Chaos Group releases Beta 2 of V-Ray Next for 3ds Max
Latest beta adds Nvidia's AI-based OptiX render denoising system, GPU volume rendering, updates to the hair shader.
Friday, February 23rd, 2018
Cryptomatte
Appleseed renderer gets new native Maya plugin
Version 1.8 of the open-source physically based renderer also adds procedural objects, render-time instancing.
Tuesday, December 5th, 2017
SideFX releases Houdini 16.5
Video: see Houdini's upcoming retopology and facial autorigging tools, and a lot of neat new fluid, crowd and hair simulation features.
Tuesday, November 7th, 2017
Chaos Group releases V-Ray 3.6 for Maya
Big update adds hybrid CPU/GPU rendering; V-Ray materials and lights work directly in Viewport 2.0.
Thursday, September 14th, 2017
Isotropix releases Clarisse 3.5
Big update to layout and look dev tool adds object scattering, support for Light Path Expressions and Cryptomatte, new PBR material.
Monday, July 31st, 2017
Cryptomatte automatically pulls ID mattes from renders
Updated: Psyop's open-source tech for pulling mattes from Arnold renders now works with Fusion as well as Nuke.
Monday, January 23rd, 2017