About Michael Muwanguzi

Michael Muwanguzi is a graphic artist and web designer currently living in Los Angeles, CA. Apart from working on print ads, web-related advertising, and 3D design work, he is currently working on new film production work and is designing a 3D adventure game from scratch.

Autodesk Maya 2013 (Review)

Maya 2013 boxshot

This version of Maya will be more of an advantage to a film crew or microbudget filmmaker. Whether you’re a large production house or a small group of indie filmmakers, it’s a good idea to get familiar with these tools and build on this innovative trend for digital immersion, especially if you intend to make forays into stereography.

Read the rest of this story...

SIGGRAPH 2012 – Day 3 (News)

Motion Puppet lets you preview animation clips and manipulate the rig of the character

Huge improvements are being made on the side of motion capture. Some not very affordable but necessary steps to increasing our knowledge base for producing high fidelity capture and playback. Today, I had a chance to catch up with the guys at Reallusion who do have a motion capture solution that is financially more in reach with our readership than most other products on the market.

Read the rest of this story...

SIGGRAPH 2012 – Day 2 (News)

James Cameron

Well, finally back from another day of strolling the aisles and perusing the booths looking for anything that I think will interest the Microfilmmaker community. There is great deal to get excited about for the future of film making and the developers that are creating the tech to make it happen. Here are the hits from today.

Read the rest of this story...

SIGGRAPH 2012 – Day 1 (News)

Cutting Edge Tablet

It was exciting to get back on the showfloor for SIGGRAPH and get to see the latest in software innovation as well as burgeoning technologies. I was able to catch up with a few developers that we’ve showcased on our site before as well as check out a few new products that you will hopefully be able to take advantage of in the future.

Read the rest of this story...

Flash Professional CS6 (Review)

Flash Professional CS6

Today, though, despite what Flash has done for the internet and its builders, the climate has drastically changed presenting a frigid reception to the once indispensable toolset. New media devices, like the Apple iPad (with its huge adoption rate), have decided to freeze out the plugin from being used and in so doing splinter the market on utilizing it in production. On top of that, the rise of HTML 5 has finally brought a way for developers to create rich media without having to depend on complicated scripting or purchased software. These big changes beg the question “Is Flash still relevant anymore?” In Flash Professional CS6, Adobe has made some integral additions to answer that very question.

Read the rest of this story...

Calling All Artists: Showcase Your Work in Autodesk’s 2012 Animation Show Reel (Announcement)

Calling All Artists

Every year, the art of animation takes center stage at SIGGRAPH. Autodesk is inviting all 3D artists to submit their work for a chance to be included in this year’s Animation Show Reel, which will be showcased at Autodesk’s SIGGRAPH booth in Los Angeles, CA from August 7-9. The show reel will also be featured on the Autodesk YouTube Channel, the AREA community and the Autodesk website.

Read the rest of this story...

MentalCore (Review)

Core-CG

MentalCore is a competitively priced product that could save you more in long run when you consider the alternatives. The other popular renderers on the market today cost over a thousand dollars and have their own workflows that take time to get used to. But for users that are already familiar with working with Mental Ray, you get an inexpensive solution that not only fixes technical issues, it releases features that lay latent within the software you already owned. Small learning curve and low-cost entry makes choosing MentalCore over something unknown extremely compelling.

Read the rest of this story...

3ds Max ECS 2012 (Review)

3D Studio Max Logo

For the past several years, programs like 3ds Max, Softimage, Mudbox, and MotionBuilder were separate, unique experiences all on their own. Artists, as well as companies, had to ally themselves with one particular 3D application to supply most of their needs and be cautious when considering any other packages to add on that might throw a wrench in their existing pipeline. Since those days, Autodesk has been working to bring the biggest 3D applications used in the entertainment industry under one roof. But collecting all the most popular tools was not all Autodesk had plans to do.

Read the rest of this story...