LightRigger is a script developed by John Swafford that can use per-object light domes or rigs to provide draft-quality, global illumination lighting using the default scanline renderer. LightRigger's main advantage is speed, both in setup and rendering.

An interesting video describing how developers of The Force Unleashed have combined Havok, Euphoria and Digital Molecular Matter to drive the game's physics. More videos on the subject can be found at the official website of The Force Unleashed. (A word of caution: the first clip mentioned has been condimented with an unnecessary dose of hype)

Carl-Mikael Lagnecrantz has updated his set of advanced tools for polygon modeling in Max. Version 4.0 features include: significant speed improvements (almost all parts of PolyBoost have now been implemented in c++, and are now just as fast as native Max tools), symmetry tools, texture wrap, new selection tools, calculation of cavity, density, dust and subsurface maps, and more. A demo video is available at Polyboost.com.

Check out this impressive teaser created by a small team of talented German artists to promote an upcoming adventure game.

A great image by Spanish artist Alejandro Ruano that manages to capture part of the essence of the CG artist job. Check it out! (A higher resolution version is also available.)

3am Solutions' Dynamite VSP offers civil engineering-oriented objects, materials and assisted creation of road markings to turn civil engineering design data into 3D renders via 3DS Max or VIZ. Find out more at 3am-solutions.com.

Read the PR at OnOnesoftware.com.

The World Wide Web Consortium has published a draft for the first upcoming major revision of the HTML standard since 1997. New developments include APIs for drawing two-dimensional graphics, embedding and controlling audio and video content, maintaining persistent client-side data storage, and for enabling users to edit documents and parts of documents interactively. Find out more at W3.org and Wikipedia.org.

French artist Sébastien Chort shares his experiences of working at different companies (Partizan Lab, Blur and Dreamworks SKG), focusing on certain aspects such as working environment, hierarchical structure, technical side and financial issues. (English|French)

Computer Arts reviews Max 2008 (aka Max 10): "... includes a dramatic boost in speed and a new scene explorer."

Computer Arts reviews ZBrush 3: "... probably the closest thing in the digital world to real-life sculpture."

The fine folks from Italian website Treddi are hosting many 3D lamp models from the 2007 Lumina catalog, some animatable, all available in Max format with corresponding IES files. Registration at Treddi.com is required and provides a good chance to practice your Italian skills. Also worth checking out are the renders that illustrate the behavior of the light setups.

The Wikimedia Foundation and Kaltura are working together to add video-wiki software that will allow users to collaborate on editing images, sounds, diagrams, animations and videos in the same manner as they do today with text. Visit Kaltura.com for more.

FXhome has announced two plugins: PowerPlug, designed for creating lightning and electricity effects, and MuzzlePlug, for simulating gunfire. Both are available for AE plugin-compatible applications.

Neil Blevins has added a new script to his collection: subdivisionAutomator, which quickly assigns a subdiv modifier (meshsmooth or turbosmooth) to all scene or selected objects. He has also updated 2 of the older scripts: texmapPreview now has doublesided material support, and the pattern can now be applied as a bump or diffuse (default); objectReplacer now works properly with the selection set function. Neil has also tested the scripts in Max 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit) and has confirmed that they all work fine. As always, the scripts are available from Neilblevins.com.

"Why does my Adobe Creative Suite software make calls to the *.2O7.net subnet at startup?" Adobe provides some explanations, shows how to disable the hidden "features", and promises next time they will inform users better. It must be said that it's good to at least see them take customers' concerns seriously and react promptly.

Roadkill is a standalone UV mapping application that can be called from 3DS Max, Maya and Softimage XSI. Roadkill works with LSCM (Least Squares Conformal Mapping) and ABF (Angle Based Flattening) algorithms taken from Blender and is released as free software under the GNU license.

(Updated January 11, 2008) Quite a few other researchers have also received Technical Achievement Awards for their work on fluid dynamics, including Ron Fedkiw, Duncan Brinsmead, Stephan Trojansky, and many more. Read the complete list at Oscars.org.
Echoes of partying can still be heard at the Angel Cavero street in Madrid. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has granted a Technical Achievement Award to Víctor Gonzalez, Ignacio Vargas and Angel Tena from Next Limit, for the development of RealFlow, the fluids simulation software. Visit NextLimit.com for more.

Check out a list of inventions that made the headlines in 2007 and will be changing the world around us in the coming years.

Kelly Murdock reviews Max 2008 for GameDev.net: "... Many of the sluggish aspects of the software have been [made] quick and responsive, especially when working with large scenes."

The Tiffen Dfx digital filter suite offers up to 1000 filters, including simulations of many Tiffen glass filters, specialized lenses, optical lab processes, film grain, exacting color correction plus natural light and photographic effects, all now in a controlled digital environment with either 8 or 16 bits per channel processing. The digital filters are available as a standalone application for still images, or as separate plugins for either still imaging or video and film post production software. Visit Tiffen.com for more.

Michele Bousquet and Allan McKay are offering Low Poly modeling and FumeFX workshops respectively at the CGSociety.

Not entirely realistic yet, but getting there. Check out the animation at Ron Fedkiw's site.