By

A nice project by FX artist Terry Liu, created with Houdini and V-Ray. Watch it on Vimeo.

New features in Autodesk's modeling tool for combining parts from different 3D models and outputting them to 3D printers include: automatic support for high-DPI displays on Windows, updated analytics functionality, API scripting improvements, simplified Print UI/workflow, ported to Qt5, support for 3MF file format with colors and uv-mapped textures, improved materials workflow. More on Meshmixer's website.

Are we there yet? Lasse Rode from Archviz studio Xoio puts Blender and Corona to the test, taking advantage of the advances in the Blender to Corona bridge: "It is a great tool and it has potential to become a true replacement in certain scenarios". More on Xoio's website. (more...)

The crisis triggered at MOPA by the CIPEN / CCI's layoff of Julien Deparis has resulted in one of the best possible outcomes: the birth of a new school. Isabelle Aubin and Deparis, former directors of MOPA, have founded a new CG school in the nearby city of Avignon, together with teachers from the former MOPA pedagogic team. Known for the excellency of the educational programs they built at MOPA, the team is taking its expertise and years of experience to the new school, called ENSI: École des Nouvelles Images (School of New Images).

"When we saw that the school would become a shadow of what it was, we decided to create its successor", stated Julien Deparis, according to French newspaper La Provence. The ENSI team is also taking the chance to further improve the education they offer students by partnering with the University of Avignon, ArtFx school (known for their quality VFX program) and the department of Music & Musicology of the Lumière University Lyon 2. They are already receiving strong support from the industry, including Illumination Mac Guff, Mikros Image, Cube Creative, Sève Films (who used to distribute films produced by MOPA students), renowned artists, etc. (more...)

Pixar has made available a short titled "Dante’s Lunch - A Short Tail" for promoting its upcoming feature film "Coco". Watch the video on YouTube.

Following the transition of some corporations to a rental-only business model, a number of companies are rumored to be considering extending the model further to other property owned by their customers. A top executive from a company that develops graphic applications agreed to comment unofficially. "Yes, it's on the table, so to speak. We believe that some people are developing a passion for paying rent, and extending the model further would be the right thing for our customers. So we're studying ways that they can also pay us rent for other things they own - cars, apartments, mobile phones, you name it". (more...)

Unity Technologies has released the latest version of its multiplatform engine and development tools. New features include: Progressive Lightmapper preview, new Light Modes, Vulkan support, updated Particle System, improved graphics performance, new video player, support for Facebook Gameroom, Google Daydream, etc. Unity is available through rental and pay-to-own licensing (the later is an option for those renting Unity Pro for a minimum of 24 consecutive months). More on Unity Technologies' website.

New features in Assimilate's color grading, compositing, conforming and finishing software include: expanded HDR support, new DIT report generator, Ambisonic audio support, VR 360 stitching (in Scratch VR), improved UI, etc. Scratch is priced at $650, Scratch VR Suite 8.6 at $1995. Read the release notes and find out more on Assimilate's website.

ANIMVR is a new software developed by NVRMIND that allows to draw and animate in VR, providing a set of tools based on concepts used in traditional animation, such as onion skin, multiple timelines, etc. Animations can be imported later into Unity. A beta is available. More on NVRMIND's website.

Archviz artist Bertrand Benoit has posted his latest work online, a great photorealistic still life scene, modeled in Max 2016 and rendered with V-Ray 3 / Corona 1.5 / Octane 3. More on BBB3viz.