Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in collaboration with Microsoft have developed a new method for enhancing details in an image at variable scales while avoiding visual artifacts. It also solves important issues with tone mapping operators when processing HDR images (i.e. halos). Don't miss the video demonstration.

New Scientist Tech has the news.

CGArena interviews Italian artist and RebelThink founder Alessandro Cangelosi.

ScanlineVFX, Los Angeles is currently working on killer shots for Roland Emmerich's "2012". They're doing a lot of work with Max, so they're looking for Max users that fit the categories of "FX ninjas" and/or "generalists" to join their Los Angeles team.   [ more... ]

Alien Skin have released the latest version of their image resizing plugin for Photoshop. Features include: more control over simulated natural texture and film grain, the ability to clean up JPEG compression artifacts and sharpen edges allowing for enlargement of low quality source images, Auto Rotate to match the orientation of a photo, sharpening adaptation to match the degree of enlargement and paper type, and more. Read the whole PR at CreativeCow.net.

On creativity, brain trusts, Newt and fixing a Bolt. Two great articles discussing Pixar's inner culture and its current influence on Disney, one at the Harvard Business Review ("How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity"), and one at the New York Times ("Disney and Pixar: The Power of the Prenup").

Jay Holben discusses the pros and cons of traditional vs. digital filters in this review of the Tiffen Dfx suite: "... Where the Dfx software really shines is in doing things that glass filters can’t do, starting, namely, with dynamic effects."

A video tutorial by Italian artist Giorgio Luciano that covers female body modeling, from setting up the references, low poly body modeling, hand and foot modeling to completion.

Mike de la Flor reviews Max 2009 for Studio Daily "... lags behind sibling Maya and competitor Softimage|XSI in character animation (...) digital sculpting should be part of the 3ds Max toolset, not a separate program."

The Area has an interesting interview with Moscow-based Panzar Studio. One of the artists even quotes Hesiod's Theogony.

Another excellent short film coming from France, this time by Supinfocom students Jean-François Barthélémy, Maël François and Carlos Felipe León. Not created with Max, but definitely worth checking out!

You are what you search for. Searching the web is taking another step forward with TinEye, a great image search engine built by Idée, currently in open beta. A Firefox plugin is available.

Toon Boom Animation has released Toon Boom Studio v4.5. Features include live-action cartooning, better Photoshop integration and new export options. Visit ToonBoom.com for more.

GDT was created to provide a one-stop resource of available tools for game developers everywhere. Submissions, corrections and suggestions are welcome. Visit GameDeveloperTools.com.

A great project by researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle.

OnLatte has been demoing at SIGGRAPH a machine that can print drawings, designs and logos on foamed drinks.

Car crash as art? New impressive images posted at Raph.com.

Check out the great visualization work of English artist Peter Guthrie.

Poly tools, enhanced interactive preview renderer, grass painting and a great new fiber creation and rendering system. Check 'em out!

Adobe Director 11 has been reviewed by Michael Burns for Digital Arts and Kelly Murdock for GameDev.net.

The latest version of Mental Images' renderer offers irradiance particle support, motion-dependent displacement (displacement details are reduced as motion becomes more extreme resulting in faster render times), improved displacement maps with render time adaptively-tessellated subdivision surfaces, enhancements for combining multiple volume shaders in a scene, better support for OpenEXR, etc. According to the press release, the Maya implementation "will allow" for interactive rendering while working on a scene. The next version of Max will probably provide the same capabilities. Read the whole PR at MentalImages.com.

The limited beta will allow studios to incorporate Image Metrics' markerless facial animation technology into their internal pipelines. Find out more at Image-Metrics.com.

Eyeon have disclosed more information on their upcoming collaborative conforming, versioning and editing front-end system. The Generation line is comprised of three components that work together in a group capacity as part of the larger pipeline: Generation Suite, Generation Studio and Generation Player. Details and pricing at Eyeonline.com.

Color Symmetry is a set of plugins and small applications for handling color consistently in animation, graphics, visual effects and post-production systems. Color Symmetry also lets users author, share and use film looks directly within their everyday tools. Version 2.0 features include support for RAW digital acquisition workflows as well as a comprehensive range of industry-standard LUTs. More at ColorSymmetry.com.

New features include FiberFX (for creating hair, fur and feathers), Collada, FBX and OBJ support, enhanced IK, new lighting system API plugin architecture, disk-based GI Caching (for camera moves as well as general animation), etc. NewTek will be providing a free trial version for download from their site. Read the whole PR for more.

NVidia has released drivers that enable PhysX acceleration for all GeForce 8, 9, and GTX 200 Series GPUs along with a "GeForce Power Pack" that shows the new driver's capabilities. Download it from NVidia.com. An interesting article on the subject is available from Bit-tech.net.

Massive Software have released the latest version of their crowd behavioral animation system. Version 3.5 offers Agent Fields for handling local interactions between large numbers of agents, enhanced FBX support, hair and fur dynamics, etc.

First versions of former REALVIZ software to be released by Autodesk in October. Find out the new features of ImageModeler 2009 and Stitcher Unlimited 2009 at Autodesk.com.

Version 2009 offers enhanced 3D viewport visualization, an intuitive toolset for real-time simulation, and expanded scripting capabilities for tighter pipeline integration. Find out more at Autodesk.com.

Check out some impressive time-lapse videos created out of tone mapped sequential HDR image captures.

Red Giant Software announced the release of Magic Bullet Steady, a plugin for After Effects CS3 and Final Cut Pro designed to stabilize footage and remove unwanted image noise and other low-light artifacts.

The destruction kit plugin for Max has been updated with NVidia PhysX Rigid Body support via RayFire user interface and PhysX Force Influence support for Wind, RFBomb, PBomb, Gravity, Drag. Check out the complete list of features and some sample videos at MirVadim.com.

Cebas will be showing FinalRender Stage-1 R3.0 at SIGGRAPH. New features include interactive rendering with GI and Raytracing, an iterative Anti Aliasing engine, enhanced physical sky, a Photographic Tone Mapper render effect, faster 3D motion blur, and more. Read the whole PR at Cebas.com.

(Updated August 11, 2008) CAT on ICE: Softimage have posted some interesting videos showing the work former CAT developer Phil Taylor has been doing for XSI.
Care for some ICE? More info at Softimage.com.

Eyeon Software announced the release of Fusion 6, an upgrade to their flagship compositing application. New features include: stereoscopic and multi-layer imaging system with updated support for EXR/SXR, new 3D system, production quality OpenGL renderer, 3D environment tools, 3D lighting material models (Blinn, Phong, Cook-Torrance and Ward), bump mapped materials, UVW Mapping, alpha projections and more. Read the PR at Eyeonline.com.

Autodesk announced Mudbox 2009. New features include: production-focused texture painting capabilities, performance enhancements for working with high-resolution meshes, improved interoperability with Max and Maya, etc. Mudbox 2009 is expected to be released in October, find out more at Autodesk.com.

Greeblelicious is a new gallery website dedicated to greeble artistry, created by the developers of the CGSphere project. Everyone is encouraged to participate!

Read the details at GPUCafe.com.

New features in Pixel Farm's camera tracking software include true stereoscopic tracking with the ability to export anaglyphs, a new camera solver providing greater accuracy and improved Z calibration, reference frame support, more robust Z-Depth Extraction, pattern-based User Feature tracking and many UI and workflow improvements. More information at ThePixelFarm.co.uk. (Warning: the link to The Pixel Farm's website has been removed because Google and Firefox are currently reporting it as an attack site -one that has been hacked and tries to download executable code to your computer- it's advisable to search for the site on Google to see if it's still blacklisted before visiting it)