E-on software, makers of Vue and LumenRT, announced they will soon release a revolutionary new plant modeling and rendering technology, called The Plant Factory (TPF). This new technology represents the culmination of e-on software's decades of expertise in the field of digital nature and delivers realism and performance. The Plant Factory will operate across all CG platforms including real-time, streaming, and offline rendering systems; will allow the creation of more botanically accurate plant appearances and behaviors; will enable users to create plants of any desired shape, appearance, and behavior using simple building blocks; and builds on e-on's expertise in EcoSystems to create landscapes containing millions of plants. [source]

iToo Software released Forest Pack 4, fourth version of its popular 3ds Max plug-in for the creation of trees and plants by scattering millions of proxies, high-poly meshes or billboards, and using custom geometry shaders. New version adds support for more render engines (VRayRT, Maxwell, Arion, Octane and Thea Render), new 3D models of grass, flowers and stones as well as other presets, support for groups in Custom Objects, simulated shading mode in point cloud display, enhanced Tree Editor, and more. Itoo offers two versions of the plug-in, the free Forest Pack Lite, and the Forest Pack Pro edition priced at 180 EUR. For information on upgrading your license, visit this page. [source]

French studio Motion Boutique released version 2.0 of Newton, its 2D dynamic simulation plug-in for Adobe After Effects. Newton interprets 2D composition layers as rigid bodies interacting in a real environment, and provides simulation controllers such as body properties (type, density, friction, bounciness, velocity, etc), global properties (gravity, solver), and allows the creation of joints between bodies. Version 2.0 adds four types of joint to link bodies, efficient and clean user interface, better support of shape layers, magnetism system, gravity scale, convex hull, and fixed rotation, scene snapshots, actions history, and a comprehensive user's guide... Newton supports After Effects CS5 - CS6 running on Windows and Mac OS X systems, costs $249.99 US ex. VAT. Trial version is also available. [source]

E-on software announced Carbon Scatter 2 Trial Version for Autodesk 3ds Max and Maya (incl. mental ray and V-Ray renderers), as well as Maxon CINEMA 4D (works with the native renderer, and all other renderers that are compatible with CINEMA's instances, such as V-Ray, mental ray or Maxwell Render). Derived from e-on software's acclaimed EcoSystem technology, Carbon Scatter 2 is the most straightforward solution for creating complex and detailed populations using the native instancing technologies of the host application. The Trial Version is a fully functional version of Carbon Scatter 2, except it ships with a limited collection of plants and polygonal meshes, is limited to rendering up to a total of 10,000 instances (the display of instances in the viewport is not limited), and saving of scenes, network rendering and access to Carbon Botanica is disabled. The Carbon Scatter 2 Trial Version cannot be used for commercial work. Once installed, it will work for 30 days. [source]

The LightWave 3D Group, a division of NewTek, Inc., announced LightWave 11.5, the newest version of its award-winning 3D modeling, animation and rendering software for artists and designers. Some of the many new features in LightWave 11.5 include the Genoma character rigging system with modular presets, predator and prey Flocking capabilities, per-object Instancing control, and soft-body Bullet Dynamics with support for FiberFX. Also included are Interchange Tools supporting Adobe After Effects cameras and Pixologic's Zbrush, stereoscopic and depth-of-field motion blur in the Viewport Preview Renderer (VPR), major workflow enhancements, and more. LightWave 11.5 now available and priced at $1495 US. Registered LightWave 11 customers can upgrade to LightWave 11.5 free of charge; upgrade pricing from LightWave 10 or earlier is $695 US. Educational pricing is also available. Download a free 60-day full-feature trial of LightWave 11.5 at lightwave3d.com/try. [source]

Project Geppetto, Autodesk's research project that explored crowd animation within 3ds Max, reached beta stage. Project Geppetto is a data-driven animation system that offers high level control of plausible human animation. Architects, engineers, and designers could use Project Geppetto to enrich the context of their presentations with realistic human activity. The technology preview was available until January 15, 2013. Users who wish to continue with the latest technology should consider joining the beta program. [source]

Xfrog is giving away 140 plants from their XfrogPlants Volume Bundle containing 3,000 procedural plant models. Xfrog plants have appeared in Life of Pi, Odd Life of Timothy Green, Brave, Rise of the Guardians, Centurion, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Alice in Wonderland, or Avatar, and are also used by architects for landscaping and digital ecosystem purposes. The plants can be further modified using Xfrog 3.5 for Windows, Xfrog 5 for Maya, and Xfrog 5 for CINEMA 4D software - all of which have 30 day trials so you can try them before you buy. Download the models here. [source]

iToo Software's 3ds Max plug-in Forest Pack Pro, designed to create vast surfaces of trees and plants, has been released in version 4.0 beta. New version adds native support for additional render engines (Maxwell, Arion, Octane and Thea Render), support for groups in Custom Objects, better shading of point clouds, and more. [source]

Planetside Software's popular 3D terrain generator Terragen is now available in v2.5. The updated version brings significant new import and export functionality to Terragen users. Industry standard FBX format is now supported for both import and export, and can include cameras, lights, nulls, and animation as well as terrain geometry. In addition, Nuke .CHAN files can now be exported from Terragen as well as imported. Version 2.5 includes numerous other bug fixes and enhancements, and is offered free of charge to all Terragen 2.0 users (use the built-in Check For Update feature to access the new version). Terragen 2.x runs on PCs and Mac, and costs $299 US or $439 US for Terragen 2 with Animation. Terragen Classic is $99 US or free of charge for non-commercial use. [source]

Exlevel's plant modeling and animation system for Autodesk 3ds Max, GrowFX, has been updated to version 1.9.0. New version enables to apply direction modifiers after the calculation of meshes, thereby allowing to quickly calculate the animation of plants. For more information on new features, visit this page. [source]