xNormal 3.17.8 released

An update of xNormal was released:

New in Version 3.17.8:

• Solved a problem scaling derivative maps.
• Recompiled using the latest libraries.

More information and download on www.xnormal.net

Mandelbulber 1.10 released

A new version of Mandelbulber was released.
New in version 1.10:

•  added tile rendering (without any image resolution limitations)
•  fixed bug: water animation worked only in flight mode

More info and download at www.mandelbulber.com

Free HDRI´s in the sIBL Archive from HDR Labs

HDR Labs offers free highres HDRI´s in its sIBL archive.

For perfect lighting you can download additional sIBL (ibl)-loader scripts for Lightwave,  3ds MAX,  Maya,  modo,  XSI and Cinema 4D here.

More infos and HDRI (IBL) downloads at www.hdrlabs.com

Free Goodies in the 3D World Advent Calendar

On the website of the 3d world magazine is an advent calendar where you can get many goodies for free.

The 3D gifts until now:

• Day 24 Exclusive free compositing software – Conduit Suite 3D for Macintosh
  
• Day 23 10 free mini Maya tutorials to improve your modelling
• Day 22 offered an exclusive free restaurant model set CG Workshop 
• Day 21 offered two exclusive free tutorials from 3D Total 
• Day 20 offered free textures from IDV 
• Day 19 offered an exclusive free Christmas tree model fromIDV 
• Day 18 offered an exclusive Old Wishing Well model fromDAZ 3D 
• Day 17 offered six exclusive models from Cornucopia3D 
• Day 16 offered two exclusive 3ds Max tutorials from Digital-Tutors 
• Day 15 offered 130 XFrog plant models XFrog 
• Day 14 offered set of metal fences, from Pariah Studios 
• Day 13 offered some video training on Maya’s Transfer Maps, from Escape Studios 
• Day 12 offered an Introduction to SpeedTree, from cmiVFX 
• Day 11 offered DAZ 3D EmotiGuy, from DAZ 3D 
• Day 10 offered the Old Village model for Vue, courtesy of e-on software 
• Day 9 offered a free set of Substances, courtesy of Allegorithmic 
• Day 8 offered the training video Beginner’s Guide to Image Planes in Maya, courtesy of Digital-Tutors 
• Day 7 offered the Anime Star Fighter character model pack, courtesy of DAZ 3D 
• Day 6 offered the training video Beginner’s Guide to 3ds Max, courtesy of Digital-Tutors 
• Day 5 offered an Eames LCW Chair, from Pariah Studios 
• Day 4 offered a Mixamo Animation Sampler Pack for M4 and V4.2, courtesy of DAZ 3D and Mixamo 
• Day 3 offered some fantastic Unity training from Digital-Tutors 
• Day 2 offered an HDRI set from Dutch Skies 360° 
• Day 1 offered an awesome free model pack for Cinema 4D from GreyscaleGorilla

To get the gifts go to www.3dworldmag.com

Meshmixer 07 update released

Autodesk released another free update of Meshmixer.
New in this 07 update:

• Restored main Drag-and-Drop functionality from meshmixer06 
• Mac OSX build available for Lion and Snow Leopard 
• Convert to Part now works with selections 
• vastly improved rendering speed (millions of triangles!) 
• improved brush performance 
• many bugs fixed

More infos and download at www.meshmixer.com

Unity 3.5 Beta available

The Unity Team released a Beta-version of Unity 3.5.

New in this version is a hands-on preview of Unity's upcoming Flash deployment add-on. Experience first-hand how Flash deployment in Unity opens up new publishing options, by enabling you to push your interactive 3D content to the web through Adobe Flash Player.

And there is a contest too:
Create and submit Unity authored Flash platform content by Thursday, January 5, 2012. The best entry will be awarded the Grand Prize of $20,000 USD with more prizes going to the runners-up.

More infos and download at www.unity3d.com

Autodesk 123D Beta 8 Released

Autodesk has released the Betaversion 8 of 123D.
New in Beta 8:

• Sketching and drafting enhancements
• My Corner and My Gallery – direct access to online storage and gallery
• Improved tools for laser cutting and 3D printing
• 3D printing directly from within 123D

More infos & Download at www.123dapp.com

Blender 2.61 released

The Blender Foundation has released Blender 2.61, the first update to Blender 2.6.

New in Version 2.61:

• Cycles Render Engine
• Motion Tracking
• Dynamic Paint
• Ocean Simulation
• More features
• Python API
• Add-ons
• Bug Fixes

More info and download at www.blender.org

6 free HDRI´s on ITC Graphics Lab

The ITC Graphics Lab offers 6 HDRI images in different resolutions for free.
The 360 degree panoramas are available in HDR and EXR format.

Download at www.gl.ict.usc.edu

3D Lapidary gemstone models

If you need 3d models of diamonds, brilliants or other gems for free, 3D Lapidary is the right place to go.
They have more than 100 different cuts of gemstone models available for download. The models are available in dxf, 3ds, obj and lwo formats.

More info and downloads at www.3dlapidary.com

TopMod 3D 2.223

TopMod 3D is a freely available topological mesh modeler.
TopMod 3D is based on a new paradigm that allows dynamically changing the topology of 2-manifold polygonal meshes. The new paradigm always guarantees topological consistency of polygonal meshes.

More infos at www.sites.google.com/site/topmod3d
Download at www.code.google.com/p/topmod

cgtextures

cgtextures is a texture website that offers thousands of free textures.
Marcel Vijfwinkel, being a 3D artist himself, knows how difficult it is to create textures without good photo materials. Users can download an amount of 15 MB every day after registering for the free account.

The site also offers some great tutorials for working with textures and making them look better.

Texture-categories include:
Animals, Bones, Brick, Buildings, Concrete, Decals, Doors, Fabric, Fire, Food, Ground, Grunge, Ink, Landscapes, Manmade, Marble, Metal, Nature, Ornaments, Paper, Plaster, Plastic, Roads, Rock, Roofing, Rust, Scrap, Signs, Skies 360, Skies Partial, Soil, Splatter, Tiles, Various, Water, Windows, Wood, Wrinkles, X-Rays

More info on www.cgtextures.com

Mandelbulber 1.09

Mandelbulber is an experimental application that helps to make rendering 3D Mandelbrot fractals much more accessible.
A few of the supported 3D fractals: Mandelbulb, Mandelbox, BulbBox, JuliaBulb, Menger Sponge, Quaternion, Trigonometric, Hypercomplex, and Iterated Function Systems (IFS). All of these can be combined into infinite variations with the ability to hybridize different formulas together.

Mandelbulber is released under an Open Source Licence (GNU GPL license) , and is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

More info and download at www.mandelbulber.com

openfootage.net

You have a 3d object, but now you need just the right background to put it in?

openfootage.net offers background ressources for free. These include HDRI, panorama, textures and time-lapse animations.

More information on www.openfootage.net

TreeSketch 2.0

TreeSketch is a interactive tree modeler for the iPad from Steven Longay.
You can paint a tree, define contours, grow trees, manipulate branches  and adjust global branch-parameters of the tree later.
TreeSketch exports 3D models to .FBX so they can be used by all major rendering applications or viewed using Quicktime.

TreeSketch is, of course, free and available at the App Store here.


TreeSketch 2.0 - Promo Video from Steven Longay on Vimeo.

Texturecase

Texturecase is a website that offers free textures in many categories.
You can download 15 MB of textures for free every day and if you upload textures to the portal you can extend your download traffic.
Categories are:
Waste,Concrete, Ground, Roof, Food, Colour, Rock, Window, Tiles, Building, Glass, Heaven, Wood, Artificially, Marble, Masonry, Man, Metal, Nature, Paper, Paving Stone, Plastic, Shine, X-ray image, Shield, Other, Stone, Street, Textiles, Animal, Door, Ornaments, Water, Fence

More infos on www.texturecase.com

SketchUp 8 M2

Google has released the second maintenance release M2 for SketchUp 8.

New in SketchUp 8 M2:

• About 150 performance tweaks and bug fixes
• Better Ruby Script Installation
• Mac OS 10.7 Compatibility

More info about the M2 release on www.sketchupdate.blogspot.com

SketchUp 8 M2 is available for download in 12 languages on sketchup.google.com

Unity 3.4.2

Unity 3D is a game development tool that is also available in an free version.
Unity consists of both an editor for developing/designing content and a game engine.

You can develop games for PC & Mac, iOS, Android, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, PS3, web players and flash from one source.
Unity Spring 2010 Highlight Reel from Unity3D on Vimeo.

For more information visit: http://unity3d.com

Virtual 3D insects

Alexei Sharov has a website with 16 free 3D models of insects in VRML format.
You can get 3d ants, flies, mosquito and more

More information and download on http://home.comcast.net/~sharov/3d/virtual.html