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Autodesk has released Extension 1 for Maya. New features and improvements include a new text tool for creating multi-line deformable type, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) support, new procedural texture and image processing nodes, streamlined game exporter workflows, live linking between Maya and the Stingray game engine, etc. More details on this extension release should show up soon on the Autodesk website.

Pixar's Universal Scene Description (USD) is an efficient, scalable system for authoring, reading and streaming time-sampled scene descriptions for interchange between graphics applications. The system facilitates the creation of scalable collaborative pipelines and aims to bring standardization and efficient exchange of scenes among 3D applications, while trying to preserve file referencing and non-destructive editing capabilities.

USD is being tested by a number of studios and developers, and Pixar intends to release it as an open source project by Northern Hemisphere's summer 2016. Read the press release and find out more on Pixar's website.

Dreamworks' Lead FX Jason Mayer has posted his latest reel. Created with Houdini, Maya, Nuke, Mantra and various proprietary tools. Watch it on Vimeo.

The Blender Foundation has made available the opening of the film Cosmos Laundromat. The 10-minute pilot "First Cycle" was directed by Mathieu Auvray based on a story written by Esther Wouda. Once again, impressive work created with Blender. Watch the film on YouTube and find out more on Project Gooseberry's website.

The Document Foundation has released version 5 of its open source office suite. The new version brings a significantly improved user interface, with better management of screen space and a cleaner look. In addition, it offers better interoperability with office suites such as Microsoft Office and Apple IWork, thanks to new and improved filters to handle non-standard formats. Other improvements have been added to every module of the suite, and Windows 64-bit builds (Vista and later) have been added. LibreOffice 5 is available for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. More on The Document Foundation's site.

3DArchitettura interviews Ondřej Karlík, Adam Hotový and Jaroslav Křivánek from the Render Legion team on Corona's development, the use of real-time engines for Archviz, managing the company's growth and more. Read the interview on 3DArchitettura.com.

Toronto-based artist Matt Borrett has been creating some interesting stylized landscapes and architectural structures using Modo, 3D-Coat and SpeedTree. He has also recorded a number of videos showing parts of the creation process. More on The Foundry's forum and Matt Borrett's website.

Chaos Group's Digital Human League has released v2.1 of their Digital Emily model for 3DS Max. It's compatible with Max 2014+ and the shaders are currently set up in V-Ray 3.2 for Max. Check out the list of changes since v2.0 and find out more on the WikiHuman Project's website.

Compelling video processing effects can be achieved if per-pixel depth information and 3D camera calibrations are known, such as denoising, stylized action shots, depth of field, scene-space masks, etc. However, this “scene-space” information is not always available. (more...)

Archviz artist Bertrand Benoit has created a full-CG urban environment as part of his recreation of architect Kisho Kurokawa's Nakagin Capsule Tower, a "capsule architecture" building located in Tokyo, Japan. The scene was created using 3DS Max, RailClone, Forest Pack, GrowFX and rendered with V-Ray. Check out some images and find out more on Bertrand Benoit's website.