Filter Forge is a new plugin for Adobe Photoshop that allows users to create custom Photoshop filters using a visual node-based editor. All filters produced with Filter Forge are adjustable and editable, seamlessly tiled, resolution-independent, and support HDRI lighting. Also, filters can automatically generate diffuse, specular, bump, and normal maps. The public beta version of Filter Forge is available at Filterforge.com upon registration and approval.

At the upcoming Massive Black and Conceptart.org Montreal Artist's Workshop the new Mudbox software application will be demonstrated over the course of four days. According to Mudbox developers, the program is "a friendly sculpting, detailing, and design tool (...) [that] slides smoothly into company pipelines and artist workflows." A discussion thread at CGTalk has a few more details.

Luxology announced the availability of Modo 201, its 3D modeling, painting and rendering software. Check out the image gallery to see some examples created with the latest version of Modo.   [ more... ]

Cameleon-labs ObjectPainter adds a realtime 3D preview window to Photoshop and provides some tools to aid in the 3D texturing creation process.

Spiral Graphics has released a royalty-free collection of 127 seamless floor and wall textures. As well as standard JPEG previews, the collection is available in the specialized Genetica procedural texture format.   [ more... ]

GroundWiz v1.2 introduces GroundWiz Planter, a mass placement and instancing tool handling millions of objects. The new version also brings new features to GroundWiz Terrain Map such as Mental Ray support and displacement mapping.   [ more... ]

Read the news brief at Digit Magazine.

Six artists and developers collaborated on an open source CG movie project made with Blender. Not only has the short been made using open source applications but it is being published under a Creative Commons license, as well as all the production files it was made with. The animated short is definitely worth checking out, Terry Gilliam fans will most likely enjoy its surrealistic, oppresive atmosphere. Bit Torrents for downloading the movie can be found at Orange.blender.org. More information can be found at Wikipedia, Orange.blender.org, BlenderNation and CGSociety. Also of note, the production of the movie has resulted in the development of many new features for Blender itself.

Hyper Image, Inc is in post production on its first CGI feature animated completely in 3ds Max. "Race" is a science-fiction action movie set in the world of high speed competitive racing. Trailers are available for viewing at www.racethemovie.net.   [ more... ]

CarCam is a four wheel vehicle simulator plugin for 3DS Max. CarCam was developed as a production tool that would enable quick rigging of any type of car and animating it in real-time directly in the viewport. The steering, breaking, booster, skidding etc is done in real-time with any supported input device (DirectX compatible, keyboard, 3dxmouse) making the animation process more flexible and creative. Visit CraftAnimations.com for more information.

New images at Raph.com. Check 'em out!

Daniel Martínez Lara has posted the final version of his latest animated short, inspired by the work of Argentine humorist Joaquín Salvador Lavado, better known as "Quino". Check it out! (Note: modeled in Max, animated in that other program that starts with an M)

CGArena has an interesting interview with Australian visual effects artist Allan McKay, who has recently launched his own studio.

Maksym Vysochanskyy, suspected of running software fraud scams since 2000, arrested in Bangkok in 2003, has been sentenced in "federal court to 35 months in prison, three years probation, and deportation to his native country of Ukraine." after his guilty plea in San Jose late in 2005.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif., May 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Autodesk, Inc. (Nasdaq: ADSK - News) announced today that Maksym Vysochanskyy, a Ukrainian national, was sentenced yesterday in a San Jose, California, federal court to 35 months in prison, three years probation, and deportation to his native country of Ukraine. Vysochanskyy pled "guilty" in November 2005 to charges of criminal copyright infringement, trafficking in counterfeit goods and illegal monetary transactions -- which included selling pirated copies of software from Autodesk, Adobe, Borland and Microsoft on the Internet. Having been in custody in Thailand since May 2003, Vysochanskyy was extradited to the U.S. in March 2004.

Full Press Release

SciptSpot interviews Borislav Petrov and Chris Thomas on their latest CG-Academy DVD release "The Matrix: Explained".

RE:Map is a set of plugins that provide mapping and distortion tools for major compositing applications.

Redviewer is a pre-visualisation tool for 3DS Max / VIZ that provides interactive ray-tracing previews in the 3DS Max / VIZ viewport. It aims to remove most of the intermediate renderings necessary to tune a CG image and shorten the decision process. Redviewer is not a final image renderer. A trial version is available for download. (Note: once again, a capable graphics card is needed to run this software - read the system requirements before downloading the program).

Gamedevmap is a living map and catalog of game development organizations, and they need your help to keep their data current. Publishers, development studios with a staff of five or more, studios with previously published games, and studios under contract with a publisher are listed.

NVidia are offering a free version of their Gelato hardware-accelerated renderer that includes a 3DS Max bridge (Frantic Films' Amaretto plugin), and is licensed for commercial use. A Pro version with features such as multithreading and the Sorbetto interactive relighting engine, along with a maintenance and support package can be purchased for $1500 per node. More information at NVidia's discussion forums. (Note: an NVidia graphics card is needed to run Gelato - read the system requirements page for a compatibility list).