“With the release of ZBrush 4.0 looming in the not so distant future (August, 9, 2010 for those of you who didn’t already hear the big announcement), we thought we would give you a little taste of what you’ll be capable of creating with the new features. Check out the ZBrush Image Gallery; three pages of images made with ZBrush 4.0 have been added for your viewing pleasure. We hope you enjoy!”
“A key focus of Houdini 11 is making you more productive in your day-to-day work. This means targeting our development efforts on ways for you to work faster with fewer clicks. In Houdini 11, new Voronoi-based fracturing tools will make it easier to break up objects either before a simulation or automatically during a simulation. Destruction sequences are a staple of Houdini-based VFX shots and now they will be easier to create and even more controllable.”
Unwrella – Optimal Automatic Unwrapping
Unwrella is now available in version 2.10 for Autodesk 3ds Max.
Unwrella is an exact unwrapping plug-in for Autodesk 3DSMAX and Autodesk Maya. It is a single click solution which allows you to automatically unfold your 3D models with exact pixel to model surface aspect ratio, speeding up texture baking UV map production significantly.
- Automatic one-click solution – Just apply the Unwrella modifier
- Precise – Preserves user created UV Seams
- Smart – Reduces texture mapping seams almost completely and minimizes surface stretching
- Efficient – Chunks are kept large and are arranged on the UV surface with maximal use of available space
- User-friendly – User defined pixel based padding between UV chunks
- Excellent for all kinds of models (organic, human, industrial)
“Unity iPhone 1.6 released! This update will reduce your app’s binary size by up to 25%, improving the over-the-air download experience, reducing application load times and memory footprint when running. Additionally Unity iPhone 1.6 now offers .NET 2.1 support which includes the use of generics and it eases the porting effort from Unity 2.6.”
Summer of Code: Terrain Toolkit Released!
“The Terrain Toolkit is an integrated set of tools for the Unity Editor which is designed to streamline and improve the workflow involved in creating realistic terrains for games. The toolkit enables the creation of large scale, realistic and playable game worlds within a very short time span.”
Indigo 2.2. 100% Faster. | Indigo Renderer
“We’ve been working hard to produce better quality results in less time. Serious performance improvements in our core rendering code mean that Indigo 2.2 is at least 2 times faster than Indigo 2.0.”
Unigine engine empowers dinosaurs game | Unigine (3D engine for games and real-time virtual worlds)
“Tomsk, Russia - February 5, 2010 Unigine Corp. announces the licensing of its top-notch Unigine™ engine to Lukewarm Media, an independent game developer. The first Unigine-based project by Lukewarm Media (“Primal Carnage” action shooter) is currently close to the end of pre-production stage.”
MAXON - The makers of CINEMA 4D and BodyPaint 3D
A new version of CINEBENCH is out. Are you planning to get it?
“MAXON, a leading developer of professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions, today announced the immediate availability of CINEBENCH Release 11.5, an advanced hardware testing suite that assesses a computer’s performance capabilities. CINEBENCH is based on the same powerful technology as MAXON’s award-winning animation software CINEMA 4D, which is used extensively by studios and production houses worldwide for 3D content creation. The new version of CINEBENCH includes the ability to more accurately test the industry’s latest hardware, including systems with up to 64 processor threads, and the testing environment better reflects the expectations of today’s production demands. A more streamlined interface makes testing systems and reading results incredibly straightforward.”
Apple - Aperture - Pro performance with iPhoto simplicity.
Apple released Aperture 3. New features include: Faces and Places. Brushes for precision retouching. Dozens of adjustment presets. True full-screen browsing and editing. And that’s just part of the perfect picture.
“Taking photos. Further.”
SMAK is a new program from Matreya Studios. It can generate great-looking AO maps at 1024x1024 in less than a minute.
Their website is offering 50% off on the beta “while supplies last”. Of course, they’re never going to run out of supplies with a download, but check it out soon anyway:
