Engine-Safari
Review: In DP 06 : 2018, our author Alexandra Kaschny focussed on the Big Three (not Five): Unity, Unreal, CryEngine. Which other engines are roaming the jungle?
InstaLOD: From CAD to VR?
InstaLOD automates the 3D workflow, including the tedious steps that no artist likes, such as UV unwrapping, manual retopo or baking. But how does it work?
FMX 2019: Real-time ray tracing for final frame rendering
It's Wednesday afternoon in the König Karl Halle in the Haus der Wirtschaft. The hall is darkened and filled with people eagerly awaiting the lecture "Troll: Real Time Raytracing and The VFX Pipeline" - and the DP is there too.
InstaLOD: Time is money
There are some things in a 3D artist's workflow that are probably considered rather unpopular. (cough ... unwrapping, retopo ... cough) And even if a kind soul takes pity on them, it still remains time-consuming. InstaLOD from Stuttgart is trying to help all companies from the entire 3D sector (film, games, automotive, etc.) with its software of the same name, and in doing so is speeding up and cleaning up much more than just the two black sheep mentioned.
S35 RED DRAGON-X Brain
The explosion in the market for "affordable" S35 cinema cameras has not escaped RED either.
iHelper
It's been some time since we discussed the sense (and nonsense) of using iPhones and iPads on set. In the meantime, these devices are not only several generations further along in their development, but have also become indispensable on set. Whether as a production planner, shot list, weather forecast, digital clapperboard, viewfinder or extended calculator, there are countless ways to use the iPhone and/or iPad on set to make life a little easier. - by Andreas Zerr
Vrbn MasterPlanner: A Smart City Planning Tool for Esri CityEngine
Planning our environment and especially our cities is becoming ever more complex. Esri CityEngine has long addressed this topic and is regularly used in Hollywood blockbusters such as the recently Oscar-winning “Blade Runner 2O49”. – by Bruno Seiler and Matthias Bühler
Mantras Mantra
The mantra of Mantra is to render what Houdini has created in terms of geometry, volumes or particles. And SideFX recently won an Oscar for this. So if you want to render at Hollywood level, you've come to the right place. Especially if the pipeline should and may be very compositing-orientated, Houdini offers exactly these tools and features. - by Olaf Finkbeiner
Subscription Based Workstations
Even though we tested the workstations in this issue under the motto "Cheap and Cheerful", it doesn't help if crunch time comes around the corner and the hardware isn't enough. And even if you buy the computer in a hurry - where can you get the software in a hurry? And what about availability?
Unity Film Sample Project
If you want to try something different in Unity than classic game content, this could provide a good foundation. Fancy cinematics?
3DS Max: Randomised Bitmaps
Directly from Autodesk comes a free YouTube tutorial about the proper use of randomised bitmaps.
Above the clouds …
Drones are everywhere - on film sets with impressive shots, in photogrammetry, as data collectors, all the outdoor fans already have them anyway, and so close to Christmas it's the embarrassment gift for the technophile uncle - and, because there are so many of them, there is now a drone driving licence. But what's it all about? - by Michael Radeck
For All Unreal Fans: Monthly Free Content!
Epic Games keeps its word: Back in November, the company announced free content on its own Marketplace for all UE4 users.
Windowlicker – A tribute to Aphex Twin and Chris Cunningham
Fifteen years ago, Chris Cunningham made history in the world of music videos with his interpretation of the track "Windowlicker" by Aphex Twin. The grotesque faces of the protagonists, all likenesses of the musician himself, are still etched in the memory of many viewers today. The highlight is a particularly exaggerated grimace that appears at the end of the clip.
Free Textures on Share Textures
Almost 200 textures have now gathered on this platform. Free and cheerfully ready to be downloaded!
A Chameleon Wonders About Love
The short film “Darrel” was made entirely with open-source software over two years. The Darrel Squad explains how the private project came about. - by Mirja Fürst
MSI P65 Creator – Creative Power in a Slim Format
MSI's Prestige-series laptops target the high performance demands of content creation. The latest addition is the extra-slim P65 Creator.
Black Friday, Black Friday Everywhere!
This offer makes people lose their heads and shop like mad! The tech crowd is not sleeping either...
Hand puppet craft and digital art
Svobodan goes to see a psychiatrist. He wants to finally get rid of this choleric, fat toad on his head, which is not so easy. The special design of the characters and their unusual animation style earned the short film "A Toad Song" an animago AWARD nomination in the "Best Character" category last year. Director Kariem Saleh told us how his graduation project at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg came about. - by Mirja Fürst
Unity: Visual Effect Graph and CineCast
At Unite LA 2018 there was a sneak peak at these two new features in Unity.
Natron Tutorial Series
For anyone who wants to get to grips with Natron (which is open source, by the way)...
Adobe LIVE: Learn from Experts for Free
November 13-15: Learning from professionals does not always have to cost a lot. Watch various experts work by livestream from 10 am to 6 pm for three days.
Content to Download: 18:06
Reminder: Remember that additional content is also available for you to download with our new issue!
Cinema 4D R20 Release Show
Anyone who simply cannot get enough of Cinema 4D R20 can get even more here for free!
Blackmagic eGPU Pro
An external graphics processor with AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics card.
UE4: Reactive Dynamic Water
Marvelmaster is happy to share his watery creation with the rest of the world. Completely free!
IBC 2018 – Adobe Updates Creative Cloud AV Tools
With 57,000 trade visitors, 1,700 exhibitors and around 400 speakers from 170 countries, IBC is one of the world's most influential media and technology trade fairs.
MoCap, Characters, Reallusion
Reallusion has released three new tools for MoCap and character creation.
Paragon Hero Assets from Epic
The Unreal Engine 4 community can rejoice! Epic Games is releasing more hero assets from the Paragon series.
Procedural Modelling with Railclone
This tutorial shows how modular geometry can be combined with procedural modelling to create an architectural environment quickly.
Free Workshop Series from Teltec
Teltec is offering free workshops on the RED DSMC2 & IPP2 workflow at several locations in Germany.
Cinema 4D SuperMeet 2018 – the Big User Meeting
Instead of three smaller user meetings, Maxon celebrates Release 20 and 10 years of user meetings with a two-day major event in Frankfurt.
Cinec Award 2018
The Cinec Awards 2018 have been presented: nine winners received their awards at the ceremony in Munich.
Zombies & 3D Scanner
They are also currently stepping on the gas with their development and possibilities: 3D scanners have always been a part of visual effects production
Effects production, many examples are now showing how they can make working on set much easier.
After Effects CC 2018 Autumn Update
Adobe has provided an update on what we can expect in the upcoming autumn update.
Filmplus – Festival for Film Editing
For the 18th time, Cologne becomes the centre of film editing: film enthusiasts meet at Filmplus from October 26-29, 2018.
Blackmagic RAW
At IBC 2018, Blackmagic Design announced the public beta of its new Blackmagic RAW.
Alias Days 2018
Do you work with 3D software and have an interest in the latest trends in virtual reality, 3D software and design? Then ...
animago CONFERENCE Programme 2018
Something for every taste and appetite for knowledge: the animago CONFERENCE programme on October 25 and 26, 2018 is packed with top speakers and CG topics.
Adobe @ IBC 2018
As part of this year's IBC, Adobe is announcing numerous updates for Creative Cloud video tools.
Double Head for Free!
EISKO is making a new rig available free of charge. As an insight into its previous work.
What Is CGI Animation?
When Grandma visits and is still of the opinion that the internet will never catch on...
“The ultimate demo reel guide”
Archive notice: This article was originally published on September 5, 2018. Links and embedded videos are preserved as…
Free LUT Library for VariCam and EVA1 Cine Cameras
Panasonic has released some useful things here.
Gumroad Treats Itself to Limits
Due to policy changes, Gumroad has introduced a new rule for free or $0 files.
“Ingenium”: Creating Big Cinema with Limited Means – Part 2
How do you master the post-production of an independent mystery thriller that was shot over several years with a total of eleven different camera models without blowing the already small budget?
14 Lifestyle…uh, Modeling Hacks for Blender
In this tutorial, you will see 14 practical tips and techniques that are sure to help you in Blender.
Backup & Recovery
Paragon and Aomei are just two providers of such tools. Since they are free, however, it makes sense to take a closer look at a few of them, doesn't it?
“Ingenium”: Creating Big Cinema with Limited Means – Part 1
Over five years, director Steffen Hacker worked on an independent mystery thriller and had to solve a series of tricky post-production tasks.
Cinesite Acquires Trixter
The VFX studio Trixter, probably familiar to most people, is undergoing a change at management level. Cinesite has taken on the German company and will act as its parent from now on.
“Netflix Calibrated Mode”?
Sony Electronics has launched its new MASTER Series 4K HDR TVs: A9F OLED and Z9F LED. High-grade quality for the home.
Royalty-Free 3D Models
Pond5 customers can rejoice. The company is releasing more than 100,000 3D models.
DaVinci Resolve 15 Public Beta 8
Blackmagic is stepping up the rapid pace of beta updates for its free grading/editing/audio/VFX and compositing programme DaVinci Resolve 15 and has now released beta version 8 in less than 2 weeks.
Avid MediaCentral: Completely Cloudy
Avid is following the trend of its competitors and also wants to enable its users to work increasingly via the web.
Livegrade Pro 4.1
The most important new feature is expanded support for additional metadata.
C4D R20 Demo by Foam Studio
Maxon is continuing its tradition: Along with the launch of a new version, there is also generally a short film intended to demonstrate everything that, in this case, R20 can do.
Survival Guide in the Software Jungle
Anyone who can no longer see the forest for the trees has either got lost or, like so many people by now, simply can no longer keep track of such a huge mountain of software.
Weekend Reading
Andrew Allen chats a little about how you can actually get the most out of your short film... and why you should not throw in the towel too early.
Xi-Machines, C1 Series
Xi-Machines GmbH from Hamburg has expanded its model range with the new C1 high-performance workstation.
Cinema 4D Release 20!
Maxon has just announced C4D R20! It includes high-end features for VFX and motion graphics artists.
Wild West Creature Creation
"Once Upon a Time in the West" – Imagine this soundtrack playing with this tutorial, hehe.
Flowbox v.1.7
The new version comes with the integrated Mocha Planar Tracker. This moves the platform another big step forward.
Scratch… Scratch Play Pro
The trend towards packaging continues: Scratch Play Pro brings together a universal format player, an immersive media player, look creator, transcoder (Prores on Windows) and QC tool in one package, offering both filmmakers and post-production artists greater efficiency and productivity.