Update to 3ds Max plug-in has been released, expanding on realtime tools, OpenGL performance and support for Max 2010
PRESS RELEASE
NEW ORLEANS, May 18, 2009, Cubicspace Studios Ltd and TurboSquid, Inc. are pleased to announce the immediate availability of rtre v2.1 as the latest update to the popular Autodesk Certified Animation Plug-in product. With this release, users can expect rendering speeds within the Realtime view to exceed 100+ million polygons per second, providing instant visual feedback on scene design in ways not previously possible through the normal 3ds Max viewports.
Beyond just performance improvements and fixes, rtre v2.1 also offers several powerful new capabilities that help artists create immersive, interactive presentations with greater ease, including new texture and published scene compression, a single-click feature to make the entire interactive world solid and ready for collisions, and new infinite ground plane controls.
‘The Cubicspace team has stayed focused on their goal of continued innovation, and I’m excited by the new rtre v2.1 update and how it will impact users’ workflow on their design-related tasks. Having the ability to build sophisticated and interactive scene files that users can hand off to their clients is still unique within the 3ds Max architecture and is becoming more important in these days of shortened project timelines and tightening budgets. rtre v2.1 provides a significant ROI when used in this way.’
Beau Perschall, TurboSquid Vice President of Business Development.
‘We remain committed to supporting the Autodesk 3ds Max artist. Our latest rtre is an almost complete rewrite, and users can look forward to even more amazing advances in performance and realism, produced using the bleeding edge of GPU technology.’
Steven Markham, Cubicspace Co-Founder, President and CEO.
‘What used to take hours to import now takes seconds. And if you are sceptical like I was, then you should try it out because you are in for a big but pleasant surprise. Well done Cubicspace!’
Joseph Pace, Managing Director, Virtual Reality Studios
‘rtre has enabled us to create faster, more accurate real time scenes straight from 3ds Max and has saved us a large amount of time and money.’
Paul Wheeler, Utah Department of Transportation
‘The first time I saw rtre I could not believe the potential opportunities. It has really paid off. I love this stuff!’
Stephen Grisez, SGMAX Consultants, Owner
Key Highlights of rtre v2.1 include:
Navigation
· A custom tailored environment provides users with complete freedom within the Realtime view to walk, fly or orbit anywhere within their scenes. This includes variable gravity (to keep you firmly planted on the ground if you so desire) and adjustable movement speed to refine your audience’s experience.
· Users can now select any object to be a start point within the Realtime view and can choose to start their realtime scenes in any navigation mode (walk, fly or orbit).
Rendering
· Automatic irradiance lighting of all selected objects added to the embedded Realtime view inside of 3ds Max allows for quick setup and preview of scene with materials.
· Dynamic Realtime view offers customizable field-of-view, near and far clip planes and depth colored fog for advanced composition and layout to further augment your ideas and vision.
Interactivity & Publishing
· Customize the dimensions, title bar and sizing options of published executable files from rtre v2.1 to deliver a complete experience for your clients that doesn’t feel generic or forced.
· Setup and testing of custom skin interfaces directly within the 3ds Max Realtime viewport greatly reduces the time needed to publish out an .EXE file ready for consumption by your clients.
· Intuitive helper objects allow users to build robust Realtime interactivity without needing to know anything about programming. Being able to have animation triggered by clicking on an object or colliding with it in the Realtime view lets users provide a much richer and complete experience for their intended audience.
Miscellaneous Coolness
· Enhanced support for native 3ds Max materials and map types (including advanced Normal Mapping) gives users a full palette of material creation tools to make the textures applied to their objects robust and convincing.
· Full XRef scene and object support within the Realtime view
· Heads-up-Display in Realtime view lets you quickly monitor your hardware and scene performance
Pricing and Availability
rtre v2.1 is available at an Amazing Recession-Busting Introductory Suggested Retail Price of $995, through TurboSquid or its worldwide reseller channel and works with 3ds Max 9, 2008, 2009 (32-bit only including Max Design) and 2010 (32-bit (64-bit coming soon) including Max Design). For existing v2.0 users, the new version is a free update, while v1.1 users can upgrade for $495. For a Reseller near you, contact sales@turbosquid.com.
Ozone 4 released
Following the open beta in March, e-on Software has released a full version of its suite of atmospheric plug-ins
PRESS RELEASE
May 20, 2009. Beaverton, Oregon: e-on software, makers of Vue, the leading solutions for natural 3D environments, and creators of breakthrough spectral atmospheric rendering technologies today announced the immediate availability of Ozone 4.0, its suite of atmospheric plug-ins for 3ds Max, Cinema4D, LightWave, Maya and Softimage|XSI.
E-on software also announced that it plans to release the Ozone 4.0 Personal Learning Edition (a fully functional version of Ozone 4.0 that anyone can use at no charge) in the coming days.
Ozone 4.0 - Atmospheres that Come Alive
Ozone 4.0 implements the Spectral 2 cutting-edge technologies developed by e-on software for the simulation and rendering of atmospheric effects. Ozone 4.0 atmospheres provide an accurately simulated environment that affects all elements of the scenes, and behaves according to nature’s rules.
Some of the new features of Ozone 4.0 include:
Fully integrated suite of plug-ins:
Ozone 4.0 operates as a fully integrated plug-in for 3ds Max, Maya, LightWave, Cinema4D and XSI. It adds all the tools required for the creation of hyper-realistic atmospheres directly in the host application‘s interface. On top of this, one single license of Ozone 4.0 will work with all compatible applications and renderers (see further down for details).
Breakthrough Spectral 2 and Volumetric atmosphere models:
Based entirely on real-world atmospheric behavior, the new Spectral 2™ engine produces ultra-realistic environments with volumetric clouds, accurate light dispersion and natural phenomena such as Godrays. These new technologies realistically model the behavior of our planet‘s atmosphere to produce all kinds of atmospheric effects.
Real 3D Clouds:
Highly optimized volumetric cloud layers that you can fly through or use to simulate realistic low-lying fog. Ozone 4.0 Atmospheres are seamlessly integrated in the scene and will directly interact with native elements (for instance: Ozone 4.0 clouds will automatically cast shadows onto native objects).
Super-fast rendering technology:
Despite the staggering complexity of the atmospheric model it features, Ozone 4.0 renders its atmospheric effects at blazing speed, thanks to e-on software’s highly optimized technology.
Animated clouds and sunsets in a breeze:
Users can realistically animate the atmosphere, the clouds and the sun, making their skies spring to life, all in a wink! Simply set the direction and speed of the wind, the rate of change, and render on!
Extensive library of over 150 predefined atmospheres:
Ozone 4.0 includes presets for all kinds of atmospheric conditions: bright daytime, bad weather, sunrise, sunset, night time, etc. Customize the atmosphere using dedicated tools and the library of over 140 preset cloud shapes.
Ozone 4.0 is available in English for Windows XP and Vista (32 and 64 bits) and Mac OS X 10.4 (Universal Binary).
A single license of Ozone 4.0 will work with all compatible applications and renderers installed on the end user’s system, without requiring the purchase of any Extra Renderer licenses.
Ozone 4.0 for Maya works with both MentalRay and Maya software renderers.
Ozone 4.0 for Max and XSI works with MentalRay.
Ozone 4.0 for LightWave and Cinema4D works with the native renderer.
Ozone 4.0 retails at US$295, with upgrades from Ozone 3.0 available for $95 and RenderNode network rendering licenses at $95 per node.
Tuesday May 26, 2009
Microsoft ends trueSpace development
trueSpace affected my Microsoft's reduced investment
Former trueSpace developer Caligari has announced via founder Roman Ormandy, that due to ‘difficult business conditions‘, users of the 3D application will see a ‘reduction or elimination of services offered for trueSpace‘.
The announcement was made through a ‘letter from the founder‘ on the Caligari website.
Death is no laughing matter... but killing off your lead actor over and over again is pure comedy gold, as French short Dans La Tête proves
This well executed short sees a soldier sent into a warzone, where he dies, ascends to heaven, and is… sent back. According to heaven‘s rules, the soldier hasn‘t died quite to its requirements and is returned to the battle over and over again in a Groundhog Day meets Saving Private Ryan style.
You can read more about the making of ‘Dans La Tête‘ in issue 118 of 3D World.
Download 'Dans La Tête'
In most browsers, right-click on the link and select Save As to download the movie (31 MB)
Post-production studio ZOO created 3D skeletons and landscapes for BBC show The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor
Project name: The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor
Production Company: Atlantic Productions
Post production: ZOO
Post Producer: James Prosser
Watch it: 26 May 2009 at 9pm on BBC ONE
The brief was to create scientifically accurate 3D skeletons for a 47 million year-old creature, based on an early primate fossil named Ida.
Starting by commissioning a 3D scan of a ring-tailed lemur skeleton, ZOO used the base model to rebuild the Ida skeleton model with scientific accuracy.
ZOO were also tasked with creating a landscape of the Messel pit site in Germany were the Ida fossil was preserved.
The team used the Vue environment software to form a dynamic landscape and Particle Flow for the explosion, dust and debris.
Compositing and grading on all 3D images was done using After Effects and rendered using mental ray.
The work will be shown in The Link: Uncovering Our Earliest Ancestor on BBC1 on 26 May at 9pm.
Tutorial files for 3D World 118
Download the videos to accompany issue 118's tutorials
In issue 118 of 3D World, Kyle Balda concludes his animation masterclass for Maya; Christopher Plush looks at rigging for animation in Blender; and our expert artists tackle a selection of your questions. The videos here complement these tutorials, providing extra detail and insight. The scene files for all of these tutorials are on issue 118‘s disc: to order your copy, visit My Favourite Magazines.
Animate the Hollywood way
Character animation in Maya with Kyle Balda
San Jose, Calif.—May 19, 2009—OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a worldwide leader in innovative, ultra-high performance and high reliability memory and computer components, today released the highly anticipated Summit Series 2.5” Solid State Drives, tailored to meet the stringent demands of business professionals, enthusiasts, and entry-level enterprise applications. Building on their premium flash-based storage solutions, OCZ’s Summit Series strives to bridge the gap between the needs of high-end gaming and professional desktops and notebooks to small scale server PCs that require amplified criteria for maintaining a solid and stable work environment.
“OCZ’s SSD lineup offers drives for the complete spectrum of applications, and the new Summit SSD’s cater to both enthusiast level consumer and enterprise customers,” said Alex Mei, CMO of the OCZ Technology Group. “Making use of premium flash and a large 128MB cache, the Summit SSD delivers a combination of high speed, excellent compatibility, and superior reliability in mobile, workstation, and entry-level enterprise computing applications.”
OCZ Summit Series SSDs provide the best of both worlds —the performance of cutting-edge technology paired with unmatched reliability, offering the ideal balance to store and transfer your most essential data. The Summit Series is the new wave in SSD solutions for users seeking an enhanced experience from their notebook or desktop, such as snappier speeds and access time, longer battery life, and shorter boot-ups. Ideal for even mission-critical systems, the Summit Series delivers best-in-class stability and dependability along with faster access times, lower power consumption, and superior durability compared to conventional hard drives.
Offering a robust upgrade from traditional platter-based drives, OCZ Summit Series SSDs have a compact form factor with no moving parts resulting in quiet and cooler operation. For crowded cases and system builders striving for multiple drives in RAID configurations, OCZ Summit SSDs offer space and cost-savings that use significantly less power thanks to the benefits of high-quality flash chips in a durable 2.5” aluminum casing.
OCZ continues to expand its reach to all areas of computing interests and system preferences by going beyond the enthusiast PC to workstations and small-scale enterprise. The OCZ Summit Series is the result of the latest breakthroughs in SSD technology that translates to professional-class data storage enthusiasts have come to expect from OCZ. These next-generation drives feature speeds up to 220MB/s read and 200MB/s write, along with 128MB of onboard cache for faster data access. Available in capacities of 60GB(64), 120GB (128), and 250GB(256), Summit SSDs offers ample room for all your data and are backed by OCZ’s exemplarity service and support.
For more information regarding the OCZ Summit Series 2.5” SSDs, please visit our product page here
CityEngine 2009 released
Procedural updates its city creation software
PRESS RELEASE
Zürich, Switzerland – May 19, 2009 – Procedural Inc. today introduced the CityEngine 2009, the latest version of its out-of-the-box city creation solution featuring unique procedural modeling techniques and novel interactive editing capabilities. The software was awarded Killer Technology 2009 by the 3D World magazine and is used by high-profile companies such as Foster+Partners, Rockstar North, Volition, NAVTEQ, Microsoft, IBM, etc. and top universities like MIT, Stanford, Brown or Max Plank.
Procedural Inc., an innovative software company located in Zurich, Switzerland, is creator of the world’s foremost procedural modeling technology. With the CityEngine, Procedural Inc.’s graphics experts have developed a radically different 3D application that allows professional users in entertainment, architecture and urban planning to efficiently create 3D city models.
“We are very happy to release the CityEngine 2009.” says Pascal Mueller, CEO Procedural Inc. “And with the new interactive editing capabilities, the modeling of complex urban environments is easier than ever before. For example, editing the footprint of a building automatically adjusts the corresponding 3D model – allowing for intuitive manipulation of highly detailed building geometries.”
Key Highlights of the CityEngine 2009
#1: Interactive Editing Capabilities (manipulation tools with immediate generation mode)
A free 30-day trial version of the new CityEngine 2009 is available for download at www.procedural.com. The software can be purchased via Procedural Inc.’s website, or by telephone order at +41 76 720 3303. The CityEngine retails from a starting price of $3,450.
Tuesday May 19, 2009
Autodesk 2009 Best of the Best Animation Show Reel - call for entries
Autodesk is currently looking for submissions for its show reel showcase at this year‘s Siggraph, taking place 4–6 August 2009.
Projects must be completed using Autodesk software – Autodesk Maya, Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Softimage, Autodesk Toxik, Autodesk MotionBuilder and Autodesk Mudbox.
This year‘s focus is on HD material but other formats are still welcomed.
We are very pleased to inform you that the Holland Animation Film Festival is from now on an annual event. The 13th edition of the festival takes place from 4 – 8 November 2009.
We kindly invite you to submit your film for this festival edition, for the following competitions:
Competition for Independent Animated Shorts
in the categories narrative and non-narrative
Competition for Applied Animation
in the categories commercials, educational films, music videos and leaders
The entry forms for these competitions are available at www.haff.nl.
Through this entry forms, Dutch productions for both competitions (as well independent and applied) can also apply for the Competition for Best Dutch Animation. A prize will be awarded by the audience.
>> Deadline for all entries: 1 July 2009
Holland Animation Film Festival, the unique five-day international meeting place for all professionals, animation lovers, producers, students, upcoming talents and all interested audiences. Featuring retrospectives, thematic programmes, master classes, talk shows, exhibitions, installations, SFX/VFX and much more.
Meet the Art of Animation, at the 13th Holland Animation Film Festival!
