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Low-Res Character Production - Constructing A Character For Next-Gen Games
Di-O-Matic announced Maskarad is now available
Rain
ASUS P55 Gets Front Panel USB 3.0 Supports
Everything beautiful is far away
City Ruin
Vue xStream Kick start tutorial

Low-Res Character Production - Constructing A Character For Next-Gen Games

Posted: 16 Jul 2010 07:06 AM PDT

In this DVD instructor Adam Schuman walks you through the entire process of constructing a low resolution character worthy of any "next-generation" game. Follow him as he shows you his techniques in exporting the high-res model from ZBrush, reconstructing the low-res meshes, creating the UV's for all of the meshes, baking out all of the maps (3ds Max and xNormal), creating all of the textures, using real-time viewport shaders, and rendering out the final for your portfolio.

This DVD is geared to improve your workflow by helping you understand what is expected of professionals in the field today.

More Info and a Video Sample Here: http://eat3d.com/character_lowres

About the Instructor:
Adam Schuman has been in the video game industry since graduating from the Art Institute of Dallas in 2002. He has always been passionate about high quality character creation and regularly competes in Dominance War and other character creation contests. Adam has worked at such studios as TKO, KingsIsle, Stalker Entertainment, Midway Games, and is currently a Senior Character Artist at Vigil Games.

Related links:REPLACE THE SOURCE LINK HERE

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Di-O-Matic announced Maskarad is now available

Posted: 16 Jul 2010 06:56 AM PDT

Di-O-Matic uncovers Next-Generation 3D Facial Animation solution
Montréal, Canada, July 14th

, 2010 – Di-O-Matic, Inc., a leading developer of 3D character

animation software and plug-in tools today announced Maskarad, a new ground-breaking

automatic markerless facial performance motion capture software. The Maskarad v1 software

is expected to begin shipping in fall 2010 for US 1499$.

With Maskarad, 3D artists only need a simple video file featuring an actor performance to

create lifelike facial animations. Maskarad automatically locate and track facial expressions and

mouth movements. Before Maskarad, realistic 3D facial animation was limited to only a few

high-end projects. This was due to the expensive motion capture hardware and laborious post-

processing involved either directly or through outsourcing.

"I've tested and used a lot of 3rd party software in my years of production on some of the best

games of all-time like Bungie's Halo3, Ubisoft's Spinter Cell and Prince of Persia to name a few"

revealed Jonathan Abenhaim, senior freelance character animator. He continues: "My hat goes

off to the team over at Di-O-Matic for nailing it with Maskarad!.....It's insanely simple, it output

results in a fraction of the time it used to take me to produce facial animations."

No messy or cumbersome face markers setup, no time-consuming post-processing and no

expensive dedicated hardware is required. Maskarad quickly output facial animation data ready

to be used in your favorite 3d applications including 3ds max, Maya, Softimage and

MotionBuilder.

Maskarad is a markerless motion capture technology that literally puts motion capture on the

animator's desktop. You can shoot a video right at your workplace using a webcam or

inexpensive digital camera and have it converted to 3D facial animation data in minutes.

For a full list of all the features planned for Maskarad and video-demo of Maskarad, please visit

the product information page at: http://www.di-o-matic.com/products/Software/Maskarad/

Pricing and Availability

Maskarad is currently in development and is expected to begin shipping in fall 2010. Pricing is

US 1499$ for a full commercial version (protected with ALPServer, Di-O-Matic licensing system

with floating license options), and comes with one year support. For all pricing and support

services visit: http://www.di-o-matic.com/products/

About Di-O-Matic, Inc.

Established in Montréal in 2000, Di-O-Matic, Inc. develops high-end character animation

software and plug-in applications for professional 3D animation artists and production studios

all over the world. With globally renowned customers including: Activision, Boeing, Blur

Studios, Capcom, Disney, RockStar Games, SEGA and Ubisoft, Di-O-Matic software has been

used to enhance and animate CG characters like: Batman, Garfield Spider-Man, SpongeBob

SquarePants, Mickey Mouse and many more. www.di-o-matic.com

Related links:
di-o-matic.com

Rain

Posted: 16 Jul 2010 06:37 AM PDT

by: Borja Fresco Costal

ASUS P55 Gets Front Panel USB 3.0 Supports

Posted: 16 Jul 2010 06:27 AM PDT

Although many motherboards are capable of USB 3.0 port，undoubtedly it is not enough to satisfy our guys appetite，and ASUS is spicing up Front Panel USB 3.0 by the upcoming P55.

P55 is codenamed P7P55/USB3, a motherboard which boasts a front panel USB 3.0 will gives users greater convenience; And one NEC USB 3.0 chip to support the two USB 3.0 headers, which ensures that there is no reduction in data transfer speed for each individual port.

Specs as follows:

-four Dual-channels DDR3 memory slots
-two PCLe x 16 slots
-two PCLe x 1 slots
-two PCI slots
-six SATA 3Gbps connectors
-8-channel HD audio outputs
-an integrated Gigabit-Ethernet card

P55 will be available pretty soon and sells for not more than $150.

Related links:
en.expreview.com

Everything beautiful is far away

Posted: 15 Jul 2010 09:21 PM PDT