PlayblastVR is a renderer built on top of Maya's hardware viewport preview system that allows to create panoramic images using OpenGL or DirectX. PlayblastVR can render scenes in fulldome, latlong, and cubic panorama formats. The latest version brings a set of pre-compositing tools that makes it easier to work with After Effects and Fusion. The tools are compatible with more renderers than just PlayblastVR.

PlayblastVR supports rendering to Google PhotoSphere spherical panoramas and Youtube 360 movies with automatic metadata embedding. More on Andrew Hazelden's website.

It would appear that Adobe, the makers of Photoshop and After Effects, are looking to make a £200m bid for The Foundry, makers of Nuke, Mari, and Modo. The Carlyle Group which are private equity owners, put The Foundry up for sale late last year and since then there has been much speculation as to who might try to pick it up. More details will be posted here when, and if they become available, but in the meantime, you can read the latest news story via The TelegraphUK website.

CG artist and filmmaker Lucas Martell (Pigeon: Impossible) has made available his latest short film online to the public at large (it was previously available on Vimeo on Demand). The film went through an interesting production process, it was made by a small team of artists in an island in the Caribbean. Softimage was used as the main software, with 3DS Max and FumeFX employed to create the cloud effects. Watch the film on YouTube.

New features in FaronStudio's texturing software for creating seamless 3D maps from photos include: (more...)

The animation studio of Blender Institute and film production company Fu Works are teaming up on the making of The Manhattan File, a feature length commercial animated film based on the Agent 327 comic series by Dutch comics writer and cartoonist Martin Lodewijk. This will be the first animation feature of Fu Works, and together with Blender they hope to boost the Dutch animation industry. More on Blendernation and the film's official website.

New features in Adobe's application for processing and managing photos include: (more...)

Kinematic Lab's Clovis Gay has released a new commercial script for 3DS Max designed for motion graphics work. It creates similar effects to the After Effects Plexus plugin, extending its functionality and adding many options. Watch a video and find out more on Kinematic Lab's website.

We have the pleasure to present readers with another quality review, experienced FX Artist Joël LeLièvre puts FXHome's editing, 3D and VFX software to the test: "... a great alternative to some of the other more expensive, well known tools out there". Read the review.