We caught up with Steffen Fiedler, Jonas Loh and Stephan Thiel – collectively known as Studio NAND – to find out more about their forward-thinking talk at TYPO Berlin 2013

It’s hard to quantify what makes good digital art and how traditional media ties in with this. Its application was once perceived as an opposition to synthetic styles.

However, in recent times the pair became an inevitable coupling of creative resources, producing stunning mixed-media works.

At present, digital paper craft is trending and the appeal of this technique/style is apparent. Digital paper craft is both imaginative and playful, concerned with vibrant colour and expressive shapes.

Geometric styles are particularly popular, no doubt due to being highly accessible and ultimately retro.

So, in this Resource Project, we explain how to construct, shoot and edit paper craft elements, which can be used in our own digital artwork. We also talk to some professional designers who promote this trend.

Read more in Advanced Photoshop 109, now on sale at www.imagineshop.co.uk and www.greatdigitalmags.com

WantedDesign, an international design event of lectures, exhibitions, and workshops, is now showing in New York City at the Tunnel at the Terminal Stores building.

David Trubridge returns to the event, having just returned from the Milan Design Fair, where he exhibited 'The Elements', an installation of hanging sculptural forms with Swarovski crystals, acrylic, and anodized aluminum.

At WantedDesign David is launching his new light, Manuka.

Quarter-to-quarter negative 2.9%—Desktop discrete sales up

TIBURON, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — May 17

Discover the latest 2013 NCSIMUL SOLUTIONS features
Hall 4 - Booth D-143
May 17, 2013 - SPRING Technologies, vendor of solutions that enhance the

When I go biking during the summer, I rely on the frame of my bicycle to withstand stresses such as vibration and impact. As I speed down the trail, I think about the engineers and their process of designing a product that adeptly serves the needs of their customers. How did they test out the bicycle to make sure it doesn’t fall apart if the path becomes rocky? If the bike falls over, how did they make sure that the pedals don’t fall off? How do the engineers evaluate which loads can highlight problems in the design?

As it is ridden over rough ground the bicycle frame has to withstand not only the loads from the pedals and the weight of the rider but also the vibrational loads from the suspension system.  The danger is, if the vibrational loads are at the same frequency as the products natural modes of vibration, resonance can occur and the bicycle could literally shake itself apart.

Some design issues are hard to detect because you can’t see them visually. The SolidWorks Failure Mode Analysis video series will allow you to figure out some of the ways to detect hidden flaws in your designs using SolidWorks Simulation so that you can avoid product recalls and save time and money. The video on Vibration vulnerabilities will show you how you can use SolidWorks Simulation to fix your vibration vulnerability by allowing you calculate resonant frequencies, visualize natural vibration modes and dynamically test for vibrational stresses as you model product operation.

Whether you design complex machinery, hi-tech, or consumer products, Simulation helps every engineer vanquish their own design demons.

With its easy to use, powerful capabilities SolidWorks Simulation is the ideal tool to ensure your designs avoid this complex failure mode. SolidWorks Simulation allows you to easily calculate resonant frequencies and visualize the natural modes of your product design. 

To learn more about how you can revise and enhance your product design, such as a bike frame, for optimal service, watch the video.

Forum to focus on emerging technologies for the mining and resources industry.
TEMPE, AZ, May 16, 2013 – CADsoft Consulting Inc., a premier pro

May 17, 2013
Ellison Machinery Company is hosting a special event on May 22 organised by Edgecam reseller Solid Products, to demonstrate how the righ

May 17, 2013 - To most of the CAD users, the UI is the first look of a new program, and the entire experience would be impacted by the acceptance of U

Aachen, May 15, 2013: KISTERS has announced the release 12.0 of the 3DViewStation. The KISTERS 3DViewStation is known for the modern user-interface, h

DesignX - ICFF 2013
May 18-21
Jacob Javits Convention Center, New York, NY

DesignX starts tomorrow! Join the DesignX meetup and attend the launch party. Limited seats are still available in the Grasshopper workshop. If you haven't registered yet, sign up today!

Workshops include:

• Intro to Parametric Design: Visual Programming with Grasshopper
• 3D Printed Fabrics: Modeling Interlocking Elements with Rhino 
• Intro to Physical Computing for Designers (Arduino)
• Interactive Modeling: Responsive Design with Firefly
• Hands-on Desktop Prototyping for Designers

May 17, 2013 - (Chicago, IL) – SIGGRAPH 2013, 21-25 July at the Anaheim Convention Center in California, released its list of 2013 Emerging Tech

Autodesk University call for proposal deadline is this Sunday. Here's the link with all the information.

Do you make regular use of AutoCAD Architecture (ACA), AutoCAD MEP (AME) or AutoCAD Mechanical (ACM)? If so, I’d be interested in hearing from you. First, some background. Something I haven’t yet talked about on this blog is an additional...

May 17, 2013 -- Getmapping has won a bid to supply Scottish Government with matched ‘True Colour’ (TC) and ‘Colour Infra-Red&rs

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Marine Propeller module for torsional vibration analysis approved.

Combines reverse engineering, CAD, inspection tools.

3ds Max failed to find any “RuntimeRequirements” nodes under “ApplicationPackage” node in

“C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\Autodesk DrawingTabs.bundle\PackageContents.xml”. 

Please check its format. 

3ds Max failed to find any “RuntimeRequirements” nodes under “ApplicationPackage” node in

“C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\UDSG-LayerOrder.bundle\PackageContents.xml”.

Please check its format. 

Otherwise, the software seems to function okay after the error message window is closed

If you want to turn off these message, put the following entry in 3dsmax.ini.

[ExchangeStore]

ShowExchangeStoreMessageDialog=0

Watch the fast-paced CGI animated promo piece for Counter Strike Online 2 created by the talented artists at Alfred Imageworks for South Korean developer Nexon and read about the pipeline used to create it…

Considering the Counter Strike 2 online cinematic is one of Seoul-based outfit Alfred Imageworks’ first forays into VFX, it is highly impressive.

As one YouTube user says: “It’s a shame the real Counter Strike looks nothing like this!”

Watch the action-packed Counter Strike 2 online cinematic then read about its creation…

“The cinematic is about a special force team [fighting] against terrorists who seize and attempt to blow up a public building,” says Alfred Imageworks.

They carefully considered the composition and choreography of the gun fight. “We imagined fighting against each other from upstairs to the ground and tried to make it more dimensional and exciting for the viewer,” says Alfred Imageworks.

“To do this, we designed a building that was inspired by the Guggenheim Museum in New York and the City Hall in London. [We used] those two buildings as reference because of their spiral structures.”

The lighting challenges

“Lighting in the building was the most backbreaking thing to control and calibrate,” says Alfred Imageworks.

“G.I. was the best pick for us to give the result that we were aiming for, but it required too much time to render out. That’s why we chose City Hall of London as the [reference] building: it was fully covered with glass which allows direct daylight through into inside of building. It allowed us to combine traditional lighting setting and partial F.G, it was the best pick at the right time for us to save render minutes.”

Adding hair in 3ds Max

Adding realistic hair to the characters was the most challenging task. “Mental Ray, a solution that we have been using for years, could not give smooth movement. We could not help going back to Max, that we had not used for while,” says Alfred Imageworks.

Another challenge was to create and composite the explosions and smokes. “We don’t have much experience working on VFX, since most of our previous jobs were dealing with design and graphics. We tried to add more pieces of broken glasses, but it also took too much time on render along with simulating explosive smoke data. As motion graphics studio, it was very challenging and exciting to work on this project”.

Software choices

“Maya is always the first preference for us. Since a small studio like us faces spending limited time on researching and developing. Maya’s expandability is the most necessary character for us to develop and create in wider degrees of freedom. We have not had much experience working with other software, so cannot really tell if Maya is the most innovative 3D software. As technology changes each day, leading 3D software are getting standardized by absorbing and applying each other’s strengths.”

Rigging the characters

Alfred Imageworks says HIK was amazing fit for the project: “It was really helpful for us to approach working on character animation. Once motion capture data is applied to the actual scene, unexpected problems can occur.”

“We all knew Motion Builder was the best solution at that time, but it was too late for us to teach ourselves something we have never tried before. And calibrate rigging to adjust motion data was very limited as well. HIK for Maya was not stable enough but we had no other choice to make. One of brilliant things we have achieved was to adapt and generate tuned version of Skelton Generator that was able to release axis based on our needs.”

“Then we spent time on finding the right movement for characters by repeatedly applying and removing motion capture data over and over until it was correct. That’s why we needed [to use an] automated motion applying process that would save time. Since we could not find any of document regarding HIK script, we had to go through MEL to collect all the command scripts that we needed. It was very painful process for us.”

▲ The spiral structure of the building was inspired by The Guggenheim Museum in New York. Photos of the Guggenheim and London’d City Hall were used as reference

CG spiral structures

The team was confident that the spiral structure of the building was the best way to develop the action sequence, but the structure was challenging: “First, the spiral structure was very hard to model in 3D. Second, by inclines that was created on almost every surface of spiral structure was giving unexpected results [and it was hard to animate everything] to match the characters’ feet that touched the ground,” says Alfred Imageworks.

Thanks to Alfred Imageworks for the interview. Look out for its next cinematic: the next version of Counter Strike 2. “We are trying hard to create something better than the first one by the lessons that we learned from producing this one.”

To find out what the company’s currently working on, check out: www.alfredimageworks.com

3D printer can print objects the size of a basketball.

Now accepting applications from foreign-born designers.

Will safeguard CAD data quality for automotive customers.

Provides information on company's manufacturing resource planning software.

SMZ25 and SMZ18 targeted at industrial applications.

I more or less completed the research for my cloud-based round-trip 2D Revit model editing project. I'll describe some parts of that, and also address Three aspects of life and programming Room editor navigation Nested asynchronous database call-back functions Roomedit...

If there is one product that a Brit never leaves home without it’s an umbrella. Although a conventional umbrella is fine if you have to dash out to get a sandwich or get to your parked car but what if you have to stand for long periods, say at a sporting event?

This is exactly the predicament Stephen Collier found himself in at last year’s Grand National when the weather literally rained on his parade. Feeling rather soggy and wind blown he hatched a plan for a new type of umbrella, modelled on a motorbike helmet. He founded a company in Kenilworth called Hospitality Umbrellas and set to work on bringing the Rainshader to market.

Although the umbrella is no stranger to redesign, there are some exciting features in the Rainshader that make it particularly appealing for those who often have to contend with the rain (and on this island we often have to) - it doesn’t blow inside out, poke passers-by in the eye or drip on neighbours’ shoulders in crowds. (Watch the video at the end to see just how much wind it can handle).

A personality was born the day Sergey finished this render. Tzanko the Boxer could come to life at any moment – and if he did we’d run to the hills!

Artist: Sergey Samuilov
Title: Tzanko the boxer
Software: ZBrush, Photoshop, 3ds Max, V-Ray

“I work as a character artist in a videogame studio, and I also have experience of environment modelling and texturing. I’m inspired by everything around me, and also by other artists’ work.

“Tzanko the boxer took me about a month to create. The image was sculpted in ZBrush, textured in Photoshop and rendered in 3ds Max using V-Ray. I really liked creating this image, particularly the rendering and lighting, and creating the materials.”

Get published

If you would like to see your work featured in 3D World, email us, attaching a low-res version of the image

This new 30-second animation from international media studio Kompost introduces Viggle

Viggle is a new smartphone app that collects redeemable points while customers watch their favourite television shows. Created for US digital TV provider DirecTV, Kompost came on board with the project after the company’s creative director approached the studio’s US representative, Duck.

“The guys at DirecTV wanted to work with us on this commercial,” says Kompost creative director Oliver Conrad. “They loved our style, and felt we were an exact match for the brief.” So the team went on to design, direct and animate all aspects of the ad, using Maya and Arnold to fully achieve this.

This was the first large project the team rendered completely in Arnold, and they weren’t disappointed by its capabilities. “No production depends on anything more than its renderer,” says Conrad. “We can put in weeks of time and energy into modelling, animation and surfacing, but all that goes down the drain if the final images are not produced on time and to a high standard. We chose Solid Angle’s Arnold because it simply gets the job done. Though this piece was not in a style usually associated with physical ray tracers, it was flexible enough to produce a highly stylised look without any problems.”

Discover 20 top free 3D models at our sister site, Creative Bloq.

This new 30-second animation from international media studio Kompost introduces Viggle

Viggle is a new smartphone app that collects redeemable points while customers watch their favourite television shows. Created for US digital TV provider DirecTV, Kompost came on board with the project after the company’s creative director approached the studio’s US representative, Duck.

“The guys at DirecTV wanted to work with us on this commercial,” says Kompost creative director Oliver Conrad. “They loved our style, and felt we were an exact match for the brief.” So the team went on to design, direct and animate all aspects of the ad, using Maya and Arnold to fully achieve this.

This was the first large project the team rendered completely in Arnold, and they weren’t disappointed by its capabilities. “No production depends on anything more than its renderer,” says Conrad. “We can put in weeks of time and energy into modelling, animation and surfacing, but all that goes down the drain if the final images are not produced on time and to a high standard. We chose Solid Angle’s Arnold because it simply gets the job done. Though this piece was not in a style usually associated with physical ray tracers, it was flexible enough to produce a highly stylised look without any problems.”

Discover 20 top free 3D models at our sister site, Creative Bloq.

Shotopop was conceived in the living room of a small apartment above a chip shop in Brighton.

Its founding members are Casper Franken and Carin Standford. Back then the pair were two wide-eyed kids from South Africa.

Their next move was to relocate to Container City in London’s Docklands, where illustrator Mike Crozier joined the team.

Phase three of Shotopop sees the team residing in a studio in London Fields, where they now work alongside their partner and super-samurai illustrator Shan Jiang.

From the very start, Shotopop has had a multidisciplinary approach, influenced by Franken’s and Standford’s work experience. Both have backgrounds in web and motion graphics, having explored illustration through these fields. “It made sense to keep these modes in our work,” Franken tells us. “They are so closely interlinked and overlap in many ways. Working in such a fashion helps us keep things fresh; changing from a motion to an illustration project helps avoid boredom.”

In fact, the whole team brings every aspect of their creative experience to the worktable, wielding these in the most pivotal ways possible. Jiang’s impeccable work ethic allows Shotopop to push on even further. His illustration studies in Scotland have given all Shotopoppers a great appreciation for his skill, as well as a shared love of whisky.

Crozier’s fantastic performance while on a work experience placement won him a rank at the studio. His enthusiasm for trying new things helps Shotopop to constantly experiment with the latest digital methods. Standford’s hairbrained ideas often have people looking at her with raised eyebrows, but when given the opportunity.

Read more in Advanced Photoshop 109, now on sale at www.imagineshop.co.uk and www.greatdigitalmags.com

Georgia Tech performed a "ground-up" redesign on this years FSAE with a focus on balancing outright performance with safety and reliability.

All 4 wheels stayed on the ground during Universidad Simon Bolivard  Skid Pad, the test that meaures the car's cornering ability on a flat surface while making a constant-radius turn.

 You can get a great view of the teams waiting to race in acceleration and skid pad from the following video.  See if you can spot  Oregon (1), Univ Michigan (5), TU Graz (6), Purdue (29), NU Singapore (85), Univ of Akron, Univ Stuttgart (3), Univ du Quebec (30), KU (11), Michigan State (15), Univ of Manitoba (86), York College of PA (27), NC State (22), Univ Laval (73), Univ of Toledo (31), Univ of Ontario (115). What coordination from SAE judges.

Congratulations to the Universitat Stuttgart for an exciting engineering competition.  The Stuttgart nose was clearly visible on the outside.  Inside, the reduced weight produced better handling and faster acceleration.

The SolidWorks EDU team congratulates all the teams that participated at FSAE Michigan. 

Thank you SAE  - FSAE Michigan truly is an uplifting engineering event. 

If you are competing in Lincoln or any other SAE event, we cant wait to see you.  For 2013-2014 sponsorship, go to www.solidworks.com/sae.  We begin shipping June 30, 2013.   Marie

We have a large community here on the Area and are excited to be making it better. You've given us a bunch of feedback and we're working on the following updates to the forums:

• Ability to track threads and reply to post by email
• Improved search
• Improved ability to manage your posts
• Easier access from mobile phones
• Kudos: Kudos is a new content rating system that lets you vote for the messages you think are the most useful or important
• Accepted solutions: Accepted Solutions is a way for you to choose the reply that best answers a question that you’ve posted

WIth this change, we're asking everyone to make sure they've logged in to the Area since January 5, 2013. If you don't login, you may lose some of your history.

Do you have more feedback to share on how we could improve the Area? If so, please let us know.

Al Dean jumps aboard a train bound for Newcastle with his lad, Jack. Their aim? To visit Europe’s largest Maker Faire to find out what the next generation make of the whole thing. Turns out it’s quite inspiring for all

If there’s one thing that warms the cockles of your heart, it’s seeing one of your kids being creative. Whether it’s drawing on a notepad, clicking together a Lego model or building a den in the garden.

The UK Maker Faire was buzzing

As they say, it’s all good. What’s interesting is watching what gets kids engaged in designing something, solving a practical challenge and thinking something through.

We all learn from our mistakes and missteps and it’s something that starts very young. I’m pretty sure we can all trace back the point when our paths towards being designers and engineers started.

For many of a similar age to me, that was probably the clunk of Lego or the stripping of knuckles on a Mechano spanner. I’ve heard stories of that spark coming from seeing Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s name in feet high letters on the Clifton Suspension Bridge.

Engagement + technology

As a dad, there’s nothing I love more than showing off a bit of technology to the kids, showing them how things work, explaining what something is.

Recently, it became clear how technologies like 3D printing can engage with the young ones.

The ability to physically manifest an idea, from screen to something held in the hand is incredibly captivating and inspiring — for all ages.

So, with all that in mind, DEVELOP3D ended up supporting Europe’s largest Maker Faire in Newcastle at the tail end of April.

If you’re not familiar with a Maker Faire, the idea began in the US by the team behind Make magazine.

Maker Faires are typically localised events, bringing together all sorts of people, with all manner of interests and showing off all manner of projects. If you made it, you’re welcome to pitch up, take a table and talk to people about it. What’s not to love about that?

Even though we weren’t too sure what to expect, we packed up for an overnight stay in Newcastle and a visit first thing on a chilly spring Saturday morning.

Like minds meet

Held in the Life Centre in the centre of Newcastle, the UK Maker Faire was buzzing even before the event opened.

Pitching up early, we got our passes, got let in and immediately bumped in to Alice Taylor, CEO of MakieLab, who was presenting (along with her husband, Cory Doctorow of BoingBoing fame) later on in the day. It seems they’d also brought their daughter along for the weekend.

Inspiring for all ages!

As Jack and I wandered around the halls, it was clear that this was an event that satisfies anyone with a curious mind.

Amongst the many stalls, we saw robotics, we marvelled at the PancakeBot (a 3D printer for pancakes — pancakebot.com), we had a drive of BattleBots and gazed at a demonstration of how to bend glass to make neon lighting (by Sarah Blood).

We also took photos of the Star Wars cosplay folks that seem to be ever present at these things and, of course, the Daleks.

Jack had a go at building a Minecraft model and learned about the Printcraft service that will realise it in a 3D print or give you an STL.

He learned how to hack a website using Mozilla Webmaker and Google X-Ray with an incredibly patient lady — even if he did panic a bit that he was changing Nintendo’s actual website!

Is this the next generation?

What was interesting for me, was seeing the make up of the crowd. It was the broadest cross section of society. Parents with kids, teenagers, older folks and even the odd pensioner knocking about the place. The gender split was about bang on equal.

It struck me that while the government is talking about supporting manufacturing in this country with all manner of concocted schemes and initiatives, it’s this type of grass roots event that it should be supporting. Not specialist events, but general access events, that anyone can go to, that anyone can dive into and find something to spark an interest.

After all, it’s that formative point where, as a kid, you see something interesting, something that sticks in the back of your brain and sits there, through your schooling, through your education and helps determine your life choices.

As a final thought, there was something absolutely delightful about seeing parents sitting with their kids, around a bunch of tables, soldering electronics kits together. A collective experience involving molten metals, steaming hot irons and a little bit of magic.

It might be easy to dismiss Maker Faires, but I’d advise taking a trip to a local event at least. They’re encouraging, enlightening and gives you confidence in the future.

Horn, Austria, May 16, 2013 -- On May 15th, RIEGL won the Geospatial World Award in the category Geospatial Technology Innovation Surveying at the Ge

Newly designed maps covering Kentucky and Tennessee are now available online for free download
May 15, 2013 -- US Topo maps now have a cris

Updated: Watch the new trailer for Pacific Rim, Guillermo del Toro’s epic sci-fi movie here…

Updated: 17th May: Watch the new trailer here, now!

When we saw the first trailer back in December, we thought it looked a little bit Micheal Bay, but now check out the latest trailer released last night: it’s going to be like watching Transformers on steroids!

Are you excited!?

LET US KNOW WHAT QUESTIONS YOU’D LIKE TO ASK THE VFX ARTISTS AND WE’LL TRY TO FIND OUT FOR YOU

Guillermo Del Toro, one of our all time favourite directors, returns with a film about giant robots fighting giant monsters!

And we simply can’t wait, but we’ll have to, as it doesn’t hit screens in the UK until July 2013.

Oh well, it least the marketing for this film seems well underway now: first there was the release of a handful of stills, then some viral material in the form of some faux news footage and the Pan Pacific Defense Corps was launched, and now the first trailer is out:

Watch the first trailer of Pacific Rim

It’s looks a little bit Micheal Bay in the trailer. Don’t you think?

The official synopsis has also been released:

“When legions of monstrous creatures, known as Kaiju, started rising from the sea, a war began that would take millions of lives and consume humanity’s resources for years on end. To combat the giant Kaiju, a special type of weapon was devised: massive robots, called Jaegers, which are controlled simultaneously by two pilots whose minds are locked in a neural bridge. But even the Jaegers are proving nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless Kaiju.

“On the verge of defeat, the forces defending mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes – a washed up former pilot (Charlie Hunnam) and an untested trainee (Rinko Kikuchi) – who are teamed to drive a legendary but seemingly obsolete Jaeger from the past. Together, they stand as mankind’s last hope against the mounting apocalypse.”

Is Pacific Rim one of your most anticipated films of 2013?

Tell us what you’d like to know about Pacific Rim and we’ll try to find out for you. Write your comments below or via our Facebook page or Twitter…

Oliver Higgins explains how MAXON CINEMA 4D offered the tools required for a post-planning building...

Su iPad, iPhone ed iPod touch
Eseguite panoramiche, zoom e rotazioni con un semplice tocco o trascinamento del dito. Un comodo navigatore vi consentirà di scorrere le anteprime per poter accedere velocemente al modello desiderato. Caricate i modelli di Rhino da siti web, Google Docs, Dropbox, allegati e-mail o da iTunes. Salvate le viste come immagini per poter inserire le annotazioni opportune ed inviarle per e-mail.

Novità della versione 1.4

• Nuova modalità di navigazione nelle viste: Guarda/Sposta (oltre al classico Orbita/Zoom) - nelle Impostazioni.
• I joystick tattili consentono di spostarsi più facilmente all'interno del modello - nelle Impostazioni.
• Ora richiede iOS 5.1 o superiori.
• Varie ottimizzazioni e bug risolti.

Controllate Grasshopper con il vostro dispositivo Android

Rhino Grasshopper Controller manda tutte le informazioni del sensore dal vostro dispositivo Android direttamente a Grasshopper. Potrete quindi fare tutto quello che desiderate e controllare la gravità e la rotazione delle geometrie tramite input luci o input tattile...

L'applicazione richiede l'installazione dei seguenti programmi nel PC:

• Rhino 
• Grasshopper - plug-in per Rhino
• gHowl - plug-in per Grasshopper

A clear philosophy underpins the focus behind this studio repositioning exercise

3DM View è una nuova applicazione per Android, sviluppata da AMC Bridge, per la visualizzazione dei modelli 3DM di Rhino su dispositivi cellulari.