Windows 10 marks a new era for Microsoft with the return of the Start menu, the demise of Internet Explorer, and the introduction of the remodeled Windows Store. While the new Windows Store is meant to bridge the gap between every device running Windows 10, many apps have yet ...more
Snapchat is mostly credited as the first AR social network, and, like most social media companies, its revenue model is nested largely within advertising. As such, the company now has a new avenue for branded content. Of course, they are not the only mobile advertising game i ...more
Magic Leap and Samsung are putting their money where their augmented reality plans are, with the former acquiring an AR collaboration technology and the latter funding a waveguide display maker. Meanwhile, Lenovo and startup Tilt Five are preparing their own augmented reality ...more
If we were to assign a theme for the 2019 edition of the Next Reality 30 (NR30), it might be something along the lines of, "What have you done for me lately?" Many of the top names in the industry from the 2018 edition remain the same, but their positions have shuffled. The p ...more
With Google's release of Poly API on Thursday, the search giant has found a way to simplify the workflow for AR creators by enabling the ability to integrate its 3D object search engine Poly directly into an application. While services like Turbosquid and Sketchfab, websites ...more
Pong, one of the simplest video games ever created, has managed to evolve in some crazy ways over time, from the original basic 2D version and colorful Breakout sequel, to the PlayStation game with power-ups and 3D graphics, and now Cyberpong VR—a virtual reality game on the H ...more
Why do you need augmented reality? Because enterprise, they say. And while that's certainly true for several disciplines, there's still that mainstream use case hanging out there waiting for users to discover beyond the realm of enterprise and gaming. After much thought — and ...more
One could argue that, at least for the moment, software development is more important to the augmented reality experience than hardware. Since a viable augmented reality headset has yet to emerge for the broader, mainstream consumer market, currently, the same devices that mak ...more
Just weeks after officially launching its mobile augmented reality toolkit, Google can now claim one of its first Android and ARCore app exclusives with the Curate app from Sotheby's International Realty. Available now in the Play Store, Curate operates similarly to furniture ...more
If online retail is war (and who says it isn't), then CGTrader is prepared to arm its allies with augmented reality ammunition. On Wednesday, at the Augmented World Expo (AWE) in Santa Clara, California, the 3D content provider unveiled ARsenal, an e-commerce software tool th ...more
Using a scanner to "take photos" is like having great studio lighting, a top of the art photocopy machine, and a high quality camera all in one. The process results in a shallow depth of a field, amazing detail, and best of all a dreamy, magazine-like quality. Interesting art ...more
Just like Apple and Google, Facebook has been working to develop computer vision shortcuts designed to give mobile apps augmented reality superpowers. And while Apple's ARKit and Google's ARCore use computer vision to guess the position of horizontal and vertical surfaces, Fa ...more
In another move that pushes Meta 2 toward becoming a legitimate workplace tool, Meta Company has partnered with Dassault Systèmes to bring augmented reality support to the latter's Solidworks 3D CAD software. With the addition of a "Publish to Xtended Reality" feature in Soli ...more
No matter if you've used one or not, you've got to admit that 3D printers are pretty darn awesome, especially the self-replicating ones that extrude molten plastic and the shoebox-sized versions that use mesmerizing stereolithography to build tiny objects layer by layer. But w ...more
For the unaware, RED is a company that specializes in high-end cameras and other recording devices. RED's cameras are used to shoot some of Hollywood's biggest films and TV shows. Their modular designs make them ideal for the user who does a lot of mixing and matching — and ha ...more
Last June, Meta began shipping their Meta 2 mixed reality headset, to the delight of many. In September, it was announced that shipping had been delayed until the end of the year. Then it appeared that Christmas would bring something magical when Meta sent out an email four da ...more
In a previous tutorial, we were able to measure horizontal surfaces such as the ground, tables, etc., all using ARKit. With ARKit 1.5, we're now able to measure vertical surfaces like walls! In this tutorial, you'll learn how to make your augmented reality app for iPads and i ...more
Have you noticed the many utility ARKit apps on the App Store that allow you to measure the sizes of horizontal planes in the world? Guess what? After this tutorial, you'll be able to do this yourself! In this tutorial, you'll learn how to make your augmented reality app for ...more
In our last ARKit tutorial, we learned how to measure the sizes of horizontal planes. It was a helpful entryway into the arena of determining spatial relationships with real world spaces versus virtual objects and experiences. This time around, we'll dive into a slightly diff ...more
A tutorial covering a classic rigid body simulation of ball crashing through a wall of bricks. The first two parts cover building a (procedural) brick wall, and the final two parts cover converting it into a RBD simulation. Whether you're new to Side Effects Software's popular ...more
Need help wrapping your head around how layer order effects visibility in After Effects when using 2D and 3D layers? This clip explains it all. With After Effects, it's easy. Whether you're new to Adobe's popular motion graphics and compositing software or a seasoned video pro ...more
Need to convert a NURBS surface to plain old polygons when working in Maya 2011? This clip will show you how it's done. Whether you're new to Autodesk's popular modeling software or a seasoned 3D artist just looking to better acquaint yourself with the Maya 2011 workflow, you' ...more
Learn how to use 2D and 3D library patterns in the Paneling Tools plugin for Rhino. Whether you're new to Rober McNeel & Associates' popular NURBS-based modeling application or a seasoned 3D arts professional just looking to better acquaint yourself with Rhino 4's new features ...more
Pixel Perfect is the "perfect" show to help you with your Photoshop skills. Be amazed and learn as master digital artist Bert Monroy takes a stylus and a digital pad and treats it as Monet and Picasso do with oil and canvas. Learn the tips and tricks you need to whip those dig ...more
How do you make a plastic bottle sit on top of a Rubik's Cube without a Rubik's Cube? It may seem like a brain teaser, but it's more like something you would see in an Escher drawing. An optical illusion. A three-dimensional world trapped in a two-dimensional image, which is ...more
In this Genhead video tutorial, you'll see how to select the appropriate photograph and take photographs correctly with a digital camera so that they work well in Genhead. Genemation's GenHead is standalone software tool that is designed to enable both professional and amateu ...more
In this 2 part tutorial, Michael Park will demonstrate how to create a shotgun blast at the camera using 3D rendered particles and distortion trails along with some 2D footage to create a convincing effect. In part 1 of this tutorial, we will use 3ds Max to create the 3D shotg ...more
Microsoft's new mobile operating system is officially out on the market, and programmers are hard at work developing new mobile apps for Windows Phone 7 devices. But there's a lot going on in this new platform, which means there's a whole lot to be learned, and the only man in ...more
This video series takes you through every step of building a building in SketchUp and is taken from chapter 4 of "Google SketchUp for Dummies" in case you want to follow along. PART 1 explains how to switch to a 2D view to get you ready to build the floor plan. It's a good ide ...more
Recently, buyout talks between Google and Groupon ended with Groupon turning down Google's $6 million offer. But with Amazon backing LivingSocial, should they have? Your guess is as good as mine, but one thing's for sure— Groupon has a great voice, and they're sharing it with ...more
This Rhino 3D software tutorial will take you through the process of creating a plan drawing of Mies Van Der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion. The tutorial teaches you the fundamentals of creating plan drawings in Rhino and issues of doing 3D work for the plan drawings. PART 1: will ...more
This clip demonstrates how to get video and images into the node-based compositor in Blender using the RenderLayer and the Image input nodes. Whether you're new to the Blender Foundation's popular 3D modeling program or a seasoned graphic artist just interested in better acqua ...more
The classic Super Mario Bros is perhaps the most beloved video game on Earth. Almost daily, homages to Mario pop up on the web over and over and over again. Everybody loves the charming 2D world of Mario. But what would Mario look like in 3D… and moreover, what would Super Mar ...more
Sitting in the dentist’s waiting room, I found I couldn’t browse the internet on my smartphone anymore. My eyes were tired from reading and there were no headphones to listen to music. There are no magazines at this dentist’s office, just an old TV playing Russian music videos ...more
In this video tutorial, we learn how to perform an impressive ACAAN card trick using two decks and the Si Stebbins stack method. For more information about the trick and its execution, including detailed, step-by-step instructions, and to get started incorporating this trick i ...more
Finally. A cross-over between Street Fighters and Tekken characters! It's actually two games, not just one. From the OP in the Neogaf Thread: Street Fighter Cross Tekken will be done in SFIV visual style with Street Fighter 2D gameplay. Tekken Cross Street Fighter will be don ...more
Camera mapping is a clever technique that allows you to take a still image and convert it into 3d geometry for use in an animation. This powerful technique is used extensively by visual effects studios for feature films, commercials and television shows. It's especially useful ...more
There are so many fun things you can do with Photoshop. The possibilities and ways to manipulate seemingly ordinary images are endless. In this particular tutorial, you will learn how to take a 2D photo or image and turn it into a 3D one in Photoshop. You will be shown how to ...more
This video demonstrates how to create a 3D Lego brick using the Illustrator. In this, first a circle is made and then, by using the "transform‚" mode, another circle is made. Then by the 3D command it is converted into a 3D image. Further you can copy these circles and make th ...more
There are seemingly endless photography apps for the iPhone—it is perhaps one of the most popular arenas for application developers. We've covered a few in Giveaway Tuesdays, but nothing comprehensive. We would be remiss to omit the two most popular frontrunners—Hipstamatic ( ...more
Sometimes an iDevice is best used for idle, pointless fun. Today's segment of Making Art on Your iOS Deviceis a mixed bag of time-wasting cool effects and random, but useful art-making tools. Below, 10 apps for creating anything from erratic hand-shaken digital effects to your ...more
Like the press covering film and many other specialized fields, video game journalists use all sorts of jargon to convey to their knowledgable readers as much information about a game as quickly as possible. For non or newbie gamers, this can be extremely confusing. Those of ...more
In the mid '90s, there was no such thing as a widely available indie video game. Brick-and-mortar stores were the only places for consumers to buy games, and magazines were the only outlets to hear about them. For video game creators, the need for a publisher to market and dis ...more
This clip demonstrates how to load an image into the Blender VSE and convert its format, both in size and in format (JPG->PNG) and space savings comparison. Whether you're new to the Blender Foundation's popular 3D modeling program or a seasoned graphic artist just interested ...more
Microsoft and the Game Creators have joined forces to bring you a complete and free gamemaking solution. This video will show you what you need to download and install to get up and running fast. For more on how you can get started with the Game Creators Dark Game Development ...more
A game labeled as 'educational' usually spells its death among hardcore gamers. The educational game genre is mostly intended for children, and games that appeal to children often lack the sort of widespread appeal that makes them commercially successful. Many people play gam ...more
This is a clear video showing how to easily draw a 3D letter 'B'. First of all you start by just writing the letter 'B' normally; and then you double outline all of the lines you have drawn, both inside and outside of the letter. Color it in with a block color for a 2-dimensio ...more
This software tutorial shows you how to fix cut off light rays when working in the Shine plug-in for After Effects. Shine is a 2D plug-in for After Effects, Motion, Final Cut Pro and Premiere Pro that simulates 3D volumetric light effects within your editor. Watch and learn th ...more
This software tutorial shows you how to create a 3D Gobo light in Trapcode Shine. Shine is a 2D plug-in for After Effects, Premiere Pro and Final Cut Pro that simulates 3D volumetric light effects within your editor. TV and movie pros use it daily to create light rays that swe ...more
Shine is a 2D plug-in that simulates 3D volumetric light effects within your editor. TV and movie pros use it daily to create light rays that sweep through logotypes or any kind of footage. Learn how to get started with Shine in After Effects in this tutorial. Shine will also ...more
VFX artist Roger Bolton has worked on films including The Lord of the Rings, Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and Kingdom of Heaven. He has also created effects for his own use -- in this case, a wide variety of 2D and 3D VU meters, automatically animated by the audio in your ...more
Check out this cool video tutorial on how to use dupliverts in Blender. Dupliverts are Blender's version of an array command. It places and object at every vertex of your emitter mesh and gives you some control over the orientation of dupliverted objects. It can also be conver ...more
In this tutorial, Creative Cow leader, Michael Park, demonstrates another, more advanced method for creating shimmering glitter particles using Trapcode's Particular in After Effects. The main advancement is the implementation of 3d rotation of the glitter particles, as well a ...more
Smartphones have already hit the shelves with glasses-free 3D displays, but now you can enjoy the luxury of a 3D display on your 2D devices, thanks to Japanese company Global Wave. They've developed a special film that allows you to enjoy three-dimensional content on existing ...more
Last Thursday, on October 7th, indie game developers from around the world walked down a red carpet in Santa Monica, California in the hopes of winning an IndieCade award. We previously discussed the IndieCade festival and conference, but the award show is a smaller, more incl ...more
Focusing has always been a problem with photographers, and even with today's digital cameras it's not easy. The most obvious problem is trying to accurately focus on the subject before exposure. Next, you have to choose the correct aperture size in relation to the depth of fie ...more
The aging and maturity of video games as a medium has lead to some unfortunate consequences. One of these, perhaps drawn from the film industry, is the spate of remakes that has overtaken the game market over the last few years. It hasn't been as bad as the remakeorama trend i ...more
I've been curious to watch one of these famed '3D' games for a while now. Last April at NAB, I attended several 3D panels and folks from ESPN suggested that one of the strongest experiences that would bring 3D into the home would be live sports. I've missed opportunities to wa ...more
Shapes in 3ds Max are 2D objects that do not show in the rendered images, but are used as a basis for construction of 3D objects or as animation paths. Shapes have names and a specific color in the viewport. In this 3ds Max 7 & 8 video tutorial you will learn how to make primi ...more
This is a gameplay video of all the Ultra Combos for each fighter in the highly anticipated video game Street Fighter IV for the Xbox 360. Street Fighter IV is a 2008 fighting game produced by Capcom. Street Fighter IV is currently released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, wit ...more