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.

The new intelligent navigation technology automatically determines the optimal center of rotation based on the user’s point of interest. In addition, the center of rotation can be seen through an icon to give the designers a reference point when controlling spin, tilt, and roll motion, resulting in an extremely intuitive 3D navigation experience.

“Our innovative intelligence 3D navigation feature provides unprecedented levels of control,” said Antonio Pascucci, vice president of products, 3Dconnexion. “By automatically establishing and displaying the optimal center of rotation, designers are free to focus more on the creative elements of their designs without having to think about positioning the model or navigating the scene.”

Autodesk Maya users are free to switch between different intelligent 3D navigation modes including object mode, camera mode and target camera mode to suit their project or personal preference.

To learn more about 3Dconnexion visit them online here.

“Hands down, 3Dconnexion 3D mice provide the most intuitive way to work in Blender and are a must-have tool on today’s design workstations,” said Nathan Letwory, chief technology officer, Studio Lumikuu and Blender core developer. “Using a 3D mouse in Blender means you can position your model while simultaneously sculpting or modifying with a traditional mouse or tablet. You have to try it to believe it!”

01 - Buck Bunny tells the story about how 3D mice rock in Blender.

Blender 2.59 will now support SpaceNavigator, SpaceExplorer or SpacePilot PRO. The intuitive and precise control makes users feel like they’re holding the digital model in their hand. Check out what “Big Buck Bunny” has to say about 3D mice here. (YouTube link).

“The introduction of 3D mouse support in the latest release of Blender underscores our ongoing commitment to extending the support and reach of superior 3D navigation to all 3D software users,” said Antonio Pascucci, vice president of products, 3Dconnexion.

To learn more about Blender go here. To learn more about 3Dconnexion visit them on the web.

The V-Ray for Maya 2.0 product is one of the latest developments by Chaos Group. Developed to meet needs of the most demanding VFX and film studios around the world, the rendering engine delivers uncompromising stability, interactivity, ease-of-use and unprecedented speed, says the company.

V-Ray for Maya 2.0 includes new features like VrayCarPaint, Ptex textures and VRayLightSelect Render Element. You can now create car paint shaders, complete with base, flake and coat layers. Ptex textures help you with UV coordinates and the VRayLightSelect Render Element helps to extract the contribution of each light to the scene and compose all the lights back together and change their intensity in real time in any compositing software.

V-Ray for Maya 2.0 also comes with interactive GPU rendering but only on the Windows side. Mac versions do not support this feature. To learn more visit them online.

SIGGRAPH news

Chaos Group is in booth #135 as well as inside the NVIDIA booth as a partner.

“CINEMA 4D R13 is supercharged with numerous productivity enhancements that cater to the multi-collaboration challenges our customers face every day,” said Harald Egel, founder and CEO of Maxon. “Artists interested in expanding their capabilities will love the new character tools. And, of course, the physical renderer with stereoscopic functionality is incredibly important as the new way to deliver immersive entertainment.”

01 - Maxon CINEMA 4D Release 13. Features new stereoscopic rendering capabilities and a new physical rendering engine.

Major Highlights in CINEMA 4D R13

New and Enhanced Rendering Engine:

• Physically-accurate Rendering: – A new physical render engine is based on real camera properties (eg: blur, depth of field (DoF), lens distortion, focal length, aperture and shutter speed of camera)
• Efficient Subsurface Scattering: – Now users can efficiently create translucent materials such as milk, skin and wax with the subsurface scattering shader included with both the new Physical Render and CINEMA 4D’s standard render engines
• Shared Image Sampler: – Combine sampling effects and save tons of time on items like motion blur, area shadows, ambient occlusion, etc.
• New Anti-Aliasing Filters: – New Mitchell and Gauss algorithms

Stereoscopic 3D Workflow:

• Stereoscopic Camera Conversion: – Gives users control to easily convert any camera to a Parallel, On Axis, Off-Axis or Radial Stereoscopic Camera
• Stereo Image Workflow and Preview: – Stereo images can be previewed directly in the 3D editor
• Stereo Render Options: – Allows customers to easily render the merged stereoscopic image or separate images for each individual camera to create a true 3D experience
• Picture Viewer Support: – review animated stereo renders

New Suite of Character Animation Features:

• New Character Object: – This includes an auto-rigger and template support
• New CMotion System: – Apply parametric walk cycles based on cyclic motion; characters can be made to walk over terrain or on a spline
• New Muscle System: – Create custom shaped muscles and anchor them to multiple joints within a rig
• New Collision Deformer

02 - Maxon CINEMA 4D Release 13. New physical rendering engine provides stunning visual results.

Workflow, Modeling and Animation Improvements:

• Revamped Navigation System: – C4D R13 has a new cursor-based navigation system that greatly improves an already excellent ease-of-use system
• Sticky Keys: – Allows users to activate a tool only while its shortcut is pressed and immediately return to the previous tool
• New Spline Data User Interface:
• Location Indicator:
• Surface Manipulation: – Offers flexible options with infinite Axis mode
• Animation Enhancements: – Better curve handling, markers, including clamping, etc.

Operational Efficiency:

• Superior XRef Object: – Improves artist efficiency with fully embedded XRef (external reference) commands in R13 so referenced objects can be textured, animated, and included in expressions or simulations within the master file, greatly enhancing work in a collaborative environment
• Improved Scripting Language Support:
• File Format Support: – Multi-pass files can now be stored in multiple channels within a single OpenEXR file. FBX and COLLADA have been updated to latest versions
• After Effects Exchange: – Gives customers using R13 unparalleled integration with Adobe After Effects with the introduction of stage object support, timeline marker exports and support for 29.97fps

Other Comments

CINEMA 4D Release 13 also includes many new shaders and other assets. System requirements for the Mac are now OS X 10.5.8 or later running on Intel-based Macs and 1024 MB of RAM. Up to 256 threads now supported. Standard DVD installation can take up to 2.5 GB of disk space.

CINEMA 4D R13 and BodyPaint 3D R13 are schedule to ship in September through Maxon and its authorized dealers worldwide. Customers with an active Maxon Service Agreement (MSA) valid through September 2nd will automatically receive the upgrade.

There are four flavors of CINEMA 4D Release 13 designed for graphics professionals, visualization professionals, broadcast and 3D artists in large studios. To learn more visit Maxon online here.

The company’s graphics solutions will be powering a range of new 3D and CAD applications useful to designers, engineers and digital content professionals. Industry leaders such as Autodesk, Adobe and Dassault Systemes will be on hand to highlight new tools and techniques that take advantage of Nvidia Professional graphics solutions.

Features and Events

There will be a range of interesting events taking place during the conference. These include:

• Nvidia-sponsored Autodesk Student Experience – Aug 7 , 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. Held at the Vancouver Marriott Pinnacle Downtown Hotel
• Nvidia Tech Talks – Aug 8 , 9:00 am – 5:30 pm. Held in the West Building, Room 220.
• Nvidia Innovation Theater – held all three days Aug 9, 10 and 11 in the booth.
• Nvidia Sketch Match. Sponsored by Dell, contestants race the clock to compete against fellow illustrators, animators and designers for great prizes.
• NVArt Competition. Nvidia and the CGSociety put this on

Nvidia will also be demonstrating and giving away three new just-announced ThinkPad Tablets from Lenovo in the Nvidia booth during SIGGRAPH.

To learn more about Nvidia go to: www.nvidia.com

Anime Studio 8

Anime Studio Debut 8 is claimed by the company to be the world’s easiest animation program and the best first steps to “becoming the next great animator.” Produced by the Smith Micro Productivity and Graphics Group, Anime Studio Debut 8 offers simple but powerful tools to deliver professional-grade animations that most novices can master quickly.

“Animation has the unique ability to communicate the joy, sorrow, laughter, and adventure that live action can’t always convey,” said Dave Gibbons, Watchmen co-creator and well-known comic book artist. “I’ve used Smith Micro’s graphics solutions for many years. Products like Anime Studio provide fun, easy-to-create tools that let you add life to your storytelling and make character animation a breeze.”

Anime Studio Debut 8 offers new Automatic Image Tracing features, a built in Character Wizard, a new Beginner’s Mode, a tool that helps guide first time animators, better built in help and tutorials and a streamlined interface.

Going Pro

The professional version contains all the features of Debut, including its innovative Automatic Image Tracing features, plus features for professional studio work flows. These include items like Real Time Media Connection, Global Rendering Styles, more advanced uses within the Character Wizard and more.

Both versions feature bone-rigging and the professional version offers more advanced capabilities in this area as well.

Anime Studio Debut 8 is available for 49.99.USD while the Pro version is available for 199.USD. You can learn more about both versions here: http://anime.smithmicro.com/index.html