Friday, November 15th, 2024Posted by Jim ThackerEphere releases Ornatrix 3 for Cinema 4Dhtml PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Ephere has released Ornatrix 3 for Cinema 4D, the latest version of the Cinema 4D edition of its plugin for generating dynamic hair, fur and feathers.The update adds a new Graft Grooms system, making it possible to place readymade procedural hair grooms onto a characters surface, and to box grooms into single modifiers.Full disclosure: the update was actually released last month, but it doesnt seem to have had a lot of coverage on community websites, so we felt it was worth a story.A powerful solution for hair grooming and dynamicsFirst released in 2020, the Cinema 4D edition of Ornatrix makes the plugin available within the motion graphics and animation software, as well as for 3ds Max, Maya and Unreal Engine.It includes the key toolsets for generating and grooming hair from the other editions, including both brush-based workflows and parametric editing.For hair dynamics, it features Epheres Moov physics engine, and works within Cinema 4Ds deformer and tag framework, accepting inputs from native C4D forces.Pipeline features include the option to convert mesh strips into Ornatrix hair, to import or export hair in Alembic format, and to convert hair and hair guides to NURBS curves.Ornatrix hair renders natively in Arnold, Corona and Redshift, and can be converted to a mesh or spline curves for rendering in other renderers like OctaneRender and V-Ray.New Graft Grooms system creates entire hair grooms in a few clicksTo that, Ornatrix 3 for Cinema 4D introduces several new features originally released in Ornatrix 4 for Maya, the Maya edition of the plugin.They include Graft Grooms: a new type of preset designed to make it possible to create entire grooms through a simple point-and-click workflow.Users drag across the surface of a character to draw a graft surface, from which Ornatrix generates the hair automatically.There are presets for different hairstyles, but users can also create their own custom grafts, which can then be reused between projects or shared with other artists.New options to box grooming operators and bake modifiersOther changes include a new system for boxing Ornatrix operators, which combines set of operators in a single Groom modifier.Operators combined in this way remain procedurally editable, and can be unboxed again to make it possible to edit them individually.It is also now possible to bake modifiers, which caches their output, speeding up evaluation and reducing temporal artefacts, at the expense of absolute accuracy.Other feature and performance improvementsThere release also features updates to many of the key modifiers, including Edit Guides, Guides from Guide Mesh, Clump, Surface Comb, Noise and Mesh from Strands.Performance has been improved by up to 100x in various parts of the app, although an improvement of around 90% when mirroring circular brushes seems more likely to be typical.Price and system requirementsOrnatrix 3 for Cinema 4D is available for Cinema 4D R25+ on Windows 10+ and macOS 10.14+. A perpetual license costs $599; rental costs $50/month or $420/year.Read a full list of new features in Ornatrix 3 for Cinema 4D in the online release notesRead more about Ornatrix for Cinema 4D on Epheres websiteHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.Latest NewsEphere releases Ornatrix 3 for Cinema 4DHair and fur plugin gets new tools for 'grafting' procedural hair grooms onto a character, and 'boxing' operators into single modifiers.Friday, November 15th, 2024Maxon releases Red Giant 2025.2 and Universe 2025.1Check out the new features in the suite of motion graphics and VFX plugins and the online library of effects and transitions.Friday, November 15th, 2024Nekki releases Cascadeur MobileNew mobile edition of Nekki's AI-assisted character animation software is now available for iPad and iPhone users.Thursday, November 14th, 2024Unreal Engine 5.5: discover 10 key features for CG artistsRead our pick of the features in this huge update to the game engine, from MegaLights to character rigging, animation and rendering.Thursday, November 14th, 2024Blackmagic Design releases Fusion Studio 19.1Update to the 3D compositing app extends USD and OCIO workflow, and adds new options for toggling between inputs in compositions.Wednesday, November 13th, 2024Blackmagic Design releases DaVinci Resolve 19.1Discover the key features for VFX artists and colorists in the free grading and editing software and its $295 Studio edition.Wednesday, November 13th, 2024More NewsGet the Blender Studio's free Brushstroke Tools for BlenderFoundry releases Mari 7.1 in betaScene Group releases Cavalry 2.2Maxon releases ZBrush for iPad 2025.1Foundry discontinues ModoEpic Games to share new free assets on Fab every two weeksGet 100+ free modular airport assets for Unity and Unreal EngineReallusion adds AI Smart Search to Character Creator and iClonePoly Hammer unveils MetaHuman DNA add-on for BlenderAcademy Software Foundation adopts OpenAPVWRetargetTool is a versatile free Maya animation retargeting toolSketchsoft releases Feather 1.0Older Posts

Friday, November 15th, 2024Posted by Jim ThackerMaxon releases Red Giant 2025.2 and Universe 2025.1html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd"Universe 2025.1 adds five new dithering plugins to the online library of effects and transitions.Maxon has released Red Giant 2025.2, the latest update to its suite of effects plugins for After Effects and other compositing and video editing software, improving workflow in Maxon Studio.The firm has also released Universe 2025.1, adding five new plugins for adding dithering effects to motion graphics and VFX projects to the online library of effects and transitions.Red Giant 2025.2: workflow improvements to Maxon StudioRed Giant 2025.2 is a small update, adding the option to drag and drop footage directly into Capsules within Maxon Studio, its new After Effects template engine.The other components of the Red Giant toolset Trapcode, Magic Bullet and VFX have not been updated.Since the original Red Giant 2025 release, Maxon has also begun packaging all of the components into a single installer.Universe 2025.1: new plugins for creating dithering effectsUniverse 2025.1 is a more substantial update, adding five new dithering plugins for applying stylized retro and pixel art looks to motion graphics projects.They include Halftone Dither, for mimicking print effects, and Threshold Dither, for turning footage into high-contrast black-and-white or posterized RGB color visuals.In contrast, Error-Diffuse Dither minimizes artefacts in footage, creating smooth gradients.The update also adds a new Palettes feature for importing and managing color swatches.Price and system requirementsRed Giant is compatible with After Effects 2024+ on Windows 10+ and macOS 12.0+. Some individual tools are compatible with other host applications, including DaVinci Resolve.Complete Red Giant subscriptions, which include Universe, cost $85/month or $639/year. Individual Universe subscriptions cost $32/month or $214/year.Read more about the Red Giant plugins on Maxons websiteHave your say on this story by following CG Channel on Facebook, Instagram and X (formerly Twitter). As well as being able to comment on stories, followers of our social media accounts can see videos we dont post on the site itself, including making-ofs for the latest VFX movies, animations, games cinematics and motion graphics projects.Latest NewsEphere releases Ornatrix 3 for Cinema 4DHair and fur plugin gets new tools for 'grafting' procedural hair grooms onto a character, and 'boxing' operators into single modifiers.Friday, November 15th, 2024Maxon releases Red Giant 2025.2 and Universe 2025.1Check out the new features in the suite of motion graphics and VFX plugins and the online library of effects and transitions.Friday, November 15th, 2024Nekki releases Cascadeur MobileNew mobile edition of Nekki's AI-assisted character animation software is now available for iPad and iPhone users.Thursday, November 14th, 2024Unreal Engine 5.5: discover 10 key features for CG artistsRead our pick of the features in this huge update to the game engine, from MegaLights to character rigging, animation and rendering.Thursday, November 14th, 2024Blackmagic Design releases Fusion Studio 19.1Update to the 3D compositing app extends USD and OCIO workflow, and adds new options for toggling between inputs in compositions.Wednesday, November 13th, 2024Blackmagic Design releases DaVinci Resolve 19.1Discover the key features for VFX artists and colorists in the free grading and editing software and its $295 Studio edition.Wednesday, November 13th, 2024More NewsGet the Blender Studio's free Brushstroke Tools for BlenderFoundry releases Mari 7.1 in betaScene Group releases Cavalry 2.2Maxon releases ZBrush for iPad 2025.1Foundry discontinues ModoEpic Games to share new free assets on Fab every two weeksGet 100+ free modular airport assets for Unity and Unreal EngineReallusion adds AI Smart Search to Character Creator and iClonePoly Hammer unveils MetaHuman DNA add-on for BlenderAcademy Software Foundation adopts OpenAPVWRetargetTool is a versatile free Maya animation retargeting toolSketchsoft releases Feather 1.0Older Posts

Maps! New functionality added for texture and displacement maps in #ZBrushForiPad! Find out more at ZBrushForiPad.com

Get full control of your dithering effects with the all-new Custom Dither from #RedGiantUniverse Dive into the user guide: https://maxonvfx.com/3YTPEFi

Why Spending Smarter Beats Bigger Budgets in Education | Karthik Muralidharan | TED

William Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson were among the well-known poets with works included in the new study. Leon Neal / AFP via Getty ImagesIf all the worlds a stage and all the men and women merely players, where does that leave non-human figures, like artificial intelligence chatbots? As it turns out, A.I. can hold its own against humanseven the Bard himselfwhen it comes to writing poetry.A.I. chatbots can imitate famous poets like William Shakespeare well enough to fool many human readers, according to a new paper published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports. In addition, many study participants actually preferred the chatbots poetry over the works of renowned writers.Researchers asked OpenAIs ChatGPT-3.5 to generate poems in the style of well-known authors, including Walt Whitman, Geoffrey Chaucer, T.S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath, Allen Ginsberg, Emily Dickinson and William Shakespeare.Then, they gathered 1,634 study participants and asked them each to read ten poemsfive written by a human poet, and five written by the chatbot in the style of that same human poet. The poet was randomly assigned to each participant.When scientists asked participants to identify which poems were fake and which were real, the participants guessed correctly around 46 percent of the timejust a little bit worse than if theyd flipped a coin instead. This finding wasnt necessarily a surprise, since ChatGPT-3.5 was likely trained on the works of the famous poets.Essentially, ChatGPT has displayed its skill as a quasi-plagiarist, says Keith Holyoak, a cognitive psychologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved with the study, to New Scientists Jeremy Hsu.In a second experiment, researchers asked a different set of 696 participants to read and rate poems on 14 qualities, ranging from rhythm to originality. They told one-third of the participants they were reading poems written by an A.I. chatbot and another third that they were reading works written by a human. For the final third of participants, the scientists didnt share anything about the poems authorship. In reality, participants in all three groups were given a mix of poems written by humans and by A.I.As expected based on past research, the participants who believed they were reading poems written by humans gave higher ratings than participants who believed they were reading A.I.-generated poemsregardless of what they were actually reading.But the team also uncovered a surprise: The participants who didnt know anything about the poems origins gave higher ratings, on average, to those written by the chatbot.Why do readers seem to prefer A.I.-generated poetry? Its not entirely clear, but the researchers best guess is that the A.I. poems may be more appealing because they are relatively straightforward and simple to comprehend.Because A.I.-generated poems cannot match the complexity of human-authored verse, they are better at unambiguously communicating an image, a mood, an emotion or a theme to non-expert readers of poetry, the researchers write in the paper.For example, they write, the chatbots Plath-style poem is clearly about sadness:The air is thick with tension,My mind a tangled mess.The weight of my emotionsIs heavy on my chest.The darkness creeps upon me,A suffocating cloak.The world outside is cruel and cold,And Im a fragile, broken yolk.My thoughts are spinning wildly,A cyclone in my brain.I try to grasp at something solid,But all is lost in vain.The voices in my head,They never cease to scream.And though I try to shut them out,They haunt me like a dream.So here I am, alone and lost,A ship without a sail.In this world of pain and sorrow,I am but a mere wail.Beyond the themes and emotions, ChatGPTs poems were also simpler in terms of their overall structure and composition.Emily Dickinson sometimes breaks the expected rhyme scheme on purpose, says study co-author Brian Porter, a researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, to New Scientist. But the A.I.-generated poems generated in her style never did that once.Understanding poems written by humans requires deep, critical thinkingand thats a big part of poetrys appeal, the researchers write in the paper. But modern readers dont seem to want to do this labor, instead preferring texts that give them instant answers, as Andrew Dean, a literary scholar at Deakin University in Australia who was not involved with the study, writes in the Conversation.When readers say they prefer A.I. poetry, then, they would seem to be registering their frustration when faced with writing that does not yield to their attention, he adds.In some instances, participants might have misunderstood the complexity of human poetry as A.I. incoherence. In other words, they could have been so confused by the genuine, human-authored work that they convinced themselves it must be garbled chatbot nonsense.This theory seems to be supported by participants responses to T.S. Eliots The Boston Evening Transcript, reports the Washington Posts Carolyn Y. Johnson. The poem, a satire about the readers of a once-popular newspaper, was the work most frequently misidentified as A.I.-generated. After reading Eliots words, one participant even wrote, in all caps, IT DIDNT MAKE SENSE TO ME OR COME FROM SOMEONE THAT HAS FEELINGS.The studys findings seem to confirm many onlookers biggest fears about A.I., which is that theyll one day replace human artists and put them out of work. But Dorothea Lasky, the only living poet whose writings were included in the experiments, says its not necessarily a bad thing that readers enjoyed the A.I.-generated poems.Poetry will always be necessary, Lasky tells the Washington Post. If these people in the study read A.I. poems and liked that poem better than a human-generated poem, then that, to me, is beautiful. They had a good experience with a poem, and I dont care who wrote it. I feel there is room for all poetseven robot poets.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: American Writers, Artificial Intelligence, Arts, British Writers, Computers, Literature, New Research, Poetry, Sylvia Plath, Technology, Walt Whitman, William Shakespeare, Writers

The postcard is stamped April 11, 1912, just a few days before theTitanicsank. Henry Aldridge & SonA historic postcard stamped April 11, 1912, is about to go to auction. On its back is a hand-scrawled message from British businessman Richard William Smith, expressing excitement about his imminent cruise to the United States. The front features an image of the boat set to take him there: the Titanic.It is an incredibly powerful and poignant message, Andrew Aldridge, managing director of the auction houseHenry Aldridge & Son, tellsBBC News Steve Silk. He had no idea of what was coming over the horizon approximately 80 hours later.Smiths missive was postmarked in Ireland, Titanics final stop before venturing out into the Atlantic Ocean. About three days after the postcard was sent, theWhite Star Line ship collided with an iceberg and sank about400 miles from Newfoundland, killing Smith and more than 1,500 other passengers. Have had a fine run around to Queenstown, wrote Smith in the note.Just leaving for the land of stars and stripes. Henry Aldridge & SonFor just the first day of the Titanics maiden voyageApril 10, on which it departed from Southampton, England, then stopped at Cherbourg, France, and Queenstown, IrelandSmith was accompanied by a family friend named Emily Nicholls. She mailed the postcard for him after disembarking in Queenstown (now called Cobh), while Smith stayed onboard.Have had a fine run around to Queenstown, wrote Smith on the card, which was addressed to a woman named Olive Dakin in Norwich, England. Just leaving for the land of stars and stripes.As Aldridge tellsCNNs Lianne Kolirin, Smith was a tea broker who had various interests in the U.S. He sailed first class on the doomed ship.Most postcards written by Titanic passengers were either stamped with Queenstown or the ships own postmark, per BBC News. But Nicholls sent Smiths card from the city of Corkabout ten miles inland. Aldridge expects it will fetch between 6,000 and 10,000 at auction (roughly $7,600 to $12,600). The Titanicarriving in Queenstown (now called Cobh), Ireland Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsIt will be of interest to two different kinds of people, Aldridge tells BBC News. Titanic specialists, of course, but also stamp collectors who like postmarks. This one, dated Cork 3:45 p.m., April 11, 1912, is exceptionally rare.The postcard is just one lot in Henry Aldridge & Sons upcoming Titanic, White Star and Transport Memorabilia auction on November 16. Other items up for sale include archival photographs, a Titanic victimspocket watch and anotherpocket watch that three Titanic survivors gifted toArthur Henry Rostron. Rostron was the captain of RMSCarpathia, which arrived to rescue the Titanics passengers from the icy Atlantic several hours after the boat sank.The auction house stages two Titanic sales every year. At its April auction, a photograph depicting an iceberg, which may have been the iceberg that sunk the vessel, sold for 17,500 (about $22,000). However, some artifacts brought in much more: Agold pocket watch belonging to John Jacob Astor IV, the Titanics richest passenger, went for 1.175 million (roughly $1.4 million).The postcardinked in faded cursiveis one of the upcoming auctions more touching objects. As Aldridge tells CNN, This is one of the last things that Mr. Smith wrote.Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.Filed Under: Artifacts, Auctions, Death, England, History, Ireland, Letters, Ships, Shipwrecks, The Titanic

Welcome to this week's episode of CGaNews, where we bring you the latest and greatest from the world of architectural visualization! https://youtu.be/4A5fFCF31loHere's what you can expect in this episode:- Viz Pro of the Week- ItooSoft Tools Now V-Ray 7 Compatible- Chaos Corona 12 Update 1 Release Candidate Out Now- V-Ray 7 Gaussian Splats Tutorial- ItooSoft Tutorials for RailClone and ForestPack- Best of the Week ShowcaseDon't forget to connect with us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and join our growing community on Discord to stay up to date with all things archviz. We can't wait to see you there!LinkedIn: CGArchitectInstagram: @CGArchitectDiscord: Join our communityDont forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more updates!Enjoyed this episode? Make sure to like, subscribe, and share to help us continue bringing you the latest archviz news.#CGarchitect #CGaNews #ArchViz #3DVisualization #Vray7 #CoronaRenderer #itoosoft #forestpack #railclone #BestOfTheWeek #ArchVizCommunity #ArchitecturalRendering #gaussiansplatting

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