Month: October 2021

Chaos Corona 8 for 3ds Max and Cinema 4D adds many powerful tools to allow artists to create their 3D worlds faster and with more detail than ever.

Below is a quick overview of just some of the biggest new features:

For more information or to purchase Chaos Corona please don’t hesitate to get in touch with a member of our sales team or visit our product page below.

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Buy Chaos Corona

To purchase visit the product page here.

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Get in touch

Call us on +353 (0)1 526 6717 or email sales@bluegfx.eu

Focused on workflow efficiency, easy-to-use texturing and rendering tools, and offering a safe and secure workspace environment, 3ds Max now has new rendering capabilities added to Arnold, a new Bake to Texture functionality, and enhanced features to popular modelling tools.

Safe and Secure Environment

Security:

• Safe Scene Script Execution offers protection against malicious scripts embedded in 3ds Max scene files, regardless of whether these scripts use Maxscript, Python or .NET commands, by blocking the execution of unsafe commands.
• The Malware Removal functionality detects and removes known malicious scripts from scene files and startup scripts. This prevents the spread of malicious code to other users. The Malware Removal functionality is powered by the Scene Security Tools plugin, which is updated whenever Autodesk becomes aware of a new malicious script.

In 3ds Max 2022, users are notified when a new version of the Scene security Tools is available on the Autodesk App Store.

Workflow Efficiency

Smart Extrude:

• Edit Poly modifier support: Smart Extrude has been extended into the Edit Poly modifier, providing the same functionality and features users have come to love from the Editable Poly implementation. This extension of Smart Extrude enables artists to further benefit from this freeform modelling method, and complement their poly modelling workflows in 3ds Max.
• “Cut Through” implementation: When first introduced in 3ds Max 2021.2, the Smart Extrude functionality enabled artists to extrude with fewer constraints during the creative modelling process. “Cut Through”, the latest addition to Smart Extrude, further enhances this functionality to give artists the extrude they deserve.

When performing an inward or outward Smart Extrusion (Shift+ LM B drag operation on an Edit Poly or Editable Poly), complete intersections of these results will now add, unify, or completely cut-through and remove faces of the operand result with your mesh geometry. This new Smart Extrude enhancement enables artists to freely construct unified mesh geometry, enhancing the poly modelling experience in 3ds Max.

Slice Modifier:

3ds Max includes performance enhancements to the Slice modifier and new modelling features based on user feedback. These enhancements and new features are powerful complements to 3ds Max workflows, as they reduce data processing operations for Autodesk Retopology Tools in 3ds Max.

• Capping: Open holes created by the Slice operation can now be capped along their boundary edges on both Mesh and Poly objects.
• Multi-Axis Cutting: Perform a X-, Y-, and/or Z-aligned planar slice of your mesh based on the position of the slice gizmo through a single modifier.
• Radial Slice: A new Radial slice operation enables control of the cutting results based on a set of user-defined min and max angles.
• Alignment options: Quickly align the cutting gizmo to faces on an object, or reference another animatable object in your scene.

Extrude Modifier:

The Extrude Modifier, one of the most frequently used modifiers in 3ds Max, offers significant performance improvements to the speed of the initial extrude calculation, and to the responsiveness of the output when adjusting the amount parameter. This allows complex splines, which used to take minutes to be processed, to be operated on in a matter of seconds. Artistes can achieve a desired look faster and more interactively.

Symmetry Modifier:

The symmetry modifier, a commonly used modelling modifier in 3ds Max, includes new features and enhancements that benefit modelling and retopology workflows in 3ds Max. Symmetry can now produce faster results, and offers a more interactive experience in the viewport.

• Multi-Axis Symmetry: Planar symmetry has been updated to perform, X, Y, and/or Z symmetry results on the symmetry gizmo.
• Radial Symmetry: A new Radial symmetry function allows artists to quickly duplicate and repeat a geometry around the gizmo centre. This new feature based on user feedback enables artists to rapidly create new variations.
• Alignment options: Align the symmetry gizmo to faces on an object, or reference another animatable object in your scene.

AutoSmooth:

AutoSmooth operations, which are used to improve the visual quality of mesh data throughout 3ds Max, have ben updated to generate new smoothing data faster, regardless of whether you are smoothing thousands or millions of faces. This update helps artists when adjusting smoothing data on objects like Mesh, Poly or Spline. It also benefits other modifiers such as Smooth, Chamfer, Edit Mesh, Edit Poly, ProOptimize, and many more.

Relax Modifier:

3ds Max now includes a ‘volume preserve’ option which has been added to the Relax modifier. When active, the Relax algorithm will perform additional calculations to reduce small detail and noise out from models, all while retaining the shape and definition of the overall mesh that the modifier has been applied to.

This functionality is especially useful when working with data containing a large amount of unwanted small or micro surface detail, as seen with Scan and Sculpt data. Reducing this small ‘noisy’ data with Relax can improve the processing time of the Autodesk Reptopology Tools for 3ds Max.

Accessible Texturing and Rendering

Rendering:

• New render configuration window; faster, snappier, all QT-based UI.
• Quicksilver render settings are now QT-based, for a faster, more responsive experience. The Viewport Bloom settings have also been synced to the Quicksilver settings.
• By utilizing the new Viewport Ambient Occlusion sampling value in the Viewport configuration settings, users can further refine their Viewport lookdev and optimize their GPU performance by increasing or decreasing the Viewport Ambient Occlusion quality.

Arnold:

• The ‘Auto-tx’ can now be used to automate the process of converting texture files to .tx file format at render time.
• Imagers can now be applied, removed, re-ordered, and edited directly in a dedicated tab of the Arnold RenderView to post-process rendering without additional render time.
  – A new Light Mixer imager makes it possible to interactively edit the contribution of each light group AOVs during and after rendering, without restarting the render.
  – Bloom or “glow”, a post-processing effect, has been added to the Lens Effect imager to blur pixels above a given threshold across the frame and simulate light bleeding on an imperfect lens.
  – Noice Denoiser is now a post-processing effect. Artists can automatically denoise images every time they render a scene. Edit the denoising settings and see the resulting image directly in the render view.
  – OptiX Denoiser: The OptiX™ denoiser is now available as a post-processing effect. This imager also exposes additional controls for clamping and blending the result.

Bake to Texture:

• The Bake to Texture interface has been simplified to offer easier navigation and selection of baked map types by grouping render elements under common map names. Now, users don’t need to remember the specific element name in the render engine they are using to bake frequently used map types like color maps, normal maps, and other PBR compatible maps that are needed in production.

Bake to Texture now includes a few utility maps, such as Rounded Corners and Material ID maps, as examples of what previously required a complex material setup workflow prior to baking. These utility maps now achieve the same outcome in only a few clicks.

Viewports:

• Turn any floating Viewport into a full-screen, borderless view. When using Presentation Mode, all gizmos are hidden allowing your 3d scene to be the true hero.
  
  Use the “CTRL+Space” hotkey to jump in/out of full-screen Presentation Mode.

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This release includes support for Python 3, developer-focused improvements and workflow enhancements to help improve daily work for animators and developers.

Python 3 Support

Python 3 is now available for MotionBuilder providing performance, security, and dev-centric language enhancements, while support for PIP delivers instant access to the latest libraries and tools. Python 3 is the new default on Windows and Linux, but Motion Builder can still be launched in Python 2 mode by setting an environment variable or with a command line flag.

Developer-Focused Improvements

More powerful MotionBuilder Command Line:
The Motion Builder Python Command Line tool has been significantly improved. mobupy.exe can be used to call the MotionBuilder Python SOK. This opens the door to new capabilities like file processing and rendering from the Command Line.

Python/ APT:
The Motion Builder API has been expanded and improved to include additional capabilities based on common feedback from developers.

Python Editor Updates:
The Python Editor now displays an ‘X’ button on each script tab, providing a quick way to close scripts and allowing users to manage multiple script tabs more efficiently.

Customizable Splash Screen:
Tool developers can now modify the MotionBuilder splash screen with custom imagery, defined by a new environment variable named MOTIONBUILDER_ICON_PATH. This enables artists and studios to customize the startup experience to differentiate between different projects or tool versions.

Workflow Enhancements

Quaternions in the FCurve Editor:
Animators can now visualize real Quaternion Rotation properties within the FCurve Editor that match evaluation values, instead of displaying them as normal FCurves. “Real Quaternion Rotations”, a new checkable menu item, is now available in the contextual menu of the FCurve Editor. “Showing Real Quaternion Rotations” is now displayed in the FCurve Editor to help users know if the mode is enabled or not.

Character Extension Improvements:
The new “Add to Body Part” property enables artists to key a character extension when selecting the body part containing a reference object of that character extension. This simplifies the key framing process for character extensions by allowing users to animate them in conjunction with an associated body part.

Auxiliary Effector Usability:
When working with Character Controls, animators can control whether the auxiliary pivots/effectors should be automatically shown or not by using “Automatically Expand Auxiliaries”, a new preference added in the Character section. This saves time for animators by reducing the number of actions required to expand IK auxiliaries each time they select individual effectors in the Character Controls.

Relation Constraint Updates:
Artists can include relation constraints in an animation layer, while also controlling layer weight, improving the visibility of the layer relationships within the Navigator. Users can add an animation layer in a relation constraint to control the weight of the layer. The layers are now shown and parented to their respective takes in the Navigator.

Camera Plate Offset and Scale:
Users now have more precise control over the transformation of camera plates. New Offset X/Y and Scale X/Y options have been added to the camera back and front plates. These new options are enabled when the “Fit” option is unchecked and work in conjunction with the existing “Center” and “Maintain Ratio” settings. When the “Maintain Ratio” option is enabled, the new Scale Y value/animation is ignored, and Scale Xis used for both.

Group/ Set Enhancements:
New options in the Groups/Sets Tool are available to preserve the Show/Pick/Trs state of Groups/Sets when toggling a parent node. If toggling on the Group while the option is enabled, all nested groups will be turned on. If toggling on the Group while the option is disabled, only the nested groups that are already checked will be checked again.

Heads Up Display Enhancements:
The Navigator now supports drag and drop parenting of HUDs. The resulting HUD hierarchies can then be easily attached to cameras and rendered in the Viewer, making it easier to associate things like HUD style rig control setups with cameras.

Better Audio Display:
Similar to the FCurve Editor, the Camera Switcher now has the ability to display an audio waveform from an audio clip or a Story audio track, allowing animators to stay in context while using audio in the Camera Switcher. Previously, they would have to switch back to the FCurve Editor to see the audio waveform.

New Undo Window:
A new Undo window has been added to enable display and modification of a detailed view of the command history. This new feature allows users to see and update the current level within the undo stack.

Faster Image Loading:
When loading a scene file, images contained in the file can be now be loaded in parallel to speed up the loading process, giving users a significant speed boost when opening files with numerous, large images. This is especially important when working with scenes with image-based reference footage.

C3D Import Improvements:
The new “Up Axis Used” in File option allows users to specify that the up-axis embedded in the C3D file should be used on import, giving them more control over which axis is up in relation to HIK. In previous versions, users did not have access to the up-axis setting stored in a C3D file.

Viewport Selection Accuracy:
Several updates have been made to improve selection accuracy for objects in the Viewport allowing users to interactively select objects such as cameras and locators more predictably in the Viewport.

Story Tool Improvements:
Animators will experience workflow improvements and increased stability when working in the Story tool, based on feedback from power users.

Buy MotionBuilder here.

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Contact Us

Call us on +353 (0)1 526 6717 or email sales@bluegfx.eu