Toolchefs has announced Atoms Crowd, a new crowd simulation tool to be released soon for Maya and Houdini. Features include: (more...)

Autodesk has announced that several middleware tools for games are no longer available for sale effective July 12. Scaleform, Navigation, Human IK and Beast are affected, some of which are fully or partially integrated into Maya and Stingray. Current maintenance contracts will be honoured until the end of term. Read the announcement on Autodesk's website.

Blender foundation has announced that a version 2.79 test build is now available. You can download it here, and see all the new features in the release notes. Any bugs or feedback can be reported using Blender's bug tracker site.

Researchers at Cornell University Library have made available their research into AI trained locomotion. By reinforcing learning using simple rewards and introducing a procedurally generated and variable terrain, they were able to train AI agents to develop their own complex locomotion techniques. You can read the paper on Cornell University Library's website and see a visual depiction of the learned behaviour on YouTube.

FXGuide has posted a behind-the-scenes look at MPC,  ILM and Double Negative's contributions to The Mummy. Read Making Mummy on FXGuide's website.  On the same theme, AWN talk to ILM lead animator Alex Poei about his team's work on the Princess Ahmanet regeneration and rat-infested alley sequences. Read it on AWN's website.

Seoul-based Macrograph has posted a making of for The One featuring some impressive fluid simulations. Watch it on Vimeo.

Madrid-based Next Limit has previewed the features in its imminent release of RealFlow | Cinema 4D 2.0. The most significant upgrade is the inclusion of the Dyverso Multi-Physics Solver which allows the user to create liquids, granulars, viscous, viscoelastic substances, rigid and elastic materials and more.  Also of note, you can pre-order a new license of version 2.0  for a discounted rate of 495€/$545 until July 24th 2017. See the RealFlow blog for more details and previews of the new features.

AMD has announced more details of the first two Ryzen Threadripper processors to be released in early August. The Ryzen Threadripper 1950X features 16 cores and 32 threads with a 3.4 GHz base speed and a 4.0 GHz boost, it's suggested retail price will be $999. Also announced was the Ryzen Threadripper 1920X at 12 cores and 24 threads with a 3.5 GHZ base and 4 GHZ boost and an expected price of $799. More details on AMD's corporate blog and in President and CEO Dr. Lisa Su's video on YouTube which shows some demos of Threadripper being used for 3D Rendering (expect material aimed at marketing AMD products).