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Showing posts from March, 2009

V-Ray public event, London, United Kingdom, May 13th, 2009

Normally I hate these kind of things, but this is one event I wouldn't mind going to, seeing as the V-Ray people are so rad and helpful. The fact that it's free also helps: From the chaosgroup website: A team of professionals from Chaos Software will visit London, UK to present the following products: 1.The newly released V-Ray 1.50SP3 (1.50 Service Pack 3) 2.The soon to be released V-Ray for Maya 3.pdplayer - the professional tool for multi-layered sequences preview, basic compositing and color corrections in real time. 4.Additionally Chaos Software will make official announcements on the release of V-Ray Interactive RT technology, as well as a few more upcoming products from Chaos Software. The Chaos Software team will also conduct a number of commercial trainings: 1.In-depth V-Ray technology analysis 2.Cutting production costs by implementing V-Ray-based pipelines 3.Tips and tricks on using V-Ray features in ways never imagined before May 13th, 2009, Wednesday Morning sessi

3D stool sample

3ds max and V-Ray1.5 ( click )

More free 3d cars

I found some more free 3d car models here (3ds max file format) They seem to be pretty good quality Here is a Mercedes S55 that I rendered out. I had to change quite a few of the materials to V-Ray materials, because the file comes with some standard 3ds max materials, but other than that the models are pretty good. There is also a Nissan 350Z, Audi Q7, Honda S2000 and a bunch of other stuff

3ds max select by name slow/fast

Ok, let me get this out of the way first - I am still using 3ds Max 2008. Autodesk would like me to be using Max 2010 by now, even though its only March 2009, but I couldn't be arsed. One of the things I hated about using Max 2008 for the first time was the "new" object selection box. (Select by name, H on the keyboard) If you have many objects in your scene (And even if you don't have that many), it is incredibly sloooooow. Very annoying when all you are trying to do is select an object from a list. So, the best thing to do is to revert back to the "old" object selection box. This is how you do it: Go to this ini file: C:\Documents and Settings\< >\Local Settings\Application Data\Autodesk\3dsmax\2008 - 64bit\enu\defaults\MAX\CurrentDefaults.ini where < > is your windows user name and change: [Scene Explorer] SelectByNameUsesSceneExplorer=1 to: [Scene Explorer] SelectByNameUsesSceneExplorer=0 Thanks to V-Ray Forum user dbibb for this trick!

V-Ray/Mental Ray material conversion script....

Sometimes I move over to the dark side and render things with Mental Ray.(Gasp!) Master Zap has made a great script for converting V-Ray materials to Mental Ray Arch and Design materials. It's saved me a lot of time - thanks Master Zap! Get the script here

3D vuvuzela

A what? A Vuvuzela, as used by South African soccer fans. Modelled in 3ds max 2008, rendered with V-Ray 1.5 SP3. You can buy the model here if you want to: ( link ) What's plastic, long, brightly coloured and sounds like an elephant? It's the vuvuzela, the noise-making trumpet of South African football fans, and it's come to symbolise the sport in the country. It's an instrument, but not always a musical one. Describing the atmosphere in a stadium packed with thousands of fans blowing their vuvuzelas is difficult. Up close it's an elephant, sure, but en masse the sound is more like a massive swarm of very angry bees. And when there's action near the goal mouth, those bees go really crazy! ( http://www.southafrica.info/2010/vuvuzela.htm ) Get yours now before the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa!

VRay Environment fog test by aldaryn

Here is a test animation by V-Ray user aldaryn, showing one of the new features of V-Ray 1.5 SP3. - (Environment fog) It's pretty darn bitchin: Hoi An Hotel, VRay Environment fog test from aldaryn on Vimeo .

Woohoo! V-Ray 1.5 SP3 is released

Chaosgroup has released V-Ray 1.5 SP3 today. ( link ) WTF - a free upgrade? Yes, and they made the software better too, with new features that we, the users asked for, and the upgrade is free for anyone who has ever bought V-Ray in the past. Now that's service and if only Autodesk would learn from this. V-Ray 1.5 Service Pack 3 is compatible with Autodesk 3ds Max 6.xx/7.xx/8.xx/9.xx/2008/2009 as well as Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2009. Both 32-bit and 64-bit OS are supported. New features included: - VRayFastSSS2 sub-surface scattering material - Linear Workflow - Mesh-based lights - V-Ray light material as direct light - V-Ray Fog environmental effect - Vector Displacement - Import Proxy as mesh - Support for Max Arch & Design materials - Region Rendering directly in VFB Some renders courtesy of V-Ray developer and all-round-nice-guy Vlado, while SP3 was in development, just to give you an idea:

Olympus love...

I've been a fan of Olympus cameras ever since I inherited a great little 1979 Olympus XA . What's great about this camera is that it is based around a sharp and fast F2.8 lens, not something you see too often in pocket-able cameras these days. I've had a lot of fun with this tiny camera, but unfortunately It suffered from the "sticky shutter" syndrom that affects a lot of XA's in their old age. Here is a photo I took with the XA, way, way back: Another thing I like about Olympus is that they have a slightly "left of centre" approach, often creating unusual, innovative products. Which brings me to the real object of this post: this rather sexy, retro-ish micro four thirds digital camera: More info can be found at engadget , but whatIi particularly like about the micro four thirds system is that it gives you the advantages of an SLR (interchangeable lenses), in a much smaller form factor. So if you attach a small prime lens, you have a great street pho