Mansur Rig 3.0 Goes Free and Open Source Lite
Mansur Rig 3.0 drops activation, goes partially open source, adds Maya 2026 support on Windows, and warns older versions stop working after March 2026.
Keychron K5 Max: The New Default
A keyboard is the most used tool in digital production, so why settle for mediocrity? After eight months of testing, the Keychron K5 Max has earned a place as my daily driver. Here’s why.
The Hungarian Dressmaker – by PFX
Not every historic drama is created equal - "The Hungarian Dressmaker" rebuild a world barely out of reach of living memory, and we got a chance to talk to PFX artists and artisans about rebuiling 1940' s Bratislava and Biskupice
Rise FX saves christmas?
When Red One dropped last this year, audiences got get a holiday cocktail of Jumanji-style action (The director…
Wrap Gen: Because Your Mesh Deserves a Hug
Wrap Gen for Blender lets you procedurally wrap custom geometry around objects using curves and geometry nodes—no manual tweaking required.
RetopoFlow 4 Beta: Now With Less Pain Per Polygon
RetopoFlow 4 Beta for Blender is out - with improved usability, updated PolyStrips, and tighter integration. But it’s still a beta, so handle with care.
LuxCoreRender 2.10: Back on Track with Cross-Platform Support and Python Integration
LuxCoreRender 2.10 reintroduces support for Linux, Windows, MacOS Intel, and now MacOS ARM, with updated dependencies and Python bindings for seamless integration.
Dogwalk: Blender’s Papercraft Pooch Takes Godot for a Spin
Blender Studio releases Dogwalk in early access, showcasing a papercraft-style micro-game built with Godot, emphasizing a streamlined Blender-Godot pipeline.
Continuum 2025.5 expands its AI arsenal with automated masking, 2D depth mapping, frame repair, and UV warping—plus 8K titling and smoother FX editing.
The Survivor: A Study in Character-Driven Look Development
At FMX, we met a few students from "PIXLVISN " - and since we never looked at what they are doing, it is high time to do so!
Rig It Like It’s Free: mGear 5.0 and UEGear 1.0
mGear 5.0 and UEGear 1.0 bring new features for Maya and Unreal Engine 5 - and both are free.
Core Dump: Maxon Terminates ZBrushCore & ZBrushCoreMini
Maxon discontinues ZBrushCore and ZBrushCoreMini. Support ends November 2024. Focus shifts fully to ZBrush/Ipad.
Free Fab? Epic’s Giving Away a Back Alley
Epic Games drops 50 modular 3D assets for Unreal Engine on Fab – for free. Think dumpsters, cables, trash bags, brick walls. It's exactly that.
Wile E. Coyote Animates in UE5.6 – No Anvils Required
Stéphane Biava demonstrates Unreal Engine 5.6's new animation features, making in-engine animation a viable alternative to Blender or Maya.
Edit: Microsoft’s Tiny Text Editor Sneaks into the Terminal
Microsoft's new open-source CLI editor, Edit, comes to Windows 11 - keyboard-only, small-footprint, and intentionally not Vim.
Want a boo-boo? Medical FX in Substance 3D Painter
MedTool adds wounds, bruises, and other medical skin FX to Substance 3D Painter via sliders and masks – procedural, parametric, and ready to export.
Hair Today, Cards Tomorrow: New 3ds Max Tool for Haircard Workflows
Hair Cards Tool for 3ds Max adds a non-destructive workflow for generating haircards with editing, baking and AO features.
ThinkingParticles 7.4 adds an Explosion System, updated SPH solver, ME-L Markers for debugging, and full support for 3ds Max 2026.
Xsens Animate 2025: Now With 100% More Spine
Xsens Animate 2025 introduces native male and female anatomy models, a refined spine model, and experimental Auto Sensor Mapping for streamlined mocap workflows.
Maya Gets a Memory: Smart Model Editor Adds Real Construction History
Smart Model Editor brings non-destructive modeling to Maya – sort of. It works via scene graph nodes and updates interactively.
Unreal Engine 5.6 Preview: Now with 60Hz Open Worlds and In-Engine MetaHumans
Unreal Engine 5.6 Preview introduces 60Hz open worlds, an overhauled animation toolset, in-engine MetaHuman Creator, and enhanced procedural workflows.
BagaPie 11: Blender’s Node Wrangler Gets 20 New Tricks
BagaPie 11 introduces 20 new tools, including parametric generators for doors, windows, and bolts, enhancing Blender's modeling and scattering capabilities.
Melt Simulator for Blender: Gooey Goodness Without the Mess
CGMatter's Melt Simulator for Blender 4.3 introduces particle, instance, and mesh modes, plus UV advection and time-based melting triggers.
Nara: Now with More Sync, Less Scream
Filmlight’s Nara adds remote realtime playback sync, review-in-Baselight, and more versioning features for collaborative post and color workflows.
Free Plugin Connects Blender to Nuke – Without Alembic Detours
Free plugin bridges Blender and Nuke via FBX and OBJ – no Alembic or USD needed. Geometry and camera data flow directly into your comp.
HairFlow: Bad Hair Days Are Simulated Now
HairFlow simulates hair in Blender using simulation nodes—wind, gravity, collisions, even goosebumps. Realtime playback included.
Fab's new Dungeon Pack delivers 110 modular assets and props for Unreal Engine - and it’s free.
Free Rigs Attached: Learn Blender Rigging Fundamentals (Without Paying a Cent)
Free Blender rigging course breaks down constraints, parenting, bones and more. Hosted by CG Cookie and taught by animator Pierrick Picaut.
Free Blender Clouds Shader Floats into Your Scene
A free Blender clouds shader by Thomas Marco lets you dial in stylised volumetric clouds via intuitive custom parameters – no add-ons or plugins needed.
UDIM Planet: Free Globe Toolset Orbits Blender, Max, Maya, Houdini, Unreal and C4D
Free add-on "Figments UDIM Globe" maps UDIM textures to globe objects—UVs are auto-generated, PBR-ready.
Lidar Gets a Lift: Kiri Engine 3.14 Adds AI to Its Scanning Game
Kiri Engine 3.14 brings AI-enhanced Lidar scanning to mobile photogrammetry—plus depth map meshing, automatic alignment, and scene cleanup.
Browser Cloth: Wiggle It Just a Little Bit
Finally, a cloth sim that runs in your browser and doesn’t crash your machine. Click, drag, wiggle—no download, just delightful chaos.
Kdenlive 25.04: Finally, Someone Gave the Timeline Some Respect
Kdenlive 25.04 brings AV1, OpenTimelineIO, better timeline tools, and updated keyframe management—but as always: check for stability before production use.
Normal Problem? Normal Solution: Free Blender Add-on “Shading Normal Editor” Now Available
Stylized shading made easier: "Shading Normal Editor" for Blender fixes normals for shading effects—free and ready for download.
SDF, UVs & STLs: Uniform 1.4 Goes All In
Uniform 1.4 introduces SDF modeling with full UV mapping, STL export for 3D printing, and new workflow tools for precise mesh editing and texture control.
SideFX updates the free procedural bridge tool for Houdini, offering customizable, animatable bridge assets – ready for download on SideFX Labs.
EZ Tree: Your Next Tree’s Just a Click Away
Free, open-source, lightweight and Python-based: EZ Tree procedurally generates trees for 3D workflows – via GUI or command line.
Streamlined, Not Strained: Texture Mastering in ZBrush Gets a Boost
ZBrush gets a new Material Manager plugin with streamlined UI, custom presets, live previews, and better material handling—designed to make texturing less painful.
Virtual Glass: ZEISS Enters the Simulated Optics Game
ZEISS Virtual Lens simulates cine optics for VFX and digital twins—designed for integration in workflows and compositing.
Achoo-Free Effects: “3D Dust & Pollen Free” for After Effects
New free preset "3D Dust & Pollen Free" for After Effects simulates pollen, dust, spores, dander and other floating irritants – without triggering allergies.
Free Mech, Fully Armed: SideFX Drops Rigged & Ready Model for UE5
SideFX releases a free, fully rigged and animated mech model, optimized for Unreal Engine 5 and ready for animation, rigging and FBX workflows.
Specviewperf 15: Now with Extra Blender and a Dash of Unreal
Graphics benchmark Specviewperf 15 adds test suites for Blender and Unreal Engine 5 – plus support for RTX 6000 Ada, Radeon Pro W7900 and Intel Arc GPUs.
Open Brush 2.10: Painting Together, Virtually
Open Brush 2.10 introduces multiplayer VR painting and MX Ink stylus support, enhancing collaborative 3D sketching experiences.
Sapphire 2025: Now with More Zap, Less Crap
Sapphire 2025 introduces VHS Damage, new lens flares, and enhanced Mocha AI-Matte-tracking, refining your VFX workflow with precision and style.
Lumion 2025 introduces AI-powered upscaling, enhanced ray-traced water and fog, and a new Scene Inspector for streamlined workflows.
Neat Video 6.0.5: Noise Reduction Gets a Patch-Up
Neat Video 6.0.5 squashes bugs, improves GPU performance, fixes color channel issues, and updates presets – denoising stays smooth across video workflows, even in Resolve and Fusion 20
Marvelous 2025: Now with Extra Fur, Fewer Triangles
Marvelous Designer 2025.0 refines simulation and modeling: new IK, UVs for sides and back, fur preview in 3D, better quads, modular workflow, and more.
Share Your Thoughts On Editing, Snag a Reward!
Evans Research and Digital Production are doing Research - into Editors and their wishes, hopes and (Broken) dreams - tell us everything about YOUR workflow and opinions!
Corona 12 Update 2: Sunlight, Static Meshes & Setups
Corona 12 Update 2 adds support for Sun Directionality, static mesh export from Chaos Scatter, and a unified setup for the Corona Sky in 3ds Max and C4D.
FMX 2025: AI, Arcane, and a Light Stage Walk into a Conference
FMX 2025 unleashes Arcane secrets, Houdini hocus pocus, and a swarm of AI panels onto Stuttgart. Turquoise flags and login buttons now live!
Saddle Up Your Scene: 260 Wild West Assets Ride Freely into Unreal
260 modular Wild West assets for Unreal Engine now free via Fab—includes saloons, stables, and tumbleweed-ready level design.
Unity 6.1: Surfing Waves and Shading Smarter
Unity 6.1 introduces 3D water deformation, Deferred+ rendering in URP, Variable Rate Shading, bicubic lightmap sampling, and experimental WebGPU support.
Nukepedia 2.0: From Geekfest to Gigabytes
Nukepedia is getting rebuilt after 15 years of DIY infrastructure. Relaunch planned for Siggraph—survey and donations now open to support the effort.
Greyscalegorilla Studio 1.3 streamlines 3D workflows with Smart Send, drag-and-drop model import, and a refined UI—boosting efficiency for artists.
Logitech MX Creative Console: New Tricks for Old Hands
New plugins for Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and Affinity Photo hit the Logitech MX Creative Console—custom tools, macros, and more land in the Logi Marketplace.
FMX Dives into Decay and the Delta: The Last of Us and Sinners
FMX reveals in-depth VFX insights into The Last of Us season 2 and Ryan Coogler’s supernatural period feature Sinners, shot on IMAX 65mm.
LightWave 2025!
LightWave 2025 introduces RIPR for real-time HDR previews, enhanced rigging tools like Steppit, Handdit, and Pickkit, and new modeling features including SuperPatcher and Construct.
iClone 8.53: Now in Sync
Reallusion's iClone 8.53 adds timecode support, facial tracking for Meta Quest Pro, and streamlines scene export for Omniverse and Unreal Engine.
ACES 2.0 – available in Mistika!
Wait, there is already a new Version of ACES? We barely got used to the last one! And it is already working in SGO Mistika? Let's dive in!
Flame 2026: OCIO, Files and Timeline Magic
Discover the seven key innovations in Flame Family 2026—from OpenColorIO to AI-enhanced video quality.
ARRI App-solutely Custom: Camera Companion Now Official
ARRI launches the Camera Companion App for iOS and macOS with personalised UI, MIDI control, and support for multiple ALEXA cameras.
Eevee Enlightenment: Blender Guru’s New Course Shines Bright
Andrew Price releases a comprehensive course on mastering Blender's Eevee renderer, covering fundamentals, troubleshooting, and scene optimization.
ZibraVDB compresses OpenVDB files up to 100x, enabling real-time volumetric effects in Unreal Engine and Houdini for virtual production and game development.
Gear 5.0 Beta 6: Rigging Tool Gets 2026-Ready
mGear 5.0 Beta 6 brings Maya 2026 support, improved guide templates, updated Shifter components, and new logic for picker selection.
The Grove 2.2: Cutting-Edge Tree Tech Goes Cross-Platform
The Grove 2.2 brings a radical tech boost with a new Skeleton tool, optimized simulations, and unified naming for Houdini and Blender.
PhysX Goes Open: Fluid Dynamics Unleashed
NVIDIA’s PhysX Flow, the powerful GPU-accelerated fluid simulation engine, is now fully open source—free and feature-packed for VFX pros.
Brush for Free: Howler 2023 Now Costs Nada
Howler 2023 is now free. The GPU-accelerated painting and animation tool supports 3D painting, frame-by-frame animation, and video FX for Windows users.
Blueprints & C++: Epic’s New Tutorial Series for Unity Devs
Epic Games releases a 5-part tutorial series with Enduring Games to assist Unity developers in transitioning to Unreal Engine, focusing on Blueprints and C++ integration.
FMX 2025: Rebels, Randomness & Real-Time
FMX dives into the VFX secrets of “Andor” Season 2, “Severance,” “Vaiana 2” and much more – discover intricate workflows and innovative techniques in production.
Free Assets, High Tech – No splinters to be feared!
150 free, modular workshop assets for Unreal Engine. Get ready for precision, plug-and-play, and a cheeky tech upgrade
Blender seeks community assistance to test its experimental Vulkan backend with a detailed supported platforms table included.
ZBrush for iPad Adds ZModeler
Maxon adds the ZModeler brush to ZBrush for iPad. Artists can now use the poly modeling toolset on iPadOS for mobile hard surface work.
Thinkbox MX Plugin Suite: Open-Sourced Magic in current 3ds Max Versions
Thinkbox MX Plugin Suite for 3ds Max is now available, showcasing a finely tuned open source solution that champions usability, simplicity, and stability in production pipelines.
EFF It: A Plug-In for Profanity and Professionals
EFF It is a new Premiere Pro plug-in from Digital Anarchy for bleeping bad language. It works on transcript-based text edits and syncs with video timelines.
Dirty Shader Hands? Use MatCaps!
A free tool for Blender lets you paint PBR materials directly in 3D Viewport—without UVs, nodes or shaders.
finalRender Free: A Renderer That Costs Nothing but Demands Something
cebas offers finalRender Free for 3ds Max users, featuring single-device rendering with CPU or GPU. Commercial use permitted; registration required.
Cineware for Unreal 2025-2: Rig, Animate, and Roll—No FBX Fuss
Maxon’s Cineware for Unreal Engine 2025-2 update delivers native rigging, skinning, and animation export from Cinema 4D to Unreal—no FBX or baking required.
DaVinci Resolve 20 Beta: AI Edits – so you can panic about something else
DaVinci Resolve 20 launches as public beta at NAB Show. New tools include IntelliTrack AI, Chroma Warp, Smart Reframe and animated subtitles.
Weight No More: Streamlining Blender’s Weight Painting with Robust Weight Transfer
Enhance your Blender workflow with Sent From Space's free Robust Weight Transfer add-on, simplifying weight painting and improving character rigging efficiency.
Lightcraft Jetset expands virtual production on iPhone with live compositing, Gaussian Splats, Aximmetry integration, and new camera support.
Cascadeur 2025.1 tumbles in!
Cascadeur 2025.1 introduces AI-powered Inbetweening, upgrades AutoPosing and AutoPhysics, enhances Ragdoll interactions, and improves GLTF and FBX support.
Cinema 4D 2025.2: Feature Dump, Incoming
Cinema 4D 2025.2 delivers a host of new features—from enhanced camera modes to particle controls and Rocket Lasso Capsules—with extensive bug fixes.
Maxon One Update: ZBrush for iPad, Redshift Resolve and More
Maxon's latest update for Maxon One introduces ZBrush for iPad, Red Giant tools for DaVinci Resolve, enhanced Cinema 4D splines, and Redshift upgrades.
Nuke Stage: Foundry Introduces a Virtual Production Tool
Foundry introduces Nuke Stage, a virtual production tool designed for real-time playback, live compositing, and integration with industry-standard formats.
OctaneRender 2025.1
OTOY’s OctaneRender 2025.1 introduces robust rest attributes, advanced Vectron displacement, native decals, a realistic lens camera, and an experimental server node for technical rendering workflows.
iRender Cloud Render Farm Enhances Redshift Workflows
iRender offers a cloud-based render farm for Redshift users with RTX 4090 GPUs and Cinema 4D licenses to streamline high-end rendering tasks.
Terrain3D 1.0: Godot’s Landscape Tool Levels Up
Terrain3D 1.0 for Godot Engine 4.4 introduces enhanced 3D projection, dynamic collision, and up to 10 LODs for foliage, optimizing landscape creation.
Lumion View: Real-Time Rendering Now Inside SketchUp
Lumion introduces Lumion View, a real-time visualization plugin for SketchUp, enabling photorealistic 4K renders directly within the modeling environment. Now in early access.
Autodesk's Arnold 7.4.1 introduces GPU-accelerated toon shading, enhanced procedural instancing performance, and a new interactive HTML-based render statistics viewer.
Mustafa Morad’s Datacolor LightColor Meter Adventure
Discover how Datacolor's LightColor Meter can enhance your workflow and save you from unnecessary post-processing in a free webinar on April 3.
ICity 1.3.0: Building Blender Cities Faster Than a Coffee Run
ICity 1.3.0 for Blender introduces major performance enhancements and visual upgrades to its Grid and Terrace Block systems, streamlining 3D city creation.
Rodeo FX Saddles Up Mikros Animation Amid Technicolor’s Tumble
Rodeo FX acquires Mikros Animation, bolstering its animation capabilities following Technicolor's financial collapse.
Final Cut Pro 11.1: Subtle Updates
Apple's Final Cut Pro 11.1 introduces adjustment clips and AI-driven enhancements, streamlining video editing without major overhauls.
MotionBuilder 2026: A little Leap
Autodesk's MotionBuilder 2026 enhances USD workflows, introduces animation retention, and adds new selection shortcuts for improved motion capture editing.
Zen UV 5.0: Unwrapping the Future of UV Mapping in Blender
Zen Masters unveils Zen UV 5.0, introducing the Zen UV Touch Tool, Auto Unwrap operator, and new selection features for enhanced UV mapping in Blender.
Maya 2026: Is Golaem the Lone Star in a Sparse Update?
Autodesk's Maya 2026 introduces Golaem integration, but offers minimal other enhancements, leaving users questioning the value amid rising subscription costs.
Red Poppies, Bears and Open Source!
Polish war drama Red Poppies (Czerwone Maki) brings the Battle of Monte Cassino to the big screen with over 400 VFX shots, 120 of which were crafted by Polish VFX studio Imaginary Pixels. And the team relied on open-source tools?
CharMorph 0.4 enhances Blender's character creation with Rigify support, real-time clothing fitting, and customizable skin and eye colors, all under a user-friendly open-source license.
Unlocking the Mysteries of FX-Map: A Free Guide That Doesn’t Require a Map
Dive into Andrei Zelenco's free four-part video series demystifying Substance 3D Designer's FX-Map node, from basics to advanced procedural techniques.