Singer Says Quicksilver...
Just in time for the Memorial weekend, fanboy favorite Bryan Singer announced...
Posts from category "Tech Reviews"
MAXON’s CINEMA 4D
CINEMA 4D has for a long time been considered a dark horse in the 3D animation race. But really, this ‘small’ program has been keeping up during this long haul. It’s now up to version 11.5, which is just as many versions, if not more, than the older Maya, Max, [...]
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 [...]
Zookeeper
When working in 3D files for production, it isn’t unheard of to get scenes that have hundreds or even thousands of objects in them. It’s also not unheard of for thoughtful artists to hand you files that have very descriptive names like ‘object768′ and ‘sphere8458.’ These hurdles are one reason [...]
Wacom Intuos4 Wireless
My favorite tablet has just gotten better. You might ask, ‘How can the Intuos4 get any better? I mean, its sleek and black. Ambidexterous. Customizable buttons and a wheel. A sweet pen cradle slash nib holster. What more do you need?’ That’s right: Wireless. Wacom has taken the tablet and [...]
Unwrella
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I really hate setting up UVs. I’d rather have bamboo shoved under my fingernails and undergo Chinese Water Torture. There have been a number of techniques and tools that have come up in recent years to alleviate this animosity. “Pelting” has [...]
Pixologic’s ZBrush 3.5
I have to admit that I only became familiar with ZBrush last year despite its excellent initial reputation as a hobbyist’s tool. The well-designed 3.5 version was introduced around the time of last year’s SIGGRAPH confab. In very nutshell terms, one could say that ZBrush is a modeling tool. But [...]
ZBrush Digital Sculpting Human Anatomy By Scott Spencer (Sybex Books, 416 pages)
To celebrate the arrival of my newly found friend, ZBrush 3.5, I picked up the new book: ZBrush Digital Sculpting Human Anatomy by the ZBrush Guy, Scott Spencer. Spencer, who also wrote ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting in 2008, has already saved me on numerous occasions. Predominantly, the saving [...]
Craft Director Studio
Years ago, I took a look at Craft Animations’ rigs when it was exclusive to 3ds Max, and found it to be indispensable not only for pipelines with vehicles, but also for camera animation work. The whole tool set is based on prefab rigs that are wired up to respond [...]
A Real-Life Replica of...
Cowabunga, dude! A real-life replica of Simpsons’ hometown of Springfield is...
Blue Sky’s...
Epic, the new animated adventure from director Chris Wedge and his gifted team...
