Sascha Geddert, one of the artists behind the "Fallen" short film, has posted online his new demo reel. Enjoy!

This year, Autodesk is offering Virtual SIGGRAPH on its online community site the AREA. A live stream of Autodesk’s User Group Meeting will run on the Virtual SIGGRAPH site, August 11 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. PDT. You can also access live product demonstrations and customer presentations being shown at the Autodesk booth during show hours from Tuesday, Aug 12 to Thursday, Aug 14. After SIGGRAPH, recordings of the events will also be posted on the site. More information is currently available at area.autodesk.com/siggraph.

We review Christian Bloch's HDRI Handbook. Those interested in HDRI, image-based lighting and panorama photography will most likely find the contents of the book worth checking out. Also of note, SIGGRAPH 2008 has an upcoming class on the subject, titled "High-Dynamic-Range Imaging for Artists".

Mexican artist Guillermo M. Leal Llaguno is developing a great script that brings Maxwell's "multilight" functionality (per light/group of lights pass compositing within the application) to 3DS Max. The script currently works with VRay, and the author has mentioned Mental Ray support will be added soon. It's expected to be available to the public next week. Read the following thread at CGTalk and check out the video for more.

The new extension includes: ProOptimizer modifier for optimizing high-poly models (a reworked and enhanced version of Mootool's Polygon Cruncher), 12 new Particle Flow operators (based on Particle Flow Tools: Box#1, featuring tighter integration with Max, improved memory and performance) and a ProSound toolset that incorporates multi-track audio capabilities with Maxscript support (Boomer Labs' most useful Sound Trax plugin). What's great news is that Autodesk has hired Oleg Bayborodin once again to develop software for the base Max application (or in this case to better integrate software he had already developed for Max), which could hint at ongoing efforts in that direction. Taking into account ICE-related developments on the Softimage front this would not be a bad idea.

A great tutorial on how to add snow to objects in your scenes, by Adam Zimirski.

Check out an interview with Mudbox developer Dave Cardwell and a video preview at Autodesk's Area.

Blur Studios have brought the BlurBeta section of their site back to life, making a load of tools for both 3ds Max and XSI available for download. Take a look at this CGTalk thread for all of the details.

Neil Blevins has updated his SoulburnScripts collection, adding 1 new script (polyCountSelector: Selects objects based on their facecount), and updating several older scripts (bitmapCollector, modifierUtilities, subdivisionAutomator, transformSelector, blendedBoxMapMaker and objectPainter). As usual, all scripts are available from Neilblevins.com.

Danish director and visual FX artist Henrik Bjerregaard Clausen has posted online his latest demo reel. Check it out!

(Updated July 17, 2008) Softimage has made available a new video with more details on ICE. As mentioned in the video, nodes can be encapsulated into components with a specific functionality, which can then be uploaded and shared with other users. More ICE-related demo videos can be found at Softimage.com.
Particles Flow for XSI. As messages posted at Orbaz Technologies forums attest, XSI users have been asking for better particle control capabilities for years. Softimage developers have taken notice and delivered a node-based creation environment that covers particles and many other aspects of XSI. New Features in XSI 7 include: an interactive creative environment (ICE), optimizations to the core architecture, access to Mental Ray's Importons and irradiance particles, render manager improvements, new realtime shading API (RTS 3.0), new GLSL Shaders, Text Editor Widget, improvements to texturing tools, global controls for working in linear color space and managing Gamma correction, and more. XSI 7 is expected to be available before September 30.

Chaos Software announced the feature list of their upcoming sequence player: ability to run file sequences per layer, full alpha support per layer, various layer modes (add, multiply,etc), per-layer caching, exports to After Effects and Nuke, built-in HTTP server for remote collaboration, etc. Visit ChaosGroup.com for more.

Red Giant Software has released Instant HD Advanced, a set of tools aimed at resizing footage to higher resolutions. Instant HD Advanced is compatible with After Effects.

The deadline for Splutterfish's T-shirt contest is just under a week away. Visit Splutterfish.com for more.

An unbiased, production-oriented open source renderer is under development. The code is an authorized fork of Matt Pharr's and Greg Humphreys's PBRT. More information and a gallery of images at LuxRender.net. If you'd like to be able to use Max with LuxRender, vote at their poll.

Check out this short film by ProMotion studios, created with Max & Blender. For more info read a thread at CGTalk on the subject.

Project Overlord is a project and asset management application designed with ease-of-use and practical functionality in mind. Manage sequences, shots, tasks, and assets from an easy-to-navigate user interface, all part of a client/server environment. More information, screenshots and sample videos available at Give-Soft.com.

Some of RV’s features are: uncompressed playback, batch convert, image compositing, realtime hardware color correction, an HDR image pipeline and multi-channel audio with realtime floating point resampling. Visit TweakSoftware.com for more.