DWG Viewer 3.06

DWG Viewer 3.06 can help you to improve the way of visualize AutoCAD projects like DWG, DXF e DWF file formats. There are resources like zoom, rotate, toolbars and interface ActiveX. it’s for Free, Why not to try it???

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Download

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Free Tool: An Ivy Generator by Thomas Luft

Ivy Generator is a small tool that simulates a virtual ivy  growing  by itself. This procedural system enables the ivy grows from one single root following different forces that are predetermined before start the growing process. You can set a primary growth direction, random influences, an adhesion force towards other objects, an up-vector imitating the phototropy of plants, and finally gravity. This simple scheme reveals that the goal was not to provide a biological simulation of growing ivy but rather a simple approach to producing complex and convincing vegetation that adapts to an existing scene. The ivy generator imports and exports obj+mtl files.

Start with 3ds Max:

Step 01. create a geometry you want to put Ivy plant on;

Step 02. Export the geometry in wavefront (.obj);

Then, go to Ivy Generator tool:

Step 01. Open Ivy Generator and click on “import obj+mlt” button and choose the geometry that you’ve exported in wavefront (.obj) format;

Step 02. Now, you need to set the place the ivy plant will start to grow. Select the area of the geometry you wanna the ivy grows and Double click;

Step 05. Press “grow” button with the default settings or try to play with the settings to customize the way that your ivy plant grows;

Step 06. Before to press the “export obj+mlt”, make sure to press “Birth” button;

Finally back to 3ds max:

Step 01. Import the geometry you’ve exported from Ivy Generator Tool.

Step 02. If you’re not seeing the material in Material Editor go to Material/Pick Material from object…and pick on the ivy plant. Now you have the material added to you material editor.

Step 03. Load the Opacity Maps, for each leaf.

Step 04. Finally, render out your scene.

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Download the Ivy Generator Tool

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After Effects Tip: Share video with Xvid Codec

Xvid is a file format that can be easily compressed generating a high-definition video and squeezing dramatically the output file size. Therefore, the Xvid codec is ideal for archiving home video, trasmitting video over a network, e.g. in case you want to share one of your videos with your friends via the internet. Compressing  such video with Xvid is a great big deal, saving time, downloand times and space of your Hard disk, without losing quality.

Step 01. Open an After Effects project file that you wanna export with Xvid Codec.

Step 02. Select  the composition you wanna render out, and then choose Composition > Pre-render..

Step 03. On “Render Queue Tab”, in Output Module option click on the triangle and choose “Custom…”

Step 04. In Video Output click on Format Options.

Step 05. Set the Compressor in popup menu to Xvid MPEG-4  Codec and Leave the Default settings. and press Okay

Step 06. Now, Choose the Output name and  render the composition.

Tip:  On render Settings check “Use OpenGL  Renderer”.

OpenGL is a set of standards for high-performance processing of 2D and 3D graphics for a wide variety of  applications. For After Effects users, OpenGL provides fast, high-quality rendering for previews and final  output by moving rendering from the CPU to the OpenGL  hardware (GPU).

Now, you have a exported video with a great quality and minimum space size required on the output video size.

That’s all folks!   =)

Download Xvid Codec here

Visit the Xvid Codec Website

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Note: Before you install XviD in your system, you can create a
restore point, so, if you don't like it or if  you system don't work
right, you just need to restore your computer to an previous point you
have created before this installation.
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MAX2AE – V3.00a

MAX2AE is a full featured plugin for 3ds MAX (6, 7, 8, 9, 2008 and 2009) and higher that bridges the gap between MAX and After Effects (6.5, 7.0 and CS3). Finally an easy, accurate and highly efficient way to integrate After Effects elements into your MAX renders, matching all aspects and parameters of Max cameras, lights and objects.

Every property of a MAX camera, object and light can be translated into AE. Far more than just camera matching; MAX2AE offers object to layer animation matching, MAX light to AE light animation matching and handles all resolutions, pixel aspects and frame rates.

MAX2AE incorporates the ability to create ‘helper planes’ in MAX which represent your AE layer or comp. These ‘helpers’ provide a highly accurate way to envision the AE layer relevant to your MAX scene. These ‘helpers’ can be animated just like any other MAX object, then used to output keyframe data to AE layers for a perfect match! Even allowing them to be rendered from MAX for the purpose of generating track mattes for object/AE layer occlusion!

[Download demo version]

Craft Plugins – FreeWare

Have you already imagined to animate cars, planes, and cameras in real time on an equal Max Game?  These plug-ins do that and they are free.

Youtube Crafanimations Channel

Visit the Website

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Photoshop Brush Controller

An exclusive free downloadable Photoshop script that enables to control the brush size using the mouse or the graphic tablet, in way similar to the new CS4 version. The controller also allows to adjust the opacity and flow values.

What is that?

The Photoshop Brush Controller is a free script for Adobe Photoshop (Windows only versions) written by Marco Traverso. It allows to control the brush size, opacity and flow values by pressing the CTRL + Right Mouse Button and dragging the mouse.

-Right > Increases Brush Size

-Left > Decreases Brush Size

-Up > Adjusts the opacity value

-Down > Adjusts the flow value

The script was created with AutoHotKey and allows several customizations in terms of keys and sensitivity. Read below for additional details (recommended) or click here to the download the file.The original article in Italian which describes the script is available on attic22, the just-released blog of  Marco Traverso.

Introduction

The standard tool for sketching and painting in Adobe Photoshop is the Brush Tool. Even if a wide range of standard and customizable brushes is available, it is still very useful to adjust the brush diameter size while painting without changing the brush itself.

Up to the current CS3 version, this was possible in several different ways:

* by adjusting the slider on the top option bar
* by right-clicking the mouse and adjusting the slider in the pop-up dialog
* by using the keyoboard shortcuts (Increase / Decrease Brush Size)

It is also possible, when using a graphic tablet, to assign the brush diameter parameter to the pen pressure or pen tilt: however it can be more convenient to use the pen pressure to control only the opacity, and moreover it can be useful to have more precise control on the brush size.

One of the new features of Photoshop CS4 is the ability to vary the brush size by clicking the Ctrl +Alt + Left Button and dragging the mouse (see this video)

The following script allows to have a similar control even in the previous versions of Photoshop (the ones that support the keyboard shortcuts), and also allows to adjust the opacity and flow parameters.

Note: being based on AutoHotKey, a Windows-only free utility, the Brush Controller script works only on Windows systems. Anyway the same principle could be adopted to create a similar script in OSx environments.

How it works?

Once the script is running in the background, the control is activated with the combination CTRL+Right Mouse Button (the combination is customizable).

While keeping the button pressed, the mouse can be moved in four directions/areas:

# Right > Increase Brush Size – when the cursor is moved to the right beyond the same predefined value, the script sends the increase brush size keyboard shortcut repeatedly. While the mouse is kept in this area with the button pressed down, the brush size keeps increasing.
# Left > Decrease Brush Size – when the cursor is moved to the left beyond a predefined value, the script send the decrease brush size keyboard shortcut repeatedly. While the mouse is kept in this area with the button pressed down, the brush size keeps decreasing.
# Up > Brush Opacity Controller: if the mouse is moved upwards beyond a predefined value, the script starts sending the number keys 1,2,3 … 0 that control the opacity value. The numbers are sent depending on the mouse position, so the upper is the cursor, the higher the value (up until 0, ie.e. 100%).
# Down > Brush Flow Controller: in the same way, if the mouse cursor is moved down, the script sends the Shift+number keys combination which controls the flow value.

Note: the CTRL button can be released once the mouse button is pressed.

Installation

The PS Brush Size Controller comes as a zipped archive that includes three files:

* PS Brush Size Controller.ini
The .ini file contains the settings used by the controller – such as the keyboard shortcuts, sensitivity ecc. See below for customization
* PS Brush Size Controller.ahk
The .ahk file contains the code of the script, and requires AutoHotKey.
* PS Brush Size Controller.exe
The .exe file is a compiled version of the script, which doesn’t require the installation of AutoHotKey.

To install the script:

* Unzip the files in the same directory (the location is not important)
* Open the .ini file in a text editor and check that the increase/decrease shortcuts correspond to the ones you are using in Photoshop – see customization below
* Run the .exe or – if you have AutoHotKey installed – the .ahk file

You can also copy a link to the script file in the Startup folder of the start menu, so that it will run automatically when Windows starts.

The script was tested in Adobe Photoshop CS3 only. It should work on previous versions, anyway if you have some problems just send us an email and we’ll try to fix it.
Additional information

* The controller also works with other brush-based tools such as eraser, burn, dodge, etc.
* Since this is not a native Photoshop command, the CTRL+ Right Button combination starts the controller even when a brush tool is not selected. This disables the default effect of the combination in Photoshop – for example when pressing CTRL+Right Button a layers selection menu opens.
* The effect described above has to be considered when a different combination is selected in the settings file. For example if the activation is set to CTRL+Left Mouse Button, this will disable the relative function – for example the multiple layers selection, the move tool shortcut and the layer mask selection shortcut. So a less used combination is preferable.
* The Photoshop Brush Controller is released under the GNU General Public License.

Customization

The script comes with a .ini settings file which can be edited in a normal text editor to change the following parameters:

* brush_increase_size_hotkey is the shortcut for Increase Brush Size (Photoshop default= ‘ ] ‘ )
* brush_decrease_size_hotkey is the shortcut for Decrease Brush Size (Photoshop default = ‘ [ ' )
* Activation_Hotkey and mouse_button set the combination of keys / mouse button that starts the Brush Controller.
The default is Ctrl + Right Mouse Button.

It is possible to specify a custom combination, using ! for 'Alt', ^ for Ctrl, # for the Windows key, + for Shift, LButton for Left Mouse Button, RButton for the Right Mouse Button.

For example the lines:

Activation_Hotkey = ^!
mouse_button = RButton

set the activation hotkey to Ctrl + Alt + Right mouse button

* min_x_offset sets the horizontal offset of the brush resize areas - the defaul values is 1
* y_tolerance sets the height of the the brush resize control area
* min_y_offset sets the vertical offset of the opacity/flow control areas
* x_tolerance sets the height of the the brush resize control area
* y_mag_factor sets the height of the flow/opacity control areas
* x_slp, y_slp set the refresh time of the script for the brush size (x) and opacity and flow (y) controls

Photoshop  Brush Controller

[Download here]

(Source)

Setting up a Basic V-Ray Render Scene

Setting up a Basic V-Ray Render Scene

You can get this scene whit all settings already set here. [Download]

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Step01.
Create a New Scene and Reset it then go to Render Scene dialog/Common tab/Assign Renderer rollout and swap default Scanline Renderer to V-Ray Adv in Production parameters;
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Step02.
Turn on “Enable built-in Frame Buffer” in V-Ray – Frame buffer rollout;
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Step03.
Now, in Renderer Tab, go to Global Switches;
Besure to uncheck “Default lights” and “”Hidden lights”;
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Step04.
Turn on the GI in the Indirect Ilumination rollout;
Choose Primary engine to “Irradiance map” and the Secondary engine to “Light cache”;
Change the Multiplier Boundes to 0,7 to both;
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Step05.
In V-Ray Irradiance map rollout:
Check Show cal. phase;
Choose Built-in Presets to “Low” preset to get quickly renderings and if you do a final rendering change this preset to “High” to get a nice result;
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Step06.
In V-Ray Light cache rollout:
Check  Show calc. phase;
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Step07.
In V-Ray Environment rollout:
Check on to “GI environment” and put 0,7 to multiplier parameter;
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Step08.
Turn on Frame Stamp on V-Ray system rollout;
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Step09.
Now,  we will add a light to the scene, make sure that the light is bigger than the scene. I used a directional light with vrayshadows turned on and set 0,5 to multiplier parameter;
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Step10.
Finally, set your Output file size and render your scene.

Those are usualy the basic setting is set before rendering anything out with V-Ray.

I hope you enjoy it!

MadCar Plugin for 3dsmax

This fantastic plugin drives you to a new way to create a realistic car animation in 3dsmax. This plugin was written by Andrey Kozlov (Karba)  and works pretty well, and the best part of this is that this plugin is totally FREE!!!

So, What are you waiting for?

You can get it hitting here [rapidshare]

or visiting the plugin’s website

http://www.karba.eol3d.com/Plugins/MadCar/ [Author's plugin]

In this website, you can download:

- Plugin file (for 3dsmax 9/2008 – 32/64bit)

-Help file

-Sample scene

-Sample movies

V-Ray Help Documentation

link: http://www.spot3d.com/vray/help/150SP1/index.htm

Este Post vai para quem esta precisando ou quer aprender a utilizar o plugin V-Ray com maior eficiência. Neste “Table of Contents” você encontrará explicações sobre como utilizar as diversas opções e as novidades desta nova versão, e tudo explicado com imagens e passo-a-passo muito bem detalhados.

This Post Helps who wanna learn to use V-Ray Plugin with more Efficiency. In this “Table of Contents” you can find everything you need.

Rendering with V-ray

Para começar uma pequena amostra da potente ferramenta de renderização, conhecido por V-ray.
To begin, I`ll post a small sample of this potential tool for rendering, known as V-ray.

http://www.chaosgroup.com/
http://www.vray.info/

http://www.spot3d.com/vray/help/150SP1/