Simon Danaher reviews Max 9 for Digit Magazine: "... a compelling upgrade for power users."

The latest version of Frantic Films' render farm management system includes many improvements, bug fixes and fully supports 32bit and 64bit builds of Max 9.   [ more... ]

Di-O-Matic announced the release of VOMBatch, a batch processing extension for Voice-O-Matic, the lip synchronization plugin for 3DS Max. VOMBatch is available to active Di-O-Matic VIP members who also own a registered copy of Voice-O-Matic v2. The Di-O-Matic yearly VIP Membership can be purchased at $299. Visit DiOMatic.com for more.

A beautiful short by Supinfocom students François-Xavier Goby, Edouard Jouret and Matthieu Landour with a certain Argentine flavor. According to the authors, it took 12 months to complete the short film: 5-6 for the pre-production and 6-7 for the production itself. "En Tus Brazos" was created using 3DS Max and images were rendered using Max's scanline renderer. A lot of compositing work was done later using After Effects and a little bit of Combustion where needed. Check out the short at EnTusBrazos.fr!

Of course they do! Take a look at this great and funny animated short by French artist Alban Lelièvre ("Why dragons don't exist anymore"), animated by Fabrice Senia. (Note: not created with Max)

Two new scripts added: twoDPlanView and splineManager. Visit NeilBlevins.com for more.

Great news! After years in development, Terragen 2 Technology Preview will see its first public release in December 15, 2006. According to information posted at Planetside Software's pages, the Technology Preview will not contain the full set of features that will exist in the final Terragen 2 release. Also, the Technology Preview has not yet been optimized for speed so rendering times will not be optimal. A free version for personal non-commercial use will be available, and pricing and further details will be announced upon release.

After three years in the making, the animated short drama “Sam and Piccolo” has been completed by Australian studio Adam Walker Film. “Sam and Piccolo” combines high digital production standards, with a narrative fable of emotional and intellectual resonance. The film was created in 3DS Max, with character animation done with CAT. To watch the trailer and find out more about the film, visit the official website at www.samandpiccolo.com. Be sure not to miss the "Production" section of the site, which has some very interesting descriptions of the many production challenges encountered and how they were solved using Max and plugins, including the use of cloth for characters, Dreamscape for environment creation, skies, grass, leaf dynamics and much more.   [ more... ]

ShaderFX is a full-featured real-time shader editor for Max. It allows artists with no previous programming experience to build complex HLSL FX shaders for use in Max's viewport and in external game engines. ShaderFX's schematic interface lets you quickly assemble shaders that support complex effects such as parallax mapping, fresnel fall-off, and cube map reflection, all by simply connecting nodes together. A trial version is available for download. Find out more at Lumonix.com.

Check out the impressive demo reel of Slovak artist Peter Sanitra.

A few changes have been made to the discussion forums and it's no doubt appreciated, but it would be good to see the pending ones that are keeping users from enjoying the forums resolved (pages are still slow, readability is still a problem at certain areas, etc.). Messages from Max users continue to surface discussing the subject.

Fred Galpern reviews Mudbox for VFXWorld: "... easy to learn, not to mention capable of producing stunning results." (Login required)

Create the most captivating and visually appealing sphere from a scene provided by the artists behind The Sphere Project, using your 3D program and renderer of choice. Richard Rosenman and Michael Kocurek would like to encourage everyone to participate and submit your renders. Some funny and creative images are already available at the site's gallery. Find out more at CGSphere.com.

3DM are running a new contest titled "The Lost World" which features more than $5500 worth in prizes. More info at 3DM3.com.

The latest short coming from Platige Image is a collaboration between the Warsaw-based studio and filmmaker Damian Nenow (The Great Escape). "Paths of Hate" is being created using a blend of comic book style animation and a pompous soundtrack that refers to classic film productions. The film is expected to be finished in northern hemisphere's spring 2007, check out the trailer at PathsOfHate.com. Also of note, Platige Image have worked on over two hours of video material which was used in the multimedia show during the production of Roger Waters' “Ça Ira”.

Andy Murdock (Lots of Robots) has finally released his character animation system. A demo version is available upon request. Check it out!

The following has been posted at renowned site Maxplugins.de: "This site generates a lot of traffic, and takes up quite a bit of my time to keep going. When I started the site, I vowed never to have any advertising here, because I personally hate sites with banners all over the place. I intend to keep it ad-free, but as the site becomes more and more popular I need to find a way to finance it. So if you find the site useful, and would like to contribute to keeping it going, feel free to click on the [PayPal] button. It will be much appreciated! Dave." Please consider contributing to Maxplugins on a regular basis if you use the site, whether you are a Max user or plugin developer. We all know the site and the developer behind it more than deserves it. And if you haven't ever thanked Dave Baker for all his hard work, think for just a second what would happen if Maxplugins disappeared. There, you got the picture.

XSI 6 features new animation tools, "Delta Referencing" for collaborative workflow, enhanced interoperability with Max and Maya, improvements in scripting and more. Read the details at Softimage.com.

Blizzard has posted the winning entries for their first annual Fan Art Contest. Check 'em out!

New features in this latest version of NPower Software's hybrid solids / surface modeler include enhanced sketch tools, intelligent design change propagation, improved blending of surfaces, Max 9 support, etc. Visit NPowerSoftware.com for more.

CGCast has an audio interview with Canadian artist Neil Blevins. Neil talks about job interviews, Pixar, Photoshop vs. Painter and more. Check it out!

Leonard Teo, founder of CGTalk, CGSociety and Ballistic Publishing (not to mention the good ol' Planet3dArt), has left Ballistic Media to work as a consultant and has currently joined Softimage as a Business Development Manager. We would like to wish Leonard the best of luck in his new endeavors and thank him for all his help and support through the past years. Good luck Leonard! (More news from Leonard can be found at his personal blog.)

Joe Alter has posted a condensed version of his Siggraph 2006 Masterclass featuring Hair&Fur in 3DSMax9 online. There is also some information about an interesting new development for Max called IBrush

We would also like to congratulate Joe on being nominated for an Academy Award for Scientific Technical Achievement. Good luck!

As reported earlier, MotionDSP's software reconstructs "high-resolution" video from low-resolution footage. The company has recently announced its first offering derived from this technology: "Ikena systems capable of real-time processing of input video start at $30,000". Read the whole PR for more.

CG Academy has a series of DVDs on HLSL shader coding by Ben Cloward due for release in the very near future. More information can be found at CGTalk.com.