The Digimation Suite. Free power tools for 3ds Max.
Digimation pioneered the plug-in business for 3ds Max. To date, we’ve released over 50 products and now we’re offering a collection of twelve tried and true favorites to the 3D community for free! The suite comes with all of these products;
Atomizer
Allows any 3ds Max particle system to use any object as a particle object.
Bones Pro
A powerful, easy to use skeletal deformation system. With it you can quickly rig and animate detailed characters.
Chameleon
Texture placement based on the location of a gizmo, instead of an objects sub-material ID. This allows the user to place materials at very specific locations in the scene, and to animate certain effects without having to paint complex animated maps.
Clay Studio
Advanced metaball modeling for 3ds Max.
DigiPeople
A collection of procedural, low-resolution mannequins that can be quickly inserted into your 3D scenes to help create crowds. DigiPeople will give your architectural models an understandable visual scale and otherwise populate your scenes.
Fractal Flow
Allows you to warp any image, video, or 3d scene to create water ripple effects, heat distortions, and much more.
Glider
Allows you to animate any object or particle system along the surface of another object.
Lightning
A procedural electric arc generator. Lightning creates true 3D geometry right in your viewports.
MaxSculpt
Advanced mesh sculpting with full support for pressure sensitive tablets, tessellation and optimization as you sculpt.
SandBlaster
Combines flexible particles with a powerful and unique emitter and target system. Build or tear down objects in particles.
Spray Master
Allows users to spray geometry, both 2D and 3D, as particles on or around other objects with an easy-to-use freehand brush or spline-based control.
Tree Factory
Generate a wide variety of trees and ground foliage to add that extra touch of realism to your 3D scenes.
The Digimation Suite FREE
Single license of The Essential Textures. Electronic delivery only. Download here.
System Requirements
3ds Max version 4 or higher
32-bit only
Generate a Volumetric Light Effect on Animated Text
In the latest Boris FX podcast, learn how to use Boris Continuum Complete’s Rays Cartoon filter in Apple Final Cut Pro to generate a volumetric lighting effect on an animated text element. The BCC Rays Cartoon filter will also give the text the appearance of being made of neon lights. We’ll complete the effect by using the BCC Light Sweep to add a light sweep across the face of the text element and then we’ll use the BCC Colorize Glow filter to provide a soft glowing look.
Watch podcast here (pops)
If you don’t have Boris Continuum Complete, you can download a free demo here. BCC works in a whole slew of hosts, so check it out, even if you’re not a FCP user.
And if you’re loving it, buy BCC here.
After Effects CS4 scripting changes
Todd Kopriva, documentation guy for Adobe After Effects, has info on his blog about After Effects CS4 scripting changes.
Learn how to use Mocha in After Effects CS4
Check out Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast with Terry White, who is a fellow Michigander. The newest podcast features special guest Steve Whatley. Learn how to use Mocha in After Effects CS4
Free YouSendIt Final Cut Pro Plugin
This looks like an interesting plug-in for all of you Final Cut Pro users. From The Final Cut Pro.com, get all of the details on the YouSendIt Final Cut Pro Export Plug-in.
I’m wondering why Apple hasn’t built this in, perhaps utilizing their .mac/MobileMe?
Chicago Motion Graphics Festival 2009
Only in Chicago: The Legendary $7 Festival of 2009
(Chicago, IL, December 1, 2008) – With MacWorld recently announcing they are closing their doors for good and Midway Games laying of 150 full-time employees… the recession of 2009 is beginning to infect the minds of the creative industry with decreasing budgets and bottom lines.
However, there is still cheery news for the holidays; the Chicago Motion Graphics Festival (a 7-day conference in the fast moving field of design technology) has opened it’s Conference, Screenings, Studio Tours and Art Showcases for only $7. Rather than charging the typical $500-$1500 conference fee, the Chicago Motion Graphics Festival encourages participants to spend their money on new books, DVDs and software that are offered at a discount rate during the conference.
"Rather than buying an experience," comments Mason Dixon, co-director of the festival’s sixth year, "we want people to commit to upgrading their skills, aesthetics and software, all the while getting totally inspired by some amazing motion design artists and technologists."
The festival’s "Motion Market" offers attendees significant discounts on DVD collections of audio/video art and Motion Graphics work, technical training books, workshops, video hardware and software upgrades. Plus over $10,000 in free software will be given away as door prizes. All events require an RSVP on the MGFest website, which also grants access to several online-only events that occur during the festival week.
While Chicago is home to the Motion Graphics Festival, this year MGFest tours to four other cities nationally. In 2009, MGFest will visit Cambridge, Massachusetts, Austin, Texas, Atlanta, Georgia and Washington DC.
"Chicago is, and always will be, the heart of MGFest. It is the launch and the conclusion; it’s always the biggest event, and sets the tone for the rest of the year. Why else would it be in January" Mason explains. The festival kicks-off on January 20-25, 2009.
About the Motion Graphics Festival
In its 6th year, MGFest stands as the premier US event showcasing creative motion picture design. The festival presents a year-long, regionally focused program of events. The MGFest09 Tour focuses on motion design, sound design, and film & video technology by hosting: art showcases, exhibits, workshops, classes, panel discussions, studio tours, theater screenings and industry mixers.
For more information, visit the Festival web site at www.MGFest.com
Festival Sponsors include: The Chicago Convergence, Columbia College, Stash DVD Magazine, Maxon, Toolfarm, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Bridges Media Group, Lift Motion Design, Future Media Concepts, Create Digital Motion, Digieffects, Livid Instruments, Resolume, Boris FX, All City Technology, Lumen Eclipse, Sterling Ledet, VidVox, SXSW Interactive, Mac Specialist, Ableton, Harold Washington College, UnScene, and Clif Bar.
Free Winter Presets for Boris RED
Get Five Free Winter Presets that are compatible with Boris RED 4.x or higher!
Don’t have Boris RED? Download a free trial version here.
More on Boris RED in Toolfarm’s Plug-in Finder | Buy Boris RED
GreenScreen Made Easy coming soon
Jeremy Hanke, editor of Microfilmmaker Magazine, and I are really excited about our upcoming book GreenScreen Made Easy. It’s out in April and we’re already hearing some terrific reviews. More on this in early 2009.
Adobe Fun Fact
Did you know Adobe.com was the 42nd ever registered dot com? See the first 100 here.
The FxFactory Awards. Show off your work. Win cool prizes.
FxFactory Awards 2008 contest entries will be judged according to their creative use of FxFactory plug-ins and overall impact of the video material. Submissions will be accepted starting December 15, 2008. The deadline for submission is January 15, 2009. Winners will be announced January 21, 2009.
What’s that? You don’t have FxFactory? Try a free demo today!. It runs in After Effects CS3/CS4, Final Cut Pro and Motion. It requires Mac OS 10.5 and an Intel processor.
Buy FxFactory | FxFactory in Toolfarm’s Plug-in Finder
