Krakatoa MX Webinar Part 1 Videos Now Available

70 minutes of video footage recorded live during the first Krakatoa MX Webinar on May 22nd and May 23rd 2012 are now available for offline viewing in the "Learning Krakatoa MX" area of the website.

The Webinar entitled "Krakatoa MX Fundamentals - Part 1 - Choosing The Right Path" was intended mainly for existing Krakatoa MX users, but could be useful as introduction for new customers, too. It goes back to the basic approaches of User Interface interaction and highlights the Best Practices as well as some common mistakes when working with the complex volumetric particle rendering, manipulation and management toolkit that is Krakatoa MX.

The ultimate goal of this first Webinar is to make the user more productive by reducing the number of mouse clicks while increasing the effective time for productive rendering.

Platige Image Casts Krakatoa Magic in "The Witcher 2" Game Cinematics

In a recent interview with The Art of VFX, Platige Image's Technical Director Lukasz Sobisz revealed that Thinkbox Software's Krakatoa MX Volumetric Particle Renderer, Manipulation and Management plugin for 3ds Max was used to create the magic spell effects in the game cinematics for "The Witcher 2".

Quote from the article on The Art Of VFX:

TAOVFX: How did you create the beautiful particles effects of the two spells?

LUKASZ SOBISZ (FX TD): To achieve enough level of details and handle multi-milion particle sims we used famous Krakatoa renderer. Particles where driven with thinking particles system, which gives some unique workflows with Matterwaves node. It allowed us to control the emission with procedural maps and uv coordinates for maximum freedom.
The motion was enhanced with fumeFX, which integrates very well with TP and gives access to any voxel field stored within fume’s cache. Another feature that saved us a lot of time was MagmaFlow coming with Krakatoa. Editing particle channels after simulation is finished, streamlines render passes generation and gives additional control over the look of particles.

Please go to  The Art Of VFX article to read the whole interview with Platige Images and watch the full video as well as a breakdown!

The Universal One by Ian Clemmer

Ian Clemmer, who recently helped Hydraulx deliver all those awesome Krakatoa effects in "The Avengers", has posted a personal project entitled "The Universal One" on his website.

Based on Superflow particles driving Naiad simulations which were then rendered in Krakatoa, the project is as beautiful as it is epic:

Please click the above image to visit Ian Clemmer's page and experience the whole project in full resolution!

Krakatoa MX Fundamentals : Choosing The Right Path - Part 1

KRAKATOA™ MX is Thinkbox Software's production-proven Volumetric Particle Rendering, Manipulation and Management Toolkit for 3ds MAX. Recently given a scroe of 5/5 in a Max Underground review and commonly described as a ‘mad scientists laboratory on a space station’, Krakatoa is an incredibly deep product that delivers amazing results.

This Webinar has been designed to teach existing Krakatoa MX users how to more effectively interact and use Krakatoa to maximize its potential.  

If you are a user of any level, this Webinar will bring you one step closer to being a Krakatoa Master!

Register for a session now by clicking a date below:

Tue, May 22, 2012 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM CDT

Wed, May 23, 2012 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM CDT

Once registered, you will receive an email confirming your registration with information you need to join the Webinar. 

Hydraulx uses Krakatoa and XMesh on "The Avengers"

As reported by FX Guide, Hydraulx used Thinkbox Software's Krakatoa volumetric particle renderer in the opening sequence of the box office smash "The Avengers" released in North America on May 4th.

“We did the opening ten minutes of the movie, other than the opening set-up in space,” says Hydraulx’s Colin Strause... “For the actual destruction shots, they were 100% digital,” he says. “So we had to make every building and light and pieces of glass and cars, and add in the fireballs and explosions. We modeled in Maya, rendered in Mental Ray, and then did all the destruction using Thinking Particles in 3ds Max, Krakatoa and Fume FX for the dust and particles and explosions.”

In addition, Hydraulx was one of the first Thinkbox customers to employ Thinkbox' XMesh geometry caching toolset for moving Thinking Particles data from 3ds Max to Maya.

For more information on all companies contributing amazing visual effects for this movie, please read the complete FX Guide article "VFX roll call for The Avengers" written by Mike Seymour and published on May 6th, 2012.