This is a small maintenance update that fixes a few issues which were introduced with the version update for 3ds Max 2012:

- Problems with the mirror tool not working correctly in all versions of 3ds Max have been corrected.
- The installer has been updated to avoid a special case which caused the deinstallation getting stuck in some cases.

Additinal informations for the 3d-io Customers:
All 3d-io plugins are now available in updated versions for Autodesk 3ds Max 2012 and Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2012. Unwrella is also available for Maya 2012. All plug-ins support the 64 bit and also the 32 bit versions of Max/Maya.

In addition to support for the new releases the following changes were added to these updates:

BonesPro:
-Incorrect MetaBone display in the Track View editor has been fixed.
-Corrected errors which occassionally caused disproportional slowdown of 3ds Max when realtime view of MetaBones was enabled.

Flatiron:

-Improved network rendering in combination with MaxScript. The amount of required user interaction in dialogues has been reduced and a new MAXScript function allows users to merge large batches of render jobs at once without having to call merge for each separately.
-Corrected path issues with Network rendering that occassionally caused Flatiron to ignore files with specific path names.
-Corrected a situation which caused Flatiron to keep control of the netrender manager until 3ds Max was closed.

Visit the following websites for training material, downloads and more information:
BonesPro 4.52
Flatiron 1.61
Unwrella 2.13
UV-Packer 1.11

With version 4.51 BonesPro now offers full support for 3ds Max 2012 and 3ds Max Design 2012 (each in 32 bit and 64 bit versions).

List of changes and new features of BonesPro 4.51

• BonesPro now supports 3ds Max 2012 and 3ds Max Design 2012
• Incorrect MetaBone display in the Track View editor has been fixed.
• Corrected errors which occassionally caused disproportional slowdown of 3ds Max when realtime view of MetaBones was enabled.

The BonesPro plug-in and associated training materials are now available at http://www.bonespro.com

If you are a veteran user of BonesPro you can now take the next step and improve your animation workflow even more. If BonesPro is new to you, check out the tutorials and free trial to see how BonesPro can increase your productivity.

About 3d-io
3d-io games & video production GmbH is specialized company for high-end software development, modeling, animation, rendering, CG effects and 3D industrial design. 3d-io GmbH, headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany, has an established strong presence in game development, design & video production, digital content creation as well as in graphics and animation. We are dedicated to provide easy-to-use software products accompanied by dedicated support team, experienced programmers and top notch 3D artists.
Contact: www.3d-io.com

About Digimation Inc.
Digimation specializes in developing and delivering 3D solutions for the training and simulation industry including; Interactive Maintenance Trainers, Small Arms Trainers, Virtual Task Trainers, as well as Virtual Environments used in homeland security applications. The company’s service division produces photorealistic 3D parts used in maintenance trainers, OpenFlight 3D models used in simulations, and full 3D animation.
Contact: www.digimation.com

Following the numerous improvements and add-ons from the last releases, the 3d-io development team is proud to release a major update of BonesPro, the sophisticated skinning tool for Autodesk 3dsMax. BonesPro version 4.5 adds the production-proven fast and easy skin painting similar to ZBrush: artists can now paint weight adjustments in real-time and even smooth them out with the brush to achieve exact and elastic skin look & feel, just like using ZBrush / Mudbox.

Skin Painting and Skin Smoothing

BonesPro 4.5 introduces paint brushes for efficient skin weight painting. In addition to standard brush functions 3ds Max users are familiar with, BonesPro 4.5 brings Skin Smooth Brush, which smooths the skin, creating perfect folds, blending and equal surfaces with just using few mouse moves.

Performance Increase & History

Many core functions were improved in their calculation speed, making BonesPro faster than ever before. To make working with BonesPro more intuitive for artists the default 3ds Max undo system is now supported in addition to the original undo options from earlier versions.

Complete MAXScript interface overhaul

BonesPro 4.5 features a completely overhauled MAXScript interface, making the integration into a company production pipeline and the automated control of the skinning process easier to implement than before. Backwards compatibility for the old interface is included for already existing scripts.

List of changes and new features of BonesPro 4.50

• A new paint tool with smoothing mode allows artists to make quick local weight adjustments
• Completely new MAXScript interface for easier and more extensive third party access.
• 3ds Max default conform undo system added to the existing legacy workflow.
• MetaBones now have an optional real-time mode similar to ParaBones.
• Significant performance increases for the most often used actions in BonesPro.
• BonesPro now works natively with object types and no longer converts them internally. This improves performance with large modifier stacks and interoperability with other modifiers.
• Bone groups can now easily be turned into selection sets through a new option in the Bones rollout.
• Bones with non-orthogonal local coordinate systems can now be used like normal bones without causing distortions.
• Various minor fixes.

The BonesPro plug-in and associated training materials are available at http://www.bonespro.com

If you are a veteran user of BonesPro you can now take the next step and improve your animation workflow even more. If BonesPro is new to you, check out the tutorials and free trial to see how BonesPro can increase your productivity.

About 3d-io

3d-io games & video production GmbH is specialized company for high-end software development, modeling, animation, rendering, CG effects and 3D industrial design. 3d-io GmbH, headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany, has an established strong presence in game development, design & video production, digital content creation as well as in graphics and animation. We are dedicated to provide easy-to-use software products accompanied by dedicated support team, experienced programmers and top notch 3D artists.

Contact: www.3d-io.com

About Digimation Inc.

Digimation specializes in developing and delivering 3D solutions for the training and simulation industry including; Interactive Maintenance Trainers, Small Arms Trainers, Virtual Task Trainers, as well as Virtual Environments used in homeland security applications. The company’s service division produces photorealistic 3D parts used in maintenance trainers, OpenFlight 3D models used in simulations, and full 3D animation.

Contact: www.digimation.com

List of changes and new features of BonesPro 4.20

• Added support for Autodesk 3ds Max 2011 and Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2011.
• BonesPro now accepts shape objects as bones.
• Added support for various additional object types as bones (i.e. dummy helpers) and improved handling and accuracy of certain types like CAT muscles.
• Soft selection now supports custom falloff curves.
• Various minor fixes, including improved *.bpm file handling of CAT bones.

The BonesPro plug-in and associated training materials are available at http://www.bonespro.com

BonesPro 4.20 is compatible, both as 32bit and 64bit:

• 3ds Max 2011, 3ds Max Design 2011
• 3ds Max 2010, 3ds Max Design 2010
• 3ds Max 2009, 3ds Max Design 2009
• 3ds Max 2008
• 3ds Max 9

BonesPro 4.2 <-> Skin comparison

About Digimation Inc.
Digimation specializes in developing and delivering 3D solutions for the training and simulation industry including; Interactive Maintenance Trainers, Small Arms Trainers, Virtual Task Trainers, as well as Virtual Environments used in homeland security applications. The company’s service division produces photorealistic 3D parts used in maintenance trainers, OpenFlight 3D models used in simulations, and full 3D animation.
Contact: http://www.digimation.com

Since the release of BonesPro 4, the 3d-io Team listened carefully to the wishes of customers and production studios for the next update. Since many studios already have a complete workflow based on the Skin modifier we have expanded  BonesPro to allow them to take full advantage of existing export options and file formats that are compatible to Skin. Instead of implementing new custom solutions it is now possible to convert data between BonesPro and Skin with a single button press.

Highlights of BonesPro 4.10

Soft Selection Weighting
BonesPro offers now an effective selection enchacement with its integrated soft selection for vertex-based weight adjustments. This enables artists to fine tune the weights in critical areas in a way that blends smoothly into the surrounding mesh and avoids undesired rough wrinkles of the surface.

BonesPro<->Skin Translator
BonesPro 4.10 delivers a simple solution to transfer all Vertex Weigths to Skin and from Skin back. This makes it possible to immediately use existing exporters, file formats and game engines that have support for the default Skin modifier.

List of changes and new features of BonesPro 4.1

• Installer improvements for service updates and Windows7 support.
• Accuracy for certain mesh deformation calculations increased. This now generates generate smoother deformations.
• Soft selection options added to improve vertex-based fine tuning workflow.
• Converter to/from Skin modifier.
• License validation more responsive.
• Various minor improvements.

The BonesPro plug-in and associated training materials are now available at http://www.bonespro.com

If you are a veteran user of BonesPro you can now take the next step and improve your animation workflow even more. If BonesPro is new to you, check out the tutorials and free trial to see how BonesPro can increase your productivity.

About 3d-io
3d-io games & video production GmbH is specialized company for high-end software development, modeling, animation, rendering, CG effects and 3D industrial design. 3d-io GmbH, headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany, has an established strong presence in game development, design & video production, digital content creation as well as in graphics and animation. We are dedicated to provide easy-to-use software products accompanied by dedicated support team, experienced programmers and top notch 3D artists.
Contact: www.3d-io.com

About Digimation Inc.
Digimation specializes in developing and delivering 3D solutions for the training and simulation industry including; Interactive Maintenance Trainers, Small Arms Trainers, Virtual Task Trainers, as well as Virtual Environments used in homeland security applications. The company’s service division produces photorealistic 3D parts used in maintenance trainers, OpenFlight 3D models used in simulations, and full 3D animation.
Contact: www.digimation.com

3d-io Developers and Designers are proud to announce the resurrection of the popular and reliable organic skinning plug-in for Autodesk 3ds Max. In cooperation with Digimation Inc. 3d-io has rebuilt, improved and optimized this unique character skinning tool in order to further enhance artist productivity. The new BonesPro continues the tradition of incomparably fast and easy skinning setup and smooth skin deformations.

In the current, extremely high demanding world of CG animation every possible increase of quality and speed is crucial to succeed over the competition. For convincing animations it is mandatory that the mesh deforms and follows the movements of the skeleton accurately. Creating realistic looking movements while the deadlines loom in the near future is a very challenging task. This is where BonesPro steps in. It provides you with the ability to achieve impressive results in record time and master the daily challenges of the animation industry.

Key Features of BonesPro
Speed
BonesPro delivers fast results through a quick assignment set-up and convenient adjustment options.

Quality
Meshes deform like elastic skin, avoid face clipping and don’t tear vertices too far apart from each other.

Flexibility
Hypodermic deformer objects can handle the most problematic areas in an animated mesh with ease.

Teamwork
API access allows integration into existing pipelines and Teams can collaborate on scenes without having to supply everyone with licenses.

And Beyond
BonesPro can not only be used for traditional character skinning but also for many specialized animation effects.

The BonesPro plug-in and associated training materials are now available at http://www.bonespro.com
If you are a veteran user of BonesPro you can now take the next step and improve your animation workflow even more. If BonesPro is new to you, check out the tutorials and free trial to see how BonesPro can increase your productivity.

About 3d-io
3d-io games & video production GmbH is specialized company for high-end software development, modeling, animation, rendering, CG effects and 3D industrial design. 3d-io GmbH, headquartered in Wiesbaden, Germany, has an established strong presence in game development, design & video production, digital content creation as well as in graphics and animation. We are dedicated to provide easy-to-use software products accompanied by dedicated support team, experienced programmers and top notch 3D artists.
Contact: www.3d-io.com

About Digimation Inc.
Digimation specializes in developing and delivering 3D solutions for the training and simulation industry including; Interactive Maintenance Trainers, Small Arms Trainers, Virtual Task Trainers, as well as Virtual Environments used in homeland security applications. The company’s service division produces photorealistic 3D parts used in maintenance trainers, OpenFlight 3D models used in simulations, and full 3D animation.
Contact: www.digimation.com

Visit the Digimation Model Bank Library homepage for more information about the model libary.

We would like to encourage you to visit this Library and gain knowledge of how BonesPro is used properly, what advantages will you have from it and how to speed up your workflow when skinning characters and objects.