Chaos Group

Bundle Three in One extended to November 1st

For all of you looking towards a busy and interesting production season, Chaos Group announces an extension of the Bundle Promotion Three in One and gives you the opportunity to equip yourself with a complete rendering solution. Three in One is a powerful combination between the V-Ray for 3ds Max production renderer and the interactive rendering engine V-Ray RT for 3ds Max, topped with the ultimate professional image sequence player and viewer: Pdplayer.

This economic Bundle proposal will be valid until 1st of November 2010. For more information, please contact our local representative in your respective country.

Ronen Bekerman’s 'HOVER' challenge is moving along

Ronen Bekerman - 3D Architectural Visualization Blog & Forums still gather 3D talents for the 2nd Architectural Visualization Challenge - 'HOVER'

The second architectural visualization challenge 'HOVER' started on July 21st 2010 with duration of 3 months, deadline October 21st 2010. Chaos Group supports the initiative and is proud to provide an award of V-Ray for 3ds Max to the most talented participants.

The challenge is focused on two aspects of architectural design. First one is the state of HOVER representing all types of cantilevered, bridged and by any other means floating spaces in architecture also giving the name to this Challenge. Second is prefabricated architectural design, known in short as PREFAB.

Participants are given a set of premade model parts from which they have to derive their own design base and visualize it. There is no limit of size or function, and much like in the previous challenge, the context is totally up to participants. They can create a small house hovering over an ocean facing cliff, suspended from trees deep into the jungle or smack in middle Manhattan protruding from one of the skyscrapers.

If you are striving to share your creative work and see it among the best 3d architectural visualizations, do not loose time and apply now >>

V-Ray RT for Maya Beta Test Program

One of the few new Chaos Group products to be released by end of 2010 - V-Ray RT for Autodesk Maya - is now available for download and ready to be tested by all current V-Ray for Maya users. Now they have the opportunity to be among the first as beta testers to experience the possibilities of this awaited rendering solution.

V-Ray RT for Maya is an interactive rendering engine that allows immediate communication between the user and the virtual environment. V-Ray RT applies the changes on the scene automatically and progressively, generating a photorealistic preview of the scene. It is designed to improve and fasten the artist’s work and significantly shorten the lighting and shading set up of a project.

Everyone who wants to participate in the V-Ray RT BETA Program and obtain access should be a current V-Ray for Autodesk Maya user, registered in the Chaos Group website.

Join the V-Ray RT for Maya BETA Program and contribute to the development of a top-notch technology created for the needs of the 3D industry.

We will be more than happy if you become a part of the program and share your priceless opinion at the V-Ray for Maya forum on the Chaos Group website. Feel free to submit bugs, requests for new features and share your works with us and the other professionals. Personal contact with the developers of the V-Ray RT for Maya is the other option to contribute to the further development of V-Ray RT for Maya. All requests can be addressed tо vraymaya@chaosgroup.com.

Some of the key features of the V-Ray RT for Maya: flexible architecture, distributed rendering, complete integration with Autodesk Maya, progressive path tracing and many others. Read all about the features and other useful information here.

The new grid based simulator for fire, smoke and haze Phoenix Fluid Dynamics is released

Hot news about the latest product developed by Chaos Group: the fluid dynamics plug-in for 3ds Max Phoenix FD is officially released and available from today, 9th of August 2010.

Phoenix FD is in a promotional period as of the 9th of August until 10th of September 2010 with a promotion price of €350/$445/£295. The official product price is €695/$895/£575.
*Dongle, shipping and VAT are not included.

The software perfectly combines a grid based simulator with outstanding rendering capabilities. In addition to the usual uniform fluid behavior, Phoenix FD is capable of simulating a whole array of additional processes like pressure decay, thermal radiation cooling and mass-temperature dependence.

The product comes with a number of new features like fast physically based simulation core, background simulation, wind from movement, fluid source form pre-simulated surface, particle based sources, GPU accelerated preview, texture driven simulation, displacement, rendering of textures and many others. Read more from the Phoenix FD product overview made by Torgeir Holm, Creative Director 3D and VFX + Partner/Owner at Netron 2.0 AS and Editor at VRay.info.  He made simulations showing some of the best features in the product package.

Have a great summer time with Phoenix FD and our latest promotions!

V-Ray Summer Bundle

This summer, starting at SIGGRAPH V-Ray will be coming in a special bundle package.
The Three In One bundle is available from July 27th till August 27th 2010 and it includes V-Ray for 3ds Max, V-Ray RT for 3ds Max and PdPlayer.

For more information visit here

Chaos Group team is kicking off final preparations for a great SIGGRAPH show

It is again this time of the year and Chaos Group is ready to astonish all of you coming to SIGGRAPH with impressive technology developments and distinguished events.  Stop by our booth (612) and witness presentations on how the V-Ray rendering engine was employed by one of the leading studios around the world. Kevin Margo from Blur, Christopher Nichols from Digital Domain and Oliver Heijmans from Mr. X are only some of the names joining us at SIGGRAPH.

At the Chaos Group booth you can also see demonstrations of the latest on V-Ray for Rhino and SketchUp presented by Corey Rubadue, CEO ASGVIS, as well as the new web based rendering solution by Mackevision: F_BOX picture shooter. Exclusive V-Ray training class and a public event are some of the highlights of our participation at SIGGRAPH this year.

Check out all we have prepared for SIGGRAPH and become a part of the V-Ray experience!

Chaos Group to present new developments at
SIGGRAPH 2010

We are excited to announce that the Chaos Group will be in full force this year at SIGGRAPH with a bigger team and a number of impressive new developments. This year you can join us and become a part of the following events:

The Chaos Group is ready to show its fresh new additions for 2010, including V-Ray RT for Maya and Phoenix FD, an outstanding new grid based simulator for smoke and fire. The hype this year is clearly the GPU rendering, and not to miss the mark, a demonstration of V-Ray RT on GPUs will amaze with unprecedented speed, unmatched interactivity and flawless workflow.
Check out what we are preparing for the show and choose your way to become part of the Chaos Group trendsetting technology.

Chaos Group Booth 612

SIGGRAPH Exhibition floor 27^th-29^th of July, 9.30-6.00 pm

Live demonstrations by well known artists and real-world V-Ray production workflow discussions by experts in the Film and VFX , Architectural and Automotive industries are just some of the highlights at this year's Chaos Group booth.

Visit our booth to get a sneak peek into the latest from V-Ray and V-Ray RT for 3ds Max and Maya, Phoenix FD, and Pdplayer. Expect to witness interesting presentations on V-Ray for Rhino and Sketch up. New web based rendering solution by Mackevision will also be a part of the demonstrations. F_BOX picture shooter allows users aided by the web based application fast and easily to create high end 3D images.

The emphasis this year will be V-Ray RT GPUs. Developed on the basis of the V-Ray RT this outstanding technology inherits the great interactivity and flexibility of the RT engine and brings it into the GPUs to achieve 15-20 times faster rendering process and lighting and shading set up.

V-Ray RT on GPUs will be presented on the new 3DBOXX Extreme Edition with 4 GPUs provided with the kind of support of BOXX Technologies.

Chaos Group Public Event

SIGGRAPH, Room 518, 2^nd floor: 29 July, 3:30pm to 6:30pm

Following the tradition of previous years, we will host our SIGGRAPH Public Event again for all V-Ray fans, users, resellers and partners. Our team has prepared special presentations on:

V-Ray RT on GPUs
V-Ray Pipelines - demonstration on how the V-Ray rendering engine can be successfully integrated with post production tools to create powerful and reliable pipelines
V-Ray for Rhino and Sketch up - latest developments and new features
Pdplayer-the professional image sequence player and viewer for the 3D, CG and VFX industry
Phoenix FD – the grid based simulator for smoke, fire and haze
F_BOX picture shooter- High end 3D made easy. Web easy

Click here, reserve your seat now and become a part of the V-Ray experience!

The Best of V-Ray: An Exclusive 8-hour Live Training Event at SIGGRAPH 2010

SIGGRAPH Room 518, 2^nd floor: 28th July, 10:00am to 6:00pm
Brought to you by the Chaos Group and the CGschool.

For the first time ever, and in partnership with CGschool, the Chaos Group presents a one of a kind V-Ray training workshop for anyone interested to get acquainted with the fast, reliable and renown rendering engine.

Everyone who attends gets a free copy of 3DATS's Ispirato book. Plus a chance to win "One Project" and "Advanced to Expert" books, V-Ray T-shirts, pins, notepads, pens and V-Ray RT licenses.

Course Description
This course starts with a fast but thorough look at the algorithms working behind the scenes of all the critical settings so users know exactly how to maximize speed and quality, rather than just guessing at what might work. During this discussion, the instructor provides an in-depth analysis of the most common issues that plague even veteran users – speed, detail, and noise. After this, the instructor creates numerous real-world materials from scratch while discussing the methodology behind their creation. Next, a thorough look at all the different animation techniques available are analyzed for static scenes and scenes with moving objects. During the next 90 minutes, the instructor presents numerous V-Ray features that can be considered as ‘Power Tools’.These include tools such as proxies, displacement, the V-Ray Physical camera, and render elements. The class ends with 2 hours of practical lighting of exterior and interior scenes, including troubleshooting techniques to ensure the best mixture of speed and quality.

This class will be fast and furious, yet suitable for users of all skill levels, from beginner to advanced. Most files for this course will be provided in 3ds Max 2010 format, however, you can still benefit from this course if you use V-Ray on other 3D software, as the vast majority of all the concepts will be the same. Students must bring their own laptop if they wish to follow along with the exercises. Support files provided in mostly 3ds Max 2010 format.

Click here to enroll in the course and pricing information.

V-Ray for 3ds Max installations will be provided on site for participants without personal license..

Join the V-Ray team and prepare yourself for a wonderful show!

Greetings from all of us at Chaos Group and see you soon in Los Angeles

Chaos Group is privileged to provide a full commercial V-Ray license for the 1st place winner

Outstanding works have been submitted for the annual Evermotion competition. The jury just recently announced the winners. To take a look at all works awarded and enjoy the great images, please click, here.

Chaos Group will continue to support this great initiative and encourage artist to expose their impressive 3D projects.

Consistent Software Distribution CJSC is becoming a leading distributor for Russian Federation and CIS for all Chaos Group products.

CSD, the leading Russian value-added distributor in the CAD, GIS and the Media and Entertainment markets, and Chaos Group, the developer of trendsetting rendering solutions for architectural, VFX, film, media and entertainment, automotive design, television and other industries, have signed an agreement on strategic partnership.

Beginning 18th June 2010, CSD is official exclusive distributor of the Chaos Group products in Russian Federation and CIS. The first outcome of this agreement will be the distribution of such worldwide recognized solutions as V-Ray for Autodesk 3ds Max, V-Ray RT for Autodesk 3ds Max, V-Ray for Autodesk Maya and Pdplayer in Russia throughout CSD’s dealer network. Within the nearest 6 months CSD is planning an expansion of its resellers’ channel by joining the territories of Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan and Middle Asia countries to its affected area.

Chaos Group’s current valuable partners will continue to serve their V-Ray customers. ProVideo Systems and Softline Group will work in a close collaboration with CSD on all of the Chaos Group products.

CSD is dedicating a special person, Mr.Vladimir Kazakevich responsible for the development of the V-Ray resellers’ network.

Contact information:

Mr.Vladimir Kazakevich
bob@consistent.ru
Consistent Software Distribution CJSC
Ostrovnaya St., 2, Moscow 121552
Telephone: + 7 (495) 642-6848
http://www.consistent.ru

Great news for all V-Ray for Maya followers: the first update after its initial release in September 2009 is a fact. V-Ray for Maya 1.5 SP1 is now available for download, review and testing.

The new optimized version comes with numerous new features, significant improvements and modifications. The list with new features as well as bug fixes and requests is outstanding. It works with Maya 2011 and is free for all current users.
 
Some of the new things in V-Ray for Maya: support for V- Ray Fur and Maya Hair, also the V- Ray Light Dome texture and environment textures are now visible in Maya's viewport. V-Ray for Maya now supports reflection occlusion in V-Ray Dirt texture. These are only some of the new and exciting features Chaos Group has to offer to all V-Ray for Maya fans.

V-Ray for Maya 1.50 SP1 is available for download from the download section on our web site.

Read in details about the features and bugs fixed of V-Ray for Maya 1.5 SP1 >>