David Sudd takes us through Vicon's latest version of boujou to see how it tracks.

Brad Clark test drives the new Maya Entertainment Creation Suite featuring Maya, MotionBuilder and Mudbox all in one package with refinements and additions.

Brickyard VFX's Gina Downing provides a first-hand glimpse of how Autodesk Flare's serves as a companion to Flame and Inferno.

Dean Grubb tests the new Houdini 10, which offers Motion FX, an enhanced Python and a few more cool features.

Pixar's stereoscopic gurus discuss the studio's embrace of Up and the Toy Story franchise in Disney Digital 3-D.

 

Within the world of animation, most experimentation occurs within short-format productions, whether they are high-budgeted commercials, low-budgeted independent shorts or something in between. The growing number of short film festivals around the world attests to the vitality of these works, but there are few other venues for their exhibition, nor are they often reviewed. As a result, distribution tends to be difficult and irregular. On a regular basis, Animation World Magazine will highlight some of the most interesting of these films.

Ryan Lesser takes a look at the 2010 version of 3ds Max, boasting 100 new modeling tools along with a few new interface issues.

Ronen Barzel provides an exclusive sneak peek of the upcoming SIGGRAPH 2009 in New Orleans, "Network Your Senses."

This month anime reviewer James Brusuelas checks out Shigurui, Bleach, The Wallflower, Vandread, Shuffle and Death Note.

Bryan Hoff tests the new HP Z800 to see if it offers enough of an increase in efficiency and productivity to justify the expense in this economic downturn.