Procedural did update CityEngine 2010 to it’s latest release 2010.2, the latest version of its city creation software based on unique procedural techniques. CityEngine 201 can be used in 3D city modeling in urban planning, architecture,simulation, game development, and film production. The software is used by companies such as Pixar, Dreamworks, Foster+Partners, Zaha Hadid, Rockstar North, Blizzard, Microsoft, IBM, MIT, Harvard, Stanford and by us here at StrongMocha.

Procedural also introduced CityEngine STUDIO. The new version is suited for small studios in architecture and entertainment which want to realize the full potential of CityEngine or do not qualify for the low-priced CityEngine INDIE.

Highlights of CityEngine 2010.2 are interactive editing of dynamic city layouts, node-based rule authoring, and a sketching tool for facades. In addition to that, CityEngine 2010.2 includes advanced block subdivision, modeling of curved streets, new rule operations for instancing and asset search, native Collada® support for assets, export instances with the new FBX® 2011.3, and many more.

Key Highlights of CityEngine 2010.2:

• Improved GUI for the Node-based Rule Editor (Visual CGA)
• City Wizard with new night city template (see picture above)
• Facade Wizard enhancements with new tutorial
• Support for FBX® 2011.3 and RenderMan® export on 64-bit
• CityEngine STUDIO introduced

Earlier version of CityEngine 2010 did feature already:

• Procedural Street Network Construction
• Import of Street Networks or Lots
• Scripting 3D Buildings
• Parametric Modeling of 3D Buildings
• Map-Controlled City Modeling
• Batch Export of 3D Models
• Dynamic City Layouts
• GIS Data Import
• Node-based Rule Editor
• Facade Wizard
• Support of industry-Standard 3D Formats
• Python

Not all versions of CityEngine 2010 support the same level of features, some version like INDIE supports less features. To compare the different features that are available in each version of CityEngine contact Procedural or take a look at the details on the Feature Comparison Chart.

Cities that you build in CityEngine 2010 can be exported into your favorite animation program through a variety of export format like Wavefront OBJ, Autodesk FBX, Autodesk 3DS, COLLADA DAE, MentalRay MI,Renderman RIB. The available export format varies by the version of CityEngine. Some versions have less export features then others (Details  can be found on the Feature Comparison Chart).

Picture below shows a CityEngine generated City loaded into Cinema 4D R12.

More CityEngine resources:

• CityEngine 30-Day Free Trial
• CityEngine Product Brochure
• CityEngine Client List & Customer Success Stories
• CityEngine Help
• CityEngine FAQ
• CityEngine Kowledge Base
• CityEngine Video Turorials

Imageworks has released 5 projects as open source. The open source software can be freely used by large and small studios around the world.

Imageworks’ production environment, which is known for its photo-real visual effects, digital character performances, and innovative technologies to facilitate their creation, has incorporated open source solutions, most notably the Linux operating system, for many years. Now the company is contributing back to the open source community by making these technologies available.  The software can be used freely around the world by both large and small studios. Each project has a team of passionate individuals supporting it who are interested in seeing the code widely used.  The intention of the open source release is to build larger communities to adopt and further refine the code.

• Field3d, a voxel data storage library
• Scala Migration, a database migration tool
• OSL, a programmable shading language for rendering
• Pystring, python-like string handling in C++
• Maya Reticule, a Maya Plug-in for camera masking

Field3D
Field3D is an open source library for storing voxel data. It provides C++ classes that handle storage in memory, as well as a file format based on HDF5 that allows the C++ objects to easily be written to and read from disk.

The library was initially developed at Sony Pictures Imageworks as a replacement for the three different in-house file formats already used to store voxel data. It is the foundation for Imageworks’ in-house simulation framework and volume rendering software. It is actively used in production.

Scala Migrations
Scala Migrations is a library to manage upgrades and rollbacks to database schemas.  Migrations allow a source control system to manage together the database schema and the code using the schema.  It is designed to allow multiple developers working on a project with a database backend to design schema modifications independently, apply the migrations to their local database for debugging and when complete, check them into a source control system to manage as one manages normal source code.

The package is based off Ruby on Rails Migrations and in fact shares the exact same schema migration table to manage the list of installed migrations.  The Scala Migrations library utilizes the clean Scala language to write easy to understand migrations. Scala Migrations provides a database abstraction layer that allows migrations to target any supported database vendor.

OSL (Open Shading Language)
Open Shading Language (OSL) is a small but rich language for programmable shading in advanced renderers and other applications. OSL is similar to C, as well as other shading languages; however, it is specifically designed for advanced rendering algorithms with features such as radiance closures, BRDFs, and deferred ray tracing as first-class concepts.

The OSL project includes a complete language specification, a compiler from OSL to an intermediate assembly-like byte code, an interpreter that executes OSL shaders on collections of points in a SIMD manner, and extensive standard shader function library. These all exist as libraries with straightforward C++ APIs, and so may be easily integrated into existing renderers, compositing packages, image processing tools, or other applications. Additionally, the source code can be easily customized to allow for renderer-specific extensions or alterations, or custom back-ends to translate to GPUs or other special hardware.

Pystring
Pystring is a collection of C++ functions which match the interface and behavior of python’s string class methods using std::string. Implemented in C++, it does not require or make use of a python interpreter. Rather, it provides convenience and familiarity for common string operations not included in the standard C++ library. It’s also useful in environments where both C++ and python are used.

Maya Reticle
Originally developed at Sony Pictures Imageworks, spReticleLoc is a Maya C++ plug-in plus MEL code that creates a reticule for a camera.  It allows for various camera reference masks to be displayed when looking through the camera, such as filmback, projection gate, and pan and scan attributes.

The value of predefined parameters can be displayed in selectable areas, such as the camera focal length and name, current aspect ratio, frame number, name of the show and shot, Maya scene file name, current user name, etc.   Arbitrary textural information can be displayed as well.

More on Imageworks:

Imageworks’ most recently completed projects include G-FORCE, WATCHMEN, VALKYRIE, BODY OF LIES, EAGLE EYE, HANCOCK, SPEED RACER, BEOWULF, and I AM LEGEND.  Upcoming projects include ALICE IN WONDERLAND, CATS AND DOGS 2, 2012, and Sony Pictures Animation’s CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS.

Imageworks’ achievements have been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with Oscars® for its work on SPIDER-MAN™ 2 and the CG animated short film THE CHUBBCHUBBS!. In 2008, SURF’S UP was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. In 2007, two of Imageworks’ projects, SUPERMAN RETURNS and the all-CG animated feature MONSTER HOUSE, were nominated for Academy Awards in the Outstanding Achievement in Visual Effects and Best Animated Feature respectively. With those two nominations, Imageworks became the first studio to be recognized in the same year in these distinct areas, an indication of the diversity and quality of the company’s capabilities. Other Oscar® nominated projects include THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, SPIDER-MAN™, HOLLOW MAN, STUART LITTLE and STARSHIP TROOPERS, for a total of ten nominations.

Florian Wild did post six great Maya and Mental Ray Tutorials. Florian’s tutorial series is intended to be used with mental ray for Autodesk Maya 8.5. Every single of his Tutorial is very helpful. A highlight is really how Florian approaches the series “six-part tutorial series, discussing possibly the most challenging kind of 3D environment: interiors. mental ray (for Maya) users typically get cold feet and sweating fingers when it comes to this “closed combat”; the royal league of environment lighting. It’s for no reason though, as all you need for the battle is a simple field manual (this tutorial), and just a little bit of patience…”

Read the rest of this entry »

Next Limit released MAXWELL RENDER 1.7. Maxwell Render 1.7 offers several new and vastly improved features.

If you a customer of Next Limit check your inbox to find the URL to download the update.

What is new in MAXWELL Render 1.7

• New physical sky system
  The Physical Sky system in Maxwell Render 1.7 uses an entirely new approach and has been greatly enhanced adding more parameters to control the look of the sky and the resulting light in the scene, ranging from common Earth values to exaggerated fantasy skies. Users can create presets of sky settings to quickly load a new sky, or share their presets with other users. It’s also possible to save the current sky as an HDR map.This new sky system renders faster than the previous one – in certain scenes the difference can be dramatic. The concept of “Aerosols” – particles found in the air that interact with light and influence how lights scatters and reacts in the atmosphere – plays an important role. Aerosols have a big impact on the coloration of the sky and scene illumination.
• 1.7 Material Editor enhanced
  • Material Preview: the material preview now shows incremental updates and you can stop the preview rendering at any time by double clicking on the preview.
  • Material Swatches: here you can store material “swatches” or previews. A material state can be stored as a preview and the user can easily browse between the saved previews, allowing for faster material editing and experimentation.
  • Texture Editor: the Texture Editor in 1.7 offers various new image controls: Saturation; Brightness; Contrast; and Clamp min/max. These new controls allow users to work much more efficiently with textures. There is no need to use an external image editing application to make small changes to a texture, and the same texture can be used for colour, bump, roughness and weight map.
  • Wizards: this is a step-by-step guide to creating several types of common materials such as shiny wooden floors, plastics, clipmapped materials for leafs, SSS materials, etc. The Wizard will ask you for textures, bumps, reflectance maps and material values such as roughness and colour.The “Common” wizard can be used to create Diffuse, Emitter, Metal, Dielectric or Plastic materials

• New SSS Component
  Sub-Surface Scattering (SSS) simulates the effect of light entering a translucent object and scattering inside it. Some of this light is absorbed and some is also scattered back to the surface. It is a crucial component that allows you to accurately simulate many kinds of materials including plastics, marble, milk, skin etc. The SSS component has been entirely rewritten for Maxwell Render 1.7, following an entirely new approach compared to the old system or any other SSS system currently available.The SSS component in Maxwell Render effectively replaces the BSDF material properties such as  eflectance/transmittance becausethe surface reflection color and amount depends on what happens inside the volume, just like in real life. There is no separation between “surface” material and “volume” material. The surface properties (roughness, bump etc.) remain the same as for the BSDF component. What this means in practice is that with the SSS component, you can get a full range of materials from regular clear glass, to almost solid-looking materials. This is one of the biggest strengths of Maxwell Render’s SSS system. The SSS material supports full GI and if the material is clear enough it will create caustic light patterns and also be influenced by caustic light cast from surrounding objects.

  You can weight an SSS with a BSDF, or several SSS components, but only one SSS or BSDF per material layer is allowed. You can quickly switch between using a BSDF or SSS component by right-clicking in the Material Layers list or by using the Edit menu and choosing “Turn to BSDF” or “Turn to SSS’. The Nd and surface properties you used in the previous component will be transferred to the new compone

• 1.7 Maxwell Studio improvements
  • Texture Handling and Memory Optimizations: texture handling, scene loading times and overall memory usage have all been improved. With scenes that use many large textures, objects and materials, the loading time is around 10 times faster. Only the textures that are active in the OpenGL viewport are now loaded into memory, saving RAM and allowing users to work faster with materials.
  • Realtime OpenGL Preview of Physical Sky: with the vastly improved Physical Sky system in Maxwell Render 1.7, the OpenGL preview in the viewports has also been improved, allowing you to change any of the Sky parameters and camera settings and seeing an accurate realtime preview in the viewports.
  • Color Picker: the color chips on the left side can be used to store commonly used colors. Drag& drop a color from the large color chips at the bottom of the Color Picker to one of the color chips on the left to store a color.
    The two large color chips at the bottom of the color picker allow you to compare the previously selected color with a new one.The top color chip updates to show the currently selected color in the colored wheel. The bottom color chip shows what color was selected when opening the Color Picker.
  • Isolate Selection: select this option from the right click menu in the object list panel, or in a viewport, to display only the currently selected objects in the viewport. This is useful if you have a cluttered scene and wish to view only the currently selected objects.
  • UV Operator: this option lets you apply the same transformations to all the selected UVs at the same time. You can, for example, scale all the selected UV sets by 10%. The Operator is found under the UV parameters section in the Object Parameters panel.
  • Material Browser: improved for version 1.7; it has a more common functionality with the Windows Explorer, having a folder view on the left side and the contents of the folder displayed on the right side.
  • 3D/ Ortho View Dropdown: You can switch a camera to be a perspective (3D) camera or an orthographic camera (2D). This is useful if you wish to render an orthographic view while still having access to common camera parameters such as resolution and ISO. Please note that focal length is not available when the camera is in orthographic mode.

• SimuLens
  SimuLens parameters: the SimuLens parameters have been added to the interface of Maxwell Studio and the plug-ins, and they are now also available through the command line. These changes allow for SimuLens to be used for animations.
• MXiMerge Tool
  The installation package includes a new tool called MxiMerge. This is a small command line application useful to merge MXI files into one folder. It can also be used to read information about an MXI file (resolution, sampling level, etc) and for converting MXI files into other image formats. To learn more about how to use this tool just open a command line/terminal window and type: (for Windows) MxiMerge.exe –help; (for Mac OSX and Linux) mximerge –help.
• MAXWELL Plugins
  All Plugins (3ds Max, Archicad 11, Cinema 4D, form-Z, Lightwave 3D, Maya, Rhinoceros, SolidWorks,  and Softimage | XSI) have been updated

Rhythm & Hues did release a small introduction about camera tracking (using Maya live):

The movies are on Rhythm & Hues web site

1. Introduction to camera tracking (1.2 MB)
2. Example to show the need for camera tracking (14.6 MB)
3. Maya live setup (7.3 MB)
4. Initial alignment of the camera (6.0 MB)
5. Fine tuning the alignment of the camera (10.8 MB)
6. Tracking 2d points (6.7 MB)
7. Tracking 2d points(contd.) (8.1 MB)
8. Adding Constraints (7.0 MB)
9. Solving the camera (3.0 MB)
10. Improving the track further (5.9 MB)

Best would be if you download the Video Tutorial by Right-clicking on the link and choose ‘Save Link As’ or ‘Save Target As’ to save the video file on your local system

I would like to point you to the Wired Mag article “The Software That Will Take Digital F/X to the Next Level of Awesome” that has been published. Written by Michael Behar.