Sunflow open source render engine

"Sunflow is an open source rendering system for photo-realistic image synthesis. It is written in Java and built around a flexible ray tracing core and an extensible object-oriented design."

http://sunflow.sourceforge.net/index.php

Faking Global Illumination in Houdini with Vmantra

"Here is a quick and easy way to get fairly nice global illumination style lighting using Vmantra and Houdini.'


Sean Lewkiw developed a custom Houdini script that allows user to create a light populated dome and achieve very good results with not much render time.

link:

houdini tutorials in pdf

Lots of Houdini Tutorials in pdf, some are old, but very usefull!

thx to soulvector for this!

link:

ParanoiaFX free macros for shake

"Lens Flare 1.2
Simulates reflections of "50-300mm zoom", "Anamorphic" and "35mm Prime" lens. I'm still working on other lens types."

"Volumetric Light 1.1
Produces volumetric light rays. Works on basis of "EdgeDetect" and "RadialBlur"."

www.paranoiafx.com

strangebrain's free shake macros

Excelent shake macros and, for free!

" ProFlares is a set of macros for Shake to fill in a big gap in the available
add-ons, the creation of realistic lens flares."

"AE for Shake is a full package of macros for Shake to mimic the effects and
blend modes of After Effects within Shake. For now up to 124 effects and 30
blend modes are supported."

www.strangebrain.com

High Resolution Light Probes

Paul Debevec ( debevec.org ) released new light probes in high resolution. Also, the site explains an introduction to HDRI, Image Formats, Panoramic Formats and how to make your own light probes.

You can download the probes here.

MotionBlur as a 2D postprocess

working with motionvectors

"This shader can render visual motion vector information, that can be used by some RevisionFX plugins - namely ReelSmart Motion Blur v3 and ReelSmart Smooth Kit - to render accurate motion blur in post."

for Mental Ray renderers

xsi files page:

maya files page:

zdepthDOF for mental ray

from the author:

"zDepthDOF is a material shader for Mental Ray which renders zDepth images 'ready-to-use' for depth of field simulation. It provides full keyframable focus control inside the animation package.

While zDepthDOF is intended to be used in conjunction with a compositing package, like for example Apple Computer's Shake, Discreet's Combustion or even Adobe's Photoshop CS, the rendered zDepth images can be used 'as is'. There is no longer a need to re-map grayscale values to distances inside the compositing package (which is often difficult guesswork) or let alone keyframe them, as all this can now be done within the 3D environment of the animation package."

it works with mental ray on xsi, maya and 3dsmax

zdepthDOF for mental ray

Biomedical Image Awards

Excellent resource for Biomedical Imagery

http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/en/bia/gallery.html

Andrew D Lyons Works

amazing works by andrew lyons, interactivity, houdini




link