SOFTIMAGE|CAT v.3.1 for 3D Max

SOFTIMAGE®|CAT is packed with new features that make life easier than ever for character animators using 3Ds Max. Highlights include:

CATMuscle Integration
CATMuscle—a fully scaleable solution for solving skin deformation problems—is fully integrated in CAT 3. CATMuscle provides you with the tools you need to achieve a smooth, organic skin deformation across a wide range of motion. It's easy to learn, and requires no understanding of anatomy.

CATMuscle rigs can be as simple or as complex as you wish, so they can suit your purposes whether you are working in film or game development.

Rigging
New rigging features include:

Setup Controllers
Layers can now have a setup controller rather than just a setup value. Any complex procedural animation can be configured onto the "Setup" or "Base" controller.

Bones can also contain a setup controller, which is used to drive animation. These controllers can contain procedural animation such as constraints, and script controllers.

Setup controllers for layers and bones are are saved, and loaded with rig presets.

Layer Configuration Baking
Now each layer controller can save a mini clip file that defines all of the settings for that layer.

New Rig Nodes
You can now add extra information, like props, muscle configurations and skin meshes, to rigs. The extra information is saves, merged, and/or deleted with the rigs.

New Rig Saver
A new rig preset system allows you to save rigs by themselves, without their animation.
New CATUnits Position, Rotation, and Float Controllers
These controllers are used to create rigs that resize with the CATRig when CATUnits are changed.

New Inheritance Settings on Bones
Bones now have Inheritance options for Animation and Setup Mode.You can disable position, rotation or scale inheritance for the entire bone, including all layers, using a single toggle.

Layers
New layering features include:

Layer Collapsing Tool
A new layer collapsing tool allows you to collapse layers while preserving source keyframe times, keep constraints, and plot constraints to keyframes.

New Layer Manager
An all new layer manager has been written for complete CATRig layer management. It is both simpler and easier to use than the previous layer manager. Most layer operations can now be applied to many layers at once simply by selecting them in the layer manager.

CATMotion
New CATMotion features include:

Arbitrary Numbers of Feet Per CATMotion Limb
CATMotion now supports arbitrary bones as feet. You can turn any bone that is the child of a limb—a walking stick, for example—into a foot using a simple toggle.


CATMotion Foot Nodes Automatically Placed on Ground Plane
Should your rig's setup pose not place the character's feet flat on the ground (for example, the "Da Vinci" pose), CAT 3 can place them there automatically. Previous versions required the use of large offsets.

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RayFire Tool 1.55

RayFire Tool 1.55 3DsMax 9 - 2011 32Bit & 64Bit



RayFire Tool gives you the ability to fragment, destroy, demolish, wreck, break down, wreak havoc, blow up, burst, detonate, explode and do other similar things you have always dreamed of to do in Max…

Feature list

* Nvidia PhysX Rigid Body dynamic support for 32 and 64 bit 3ds Max.
* Nvidia PhysX Force support
* Nvidia PhysX Glueing
* Interactive Dynamic Demolition System for Nvidia PhysX engine
* Uniform, Irregular and Continuous Fragmentation types
* Voronoi and Wood Splinters Fragmentation types
* Draw Fragment mode
* Fragmentation by custom shapes
* Reactor Rigid Body dynamic support
* Interactive Layer Manager
* Automatic update system






More info here : http://rayfirestudios.com/
you can download demo version here : RayFire Tool 1.55 Demo

Enjoy !!

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Cebas volumeBreaker

volumeBreaker is a volumetric geometry fracturing tool that will instantly create sub-geometry within any mesh - geometry that perfectly fits together and fills any given volume. With volumeBreaker Cebas brings a Hollywood quality destruction tool to 3ds MAX. volumeBreaker was developed in consultation with, and to meet the very exacting demands of, VFX artists working on multi-million dollar movies - because of this, volumeBreaker truly is a production proven tool.

Still image from Roland Emmerich's movie "2012" courtesy of Uncharted Territory. volumeBreaker was used extensively by Uncharcterd Territory in the production of many of the destruction shots used in the film. Used with permission.

More info

Cebas volumeBreaker

Sam Khorshid talks about the making of 2012

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Swift 3D MAX Plugin for 3dsMax

Swift 3D plug-ins allow 3ds Max and 3D* users to render their 3D scenes as high-quality, low-bandwidth vector or raster Flash animations viewable by more than 97% of the entire Web audience. Powered by the industry-leading RAViX 4 vector rendering technology, Swift 3D plug-ins offer superior integration with Flash and unrivaled vector output. From cartoon to full gradient shading, Swift 3D plug-ins are certain to produce the style you need for your next Flash or print project. Additional export formats include Adobe Illustrator, EPS, SVG and Toon Boom’s PNT format.

You can download free trial here Download free trial

More info Here

Hope u enjoy ^^

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RayFire Tool v1.44

RayFire 1.44 update available .
RayFire Tool gives you the ability to shoot, destroy, demolish, wreck, break down, wreak havoc, blow up, burst, detonate, explode and do other similar things you have always dreamed of to do in Max.

RayFire 1.44 Tool feature list:

• NVidia PhysX Rigid Body support via RayFire user interface. Only 32 bit 3ds Max version. This means that You still can use RayFire with PhysX engine support on 64 bit PC, but only with 32 bit 3ds Max. Also pay attention that RayFireTool uses software PhysX engine, which means that You can use PhysX engine with any video card.
• NVidia PhysX Influence. Allows You to affect on objects in sumulation by forces, spacewarps and mouse cursor. Animatable Time Scale property allows You to create Bullet Time effect in a seconds.
• Interactive Demolition System for NVidia PhysX engine. Creates dynamic simulation and demolishes objects accordingly to their material and collision strength. Each fragment can demolish further with proper amount of collision strength.
• Fragmentation. Allows you to fragment geometry objects.
• Explosion. Allows you to realistically explode objects.
• Reactor Rigid Body support via RayFire user interface.
• Reactor Hit, Displace, and Holes Impact dformations for shooting.
• Instant Action. Allows you to shoot and explode without gun, manually defining all impact spots on impact object.
• Various effects for shooting, such as Impact flash, Muzzle Flash, Particle Debris, Geometry Debris, Fragmented Debris from Holes, Smoke, Sparks, Blood, Decals, Bullets and any Custom objects which you can define by yourself.
• Interactive Layer Manager. Allows you to interactively change properties in the already created effects, select, hide\unhide, freeze\unfreeze and delete any created layer or effect.
• Automatic update system.

More info & Download here : http://www.mirvadim.com

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RayFire Tool 1.43 for 3DSMax 2008/2009

RayFire Tool gives you the ability to shoot, destroy, demolish, wreck, break down, wreak havoc, blow up, burst, detonate, explode and do other similar things you have always dreamed of to do in Max.

RayFire Tool 1.43 feature list:

• NVidia PhysX Rigid Body support via RayFire user interface. Only 32 bit 3ds Max version. This means that You still can use RayFire with PhysX engine support on 64 bit PC, but only with 32 bit 3ds Max. Also pay attention that RayFireTool uses software PhysX engine, which means that You can use PhysX engine with any video card.
• NVidia PhysX Influence. Allows You to affect on objects in sumulation by forces, spacewarps and mouse cursor. Animatable Time Scale property allows You to create Bullet Time effect in a seconds.
• Interactive Demolition System for NVidia PhysX engine. Creates dynamic simulation and demolishes objects accordingly to their material and collision strength. Each fragment can demolish further with proper amount of collision strength.
• Fragmentation. Allows you to fragment geometry objects.
• Explosion. Allows you to realistically explode objects.
• Reactor Rigid Body support via RayFire user interface.
• Reactor Hit, Displace, and Holes Impact dformations for shooting.
• Instant Action. Allows you to shoot and explode without gun, manually defining all impact spots on impact object.
• Various effects for shooting, such as Impact flash, Muzzle Flash, Particle Debris, Geometry Debris, Fragmented Debris from Holes, Smoke, Sparks, Blood, Decals, Bullets and any Custom objects which you can define by yourself.
• Interactive Layer Manager. Allows you to interactively change properties in the already created effects, select, hide\unhide, freeze\unfreeze and delete any created layer or effect.
• Automatic update system.

More info & Download here : http://www.mirvadim.com

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Softimage/Autodesk CAT 3.3 for 3ds Max 2008/2009

A complete character animation system plug-in for Autodesk 3ds Max. CAT offers artists in the film, post-production, and games industries an environment to produce better animations faster.

CAT makes it easy to create any kind of character rig. Build custom rigs lightning-quick, or use presets to create everything from humans and horses, to lizards and dragons, to spiders, crabs, and creepy-crawlies of all kinds. Include as many spines, heads, bones, fingers and toes as you want. CAT even supports highly complex rigs like centipedes, which are impossible to create using standard 3ds Max tools!
Quick and Easy Character Animation


Animating with CAT is easy. In just a few clicks, you can create walk cycles using CAT's procedural animation tools and drive your character by attaching it to a path. The CAT rig automatically calculates foot placement, even on undulating terrain! Test and tweak 'til your heart's content—CAT will display the results instantly!
High Quality - Unmatched Flexibility


CAT makes it easy to achieve high quality character animation quickly, reliably, and repeatably. Animation layering and clip editing allow you to create clips and reuse animations non-destructively. You can blend between distinct animations or add additional detail and secondary motion without sacrificing the base animation. Intuitive procedural systems like the CAT spine let you animate extremely complex character movements in a matter of clicks.
Incredible Realism

The all new CATMuscle adds incredible realism to your character animations by simulating muscle movements under the skin!

Download trial version of this plugin and more info here :

http://www.softimage.com/products/cat/

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Power Nurbs Pro & Power Translators Pro v5.32 for 3ds Max

The Next Generation of Modeling. Power NURBS [PRO].

Power NURBS unique hybrid approach fuses the next generation NURBS surface construction technology with the industry's leading Solids Modeling technology bringing an unparalleled modeling experience to the 3ds Max Platform.

Power NURBS modeling environment is designed to provide artist intuitive access to complex advanced modeling tools allowing you to expand your creative potential beyond the polygon world.



Quickly sketch out your idea with our free form NURBS curve network. Easily, blend or sweep your curves into complex interconnected organic shapes. Intuitively re-sculpt your form on the fly while changes automatically propagate through your model. Produce complex surface detail by drawing and projecting curves onto your model. Cutaway, intersect, join or Boolean surfaces and solids without having to clean up polygon errors. Feel the joy of selecting any edge or set of edges and applying numerous fillet combinations that work and with our resolution independent meshing technology. Never worry about poly count again. Sound too good to be true? Think again. It's all here in Power NURBS, so stop imagining and truly experience the next generation of modeling.

Power Translators Pro


- Do you need to import IGES, STEP, SAT, or Rhino files into Max?
- Are you sick and tired of poor quality Polygon translation?
- Tired of dealing with mesh smoothing issues and reversed faces?
- Need to change the resolution of your mesh without re-translating?
Translate NURBS Not Polygons!


Power Translators are built from the ground up to solve today's difficult problems of importing quality CAD data into 3ds max. The Plug-in has been battle hardened in the most demanding productions at some of the best Max visualization rendering facilities in the World. The 3ds professionals spoke and we listened and together we developed the most advanced, best integrated, highest quality Max CAD translator on the market today. We guarantee it.



Have you ever had to re-create a CAD model inside of MAX/VIZ? Power Translators is the answer to get those CAD models and assemblies into MAX or VIZ with the push of a button. Power Translators reads IGES, STEP, SAT, and Rhino and creates a Power NURBS surface/solid within Max to represent the precise geometry defined in these files. It can then create a mesh at render time to a specified user defined tolerance relative to the size of the object in the image. For example, a tolerance of 2 or 3 pixels will produce an extremely high quality image with very smooth edges that do not have polygonal artifacts. The Power NURBS surface/solid introduced by Power Translators can have materials applied at the sub-object level and is able to utilize most MAX Meshmodifiers (twist, UV Map, etc.).

Power Translators could easily pay for itself on a single project in time savings alone!


You can download Demo,tutorial, and more infomation here :

http://www.npowersoftware.com/nurbs/pnoverview.htm
Enjoy !

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Digimation.QuickDirt.1.5.3

QuickDirt is a powerful, yet easy to use dirt and aging application tool for 3ds Max. It exists as a combination Object Modifier and Map type that are used in concert. Its primary use is for adding dirt, rust, mud and other topology dependent texturing effects to mesh objects. The plug-in, as the name implies, works in (near) real time and offers interactive viewport feedback on the placement of the weathering. Besides its speed, another advantage of QuickDirt is that you can define different settings for different parts of the object, allowing you to control the final look.




More info : http://www.digimation.com/home/Software.aspx?sm=qd

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Gugila GroundWiz v1.50 for 3DSMax 7-2009

GroundWiz is a plug-in for 3ds Max/VIZ for making nature scenes with ease and precision.

GroundWiz Terrain Map, easy to use yet powerful procedural 3d terrain map for 3ds Max/VIZ, will bring you much power and control for generating realistic terrain textures. Furthermore, GroundWiz Planter, a mass placement and instancing tool, handles millions of objects in 3ds Max/VIZ. It will help you merge vegetation, rocks and other nature elements and quickly create realistic interactive scenes of nature/landscape. GroundWiz Variation Map will help you quickly add color variations to materials when creating big scenes with many objects like forests.



What GroundWiz does...

What GroundWiz Terrain Map, GroundWiz Planter, and GroundWiz Variation Map do is to facilitate your full use of 3ds Max/VIZ in creating natural 3d environments. It is completely integrated with 3ds Max/VIZ. It will give you control, power and flexibility to create and modify nature/landscape, using your own customized terrains and objects like trees, rocks, grass, houses or whatever objects you wish to use.


GroundWiz will help you create a realistic looking terrain texture on the terrain you create or the one imported into 3ds Max/VIZ from real life via GroundWiz importer. On that terrain, GroundWiz Planter will help you create a nature scene while GroundWiz Variation Map will help you quickly add color variations to the nature scenes.



You can download GroundWiz Lite free version and more infomation here

http://www.gugila.com/products.html

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LipService plugin.

LipService is a powerful multi-resolution subdivision surface sculpting and animation system built into a single 3DSMax object modifier.
LipService's sculpting tools are comparable to ZBrush and Mudbox. Its animation tools extend this multi-resultion editing philosophy through to motion.
LipService makes facial animation fast, simple, and gives the artist full WSIWYG control over the whole process.

LipService is a powerful extension to 3DSMax, not an external window, but an object space modifier. The artist keeps their favorite hotkeys, preferences, and menu paradigm. If the artist knows Max, they will immediately be able to use the tool without even cracking a manual. If they're used to sculpting with ZBrush or Mudbox already, they will find the sculpting tools and workflow familiar.

You can Download. 45 Day Trial and more info here : http://www.lbrush.com/

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Itoo Forest Pack Pro v3.0 for 3DSMax

Forest Pack is a package of plugins for 3D Studio Max and 3D Studio Viz, designed to give a complete solution for creation of vast surfaces of trees and plants. There are other plugins that allow you to create beautiful trees (with thousands of faces), but only Forest enables you to create a complete forest with thousands of trees using only a fraction of the resources.


Some of its features:

• Forest is a parametric and animatable object, optimized for speed. It can create more than 500,000 trees per second, modify any parameter and rebuild them in real-time.
  
  
• Trees are created from an editable geometry list, that may contain textured planar objects or custom meshes.
  
  
• Forest uses splines to define the areas to plant the trees. You can use multiple splines to define areas of inclusion and exclusion.
  
  
• The distribution of trees is managed with bitmaps. You can create custom distribution patterns, from lines or very regular groups to fully random surfaces. The plugin includes some sample distribution maps but it will also accept user created maps.
  
  
• Forest can be linked to a camera, so that all billboard trees will be facing perpendicular to the camera. This solves the problem of seeing planar objects from different angles when the camera moves past them.
  
  
• To minimize resource utilization, tree distribution can be restricted to the camera's field of view. This enables the user to create a fly by of a forest of virtually millions of trees, without wasting scene resources on trees that are out outside the edge of the frame.
  
  
• Automatic distribution of trees over any surface (irregular terrains, etc.)
  
  
• You can limit the elements in a surface by ranges of altitude and slope.
  
  
• Random transformation of position, rotation and scale.
  
  
• Custom level-of-detail allows for faster redraw in the viewports. You can set different levels for viewports and render.
  
  
• You can use the XShadow plugin for opacity mapped shadow casting on tree objects. Forest supports raytraced shadows as well.
  
  
• You can also use Forest as a generic and enhanced scatter (no trees after all). Visit the image gallery for some samples.
  
  
• The plugins included in Forest Pack are: Forest, XShadow, Forest Tools and Forest Material
  

More info : http://www.itoosoft.com

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New! Illustrate v.5.5 for 3ds max 2009

Illustrate! is a non-photorealistic renderer. It allows you to render your 3D scene in a variety of artistic styles. The most common is the cel or toon style where the objects are rendered with a single or limited number of colors and the edges are drawn with a line. This version of Illustrate! is particularly adept at this style of rendering. It includes a lot of advanced features for creating film resolution cel renderings.


Illustrate! also renders illustrations. Most commonly these are technical illustrations with hidden-lines eliminated. Illustrate! supports a huge variety of line styles so you can create complex illustrations.



One amazing feature of Illustrate! is its ability to render these styles out to vector artwork. It currently supports Shockwave Flash, Adobe Illustrator, and Autocad DXF output. This allows you render your 3D scenes for displaying on the Internet or for inclusion with other vector graphics.


More info :

http://www.davidgould.com/Illustrate/index.html

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Brazil v1 for max 9 ,2008

Brazil r/s is an advanced, fully-integrated rendering suite for Discreet's top-selling animation software 3ds max and Autodesk VIZ, Autodesk's visualization solution. Brazil r/s Brazil r/s is designed by and for production professionals as a powerful, flexible and affordable high-end commercial solution for film, broadcast and cross-visualization applications. It offers uncompromising image quality and addresses the need for the natural, streamlined workflow that CG artists demand.

"Brazil Version 1.0 delivers on our commitment to empower artists with a meticulously engineered and mature rendering architecture that is capable of the highest quality imagery and performance," said Scott Kirvan, CEO of SplutterFish





More info : www.splutterfish.com

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Roof Designer 1.1

What is Batzal Software Roof Designer?

Roof Designer is a new plug-in, currently only for Autodesk 3D Studio Max which helps architecture visualizers to model roofs.
The Work Process

Roof Designer lets the user constrain mesh faces to geometrical planes, making all of the face's vertices reside on one flat surface.
Roof Designer automatically texture the output and can even put mesh tiles, of the user's choice, on it.
This process takes no more than few minutes, a fraction of the time that it takes to get the same results without it.
Evaluation Period

The Roof Designer plug-in gives an evaluation period of 14 days to test its capabilities. although can't be used commercially, the plug-in is fully functional during that time. After 14 days the plug-in will be locked until a License Activation Code will be supplied. The License Activation Code can be purchased in this website.
Support

Roof Designer comes with a documentation file, explaining every control and dialog of it. the documentation file also has a tutorial for getting started. This site has an online troubleshooting forum for peers and development team support. it's also possible to contact the development team through E-mail, check the Contacts section for that...


More info: http://www.batzal.com/index.php

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Service Pack 1 for ThinkingParticles 3.0

Service Pack 1 for ThinkingParticles 3.0

What's New in TP3 SP1?

3ds Max 2009 compatibility

In addition to 3ds max 2009 support, the following improvements have been made in Service Pack 1:

Surface position helper returns UV coordinates for edges and vertices now. Previously when edges or vertices mode was chosen, no UV coordinates were created

Overall stability for x64 systems has been increased as well as several crash situations have been isolated and fixed

Speed increases have been made in various operators and calculations

UV generation for fragments has been added for better fragment mapping

About ThinkingParticles

ThinkingParticles™ 3.0 is the ultimate rule based particle system for 3ds max, offering unparalleled power to the user. ThinkingParticles™ 3.0 is a completely new class of rule-based particle systems for 3ds Max. When this type of particle system is compared to an event-based particle system, (which works on triggers and time dependent events) you'll find many unique advantages within TP3's rule-based logic, which is free from normal time-based constraints and instead applies simple behaviors. These behaviors govern all aspects of a particle’s motion, life, death, and collisions in a true non-linear fashion. We hope you find that by using ThinkingParticles 3, you can create all the incredible effects you were hoping for, but have been limited previously by existing technologies.

Here's How to Get it!

ThinkingParticles SP1 is a free download and can be acquired by registered users at the cebas Shop. If you already have an account you can simply go to the My Account section of the cebas shop and then go to My Downloads to get the update. If you are unable to see the download in your My Downloads section, please contact register@cebas.com and mention that you are not able to see the download in the shop. If you didn’t purchase TP3 directly from the cebas shop, you will need to create an account and then click the Register Me button in the My Downloads section. Within 24 hours, you will have all updates and downloads available to you for all of your cebas products. Please be aware that all fixes are included within this latest version of the software and you do NOT need to install all of the patches in order to become current. Simply installing the new build will give you all of the updates, fixes and enhancements.

For more info: Product homepage

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RayFire Tool plugin for 3ds MAX 9, 2008 and 2009

RayFire for 3ds MAX 9, 2008 and 2009

RayFire Tool gives you the ability to shoot, destroy, demolish, wreck, break down, wreak havoc, blow up, burst, detonate, explode and do other similar things you have always dreamed of to do in Max.

Warning : Only via www.MirVadim.com you can buy RayFire Tool LEGALLY.

RayFire Tool 1.4 ( 32bit ) feature list:

• NVidia PhysX Rigid Body support via RayFire user interface.
• NVidia PhysX Force Influence support for Wind, RFBomb, PBomb, Gravity, Drag.
• Demolition. Fast and easy way for smashing and falling objects.
• Fragmentation. Allows you to fragment geometry objects.
• Explosion. Allows you to realistically explode objects.
• Reactor Rigid Body support via RayFire user interface.
• Reactor Hit, Displace, and Holes Impact dformations for shooting.
• Instant Action. Allows you to shoot and explode without gun, manually defining all impact spots on impact object.
• Various effects for shooting, such as Impact flash, Muzzle Flash, Particle Debris, Geometry Debris, Fragmented Debris from Holes, Smoke, Sparks, Blood, Decals, Bullets and any Custom objects which you can define by yourself.
• Interactive Layer Manager. Allows you to interactively change properties in the already created effects, select, hide\unhide, freeze\unfreeze and delete any created layer or effect.
• Multiple animated Impact objects. Also you can use skinned, pointcached or deformed in any other ways objects.
• Automatic update system.

Download

• RayFire Tool 1.4.03 Demo Version - 32 bit ONLY
• RayFire Tool 1.34 Demo Version (32 and 64 bit)

IMPORTANT: RayFire Tool 1.4 Installation.

Changelog

RayFire Tool main features

• NVidia PhysX Rigid Body support via RayFire user interface. Create dynamic simulations with THOUSANDS of objects. Supports Wind, PBombs, Gravity, and Drag space warps as additional influence forces. Ability to trigger simulation using mouse cursor by pulling or tipping over objects.

  

• Time Scale Interactive animatable Time Scale property for PhysX dynamic simulation.

  
• Demolition. Fast and easy way for smashing and crushing objects. It shatters objects that fall or get hit by fallen objects using fragmentation and create dynamic simulation.
• Explosions. Multiple bombs support. New RF_Bomb object allows You to set up a lot of bombs with different explosion options. Also available four new explosion directions: Spherical, Cylindrical, Planar, and Cone.
• Draw fragment mode. Fragment objects drawing strokes on screen in all supported views.
  
  
  

RayFire Tool 1.34 video demonstration. Rendered.

• Shooting with Reactor Hit, Predefined fragmented holes and some effects.
  
  
• Breaking prefragmented glass.
  
  
• Exploding prefragmented box.
  
  

• Author - Sam Khorshid, Rif Dagher. Precutting - RayFire Tool. Dynamics -Thinking Particles 3. Dust and Smoke - FumeFx

More info : http://www.mirvadim.com

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Lumonix Shader FX v2.07 for 3ds max 2009

Shader FX is a full-featured real-time shader editor for 3ds Max. It allows artists with no previous programming experience to build complex HLSL FX shaders for use in Max's viewport and in external game engines. Built right into 3ds Max, it offers a gradual learning curve to .fx shaders for artists who are used to the 3ds Max material editor.
ShaderFX's powerful schematic interface lets you quickly assemble shaders that support complex effects such as parallax mapping, fresnel fall-off, and cube map reflection, all by simply connecting nodes together. Your shader progress is displayed and updated in 3ds Max's viewport as you build the shader so you can always see your results in real-time.


For more info: Product homepage

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