3D Graphics Software

Ranging from impressive visual films such as Pixar Animation Studios’ releases to the basic modeling and rendering that powers everything from GPS topography to medical images, 3D rendering software helps to animate virtual worlds.

In practice, 3D models enable a variety of industries from commercial design to architecture and modern entertainment. In fact, simulations utilizing modern 3D technology have revolutionized the practice of medicine throughout the world. Some of the most prominent 3D digital imaging packages include:

Autodesk 3DS Max

A top software package utilized by the entertainment industry, Autodesk 3DS Max is fully compatible with file formats from the company’s popular Auto CAD program, allowing designers to import landscapes into the program for broader effects.

Blender Foundation Software

The top open source 3D animation suite, Blender animation studio has extended to allow for cutting edge technologies such as particle animation, physical dynamics and non-linear rendering. Running on a variety of platforms, Blender is used by game and entertainment developers throughout the world.

Massive

Known for the CGI battle scenes in Lord of the Rings, massive has created one of the industry standards for epic, large scale 3D effects. Incorporating artificial intelligence into its animations, Massive has been featured in a variety of feature films, including the popular King Kong remake and a variety of Pixar films.

New Creative Suite: Review of Adobe Photoshop CS4

For graphic designers, amateur photographers and design enthusiasts, Adobe has released its fourth edition of its Creative Suite software with a number of enhancements to its digital imaging capabilities.

This is the first version of Creative suite to offer full 64-bit capability, which users of Mac OSX and Windows Visa can take advantage of. While you’ll want to ensure that you have at least 3 GB of RAM in order to run the program smoothly on those operating systems in full 64-bit mode, the benefits in terms of speed are pretty amazing. For users of Adobe CS3, you’ll fondly recall the slow down that occur when zooming in on detailed photos - the improved memory management and caching features in CS4 now limit these programs, so you can readily zoom in and manipulate high resolution photos with relative ease now.

Adobe also upped the ante on artificial intelligence in the new version of Photoshop, introducing a series of features that allow you to resize images with intelligent scale. When scaling images in past versions, you were left with options of maintaining the ratio of the size or just manually doing adjustments at the individual layer level. Although Photoshop CS4 does not do a perfect job of solving this problem, it did quite well for most purposes in our tests. You can even utilize a field depth tool to manipulate digital images after the fact as if you were back on the scene, capturing the original image.

The improvements in both speed and features make Photo Shop CS4 a must buy for serious photographers and digital imaging enthusiasts.