Vue xStream (formerly known as Vue Fusion) is a suite of plugins that enable the integration of Vue environments (including EcoSystems, atmospheres, cameras, lighting, plants and terrain) into 3DS Max. Vue xStream for Max works with Mental Ray and is not compatible with the scanline renderer.

"Did you know that some of the top enthusiast components in the world are designed in Canada? That one of the most anticipated games of 2006 is being developed in the Ukraine?" The fine folks at Bit-Tech.net are offering a tour around the world technology economy. Grab the map and read the article.

In an article by Leonard Teo, Autodesk executives refer to what has been said on the future of 3DS Max and Maya (Autodesk development focusing on seamless data exchange between the 3D applications), mention that a new 3D package is possible in the distant future but not in the works at this point, and that new features currently being developed will be incorporated into both 3DS Max and Maya. Also of note, the article says that Autodesk does not yet have a solution on how to market 3DS Max and Maya. Find out more at CGSociety.com.

TextureShaker can take an unlimited number of different bitmaps and scatter them randomly over a texture. The bitmaps being scattered are themselves modified by affecting their attributes (scale, rotation, color, etc.). A trial version is available for download.

Full article here. There's also mention of a targeted start-date for a feature length 'Rockfish'.

Hi, Keytoon team here :) After a long period of hard work, we've been able to find enough time to update our site. New news, works ( with stills showing the creation process of these works ), animations and stills. Our site is www.keytoon.com.   [ more... ]

http://www.nvidia.com/object/maxtreme_8.00.03.html   [ more... ]

(Updated January 24, 2006) The deal has been confirmed. According to a news article from News.com, Ed Catmull and John Lasseter will head Disney's animation unit.
Associated Press has the story.

The ProBooleans extension is now available for subscription members. Log in to your subscription member pages to download the file.

Useful for replacing chroma keying but also for many other compositing tasks (such as applying depth of field effects in post), the HDTV Axi-Vision Camera can simultaneously capture both an ordinary HDTV color image and a depth image of objects. Read more information and check out some sample videos at OpticsInfobase.org.

RapidSD is a fresh approach to subdivision surfaces in the 3ds Max environment. Designed especially for the modeling stage, it not only claims to be 10 - 40 times faster than Meshsmooth/Turbosmooth, it also offers a new way of "touching" the surface, along with a lot of smaller but handy features.

More info and a demo version are available here: www.gruesome-arts.com.

Adobe has released new versions of After Effects and Premiere Pro, among other programs. After Effects 7.0 new features include an enhanced user interface (hopefully a successful attempt at eliminating the need for constantly resizing windows), a new Graph Editor, 32-bit color space support (Pro version only) and a lens blur effect for imitating the lens of a real-world camera. Find out more at Digit Magazine, Digital Producer (First Look: After Effects 7.0 Pro), and Adobe.

Posted Tue Jan 17, 2006 14:05 PST by Pablo Hadis | Source:

Displacement painting, UV Unwrapping, etc. Watch the videos at Silo3D.com.

Two new creative shorts coming from students at the French school Supinfocom Arles. Thomas Wagner, Aurélie Fréchinos and Victor-Emmanuel Moulin have used 3DS Max along with a healthy dose of imagination to produce "ClikClak". Also worth checking out is another great animated short titled "Entredeux", by François Turquety and Laurent Labouille. Enjoy!

Realistic Skin
How to make LEGOs and use them in 3dsmax  (French)
Paul Hormis' cloth simulation tutorials
Making of Juan Siquier's "The Phoenix building" (Spanish version also available)
Reactor and Keyframe animation
Simulating rigid-body deformations using reactor   [ more... ]

Press Release - "Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK - News) today announced that it has completed the acquisition of Alias for cash consideration of $197 million USD."
Previous µ stories: 1, 2   [ more... ]

(Updated January 12, 2006) Or almost always, that is. Current users of Power Booleans have reported that even though they work much better than Max's existing implementation, the software still has certain issues. In any case better Booleans are much needed and will no doubt be a welcome addition. According to an email from Autodesk, the "Pro Booleans" extension is expected to be available in the course of this month.
Quoting Power Boolean's website: "How much time and effort could you save with Booleans that always work and produce quality meshes?". A lot of time. The new extension for subscription members is based on NPower Software's Power Booleans and will include a Power Cutter tool for breaking apart or sectioning 3D objects. The new extension is expected to be available in northern hemisphere's Winter 2006.

Neil Blevins has added a new script called objectReplacer, and has modified 3 others (sLib, made modifySubdivIters and subdivisionManager compatible with TurboSmooth thanks to captainchet!). As always, they are all available from Neilblevins.com.

Autodesk have finally released Service Pack 1 for 3ds max 8. It includes a number of fixes across several functional areas, including Biped, Batch Render, Hair, Material Editor, Maxscript, Script Controller, SDK, Snaps, UV Unwrap and mental ray.

We have re-posted an "About" page, which you can find on the "Links" section to the right. We would like to encourage you to take a minute to read it.

George Maestri reviews 3DS Max 8 for CGW: "... a significant software upgrade."

BrightSide Technologies announced that is has started shipping the world's first High Dynamic Range display, the DR37-P. According to the Brightside monthly newsletter they are now "taking orders for shipments in early 2006 and expect to quickly expand production by end of the first quarter of 2006".

Samsung and LG.Philips ramp up production. LCD industry could face overcapacity in 2006, according to analysts. More information at Reuters.com.