Using the Voxel Solver with the 3ds Max Skin Modifier

[ #Animation #3dsMax ] In this 3dsMax tutorial, you learn to use the Voxel Solver, which makes skinning a model a much easier task than it ever was before. The Voxel Solver gives you a much better start-up solution whereas most of the skinning is already properly established. From that point, you only need to add the finishing touches

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Creating Car Paint in Corona Render

[ #Automotive #Corona #Render ] Learn how to create Car Paint in Corona Render for 3ds Max

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Creating Gummy Bears using 3ds Max and Vray

[ #3dsMax #vray ] Tutorial on how to create Gummy Bears using 3ds Max and Vray

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Making Of TVC Bank Of Moscow

[ #Animation #Softimage ] Alexander Zhdanov from studio PostPro18 has shared us his process to create full CGI TVC Bank of 

Moscow. Check it out!

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WeightPro 2.0 for 3ds Max 2013 - 2016

WeightPro 2.0 for 3ds Max 2013 - 2016

[ #3dsMax #Rigging #Animation ] Developed by Kamil Małagowski Weight Pro is a c++ 3ds Max plugin for automatic, fast and smooth Skin modifier weighting, no matter if the mesh has good or messy topology. WeightPro 2.0 for 3ds Max is now available as free update.

It voxelizes the mesh with the skeleton using GPU to calculate the shortest distances between bones and vertices.
It allows you to make adjustments during posing in realtime.
The plugin itself just sets the weights to the Skin modifier, after that you can delete it from the scene, but the weights stays in the Skin mod, so you have skinned character ready to export or further work by someone without the plugin.

What's new in v2.0:

-clamp furthermost weights
-copy bones settings on symmetrical objects
-fully multithreaded calculations
-each module is 64-bit without memory limits
-a few bugs fixed
-a few smaller improvements
-free 30 days trial version

WeightPro tutorial

Download

Download WeightPro 2.0 for 3ds Max 2013 - 2016 free trial here

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Corona Renderer 1.2 for 3ds Max 2011-2016

Corona Renderer 1.2 for 3ds Max 2011-2016

[ #Corona #Render #3dsMax ] Corona Renderer 1.2 for 3ds Max 2011-2016 is now available with some cool new features

New Features/Improvements

  -Displacement Improvements
  -Corona Renderer v1.2 brings you a completely re-worked displacement which should be much more powerful, stable and less memory-hungry. The new algorithm also creates nicer meshes with less meshing artifacts. We are also planning further displacement enhancements in 1.3 as well.

  -Keep Edges Together
The new “Keep Edges Together” functionality for displacement which many of you requested

  -Corona Displacement Modifier
Displacement is now also available as a modifier – CoronaDisplacementMod

  -CoronaScatter supports VertexPaint
  -Corona Renderer - CoronaScatter VertexPaint support
  -Corona Multimap Texmap Improvement

List of various improvements:

  -3ds Max 2016 Physical Camera is now supported
  -“Area to Render: Selected” is now supported
  -Added support for 3ds Max atmospheric effects
  -Added seed spinner to MultiMap
  -The standalone (simple) Corona Sun has been reworked. It is now targeted and displays proper illumination in the viewport
  -Textures in CoronaScatter now support vertex color as well as other extra mapping channels
  -MultiMap now has 100 maximum slots (some of them are accessible only via maxscript)
  -New improved proxy exporter script
  -Added “override enviro distance” option to z-depth render element
  -Added “override enviro color” option to CTexmap render element

Quick overview of new and improved features in the Corona Renderer 1.2 release


More details about Corona Renderer 1.2 for 3ds Max 2011-2016 can be found here

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Download mipoll Placement for 3ds Max 2008 - 2016

Download mipoll Placement for 3ds Max 2008 - 2016

[ #3dsMax ] Mipollstudio is sharing the nice ‎3dsMax‬ script called mipoll Placement which allow you to place the 3d objects on to another object on your scene. 

Let's check the video ( with Vietnamese but you can easy to understand I guess )

Download

Download mipoll Placement for 3ds Max 2008-2012 here. Download mipoll Placement for 3ds Max 2013-2016 here. 

Please setup and give the feedback! To setup Right click on icon of Max and run as Administrator, then install script!

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Corona Renderer v1.1 for 3ds Max 2011 - 2016

Corona Renderer v1.1 for 3ds Max 2011 - 2016

[ #Corona #3dsMax ] Corona Renderer v1.1 for 3ds Max is now available with support 3ds Max 2016, more faster and some cool features

>> See Also: Corona Render tutorial: HDR Lighting

- 3ds Max 2016 is now directly supported in the installer.
Corona Bitmap
  -Corona Bitmap is a new shader, works similarly to 3ds Max, but faster. The Corona Converter can convert 3ds Max bitmaps in the entire scene with just one click, allowing to easily speed up rendering usually by 10-20%. Below are some examples from our real test scenes.
Faster
- A4 Benchmark Interior scene – 9% faster
- Car Scene – HDRI – 30% faster
- BTR scene – 20% faster
- Tree Scene – 12% faster

Smaller Improvements
  -Better error reporting: non-obtrusive, non-blocking, with option to surpress further messages.
  -Added ability to specify licensing server IP on render nodes
  -Corona dialogs (VFB, licensing, …) are now HiDPI-compatible
  -Glossy reflections are no longer darker on object outlines.
  -Added displacement switch to RayswitchMtl
  -Render passes now correctly output negative values
more details on Corona blog

Download

You can download Corona Renderer v1.1 for 3ds Max 2011 - 2016 after login in to your customer zone or directly from download section. When upgrading from 1.0, please make sure you upgrade also the Licensing/DR server as well.

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Forest Pack Pro, Lite 4.4 for 3ds Max 2016

Forest Pack Pro, Lite 4.4 for 3ds Max 2016

[ #ForestPackPro #3dsMax ] Itoo Software has announce that New Forest Pack Pro/Lite 4.4 is now available with support for 3ds Max 2016 and V-Ray 3.2.

Features:

- Added support for Max 2016 and V-Ray 3.2.
- Areas->Edge/Size modes are properly affected by Geometry->Scale/Global Scale.
- Animation->time parameters are defined now as number of frames, instead time units. This solves a potential problem with Max 2016.
- Fixed: Animation->time parameters are converted correctly in PAL mode.
- Forest Seed parameter and Forest Color map percentages are animatable.
- Scene Explorers are closed before rendering with Mental Ray and restored once completed. This workaround fixes a rare crash of the Scene Explorer in Max 2015.
- Fixed: Forest Material->Tint doesn't work with V-Ray 3.x.
- Fixed memory leak in Mental Ray.
- Fixed potential crash usign animated objects.
- Fixed rare crash with Network licenses.
- Fixed version checking in MR shader.

Download

Registered customers of Pro products can download the upgrade from the User Panel. 
Lite versions are freely available to download in Itoo Software website. 
  

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RayFire 1.66 for 3ds Max 2011 - 2016

RayFire 1.66 for 3ds Max 2011 - 2016

[ #VFX #3dsMax #RayFire ] Rayfire studio has announced that RayFire 1.66 for 3ds Max 2011 - 2016 is now available

>> See Also: RayFire for 3ds Max tutorial

Features:

  -Partial fragmentation. Fragment only area which is inside the gizmo.
  -Brick size by Size in worldunits or by Bricks count in a Row
  -Brick size variation per Brick and per Row
  -Row Offset for X, Y and Z axes
  -Random Split for bricks over X, Y and Z axes
  -Position Extend and Rotate for outer bricks
  -Gap property
  -Automatic mapping and Material ID for capped faces
  -Explode to objects

RayFire 1.66 Bricks modifier overview

Buy Cheaper RayFire on CGRiver

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Pulldownit v3.5 for 3d Max 2016 and Maya 2016

Pulldownit v3.5 for 3d Max 2016 and Maya 2016

[ #Pulldownit #vfx ] Thinkinetic has announced that Pulldownit v 3.5 is available for latest 3d Max 2016 and Maya 2016, in addition it comes with several fixes and useful new features. Congruent vertex normals after shattering, removing in this way the visible seams of light reflection between the broken pieces,

Uniform\Local\Radial shatter pattern auto-adjust to selected shards region only, making reshatering more user-friendly while keeping the nice Conform Voronoi reshattering introduced in v 3.0, besides Uniform shatter pattern can be offsetted/squeezed, very handy option when user is interested in destroying only part of a model.

Fracturing hi-poly meshes dynamically can be time consuming, user can now force convex shapes on fracture bodies creation to speed up computations of fracture, or to make faster destruction previews.

Transition animation-dynamics is one of the most powerful features of PDI, in this update we extend it so user can animate a group of fragments with motion keys and set it to start in dynamics after being hit or at a desired frame.

There are also other improvements and fixes specific for 3d Max or Maya plugins, here the full list.

New Features:

  -Available for 3d Max and Maya 2016
  -Congruent vertex normals after shattering.
  -Uniform shatter pattern can be offsetted/squeezed
  -Uniform\Local\Radial extend to selected shards región on reshattering
  -Ability to do transition animation-dynamics for group of fragments
  -Force convex shapes option for fracture bodies creation
  -Added DirectX support for viewport 2.0 in Maya( OpenGl was already supported)

Fixes:

  -Fixed slow loading of scenes with PDi data in Maya
  -Fixed concave faces generate incorrect pdi faces in Maya
  -Fixed invalid stresses created between isolated fragments and the rest
  -Fixed clusters outstresses are lost after loading the scene in 3d max
  -Fixed 3d Max crash when object has a multimaterial with empty slots
  -Fixed shatter progress bar for several objects in 3d max
  -Fixed cancelling shatter doesnt revert to original node
  -Fixed Shatterit skip some objects when shattering in ortographic view(3d Max)
  -Fixed setting Uniform after local doesnt hide locators in preview mode( Maya)
  -Fixed some values doesnt update after creating a fracture body(Maya)
  -Fixed advanced fractures lost focus after setting static fragments(Maya)
  -Fixed modify jagginess fails in frame diferent that start frame(Maya)
  -Fixed transition anim-dynamics fails in 2 steps sims
  -Fixed update crackers list when a cracker is deleted by user in viewport
  -Fixed modifying clusterize parameter in frame diferent than start frame (3d max)

Download

More information and get Pulldownit v3.5 for 3d Max 2016 and Maya 2016 here

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V-Ray 3.2 for 3ds Max 2016

V-Ray 3.2 for 3ds Max 2016

[ #3dsMax ] Chaosgroup has announced that V-Ray 3.2 for 3ds Max 2016 numerous other improvements.

New features:

VRayVolumeGrid: Added support for rendering of fluid simulation data (Phoenix FD, Field3D and OpenVDB); 
V-Ray: Added ability to add/remove DR servers on the fly from the Render Progress window; 
V-Ray: The DR servers list is re-read whenever the vray_dr.cfg file is modified during rendering; 
V-Ray: Added button to open the V-Ray messages log window; 
V-Ray: Added camera object properties to control the number of transformation samples for camera motion blur; 
V-Ray: Added support for 3ds Max 2016, including the new Physical Camera and Physical Camera Exposure Control; 
V-Ray: MaxScript parameter to control the DMC random seed; 
V-Ray: The V-Ray object properties allow to specify a given map channel as velocity channel (useful with some Alembic importers); 
V-Ray: Provided tooltip descriptions for most of the renderer settings; 
V-Ray RT CPU: Support for VRayEnvironmentFog; 
V-Ray RT GPU: Added support for Composite map rendering; 
V-Ray RT GPU: Added support for displacement; 
V-Ray RT GPU: Added support for VRayMtl anisotropy; 
V-Ray RT GPU: Added UDIM tag support; 
V-Ray RT GPU: Implemented QMC sampling for CUDA engine; 
V-Ray RT GPU: Initial support for texture baking; 
V-Ray RT GPU: Support for spherical panorama cameras; 
V-Ray RT GPU: Added support for 3ds Max Spot and Omni lights Decay and Near/Far Attenuation parameters; 
V-Ray RT GPU: Added support for textures output Bezier curve output color correction; 
VRayProxy: Added better methods for generating viewport preview meshes based on mesh simplification; 
VRayProxy: Added Show whole mesh viewport display option; 
VRayProxy: Support for exporting the VRayInstancer as a .vrmesh file preserving the instancing; 
VRayStereoscopic: Support for stereo spherical/cylindrical panorama cameras; 
VFB: Added ability to load the render settings for an image from the history window; 
VFB: Can be zoomed in/out with the regular +/-/* keys (useful for remote access from mobile devices); 
VRayCurvatureMap: A new texture similar to VRayDirt; useful for detecting mesh curvature; 
VRayFur: Faster rendering; can now be accelerated by Embree; 
Hair&Fur: Faster rendering; can now be accelerated by Embree; 
VRayInstancer: Added ability to override node and V-Ray object properties of the source objects; 
VRayInstancer: Added parameters to control the random seed, render percentage; 
VRayInstancer: Added an experimental option for multithreaded instance generation (only for the V-Ray portion of the code); 
VRayLight: Added a line that shows the orientation of the dome lights in the viewport, it also shows the center of VRayHDRI wrapping; 
VRayOSLMtl: Added support for vray_subsurface() closure; 
VRayOSLMtl: Added support for vray_hair() closure; 
VRayOSLMtl/VRayOSLTex: Support for drop-down controls; 
VRayHDRI: Added support for loading PNG grayscale with alpha images; 
Texture baking: Additional bake elements for render to texture: VRayMtlReflectIORBake, VRayReflectionFilterMap; 
V-Ray scene converter: Added initial implementation of conversion of Corona materials and lights; 
ply2vrmesh: Support for conversion of particles from .geo and .bgeo files; 
vrayspawner.exe can assign separate DR nodes to different processor groups; 

Availability

This update is free to registered users, and should be visible on your download page on www.chaosgroup.com after logging in. 

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Walls & Tiles v1.4.0 for 3ds Max 2011-2016

Walls & Tiles v1.4.0 for 3ds Max 2011-2016

[ #3dsMax ] Developed by VIZPARK, WALLS & TILES is a very easy-to-use 3ds max material that creates procedural walls and floors based on multiple single bitmaps. Walls & Tiles v1.4.0 for 3ds Max 2011-2016 is now available with support Scanline and compatible, V-Ray 1.5 - 3.0, Corona Renderer 1.0

Features and Changes for v1.4.0 are:

- Material Manager 1.0 Lite Edition is now integrated
- Adds a material preset library for V-Ray, Corona and scanline
- The latest Crossmap v1.4.0 is included
- New 'Render to Maps' feature (bake bitmaps and create new material)
- New copy protection with nodelocked and floating licenses
- You now get a full featured 14 day demo without activation
- Max 2014 or higher now display messages to improve viewport performance settings
- Adds support for Max 2016
- Fixes a MAXScript error when loading old scenes with missing bitmaps
- Infos are now updated correctly in statistics when clearing bitmaps
- Fixes auto-size calculation being wrong in some cases
- Fixes the last selected folder not being remembered correctly during session

Introduction Walls & Tiles v1.4.0

Download

Walls & Tiles v1.4.0 for 3ds Max 2011-2016 costs €79. You can download a demo version here.

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