New features available in CAT 2.0 include: extra bones (may be used as facial bones, stomach bones, weapon bones, etc.), animated bounce and stretch, new IK system, time warp curves (use a single spline curve to speed up, slow down or reverse a whole animation layer), enhanced user interface, new features in scripting, etc. CAT 2.0 is available now for users of Max r6 and higher. Visit CAToolkit.com for more.

Fred Galpern reviews CAT 2.0 for VFXWorld.com: "... an impressive piece of software." (Login required)

No calculation times posted. Check out the sample animation at Orbaz Technologies' gallery. (Click on the bottom right image and download the "Beach Balls in a Glass" animation.)

Peter Plantec interviews Stanford professor Ron Fedkiw and Scanline's Head of Animation Stephan Trojansky on their latest advances in fluid dynamics (login required to VFXWorld.com). Some CG simulations of fluid dynamics (among others) can be seen at Ron Fedkiw's website.

ScriptSpot has turned 5 years old. Thanks to Christopher Grant for creating and maintaining such a great site!

Check 'em out!

According to Gamasutra, new plans have been announced by Chinese government officials to discourage users from playing online games for more than three consecutive hours. Also of note, access to online games that allow players to kill other players will be prohibited to minors under 18 years of age.

The new line of DVD recorders includes models that can store 160, 250 and 500 gigabytes, and a model that can record up to 1 terabyte of data using two 500Gb disks. Find out more at The New York Times.

Orionflame is a set of advanced tools for polygon modeling in Max. Version 0.3 is a commercial release, a trial version and a demo video can be downloaded from Orionflame.com.

A recent news article from Reuters raises the issue once again, "violent video games can increase aggressive behavior in children and adolescents." Read the article at Reuters.com.

New great pics at 3D Artists gallery. Check 'em out!

Sachform Technology has released a collection of 65 High Resolution photographs of plants. Volume 1 contains various bushes, potted plants, hedges and creeping plants in TIFF format (with alpha-mask) in a resolution of up to 3000 pixels.

Find out more at ReMark3Dshop.

FXGuide has posted a great article on the history and applications of HDR imaging technology.

(Updated August 16, 2005) Other detailed SIGGRAPH reports: Research papers at SIGGRAPH (Gamasutra), Event Wrap Up (Gamasutra), SIGGRAPH report at 3DRender.com.
CGSociety has posted a report on SIGGRAPH 2005.

CG Academy has released the first DVD in a two part series on proceduralism. Read on for more.   [ more... ]

NPower Software announced the availability of PowerNURBS for Max. The official release is scheduled for September 15th, 2005. According to NPower Software, PowerNURBS has been made available for purchase in advance due to high demand. To find out more, read the press release or visit the PowerNURBS pages at NPowerSoftware.com.

Neil Blevins has added 2 new scripts today, materialIDRandomizer and splineKnotToObject, and updated his modifierAddAndRemove, splineKnotManager and transformSelector scripts (including some big fixes). As usual, all scripts are available from Neilblevins.com.

Buenos Aires-based Cinematica3d.com.ar and WebAr.com have collaborated on producing an online interactive presentation for Sony, created using 3DS Max. Check it out!

3DInfográfica has posted an interesting article with detailed information on the creation process of Enrique Gato's "Tadeo Jones" short film, which was made using Max and animated with Character Studio. The short film, produced by Spanish company "La Fiesta", has already received more than 20 awards at film festivals. (Spanish)

Michael Hurwicz reviews Combustion 4 for CGW: "... Capsules allow you to save and retrieve portions of a Combustion project, effectively creating a library of past work that you can easily reuse."

Turbo Squid has released new training DVDs aimed at Max users. Topics covered include modeling (Dave King), Cloth (Beau Perschall), and Particle Flow and Afterburn (Szymon Masiak). Also of note The Gnomon Workshop is setting its foot on the Max training arena by releasing a DVD on GI lighting with Max and Vray (by Christopher Nichols).

AGEIA's press release mentions Particle Flow and Ornatrix (now Hairtrix), among other third-party applications.

Stéphane Marty has made his last project freely available to the public: MetropoLight is the first freeware GI renderer using Metropolis Light Transport algorithm.

SplutterFish, LLC. have announced the upcoming release of Brazil r/s 2.0. Due out in fall 2005, the new version contains a host of new features and improvements. For more information about the new renderer and upgrade options, take a look here.

The new plugin from AGEIA helps artists create, test and export game physics while working in Max. Software-based physics effects and hardware-accelerated realism can be incorporated into game action in an intuitive, graphical way. Visit AGEIA.com for more.

New features include mesh painting capabilites. More information on Modo 201 at Luxology.com.

And of course Nevercenter could not lag behind. Silo 2.0 includes displacement painting. Check out the info and videos at Nevercenter.com.

Press Release at ARTVPS.com.

Eyeon Software updates Fusion compositing system.

Hairtrix is the result of a joint collaboration between Dimension Design Animation Group, Ephere and Turbo Squid. Hairtrix provides a sophisticated melding of two of the most widely used hair technologies available for Max and takes advantage of years of dedicated research in improving hair and fur technologies. Upgrade paths will be offered to current users of HairFX and Ornatrix. Read the whole PR at TurboSquid.com.

FinalRender Stage-1 Release 2.0 is being demonstrated at SIGGRAPH. This latest release incorporates a new GI engine which, according to the PR, delivers enhanced performance and stability.

DNP Denmark announced the Supernova Screen, an optical front projection screen that claims to maintain color saturation and fine details in environments with high ambient light.

In a true display of Italian flavors, NVidia has unveiled a new version of their GPU-accelerated Gelato rendering software, along with Amaretto, a Max bridge for Gelato developed by Frantic Films, and Sorbetto, an interactive tool that significantly accelerates experimentation with lighting. Final release is estimated for January 2006. Visit Film.nvidia.com for more.

GHOST 3D is previewing at SIGGRAPH a pre-release version of its upcoming plugin called “ScanLab PCS,” an arbitrary point-cloud and surface reconstruction engine specifically for 3DS Max. Read the whole PR at Ghost3D.com.

Press release at NewTek.com.

Press release at Alias.com.

XSI 5.0 information at Softimage.com. Face Robot is a tool to facilitate facial animation.

Autodesk 3ds max 8 has been announced at the new AME website. A PDF file containing information on new features can be found here.