check the very good articles on Ray trace on fx guide given by Arnold render......

http://www.fxguide.com/featured/the-art-of-rendering/

hi,
      I have started research on Arnold render on maya. u can under stand that its very difficult to get the plugin so  i have asked from my boss to get a new licences for doing RND in this render. this is my starting day. i came to know lot of thing about this render engine. see lot of movie with very good quality render. since i am great lover of ray-trace rendering system. i will keep things updating......in my blog..............

Vue 10 Spline

E-on software has unveiled Vue 10 Infinite and Vue 10 xStream few days ago. Now please take a look at few Vue 10 Video to find out what's new It has
Vue 10 Spline Tools Tutorial Vue 10 includes a comprehensive spline toolkit that can be used for EcoSystems, terrain effects, building roads or creating objects. An automatic Path-finding algorithm can also be used to build realistic roads at the surface of terrains.

Bakery Relight

The Bakery is a computer graphics company developing innovative software solutions, designed to bring both artistry and productivity to new heights. By users, for users, we are committed to providing uncompromisingly powerful, robust and user-friendly products that maximize creativity while addressing the most demanding real world production and workflow challenges.

I will try this now for now i am testing 3delight...

finalRender 2 for Maya

Here, you will learn more about finalRender™ 2 for Maya and why we think it is the best alternative to the built-in software rendering systems offered in today's market. finalRender 2 for Maya is not only one of the best integrated rendering systems for Maya, with full support of Hypershade and many of the other shader nodes that Maya presents, but also offers one of the easiest and most efficient integrated pipeline systems of all renderers on the market.

Renowned for being the workhorse renderer for many bigger and even smaller productions, finalRender 2 for Maya goes way beyond just being a "simple" rendering application, with its all new revolutionary ShaderGrind™ concept of writing shader code, right within the Maya GUI. ShaderGrind brings total access and control to finalRender's raytracing core and represents the next evolutionary step of writing individual shaders in Maya. What was in the past, a task for highly skilled experts, can now be easily accomplished by any Lighting TD or Texturing Lead.

Fastest. Notebook GPU. Ever

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M GPU Launches in Alienware M18x and M17x Notebooks With Record-Breaking Gaming Performance

SANTA CLARA, CA -- (Marketwire) -- 06/28/2011 -- NVIDIA today announced the world's fastest notebook graphics processing unit (GPU)i, the NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 580M. Available now in the Alienware M18x, the new GPU sets new standards in industry leading benchmarks and games. It will also be available soon in the Alienware M17x notebook along with NVIDIA Optimus™ technology.

"The best game support. The best gaming features. The best gaming performance available anywhere. That's the essence of the GeForce GTX 580M," said Rene Haas, general manager of notebook products at NVIDIA. "With power like this, you can turn all the knobs to 11."

The first notebook PC to feature the GeForce GTX 580M, the Alienware M18x offers the option of two GeForce GTX 580M GPUs in one system for up to double the gaming performance, using NVIDIA SLI® technology. Not to be outdone, the Alienware M17x will offer the GeForce GTX 580M along with NVIDIA Optimus™ technology and will deliver 5 hours of battery life in Facebook, and 100 frames per second performance in Call of Duty: Black Ops.

"Gamers aspire to experience games at their highest settings," says Eddy Goyanes, product marketing manager for Alienware.

Processor

Intel® Core™ i7 2630QM 2.0GHz (2.8GHz w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache)
Intel® Core™ i7 2720QM 2.2GHz (3.3GHz w/Turbo Boost, 6MB Cache)
Intel® Core™ i7 2820QM 2.3GHz (3.4GHz w/Turbo Boost, 8MB Cache)
Intel® Core™ i7 2920XM, 2.5GHz (3.5GHz w/Turbo Boost, 8MB Cache)
Intel® Core™ i7 2920XM Overclocked Turbo Boost to 4.0GHz (8MB Cache)

Operating System

Genuine Windows® 7 Ultimate 64-Bit
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional 64-Bit
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-Bit

Memory6

4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz (2DIMMS)
6GB DDR3 at 1333MHz (2DIMMS)
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz (2DIMMS)
16GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz (4DIMMS)
32GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1333MHz (4DIMMS)
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (4DIMMS)
16GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1600MHz (4DIMMS)

Video Card

1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460M
Dual 1.5GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460M – NVIDIA® SLI® Enabled
Dual 2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 580M – NVIDIA® SLI® Enabled
Dual 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 6970M - AMD CrossFireX™

Display

18.4 inch display (1920x1080)

Audio and Speakers

Internal High-Definition 5.1 Performance Audio with WavesMAXX Audio (Standard)
Internal High-Definition 5.1 Performance Audio with SoundBlaster MB Software (Optional)
2.1 Speaker configuration with Subwoofer
Audio Powered by Klipsch®
7.1 Digital Audio out using HDMI out connection or S/PDIF Optical port .

Hard Drive

Up to 1500GB7 SATA hard drive (7200RPM)
Up to 512GB7 Solid State Drive SATA hard drive

Optical Drive

Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW) (standard)
Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)

Power

High Capacity 12-cell Lithium Ion (97whr)

Camera

3.0 Megapixel HD Video and Picture Camera with dual digital microphones

Wireless

Networking and Wi-Fi Options
Integrated 10/100/1000Mbps Gigabit Ethernet NIC (Standard)
Intel® Advanced-N 6200 a/g/n 2x2 MIMO Technology (Standard)
Intel® Ultimate-N Wi-Fi Link 6300 a/g/n 3x3 MIMO Technology (Optional)
60GHz WirelessHD Wireless Display - HDMI fidelity over wireless (Optional)

Bluetooth Option
Internal Bluetooth® 3.0 (Standard)

Ports, Slots & Chassis

External Chassis Connections
(1x) Power/DC-in Jack
(1x) RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet IPv6
(2x) SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Ports
(2x) Hi-Speed USB 2.0 Port
(1x) eSATA 3Gb/s + USB 2.0 Combo port (with PowerShare Technology)
(1x) Mini-Display Port
(1x) HDMI 1.4 Audio and Video Output
(1x) HDMI 1.3 Audio and Video Input
(1x) VGA Port
(1x) 9-in-1 Media Card Reader
(2x) Audio Out 1/8" Ports
(1x) Combo S/PDIF Optical output / Analog Headphone Line Out (7.1 digital audio output via S/PDIF)
(1x) Line In Microphone 1/8" Port (retaskable for 5.1 analog audio output)
(1x) Security Lock port

System Dimensions
Height
Front: 53.00mm (2.09 inches)
Rear: 54.20mm (2.13 inches)
Depth: 322.00 mm (12.68 inches)
Width: 436.00 mm (17.17 inches)
Starting at weight: 5.41 kg (11.93 lbs)

Color Options
Space Black Anodized Aluminum
Nebula Red Anodized Aluminum

Keyboard
4-Zone, multi-color RGB, 82 key keyboard with AlienFX™ lighting controls
5 user-programmable keys providing up to 15 distinct functions per application or game

Customizable Feature
Laser-Engraved Nameplate

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-m18x/pd.aspx

ICE Symmetrical Modeling

In this tutorial, 3D Technical Director Eric Thivierge will show you how to pull indices from a symmetry map then using a Point Index to Location node, access the symmetrical data on the opposite side of the mesh to allow for symmetrical modeling and transference of weight map data as well.