01 - NewTek's Lightwave 3D at NAB 2012 showing Voronoi shattering.

Maxon of course also now includes the Bullet physics engine. The company showed CINEMA 4D at NAB and has a new way of outputting data wherein the three RGB components of every pixel are used to represent that pixel’s coordinates in 3D space. Maxon calls this a “world position pass.”

You can learn more about CINEMA 4D’s latest features here.

Physics in 3D

To check out a really cool physics bullet plugin 3D video check out this YouTube video here: http://youtu.be/143k1fqPukk

To do so simply tune in on April 16-19, 2012 at www.C4DLIVE.com.  You can see the lineup and schedule at the link above.

In this release Boolean operations have been advanced with new “Carve” Booleans. The boolean modifier now uses the “Carve Library“, which is a C++ library that is developed and tested in parallel on Windows, Mac and Linux. As a result complex modeling operations in Blender 2.62 are much faster and with improved results. While this is a new library for booleans for Blender the general workflow and options for boolean modeling remains unchanged.

01 - New Blender 2.62 update. (image courtesy Blender.org)

There is also new updated UV tools in 2.62. There is now an advanced interactive stitch tool, to align and join together UV islands. There is seam marking in the UV editor and a subdivision surface aware UV unwrapping to reduce stretching problems.

02 - New Carve Boolean library added to Blender 2.62.

Recent important updates include the Cycles Render engine with support for render layers and passes, multi-GPU support and much more. To see all the updates to Blender in version 2.62 go here.

Blender is available for free on Windows, Mac and Linux, including PowerPC based Macs. Go here now.

Architosh has an interview article with Dan Farr, Co-Founder of DAZ and its Chief Strategy Officer, about why the company is giving away its software this month. You can read that here.

Part of a strategy to bring 3D software tools further down field to non-professional users as well as future professional users, the goal is to expand the use and market for its Genesis character platform.

01 - DAZ 3D's amazing give-away includes DAZ Studio 4 Pro, Bryce 7 and Hexagon 2.5.

And There’s Bryce and Hexagon

In case you are not much into 3D character modeling, illustration or modeling, the company also has Bryce Pro 7 and Hexagon 2.5 tools to give you as well. So let’s take a quite look at why you might want to obtain this software for free right now.

Hexagon 2.5. This program is a fairly sophisticated surface modeling tool with Boolean operations, Gordon surfaces, Coons surfaces in addition to sophisticated vertex modeling commands. You can export and import to many other 3D and CAD file standards, including: OBJ, 3DS, A3D, DXF, DWG and Illustrator (imports) and CAR, A3D, OBJ, 3DS, DXF, DWG and STL (exports).

Hexagon 2.5 also has a construction history that is fully editable. They call it Dynamic Geometry. Many users use this tool to work with DAZ’s other software packages. You can take models from DAZ Studio to Hexagon and back again. And you can work between Carrara and Hexagon as well.

This is just a brief summary of this organic modeler with subdivision surface capabilities and high-level 3D modeling tools. If you are more interested in designing toothpaste bottles or furniture, Hexagon can also assist you very well. Click here to see some movies of it in action.

Bryce Pro 7. This is one of the 3D legends. Bryce has been around for well over a decade and is a premier landscape creation tool. These days many people use Bryce to create scenery for DAZ Studio characters, creating entire worlds for their characters to live in.

Highlight features include its new Instancing Lab, improved Light Lab, sky rendering improvements, a particle emitter, better import and export and the DAZ Studio Bridge.  The Pro version also supports Bryce Lightning Network Rendering. Import and export options include: COLLADA, FBX, DAZ Studio format, 3DS, Lightwave, OBJ, and many others.

You can learn more about DAZ Studio here in the interview feature. While this software is free and there is literally no catch (again see the interview) system requirements include some important notes.

Hexagon 2.5 is currently not compatible with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. This is likely because the program supports PowerPC processors going all the way back to the G4. The G5 processor is actually recommended. If you are Mactel you can run anything from 10.2 up to 10.6 (Snow Leopard, the last version which supported Rosetta).

Bryce too is not yet compatible with Lion. For likely the very same reasons. Bryce supports Mac OS X 10.4 or higher and will run on both Intel and PowerPC.

Finally, for those wondering, DAZ Studio Pro 4 itself supports both 32 and 64-bit Macs (OS X 10.5 or above and this would include Lion).

To download this software go to DAZ online here.

DAZ 3D, for those who are not familiar, is the company behind the famous Victoria 3D software character. DAZ Studio Pro 4 is its flagship product for working with this character platform. It is a 3D figure illustration/animation application and is now known as Genesis in its latest technology advancement. The company has acquired other software tools from others along the way to support its core focus.

Most notable among these is Bryce, currently at version 7, which is a long-time leader in 3D computer-generated landscape creation. The other notable products in the hands of DAZ are Hexagon and Carrara, the latter being well known to those with experience in the 3D world.

Genesis is largely the reason why DAZ Studio rocks. The new character platform is endlessly innovative, allowing 3D artists of all types to explore body and figure shapes across a female-male spectrum (yes, you can actually create a human basically in between) and even create creatures. (see figures 02-03)

Dan Farr spoke to us about his company, its current plans and products, and his thoughts about mobile apps.

01 - DAZ 3D's amazing give-away includes DAZ Studio 4 Pro, Bryce 7 and Hexagon 2.5.

The Interview

AFR: (Anthony Frausto-Robledo) Why are you doing this now…giving away so much excellent software?

DF: (Dan Farr) Since the beginning of our business we have a history of sometimes going against convention. And when we have stepped outside the box–despite how scary it can sometimes be–it has always come back really positive for us.

AFR: What are you really hoping will happen by doing this?

DF: We are hoping to expand our Genesis platform, by tapping the growing market interest in 3D. We want to bring tools down to a lower more accessible point. There is such interest in people to learn 3D. But the challenge has always been the price tag. Sure, a possible solution to that problem is to go with something like Blender. But then another roadblock emerges–ease of use.

02 - DAZ Studio Pro 4. With Genesis technology you can create creatures or humans. (image courtesy of DAZ)

03 - Human creation is completely flexible, enabling slider-level control of female and male body shapes. (image courtesy of DAZ)

AFR: That is the classic problem to 3D adoption you speak of. People want to do amazing stuff, but both the complexity and the price of the tools makes it hard for new adopters. How will you reach this emergent audience for 3D…who are these people?

next page: Expanding market and Hexagon – interview continues

IMSI/Design has had pdf2CAD for Windows for a bit longer but now the company’s product is made for Mac as well. The software tool converts engineered drawings saved in Adobe PDF format into DXF files which can be opened and edited using numerous CAD tools, including the company’s own TurboCAD and its popular new TurboViewer mobile applications for Apple iOS devices.

The software can also convert to HPGL format, directly from PDF. It supports batch processing to convert multiple files at once. The software concatenates characters to form editable words and lines of text and it maps fonts. Price is usually 199.USD. To learn more visit here.

KeyShot updated to 3.1

Luxion has updated KeyShot to version 3.1. Version 3.1 features an all-new rendering and animation set of options. This release introduces a patent-pending animation system, plus a revamped user-interface and over 600 plus materials. It also supports network rendering and new compatibility with 3DConnexion 3D mice.

01 - KeyShot 3.1 now supports a next-generation support for metallic paint textures where the user can control the dispersement of individual metallic flakes. (image courtesy of Luxion.)

With version 3.1 there is a next-generation of metallic paint support that contains visible metallic flakes, whose distribution can be individually controlled. This and many new features round out version 3.1. Learn more here.

Event: Bonzai 3D Organic Modeling Webinar

AutoDesSys will host tomorrow (16 February 2012) a Bonzai 3D webinar focused on organic modeling. The event takes place online at 1:00pm EST and last one hour. You can learn more and register here.

Aimed at bringing high-level production capable tools down to the little guy, IKinema, a UK animation technology company, has created WebAnimate.

WebAnimate is an all-in-one platform that can professionally retarget and customize through your browser. Based on the same IKinema technology that major studios use, like Framestore and 20th Century Fox, WebAnimate’s built-in toolset allows users to fashion rigs, manipulate bones, retarget/customize motion capture data and create animation all in the span of a few minutes. Best of all the price is free. To check it out go here

Maxon Re-Introduces Cineversity

The creators of CINEMA 4D have re-launched a brand new version of its premier educational online resource.  Introduced just before the holidays–which is a nice touch!–Cineversity is a redo of its online video tutorials website. The new site is designed around the latest web innovations and is aimed at simplicity and making it easy for artists to get the learning resources they need to master CINEMA 4D.

There are more online video tutorials than ever, a new searching capability and the ability for users to create playlists so they can customize their training. Maxon CEO Paul Babb stated: “We are committed to the CINEMA 4D community to provide educational material that will increase the artist’s proficiency and productivity.”

There are both free and paid membership levels. If you are a CINEMA 4D user or considering becoming one this is a must-see resource. To visit it go here.

Luxion updates KeyShot 3 Plugins

Also just prior to the holiday break, Luxion, the makers of KeyShot 3, introduced updated plugins allowing users of certain CAD and 3D applications to directly transfer 3D data into the GPU-based rendering application for Windows and Mac.

The world’s first real-time ray tracing and global illumination program, KeyShot 3 now has plugin support for the following applications:

• Creo 1.0
• Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3, 4 and 5
• Rhinoceros 4
• SolidWorks 2011 and 2012
• SketchUp 7 and 8

There are no costs for the plugins. The updated plugins can be downloaded immediately and installed within the modeling software supported. To learn more visit here.

Lightwave 3D 11 features tons of new features. Instancing enables you to create mass duplicates of objects in a scene with very little overhead. These “virtual” polygon counts will not cause your machine to run out of memory. Instances are not mere clones they can be randomly different via scaling, position, rotation and even surface complexity.

Flocking enhances natural motions with such things as schools of fish, birds, et cetera. Fracture is a new modeler tool and was designed specifically to compliment Bullet dynamics in the Lightwave Layout. It allows the 3D artist to “pre-fracture” an object ready for destruction. Bullet is a fast, production-proven, open-source physics engine that does what you think it does. Lightwave 3D 11 features the Bullet engine directly in Layout.

Lightwave 3D 11 now has a much enhanced Virtual Studio Tools, allowing the user to configure various third-party device controllers (e.g.: SpaceNavigator, Playstation Move). GoZ is a new interchange technology in this version that enables users to send model and texture data to and from Pixologic’s ZBrush.

Rendering is improved thanks to new improvements in the Render Buffer. Saving and viewing various buffers produced by the render engine to make up an image is now more powerful and easier to use. This improves renders out for compositing.

Version 11 now includes Python scripting. Python is an industry standard for scripting and further allows the customization of Lightwave 3D. FiberFX has a new volume rendering mode called Stroke. Version 11 allows you to now make very realistic fibers. FiberFX now uses the new instancing technology as well.

Other Improvements

The user interface has been enhanced, especially in the area of the node editor. There are IK rigs improvements, huge speed boosts in areas such as loading scenes, many modeler optimizations and enhancements. Items can now be modeled off axis. There are OBJ file format support improvements, shader improvements and a whole lot more.

Lightwave 3D 11 is offered today for registered current users as a pre-release advanced beta. The full final release is scheduled for end of year.

To learn more about the new Newtek Lightwave 3D 11 visit them online here.

Xfrog 5 is a procedural organic 3D modeler that allows you to create and animate 3D trees, flowers, nature based special effects or architectural forms. Xfrog 5 includes several bug fixes, performance optimizations, including an over 20 percent speed up over Xfrog 4.4, as well as full compatibility with CINEMA 4D R13.

Xfrog is one of the most popular plugins for Maxon’s C4D software because it enables even the casual user the powerful ability to create and animate organic models. Common uses include tree growth, blossoming flowers, complex nature-based effects and many other uses. Customers who have purchased Xfrog 4.4 in the past six months are eligible to upgrade for no additional cost.

01 - Xfrog 5 is now out ofr CINEMA 4D. The procedural organic modeler adds power to Maxon's flagship tool.

Xfrog Inc., is a world leader in organic plant modeling and ecosystem software research and development. To learn more visit: www.xfrog.com

Strata 3D CX 7 is the latest release of the company’s flagship program which over the years has been redesigned to integrate highly with Adobe’s Creative Suite software, targeting traditional 2D design professionals and helping them bring 3D to their creative arsenal. CX 7 brings end-to-end power for the entire 3D workflow with a simplified learning curve and familiar toolset.

“We had an excellent response and a lot of positive feedback from our recent launches of the Design 3D CX 7 for Mac and the Cxi release in the Mac App Store. Designers really love the new features and functionality and we’re excited to finally place it in the hands of our PC customer base,” said Ken Bringhurst, Strata President.

To learn more about Strata Design 3D CX 7 for Windows or the Mac, go to the Strata website here. Training for Strata is available online at Strata University here.

“Vue 10 represents a significant milestone in our continuous delivery of leading-edge Digital Nature technologies,” said Nicholas Phelps, President of e-on Software. “High-resolution rocks, physical water and spline-driven effects together with faster rendering and advanced render stacking are some of the examples of the many new technologies in Vue 10.”

The Beaverton, Oregon-based, company also announced that they will release the rest of the Vue 10 product line by mid November, 2011.

Vue 10 xStream is the company’s flagship solution offering CG professionals the leading solution for creating exceptionally rich and realistic “Digital Nature” environments, fully immersed within a range of 3rd-party software suites such as: Autodesk 3ds Max, Maya, and Softimage, plus Maxon CINEMA 4D or Newtek Lightwave. All Vue tools are fully integrated in the host application as menus and toolbars and directly accessible from within the host interface.

Vue 10 Infinite is a premier standalone solution from e-on Software. It offers all the powerful tools in a separate application and is ideal for multimedia and entertainment professionals, architects and graphic designers.

Standard retail pricing for Vue 10 xStream is 1,790.USD with a one year maintenance contract and upgrades start at 395.USD. Vue 10 Infinite retails for 1,190.USD with a one year maintenance contract with upgrades from 295.USD.

To learn more about the Vue 10 product line visit them online here.

Details

The CINEMA 4D export appears directly in the After Effects export menu and generates a .c4d file containing 3D layers, cameras, lights, solids, nulls and footage. Even nested compositions are supported. All major layer attributes including animations (rotation, position, parameter, anchor points, POI, etc.), expressions, layer parenting, layer locking and layer visibility are retained. Render and document settings in CINEMA 4D are adapted accordingly to the After Effects’ project settings.

“The After Effects-CINEMA 4D workflow is the proven choice for top motion design studios worldwide seeking to easily integrate their 3D and 2D workflows,” commented Harald Schneider, managing partner and CTO at Maxon. “We are pleased to offer our customers this new After Effects export plug-in so they can benefit by the increased speed, efficiency and tight integration between these two powerhouse software packages.”

“CINEMA 4D is a 3D package After Effects users have already come to know and love because of its seamless integration into After Effects,” said Steve Forde, product manager for Adobe After Effects. “The ability to bring assets the other direction as well will certainly enhance productivity and further solidify CINEMA 4D as an ideal 3D solution for motion graphics artists.”

Pricing and Availability

The new CINEMA 4D R13 exchange plugin compatible with Adobe After Effects CS3, CS4, CS5 and CS5.5 is immediately available as a free download from the Maxon website. (www.maxon.net/afterfx-e)

To learn more about CINEMA 4D visit Maxon online here.

Inside this rigging course modo users will discover and learn concepts and techniques essential to rigging models for animation in modo 501. Rich Hurrey leads students from the basics of the modo interface and tools on towards such challenging topics as inverse kinematics and schematic viewports. With the basics behind you students can then approach tackling a tutorial that ultimately leads them to a production-ready asset.

There are 26+ hours of searchable video with indexed chapters in this interactive training series. Items are cross-referenced and linked to online documentation. There is an extensive FAQ section as well. All of this is packaged up in a beautiful and easy to use interface. All materials are downloaded from the Web. Users will need modo 501 SP4 or later to complete the course plus the basic requirements of QuickTime software from Apple.

01 - rigging master course at Luxology is new.

The price is 149.USD until 24 October 2011 and then it will be 199.USD. To learn more visit here.

On October 12, 2011, at the Manhattan Edit Worshop headquarters on 80 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, from 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm, film makers will be able to gather for a great course on stereo 3D. Stereo3D: Fixing It In Post, will be presented by Tim Dashwood, who is an award-winning expert on the subject of stereo 3D in film.

“In this exclusive three hour, soup-to-nuts workshop, attendees will learn the principles of stereoscopic 3D acquisition, as well as how to identify and repair common issues when working with stereoscopic 3D in post, and a wide-range of mastering techniques for the delivery of quality 3D content to broadcasters,” stated the press release.

All attendees will walk away with a free Stereo3D Toolbox LE license from Dashwood Cinema Solutions, valued at 99.USD. To register for this event please visit this page. The cost of the workshop is 59.USD.

Manhattan Edit Workshop was founded in 2002 by NYC based filmmaker, Josh Apter, with the goal of providing cutting-edge training and instruction in the art of editing. With expert editing instruction and unique artistic guidance on Apple, Adobe(R) and Avid(R) platforms, Mewshop quickly grew into NYC’s top training destination for editors, cinematographers and filmmakers of all types.

The Advanced and Pro versions build on the base Studio 4 version released earlier in the year. With Advanced the user gains new features such as the Auto-Fit technology. With Auto-Fit you never run out of clothing for your custom characters as clothing auto-sizes to fit any Genesis figure in a matter of seconds. Studio 4 Advanced also gains Progressive Rendering for quick, high-quality draft image views and test rendering for lighting for example. There is also the Multi-Layered Image Editor that enables you to add decals and tattoos to your models.

01 - DAZ 3D has introduced new DAZ Studio 4 Advanced and Pro versions of its 3D figure software suites.

64-bit support is now standard with Advanced on both Mac and Windows platforms, including 64-bit for dynamic clothing support.

Studio 4 Pro features the FBX Exporter, 3D Bridge to Photoshop and the GoZ Bridge to send your models over to Zbrush for further editing and creation work. The Content Creator Tools are for advanced professional users and will save the pro user man-years of development tim. The toolset includes:

• Weight-Map Brush (new)
• Transfer Utility (new)
• Polygon Group Editor (new)
• Figure Setup (Skelton Setup) updated
• Joint Editor (updated)
• Property Editor (updated)
• ExP Exporter (updated)
• Morph Loader Pro (updated)
• Poser Format Exporter (updated)

There are more features included in the Pro version but these are the highlights. To learn more about DAZ Studio 4 Advanced and Pro visit them online. Advanced retails for 229.USD and Pro is 449.USD.

Strata Design 3D CX is a modeling and animation software suite for creatives who desire superior results and usability. It provides an end-to-end 3D workflow, with a simplified learning curve and a familiar toolset developed to help 2D designers easily transition to the world of 3D design. The program also provides deep tie-ins with Adobe Creative Suite, improving the workflow between 2D and 3D environments.

Key New Features in Strata Design 3D v7 for Mac

• Faster rendering and advances for blurred effects, anisotropy and more
• Sun and Sky feature for natural lighting effects
• Native UV editing environment for perfect texture control
• New texture features, including channels for Normal and Anisotropy maps
• Subdivision surface modeling enhancements, with pro level features
• New Boolean modeling engine
• Grid Templates that act like ‘virtual tracing paper’ for modeling from images
• Match Motion features for putting 3D design work into video
• Project templates with ‘predefined’ lighting, environments and backgrounds
• Customizable shortcuts and user sets
• Compatible with Mac OS X Lion (10.7)

“Everyone at Strata is really excited about this major update to our flagship product,” said Ken Bringhurst, Strata President. “We set out with an ambitious plan to update the program with the most requested enhancements from our customer base and I think we nailed it with this effort. Even our most discriminating pro users have been raving about the new features and improved functionality.”

Options for Suites

The Strata 3D CX Suite can include Design 3D CX and also Strata Foto 3D, Strata Enfold 3D and Strata Live 3D, all at 50 percent less than regular price in conjunction with the suite. Strata Design 3D 7 for Mac is available immediately at the Strata website. There is an introductory price of 545.USD available now. Regular price for a new license is 695.USD.

To learn more visit them online.

01 - Strata Design 3D CX 7 for Mac. New flagship 3D product suite includes numerous feature improvements in the areas of modeling, rendering, animation and workflow. It is also Lion ready!

Anime Studio was recently added to the Mac App Store and the software instantly became one of the top selling Graphics and Design software, following closely behind Adobe’s Photoshop Elements and Pixelmator.

Anime Studio Debut is a unique app that enables people of all skill levels to imagine, create and animate 2D movies, cartoons, anime and cut out animations. Notably, the apps innovative bone-rigging system allows creators to animate quickly and efficiently.

The promise of the Anime Studio app prompted it to be featured in the “New and Noteworthy” section within a couple days of being introduced to the Mac App Store. Further success of the app has warranted Anime Studio to be included in next weeks Featured Apps at the store, along with a demo video that will be promoted by the Apple staff.

For more information on Anime Studio Debut, please visit them online here: http://anime.smithmicro.com/

“Though necessary, I find modeling and texture painting tedious and time consuming,” Ridlen explains. “I knew there had to be a toolset that could quickly guide me through this process so I could spend more time doing what I love: realistic animation. DAZ 3D’s professional-quality models and software provide exactly what i need to tackle the complex previsualization requirements of any project.”

In  2005, Ridlen was commissioned to create a three minute CG previsualization involving multiple characters and several props for the film project titled Archangel. Instead of diving head-first into what could easily take several weeks  worth of modeling work, Ridlen scoured the Web for an inexpensive solution that would easily integrate into his existing animation pipeline and help to expedite the character modeling process altogether. In a matter of minutes, he stumbled upon DAZ Studio.

“I was astounded to find such a strong and useful program for free,” he notes. “DAZ Studio allowed me to quickly generate all the characters and I was able to purchase and customize additional costumes and props with surprising detail at very little cost. The versatility, range and quality of the morphs provided fast creation of several different characters, all from a few base models.”

Utilizing the affordability of the DAZ 3D models, combined with the time-saving amenities offered through DAZ Studio’s robust posing features, Ridlen was able to reduce his estimated modeling process by nearly 75 percent, allowing him to spend more time animating, lighting and adding visual effects to bring dazzling detail to the production.

However, it wasn’t just the time saving and cost-effective solution DAZ Studio provided that convinced Ridlen to continue his use of DAZ 3D tools for additional projects. It was the compatibility with his existing software suite.

Working primarily in Newtek’s Lightwave – with additional help from eyeon’s Fusion and Next Limit’s Realflow – DAZ 3D tools and assets seamlessly integrate into Ridlen’s pipeline, providing a highly streamlined workflow: “DAZ 3D offers a variety of morphs that allow quick modification of character features without opening an outside modeling program,” says Ridlen. “However, if I want to further modify or finely texture in Lightwave, it just requires a simple export. There is also a Lightwave plug-in that allows me to convert many objects into morphs for a base model, all at once. With a workflow like this, I was immediately hooked.”

DAZ 3D proved its worth once again when, in April 2010, Ridlen was contracted by visual effects production house Pixel Magic to help with asset creation for New Regency’s spoof film, Vampires Suck. With a mere $20 million budget for all production costs, the visual effects share was remarkably low, considering the amount required.

To create a fully CG baby that would be “juggled” by the film’s main character, Ridlen called upon DAZ 3D’s Millennium Baby 3. Using DAZ Studio’s morph sliders, he reshaped the model’s facial features and resized the head and limbs to achieve the look he was striving for. “Human form, particularly faces, are about the toughest thing to make convincing in CG,” he admits. “DAZ Studio’s texture maps helped to provide nice detail, while the UV maps created an ideal template for adding to the existing texture maps or painting new ones.”

Using a human character rig, Ridlen was able to simply drop the modeled baby into Lightwave for finishing. Additionally, the rig pose was saved within DAZ Studio for easy application to any other figures as needed, then exported directly into the Lightwave rig with very little tweaking.

The use of the DAZ 3D model and DAZ Studio not only saved time, but meant that Pixel Magic could bid the sequence at a lower cost than it would have required to develop the model from scratch or scanning. This also helped the CG team land the client amongst a sea of qualified bids. “Once again, DAZ 3D allowed me to jump right into rigging, lighting and shot set up,” notes Ridlen. “We were very happy with the outcome, and the sequence makes people laugh. Mission accomplished.”

Throughout his nearly 15 years as a CG artist, Ridlen has utilized DAZ 3D tools and assets for multiple projects. His main goal has been to provide a quality product, and DAZ 3D has become synonymous with this goal.

“It has become a bit of a running joke between me and my colleagues,” Ridlen recalls. “Every time we face a daunting CG challenge, we always turn to each other, nod and immediately say: ‘DAZ!’ The funny thing is, it’s no joke. DAZ 3D is a fun little secret weapon.”

To learn more about DAZ 3D visit here: http://www.daz3d.com/

Key new features in Substance Designer 2 include new Vector Paint, allowing you to paint dynamic masks on all channels (diffuse, spec, normal, etc.) or a full material all at once.

There is also a new Material Layering System. This enables you to work in a more visual fashion with complex materials (diffuse, normal, specular, etc), encapsulating intricate node graphs. A Cache System improves overall performance speed by 25 percent.

01 - Allegorithmic's Substance Designer 2 now for Mac, including Lite version.

“As you are able to combine, mask, and play with all the channels of a full material at once, while using a very familiar and visual layering system, users should find Substance Designer 2 to be a more poweful and dedicated tool for material creation,” says Allegorithmic founder and CEO, Dr. Sebastien Deguy.

Both Substance Designer 2 and Substance Designer 2 Lite are available for the Mac natively now.

To learn more visit them online here.

What We Think

Substance Designer is a popular and excellent texture editing tool. Allegorithmic’s decision to bring both products to the Mac is great for Apple’s platform, giving 3D artists another reason to adopt the Mac and allowing a no-compromise environment.

If you need to create or edit textures for your DCC solution for 3d software suite, then take a look at Substance Designer 2 and the Lite version.

At their booth they had standing room only presentations from industry experts from studies like Digital Domain, Sony, EA and others. ZBrush 4 R2 includes major enhancements as well as new features.  Those who purchase ZBrush from now until the release of R2 in September will obtain version 4 R2 for free.

The company is not releasing all the features just yet but one new feature is the improved rendering in the Best Preview Renderer. This has been updated to a full 32-bits floating-point HDR pipeline. The new release is capable of rendering extremely high quality images while utilizing improved materials, lights and environments.

Architosh will cover more details on this release when it becomes available.