Cycles, Octane, SmallLuxGPU – GPU renderers are all the rage these days and it’ll get hard to choose one ;-) Here’s a preview of SmallLuxGPU 2.0.
SmallLuxGPU 2.0 Preview Video
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Category Archives: Toolbox
New SynthEyes Exporter for Blender 2.57
SynthEyes now supports Blender 2.58 with a new export script, and Mike Hornett shows how to use it in a videotutorial.
Re:Lay and RE:Phrase Add-on Blender 2.5
I want to inform you about a new Add-on set made by Atom called RE:Lay and RE:Phrase which brings a functionality to Blender 2.5 similar to Cinema 4D’s MoText suit. In short this toolset enables you to drive your text object animations in a more dynamic way and decreases the amount of hand key-framing. It further more can also utilize the particle system. So incase you do motion graphics and want to animate text, this might be something serious you should check out.
Autodesk 123D beta – Free Solid modeling for Builders
Interior Designers and Architects have SketchUp, product designers and builders now can use AutoDesk’s 123D. It is based on AutoDesk’s famous Inventor application. However instead of serving the needs for engineers and designers alike, 123D is cut down tool-set wise to what builders and modelers only need. This means while you have all basic standard geometry creation tools such as extrude, loft, fillet shell, and others, finer control about details such as radial fillets etc. is not given. Stress-tests or thermal tools are of course not included. This also enables Autodesk to offer this product for free.
Motion capture data BVH tools and files
For everybody who is interest in using motion capture data, here is a list of services which could be useful to you. Most of them are free or are very affordable.
meshmixer05
Meshmixer, a free (but not open source) experimental 3D modeling program has just seen an interesting upgrade with some impressive features.
Screen Capture With Python
Want to record your screen to make a video tutorial or show off some realtime artwork? If you’re on linux there aren’t many good screen recording utilities, and those that there are may not record to a video codec of your liking. FFFMPEG offers a plethora of command line options, but if you’re not adept at using the terminal you may want something simpler. Thankfully Nathan Vegdahl has created a great script to simplify screen capture with python, and David Revoy subsequently wrote a nice tutorial on how to use it.
LuxRender v0.8 RC3 Released
The latest version of LuxRender, v0.8 RC3 is now available. This is likely the last release candidate, with a final release on the way soon. Amongst some of the new features in v0.8 are improved hybrid CPU/GPU rendering, faster micro-displacement rendering, support for STL meshes, and many other improvements and bugfixes.
Blenders Directory Layout Explained
If like a lot of Blender users, you’re always downloading the latest builds from graphicall, or trying out new python scripts, it can be difficult to keep track of all the places Blender keeps files on your system. Thankfully, Campbell Barton has added a handy guide to the wiki, outlining where Blender keeps all its install files, scripts, and user data. Next time you’re looking for that script or wondering where your file auto-saved to, you wont have to look so far.
Meshmixer 04 Update
Meshmixer 04 was just recently released. For all those not familiar with it, this program allows you to easily import, move, scale and fuse different meshes into on object. In addition it also offers smoothing and same basic sculpting tools. It produces great results, allows local subdivision of the mesh on the fly and operates very fast.
