Discreet gets a new name

Discreet now has a new name; Autodesk Media and Entertainment

Read the full press release here: http://www4.discreet.com/company/press.php?id=1092

Discreet is pleased to announce that as part of their continued effort to provide you with industry-leading creative solutions, and to better serve the rapidly changing markets in which you do business, Discreet has more closely aligned with our parent company of six years, Autodesk, Inc. As of March 24, 2005, we will officially go to market as a division of our parent company, and under a new name, Autodesk Media and Entertainment.

Going to market as a significant part of a $1.2 billion diversified software company, with Media and Entertainment as a key vertical, enables your existing Discreet sales, support and product development teams, which remain unchanged, to take full advantage of incremental global resources in R&D, training, marketing, and support. Our goal is to provide you with continuous product innovation, incremental end-user training, and new support solutions.

Ultimately, this will help ensure that our creative toolset empowers artists to continue to solve the most complex of production challenges facing the industry and that your business can be as profitable as possible.

As part of this change, the Discreet name, with its rich heritage of providing artists with the best solutions to realize their creative visions, will become a part of a family of individual systems product names. Systems products such as flame®, inferno® and lustre®, smoke®, and fire® will now be identified as Discreet Flame, Discreet Inferno, Discreet Lustre, Discreet Smoke and Discreet Fire. Our leading software products such as 3ds Max® and Combustion® will be identified as Autodesk products.

At NAB 2005 we will showcase some exciting new additions to our existing products and solutions resulting from this change, and we look forward to sharing them with you in person. Your local sales representative is available to provide you with further details and to answer questions.

We look forward to a continued partnership in pioneering digital content creativity and helping you realize your ideas.

happy rendering...

Acad 2006 Shipping

Acad 2006 is now shipping for subscription customers.

Max 7 sp1

3dsmax7 Service Pack 1 has been released.

Fixes include the following areas:

BITMAP FORMATS
· AVI and MOV files now network render correctly.

BIPED
· Postures problems have been resolved when loading a copy of a Biped onto a Biped without a ponytail.

Multiple selections on objects with three degrees of freedom were not rotating in the correct space and has been resolved.

When using Auto Key and pasting poses the correct pose would not always paste correctly and has been resolved.

EDIT POLY
· Improved stability on assigning material to Edit Poly modified object with no mapping coordinates.

EDITABLE MESH
· A bug with sub-object transformation animation in the Editable Mesh object type, where animation done on frame 0 would not be properly created, has been fixed.

FILE I/O
· Fixed memory leak when saving .DDS files.

FILE LINK
· File Link will now first search its data set for stand-ins, and if any are found, a Reload is prevented.

LOFT
Using Shift+Move to create a copy of a Shape no longer distorts the Loft Object when “Transform Degrade” is disabled.

Loft object now behaves properly to the Scale transformation while scaling a Shape within a Loft object when “Transform Degrade” is disabled.

The "Copy Shape" (Copy/Instance) dialog window now appears when using Shift+Move to create a copy or an instance of a Shape when Transform Degrade is disabled.


MATERIAL EDITOR
· Corrected instability caused by clearing the material type in a multi-material container.

Automatic conversion of bitmap files to UNC filenames can be disabled. You must edit the ini file and add the following switch "[FileHandling] ConvertToUNC=0" to disable the conversion.

MENTAL RAY
· Final Gather now ignores incorrect UV coordinates, producing a more accurate result.

Fix that will allow mental ray SSS Shaders to render with Backburner or Command line.

Stability improvements to mental ray and rapid motion blur.

Fixed an issue that prevented mental ray from rendering in silent mode.

Fix to mental ray rapid motion blur and the Dielectric material

When Distributed Maps is enabled the slave machines look "locally" for the required textures.

NETWORK RENDERING
· AVI and MOV files now network render correctly.

NORMAL MAP
· Several improvements have been made to the calculation of tangent style normal maps that should reduce blooming and artifacting, particularly on mapping seams.

PARAMETER COLLECTOR
· The position of reordered parameters in a Parameter Collector rollout is now preserved after a parameter is deleted from the collector rollout.

PREFERENCE FILES
· OpenGL Dual Planes setting is now preserved after opening 3ds max in Direct3D mode, then returning to OpenGL mode.

REACTOR CONTROLLER
· Slaves no longer become disconnected from the master tracks on a file load/merge/xref.

Reaction Masters are now correctly named in the Reaction Manager on opening a saved scene

RADIOSITY
· Corrected some instability problems caused when invalidating radiosity after assigning new materials to objects.

Meshing now respects Material IDs boundaries.

In some cases the radiosity solution will not be invalidated as expected.

SCRIPTER & SDK
· Several MAXScript and SDK issues were resolved improving features stability.

SKIN MORPH
· When using Pick Bone Mode in Skin Morph you would get an application error using 3ds max Create mode if Pick Mode was enabled, this has been fixed.

SKIN WRAP
· Instancing the Skin Wrap was causing an application error when using Ctrl+A to select all sub-objects.

TOOL ARRAY
· The Modify panel is now restored when exiting an array preview.

SELECTION FLOATER
· The Selection floater will now resize properly.

TURBO SMOOTH
· Polygonal sub-object selections now are shaded in red in the Turbosmooth modifier, showing the subdivided polys affected by your current selection below Turbosmooth in the stack.

UV UNWRAP
· Corrected instability where making a choice of None while using the Pick Texture dropdown of the Edit UVWs dialog in the Unwrap UVW modifier.

VIEWPORT SHADERS
· Editing a texture that is also being used in a DirectX shader no longer causes program instability.

Improved stability when switching between DirectX effects.

DirectX Display of the Standard Material now works with Skylights.

Fixed crash on canceling light creation when using DirectX Display of the Standard Material.

DirectX Display of the Standard material now ignores lights that are turned off.

Bitmap and Photometric Path Editor utility now handles .FX textures and files correctly.

Improved display of UV mapping for DirectX shaders.

Improved DirectX .FX file output to better match viewport representation.

Reverted back to 3ds max 6 method of loading DirectX shaders on demand, rather than on file open.

DirectX shaders are no longer inverted for objects that have been mirrored.

Improved DirectX .FX file handling for relative paths.

Fixed small memory leak for all DirectX shader types.

WALKTHROUGH
· Corrected instability that occurred when the user switched viewports with Walkthrough mode enabled, and the viewports were set to a camera with Manual Clip Planes enabled.

Corrected instability that could occur when walkthrough mode is enabled in a camera viewport and the user closes max.

XREF
· Fix to Xrefs that was causing max files to unexpectedly increase in size.

Before installing see the Service Pack 1 ReadMe for further details.

happy rendering...

ADT 2006 - Part II

ADT 2006 - part I

Got ADT Troubles?

While working on a pet project that will be unveiled in the next month, I am looking to get some feedback from users/readers (this means you). :)

If you have are having trouble with any ADT related items drop me an e-mail and let me know what kind of difficulties/problems you are experiencing. We are looking to start with some common items (the ones you submit and those other users are having) and help to demystify them for all users.

Got trees?

Got3d (www.got3d.com) releases six volumes of LOW POLYGON TREES.

150 photo-real Low Polygon 3D Trees are now available in the Got3d Store. These trees are not your typical “X” plane meshes with the same tree photo on each side. These trees have been precisely modeled for a low polygon, photo real alternative to “heavy” meshes. The average tree face count is only an astonishing 306 faces, which will render lightning fast in your 3d scenes! .MAX and .3DS formats are available.

happy rendering...

The Daily Grind...

Well maybe not so random... I love being busy with consulting and the past few weeks have been full of traveling adventures and a great opportunity to meet so many new faces and cad users out there. Be on the look out for the AUGI CAD Camps. I have 4 planned so far that I will be participating in (will announce the dates/location for these soon).

Over the past weekend I did get the chance to take the family to see The Greatest Show on Earth.



The show was well done and with a now almost one year old it was even better seeing him get excited to see the animals, clowns and light shows. Climbing the stairs has been the most recent development around the house. You have to watch these kids, they are fast!

This weeks travel adventures have taken me onsite to Pennsylvania (Harrisburg) for a few days to wrap up some ADT customization, then heading back home.

Another pet project for the CAD/ADT community to be unveiled the first week in April...

counting down... 3 - 2 - 1

A Shave, Haircut and more... well sort of its 3ds Max 7.5

Discreet Press Release

New Features in 3ds max 7.5
Hair and Fur—Based on Joe Alter’s highly regarded “Shave and a Haircut” solution, the hair and fur in 3ds max 7.5 software offers numerous styling and dynamics tools for creating realistic hair and other strand-derivative effects. These include:

• Styling tools—brush tool for combing hair and brushing along complicated contours with “re-comb,” as well as support for clumping and frizz for added realism
• Hair dynamics tools—using the dynamics engine of Shave and the dynamic forces of 3ds max to inherit inertia directly from the Skin or any other modifier’s surface movement
• mental ray integration—fast, memory-efficient and direct rendering using the native mental ray hair primitive
• Hair, plus—instanced geometry can be used as individual hairs to easily create forests, fields of flowers and other landscapes

mental ray 3.4—3ds max 7.5 software will feature mental ray 3.4, mental images’ most current version. Each seat of 3ds max 7.5 will provide access to numerous mental ray 3.4 optimizations, including faster final gathering performance, and fast rasterization for first-generation rays.

Visualization Features—3ds max customers in design markets often require a broad cross-section of 3D and visualization tools. With the subscription delivery of 3ds max 7.5, product designers, architects, inventors and others in this space will have the advanced modeling capabilities offered in 3ds max and Autodesk VIZ in a single package.

• Radiosity Adaptive Subdivision—adds adaptive subdivision to the radiosity plug-in, enabling higher quality, more accurate and more efficient radiosity processing
• Batch render—gives users a solution to quickly render a series of stills from different angles, with the option to change render settings and layers in between views
• UVW mapping improvement—place physically-scaled materials onto objects in the scene more easily and accurately with support for real-world measurements
• Sweep modifier—“Loft” a shape or profile along lines or polylines imported from AutoCAD or line work created in 3ds max, even applying pre-set shapes to simple linework
• SceneState—capture object, layer, material, camera and light information as a "scene state” that can be saved and restored at will
• Autodesk Revit^® 7 Interoperability—Autodesk Revit users can now create high-quality images of their models with 3ds max 7.5 by importing/linking a Revit model via the DWG format, and having their scene objects correspond directly to individual Revit objects
• Autodesk Inventor^® Interoperability—access the Inventor file option directly within the import tool
• DWF export—convey ideas and share designs by exporting models from
• 3ds max 7.5 for viewing with Autodesk DWF Viewer and Autodesk DWF Composer

3ds max 7.5 software is expected to be available in mid-April to customers in the Discreet Subscription Program.

Want to see a few of these goodies in action? Check out the 3ds max demo videos. (Thanks to Jeff Patton for pointing the updated demo videos out).

happy rendering...

CG Clearning House

CG Auctions is a new site devoted to CG e-commerce, eBay style. 3D models, hardware, software, books and more can be sold without any charges through the site.

courtesy Max Underground.

happy rendering...

3-D Studio Max Presentation Plug

For anyone attending the Megacon (comic book/SF convention) in Orlando Florida be sure to attend the 3-D Studio Max Presentation on Sunday, February 27th, 2005 at 10:30 – 11:30, Room 224 H as my buddy Tod Stephens will be giving a live 3D Studio Max presentation to create a realistic building in the 90 minute presentation and be part of the audience that decides what the building will look like, what kind of lights and furniture it will have, and what kind of animation will be created.

happy rendering...

Sheet Set (0 dst) Hot Fix

A HotFix is now available on the Autodesk Support site for the Sheet Set (0 dst) issue that several users have encountered. This fix applies to: Autodesk® Architectural Desktop 2005 and Autodesk® Building Systems 2005.

The link to the download is: http://support.autodesk.com/getdoc.asp?id=TS5273141

The issue:
If multiple users make simultaneous modifications to a project, the Sheet Set Template (.dst) can become corrupt. In this scenario, the dst file associated with the project is reduced to 0 KB in size and users are unable to modify existing sheets or create new sheets within this project.
This updated version of the AecProject45.arx file addresses this issue and prevents future instances of this problem.

Be sure to review the readme file before installing...

Internet, who needs a connection

Sorry for the lack of updates recently. Unfortunately the level of quality I have had with Earthlink over the past 5 years has been on a steady decline (numerous issues that are important to me).

With a week of downtime this past week the speed (or lack thereof) got so bad that I actually now have no connection and 4+ hours on the phone 4 days ago could not get it straightened out. Time is money, so Earthlink if your reading this, thank you for the past 5 years but I am moving on.

Enter the full digital cable package, extended cable, broadband, voice, etc... with no contract. All together this is cheaper than what I am currently paying for my home phone and earthlink service, will let you know how this goes. In the meantime look for an ADT/ABS related post tomorrow.

SplutterFish Dev Blog

The talented folks at SplutterFish (makers of the Brazil rendering engine) now have a developers blog. Intended for use by SplutterFish developers, testers and staff members to post individual bits of news on development and SplutterFish in general, outside of official announcements on the website and through press releases.

Looking forward to the release of v2.0... :)

RPC Creator Pro

ArchVision has released a new program called RPC Creator Pro that allow's a user to create their own RPC content from photo's, video and/or rendered sequences images.



Creator Pro users have the ability to reduce the rendering overhead of polygon-heavy geometric models by converting a series of images rendered around the object into a resource-friendly RPC. RPC Creator Pro provides an easy-to-use interface for loading images and the relevant meta data used to create 2D, 2.5D, 3D and 3.5D RPCs. Creator Pro includes such features as an image sequence loader, DXF/OBJ icon importer, meta tag editor, and RPC preview via an integrated RPC ActiveX Viewer.

RPC Creator Pro is available now for US $399. To learn more, visit www.archvision.com/CreatorPro.

happy rendering...

PA - AEC Geek Dinner

We will be meeting at Isaacs Deli Inc - (717) 766-1111 - 4940 Ritter Rd, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055 - Yahoo! Maps - MapQuest on Thursday February 10, 2005 7:00pm.

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Mechanicsburg PA - AEC Geek Chat

Been back and forth across the country over the past month and this week in Mechanicsburg, PA (close to York and Harrisburg) and having a great time with a traveling companion on this trip, Brian Smith. Nothing but ADT and wi-fi fun as well as some great rendering related chats.

For anyone interested in getting together for an "AEC Geek Chat" (cad, visualization or related; AutoCAD, ADT, Viz, Max, etc...) on Thursday February 10, 2005 drop me an e-mail . We will formulate a plan/location to meet with everyone who responds by Wed. evening.

Also for anyone in South/Central PA, Bill Frederick is starting an AutoCAD Users Group in the York, PA area that you may be interested in attending. This is a great opportunity to get out an meet other cad users in your area with similar interests and to learn more at the same time. For more information contact Bill @ usergroup@jrholley.com

happy cadding...

2005 Architectural Visualization Competition

The largest computer graphics visualization competition ever launched, with over $90,000 US in prizes,to be judged by five of the most talented and influential people in CG and Architecture industry.

Calgary , Alberta, Canada , February 1, 2005 CGarchitect.com the leading online magazine for Architectural visualization artists, today announced the launch of the biggest online visualization competition in the CG industry.

“This is the first competition of its kind in the Architectural Visualization industry” said CGarchitect.com founder Jeff Mottle “and for that matter the first competition of its kind in the CG industry” Through a series of challenges and qualifying competitions, spanning the next six months, competitors will stretch their imaginations and skills to demonstrate their prowess in the art of architectural illustration and animation. While the ultimate winner and finalists in the competition will take home amazing prizes, the goal of this competition is to promote architectural illustration and encourage its advancement through community participation and critiques.

The competition will start with an open call for entries. A panel of expert judges will select the top 30 entries to participate in the actual competition. With each challenge the field will be narrowed until the final three have been selected. What separates this challenge from the rest is the range of challenges that participants will be asked to compete in, and the individual critiques that each contestant will receive from the expert judges. The winner will be announced the 4th Annual SIGGRAPH 2005 CGarchitect.com party in Los Angeles in August.

Click here to Enter the Competition Website: http://www.cgarchitect.com/challenge/2005challenge/

The competition is sponsored by the top software, hardware, and CG service providers in the industry, with prizes totaling over $90,000 US in value. The first place winner will walk away with a prize package valued at just over $36,000 including a brand new HP workstation xw6200, configured with an Intel® Xeon™ processor, NVIDA Quadro FX 1300 graphics, 1 GB of memory and a flat panel monitor.

happy rendering...

Vizdepot Visualization Contest

The Vizdepot Visualization Contest is Back!!! With the collective efforts of many people and the modeling by Jeff Patton (mental ray guru that he is)

This is the first CHALLENGE of the Vizdepot Visualization Challenge and requires you to render a specific view of a partial model of the Garden of the The Fine Arts designed by architect Tadao Ando. The goal is to light the model as realistically as possible, texture and wow us with an image.

For more information and to get started with a great scene visit the site here.

good luck and happy rendering...

Maxwell Render

Maxwell Render from Next Limit Technology is an up and coming plug in for Max and Maya (Win 32 now and soon Linux and Mac OS X) that looks rather interesting. Rather than using a specific color space (think RGB) it uses spectral rendering technology. Check out the website and gallery images for a closer look at what it can do.

Richard also has some great images and brief overview of this technology on his website.

If you are looking for some great tips/tricks and general know how in using Maxwell check out the following from Metin.

happy rendering...