V-Ray Turns 10

 V-Ray has turned 10. Ten years of really great imagery. How do you celebrate? Well you create a 10th anniversary demo video. It's a funny video and probably the strangest demo I have ever seen. It's genius really. Here is 
"V-Ray in Real Life"



Whether you are familiar with Vray or not check out their other reels. There are different demos for different disciplines from within computer graphics. No violence in these !

V-Ray Architectural Demo Reel 2012 

V-Ray Film & Visual Effects Demo Reel 2012

 

V-Ray Automotive Demo Reel 2012

V-Ray Advertising Demo Reel 2012

V-Ray Animation Demo Reel 2012

Pretty, Shiny, Humongus Bubbles

Sometimes you have to stop and smell the roses. Other times you should really try staring into the soul of a bubble. A photographer by the names of Bjoern Ewers, Berlin, Germany has captured a series of huge bubbles in his lens. I thought I'd pass these along just in case you were in the mood to soul search in the reflection of a massive bubble. Check out Bjoerns photos HERE.

A True Computer Artist: Kenneth Huff

 I think sometimes that we tend to focus too much on the VFX nature of computer graphics. We overlook some extraordinary fine art talent that chooses the computer as their medium of choice. One artist that I have followed and admire greatly since the 90's is Kenneth Huff.

His work is so simple at times that it is stunning. He creates visuals oft times inspired by nature's textures. With that inspiration he creates small pieces of worlds that are unlike any you are likely to find in nature or anywhere else. He does incredible justice to an image with computer software tools that redeems us all as artists.

If you have a moment check out this accomplished and world renowned artist's site  HERE. Page through some of his works and be truly inspired.

You'll be glad you did.

SIGGRAPH ASIA 2012 is coming.

SIGGRAPH ASIA fast approaches and the last of the deadlines is looming. August 20th, 2012 to be exact.


This year, SIGGRAPH Asia will be held in Singapore from 28 November - 1 December, which was also host city of the inaugural edition in 2008.  
The SIGGRAPH Asia conference features a myriad of stellar and innovative contributions from artists, designers, animators, researchers, and developers both from the industry and academia.  For 2012, we call for submissions from the following programs:

Submission Deadline

Art Gallery

5 June 2012

Computer Animation Festival

3 July 2012

Courses

7 June 2012

Emerging Technologies

26 June 2012

Posters

20 August

Symposium on Apps

28 June 2012

Technical Briefs

20 August 2012

Technical Papers

22 May 2012

Each program has its respective submission deadline and guidelines, all of which are strictly enforced. Review the Calls for Submission for each program, start planning early, and get ready to submit your best work by the submission deadlines.
Click here to submit your work via the SIGGRAPH Asia 2012 submission system.
All deadlines are strictly enforced and are at 23:59 GMT/UTC.  To find out what time that is where you are, you may use a Time Zone Converter.

For No Other Reason Than It's Neat #6

I am not much of a STEAM PUNK Punk. To me it all seems like an extraordinary amount of work. Everyone's got to have a hobby RIGHT? Never-the-less I am fascinated by the artwork. Some of this stuff is extremely intricate. You would almost believe that this stuff was functional and had a place in history. Does anyone remember the old TV show "The Wild Wild West" ? I watched it faithfully. The 1999 movie with Will Smith was terrible. If you are unclear on what the hell steam punk is check out the WIKI for a reasonable explanation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I came across an artist that lives no more than an hour from me that has made quite a name for himself in the STEAM PUNK community. He is a fellow ETSYier (http://www.etsy.com) His studio, Brute Force Studios does some very high quality steam punk fashion and gear. I am awed by the sheer ingenuity of it all.

 The artist, Thomas Willeford has certainly got his pulse on what is quality steam punk gear. His designs have been featured on BBC, "Castle", CBS News, "Oddities", MTV, and in gallery shows and publications worldwide. Satisfied customers include David Silverman (The Simpsons), Patricia Tallman (Army of Darkness), Virginia Hey (Farscape), and steampunk band Abney Park.

Check out some of his artwork at http://www.bruteforceleather.com   My hats off to Mr. Willeford (or should I say Lord Archibald Featherstone)  for his work. Very nice stuff. He also has a nice blog for the steam punk enthusiast at http://www.steam.netmagicllc.com/

Public BETA still available for new Multi-Optics Program from Team-UP

It bears repeating again, that the people that brought you LAGOA Multi-Physics are starting an open public BETA soon. Their new concept is called TEAM-UP, which will be a 3d collaborative platform with something new called Multi-Optics. The Multi-Optics program will allow you to layout, compose and render with lightning type speeds. Good optics driven rendering at that. I am unclear as to the 3d collaborative aspect of the concept, but it sounds interesting. If you are familiar with LAGOA Multi-Physics, and you consider the source, I see no reason to believe anything less than spectacular results from this program. If you have never BETA'ed a program before it is a lot of fun to see/use something before the rest of the world gets it's hands on it. It can be hard work though. It's very satisfying to be able to put your two cents in and possibly change the course or add a feature to a program. To sign-up for TEAM-UP go to https://getteamup.com/.

 

Wow, You're Not Kidding. A New Kind Of 3d Printer

Oh SIGGRAPH you're always full of such cool innovations. Here's one for ya! Mcor Technologies has introduced the Matrix 300. What is it? Well, it's a 3d printer of course. If you read this blog then you know I have a love of 3d printing. The Matrix 300 creates a 3d object in a brand new way. It does it by gluing cut out pieces of paper together. Instead of building up micro thin layers of plastic or other materials, the Matrix 300 cuts out individual paper thin paper slices and builds them up one by one with glue. The resulting 3d print is similar to really sturdy paper mache'. How's that for being innovative? The above image of the tires is an example of what the prints look like. Here is a link to Mcor's Gallery of objects. If you want to see some video of the process check out their Video Gallery here. (Sorry, I can't embed these).

Newtek Announces Lightwave 11.5 at SIGGRAPH

What a co-winky-dink that I should be writing about Newtek right after Luxology. I just take 'em as they come folks. Anyway for those unaware, Luxology was started by three of the most influential and important people at Newtek (Stuart Fergusen, Brad Peebler, Allen Hastings). Didn't you ever wonder why modo has the look and feel of Lightwave? Have I gotten off on a tangent.

Lightwave 11.5 has been announced. I am unsure what is in 11.5 that is not in version 11. I don't think Newtek is sure either as they have linked 11.5 to their 11.0 demo video. Huh? Must be bug fixes. Perhaps because 11.5 is not out yet? Well, here is what Newtek has to say about 11.5



LightWave™ 11.5 ushers in a new era of innovative workflow for 3D modeling and animation. From compelling film and broadcast visual effects and motion graphics to game design and architectural visualization, LightWave 11.5 is a complete 3D pipeline that can stand on its own or seamlessly integrate into existing production pipelines.

Here is there website link for 11.5

Free Passes to SIGGRAPH from Luxology

Luxology is headed to Los Angeles for SIGGRAPH 2012. Whether you can be there in person or not, we will be keeping you up to date with news, product previews, a special crossgrade offer on modo and lots o’ pictures all week on the Luxology SIGGRAPH mini-site.

When modo first came out it lacked anything substantial as far as animation tools. This has certainly changed. Check out this link to Oddball Animation and see the entire short "Ruin", which is being used as a test to show proof of concept for FOX.

Also, if you want a free pass to the exhibit halls for SIGGRAPH then go HERE. There isn't an unlimited supply so hurry.

Mindtex has a Staggeringly New Low Price

 I have written about Frozen Flame's Mindtex before. MindTex is a normal map generation utility for game developers and 3d professionals alike. Built to match the competition in quality without the steep price, whether you want to generate a normal, height, specular, self-illumination, or occlusion map, you can easily do it in seconds flat from a single source texture with MindTex

Frozen Flame is offering its MindTex, at a reduced cost of just under $15

 

 

Autodesk Event at Siggraph

Its not like the old days when it was a Maya only event, but with Autodesk owning more and more software packages the emphasis has to be on the whole line of products. Never-the-less the Autodesk event is here.

Via CGW            
  
On Monday, August 6, Autodesk will be hosting its second annual Autodesk Student Experience event, a series of talks and presentations tailored exclusively for students. Featured speakers include Autodesk technical evangelists, studio recruiters, and more, plus a special presentation by Shawn Kelly of Animation Mentor. 

RSVP at http://area.autodesk.com/siggraph2012/edu.