Several videos that were recorded during the Stoke MX Webinars broadcast live on May 16th and 17th, 2013 have now been posted on the Stoke MX product page.

The videos cover the basic usage and workflows of Stoke MX and its integration with various 3ds Max components, 3rd party plugins and other Thinkbox products. In addition, the theory and practice of the asynchronous caching and multi-threading used by Stoke are discussed and illustrated.

Thinkbox Software has released a plugin pack for Deadline 5.2 which adds support for the 2014 product line of Autodesk including 3ds Max 2014, Composite 2014, Maya 2014 and Softimage 2014. In addition, Modo 7xx and Vue 11 support has also been included.

Several other Thinkbox products have also been updated: 

• Krakatoa MY 2.1.8 now supports Maya 2014
• Frost 1.3.6 can now be installed in 3ds Max 2014 64 bit.



• XMesh 1.1.7 Saver and Loader can also be installed in 3ds Max 2014 64 bit.
• Stoke MX 1.0.0 was already released with 3ds Max 2014 64 bit support.

Because 3ds Max 2014 does not provide a 32 bit version anymore, no support for that flavour was needed.

Adding other 3ds Max Plugins to 3ds Max 2014

Due to the SDK/plugin compatibility between 3ds Max 2013 and 3ds Max 2014, all other 3ds Max plugins including Krakatoa MX and Genome MX can also be used in 3ds Max 2014 64 bit, but require manual modications to the plugin.ini file. New installers of these products with 3ds Max 2014 support are planned for the near future.

In the mean time, users can follow these steps to load the 2013 versions of these plugins in 3ds Max 2014:

1. Locate the plugin.ini file of Max 2013 for your locale - for US English language, the path is usually "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2013\en-US\plugin.ini". If you are using a different language, the path will be different. For example, for German the path would be "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2013\de-DE\plugin.ini", for Japanese it would be "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2014\ja-JP\plugin.ini" and so on. Note that the Thinkbox installers add the plugin entries to all languages' plugin.ini files.

2. Open the file in a text editor like Notepad and find the desired plugin line. For Krakatoa MX 2.1.x, it would be

Krakatoa=C:\Program Files\Thinkbox\Krakatoa MX\3dsMax2013\

For Genome, the line would look like

Genome MX=C:\Program Files\Thinkbox\Genome MX\3dsMax2013\

Select the desired line and copy it into the Windows clipboard.

3. Locate the corresponding plugin.ini file of 3ds Max 2014, e.g. "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\3ds Max 2014\en-US\plugin.ini"

4. Make sure you are allowed to modify it - you must have Administrator rights, right-click > Properties > Security tab > Edit... > Users group or user name > check Allow / Full Control > OK > OK

5. Open the plugin.ini file of 3ds Max 2014 in a text editor and paste the line from step 2.

6. Save the file.

7. Start 3ds Max 2014 - you should now have the plugin(s) working. 

A set of videos recorded live during the first Krakatoa For Maya Webinar broadcast on May 7th and 8th, 2013 are now available!

The covered topics complement the written tutorials already available in the Krakatoa MY documentation, and go into more detail to further illustrate the typical basic workflows.

Thinkbox will be holding a Webinar to highlight the latest product release of Stoke MX.

Stoke MX is an easy to use Particle Simulator designed to simplify the creation of high volume particle clouds driven by Velocity Fields. 

Supported Velocity Field sources include FumeFX and Ember simulations, other particle animations from Particle Flow, Thinking Particles or external particle file sequences in PRT or RealFlow BIN formats, 3ds Max Force SpaceWarps etc.

Register for a session now by clicking a date below:

Thu, May 16, 2013 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM PDT
Fri, May 17, 2013 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM BST

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

System Requirements

PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Mac®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.6 or newer

Mobile attendees
Required: iPhone®, iPad®, Android™ phone or Android tablet

Los Angeles, CA (May 1, 2013) - Thinkbox Software today announced Stoke MX, a particle simulator plug-in for Autodesk 3ds Max designed to simplify and accelerate the creation of high-volume particle clouds driven by velocity fields. 

Fast and easy to use, Stoke MX supports a large number of emitter and velocity sources, and introduces new workflows. Previously unavailable capabilities include multi-threaded particle advection, rapid memory-buffered playback, and asynchronous multi-threaded particle file saving, which enables significantly higher performance compared to existing workflows.   

Key features of Stoke MX include: 

• Quick particle generation from other particle systems, geometry surfaces, volumes, vertices and edges including selection and soft-selection support, as well as from Sitni Sati's FumeFX simulations
• Optional emitter channel acquisition with minimal overhead
• Particle advection using velocities from other particle systems or files, 3ds Max force space warps, FumeFX simulations, Thinkbox’s Ember simulations, and other Stoke simulations
• Velocity field mixing, scaling and optional divergence removal from particle-based velocity fields to produce uncompressible fluid motion
• Flexible memory caching for fast simulation iterations and interactive viewport playback
• PRT file saving using one or more background threads, decoupling the simulation from the particle saving process for even faster iterations
• Integration with local and Thinkbox’s Deadline partitioning
• Extensive MAXScript exposure enabling the creation of custom Stoke-based tools
• Compatible with the Thinkbox’s Krakatoa MX high-volume particle renderer and its various components including PRT Loader and other PRT objects, Magma and delete modifiers, particle data viewer, etc
• Compatible with Thinkbox Software’s Frost particle mesher (version 1.3.5 and higher)  

“The flexibility of Stoke is phenomenal so we are super excited to see what artists can do with it,” said Chris Bond, founder, Thinkbox Software. “Stoke enables a completely new way of working. Instead of being stuck in a rigid linear simulation workflow, artists can essentially layer their particles and work backwards to mix, enhance or alter simulation data quickly and easily without having to re-simulate. It opens up a lot of possibilities.” 

“Stoke MX gives us the opportunity to build layers of detail upon fluid simulations with the exciting speed, control and freedom of imagination that have become a trademark of tools by Thinkbox Software,” noted Hristo Velev, a visual effects artist with early access to the software. “A simple, well directed base simulation can be quickly developed into a complex modern effect. Artists get plenty of room to create with negligible learning curve, due to the use of very successful Thinkbox technology like Magmaflow and PRT caching. And with these, it fits tightly in existing pipelines hosting the rest of the Thinkbox portfolio, especially Krakatoa and Frost. Stoke is a force multiplier for simulation work.” 

Visual effects artist Jason Crosby added, “For the wormhole shot in After Earth, Stoke allowed me to come up with a look in just a couple days. Creating iterations was a very quick process and the support from Thinkbox was amazing!” 

Animation courtesy of Torbjorn Olsson.

The Stoke MX base package includes one workstation and two network simulation licenses. Additional network simulation licenses can be purchased individually. To request a 15-day evaluation license, or for more information about Stoke MX, including pricing, please call 1-866-419-0283 or visitwww.thinkboxsoftware.com/sales

About Thinkbox Software

Thinkbox Software provides creative solutions for visual artists in entertainment, engineering and design. Developer of high-volume particle renderer Krakatoa and render farm management software Deadline, the team of Thinkbox Software solves difficult production problems with intuitive, well-designed solutions and remarkable support. As an artist-driven company, we create tools that help artists manage their jobs and empower them to create worlds and imagine new realities. Thinkbox was founded in 2010 by Chris Bond, founder of Frantic Films. http://www.thinkboxsoftware.com/

Media Contact: 

Frances Ratliff
Raz Public Relations  
310-450-1482  
frances@razpr.com

"Krakatoa for Maya - An Introduction" Webinar

Come learn about the renderer used to create content for movie hits like Avatar, The Avengers, Transformers 3, Harry Potter 8 and Oblivion, as well as the upcoming Star Trek - Into Darkness, Man of Steel, After Earth, and more! 

Krakatoa MY seamlessly connects Autodesk Maya with the Krakatoa renderer and provides a number of features designed to accelerate artists’ workflow when manipulating millions of particles. Krakatoa MY shares the same rendering core with Krakatoa SR (Stand-alone Renderer) and Krakatoa MX (3ds Max) which will produce identical results given the same input data and settings.

Register for a session now by clicking a date below:
Tue, May 7, 2013 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM PDT
Wed, May 8, 2013 4:30 PM - 6:00 PM BST

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

System Requirements
PC-based attendees
Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server

Mac®-based attendees
Required: Mac OS® X 10.6 or newer

Mobile attendees
Required: iPhone®, iPad®, Android™ phone or Android tablet

According to 3D artist Rhys Dippie of Auckland, New Zealand-based Assembly Ltd, the company recently finished a commercial for Anchor milk products and the new Light Proof bottle using several Thinkbox Software products, including Frost, Genome, XMesh and Deadline.

The fluid simulation was produced using proprietary software. The simulation results were meshed using the Frost particle mesher in Zhu/Bridson mode. 

The milk meshes were then processed with the Genome procedural geometry modifier to keep smooth surfaces against the glass and to avoid sharp edges. The grass in the bird shot was also animated using Genome.

All the cow and milk meshes were cached as XMesh individually using the Thinkbox' Deadline network manager. Deadline was also used for all simulation and rendering.

Click here to visit the Assembly web site to learn more about the project.

Stoke MX is an easy to use Particle Simulator for 3ds Max designed to simplify and accelerate the creation of high volume particle clouds driven by Velocity Fields.

It can be used to advect millions of particles using 3ds Max Space Warps, FumeFX and Ember simulations, or velocities of other particles including Particle Flow, Thinking Particles, Krakatoa PRT Loaders, and even the 3ds Max legacy particle systems. Stoke can mix and animate the influences of any number of velocity sources, and can produce realistic fluid motion in dense particle clouds using just a few source particles.

Stoke MX can generate particles from geometry sources or from other particles, allowing the animation of previously static particle clouds like Krakatoa PRT Volume or Krakatoa PRT Maker, as well as the replication of cached particle sequences as free-flowing dynamic simulations.

Stoke MX is fast, fully multi-threaded and very easy to use. It can be rendered directly by Krakatoa and is a valid particle source for Frost meshing. It supports Krakatoa Magma modifiers on its modifier stack and produces Krakatoa-compatible PRT file sequences for caching and further processing. 

To learn more about Stoke MX and watch several videos recorded during various stages of its development, please visit the Stoke MX product page. 

THE BETA IS NOW CLOSED.

The developers at Anatomical Travelogue shared with us this early preview video of the Thinkbox Krakatoa SR renderer running inside the Eyeon Fusion compositing package:

Anatomical Travelogue  is an award-winning producer of visually rich health content, specializing in the art of medical visualization for all media including books, magazines, interactive applications and TV shows.

The Research & Development department at Anatomical Travelogue has been using Krakatoa and other related Thinkbox products for many years to turn real-world medical data including MRI scans into compelling visual content.

Check out some other research examples from the past like the Chameleon and the Human Hand Test:

Los Angeles, CA (March 11, 2013) - Thinkbox Software announces the release of Krakatoa SR, a stand-alone version of Thinkbox Software's high-volume particle renderer for Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems that can be integrated with any 3D content creation application. 

Previously available for Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk Maya 3D software, Krakatoa is CPU-based, highly optimized, heavily multi-threaded, and can be used successfully on most hardware running Windows or Linux operating systems, including laptops and render nodes, without dedicated high-end graphics accelerators. Krakatoa SR exposes both a Python-based interface and a C++ API to connect to various professional 3D applications such as The Foundry’s Nuke or Side Effects Software’s Houdini. 

Key features of Krakatoa SR include: 

• Point or voxel representation of particle data, with various filter modes, motion blur and depth of field camera effects, and HDRI render passes output to OpenEXR files

• Support for both additive and volumetric shading models at the same time, with per-particle control over color, emission, absorption, density and more

• Support for various light scattering algorithms, high-quality self-shadowing and occlusions from both geometry and DTEX maps

• Particle loading of Krakatoa .PRT file sequences, RealFlow .BIN file sequences and .CSV file sequences, with the ability to offset, retime, combine and modify already cached particles

• Procedural particle creation from polygon mesh volumes and mathematical algorithms

• Particle repopulation for render-time conversion of low-count simulations into high-count particle clouds  

“We want artists to be able to deploy our tools in any way they can possibly imagine,” said Chris Bond, founder, Thinkbox Software. “Krakatoa SR enables even more applications to leverage our software’s powerful volumetric particle rendering capabilities and we’re eager to see what our clients produce once they start adopting it.” 

“Integrating Krakatoa SR with our existing toolset was easy and we were able to get it rolling without much effort,” said Arun Ramasamy, Software Engineer, Anatomical Travelogue, an award-winning creator of incredible high-end 3D visualizations based on actual human data. 
“We received constant support from the Thinkbox development team and it worked so well that we are developing Krakatoa into a functional particle rendering pipeline inside eyeon Software’s Fusion.” 

“Krakatoa SR allows us to exploit the power of the Krakatoa particle renderer through a ridiculously simple API,” added Sven Thomas, Software Engineer, Anatomical Travelogue. “We can just choose the channels we need, stream the particles to the renderer and see the results at an amazing speed.” 

Haggi Krey, Visual Effects Supervisor at Ambient Entertainment, has been using Krakatoa SR for work on the upcoming animated film Tarzan, which is scheduled for release in 3D later in 2013. 

“When we switched our fluid pipeline to Naiad for Tarzan, we had been searching for a way to do high quality particle rendering and were extremely excited to get our hands on Krakatoa SR,” Haggi explained. “We were able to implement Krakatoa SR based on the open source OpenMaya framework and Partio library and now we can read any particle system from almost any software and render in Krakatoa. Without Krakatoa, it would be impossible to get the required quality on some of our shots.” 

Krakatoa SR is compatible with the network rendering licenses used by the other Krakatoa implementations (Krakatoa MX and Krakatoa MY). 

Please visit www.thinkboxsoftware.com/sales or call 1-866-419-0283 to request a 15-day evaluation license, or for more information about Krakatoa SR, including pricing. 

About Thinkbox Software

Thinkbox Software provides creative solutions for visual artists in entertainment, engineering and design. Developer of high-volume particle renderer Krakatoa and render farm management software Deadline, the team of Thinkbox Software solves difficult production problems with intuitive, well-designed solutions and remarkable support. As an artist-driven company, we create tools that help artists manage their jobs and empower them to create worlds and imagine new realities. Thinkbox was founded in 2010 by Chris Bond, founder of Frantic Films. http://www.thinkboxsoftware.com/ 

Media Contact: 

Frances Ratliff
Raz Public Relations  
310-450-1482  
frances@razpr.com