MAXON DELIVERS FULLY-LOADED CINEMA 4D R11 RAISES BAR FOR 3D ANIMATION EXCELLENCE Next Generation Product Suite Offers Non-Linear Animation, a Boost in Rendering Speed and Quality,
Including Re-Engineered Global Illumination, and the Highly Anticipated Projection Man Matte Painting System

MAXON, August 12, 2008 - MAXON Computer, a leading developer of professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions, today unveiled CINEMA 4D Release 11 (R11), the next generation of its highly acclaimed 3D animation software suite. The super-charged release is packed with advanced capabilities that deliver dramatically improved ease of use and workflow, image quality and integration into any production pipeline. CINEMA 4D R11 highlights include a non-linear animation system, new global illumination render engine and dramatically improved render speed. Customers also benefit from the powerful Projection Man matte painting system, developed by MAXON for Sony Pictures Imageworks, support for the COLLADA™ file format and CineMan - a RenderMan-compliant tool that connects to Pixar's industry-leading rendering solution. Additionally, multiple improvements were made to MAXON's popular texture painting toolset BodyPaint 3D Release 4. All of these capabilities and more serve to underscore MAXON's ongoing and deep commitment to helping 3D digital artists further advance creativity and control.

"MAXON has spent the last 20 years developing some of the industry's most advanced 3D software technologies; continually raising the bar for 3D animation software excellence," said Harald Egel, CEO and co-founder, MAXON. "CINEMA 4D R11 is no exception. This release contains the next-generation features our customers worldwide have come to expect from MAXON."

Expanded integration options, new workflow tools and boosts in performance for both PC and Mac users sit at the heart of the new release. On average, rendering speeds are now more than twice as fast as the previous version. CINEMA 4D R11 also boasts an all-new Cocoa-based architecture supporting 64-bit processing under Mac OS X Leopard.

"We are pleased, that MAXON has created the CineMan connection to Pixar's RenderMan directly from within CINEMA 4D," said Chris Ford, Business Director - RenderMan at Pixar. "Now MAXON customers can benefit from Pixar's Academy Award-winning rendering technology, featured in Ratatouille, The Incredibles and many others."

"Our customers told us what they needed and we listened," said Paul Babb, president and CEO of the MAXON US office . "This exciting new version is as ideal for the novice as it is for the power user who wants to produce compelling imagery in today's fast-paced environments."

CINEMA 4D Release 11 Highlights:
The list of capabilities and enhancements that comprise the new CINEMA 4D R11 is extensive; with each element designed to provide ultimate control to enhance the professional 3D modeling, texturing, animating and rendering process:

- Non-Linear Animation
Move beyond the keyframe. Animation Layers and Motion Clips tools let users easily build, layer and loop discreet motions containing hundreds of keyframes in complex hierarchies.

- Completely New Global Illumination
Take advantage of the most current algorithms and computer hardware with the all new easy to use Global Illumination engine. This technology delivers heightened flexibility to achieve ultra-realistic results with a minimum of setup time, even for animations.

- BodyPaint 3D
New tools for painting rich, detailed textures onto a 3D model as well as an improved workflow are part of this major upgrade to the popular 3D painting application. The improvements facilitate even tighter integration into industry-standard painting pipelines with brush import, WACOM tablet support, PSD format enhancement and more.

- Improved Rendering Speeds
Tremendous optimizations in multithreading and CPU efficiency offer dramatically improved rendering speeds. Overall render quality has been greatly enhanced as well. New parameters make it possible to create even more realistic glass materials.

- Support for 64-bit on Mac OS X
CINEMA 4D R11 is the first comprehensive 3D package completely re-engineered to take full advantage of the Mac OS X 10.5 release. As a native 64-bit Cocoa application, CINEMA 4D can be used in 64-bit mode to utilize greater RAM resources so you can build and render more complex projects. All 64-bit processors are supported. Users can easily switch between 32-bit and 64-bit mode to suit their individual needs.

- Projection Man
Leverage the same powerful matte painting system originally developed by MAXON exclusively for Sony Pictures Imageworks and recently used to create such blockbuster features as Hancock, Speed Racer, Beowulf and Surf's Up. This formerly exclusive toolset enhances workflow and makes it easy to create and patch the mattes. Tight integration with Adobe Photoshop and MAXON BodyPaint 3D simplifies editing and manipulating extensive digital mattes and even fully immersive 3D environments.

- CineMan
Power users can easily render CINEMA 4D projects utilizing Pixar's RenderMan Pro Server, or other RenderMan-compliant engines including 3Delight (dna research) and AIR (SiTex Graphics) through support for the RIB format.

- COLLADA Support
R11 now supports COLLADA, an open standard XML-based format that facilitates the transfer of 3D assets between applications. Exchanging scenes with other 3D applications is now easier than ever for diverse Digital Content Creation (DCC) production pipelines.

- Customer Friendly
An online update mechanism ensures users always have access to the latest updates and enhancements. A new license server technology helps corporations, studios and schools maximize and manage their investment.

- Additional Features
CINEMA 4D R11 also boasts optimized render control settings, animation ghosting, a doodle tool and support for 3D Connexion devices (Mac and Windows). For a complete list and description of all the exceptional elements that comprise this new feature-rich version of CINEMA 4D, please visit the products pages

Extensive CINEMA 4D R11 tutorials and demonstrations can be found on the MAXON U.S. 24/7 education and training resource site, Cineversity.

Availability
CINEMA 4D Release 11 is expected to ship September, 2008. For pricing and upgrade information, please visit www.maxon.net.

Download Pictures
Screenshot CINEMA 4D "Global Illumination"
Screenshot CINEMA 4D "Non-Linear Animation"
Packshot CINEMA 4D

All trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners. COLLADA is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment.


About MAXON Computer
MAXON Computer is the developer of professional 3D modeling, painting, animation and rendering solutions. Its award-winning products have been used extensively in the film, television, science, architecture, engineering and other industries. MAXON products have been used for and in The Golden Compass, Beowulf, all three Spider-Man films, Surf's Up, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider, Open Season, all three Pirates of the Caribbean films, Monster House, Eragon, Superman Returns, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Serenity, War of the Worlds, Polar Express, The Flight of the Phoenix, Van Helsing, King Arthur, Star Wars: Episode II - The Attack of the Clones, the On-Air Packages for TMZ T.V., Comedy Central, Monday Night Football, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, ESPN, NFL Network, TiVO, NBC, DirecTV, CBS NFL, Smart House, Fox and many more. MAXON has offices in Friedrichsdorf (Germany), Newbury Park (CA, USA), Bedford (UK), Tokyo (JP) and Paris (FR).

Nvidia releases OpenGL 3.0 beta drivers during Siggraph


http://developer.nvidia.com/object/opengl_3_driver.html

This driver is aimed at developers to start coding to the new OpenGL 3.0 and GLSL 1.30 features. These features are not enabled by default. They can be enabled using the nvemulate utility, as described here: http://developer.nvidia.com/object/nvemulate.html

You need one of the following graphics cards to enable the OpenGL 3.0 and GLSL 1.30 functionality.

Desktop: GeForce 8000 series or higher; GeForce GTX 260, 280; Quadro FX 370, 570, 1700, 3700, 4600, 4700x2, 5600
Notebook: GeForce 8000 series or higher; Quadro FX 360M, 370M, 570M, 770M, 1600M, 1700M, 2700M, 3600M, 3700M

This driver implements all of GLSL 1.30 and all of OpenGL 3.0, except for the following functionality:

* One-channel (RED) and two-channel (RG) textures
* Mixed size FBO attachments (mixed-format attachments are supported)
* The Clearbuffer API
* Windowless rendering support (We suggest you use GPU affinity instead)
* Forward-compatible context
* Debug Context

This driver exposes the following new extensions:

OpenGL 2.1 extensions: ARB_vertex_array_object ARB_framebuffer_object ARB_half_float_vertex OpenGL 3.0 extensions: WGL_create_context ARB_draw_instanced ARB_geometry_shader4 ARB_texture_buffer_object WGL_create_context

This post has been edited by Benny-T: Aug 17 2008, 12:38 AM

new blizzrad wrath of the lich king cinematics

http://www.wow-europe.com/wrath/intro.xml

Massive $208 million petascale computer gets green light
The 200,000 processor core system known as Blue Waters got the green light recently as the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and its National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) said it has finalized the contract with IBM to build the world's first sustained petascale computational system.


Others too are building toward a petaflop generation. NASA, Intel and SGI in May said they would team up to crank up the space agency's supercomputing power, making it up to 16 times more powerful than it is today. Specifically, NASA Ames, Intel and SGI will work together on a project called Pleiades to develop a system with a capacity of one Petaflops peak performance by 2009 and a system with a peak performance of 10 Petaflops by 2012.

Spielberg Nears a Deal with Reliance
The director appears close to signing a lucrative package that would make India's Reliance Communications a 50% owner of his DreamWorks studio

by Ronald Grover

What does a superstar director want after a long summer in the Hamptons? A new studio to call his own.

That's what Steven Spielberg may get this week, according to well-placed industry sources. They say that Hollywood's most powerful director is meeting in New York with, and will likely announce a deal with, India's Reliance Communications to restart the DreamWorks studio that he is relocating from Paramount Pictures (VIAB) in an acrimonious split. Spielberg, who traditionally spends his summers in the Hamptons, is meeting with Anil Ambani, the billionaire chairman of Reliance Communications, to finalize what's expected to be up to a $1.2 billion transaction that would make the Indian conglomerate a 50% owner of Spielberg's new studio.

A DreamWorks spokesman did not immediately return phone calls. BusinessWeek first reported the Paramount and DreamWorks split (BusinessWeek.com, 07/19/07) in July 2007.
Reliance's Star Power

The Reliance-DreamWorks deal has been rumored for two months (BusinessWeek, 6/19/08) and is assumed to include a $500 million equity infusion from Reliance, which has been beefing up its interest in Hollywood production. In May, its Reliance Big Entertainment unit signed agreements to finance projects with the likes of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Will Smith. The Spielberg transaction is expected to also include financing of as much as $750 million for DreamWorks' film production with JPMorgan Chase (JPM).

The deal will almost certainly spell the end of Spielberg's three-year, often stormy relationship with Viacom's Paramount, where he is contractually committed through Oct. 31. Spielberg has agreed to discuss a possible new pact with Paramount, sources say, although he is unlikely to stay. The talks are more likely to involve ongoing Paramount-based projects on which Spielberg and his team have been working, and which Spielberg—even after his departure—will maintain a financial interest. (Under his contract with that studio, after he leaves he will get a hefty percentage of the profits for films in which he serves as producer, which include the megafranchise film Transformers.)

That's why Spielberg is likely to announce a second venture down the road with another Hollywood studio to distribute the films his new DreamWorks studio will make. The lead candidate is Universal Pictures (GE), where Spielberg still maintains his adobe-style headquarters, a gift from Universal after his 1982 blockbuster E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial.
A Tale of Two DreamWorks

Spielberg still considers Universal his second home, say those close to him. The Twentieth-Century Fox studio (NWS) is considered a long shot to house DreamWorks. Whoever wins the contest to house the producer will likely strike an agreement with him to distribute the new DreamWorks' films in theaters, on DVD, and on the Internet. Spielberg's company maintains a long-standing relationship with HBO, which would continue to distribute DreamWorks films on its premium TV channel.

The new DreamWorks will be a private company separate from the publicly traded DreamWorks Animation (DWA), which was separated from the live-action unit in 2004. The newly created company being funded by Reliance would likely be nearly 50% owned by Spielberg, with his top production executive, DreamWorks CEO and Co-Chairman Stacey Snider, owning a small equity piece as well. Snider, a former Universal Pictures chairman, is considered key to the transaction and was also allowed to leave her Paramount contract as part of a "key man" provision that permitted Spielberg to take top executives with him when he left.

Grover is Los Angeles bureau chief for BusinessWeek.

Production I.G to Produce 3DCG Feature Film Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror slated in Japan for Summer 2009

Production I.G to Produce 3DCG Feature Film OBLIVION ISLAND: HARUKA AND THE MAGIC MIRROR (tentative English title) slated in Japan for Summer 2009

"Where do all your childhood's treasures go when you grow up?"

Production I.G in collaboration with Fuji Television Network announce the production of a new full length computer graphic animation feature film entitled "Hottarake no Shima - Haruka to Maho no Kagami" (tentative English title: "Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror")

Today, American-made 3DCG animation feature films have become a well established and recognized global reality in the entertainment industry. However, budget restrictions and lack of know-how prevented similar productions to become prevalent in Japan so far.

Tokyo-based Production I.G was one of the first animation studios in Japan to recognize the potentiality of the upcoming digital era, and has been dedicating time and resources to the establishment of a fully equipped production environment and a 200 hundred people creative and technical team that could support the realization of 3DCG feature-length animated films.

And now, after a 3-year preparation period, the highly anticipated first project presented by Production I.G's 3D team in collaboration with Fuji Television Network is going to be a fresh departure from 3DCG animation as we know it today. "Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror"(tentative English title) will inherit the unique expressive style that has made Japanese animation hugely popular around the globe, and at the same time it will pursue a completely different texture from Western style 3DCG animation. While making full use of the state-of-the-art in digital techniques, I.G aims to entertain you with heart-warming visuals and pioneer a new course of Japanese-made 3DCG animation appealing to the international audience.

The movie will be distributed in Japan by TOHO Co., Ltd. and the Japanese theatrical release is slated for summer 2009.

WORLD VIEW - Your favourite teddy bear. That model kit that took so long to complete. The picture book you used to read over and over again. The shining stone you found that day in the park. Where do all your childhood's treasures go when you grow up? In this story, we meet fantastic creatures that gather all these little objects that fall into oblivion as they are forgotten by their owners when they step into adulthood. These creatures sneak into our world from a different dimension, and unseen by humans, they take all the ditched and forgotten "treasures" into their world. Here, they use their booty to build their own city, a fairy-tale like place called...Oblivion Island!

STORY - Haruka is a teenager like many. Her mother left this world when she was a kid, and her father took after her ever since. The movie opens with Haruka visiting the Inari Shrine in Musashino, in the outskirts of Tokyo. With her greatest surprise, she sees a "fox" (or 'something' looking like one) carrying a toy plane. But as she goes after the funny animal, she finds herself on... Oblivion Island! Here, Haruka encounters the teddy bear she used to play with when she was a kid. And suddenly, other memories from her childhood come to her mind. But humans are not supposed to be on Oblivion Island, and the Baron, who rules that world, has put an eye on that unexpected intruder. From here, the story bends dramatically into an unpredictable direction at increasing and uncontrolled speed... Will Haruka find her memories, and a way to get out from the island?

SCREENPLAY: Hirotaka Adachi and Shinsuke Sato Probably better known by his alias Otsuichi, Hirotaka Ando is a hugely popular novelist whose works have often been transposed into comics and live action movies, for which he personally wrote the screenplays, such as "Goth" (2002, 3rd Mystery Grand Prize winner), "Waiting in the Darkness" (2002) and "Zoo" (2003). Born in Fukuoka in 1978, he made his professional debut when he was only 17. He's reportedly a big fan of Studio Ghibli's movies.

DIRECTOR: Shinsuke Sato Born in Hiroshima Prefecture in 1970, Sato is a film director, scriptwriter and video game creator. He graduated from the Musashino Art University, like Satoshi Kon and Ryu Murakami. His directorial debut "Ryonai Genshuku" (Dorm Austerity) was awarded with the Grand Prix at the Pia Film Festival 1994. Notably works include, "Princess Blade" (2001, director and scriptwriter), "Spring Snow" (2005, scriptwriter) and manga-based "Sand Chronicles" (2008, director and scriptwriter), all of them live-action movies. Oblivion Island is his highly anticipated debut in animation.

Naoyoshi Shiotani (director of SICAF 2008 Grand Prize winning "Tokyo Marble Chocolate") is joining the production team, too.

ABOUT PRODUCTION I.G Established by Mitsuhisa Ishikawa in 1987, Production I.G is one of the world's leading animation studios. With its cutting-edge works, such as "Ghost in the Shell" (1995), "Jin-Roh" (2000), "Blood: The Last Vampire" (2000), "Kill Bill: Vol. 1" (animation segment, 2003), "Innocence" (2004) and "The Sky Crawlers" (2008), I.G has gained high reputation around the globe, inspiring Hollywood creators such as James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino and the Wachowski brothers.

IT'S ART Vol 01-2008&02-2008 Softcover Edition Special Offer

IT'S ART offers IT'S ART Vol#01-2008 and VOL#02-2008 Softcover edition at a special Price : $55.00 for both Volumes

Vol01-2008 :

8"1/5 11 inches, (215.9 x 279.4 mm)
240g. Glossy Cover / 120 g inside Paper
128 pages

Content : Till Nowak, Kerem Beyit, Alon Chou, Juan Siquier, Marek Okon, Mathieu Leyssenne, Geoffroy Thorens, Studio Opus Artz, Gallery Selection

Vol02-208 :
8"1/5 11 inches, (215.9 x 279.4 mm)
240g. Glossy Cover / 120 g inside Paper
106 Pages + 128 pages

Content : Michael Kutsche, Phil MacDarby, Nikolay Aleksender, Marc Brunet, Diane Ozmar, Alain Brion, Gallery Selection

All Volumes can be browsed online here

well
basically you need basic skills of an illustrator
color study is important same goes for anatomy, perspective,lighting and etc
well,you cant do black n white forever now do you?
what kind of light reflect on what kind of color produce what result
things and etc

good luck with your studies

owwh
you've gotten a job on concept art?
which scope you're doing?

NVIDIA Redefines Entry-level Professional Graphics for Small/Integrated Form Factors




With today’s traditional workstation model pricing, many organizations can only afford to deploy professional graphics solutions to select designers and engineers, leaving a significant portion of the workforce with sub-optimal products. This is about to change as NVIDIA Corp. announced today NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 470, the first integrated professional motherboard GPU, and NVIDIA Quadro FX 370 Low Profile (Quadro FX 370 LP), an entry-level Quadro graphics boards for small form factor systems.

Honoring NVIDIA’s commitment to tailor its Quadro professional line to the specific needs of the end user, the Quadro FX 470 and Quadro FX 370 LP GPU deliver high performance and flexibility at entry-level pricing for computer-aided design (CAD) and digital content creation (DCC) applications.

“In today’s competitive global marketplace, engineers, traders, designers and power office users demand more functionality and reliability from their desktop computing solutions,” said Jeff Brown, general manager, Professional Services, NVIDIA. “The Quadro FX 470 and the Quadro FX 370 LP are precisely tested, certified and designed to maximize productivity and deliver the cost-effective, professional-quality solution these users require on a daily basis.”

Increasing performance and reliability at a ground-breaking price, both systems are certified for key DCC and CAD applications from independent software vendors such as Autodesk and Adobe. Designed to fit seamlessly in a space-saving configuration, the Quadro FX 370 LP GPU has a MSRP at $149 USD and offers professional graphics performance with fanless cooling for a quieter work environment. The Quadro FX 470 GPU expands end customer access to professional graphics by enabling systems to achieve a price point under $700 USD.

“The Quadro FX 470 integrated chipset is a landmark achievement for professional graphics,” said
Tom Lin, general manager, Server Business Unit, AsusTek COMPUTER Inc. “By offering Quadro FX 470 graphics in our new ASUS TW100-E5 iQuadro workstation, we are giving our customers an entirely new way to get the performance advantages of a Quadro GPU at entry-level pricing. It’s a powerful graphics option that we believe the CAD and design communities will eagerly embrace.”

Delivering the quality and reliability that the market expects from NVIDIA Quadro solutions, the Quadro FX 470 motherboard GPU and Quadro FX 370 LP feature 128-bit precision graphics pipeline, 32-bit floating point precision, filtering and blending, advanced color compression and early z-culling for improved bandwidth and rendering efficiency, and full-scene antialiasing. Additional features include:
* Industry-First Unified GPU Architecture – Dynamically allocates geometry, shading and pixel processing power for high performance in OpenGL, Microsoft DirectX 10 applications
* NVIDIA CUDA™ Technology – Revolutionary parallel computing processor architecture exposed through an extended C language environment, and a tool suite for high-performance visualization
* Shader Model 4.0 Support – Enables ultra-realistic, real-time visualization applications
* NVIDIA nView® Advanced Display Software: The nView hardware and software technology combination delivers maximum flexibility for single-large display or multi-display options and provides unprecedented end-user control of the desktop experience
* I/O Scalability and Performance – Extensive I/O slot support enables peripherals like SAS and dual GbE, which lengthen platform life cycle and performance

The Quadro FX 470 motherboard GPU is available from NVIDIA System Integrator partners. The Quadro FX 370 LP GPU is available today, with a MSRP of $149 USD. For more information on NVIDIA Quadro technologies and products, please visit: www.nvidia.com/quadro.