In nuce: Epic Games has made a December collection available for free on its online marketplace. This can be seen in a blog post from 6 December on unrealengine.com . The collection mainly contains environment graphics that are suitable for creating fantastic-looking scenes. This free promotion runs until the end of December. The two videos below show two of the downloads in action: the Gothic temple (by Angel Fernandes) and the stylised nature environment (by Studio Kobo).

Gothic Temple Ruins Environment in Unreal Engine UE4

Stylised – Dynamic Nature Trailer (Unreal Engine Marketplace)

In toto: There are a total of six downloads, which will be offered free of charge on the online marketplace for the entire month.

• Hospitality Pack: Contains customisable models that can be used to design restaurants, bistros, kitchens or general dining areas, for example.
• Gothic Temple: Material Artist Angel Fernandes createdthis Gothic temple during quarantine. This model is also customisable.
• Platformer – Stylised Cube World Vol. 1: This package can beused to generate box-shaped worlds, as gamers know them from Minecraft or Roblox.
• Stylised – Dynamic Nature: The download scope of this package includes stylised outdoor objects – including plants, rocks, bodies of water and clouds: Plants, rocks, bodies of water or clouds.
• Stylised Truck Pack (Stylised Truck Pack): Here, users are provided with a stylised truck that comes in three different visual get-ups.
• Hand Painted Environment: If you opt for this, you will receive many environmental objects (such as buildings, ruins and plants), which have been prepared in a cuddly The Settlers look.

Click further: If the current free offer is too mundane for you, grab the assets for the technology demo The Matrix Awakens, which gave Trinity and Neo a Matrix-green glow (Digital Production reported on 12 April this year).

The post Free December collection at Epic Games! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: Lightmap, the software developer from the United Kingdom, has made available: a 25-part package consisting of HDRI maps and a 6-part package for HDR area light textures. The highlight: the packages are completely free of charge.

In toto: The maps were created with HDR Light Studio, the lighting design software from Lightmap. The 25-piece package is intended to simulate the lighting mood of a real studio shot. The package is intended for portfolio renderings and product visualisations. The 6-part HDR area light textures, on the other hand, are intended to imitate real light sources. The two packages, which are available as EXR files, can be used in the common digital content creation tools – for example in: Cinema 4D, 3ds Max or Unreal Engine. The download is possible without registration. Use for commercial projects is permitted.

Click further: Both the 25-part HDRI maps package and the HDR area light textures in six parts are available for download at lightmap.co.uk . Digital Production last reported on Lightmap’s HDR Light Studio software on 8 February 2021 , when Xenon Drop 2 was released.

The post download 25 HDRI Maps and 6 HDRI Area Light Textures for free first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: The online asset shop KitBash3D has released a download package that can be used to enhance science fiction projects: Mission to Minerva.

In toto: The download package contains over 90 free, customisable 3D models, which are provided in FBX and OBJ file format and are suitable for the representation of cargo ships, terraformers and other sci-fi vehicles. The package was released as part of the Mission to Minerva Challenge (more information below). To download the package, it is necessary to register for free at KitBash3D. Fun Fact: As the antithesis of Mars, Minerva represents the goddess of defensive warfare.

System requirements: To get the most out of Mission to Minerva, your Artists workstation should have the following specifications:

• CPU: 6-core processor
• GPU: 8 GB VRAM
• RAM: 32 GB
• Hard disc space: 15 GB per kit

Click to continue: Mission to Minerva can be downloaded from kitbash3d.com . If you are interested in the challenge , you can submit your project until 2 December this year (see also the video below). The jury is made up of employees from ILM, Riot Games, CD Projekt and other well-known companies.

Mission to Minerva 3D Challenge Launch Trailer

The post Free kitbashing package for sci-fi projects released! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: travelling expenses for the foreign shoot in Dubai, the IT specialist is working on the equipment, the coffee machine needs to be fed with new capsules – and then spending money on plug-in gadgets? Well, show business isn’t just about show, it’s about business (and that means costs). AWS Thinkbox (Amazon Web Services Thinkbox) has made its software solutions (including Deadline, Draft and Krakatoa) freely available – at no cost to users. The corresponding blog post states that Thinkbox’s tools make the work of VFX studios easier, naming well-known companies such as Framestore, Pixomondo and Scanline among the studios that use Thinkbox tools.

What will change for existing customers? Existing Deadline customers simply continue to use the software until the current licence expires. Users can then continue to use Deadline free of charge – without a licence. The latest versions of Krakatoa, Frost, XMesh and Stoke are also available for free download. Users can also download software licences for Sequoia free of charge – from the so-called floating licence portal.

What can the AWS Thinkbox tools do? An overview of what the software offering can do is provided below.

• Deadline: Allows users to manage render farms and optimise the resources of their computers
• Draft: This is used to perform simple post-render compositing tasks
• Krakatoa: a toolkit for volumetric particle rendering
• XMesh is used for caching meshes
• Frost: This allows users to generate meshes from particles – namely a single mesh
• Stoke: is a tool for particle simulation

Click further: All further information on the free software solutions from AWS Thinkbox in the corresponding blog post by Senior Product Manager Bharathi Muthukrishnan. Interested users can download the desired software from the corresponding AWS Thinkbox download page .

The post AWS Thinkbox makes VFX tools available for free! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: the warehouse’s double doors swing open. An ornithopter, a motorised dragonfly in spaceship format, is parked inside the hall. Or not – because you don’t have the assets to raise warehouses or similar buildings? Annoying! The ProductionCrate team has come to the rescue with its free download package, publishing 3D industrial models for your creative project.

What is included in the download package? The download package contains numerous ready-made builds. The assets range from industrial platforms and warehouse scaffolding to small items such as pipes, hoses and buttons. According to the description, the package is primarily intended for users who are working on large-scale architecture (e.g. a warehouse, exhibition centre or the Tower of Babel). The assets are compatible with Blender, Cinema 4D, Maya, Houdini and 3ds Max. The ProductionCrate team states: Users can utilise the package for both commercial and non-commercial projects

Click further: All further information on “Modern Industrial Pack | 3D Models” at rendercrate.com.

The post Free download package for environment design released! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.