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Ukraine-based Qubio Studio has posted a fun video that tells the story of a woodpecker who cannot live without television and gains video streaming superpowers. Watch it on Vimeo.

Plugin developer Valkaari is implementing a Delta Mush deformer in Cinema 4D (based on the original paper by Rhythm & Hues). The author is looking for beta testers. More on Valkaari's website.

Autodesk has released an update to Backburner 2016, the new build includes a number of stability fixes and targets specifically the bug that produces the error "No task metadata found". More on Autodesk's website.

Character animator Aleksandr has made available a video showing a couple of scripts he's developing. Light Table was inspired by TVPaint's light table and offers improved ghosting/onion skinning capabilities. Anim Snapshot is still under development, it creates static snapshots of your animated meshes. Watch the video on Vimeo and find out more on the author's website.

(Updated) DGDM has renamed the plugin to Leuchtkraft.
SLiB | Leuchtkraft is a Maya plugin by DGDM that provides a fast and accurate way to set up and control lights. With a simple mouse click you can place them exactly where you want. All important light attributes (Intensity, Distance, Size, Rotation, Contribution, ...) can easily be controlled from a single window. Leuchtkraft uses real lights instead of painting the lights on a high dynamic range image. (more...)

3Dflow announced that v2.0 of its image-based modeling software will bring core improvements in speed, accuracy and a variety of new tools, including a cloud-based 3D scanning service called "3DF Sunny". V2.0 is currently in beta testing and anyone interested in joining can get in touch with 3Dflow. (more...)

FX artist Niall Horn created a volcano eruption video as a personal project, working in his spare time for a month and a half. The shot was inspired by Wrath Of the Titans (MPC) and the volcano eruption in Journey 2 (Scanline). Software used include 3DS Max, ThinkingParticles, FumeFX, RayFire, RealFlow, V-Ray and Maya. Watch the video and find out more on Vimeo.

South Africa-based artist Zybrand Jacobs is developing a stick and release setup with Houdini's grain solver. Watch the video on Vimeo.

The Foundry has released Service Pack 1 for Modo 901, which brings many bug fixes and a few enhancements. Reports on its performance are varied, some have experienced crashes, others increased stability. Read the list of changes and users' comments on The Foundry's forum.

Janos Hunyadi, founder of Budapest-based Creative Case VFX studio, has posted his latest reel showing work he did at Scanline VFX, MPC and Digic Pictures, as well as Maya plugins he coded. Watch it on Vimeo.