A reel you don't want to miss. Check out the latest great work from Blur, featuring impressive CG and plenty of action sequences. Watch it on Vimeo.

Blackmagic Design has released a public beta of v12.5 of its editing and conforming tool. The new version is a major update with over 1000 enhancements and 250 new features, and continues to strengthen the application's editing capabilities. New features include: (more...)

Allegorithmic has disclosed information on a new feature they're working on based on requests from Substance Painter users dedicated to creating video game assets. Dynamic Material Layering is a way to visualize complex shaders on your assets directly in Substance Painter and to get an accurate preview of the final in-game result while still being able to use all the painting and masking tools that Painter has to offer. More on Allegorithmic's website.

New features in Brave Rabbit's blend shapes editing tool for Maya include: (more...)

(Updated) Two more unofficial videos have been posted: Max 2017 UV Editor - Auto Peel and Packing by Changsoo Eun, and Benchmark of deforming hires meshes by Spacefrog.
(Updated) Two unofficial videos have surfaced showing Max 2017 performance improvements: edit mesh performance, CAD data viewport performance.
(Updated) New links added with more information.
Autodesk has announced the release of 3DS Max 2017. Some of the notable new and improved features include a new Text Tool, enhanced UV Mapping tools, Geodesic Voxel and Heatmap skinning, improved Python implementation, enhanced Alembic support, Asset Library, HiDPI display support and much more. 3DS Max is being offered through rental licensing. For the full feature list you can visit Eddie Perlberg's blog and to download the trial you can head over to the Autodesk 3DS Max website. (more...)

Autodesk have announced that they have acquired Solid Angle, the makers of the Arnold Renderer. No immediate software roadmaps have been made public yet, but Autodesk says Arnold plugin development will continue for products like Houdini, Cinema 4D, and Katana. You can read the full announcement on the Autodesk website. Solid Angle has also made an announcement on their website.

Autodesk has released Extension 2 for Maya. New features include a render setup system that makes it easier to render and manage complex scenes, Quick Rig tool, enhancements to Shape Authoring, new motion graphics toolset (based on Mainframe's MASH procedural animation toolkit), etc. More details on the Autodesk website.

New features in Masterxeon's hard surface modeling toolkit for Blender include: UV Preview, Pro mode, radial array, status override, etc. Read more about the new features on Masterxeon's website and find the add-on on Gumroad.