cg daily news |
- Maxwell Render 2.0.2
- Creating a Music to Light Effect
- E-on Software 2010 Show Reel Call for Submissions!
- IFX Free workshop: Marta Dahlig Expand Your Creativity
- FilePathFinder Pro. v.3.0 Videos features
- Photoshop Elements 8 & Premiere Elements 8
- GTX 480 Unigine and 3D Vision Surround Demo (GF100)
- Cornucopia3D.com Artist Portfolios
- Unity released iPhone 1.6
- Photoshop tutorial: Painting Jake Sully's Avatar
- Starz Animation
- Pdplayer 1.0.4 is now Available
- cmiVFX : Road Creation vol. 3, Tunnel Building and Road Flattening
| Posted: 06 Mar 2010 07:27 AM PST  New update for Maxwell Render v2 available now! New features • New batch processing dialog (Menu/ File/ MXI Batch) useful for processing MXI sequences, and quickly changing the ISO, shutter, SimuLens, and vignetting settings. • New option in the File menu to merge MXI sequences. When selecting this option the user can select any input folder, and each frame will be merged with the same frame in other folders. This is very useful for resuming animations, etc. • New option in the main menu to launch a scene in network (Render/ Add Scene to Network Queue). It launches the monitor (or uses the existing monitor if there is one running on the same machine) and opens the job wizard automatically, lining up a new job with the current scene. Of course there must be one manager and at least one Rendernode running in the network to make it work. • New preference to set a minimum amount of time (in minutes) to save to disk. Using this new preference it is possible to improve the performance in systems where the writing process is very slow. For example, if the output folder is on a USB stick, it may be better not saving to disk during the first sampling levels, but rather when a certain amount of time has passed. By default the value is set to 0 which means that Maxwell Render saves to disk as usual (i.e. when a new SL is reached).  bugs fixed • Fixed: merging MXI files efficiently (the noise level was not properly reduced when merging lots of MXI files, especially at low sampling levels). • Fixed: scenarios where Maxwell Render would hang at high sampling levels. • Fixed: rendering animations overwrites the image instead of changing the file name if the initial image/ MXI path does not contain padding. • Fixed: several bugs with Single Sided SSS. Improved illumination from emitters with Single Sides SSS. • Fixed: bug with gamma in alpha channel. • Fixed: performance issues in multi-threaded routines that generated noise patterns in certain scenarios. • Fixed: bug in Color Multilight™ when using a Sky or IBL environment. • Fixed: shading bug with instances that could affect caustics. • Fixed: visibility flags (hide to reflections/ refractions/ GI) with instances. • Fixed: crash using SSS in certain scenarios. • Fixed: potential crash with emitters when there were other layers on top with opacity below 100. • Fixed: crash with BSDFs and coatings that use .ior files. • Fixed: crash in OS 64 bit with certain scenes. • Fixed: IES profiles were rendered incorrectly if the emitter parent had rotation/ scale. • Fixed: the ICC profile was not properly embedded in the tiff 32 format. • Fixed: gamma correction was applied incorrectly on some maps. • Fixed: override material flag was not properly refreshed when loading a scene. • Improved pre-process of scene dependencies. Now all the missing files are shown at once so it is easier to fix missing paths. • Fixed: ranges of the SimuLens parameters. • Fixed: the sliders of the Edit MXI panel are logarithmic now to control them more easily. • When double-clicking on an MXS file in Windows Explorer/ OSX Finder, if the MXS format is associated with Maxwell Render (not with Studio), it is loaded but the render does not start. In previous versions it started rendering, which was wrong. • When the viewer is in full size, it displays a floating text with the render info (SL reached, progress, etc.). This floating text can be displayed or hidden toggling the I key (like the render channel floating buttons) • Fixed: preference for displaying/ hiding scroll bars in panels. • Fixed: several small GUI issues. • Fixed: the Resume Render command line parameter -resume:["path"] was not working well. When using this argument it is mandatory to also use the argument -sl:X (where X is the new SL desired). Other arguments such as -mxi:["path"] or -mxs:["path"] should not be used at the same time. • Fixed: command line -p:normal argument did not work. • Fixed: "-color" command line parameter was read incorrectly with certain color spaces. • Fixed: return codes of certain scripting functions. • SDK improved and new functions added. • Mximerge: new "-extractlights" command line parameter to extract the lights of MXI files in batch mode.  Maxwell Studio and the Material Editor • Improvements in the UV sets area: it is now possible to scale projectors non-uniformly. Previously this was only possible with cubic projectors, whereas now it is possible with any projection type. • Improvements implemented and bugs fixed in the generation of UVs. • Objects locked/ unlocked state is properly saved and restored. • Fixed: scenario when object parameters could be changed editing them in the panel list, even when the object was locked. • Fixed: the preview scene showed a watermark with Multilight™ and more than 3 emitters. • Implemented several optimizations to make the GUI more responsive. • Fixed: it was not possible to drag the material preview over objects in viewport. • Fixed: the column width of lists is properly restored after closing and restarting Maxwell Studio. • The texture picker now shows the size of the loaded texture. • Sun power below 1 is now allowed. • Fixed: bug with sensor size pre-sets not updating resolution pixel ratio. • Fixed: bug with image controls not saved when clicking on the slider.  Maxwell Render Network • Multi-threaded file transfer performance and stability improved. • Fixed: bug in handling priorities. Sometimes the jobs were not processed in the order specified in the queue. • Fixed: some textures were not properly sent when the "send textures" checkbox was ticked. • Improved nodes detection in advanced network setups (different subnetworks, etc.). • Fixed: jobs queued after animation jobs were not started until the whole animation job was finished, even if some of the nodes were already free. • MXI transfer is safer now. Some issues like artifacts that appeared when previewing jobs are now fixed. • Fixed: potential issues after a Rendernode was disconnected. • Fixed: potential crash when closing the manager. • Fixed: potential crash if monitors where disconnected after requesting a job preview. • Fixed: bug when the "send textures" checkbox is not ticked and a network texture path is used instead. • Fixed: redundancy of files in animations (space used on disk highly optimized for animations). Temporary files are now properly removed. • Fixed: stopping a complete animation job was not working. It was only possible to stop individual frames. Now the job stops correctly. • Fixed: if a monitor is reconnected while rendering an animation, it displays all the info of the finished frames (SL reached, time, and node name were missing). • Fixed: "Error in MXI sending socket. The remote host closed the connection". • Now the manager not only checks that all the nodes are running the same version of mxnetwork but it also looks at the version of the render engine. If it is not the same in all the nodes, it displays an error message. • Fixed: display issue. The "time left" field was not properly displayed at high resolutions. • Fixed: when a frame from an animation job finished rendering, its current SL/ time was not properly displayed. • Fixed: when closing the manager it showed a warning about jobs still running even if all the jobs were finished. • Logging: important messages now have a time info header (there is a new preference to turn this option on or off). • When loading an animation job the most appropriated range is automatically entered in the frames field. • New preference added to control the verbosity. • New preference to set the temp folder used to save temporary files. • When the user attempts closing a monitor that still has to send files, the application shows a warning notifying the user that the job could fail. • "Quit" menu option now removes the monitor/ manager/ node without minimizing it in the icon tray first. • It is now possible to add jobs to a monitor using the command line with the "-addjob:path" argument. It runs the monitor with the given path and automatically executes the add job wizard. If an instance of the monitor is already running, it becomes active and a new one is not opened. • Fixed: RealFlow bin files were not properly sent to RenderNodes, so renders that used the Renderkit failed. • Fixed: instances were not properly painted in viewport for certain proxy percent values. Related links: REPLACE THE SOURCE LINK HERE 
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| Creating a Music to Light Effect Posted: 05 Mar 2010 11:55 PM PST  In this episode of Red Giant TV, Harry Frank shows you how to re-create the Music-to-Light effect (seen last season on Heroes), using Trapcode Particular 2. He'll also use Mojo to alter the color, and Knoll 3D Flare to add to the effect. View Tutorial | Project Files | Example Video Related links: redgiantsoftware.com 
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| E-on Software 2010 Show Reel Call for Submissions! Posted: 05 Mar 2010 11:42 PM PST  March 05, 2010. Beaverton, Oregon: e-on software, maker of the leading solutions for natural 3D environments, today announced it is seeking submissions for its upcoming 2010 show reel. Following the success of the 2009 show reel, e-on software invites all Vue artists to submit recent commercial projects that involved Vue or Ozone for inclusion in the 2010 show reel, whether film, commercial, TV show, broadcast, music video, game cinematic, architectural walkthrough, or any other form of commercial animation project. All submissions included in the show reel will receive full credit in a standardized format during playback of the corresponding sequence (at submitter's discretion: company logo, project title and/or client name). E-on software's 2010 show reel will be showcased throughout the year at different tradeshows and conventions and in particular at Siggraph, July 25 - 29, Los Angeles (CA - USA). Furthermore, submitted materials may also become the subject of online interviews and press advertising (if submitter agrees), providing permanent and worldwide exposure: www.e-onsoftware.com/spotlight E-on software is also interested in receiving high resolution imagery for inclusion in its marketing collateral. Submission Process The deadline for submitting video content for the 2010 show reel is May 14, 2010. Entrants should send video excerpts, sample frames or web links to press@e-onsoftware.com, with a small project description (including the name of the client, if appropriate), full contact information, and their company logo. Preferably, final video material should be available in a format of at least 720p (other formats accepted). There are no restrictions as to what third party application is used in combination with Ozone or Vue (if any) Related links: e-onsoftware.com 
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| IFX Free workshop: Marta Dahlig Expand Your Creativity Posted: 05 Mar 2010 10:58 PM PST  Marta Dahlig shows you how to quickly generate creative ideas and overcome artist's block with a simple exercise Check it out to download the free workshop HERE Related links: imaginefx.com 
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| FilePathFinder Pro. v.3.0 Videos features Posted: 05 Mar 2010 09:16 PM PST  Working with Project New methods of collecting – with drag&drop and clipboard Check more here Related links: 3d-kstudio.com 
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Photoshop Elements 8 & Premiere Elements 8 Posted: 05 Mar 2010 09:10 PM PST  Nick C. Sorbin reviewed Photoshop Elements 8 & Premiere Elements 8 "In all honesty, I myself had never really given the Adobe Elements software much thought previously, and I must say that I was quite surprised at what I found. Though the name Elements suggests watered down versions of Adobe products, Photoshop and Premiere Pro, there really is a great deal here in both Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements, both of which are now in version 8. For each of these programs, Adobe has gone all-out in providing a killer toolset that really delivers the goods in well-rounded packages for image and video solutions, and yet quite affordable in comparison to the fuller Creative Suite counterparts. And with the current state of the economy, this is very much welcomed. Both Photoshop Elements 8 and Premiere Elements 8 are available separately, however, the bundled product is definitely the way to go, at a meager price of $149.00 (USD). I really couldn't think of anyone who couldn't make great use of both of these, especially if one wishes to organize treasured memories in pictures and video." Read article Related links: renderosity.com 
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| GTX 480 Unigine and 3D Vision Surround Demo (GF100) Posted: 05 Mar 2010 07:10 PM PST  Tom Petersen Director of Technical Mkt at NVIDIA describes how the performance of GeForce GTX 480 compares to existing solution. We highlight the different aspects of the benchmark and how the new GeForce excels in tessellation. Tom also offers a quick peak at how 3DVision Surround is pushing PC gaming forward Related links: nvidia channel 
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Cornucopia3D.com Artist Portfolios Posted: 05 Mar 2010 07:00 PM PST  February 26, 2010 Cornucopia3D, a division of e-on software and one of the leading CG artist communities on the web, today announced the immediate availability of its new portfolio feature. Using Artist Portfolios, Cornucopia3D users can now easily expose their work through their own artist web page. "For several years I wanted a website to display the images I create. Cornucopia3D's Portfolio is the perfect answer! Cornucopia3D's Portfolio management tools are both precise and intuitive, but most importantly, the results are visually pleasant and professional." says Daniel Respaud - CGI artist at GESTFORM Christian Turner – Game Art & Design Artist adds: "Cornucopia3D has traffic from people of all walks of life including some major studios. I feel this is a great way to expose my work for possible chances to get a job in a good studio. To get exposure of this magnitude is very much appreciated." Key benefits of Cornucopia3D portfolios are:
Best of all, these new extended capabilities are completely free for all registered Cornucopia3D users. Through the Cornucopia3D account page, users can access and manage their own portfolio by using the one-click administration tools to customize the look, feel and arrangement of all artistic content. The artist portfolio is initially released as a beta program. During this beta period, comments, ideas and suggestions for improving the capabilities and usability of the Artist Portfolio are welcome and can be discussed in the artist portfolio thread in the Cornucopia3D forums. "Cornucopia3D Portfolio is an excellent new addition to the site and really does allow artists to showcase their work, I very much like the layout and will certainly use this new feature. Many thanks to all at Cornucopia3D who made this possible." Robert Mackin - Environment Artist CHECK HERE Related links: cornucopia3d.com 
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| Posted: 05 Mar 2010 06:58 PM PST  This Version will reduce your app's binary size by up to 25%, improving the over-the-air download experience, reducing application load times and memory footprint when running. Additionally Unity iPhone 1.6 now offers .NET 2.1 support which includes the use of generics and it eases the porting effort from Unity 2.6. We've also added Unity's multiplayer networking features allowing developers to create multiplayer experiences like never before. New features, improvements, and changesNew Features and Improvements
Bug Fixes
Known Issues
Download Related links: unity3d.com 
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| Photoshop tutorial: Painting Jake Sully's Avatar Posted: 05 Mar 2010 06:53 PM PST  Rafael Teruel Caceres shows us how he did the artwork Jake Sully's Avatar "When I saw the James Cameron 'Avatar' movie for the first time I was very surprised. I've seen it 2 more times. The visual effects are amazing. So I decide to pay a small tribute and began to make a fan art of its protagonist, Jake Sully. " READ NOW Related links: cgarena.com 
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| Posted: 05 Mar 2010 06:42 PM PST  Stars Animation uses Autodesk 3D modeling and animation software to create the postapocalyptic world of 9. Summary The movie 9, released on 09/09/09, follows the adventures of 9 brave, endearing ragdolls as they do battle against vicious, evil, mechanized monsters that have destroyed the human race. The 9 unwitting heroes find themselves in an eerie, postapocalyptic world where they must rely upon their wits to evade and defeat their insidious opponents. With rarely a lull in the engaging movie, every single frame of this animated feature film is packed with computer-graphics (CG) characters, rubble, debris, props, and sets; all composited into multilayered CG animated images enhanced by 3D lighting and camera effects. The animated feature 9 was inspired by a 2005 animated short film of the same name, 9, which Director Shane Acker produced as a student film while attending the University of California, Los Angeles. Besides winning a Student Academy Award® for Animation in 2005 and other top film festival honors, it also attracted the interest of Producer Tim Burton who, along with Timur Bekmambetov, enabled Shane Acker to produce the full-length animated film version for Focus Features. This put the wheels in motion for Canada's leading digital animation studio, Starz Animation Toronto, and its talented animators to find a breakthrough solution for realizing this riveting cinematic illusion despite a very ambitious deadline. Starz' 9 team—which included Director of Photography Kevin Adams, and Matthew Teevan, head of production—consisted of 125 animation artists and 100 support employees who worked diligently to create and complete hundreds of detailed scenes.  As a fast-paced sci-fi adventure that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats, 9 was fabricated entirely in the CG environment using Autodesk® Maya® animation software and Autodesk® Mudbox™ sculpting software—the mainstays of the Starz Animation Toronto production pipeline. These Autodesk tools handled the creative and technical demands of this 3D animated feature—the creation of dozens of intricate, expressive characters, richly textured settings and vistas, and captivating action that explodes on screen. Discover more. Related links: usa.autodesk.com 
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| Pdplayer 1.0.4 is now Available Posted: 05 Mar 2010 06:28 PM PST  Chaos Group and Asynthetic announced the release of a new version of Pdplayer 1.0.4 that improves on an already amazing sequence player. New features include improved Audio Support, Text Fields, RED SDK 3.0 and improved 3D LUT Precision. Audio is now being read from AVI and Quicktime movies (subject to the limitation that the movie must be no longer than 30 minutes, or the audio will not be loaded). Exporting an AVI or a Quicktime movie will now save an audio track, if an audible one is present. The text in text layers may now contain embedded fields of the form {object:property}. Such fields are replaced with their values before the text is displayed. This is useful for burn-ins when creating previews and dailies. The interpolation of 3D look-up tables has been improved, providing more accurate colour reproduction. This allows Pdplayer 1.0.4 to convert between radically different colour spaces by using an appropriate 3D LUT. For example, it can now show Digital Cinema Initiative X'Y'Z' gamma 2.6 images with the help of the supplied DCI_XYZ.cms lookup table. The RED SDK has been upgraded to version 3.0, with support for the new FLUT color science, including the new REDcolor and REDgamma color spaces. You can download a sample composition from our site. More detailed information can be found here.
Pdplayer 1.0.4 is available for immediate download. Access the download section by For a detailed feature list, please visit: http://pdplayer.chaosgroup.com For any inquiries regarding Pdplayer please contact: pdplayer@chaosgroup.com >>More Training Recorded Related links: REPLACE THE SOURCE LINK HERE 
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| cmiVFX : Road Creation vol. 3, Tunnel Building and Road Flattening Posted: 05 Mar 2010 06:24 PM PST  Princeton, NJ (March 4rd, 2010) — cmiVFX releases a brand new video for the Houdini product line; this is the 3rd in the series for Procedural Road Creation. cmiVFX continues to create highly sought after training that caters to resolve real world problems in production environments. Kim Goosens a highly experience production strategist and educator delivers another compelling training video. When it comes to high end CG and VFX training, there is only once choice... cmiVFX. This video is available today at the cmiVFX store for a Special Introductory Offer Price! Houdini – Procedural Road Creation vol. 3 - Tunnel Building and Road Flattening Preparing Like a good architect you are going to create the most economically viable road construction over the landscape. Learn about the basic approach for leveling out the landscape. Start out by creating a basic shape provided with all attributes to later be able to adjust the landscape. Learn how to use the ramp parameter to create attributes on a line object and how to control it procedurally. In combination with the spline sections create shapes containing the data needed to adjust the landscape. Projecting Attributes onto Landscape Having built an easy controllable shape providing the data; learn techniques on how to project those attributes onto the landscape. *Discover how to store height position data, falloff and*how the Raysop can be used for a variety of application methods. Techniques will be demonstrated on how to change, re-mesh and modify the UV's of the landscape with tools such as subdivide controlled by the attributes.* Extending the Landscape Intersection Tool There are differences in how to approach carving out the landscape and adding extra soil to level out the landscape. Here go into deeper detail on how to make differences based on the current situation. Adjusting Tools for Carving & Creating Tunnels Discover techniques for determining the inside and outside of a landscape. The current approach has too many limitations giving proper control on determining the length of the segment. In this tutorial section learn how to extend the curve segments in an accurate way. Creating a Procedural Tunnel Profile Identify how making a simplified procedural profile for carving out the tunnels together with improving the stability of the joint sop. This will allow the ability to create all sorts and varieties on the basic tunnel shape. Together with the tunnel profile and a tunnel entrance box the basic tunnel will have been created. Applying Procedural UV Tiles* One of the most important things to avoid in texturing is repetition. In this section, learn about various techniques to match textures and UV sets so that the texture can provide a limitless amount of variation.* Connecting the Separate Segments All texturing has been complete and now it's time to bring things together. Here learn how to bring the different sections together with nested for loops to ensure that all segments are being utilized. ** Adding Elements in the Tunnel* When sweeping shapes it is often necessary to create shapes at the ends that are not just simple profiles. Receive a small overview on how to create end shapes to a swept profile with the proper orientation. ** This video is available today at the cmiVFX store. cmiVFX Video Player Online Store About the Author: Kim*Goossens is a Belgian CG-artist who is working as a freelancer and CG-instructor with a long history in CG-graphics starting back at 1989 He became quite known for his creation of the GIRL later adopted by DAZ3D. He is currently teaching Houdini procedural modeling for games at the IGAD program at the NHTV University of Applied Sciences. While working on various game projects and commercials both as Art-director and technical artist, he gained a profound knowledge of tools such as Maya, Max, Zbrush, Modo, shake and Houdini. His biggest passion has always been to research strategies to increase production and quality, which has led him to research procedural modeling.*For more information about Kim Goosens please contact cmiVFX. About cmiVFX cmiVFX is the leader in High Definition Video Training for the Visual Effects Community. Register for FREE and receive hours of FREE content at cmiVFX: http://www.cmivfx.com/cmi_vod.html For additional information about cmiVFX, visit www.cmivfx.com. © 2010 cmiVFX | cmiStudios. All rights reserved. Related links: cmivfx.com 
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