FXGuide has written up an interesting presentation by Pixar’s Dylan Sisson who previewed the forthcoming release of RenderMan 22 at FMX last week. Read it on FXGuide.

Unity Technologies has released version 2018.1 of its real-time engine, bringing significant changes to the core with a new Scriptable Render Pipeline. Several other new features are added, including: (more...)

Rapid Tools has released Octopus, a new octal menu system for 3DS Max. Features include a visual set up utility for creating your own custom octal menus with the ability to search for functions, adjust colours, add symbols and more; drag and drop installation; the ability to automatically create and add octal menus as macros; the ability to preview the possible end result of a menu option when the mouse hovers over it; a repeat last action feature; and the ability to keep the menu open so that you can repeat actions multiple times. Octopus costs €35, find out more on the Rapid Tools website.

Boris FX has announced that the Continuum VR Unit is now free until the end of May 2018. The VR Unit suite works with After Effects, Premiere Pro, Media Composer,  DaVinci Resolve, Vegas Pro, Nuke, and Final Cut Pro providing 5 filters to speed up 360-degree workflows. Find out more and download from the Boris FX website. 

The latest release of the terrain modelling tool World Machine adds several workflow improvements requested by users, including support for JPEG and EXR for input and output; improvements to Output Manager so that it shows all file paths, the ability to use template substitutions in filenames, support for outputs inside macros and more; viewport navigation has been made more consistent across all the various windows in World Machine including several new techniques for navigating 3D and layout views; improvements to Slope selection so that it now works in degrees; plus many more small changes. See the full list of new features on the World Machine blog.

Berlin-based CG generalist Tom Freitag has released a new showreel compiling his work for feature film, commercials, personal work and R & D. Watch it on Vimeo and read details of the projects featured in a PDF on Dropbox.

Boomer Labs and JokerMartini have released Vexus for 3DS Max, their standalone node-based editor designed for scene assembly and render pass management. Version 3.0 sees several significant improvements with many new and updated features and bug fixes, including an interface redesign, multi-camera support, submission iteration, Python integration, graph interaction improvements, Wacom tablet support, parameter skipping, in-graph notes, node descriptions, auto-backup, templates, Xref support, and much more. Full details on the latest release can be found on the Boomer Labs website and all the changes are outlined in the release notes.

AXYZ design has released a recording of its first coffee break talks, a series of webinars to help users get up and running with the standalone crowd simulation software Anima. The first episode, that looks in detail at best practices for importing scene geometry, was broadcast last week and is now available to rewatch online on Vimeo. The next episode, titled "Walk into the Anima path tool and be one step ahead" airs on the 3 may 2018. You can register for webinars and see previous recordings on the .