Categories
Pages

MentalCore (Review)

Posted by on May 31, 2012 in News | 0 comments

MentalCore is a competitively priced product that could save you more in long run when you consider the alternatives. The other popular renderers on the market today cost over a thousand dollars and have their own workflows that take time to get used to. But for users that are already familiar with working with Mental Ray, you get an inexpensive solution that not only fixes technical issues, it releases features that lay latent within the software you already owned. Small learning curve and low-cost entry makes choosing MentalCore over something unknown extremely compelling.

Read More

iPi Soft Desktop Motion Capture (Interview)

Posted by on May 23, 2012 in News | 0 comments

Interview with Michael Nikonov

Michael Nikonov, founder and developer of iPi Soft Desktop Motion Capture

I was very fortunate to talk with iPi Soft founder and software developer Michael Nikonov before testing out their new motion capture software.

Michael Muwanguzi: Can you tell me a little bit about your background and what led to the trackerless motion capture system?

Michael Nikonov: I don’t actually have a background in animation or movie making. Before designing this system I was a software developer in business. This is my first experience in the animation industry.

This project grew out of my hobby. I was trying to make a video game, and was surprised how difficult it was to create an animation. I wanted to use a motion capture system, but found the available options extremely expensive. So my logic was: I have a video camera, why can’t I do motion capture? Eventually I designed a system that works with off the shelf video cameras.

Now we have a system that supports several popular cameras, including the PlayStation Eye Camera, which is a very inexpensive $30 camera, and you can use up to 6 of them. Or you have a choice of using one or two Kinect cameras. read more

Read More

3ds Max ECS 2012 (Review)

Posted by on Nov 21, 2011 in Reviews, Reviews (Software), Software | 4 comments

For the past several years, programs like 3ds Max, Softimage, Mudbox, and MotionBuilder were separate, unique experiences all on their own. Artists, as well as companies, had to ally themselves with one particular 3D application to supply most of their needs and be cautious when considering any other packages to add on that might throw a wrench in their existing pipeline. Since those days, Autodesk has been working to bring the biggest 3D applications used in the entertainment industry under one roof. But collecting all the most popular tools was not all Autodesk had plans to do.

Read More