Available immediately for Mac and Windows computers, tablets, interactive white boards, and touch screens, ArtRage Studio and Studio Pro 3.5 provides a most realistic tactile experience. Major improvements in version 3.5 including improvements to the interface to smooth out workflow, tweaks to tools to give quick access to important functionality, and other changes that have been requested since the release of 3.0. Other features include the ability to record and playback actual paint strokes, faster speed, scripting, content sharing, and improved color blending tools.

New ArtRage 3.5 Features

Multithreading

Users of multiprocessor or multicore machines will see substantial speed increases when using version 3.5. Multithreading support has been added to the tools and many of the processor intensive functions in the application.

Package Files

Package Files make the process of sharing custom content like stickers, presets and stencils easy. The Package system lets you gather together as many custom resources as you like and compress them in to an easy to use data file that can be shared with other users and installed with a double click.

 
• Double click and ArtRage extracts and installs the contents of the Package automatically to the user content folders without you having to lift a finger.
• Installed Packages save a receipt which allows easy uninstallation or repair at a later date.
• (Studio Pro) Create your own Package Files, and add author notes and a preview image to personalize it before distribution.
• (Studio Pro) Save out partially completed Package Files to a Template so that you can work on them over multiple sessions.

 

Scripting

ArtRage Script Files allow users to record the process of painting as it happens in to a data file that can be played back later, reproducing the strokes that made up the painting dynamically for the viewer. Record your art for posterity, create tutorials with annotations explaining techniques, and share the process of painting as well as the finished result.

 
• Download and play back scripts at original or accelerated speed to see the painting constructed live on your canvas. The end result is a PTG file complete with all its texture and paint data.
• Play back scripts at different resolutions, recreating your artwork at larger or smaller sizes without losing quality as you would if you resized the original.
• (Studio Pro) Record paintings in a Script File that can be shared with other users.
• (Studio Pro) Annotate scripts as you record with Note Bubbles and Spotlights that draw the viewer’s attention to areas of the canvas during playback. Great for creating tutorials or sharing your knowledge by explaining why you’re using a certain technique or tool.
• (Studio Pro) Scripts are saved with the painting as you work, allowing you to come back to a session and continue recording later.

 

The ArtRage Scripting System is built on a Scripting Language that can be used by advanced script authors to create manually written scripts in a simple text file.

 
• Scripts recorded in ArtRage can be edited manually. Want to change the color of a single stroke you made in the painting, or change the tool that was used? You can adjust and rewrite every element of the painting script however you require.
• Control almost every aspect of ArtRage via written commands, including paint strokes, transformations, settings, built in filtering and more. This deep level of control allows you to automate complex processes in a single file.
• Work with C++ style functions and variable manipulation. The script language supports a wide range of variable types and operators, allowing you to write scripts for procedural painting.
• The script language includes user input options, so you can create scripts with branching functionality or allow the user to select values for numeric or string variables in the script while it plays.

 

Artistic Enhancements

3.5 contains a number of enhancements to the natural painting simulation, including enhancements to tools and color systems.

 
• The Real Color Blending system in ArtRage Studio Pro has been rewritten from the ground up to produce better blending results at faster speeds.
• You can load your Palette Knife with paint and create smooth strokes of pigment across the canvas, blending as you go. Studio Pro allows control over the precise angle of the knife edge if you want to create uniform strokes without worrying about how you hold the stylus.
• The Airbrush has new controls for the sharpness of its falloff so that you can create hard edged strokes, and adds control over drips in the nozzle to allow spattered paint effects.
• Hard tipped media tools such as Pencils, Crayons, and Chalks have been tweaked to allow more expressive variation based on stylus pressure when they interact with the canvas.

 

Comparison Chart

http://www2.ambientdesign.com/files/artrage_3.5_product_comparison.pdf

Corel Photo Paint 12

The Navigator panel allows the viewing of the image from any angle and enabling drawing modes, Impasto, tracing paper, grids and color management.

The new brushes are just as fun to use, as those in a copy of Painter I still have from way back. Also, for performance’s sake, the new kaleidoscope feature. This feature splits the screen into 12 lines from the centre of the screen and allows the palette to work rather like a, well, Kaleidoscope. As I say, it’s just a bit of fun, but this will certainly draw the crowds of never been creative before painters into using at least this feature.
One much more practical change is that the screen clutter seen in previous versions is minimised. Painter is much more focused on the working area, leaving the workspace available for some big images to take over. In fact, I found their menus and panels very light, workable and well-nigh Photoshop-esque. The ability to arrange your panels and palettes the way they are needed has been a big issue for studio workflow speed, and this is a step in the right direction.

The Brushes are reportedly three to five times faster in this release as well, though some reviewers have found some lag between pen down and resultant stroke. I love the Paper selection. I don’t know why, I just do. The new Computed Circular brush control panel lets you decide on the ‘tip profile’ of the brush. The dab opacity and hardness, and dynamic setting like angle and squeeze.

Painter also has now 64-bit support for Windows and a Mac 64-bit release is due out later on in the year. The full product of Corel Painter 12 retails for US$499.00

The long-awaited Avatar finally opens today from Twentieth Century Fox and, as you’ve read by now, actually lives up to all the hype about transporting us in a much more visceral and immersive way. I spoke to James Cameron by phone last week from the London junket, and he really enjoyed geeking out for us.

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ZBrush 3.5 aims to bring you creative freedom and an end to technical constraints. With new features like ZSpheres II, ZSketch, Quick Sketch, Surface Noise, Planar brushes and many other new enhancements, your art will reach a whole new level.

With this new version, we have refined and added to ZBrush’s already exceptional toolset, improving the natural traditional media feel that ZBrush is famous for. We’ve made it easier than ever for you to create organic characters, mechanical objects, environments or product designs. If you are an illustrator, VFX or video game artist, product designer or just a hobbyist passionate about 3D, ZBrush is for you!

We invite you to discover the main new additions to ZBrush 3.5 – enhancements that are the foundation for the upcoming ZBrush 4! In addition, both versions are free upgrades for all registered ZBrush users!

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Joseph Drust
Senior Character Artist
Vicious Cycle Software.

The new features in ZBrush 3.5 allow myself as an artist to explore my creative freedoms even further then before. The Pixologic team has really outdone themselves, ZBrush 3.5 is sculpting with real clay (but with undoes, symmetry, and about a thousand other additions.)

Backtrack
The introduction of the new Backtrack settings allow for pinpoint drawing of line strokes when creating hard surface objects. Noise is outstanding allowing the artist to quickly create surface variation across an entire model instantly.

The ability to export out HD normal and HD displacement maps removes the restraint of ever reaching too much detail.

The new gradient system allows for an entirely new level of polypainting; with new masking abilities and Ambient Occlusion being built in I find myself no longer needing to branch out to external texturing program Pixologic has not only raised the bar for Digital Sculpting yet again, but also in tutorials and learning. The Pixologic ZClassroom is an excellent learning system, with hundreds of free, easy to follow video tutorials. New and old users to ZBrush can easily gain information on controlling all the new 3.5 features (as well as the existing ones from 3.1.)

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Oct – Nov 09 Issue Articles

• Interview with Lee Perry-Smith
• Photoshop: Making of Homage
• Maya: Making of Where’s She Looking
• 3ds Max: Making of Evil Gremlin
• Photoshopr: Making of Clara
• Winners: Accident Challenge
• Gallery – Showcase of latest 3D inspiring art

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Source : http://www.cgarena.com

With the release of version 15.0 of its RenderMan Pro Server, Pixar Animation Studios introduces many powerful innovations. This includes unlimited threading per machine, volume primitives, important additions to the RSL, support for Disney’s forthcoming open-source Ptex per-face painted textures, imager shaders, an API for subdivision surfaces, and more. RenderMan Pro Server 15.0 also delivers major performance increases for production scene rendering in the areas of ray tracing, ambient occlusion, improved thread scalability, and optimized memory management.

The introduction of unlimited threading enables studios and artists to maximize the full power of their rendering hardware, allowing each license of RenderMan to utilize any number of threads on the latest multi-core platforms. RenderMan Pro Server 15.0 is the first product to introduce unlimited threading, and will be followed by the next versions of RenderMan Studio and RenderMan for Maya.

“RenderMan Pro Server 15.0 packs an impressive number of great new features that we were able to deploy extremely quickly in our pipeline,” said Philippe Leprince, CG Pipeline Supervisor at Double Negative, London. “Refinements to the RenderMan Shading Language, texture mapping and threading, allowed us to make our shading pipeline more efficient while increasing overall quality. Ptex by itself is a revolution and we are reeling from the consequences as we integrate it into our upcoming shows.”

“With RenderMan Pro Server 15.0′s impressive new features and handsome performance improvements, Pixar shows once again that it is not content to rest on its laurels. The perpetual cycle of improvements makes the tools a joy to use and a sound investment too,” said Chris Bone, Head of Research and Development at Animal Logic in Sydney.
RenderMan Pro Server 15.0 is compatible with Mac OS X, Linux 32-bit and 64-bit, Windows XP 32-bit, Windows Vista 32-bit and 64-bit, and Windows Vista 64-bit HPC Server. Separate upgrade pricing from RenderMan Pro Server 14.0 to 15.0 is also available. Evaluation copies of RenderMan Pro Server 15.0 are available upon request. In addition, Pixar’s maintenance program benefits customers with access to ongoing support and upgrades for an annual price.

Related links:
Pixar
source : http://features.cgsociety.org

Researchers develop specialized hardware to render holographic projections at near real-time speeds. The framerate leaves a bit to be desired, however, so don’t throw your 3D glasses away just yet.

If the resurgence of 3D glasses at local cinemas are any indication, we all want a bit more, ahem, depth to our cinematic experience. Unfortunately, the stylish glasses don’t exactly lend themselves to an immersive experience. What would be really cool would be animated holograms. While holograms aren’t the easiest things in the world to make, it is possible to take a 3D computer model and compute the data necessary to generate a hologram that can be used to project a 3D image from a screen. Given that animation is largely computer generated now anyway, where are my holographic animated movies?

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We don’t pretend to understand the Japanese, we usually just nod graciously and smile when they dazzle us with their consumer electronics and robots. But Sony’s MotionPortrait is different, SolidAlliance different. The technology creates 3D graphics from 2D stills of human faces. The 3D faces can then be animated semi-realistically using standard computer graphics. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised to find this tech in a CyberShot point-and-shoot in a few years out. Innocent enough until you see how it’s demonstrated. Click through to see the results and feel free to laugh or scream at the end — we did both in unison much to our surprise.

June – July 09 Issue Articles

• Interview with Francisco A. Cortina
• Photoshop: Portrait of Nathan
• XSI: Making of Aramaki, Section 9
• 3ds Max: Making of Portrait of Martha
• Painter: Making of Naval Officer
• Gallery – Showcase of latest 3D inspiring art

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(Minimum Requirement Acrobat 6)

source : www.cgarena.com

One of the core functions of ZBrush has always been to provide artists with the ability to create in an environment that allows for complete freedom of expression. The lack of technical barriers that make working with in ZBrush feel like real world sculpting and painting is why so many have created such ground breaking work.

We would now like to introduce you to, GoZ, a new core feature of ZBrush that will bring you even closer to creating at the speed of your imagination. With GoZ, artists can spend less time on technical aspects, and more time on simply being creative. With a single click of a button, GoZ lets you quickly transfer your geometry back and forth between ZBrush and other 3D application like Maya, Cinema 4D, and Modo, with many other applications soon to come. This means that you can place ZBrush and its GoZ feature at the center of any workflow. Not only can you instantly transfer geometry between ZBrush and other 3D applications, but any texture, normal, and displacement maps created with in ZBrush will automatically be connected to the appropriate shader networks in the program of your choosing. Now you are free to work with out the distraction of timely export and import operations. GoZ breaks down the walls between other applications extending the power and fluid nature of ZBrush even further. GoZ is actually a small glimpse at the many powerful features that have been developed for ZBrush 4. At this time we will be releasing the first version of GoZ with the next Mac OSX update in June, Windows users will be able to take advantage of GoZ along with all of the new features that have been added to ZBrush 4 when it is released this August.

For now enjoy the preview movie : Click Here

An interview with David Hockney caught my eye this week in The Guardian. The world-renowned artist had turned his hand to a spot of CG art and seemed to be quite impressed. For me the interview was a mixture of encouraging signs of a ‘traditional artist’ starting to grasp the titanic opportunities of computer graphics, mixed with a few wrinkled brow moments as the same traditionalist misconceptions crept back in.

Read the article yourself and I’d be interested to know what you think, but for me it started me thinking…

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Mark Breakspear

Digging the Invisible.
Visual Effects Supervisor Mark Breakspear’s career path bends him toward virtual environments.

When Mark Breakspear, visual effects supervisor at Rainmaker UK finished work on the film “Da Vinci Code,” he took a bold step. Because “Da Vinci Code” director Ron Howard couldn’t film inside San Sulpice church in Paris, Rainmaker had created a three-dimensional, photorealistic digital version of that church and of other locations difficult or impossible to access.

Breakspear calculated that the filmmakers would undergo the same or worse restrictions if they were to film author Dan Brown’s prequel “Angels and Demons.” So, he read the book, determined where he thought the main locations would be, went to Rome, and photographed the interiors even though the studio hadn’t landed the job.

He did this because he was afraid that after ‘Da Vinci Code’ released, the church would realize the production could use still photographs to fake locations the church had put off limits for filming.

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