‘Rise of the...
As expected, DreamWorks Animation made an early splash at the Cannes Film...
Archive
June 2011 Tech Reviews
Red Giant’s Trapcode Particular Usually creating particle systems requires a 3D package with an fx geek behind the controls spinning spinners on turbulence, wind, gravity, etc. to get cool looking stuff. Trapcode Particular from Red Giant Software brought those controls into the 2D world of After Effects, and back not [...]
April 2011 Tech Reviews
Cebas’ thinkingParticles 4 What makes a Houdini FX artist drool? ThinkingParticles 4. A relative latecomer in the slew of Cebas products that have arrived on the market, it has grown to be the covergirl of the German-based company. This dynamics system really showed its stuff in many of the destruction sequences [...]
Online Animation & VFX Courses
Online Animation & VFX Courses There isn’t much point of having software for making pretty pictures if you don’t know how to use it. Many of us have learned a lot of what we know while on jobs and running into situations where we have to troubleshoot. I’ve been doing [...]
Autodesk Reviews 2011
Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 It’s about that time of year—to look at the features of the Big Three, which are under the umbrella of the Big One. Autodesk released 2011 versions of Max, Maya, and Softimage a few months ago in Vegas. But with all the other releases, its taken [...]
Hitachi G-Technology’s G-Drive Mobile
We live in a world of high-capacity and low-spatial volume—a trend started by Sony when they started releasing Walkmans that were physically smaller than the cassette tapes they played. And now with data storage, not only do we need a lot of capacity (on a personal computing level soon to [...]
Digital-Tutors Vault
I have to preface this review by stating that I have a bias toward Digital-Tutors because I’m already a subscriber, and I can’t count the number of times they saved my butt—not to mention hours and perhaps days of troubleshooting. Now, Digital-Tutors has been around for a while, providing us [...]
Smith Micro Software’s Anime Studio 7
Anime Studio is one of those 2D programs in a 3D saturated market that has been running with larger systems, and appears to be holding its own. Up to version 7, Anime Studio has some tricks up its sleeve that I haven’t really seen in a 2D animation package. Sure, [...]
Wacom Cintiq 21UX
Wacom recently released the latest installation of is high-end production tablet, the Cintiq 21UX, with its built-in LCD display. A staple at design, photography and animation houses, the 21UX offers the most interactive experience of any tablets in the line. Sure, the other tablets are great, and I love my [...]
BonesPro 4
Most Max users are familiar with BonesPro. It’s been around. But no substantial advance has been made for 10 years. 3d-io, in cahoots with Digimation, decided to take the ball and run, bringing the old plugin up to today’s standards. All the cool things that made BonesPro a standard are [...]
Hairtrix
Hairtrix is the offspring of two other plugins, HairFX and Ornatrix. Both reasonable hair styling and rendering tools, but both lacking something that the other had. So the obvious choice was to get these kids together and have a child. HairFX holds its strength in the generation of fur. You [...]
BBC Says Good-Bye to...
The BBC Trust has confirmed that children’s programs will no longer be shown...
Nextrendz Releases Stylus for...
If you’ve been looking for ways to get an edge over your friends as you play...
