Yes, once again a year flies by...  * * * Happy Holidays to all our readers from the team at Max Underground! * * *

A new CG futuristic thriller coming from France. Check out the trailer at Renaissance's website.

Canadian artist Neil Blevins has updated his site with some new pictures.

Jordi Bares reviews Endorphin 2.0 for Millimiter.com: "... It gives us that extra bit in terms of achieving realistic human nuance." (Ed. Note: the review mentions Endorphin 2.5, which is now available)

This plugin implements the Relief Mapping technique as a 3ds max procedural texture plugin.

It is a sort of per-pixel displacement mapping effect supporting self-shadows. It is simple to use and only requires two texture maps: a color texture and a normal texture with depth information in alpha channel.

http://fabio.policarpo.nom.br/files/3DSMax_ReliefMapping.zip   [ more... ]

OMGWTFBBQ!!!1 HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
... and really, read the whole piece - it's chock-full-o-gems :)

Citing the ADSK acquisition of Alias, this New Zealand based game development school is switching their grad program from Alias Maya to 3ds Max. Press Release

Along with pushing our tollerance for alliteration, "Autodesk Technology Transports Moviegoers to Worlds of Wizardry and Whimsy" - Press Release.

Recent/Upcoming films mentioned in the release and used 3ds Max include: Harry Potter 4, Aeon Flux, Stay, and possibly Narnia, Jarhead, Munich, and/or Rent.

Red Giant Software announced the availability of Key Correct Pro, a set of 15 plugins for After Effects (and AE plugin-compatible applications) designed to help users create better composites. The plugins can be in used in combination with any keyer to better enhance the final result.   [ more... ]

Víctor González from Next Limit has posted a message discussing the issues with recent Maxwell RC releases along with upcoming developments.

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

Valve are adding new cinematic effects to their Source Engine: Depth of Field, Motion Blur and more. Bit-Tech.net has the article.

Terragen 2 Technology Preview features a graphical node/graph editor interface for creating networks of shaders and scene elements. The public release of the Technology Preview is scheduled for the end of January 2006, more information at Planetside.co.uk.

If you're interested in learning more about the history of computer graphics, this is an excellent resource: "A Critical History of Computer Graphics and Animation" and the "CGI Historical Timeline", both courtesy of Wayne Carlson, former Director of Ohio State University's Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD).

An entertaining press release from ResPower. Read it here.

Apparently, Next Limit Technologies has a no-refund policy and there's at least one person that's feeling burned. Anyone aware of the legalities involved in this with NextLimit being a Spanish company?

CG news with a Colombian flavor. Visit CGCol.com. (Spanish)

Neil Blevins has added a new script called materialInfoDisplayer, and has modified 3 others (sLib, bugfixes in texmapViewer, and new functionality in wireBundler). As always, they are all available from Neilblevins.com.