Friday, November 18, 2011

Gnomon Workshop: After Effects Tutorials - Essential Techniques with Ergin Kuke



Gnomon Workshop: After Effects Tutorials - Essential Techniques with Ergin Kuke
English | Fileserve, Filesonic, Uploadstation, Wupload | 8.23 GB

This release contains all the video lessons on a series of After Effects Tutorials that are far from the author Ergin Kuke.Ergin is creative director and co-founder of Angst VFX, an up and coming visual effects company in Los Angeles, CA.Ergin moved to Los Angeles from Albania in 2001 to be part of the Gnomon Certificate program. After finishing studies there, he has been a Lighting TD and Compositor at Sony Imageworks, Rhythm & Hues working on Polar Express, Zathura, Superman, Narnia, Beowulf etc. As a freelance artist in commercial boutiques, Ergin has worked at Digital Kitchen, Stardust, Engine Room, Brand New School, Superfad etc doing lighting and compositing on many commercial and music video projects. He has also developed concert visuals for Korn, Bon Jovi, 50 Cent, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Paul Oakenfold and more.

Manufacturer: The Gnomon Workshop
Language: English
Author: Ergin Kuke



Introduction to After Effects:

The Basics Part 1:
Ergin reviews interface basics, frame rates, resolution, bit depth, basic keyframing, timeline vs. node-based compositors, aspect ratio and more.
Duration: 69 minutes

The Basics Part 2:
Ergin continues his introduction and delves deeper into After Effects with an explanation of blending modes, filters, basic masking, adjustment layers and more.
Duration: 31 minutes

Rendering:
Ergin explains the rendering process in-depth and shows examples of common render settings.
Duration: 30 minutes

Track Mattes:
An introduction to using alpha channels and track mattes.
Duration: 13 minutes

Keyframes:
An in-depth look at keyframing in After Effects.
Duration: 39 minutes

Editing:
All you need to know about After Effects editing and shortcuts.
Duration: 5 minutes

Masking and Reflections:
In this tutorial Ergin uses masking, track mattes and fake reflections to create a unique television experience.
Duration: 8 minutes

Rotoscoping:
This tutorial covers the basics of rotoscoping in After Effects.
Duration: 11 minutes

Time Stretch Remapping:
Time Remapping is the process of manipulating video and effects in your timeline in order to create dynamic compositions.
Duration: 14 minutes

**********************************************************************

Intermediate After Effects Tutorials:

Title Screen "Beelzebub" Animation:
Capture the movement of your mouse to animate flies in this title screen tutorial.
Duration: 26 minutes

Shapes Animation:
In this project-based tutorial, Ergin gives examples of how to use shapes in After Effects and animate them with distortion and

echo to create an underwater environment.
Duration: 36 minutes

Introduction to Tracking:
In this extensive four part introduction to tracking in After Effects, Ergin thoroughly demos the tracking process including using position, rotation, scale tracking, and stabilizing in a 2d track, corner point tracking, adding video to a blank monitor.
Duration: 48 minutes

Compositing Render Passes:
This tutorial contains both an overview of compositing 3D render passes with lighting theory and material properties, as well as a real world project using RGB mattes, ambient occlusion and color correction.
Duration: 36 minutes

Warp Drive:
Learn to animate a simple, stylized warp drive effect with only three layers using distortion, camera shake, and color correction.
Duration: 47 minutes

Space Environment:
Create planets and an animated outerspace environment completely in 2D.
Duration: 38 minutes

Equalizer:
Ergin demonstrates how to use sound to drive animation in After Effects with several examples.
Duration: 51 minutes

Keying:
In this three part tutorial, Ergin takes an in-depth look at the keying tools in After Effects. Examples include green and blue screens and theory.
Length: 90 minutes

Using 3D - Part 1, Horse head:
This Intro to 3D in After Effects tutorial covers cameras, lights, material properties, animation.
Duration: 24 minutes

Using 3D - Part 2, Whiskey Bottle:
This Intro to 3D in After Effects tutorial continues with camera depth of field, more animation and 3d layers.
Duration: 37 minutes

**************************************************************************************

Advanced After Effects Projects:

Stylized Cloud Animation:
In this tutorial Ergin uses a lightning filter and color-correction to create stormy clouds and then composites those clouds to appear outside the window of an airplane
Duration: 56 minutes

Using 3D -Turning a Still Image into 3D:
This tutorial covers how to give a 3D effect to a still image.
Duration: 55 minutes

"Regressive" Commercial:
This project-based tutorial spins a Progressive commercial to create a real world spoof.
Duration: 31 minutes

Blood Effects:
Learn blood effects for title sequences in this project-based tutorial while recreating part of a Dragon Age commercial.
Duration: 41 minutes

"Strom-Chasers" Opening Title:
Recreate part of Storm Chasers' opening titles using particles and animation.
Duration: 69 minutes

Celestial Impact:
Mars gets hit in this tutorial complete with monolith from 2001 Space Odyssey all in 2D.
Duration: 66 minutes

"Giants" Composite:
In this three part, project-based tutorial, Ergin shows how to create giant characters walking through New York City.
Duration: 179 minutes


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Digital Tutors Texture Projection Techniques in MARI



Digital Tutors Texture Projection Techniques in MARI
Digital Tutors Texture Projection Techniques in MARI-iNKiSO | 644MB
Genre: eLearning | Language: English

In this series of lessons, we will be exploring many of the tools and features of MARI that will allow you to texture your models faster and with more precision. This course will begin by discussing the basic workflow of projecting texture detail onto your geometry within MARI as well as important features and settings that you will want to be aware of at an early stage of your texturing process. From there, we will move into important topics such as mirroring painted details from one side of your geometry to the other, utilizing a multi-layered approach when creating our textures in MARI, looking at methods for seamlessly blending our textures together, as well as many additional tips, tricks, and techniques that you will be able to use within your own MARI projects.


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Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Lynda.com – Photoshop Masking & Compositing: Fundamentals



Lynda.com – Photoshop Masking & Compositing: Fundamentals

Photoshop Masking and Compositing: Fundamentals is the introductory installment of Deke McClelland’s four-part series on making photorealistic compositions in Photoshop. The course shows how to make selections, refine the selections with masks, and then combine them in new ways, using layer effects, blend modes, and other techniques to create a single seamless piece of artwork. Deke introduces the Channels panel and the alpha channel, the key to masking and transparency in Photoshop; reviews the selection tools, including the Color Range tool , Quick Mask mode, and the Refine Edge command; and shows how to blend masked images so they interact naturally. Exercise files accompany the course.

Topics include: 

Setting up a workspace
Working with the seven key selection tools
Using the Color Range command
Automating masking
Matching a scene with Smart Filters
Choosing the ideal base channel
Converting a channel to a mask
Painting with the Overlay and Soft Light modes
Using History to regain a lost mask
Working with the Calculations command
Extracting a mask from a Smart Object
Masking and compositing light
Masking with black and white
Working with path outlines
Combining pixel and vector masks
Creating and feathering a vector mask




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Bentley Microstation Tutorials by CADLearning


Bentley Microstation Tutorials by CADLearning
Bentley Microstation Tutorials by CADLearning | 4.38 GB

The CADLearning Series for AutoCAD® currently includes over 225 video tutorials to help you fully delve into the product and get up to speed quickly. Learn the full product or brush up on certain features and functions.
Learn features and function of AutoCAD to create and modify 2D and 3D geometry. Concepts and demonstrations cover beginner, intermediate and advanced topics including display controls, annotation objects, using layers, setting up drawings for print, manipulating reusable content and customizing your AutoCAD interface.
  1. MicroStation Manager Overview of the MicroStation XM Manager interface
  2. User Interface Overview of the MicroStation XM user interface
  3. User Interface Using the mouse within MicroStation
  4. User Interface Right-click menus
  5. User Interface Overview of the MicroStation XM toolbars
  6. User Interface Overview of the MicroStation XM File menu
  7. User Interface Overview of the MicroStation XM icons and short cuts
  8. User Interface Overview of the MicroStation PopSets
  9. User Interface Understanding the MicroStation XM Workspace user preferences
  10. User Interface The MicroStation Command Line
  11. User Interface Using the key-in browser
  12. User Interface Exploring the MicroStation XM Tool settings
  13. User Interface Using the Function keys
  14. User Interface Understanding the mouse button assignments
  15. User Interface Creating new design file
  16. User Interface File settings
  17. User Interface File Open
  18. User Interface Saving your work
  19. User Interface Save Settings
  20. User Interface Changing the appearance of your icons
  21. User Interface Basic file navigation using the zoom tools
  22. User Interface Advanced 1 zoom tools – Clip Volume
  23. User Interface Copy View
  24. User Interface Advanced 2 zoom tools – View Previous/Next
  25. User Interface View Rendering
  26. User Interface Introduction to 3D view tools
  27. User Interface Saved Views
  28. User Interface Understanding icons and how they change to fit the active tool
  29. Coordinate Entry Understanding the design plane
  30. Coordinate Entry Absolute coordinate data entry method
  31. Coordinate Entry Relative coordinate data entry method
  32. Coordinate Entry Polar coordinate data entry method
  33. Coordinate Entry Direct Distance Entry – AccuDraw
  34. Coordinate Entry Dynamic input
  35. Drawing Geometry Drawing units
  36. Drawing Aids Understanding the Isometric Lock
  37. Drawing Aids Understanding the Annotation Scale Lock
  38. Drawing Aids Understanding the ACS Lock
  39. Drawing Aids Introduction to Snaps
  40. Drawing Aids Using Snaps in MicroStation XM
  41. Drawing Aids Using Snaps in MicroStation XM – MultiSnap
  42. Drawing Aids Using Snaps modes to produce lines
  43. Drawing Aids Understanding the AccuSnap Settings
  44. Levels Introduction to Levels
  45. Levels Understanding the Level Manager dialog box
  46. Levels Understanding the Level Display dialogs
  47. Levels Level Creation and Naming
  48. Levels Level Display – View Display
  49. Levels Level Display – Global Display
  50. Levels Level Display – Global Freeze
  51. Levels Level Display – Change Level
  52. Levels Level Display – Show Target Tree
  53. Levels Level Filter/Search
  54. Levels Level Override
  55. Data Manipulation Overview of data manipulation tools
  56. Data Manipulation Element selection
  57. Data Manipulation Undo and Redo commands
  58. Data Manipulation The Move command
  59. Data Manipulation The Copy command
  60. Data Manipulation Interacting with view controls and manipulation commands
  61. Data Manipulation The Scale command
  62. Data Manipulation The Rotate command
  63. Data Manipulation The Mirror command
  64. Data Manipulation The Array command
  65. Data Manipulation The Align Element by Edge command
  66. Data Manipulation The Stretch Element command
  67. Data Manipulation The Copy/Move Parallel command
  68. Data Manipulation The Move to Contact command
  69. Data Manipulation – Fence Place Fence overview
  70. Data Manipulation – Fence Place Fence – types
  71. Data Manipulation – Fence Fence content manipulation
  72. Data Manipulation – Fence Place Fence – modes
  73. Data Manipulation – Fence Fence tools
  74. Data Manipulation – Fence Save Fence
  75. Attributes Using Attributes
  76. Attributes Change Element Attributes
  77. Attributes Change Element Attributes Area type and Fill type
  78. Attributes Change Line Style Attributes
  79. Attributes Change Multiline Attributes
  80. Attributes Match Element Attributes
  81. Groups Drop Element
  82. Groups Create Complex Chain
  83. Groups Create Complex Shape
  84. Groups Create Region
  85. Groups Named Groups
  86. Data Modification Modify Element
  87. Data Modification Partial Delete
  88. Data Modification Break Element
  89. Data Modification Extend Element
  90. Data Modification Extend 2 Elements to Intersection
  91. Data Modification Extend Element to Intersection
  92. Data Modification Trim Elements
  93. Data Modification IntelliTrim Elements
  94. Data Modification Insert and Delete Vertex
  95. Data Modification Create a Circular Fillet and a Chamfer
  96. Annotation Place text – tool settings
  97. Annotation Place text – Word Processor
  98. Annotation Place text – Spell Checker
  99. Annotation Place text – insert symbols
  100. Annotation Place text – stacked fractions
  101. Annotation Place text – indents and tabs
  102. Annotation Place Text – placement methods
  103. Annotation Place text – Text Style 1
  104. Annotation Place text – Text Style 2
  105. Annotation Place text – Text Style 3
  106. Annotation Place text – Text Style 4
  107. Annotation Place text – place note
  108. Annotation Edit text
  109. Annotation Text Attributes
  110. Annotation Place Text Node
  111. Annotation Copy/increment text
  112. Annotation Using text data fields
  113. Annotation Find/replace text
  114. Annotation Text – insert text fields
  115. Annotation Using Annotation Scale – text
  116. Cells Overview of a cell
  117. Cells Placing a cell
  118. Cells Cell Library
  119. Cells Place cell matrix and terminator
  120. Cells Create cell
  121. Cells Update/replace cell
  122. Measure Using the Measure Tools
  123. Dimensioning Overview of Dimensions
  124. Dimensioning Create Dimension Style – metric
  125. Dimensioning Create Dimension Style – imperial
  126. Dimensioning Dimension Element
  127. Dimensioning Dimension Linear
  128. Dimensioning Dimension Angular
  129. Dimensioning Dimension Ordinates
  130. Dimensioning Dimension Place Note
  131. Dimensioning Dimension Match/Change Dimension
  132. Dimensioning Reposition Dimensions
  133. Dimensioning Using Annotation Scale
  134. Models Overview of Design Models and Sheets
  135. Models Creating a Design Model
  136. Models Creating Sheet Model (Full Size)
  137. Models Creating a Sheet Model (Annotation Scale)
  138. Models Importing Models
  139. Models Working with DWG files
  140. Models Linking a border/title block to a Sheet
  141. Referencing Introduction to Reference Files
  142. Referencing Reference Files level manipulation
  143. Referencing Attaching Reference Files
  144. Referencing Detaching Reference Files
  145. Referencing Reference File reload/out of date
  146. Referencing Understanding live nesting Reference Files
  147. Referencing Merging a Reference File into the Master File
  148. Referencing Dealing with missing Reference Files
  149. Referencing Dealing with misaligned Reference Files
  150. Referencing Referencing file clipping
  151. Referencing Referencing a Design Model to a Sheet
  152. Referencing Advanced methods of attaching Reference Files
  153. Referencing Raster Referencing
  154. File Management Overview of the File pulldown menu
  155. File Management File New – DGN
  156. File Management File New – DWG
  157. File Management File Save As – DGN (Version 8 DGN)
  158. File Management File Save As – DGN (Version 7 DGN) part 1
  159. File Management File Save As – DGN (Version 7 DGN) part 2
  160. File Management File Save As – DWG (various DWG Versions)
  161. File Management File Save As – DWG (common settings)
  162. File Management File Import/Export
  163. File Management File Open for other file formats
  164. File Management Using the Batch Convert tools – Part 1
  165. File Management Using the Batch Convert tools – Part 2
  166. Object Linking Using OLE linking to place Office data into your DGN file
  167. Auxiliary Coordinate System
  168. (ACS) Overview of Auxiliary Coordinate Systems (ACS)
  169. Auxiliary Coordinate System
  170. (ACS) Defining the ACS location
  171. Auxiliary Coordinate System
  172. (ACS) Using AccuDraw to define the ACS
  173. Auxiliary Coordinate System
  174. (ACS) Creating Multiple ACS
  175. Printing Overview of printing within MicroStation
  176. Printing Selecting the correct print driver/scale
  177. Printing Selecting the print area and colors
  178. Printing Printing Sheet Models
  179. Printing Creating print/plot
  180. Printing Creating print/plot (3D PDF)
  181. Printing Understanding the print driver
  182. Coordinate Entry Dynamic input
  183. Drawing Geometry Drawing units
  184. Drawing Geometry The Place Line command
  185. Drawing Geometry The Place Smartline command
  186. Drawing Geometry The Place MultiLine command
  187. Drawing Geometry The Place Point command
  188. Drawing Geometry The Place Block command
  189. Drawing Geometry The Place Shape command
  190. Drawing Geometry The Place Orthogonal Shape command
  191. Drawing Geometry The Place Regular Polygon command
  192. Drawing Geometry The Place Circle tool
  193. Drawing Geometry The Place Ellipse tool
  194. Drawing Geometry The Place Arc tool
  195. Drawing Geometry The Place Orthogonal Shape command
  196. Drawing Geometry The Place Quarter Ellipse tool
  197. Drawing Geometry Modify Curve
  198. AccuDraw An overview of the AccuDraw tool
  199. AccuDraw The AccuDraw settings
  200. AccuDraw Using AccuDraw with the Placement tools
  201. AccuDraw The AccuDraw Smart Lock
  202. AccuDraw The AccuDraw Set Origin shortcut
  203. AccuDraw Working with Snaps and AccuDraw
  204. AccuDraw Working with AccuDraw Rotate Compass shortcut
  205. AccuDraw Listing the AccuDraw shortcuts
  206. AccuDraw Listing the AccuDraw pop-up calculator
  207. Hatching and Patterning Understanding Hatching and Patterning
  208. Hatching and Patterning Understanding Associated Hatching/Patterning
  209. Hatching and Patterning Hatch Area – Element
  210. Hatching and Patterning Hatch Area – Flood
  211. Hatching and Patterning Hatch Area – Union, Intersection and Difference
  212. Hatching and Patterning Hatch Area – Points
  213. Hatching and Patterning Hatch Area – Fence
  214. Hatching and Patterning Hatch Area – Cross Hatch
  215. Hatching and Patterning Pattern Area
  216. Hatching and Patterning Linear Patterning
  217. Hatching and Patterning Show Pattern Attributes
  218. Hatching and Patterning Match Pattern Attributes
  219. Hatching and Patterning Change Pattern Attributes
  220. Hatching and Patterning Understanding the different Hatch options
  221. Hatching and Patterning Using the Delete Pattern tool
  222. Drawing Aids Understanding Locks (overview)
  223. Drawing Aids Understanding the Axis Lock
  224. Drawing Aids Understanding the Grid Lock
  225. Drawing Aids Understanding the Unit Lock


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Digital-Tutors – Creative Development: Tornado Particle Effects in 3ds Max and FumeFX with Matt Radford



Digital-Tutors – Creative Development: Tornado Particle Effects in 3ds Max and FumeFX with Matt Radford
Advanced | 1h 46m | 627 MB | Project Files 0.2 MB | Required Software: 3ds Max 2011, FumeFX 2.0, Krakatoa 1.6

The second volume of the Getting Started with Vue 9 training series, Lighting & Atmospherics.
No previous knowledge of Vue required. Includes project files.

In this training volume, instructor, Nicholas Pellegrino, will teach you to customize atmospheres to fit your creative and design needs. Learn to modify and create your own custom atmospheres and infinite terrains. Explore the relations between infinite terrains, sea level, and atmospherics. Learn to create an improved “Randomization Seed” node and add more variations to infinite terrain functions. Learn about volumetric lighting and shadow control. Create lighting setups and reduce render times with “relighting.” Understand clouds layers and how to control them.

Learn about atmospheric density in relation to scene units and spherical scenes. Break apart vectors, limit node outputs, create custom vectors, publish parameters from the function editor into the terrain editor. Create and control numerous atmospheres, edit functions, create MetaNodes, reduce render times, and more.


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AsileFX Getting Started With Vue 9 Volume 2 – Lighting & Atmospherics



AsileFX Getting Started With Vue 9 Volume 2 – Lighting & Atmospherics

The second volume of the Getting Started with Vue 9 training series, Lighting & Atmospherics.
No previous knowledge of Vue required. Includes project files.

In this training volume, instructor, Nicholas Pellegrino, will teach you to customize atmospheres to fit your creative and design needs. Learn to modify and create your own custom atmospheres and infinite terrains. Explore the relations between infinite terrains, sea level, and atmospherics. Learn to create an improved “Randomization Seed” node and add more variations to infinite terrain functions. Learn about volumetric lighting and shadow control. Create lighting setups and reduce render times with “relighting.” Understand clouds layers and how to control them.

Learn about atmospheric density in relation to scene units and spherical scenes. Break apart vectors, limit node outputs, create custom vectors, publish parameters from the function editor into the terrain editor. Create and control numerous atmospheres, edit functions, create MetaNodes, reduce render times, and more.


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cmiVFX - Python Introduction for Maya (Vol.01)



cmiVFX - Python Introduction for Maya (Vol.01)

English | webm | V_VP8 1024x576 12 fps | A-VORBIS 64 Kbps 48 KHz | 638 MB
Genre: eLearning

This course brings the talented artist into the fold of the technical-side of Maya. Learn the basics of Python, and its place in your 3D workflow, with visual examples and real world problems. Get a kick-start on adding some automation into your life, and solving common problems in a fraction of the time. By the end of this video, you should have a deeper understanding of one of the languages Maya speaks under the hood, and how to start viewing your scenes in terms of glorious Python code!




Why python?
Learn why you, as an artist, should even concern yourself with learning a scripting language, and why Python is perfect for you! Sometimes problems need a solution that is far less time consuming than a manual fix. Sometimes just your transform/rotate/scale manipulators won’t be there to help. Lets set up a small real world problem that, by the end of this video, should be a breeze to solve.

The Basics
Exploring the syntax of Python, an object-oriented language. We take a look at how to get started in playing around with the code, the terminology, and the tools that Python makes available to you. Object types, functions, loops... Lets start building up that toolbox!

The Maya Script Editor
This will be your home during your time as a Python Padawan. We check out all the features that have recently been added to Maya 2011, to make the python programming experience even more comfortable. Learn how to access all of the commands made available to you, and how to find help on the usage of each one. We will take what we learned in the previous chapter and start exploring visual examples of the code. By the end of this chapter, you will now how to turn individual lines of code into reusable functions.

Development, Environment, and Workflow
By now, you have seen the power that is at your finger tips. You know enough to start experimenting with new ideas. We will now find out how to configure Maya a little bit to make your code easier to re-use, and distribute. We also present some more areas to be investigated down the road, in your path to becoming a Maya scripting master.

Bonus: Intro to Maya UI
Writing python scripts and tools are great. But it would be a lot more fun if we could wrap them up into UI dialogs, and give the user some visual options. This bonus section takes a tool we wrote in a previous chapter, and throws together a simple popup dialog to visually expose the tool options. The code for this UI is included in the project for you to explore!

Justin Israel
Justin is a California based artist who graduated from Cal State Long Beach (CSULB) with a Bachelor’s in Film and Video production. He started his Visual FX career at Stan Winston Digital as an artist and then developed strong pipeline/programming skills at Sony Pictures Imageworks while working on Spiderman 3, I Am Legend and The Watchmen. Justin currently works as Sr., Pipeline Developer on the award winning television series South Park, designing tools for Maya, Nuke, and general pipeline. His passion for live-action visual effects and film leads Justin to gain fundamental knowledge in all facets possible. His experience includes paint, roto, compositing, python and pipeline development. His work includes feature films such as Commander & Chief, The Compass, Bride Wars, Tropic Thunder, Mamma Mia, I Am Legend, Spiderman 3, The Watchmen, Fantastic Four and more.

Justin has worked as both an artist and a visual fx supervisor, in film and television, as well as directing and practical lighting experience, and constantly looking for new challenges and opportunities to learn. Justin's website justinfx.com.


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Allan McKay – FumeFx 2 Core Fundamentals


Allan McKay – Fumefx 2 Core Fundamentals

VFX Supervisor and Director Allan McKay has released a 2 disc set that offers over 13 hours and 70 videos of training tutorials aimed at mastering FumeFX 2.1. Every feature of Fume FX is covered in depth, usually demonstrating different ways to use it in production. A majority of the included exercises are directly based on actual feature film productions


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After Effects CS5: Creating Motion Graphics


After Effects CS5: Creating Motion Graphics

After Effects CS5: Creating Motion Graphics / 2011
ENG | .mov; QuickTime; 1.41 MiB / 960×540 (16:9) | 07:57:59 | rar | 1.38 Gb

Topics include:

  • Converting type from Photoshop and Illustrator
  • Creating shapes from text
  • Using markers in animation
  • Editing techniques for graphics
  • Using type presets
  • Animating type
  • Exploring color correction tools
  • Building animated textures
  • Creating custom vignettes
  • Understanding Lights and Material settings
  • Adding dynamic transitions
  • Rigging cameras for animation
  • Working efficiently in 3D space


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Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack Win32/64

Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 Subscription Advantage Pack Win32/64


The Autodesk® Subscription Advantage Pack for Autodesk® 3ds Max® 2011 software integrates state-of-the-art technology from renowned industry companies who are working with Autodesk to revolutionize rendering and simulation workflows.

Featuring lightweight, resolution-independent procedural textures; GPU-accelerated rigid-body dynamics; and one of the world’s first physically accurate “point-and-shoot” renderers, the Advantage Pack for 3ds Max 2011 delivers cutting-edge tools that help leverage the latest hardware advances to help customers maintain their competitive advantage.

Top Features and Benefits

Substance Procedural Textures

Achieve a vast range of look variations with a new library of up to 75 Substance procedural textures. These dynamic, resolution-independent textures have a tiny memory and disk space footprint, making them very good for exporting to games engines via the Allegorithmic Substance Air middleware offering; integration is currently provided for Unreal® Engine 3 game
engine, Emergent’s Gamebryo game engine, and Unity. Alternatively, textures can be baked to bitmaps for use with certain renderers. Some examples of dynamically editable and animatable parameters are: brick distribution, surface aging, and mortar thickness in a brick wall; pupil size, eye color, and extent of veining in an eye texture; and the age, roughness, curb borders, and lane markings of a street texture.

PhysX Rigid-Body Dynamics

Create more compelling, dynamic rigid-body simulations directly in the 3ds Max viewport. The multi-threaded NVIDIA® PhysX® engine supports static, dynamic, and kinematic rigid bodies (the latter for rag doll simulations), and a number of constraints: Rigid, Slide, Hinge, Twist, Universal, Ball & Socket, and Gear. Animators can more quickly create a wider range of realistic dynamic simulations, and can also use the toolset for modeling: for example, creating a randomly placed landscape of rocks. Assigning physical properties – friction, density, and bounciness – is as simple as choosing from a set of initial preset real-world materials and tweaking parameters as required.

iray Photorealistic Renderer

Creating realistic images has never been easier with 3ds Max, using the newly integrated iray® rendering technology from mental images. Another major milestone in the Rendering Revolution, iray enables artists to set up their scene, press “render,” and get predictable, photo-real results without worrying about rendering settings­ just like a “point-and-shoot” camera. Artists can focus on their creative vision as they intuitively use real world materials, lighting, and settings to more  accurately portray the physical world; iray progressively refines the image until the desired level of detail is achieved. iray works with standard multi-core CPUs. However, NVIDIA CUDA-enabled GPU hardware will significantly accelerate the rendering process.


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3Ds Max Tutorials - Films Effects Full CD1-CD2


3Ds Max Tutorials - Films Effects Full CD1-CD2
3Ds Max Tutorials - Films Effects Full CD1-CD2 | project files | .avi | eng | 1.3Gb

This session focuses on at least three visual effects shots which use afterburn and pflow. Presented by Allan McKay, this lesson leads you through creating visual effects shots as you would in production, starting with an animated scene and then applying the effects.

Examples include having a tornado procedurally tear apart a house, trees and other surroundings as well as pull lots of dirt, rocks and other debris into its base funnel. Another illustrates planes firing at each other showing basic level flocking behaviors while displaying ways to make two pflow sources communicate with one another. Lastly, we’ll examine other
“Hollywood” effects such as earthquakes.

This seminar is considered advanced and focuses primarily on finished and polished shots. Some scripting is used.


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DAZ Studio 4.0.3.9 PRO 32bit/64bit + Victoria 5 Pro Bundle


DAZ Studio 4.0.3.9 PRO 32bit/64bit + Victoria 5 Pro Bundle

DAZ Studio is a feature rich 3D figure customization, posing, and animation tool that enables anyone to create stunning digital illustrations and animations. DAZ Studio is the perfect tool to design unique digital art and animations using virtual people, animals, props, vehicles, accessories, environments and more. Simply select your subject and/or setting, arrange accessories, setup lighting, and begin creating beautiful artwork.

With DAZ Studio 4 you can:

  • Create custom 3D characters and avatars
  • Produce illustrations for books, comics, and graphic novels
  • Make your own CG movies
  • Quickly make your own editorial artwork
  • Create graphic design elements
  • Design virtual environments with animated fly-throughs


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For x32 system
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

For x64 system
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Victoria 5 For DAZ Studio
Here

FXPHD 201 - Production Rendering Techniques


FXPHD 201 - Production Rendering Techniques
fxphd 201 - Production Rendering Techniques with Mental Ray | FULL | project files | .mov | 3.33Gb


This course will teach techniques and concepts for rendering realistic, physically based CG elements in a visual effects context (i.e. for integration into live action shots). As it is a hands-on course in using Mental Ray to do these things, it will start with a fundamental treatment of everything from light and pixels through to cameras, response curves and compositing, as well as "learning to see". The course will be performed using the 3ds Max application, but most things apply to Maya and Softimage as well.

Professor Hakan 'Zap' Andersson has been working as "Shader Wizard" at mental images since 2004 and is the author of numerous mental ray shaders, such as the subsurface/skin shaders, the car paint shader, as well as the architectural and production shader libraries. Originally educated as an Engineer in Electronics, Zap's passion for computer graphics caused his graduation year "special project" to be an actual hand-built and hand-wired graphics card, for which he wrote his first ray tracer. Today Zap spends his days (and nights) writing shaders, documentation and tutorials for mental ray, and sometimes makes presentations at user events and conventions, as well as maintains a mental ray tips blog mentalraytips.blogspot.com.

Professor: Zap Andersson (MasterZap)

Class 1: Pixels vs. Light - What is a pixel? The units of light, and how they map to the RGB values we encounter every day.

Shows how the math we apply to pixels can break, and how, if we are not careful, two plus two can end up ten.

Class 2: Lighting - Understanding the quality and quantity of light. Understanding how real-world lights map to computer graphics lights. Understanding how light gathers and reflects off a surface.

Class 3: Cameras - Understanding how a real world cameras function map to their computer graphics counterparts.

Understanding what film and digital cameras do to the image before you even see it.

Class 4: Materials I - Using the physically based Arch&Design; material to simulate real world surfaces. Learning to see the world, so that one can translate it to CG.

Class 5: Materials II - More about materials. Using the mental ray skin shader for realistic characters.

Class 6: Interaction between CG and the Real World - Using the production library shaders to seamlessly integrate CG objects in real-world background plates with reflections, bounce light, shadows, etc.

Class 7: Interaction between CG and the Real World part II + "What Not To Do". Advanced interaction topics like smoothing out glossy reflections of HDRI environments and masking. Also discusses things you should avoid; Walks through the topics of previous classes and deals out some "no-no's".

Class 8: Compositing - How stuff that comes out of the renderer goes together, and what can (and should) and can't (and shouldn't) be delegated to compositing.

Class 9: Pixels, Samples and Filtering. Discusses anti-aliasing methods, and the different primary ray acceleration techniques, and demystifies the various mental ray methods for motion blur.

Class 10: Indirect illumination in animation. Avoiding flickering in Final Gathering in animated scenes. Also does a final course wrapup.



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Digital-Tutors – Using Photoshop CS5 to Alter the Lighting of an Image


Digital-Tutors – Using Photoshop CS5 to Alter the Lighting of an Image
1 hrs. 38 min. |Released on February 1, 2011 |Project Files Included (96 MB)
Required Software: Photoshop CS5



In this collection of lessons we will be focusing on creating a mood by drastically changing the lighting for an image.

We will get started by learning how to remove some unwanted information from our image using the spot healing brush.

From there we will begin the process of converting our daytime image into a night time image. During this process we make some major color corrections as well as completely replace the sky in our scene. Some of the techniques we will learn include, creating a difficult mask, sharpening an image and creating highlights where there previously were none. We will wrap things up by learning how to create some atmospheric elements for our scene in the form of low lying fog and rays of moonlight. As we will see, there are a lot of considerations when drastically changing the lighting for an image. Through this series of lessons we will address each of these challenges and present solutions to them for this specific image.

11 videos in this course



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Digital-Tutors – Creative Development: Realistic Skin Shading, Lighting, and Rendering in 3ds Max and V-Ray with Adam Lewis


Digital-Tutors – Creative Development: Realistic Skin Shading, Lighting, and Rendering in 3ds Max and V-Ray with Adam Lewis


Advanced | 2h 37m | Released on 10/3/2011 | 916 MB | Project Files 218 MB | Required Software: 3ds Max 2011, V-Ray 2,Mudbox 2012, Photoshop CS5



In this tutorial we will learn how to render realistic human skin and eyes using V-Ray for 3ds Max.

This series of videos will guide you through the process of creating realistic renders using V-Ray for 3ds Max. While rendering is an extremely powerful method for enhancing an artist’s work, the process can be very confusing for not only beginners but also for advanced users. This course will help simplify the process. We’ll begin by learning how to prepare the assets for rendering and continue all the way through to performing post-work on the final render. After completing this tutorial, we’ll have a much better understanding of the overall process involved with rendering a realistic character in V-Ray for 3ds Max, as well gaining many valuable tips and tricks for more specific topics like skin shading and linear workflow, which in the end will help the artist add new levels of realism and life to their own work.



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