This week I received the new 3ds Max 2010. I will be putting it through the paces, paying specific attention to the new additions. As you may have seen in Autodesk's press notes for the product, there are more than 100 new additions to the modeling toolset alone, so I will have lots to cover. 3ds Max 2010 is available as of this week for $3,495 or as an upgrade from 3ds Max 2009 for $895.
As a graduate of Caltech (specializing in physically-based modeling) and former Pixar animation scientist (building the Slinky Dog model for Toy Story, developing lighting technology and working on other software R&D), Ronen Barzel is tailor-made for chairing this year's SIGGRAPH. The 36th annual show will take place in New Orleans (conference: Aug. 3-7; exhibition: Aug. 4-6) at The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. Barzel spoke to VFXWorld about what's new this year (including more emphasis on music and audio), the challenges of coping with the economic downturn and what technological advancements are of particular interest.
A mere month after the end of Battlestar Galactica, Universal offers the unrated pilot to prequel Caprica on DVD, and Tara Bennett gets the scoop from VFX Supervisor Gary Hutzel.
Alain Bielik gets amped up with Crank: High Voltage VFX Supervisor James McQuaide to talk about the work Duran Duboi and LOOK Effects contributed to the film.
Tara Bennett talks to Hybride, Frantic Films and CafeFX about helping evolve Dragonball to the big screen.
Mark Tobin divulges how MPC's new commercial-focused boutique is faring in Santa Monica during the economic downturn.
Peter Rizkalla goes undercover with the creators of mob masterpiece follow-up The Godfather II from Electronic Arts.
Bryan Hoff tests the new HP Z800 to see if it offers enough of an increase in efficiency and productivity to justify the expense in this economic downturn.
OnLive may have been introduced at GDC, but Rearden founder and CEO Steve Perlman tells Bill Desowitz how the new cloud-based game service ties into his Contour Reality Capture system.
Tara Bennett looks under the hood of the fourth Fast & Furious car movie to find out what Rhythm & Hues and Double Negative tricked out.
In the latest excerpt from Maya Plugin Power, author Mark Jennings Smith shows us how to use the Shave and a Haircut plugin to create a stylish hairy look for a bird.
Burbank-based Furious FX took on their largest project to date with Disney's re-imagined Race to Witch Mountain, creating UFOs, SUV collisions and eerie blue alien lights along the way.
Pete Rizkalla chats with the Killzone 2 team at Guerrilla Games about how they created the game under fire from media and fanboys after the 2005 trailer was shown.
Feverishly working round-the-clock as usual to finish the series, Battlestar Galactica's vfx supervisor reviews its achievement along with creator Ron Moore.
For Knowing, Animal Logic created realistic disasters, particularly a spectacular plane crash and subway collision along with… the end of the world?
Vfx vet Jenny Fulle reports on how the global economic slowdown will affect the industry and force innovation and reinvention.
In the first excerpt from Maya Plugin Power, author Mark Jennings Smith shows how to get started simulating cloth in Maya using plugin Syflex.
After our in-depth making of coverage, the Watchmen director discusses bringing the landmark graphic novel to the screen.
Sony Pictures Imageworks, Intelligent Creatures, MPC Vancouver, CIS Hollywood and Rising Sun Pictures discuss their contributions to Watchmen in the final part of our coverage.
In the first part of our in-depth Watchmen coverage, we get an overview from Alex McDowell, the production designer, and John DJ DesJardin, the overall visual effects supervisor.
Concept Illustrator Scott Lukowski discusses his experiences on Watchmen and some other high profile movies.
Andrew Farago interviews the directors of the five animated shorts nominees for the 2008 Academy Awards.
A panel of industry experts offers VFXWorld its comicbook movie faves.
VFX Supervisor Marc Kolbe gives a blow by blow account of the CG work in Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.
In VFXWorld's final "The Digital Eye" column, Autodesk's Sebastian Sylwan discusses how stereo 3-D can flourish if it becomes part of the toolset and not just a gimmick.
