiah.com for more.

Michael Hurwicz reviews Combustion 3 for CGW.com: "... once you get the hang of it, the software solution enables you to produce superlative results with relative ease."

Convergence, once again: high-profile actors lend their voices and looks to EA's latest 007 action title, but developers point out that gameplay is still what matters. An interesting article by Barbara Robertson for CGW.com.

Jeff Sauer has written an article on LCD vs. plasma display technologies for CGW.com.

Bionatics NatFX 1.9 for Max as well as Greenworks' Xfrog 3.5 are up for auction at Ebay, among other software. Find out more at CGArchitect.com.

Ornatrix Tutorial
Making of "Babe on Stairs" (French)
How to make and animate tank tracks
Creating a Wheel - part I
Creating a Drilled Break Rotor
Creating a Tire Tread - part II
  [ more... ]

Ali Tezel interviews the creators of Animation Mentor for CGNetworks.com.

Here is a roundup of what has been updated or released recently:

Mootools software have updated their Polygon Cruncher plugin to v6.5
nPower Software have released an update for their Power Solids and Power Translators
Larry Minton has released a new version of his Avguard MAXScript extension for max 6. There is also a version for max 5.
Pavel Kuznetsov has updated his Milky Way render effect with a load of improvements
3D Aliens have released an update for their glu3D fluid simulation plugin

Foto Search is a meta image search engine that allows users to search from more than fifty quality stock photo and footage vendors at one site.

Tim Linklater has compiled a great list of Inspiring Character Animation Reels. He is still hunting for more links, so if you happen to find one please send him an email.

Chaos Group today released VRay 1.45.70 to all registered users. This is a beta version of VRay 1.5. Due to the new licensing system all users will need to re-authorize this version. Among some of the new features included in this release: faster displacement, VRayFur, VRayToon, improved motion blur and channel rendering. More information at VRay.info.

The123d.com interviews 3D artist Sir Johannes Schlörb (a.k.a. Schloerby).