Nvidia open-sources PhysX, unveils PhysX SDK 4.0
Real-time physics system now available under a 3-clause BSD licence on PCs and mobile devices.
Tuesday, December 4th, 2018
dynamics
SideFX ships Houdini 17
Videos: major Houdini update adds Vellum multphysics solver, new cloth and hair tools, material-based facturing and simulation retiming.
Wednesday, October 10th, 2018
Soft8Soft ships Verge3D 2.4 for 3ds Max and Blender
Tool for converting 3D scenes to browser apps gets new physics module, support for skeletal animation in 3ds Max.
Wednesday, June 6th, 2018
Thinkinetic releases Pulldownit 4 for Maya
Destruction plugin gets neat new options to control Voronoi shatter patterns. Dynamics sims now up to 30% faster.
Friday, February 16th, 2018
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
Reallusion ships PopcornFX iClone particle plugin
Real-time animation tool gets particle add-on based on tech for Substance Painter particle brushes.
Thursday, November 2nd, 2017
IDV ships SpeedTree Cinema 8
Update to the tree-generation tool adds PBR support; new modelling, animation and export options. Price of a perpetual licence down $500.
Thursday, October 26th, 2017
The Gnomon Workshop ships Introduction to Houdini 17
Get started with Houdini with Psyop veteran Robby Branham's step-by-step guide to core workflows.
Wednesday, October 18th, 2017
CLO Virtual Fashion ships Marvelous Designer 7
3D clothing design tool gets neat new dynamics options, new modular clothing design mode. Price down $60.
Wednesday, September 27th, 2017
Ephere releases Ornatrix 1.3 for Maya
Popular hair-creation plugin gets new tools for generating realistic mesh hair, new dynamics options.
Tuesday, August 22nd, 2017
Easy Treez turns rough poly models into procedural trees
Neat plugin lets you use Maya's standard tools to control the form of the animated CG trees it creates.
Wednesday, August 16th, 2017
Epic Games releases Unreal Engine 4.16
Big update to game engine adds volumetric fog; plus new physics, animation and VR editing features.
Friday, May 26th, 2017
Epic Games unveils new VR editing tools in Unreal Engine
In-VR mesh and animation editing tools now available as free public preview. Support for OpenSubdiv and USD also due.
Tuesday, March 7th, 2017