Autodesk are making a serious play for the consumer world, with their new 123D range of applications. Some time ago they came up with the 123D Cad and Make software aimed at people who wish to make models and get them produced via 3D printing and laser cutting shops. Though it held much appeal for students and hobbyists, its real target is small businesses.

The guys at NextLimit have just announced the release of Maxwell Render Suite 2.6 which introduces some great new features and improvements.

As a creative professional, we hope you’re going to find the information below as exciting as we do. Last week, 14^th November 2011, NVIDIA announced the arrival of NVIDIA Maximus, a technology that is set to revolutionise the way we all work. Delivering significantly increased speed and productivity to any pipeline with a single system that allows you to achieve a range of compute-intensive and graphics-intensive tasks simultaneously, you may start to wonder how you ever managed without it.

Here is my usual Weekly Round-Up of News, with stories that I have picked up over the past week. If you have suggestions for stories I missed, just drop me a line or post a comment.

The 10th Edition of the VES (Visual Effects Society) Awards is upon us, and whilst I know many of you will already be working on your entries for it, I thought I would take time to write about it in this blog to encourage those of you who haven't considered entering the competition.

When I created this tutorial, my number one objective was to ensure that whoever was learning could really use what they create and incorporate it into something that they might already be working on. That’s why this animation tutorial is so substantial and has been separated into two parts! This month, we will use a pre-created rig, which you can buy here and use to explore the mechanics of bird locomation. It costs just $5 and trust me, it’s worth it.

You may remember my blog post from a couple of weeks ago, where I wrote about a very special event for MARI users/enthusiasts based in the UK. Well the MARI Massive crew have just updated me on a few details that I can now share with you.

Last week, disgruntled students took to the London streets to protest about tuition fees and the "privatisation" of universities. Frankly, I don't think it got the attention it deserved, but in an unstable world where the media is focused on the economic consequences of what Greece and Italy's political elite are up to, I can't say I am surprised. Shame though, because there is a lot that still needs to be said about this government's reform of the higher education system.

Time’s up! Escape Studios’ CG Whiz competition 2011 is now closed. Our judges are starting work behind the scenes and boy, do they have some work to do! What a breath of fresh air this year’s entries have been! The standard has been exceptionally high and unbelievably inspiring. Not only are they technically accomplished, but they are also proof of the raw talent that continues to emerge. All, I'll say is that I’m glad I'm not judging the countless number of entries; they’d all get my vote!

When Wemo Media launched theblu.com a few weeks ago they quickly attracted a lot of attention. But what exactly is it?