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Piranha Studios has put together a video depicting the completion of the new World Trade Center site. Watch the film on Piranha Studios' website.

FX Guide reviews the newly released version 6 of GenArts' Sapphire Sparks suite of FX filters for compositing and editing applications: "... GenArts has invested in some real improvements." With an interface upgrade and a few key features, this version of Sapphire Sparks appears to be a promising one. Read the review on FX Guide and view the official page at GenArts.

Google has announced the use of 3D helicopter views in Google Maps. The new features will allow you to get a unique look at your destination or data that you want to extract from Google's database. Read more at Gizmag.

Chaos Group has just released their 2011 Architectural Visualization demo reel. Watch it on YouTube.

Cebas has announced the release of PSD Manager 3 for 3DS Max. Some of the key upgrades and features included in this release are: 32-bit layered HDR export options, optimized workflow between After Effects and Photoshop, 3DS Max 2012 support and the new render cut outs option. More at Cebas.

Autodesk and The Previsualization Society present a two part mini-documentary on the art and importance of pre-visualization and post-visualization in a production setting: Part I-Part II.

Motion Boutique has finally released the much anticipated physics plugin for Adobe After Effects. Some of the key features include: gravity, collision detection, ability to use masks and an intuitive interface. Read more at Motion Boutique.

Teamwork is a script that has been developed for the past two years now by ZOA, a studio out of Budapest, Hungary. It's sole purpose is to make working in 3DS Max much easier as a team while navigating, developing and saving large scale projects. You can watch a video of it in action at ZOA's website and download it for use at ScriptSpot.

Mike Seymour discusses the history of Cineon and the direction that the industry should be taking in order to achieve more realistic and easily understandable transitions between live action and CGI. Read more at FXGuide.com

TreeSketch is an interactive tree modeling application for the Ipad. It is completely free and comes with tutorial videos to help you get started. Watch the promo video here and find all of the tutorial videos at Algorithmic Botany.