Next Limit Technologies has launched new Certification Programs for RealFlow™ and Maxwell Render™. RealFlow™ is the definitive tool for creating flawless large- and small-scale fluid and dynamics simulations straight out of the box. Maxwell Render™ is the recognized standard in render quality for architectural visualization, film production, product design, and many other high-end rendering markets. This program is aimed at schools, universities, and training centers.
Last month, Pixologic released ZBrush 4R2b. In addition to enhancing the Best Preview Render (BPR) capabilities of ZBrush, the upgrade patch also added innnovative and exciting features such as FiberMesh and MicroMesh. Now Pixologic announces the upcoming release of ZBrush 4R3. This update includes new features and expands the features introduced in previous versions. This includes enhancements to FiberMesh, BPR, and the interface, as well as the addition of the NoiseMaker plugin and Vector Displacement Maps. ZBrush 4R3 will be released on Tuesday, February 28th, and will be a free update for all registered users.
Form for 3ds Max is new modelling plugin from Marius Silaghi. About Marius plugins for 3ds Max we wrote some weeks ago, when he released Projection Painter for 3ds Max and FiberMesh to Splines. Form is a new modeling system for 3ds Max that allows to quickly and easily create models. It contains a Form modifier, a Form Sphere helper and a Form Tools script. According to Marius, this plugin can be used when you want to quickly create a model or when you want the freedom to experiment with the form and shape of your model. Form for 3ds Max helps you model faster then with traditional box or edge extrusion methods and it frees you from worrying about topology.
The Chaos Group Team announced the official release of V-Ray® for Autodesk® Softimage®. Built on V-Ray’s core platform of rendering speed, stability, and quality, V-Ray® for Autodesk® Softimage® is an advanced rendering solution for the VFX and animation industries. V-Ray for Softimage includes ICE support, efficient Global Illumination, versatile shaders, and much more. The official suggested end user price of a single new license of V-Ray 1.5 for Softimage is 890 Euro/ 1230 USD/ 770 GBP (exlude VAT).
NOX Renderer is a rendering software based on unbiased methods. Development is currently in beta stage. This update added control on cautics. So you can make fake caustics - glass materials will work like a fake glass except for first camera intersection (visible one). You can set which roughness value is border value for material to be caustic source. You can turn off bounce from caustic, it will render caustic but will deny any more light propagation from that caustic to scene. All of it is set on Render tab (first one). Also caustics should be redirected to GI buffer, so you can turn it off (Post tab) for the case of scene render difficulty.
