The future of 3D graphics is on display at the SIGGRAPH 2021 virtual conference, where NVIDIA Studio is leading the way, showcasing exclusive benefits that NVIDIA RTX technologies bring to creators working with 3D workflows.
It starts with NVIDIA Omniverse, an immersive and connected shared virtual world where artists create one-of-a-kind digital scenes, perfect 3D models, design beautiful buildings and more with endless creative possibilities. The Omniverse platform continues to expand, gaining Blender USD support, a new Adobe Substance 3D plugin, and a new extension, GANverse3D — designed to make 3D modeling easier with AI.
Omniverse is currently in open beta and free for NVIDIA RTX and GeForce RTX GPU users. With today’s launch of the NVIDIA RTX A2000 GPU, millions more 3D artists and content creators will have the opportunity to explore the platform’s capabilities.
The latest creative app updates, along with Omniverse and RTX A2000 GPUs, gain improved levels of support in the August NVIDIA Studio Driver, available for download today.
Omniverse Expands the 3D Metaverse at SIGGRAPH
NVIDIA announced that Blender, the world’s leading open-source 3D animation application, will include support for Pixar’s Universal Scene Description (USD) in the Blender 3.0 release, enabling artists to use the application with Omniverse production pipelines.
The open-source 3D file framework gives software partners and artists multiple ways to extend and connect to Omniverse through USD adoption, building a plugin, or an Omniverse Connector, extension or app.
NVIDIA also unveiled an experimental Blender alpha 3.0 USD branch that includes more advanced USD and material support, which will be available soon for Blender users everywhere.
In addition, NVIDIA and Adobe are collaborating on a new Substance 3D plugin that will enable Substance Material support in Omniverse.
With the plugin, materials created in Adobe Substance 3D or imported from the Substance 3D Asset Library can be adjusted directly in Omniverse. 3D artists will save valuable time when making changes as they don’t need to export and reupload assets from Substance 3D Designer and Substance 3D Sampler.
We’re also releasing a new Omniverse extension, GANverse3D – Image2Car, which makes 3D modeling easier with AI. It’s the first of a collection of extensions that will comprise the Omniverse AI Toy Box.
GANverse3D was built on a generative adversarial network trained on 2D photos, synthesizing multiple views of thousands of objects to predict 3D geometry, texture and part segmentation labels. This process could turn a single photo of a car into a 3D model that can drive around a virtual scene, complete with realistic headlights, blinkers and wheels.
The AI Toy Box extension allows inexperienced 3D artists to easily create scenes, and experienced artists to bring new enhancements to their multi-app workflows.
Here’s GANverse3D in action with an Omniverse-connected workflow featuring Omniverse Create, Reallusion Character Creator 3 and Adobe Photoshop.
For a further dive into the latest innovations in 3D, including Omniverse, watch the NVIDIA special address at SIGGRAPH on demand.
Omniverse plays a critical role in many creative projects, like the GTC keynote with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang.
Get a sneak peek of how a small team of artists was able to blur the line between real and rendered.
The full documentary releases alongside the NVIDIA SIGGRAPH panel on Wednesday, August 11, at 11 a.m. PT.
The world’s leading artists use NVIDIA RTX and Omniverse to create beautiful work and stunning worlds. Hear from them directly in the second edition of NVIDIA’s RTX All Stars, a free e-book that spotlights creative professionals.
More RTX, More 3D Creative Freedom
NVIDIA RTX A2000 joins the RTX lineup as the most powerful, low-profile, dual-slot GPU for 3D creators. The new desktop GPU encompasses the latest RTX technologies in the NVIDIA Ampere architecture, including:
- 2nd-gen RT Cores for real-time ray tracing with up to 5x performance from last gen with RTX ON.
- 3rd-gen Tensor Cores to power and accelerate creative AI features.
- 2x PCIe Gen 4 accelerating data paths in and out of the GPU and up to 6GB of GPU ECC memory for rendering and exporting large files.
RTX A2000-based systems will be available starting in October.
For on-the-go creators, the NVIDIA RTX A2000 laptop GPU — available in Studio laptops shipping today like the Lenovo ThinkPad P17 Gen 2 — is the most power-efficient, professional RTX laptop GPU bringing ray tracing and AI capabilities to thin and light mobile workstations.
The NVIDIA RTX A2000 GPUs support a wealth of creative workflows, including 3D modeling and Omniverse, whether behind a desktop or anywhere a laptop may travel.
August Brings Creative App Updates and Latest Studio Driver
Several exciting updates to cutting-edge creative apps shipped recently. The August Studio Driver, available today, sharpens support for all of them.
Topaz Sharpen AI v3.2 offers refinements to AI models accelerated by RTX GPUs and Tensor Cores, adding 1.5x motion blur and Too Soft/Very Blurry features further reducing artifacts.
In-app masking has also been improved with real-time processing of mask strokes and customization controls for the overlay display.
Reallusion Character Creator v3.43, the first third-party app with Audio2Face integration, now allows artists to export characters from Character Creator to Omniverse as USD files with Audio2Face-compliant meshes. This allows facial and lip animations to be completely AI-driven solely from voice input, regardless of language, simplifying the process of animating a 3D character.
Capture One 21 v14.3.0 adds a new Magic Brush tool to create complex masks for layer editing based on image content in a split second, working on an underlying processed image from the raw file. This process is hardware accelerated and is up to 3x faster when using the GPU compared to the CPU.
Support for these app updates, plus the new features in Omniverse, are only a click away. Download the August Studio Driver.
Best Studio Laptops for 3D Workflows
3D workflows range from modeling scenes in real time with complex lights and shadows, to visualizing architectural marvels, in or out of Omniverse, with massive exports. These necessitate major computational power, requiring advanced NVIDIA RTX and GeForce RTX GPUs to get jobs done quickly.
These Studio laptops are built to handle demanding 3D creative workflows:
- Lenovo P1 Gen 4 is stylish and lightweight, at less than 4 pounds. It comes in a ton of configurations, including GeForce RTX 3070 and 3080, plus RTX A4000 and A5000 laptop GPUs.
- Dell Precision 7760 is their thinnest, smallest and lightest 17-inch mobile workstation. With up to an RTX A5000 and 16GB of video memory, it’s great for working with massive 3D models or in multi-app workflows.
- Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel features their patented Ezel Hinge with a 15.6-inch, 4K PANTONE-validated touchscreen display. Available later this month, it also comes with up to a GeForce RTX 3080 laptop GPU and 16GB of video memory.
Set to make a splash later this year is the HP Zbook Studio G8. Engineered for heavy 3D work, it comes well-equipped with up to an RTX A5000 or GeForce RTX 3080 laptop GPU, perfect for on-the-go creativity.
Browse the NVIDIA Studio Shop for more great options.
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