Surprising news, development of Chaos Group’s Aura plugin has resumed, now adopting the name of their earlier plugin distributed by Digimation some years ago: Phoenix. According to the developers, the plugin combines a grid base simulator and renderer that allows the user to create uniform fluid behavior, plus additional processes such as pressure decay, thermal radiation cooling, and mass-temperature dependence. The software promises fast simulation times and quality of final production, and will provide simulation of fire, smoke, and haze. Chaos Group have issued a call to Max users to participate in the beta testing of the software. More at ChaosGroup.com. The most recent news we could find at MU on Aura are from February 2005, this one has literally risen from the ashes.

The studio of Canadian artist Patrick Beaulieu has announced the upcoming publication of Animation Insiders, a series of books that offers a compilation of know-how, experiences and anecdotes from talented animators. More at Squeeze Studio Press.

Christopher Subagio’s HDR dome light script has been updated to work with more recent versions of Max. More at ScriptSpot.com.

Shotgun Software and Tweak Software have announced the integration of their two applications: Shotgun, a web-based project management and production tracking system, and RV, a cross-platform image sequence viewer that provides real-time playback of film resolution, HDR images. More at Shotgun Software and Tweak Software.

A demo of Unlimited Detail technology, a method for displaying 3D geometry that functions like a point cloud data search algorithm more than a standard 3D engine (1 – 2 – 3).

Here are the instructions. More at Ars Technica and the Open Video Alliance.

Italian artist Augusto Lombardi has posted online his latest demo reel. His work includes use of Particle Flow, ThinkingParticles, FumeFX, rigging and more. Check it out! Also of note he has been adding rigging and Particle Flow related tutorials to his website.

A number of articles have been published lately on the classification of freelance artists in temporary jobs, states’ pressure to collect taxes, and the difficulties this raises for both studios and freelancers. Find out more at Motionographer, Visual FX Digital Artists Guild and the New York Times.

Google, Sony and Intel are working on a new TV to bring Net content to the living room. More at the New York Times.

London-based Escape Studios, known for their Maya-oriented courses, have started offering online courses. Some of them covering 3DS Max, ZBrush, compositing, camera tracking, etc. More at EscapeStudios.com.