9/13/04: Dave Duberman's Spectrum has a review of Mankua's Texture Layers 2, a specialized unwrap UVW modifier which extends the native Max version with particular effectivelness on organic models. It's a DCP, available through TurboSquid for around $300.

9/8/04: Discreet today announded 3DS Max 7 -- still not shipping. You can check the CGTalk thread (containing the press release and some reactions), and otherwise download the PDF Tech spec. here.

9/6/04: The Chaos Group, makers of the VRay renderer, Phoenix (fire effects) and SimCloth (cloth simulator), are developing a volumetric and fluid simulator, code name Aura. The gallery is worth a look.

9/5/04: CGTalk's "Share Your Max Secrets" thread is now sticky. A good source of little items to help your Max workflow.

8/26/04: James Gonzales offers two useful sets of free video tutorials on his site, http://www.geekmanuals.com/, covering Dreamweaver MX and Flash MX.

8/26/04: George Maestri has added a fourth set of video tutorials to his offerings at Lynda.com. This offers 10 hours of modeling in 3DS Max 6, demonstrating polygonal, patch and NURBS modeling techniques, exploring advantages and disadvantages.

8/26/04: Chris Thomas has a free advanced tutorial on the CG Academy site, using Particle Flow Scripting and character rigging to create animated spider particles. This has also been added to our Links Section.

8/26/04: Allan McKay has just released an Afterburn Masters Set (3 DVD's) through CG Academy ($210 US). He showed some of the tutorials at the Discreet SIGGRAPH Master's Classes, which showed practical implementations of Afterburn - Particle Flow integration. I haven't reviewed this product yet.

8/25/04: Luxology's Modo was the hottest new 3D Modeling product at SIGGRAPH 2004. Created by Lightwave expatriots, this looks to be the fasted subdivision modeler out there. The CGTalk thread suggests combining Modo with Pixelogic's ZBrush, which uses Sub-D's together with 3D Paint

8/19/04: Back from SIGGRAPH 2004. Take a look at my review, and join the discussion at Cyberedge Journal. The SIGGRAPH Papers are an excellent source for current technologies and research. The links are online.

7/27/04: Allan McKay (long-listed in our Links section)has just released his Advanced Visual Effects DVD through TurboSquid. Allan has years of experience in visual effects for film, as well as one of the best tutorial siteck s for Max's Particle Flow. He covers complex effects such as tornados and volcanoes, and has some content on using procedural materials and reactor 2 basics. Allan will also be presenting at the Discreet Master Classes at SIGGRAPH

7/22/04: Mario at Loganarts has posted Free Head Modeling Tutorials. The page is in Portuguese and the application is not Max. But the videos are easily downloaded, have no sound, are self-explanatory, and he builds entirely with low-poly quads.

7/16/04: Millenium 3D is a welcome resource for 3D textures, models, and tutorials many of which are free. They have a broad directory of specialized resources across 3D Specialties. It's added our Links page

7/16/04: The Spiraloid digital Sculpting Forum offers some of the best discussions of state-of-the-art 3D modeling and animation techniques. The most recent discussions include Bay Raitt's Combination Modeling approach to facial animation he pioneered on Gollum. Here, and on CGTalk, you'll find a discussion of where digital double talking heads are, and will probably go. Here's a JPEG, download the 6 Mb AVI.

7/16/04: The highlight of SIGGRAPH 2004 will be Chris Landreth's Ryan, a fact-based animated tribute to Canadian animator Ryan Larkin, who created some of the most influential animated filsm of his time, who now lives on welfare and panhandles for spare change in downtown Montreal. Landreth has inspired countelss 3D animators (including me) since the early '90's. His films The End and Bingo have received wide internationa l recognition and numerous awards, including an Academy Award nomination for The End in 1996 for Best Animated Short Film and a 1999 Genie Award for Bingo .

7/9/04: SIGGRAPH 2004 will take place at tha Los Angeles Convention Center, August 8 - 12, with Exhibitions open August 10 - 12. The conference program is online. Discreet's offering 12 Master Classes during this event covering 3DS Max and Combustion. I took these last year -- they're worth your time.

7/2/04: Marc Abraham, a talented, dedicated Max artist and instructor in the Bay Area, offers links to some inspiring 3D artists. Check his work and links, added to our Links page this week.

6/14/04: 3D Palace announced a new DVD-based tutorial set for bulding hi-res models from the Matrix, as well as some environment models. They show stills of the projects, but offer no details like sample movies etc. Take a look at their promo at 3D Palace

6/10/04: George Maestri released his third online video-based 3DS Max tutorial title on lynda.com Character Animation in 3DS Max offers 6.75 hours of video with project files, including human, dinosaur, quadraped walks, and facial animation and dialog tips. This is his best effot yet.Max-based, there's lots of animation and acting tips from this very experienced character animator.

6/8/04: These new links have been added to a new More Free 3DS Max Tutorials links page.

5/27/04: Three new links added to the Links page: Ted Boardman's CG Architect.com Resource page and Virtual Partners free tutorial links page. Many techniques are oldies, but still goodies. Take a look at 3dKingdom.org, free Max tutorials, models, gallery, forum, etc.

5/27/04: SharArts will introduce Natural Shaders for 3DS Max at SIGGRAPH 2004, for use in making complex textures like sand, snow, ice, rock, magma, etc. Check their gallery.

5/27/04; Ornatrix has announced a hair plugin for Max 5/6. The operation appear's similar to Maya's Fur and Joe Alter's Shave & Haircut, in which you can place roots, style & comb, and animate the results. You can download the public beta from their site, or here.

5/16/04: Get a fast start in 3DS Max in a 4 week summer session at the College of Marin (MMST 152, Indian Valley Campus, Novato). And IT'S CHEAP!! Classes run June 14 - July 7

5/16/04: George Maestri has released his second online video-based 3DS Max tutorial series on
lynda.com This series offers four hours on the basics of character rigging in Max 6, including bones setups, FK/IK, skinning with the Skin modifier, and facial animation using the Morpher modifier. George does an excellent job of simplifying this complex topic, building on techniques explained in the first series. Because both sets of movies are available, you can jump bqck to review any points you may have forgotten.

5/16/04: Glu 3D is a fluid simulator plugin for Max and Maya. A commercial plugin retailing at $295.00, there's a demo available for free download, together with tutorials and lots of animated gallery examples at 3D Aliens

3/1/04: George Maestri has just released a beginner's online video-based tutorial series on lynda.com lYou can have access to this 7 hr. series, and all other online movies for $25.00/mo. (you can cancel your membership at any time). This site has around 1500 movies available on most Adobe, Macromedia and other products, and Lynda Wienman is doing an excellent job of maintaining the quality as the library expands. You can sample some movies for free.

Some recent Max 6 books of note: 3DS Max 6 Animation by Barrett Fox, 3DS Max 6 Killer Tips by Jon Bell, Model, Rig Animate with 3DS Max 6 by Michele Bousquet and 3DS Max 6 Animation and Visual Effects by Sanford Kennedy. Barrett Fox's book is unique in my experience because it is a complete primer on how to make a CG film, start to finish. Yet the film is also about a video game, as well as a set-up for it; the synergy between the cinematic and the game design is extendted into the book, and an excellent Flash-based site, www.barrettfox.com. Jon Bell;s book is a collection of tips by Jon and others. Nothing more than one or two pages, a quick, easy read. Most important, very practical. Even the experienced user will probably find at least a third of this book a surprise.

2/17/04: New compilation of Combustion tutorials posted on Creative Cow: http://www.creativecow.net/articles/combustion.html Also added fooTools site (a collection of plugins and scripts), and raph.com tutorials to Links page Added to Links page Niel Blevin's site for Max tutorials and resources

2/16/04: Allan McKay has authored some very good Particle Flow tutorials, available at his site, allanmckay.com

2/3/04: 3DS Max 6 Service Pack 1 is available for download at Discreet Download (Max)

2/3/04: Added a new Downloads section to the Training Menu, which includes a collection free plugins and MaxScripts for 3DS Max 5.x and 6.x. These are freely available elsewhere, our thanks to all those who offer these gems to the Max Community.

2/1/04 Combustion 3.01 Update is available for downlaod at Discreet Download (Combustion)

1/29/04: Jack Pfieffer posted a great reference to Combustion resources on Discreet's Combustion Forum, (Tips and Tricks), and copied here.