ITooSoftware New Tutorial

ItooSoftware have released a new 30 minute video tutorial for Forest Pack Pro. Designed to get first users up and running quickly, acquiring the necessary skills to create fantastic scenes with Forest Pack Pro.

Please click the link below to view the tutorial.

Tree-Lined Canal Tutorial

Cheers,
Colin

FREE Autodesk webinars

Autodesk have announced that the next series of their free webinars have been launched, including sessions from Pixomondo, Analog Studios and CrysyalCG.

Please head over to Jamie Gwilliam's blog for more information.

Autodesk Webinars

Cheers,
Colin

September 17th meeting summary

Thanks to everyone who came along to our September user group meeting on the 17th.

Darren Crockett of DoVisualisation gave a great presentation about the workflows his company have developed for producing amazing images in super fast time. Andy Brammall and Russ Morris from Unity 3D gave us a run down of their real-time software and its applications for the architectural visualisation industry. Unfortunately Gus Capote was unable to present this time, but I'm sure Gus will be at our next meeting.

Congratulations to Barry John from 3D Digital Studio Ltd, who won our Itoosoft image competition and receives a license of Forest Pack Pro.

Special thanks to Mark Carter and Tim Messer from Parsons Brinckerhoff for hosting the night. Mark and Tim also presented examples of their work at the meeting.

The next user group meeting will be held somewhere in Bristol in December.

Cheers,
Colin

Next meeting, Monday 17th September

Hi all,

The next 3ds Max South Wales / Bristol user group meeting will be on the evening of Monday 17th September at the Cardiff office of consultant engineers Parsons Brinckerhoff.
The evening will be hosted by Mark Carter and Tim Messer.

If people can start arriving any time after 7pm, the meeting will run from 7.30pm to approximately 11pm.

Parson Brinckerhoff's address is 29 Cathedral Road, Cardiff, CF11 9HA. There will be car parking space available on site (after 7pm).

As the meeting is in an office space, please can you drop an email to Mark Carter (carterm@pbworld.com) if you are interested in coming along so we can get an idea of numbers.

We have 3 presentations lined up this month.

Gus Capote, Partner / Art Director at GC-VFX

Gus leads GC-VFX’s a new 3D and visual effects boutique based in Bristol. He has industry experience spanning more than a decade. He has creatively and technically directed stunning visualisation films and imagery for world know firms susch as Zaha Hadid Architects, KPF, Gensler, Eric Parry, Foster + Partners.

Recipient of the Best Still Image Award at the 2006 CGArchitect Architectural 3D Awards and the Excellence Award at the American Society of Architectural Illustrators, Gus is also much in demand on the speaking circuit. He is frequently asked to speak at industry conferences and has also appeared on several juried panels,most recently for CG Architect’s 3D Awards and Digital Artist 2012’s Architectural Visualization competitions.

His work has been included in the noted industry publications Exposé, Elemental, 3D World magazine, and 3D Creative Magazine. Gus has authored several articles and tutorials for 3D magazines, and is also a member of the magazine’s Advisory Board. He’s also an Autodesk 3DS Max Master.

Gus will be giving a presentation on Art Direction for Architectural Visualisation.

Andy Brammall and Russ Morris, Unity 3D

Unity 3 http://unity3d.com/ is a feature rich, fully intergrated development engine for the creation of interactive 3D content. It provides complete, out-of-the-box functionality to assemble high-quality, high-performing content and publish to multiple platforms. Unity helps indie developers and designers, small and major studios, multinational corporations, students and hobbyists to drastically reduce the time, effort and cost of making interactive 3D content.

Andy and Russ will be making a presentation on Unity 3 for Architectural Visualisation.

Darren Crockett, DoVisualisation

Darren, from DoVisualisation http://www.do3dvisuals.co.uk/

 Description to follow...

Hope to see you at the meeting.

Cheers,
Colin

iToo Software launches Forest Pack 3.9.2 and RailClone 1.4.2

iToo Software has announced the release of 3DS Max® and 3DS Max Design® plugins, Forest Pack and RailClone. This release includes Max 2013 compatibility and introduces great new features. Lite version of both plugins are freely available to download here.

Forest Pack

Forest Pack is a scattering tool for creating nature environments. Using native shaders for MentalRay and VRay, it enables to scatter thousands of plants, and create interactively scenes with virtually unlimited number of objects. Some of its features include: real-time point cloud display, parametric areas, clusters, camera clipping, color variation, integrated library browser and much more.

Forest Pack 3.9.2 introduces many improvements as: Forest objects used as excluding areas, animation maps, inverted falloff curves, probability curves for rotation and scale, and unattended installation mode for renderfarms. Check all new features in the release notes. 

RailClone

RailClone is a parametric modeling tool based on custom geometry parts, definable by the user, and a set of construction rules. This new concept of modeling lets you build complex and realistic structures for Architectural Visualization, Civil Engineering and Interior Design.

The software includes a full library of preset models as fences, railings, trusses, facades, highways and other elements. RailClone is not limited to a fixed set of primitives, you can use any geometry from the scene and build your own parametric structures.

The new release 1.4.2 includes 280 preset models in the RailClone Pro Library. These models have been developed to fulfill main CG visualization needs in the fields of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Industrial Design: bleachers, theater seats, sidewalks, curtain walls, sunshades, scaffolds, street lights and more. Click to see the full Library content and the release notes.

Registered users of Forest Pack Pro and RailClone Pro can download the upgrade from the User Panel. The Lite version of both plugins are freely available to download here.

3DS South Wales June Meeting Summary

Thanks to everyone who made it to the first 3ds South Wales User Group meeting in June. It went really well, with lots of enthusiasm and joining in during the discussions. We had people from all over South Wales, plus Bristol and further afield which was great to see. Special thanks to Jamie Gwilliam (Autodesk)  and James Mooney (Render Nation) for coming along to present at the meeting.

There was some great work shown at the event, from Richard Croydon of Stride Treglown , Darren Crockett of Do Visualisation and Matt Clementson of Nightingale Associates. Darren took home a £400 render farm credit from our sponsor Render Nation.

A reminder to those who attended, along with our sponsor Itoo Software we are running a competition where you can win a copy of Forest Pack Pro or Rail Clone. Just create an image using either Forest Pack Pro or Rail Clone and the winner of the competition will be chosen by a speaker at the next meeting.

Free versions of Forest Pack Pro and Rail Clone, as well as some other great plugins can be downloaded here.

The next meeting is planned for sometime in September. Watch this space in the coming weeks for more information.

Cheers,

Colin

3ds South Wales (and Bristol area) User Group meeting, Wednesday 20th June

Hi all,

The first 3ds Max South Wales (and Bristol area) ) User Group meeting will be held on Wednesday 20th June, starting at 7pm at the Cardiff office of consultant engineers Arup. For future meetings however we will look for somewhere more 'social' :)

Here's a map to show you where the office is (4 Pierhead Street, Cardiff Bay, CF10 4QP). There is a multi storey car park across the road from our office http://cardiffbaymscp.com/

As the meeting is at our office, could you drop me an email at colin.hanford@arup.com if you are interested in coming along so I can get an idea of the numbers.

View Larger Map

There are a number of bars near the office so if anyone fancies a few drinks after the meeting that'll be great.

Speakers we have lined up for the user group meeting are;

Jamie Gwilliam, 3D Solution Specialist at Autodesk. Jamie will be in attendance to talk about the latest release of 3DS Max as well as sharing tips and tricks with the group. Jamie run's the excellent Jamie's Jewels blog where you can find all sorts of useful 3DS Max tips, tricks and industry news.

Founder of Render Nation, James Mooney. Render Nation, a render farm service from Liverpool, was founded by James in 2005 to offer a commercial remote rendering service. Since this time they have grown to be one of the largest remote renderfarms in Europe and the world.

We hope to add one more speaker before the meeting on Wednesday.

There will be an number of prizes given away at the event including a £400 render farm credit from Render Nation as well as software from Itoo Software.

Please feel free to bring your own visualisation content to show at the meeting. We'll make sure everyone who wants to show anything gets some time to showcase their work.

Cheers,
Colin

Hi All,

Welcome to the 3DS Max South Wales User Group. The aim of which is to bring together like minded people and be a forum where we can share our ideas, techniques and experiences with 3DS Max and visualisation in general.

The first meeting will be held in Cardiff on Wednesday 20th June (location to be confirmed).

We encourage you to bring along examples of projects you may wish to show the group and if someone would like to make a presention on a certain subject let us know and we'll make sure you get a longer slot.

Hope to see you there.

Colin