Many beginning 3D animators assume that rendering is the easiest step in the process, but, in reality, it is one of the most difficult parts of the job. 3D artists should have a good knowledge of lighting techniques and keen eyes to observe the world around them in order to create a realistic look in rendering. Of course, a powerful rendering tool is also essential. That’s why Discreet has included mental ray 3.2 in its 3ds max 6 package.

It’s important to note that mental ray is the first rendering software to combine the physically correct simulation of the behavior of light with full programmability for the creation of any imaginable visual phenomenon. To date, it has been integrated into Softimage|3D and Softimage|XSI, Discreet (Autodesk) 3ds max, Alias Systems Maya, Side Effects’ Houdini 5, SolidWorks PhotoWorks 2 and Dassault Syst’me’s CATIA V4 and V5 products. A number of translators and translator plug-ins allow for using mental ray in conjunction with various 3D modeling and animation front-end systems.

Discreet’s 3ds max rendering panel offers some extra options and mental ray-specific controls. I tried rendering some scenes on my hp xw4100 workstation and the results were stunning. I started with a photograph of a simple room lit by sunshine and rebuilt it inside 3ds max 6, and then rendered it using mental ray. The photo realistic results were almost indistinguishable from the actual photo. New render elements such as flat Diffuse, Lighting, and Matte are also available for mental ray. There are also contour shaders, camera shaders and other features in 3.2. Not only can you blur shadows with the software, you can also split images into strips and allow different servers to render each for faster results.

The Good News: Mastering mental ray may take some time, but if you stick with it you’ll discover that it’s actually quite easy to use. Seriously, you can start rendering beautiful images instantly.

The Wish List: Although one appreciates all the hard work that has gone in to making mental ray a superior product with excellent performance possibilities, the bar can always be raised by increasing rendering speed.

The Bottom Line: If you are a pro 3D artist, you should seriously look into getting plugged into the mental ray world as soon as possible.

Web Address: www.mentalray.com, www.discreet.com

Animation Magazine’s Seal of Excellence

Ease of Use: ****

Rendering Quality: *****

Rendering speed: *****

Quality and Depth: *****

The Final Score: *****

Here’s one of the first major upgrades of the year that is bound to make artists happy. Yes, I’m ecstatic about Photoshop CS’ new version, and here are a few reasons why: I needed to work with a 24’x10′ sketch of a showroom. Without Photoshop CS I had to scan it in three different segments and then spend hours stitching the segments together and matching the colors and contrasts. Fast forward to life after Adobe Photoshop CS: I only had to use the new Photomerge tool to automatically stitch and color match all three segments.

The package comes with the new ‘Crop and Straighten’ photo option which allows you to scan multiple images at once and automatically straighten and save each as individual files. I also like the time-saving photo filters for quick color correction and the handy shadow/highlight option under image adjustments. The ‘Match Color’ function instantly matches the color of an image to a selected source. Graphic designers will appreciate ‘Text on a Path’ or the ‘Inside a Shape’ features. Another useful addition is the Photo Filter Gallery, which lets you mimic the effects of traditional camera filters.

The Good News: Among Photoshop CS’s valuable features are the RAW support (for most cameras), better organization, PDF export and the web photo gallery.

The Wish List: Some of the added elements affect the original layer instead of creating a masked/adjustment layer. But I guess, by now, artists should know better than working without backing up their original files and layers!

The Bottom Line: It’s simple! If you are a professional artist using Photoshop, you’ll be a fool not to upgrade to this version. It’s only $169 for an upgrade ($649 for the full version).

Web Address: www.adobe.com

Animation Magazine’s Seal of Excellence

The Final Score: *****

Ease of Use: ****

Interface: *****

Tool Power: *****

Quality and Depth: *****

The team at e-on software who gave us Vue d’Esprit 4 (Seal of Excellence) have improved on the existing software and come up with Vue 4 Professional. To refresh your memory, Vue 4 is a 3D natural scenery creation software, that is unbelievably easy to learn.

Thanks to the Kick-Start Tutorial, you can learn about the key features in a few minutes. You will then be ready to create your own world, big or small. You begin by choosing an atmosphere (Daytime, Simple Sunset, and Bad Weather are some of the options.) Then, according to the selected atmosphere, you get more choices. For example, in Daytime, you’ll have the option of picking Golden Yellow or Coming Storm. The choices are plenty, but that’s just the start: You can then add water, clouds, terrain, objects, rocks and planets’yes, even planets.

Modifying scenes are also straight-forward. Even if you export them to 3ds max, Cinema 4D, LightWave, Softimage XSI or Maya, the cameras and lights match the synch plug-ins perfectly. One useful feature is the fast-preview rendering engine that lets you see what the image will look like in a small window if a certain material is applied. Vue 4 Professional also supports multiple processors, filter editing and python scripting. You certainly get a lot of scenic bang for the package’s $599 price tag.

The Good News: Vue 4 Professional’s terrain editing allows users to dig, raise or create various effects with a resizable brush, while controlling its softness, flow and strength.

The Wish List: Although the rendering is faster than before, would’t it be great if we could just forget about the terms loading and render time forever? We certainly wouldn’t say no to a free, bigger library in the future versions of the package.

The Bottom Line: Not only does the software give you incredible control over your landscape, it also supports 3ds, COB, DXF, LWO, OBJ, SHD and other Import/Export file types.

Web Address: www.e-onsoftware.com

Animation Magazine’s Seal of Excellence

Final Score: *****

Ease of Use: *****

Interface: *****

Tool Power: *****

Quality and Depth: *****

Expandability: *****

If you’ve been looking for an affordable hard-drive-based MP3 player that can compete with Apple’s i-POD, then Creative’s NOMAD Jukebox Zen NX is the answer to your prayers.

The 30gb Jukebox Zen MX can hold up to 8,000 WMA or MP3 songs. That means you can certainly carry your voice-overs, narrations, or dialogue soundtracks with you to locations or meetings. A small scroll botton on the side allows fast and easy access to files. If you use the box to store and build your music library, the songs are indexed automatically and can be viewed in a number of ways (e.g. by artist, title, album, genre, etc.). You can also create your own play lists to suit your needs. Handy extras include EAX Audio, which lets users adjust audio for specific situations and surroundings.

The Jukebox Zen NX runs on a removable Li-ion battery that can run for up to 14 hours.

All of the above would be pointless if the sound quality didn’t perform on a professional level. That’ why it’s important to note that the audio was crystal-clear and it could be cranked out as loud as we needed it to be. In addition, the high-res backlit LCD lets you easily see which tracks you are listening to without straining the eyes.

Connecting the box to the computer was effortless. The package’s software makes it very easy to add songs to the playlist. The player’s design is very friendly and impressive. All necessary buttons are easy to reach and you will not have any problems controlling the device. The creators made everything on the Zen NX straightforward and user-friendly.

The Good News: A good selection of features and crisp audio quality will be music to your ears. Using the stylish and well-designed Zen NX is a great and affordable way to archive your studio’s music library.

The Wish List: All I would ask for is a line-out jack to help hook the box to the sound system since it would be ideal to listen to Zen NX sans headphones.

The Bottom Line: If you are looking for a solid portable music player and storage device, this is the one you should pick up.

Web Address: www.creative.com

Animation Magazine’s Seal of Excellence

Final Score: *****

Sound Quality: *****

Ease of Use: *****

Design: *****

Capacity: *****

We all know that learning a 3D application on your own can be as tough as Sam and Frodo’s journey to Mount Doom: You play with the program for a few months, but then you hit a brick wall and can’t get passed the initial few steps. To get to the next level, you need to have a strong and solid foundation. And unfortunately you can’t get that by a few random online tutorials here and there. The book Introducing Maya 5 by Dariush Derakshani is the kind of tool you need to push you to the next level. ‘Your exploration should be about learning what you can do and not what the software can do,’ writes Derakhshani. The author has a strong architectural background and is also an award-winning animator. In this book, he teaches everything from the Maya 5 interface, to button functions and even art essentials.

The tome is devoted to different aspects of Maya from rendering and texturing to NURBS polygons and subdivisions. It also offers a great section on the walk cycle. The featured images by new Maya artists are very inspiring and provide good examples of over-lit and under-lit scenes. Overall, the book covers everything a beginning Maya artist should know and includes some suggested readings, good sites and a CD with Maya Personal Learning Edition Version 5.

The Good News: This book is definitely more than just a ‘step-by-step’ tutorial. It actually explains why and how we get there. That means you get an explanation of 3-point lighting as well as how different kinds of light work.

The Wish List: Some intermediate ‘how to’ and bonus files on the CD would have been nice.

The Bottom line: If you’re just beginning to dive into the world of 3D, this is the book for you. I also recommend this book if you’re making a transition from another 3D software to Maya.

Web Address: www.sybex.com and www.alias.com

Animation Magazine’s Seal of Excellence

Final Score: *****

Quality of the writing: *****

Ease of use of the Tutorials: *****

Depth of Coverage: *****

321 Studios has a good reputation among digital video connoisseurs for its practical DVD back-up and archiving tools. Trying DVD X Copy Platinum convinced me that this latest 321 Studios product is actually their very best effort to date. DVD disks may last longer than videotapes, but they are also vulnerable to surface scratches. That’s why it’s important to back up your work or library.

I installed DVD X Copy Platinum on my HP Workstation xw 4100, which has an internal HP DVD recorder. The installation process was very easy, but be sure to restart your computer afterwards so that the program can recognize your drives. You can fit a whole DVD movie with all its features on one single DVD R (or +R or RW) disc. To accomplish this, you open Platinum’s Advanced window and select the title sets you want to copy. Then you can let the program apply an equal compression rate to each one of the title sets, or you can choose different rates for the selected titles. In cases that I picked the advanced features to compress the DVD movie, I didn’t notice any drop in resolution or image quality. One problem that I did encounter occurred during the writing stage of the DVD: I was getting a writing error because the DVD X Copy Platinum requires a large virtual memory size. So I solved the problem by setting the virtual memory to the maximum size allowed.

The Good News: DVD X Copy Platinum also installs a copy of DVD X Rescue for you. DVD X Rescue repairs your harmed DVD and CD discs and lets you copy them to another fresh disc.

The Wish List: The current version of the DVD X Copy Platinum demands a large memory, making it difficult for the user to perform any other tasks during the recording process. It would be great to see a solution to this problem in the future.

The Bottom Line: This digital tool is a must have for studios or independent artists who deal with DVDs.

Web Address: www.321studios.com

Animation Magazine’s Seal of Excellence

Final Score: *****

Ease of Use: *****

Interface: *****

Power: *****

Quality and Depth: *****