E-on Software Releases Ozone 2014 PLE

HYPER REALISTIC ATMOSPHERES AT NO CHARGE

July 22, 2014. Beaverton, Oregon: e-on software, maker of the leading solutions for Digital Nature, announced today the immediate availability of the free Ozone 2014 Personal Learning Edition (PLE).

Ozone 2014 – Hyper-Realistic 3D Atmospheres

Ozone 2014 implements e-on software's cutting-edge technologies for the simulation and rendering of atmospheric effects. Ozone 2014 atmospheres provide an accurately simulated environment that affects all scene elements and behaves according to nature's rules.

Based entirely on real-world atmospheric behavior, Ozone 2014 produces ultra-realistic environments with volumetric clouds, accurate light dispersion and natural phenomena such as Godrays. Ozone realistically models the behavior of our planet's atmosphere to produce all kinds of atmospheric effects.

Key features of Ozone 2014 include real-world, physical simulation of sun and atmospheric lighting intensities thanks to the new photometric sunlight model, as well as support for Autodesk 2015 Media & Entertainment products (3ds Max 2015, Maya 2015 and Softimage 2015), Cinema4D R15, LightWave 11.6, also adds support for V-Ray 3 for 3ds Max, and a lot more...

A complete and detailed presentation of Ozone 2014 is available at: www.ozone-plugin.com.

Personal Learning Edition (PLE)

The Ozone 2014 PLE is a fully functional version of Ozone. With the PLE, users can:

• Use e-on's atmospheric rendering technologies inside of 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, Cinema 4D or LightWave,
• Create entirely new atmospheres or load any of the 150+ included presets and modify them,
• Use any of the 140+ included cloud shapes,
• Animate the atmosphere, the clouds and the sun,
• Render in FullHD (for stills) and animations up to 720p,
• Save and export their work, and
• Learn Ozone 2014 at their own pace: the PLE never expires!

More information and download instructions are available at: http://try.ozone-plugin.com.

PLE Requirements and Restrictions

The Ozone 2014 Personal Learning Edition is available in English for 64 bit versions of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, and on Mac OSX 10.6+ (Mac Intel only).

The PLE is for personal, non-commercial use only, files cannot be exchanged with other PLE users and are not compatible with commercial versions of Ozone 2014, network rendering through the host application is not available and renders may be watermarked.

Vue 2014.5 Video Tutorials

Lighting techniques in Vue , cover new 2014.5 version and daylight portals.
http://www.geekatplay.com/vue-tutorials.php

E-on Announce the "3D Environment Competition 2014"!

OVER $18,000 IN PRIZES TO AWARD THE BEST RENDERINGS
July 2, 2014. Beaverton, Oregon: e-on software, maker of the leading solutions for Digital Nature, in association with 3Dconnexion, 3dtotal, 3DWorld magazine, Ballistic Publishing, CG Society, Cornucopia3D, GeekAtPlay, Pixologic and QuadSpinner, today announced the eighth edition of the "3D Environment Competition", designed to showcase the capabilities of 3D technology for CG environments.

With over $18,000 worth of prizes, the 3D Environment 2014 represents one of the biggest competitions e-on software has ever organized!
Entrants may use their application of choice, in combination with any of the e-on software products. This includes any version of VUE, including the free Personal Learning Edition and the free VUE Pioneer, as well as Plant Factory, Carbon Scatter, Ozone, and LumenRT (and their respective free versions)!
Judging will be based solely on the quality, realism and artistic merit of the entries, not on the software version used to create them.
With 11 prestigious judges representing the different fields of the 3D Industry, this competition is a unique chance for artists to have their work exposed to the eyes of industry experts, as well as winning an extensive set of 3D tools and resources.

Judging Performed by Industry Legends!
The "3D Environment Competition 2014" judges are all leading figures in the world of 3D graphics, representing the Motion Picture, Game, Media and Broadcast industries, including several VES and Emmy award winners:

• Paul Huston – Senior Digital Matte Artist, Industrial Light & Magic
• Scott Brisbane - Head of Matte Painting, Dreamworks Animation
• Dark Hoffman – Freelance Digital Artist, Hammerhead Productions
• Max Dennison - Senior Matte Painter, Double Negative TV
• Eran Dinur - VFX Supervisor, Brainstorm Digital
• Peter Baustaedter - Visual Effects Art Director, Marco Polo Productions
• Stephane Belin – Art Director, Blizzard Entertainment
• Tom Greenway – Founder and Managing Director, 3dtotal.com
• Ian Dean – Editor, 3D World magazine
• Jim Thacker – Editor, CG Channel
• Mike Hepburn – Head of Creative and Marketing, Ballistic Publishing/ CGSociety

Extensive Set of 3D Tools and Resources to be Won!
Together with 3Dconnexion, 3dtotal, 3DWorld magazine, Ballistic Publishing, CG Society, Cornucopia3D, GeekAtPlay, Pixologic and QuadSpinner, e-on software will be awarding over $18,000 worth in prizes!

The full prize list can be accessed here!

• The winner will receive over $9800 worth in prizes
• The First runner up will receive over $5700 worth in prizes
• The Second runner up will receive over $1700 worth in prizes

Submissions start July 2, 2014 and end September 30, 2014. The winners of the competition will be announced on October 13, 2014.
More information and submission guidelines are available at:
www.e-onsoftware.com/competition

Ozone 2014 Now Shipping!

HYPER REALISTIC ATMOSPHERES IN 3DS MAX, CINEMA 4D, LIGHTWAVE, MAYA AND SOFTIMAGE

June 30, 2014. Beaverton, Oregon: e-on software, maker of the leading solutions for Digital Nature, announced today the immediate availability of Ozone 2014, its atmospheric plugin for 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, Cinema4D, and LightWave.

Ozone 2014 – Hyper-Realistic 3D Atmospheres

Ozone 2014 implements e-on software's cutting-edge technologies for the simulation and rendering of atmospheric effects. Ozone 2014 atmospheres provide an accurately simulated environment that affects all scene elements and behaves according to nature's rules.
Based entirely on real-world atmospheric behavior, Ozone 2014 produces ultra-realistic environments with volumetric clouds, accurate light dispersion and natural phenomena such as Godrays. Ozone realistically models the behavior of our planet's atmosphere to produce all kinds of atmospheric effects.

New In Ozone 2014
Physically Accurate Sunlight Model
The new photometric sunlight model uses a real-world, physical simulation of sun and atmospheric lighting intensities. This new, scientifically accurate model offers an alternative to the more artistic approach of the existing Spectral model.
As a result, renders will look more photo-real in a subtle way, and HDR renders will preserve all the range of the natural spectrum.
Users can easily switch between the new photometric model and the standard spectral model; Ozone 2014 will make all the required changes automatically.
The Ozone 2014 render engine will automatically adapt to the host application's photometric model to provide seamlessly integrated lighting.

Deeper Interoperability
Ozone 2014 now supports Autodesk Media & Entertainment products up to release 2015 (3ds Max 2015, Maya 2015 and Softimage 2015), and also adds support for V-Ray 3 for 3ds Max (support V-Ray 3 for Maya is under development).
Ozone 2014 also now also supports Maxon Cinema 4D up to R15 and Newtek LightWave up to version 11.6.

A complete and detailed presentation of Ozone 2014 is available at: http://www.ozone-plugin.com.

Pricing and Availability
Ozone 2014 is available in English for 64 bit versions of Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8, and on Mac OSX 10.6+ (Mac Intel only).
A single license of Ozone 2014 will work with all compatible applications and renderers installed on the end user's system.

• Ozone 2014 for Maya (2010 to 2015) works with MentalRay, Maya software and V-Ray renderers.
• Ozone 2014 for 3ds Max (2009 to 2015) works with MentalRay and V-Ray renderers.
• Ozone 2014 for Softimage (2010 to 2015) works with MentalRay.
• Ozone 2014 for LightWave (9.3 to 11.6) and Cinema4D (R11.5 to R15) works with the native renderer.

Ozone 2014 retails at US$370 (with one year maintenance), with upgrades from Ozone 6 starting at $95. RenderNode network rendering licenses are available at $95 per node. Full pricing information is available at:

www.ozone-plugin.com/purchase/.

The Ozone Personal Learning Edition (PLE) will be updated to release 2014 in the coming weeks.

Cornucopia3d now on Twitter

Cornucopia3d now has a twitter account @Cornucopia3D

From e-on's Twitter

We want your opinion on what you want to see for upcoming #VUE releases. Cast your votes and send us comments here: https://t.co/KH6dwgBxJV http://twitter.com/e_onsoftware/status/474828525586100224

Cornucopia3D Opens the Exchange Area

FREELY SHARE PLANT FACTORY CONTENT

May 22, 2014. Beaverton, Oregon: Cornucopia3D, a division of e-on software and the leading VUE and Plant Factory community on the web, today announced the immediate opening of the new Exchange Area.

A Place for Everyone!

Following the initial release of Plant Factory, artists have been clamoring for an easy way to share their plant creations with others. The Exchange Area was created just for that: to help artists collectively improve by exchanging tips and ideas and sharing content freely.

The Exchange Area allows Plant Factory users to quickly upload Plant Factory content (in native .TPF format) and share it for free with other users of the software (users who prefer to sell their content instead of sharing it for free can do so by opening a vendor account with Cornucopia3D). Sharing content on the Exchange Area does not require a vendor account.

Once an item is uploaded, it immediately becomes available to the entire community in the Exchange Area. Other users can start downloading it right away for free.

Check out the Exchange Area at: http://exchange.cornucopia3D.com

* Native support for Plant Factory content will be added to Carbon Scatter and LumenRT later on in 2014.

E-on Software Ships VUE 2014.5

VUE 2014.5 BRINGS MORE LIGHT TO YOUR DIGITAL NATURE

May 21, 2014. Beaverton, Oregon: e-on software, maker of the leading solutions for Digital Nature, announced today the immediate availability of VUE 2014.5 xStream and Infinite, the latest production-driven version of its professional solutions for the creation, animation and rendering of natural 3D environments.

This new version is available for free to all VUE 2014 xStream and Infinite users, including users who are not under maintenance.

E-on software also announced that future versions of its products (the 2015 product line, scheduled for release in Q4 2014) will be 64bit only. The 2014.x line of products will be the last one to support 32bit OS architectures.

New features of VUE 2014.5
Specifically designed for graphics professionals, VUE xStream and VUE Infinite combine a multitude of cutting edge features that easily integrate into existing production pipelines. VUE Infinite operates as a standalone application while VUE xStream works seamlessly inside 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, LightWave and Cinema4D.

Release 2014.5 of VUE adds a number of new features including:

• Improved support for Plant Factory vegetation: Significant improvements were added in VUE 2014.5 to speed up the rendering of TPF plants - with a render-time gain of up to 20 times faster (advanced pre-computing of illumination on plants, improved illumination quality, etc...). Major improvements in the normal mapping algorithms also dramatically boost overall plant rendering quality. Better access to TPF plant published parameters and mesh resolution in the Plant Editor. Compatibility with Plant Factory 2014.5 lightweight preset technology...
• Improved Photometric Lights: To produce even more realistic renders with warmer light colors, the Photometric Light presets in VUE 2014.5 were improved and several new presets were added (such as Carbon Arc, Sodium Vapor, Metal Halide etc...).
• Light Portals: By helping VUE understand the way light enters indoor scenes, Light Portals greatly enhance the accuracy and quality of interior renders.
• Deeper interoperability: VUE xStream 2014.5 now supports Autodesk 2015 Media & Entertainment products (3ds Max 2015, Maya 2015 and Softimage 2015), and also adds support for V-Ray 3 for 3ds Max (support V-Ray 3 for Maya is under development). Several new Python callbacks were added for Terrains and EcoSystem management...
• And more...

More information on the new features of VUE 2014.5 is available online at

www.e-onsoftware.com/xstream and www.e-onsoftware.com/infinite



Pricing information:
VUE 2014.5 is available free of charge for all registered users of VUE 2014 xStream and Infinite (no maintenance plan required). VUE 2014 Infinite and xStream owners can immediately switch to VUE 2014.5 by downloading the latest software update for their product from www.e-onsoftware.com/updates.

VUE 2014.5 xStream retails for $1,995 (with one year maintenance), and upgrades from VUE 11.x xStream starting at $439. VUE 2014.5 Infinite retails for $1,495 (with one year maintenance), with upgrades from VUE 11.x Infinite starting at $359. Upgrades from VUE 10.x Infinite and VUE 10.x xStream are also available. Full pricing information is available at:

www.e-onsoftware.com/pricelist.

Availability:
VUE 2014.5 xStream and VUE 2014.5 Infinite are available in English for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, and on Mac OSX 10.5+ (Mac Intel only), for both 32 and 64 bit.
VUE 2014.5 xStream is compatible with the following renderers:

• 3ds Max 2008 to 2015: MentalRay (integrated and MR satellites), V-Ray
• Maya 2008 to 2015: MentalRay (integrated and MR satellites), V-Ray, Maya Software
• Softimage | XSI 7.0 to 2015: MentalRay (integrated and MR satellites)
• Cinema 4D R11 to R15: native renderer
• LightWave 9.3 to 11.6: native renderer

*Other renderers are under consideration.

E-on Software Releases Plant Factory 2014.5

THE BEST 3D PLANT TECHNOLOGY ON EARTH JUST GOT BETTER - FOR FREE!

May 20, 2014. Beaverton, Oregon: e-on software, makers of the leading solutions for Digital Nature, announces the immediate availability of Plant Factory 2014.5, its revolutionary new technology for creating and rendering high-quality 3D plants.
The company also announced the introduction of the FREE Plant Factory Exporter. Thanks to Exporter, artists are able to export Plant Factory content directly to their favorite 3D application. The Exporter includes all the latest import/export advances of release 2014.5.

Check out the Free Plant Factory Exporter

Plant Factory 2014.5
Available for free for all Plant Factory users, this major update adds improved export capabilities, major illumination rendering optimisation and export to LumenRT.
New or enhanced capabilities include:

Export improvement: Plant Factory can now import natively in LightWave's .LWO and Cinema4D's .C4D file formats. Major improvements were added to .FBX exports, and specific import scripts for 3ds Max and Maya are now shipping with the product. When exporting to Cornucopia3D (the online store for TPF plants), TPF automatically validates exports to C3D's standards. Plant Factory can now export Plant variations as presets, to save resources and dramaticaly lower file size. Finally, Plant Factory 2014.5 can now natively export to LumenRT*.

Illumination rendering optimisation: Major optimisations were made for the rendering of indirect lighting, especially for vegetation using billboards.

Content collections: Plant Collections are now automatically synchronized with the Cornucopia3D TPF Nursery, allowing direct access to hundreds of TPF plant species, directly from within the software interface.

More information about the Plant Factory technology is available online at: www.plantfactory-tech.com

* Requires the upcoming LumenRT 2014.

Free Plant Factory Exporter - Tweak Plants and Export as Standard 3D Meshes

Designed for CG artists using any 3D application (such as 3DS Max, Maya, Cinema 4D, Softimage, LightWave, Modo, etc), this very simple version of Plant Factory lets the users purchase exactly the plant species they need, generate variations, adjust age, health and season, and export as static 3D meshes*.

The Free Plant Factory Exporter supersede the former paid-for Plant Factory Converter (discontinued).

More information and download instructions is available online at: www.plantfactory-tech.com/exporter.php

* Mesh resolution cannot be adjusted; it is typically in the 250-500K polygon range.

Product Specifications
Plant Factory 2014.5 is available as a free update for all current Plant Factory users, independantly from their maintenance status.

Plant Factory is a 32 & 64 bits application, designed for the Windows® 32/64 bits XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8, as well as Intel Mac OS X 10.5+ platforms. For better performance, a good video board with a minimum of 1GB of video RAM is recommended. A 64 bit system is highly recommended.

The Plant Factory Personal Learning Edition (PLE) and Trial versions will be updated to release 2014.5 in the coming weeks.

About Plant Factory
Plant Factory is designed for the CG, SFX, Architecture and Gaming communities. It offers solutions custom-tailored for all audiences. The technology available in Plant Factory represents the culmination of e-on software's decades of expertise in the field of digital nature and delivers unsurpassed realism and performance.
With Plant Factory users can:

• Create any kind of vegetation, from simple grass to super elaborate hero trees
• Create vegetation by painting it, assembling simple building blocks, or completely graphing all plant properties
• Generate procedural geometry and materials of unlimited detail
• Animate all plant aspects using precise wind and breeze algorithms
• Export 3D vegetation to any 3D application as standard .OBJ, .3DS, .C4D, .LWO or animated .FBX
• Render stills and animations for compositing jobs or for use as billboards
• Expand their plant library through the Cornucopia3D TPF Nursery

A comprehensive comparative feature chart and full purchasing options are available on the product's website: www.plantfactory-tech.com/purchase

3D Artist Issue 63 and Vue

Issue 63 of 3D Artist looks like its a real treat for Vue users - page 42 to 48 are devoted to an article on digital matte painting while pages 50 to 55 are a tutorial on creating a matte painting with Vue.

Vue xStream 2014 is also reviewed (getting a score of 9/10).