On 15th May, Chaos Group announcing the biggest expansion to SketchUp’s rendering capabilities – the V-Ray 1.6 for SketchUp Beta Program is now open!

This is going to be a massive upgrade to V-Ray for SketchUp which will include a series of new feature introductions that enhance visualization workflow and render quality (V-Ray RT®, V-Ray Dome Light) and streamline scene complexity (V-Ray Proxy).

You can view the full feature list here.

The Beta program will run for approximately 3 months. The official release is expected in early August.

Learn more and apply at V-Ray for SketchUp Beta page (on the Chaos website).

The post V-Ray 1.6 for SketchUp Open Beta Announced appeared first on bluegfx.

Until 18 July 2013, Autodesk are offering up to 20% discount to upgrade to the latest Suite and up to 15% to upgrade your existing Max, Maya or Softimage products to the most recent 2014 version.

Offers as follows:

20% saving when upgrading to a Suite – when purchased with subscription (10% if purchased without subs).

15 % saving when upgrading your old Max, Maya or Softimage (5% if purchased without subs).

Upgrades can now only be processed from licenses that are a maximum 6 versions back. Other conditions may apply.

It’s always helpful to discuss your options, so please contact your account manager or your closest bluegfx office.

The post Autodesk – Up to 20% off to upgrade appeared first on bluegfx.

“NetApp is delighted to welcome bluegfx on board as a new reseller partner; as one of the UK’s finest suppliers of 3D technology solutions, they bring an enormous amount of skill and expertise to our product offerings. We look forward to a long and prosperous working relationship”

Peter Rawden, Partner Sales Director, UK & Ireland. NetApp.

About NetApp:

NetApp creates innovative products—storage systems and software that help customers around the world store, manage, protect, and retain one of their most precious corporate assets: their data. We are recognized throughout the industry for continually pushing the limits of today’s technology so that our customers never have to choose between saving money and acquiring the capabilities they need to be successful.

The post NetApp working with bluegfx appeared first on bluegfx.

If you are investigating storage solutions, be sure to contact us.

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Video post-production house The Mill has upgraded its Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) clustered network-attached storage (NAS) infrastructure and added a secondary disaster recovery site, cutting the backup window from an incredibly risky several days to just hours each night.

The Mill works on adverts for companies such as Levi’s, Coca-Cola and Adidas, and has done special effects for TV programmes including Doctor Who. At any time it has up to 300 employees creating special effects and building them into video footage.

These workers, using a render farm of up to 400 processors, are served files from a HDS/BlueArcclustered NAS system at The Mill’s central London offices.

Increasing volumes of data, pushed by use of high-definition (HD) video formats, meant that The Mill needed to boost capacity at its primary site and address backup windows that had become unwieldy and risky to the organisation.

Storage capacity boosted with HDS

The company had long been a BlueArc customer and has two clustered NAS heads delivering network file system (NFS) shares across the LAN to its render farm. These BlueArc heads sat in front of 100TB of Fibre Channel-connected LSI block storage with serial-attached SCSI (SAS), nearline-SAS and serial ATA (SATA) drives.

Clustered NAS is ideal for storing large amounts of file-based data. It is built around a parallel file system spread across many nodes that scale to billions of files and petabytes of capacity, with performance and disk space boosted as more clustered NAS heads or storage shelves are added.

The Mill’s use of the relatively low-performing nearline-SAS and SATA drives is typical of a user that requires sequential file access rather than many random reads and writes that might be found in, for example, database workloads.

BlueArc, which was bought by HDS in 2011, was a pioneer in clustered NAS, with systems built around field programmable gate array (FPGA) processors customised for fast file serving.

This element of the project was simply to boost capacity at The Mill’s primary site, said infrastructure manager Stephen Smallwood.

“There’s no massive performance benefit. We just wanted more of the same – and the biggest benefit is that it continued to work,” he said.

Faster backup the biggest change

The big changes came with the addition of replication via a 10Gbps link between the primary central London site and a disaster recovery site at London’s Docklands.

The move has seen backup transformed from a regime based on tape and a backup window that started Friday evening and sometimes stretched to Tuesday to one based on nightly replication.

The former scenario placed an unnecessary amount of risk on The Mill in terms of data protection. If something had happened to the tapes or the building at the end of the backup window, several days’ worth of work could have been lost.

Smallwood’s team moved a BlueArc head unit to the East India Dock site which was populated with 210TB of nearline-SAS capacity in a HDS AMS 2500 array.

BlueArc’s JetMirror replication moves changed blocks only from production data between the two sites every night.

“It has improved backups, and restores now take 10 or 15 minutes instead of hours,” said Smallwood.

The post Real-life disaster recovery boost at video firm with HDS clustered NAS appeared first on bluegfx.

Today’s the day that the latest Autodesk 2014 releases are available to purchase.

If you have an up to date subscription, you can log into the subscription centre to see if yours is waiting for you. We have noticed that some are already available and Autodesk have said that everyone should be able to download by Monday 15th.

SO WHATS ALL THE FUSS ABOUT?

A couple of weeks ago, Autodesk hosted an online event called UNFOLD, where their product experts showcased the latest features. They have also produced some very nice interactive videos which explains many of the frequently asked questions.

So to find out what’s new in 2014, it’s well worth a browse (check it out now).

20% OFF TO UPGRADE TO A SUITE

Until 23rd April we can upgrade your 3ds Max, Maya, MotionBuilder or SoftImage to a full Standard, Premium or Ultimate Suite at a 20% discount. It’s a lot of bang for your buck!

DROP US A LINE…

If you have any questions, we are always happy to hear from you, so please contact your account manager today. Alternatively, click here to locate your nearest office or email sales@bluegfx.com.

The post Autodesk 2014: OUT NOW! appeared first on bluegfx.

Until the end of April, we are delighted to offer you the chance to upgrade your V-Ray 1.5 to the latest 2.4 version for just £265*… 22% off the £340* SRP.

WHY UPGRADE?

Compatibility with 3ds Max 2013, plus faster, more efficient rendering and the inclusion of V-Ray RT are just some of the big reasons, but there are many more:

V-Ray RT GPU Enhancements – incorporate VRayProxy objects, texture-mapped area and mesh lights, Simple Skylight portals, and the VRayBlendMtl into an ultra-fast V-RayRT GPU workflow.

VRayCarPaintMtl – create stunning car paint shaders complete with base, flake and coat layers.

VRayHairMtl – is a new shader, allowing hair and fur to be rendered with unprecedented control, quality, and speed.

Interactive Rendering on CPU & GPU – V-Ray RT is a fully functional interactive rendering engine matching the production renderer results. With GPU acceleration, you can rely on a significantly faster interactive rendering process.

VRayLightSelect Render Element – become a master of lighting with the new VrayLightSelect feature and extract the contribution of each light to the scene or compose all the lights back together and change their intensity in real time in any compositing software.

VRayMultiSubTex – use this V-Ray specific texture to assign different textures based on object ID.

Click here to see the full list…

DROP US A LINE…

If you are interested to know more about this offer then contact your account manager today, alternatively call Matt Wells on 01483 410384 or email him on mattw@bluegfx.com.

* prices exclude VAT

The post 22% off to upgrade your V-Ray 1.5 to 2.4 appeared first on bluegfx.

So, if you are considering a new seat, additional seat/s or upgrading in the near future, then ordering before the 28th March deadline could save you £££.

All prices ex vat.

SOME GOOD NEWS…

On the whole, prices for the Entertainment Creation Suites are remaining the same and there is currently 20% off the price to upgrade your individual package to a Suite…this offer runs until 20^th April 2013.

Still undecided about whether a Suite is right for you? Please see the Autodesk resources to help you decide:

For general Suite overviews, check out www.autodesk.co.uk/fromyourpeers.

Alternatively, throughout the year, Autodesk are running a series of webinars entitled ‘Meet the Experts’ where you can see and hear how some of the leading lights in the industry are using the Entertainment Creation products.  You can register for upcoming events or alternatively watch previous webinars.

0% FINANCE AVAILABLE

To help spread the cost of new / additional seats, for a limited time, we are able to offer a 0% financing plan, spread over 2 years. Contact us today for more information. 0% available until 25 April. Conditions apply.

ITS GOOD TO TALK

Whether it’s new seats of 3ds Max or Maya or you are upgrading to a Suite, then we are happy to talk through your options, so please do not hesitate to drop us a line on 01483 410370 or email sales@bluegfx.com.

The post DON’T SHOOT THE MESSENGER appeared first on bluegfx.

PipelineFX, creator of Qube!, has kindly offered 3D Artist readers ten handy tips to simplify their render pipeline. Read on to learn more.

Thanks go out to PipelineFX for these very handy tips. Learn about the render farm management system Qube! and their other products over at the PipelineFX website.

1. Stick to one (or two) operating systems

Many 3rd-party applications have issues running on multiple operating systems:

• not all plugins are available on all OS’s
• fonts may render differently across OS’s.
• bugs may exist in the same app on one OS and not the other

File permissions can be tricky to resolve across different OSs.

User identities may not be consistent between OSs.

2. Solve cross-platform issues first.

Each operating system accesses files in its own, unique way. If an artist submits a job from one operating system, but the facility has chosen to render on a second OS, the paths to the source material may be different.  For example, in an OS X environment, an artist may use a file located at /Volumes/fileserver/project/myproject.aep.  If the workers are running Windows, they would see the same file as either \\fileserver\project\myproject.aep or Z:\project\myproject.aep.

These types of issues can be solved using Qube’s path translation mechanism or they can be solved at an operating system level using symbolic links. The latter solution provides greater transparency and is less prone to paths that are outside of Qube’s control – like those defined within the source material itself.


3. Centralize your storage.

Artists’ work should not be kept on local disks. In order to render on all machines in a farm, each machine needs to be able to access all the files. Artists used to working on local disk often will add a “publish” step where they will copy their work to a central location when it’s time to render, but this is very error-prone and assets, textures, and external references often get left behind during the publish step. However, if artists get in the habit of working on shared central file storage, they will eliminate the necessity to publish. The other benefit is that their work can be easily transferred to other artists, and the risk of loss due to hard disk failure is minimized; central file storage is also usually configured to be much more reliable and is backed up more often than workstations’ local disks.


4. Open up file system permissions.

If your environment allows for a more lenient security policy, it may be in your best interest to set up the access permissions on areas of your file server where the artists are working so that all users have read/write access, instead of having to manage permissions on a more granular basis. Many sites work off the assumption that if you’re logged in, you should have access to almost everything on the server. Instead, adopt an ‘opt-out’ model; grant full access by default, then remove permissions from areas of the file system that require additional security. This is much easier to maintain than an ‘opt-in’ model, where the default access permissions are “no one accesses anything,” and permissions are granted on a case-by-case basis.



5. Centralised staging of worker/artists workstation for guaranteed consistency

Every computer that renders needs to have the same functionality as those that create the files to be rendered. They must have all the same applications, plugins, licensing, and OS settings. To guarantee consistency, we recommend basing all machines off a single, central machine image.


6. Use revision-based workflow (saved revisions of working files)

Rendering is an iterative process. One iteration is chosen as the preferred and selected for final. Using revision based workflow allows an artist to quickly move from one iteration to another, using the exact same settings as the approved version.


7. Ensure all dependent media is located on shared storage.

Artists should be instructed to actively work off of shared storage, instead of trying to move assets, textures, etc to shared storage when it’s time to render. The slower response some perceive when working off networked storage is many times less than the time lost to trying to get things up to shared storage at render time, and it avoids lost hours of re-rendering due to missed textures, etc. If your central storage is slow enough that the increase in load times experienced by the artists in their day-to-day work is significant, that storage will be crushed by the load imposed on it by a render farm when all machines start on a job at the same time.


8. Single centralised licensing server

Many applications use a central license server & depend on the availability of that server to determine whether or not they can start and run. Using a single license server allows for better accounting of license usage and is an easy place to track down problems if/when they arise.

Coincidentally, a Qube! supervisor will happily coexist on the same hardware as your license servers (assuming the server is up to spec).


9. Use Time-based cleanup scripts

Visual effects can be grueling work. Hundreds of iterations may be used on a single shot.  Iterations that are many days and/or weeks old, or even older, are of little use; often ending up more as a burden than an aid. Time-based cleanup scripts can eliminate the waste. Qube! provides API calls to help determine which jobs were submitted or completed more than X days ago to make the creation of these types of scripts that much easier.


10. Use commercial off the shelf products every place you can.

Don’t write what you can buy. The flip side of this is: “Don’t buy what you can’t customize.” A 3rd-party product that allows you to customize it to your workflow can provide the best of all possible worlds.

• It’s easy to underestimate the cost and time involved in developing your own in-house solution; chances are someone else has solved the issue in a commercial product.
• On-going maintenance, bug fixes, feature requests, etc, are never-ending.  Chances are that in-house expert who’s writing your custom solution isn’t cheap, and you hired them to work on something else.
• Knowledge sharing is pretty rare for custom solutions; what happens when (not if) the developer who wrote your in-house custom tool leaves?
• Most custom solutions are written under time pressure, and may not be the easiest code to maintain or understand, especially if the maintainer is not the original author. (see the previous point about employees leaving).
• When something is written in-house, the tendency is to continually add features to it (these are free, right?), when these features might not be strictly necessary from a business standpoint. Your company gets paid to deliver work to clients, and these “nice to have” features cost money and time to produce, but often don’t pay for themselves in increased productivity. Users will learn to adopt and adapt to off-the-shelf products, and can often produce the same amount of work for the same effort with them.

The post Ten Ways To Simplify Your Render Pipeline with Qube! appeared first on bluegfx.

With each version of ZBrush, Pixologic strive to include additions and enhancements that help their users optimize their creativity. ZBrush 4R5 includes the following usability upgrades: Dynamic Brush Size control, Mouse Wheel support, Quick/Auto Save functions and much more.

With ZBrush 4R5, users will gain the ability to generate cleaner topology faster than ever before. Combine the new Panel Loops with the power of QRemesher (released earlier this year inZBrush 4R4), and the possibilities for creating complex and efficient parts are endless.

ZBrush 4R5 also includes powerful rendering enhancements, such as a Posterization setting that creates illustration effects similar to a Photoshop painting.

These are just a few of the highlights of ZBrush 4R5.  This is a FREE upgrade for existing registered users…if you are interested in adding ZBrush to your CG armoury, contact bluegfx today.

Here is what ZBrush wrote on their blog:

We are pleased to announce the release of ZBrush 4R5 for both Windows & Mac!

ZBrush 4R5 continues to expand on creative freedom with new features for sculpting, rendering and overall quality of life. These new features were designed to let you be an artist first and foremost, giving you more freedom to explore new ideas!

Major Features

Polish by Features – A new set of Polish sliders has been added in the Tool >> Deformation sub-palette to improve your surface and make them cleaner, especially for hard surface models and product design objects. It includes Polish by Features, but also Polish by PolyGroups and Polish by Crisp Edges. DynaMesh functionality has been greatly enhanced and can now retain more of your shape in a lower polygon count than ever before, thanks to the new Polish by Features volume preservation characteristic.

Curves by Features – Creates curves based on the model’s PolyGroups, creased edges or its outline. These curves can then be used with any of the curve-based sculpting brushes.

Panel Loops – Based on PolyGroups, this feature will transform the selected model into individual panels with thickness. Or it can extrude those panels from the surface with clean borders and bevels, perfect for hard-edge sculpting.

Delete Loops – Allows you to remove unnecessary edge loops. At higher settings it can also drastically change the shape of your model.

Align Loops – An alternative to the Delete Loops feature, this produces the same visual effect but doesn’t change the model’s topology.

Dynamic Brush Size – Makes it possible for the brush size to dynamically change as the model moves closer or further away from the camera. This becomes extremely helpful when sculpting items such as bolts, alpha pattern, scales, and etc. No matter the distance the model is from the camera the bolt, alpha pattern and scales will remain the same size due to the brush dynamically changing.

PolyGroup Enhancements – Several functions have been added relating to ZBrush’s PolyGroup options. You can now group by normals, merge stray groups (useful when groups have been auto-assigned), crease or uncrease by PolyGroup and also a Smart Polish By Feature function to improve your mesh shape without losing volume.

Posterize – Posterization takes a smooth gradient and converts it to fewer steps with abrupt changes between them; a staircase kind of effect. With additions made to the profile curves, Material Mixer, BPR Filters and a new 3D Posterize feature, you can now easily create a cell shaded render.

See-Through Mode – Makes the entire interface transparent so that you can see open windows behind ZBrush. As an example, you can use your browser to find a reference image and sculpt against it without even needing to import it into ZBrush!

Auto Save – ZBrush will now periodically and automatically save your work in a temporary project file. It will also auto-save when ZBrush is idle, such as if you’re away from your computer or switch to another application without first closing ZBrush.

The post ZBrush 4R5 Released! appeared first on bluegfx.

The All-in-One Solution for Editing & Effects

Autodesk® Smoke® 2013 software connects editing and effects like never before. This all-in-one solution is designed for video editors who need to do more than just edit. Smoke offers a full set of creative tools for editors, including powerful node-based effects within a familiar timeline-based workflow so you have what you need at your fingertips.

Top Reasons to Buy Smoke for Mac

Built for Editors who do More than Just Edit
Smoke combines a familiar non-linear timeline editorial workflow with the effects tools you need for compositing, colour correction, 3D effects, titling, and motion graphics.

Avoid Round-Tripping
Don’t waste time exporting files and moving data between different creative applications for editing, effects and plugins.

Intuitive UI
Smoke is fluid and intuitive so editors will feel at home quickly with an easy-to-use track-based timeline workflow and integrated high-end effects tools.

Node-Based Toolset Right in your Timeline
ConnectFX is a node-based workflow that makes it easy to design and customize high-end effects right from the timeline.

Work in True 3D Space
Action brings together keying, tracking, 3D lighting and shading tools in a single 3D compositing environment that lets you go beyond basic layer-based compositing.

Flexible System Requirements
Smoke offers powerful creative tools where and when you need them with support for the latest generation of Apple® MacBook® Pro and iMac computers.

Learning Smoke is Easy
Get up to speed fast with online documentation, tutorials, tips & tricks, webcasts, the AREA online community

Click here to download the brochure.

Industry evangelist and CTO of @radical.media, Evan Schechtman, talks about the “super app” the post production industry has been waiting for.

If you are interested to know more or to arrange a demo contact us on 01483 410370 or email sales@bluegfx.com.

The post SMOKE FOR MAC 2013 – IT’S ARRIVED appeared first on bluegfx.