The V-Ray Anniversary Challenge is on! V-Ray s 10th Anniversary celebrations start with a Challenge to all V-Ray users! The Chaos Group and CGSociety invite you to create an image to tell the story of a decisive moment. Imagine the split second when everything changes. It could be an instant from history that altered everything on Earth. Or a pivotal point in time that changed you personally. Perhaps a knockout punch in a heavy weight championship. The last block placed on the Pyramids. The first human step on the moon. A gunshot, a wrong step, or a glance, the decisive moment when fate propelled the world to greatness or drove it to the point of destruction. Using any application to model and V-Ray to render, we want you to illustrate that blink-of-an-eye moment. Our team and our partners have put together a great prize package for the winners. Enter the V-Ray Challenge and share your decisive moment with us!

Chaos Group goes to Oslo in May Hungry for the latest in VFX and creative technology? Want to meet up with like-minded people from the CG industry? Then join us on May 14th-16th, 2012 in Oslo for the 7th international seminar Digital Storytelling 2012: The Art and Science of Visual Effects . View more details about this event.

V-Ray Now Available with Support for 3ds Max 2013 The latest V-Ray update offers an extensive list of new features and improvements including: Support for 3ds Max 2013 Support for motion blur (transformation and deformation) with V-Ray RT and V-Ray RT GPU Optimized interactive rendering using the NVIDIA CUDA™ architecture in addition to OpenCL New "Matte for reflection/refraction" option to the VRayWrapperMtl material and the V-Ray object settings Support for Ornatrix 2.0 Take a look at our video tutorial here. The update is free to registered V-Ray for 3ds Max users and can be downloaded from the Chaos Group website.

ChaosGroup at FMX 2012 Going to FMX next week? Make sure to stop by our booth for live product demos and celebrate V-Ray's 10th anniversary at our exclusive events. Learn more and register here

Ural CG Artists Meeting Be sure to join us at the Ural CG Artists Meeting where our friends Dmitry dimson3d Chekhlov and Anton Danilov will deliver two V-Ray workshops: Introduction to V-Ray V-Ray for Maya. Optimization and automation with V-Ray Toon and V-Ray Proxy Learn more here.

Two Exclusive Industry Events at RFX and Escape Studios in May Chaos Group is pleased to invite you to join two exclusive industry events in LA on May 16th and May 17th 2012. May 16th, 2012 Mastering the Crowd: Learn how to create daunting crowd shots Learn more and register for this event May 17th, 2012 Creating Award Winning Commercials with V-Ray Learn more and register for this event We are looking forward to seeing you!

V-Ray 10th Anniversary Celebration Begins at FMX 2012 The Chaos Group team is gearing up for 4 exciting days at FMX 2012. We started the year with significant improvements to our portfolio, announcing an update with outstanding new features and improvements to V-Ray 2.0 for 3ds Max and V-Ray 2.0 for Maya. The excitement grows with the latest additions to our suite of innovative rendering solutions: V-Ray for Softimage, V-Ray 1.5 for Rhino and Phoenix FD for Maya which is now in Beta. Meet up with the Chaos Group team at FMX and help us celebrate V-Ray's 10th anniversary. We've got some great demos planned and some goodies to give away! Learn more and register for our anniversary events!

Chaos Group Office Closed for Easter Holidays April 13-16, 2012 We would like to inform you that our head office in Bulgaria will be closed from April 13 to April 16, 2012 for Easter Holidays. Please, email us at contacts@chaosgroup.com in case of any inquiries during that time. Our representatives will respond upon return. The Chaos Group Team

The New Version of V-Ray For Rhino is Here! We are excited to announce the official release of V-Ray 1.5 for Rhino! Get it today and benefit from many new features and improvements, including real-time rendering using V-Ray RT, optimized image-based lighting with the new Dome Light, and efficient memory management using Proxy objects. Watch the latest tutorials and download a demo version at the Chaos Group website. Happy rendering! The Chaos Group Team

V-Ray for Rhino Workshop in Paris If you happen to be in Paris on April 2nd, don t miss the workshop organized by our partner Cadatlantique. Bring your questions and experiences and see a demo of the new features in V-Ray 1.5 for Rhino. To guarantee your place, please book in advance at cadlantique@aol.com.

Chaos Group Server Maintenance and Change in Address This weekend (17 18 March, 2012), Chaos Group will be relocating its headquarters to a new office. During this time, our services (i.e. Partner portal, website, mail and phone services) might be temporarily suspended. Full service will be resumed on Monday morning, CET, 19 March 2012. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience caused. Our new address is: 147, Tsarigradsko shose Blvd., Inter Expo Center, 4th Floor 1784 Sofia Bulgaria Our phone numbers remain unchanged: T. +359 2 422 422 1 T. +359 2 489 44 86 So in order to stay in touch, please update your records and add our new address.

V-Ray Turns 10 Today! Today our team reaches an important milestone. Ten years ago on this day Chaos Group s founders Vlado and Peter released the first version of V-Ray the renderer that revolutionized the CG industry with its speed, precision and amazing photorealism. Today our team celebrates this anniversary and comes together to thank YOU - our clients, partners and fans around the globe. Your achievements are our pride, your ideas our inspiration! We have prepared special birthday activities to celebrate our anniversary with you, so stay tuned for more info. Thanks for these great ten years and cheers to many more exciting years to come!

New Interview by Chaos Group: Student Short Film "The Deadliest Game" James Cunningham, 3D Program Leader at the Media Design School in New Zealand, takes us behind the scenes of The Deadliest Game, a student film quickly gaining popularity at festivals and expos. Read the full interview

Visual Effects Oscar Goes to Hugo! Hugo won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at last night s Oscars in tough competition with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, Real Steel, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Based on the novel "The Invention of Hugo Cabret," Hugo is the story of an orphan boy who lives at a train station in 1930s Paris and encounters French pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès. Congratulations to the Hugo crew! We are happy to see V-Ray used in some of the shots in this film. Stay tuned for an in-depth look at Hugo s VFX pipeline and V-Ray s role in it.

V-Ray for Softimage is Now Available The Chaos Group Team is happy to announce the official release of V-Ray for Autodesk Softimage ! V-Ray for Softimage is the newest addition to our suite of innovative rendering solutions, and we are happy to support the Softimage community! With support for Softimage s award-winning ICE system, dynamic geometry, and V-Ray Proxy objects, V-Ray for Softimage supports the size and complexity of even the most demanding scenes. Its physically based toolset, including versatile shaders, lights, and cameras, makes it possible to standardize rendering workflow with the quality, speed, and stability of the V-Ray core. Check out pricing information and supported platforms here. Download your free trial today! Chaos Group encourages you to submit artwork made with V-Ray for Softimage at images@chaosgroup.com

The V-Ray 1.5 for Rhino Development Team Needs Your Feedback Did you know that the V-Ray 1.5 for Rhino Beta program is still open? You still have the chance to test this product and submit ideas for improvement. The official release is coming soon, so be sure to sign up today! Visit our Beta program page to register.

V-Ray 2.0 for Maya Update Available The Chaos Group team is pleased to announce an update to V-Ray 2.0 for Maya, offering new hair and fur capabilities, V-Ray RT GPU enhancements, and tighter Maya integration. The update is free for V-Ray 2.0 for Maya users. New Hair and Fur Capabilities A new VRayHairMtl shader to render hair and fur with unprecedented control, quality, and speed Extra attributes to apply materials to Maya s native hair V-Ray RT GPU Enhancements V-Ray RT GPU now supports texture-mapped rectangle and mesh lights, simple light portals, and the VRayBlendMtl Additional Improvements Optimized memory usage and multithreaded performance for dynamic geometry Optimized Irradiance Map and Light Cache to reduce flickering when using time dependent option of the DMC sampler New Flakes material Improved support for Maya standard shading nodes Installation and Deployment Improvements New Mac OS GUI installer for VRLService and V-Ray for Maya Installation options for Windows and Linux users include: executable installation or archive file for easier deployment Download here!

Fxguide Takes us behind the Scenes of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo David Fincher s interpretation of the Swedish Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is surely one of the most discussed films recently. The unexpected opening of the film with dark fluid visuals, a train flythrough across Swedish mountains and crashing cars scenes, combined with Graig s and Mara s great acting resulted in an ingenious suspense story in a dark Swedish setting. Fxguide s digital storytelling reveals details on the production process where three of the most renowned studios were involved: Blur for the opening abstract, Method Studios for the enhancements of the Swedish harbor, Milton Security building and van composites, and Digital Domain for the bridge sequence, the motor-cycle ridden by Rooney Mara and the Range Rover crash. Read fxguide s article on the contribution of the three studios.

Live Action Short Film Grounded Hits the Festival Circuit Here is a great live action short film that caught our attention. Grounded represents an astronaut's journey through space and life which ends on a hostile exosolar planet. Conceived and created by Kevin Margo, VFX industry veteran and CG supervisor at acclaimed BLUR studio, in collaboration with Barrett Meeker, Grounded is a metaphorical account of the experience, inviting unique interpretation and reflection by the viewer. Take a peek at some VFX Breakdowns of the short film and stay tuned for more news about it, as it s just hitting the festival circuit.

Chaos Group extends coverage to Ireland through cooperation with Eurotek Chaos Group has signed a partnership agreement with Eurotek, a leading European media technology supplier. Eurotek is now an official reseller for V-Ray, Phoenix FD and Pdplayer. The partnership represents a step forward to offer local support to customers in Ireland and more customized services through Eurotek. Founded in 1967, Eurotek is Europe s longest established supplier of media technology, being leaders in providing knowledge, advice and innovative products to customers. Eurotek Ireland will officially distribute all Chaos Group products to companies, professionals and educational institutions, and provide support.