Pixar’s RenderMan 24 was announced at RenderMan Art & Science Fair 2020 that took place virtually last week. In a live webinar, Wayne Wooten, RenderMan Software Development Manager, Pixar Animation Studios, talked about new features of RenderMan 24. This release will have a new official integration plugin for Blender. Pixar’s new combined CPU and GPU rendering system, … [Read more...] about A sneak peek at Pixar’s RenderMan 24
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Foundry teases Katana 4.0
The upcoming version puts powerful lighting tools right where artists want them. The Foundry’s Katana is a powerful tool for lighting and look development. Compared to so many tools used in entertainment content creation, it is a relatively young application. Foundry added Katana to its portfolio in 2011 through a deal with Sony Imageworks to package and further develop … [Read more...] about Foundry teases Katana 4.0
Chaos Czech releases Corona Renderer 6 for Cinema 4D
New Sky Model supports the sun being below the horizon for dawn/twilight; Corona Distance shader helps create “smart” materials. Chaos Czech has released Corona Renderer 6 for Cinema 4D. Some of the features include Sky Model, Distance Map, Adaptive Environment Sampler, and more. The latest release gives artists more control over their 3D environment, hence more realistic … [Read more...] about Chaos Czech releases Corona Renderer 6 for Cinema 4D
Chaos Group releases V-Ray 5 for Maya
Chaos Group has released V-Ray 5 for Maya. V-Ray has been used by 3D artists and Studios for animation and visual effects for more than 10 years and it has always met their expectations. V-Ray 5 for Maya offers its extensive rendering toolset with integrated compositing, interactive light mixing, powerful scene management, and more. Redesigned V-Ray Frame Buffer offers more … [Read more...] about Chaos Group releases V-Ray 5 for Maya
Omniverse—work anywhere, in any program, with your colleagues
Expanding Pixar's USD across industries. It hasn’t been too many years since the siloed effects of specialists in the graphics production pipeline drove up a studio or company’s costs, and delayed projects because they used incompatible programs. At GDC 2020, Nvidia introduced Omniverse, its open collaboration platform to simplify workflows for realtime graphics. Nvidia … [Read more...] about Omniverse—work anywhere, in any program, with your colleagues
A 5-year vision for workstation graphics performance
by Bob Cramblitt Views of SPEC/GWPG members. Every day in their engineering jobs with leading OEMs and graphics card manufacturers, the representatives of the SPEC Graphics and Workstation Performance Group (SPEC/GWPG) assess the latest technologies designed to make their products run professional applications faster and more efficiently. In their role with … [Read more...] about A 5-year vision for workstation graphics performance
Foundry Katana gets significant overhaul
Intel and Foundry ally to update Katana convert it to a multithreaded program. As a result, developers see performance improvements of 2×–30×. Katana, Foundry’s professional lighting and look development software is a powerful tool developed for cinematic and video production teams. As a procedural, asset-based tool, Katana enables people on a project to work with specific … [Read more...] about Foundry Katana gets significant overhaul
HP’s AIO-32: the ultimate all-in-one?
With the powered Display Port, and the HDMI out, you can drive external displays. HP has got everything right on this machine. HP has been a leader in all-in-one PCs and has introduced several innovative versions over the years including the Z-series. The Envy AIO-32 is one of, if not the biggest, they’ve introduced, and is ideal for any small living space, or on any desk … [Read more...] about HP’s AIO-32: the ultimate all-in-one?
AMD’s holiday gift to the Blender community
AMD to release an updated Radeon ProRender plug-in for Blender 2.81. AMD’s Radeon ProRender is a physically-based rendering engine that is built on Radeon Rays technology, which, AMD says, is a scalable ray tracing engine that uses open industry standards to harness GPU and CPU performance for swift, impressive results. Built on industry-standards, Radeon ProRender … [Read more...] about AMD’s holiday gift to the Blender community
Unity HDRP and all those rays
Software that enables jaw-dropping experiences. The latest release of Unity (2019.3) with High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) is coming soon. HDRP, says Unity, focuses on optimizations that can render resource-intensive visuals while maintaining constant, steady frame rates. Creators can cut loose and make stunning projects without worrying about throttling graphics to … [Read more...] about Unity HDRP and all those rays