We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us. "Most of the time (...) we learn about technology from the people who are trying to sell it to us. I believe that it’s important to be critical; to be aware of how these technologies could shape our future. The films will expose the amazing potential, but also the possibly dark future of some technologies, while presenting them in a way that everyone can understand." Designer and filmmaker Keiichi Matsuda's "Hyper-Reality" offers a look at a possible future of VR, focusing on gamification, visual pollution and saturation of media. Watch it on Vimeo.

A new trailer is up for the latest feature film based on the science fiction series created by Gene Roddenberry. Watch it on YouTube.

Project Skuid is a sketch-based interface developed at Autodesk Research that brings exaggerated dynamics of classical 2D animation to drawings. The software is a continuation of the research done for the company's earlier Project Draco. More on Project Skuid's page.

New features in Otoy's physically-based, unbiased GPU renderer include: support for Open Shader Language (OpenSL) and OpenVDB for particle simulation, volumetric light field primitives, procedural microfacet displacement primitives and deep motion buffers for high frame rate VR rendering. (more...)

VFX & CG supervisor Andrew Roberts has posted his latest reel online, featuring impressive work. The shots represent hundreds of hours of collaborative teamwork with talented artists primarily at Pixomondo, Prime Focus (LA & Vancouver) and Digital Dimension. All work was completed with 3DS Max, Maya, V-Ray, ThinkingParticles, FumeFX and Krakatoa. Watch the video on Vimeo.

A number of great short films made by students from MOPA (ex-Supinfocom Arles) for their 3rd year graduation have been made available online. Watch them on Filmnosis.

3D artist and lighting TD Antonis Fylladitis has put together a great making of video of his recent work “Koi fish pond”. Watch it on Vimeo.

Australia-based Iloura has posted its latest FX & Environment and Creature reels.