Posted in 3D Renders, Companion software, Special Offers and Discounts, Spotted in the News
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It’s super-release Tuesday! After DAZ’s Micheal 7 and Poser 11 were released today, now comes KeyShot 6. I’d expected it sometime before Christmas, but Animation World News reported a few hours ago that it’s actually shipping now (note that there’s now a cheap £75 Educational version). My previous post on this blog has details of the new features.
Poser 11 and Poser Pro 11 have been released today! UK prices are £95 for 11 and £239 for Pro 11. USA prices are $139.99 / $349.99. Both Windows and Mac version are available now, and are heavily discounted.
New features in v.11 include:
* an integrated (‘Superfly’) version of Blender’s professional level Cycles render-engine, including caustics.
* the Pro 11 version supports Nvidia CUDA, giving a GPU-assisted boost to render times.
* new Poser base female character, Pauline, shipping as standard.
* add realistic tattoos and scars, via new layered materials.
* improved OpenGL ‘Comic Book’ real-time rendering, adjustable ink outlines.
I wonder if we might start to see new semi-toon characters + presets dedicated solely to the comic book look?
Plus there’s…
* a new scalable user interface, for those working on humongously large monitors.
* it’s now easier to step back and forth between characters, as you build a scene.
* Pro also has bone control handles, and direct character manipulation is now easier.
* new rigging features, with some automation.
* customisable tool/dial/character palettes and hot keys. Adjustable auto-save.
Looks good. Let’s hope that the Blender/Cycles ‘Superfly’ rendering engine gives fast and good-looking results with standard characters, without having to faff around applying/tweaking three-dozen new materials by hand. And that ‘the comic-book look’ is viable for producing comic-books which will please the highly discerning eye of comics fans. If Poser 11 gets those two things right, then I’d say it’s back in the game against DAZ Studio.
Big Comic Page reviews the new made-with-Poser commercial comic-book Faster than Light #3 (not to be confused with the videogame FTL: Faster Than Light), which is from the Anomaly team…
“Judging by the first [story] arc I can see this being adapted for TV in the not too distant future [and] not much would have to be changed”
Elsewhere reviewers have noted the series as shaping up to provide…
“all the idealism of the original Star Trek and the grit and immediacy of Gravity“
There’s a webinar to explain the features of the forthcoming Poser Pro 11…
* new female base figure, Pauline
* a new Blender Cycles-based render engine (without having to learn Blender, phew!)
* improved real-time Comic-Book Mode
* and probably much more…
Launches: 17th November 2015.
Posted in 3D Renders, Companion software, Special Offers and Discounts, Spotted in the News
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The long-awaited Keyshot 6 is on its way soon, very probably before Christmas. It appears that users can expect a host of new goodies users in version 6, including:
* Ambient occlusion, albeit as a material type.
* A new “Product” preset setting — “useful for products with transparent materials illuminated by the environment and local lighting”.
* A new “Interior” preset setting — an easy way to convincingly light an interior scene with natural light.
* Basic editing of 3D geometry.
* File import, or at least linking(?), for Cinema 4D, Maya, 3DS Max.
* Save to a layered Photoshop (PSD) file. Sadly, there’s still no ability to have ground shadows render onto their own layer.
* Material editing and mixing via nodes, for those who like that sort of thing.
* An improved Move Tool for moving objects around the stage.
And much more. Sadly the clunky batch-rendering stack doesn’t get a usability overhaul, via some much-needed drag-and-drop .bip file-adding functionality.
Top Poser content-creators Aeon Soul (formerly Aery Soul) appear to be leaving the Runtime DNA store. Or, at least, they’re closing out their products there and are saying that “many items will never be on sale again”…
And there’s now a new emerging Aeon Soul store at the DAZ Store, with brand new products for DAZ Studio and heavy introductory discounts…
Issue 2 of the free Digital Art LIVE magazine is now available. The 84-page issue’s theme is ‘alien flora and fauna’, and there’s also a ‘future humans’ gallery showing possible future human evolution…
Posted in Companion software, Freebies, Real-time animation, Spotted in the News
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Microsoft’s Project Spark is now free. It’s a successful 3d game-making engine for advanced beginners, intended to nudge sparky young game developers toward Windows and the Xbox.
The guys behind the Poser-created Anomaly comic book have a new Poser product coming soon. Faster Than Light is a new SF 3D comic complete with invisibly-embedded QR Codes which spark your phone or tablet into showing Augmented Reality overlays. Sounds a lot better than the old red-blue cellophane glasses!
Posted in Comics, Companion software, Freebies, Real-time animation, Spotted in the News, The Animation Industry
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It’s all happening! A new Poser coming, and now Muvizu wakes up as well. According to their news mailing Muvizu, the very useable and free real-time toon production software from Glasgow, is moving forward again with a new Chief Exec. Also…
“From August we will introduce a market place where we will offer new characters – and content packs as well as expansion packs including multi-layer rendering and key framing.”
Interesting. Project Manager for Poser, Charles Taylor, reports that Poser 11 is set to plug in the powerful Cycles rendering engine from Blender…
“Poser 11 will include … Our new render engine … based on the Cycles engine of Blender fame. Don’t worry; the familiar FireFly render engine is still going to be there. We’re just giving you another rendering option.”
“Poser’s integration of Cycles, (currently code named SuperFly) is going to give you a much-requested feature: rendered caustics. SuperFly will use the same material room you already know from FireFly. You won’t need to learn a new material interface.”
And since I seem to remember that Blender Cycles does glow very well indeed, this may (my guess) also bring a proper spillover glow effect to Poser users?
Available now is the new flagship female DAZ character Victoria 7 for Genesis 3, which only works with the DAZ Studio 4.8 beta.
Some readers may be wondering: “What?! I only have Genesis 2, where do I get Genesis 3?” Good question — none of the Victoria 7 DAZ Store pages have any indication of how you get Genesis 3. The latest version of DAZ Studio states clearly that it only ships with Genesis 2. DAZ’s main Genesis 3 information page has no links to any G3 downloads or product.
So the process of getting G3 seems a real mystery. It took me 40 minutes of searching until I found the following aside, buried in a Forum thread:
“You can select it [the new G3 Female icon] in your Library [inside of DAZ Studio 4.8 beta only] then click the Download & Install button”
This apparently starts your “G3 Female Starter Essentials” download and install, through Download Manager. There’s currently no other way, such as .zip, to get it.
Then once you have G3 up and running, you can then load your new Victoria 7. You can also now get three G3 Female expansions…
Note that the new G3 Micheal 7 flagship male character won’t be released until mid November.
Ready to pop your pod? The Hyperloop pod design competition, from SpaceX.
A group of artists explores the best ways to produce a photorealistic 3D human face. A face that doesn’t freak people out, by looking not-quite human. Their early work is now available as a free Maya file (non-commercial use only).
