Get Allan McKay's free 10-hour course on ash FX
Download 10 hours of video on creating production-ready FX in 3ds Max, thinkingParticles and FumeFX, with project files.
Tuesday, May 5th, 2015
fire
Insydium releases X-Particles 3
Updated, now shipping: Cinema 4D particle tool gets new FLIP fluid solver, particle-based dynamics.
Wednesday, March 18th, 2015
Navié releases Effex 2.5 for Cinema 4D
Big update to multiphysics system adds surface tension, Bullet dynamics, lots of other cool tools.
Tuesday, October 21st, 2014
Cool tech demo: create clouds with Elementacular
Updated and now shipping: Turn any model into an editable, relightable cloud with this neat Maya plugin.
Wednesday, August 20th, 2014
The best of last week's CG news in brief
Read our five-minute digest, from Blender 2.71 and GPU support in Fabric Engine to Autodesk buying Shotgun.
Tuesday, July 1st, 2014
Eye candy: Blur Studio's 'A Twist of Fate' FX breakdown
FX artist Dan Chamberlin's video deconstructs the fire effects from the League of Legends trailer's best shot.
Monday, January 6th, 2014
Next Limit ships Maxwell Render 3
Sizeable update to the physically based renderer adds new tools for for suns, seas and surface scattering.
Thursday, December 5th, 2013
Sitni Sati ships FumeFX for Maya
Leading gaseous fluid simulator now available for Maya as well as Max. Runs on Windows and Linux.
Monday, May 27th, 2013
Thinkbox's Ember will let you mix fire and water sims
New tool will act like a compositor for simulations, enabling artists to splice elements into hybrid sims.
Tuesday, July 17th, 2012
Video: create a volcano in Houdini with PyroFX
Tame the elements with Scott Keating's 35-minute video on using Houdini 12's new dynamics tools.
Monday, June 18th, 2012
Sitni Sati releases FumeFX 3.0 for 3ds Max
Update to gaseous fluid simulator adds per-voxel controls, new space warps. Maya version due this year.
Thursday, April 12th, 2012
Phoenix FD for Maya enters beta testing
V-Ray for Maya users can sign on for early access to Chaos Group's formerly Max-only fluid simulator.
Tuesday, March 6th, 2012
Chaos Group's PhoenixFD moves into liquid simulation
New 1.2 update adds liquid-simulation toolset to promising new 3ds Max smoke and fire engine.
Wednesday, December 15th, 2010