Autodesk Sponsors Rendering Revolution Contest on CGarchitect.com

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Press Release from Autodesk

Competition Celebrates 20th Anniversary of Autodesk 3ds Max software and Advancements in GPU-Accelerated Rendering

What: Autodesk, Inc. [1], with the support of NVIDIA, is sponsoring online magazine CGarchitect's "Rendering Revolution" contest -- a still image architectural visualization competition. The contest is being held in celebration of Autodesk 3ds Max [2] software's 20th anniversary and recent advancements in GPU-accelerated rendering solutions. The term "Rendering Revolution" describes the broad changes taking place in rendering as GPU-based computing power brings revolutionary workflows and performance capabilities to many aspects of the rendering process.

To be eligible, participants must create a still image of an architectural scene incorporating the 3ds Max 20th anniversary [3] logo* in a recognizable and creative form. Submissions will be judged for artistic merit and originality by a distinguished panel of industry judges: Matthew Bannister (dbox), Jules Cocke (Squint/Opera), Lon Grohs (Neoscape), Torgeir Holm (Netron/VRAY.info), Alex Morris (Alex Morris Visualisation), Ximo Peris (Crystal CG) and Michiel Quist (3idee).

The first-place winner will receive round-trip airfare to Las Vegas for two, three nights of hotel accommodations and two complimentary passes to Autodesk University 2010. First-, second-, and third-place winners will all receive a license of the Autodesk Design Suite [4] Premium 2011 software and NVIDIA Quadro cards.

Who: 3D artists and visualization specialists from around the world can participate in the "Rendering Revolution" contest. Participants must create content with the application of their choice, but final rendering must be done in Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 or Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011 software using native GPU rendering solutions - Quicksilver or iray - or any GPU-accelerated third-party rendering solution that works within the 3ds Max environment.

Participants who do not already own a license of 3ds Max 2011 or 3ds Max Design 2011 software can download the 30-day trial [5]** to use the Quicksilver hardware renderer. The iray rendering technology from mental images is expected to be available to Autodesk Subscription customers in fall 2010, as part of the Subscription Advantage Pack for 3ds Max 2011 and 3ds Max Design 2011. Students can download 3ds Max Design 2011 from the Autodesk Education Community [6].

When: Submissions will be accepted from Oct. 1 to Oct. 31, 2010. Winners will be notified the week of Nov. 8 and publicly announced at Autodesk University [7] on Nov. 30, as part of the Media & Entertainment and Platform Solutions and Emerging Business keynote presentation.

Where: Participants can upload entries directly to the CGarchitect submissions page at gpu.cgarchitect.com/submit [8]. Further contest details can be found at gpu.cgarchitect.com [9].

Autodesk, Inc., is a leader in 3D design [1], engineering and entertainment software. Customers across the manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, and media and entertainment industries - including the last 15 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects - use Autodesk software to design, visualize and simulate their ideas. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk continues to develop the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art software for global markets. For additional information about Autodesk, visit http://www.autodesk.com [10]

*Free products are subject to the terms and conditions of the end-user license agreement that accompanies download of the software.

** Use of the logo to be in accordance with Autodesk's trademark and logo usage guidelines and logo images files that can normally be found at: http://usa.autodesk.com/company/legal-notices-trademarks/trademarks/guidelines-for-use [11] as it may be updated from time to time.

Autodesk and 3ds Max are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. Academy Award is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. iray is a registered trademark of mental images GmbH licensed for use by Autodesk, Inc.All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.