Firstly Bertrand Bry-Marfaing has implemented the bonus paper by Brent Burley “Shadow Map Bias Cone and Improved Soft Shadows” in the SIGGRAPH 2006, course 25, “RenderMan For Everyone”. Hosuk Chang has some really nice pages about his experiments with very large numbers of particles with RenderMan and beziers in RSL. And Tony Ambles has some test with his fluid dynamics simulation program.

Scratch-a-Pixel is a website that is building up a collection of articles about 3d rendering and comes with source code to implement them. There are only a few articles at the moment, but it should grow into a very useful resource.

The Python inside Maya group has been set up on Google Groups to collect knowledge about using Python with Maya. It is strongly linked to PyMEL – and enhanced API for Maya which is more Pythonic, and mapy – a program that lets you run Python Maya commands from an external text editor.

HP has teamed up with Dreamworks to create a new HP DreamColor 30 bit display to bring good colour fidelity to LCD displays. Also a research team at Rice University in Houston have created the darkest material in the world which absorbs more than 99.9 per cent of light.

Riggers may be interested by T. J Galda’s new book about Advanced Character Rigging: Creating Advanced Tendon and Muscle Systems.

The University of Hertfordshire’s digital animation course has set up a website at 3d HIT to share information and promote their work.

Nvidia has released the first edition of GPU gems for free. Also Gelato Pro has been released for free. Unfortunately this is because Gelato is being discontinued and nvidia is focussing their effects on Mental Ray.

ZignCreations has a cheap facial tracking software for sale. There is also a video here showing realtime 3d geometry video scanning.

HDRI Locations is a new service by Thomas Suurland which offers packs of HDRI environments and a series of background plates to go with them. He will also shoot images on commision.

If you want a digital camera that you can extend yourself, then certain Canon Powershot cameras can use the Canon Hacker’s Development Kit. This lets you access enhanced photography modes and run simple scripts on your camera. There is more information on Lifehacker and Wired.

Microsoft Excel may not be the fastest way to render 3d but it is possible. And finally Matt Bledsoe and Troy Hitch of Big Fat Brain knows you suck at Photoshop.

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