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Now that the competitive race between Maya and 3ds Max has somewhat run its course (because they are both owned by Autodesk), we look to other developers to see what they are doing to close the gap.

Luxology are now giving away modo Production Evaluations for free. The Production Evaluation gives you access to more much more content than you would normally get with the free Basic modo Trial – so it actually gives you can a chance to properly test drive modo.

Those of you who see themselves as techno geeks and like to keep up with the latest research and developments in media production will want to check out this year’s CVMP conference.

Autodesk have just releasd a brand new Hot Fix for Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2011 and Autodesk® 3ds Max® Design 2011.

Our friends at Pixologic have done it again... There seems to be no stopping the development team and now Windows and Mac users will unite!

On Monday August 9 ,2010 existing users will be able to upgrade FREE OF CHARGE! Updated versions of all major plugins, and GoZBrush support for Modo, Cinema 4D, 3DSMax and Maya for Windows and Mac systems.
More information about ZBrush 4.0 and its features will be presented closer to launch date.

Autodesk have just released a new set of hotfixes for their 3ds Max series of products for you to get stuck into.

Every budding professional needs professional software, so we have devised a brand new promotion to help CG graduates who want to pursue commercial work, get the professional set-up they need.  This means you can now upgrade student licences to full commercial versions for half the price, and be on your way to becoming a professional CG artist.

Next Limit have just announced a World Cup inspired promotion which will see Maxwell Render’s price drop, the further Spain progress in the tournament. This is quite an interesting promotion and there is no mistaking Next Limit is supporting their home country, Spain.

MAXON have announced a Summer Special pricing promotion on their CINEMA 4D software. The promo includes three of their top selling software editions: the Broadcast Edition for motion graphics, the Architecture Edition for visualisation, and the Studio Bundle for 3D professionals, all discounted at 50%. There are discounts for upgrades as well, and the MAXON Service Agreement is also available.

Good news: Science.D.Visions have just announced a great Summer promotion. You can now buy a licence of 3DEqualiser4 along with 12 months support for 50% less.

If you have been using Autodesk® Maya® 2011 software you may want to check out the new Hotfix 1 update Autodesk have just released.  It will help improve the operation of the software and address some of the issues you may have been experiencing with the 2011 version.

Did you know that Autodesk are offering some pretty interesting finance deal at the minute?

If you’re like us and have been struggling with the limits of 4-core machines for your CG applications, then you’d be just as excited about Intel's Next Generation CPU 6-core 32nm processors. They are probably the biggest advancement in CPU cores for over two years.

Our friends at Chaos Group have just announced the release of the new Service Pack 5 for V-Ray for 3ds Max.

Pixar have just announced the release of it's much anticipated Distributed Processing Solution for RenderMan and Other Applications!

Chaos have released their official Ach Vis 2009 Demo reel today. It showcases some really cool imagery from very talented Arch Vis artists.  This is definitely worth a peek if you are interested in Arch Vis and want to see some amazing work from the industry’s top Arch Vis Studios.

A while back we helped kit out a start-up arch vis studio set-up up by an arch vis artist Jon Yates. Jon came to us wanting to set up his very own studio, and needed to recreate the performance and scalability he was used to, but this time on a tighter budget and within a more restricted space.

Our friends at Science D Visions have released an insightful interview with Weta Digital, the Studio credited with delivering over 300 stereoscopic matchmoves for Avatar.

We have some exciting news from Autodesk today. They have just unveiled the 2011 versions of its Digital Entertainment Creation software with the promise of increased production efficiency, especially in terms of  interaction, workflow, interface design and interoperability. The release dates are yet to be announced, but from what we've seen the new versions promise great value and some avant-garde technology developed with the likes of Sony Pictures Imageworks.

There seems to be no stopping for the development team at Pixologic with the announcement of the release of UV Master, a plugin for ZBrush 3.2 Mac and ZBrush 3.5R3 WIN.

This 3D reconstruction of ancient Pompeii is quite neat. Generated with Procedural’s CityEngine, it shows how quickly a 3D city can be created using a plug-in, and eliminate the time-consuming tasks of manual modeling and design often required in games, post-production and architectural visualisation. It is also up to 10 times more efficient at creating urban environments than existing packages. It is completely brand new to Escape Studios – no need to say we are quite excited about it.

The new Turtle™ 5.1 version for Autodesk Maya 2010 has been released!  Illuminate labs have made improvements to their rendering and baking plug-in for Autodesk Maya, to make it better for lighting and content creation in next-gen game development.

Our friends at Autodesk have released the first service pack for Mudbox 2010.

Hi all, the Chaos Group have released Service Pack 4a for V-Ray for 3ds Max and has been added to the download section of their website.

The first Service Pack for Autodesk® Softimage® 2010 has just been released and is available for download. The SP1 includes nearly 70 fixes for rendering, animation, and comes with a new version of Autodesk® Crosswalk technology, a handy content transfer toolset which should make it easier to move Softimage content in and out of Autodesk® 3dsMax® and Autodesk® Maya® pipelines. The SP1 is great news for those on the Linux® platform who can now access the Autodesk® Face Robot® app. designed make it easier for face rigging and animation for realistic characters. For more information on the new features or to download the SP1, check out here.

There are only a few days left to get huge savings to the latest Autodesk 2010 releases - saving you up to 59% on Softimage 2010, Maya 2010 and 3ds Max 2010 Suites if you order before the 1st December, 2009.

For those in the film industry, this may be an interesting event for your December diary. The Institution of Engineering and Technology is holding the inaugural John Logie Baird event on the 8th December entitled ‘3D – Back to the future’.

Hi all,

I recently caught up with Paul Hilton, Senior Lecturer BA (Hons) Animation at The Arts University College at Bournemouth. AUCB recently purchased our online Maya coursware for themselves and their students, so I asked Paul how they were finding the experience:

If you have seen our website you should know that Autodesk have a pretty fab student offer on at the moment. If not, check it out here.

I have been travelling around the UK countryside visiting academic institutions over the past six months. I have made many observations during that time, and feel it is time to share some of them.