A :60s Director's cut of a 1min 30s film for OpenText describing the vision and purpose of the company by director-driven design studio based in Toronto, Canada: Tendril
CREDITS
Client: OpenText Corporation
Client Team: David Brott, Gary Smith, Kurtis Thomas
Production Company: Tendril Design+Animation Inc.
Directors: Chris Bahry, Alexandre Torres
Design: Chris Bahry, Vini Nascimento, Alexandre Torres
Executive Producer: Kate Bate
Producer: Anne Deslauriers
Music & Sound Design: John Black of CypherAudio
Editor: Steve Manz
TD & Dynamics Simulation: Lagoa Technologies
3D Animation: Marcin Porebski, Kevin Vriesinga
2D Graphics: Andrew Vucko, Leo Mateus
2D Animation: Leo Mateus
Data FX Animation: Andreas Felix Gebhardt
Lighting & Colours: Robert Quinn
Render Assist: Tom Morrison
Compositors: Chris Bahry, Steven Hollman, Robert Quinn
Electronic Arts-owned online game developer Mythic Entertainment, an EA Studio based in Fairfax, Virginia, recently used Autodesk® 3ds Max® software and Autodesk® Kynapse® middleware to take on the daunting task of reinventing one of the first, and still wildly popular, fantasy war games.
A uniquely gritty fantasy setting originally created by the legendary Games Workshop, the Warhammer world was first presented in the tabletop war game Warhammer Fantasy Battle in 1983, and then as the pen-and-paper based Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay in 1987. Now, Mythic Entertainment has reinvented the world of orcs, elves, humans, and mutating creatures as a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). More than three years in the making, the company released Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, or simply WAR for short, in September 2008.
Several members of the Mythic Entertainment team spoke with Autodesk about recreating an old favorite.
Read full story here:
a visual effects designer currently living in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia- Joël LeLièvre shares some rnd clips from the work that he did on Transformers 3: DOTM
Stefan shows how to create a macro that allows to add 3D noise to an image with a World Position Pass.
Also learn about how to add custom sliders to any tool in Fusion.
Visit Stefan's blog here: http://www.comp-fu.com/category/vfx/
Neoscape digital artists combined a mix of live-action videography with transformation animation sequences to depict the proposed building design by Perkins+Will. For maximum effect, the animation sequences showed the new Student Center materializing over and replacing the existing building. An energetic soundtrack packaged these sequences of B-roll and animation into an immersive marketing film to engage the audience in the Lory Student Center's transformation
When The Ford Foundation held a 75th anniversary event to explore how fairness, opportunity and equity can serve as defining features in the creation of "The Just City" ,
The Lifelong Friendship Society was asked to create an an animated visual to serve as opening to the lecture series.
Part graphic , part watercolor, part collage, with a layering of architectural line work. A painterly abstraction that gives way and expands.
A visual story that evolves linearly with the multiplicity of the script but also contracts into utmost simplicity in order to clearly drive the message of The Just City.
Music so graciously provided by Arp & Anthony Moore and RVNG Intl.
VFX artist from Dortmund - Fabian has shown the amazing audio visual video named "Fibers" It was done by Krakatoa, FumeFx, Pflow,and Thinking Particles Check ot out:
In this DVD Hristo Velev takes up from Part 1 in this series, to go deeper into the intermediate concepts of Thinking Particles. Everything from Raycasting, Referencing, Motion Inheritance, Generation, Driving Scene Objects, Shape Collision, Fragmentation, Caching, Joints, PhysX Dynamics, Deformation, Displacement, Map-Based Interaction, Particle Interaction, Custom Data Streams, FumeFX Interaction, and more are fully explored in this DVD.
This DVD is perfect for those who want to learn more about Thinking Particles and why many studios are using it in production today.
About the Instructor:
Hristo Velev is a VFX Artist who has worked on many feature films including '2012' and 'Sucker Punch" and has been passionate about effects and also video training for many years. Hristo is known for his many hours of free training on other subjects .
Apps Used:
Thinking Particles R4, 3ds Max 2011
Duration:
8 Hours
Instructor:
Hristo Velev
DL Filesize:
765MB
Project Files:
3ds Max files as seen in the DVD to examine, reverse engineer, etc.
More information here:
Internationally recognized for its renowned software developments used in award-winning movie productions, video games and architectural designs; cebas Visual Technology Inc is announcing its participation in SIGGRAPH 2011 held in Vancouver - BC from the 9th to the 11th of August, making this year its 16th consecutive.
Having, single-handedly, developed software solutions for Autodesk 3ds Max, 3ds Max Design, Maya and Maxon CINEMA 4D, the company’s accomplishments are far from over!
Cebas is excited to share with the world’s largest 3D software community its past, current and future accomplishments in the field of VFX production as well as the motion pictures, gaming and architectural designs industries.
Already known for its advanced and production proven software products, cebas’ tools have been used in numerous movie productions to meet the increasingly demanding needs of complex 3D effects and visualization. Examples include multimillion-dollar budget movies such as; “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I and II”, “Transformers 3D”,“Green Lantern”,“Thor 3D”, “2012”, “Alice in Wonderland”, “The Last Air Bender”, “GI Joe”, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians”, “Nightmare on Elm Street”, “Jonah Hex” and “Iron Man 2”.
Previews @ SIGGRAPH 2011
This year’s SIGGRAPH presentations of cebas’ new technologies and achievements will represent a remarkable turning point in the 20+ year history of the company.
For the first time ever, cebas will present its solution to the next generation rendering challenges industry professionals will be facing in the near future. The industry’s recent progress in enhancing GPU and CPU technologies has been substantial. With GPU currently taking the lead in rendering acceleration technology, cebas will be also taking the lead in resolving the industry’s ongoing battles of technology benefiting the customer first and foremost.
Promoting its new credo: "You will always be Faster ™", cebas’ new algorithms and technologies can now be found in their latest release of finalRender™ and thinkingParticles™.
cebas Visual Technology will provide a sneak peek of its future technology integrated in finalRender 4GPU™ and thinkingParticles 5.
A demonstartion of these new technologies will take place during the show:
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finalRender 4GPU available in standard and Studio Edition (SE): The world’s first rendering performance demonstration of cebas’ trueHybrid™ raytracing technology based on cebas’ proprietary CPU+GPU rendering solution.
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thinkingParticles 5: presenting the industry leading physics solver, BULLET, integrated right into thinkingParticles’ unique rule based particle FX workflow. BULLET, exclusively used for in-house tools by leading FX studios like Digital Domain, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney and PDI Dreamworks, will be available to the broad user base of Autodesk 3ds Max thinkingParticles users.
In addition to cebas’ peek into the future through its featured products, the company will also present its full line-up of Autodesk 2012 products including its top sellers thinkingParticles 4, finalRender 3.5 SE and finalRender 2 for Maya as well as the latest major release of psd-manager 3.
Also you’re invited to join 10th Birthday of thinkingParticles
Time: 09 August · 12:00 - 15:00
Location:
Vancouver,BC
1 Canada Place
Vancouver, BC
About cebas Visual Technology Inc
cebas Visual Technology Inc is a developer of advanced 3D software for 3ds Max and other 3D applications, based in Victoria, BC. With more than 20+ years of experience in software development for the 3D market, cebas has become renowned for its quality and unique software products, serving graphics and animation studios in movie production and gaming industries around the world.
For more information, please contact:
cebas Visual Technology Inc.
press@cebas.com
Early of this month ILM's VFX supervisor Scott Farrar shares us some interesting things about creating effects for 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon' and today Let’s find out How Visual effects powerhouse Industrial Light & Magic help Michael Bay to destroys Chicago for "Dark of the Moon"
Full story at:
Autodesk announced Mudbox 2012 Service Pack 3 is now available to download and addresses quality issues when re-importing PSD files into Mudbox
Best practices when exporting to PSD and reimporting:
* Turn off wireframe and the 3D grid.
* Turn off viewport filters
* Isolate the current paint layer (have it be the only visible one)
* Subdivide to about 100,000 to 200,000 visible polygons (If using 2x
screen resolution you can double this figure, and 4x screen resolution,
you can quadruple. If you have too many polygons, you can get 1 pixel
"dropouts" on re-import.)
* Paint on portions of the surface that are mostly normal (90 degrees) to
the camera position. Somewhat oblique surfaces will have the pixels
"smeared" across them by the re-projection, and will not be as crisp as
you might want them to be. Once the angle of the surface relative to
the camera is greater than 65 degrees off normal, the projection will
falloff sharply.
More information and download here:
CGAxis Models Volume 13 contains 25 highly detailed models of party gadgets.
(balloons, cakes, hats, ice cream, chips, champagne and more). Compatible with 3ds max 2008 or higher and many others.
- *.max (Scanline)
- *.max (MentalRay)
- *.max (Vray)
- *.c4d Cinema4D
- *.c4d Cinema 4D VRay
- *.fbx
- *.obj
- Total size: 618 MB
- Materials: Yes
- Textures: Yes
Price: $99
url:
http://www.cgaxis.com/product-info.php?volume-13-pid617.html
The Carbon Scatter plug-ins integrate e-on's patented EcoSystem™ algorithms directly inside 3ds Max and Maya (also work on Cinema4D). Carbon Scatter allows you to populate your scenes with millions of native objects, and render them with your favorite renderer If you're looking for the tutorials. Here are some videos tutorial for you:
Using Image Maps to Drive EcoSystem Population
Frustum Culling
Altitude and Slope Constraint
Check out Demo Video of Upcoming CityEngine 2011. This video was presented for the first time at the Esri User Conference (UC) in San Diego.
Besides Jack Dangermond's announcement of Esri acquiring Procedural, also the upcoming new version of CityEngine
In front of an audience of more than 7'000 people, Gert van Maren, 3D product manager at Esri, showed in an impressive live demo some of the new capabilities of CityEngine 2011. He demonstrated the novel drag'n'drop features allowing easy-to-use GIS data import, comfortable placement of landmark models, and simplified rule assignment. Furthermore the brand-new Style Manager has been introduced which allows for a interactive preview and selection of different rule templates
Click image to see the video
Other main features of the upcoming CityEngine version include advanced interactive street modeling, better material support with state-of-the-art shader visualization, and significant user interface improvements.
ChaosGroupTV shares some nice videos tutorial of V-Ray for Sketchup. With those videos 3D Artist and V-Ray Trainer Fernando Rentas will show you how to work with Depth channel, V-Ray dirt, or some nice tips for your renders.
Three Useful V-Ray TipsWorking in the latest build of VRay for SketchUp 7,trainer Fernando Rentas explains three V-Ray tips that will make your renders more photorealistic.
Tips include:
1. The correct image sampler when you have reflection, refraction, DOF, glossiness, etc
2. The "Samples" option on the Irradiance Map
3. How to tint the reflection on a material
ZDepth
V-Ray for SketchUp supports several element channels for easy post-processing of an image's composition. One of those channel elements is Z-Depth -- a grayscale image representation of the image, useful in creating fog and a depth of field effect.
V-Ray dirt
Giving metals an antique finish adds depth, and depending on your scene, could make your render more photorealistic
Ambient Occlusion
Ambient Occlusion (AO) is a shading method that will add more realism to your render and can produce the feeling of a more detailed image Render to VRImage
Render to VRImage is a tool used to write the V-Ray raw image data directly into your hard drive, allowing you to save memory of ram. This option is useful when rendering a high resolution image without crashing your memory. This video explains the process of rendering an image into a VRImage file. Using V-Ray two-sided material to create a curtain
Use the V-Ray Two-sided material to create thin objects that show light on both sides, such as a leaf, lamp shade, or curtain. UV Dirt Mapping
How to control the size and scale of Dirt Map texture to define the appearance of the dirty area. V-Ray Sun
Parameters such as Turbidity, Ozone, Sun Size, Subdivision, and more are explained in "V-Ray Sun, Creating Vermont Verde Antique Marble Material
Vermont Verde Antique marble has been quarried in the Green Mountains of Vermont since the early 1900s, and is used anywhere stone might be used. While its rich green color and vibrant reflections look stunning in person, it is a difficult mineral to photograph.
Vermont Verde Antique owner Tom Fabbioli needed help creating marketing images that make his marble look as good in images as it does in person. By creating the Vermont Verde Antique material in V-Ray, this task became possible Rectangular Lights
Rectangular lights have a physical geometric form that produces soft shadows and reflections. Its many parameters provide you with several options to create your desired lighting effect.
This video tutorial covers some of these parameters, including Intensity, Options (Double-Sided, Invisible, No Decay, and Store with Irradiance Map), Sampling and Shadows. Using the water level option to clip geometry
The water level option in V-Ray allows you to clip the surface geometry in places where the displacement map value is below the specified threshold. This is useful for clip mapping a displacement map value below which geometry will be clipped Making brushed nickel, stainless steel, and copper V-Ray materials
Understanding the reflection layer options makes creating brushed nickel, stainless steel, and copper V-Ray materials simple. Watch this video tutorial to learn how! How to reduce the bluish color on white materials
When rendering an image in V-Ray for SketchUp, often times you'll see a bluish tint - caused by the sun - on the white materials. This short video tutorial explains how to reduce that bluish tint, making your white materials brighter. Use "Skp Two Sided Material" to hide the ceiling from the camera The Reflection Layer
Refl. Glossiness, Hilight Glossiness, Subdivs, Fresnel reflection and Filter color are all terms found under the Reflection menu in V-Ray. They all play an important part in the outcome of your render, but what do they mean? In this video will explain the reflection layer parameters and how they affect your render. The Refraction Layer
Refraction means the change of direction of a ray of light in passing at an angle from one medium to another. With V-Ray the refraction layer is used to create glass or translucent materials.
Atelier York is an architectural visualization studio based in London, UK, with over five years of experience in the field, working with some of the world’s largest architectural practices, interior designers and developers, from Foster & Partners to Richard Rogers Partnership, MMM Architects to John Pawson and Barton Willmore among many others.
Founder Alex York is a council member of the Society of Architectural Illustration. His work has been published in the Architects Journal, Building Design, 3D World and in various architecture/design books and publications, both in print and online.
The studio’s specialties include computer-aided 3D design for the architecture industry, architectural photography and digital image manipulation, covering everything from luxury high-end residential projects to offices, public realm and planning work (master plans, eye-level planning shots etc.)
"The House" is a project that started life for Atelier York back in 2008, with a commission from the architects to produce a few relatively simple exterior renders of a new project they were working on, to better help them visualise their design
Check out the Making of Article here: http://bit.ly/qIDdzo
VFX artist Simon Payne has posted his amazing 2011 Rigging Showreel included Powerful, flexible, animator friendly rigging, his own procedural rigging suite, cloth and hair sim, high quality skinning, muscles, Python and Mel utils. Maya and Softimage XSI.
CG Artist based in UK Mihail Popov shows a great Video tutorial about how to Render a Metal nails in Vray. Check it out! To learn more about Mihail Popov. Check his website: http://www.triunyx.com/index.htm
Adobe announced the release of the first beta for Flash Player 11. Flash Player 10, the current version of Adobe's software that allows users to watch things like YouTube videos online, was initially released in October 2008. Since then, it has received three major updates that added things like 64-bit support on Mac OS X systems.
Some of the features of the Flash Player 11 desktop beta include:
- Stage3D APIs — Create highly interactive visuals to improve collaboration on 3-dimensional models.
- 64-bit support — Support for 64-bit operating systems and browsers on Linux, Mac OS, and Windows.
- G.711 audio compression for telephony — Integrate voice/telephony into business apps using G.711 codec.
- H.264/AVC SW Encoding — Encode higher quality video locally using H.264 video.
- Socket Progress Events — Build advanced file sharing apps like FTP clients that send large amounts of data.
- HD surround sound — Deliver full HD videos with 7.1 channel surround sound directly to AIR powered TVs.
You can download Flash Player 11 for your computer from Adobe Labs here: http://adobe.ly/oUOBUT
John Carter of Mars is inexplicably transported to the mysterious and exotic planet Mars, and becomes embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions and discovers that the survival of the planet and its people rests in his hands
John Carter is a sweeping action-adventure set on the mysterious and exotic planet of Barsoom (Mars). John Carter is based on a classic novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, whose highly imaginative adventures served as inspiration for many filmmakers, both past and present. The film tells the story of war-weary, former military captain John Carter (Taylor Kitsch), who is inexplicably transported to Mars where he becomes reluctantly embroiled in a conflict of epic proportions amongst the inhabitants of the planet, including Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and the captivating Princess Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins). In a world on the brink of collapse, Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes that the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.
John Carter of Mars will be out in UK cinemas in March 2012.
John Carter of Mars will be out in UK cinemas in March 2012.
Konami has released some PES 2012 Gameplay Videos with Jon Murphy's commentary
Autodesk Labs has launched a free online service for viewing and sharing DWF files called Project QuickShare.
Project QuickShare puts the power in your hands to quickly share design files from anywhere at any time for free. Explore DWF™ files in real-time using a highly interactive online viewer. Project QuickShare uses the power of the Autodesk cloud and modern browsers to deliver a high quality and intuitive viewing experience.
Highlights- View 2D and 3D Design Files Online - Navigate multi-sheet documents, examine properties, hide layers, or review Mark-Up.
- Share - When you need to send a file quickly, QuickShare is the answer. No software download required. No account required. Fast viewing of 2D and 3D design files right within the browser.
- Easy Embed - When you want to showcase a design on your own website, Project QuickShare gives you that ability. Upload your design and use the embed tag to place the design and viewer anywhere.
ILM's VFX supervisor Scott Farrar shares us some interesting things about creating effects for 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon'
1. The Driller consists of 70,051 parts. By contrast, Optimus Prime, the head Autobot, has just 10,108 parts. Due to the complexity of the Driller, and the fact that he lays waste to a skyscraper, only a few artists working with ILM's most powerful desktop machines were able to load the shots where the machine takes on the building. And they sometimes waited nearly an hour for the files to load.
2. Massive computing power was needed so that the Driller could destroy the skyscraper: Rendering is the process of calculating the information in a CG file for final video output -- essentially by turning numbers into images. It took a staggering 288 hours per frame to render the Driller along with the photoreal CG building that includes all those reflections in its glass.
3. Stereo 3D added to the complexity. At the time of the live-action shoot, choices were made about the interocular distance, which is the distance between the centers of the lenses of the two cameras. “We take the same information,” Farrar said. “We copy that exactly.” ILM rendered a left eye, then a right eye image. The VFX team viewed the shot in 3D, then refined and repeated as needed.
4. For a last push on the final weekend of work, ILM’s entire render farm was used for Transformers 3. ILM calculates that that added up to more than 200,000 rendering hours per day -- or the equivalent of 22.8 years of render time in a 24-hour period.
5. A final injection of “Secret Sauce” was used to improve the theatrical experience. Because some 3D movies look dark or soft when projected, Farrar said, “We did make sure things are as bright as possible; Michael (Bay) called up theater owners to make sure they keep the lamps bright in the theaters.” Plus, he added, “We also added a kind of secret sauce to make everything a little sharper, because we know that through the steps, no matter what, when you get to the final screening things tend to go less sharp.”
Via: hollywoodreporter
cebas Visual Technology Inc announces the release of scalpelMax, maxVR, volumeBreaker and stairMax recompiles compatible with the 3ds Max and 3ds Design 2012.
The 4-tool recompiles include the same great features that each provides, creating powerful visualizations and special effects regardless of the level of complexity.
About scalpelMax
scalpelMax is a 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design 32 and 64bit compatible plug-in. It is an object modifier; offering advanced slicing functionality with many specialized features. scalpelMax is perfect for users who create complex CAD visualizations with polygon counts above 100.000. Also the games and video effects people will love scalpelMax because of its incredible texture-slicing feature. Mapping coordinates won't be affected by scalpelMax operations and this makes it possible to cut down any geometry without losing the materials and mappings! Click Here to find out more about scalpelMax
About maxVR
maxVR.qt is a 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design plug-in that lets you easily create QuickTime MOV files for the web or CD-ROM.
QuickTime represents one of the most successful file formats for displaying 2D and pseudo 3D data on the web and is a common web standard, supported by nearly every Multimedia Authoring tool. maxVR.qt uses the latest QuickTime technologyies, licensed and distributed by Apple, to create QuickTimeVR panorama files or Object QuickTimeVR MOV files. And best of all, 3ds max lets you create 3D web content or CD-ROM productions in seconds!
Click Here to find out more about maxVR
About volumeBreaker
VolumeBreaker is a movie quality 3D destruction tool capable of volumetric fracturing of virtually any 3D object. With volumeBreaker, Cebas brings to Hollywood a quality destruction tool to 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design, both 32 & 64 bit compatible.
volumeBreaker can be applied to virtually any mesh you can create in 3ds Max, including meshes that are 'lazy' and not a fully enclosed volume. volumeBreaker includes algorithms that intelligently attempt to compensate for any errors within the mesh, errors such as unwelded vertices and open edges that can be the result of sloppy modelling or due to importing from CAD software or other sources .
Click Here to find out more about volumeBreaker
About stairMax
stairMax is an advanced stair builder plug-in for 3ds Max and 3ds Max Design. stairMax lets you create parametric stairs and escalators from within 3ds Max or 3ds Max Design. Every single stair parameter can be animated because stairMax uses a 100% parametric approach to create 3D stairs. With just a few mouse clicks you can build hundreds of different stairs. The ease of use is really remarkable. Even user defined and customized stair elements stay fully parametric and adjustable!
Click Here to find out more about stairMAX
How to Get the latest BuildsAll of the aforementioned 3ds Max 2012 Service Packs are offered as a free download to all registered customers. Current users of the plug-ins should log in to my.cebas.com and obtain the latest Service Pack from their "View Product Registrations" account menu. Registered users will automatically see all available download options.
Customers not currently registered on www.cebas.com, or who do not see their download, may contact cebas through the contact menu located on the home page and supply their relevant data including serial number(s).
Students from 50 prestigious design schools around the world were invited by Ferrari to take part in the World Design Contest to develop the Ferrari of the future, a pure hypercar, using technologies and materials of the latest generation. A supercar, extreme in its architecture and its functional aspects: hyper-light and hyper-fast, hyper-ecologic and hyper-technological.
In the second phase of the competition, the jury selected 7 finalist schools to compete for the final awards. The finalist teams create digital 3D models using Autodesk Alias and physical clay models of the Ferrari hypercar. The winners are announced on the 19th July 2011 in Maranello (Italy).
The top three designs will be awarded by Ferrari at the final ceremony in Maranello, with the following prizes:
- 1st place: formal certificate, a 3-month internship at Ferrari for the students of the winning team, a prize sum of € 10,000 per team to be equally divided among the team members;
- 2nd place: formal certificate, a 3-month internship at Ferrari for the students of the winning team, a prize sum of € 5,000 per team to be equally divided among the team members;
- 3rd place: formal certificate, 1 VIP pass for an F1 Grand Prix of the 2011 championship per student.
Autodesk will present an award to the student team that best uses Alias software to communicate their design intent, and demonstrate the process of design.
Learn more here: http://students.autodesk.com/?nd=ferrarihttp://bit.ly/qr6I50
Ferrari has recently announced the list of finalist schools that have entered the second stage of the contest: IED and IAAD from Turin (Italy), the London Royal College of Arts (UK), the European Design Institute Barcelona (Spain), Seoul’s Hong-ik College (Korea), the DSK Supinfocom from Pune (India) and the College For Creative Studies in Detroit (USA).
IED Barcelona CCS IAAD
Read aslo:
Ford Mad Max Interceptor Concepts2012 CLS renders
Ballistic Publishing is now calling on artists to submit digital images for consideration in d’artiste Fashion Design. Images can be created in any digital illustration application. We are interested in digitally-created fine art and concept art in the area of fashion design, whether for commercial use, or personal satisfaction.
There is no cost or limit to enter work for inclusion in d’artiste Fashion Design. As with all Ballistic Publishing showcase publications, artists with work published in the book will receive a complementary copy and will enjoy worldwide exposure in the premier collection of digitally-created fashion design with the world’s best artists.
Entry Deadline:
Monday August 11th 2011, Midnight GMT
If for no other reason current 3ds Max users would be wise to upgrade to 3ds Max 2012 for the new Nitrous viewport system. While not everyone will use some of the other new features like MassFx Rigid-Body or maybe iRay, everyone has to use the viewports. 3ds Max 2012 is a solid update delivering many key performance upgrades and important new tools and workflows.
Studiodaily has reviewed Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 and shown you how Excalibur (XBR) , Iray, Nitrous Accelerated Graphics Core .. work on this newest 3ds Max version.
Read article here: http://bit.ly/p1wi7y
NEW YORK -- July 12, 2011 -- The artists and producers from international production company and design studio Brand New School (BNS) are very proud to present their recent collaboration with international graphic design icon Stefan Sagmeister for EDP Renovaveis, S.A., the renewable energy subsidiary of Energias de Portugal (EDP) and one of the world's largest and fastest growing wind energy companies.
Sagmeister, Inc. has recently created and introduced a strikingly fresh brand identity for EDP. To help introduce it throughout Portugal and beyond, Sagmeister teamed with BNS to develop an animated storyline using the brand new illustrative visual language. The resulting :60 commercial debuted last week on broadcast and cable television in Lisbon, Portugal, and along with many shorter versions, it is set to continue airing widely across the country and Europe for many weeks to come.
"It was such a pleasure to see the identity we created together with EDP become alive through the magic of Brand New School, not only were the results lovely but the process getting there also absolutely enjoyable," Sagmeister said.
For BNS, the project team featured founder and executive creative director Jonathan Notaro, art director Christopher Palazzo, executive producer Devin Brook, producer Derek Macleod and an illustrious team of designers and artists. The animation workflow involved creating vivid illustrated scenes from EDP’s new branding identity created by Sagmeister art director and designer Jessica Walsh along with others created by BNS. "Bringing life-like behavior to the deceptively simple geometric system created by Sagmeister, Inc. was a fun challenge," Palazzo explained. "The scope of this system is absolutely astounding. A graphic system this rich and smart can do anything, as shown in the final piece. Stefan and his team were an absolute dream to work with."
"This collaboration with Sagmeister Inc. is special," Notaro added. "Obviously he is a design god, and as fans of his work over the years we were all super excited with this collaboration, and looking forward to the next one!"
"EDP" features the song "The Gift." Additional credits for Sagmeister include illustrators Stephane Elbaz, Xavi Garcia, and Michael Freimuth. For BNS, credit also goes to Flame artist Blake Huber, designer/animators Robin Greenwood and Hye Sung Park, designers Caleb Chalter, Phil Intralligi, animators Scott Balles, Andrew Mastrocinque, and artist Andrew Rothschild.
For more information on EDP and this campaign, please visit www.edp.pt.
About Brand New School
With offices in New York, Los Angeles and London, Brand New School is a vertically integrated production company and design studio that delivers extraordinary media on all platforms. Offering a new model for creative digital production, we are filmmakers, developers, designers, animators, editors, illustrators, and producers dedicated to driving communications to new heights. Akin to leading academic institutions, our guiding philosophies prize experimentation and learning, and our commitment to discovering the best ideas for our clients is absolute. For more information, please visit www.BrandNewSchool.com.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif, Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced an agreement to acquire PopCap Games, a leading provider of games for mobile phones, tablets, PCs and social network sites. With blockbuster titles like Plants vs. Zombies, Bejeweled, and Zuma, and a proven ability to create new hits, PopCap is a leader in the fast growing market for casual digital games.
“EA and PopCap are a compelling combination,” said EA CEO John Riccitiello. “PopCap’s great studio talent and powerful IP add to EA’s momentum and accelerate our drive towards a $1 billion digital business. EA’s global studio and publishing network will help PopCap rapidly expand their business to more digital devices, more countries, and more channels.”
“We picked EA because they have recast their culture around making great digital games,” said David Roberts, CEO of PopCap. “By working with EA, we'll scale our games and services to deliver more social, mobile, casual fun to an even bigger, global audience.”
“PopCap has a proven financial trajectory with sustained revenue growth and double-digit operating margins,” said EA CFO Eric Brown. “On a non-GAAP basis, this deal is expected to be at least ten-cents accretive in fiscal year 2013.”
PopCap is one of the largest and most respected digital and social gaming companies with more than 150 million games installed and played worldwide on platforms such as Facebook®, RenRen, Google™, iPhone™, iPad™ and Android. In calendar year 2010, approximately 80% of PopCap’s revenue was on high growth digital platforms.
EA will pay approximately $650 million in cash and $100 million in shares of EA common stock to be issued to certain stockholders of PopCap. In addition, the PopCap sellers are entitled to additional variable cash consideration, contingent upon the achievement of certain non-GAAP earnings before interest and tax (“EBIT”) performance milestones through December 2013, EA’s third fiscal quarter end.
At the upper end of the earn-out, the performance targets for EBIT are approximately $343 million in total PopCap standalone EBIT generated over the two-year period through December 2013. The exact earn-out calculation is subject to adjustments. EA will also provide up to $50 million in long-term equity retention awards to PopCap employees to be granted over the next four years.
Transaction and Financial Highlights
- The transaction is expected to close in August 2011, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals.
- On a non-GAAP basis, the acquisition is expected to be EPS neutral to EA’s fiscal year 2012 results, as a result of one-time transaction costs, and at least $0.10 accretive to EA’s FY 2013 non-GAAP EPS.
- For the first quarter of fiscal year 2012, EA is announcing preliminary results of approximately:
- $500 million to $525 million in non-GAAP revenue versus guidance of $460 million to $500 million of non-GAAP revenue.
- ($0.40) to ($0.37) in non-GAAP diluted loss per share versus guidance of ($0.49) to ($0.44) in non-GAAP diluted loss per share.
- EA is reaffirming its full year fiscal year 2012 non-GAAP guidance of $0.70 to $0.90 diluted earnings per share. EA is also increasing its full year non-GAAP revenue guidance to a range of $3,800 million to $4,025 million to account for the inclusion of PopCap for a portion of FY12.
- EA is announcing preliminary guidance for the second quarter of fiscal year 2012 of non-GAAP diluted loss per share ranging from ($0.15) to ($0.05).
- EA has executed a commitment letter for a $550 million senior unsecured bridge facility with Morgan Stanley Senior Funding, Inc., J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., UBS Securities LLC, and UBS Loan Finance LLC, that EA may choose to draw upon prior to closing the acquisition. EA expects to explore permanent financing options in connection with the funding of this acquisition. Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC provided EA’s board of directors valuation advice in connection with the transaction. EA was also assisted by UBS Investment Bank.
In addition, the $600 million share repurchase program that EA announced in February, 2011 remains in effect. As of July 1, 2011, EA has repurchased 7.1 million shares for a total of $149 million under this program. EA is not obligated to repurchase any specific number of shares under the program and the repurchase program may be modified, suspended or discontinued at any time.
Business Outlook as of July 12, 2011
The following forward-looking statements, as well as those made above, reflect expectations as of July 12, 2011. Electronic Arts assumes no obligation to update these statements. Results may be materially different and are affected by many factors, including: product development delays; competition in the industry; the health of the economy in the U.S. and abroad and the related impact on discretionary consumer spending; changes in anticipated costs; the financial impact of acquisitions by EA, including the PopCap acquisition; the popular appeal of EA’s products; EA’s effective tax rate; and other factors detailed in this release and in EA’s annual and quarterly SEC filings.
First Quarter Fiscal Year 2012 Preliminary Results – Ended June 30, 2011
- Non-GAAP net revenue is approximately $500 to $525 million versus guidance of $460 to $500 million.
- GAAP net revenue is approximately $975 million to $1.00 billion versus guidance of $910 to $950 million.
- Non-GAAP diluted loss per share is approximately $(0.40) to $(0.37) versus guidance of $(0.49) to $(0.44).
- GAAP diluted earnings per share is approximately $0.63 to $0.66 versus guidance of $0.44 to $0.53.
- For purposes of calculating first quarter fiscal year 2012 earnings/loss per share, the Company used a diluted share count of 331 million for non-GAAP loss per share and 337 million for GAAP earnings per share.
- Expected non-GAAP net loss excludes the following items from expected GAAP net income:
- Non-GAAP net revenue is approximately $475 million lower than GAAP net revenue due to the impact of the change in deferred net revenue (packaged goods and digital content);
- Approximately $38 million of stock-based compensation;
- Approximately $18 million of acquisition-related expenses;
- Approximately $18 million of restructuring charges; and
- Non-GAAP tax expenses are $57 million lower than GAAP tax expenses.
Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2012 Expectations – Ending September 30, 2011
- Non-GAAP diluted loss per share is expected to be approximately ($0.15) to ($0.05).
- GAAP diluted loss per share is expected to be approximately ($1.10) to ($0.97).
- For purposes of calculating second quarter fiscal year 2012 loss per share, the Company estimates a diluted share count of 331 million.
- Expected non-GAAP net loss excludes the following items from expected GAAP net loss:
- Non-GAAP net revenue is expected to be approximately $275 million higher than GAAP net revenue due to the impact of the change in deferred net revenue (packaged goods and digital content);
- Approximately $50 million of estimated stock-based compensation;
- Approximately $25 to $30 million of acquisition-related expenses;
- Approximately $5 million of restructuring charges; and
- Non-GAAP tax expenses are expected to be $46 to $52 million higher than GAAP tax expenses.
Fiscal Year 2012 Expectations – Ending March 31, 2012
- Non-GAAP net revenue is expected to be approximately $3.8 to $4.025 billion as compared to previous guidance of $3.75 to $3.95 billion.
- GAAP net revenue is expected to be approximately $3.725 to $3.95 billion as compared to previous guidance of $3.7 to $3.9 billion.
- Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share is expected to be approximately $0.70 to $0.90 consistent with previous guidance.
- GAAP diluted earnings per share is expected to be a loss per share of ($0.04) to earnings per share of $0.26 as compared to previous guidance of break-even to $0.28 earnings per share.
- For purposes of calculating fiscal year 2012 earnings per share, the Company estimates a diluted share count of 334 million and a basic share count of 330 million.
- Expected non-GAAP net income excludes the following items from expected GAAP net income/(loss):
- Non-GAAP net revenue is expected to be approximately $75 million higher than GAAP net revenue due to the impact of the change in deferred net revenue (packaged goods and digital content);
- Approximately $175 million of estimated stock-based compensation;
- Approximately $85 to $95 million of acquisition-related expenses;
- Approximately $23 million of restructuring charges; and
- Non-GAAP tax expenses are expected to be $120 to $145 million higher than GAAP tax expenses.
Acquisition Conference Call
Electronic Arts will host a conference call today at 2:00 pm PT (5:00 pm ET) to discuss the transaction. During the course of the call, Electronic Arts may also disclose material developments affecting its business and/or financial performance.
EA will also post a slide presentation that accompanies the call at http://www.investor.ea.com.
Listeners may access the conference call live through the following dial-in number: domestic: 773-799-3213 (domestic) or 888-677-1083 (international), using the password “EA”.
A dial-in replay of the conference call will be provided until July 19, 2011 at the following number: 402-280-9972 (domestic) or 800-860-4708 (international).
First Quarter Conference Call
Electronic Arts will host a conference call on July 26, 2011 at 2:00 pm PT (5:00 pm ET) to review its results for the first quarter ended June 30, 2011 and its outlook for the future. During the course of the call, Electronic Arts may disclose material developments affecting its business and/or financial performance. Listeners may access the conference call live through the following dial-in number: 773-799-3213 (domestic) or 888-677-1083 (international), using the password “EA” or via webcast at http://www.investor.ea.com.
EA will also post a slide presentation that accompanies the call at http://www.investor.ea.com.
A dial-in replay of the conference call will be provided until August 2, 2011 at the following number: 203-369-0099 (domestic) or 866-356-3373 (international). A webcast replay of the conference call will be available for one year at http://www.investor.ea.com.
About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) is a global leader in digital interactive entertainment. The Company’s game franchises are offered as both packaged goods products and online services delivered through Internet-connected consoles, personal computers, mobile phones and tablets. EA has more than 100 million registered players and operates in 75 countries. In fiscal year 2011, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $3.6 billion. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, EA is recognized for critically acclaimed, high-quality blockbuster franchises such as The Sims™, Madden NFL, FIFA Soccer, Need for Speed™, Battlefield, and Mass Effect™. More information about EA is available at http://info.ea.com.
About PopCap
PopCap is the leading global developer, publisher and operator of casual video games: fun, easy-to-learn, captivating games that appeal to all ages across mobile, social, PC and other platforms. Based in Seattle, Washington, PopCap was founded in 2000 and has a worldwide staff of approximately 475 people in Seattle, San Francisco, Vancouver, B.C., Dublin, Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo. PopCap’s games have been downloaded over 1.5 billion times by consumers worldwide, and its flagship franchise, Bejeweled®, has sold more than 50 million units.
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
To supplement the Company’s unaudited condensed consolidated financial statements presented in accordance with GAAP, Electronic Arts uses certain non-GAAP measures of financial performance. The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation from, as a substitute for, or superior to, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP, and may be different from non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. In addition, these non-GAAP measures have limitations in that they do not reflect all of the amounts associated with the Company’s results of operations as determined in accordance with GAAP. The non-GAAP financial measures used by Electronic Arts include: non-GAAP net revenue and non-GAAP diluted earnings (loss) per share. These non-GAAP financial measures exclude the following items, as applicable in a given reporting period, from the Company’s unaudited condensed consolidated statements of operations:
- Acquisition-related expenses
- Change in deferred net revenue (packaged goods and digital content)
- Gain (loss) on strategic investments
- Loss on lease obligation and facilities acquisition
- Loss on licensed intellectual property commitment
- Restructuring charges
- Stock-based compensation
- Income tax adjustments
Electronic Arts may consider whether other significant non-recurring items that arise in the future should also be excluded in calculating the non-GAAP financial measures it uses. Electronic Arts believes that these non-GAAP financial measures, when taken together with the corresponding GAAP financial measures, provide meaningful supplemental information regarding the Company’s performance by excluding certain items that may not be indicative of the Company’s core business, operating results or future outlook.
Electronic Arts’ management uses, and believes that investors benefit from referring to, these non-GAAP financial measures in assessing the Company’s operating results both as a consolidated entity and at the business unit level, as well as when planning, forecasting and analyzing future periods. These non-GAAP financial measures also facilitate comparisons of the Company’s performance to prior periods.
Preliminary Financial Information
The preliminary financial results set forth in this press release, including EA’s preliminary results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2012 and business outlook for future periods are estimates based on information currently available to Electronic Arts. While Electronic Arts believes these estimates are meaningful, they could differ from the actual amounts that Electronic Arts ultimately reports in its Annual Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended June 30, 2011 and in subsequent filings. Furthermore, the financial information included in this press release regarding PopCap is based on information currently available to Electronic Arts as of the date of this press release and is subject to change. In addition, following the acquisition, the accounting policies of PopCap will be reconciled with those of Electronic Arts’, which may cause reported revenue and profits of PopCap to be lower than currently presented.
Safe Harbor Forward-Looking Statements
Some statements set forth in this press release regarding EA’s acquisition of PopCap and the expected impact of the acquisition on EA’s strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements that are subject to change. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or actual future results to differ materially from the expectations set forth in the forward-looking statements. Some of the factors which could cause results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements include the following: the effect of the announcement of the acquisition on EA’s and PopCap’s strategic relationships, operating results and business generally, including the ability to retain key employees; EA’s ability to successfully integrate PopCap’s operations and employees; the timing of the completion of the acquision; general economic conditions; and other factors described in EA’s SEC filings (including EA’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended March 31, 2011). If any of these risks or uncertainties materializes, the potential benefits of the acquisition may not be realized, EA’s and/or PopCap’s operating results and financial performance could suffer, and actual results could differ materially from the expectations described in these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this document. EA assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
The Sims and Need for Speed are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. Mass Effect is a trademark of EA International (Studio and Publishing) Ltd. John Madden, NFL and FIFA are trademarks of their respective owners and used with permission. Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc. iPhone is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. iPad is a trademark of Apple Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
San Diego, California—Esri has acquired Procedural, one of the world’s leading software companies for creating stunning 3D urban environments from typical 2D data. Urban planners, architects, video game developers, and movie studios around the world use Procedural’s CityEngine product to create 3D cities at any resolution.
Esri will integrate CityEngine into ArcGIS, allowing ArcGIS users to create and design 3D urban environments leveraging their existing GIS data, such as parcels and street centerlines. CityEngine’s rule-driven approach will allow users to undertake large-scale civic planning efforts and will provide immediate visual feedback on the impact of planning decisions, such as setbacks and floor-specific zoning changes. Users will also be able to interactively design and analyze urban growth with intuitive sketching tools.
“Many GIS problems can only be solved in 3D, particularly in the area of urban development,” said Jack Dangermond, Esri president, making the announcement at Esri's 2011 International User Conference. “Procedural’s unique capabilities for generating high-quality 3D data, using the same GIS data our users already have, makes them a perfect match for Esri.”
CityEngine will continue to evolve and expand as a stand-alone product. The founders and employees of Procedural will be employed by Esri, and Procedural's offices in Zurich will be extended to a leading-edge R&D center in the field of urban design and 3D content creation. Procedural will continue to meet the needs of its large community of CityEngine users in the simulation and entertainment industries.
“We are very excited to join forces with Esri,” said Dr. Pascal Mueller, CEO of Procedural Inc. “Many of our existing clients already use ArcGIS and a closer integration between our complementary technologies presents obvious benefits. We’re looking forward to fully leveraging our R&D capabilities, growing the CityEngine business and bringing many of the innovations we’ve developed at Procedural to the leading GIS solution of ArcGIS.”
For more information, please visit esri.com/cityengine.
Ford has presented two 1:4 scale models of the Mad Max Interceptor concepts created for Top Gear Australia at the Melbourne Motor Show
see full gallery here: http://bit.ly/pQznZN
Check out the latest montage from vectormeldrew.com Featuring selected cuts from opening title sequences, TV commercials and idents which have been used across broadcast TV, digital, film, music videos and computer games. All work directed, designed and created by Alex Donne Johnson http://www.vectormeldrew.com/
July 12, 2011. Beaverton, Oregon: e-on software the leader in 3D sky, light and nature technologies, today announced the availability of a new update for LumenRT Review for SketchUp, the company's revolutionary new real-time 3D product for the visualization of architectural projects. The new release adds the ability to process larger models such as large structures and cities with greater speed.
The auto-scale lighting feature can improve performance by 30% to 300% depending on the size of the model with a resulting tradeoff of lower lighting quality. The new build also adds several quality and reliability enhancements to improve overall performance and stability. As an example, new optimizations in Release 1.2 can lead to a 14x gain on pre-processing time!
LumenRT users may download this important new release for free, directly from e-on's website.
Industry Recognition and Early Adopters Testimonials
After just over a month since commercial release, the 3D World CG Awards 2011 jury, composed of 17 industry experts, nominated LumenRT for the Plug-in of the Year award!
This industry recognition is echoed by current LumenRT users. Following is a short collection of the feedback e-on software is receiving:
"LumenRT offers a solution that is better looking, simpler to navigate, and protects the work file. This is very good for us and our clients!", Ronen Bekerman, owner of Polytown Studio. Read Ronen's User profile at www.lumenrt.com/showcase.
"The ability to share the entire model in an easily navigable, visually pleasing is a great feature and could really help when you're explaining design intent to clients!", Ben Kitching, 3D Consultant at Jigsaw.
"LumenRT provides the flexibility and freedom to quickly set up, output, and browse the virtual scene! The high-fidelity output creates a very nice impression and impact.", Xijin Cai. Gaze at Xijin's fantastic work with LumenRT at www.lumenrt.com/showcase.
"I was amazed the first time I saw LumenRT in action. I love the speed at which it converts my SketchUp models to real-time LiveCubes. The rendering quality and the way LumenRT converts and animates my textures is fantastic! And taking snapshots or creating animations is so easy!", Oscar Chacón Rodríguez.
Pricing and Availability
LumenRT Review for SketchUp and SketchUp Pro currently retails for $195 (introductory price – SRP: $295).
LumenRT is a 32 & 64 bits application, designed for the Windows® 32/64 bits XP, Vista and Windows 7 as well as Intel Mac OS X platforms (v10.6+).
Visit www.lumenrt.com/purchase for detailed system requirements and purchasing options.
To gain better insight into how LumenRT operates, a set of sample LumenRT LiveCubes™ and some electronic documentation is available for download at www.lumenrt.com/download.
Visit www.lumenrt.com for more information.
About e-on software
E-on software is the leading developer of solutions for the creation, animation, rendering and integration of natural 3D environments. Offering a wide array of Digital Nature products and applications, e-on software provides solutions adapted to every project and budget. E-on software products are used worldwide by the film, television, architecture, game, science, educational and entertainment industries.
E-on software products were used in feature films such as as "Thor", "Avatar", "Clash of the Titans", "Despicable Me", "The Wolf Man", "2012", "Lovely Bones", "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus", "GI Joe – The Rise of the Cobra", "The Proposal", "Land of the Lost", "Terminator 4, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", "Indiana Jones 4", "Monster Vs Aliens", "Australia", "The Spiderwick Chronicles", "KungFu Panda", "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" and TV series such as "Smallville", "Battlestar Gallactica", "Caprica", "Stargate Atlantis", "Stargate Continuum", and more. Read more on these stories in e-on software's Spotlights section: www.e-onsoftware.com/spotlight.
E-on software was founded on the premise that powerful graphics tools should never get in the way of the designer's creativity. By investing significant resources into research and development, e-on software is able to deliver cutting-edge, user friendly technologies that produce stunning Digital Nature scenery.
E-on software is based in Beaverton, Oregon with a European office in Paris, France.
Visit their website at http://www.e-onsoftware.com.
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