HairFX for 3ds Max 5.1 to 9.0

+ hairfx is an sophisticated fur and hair solution for Autodesk's® 3ds Max. Being the successor to the popluar Shag: Fur and Shag: Hair plug-ins, it's now much more evolved and offers various advanced tools including a new anti-aliasing engine to help produce smooth, non-jagged hair and fur strands, a new Cloth Mesh converter to support reactor® 2, clothfx, and SimCloth's. As part of the Autodesk Certified 3ds Max Plug-in program, hairfx now also offers bucket-based rendering support for rendering technologies including finalRender Stage-1 and VRay. This helps conserve memory over the default stripe size rendering for Scanline scenes with these powerful renderers. Composite shadows from light sources can easily generate hairfx shadows in addition to shadows specific to tools like V-Ray and finalRender.
>> Download HairFX for 3ds Max

4th Istanbul International Animation Festival

+ The 4Th Istanbul International Animation Festival will be held on 3-8 of December. And "Call for Entries" has been announced for the 4Th İstanbul ANIMATION AND VISUAL EFFECT Short Film Competition, in seven different categories.The competition is open to all international/National animator and have no entry fee.
Competition Categories:
- IAF Grand Prize: The best blended short film about story and animation technique.
- Turk Short: Best short film made by Turk animator or animators.
- Advertisement: Advertisement film which includes one or more animation technique.
- Music Video: Music video which includes one or more animation technique.
- Motion Graphic: Animation short film by motion graphic technique.
- Student Film: Animation short film made by student.
- First Film: Animation short film made by a person's first experience.
......Short films produced in 2005 or after, are only accepted for entry. The Application deadline is on 30Th of October 2007 (until 18:00) and Announce date of accepted films will be 12Th of November Monday.Entry form has to be filled completely for each entry and sent along with film copy. For more information, please visit: www.iafistanbul.com

CGI Animation Movie Ministers to Children of Katrina & the World

+ HOLLYWOOD, Calif. –- Family Friendly Films, LLC announces that the popular e-book, “Zea Zoo and the Land of Boo: An Urban Fairy Tale,” has entered into movie production stage after making its presence known online. Based on a popular children’s poem, “Zea Zoo and the Land of Boo” was so successful as an e-book that it is now being made into a computer-generated illustration (CGI) short animated movie. Targeting the vastly under-served urban youth/family markets, “Zea Zoo and the Land of Boo” has nurtured an international, online audience that has created branding as a positive youth/family-friendly favorite.
“The film is refreshingly new and much anticipated in the animation film industry,” P.D. Blackmon of Family Films, said. Blackmon has recently returned to study at the UCLA Film School after 20+ years in the media industry as a writer/director and producer.Post-production VIP screenings of the film are being sponsored by Women in Films (Beverly Hills) and Universal Studios. Equity partnership and distribution deals are currently being shopped. CGI animation has eclipsed other animation forms and has emerged as one of the most successful film-art forms. Through state-of-the art CGI animation, coupled with traditional artistry, Family Friendly Films has achieved a new level of storytelling that still pays homage to Walt Disney and other great past animators. The film’s characters are reality and fantasy based, giving the animation studio extreme longitude to tell a story while exploring creative boundaries. At the center of the story is a young, disenchanted boy from Bay Village, a town near the Gulf Coast of Mexico. He gets caught in Hurricane Katrina, nearly drowns, and awakens in the “Land of Boo,” a magical wonderland under the sea. While there, he befriends unique characters who help him to return home to save his family and friends.
The boy’s efforts are fraught with challenge and he must continue to stay one step ahead of King Nino, Queen Elvia and their evil followers the “SeaWeeds” who seek revenge and, ultimately, his death.The film is being produced by Family Friendly Films, LLC, Family Film Animations Studio and Blackmon Entertainment.
To learn more, visit: www.landofboo.com

ZAppLink v3 for Zbrush

+ Pixologic, Inc. has announced the release of ZApplink Version 3 for Zbrush. ZAppLink 3 is a ZBrush plugin that allows you to seamlessly integrate your favorite image editing software into your ZBrush workflow. Call up your image editing package while in ZBrush, use it to modify the active ZBrush document or tool, and then go straight back into ZBrush. Some of the ZApplink features includes; # Create New ZBrush Layers in Photoshop # Store views for your model to be painted in your image editing software # Create ZBrush Stencils in Photoshop via selection tools and many more.
For full features list and free download of ZAppLink - Click Here

D&AD Awards 2008 (Yellow Pencils)

+ D&AD has announced "Call for Entries" for 2008 D&AD Global Awards, in 30 different categories encompassing all aspects of creative communications from writing and art direction to architecture, Graphic design and photography. The D&AD Awards, which is also popularly known as the "Yellow Pencils", are one of the most internationally prestigious creative awards for the design and advertising industry. D&AD awards has been rewarding creative excellence since 1962.
The D&AD Global Awards offer the creative community the opportunity to be judged by its harshest critics - its peers. Over 270 eminent creative practitioners selected for their expertise in their field, looking for great ideas that are well executed and appropriate to their mediums. So, now its your chance to hold well respected and popular "Yellow Pencil," and do remember to submit your entry before 14 November 2007, to avail a discount of 10% on entry fee. The regular online Entry Deadline is Wednesday 16 January 2008 and all postal entries must arrive at D&AD by Monday 4 February 2008.Also note that, the D&AD Student Awards 2008, will be officially launched late this month, and tentative Entry deadline is Thursday 20th March 2008.
For categories and prices for the D&AD Awards 2008 - click here
For more information regarding D&AD Student Awards 2008 - click here
For D&AD Pencil winning work from previous years - click here
For getting Award easy way - visit local stationary shop :)

SWAY studio’s VFX work on a recent Nissan Rogue commercial entitled “Seamless”

+ Visual Effects Studio "Sway" delivers New Nissan Rogue Commercial spot, which showcase quite Astonishing Virtual Environment and Ground-Breaking VFX Techniques. For this stunning Nissan Rogue commercial entitled “Seamless,” Sway VFX team integrated live action, motion control and PhotoReal computer graphics (CG) techniques to create an astounding virtual environment. The :30 spot creates the illusion of the Nissan Rogue on a real studio set, surrounded by virtual projection screens displaying the environment through which the car is traveling. The strong CG imagery in “Seamless” allows the viewer to journey in and out of this illusion by creating the impression that the car is actually traveling through a real live environment.
“This commercial required intense planning and pre-visualization,” noted SWAY Visual Effects Supervisor, Wayne England. “An elaborate single shot camera move required many motion control passes to account for the spot’s complex and ambitious nature, but once combined with our photorealistic CG methodologies and compositing, the project gained a great deal of dynamic and compelling motion.”
A precise CG replication of the vehicle’s exterior was seamlessly integrated with a live action interior, which required intense 3D tracking and compositing techniques. This combined with flawless compositing of all motion control passes, allowed the characters inside the car to appear and change as the camera moved throughout the shot. Because the car could not physically move within the visible soundstage setting, the ground beneath the Rogue required a large amount of CG effort for which careful reference photography and high dynamic range (HDR) images were taken. Through texturing and modeling details, the car appears to roll on a large conveyor belt, while simultaneously driving on a realistic road. To further create the Rogue’s apparent motion, SWAY captured live-action high-definition footage using a specially configured three camera rig that collectively captured a 150 degree field of view. The footage was then stabilized, re-timed and projected onto virtual screens which appeared to surround the Rogue. This required considerable synchronization inside the 3D scene, so that the content of the screens would appear in exact alignment with the 3D elements within the shot.
During the live-action shooting process, SWAY additionally captured HDR images of sky environments, and after careful editing, used them as the primary CG lighting source for the entire spot. SWAY utilized a variety of off-the-shelf hardware and software to complete the Nissan spot. The most prominently used tools were NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics boards, NUKE and After Effects for compositing and LightWave for pre-visualization animation. Autodesk’s 3ds Max 9 was used as the primary 3D package while PF Track was used for 3D tracking.
>> Visit Sway Website
>> Watch Nissan Rogue Seamless

Schematic Material Editor 1.0 For 3DS MAX

+ Schematic Material Editor is very handy open source plugin/script for 3ds Max and is developed by Finland based young digital artist Jerry Ylilammi. With Schematic Material Editor, 3ds Max users can create very complex, animated and procedural materials n maps very easily. It is perfectly "safe" (doesn't corrupt your max files) and work well with 3ds Max 8 (32bit) and 3ds Max 9 (both 32 and 64bit). All max files and materials created with Schematic Material Editor work even without it installed.
Features Includes;
- Schematic/Node based material editor
- Customizable user interface
- Automatically arranges nodes in sensible way
- Hides all unnecessary submaterial/map slots
- Controls to easily hide/unhide nodes
- Ability to handle multiple schematic views
- Support for 3rd party material and maps
- Support for controllers (Color, Float, Script etc.)
- Advanced Math and Channel nodes for complex material and map setups
- Materials and maps are fully compatible with systems without Schematic Material Editor installed
- Scenes saved with Schematic Material Editor info can be opened even without it installed
- Material and maps are stored inside Schematic Material Editor so they aren't lost even if not present in Material Editor or Scene.
>> Download Schematic Material Editor (for Max 8/9)

3D Invigorator For After Effects

+ Lets have a look at 3D Invigorator; an innovative plugin by zaxwerks for Adobe After Effects, which is available in two versions - 3D Invigorator classic and 3D Invigorator Pro. The 3D Invigorator brings power of 3d to the host application Adobe After Effects, thus enabling AE user to create stunning titles and logos in Three dimension. The 3d Invigorator gives depth to After Effect layers and can generate nice sculpted 3D models with the press of a button. The Professional version of 3d invigorator have all the features of Classic version, beside that; the PRO version gives you the incredible ability to bring 3D models right into AE.
The PRO Version also cut short your rendering time by using the power of openGL enabled Graphics cards, especially when you import 3d elements into After Effects. The plugin support import from major 3d application like 3ds Max, Maya, DXF, lightwave3D etc.,and New Version 4.0 of 3d Invigorator have its own Import/Export Format for importing and exporting 3D objects. The new Invigorator object format enables you to set up 3D logos, titles and 3D text, color them, apply the materials, maps and object settings, and then save them into files which you can reuse, thus effectivly giving user its own custom library for future Invigorator projects. Beside giving its user power to incorporate 3d into a 2d pipeline, the plugin comes with many useful features, including;
- Simple 3D Primitives and 3D-Text
- 3D Motion Blur (a must have feature for motion Graphic artists)
- Layer Map Animation
- Highlight Mapping
- Cartoon and Matte Coloring
- Useful Shadow rendering
Although, I am not an After Effects artist (tried demo couple of times:) but; its makes perfect sense to me that incorporating 3d with-in a 2d application, with such a ease would really improve productiveness of any artist working in Motion Graphics Industry. So, I recommends you guys must download its demo and better check it out,.. if you haven’t already done that!
>> 3D Invigorator For AE

Bionatics LandSIM3D®

+ Bionatics, the specialist in 3D plant modeling and landscape design has released LandSIM3D®; an simulation and design software for quickly model existing landscape in 3D from GIS data sources. Import your project, visualize its integration in a real site, study its alternatives, its evolution in the future and decide for the best options. Make great presentations of the validated project with realism using realtime 3D.
LandSIM3D can 3d model landscapes from geo-referenced data using GIS data files like Shapefile® in order to make a realistic 3D model of the existing site. The project can then be smoothly inserted with precision in the 3D model. LandSIM3D brings 3D into the earth of the landscape profesionals' traditional design and study methods. (text from site)
>> Bionatics LandSIM3D®

CG News Tid-Bits*

Animation Mentor® unveils its third Student Showcase today, as the sixth graduating class begins its first term at the online animation school. A six-minute compendium of student clips, the showcase demonstrates the quality of the work--and the learning experience--at Animation Mentor.
Luxology® LLC, an independent technology company developing next-generation 3D content creation software, today announced that Pixar Animation Studios and Luxology have finalized an agreement under which Pixar has licensed its Subdivision Surface Patents to Luxology.
Richard Rosenman has recently directed a new spot for Teletoon Canada.
damnfx is pleased to announce the delivery of 12 minutes of character animation and visual effects for Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure. The large-format, stereoscopic film from National Geographic, directed bySean MacLeod Phillips and produced by Jini Durr, Lisa Truitt and Jack Geist, opens today worldwide in a record number of IMAX, IMAX 3D, Real D and other specialty theaters.
Mr Furniture has announced Mental Ray Cabinet Design Collection. All the 3d furniture models possess ready to use Mental Ray Materials soyou can save time applying materials yourself.
The Making of Making of Al Pacino Sculpt by 3dm3 member Vikram from Chennai.
Matt Sibley takes us through setting up a camera to match a background image in 3dsmax.
Read CGchannel interview with very talented cgArtist Taron.
Read CGarchitect interview with very talented Digital Artist Tino Schaedler.
One more photoshop video tutorial about how to achive Sin City style looks.
Watch 2007 showreel of motion graphics and visual effects studio, Circus Family.
HP ToyRama animation Contest will end on 9th november 2007.
Our CGToolbar gets 100% Clean certificate by downloads-portal.com

+ CGIndia bring yet another very Useful and Free tutorial for 3ds Max Users. And this time CG Artists and 3ds Max Instructor Mario Malagrino shows us; How to create 3dsmax Advance Materials for Car paint and/or any other high Gloss Industrial Design product. You can use these advance Materials on any product design, especially for 3d mobile phones, mp3 players, bikes....or simply for a concept car. If you like to share your knowledge with CG Community and have any tutorials, we will be glad to feature them on our website along with description about author and website link. Send your tutorials to: cgindia at gmail.com.
>> 3dsMax Advance Materials - How to!

BUMP MAPPER™ | AE

+ Just have come across with this Vfx plugin for Adobe® After Effects, and it seems quite promising to me. Formally speaking; Bump Mapper is visual effect plugin which can turn your image or video layer into bas-relief alighted by point light source and works with After Effects version 5.0 or higher. The Plugin parameter options offers lot of control over the desired effects and even playing with them leads to stunning visual effects. Its Developer says; “Glass or metal, plastic or stone, water or sand - you can simulate different textures and effects using Bump Mapper™ controls. You can use it to make a bronze coin or liquid gel or something unprecedented before. You can even start with simple picture. This product is a great addition to Adobe® After Effects®. This product has endless possibilities.”….We say; you better download a demo,..use your creative mind and find out yourself. One more thing plugin is not available for .MAC (Windows Only).
>> Download BumpMapper 4 AE

2008 Next Generation® Design Competition

+ Metropolis Magazine has announced; Call for Entries, for it's 5th Annual "Next Generation Design Competition." The Next Generation Design Competition is open to designers as well as design students; who are allowed to submit Up to three submission "Under, any of Six Sub-Categories including Graphic Design", whether they are participating as individual OR team of collaborators. A nominal fee of $75 will be charged for each entry submission. Metropolis Magazine is offering a prize of $10,000 to the winner and; Is intended to support designers whose entries reflect considerations of sustainability, distribution and manufacturing systems, economy, current technologies and materials, function, and provocative form and can speak to any one of the 6 sub-disciplines supported by the magazine—product design, "Graphic Design", architecture, urban planning, landscape design and interior design.
The 2008 Next Generation® Design Competition focuses on "WATER". In a world of killer floods and rising tides, potable water is a finite resource. Metropolis Says; "We call on your innovative design solutions at all scales and sizes—products, interiors, buildings, landscapes, communication systems, or anything else you’ve dreamed up—for handling this most precious and most threatened natural resource. The time for new thinking on water is now." - WHAT’S YOUR SOLUTION? All entries must be submitted electronically via online submission form, by January 4, 2008. The winner will be featured in the May 2008 issue of Metropolis magazine and on Metropolis Magazine website at metropolismag.com.
>> Next Gen. Design Competition

Simbiont 2.5x for 3ds Max 9

Plugin for 3D Studio Max R9
+ Darkling Simulations has released SimbiontMAX update for 3ds Max R9 64-bit and 32-bit. Simbionts are Plugins for rendering DarkTree procedural shaders, 3D maps, and materials in 3d studio Max as well as other leading 3D software packages including Cinema4D, Lightwave3D, trueSpace and Renderman. DarkTree is an advanced procedural shaders authoring tool, used for creating surface shaders and photorealistic textures, interactively. DarkTree textures and shaders can be saved out as bitmaps or imported into a 3D application, by using free Simbiont Plugins. The Simbiont Plugins and it's update is free for licensed DarkTree users. Non-Darktree owners are free to download Simbionts Plugins and can use them; with the example shaders available on their website.
>> Download Simbiont for 3dsMax 9

Japanese Graphic Magazine Idea-mag Special Feature on Wim Crouewel's Design

+ Japanese Graphic Design Magazine Idea-Mag has put together an interesting Special feature on; Dutch Graphic designer "Wim Crouewel" adventures into the experimental design worlds. This issue of Idea-mag has comprehensively covered creative endeavors of Wim Crouewel's by looking back into his representative design works; including book designs, posters, logotypes, stamps, typefaces and others. Infect Idea-mag has devoted its 190 pages to his design works, including two historical essay's by Wim Crouewel and some comments from important design figures are also featured.
Wim Crouwel was born in 1928 in Groningen, Netherlands, is a Dutch "graphic designer" and typographer. Wim Crouwel 1976 Number Postal Stamp 5ctHe is known for his posters and exhibition design for the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Crouwel has designed several font sets, of which the New Alphabet (1967) is best known. New Alphabet is a highly abstract font, based on a dot-matrix system.
Idea-mag issue 323

Cinema 4D R10.5

+ MAXON Computer GmbH has announces the availability of CINEMA 4D Release 10.5 with wealth of new features including DWG Import, XRefs, new MOCCA tools and accelerated HAIR Rendering. Maxon boast the newly added features and tools will dramatically enhance the new version of CINEMA 4D software. Infect, With a total of over 90 substantial improvements packed into the update, Release 10.5 makes its mark as arguably the most comprehensive .5 update in CINEMA 4D history.
Maxon says; ”Sporting a wealth of new features added to the core CINEMA 4D program, the update also takes in a number of enhancements that have been made to CINEMA 4D's optional modules. Chief among these are new tools for MOCCA and MoGraph, plus major enhancements to HAIR. One highlight is the new DWG import filter. CINEMA 4D users now have access to one of the most widely used CAD exchange formats on the market. AutoCAD versions 13 to 2008 are supported, including layers, blocks and references. A further boost to file exchange for customers in the architectural field is the new connection to All plan 2008, which guarantees loss-free transfer from CINEMA 4D R10.5." The CINEMA 4D R10.5 upgrade is available for purchase immediately from MAXON or your MAXON products distributor.
+ MAXON Computer GmbH has announces the availability of CINEMA 4D Release 10.5 with wealth of new features including DWG Import, XRefs, new MOCCA tools and accelerated HAIR Rendering. Maxon boast the newly added features and tools will dramatically enhance the new version of CINEMA 4D software. Infect, With a total of over 90 substantial improvements packed into the update, Release 10.5 makes its mark as arguably the most comprehensive .5 update in CINEMA 4D history.
Maxon says; ”Sporting a wealth of new features added to the core CINEMA 4D program, the update also takes in a number of enhancements that have been made to CINEMA 4D's optional modules. Chief among these are new tools for MOCCA and MoGraph, plus major enhancements to HAIR. One highlight is the new DWG import filter. CINEMA 4D users now have access to one of the most widely used CAD exchange formats on the market. AutoCAD versions 13 to 2008 are supported, including layers, blocks and references. A further boost to file exchange for customers in the architectural field is the new connection to All plan 2008, which guarantees loss-free transfer from CINEMA 4D R10.5." The CINEMA 4D R10.5 upgrade is available for purchase immediately from MAXON or your MAXON products distributor.
More information C4D R10.5

REALVIZ® to Showcase Stitcher®

REALVIZ® to Showcase Stitcher® Unlimited 5.6 & HDR Imaging Studio at PhotoPlus Expo in New York (Booth: 1461)


Sophia Antipolis, France (October 17, 2007) - REALVIZ®, a leader in image
processing software development, will be showcasing their latest
technological advancements at this year's PhotoPlus show, which takes place in New York, USA from 18.-20. October 2007. Designed for professionals in the photographic and imaging industries, PhotoPlus Expo showcases the latest advances in photography, both traditional and digital. At PhotoPlus 2007, the REALVIZ team will be demonstrating the REALVIZ HDR Imaging Studio, unveiled in June 2007, as well as REALVIZ Stitcher® Unlimited 5.6, which became available in May of this year. REALVIZ are currently offering a special 20% discount off their award-winning Stitcher product range (including Stitcher Unlimited, Stitcher Pro & Stitcher Express), as well as the HDR Imaging Studio to coincide with this event. Offer valid 17.-26. October 2007*.

About Stitcher Unlimited 5.6
REALVIZ Stitcher is a photo stitching and image assembling software for the
creation of professional-level panoramas and 360° virtual tours. Starting
from digital images, the software's powerful central automatic stitching
engine enables a diverse range of users to create high-quality panoramas,
large-format prints, matte paintings, reflection maps and textures for
film/television, as well as dynamic virtual tours for the real estate and
tourism industries.

REALVIZ Stitcher Unlimited 5.6 now has full HDR compatibility for the very
first time, enabling users to load, stitch, and save HDR (High Dynamic
Range) images. With HDR imaging, users are able to create projects, which
combine under- and over-exposed areas in the same harmonious panorama. A perfect synergy with the external tools available on the market for image
tone mapping, such as Adobe® Photoshop®, Photomatix® or HDR Shop, is ensured through compatibility with the most commonly used HDR image file formats: OpenEXR (.exr, 16 or 32 bits per channel), and Radiance RGBE (.hdr). The enhanced core engine of Stitcher Unlimited 5.6 makes all image processing operations available for images with 32 bits per channel. HDR panoramas produced with Stitcher Unlimited 5.6 can be used as a lighting environment map for 3D studios to obtain ultra-realistic 3D scenes, and to ensure consistent lighting of virtual objects placed in real environments.

"Over the last 6 or 7 years, we have tried many different programs to
achieve a high-quality 360-degree image suitable for large format
reproduction. Some of the images have been up to 20m in length. Without a
doubt, the REALVIZ Stitcher software series, and most recently Stitcher
Unlimited, has produced the best results." Nick Wood, Photographer & Author, UK - www.nickwoodphoto.com

About the REALVIZ HDR Imaging Studio:
The REALVIZ HDR Imaging Studio, combines Stitcher 5.6, VTour 1.2 HDR and
Photomatix Pro, and is the only software bundle available today for the
creation of HDR environments for virtual reality, industrial design, special
effects and video game applications, starting from digital snapshots and
panoramas. With Stitcher 5.6, users can build HDR panoramas and directly
export them as environment maps in their favorite 3D package. VTour 1.2 HDR now also enables digital content creators, for the first time ever, to add depth information to their HDR environment maps for Spatial Image-Based Lighting (SIBL). The REALVIZ HDR Imaging Studio is available in English for Windows®.

Demonstrations of REALVIZ Stitcher Unlimited and the REALVIZ HDR Imaging
Studio will take place at the PhotoPlus Expo (Booth 1461) October 18.-20.
2007. www.photoplusexpo.com

* 20% discount offer valid on purchases from the REALVIZ Online Store only, using the discount code 'PHOTOEXPO', from 17. -26. October 2007.

To visit the Online Store, and for further details on the REALVIZ Stitcher
product portfolio and HDR Imaging Studio, visit: www.realviz.com, or contact sales@realviz.com.


About REALVIZ
REALVIZ is a leading developer of image based creation software
headquartered in Sophia Antipolis, France, with satellite sales offices in
Los Angeles, London and Paris. REALVIZ develops a suite of image-based
content creation solutions for the film, broadcast, gaming, digital imaging,
architecture and Internet communities. Derived from years of research
efforts at the renowned INRIA Lab in France, the Company's applications
enable 2D and 3D artists to easily and cost-effectively tackle complex
digital imaging projects. REALVIZ' award-winning products are used by
thousands of professional photographers, as well as leading production and
effects houses, web design, game development and architectural companies
worldwide, including NHK, TBS, Toyota, NTT, Okinawa General Education
Center, Boeing, Daimler Chrysler, The Orphanage, Inc, Cinesite, Framestore
CFC, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Warner Brothers Animation, Electronic Arts,
Duran Duboi and many others.

REALVIZ technology has been used to create stunning visual effects in many
recent major movies, including: 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix',
'Underdog', 'Blades of Glory', 'Zodiac', 'Goal! 2: Living the Dream', 'The
Host', 'Children of Men', 'Superman Returns', 'V for Vendetta', 'Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire', 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', 'Sin
City', and 'The Day After Tomorrow'. www.realviz.com

©2007 REALVIZ®. All other product or service names are the property of
their respective owners.

3ds max 2008 Download the 30-Day Trial Now

Viewing and Handling of Large, Complex Scenes
3ds Max 2008 software delivers new viewport technology and optimizations that result in vastly improved interactivity of even the largest, most complex scenes. Common tasks and operations—selection, material assignment, transform, grouping, cloning, and many more—are now significantly faster, making 3ds Max 2008 the most streamlined version of the software ever. Plus, a new Scene Explorer makes managing large scenes—and interacting with hundreds or even thousands of objects—far more intuitive.

Review Rendering
Produce stunning photo-real imagery, faster. With the release of 3ds Max 2008, Autodesk unveils Review. This powerful new toolset supports iterative rendering workflows by delivering interactive previewing of shadows, the 3ds Max sun/sky environment, and mental ray® Architectural and Design material settings. Based on the latest game engine technology, Review gives you the instant visual feedback you need to iterate rapidly.

Support for Complex Pipelines and Workflows
Quickly extend 3ds Max or streamline multi-application workflows. The new MAXScript ProEditor provides you with an intuitive interface for working with MAXScript that will streamline the scripting workflow, making it easier to author scripts that automate and customize 3ds Max. Deeper support for the DWG™ and FBX® file formats results in faster, more accurate importing of data from other popular Autodesk applications; plus, new features facilitate working with this imported data.

Artist-Friendly Modeling
Enjoy a less menu-dependent modeling experience. 3ds Max 2008 gives you a more streamlined, artist-friendly modeling workflow through a collection of hands-on modeling UI options that let you focus more on the creative process.

Download trial
The Autodesk® 3ds Max® 30-day trial provides free** access to the software for noncommercial use. Animation and 3D graphics students, industry professionals, or anyone interested in breaking into the world of computer graphics (CG) now has the opportunity to explore all aspects of 3ds Max software.

Available in 64-bit and 32-bit versions for Microsoft® Windows Vista™ and XP Professional operating systems. To receive a free** 30-day trial download go to LINK

Useful tools for editors: Counter Display

Here is a handy little generator for Final Cut Pro (or Final Cut Express as the site lists several plug-ins written for FCE) that has the ability to add a counter over footage. It does a number of other things but the real usefulness to me is its ability to either count either up or down, to or from zero, for the length you specify via the generator’s length in the timeline. You can display hours, minutes, seconds and/or frames as well as adding custom text. Font sizes, colors and the background can be changed to make it very customizable. It’s not a timecode reader or generator (you already get those in FCP) but can be useful in its own way. The only downside is that it’s not a real-time generator so it does have to be rendered. Rewrite that thing to make it real-time and it would be darn near perfect. A number of other plug-ins are available as well. Oh, and they’re free!

Tutorial - Space scene (view to the Earth)

In this tutorials you will learn how to create Space scene with Eart, Sun, and stars. You will use light and effect tehnics to create Sun. Here you can find maps used for Earth.
Read more
3D Studio Max Tutorials