CGDirector Weekly Hardware & Software News Roundup for Content Creators
November 14th - November 20th, 2020 This week saw quite a few application updates, a few popular professional applications announcing support for Apple’s new M1-powered Macs, and another disastrous GPU launch. Let’s go over what happened this week, shall we?
News
This section covers news sourced from various trusted media and business outlets. Foundry Announces Modo 14.2 – A Major Update
Foundry’s focus on accelerating artist workflows comes to a close with the final major update to Modo for this year. The update brings USD export support, Rig Clay, topology views, MeshFusion Embossing, Ghost/Xray Viewport, and many other improvements to the popular 3D modeling, texturing, and rendering application.
Read more. Adobe Photoshop Now in Beta for Apple M1-Powered Macs
In a showcase of surprising speed and agility, because Apple is involved, Photoshop joins a few other professional applications immediately available for M1-powered Macs that were launched just a week ago. Adobe indicates the application’s Beta status and lists a, well, long, long list of known issues. You can find the beta announcement as well as the list of issues
here.
Blackmagic Design Announces DaVinci Resolve 17.1 Beta 1 for M1-Powered Macs
DaVinci Resolve’s Version 17.1 update now features universal app support for M1-powered Macs. This major release brought over 300 new features and improvements, and Blackmagic Design assures users of their availability on Apple’s latest devices. The release notes state that the combination of Apple’s M1, Metal processing brings a whopping 5x performance uplift compared to previous generation ‘computers.’
Read more. Chaos Group Releases V-Ray 5 for Rhino
V-Ray 5 for Rhino combines real-time and photoreal rendering for Rhino and Grasshopper. The new features include improvements like V-Ray Vision, Easier Lighting, Post-processing, and more. The update focuses on allowing artists to go beyond just rendering and get photorealistic shots at the push of a button.
Read more. Luxion Announces Release of KeyShot 10
Luxion’s KeyShot received a significant update this week, with the application getting a host of improvements for professionals. The update adds Keyframe Animation, new Smart Export options for output to full-color 3D prints, AWeb interaction, a new Light Manager, RealCloth 2.0, as well as improved Denoise and Firefly Filter for faster creation. You can find more detailed feature update descriptions
here. Maxon Announces Major Updates for Red Giant Trapcode Suite 16 and Red Giant Magic Bullet Suite 14
For the first time, Maxon announced two major suite updates at the same time. While Trapcode Suite 16 brings a set of 11 tools of particle simulation and 3D effects for motion graphics, Magic Bullet Suite 14 comes with a set of 7 tools for color correction, finishing, and film looks. The latter allows new color workflows and powerful tools in Magic Bullet Looks and Colorista.
Read more. AMD Radeon’s RX 6000 Series Reference Graphics Cards Launch on November 18th – Out of Stock Instantly
In what’s become an industry trend and meme at this point, AMD’s reference graphics card launch somehow managed to top Nvidia’s disastrous launch of the RTX 3000. Several major hardware outlets reported receiving just ONE top-end card, i.e., the Radeon RX 6800XT. AMD assures its customers that stocks will improve in a few weeks after 25th November when AIBs can also offer their own Radeon products for purchase.
Read more. Educational Content and Helpful Resources for CG Professionals
This new section features tools, training materials, tutorials, and so on for various CG applications. Will AI Take my Job? (CG Edition): http://www.wrongfingquestion.com/372026/1712740-s01e09-will-ai-take-my-job Discussing Virtual Production, Issues of Latency, and Targets for Professional Use with Matt Madden (Director of Virtual Production) from Epic Games. He has worked on projects such as The Mandalorian: http://www.fxguide.com/fxpodcasts/325-virtual-production-epic/ Rumor Roundup
This section only covers rumors sourced from relatively unreliable sources. Please treat them as such. Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti Performance Numbers Leak Out
The first new-gen, sub-$500 graphics is on its way and it does look impressive for creative professionals. An official graph comparing the performance to an RTX 2060 Super and an RTX 2080 Super indicates the price point and performance tier that Nvidia will try to beat. Creation workload performance shown is impressive with the new card comfortably beating the RTX 2080 Super by a comfortable margin in Blender, V-Ray, and Redshift while completely obliterating the RTX 2060 Super. Availability still sus.
Software Updates
This section keeps track of the latest versions of popular Content Creation Software.
Lots of big updates this week! 3D - Blender: 2.90.1
- Cinema 4D: 23.110
- 3ds Max: 2021.2
- Maya: 2020.3
- Houdini: 18.5.395
- Modo: 14.2 *Recent Update\*
- zBrush: 2021.1.2
- Keyshot: 10.0.198 *Recent Update\*
- Redshift: 3.0.33 *Recent Update\*
- Octane: 2020.1
- Vray: 5.00.05
- Arnold: 6.1.0.0
- Corona: 6
- Renderman: 23.5
- Deadline: 10.1.11.5
- Substance Painter: 2020.2.2
- Substance Designer: 2020.1.3
Video Editing - Premiere Pro: November 2020 (14.7) *Recent Update\*
- Davinci Resolve: 16.2.7
- Final Cut Pro X: 10.5
Motion Design, Compositing - After Effects: October 2020 (17.5)
- Fusion: 17
- Nuke: 12.2
Graphic Design, Illustration, Photo Editing - Photoshop: October 2020 (22.0)
- Illustrator: October 2020 (25.0)
- Lightroom: October 2020 (10.0)
- Indesign: October 2020 (16.0)
CAD - Solidworks: 2021 SP1 EV *Recent Update\*
- Revit: 2021.1.1
- Autocad: 2021
- Inventor: 2021.2
- Archicad: 24
- Sketchup: 2021.0.339 *Recent Update\*
Game Design - Unity3D: 2020.1.14 *Recent Update\*
- Unreal: 4.25
That's about it from our side for this week! If you find these News roundups helpful, let us know. You can also subscribe or find more info on our site CGDirector (
link).
Cheers, Alex
