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NVidia offers a brief explanation of how the Vulkan open standard API operates and what are its pros in comparison to OpenGL. More on NVidia's website.

Polish artist Piotrek Marczak has posted a video with a compilation of nice simulation experiments created with Houdini. Watch it on Vimeo.

New features in the latest version of the painting and VFX software include: block interpolation (morph between a block of frames to fix missing or bad frames in a video), new color picker with integrated color themes, new and updated particle tools, orbicles brush responds to audio input, etc. More on Howler's website.

Frostsoft has released a new version of its realtime viewport renderer for Cinema 4D aimed at realtime artists. PixelBerg produces high quality realtime visuals in the C4D viewport by means of physical based shading, IBL and selected post FXs. New features in v1.8 include: C4D standard renderer support, shadow density option, lens distortion post FX and spherical camera. More on Frostsoft's website.

Draco is a sketch-based interface that allows to add animation effects and interactivity to drawings, bringing illustrations to life. More on Autodesk Research's website.

AniSplines is a new free plugin for Cinema 4D by Pim Grooff that allows to tweak animation tracks in the viewport. More on the author's website.

A couple of videos have surfaced recently showing volumetric rendering tests created with Houdini and the upcoming version of Otoy's physically-based, unbiased GPU renderer: video 1, video 2.

Maxon Computer, the company that develops Cinema 4D, announced that it is committed to offering perpetual licenses of its software with the security of ownership it provides to artists, and that it will also be exploring ways to offer Cinema 4D through rental licensing as an option. (more...)

Germany-based Rise has made available its latest reel with great VFX work. Watch it on Vimeo.

Next Limit's Thomas Schlick has released issue 2 of his free ezine dedicated to RealFlow. This issue focuses on fields, how to use them and how to create your own custom fields. You will also find tutorials for projects such as age-based variable viscosity, melting effect based on distance fields, curvature-based foam emission for particle fluids, etc. Download it from Waterline.tv.