Cinema 4D: Start your Engines!
Driving a Lamborghini is a dream for most people. But why not model your dream car in 3D? It costs less, is better for the environment and you don't have to worry about the width of the car when parking if you manage your assets cleverly and keep the size of the materials to a minimum. And how do you do that? Exactly, with PBR!
cinec – International Trade Fair for Cine Equipment and Technology
Stereo 3D is on everyone's lips, but the future of film technology holds much more: around 170 manufacturers present innovations at cinec in Munich.
YouTube to Become a Cinema Platform?
Google plans to release full-length films on YouTube at the same time as their DVD launch, the Financial Times reports.
Buzz and Woody Break the Billion Mark
Animated film grows up: Toy Story 3's toys have now grossed one billion dollars at the box office.
fx.Center Again Hosts animago AWARD & CONFERENCE
Munich, August 30, 2010 – The 14th animago AWARD will again be presented at fx.Center Babelsberg on Thursday, October 28.
Broadcast Information Portal
BroadPress.de is a young German-language online magazine covering national and international developments in broadcasting and digital media.
Houdini Reel 2010
A free, time-unlimited version of the Houdini animation package is available for download. The 2010 demo reel shows what it can do.
ATI Catalyst Update
AMD's Catalyst graphics driver is available in version 10.8, adding OpenGL ES 2.0 support and performance gains for game graphics.
Conference of Effects
The 13th AnimationMeeting filled Munich's Gasteig with 230 visitors and included the first stereo 3D excerpts from Animals United.
Autodesk Lets the Computer Do the Thinking …
… with the new version of Kynapse, the AI middleware, which is now shipping in version 7.
Nominees for Technical Animation Oscars
The Academy's Scientific and Technical Awards Committee has announced 15 technologies under consideration for the 2010 awards.
Fear on Friday Evening
Do you know the feeling that computers – and animations in particular – have a will of their own?
Mini Rigs for Video DSLRs
Redrock Micro's “nano rigs” are small stabilisers and mounts designed for mobile DSLR filmmakers working on compact productions.
A Notebook for Filmmakers
Professional equipment is often heavy, unwieldy and expensive. Sanyo's small new handycam offers acceptable features for work on the move.
Autodesk Mudbox – Free Basic Course
These videos introduce Mudbox 2011's new features together with the fundamentals of modelling.
Games in Motion
Kinect and Move are the only hardware highlights at Gamescom so far – and they are getting gamers moving.
Dragon Age 2
Trade-fair season is trailer season, and BioWare's Dragon Age 2 trailer should fuel the appetite for more polished fantasy.
BioShock Infinite – From the Deep Sea to the Clouds
Irrational Games is returning for BioShock Infinite, and its first trailer promises another legendary game.
Gamescom 2010
After a shaky start – including an eviction lawsuit – Gamescom 2010 is now under way and has already nominated its best games.
Windows Phone 7 as a Gaming Platform
Microsoft will pit its new phone operating system against iOS 4 and Android while also building in Xbox Live.
News from Babelsberg
The animago AWARD & CONFERENCE again takes place at Studio Babelsberg's fx.Center, part of one of the world's largest production sites.
“People Make Media”
That is the company credo of TeleFactory – PostFactory, which has provided extensive film and TV production services since 1993.
Multimedia Designer by Distance Learning
Studiengemeinschaft Darmstadt's new 19-month course teaches multimedia-design fundamentals with Adobe CS5 Web Premium.
VFX Made at fx.Center
exozet effects is based inside fx.Center, using in-house tools such as XFace and Aurora for 2D and 3D production workflows.
Drench, Cubehead
Advertising is often the master class of short film, as Ulf Johansson's “Drench” commercial demonstrates through its technical execution.
Award the Title of Master!
Autodesk is asking the community to honour masters of 3ds Max, Maya or Softimage who create outstanding CGI work and support the industry.
FileMaker Developer Conference
The FileMaker Developer Conference is the world's largest gathering of FileMaker staff, independent developers, consultants and trainers. It offers professional workshops and seminars led by FileMaker experts, early information about new products, and opportunities to network with system engineers, product managers, developers and exhibitors. Participants registering before May 21, 2010 at www.filemaker.com/devcon receive an early-booking discount of US $200.
Friday Evening in Space
NASA is making 3ds Max models available free of charge, from spacesuits and the Gemini probe to the Space Shuttle.
Autodesk Media and Entertainment Demo Reel 2010
If you missed the entire past year: here is everything important in four minutes.
The Foundry Relaunches After Effects Plug-ins
The Foundry has released a new camera-tracking plug-in and a new version of Kronos to exploit After Effects' 64-bit architecture.
Alliance in Industrial Visualisation
Realtime Technology (RTT) AG and Bunkspeed have announced an intensive collaboration.
An Autumn of Horror in HD 3D
Anyone still unsatisfied by the adult appeal of previous 3D films can now indulge their taste for horror with “Scar 3D”.
Enter the Animatron Film Festival Now
Babelgum Digital Broadcast Network has opened submissions for its Animatron animation and anime awards in online, offline and mobile categories.
LaCie Stores with Style
Backup servers for small and medium-sized businesses need not resemble the battered refrigerator in a student residence kitchen.
ZBrush 4.0
Ten years have passed since the first version of ZBrush. But has ZBrush grown wise with age, or merely stubborn?
Book Review: Lighting in People and Portrait Photography
Friedrun Reinhold's book primarily covers flash photography and how individual light modifiers affect people and portrait images.
Phoenix from the Ashes: Phoenix Fluid Dynamics Released
A new fluid plug-in for 3ds Max simulates fire, smoke, liquids and fog in grids, promising easier operation and better results.
Intro Film for Fable 3
Chickens as fantasy heroes? Fable 3's opening scene shows what separates heroes from ordinary people.
Review: Flash Catalyst CS5 Video Training
Flash Catalyst CS5 creates interactive web or desktop applications from Illustrator, Photoshop or Fireworks compositions without writing code.
Book Review: Canon EOS 5D Mark II
This book explains what Canon's full-frame DSLR can do and how to get the most from its much-discussed HD capabilities.
Cinesite Rides the 3D Wave
The next Pirates of the Caribbean film is coming in stereoscopic 3D, and Cinesite plans to grow by a substantial 40 percent for it.
Sundance Animation Winner
The winner of this year's “INTERNATIONAL ANIMATED SHORTS” prize at the US independent-film festival Sundance: Old Fangs.
The Monsters Are Coming Back
Walt Disney Pictures is marking major dates in the calendar: Monsters, Inc. 2 arrives in cinemas on November 2, 2012.
Arte Goes 3D
No one escapes 3D, not even the Creature from the Black Lagoon: Arte will show two film classics in anaglyph 3D.
Media Storage from Avid
Avid's ISIS 5000 storage system targets smaller television broadcasters with an open structure, straightforward administration and high performance.
RenderMan Studio and RenderMan 4 for Autodesk Maya
The next versions of RenderMan and RenderMan Studio will work with Maya, providing photorealistic rendering in Autodesk's package.
Panasonic Presents Personal 3D
The DXG-5D7V can now be pre-ordered with a matching monitor, offering personal 3D filmmaking for 600 dollars.
Old Friends Return to the Screen
Warner Brothers' Looney Tunes characters return, animated for the times but still completely unhinged.
AutoCAD Demonstrates Shape Extraction
Following Project Photofly, Autodesk introduces “Shape Extraction”, a new feature for generating 3D models from points.
Houdini 11 and Python
Houdini has become a major animation package for CGI professionals and is used in many films. Adding Python takes it to the next level—here is a presentation on that.
Houdini 11 and Python
Houdini has become a secret weapon for CGI professionals; extending the package with Python is the black belt of CGI.
SIGGRAPH 2010: MachStudio Pro 2
StudioGPU's MachStudio Pro 2 now works with Pixar RenderMan and mental ray, while also adding its own renderer.
SIGGRAPH 2010: Mari 1.0
The first finished version of The Foundry's Mari 3D texture software is available.
New Autodesk Teaching Programmes and Certificates
Autodesk has expanded its Animation Academy curriculum with three modules covering mobile-game creation and instructor certification.
Exclusive: Autodesk Announces Entertainment Creation Suites Premium
From September, Autodesk bundles Maya or 3ds Max, Softimage, Mudbox, MotionBuilder, Turtle and Lagoa Multiphysics at a reduced price.
Cumbersome 3D with an iPad
Anyone who finds shutter glasses too cumbersome can project an iPad onto a glass pyramid to create a 3D-like view of an object.
SIGGRAPH 2010: Ptex Makes 3D Textures Real
UVs have long mapped textures onto models. Now manufacturers are showing what the automatic 3D-texturing system Ptex can do.
SIGGRAPH 2010: ILM and Sony Develop Open Animation Format
Industrial Light & Magic and Sony have introduced Alembic, an open-source format for storing animation data of any size across software packages.
SIGGRAPH 2010: Luxion Gets Under the Skin
Luxion is showing what it calls the first real-time ray-tracing and global-illumination program, with KeyShot lighting natural surfaces in real time.
SIGGRAPH 2010: PFMatchit Targets Low-Cost 3D Tracking
The Pixel Farm has introduced PFMatchit, a 2D/3D camera-tracking and matchmoving package priced at 700 US dollars.
SIGGRAPH 2010: Networked Motion-Capture Camera for $1,900
OptiTrack's S50e may be the least expensive dedicated motion-capture camera, with onboard processing, 250 fps and square SVGA resolution.
SIGGRAPH 2010: Rotation® 6.1
eyeon's keying, rotoscoping, retouching and shot-preparation toolkit reaches version 6.1 with a revised stereo workflow.
Video Contest from Markt+Technik and Adobe
Creative videos are sought for “From Zero2Hero – having fun going from zero to one hundred”, interpreted freely around a rise from amateur to professional.
SIGGRAPH 2010: ISV Certifications for AMD
A new ATI driver increases FirePro graphics-card performance and adds more than 50 certifications for relevant CGI packages.
SIGGRAPH 2010: Stereoscopy from Nvidia
With 3D Vision Pro, Nvidia aims to give engineers, designers and architects convenient stereoscopy through wireless shutter glasses.
Impressions from Siggraph 2010
Pictures from Siggraph - you can see the stands, the visitors and the halls up close here.
SIGGRAPH 2010: 3D-Coat
Pilgway Studios presents 3D-Coat, a topology package for layer-based painting and voxel sculpting, with a new auto-retopology function.
SIGGRAPH: 3Dconnexion for Autodesk 3ds Max Users
A new 3Dconnexion driver update promises “intelligent navigation” for faster, clearer movement through 3ds Max models.
SIGGRAPH 2010: Houdini 11
Side Effects' eleventh release improves productivity with a new fluid-solver module and a rebuilt shader workflow.
Apple iMac and Display Update
Apple has introduced the latest version of its iMacs and new 27-inch Cinema Displays.
SIGGRAPH 2010: Nvidia Presents Quadro 4000, 5000 and 6000
Nvidia expands its graphics and 3D range with Quadro 4000, 5000 and 6000 plus 3D Vision Pro, promising physically accurate illumination.
SIGGRAPH 2010: LightWave 10 Delivers Real-Time Rendering
NewTek introduces LightWave 10 with real-time VPR rendering, hardware shading, anaglyph stereo, ambient occlusion, transparency and refraction.
SIGGRAPH 2010: 3D 360° Display
Sony's RayModeler 3D display can be viewed from 360° and is intended to present realistic 3D objects.
Overalls for the Green Screen
Extras in the green screen? People in front of the camera who do not belong there? The UnderFX Green Screen Suit offers a quick fix.
New Blender Beta Available for Download
The latest version of Blender, 2.53, is ready for download. The testing release promises major changes in practically every area.
100 Free CAD Helpers
A huge list of small helpers for CAD software is available on cadalyst.com.
Piranesi 2010
Piranesi Lite and Pro are not merely painting tools: they turn 2D and 3D designs into professional presentation images.
Cut Up the Mall Cop!
The latest Slamdance Film Festival competition, organised with Adobe, calls for a re-cut of the comedy “Mall Cop”.
Autodesk Keeps Growing
Autodesk is acquiring Illuminate Labs and with it Beast middleware and the Turtle Maya plug-in, strengthening Maya's game-lighting capabilities.
Photorealism with Lagoa Multiphysics
A new particle-physics framework is attracting attention online with a brilliant video. Information is scarce, but the results look enormous.
Storyteller: Michael Bay in 3D
While Transformers 3 is filming, Michael Bay's “The Institute” is preparing to bring Hansel and Gretel to the screen in 3D.
Marmoset Toolbag Is Finished
Toolbag is a real-time material editor and presentation tool intended to give 3D artists an efficient workflow and high-quality output.
Riding the Wave of Success
ScanlineVFX won the 2009 animago for its gigantic water god in “Prince Caspian” and recently applied its expertise to “2012”.
Free 3D Workflow Course
Adobe offers a seven-video introduction to stereo 3D on YouTube, presented by digital-video and imaging specialist Dave Helmly.
Versatile: Platige Image
Polish studio Platige Image has already won three animago AWARDs with “Cathedral”, “Fallen Art” and “The Kinematograph”.
Of Mice and Monsters
Studio Soi won the 2009 animago jury prize with “Engel zu Fuß”, the story of an angel who loses her wings.
Previous Year’s Winner: Metajo and Argumented Reality
Last year's animago winner linked print and 3D content, displaying advertisements as virtual models directly to users via webcam.
DP Congratulates Twentieth Century Fox on Its 25th Anniversary
To mark the traditional studio's birthday, DP is giving away five titles from the Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment portfolio.
An “Avatar” for Home
In the current reader survey, you can win a Blu-ray of the blockbuster “Avatar”.
DP Gives Away 3 “Alice in Wonderland” DVDs
Complete the current reader survey for a chance to watch Tim Burton's mad story again at home. DP wishes you luck.
CGI Inspiration for B-Movie Fans
When everything else fails, animation-weary animators can still find inspiration in film trailers. This weekend's trailer supplies nerves all weekend.
Ratatouille Returns in 3D
Pixar is re-releasing Ratatouille: the charming film about the culinary rat is returning to the screen in 3D.
Emerging-Talent Support from FilmFernsehFonds
Macromedia University graduates are now recognised by the FFF emerging-talent programme and can apply for its increased €1.6 million fund.
Matrox PowerDesk for M-Series Graphics Cards
A new Matrox tool manages multiple monitors, including regions, split views and large monitor arrays.
Free Sculpting
Anyone who finds ZBrush, Maya or Mudbox excessive should look at the free Sculptris sculpting package and its streamlined interface.
Camcorder with Interchangeable Lenses
Sony's €2,000 NEX-VG10E camcorder arrives in September with an APS-C sensor, interchangeable mount and 14.2-megapixel stills.
On the hunt for facial expressions
Review: In DP 05 : 2019, we realised that elaborately produced cutscenes in video games are no longer a rarity. In Remedy Entertainment's Alan Wake, MoCap specialist metricminds took care of the characters' facial expressions.
“Get Out” Cleans Up
ESMA graduate Charlotte Boisson's “Get Out” has screened at 22 festivals, won numerous awards and earned a SIGGRAPH nomination.
Siggraph 2010: Keyframe-Based Motion Tracking from 2D Material
Two researchers at Texas A&M University have used the keyframe technique familiar from video-editing programs and animation software as an alternative to marker-based motion capture – without camera arrays or markers.