3D news round-up

Andy Price | News | 29/04/2011 15:00pm

What’s been happening in the 3D industry this week? Find out here…

From 3DWorldmag.com

There’s been plenty of commercial work breaking out online this week – first up is Meindbender’s ‘The Pirate’ – a 1-minute promo for Cartoon Network, which showcase some fantastic character animation.

Taylor James is at it again with its almost unrivalled approach to CG illustration. Take a look at the images created for The Knowledge directory, which we posted this week.

Zoic Studios has had a busy year so far. The latest work comes from an episode of Fringe, in which the studio created 14 minutes of animation for the popular sci-fi show. There were some mixed views on the dream-like sequences from our readers over at the 3D World Facebook page.

News on some key CG events also broke this week, including the announcement of the bluegfxexpo, a London-based event that will showcase the latest 3D modelling and animation technology.

Prime Focus have also been getting involved with the wealth of new competitions that are being announced at the moment. The UGC short film contest is calling for entries from VFX artists and the winner will get a four-week internship at one of the VFX company’s international studios.

There’s also been a few bits and pieces in software news, including an update to GoZ from Pixologic with some big news for Photoshop Extended users. Also in the news was a new crowd plug-in for Maya from Golaem and the announcement that a new renderer for Blender is on its way.

Around the web

Back in February we announced that filmmaker Joeri Christiaen would be inviting the online world to follow the production of 850 Meters, a new animated short. This week Joeri sent us a link to the second episode in the series – check it out on Vimeo.

Following the release of Carbon Scatter for 3ds Max, e-on software has also announced this week that versions for Maya and Cinema 4D are just around the corner. They are currently looking for beta testers to finalise the releases.

Luxology has also been busy, having already announced the modo for SolidWorks kit last week, the developer has now announced a new plug-in for modo 501 called recoil, for simulating rigid body dynamics.