Phoenix Fluid Dynamics

The new grid based simulator (for 3ds Max 9 - 2011) for fire, smoke and haze Phoenix Fluid Dynamics is officially released by ChaosGroup. As I read, some Phoenix features will benefit only VRay users.

Stone Placement Tools 1.0

Stone Placement Tools 1.0 is a scripted tools collection to create procedural stone patterns. The script creates stone walls, quad stones pavements and irregular stone patterns for both walls and floors, and automatically bakes normal maps, AO maps and height maps for realtime use.

Sounds promising, I'll test it :)

SuperMesher

Product description (quote from the Boomer Labs web site):

"SuperMesher is a 3DSMax plugin that allows you to cache animated geometry regardless of its topology and number of objects including pFlow particles. The cache is baked out to a separate file which can be loaded into any version of MAX 2009 or higher. No reference is held to the original objects so they can be deleted or modified without consequence. Because the result is one single mesh, SuperMesher automatically generates appropriate material IDs and Multi-Sub materials."

Out of Memory issues

Some time ago one of the Atodesk's technical staff (don't remember his name) had written a long lecture on minimum requirements for 3dsMax. He had inserted a note of the importance of virtual memory settings, but who knows why he did not want to share how to did this. Well, after quick googling I found the answer myself. Today I accidentally came across this Mental Ray blog and I see so there is a topic as well about Windows virtual memory settings.

PAP Pro 4.0 is released for free

The last version 4.0 of Plastic Animation Paper (a program for 2D animation (that I never heard before)) is released for free. 12 tutorials available as well for new users.

Apply Decals using a Composite Map

A quick technique to applying decals written by Tudor Nita.

Skinning in 3ds Max Animation with Biped

The chapter from the book 3ds Max Animation with Biped by Michele Bousquet and Michael McCarthy.

Speed Modeling a Head in 3ds Max 2010

A video tutorial by Jaime Maestro on a "speed modeling" of a head, starting from a plane.