The long-awaited new version of Smedge has just been released, and it looks like Uberware have included some neat new features, worth taking a closer look at.

The latest version of Maxwell Render has been released this week, with a neat new technology called Maxwell Fire. This is a new interactive rendering tool which gives users instant results when setting up a scene, so you can preview scene lighting and materials within seconds. This is pretty neat and should make a difference to your workflows.

The long-awaited V-Ray 2.0 has been released, with some great new features and additions that will really give you better and faster results.

Yesterday, Pixar announced an unprecedented price drop in their flagship product RenderMan® Pro Server. The 40% reduction will allow studios and freelancers that were previously unable to buy into the technology, to get a slice of the Film / VFX industry standard renderer. With the global CG expansion, Pixar appreciate that the growth of renderfarms is real and happening now, this move allows existing customers to ramp up their rendering capabilities in a more cost effective manner whilst allowing smaller shops and freelancers access to the toolset.

One of the biggest challenges facing TD's is moving data from one system to another. For example, getting the nice particle animation that you have done in Houdini into Maya for rendering.

I am delighted to announce that Escape Studios has been bestowed the honour of being Pixar's RenderMan International Reseller of the Year 2010! With around 20 worldwide RenderMan partners, we are super pleased with this news!

I'll be hosting a webinar on 30th September and wanted to put a quick post together to invite you all. I'll share with you some of my thoughts on next generation materials and advances in game rendering technology. Hope you can make it.

I am sure most of you will have heard this week that Chaos have announced they will be releasing the long-awaited version 2 of V-Ray for 3ds Max.

The Chaos team held their very first UK event in London last week demonstrating V-Ray pipelines and some cool new technologies that are yet to be released. It was a fun afternoon with plenty of tips and demos from both Peter Mitev and Vlado Koylazov showing us just how the experts do it in V-Ray.

Chaos have released their official Ach Vis 2009 Demo reel today. It showcases some really cool imagery from very talented Arch Vis artists.  This is definitely worth a peek if you are interested in Arch Vis and want to see some amazing work from the industry’s top Arch Vis Studios.