Followers

Blog Archive

cg daily news

cg daily news


MAX Plugins.de is 10 years old

Posted: 12 Jul 2010 11:30 AM PDT



Dave talks about menmories with MAX Plugins.de in the birthday of this famous site.

Say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to it !

Free Wood Fence 3D Textures Pack

Posted: 12 Jul 2010 11:15 AM PDT



This high resolution free wood fence texture pack is perfect for game textures, 3D modeling, 3D graphic design in Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, or architectural textures. They are pre-matted with transparent backgrounds so that anything behind the wood fences will show through. They are designed to be seamless textures so that you can tile them horizontally and they will look great. Put any of our other free stock textures behind them and you can see the transparency looks great. The hi-res versions are saved in PNG-24 format with alpha channels.

DOWNLOAD!

Related links:
highresolutiontextures.com

The Foundry at Develop

Posted: 12 Jul 2010 11:04 AM PDT



Visit The Foundry at Develop in bar 106 on Tuesday 13th July from 6PM.

# VENUE: BAR 106
# DATE: TUESDAY 13TH JULY
# TIME: 6PM ONWARDS

From their http://beta.thefoundry.co.uk they annoiunced:
"We have some interesting things to show you, but we also want to get to know you better and understand your wants, needs and workflows.

We'll buy you a beer for your trouble!

Why not take a look at our new 3D texture painting tool, MARI, and our high end compositor NUKE and take the opportunity to ask us anything you like?"

Related links:
beta.thefoundry.co.uk

OptiTrack's Insight VCS Brings "Avatar" Magic to Every Studio

Posted: 12 Jul 2010 10:58 AM PDT




Optical Virtual Camera System Enables Live-action Camera Work for CG Filmmaking at a Competitive Price; Compatible with all Optical Motion Capture Systems

Corvallis, Ore. - July 12, 2010 - Filmmakers and game cinematographers are increasingly turning to real-time virtual production technologies to blend real-world tools with their virtual world. At the heart of this development is the virtual camera. James Cameron revolutionized digital cinematography with his innovative control of the virtual camera using motion capture. This "Virtual Vérité" technology is now being offered for a fraction of the cost, with OptiTrack™'s Insight VCS.

"Our goal has always been to offer full-featured motion capture systems at a price that production companies of every size can afford," said Jim Richardson, NaturalPoint®® co-founder and lead engineer for the OptiTrack motion capture line. "With the Insight VCS, we're expanding this vision to include the bleeding-edge virtual camera technology that Cameron made famous with "Avatar" - as usual, at an exceptionally low price. OptiTrack now delivers high-performance body, face and virtual camera mocap for less than anyone else in the world."

To ensure complete compatibility with a variety of production pipelines, the Insight VCS has been engineered for interoperability with any existing optical motion capture system - including OptiTrack, Vicon and Motion Analysis - that can track marker-based rigid bodies and stream data to Autodesk MotionBuilder or Autodesk Maya.

Developed in close collaboration with Los Angeles-based previsualization company Halon Entertainment, the Insight VCS is the ideal virtual camera solution for a broad range of applications ranging from film and commercial previsualization to digital filmmaking. Throughout the development process Halon tested design iterations in the field, utilizing pre-production versions of the Insight VCS to create content for high profile projects and directors.

"In working with OptiTrack to develop the Insight VCS, Halon helped build a tool that puts film directors and directors of photography in a virtual world they more closely understand," said Justin Denton, technical developer and previs supervisor at Halon Entertainment. "The value of being able to walk out into a space and explore a virtual world by physically controlling a camera, finding the perfect angles and then shooting multiple takes is truly remarkable. All of this is achieved in a fraction of the time it takes to keyframe a single camera take, and the results are more natural. The Insight VCS has proven invaluable on multiple high-profile film and commercial projects for us here at Halon."

The Insight VCS is a two-part system, consisting of a hardware camera rig and software interface. As the hardware rig is tracked throughout the motion capture volume, absolute 6 DOF position and orientation data is streamed live via the software plug-in to either MotionBuilder or Maya to drive the virtual camera within the 3D application. Real-time reference video is streamed out of MotionBuilder or Maya back to the VCS display, creating a low-latency visual feedback loop, akin to the viewfinder in an actual digital camera.

Different versions of both the hardware rig and software plug-in are available to fit a variety of existing pipelines and production requirements. Components include:

  • Virtual Camera Rigs: The Insight VCS offers two different hardware rigs for controlling the virtual camera:

  • VCS:Pro
    Designed for professional production work, the VCS:Pro replicates the organic cinematographer's experience with exceptional fidelity. The professional model includes a 1280x768 HD LCD display for real-time feedback, mappable buttons and joysticks for extensive camera control, and a robust Redrock Micro shoulder mount kit. Markers and posts are included for a variety of marker configurations.
  • VCS:Mini
    The VCS:Mini provides low cost, lightweight and highly flexible access to the virtual camera pipeline. The kit includes an anodized aluminum mount preinstalled on a wireless Xbox 360 game pad, as well as markers and posts.
  • Software Plug-ins: Comprehensive, customizable plug-ins are available for camera work in MotionBuilder and Maya for control over scripts, button mapping, scaling and camera properties. Universal versions of each plug-in are also available for use with non-OptiTrack motion capture systems.
  • Demonstrations of the Insight VCS will be available at SIGGRAPH 2010, July 26 - 29, at the OptiTrack booth #701. For additional information, please visit www.optitrack.com.

    Pricing and Availability
    The Insight VCS will ship late summer 2010. Pricing for the camera rig ranges from $199 USD to $5,000 USD. Software plug-ins to MotionBuilder and Maya for OptiTrack systems are $1,000 USD. Universal plug-ins for other motion capture systems are $2,000 USD.

    For more information, please contact the company's headquarters in Corvallis, Ore. at 1-888-865-5535, or visit www.optitrack.com.

    About OptiTrack
    OptiTrack™ is the leading brand of affordable, high-quality motion capture technology. The OptiTrack product line includes: the Insight VCS; ARENA™, Expression™ and Tracking Tools™ motion capture software; and OptiTrack high-speed motion tracking cameras. Used by facilities world-wide in a variety of markets ranging from film and games to sports training and biomechanics, OptiTrack customers include Halon Entertainment, Electronic Arts, Microsoft Game Studios, Method Studios, Lockheed Martin, NASA, John Deer, and other top studios and developers around the world.

    OptiTrack is owned by NaturalPoint®®, one of the leading companies specializing in optical tracking technology. For more information, visit www.optitrack.com.

    About NaturalPoint
    Based in Corvallis, Ore., NaturalPoint®® is the creator and manufacturer of the OptiTrack™, TrackIR™ and SmartNAV™ family of brands. NaturalPoint specializes in providing innovative control solutions through optical tracking technology, and has developed tracking systems for computers, video games, military simulators and unique display systems. For more information visit NaturalPoint.com.

    About Halon Entertainment
    Based in Santa Monica, Calif., Halon Entertainment is a premier previsualization studio which has provided mobile teams of artists for short and long term projects with such acclaimed Directors as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and James Cameron. Through constant innovation, Halon Entertainment helps productions to envision, plan, shoot and post to keep more of its budget on the screen. More info at www.halon.com.



    Related links:
    optitrack.com
    halon.com

    Multipass rendering in Maya and Mental Ray

    Posted: 12 Jul 2010 09:39 AM PDT



    This tutorial shows a workflow for rendering 3D scenes in separate passes and compositing these renderings for finer control. The 3D rendering will be done in Maya, using Mental Ray and its "mia_x_Passes" materials, that allow the output of all information used by the shader at render-time. The compositing of these renderings will be done in Nuke using OpenEXRs in a linear workflow.

    1. Introduction
    2. Separating scene elements in contribution maps
    3. Separating passes for each contribution map
    4. Saving multi-layer OpenExr files
    5. Compositing shaders in Nuke
    6. Writing custom color buffers

    Here you go!
    Related links:
    cgchannel.com

    New version of LightWave 3D® at SIGGRAPH 2010

    Posted: 12 Jul 2010 09:31 AM PDT



    NewTek -manufacturer of industry-leading 3D animation and video products will show new version of LightWave 3D.

    NewTek invites all 3D artists and CG media to visit their booth to view demonstrations of the much anticipated new version of LightWave 3D® at SIGGRAPH 2010 - Hall H, Booth #337.

    • Experience an all new LightWave, with production workflow enhanced versions of Modeler and Layout as well as powerful next generation CORE technologies, including enhanced pipeline integration tools and support for Autodesk's geoCache file format, Anaglyph Stereoscopic viewport support, interactive display and rendering tools, new UV mapping tools, bullet rigid body dynamics, and new immersive real-time and game tools.

    • Meet Rob Powers, NewTek's director of entertainment and media development, who will answer questions about the next generation of LightWave. Powers was a key member of the team behind James Cameron's "Avatar," and also worked on Steven Spielberg's team for "TinTin." On "Avatar," he established the very first Virtual Art Department and supervised the virtual environments.

    • Meet Andrew Clement, creator of the organ models for "RepoMen," as he discusses how LightWave made the creation of the "artforgs" or artificial organs for the movie, so easy.

    • Meet two Hollywood film and television legends, one who happens to be an avid LightWave user. We'll name drop in an upcoming press release.

    • Meet Ernest Chan, the CG supervisor at Nickelodeon as he talks about his usage of LightWave on "SpongeBob SquarePants," "The Fairly OddParents," "Jimmy Neutron," "Invader Zim" and "Avatar: The Last Airbender."

    When: Tuesday-Thursday, July 27–29, 2010

    Where: SIGGRAPH 2010, Los Angeles Convention Center, Hall H, Booth #337

    More Information: 3D artists can register for complimentary exhibit passes to SIGGRAPH 2010, courtesy of NewTek. To register, enter this code, n3wtk3d, on the NewTek website.

    PDF

    Register here !

    Related links:
    newtek.com

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

    0 komentar:

    Posting Komentar

    Related Posts with Thumbnails