3D

 Vue 8 xStream and Infinite have now been released.

The industry standard natural environment creation software can now be purchased from e-on for $895-$1495.

Unity Engine 2.6 Indie is now free to use for personal or commercial projects!

The Indie version of the superb engine, now simply called Unity, is a slightly feature reduced  little brother or the Pro edition, but still shares much tech. goodness with its sibling.

VFX Guru Allan Mckay has released a trailer for the first part of his forthcoming Creature FX series.

Have you ever wondered to How to Cheat in 3ds Max 2010  and Get Spectacular Results Fast?

Well now you can!

 Sample workflow creating surface details combining color texture work and sculpted displacements. A process for creating "cavity" like texture is also shown here.This workflow could be used if you were creating color and displacement maps for rendering your mesh in Mental ray as a subdivision surface.

Learning 3ds Max 2010 Foundation for Games is the key to unlocking the power of Autodesk 3ds Max, directly from the creators of one of the world's most powerful 3D animation and effects software products. Get hands on experience with the innovative tools and powerful techniques available in the new version of 3ds Max, through all new project-based lessons. Projects will include valuable game assets and examples. Topics will include modeling, animation, materials & mapping, rendering.

VRayScatter lets VRay to generate huge amount of objects in array. Never before within 3ds max has a been able to  create scenes with millions objects. With VRayScatter  the user is able to create huge forest areas or even a city with uncountable amount of buildings in two clicks. Quick rendertime generation of objects with optimized RAM management makes process of scene creation as easy as ABC.

Luxology Have released two trial versions of their flagship 3d application modo 401.

The available versions of the trial differ length of the trial and in the extra content in which they provide with the downloads.

Luxology have released a  Bee-autiful (sorry :P) Modo spotlight overview video that takes the viewer through the workings of Modo with special attention being paid to the new 401 feature set.

The three part series by Andy Brown focuses on the creation of a bee and contains information such as modelling, rigging, animation, texturing and rendering.

Pretty cool cloth tutorial using 3ds Max  2009, also comes with the  scene files.

Check it out here:

http://surrealstructures.com/blog/?p=65