The destruction kit plugin for Max has been updated with some great fragmentation tools and Reactor Rigid Body support via the RayFire user interface. Check out the complete list of features and some demo videos at MirVadim.com.

Boomer Labs has announced the latest release of Max2AE, the plugin that bridges the gap between Max and After Effects. New features include various UI enhancements, improved memory management, automatic scene scaling, support for 23.976 fps HD drop frame format, and the ability to export particles as layers, nulls or lights. More information at BoomerLabs.com.

Itoo Software has released a new version of Forest Pack, its set of plugins for the creation of large extensions of trees and vegetation. New features include the ability to use multiple meshes in a single Forest object, automatic detection of collisions in the distribution of objects, support for VRay proxy, an improved Mental Ray shader, etc. Visit ItooSoft.com for more.

New features in Di-O-Matic's head creation software for 3DS Max include improved shapes and proportions for the default head, additional facial deformations, automatic Voice-O-Matic configuration for lip-synching, enhanced deformations including gender, ethnicity and phonemes, etc. Visit Di-O-Matic.com for more.

GrowFX is a new plugin by Russian company Exlevel designed for creating and animating trees, plants, flowers and various types of vegetation. Following the steps of Thomas Luft's Ivy Generator, GrowFX incorporates building mechanisms that make plants grow and encircle any scene object and bend around different obstacles. An image gallery and downloadable demo version of the software can be found at Exlevel.com.

Vanilla Seed's "automatic and visual pass manager" for 3DS Max now features Combustion, AE, Fusion and Nuke export. Check out a sample video at Vanilla-Seed.com (click on "video 6").

Cebas announced the release of ThinkingParticles 3.0. The latest version of the rule-based particle system offers an impressive number of features including AGEIA PhysX Core 2.8.x support, procedural particle based deformation simulation, new and enhanced dynamic, material and instancing nodes, a full port debugger, etc. More information and some sample animations at Cebas.com.

Branches is a collection of tools designed to help artists create 3D trees for realtime visualizations.

Augsburg-based Thinking Apes have officially released version 1.0 of NodeJoe, the schematic material editor plugin for 3DS Max. Find out more at NodeJoe.com.

Sitni Sati has released AfterBurn 4. New features include: an AfterBurn Shadow Map that provides speed improvements from a factor of five to ten without significant shadow quality loss, FusionWorks support (proper blending with FumeFX, ScatterVL Pro and standard Max Fog, plus Z-Depth Render Element capabilities, and output of non-clamped colors for HDRI formats), Animation Flow Curves editing enhancements, geometry clipping option for rendering particles and more.