After receiving many requests for tutorials and training, talented CG artist Alex Roman has been hard at work putting together a book in which he shares the art principles and CG techniques behind the production of The Third & The Seventh, called "From Bits To The Lens". In an interview with Filmnosis, Alex discusses various unknown aspects of the short film, providing some great insights into how it was made, and gives a preview of the new book. Also of note, Filmnosis has done an in-depth analysis of The Third & The Seventh, focusing on what sets it apart from architectural visualization reels. All this and more on Filmnosis: Alex Roman interview, The Third & The Seventh film analysis.

FXGuide talks to the developers of the fluid dynamics simulation software regarding which direction R&D is heading, and they discuss issues such as portability, possible future implementations and Norse mythology. More on FXGuide.

A behind the scenes look at how the dragons for HBO's Game of Thrones are brought to life by the artists at Pixomondo. See how the dragons were constructed from start to finish on You Tube.

Unity Image (France) has released a 'making of' video for their recent work on The Crew Trailer, a revolutionary action packed car and driving game. Check out the making-of on Vimeo. You can also see the original trailer.

In addition to perpetual licenses, Autodesk announced that starting September 16th it will be offering rental license plans that allow to use Autodesk software for a specified period of time (monthly, quarterly or annually), without the need for an up-front license investment or long-term commitment. Read the press release and find out more at Autodesk.

Ubisoft Toronto has put together a video explaining how they used 3DS Max and MotionBuilder to create Splinter Cell: Blacklist. You can watch the video on Autodesk's Area.

Clip Studio Paint is an image editing and painting software developed by Tokyo-based Celsys that specializes in manga drawing. Clip Studio Paint provides natural media painting functionality including water and oil painting, pencil drawing and pastel. Features also include Photoshop file import/export, vector graphics tools, tablet support, text tools, etc. More on Clip Studio Paint's website.

Cebas interviews Matt Radford, FX artist at Blur Studio, on the work he did together with Dan Chamberlin and Kirby Miller for Batman: Arkham Origins trailer. More on Cebas' website. (Disclaimer: expect direct questions aimed at highlighting ThinkingParticles' capabilities)

Udacity is offering a free HTML5 Game Development course that teaches the major components for building an HTML5 game. More on Udacity.

Chaos Group has released V-Ray 3.0 beta and applications for testing are now open to all existing license owners. The new release promises significant improvements including: (more...)