cg daily news

ArtVPS signs deal with bluegfx
Microsoft Unveils Windows Phone 7 Series
Fountain Animation Tools (F-Tools)
Two new Massive Attack videos
Krakatoa tutorial: Locking textures to particles with Particle Flow

Posted: 16 Feb 2010 07:23 AM PST

Leading rendering solutions provider ArtVPS has appointed bluegfx as the first UK reseller of its flagship interactive rendering software, Shaderlight. bluegfx specialises in supplying leading edge technologies to the film, design, architectural and games industries and as an Autodesk Gold reseller (Media & Entertainment) is well placed to take Shaderlight to market.

Shaderlight is a powerful new render plug-in to 3ds Max that unlocks the workflow bottlenecks faced by 3D artists. The software allows users to change materials, environments, lighting and textures at any stage in the rendering process and see the results instantly, meaning it is no longer necessary to compromise on image quality or waste time waiting for the image to re-render.

Commenting on the appointment, ArtVPS marketing director Kate Marshall said: "ArtVPS is looking to appoint resellers in all major territories and bluegfx is the first in the UK. The company has significant knowledge and experience of the industry and the quality of service and support they offer means they continue to grow their customer base. Shaderlight has the potential to fundamentally change the way 3D artists refine their images. bluegfx will help us get this innovative technology into the hands of 3ds Max users and make sure it is given the greatest opportunity for success."

bluegfx co-founder, Matt Allen adds: "We are delighted to have been appointed by ArtVPS and to have the opportunity to take this cutting-edge product to market. The ability to make changes to a final image without having to re-render represents a fundamental, exciting new workflow speed enhancement for users and will deliver a serious productivity boost in a fast-paced industry where time is money."

Anyone wishing to try Shaderlight can take advantage of a free 14-day trial, available at: http://artvps.com/content/download or call bluegfx now for more details and pricing.

About ArtVPS

ArtVPS leads the way in the development of photorealistic rendering solutions that generate visually accurate representations of 3D scenes. Its revolutionary flagship rendering technology, Shaderlight™, is a physically based, progressive ray-tracer that enables interactive, nonlinear changes to the key MELT attributes (materials, environments, lighting and textures) at any stage within the rendering process – even on production-ready images.

Shaderlight is aimed at 3D artists and computer graphics professionals within the product design, architecture, engineering and media industries. The technology will transform 3D visualisation workflows, and represents a dramatic boost to both productivity and creative freedom when compared to traditional linear ray-trace renderers, which require the rendering process to start again whenever image parameters are changed.

Founded in 2002, ArtVPS quickly established itself as the leading developer of dedicated rendering hardware, developing the first processor designed exclusively to accelerate ray tracing of 3D data. ArtVPS is now pioneering the development of rendering software that fully exploits the increased capabilities of today's processor technology.

www.artvps.com

About bluegfx

bluegfx is a leading European 3D reseller in the Media and Entertainment industry supplying software, hardware, training, engineering and services to the games, film/TV, design visualisation and education markets.

The company is constantly delivering new innovative solutions to the industry in partnership with our suppliers and strives to offer innovative and future proof technology to our clients. We have a single-minded focus on delivering a service level and support infrastructure that is second to none.

bluegfx is delighted to have won the coveted award for the third consecutive year - Autodesk North European M&E Channel Partner, 2010.

bluegfx.com

>>More Shaderlight Recorded
Related links:

artvps.com
bluegfx.com

Microsoft Unveils Windows Phone 7 Series

Posted: 16 Feb 2010 07:13 AM PST

BARCELONA, Spain – Feb. 15, 2010 – Today at Mobile World Congress 2010, Microsoft Corp. CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the next generation of Windows® Phones, Windows Phone 7 Series. With this new platform, Microsoft offers a fresh approach to phone software, distinguished by smart design and truly integrated experiences that bring to the surface the content people care about from the Web and applications. For the first time ever, Microsoft will bring together Xbox LIVE games and the Zune music and video experience on a mobile phone, exclusively on Windows Phone 7 Series. Partners have already started building phones; customers will be able to purchase the first phones in stores by holiday 2010.

"Today, I'm proud to introduce Windows Phone 7 Series, the next generation of Windows Phones," said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. "In a crowded market filled with phones that look the same and do the same things, I challenged the team to deliver a different kind of mobile experience. We believe Windows Phone 7 Series is a phone that truly reflects the speed of people's lives and their need to connect to other people."

Video Microsoft's Joe Belfiore demonstrates the new touch interface of its latest phone operating system at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from BBC

Designed for Life in Motion
With Windows Phone 7 Series, Microsoft takes a fundamentally different approach to phone software. Smart design begins with a new, holistic design system that informs every aspect of the phone, from its visually appealing layout and motion to its function and hardware integration. On the Start screen, dynamically updated "live tiles" show users real-time content directly, breaking the mold of static icons that serve as an intermediate step on the way to an application. Create a tile of a friend, and the user gains a readable, up-to-date view of a friend's latest pictures and posts, just by glancing at Start.
Every Windows Phone 7 Series phone will come with a dedicated hardware button for Bing, providing one-click access to search from anywhere on the phone, while a special implementation of Bing search provides intent-specific results, delivering the most relevant Web or local results, depending on the type of query.

Windows Phone 7 Series creates an unrivaled set of integrated experiences on a phone through Windows Phone hubs. Hubs bring together related content from the Web, applications and services into a single view to simplify common tasks. Windows Phone 7 Series includes six hubs built on specific themes reflecting activities that matter most to people:

* People. This hub delivers an engaging social experience by bringing together relevant content based on the person, including his or her live feeds from social networks and photos. It also provides a central place from which to post updates to Facebook and Windows Live in one step.
* Pictures. This hub makes it easy to share pictures and video to a social network in one step. Windows Phone 7 Series also brings together a user's photos by integrating with the Web and PC, making the phone the ideal place to view a person's entire picture and video collection.
* Games. This hub delivers the first and only official Xbox LIVE experience on a phone, including Xbox LIVE games, Spotlight feed and the ability to see a gamer's avatar, Achievements and gamer profile. With more than 23 million active members around the world, Xbox LIVE unlocks a world of friends, games and entertainment on Xbox 360, and now also on Windows Phone 7 Series.
* Music + Video. This hub creates an incredible media experience that brings the best of Zune, including content from a user's PC, online music services and even a built-in FM radio into one simple place that is all about music and video. Users can turn their media experience into a social one with Zune Social on a PC and share their media recommendations with like-minded music lovers. The playback experience is rich and easy to navigate, and immerses the listener in the content.
* Marketplace. This hub allows the user to easily discover and load the phone with certified applications and games.
* Office. This hub brings the familiar experience of the world's leading productivity software to the Windows Phone. With access to Office, OneNote and SharePoint Workspace all in one place, users can easily read, edit and share documents. With the additional power of Outlook Mobile, users stay productive and up to date while on the go.

CNN's Jim Boulden sits down to try it out.

>>More Microsoft Recorded

Related links:

en.akihabaranews.com
cnn.com/video
news.bbc.co.uk

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Fountain Animation Tools (F-Tools)

Posted: 16 Feb 2010 06:41 AM PST

F-Tools works with the standard SuperSpray in 3DS MAX and using different algorithms to generate fountain animation.

The process of creating animation, using F-Tools, is reduced to the following stages:

1. Setting the scene in 3DS MAX. (creating an environment, particle systems (collectors), etc.). Each independent group of nozzles (SuperSpray) preferably placed in a separate layer for easy work.
2. Setting up a system of particles. F-Tools includes a tool for easy configuration of SuperSpray.Use it to quickly raise the jet to the desired height, to give them some thickness and other physical properties.
3.Creating animation. F-Tools provides a variety of processing algorithms, systems of particles, which are suitable for creating a dynamic and musical fountains. Thus you can generate a variety of water paintings. To create a musical fountain should be included playing music track in 3DS MAX.
4.Animation illumination of the fountain. This phase is recommended to do at the end.Animation illumination of the fountain is also based on key frames and uses the G-Buffer object.Create an animation lights should visualize in VideoPost.
5.Final stage. Visualization and composing.

More Information and download Here

>>More Script Recorded

Related links:

ftools.blog.com
scriptspot.com

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Two new Massive Attack videos

Posted: 16 Feb 2010 07:16 AM PST

Just clapped our eyes on two new Massive Attack videos so thought we'd share them...
First up is this stunning CG film directed by Edouard Salier for track Splitting the Atom - from Massive Attack's new album, Heligoland

Massive Attack have commissioned films to accompany each of the tracks from the new album so expect to see more in coming weeks and months. To keep up to date with the project, check out heligoland-films.massiveattack.com/. In the meantime, here's Ewan Spencer's film for track Flat Of The Blade :

Related links:
http://www.edouardsalier.com/
http://www.heligoland-films.massiveattack.com/

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Krakatoa tutorial: Locking textures to particles with Particle Flow

Posted: 16 Feb 2010 01:33 AM PST

Allan Mckay Shows us a very brief tutorial just explaining the simple process of generating particles and having them adopt their mapping coordinates off of their emitter object, and then lastly pathing them through Krakatoa as well. So this way particles adopt the texture of their emitter object and lock onto each individual particle.