The latest project coming from Gary Yost, a wonderful timelapse sequence that shows rarely-seen sights on and around California’s Mount Tamalpais. Watch it on Vimeo.

A tutorial by Chaos Group’s Konstantin Gaytandzhiev that teaches a number of techniques including: managing large scenes, texture shortcuts using V-Ray procedurals, optimizing GI for animation, using V-Ray’s Render Elements and creating customized render passes, multi-channel OpenEXR output, etc. Watch it on YouTube.

A tutorial on Next Limit’s website.

A quick tip on Autodesk’s MaxStation blog.

French FX artist Adrien Rollet has posted online his latest reel. Watch it on Vimeo.

Evermotion have released a video tutorial focused on creating an old and weathered wall using 3DS Max and ZBrush. You can check it out on their Vimeo channel.

We have the pleasure to present readers with another quality review. MU editor and professor Paul Roberts reviews Octane Render, Otoy’s GPU-accelerated, unbiased renderer and its 3DS Max integration: “…a renderer that produces excellent results, fast.” Read the review.

Some notable papers will be presented at this year’s SIGGRAPH. Watch the video preview on YouTube. Links to the available papers can be found on Ke-Sen Huang’s website.

Unity has made their IOS and Android expansions free for mobile developers with Blackberry 10 and Windows Phone 8 expected in the next few months. As with the main application, there remain a paid professional edition with many more features. Find out more at Unity3D.

Sketchup 2013 has been released, the first significant update since Trimble acquired the software from Google last year. The new version includes a new copy-array tool for LayOut, curved label leader lines, dashes in dimensions, improvements in screen redraw and vector rendering efficiency, and the new extensions warehouse allowing users to search and install plugins without leaving the application. Find out more on the revamped Sketchup website.

A number of videos that were recorded during Thinkbox’s Stoke MX webinars on May 16th and 17th have been posted online. 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 software. More on Thinkbox’s website.

Autodesk’s Chris Murray shows how to invoke the new enhanced UI system in Max 2014 and start customizing it. In the second half of the video he covers the Mograph Tools UI that he created. More on Autodesk’s Max Nation blog.