RealVIZ's MMTrack FREE To Autodesk 3ds Max And Maya Users

- I think RealVIZ staff is working over-time, yet another release in this week. After launching Movimento and new Stitcher Product Range, RealViz a leader in image processing software development, has joined forces with Autodesk to offer Autodesk's 3ds Max and Autodesk's Maya users the unique opportunity to obtain copies of REALVIZ's automatic 3D tracking plug-in software, MMTrack, free of charge (normal retail price $560 US/490 €). The plug-ins fit seamlessly into the workflows of 3ds Max and Maya users, and combines new-generation automatic tracking technology with an unbeatable range of features, enabling users to access this world-class product at the simple click of button. MMTrack for both 3ds Max and Maya is an automatic 3D tracking plugin, which enables the seamless integration of computer-generated elements into live action footage by computing the 3D motion of the camera or the scene from the footage itself, feeding it directly into 3ds Max and Maya....................Link!!
Tags: 3ds max . 3ds Max plugins . Maya Plugins

Labels: Maya plugins

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3ds Max Plugin - RapidSD 0.8 Public Beta Available

- Gruesome Arts announces a new version of its subdivision surfaces plugin for 3ds Max. RapidSD 0.8 public beta is ready for download. RapidSD is a fresh approach to subdivision surfaces in 3ds Max environment. Designed especially for modeling stages, it not only strikes with incredible performance but also unveils a new way of "touching" the surface, along with a lot of smaller but handy features. It’s not another Mesh/TurboSmooth. It's a completely new type of objects generating subdivision surfaces identical to what is produced by the modifiers mentioned above, but responding in real-time even with very complicated meshes having two iterations.

For more info please visit gruesome-arts.com !!
Tags: 3ds Max . 3d plugins . Animation . 3d modeling

Labels: 3ds Max plugins

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UNFOLD 3D Version 5 Available

- UNFOLD3D Version 5 is now available with new features and terrific improvements. The main features of Unfold3d includes; Edges marking - Unfold3D got powerful tools to select edges to be cut. Mesh unwrapping - Unfold3D just got the best unwrapping algorithm at the moment. Surface adjust - Unfold3D will gives you an ultra low distortion uv layout. Optimized packing - When dealing with complicated meshes, positionning of all mesh parts often turns into headache. Unfold3D can do this for you by testing all possible positions and orientations for each part. Note that this algorithm is NOT a "bounding boxed algorithm", the border of each chart is taken into account to minimize wasted space....An UNFOLD3D Plug-in Version for 3ds Max will be available soon, which features Smart integration in your workflow without needing to export/import your meshes and will includes all the features from UNFOLD3D Generation 5...........Get yourself a Demo Version !!
Tags: 3d software . 3ds max plugins

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RealVIZ Launch's MoviMento

- REALVIZ, has announced that they will launch a new software Movimento, at the forthcoming SIGGRAPH Exhibition in Boston. Movimento is a state-of-the-art video-based motion capture solution "Powered by SMART", REALVIZ' powerfulautomatic 3D tracking engine. Demonstrations of Movimento connected to a 4CCD camera capture system will take place at the SIGGRAPH Exhibition (REALVIZ booth 419) from Aug 1-3, 2006.Drawing on REALVIZ' long-standing expertise in 2D and 3D motion tracking,and the solid 8-year success of MatchMover Pro within the visual effects industry, Movimento is a new software, which captures the motion of anynon-rigid object from multiple image sequences. Movimento offers users acomplete and flexible solution for facial, hand, arm and full-body motion capture across a wide range of applications, from special effects, bio-mechanical research, sports science, orthopedics and engineering to behavioral analysis. Movimento offers users the possibility to combine 3D camera tracking and motion capture processes for applications requiringnon-static cameras (on-set mocap, motions spanning a very wide area, or acomplex environment) and to automatically reconstruct 3D meshes from thetracked data. Capture is non intrusive, as it can be realized in natural orambient lighting and requires no specific hardware in the scene.......link!

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SyFlex For LightWave 3D Is Coming Soon....

- Syflex presents a new cloth simulation plugin fit for NewTek LightWave 3D. All Lightwave 3d fans are invited to give it a test-drive at our booth in SIGGRAPH, #504. Also at our booth, new SyFlex demos featuring Sylene, with motion capture by House of Moves, clips from X-Man 3, King Kong, and many other projects where SyFlex was used to simulate cloth, hair, flesh, fumes, ropes, nets, and even wings of a dragon. SyFlex is a easy to use cloth simulator, which doesn't require any tailoring skills from the animator. There is no need in creating flat panels and stitching them together; the artist just uses any traditional polygonal object. Syflex is currently available for Maya, XSI and Houdini!
Syflex website
Tags: syflex . lightwave 3d . lightwave plugins

Labels: XSI plugins

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PAP 4.0 Released and Available for free Download

- Plastic Animation Paper (PAP), is a Easy and efficient software package for doing 2D animation. It will allow traditional animators to utilize the powerful and timesaving advantages of computers. Using PAP you see your animation as you create it, removing the need for line tests, cameras and scanners. After getting comfortable with drawing directly to the screen you never want to go back. PAP was developed by dennish company Krogh Mortensen Animation A/S as an inhouse tool but (they say) the interest from the animation industry convinced them to turn it into a full application....................download PAP 4.0!
Related CGI Posts:
Toonz 5.0 Harlequin Released
Download Tooz 5.0 Bravo! Demo
Bauhaus Announced Boardomatic* v2
Demo Version of TVP Animation 1.0. Available
Tags: Animation tutorials . 2d animation

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Improve your 3D Rendering in Photoshop (Bloom Effect)

Photoshop Tutorial by ofer Zelichover
- A very simple Photoshop tutorial by Ofer Zelichover, who explains how to create a "bloom" effect. A bloom effect makes the image look brighter and have a "hazy" look to it (see the above image). Creating this effect is very simple, and is done as a post render process in photoshop. 3dm3 has also posted a tutorial on the same line. Basically similar photoshop trick is used by lots of 3d/arch. visualizer in post render process, to improve their under-lit scene and sometimes used for only improving the reflectivity of selective objects in the scene. You may also use the same trick with any other image manipulation software................Tutorial Link!
Tags: photoshop tutorials . 3d rendering

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Cheetah3D 3.4 Released

- Martin Wengenmayer, today Released Version 3.4 update of 3d modeling software CHEETAH3D. Version 3.4 adds many new features like animating objects along spline paths. This feature makes it extremely easy to create fly through animations or to animate a car along a road.With 3d modeling software Cheetah3D 3.4 it is now also possible to drag and drop objects within the scene graph transformation hierarchy without changing it's global position. Just hold the SHIFT key pressed during the drag and drop and the global position of the object won't change. This makes especially the grouping of objects much easier.Another work flow enhancement of Cheetah3D 3.4 is the possibility to lock the parameter values of each single object, tag or material. So if you are done with a object just lock it's parameters and you no longer can accidentally modify it.Last but not least this update seriously accelerates the OpenGL preview. Especially scenes with many small objects can render up to 10 times faster.............Download Cheetah3d!

Tags: 3d software . 3d modeling

Labels: 3d software

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REALVIZ Applications Now Compatible With Google Earth

- REALVIZ, has announced that it is nowpossible for users of their acclaimed photo-based software applications to display their content in Google Earth. Panoramas, 3D models, virtual tours and other photo-realistic material created with the REALVIZ software products, Stitcher, ImageModeler and VTour, can now be directly exported and published within Google Earth, pin-pointing exact geographical positioning,courtesy of the Google Earth 3D viewer. REALVIZ Stitcher, ImageModeler and VTour offer users of all levels aninnovative and effective solution for the creation of high-quality wide-angle panoramas, photo-real 3D environments and 3d models, to add photo-realistic panoramic and 3D close-ups to your Google Earth navigation.
For further information, please visit: http://www.realviz.com/GoogleEarth
Tags: Realviz Sticher . Google earth

Labels: SketchUp

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PipelineFX to Showcase New Qubic™ Version 6 at SIGGRAPH 2006 in Boston

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Evolver 3d Character Builder Set To Debut At SIGGRAPH 2006

- Darwin Dimensions Announced today the EVOLVER family of software products, providing automated creation of unique 3D character models for use in games, film, television, multimedia, education, manufacturing and corporate markets. evolver introduces dramatic productivity increases to animation pipelines by saving hours over building 3d character models manually from scratch. Darwin Dimensions will debut evolver at the SIGGRAPH 2006 conference in Boston, MA, at the Boston Convention Center from August 1-3 in booth #202. A free trial version of the software is currently available for download on their website................Link!!
Tags: 3d software . Character modeling

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REALVIZ Launches New Stitcher Product Range

- REALVIZ, a leader in image processing software development, is pleased to announce the availability of 3 new versions of their acclaimed panorama creation software, Stitcher. Targeting photographers of all levels from the amateur enthusiast to the professional, Stitcher is now available in 3 distinct versions:-
Stitcher Express 2 - for digital photography hobbyists
Stitcher Pro 5.5 - for professional photographers & graphic artists
Stitcher Unlimited 5.5 - for professional panorama creators
Stitcher is a professional-level application, used by thousands of professional photographers, architects, multimedia and 3D artists worldwide, and enables the creation of superb wide-angle panoramas for the Web, film, print, and 3D. Stitcher is also widely used by post-production professionals for the creation of 3D environments, matte paintings, reflection maps and textures for film/ television......................Link!!
Tags: 3d software . Realviz Stitcher . Panorama software

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MODO 202 Coming Soon.....

- MODO 202 is coming soon, Brad Peebler the Co-founder and president of Luxology revealed in an interview recently published on CG Society. In Interview with CG society Peebler said; "At Siggraph this year, we are introducing MODO 202 - with even more features and performance. Our developers have further speed up what is already proven to be one of the fastest production renderers in modo - in fact we are seeing speed gains of up to 40% in some cases. This is a free upgrade for registered users and we also have posted a free evaluation version of modo for the PC or Mac on our website. It is a full-featured 30-day license. There will also be some great content on our website from Siggraph that consists of downloadable videos." Luxology has released Modo 201 recently some-time in late MAY. So, may be this continuous development of Modo features and performance makes it best subdivision surface modeling tool.
Read CGSociety Q&A session with Brad Peebler
Tags: Modo 201 . 3d software

Labels: Modo

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SplutterFish Brazil "Rio" Rendering System V1.2.37

- Download one of the best renderer available till date, specially for exterior scenes. Brazil Rio (aka "Rio") is a freely available, personal-use, non-commercial edition of SplutterFish’s award-winning Brazil r/s V1.2 renderer for 3ds max. and Autodesk VIZ. Brazil is, at it's core, a high performance production renderer that supports many advanced features like area lighting, gi, sss, and much much more. Rio is distributed by SplutterFish for multiple reasons: It allows us to have many people stress testing our software in many different environments, it serves as a way for us to share with the community and to provide an personal-educational version that can be used by students and other hobbiests, and it lets artists, who are considering purchasing the full-featured commercial version, test drive the Brazil toolkit beforehand. Also try the below specified tutorial about global photons and regathering in interiour spaces.
Download Brazil 1.2.37
Download Photon Tutorial
Shaders for Brazil r/s
Tags: 3ds max . Brazil r/s

Labels: Brazil r/s

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Twelve principles of 2D animation by Tony White

- Here are 12 Principles of 2d animation, which are universal and can be used in any scene. Tony white says; "Although the following is essentially about 2D animation, the material covered will present to 3D, Web and Games animators the solid foundations upon which their own art was founded... and, as a result, will provide tried and tested knowledge and methods that can be adapted to suit their own particular needs”. Have a look..................Link!
Related CGI Post:
28 Principles of Animation
Tags: Animation tutorials . 2d animation

Labels: animation tutorials

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3DS Max + Photoshop Tutorial - Digital Displacement

- Computer arts, has published new tutorial by Chris James, who focuses on the use of displacement in a 3D world, revealing the best way to mould its output into a detailed and twisted piece of digital art using Photoshop, 3ds Max and VRay. Chris explains, how to turn a simple model into a detailed piece of geometry and than show how to composite it into an underwater scene using Photoshop. He says; this tutorial (.PDF format) is primarily for users with basic to intermediate knowledge of both 3ds Max and Photoshop... that’s means every one can try this......Give it a shot !!

More Tutorials by ComputerArts:

Animation Rig 'CAR'

Tutorial : Character animation
Free Tutorial : Sculpt with ZBrush

Zbrush Tutorial - Detailing Body Work

Maya Tutorial : Rendering better cars

Lightwave3d Tutorial: fantastic ‘pyrokinetic’ effect

Tags: 3ds max tutorials . Photoshop tutorials . VRay

Labels: 3ds Max tutorials, Photoshop Tutorials

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ambientLight Release Vol.1 Of Mosaic Textures Collection

- ambientLight has announced the immediate availability of Vol.1 Mosaic Montage Tile Textures. There are 34 Diffuse textures in this Texture pack, and 15 corresponding bump maps for realistic surfacing. Each colour set has 2 or more variations including a plain tile colour with realistic subtle variations and a mosaic montage of various shades. The bump map is also recommended for use as a gloss/specular map to limit reflections to the tile areas only. The colours are all sampled from popular tile sets used in real world architectural projects.
The images in this collection have been created primarily for use in architectural visualisation and other CG projects but can be applied in many different areas. These textures can be used in any software capable of importing jpeg image files as textures. 34 Mosaic Montage Texture in High Quality Jpeg Textures, all at a 2048 x 2048 Pixel resolution, each with a corresponding bump map. Full details of the pack and thumbnail previews of all the textures and a free sample image can be viewed at: ambientLight.co.uk
Tags: Textures . 3d Texture

Labels: textures

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Autodesk Technology Puts the Sizzle in This Summer's Blockbusters (VFX)

Source: Autodesk, Inc. via Y!news
-Autodesk Technology is used every where, from Hollywood to Bollywood.. and From computer- generated sea creatures to entire virtual cities, digital artists relied on Autodesk, Inc.'s media and entertainment solutions to realize stunning visual effects for this summer's hottest films. The industry's leading post-production facilities delivered blockbuster action, adventure and dramatic content created with Autodesk's advanced visual effects, animation, editing and digital color grading solutions....Autodesk's Discreet Inferno system was used by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) as part of its proprietary SABRE visual effects system to create supernatural scenes for Lady In the Water. In one sequence, a giant eagle- like bird swoops in and rescues the film's heroine. The rescue is shown through a reflection in the water. Digital artists at ILM used Inferno to create the distorted look of the reflection and to add lightning and rain to the scene. The system was also used to add shadows, mist and rain to a scene where branch monsters drag away a scrunt -- a dog-like grass monster; and to create the mystical ball of mud that Cleveland Heep, the film's hero, needs to retrieve from the heroine's lair in order to save her.
ILM also helped bring to life the misguided escapades of Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. One of the scenes shaped by ILM shows Will Turner and the crew of the Black Pearl captured by cannibals and held in a round cage made of bones hanging over a ravine. Inferno was used to composite together shots of the actors filmed against a blue screen, a water plate, and a digital matte cliff, as well as to add birds, mist and foot bridges to the scene. The system was also used to texture, light and animate Ragetti's wooden eye. Autodesk Maya 3D animation software was used by artists at ILM to rig Davy Jones and the Kraken sea creature's tentacles.... Visit the following link to find out how Autodesk Technology Puts the Sizzle in This Summer's Blockbusters: Lady in the Water, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, X-Men: The Last Stand, Krrish and More...........Link!!
Tags: animation . VFX . Autodesk

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Making CG Hair More Realistic

- Making Realistic hair in computer animation is one of the most cumbersome job, specially because of huge rendering time,..ask CG artists at Dreamworks, how they manage to create more furry creatures in Madagascar than in any previous computer-animated film. Now Researchers at Cornell Univercity has developed a new and much more quicker method for rendering Realistic looking CG Hair...... Text from thier site - Reproducing this visual effect in computer graphics has always been a challenge. Computers can create three-dimensional structures resembling hair, but the process of "rendering," in which the computer figures out how light will be reflected from those structures to create an image, requires complex calculations that take into account the scattering between hairs. Current methods use approximations that work well for dark hair and passably for brown, but computer-generated blondes still don't look like they're having more fun. But now Cornell researchers have developed a new and much quicker method for rendering hair that promises to make blond (and other light-colored) hair more realistic.Steve Marschner, Cornell assistant professor of computer science, developed the new method with Cornell graduate student Jonathan Moon, who will present the work at the 2006 SIGGRAPH computer graphics conference in Boston.
Related link - Realistic hair in computer animation ( Cornell edu.)
Tags: Animation . Visual effects .

Labels: Technology, visual effects studio, VRay

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Watch TMNT Teaser (Raising shell in 2007)

- Watch the teaser Trailer of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT), which will be released in 2007. This is the fourth movie, simply entitled "TMNT" come after 14 years of last release. The TMNT originated in an American comic book published by Mirage Studios in 1984. The concept arose from a comical sketch by Kevin Eastman during a casual evening of brain-storming with his friend Peter Laird. The 3d animated film is 100% computer-generated, produced by Imagi Animation Studios and distributed by The Weinstein Company and Warner Bros. Pictures. The animation will be created in Imagi’s state-of-the-art facility in Hong Kong. TMNT Release date scheduled for 30 March, 2007.......Watch Teaser now
Tags: Animated films . TMNT

Labels: Teaser Trailers

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Aaron Mcbridge In Action On 'Dead Man Chest'

- Aaron McBride, the visual effects art director of Pirates of Caribbean - 'Dead Man Chest' talks with Barbara Robertson in a recently published featured article on CGSociety website. The talented artist Aaron McBride talks about his past and how he grew up drawing, in his Hometown near Mystic Seaport. McBride currently works in ILM as visual effects art director and worked on recently released blockbuster movie Pirates of Caribbean - 'Dead Man Chest'. Aaron Mcbride has worked as Concept artist and visual effects art director on various prestigious projects such as, A.I, Minority Report etc. Check Q&A Session with Concept artist Aaron McBride on CGSociety.......Link!!
Tags: CG Artists . Visual effects . Pirates of Caribbean

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3D / CG Contest - 'The Most beautiful CG girl'

- The Voting for the 3dm3 contest "the Most beautiful CG girl" has begin. So pick your favorite chick and vote for her..Voting booth will close on: August 20th, 2006.........ITS Hot out there :)
Vote now for your favorite hottest beauty

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Announcing WINNERS; CG India "Galaxy Explorer -- da Evolution" Contest !!

- EveryOne who have participated in Galaxy Explorer contest is Winner for us. On A formal Note,- CGIndia is proud to announce the Winners of its first online CG-Contest, "Galaxy Explorer-- da Evolution"!! We would like to thank all the CG-Artists, who has participate in the contest from every corner of the world and our sponsors for their support. We find very hard to decide winner between the first two places,......"Really" (we know you have heard this before). Now standup for a round of applause for the champions who stir their creativity and polished their skill to reach the Rightful place,.. where they "BELONG"!..Ladies n Gentleman,….. N’ the WINNERS Are............Link!!!!

Labels: competition

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VRMesh v3.0 Released

- VRMesh V3.0 Final has been released. The new v3.0 significantly enhances speed and adds stereo viewing, surface curves, new clay modeling commands, new transformations, and over 30 features for modifying models.VRMesh is a free-form 3d modeling software for arbitrary triangle mesh creating and processing, based on our industry-leading technologies: Point Cloud to Mesh, Smart Form, Digital Clay, 3d Mesh Editing, and Surface Curve Editing. Basically its key application field is reverse engineering and Rapid proto-typing, but can be used in game development and other CG pipeline. You can Import/export in application like 3ds max, Maya, XSI etc....Particularly its Digital clay comes very handy for fast detailed modeling and mesh smoothing. Visit their website to download a demo, you may like playing with digital clay once you got hang -off-it.....Link!!
Tags: 3d modeling . 3d software . 3ds max . XSI

Labels: 3d software, Mudbox

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dynamite Voxel engine for Lightwave 3D

- Demo version of dynamite v1.1 (win32) for Lightwave 3d is available for free download. Some of the main features of Dynamite for Lightwave 3d are; 3D Fluid Simulator - Dynamite 1.1 contains a built-in 3d fluid simulator. The new grid based simulator creates volumetric flow effects which are not possible with the classic particle based voxel systems. You can render more realistic smoke, dust and flame effects. Rendering voxel grids is also much faster then particle based volumetric rendering. Rendering External Voxel Datasets - Dynamite 1.1 supports external voxel datasets . MR, tomographie scans, mathematically generated voxel grids or grids generated by external applications and simulators can be rendered with dynamite. You will be able to convert most of the 3d voxel data-set formats to the dynamite's voxel grid format. A small converter will help you. Particle Based Volumetric Rendering - Dynamite can render particle based effects similar to the Hypervoxels. The most important difference is that the dynamite comes with a more user friendly interface and you can more easily setup your scene and reach faster the results.
Download Dynamite for Lightwave 3d Demo
Tags: Lightwave 3d . Lightwave 3d plugins

Labels: Lightwave 3d

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ArchVision Releases New 2.5D Moving People (Middle Eastern) Vol. 1 Collection

- ArchVision, Inc. announces the immediate availability of a new RPC (Rich Photorealistic Content) library, 2.5D Moving People Middle Eastern Volume 1. This compelling library features females attired in modest clothing, with and without hijab headscarf. Males are featured in modest western styled clothing. With a wide variety of different poses and expressions, this new collection is designed to add realism to 3D renderings and animations. Each RPC in this collection contains a 20 second motion loop that provides seamless integration into animations......Link!
Tags: 3d models . RPC

Labels: 3d models

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Maya Scripts by SeithCG

- Download Various useful task-Specific Maya Scripts written by Lionel GALLAT, the Supervising Animator (3D) of "Flushed-Away" and "Sharktale" (Dreamworks). poseLib.mel - Save and apply poses on your character (as a whole, or only to the selected controls). retimingTool.mel - Allows you to easily retime your keys by clicking on the timeline and punching-in numbers, and also to quickly add breakdowns favoring one key or the other, and much, much more. poseTest.mel - Load and save xSheets and do a key pose-test. polySmooth.mel - Sculpt low-rez polygonal objects while the hi-rez copy updates in real time. shotCamLister.mel - A GUI for multiple shot cameras. To be used with the shotCam.ma file (included in the zip file). changeRotateScaleAxis.mel - Allows you to match the rotate and scale axis of one object to another, in the case you froze the transformations and you can't scale correctly anymore (works on multiple objects at once)......and many more!
Download maya scripts

Tags: Maya scripts . Maya .

Labels: MEL scripts

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PIXIE - Photorealistic Renderer

- Pixie is a RenderMan like photorealistic renderer. It is being developed in the hope that it will be useful for graphics research and for people who can not afford a commercial renderer. Pixie is an open source project licensed under Gnu Public License. Features include programmable shading, motion blur, depth of field, raytracing, scan-line rendering, occlusion culling, global illumination, caustics and many more. The current version 1.7.2 is available for free download!
Download Pixie
Tags: 3d rendering , Pixie

Labels: open source

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Martian's Renderman® Shaders

- Quite Useful Renderman® shaders written by Ivan DeWolf over the past several years. IDbrushedmetal.sl - This shader can use an environment-map (ala prman). This example RIB uses a prman latitude-longitude environment-map, called "a.tx". IDtooledsteel.sl -This shader can use an environment-map (ala prman). IDbubbly.sl - This shader is based off of Steven Worley's Siggraph 1996 paper. IDfill.sl - Simple toon fill shader with shadows. It is used in the toonStill and toonRotate RIB files. toon shaders - Uses IDcs.sl, IDfill.sl, and IDoutline.sl to do toon-style rendering.....................Download Shaders!
Tags: RenderMan . textures

Labels: RenderMan

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Art Of Illusion v2.3.1

- Version 2.3.1 is the latest update of free 3D modelling and rendering software Art Of Illusion; lots of bugs have been fixed in this version. Art of Illusion is a free, open source 3D modeling and rendering studio. It is written entirely in Java, and should be usable on any Java-Virtual-Machine which is compatible with J2SE 1.4 or later.This version is both stable and powerful enough to be used for serious, high end animation work. Many of its capabilities rival those found in commercial programs. Some of the highlights include subdivision surface based modelling tools, skeleton based animation, and a graphical language for designing procedural textures and materials.
Download Art Of Illusion
Tags: 3d software . 3d modeling

Labels: open source

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Digital-Tutors Released UV Layout in XSI Training

- Digital-Tutors, today announced the availability of the highly awaited, 'UV Layout in XSI'- a comprehensive guide to learning the fundamentals of UV layout with in XSI and the latest release in a growing library of interactive training for emerging digital artists. Containing over 3 hours of project-based training, 'UV Layout in XSI' provides artists with time-saving UV mapping techniques, creative workflow, and a firm understanding of XSI's UV tools. A 30 day trial version of SOFTIMAGEXSI Foundation is also included - allowing artists immediate access to ...........Link!
Tags: XSI . XSI Tutorials

Labels: XSI, XSI Tutorials

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China commemorating the 80th Anniversary of Chinese Animation Films

- China is Celebrating its 80th Anniversary of Chinese Animation Films. A series of activities has been planned and co-organized by Shanghai Municipal Education Commission, Shanghai Animation Film Studio, Children's Palace of China Welfare Institute and East Movie Channel to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Chinese animated cartoon films, entertain children with classical Chinese animation films and cartoons, show the world the great Chinese culture, and promote modern Chinese animation and cartoon industry to a new height in the multimedia era. The commemoration, starting on.............Link!
Tags: Animation . Chinese animation

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IT'S ART Magazine #0005 Is available

- IT'S ART Magazine #0005 Is available for free download. IT’S ART is a free digital-art magazine in PDF format. Every two months, it proposes illustrations, articles and interviews about digital Art. IT'S ART is therefore meant to be a relaying support for these cg artists, discovered across the world with the help of the Internet. We want the magazine and its web site to enable creators introducing their artwork to a new public, opening our column to the discovery to all that make artwork, from its origin to its conception and final inception..........link!

Labels: Graphic Magazines and Books

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Evolution of 3D landscape tools

- Our partner website TDT3d take you to a journey in past-n-back and shows you how 3d landscape tools have evolved with time. In this article TDT3d discuss about landscape creation tools from the beginning, since computer be involved into CG creation like 2D, 3D, Motion graphics,... landscape & scenery rendering or simulating is one of the most time consuming CPU task. The last 15 years landscape software evolution is quite interesting and Today with powerful computer and a lot of specs to create and render dream world, only imagination can stop you........Link!

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50 Animated Short Films On NFB

- The National Film Board of Canada has put 50 Awesome Animation shorts on their website. Now You can explore this NFB rich animation heritage of 50 animated shorts, including several timeless classics of the animated art. All the featured animation shorts are produced between 1942 to 2002..........check them out
Tags: Animation . Animation shorts

Labels: animation short

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Blender 2.42 Available

- Blender Foundation has released version 2.42 of Blender. The realization of the Elephants Dream movie has resulted in a big Blender development boost, especially in areas required for 3D movie projects. New features includes; Array Modifier - The Array Modifier allows you create procedurally duplicated/merged Objects, to make chains, cogs, fractals or even beautiful natural shapes. It's all fully animatable, with control-Objects defining duplication methods. Render Pipeline - The new rendering pipeline offers a wealth of new features. It has become tile-based and fully threaded, supporting advanced preview renders, layer-rendering and pass render, with a tight integration to the compositor. Material (Shading) Nodes - Currently most 3D suites have some kind of "shader editor", typically represented as Nodes or Trees. To easily allow current Materials to become layered or combined, but also to enable a Blender-compatible migration, a hybrid version has been implemented in Blender now and many more noticeable features.......... release notes here !!
Download blender 2.42 now
Tags: 3d software . Blender

Labels: 3d software, Blender

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THE123D Released RUGS-KIT, A Textures and 3ds Max Models Collection

- THE123D releases its latest product - The RUGS-KIT is a versatile set of 21 high quality JPEG rug- textures and ready to use 3ds Max Models to add richness & detail to your interior rendering projects. Can be used in Any 3D modeling program - all textures suppled with matching Alpha maps. Notes: 21 High quality JPEG Textures with matching Alpha maps ! All rug are also supplied as ready to use models in .max and .max Vray file formats ! No cleaning up necessary, just drop your models into your scene and start rendering. File formats: .jpeg & .max & .max Vray. The .max full scene 3d model includes all lighting, GI and material setups necessary for Vray. All objects are also supplied as individual .max scanline models. Bonus files include two high resolution seemless texture......Link!

Tags: Textures . 3d models

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Maya Tutorial - Flowing water Animation

- New tutorial about Creating a Flowing Water Effect in Maya using "Particles", written by Aziz Khan. This Maya tutorial will teach you how to manipulate the flow of particles from a shower head into a tub as particles collide with the surface of the tub in a water-like motion. We will use 'Particles' which are commonly used to create visual effects such as smoke, water, fire and various types of explosions similar to those that could be seen in the movies..........Link!
Tag: maya tutorials . animation tutorials

Labels: animation tutorials, Maya Tutorials

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Government Of India Have Banned CGIndia And Other Blogs Hosted On Blogspot.Com

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ArchVision Releases New 3D Casual People Collection

- ArchVision, Inc. announces the immediate availability of a new RPC (Rich Photorealistic Content) library, Casual People Volume 10. Featuring casual summer styles, this RPC collection will further enhance your entourage choices. With a sundry of different poses and expressions, this new collection is designed to add variety and realism to 3D renderings and animations. RPC is the industry standard format for managing image-based content and is supported natively or via plug-in by the world’s leading 3D visualization applications including Discreet’s 3ds max, Autodesk VIZ, Autodesk ADT, Autodesk Civil 3D, Autodesk Revit, Bentley MicroStation, Alias Maya, Newtek’s Lightwave, Maxon’s Cinema 4D, Robert McNeel & Associates AccuRender, Adobe Photoshop and others.....Link!
Tags: 3d models . RPC

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Twisting Pixels Announces Major Upgrades of its Award Winning Special Effect (VFX) and Photoshop Plugin Products

- Twisting Pixels, the leader in the special effect (FX) and photoshop plugin arena, announces major updates to its award winning products. Twisting Pixels now offers 48 incredible photoshop plugins as well as an image processing application to apply 48 filters to any photo or image. Twisting Pixels products include feature rich visual effect filters that modify and enhance any image to achieve an artistic end result. With over 48 filters and plugins to choose from, Twisting Pixels offers something for every aspect of design............link!
Tags: visual effects . Photoshop plugins

Labels: photoshop plugins

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PipelineFX Announces New Education Licensing Program

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The Foundry Announce Plug-ins Upgrade for Shake 4.1 (VFX)

- Following the Release of Shake 4.1 , Leading visual effects developer "The Foundry" announced a free upgrade for its Furnace, Keylight and Tinder for Shake customers. The Foundry’s complete range of VFX plug-ins now fully support Shake 4.1 on Intel-based Macs and are available as a free upgrade to existing customers. Users running the latest versions of The Foundry’s plugins and opt to upgrade to Shake 4.1 are eligible for free upgrades on their Furnace, Tinder and Keylight visual effects plug-ins. The latest free upgrade releases from The Foundry include bug fixes and support Shake 4.1 on Intel Mac, PPC Mac and Linux.......Link!
Tags: Visual effects . VFX . Shake

Labels: visual effects

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Final Cast Announced For DreamWork's Animated Comedy 'Shrek the Third'

- DreamWorks Animation announced today that the final cast for its upcoming Computer-animated comedy "Shrek the Third" has been set. The original casts from "Shrek" and "Shrek 2" -- Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz, Antonio Banderas, Rupert Everett, Julie Andrews and John Cleese -- will reprise their roles in this third chapter of the Shrek story. Joining the cast for DreamWorks Animation "Shrek the Third" is an all-new ensemble of actors and comedians. Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Justin Timberlake will play the role of Fiona's rebellious teenage cousin Artie, the inimitable Eric Idle (the "Monty Python" movies and series, "Spamalot" on Broadway) will play Merlin and John Krasinski (TV's "The Office") will play Lancelot. Making up a new fighting force of.......Link!
Tags: Animated films

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New LightWave 3D® Version 9 Shipping

- NewTek Inc. , has announced the availability of the latest release of LightWave 3D® version 9.0, the next generation of the Emmy®-winning 3D application. The latest update to the award-winning 3D Application includes a robust new feature set, major core changes and new workflows. The new release is the first in a series of major rewrites and restructuring of LightWave 3D’s core with the addition of comprehensive new features such as a node-based materials editor, optically correct cameras, adaptive pixel subdivision, Catmull-Clark subdivision surfaces, sub-surface scattering and vast render speed improvements.
The most noticeable changes in Lightwave 3d V9 are the addition of a node-based materials system that adds new shading models to LightWave, such as Oren-Nayar, anisotropic, and sub-surface scattering; the greatly improved rendering speed for today's high-demand scenes; and the enhancement of subdivision surfaces in Modeler and Layout, including Adaptive Pixel Subdivision, which gives the user a variety of capabilities for film-quality displacement mapping, normal mapping (including ZBrush support) and level-of-detail control at render time. LightWave now has arguably the most comprehensive toolset for matching real camera lenses, an addition that will greatly enhance the ability of visual effects artists to match 3D elements to live footage.........Link!!
Tags: Lightwave 3d . 3d Software

Labels: Lightwave 3d

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DigiCel FlipBook - For 2D, 3D or Stop Motion Animation

- Try DigiCel FlipBook for making 2D, 3D or Stop Motion Animation with ease. 3D Animation -FlipBook can also help you if you do 3D animation. You can use FlipBook to experiment with different timing for sketches of your key frames without having to wait for rendering. It will help you breakdown your dialog for perfect lip sync. And you can even use it to combine 2D, 3D and live action. 2D Animation - FlipBook is the only 2D animation software designed from the ground up to do 2D animation the way animators want to do it. That's why professional animators at every major studio and teachers at all the best animation schools demand FlipBook. Other programs may be OK if all you want to do is ink & paint but animators use FlipBook. Stop Motion Animation - FlipBook is great for stop motion too. Just aim your camera and start clicking. You can step back and forth through the frames you've shot and then right into the live frame to see exactly how it's going to look added on to the end of the scene so you know what you're going to get, and you get what you want....Download Now (win/mac)!!
Tags: 3d Animation . 2d animation . 3d software

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Download Useful Max Scripts by Menon

- Various task specific 3d studio max scripts written by Shibu Menon. BonesPro 2 Skin - As the name suggests, this script allows you to use all the good features of BonesPro, and then convert all skinning info to the skin modifier need to save a structure file of BonesPro before the conversion. TurboManager - Useful in managing Turbosmooth modifier in large scenes can manage Turbosmoothing of either selected objectsor the whole scene. MeshBaker - Bakes any animated mesh. I wrote it for a project where some skinned objects had become unstable and caused a crash on render.I baked these objects using this script. AnimatedAlign -Same like the align tool in 3dsMax, allowing an object to be aligned (pos/rot) to another object.Only difference being, it sticks the first object to the other over a specified time duration.If steps = 1 then keys are generated on the child on each frame within the specified duration. Else it will generate keys depending on 'steps'.......And many more!
Download Menon's Max Scripts
Tags: 3ds max . 3ds max scripts

Labels: 3ds Max Scripts

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Powercolor ATI X1900GT Graphics Processor now available at just INR 19500

- Powercolor ATI X1900GT Graphics Processor now available at just INR 19500 only. ATI claims, Powercolor ATI Radeon X1900GT offers a top-of-the-line 3D gaming / graphics experience at a great value that will entertain and amaze Powecolor Radeon X1900GT 256 MB, based on the recently announced Radeon X1900 GT graphics processor by ATI Technologies Inc. (TSX:ATY)(NASDAQ:ATYT) is available in India at a suggested retail price of Rs.19,500. The Powercolor Radeon X1900GT captures the outstanding speed, performance and rich feature set of the award-winning ATI Radeon X1900XTX and is available with a warranty period of 3 years...........Link!
Related Post:
The World's Most Powerful Graphics Card
Tom's H.- New 3D Graphics Card Features in 2006
AN ANONYMOUS Games Developer clames Ageia's is far better than ATI/Nvidia
Tags: Graphics Cards . 3d graphics

Labels: graphic cards, Hardware

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Multicaustics For Electric Image

- Paralumino Creative Studios announces the release of its first shader product for the Electric Image Animation System called Multicaustics.This simple, but powerful shader is designed to introduce EIAS users to the world of chromatic aberration. Although this particular Visual effect can be manually generated through a clever use of lights and Photoshop tools, Multicaustics relies on real world physics to replicate the prism effect within Camera. Through the use of Multicaustic’s Caustic Cannon, EIAS users can define up to 10 different caustic lights each reacting with the shader with their own refraction index settings. Prismatic effects can also be seen on transparent objects through the use of the “Show Self” option. With a low price of $25, this particular shader can provide new levels of realism to a scene that uses caustics, but lacks that last 10% needed for complete realism. Visit Paralumino Website for demo and more info!

Labels: visual effects

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First Chinese Full Length 3d animation film - Moebius Strip

- Chinese Animation have come long-way since the first Asian feature 3d animated cartoon film, Princess Iron Fan (1941) inspired from Journey to the West, made during the Japanese occupation. Hopes are high for "Thru the Moebius Strip," set for release in August. This first 3D animation film made in China could potentially jump-start the industry, writes Xu Wei ( from Shanghai Daily ) . Mobeius Strip is the first made-in-China full featured length three-dimensional animation film based film is based on an idea by legendary French graphic novelist and Hollywood veteran concept artist Giraud, who broke new ground in comics art in the 1970s with several sci-fi classics like "Star Wars," "Alien," "The Abyss" and "The Fifth Element." "Moebius" is also one of his pseudonyms. More than 400 domestic and international 3d/cg animation professionals were involved in the 3D CGI animation.
Related article on ShanghaiDaily
Tags: Animated film

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Download TOKI LineTest (2D/3D Animation Software)

- TOKI LineTest, is a pencil test software for cartoonists and animators, for the professionals in animation, students or amateurs.TOKI LineTest can also be used to design and make animation films, it allows to:
#Carry out a pencil test of animation drafts,
#Check the rhythm of an animation based on early key drawings,
#Create and check the synchronization of an animation with the sound track,
#Control the animation using stop motion,
#Create an animation and sound sequence for distribution on digital media.
Download Trail version of Tonki LineTest
Tags: 3d software . Animation

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VFX Compositing Tool Conduit Launched

Nodal Compositing Inside Apple Motion 2 .... (News tip - CGFocus)
- dvGarage, has released CONDUIT - a new Visual effects Compositing Plug-in for Apple Motion 2. By using Apple’s FXPlug technology to combine high-end nodal compositing with high-performance GPU acceleration, Conduit provides Apple Motion 2 users with a powerful variety of visual effects compositing tools that render in real time. In addition, Conduit is bundled with a free three-month Pixel Corps membership (a USD $ 200 value), an hour of video training, and a quick start guide. Conduit is a nodal compositor that actually sits inside of Motion 2. Nodal compositors provide a powerful flow-chart approach to compositing. Rather than thinking in layers, each node applies an operation. This approach is very popular in high-end facilities because it provides a very open ended way to create composites that are customized to each challenge. Now...it's available in Motion 2 through Conduit.Using VFX / Compositing Tool Conduit is as easy as adding a filter to a layer in Motion 2. You than create the rules using Conduit's nodes that are all fed automatically back into Motion 2's environment.....................Check Conduit's Features!!
Tags: VFX . Visual Effects . Motion Graphics

Labels: compositing, motion graphics, visual effects

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Most Usefull Tool For 3D / CG Artists Is Now Available On Download.Com

- Good News for CG Artists, CGToolBar (win/mac) Firefox Version is now available on download.com as well as mozilla.org . The Internet Explorer version has been already available on download.com. CGToolbar is extremely useful and must have tool for CG Artists, Animators, VFX and 3d professionals. CGToolbar is one of its kind (unique)- probably the first toolbar which is loaded with custom features, built by focusing on the needs of a 3d / VFX / computer graphics professional and to cater the whole CG community. This small but powerful Tool bring all the resources a CG Artists ever need at their fingertips by bridging the gap between various useful CG Portals. You will get more n more features with time; Without even updating it……You will see changes automatically as we add more features......Download link!

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GENARTS RELEASES SAPPHIRE PLUG-INS VERSION 2.03 FOR AVID

- GenArts, Inc., a leading provider of visual effects plug-ins for the film, broadcast and video industries, today announced the immediate availability of Sapphire Plug-ins version 2.03 for Avid’s new Media Composer family of HD products on Mac, and for Avid DS version 8. The new version enables Avid editors to create high-end visual effects across Avid’s full product line. “We’ve always enjoyed a great partnership with Avid. Our initial release of Sapphire 2 has been greeted with great reviews and success. We are now happy to provide the same GenArts quality and support for Avid’s most recent releases,” said Anish Dhanda, Managing Director of GenArts, Inc........more!
Tags: VFX . Visual effects

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EverMotion Released Archmodels Vol.27 and 28

- Have you ever lost your race with time doing visualizations? Have you ever been embarrassed of unfinished renders, spending all night on the 3d modeling process, instead of rendering? If you are an architect, and if you need to work fast but with highest pecision, this is the thing for you. Both Archmodels volume 27 and 28 gives you more than 100 professional, highly detailed objects for architectural visualizations. In this volume 27 cd you will find collection of collection with gym and fitness accessories and CD of volume 28 offers another collection of interior lamps. Why waste costly time for making something that you can have from the best at Evermotion!
Archmodel Vol27
Archmodel Vol28
Tags : 3d models . 3ds max models

Labels: 3d models

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Lady In The Water | ILM VFX

- ILM, the award wining Visual effects Studio Cast its Magic spell of VFX in M. Night Shyamalan's forthcoming Thriller "Lady in the Water" (Release date-24july) . The story line is about a guy who rescues a mysterious young woman and discovers she is actually a narf, a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the treacherous journey from our world back to hers. As Cleveland falls in love with the woman, he works together with the tenants to protect his new fragile friend from the deadly creatures. Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) is a Lucasfilm Ltd. company serving the digital needs of the entertainment industry for visual effects. ILM has been awarded 14 Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects and received 16 Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards.
Watch the Teaser Trailer
Tags: VFX . Visual effects . Lady in the water

Labels: Teaser Trailers, visual effects studio

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Modo 201 Review

- Digit Online-Magazine has reviewed Modo 201, the latest version of Luxology’s Modo. "The Luxology’s Modo is a new breed of 3D program that attempts to buck the trend. It recognizes that the 3D artist sometimes has too many controls to tweak – an approach that makes for a promising program"... says Digitmag. Luxology's Modo 201 has been released two months back sometime-in May. Digitmag have given 4star to Modo 201, Read the review for pros and cons of the versatile Modo 201............link!
Tags: 3d software . Modo 201

Labels: Modo

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3D Character - Moco Gross!

- Moco Gross is 3D character created by Animalada Studio for Mobile devices and targeted at the teenage public to all 'young minded' audience who want to enjoy some crazy songs and everyday vulgarities turned into extremes. Moco Gross is the new face of your mobile; it will make you laugh and certainly better than annoying crazy frog. Animalada is an 3d Animation Studio who develops and produces top-quality CGI character animation for commercials, television, film, mobile and other media.

watch Demo Videos
Tags: 3d Animation . Character Animation

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Autodesk Announces Free Trial Version of AliasStudio V13

- Autodesk, Inc. today announced the availability of the latest version of the AliasStudio Personal Learning Edition (PLE), a special non-commercial-use version of the industry-leading industrial design software. Previously released versions of the PLE software have been downloaded more than 100,000 times by students and industry professionals eager for access to the latest AliasStudio software. Autodesk has continued this important product program so that the industrial design community can explore, learn and become productive to realize their ideas with this leading industrial design software. Autodesk AliasStudio software is known as the industry's premier industrial design tool -- used by virtually every major automotive company, as well as leading design consultancy and consumer product companies around the world......More!!
Tags: 3d software . AliasStudio

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Cybotic Maya MEL Scripts

- Various Maya MEL scripts available for free download. These useful job specific Maya scripts are written by CG-Artist Ciaran Devine. animCopy - Duplicates animations from one node to other node(s). Can off set each duplicate per node either randomly, or sequentially. Either copies anim curves, or creates an expression where the offset is an adjustable attribute. UI driven.... arc3d - Creates a solid nurbs arc with full history. UI driven.... polyColXYZ - Creates three lambert shaders (red green & blue), and connects the polys that face X,Y&Z to each respective shader.... sel2path - Attach many selected objects to one path, with individual animation curves. Each animation's timing may be offset. Path animation parameters (bank, follow etc) are taken from Maya's path animation menu settings.... xsi2mayaCam - This maya script Copy any type of camera animation from Xsi to Maya. Works with all resolutions/ratios, pal/ntsc, animated fov (focal length). Will also copy translation of objects.... walkCycle - WalkCycle will easily prepare animation loops for any symmetrical limbed characters. It defines the motion of the limbs on one side of the body as delayed functions of the user animated limbs. During looped play, any tweaks made to a limb are instantly seen on the opposing limb - even without having to pause playback. Cycled Animation curves can be shifted forwards/backwards by the user to try various weighted' looks, without concerns about loop baking, as it will check and accurately bake loops in preparation for clip-definition and non-linear animation and Many More!!
Download Cybotic Maya MEL Scripts
Tags: Maya . Maya scripts . Maya plugins

Labels: Maya plugins, MEL scripts

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RACE - The Animated Movie

- "RACE - The movie" , is an Animated film by Visual effects and Animation studio Hyper Image Inc., who have credited many prestigious visual effects and animation projects such as FearFactor, Starship Troopers: The Roughneck Chronicles, Mutant League - Produced the 27 episodes of the second season, pacific blue, Escape from Atlantis and many more under their belt. Hyper Image studio was Founded in 1995 by Director Robert Brousseau and Producer/Writer Rhonda Smiley. "race" is a truly independent CGI feature film that will appeal to action fans, Sci-Fi fans, and of course video game enthusiasts who like their movies fast, furious and in glorious CGI. The entire production was done at the Los Angeles studios of Hyper Image, as a showcase for its talented animators and staff. Visit Race - the movie official website for more information and Teaser Trailer.
Related Links:
Race - The Movie website
Hyper Image Inc. Website
Robert Brousseau Interview on AnimWatch
Tags: 3d Animation . Animated films

Labels: animation short

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Video Tutorials : 3DS Max | Maya | XSI

- Lots of very useful Video Tutorials for 3ds Max, Maya and XSI are available for free download. Maya Tutorials about; CLOTH: DRESS , MAYA PARTICLES, TRIMS, C-FILLET, and more.....Max Tutorials about; SIM CLOTH+ TABLE, VRAY: GLOBAL ILLUMINATION CREATING SIMCLOTH and many more.....XSI tutorials about : SOFT SHADOWS (OCCLUSION), CREATING syCloth II, EXTRUDE ALONG CURVE, Video Tutorial: SoundSpeakers, Video Tutorial: Battery- simple 3d Model and many more............Tutorials Link !!
Tags: 3ds Max tutorials . Maya tutorials . XSI tutorials

Labels: Maya Tutorials, XSI, XSI Tutorials

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Have questions about 3d / Animation?

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Richard Linklater's Animated film - A Scanner Darkly

- A Scanner Darkly is animated thriller starring Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Robert Downey Jr. and directed by Richard Linklater. The movie is based on legendary Science-fiction author Philip K. Dicks own experiences. Keanu Reeves plays Role of an undercover cop who follows orders to start spying on his friends, jim Barris ( Robert Downey Jr.), Ernie Luckman (woody Harrelson), Donna (Winona Ryder) and Charles Freck (Rory Cochrane). When he is directed to step up the surveillance on himself, he is launched on a paranoid journey into absurd, where identities and loyalties are impossible to decode.

"A Scanner Darkly" is much more talked about for its unconventional visual style director Richard Linklater has used. Director Richard Linklater filmed it as he would any other movie, but then converted it into animation using interpolated Rotoscoping and this is not first time he used unconventional method of story telling; He have used same Rotoscope animation techniques for his 2001 film, "Waking Life".

Rotoscoping is tracing animation frame by frame, or in other words Rotoscoping is a technique where animators trace live action movement, frame by frame, for use in animated cartoons. Originally, pre-recorded live-film images were projected onto a matte windowpane and redrawn by an animator. This projection equipment is called a Rotoscope.The technique was invented by Max Fleischer, who used it in his series "Out of the Inkwell" starting around 1914, with his brother Dave Fleischer dressed in a clown outfit as the live-film reference for the character Koko the Clown.... [Text from MSNBC: For "A Scanner Darkly," it took 50 animators 15 months to trace the film frame by frame — a painstaking process that progresses at a rate of roughly 500 man hours for every minute of screen time.]...Film features momentarily naked Winona Ryder (off course animated :P )...A Scanner Darkly opened on July 7th in selected cities. Check how rotoscoped animation style intensify the visual appeal of movie, especially because of "Paranoia", Sci-fi, Hallucination and Drugs are main ingredients of the story line.......watch the Teaser!
Tags: Animated films

Labels: Teaser Trailers

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Psst! Pass it on....Animation Shorts Series

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AN ANONYMOUS Games Developer clames Ageia's is far better than ATI/Nvidia

NOT EVEN CLOSE !
- An ANONYMOUS Games developer clames Ageia's Physics card is far better than ATI/Nvidia GPU Physic according to an article on theinquirer.net . Text from theinquirer- An Anonymous games developer claimed that ATI, Nvidia on GPU physics is not even close to what you can get with Ageia's Physics card. He tried to implement the physics and said that to his horror he learned that ATI and Nvidia "cosmetically" affects the physics. The developer added that only Ageia can handle........read more!
Tags: Graphics cards

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THE GNOMON WORKSHOP RELEASES CHARACTER MODELING & TEXTURING DVDS

- The Gnomon Workshop has released two new DVDs by Character Modeler Ian Joyner. In over eleven hours of lecture, Ian shares his myriad techniques for creating compelling life-like characters. Using 3ds Max, BodyPaint, Photoshop and ZBrush, Ian discusses his workflow for modeling, detailing, texturing and posing a male character outfitted with clothing and props. While Max plays a key role in the development of the character, virtually all the methods utilized apply to any leading 3D application such as Maya or XSI........................Link!!
Tags: 3ds max tutorials . 3d modeling tutorials

Labels: XSI Tutorials

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Download Shave and Haircut 4.0v26 Trial

- The Beta version 4 of Joe Alter's highly regarded "Shave and a Haircut" is available for download. It's a CG Hair package famous because its offers numerous styling and dynamics tools for creating amazingly creating amazingly realistic hair and other strand-derivative effects. The "Shave and a Haircut" solution has been already incorporated with-in 3ds Max 7.5 by AutoDesk sometime last year.
Download Shave and a Haircut
Tags: Maya plugins . Shave and a Haircut

Labels: 3ds Max plugins, Maya plugins

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Evermotion Summer bonanza - 200mb of free Textures

- Our partner website EverMotion is generously giving away 200mb of free textures this summer. Evermotion (text from site); We would like to present an summer gift for all our users. In our download section you will find almost 200 mg of Textures for free. This is a huge gallery of miscellaneous pictures in good quality...............link!
Tags: Textures . Free Textures

Labels: textures

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natFX 4 For 3D Studio Max Released

- Bionatics, the leading developer of 3D plant modeling and simulation tools for the 3D industry, announces the release of the version 4 of its 3D plant modeler natFX for 3ds max, its signature product used by the largest 3D animation and video game studios around the world. natFX® is a plug-in of 3ds max® designed for 3D Animation, Video Game willing to reduce production costs, rendering time or optimize realtime performances. natFX provides new first class technologies as such as: animation, realtime modeling, level of details, normal maps, texture management.

download natFX 4 Demo
Tags: natFX . 3ds max plugins

Labels: 3ds Max plugins

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Maxwell Render 1.1 for Mac and Windows Released

- Next Limit Technologies, has Released Maxwell Render 1.1 with significant improvement in the rendering speed. Now Maxwell Render 1.1 is faster! Compared to 1.0, it produces less noise in the same time. Long time persistent noise in particular areas have been improved. Maxwell Render is a new render engine based on the physics of real light. Its algorithms and equations reproduce the behavior of light in a completely accurate way. All of the elements in Maxwell, such as light emitters, material shaders, cameras etc., are entirely based on physically accurate models.
Read Whats new in Maxwell Render 1.1

Labels: Maxwell Render

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3ds Max plugin - Vehicle Studio 1.7 Released

- Newplugins inc. has Released 3d Studio Max plugin Vehicle Studio 1.7. The VS 1.7 is a fully featured vehicle dynamics plug-ins suite that enables the 3D Studio MAX artist to animate cars, trucks, and more. Newplugins inc. touts,- With VS 1.7, realistic vehicle animations are just a few clicks away. Vehicle Studio 1.7 Features includes; # Unlimited number of vehicles and wheels. With the recommended system, the average usable number is about 4+ Cars, depending on their shape and configuration. # Vehicles can collide with moving scenery of high triangle count. Examples include water meshes, off road terrain, and on-road courses. # Realistically animates vehicle intricacies like offset angle steering, 4 wheel drive, unequal a-arm suspension, rigid axle, and more. # True 3D physics has realistic friction and collision with any shape. The only limitation is that the shape is approximated to a certain threshold of spatial accuracy. # VS 1.7 can use a collection of MAX objects, a single object, a group, or nested groups to define a chassis, wheel, scenery, or obstacle....and much more................Download demo!
Tags: 3ds max . 3ds max plugins

Labels: 3ds Max plugins

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Zbrush Tutorial - Detailing Body Work

- Computerarts has posted very comprehensive Zbrush tutorial about modeling the human body. The tutorial explains how to recreate the fine details of the torso and arms of a male figure. The rough 3d model, posed as a low-resolution mesh has modeled in Maya, and then detailed work was carried out in ZBrush. The tutorial has been broken down into several sections, each covering a single part of the body. The base mesh is also available for download along with the tutorial in .PDF format (21mb)..................download tutorial!
Tags: Zbrush . Zbrush tutorials

Labels: ZBrush

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Maya Scripts Pack - New zooToolBox Released

- Hamish McKenzie has finally released new verison of zooToolBox (MEL script pack), a collection of usefull Maya MEL scripts. Hamish : stretchy IK spine. there is finally an ik spine primitive which I'm proud to talk about in zooCST now. its pretty simple (and is based on a sub-primitive so you can also use it for stretchy tails etc..) but really quite effective and surprisingly powerful. I would like to explore this as a basis for more complex spine primitives...To tell you the truth, I always figured ik spines were a bit of a gimmick, which is why I had never bothered to really explore the a decent implementation before. but I have been wanting to build a motionPath constraint, which is the sub-primitive basis for this new ikspine. so once I had that written, building the actual ikspine was pretty easy, and now that I have it, I'm kinda excited to get animating with it............Download Link!!
Tags: Maya scripts . MEL scripts

Labels: MEL scripts

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RealFlow4 for Windows and Linux Released

- Next Limit Technologies, has released RealFlow4 for Windows and Linux. The RealFlow4 new features includes; Export Simulation - Apart from the usual scene exchange workflow through the plugins and SD format, RF4 provides an advanced feature aimed at optimizing resources and saving memory;bin and new .md and .pd file formats. An SDK is available for these two formats, so anybody can create their own translator...Cameras - Creating and including RealFlow4 an innovative tool for new possibilities in effects visualization..RFNative objects - RF4 includes some basic primitives that can save users a lot of time on some scenes, and they will help you in your simulations....RealWave - Includes some new features to broaden the possibilities of your simulations, such as currents, or defining the depth of the sea bottom to control the wave’s shape...and many more. RF4 Trial version is also available for download........................Link!

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Artlantis Studio 1.2 Tryout version

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Download C4D Preset Materials

- Download free CINEMA4D preset Texture Materials made by a team of DMN forum members, who have got together to make some C4D textures. (text from:DNM )- Sometimes the best way to learn something is to deconstruct a completed project. In this series of presets, a team of DMN readers got together to make some CINEMA4D textures. While the materials are mostly based on simple parameters, it may help you to understand how textures are made.There are so many different elements to a single material, and with-in each of those material parameters, there are several more options that create an almost infinite possibility for creating textures for your 3D objects.
Download CINEMA4D PRESETS #001
Download CINEMA4D PRESETS #002
Tags: C4d . Cinema4d

Labels: Cinema4D

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Maya Video Tutorial - Baking Animated Meshes

- Pepe-School-land, the 3D animation school in Barcelona (Spain), has published a new video Maya tutorial on their website. "Quick Trick: Baking animated meshes in Maya" tutorial is about, How to bake an animated character to create a bunch of animated copies. This technique is used in "changes" animation short. You can find it under the " Mix " section......Link!
Tags: Maya tutorials . Animation tutorials

Labels: animation tutorials, Maya Tutorials

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DX Studio™ Version 1.28 Released

- Worldweaver Ltd. has announced a major new version of DX Studio™, and is now available for download. DX Studio is a complete integrated development environment for creating interactive 3D graphics. The system comprises of both a real-time 3D engine and a suite of editing tools, and is the first product to offer a complete range of tools in a single IDE. The system includes both 2D & 3D layout editors, and allows full JavaScript control of everything from changing the background to editing meshes in real-time.........more!!
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