George Maestri reviews Max 7 for Computer Graphics World: "... incredibly stable and fast."

Discreet has announced two 3ds max 7 bundle offers at a SRP of $3,995. The first bundle includes Max 7 and Brazil (a $700 savings) and the second bundle includes Max 7, Deep Exploration, Deep Paint 3D, and Deep UV (a $295 savings). The offer ends January 31, 2005 and is only available to North American residents through Discreet Resellers. Also of note, Splutterfish has announced a 50% off special offer of the Brazil R/S Renderfarm Bundle (four non-GUI Rendernode licenses). This offer is available through SplutterFish Authorized Resellers (it's not limited to North America), and expires on January 31, 2005.

Digit Online reviews 3ds max 7, giving it 4 of 5 stars.

The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) is working on an initiative to publicize those companies that "put as much effort on keeping their employees happy and healthy as on their bottom line". A letter published recently at IGDA's website already puts a few in the spotlight for providing a healthy working environment, including BioWare, Firaxis, Team17, Blue Fang, Cyberlore and Ensemble.

New features in Twixtor 4 include the ability to remove motion blur when slowing footage, support for marking material so that Twixtor does not motion-interpolate inappropriately across a cut or other transition and better integration by using host application's settings for rendering fields. Visit REVisionfx.com for more.

Sachform Technology now offers users the possibility of buying single high resolution HDR images from their site (no need to buy a complete collection for those interested in just one image). Visit Sachform.de for more.

(Updated December 2, 2004) More information on the upcoming high quality cloth simulation extension posted at Discreet.com, along with a couple of great video tutorials.
Enhanced cloth simulation capabilities based on Size8 Software's ClothFX plugin (formerly known as Stitch) will be integrated into Max. The new feature will be available first to Max users on subscription in January 2005.

What resources should I use to grow as an animator? Which animation techniques do you use daily? Animation Mentors Bobby Beck, Carlos Baena and Shawn Kelly answer your questions at CGW.com.