Isotropix has released a tutorial demonstrating how to build up complexity by combining simple procedurals in order to create a desert landscape in minutes. Watch it on YouTube.

Render Legion has announced the first public release of Corona for Archicad. The first release is an Alpha, so it's likely to be incomplete (and perhaps buggy), but the plugin already supports some advanced features including interactive rendering, the Corona VFB, denoising, Corona materials and Textures plus a custom texture editor, and support for native Archicad geometry, lights and materials.  To find out more and download the Alpha, visit the Corona blog or watch a tutorial on YouTube. (As a side note, according to comments by Render Legion staff on Facebook there are no plans for Revit integration at present)

Allan McKay has announced a new free course, this time based on the film Venom.  The course promised to focus on creating an entire effects sequence including environmental and atmospheric effects, character effects like shape changing and drool, and more.  You can find more about the training on Allan McKay's website (sign up required)

TalanSoft has released Valkyrie Engine, a new tool for creating real-time applications aimed squarely at artists.  (more...)

Foundry has released Modo 12.2 with Accelerated Rendering using the GPU thanks to NVIDIA's Optix technology. Also in this release is optimised topology when creating geometry with complex edges in MesgFusion, improvements to animation and rigging, A new Workbenches UI module that can be customised with your own tool presets, macros, buttons script and more.  (more...)

Quixel has updated it's Quixel Mixer application for combining and painting PBR textures. Features fall into the category of small but useful, including improvements to colour sampling, a new orthographic view, straight line painting and canvas or camera aligned snapping, new HDRIs, layer modularity and more. Find out more on the Megascan's Blog and watch a video of the new features on YouTube. 

Hybride Technologies, a division of Ubisoft,  has released a VFX reel for its work on Solo: A Star Wars Story. Watch it on Vimeo.

CGAxis has announced the release of its first collection of PBR Textures. PBR Textures Volume 1 contains 100 PBR materials for stones, walls, pavements and concrete in 4096x4096 resolution. The collection costs $99.00. More on CGAxis' website.