Autodesk has reported the financial results for the third quarter of fiscal year 2017, disclosing numbers of its transition to a rental-only model. The report states an increase of 168,000 of what the company calls "subscriptions" from the second quarter to 861,000, and a decrease of 34,000 of "maintenance subscriptions" (from older users of the software). According to Studio Daily, Autodesk's CEO has mentioned that the company plans to converge the two models, seeking ways to persuade customers with maintenance plans to transition to the new model. (more...)

Tippett Studio has released their latest demo reel, featuring a lot of their character work from over the years. Watch it on Vimeo.

Next Limit has made available a few more preview videos of the upcoming version 10 of its fluid dynamics software. Watch them on Vimeo.

New features in Andreas Esau's Blender add-on for painting objects into your scene include: physics simulations (allows for quick natural placing by letting physics do the job), new Sketch Mode, asset preview, ability to import asset libraries, and asset categories to better organize assets. Asset Sketcher is priced at $29.99. More on Blender Market.

New features in the open source framework for creating browser-based 3D visualizations, games and interactive presentations include: support for material nodes from the Cycles renderer, new API module for facilitating first-person controls, upgraded Petigor's Quest game with source files, and the text editor introduced in the Project Manager. More on Blend4Web’s website.

Tim van Helsdingen has shared an inspiring animation of a mountain river. Fluids were simulated using Houdini's FLIP solver, rendered with Mantra and composited in After Effects. Watch it on Vimeo.

RealtimeUK has released an impressive new showreel featuring their automotive work. Watch it on YouTube.

Laubwerk has released a new collection of realistic 3D plants, Kit 9 provides a selection of temperate shrubs and bushes species for use in parks, gardens and rural landscapes, including shrubs with profuse floral display. Laubwerk Plants Kits bring tools that allow for quick adjustment of shape, age, season and level of detail for each 3D plant. The new kit is available for 3DS Max, Maya, Cinema 4D, SketchUp, Houdini (Windows) and Python (Windows), and is priced at 149 Euro (w/o VAT). More on Laubwerk's website. (more...)