CGTalk - CG News http://forums.cgsociety.org CGTalk, the CGSociety's official forum for digital artists 120 en-us <![CDATA[Is a new cross-platform File Browser in need?]]> http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=827460 Posted By: DSedov
Post Time: 11-20-2009 at 07:28 PM
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Hello!

Here is a question for all you folks! I know that many people use different file browsers (like FAR, Total Commander, etc) because they are not happy with the way standard browsers work, my self included. Would that be of any interest to have a new file browser, that would be very fast, intuitive, not crowded with buttons, has good and configurable shortcuts, being able to show file sequences as one file, and has a build in thumbnail preview for industry files like exr, dpx, etc?

How much would you pay for a browser of your dream?

I am thinking of making one, so I am happy to hear your suggestions! Right now I am thinking of two versions. One is completly free, that has basic file browsing and the above features. And another is paid, with some studio integration API, and some interesting stuff that would help in team work.

So what do you guys say?

EDIT: After I hit post, I just realized that I put this in the wrong topic. Any of the admins be kind enough to move this to general discussion?]]> Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:28:39 +0000 <![CDATA[CG Whiz competition]]> http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=827419 Posted By: escstudios
Post Time: 11-20-2009 at 05:19 PM
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Hi guys,

Some of you may have been following the EscapeStudios CG Whiz competition, where students can send in their CG work for a chance to win a free course at ES. We've had many entries, but they've all been boiled down into a shortlist of finalists.


The shortlist (in no particular order) is:



The shortlisted entries beat some stiff competition and will now go forward for a chance to win the top prize of a course at Escape Studios followed by work placement with The Mill. Two runners-up will win online courses, and ten other runners-up will receive subscriptions to leading industry magazines Shots and 3D Artist.

The winners and runners-up will be announced on the 8th December at a prize giving event at Escape Studios.

[Mods. If you don't want this here then please feel free to take it down! I've had a lot of Tweets asking me for the results so I thought I'd put it up here for everyone to see]]]> Fri, 20 Nov 2009 11:19:03 +0000 <![CDATA[The Ultra-Realism of Alex Roman. HD Video]]> http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=827346 Posted By: astur
Post Time: 11-20-2009 at 01:47 PM
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Alex Roman uses 3DS Max and VRay to get this stunning work. You could call it, Hyper-realism or ultra-realism in a CG creation.

Must see to believe. It could be a real footage for a "conventional" viewer.
http://3dup.com/news/view.vfx?nid=269

As I always say, CPU power increasing democratizes computer graphics creation, apart personal skills, important point of course.

What a patience for the renders and good taste. This Alex must be one of the most strong-will persons you could meet in your life.

Best]]> Fri, 20 Nov 2009 07:47:26 +0000 <![CDATA[Academy of Champions trailer by Fortiche Production]]> http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=827304 Posted By: Luki
Post Time: 11-20-2009 at 10:45 AM
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http://vimeo.com/7573560

Really great characters and sweet rendering. I'm in love with the girl with black hair.
Good job Fortiche!]]> Fri, 20 Nov 2009 04:45:14 +0000 <![CDATA[Autodesk 3December Global Celebration]]> http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=827277 Posted By: ajitsinghyadav
Post Time: 11-20-2009 at 08:43 AM
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Autodesk Hosts Eleventh 3December Global Celebration

3December Online

From December 1–10, 3D artists around the world can join the 3December Online celebrations on AREA, Autodesk’s digital entertainment and visualization community The virtual event, at area.autodesk.com/3december beginning December 1, will offer:

A free Autodesk MasterClass about how Liquid Development’s creative team developed assets for “The Beatles: Rock Band"

An interview with award-winning filmmaker Chris Landreth about his production workflow

A live presentation by Lightstorm Entertainment from Autodesk University about how moviemaking technology can be used for visualization on December 3 at 1 p.m. EST

Tutorials and more

Visitors will also be able to vote for the 2009 Autodesk Masters. This annual program recognizes exceptional Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Maya and Autodesk Softimage software artists and technical specialists whose work and dedication have significantly contributed to the advancement of computer graphics.

3December Live Events

Autodesk will host a live event in Montreal, Canada, on December 3 from 6–10:30 p.m. EST. The event will feature a presentation by Harmonix, developer of the "Rock Band" and "The Beatles: Rock Band" video games.

Art Director Ryan Lesser, and Project Leader and Creative Director Josh Randall will present a “Show&Tell” into the world of music game development. Pre-visualization and Autodesk Mudbox software demonstrations will also be offered. For more information and to register for the Montreal event, visit area.autodesk.com/3dec.

In addition to the Autodesk-hosted event, Autodesk user groups and channel partners will hold live 3December celebrations around the world, including North America, United Kingdom and Spain. Contact the leader of your Autodesk Animation User Group Association to see if a 3December meeting is planned in your city. Some user group and partner event information will also be posted at

-> http://area.autodesk.com/3dec


.]]> Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:43:28 +0000 <![CDATA[EXOTIQUE 5—Available now!]]> http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=827236 Posted By: DanielWade
Post Time: 11-20-2009 at 01:37 AM
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Hello everyone,

EXOTIQUE 5 is now shipping! The latest EXOTIQUE packs 20 more pieces of artwork than any previous edition making it the biggest and most inspiring collection to date. The work of 208 highly-talented artists fill EXOTIQUE 5 with 342 pieces of spectacular character art in genres ranging from science fiction, fantasy, and anime, to photorealism and stylized realism.

We've also updated the layout style for EXOTIQUE 5 to refresh the series by incorporating a number of spreads containing higher concentrations of characters on white backgrounds. The new layouts are distributed through the book and increase the variety of illustration styles on show.


Exclusive offer—video walkthrough
A specially-commissioned Camtasia video walkthrough by EXOTIQUE 5 artist Steve Argyle is freely downloadable to all Special Edition customers and the first 300 Softcover edition customers. The walkthrough provides an overview of Steve's EXOTIQUE 5 back cover painting of fantasy character Naya Battlemage from Wizards of the Coast’s ‘Magic the Gathering’ role-playing game. Stay tuned for more news on EXOTIQUE 5 giveaways in the coming weeks.





EXOTIQUE 5 Preview
You can flip through every page of EXOTIQUE 5 to see the amazing work featured in the book.




EXOTIQUE 5 Special Edition
For the serious art connoisseur, EXOTIQUE 5 is available in an exclusive collector’s Special Edition featuring a black leather-bound cover with a gold-embossed title. Order your copy now as there are only 200 of these editions available and they will go quickly.





Thank you to all the artists who contributed to EXOTIQUE 5. We had an enormous number of entries for this edition, and we're still amazed at the amount of talent that is poured into all the images we see. Congratulations to everyone!

We hope you enjoy the World's Most Beautiful CG Characters, and look forward to your feedback.

Daniel]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:37:39 +0000 <![CDATA[Interview with SQUIR]]> http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=827235 Posted By: Stryker
Post Time: 11-20-2009 at 01:21 AM
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3DExport interviewed of the most famous and successful sellers in 3D industry. Please welcome SQUIR.

Read more: http://www.3dexport.com/blog/2009/1...iew-with-squir/

]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:21:15 +0000 <![CDATA[MEET MELINE : THE MAKING OF > The Art of creating a 3D Animated short film]]> http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=827234 Posted By: ssebastienn
Post Time: 11-20-2009 at 01:03 AM
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Hi CGTalk Readers ! :o)

Meet Meline is a 3D Animated Short film My wife Virginie and I are working on independently for 2 Years now!

So today, we are releasing The Making of Meet Meline!




Making of "Meet Meline" : The creation of a 3D Animated Short-Film.
This is a 12-minutes featurette with behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, talks about the story, the characters and the environments, shot breakdowns and much more : the Art of making a short film!

WATCH IT HERE : http://www.vimeo.com/7708580
or here (lowres) : http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xb...astien_creation

I hope you'll like it and have as much fun as we had while creating this!
Don't hesitate to leave a comment, share your thoughts, ask more questions and most of all tell you friends!

You can also read the CGTALK blog over here : http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=400888

Cheers everyone! :o)
Sebastien LABAN
www.sebastien-laban.com]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:03:01 +0000 <![CDATA[Interview with SOE animator Tom Tobey]]> http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=827222 Posted By: FloydBishop
Post Time: 11-19-2009 at 11:31 PM
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Check out the article/interview here.]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:31:47 +0000 <![CDATA[Jon Landau to Discuss James’s Cameron New Film “Avatar” at AU]]> http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=827202 Posted By: Shletten
Post Time: 11-19-2009 at 10:00 PM
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Cool http://au.autodesk.com/?nd=blaug&rss_data_id=8308

]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 16:00:13 +0000 <![CDATA[Cloud Computing for Artists: Public Beta]]> http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=827152 Posted By: Robert Magee
Post Time: 11-19-2009 at 08:00 PM
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Side Effects Software, an industry leader in 3D animation and visual effects software, is pleased to announce the public beta release of new artist-friendly HQueue cloud computing tools. Studios and individuals who are looking for an artist-friendly way to harness the processing power of Amazon’s EC2 compute cloud will now be able to launch renderings and simulations from right inside Houdini.

With access to computers for as little as 50 cents an hour, it is easy to test out the cloud and see what is possible. We look forward to your feedback. Apprentice and Apprentice HD users also have access to the cloud for use in personal projects!!

Come check it out!]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:00:51 +0000 <![CDATA[Crytek offers free Educational License for CryENGINE® 3]]> http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=827034 Posted By: fallenherald
Post Time: 11-19-2009 at 01:36 PM
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November 18, 2009
Frankfurt a. M. (Germany), November 18th 2009 - Crytek GmbH (“Crytek”) announced today that the recently released all-in-one development solution CryENGINE 3 is now available to educational institutions free of charge. The CryENGINE 3 Educational SDK is for educators wanting to ensure that their students gain experience with the state-of-the-art in game development and real-time 3D technology. For courses and research projects in game development, 3D graphics, simulation, architecture, animation, film and design, CryENGINE 3 is the most up-to-date, real-time 3D technology available. CryENGINE 3 is the first game development platform for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, MMO, DX9/DX10 that also is truly Next-Gen-Ready - with scalable computation, graphics and state-of-the art AI and physics for all major upcoming platforms. It provides the complete game engine to create AAA quality next generation games, and includes the redesigned CryENGINE 3 Sandbox level editor, a production-proven, 3rd generation “What you see is what you play” (WYSIWYP) - tool designed by and for professional developers.

Carl Jones, Director of Global Business Development - CryENGINE commented: “Crytek has always been a strong supporter of education – as evidenced by our commitment for many years to share CryENGINE tools with universities. We are continuing that commitment now by releasing the brand new CryENGINE 3 tools to any university in the world, for free! Here at Crytek, we work hard to enable all our licensees to achieve their vision with CryENGINE 3, so we aren’t considering this Educational SDK as a product we “fire and forget” - we will be looking for strong educational partners to work together with Crytek in the future - and we will soon be announcing exciting programmes for students working with CryENGINE 3."

“Students and educators using the engine will become part of our larger CryENGINE community, so they can create their own innovations and train to become the developers of the future. With the CryENGINE 3 Educational SDK, the same cutting-edge technology that the world’s best developers are using now in games, movies and simulations will now be in the hands of the next generation of creators and engineers.” added Ury Zhilinsky, R&D Manager at Crytek.

As well as the new Educational SDK Crytek offers a Game Development SDK for professional game developers and a Simulation SDK for serious games applications. More information can be found on the recently launched www.mycryengine.com website.]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 07:36:46 +0000 <![CDATA[3DTotal interview with Jason Chan]]> http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=827014 Posted By: jo-3dt
Post Time: 11-19-2009 at 12:33 PM
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After receiving requests for us to interview this guy it was only right that we did. So here, by popular demand, is 3DTotal's interview with Jason Chan - VIEW HERE -]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:33:29 +0000 <![CDATA[Activision Growing Despite Recession (Variety)]]> http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=826993 Posted By: RobertoOrtiz
Post Time: 11-19-2009 at 11:52 AM
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In a recent Hollywood reporter article , it mentionas that despite the recession Activision is expanding. The cpm[any recently adquireed Sledgehammer Games.


http://www.variety.com/article/VR11...t=Google+Reader]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:52:40 +0000 <![CDATA[Gio Nakpil :: Artist Profile]]> http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=826970 Posted By: PaulHellard
Post Time: 11-19-2009 at 10:02 AM
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Hey there,

Industrial Light & Magic digital artist Gio Nakpil and Ballistic Publishing are proud to release the 'd'artiste: Character Modeling' book. Crammed with the most incredible works from a bunch of amazing artists, it was co-authored by Gio. Read about his amazing career. Click the image for more.


]]> Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:02:03 +0000