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Future Love by Sergey Pereskokov


Nvidia delivers first Iray plug-ins through online store

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[ #Iray #Nvidia ]

Nvidia announced that Its Physically-based rendering plug-ins Iray for Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya. Revit and Rhino to follow next year


Interior scene rendered in Nvidia Iray

Nvidia is shipping its first Iray plug-ins and has opened an online store to sell the physically based rendering add-ons direct to customers. Plug-ins will be sold at an introductory price of $295/year per license for each product.
Iray for Autodesk 3ds Max will be the first plug-in to be sold, closely followed by Iray for Autodesk Maya. Plug-ins for Autodesk Revit, Rhino and Cinema4D are currently in beta and should be available next year.

>> See Also: Iray tutorial


All of these plug-ins will support Iray Server, Nvidia’s new distributed rendering solution which begins open beta today.
Also available is the first edition of vMaterials, a free set of 200 digital material offerings that, according to Nvidia, are verified for accuracy, control and consistency. vMaterials can be used with any of the Iray plug-ins.

Iray has been available for some time now, mostly embedded within 3D tools including 3ds Max, Siemens NX, Bunkspeed Shot and Catia Live rendering.

Iray for 3ds Max plug-in

Iray for Maya plug-in

By developing and selling plug-ins itself Nvidia says it will be able to bring its very latest technology to customers directly.

The new Iray 3ds Max plug-in, for example, will be a much more capable than the Iray technology currently embedded within 3ds Max. According to Nvidia, there are a number of new features including a new fast interactive ray-tracing mode, the ability to import and load MDL (Material Definition Language) materials, more flexibility in layering materials, network rendering and the ability to stream rendering from an external workstation or Quadro VCA.

Nvidia says the new plug-in also has much faster start up time and will work with multiple releases from 3ds Max 2014 to 2016.


Iray server provides distributed Iray rendering across networked machines. It can run on Windows or Linux


vMaterials is a free set of 200 digital material offerings, verified for ‘accuracy, control and consistency

Iray Server is a new distributed rendering solution that can be used to build an Iray rendering farm. It can be installed on Windows or Linux servers and each machine in the cluster requires a license. A central management console is said to give flexible control over submitted jobs with the ability to adjust and rerun past jobs.

Iray Server is optimised for use over LAN but Nvidia says it should also work over WAN, providing an appropriate VPN is in place. Tunnelling through the protocols on something like Amazon, however, would not work.

Iray Server can also be used to stream back rendered results from a powerful server or cluster while the user is manipulating the scene. This could be of particular interest to designers with moderately specified mobile or desktop workstations.

Iray Server is the same software that runs on Nvidia’s dedicated network-attached GPU appliance, the Quadro Visual Computing Appliance (VCA).

Nvidia has also revealed that Lumiscaphe is a new Iray customer and that Siemens will be making Iray its primary renderer in NX.

Iray plug-ins are available as 90-day free trials. After that, they’re $295 a year as either a node locked or floating license with no processor restrictions. More plug-ins are in the works, says Nvidia.
  More about Iray

Making of The Good Dinosaur

Ed Harris

Thinkbox Software unveils Sequoia

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[ #ThinkboxSoftware ]
Sequoia is Stand-Alone Application by Thinkbox Software for converting particle and point cloud data to geometry which was announced at SIGGRAPH Conference 2014 in Vancouver.

>> See Also: Deadline 8.0 Beta - Calls for Beta tester

The following concepts lie in the foundation of the system:

  -Asynchronous: SEQUOIA handles user interaction and data processing asynchronously to ensure interactivity even during heavy calculations.
  -Multi-Threaded: SEQUOIA was designed from the ground up to take advantage of modern multi-processor systems.
  -Multi-Document: SEQUOIA lets you work on multiple documents at the same time, even side-by-side.
  -Auto-Caching: Data like the results of a meshing calculation will be cached automatically and can be accessed at a later point if the same parameters are specified by the user without additional processing.
  -Out-Of-Core: Data processing can be performed successfully even if the system memory does not allow all data to be loaded at once.

Features are:

Import, Convert, and Export Point Data Files
  -SEQUOIA reads industry-standard Point Data formats, including CSV, .E57, .LAS, .LAZ, .PLY, .PRT, .PTG, .PTS, .PTX, .XYZ
  -SEQUOIA provides tools for batch-conversion of large number of source Point Data files into supported output formats.
  -SEQUOIA provides an integrated DEADLINE submitter for performing conversion on the network or on the Cloud.

Explore Large Point Cloud Datasets On Any Hardware
  -SEQUOIA converts Point Data to a spatially-organized and well-compressed .SPRT file format.
  -.SPRT allows efficient storage and random access to sub-sets of large point clouds, with hundreds of billions of points.
  -Typical Point Data channels like Color, Intensity, Normal etc. can be visualized as Color in the Viewports.
  -Point Shape, Size and Transparency can be controlled per Viewport.
  -Point Limits can be defined per Point Loader object, and per Viewport.
  -Multiple Levels Of Detail can be loaded in a view-dependent manner, while respecting Point Limits.
  -SEQUOIA can adapt to any hardware, from Microsoft Surface Pro tablets through laptops to graphics workstations.

Define Regions For Viewing, Saving And Meshing
  -SEQUOIA provides a gizmo-based Region Of Interest object for filtering incoming point data.
  -The Region Of Interest object can include points that are either inside, or outside the gizmo.
  -The gizmo can be adjusted numerically, interactively, or transformed freely using the Move, Rotate and Scale tools.
  -Multiple Region Of Interest objects can be chained or branched to combine or exclude multiple point data subsets.

Create And Export Watertight Or Single-Sided Meshes
  -SEQUOIA creates a watertight mesh from one or more Point Data sources using one of several meshing algorithms.
  -SEQUOIA can clean up the resulting mesh by removing detached "islands" using polygon count or area thresholds.
  -SEQUOIA can optionally remove one side of the mesh based on polygon vs. point data Normals (non-water-tight output).
  -SEQUOIA provides operators to conform the mesh to the point cloud's surface, relax the mesh, clean up channels etc.
  -SEQUOIA can perform distributed meshing on the workstation, the local network, or the Cloud using the Hacksaw feature.

Project Images On Points And Meshes
  -SEQUOIA lets you project images onto both Points and Meshes.
  -Projection modes include Orthographic and Perspective Planar images, Panoramic, Spherical and Cubic projections.
  -Projections can be aligned interactively by matching as least four 2D points on the image with 3D points on the object.
  -Screenshots of SEQUOIA Viewports can be re-projected onto objects.
  --For example, texture a low-resolution mesh with a high-resolution screenshot of the mesh or the point cloud.
  -The order of projection blending can be controlled using a familiar Photoshop-style Projection Layers dialog.
  -Projections can be occluded by points and/or geometry, and can be blended based on Alpha channel and surface Normals.
  -Projections can be exported with the mesh either as a single unwrapped UV texture map, as PTex, or as Vertex Colors.

Import And Export Mesh Files In Several Formats
  -SEQUOIA can read and write several industry-standard mesh formats: .OBJ, .PLY, .STL, and Thinkbox .XMESH.
  -SEQUOIA offers a Batch processing tool for mass-importing mesh files.
  -SEQUOIA provides a Batch exporter for exporting multiple mesh objects to multiple mesh files, or to a single file.
  -The HACKSAW feature can save multiple "Partitions" of a single mesh as a sequence of mesh files in any supported format.
  -A single SEQUOIA Mesh Loader object can load all or a fraction of a Partition file sequence.
  -The Partition meshes can be exported as a single mesh if desired, and can be optionally welded to a continuous mesh.


Create Turntable And Camera Walkthrough Animations

  -SEQUOIA supports both procedural and keyframed animations of objects and cameras.
  -A dedicated Turntable procedural animation generator can animate any object about
  --the world origin using any axis
  --the local origin using any axis
  --any other object's pivot point using any axis

  -Any number of Camera objects can be created, animated and associated with Viewports.
  -A Camera can be animated as any other object using a Turntable animation.
  -A Camera can be animated freely using keyframes set via a thumbnail-based Timeline.
  -Keyframes can use explicit PRS data, another animated object's transforms, or both.
  -Multiple animations can be played in-sync, or side-by-side with independent timing.
  -Viewports can be saved to animated image sequences.



SEQUOIA runs on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.


  -Scalable: SEQUOIA runs on a wide range of hardware, from dedicated 3D graphics workstations through gaming PC, laptops, and even Microsoft Surface Pro tablets.
  -DEADLINE and Cloud-Ready: SEQUOIA supports point data conversion and meshing operations, including "Hacksaw" distributed meshing, using Thinkbox Software's DEADLINE Compute Management Solution. A plugin for DEADLINE, as well as two network processing licenses, are included with the SEQUOIA package.
  -Consistent User Experience: The SEQUOIA User Interface is build on Qt technology and provides the same look and feel across platforms.
More details can be found here!

  More about Thinkbox Software

Zootopia 2016 - Concept Arts

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[ #Disney #Zootopia ]
Zootopia ( a.k.a Zootropolis in other countries) is an upcoming animation film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios .Check out some early look and Character Concept Art for the movie. Also don't miss to check Disney's 'Zootopia' characters

Zootopia 2016 trailer




images from babesindisneylandblog.com
bonus: There are funny images posted on Zootopia director: Byron Howard
  More about Character

Paragon from Epic Games - Announce Trailer

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[ #EpicGames ]
Epic Games has ahhounced its new game Paragon, which harnesses the power of Unreal Engine 4. Paragon is the MOBA that puts you in the fight with explosive action, direct third-person control, and deep strategic choice. Choose from an ever-expanding roster of unique Heroes, earn cards to customize their abilities, and lead your team to victory. Check out an announce Trailer

>> See Also: Watch more Game




the first gameplay video here:

The Game is coming to PC and PlayStation 4, with paid Early Access in Spring 2016 and Open Beta in Summer 2016. Sign up for the beta and learn more at: https://www.Paragon.com

  More about

MODO 902 is now available

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[ #MODO ]
The Foundry has announced that MODO 902 is now available and free update to MODO for all MODO 901 owners which includes new features related to Digital Matte Painting and Camera Matching workflows

>> See Also: Learn MODO

MODO 902 uses the same license as MODO 901 and MODO 901 service packs, but does use a new user configuration file. This means that customizations made to the main user configuration file for 901 will not load automatically in 902. This is done by design to prevent customizations from hiding or conflicting with new features.

MODO 902 also contains over 170 bug fixes and enhancements, focusing on continued improvements to stability and correctness

MODO 902 New Features:



Camera matching
Easily match a 3D camera to a background image just by drawing on screen and using one-click set-ups: you can match position, rotation, focal length and resolution, and estimate lens distortion.



Projecting images
Choose from the Projection Texture to project images into a given texture channel, and the Projection Shader to replicate the exact pixels of the real-world image unaffected by your scene's lighting and shading.


Projection Ink
Use MODO's intuitive brush-based tools to paint projected textures directly onto UV-mapped geometry. Blend images from multiple cameras to create seamless maps that work from any angle.


Camera Plane modifier
Create an image plane with a single click; MODO will adjust size, position and rotation to keep it filling the screen as you adjust the depth. Repeat for easy multi-layered compositions and animations.


Physical Sun setup
Use image metadata—location, direction, time of day—to automatically match MODO's Physical Sun to the real-world setting. Photographed and virtual shadows will align with just a few button clicks.




More information here!
  More about modo

PostPanic rises to the challenge with 180 Amsterdam for ASICS MetaRun

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[ #PostPanic #MetaRun #VFX ]
PostPanic join forces with 180 Amsterdam to create the ultimate product film for MetaRun, the latest running shoe from ASICS. Director Onur Senturk took on the challenge applying his highly aesthetic graphic eye to create the ASICS testing facility of the future.

>> See Also: Learn VFX


Produced by PostPanic, MetaRun is a futuristic take on the intensive testing facilities found at ASICS headquarters in Japan. Commissioned as an integrated product film by 180 Amsterdam, PostPanic stepped up determined to push the boundaries once again since their last award-winning ASICS film, Running Expansions, back in 2010. This time Turkish director Onur Senturk took on the challenge from their side, chosen primarily for his highly aesthetic and future-facing graphic eye. (Senturk is much respected internationaly as an innovator in the field of CG-focused motion graphics and learnt his craft working in Los Angeles for movie title pioneers, Prologue. He joined PostPanic as a director in 2014).
180 Amsterdam's script appealed directly to Senturk's aesthetic and allowed PostPanic to play to their strengths applying a mixed media approach combining live action with high-end VFX to communicate the intense testing process the MetaRun is put through. Filmed in Amsterdam with athletes, actors and product against green screen, the post-production then required extensive design and animation of bespoke training facility interiors and technology, combined with a seamless transition between real and CG elements.

The result, a product film with a futuristic soul, capturing both the preciseness of the ASICS testing ambitions but also the narrative visual signature of PostPanic.

Production Credits:

Brand: Asics
Client: Global Brand Manager - Running: Mike Brabant

Agency: 180 Amsterdam
President and Chief Creative Officer: Al Moseley

Creative Director: Dan Treichel, Dave Canning

Creatives: Joe Craig, Tony Bartolucci
Producers: Bethany Papenbrock, Jo Kelly
Account Director: Kim Waugh

Production Company: PostPanic
Director: Onur Senturk
Executive Producer: Annejes van Liempd
Music Composition & Sounddesign: Audionerve, Jochen Mader
DoP: Hessel Waalewijn
Post Production: PostPanic

  More about vfx

Independence Day: Resurgence Official Trailer

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[ #film ]
Check out The First Trailer for Independence Day: Resurgence - upcoming American epic science fiction disaster action thriller film directed by Roland Emmerich. Will Smith won't be back as the lead, but Jeff Goldblum, Bill Pullman, and Vivica A. Fox will reprise their roles.

>> See Also:



Director: Roland Emmerich
Film series: Independence Day film series
Music composed by: Thomas Wanker
Screenplay: Roland Emmerich, Dean Devlin
The film will arrive on June 24th
  More about film

Paragon's Characters in Unreal Engine

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[ #Paragon #Game #UnrealEngine ]
Epic Games has announced a large amount of info on Paragon - upcoming title for PC and PS4. Let's check the video showing how they used the new features in Unreal Engine to create the high-end visuals for Characters of The Game. Brian Karis and Jordan Walker join the community team to take us through the technology and techniques used when building Paragon's heroes

>> See Also: Download Unreal Engine Camera Animation Exporter v1.02 for 3ds Max




Don't miss to check out another incredible realistic Realtime character in Unreal engine 4: Khaleesi - Game of Thrones below:



  More about Unreal Engine

“Halo 5: Guardians” Game Cinematic created by Axis Animation with Fusion Studio

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[ #Halo ]
Blackmagic Design today announced that BAFTA award winning animation company Axis Animation has used Fusion Studio to complete compositing work on the opening cinematic for Microsoft’s new “Halo 5: Guardians” Xbox game in collaboration with 343 Industries.

>> See Also: Learn Fusion


Founded in 2000, Axis Animation has grown into an internationally renowned animation studio, which now boasts a multi talented team of more than 110 artists and spans two UK locations. Fusion Studio has been an integral part of the studio’s VFX pipeline for many years now. The team has worked on a wide variety of games projects for high end titles including League of Legends, Call of Duty, Alien Isolation, and more.

This latest cinematic for 343 Industries is the studio’s most ambitious project to date according to Sergio Caires, CG supervisor at Axis Animation. “Throughout the entire project, Fusion Studio ensured we were able us to finesse the final picture to perfection,” he begins. “It did what Fusion always does for every project we’ve worked on with it over the past fifteen years, helping us pull together all of our passes and giving us a fast, interactive compositing environment regardless of what we ask of it.”
Boasting more than four million views on YouTube, Axis Animation’s latest action packed “Halo 5: Guardians” cinematic introduces the main characters of Halo’s Fireteam Osiris, delivering a mission briefing before launching viewers into a preview of the gameplay world. In one continuous take, the team jumps out of a Pelican dropship to join a massive battle, which features hundreds of characters, vehicles and ships on a snowy mountain landscape.

To complete the project, a team of between 15 and 20 Axis Animation artists worked for six months, modeling, rigging, animating, lighting and rendering the final assets. Fusion Studio was then used for all of the compositing work, bringing together the hundreds of elements and render passes needed for the game cinematic to come to life.
“I approached compositing the sequence in a way that meant a lot of the elements, and all the main passes, actually lived in a single scene file,” explains Sergio. “This was a big challenge, especially when you consider the fact that the Halo 5 project included such a long, uninterrupted opening sequence, but was driven by the way we had planned to work on these shots. It was far easier to have a small number of artists focus on one difficult scene than to let many different artists start working on it, which would have been counterproductive.”
“I think the biggest success is the visual impact of the opening cinematic,” he concludes. “This is a perfect blend of the amazing choreography created by the team at 343 Industries, and the insane levels of detail, subtlety and action that our team added via the lighting and FX work.”
Also watch Axis 2016 Animation Reel:

  More about Fusion

ftrack releases dedicated iOS and Android app

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[ #ftrack ]
Stockholm, Sweden – ftrack, the project management and tracking solution for creative industries, has released its dedicated Android and iOS app, ftrack Go.

ftrack Go provides access to creative collaboration wherever its users happen to be.

Supervisors, producers, artists and freelancers can use the app to check task assignments, change status, post comments, and log time – all through an interface designed with simplicity and accessibility in mind.

ftrack Go is like having an entire ftrack server in your pocket – you’ll never miss a beat.

Whether travelling between shoots, working on location, or simply stopping off for a coffee, ftrack Go will enable creative professionals at any level to view the progress of a project, wherever they may be.

Just as with the desktop version, users of ftrack Go will be able to make notes, change status and log time, ensuring they stay up to date with the most recent developments in their work.

Planning, scheduling and media review will remain limited to ftrack’s desktop version. Outside of this, the ftrack Go app offers the same ftrack experience via a simpler, easier, and more accessible on-the-go interface.

Mackevision comments: “We are very much looking forward to using ftrack Go! It will support us a great deal and make our art directors’ approvals independent from their workstations.Our consultants and colleagues working off-site will now also be able to track their working hours with their phones – it’s a huge benefit for the whole company”

Fredrik Limsater, ftrack CEO, comments: “With ftrack Go, users can take advantage of all the power, perspective and organisational ability of our desktop version, but on the go. Our powerful cloud-based solutions, combined with the ease of use of a smartphone, has enabled us to further empower our users when it comes to always-on project management.”

Learn more about the ftrack app here!
  More about App

Bear's Den 2025 by Clinton Crumpler

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[ #UnrealEngine #AdskMaya ]
Check out the by Senior Environment Artist based in Vancouver, Canada - Clinton Crumpler using Autodesk Maya, Photoshop, Unreal Engine 4, Ndo2, Ddo, Substance Designer

>> See Also: Learn Unreal

Underground Soviet Union Cold War Era Base retrofitted in the year 2025 to be used by a bio terrorist. Created as a visual target for upcoming title: Broken by Kollide Entertainment.

Related video:



  More about environment

Substance Painter 1.7.1

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[ #Allegorithmic ]
Allegorithmic has released new update of its 3D Realtime Painting texture software - Substance Painter 1.7.1

>> See Also: Learn Substance Painter

Substance Painter 1.7.1 Features are

  -[Performances] Compute layers content and their thumbnails at the same time
  -[Export] Save export path as relative when next to the project
  -[Layers] Added new blending mode : subtract and add/sub
  -[Layers] New Bilinear HQ filtering for fill layers
  -[Shader] Set a default shader for thumbnail generation in the preferences.
  -[Shader] Allow to specify a shader per texture set
  -[Shader] Allow to sample textures from the shelf
  -[Tool] New "wrap" brush behavior for painting
  -[Tool] Improved filtering and reduced aliasing while painting
  -[Tool] Improved sub-pixels painting quality
  -[Tool] Removed "basic" display for brush settings and improved the frame open/close icon
  -[Menu] Add effect icons in the right-click menu
  -Template creation from Projects
  -[Shelf] New templates : PBR, Dota 2
  -[Shelf] New export preset : Dota 2
  -[Shelf] New shaders : Dota 2, PBR Car paint, PBR Coated, PBR Velvet
  -[Shelf] New material : Steel rust and wear, Stylized lighting
  -[Shelf] New filters : Blur directional, Stylized lighting
  -[Shelf] New brush : default soft and default hard with a new alpha for a better hardness control
  -[Shelf] New generators : 3D Distance and Light
  -[Shelf] Updated brushes with wrap projection and backface culling (enabled by default)
  -[Shelf] Updated White noise with pixel processor version for faster computation

Substance Painter 1.7.1 What's new


Fixed :

  -[Welcome screen] Tutorials link send to old videos
  -[Channels] Saying "no" to fill layer creation with AO still create the layer
  -[Channels] UserX channels names do not propagate in the interface
  -[Viewport] Mask entry is empty in the list of the solo channels
  -[Share] Exporting an alpha to Share from SP creates an unreadable .image file
  -[License] Fix activation fro usernames with non ASCII characters
  -[Shader] Color parameter dialog disappear when picking a color
  -[Shelf] Thumbnails are not unloaded from memory when unused
  -[Shelf] Fixed gradient filter
  -[Tool] Symmetry doesn't work with stencil/projection
  -[Tool] Incorrect name when creating new brush preset
  -Preserve stroke setting stays disabled even when reimporting a mesh
  -Driver reset (TDR) when computing particles with a big size.

Availability


Substance Painter for Mac and Windows come with 2 version. Indie License costs $149.0 and Pro License costs $590. The trial version of Substance Painter is full featured and works during 30 days here!

  More about Substance Painter

Download Glass ladder footage

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[ #Download #Cinema4D ]
Download Free 1080p visual source material from Mike Winkelmann (a.k.a: beeple) released under Creative Commons. Available for both commercial and non-commercial work in ANY form

Download


Download here. Cinema 4D project file here
  More about Download

Blackmagic Design Fusion 8 Studio Public Beta 3

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[ #Fusion #Compositing #VFX ]
Blackmagic Design today announced the public beta of Fusion 8 Studio, the full version of the world’s most advanced visual effects and motion graphics software, is now available for download from the Blackmagic Design website for both Mac OS X and Windows.

>> See Also: Learn Fusion


A public beta of the free version of Fusion 8 was released earlier this year at SIGGRAPH. The new Fusion 8 Studio public beta builds upon all of the tools in the free version and adds advanced optical flow tools for retiming, image repair, color smoothing and morphing between different images, along with the ability to render at resolutions larger than Ultra HD. The Fusion 8 Studio public beta also adds advanced stereoscopic tools for converting 2D shows to 3D, support for 3rd party plugins, remote scripting, and Avid Connect, a plug-in that allows customers to use Fusion directly from Media Composer timelines.

Projects created with the free version of Fusion can be opened and finished in Fusion 8 Studio, regardless of which platform they were created on. Fusion 8 Studio also includes Generation, multi user studio software for managing assets, tracking versions, and doing shot-based review and approval.

In addition, Fusion 8 Studio public beta also includes render node software that lets customers install an unlimited number of Fusion render nodes on additional computers for free, saving them thousands of dollars in licensing fees. That means customers working on high end film and television projects in large multi user studios can now accelerate their workflow by distributing render jobs across an unlimited number of systems on their network.

Fusion has been one of Hollywood’s leading visual effects and motion graphics tools for over 25 years, and has been used on thousands of feature film and television projects, including blockbusters like The Martian, Thor, Live Die and Repeat, The Hunger Games trilogy, Grimm, Battlestar Galactica and more.

Featuring a powerful node based interface, Fusion makes it extremely easy to build sophisticated visual effects compositions very quickly. Nodes are small icons that represent effects, filters and other image processing operations that can be connected together in any order to create unlimited visual effects. Nodes are laid out logically like a flow chart, so customers won’t waste time hunting through nested stacks of confusing layers with filters and effects. Unlike timeline based applications, it’s easy to see and adjust any part of a project in Fusion by simply clicking on a node.

With a massive toolset consisting of hundreds of built in tools, customers can pull keys, track objects, rotoscope, retouch images, animate titles, create amazing particle effects and much more, all in a true 3D workspace. Fusion can also import 3D models, point cloud data, cameras or even entire 3D scenes from Maya, 3ds Max or Lightwave and render them seamlessly with other elements. Deep pixel tools can be used to add volumetric fog, lighting and reflection mapping of rendered objects using world position passes so customers can create amazing atmospheric effects that render in seconds, instead of hours.

“We have been Fusion users for years, and it’s great to see where the product is heading,” said Jeremy Nelson, Compositing Supervisor at Flash Film Works who’s credits include feature films such as Spy, Barely Lethal, Defiance and Clash of the Titans. “Now with Mac as well as Windows, it really opens up how we will use it across a networked facility or individually. I love the path Blackmagic is moving to here!”

“The response to Fusion 8 has been overwhelming! Now, with the public beta of Fusion 8 Studio, customers have even more tools to work on the highest end feature films, TV shows and commercials,” said Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design CEO. “What's really exciting is that, unlike other visual effects and motion graphics applications, Fusion 8 Studio customers working on large multi user projects get unlimited network rendering at no additional charge so they can turn shots around faster than ever before!”

About Fusion Licensing

Fusion 8 is available in two versions.

Fusion 8 for Mac and Windows is free for customers and is now available to download. Fusion 8 is a full professional 3D visual effects and compositing system that is suitable for independent effects, motion graphics, and broadcast design artists. Fusion 8 features integrated 2D and 3D compositing and motion graphics software with a massive toolset featuring paint, rotoscope, titling, animation, multiple keyers, an amazing 3D particle system, advanced keyframing, GPU acceleration, and support for importing and rendering 3D models and scenes from other applications. Customers getting started with Fusion can create projects with the free version and then open them in Fusion 8 Studio when they upgrade.

Fusion 8 Studio, which is now in public beta, will be available for Mac and Windows for $995, with Linux to be released in Q1 2016. Fusion 8 Studio has all of the same features as the free version and adds advanced optical flow image analysis tools for stereoscopic 3D work, retiming and stabilization. Fusion Studio also includes support for third party OpenFX plugins, unlimited distributed network rendering and Generation for studio wide multi user collaboration to track, manage, review and approve shots when working with large creative teams on complex projects.

Availability and Price


Fusion 8 Public Beta and Fusion 8 Studio Public Beta are available today for download from the Blackmagic Design website free of charge for all current Fusion and Fusion 7 Studio customers.

  More about Fusion

Epic Games releases Unreal Engine 4.11 Preview

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[ #UnrealEngine ]
Epic Games announced the release of the first preview build of the upcoming Unreal Engine 4.11 update

>> Related video: Frog in UE 4 test by ISHIKAWA Y


4.11 Preview Summary

This list provides a brief summary of updates in this release. Full release notes will be made available with the final 4.11 release. We may not be able to provide additional information about updates at this time.
Rendering Updates:
  -New physically based shading model for realistic hair based on the latest research from film. It models 2 specular lobes, transmission, and scattering.
  -New physically based shading model for eyes.
  -New physically based shading model for cloth. This combines the standard shading model with a layer of velvet fibers. This layer simulates fuzz and fabrics.
  -Capsule Shadows - We now have support for very soft indirect shadows cast by a capsule representation of the character
  -Lightmass Portals - Skylight quality indoors can be massively improved by setting up Portal actors over openings. Portals tell Lightmass where to look for incoming lighting, they don’t actually emit light themselves. Portals are best used covering small openings that are important to the final lighting. Placing large Portals all over the level will dramatically increase build times.
  -Per-vertex translucency lighting - There are two new translucency lighting modes available in the material editor which compute lighting per-vertex. PerVertex lighting modes use half as many shader instructions and texture lookups.
  -Have support for 3 lighting channels. You can set which channels a PrimitiveComponent or a LightComponent is in.
  -Integrated Intel's Embree ray tracing library into Lightmass and we got a huge lighting build speedup from it, as the majority of lighting build time goes toward tracing rays to figure out how light is bouncing.
  -ntegrated updates to the D3D12 RHI to allow better CPU utilization while generating rendering commands in parallel.
  -Improved quality and performance of the SubsurfaceScatteringProfile shading model.
  -Circle Depth of Field post process - New Material Functions to render small particles with out of focus.
  -Materials using separate translucency can now be rendered at a lower resolution, which can be useful to improve GPU performance for fillrate and overdraw heavy geometry (for example particle effects).
The resolution is controlled via a console variable, r.SeparateTranslucencyScreenPercentage, which expresses separate translucency as a percentage of current screen resolution.
  -Static mesh LOD transitions now supporting dithering.
Core Updates:
  -CrashReporter Server available
  -Improvements
    -Garbage Collection up to 4x faster
    -Dependency preloading - brings us close to seek free loading (90% of the time seek free), faster package loading
    -UnrealHeaderTool makefiles - iterative UHT runs are 5x faster
Full list here
Editor/Tools Updates:
  -Sequencer improvements
    -New tracks: Shot/director, play rate, slomo, fade, material, particle parameter tracks.
    -Improved movie rendering, exr support
    -Improved/consistent keyframing behaviors, copy/paste keyframes, copy keys from matinee, 3d keyframe path display
    -Master sequence workflow
    -Spawnables workflow
UI improvements: track coloring, keyframe shapes/coloring, track filtering


Engine 4.11 Preview 1 is available through the Epic Games Launcher and GitHub
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LightWave 2016 Feature: Modifier Stack

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[ #LightWave3D ]
NewTek LightWave 2016 is coming and check out one of cool new Feature of this version: Modifier Stack. Check it out!

>> See Also: Lightwave tutorial

From blog post they wrote:
If you’re familiar with the Deform Tab in LightWave2015. From there you can assign a Morph Target, add Morph Mixer, apply a Displacement map along any axis, access the Displacement Node editor…and you can also use the Add Displacement menu to get access to a list of deformers that can be applied to the mesh, and added to a list. That list is actually working as a modifier stack, since you can add, reorganize, disable, copy and paste deformers. Sadly, that can only be done for plugin based deformers, and there’s no way to selectively decide if they should affect the cage mesh or the subdivided one, or be applied before or after bone deformation…

The New Modifier Stack finally solves all those issues. Any deformer is now added to the same list, and it is possible to precisely define the order of any operation. You can of course enable and disable the modifier according to your needs. If you’re animating you really want the maximum playback speed, so you can quickly disable the Subdivision modifier, without having to change any defined subdivision number. Of course the same applies to any ZBrush generated Displacement or any procedural map. Switching from the minimum to the maximum detail requires just a few clicks! Isolating the effect of any deformer is also something extremely useful while working on complex scenes requiring several interacting animation tools.


More at Lightwave Blog
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10 Contenders in 2015 VFX Oscar Race and Making of videos

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[ #VFX #Oscar ]
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that 10 films remain in the running in the Visual Effects category for the 88th Academy Awards.

>> See Also: Learn VFX


The films are listed below in alphabetical order:


  -Ant-Man
  -Avengers: Age of Ultron
  -Ex Machina
  -Jurassic World
  -Mad Max: Fury Road
  -The Martian
  -The Revenant
  -Star Wars: The Force Awakens
  -Tomorrowland
  -The Walk

Here are some VFX Breakdown of those Movies

  -Ant-Man

  -Avengers: Age of Ultron

  -Ex Machina

  -Jurassic World

  -Mad Max: Fury Road

  -The Martian

  -Tomorrowland

  -The Walk


The Academy’s Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee determined the shortlist. All members of the Visual Effects Branch will now be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each of the shortlisted films on Saturday, January 9, 2016. Following the screenings, the members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.

The 88th Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Thursday, January 14, 2016, at 5:30 a.m. PT at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.

The 88th Oscars will be held on Sunday, February 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, and will be televised live by the ABC Television Network at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.

via The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

  More about Award
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