For those who don’t know the tool: Spark Story sits in early previs and story workshops, pairing a browser build step with a mobile virtual production app, plus workflows that touch Blender and Unreal Engine.

NAB gets the hands-on bit

Spark Story is set for a public preview at NAB Show 2026, with an interactive booth demo that lets attendees create shots live and move between a browser session and a mobile virtual production app. The preview is scheduled on the show floor from April 19 through April 22 in Las Vegas (Booth N3148). Lightcraft calls Spark Story the first piece of a broader Spark platform that is still in development, with the NAB preview focused on rapid virtual-shot creation, script linkage, and a browser-to-mobile workflow. A beta notification signup page for the broader Spark platform is already live, indicating that a formal beta program is planned and more or less around the corner.

The pitch is simple: start workshopping a film on day one with the team, using rapid virtual shot building instead of waiting for later stages to see whether scenes and beats land. The preview demo uses scanned environments (Splats) and prompted environments as part of setting a scene, plus the ability to block and capture camera shots from a phone.

Browser to phone, with script in the loop

The preview description frames Spark Story as a real-time workflow that links a browser tool with a mobile app so teams can collaborate while building scenes and placing cameras. Script linkage sits near the center of that workflow, with an emphasis on connecting shots back to a screenplay, and on turning camera placement in a 3D scene into entries that feed a shot list tied to settings and framing.

A separate feature preview calls out collaborative screenplay editing and breakdown, aimed at real-time collaboration and development from partial ideas into a full screenplay. That matters less for the final file format and more for how teams keep intent, coverage, and revisions connected while the visuals evolve.

If you have lived through the classic version of previs, where shots float around in a folder tree while the script keeps changing in a different tool, this is clearly trying to make that disconnect go away. The claim is that a team can move much faster through early planning, pitching, and shoot preparation.

Environments: scans, prompts, and Gaussians

The preview highlights three main buckets of scene content: scanned environments, prompted environments, and more traditional 3D content. It also calls out support for Gaussian Splats and imported USD assets in the same workspace.

For Gaussian Splats, the industry standard is 3D Gaussian Splatting, a real-time radiance field rendering approach with an official, publicly available reference implementation. For USD, the relevant target is OpenUSD, positioned as a platform for building and exchanging 3D scenes at scale.

The interesting bit here is not that any one of those elements exists, but that the preview bundles them into one collaborative shot-building flow. If teh tool can keep scale, orientation, and camera intent consistent while teams mix splats with USD assets, that would remove a lot of glue work that currently happens in side scripts and one-off conversion steps.

Camera intent and virtual production capture

The preview copy states that Spark Story builds scenes around realistic digital environments, physically correct motion, and camera and lens models intended to keep early decisions consistent through shoot days. That is a marketing claim, but it is also a promise: camera behaviour and motion should (!!!!) translate from early planning into on-set execution without a full redo.

On the capture side, the preview positions a mobile app as the place where shots get captured from anywhere, with an integrated iOS experience described as push-button simple. For the platform piece, that points straight at iOS, no word of Anroid yet.

The practical production question is what data comes out the other end and how it plays with the rest of a pipeline. The preview text focuses on workflow and collaboration rather than interchange details beyond imported USD assets. So, at press time, there is no confirmed list of export formats, tracking data handoff details, or round-trip guarantees for specific DCCs in the NAB preview description. But there are importers for Fab.comMegascans, Unreal, Autoshot, as well as Blender, Nuke and After Effects. No word on Lightwave.

What is confirmed on the ecosystem side

Outside the NAB preview messaging, the public documentation site already carries Spark Story sections alongside broader tooling docs, including workflow pages that reference Blender and Unreal-related processes and USD troubleshooting topics. That is not a full product spec, but it does confirm that Spark Story documentation exists publicly and that USD sits inside the expected workflow surface area.

That matters because it suggests this is not a closed demo-only concept. There is already a documentation structure, including tutorials and debugging notes, which is usually where pipelines go first when they try to validate a tool against real production constraints.

What to test before you bet a schedule on it

Rapid collaborative previs sounds great right up until a production needs repeatability, versioning, and predictable handoffs. If you plan to evaluate Spark Story, put it through the boring tests early: multiple artists editing the same sequence, script changes mid-session (Thrice), asset relinking, and exporting or round-tripping anything your downstream tools require.

New tools and innovations should always be tested before use in production, preferably on something disposable, like a two-day internal short that still hits the same technical constraints as a real show.

The post Spark Story at NAB first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Jürgen Firsching.

TL;DR: Trimble ships SketchUp 2026.0 with a new in-app Collaboration Bar that lets you share via private invites or a public link, collect 3D-anchored comments, and sync views in real time. Visualisation gets AO distance and colour, invert roughness, and user-selectable material thumbnails on Windows. Performance improves across memory, selections, scene transitions, zoom extents, and purging. Live Components gain scale-by-inference grips and saner painting. Modelling and UI see multiple quality-of-life upgrades. You can reset activations inside the app. DWG and IFC pipelines are tidier. Studio users get Texture Projection and Surface Mesh for point clouds. LayOut on Windows adopts a SketchUp-like UI, picks up Trim, Extend, Fillet, Chamfer, and improves DWG handling and Scrapbooks.

Collaboration in Desktop: invites, public links, live cursors, 3D comments

The new Collaboration Bar shares your model to Trimble Connect, then distributes either private invites with permissions (Owner, View Scenes, Comment) or a public link with adjustable access (No Access, View Scenes, View Model). Viewers open the model in a browser, see others’ cursors, navigate and measure when allowed, and leave threaded comments pinned with 3D markers that can be associated with scenes and camera states. You can pull everyone to your current view or jump to a viewer’s avatar to mirror their POV. Real-time updates are on by default.

Visualisation: AO distance & colour, invert roughness, pick your material thumbnail

Ambient Occlusion gets a Distance Multiplier so occlusion remains readable when zoomed out and a colour swatch to move AO away from neutral grey for clearer depth cues. Materials add an Invert Roughness toggle to flip PBR roughness maps quickly. On Windows you can choose Cube or Flat material thumbnails per asset, or let Auto decide.

Performance: lower memory, snappier selections, faster scenes and zoom

Model loading produces smaller memory spikes, component overhead is reduced, and graphics resource handling on Windows is more efficient. Day to day that means fewer freezes on large models and more fluid interactions. Internal benchmarks cite big gains for scene transitions, Zoom Extents, and Purge Unused, plus faster selections and inferences; exact results will vary by hardware and dataset.

Live Components: scale grips by inference; saner painting

The Scale tool now exposes inference-aware grips for Live Components, making placement and sizing more predictable than nudging bounding boxes. The Paint Bucket can apply custom materials outside a component’s predefined options, with better texture mapping and library compatibility. Not every existing Live Component has scale grips yet, but more are being added.

Modelling & UI QoL: rotate handle logic, see-through scale grips, profile-edge placement, scene undo/redo

Scale grips render through occluding geometry so you can grab the correct handle without enabling X-Ray. Rotation grips hide when you lock a rotation plane to prevent unintended moves. When placing groups or components, you can move from a profile edge so the object turns transparent and background targets remain visible. Scenes now support Undo/Redo, including create/rename/delete. Purge Unused defaults to off; it gains granular controls and a menu command you can bind to a shortcut. On Windows, panels and trays are easier to manage: right-click headers to toggle visibility, drag panels between trays, or tear them off into their own tray.

Activations: fix “too many devices” without leaving the app

If you exceed allowed activations, you can reset all activations and authorise the current device directly in SketchUp rather than detouring to account management.

Interoperability: DWG import options; real hatch import; 3D section export; cleaner polylines; unified IFC exporter

DWG import adds Import Layers as Groups to map DWG layers to grouped geometry with tags for visibility control, and Import Linework Flattened to force Z=0 for 2D CAD, minimising cleanup. Hatches import as faces or edges, depending on type. Export preserves section planes in 3D DWG for downstream section workflows. Other updates include welded polylines on import, better true-curve export, and fewer duplicate instance/definition name collisions. IFC export consolidates 2×3 and 4 into one file type with a new Export Options dialog and a Standard IFC Spatial Hierarchy toggle to scaffold IfcProject/IfcSite/IfcBuilding even if your Outliner is sparse.

Scan Essentials (Studio): Texture Projection, Surface Mesh, scene-aware visibility, reset to georeferenced origin

Studio subscribers get Texture Projection to bake imagery from scans onto SketchUp geometry as reusable materials and Surface Mesh to extract meshes from point clouds with guided parameters. Point-cloud visibility can be stored per scene in SketchUp and LayOut. You can also reset transformations to the original georeferenced coordinates on export.

LayOut (Windows): UI refresh, true drafting tools, stronger DWG pipeline, better Scrapbooks

LayOut on Windows adopts SketchUp-style trays and panels, plus more flexible toolbars. Vector and hybrid viewport generation is faster. Four drafting tools land—Trim, Extend, Fillet, and Chamfer—mapped to Shift+T/E/F/C, reducing selection overhead and cleanup clicks on typical 2D tasks. DWG export can split each page to its own DWG, preserves SketchUp Tag names as DWG layers, and correctly stacks coincident viewports in model space; text, hatches, and tables round-trip more faithfully. Default Scrapbooks gain an Architecture set—doors, windows, living, bedroom, kitchen, bath—as scalable groups.

Bug fixes (selected): stability, materials, components, graphics engine quirks

Expect fewer crashes when editing Live Components or importing large images under the new graphics engine, corrupt normal maps no longer block loads, and file associations prefer the latest version. Selection performance on complex models improves. Numerous Windows and macOS UI inconsistencies are resolved, including materials panel behaviour, tag colour previews, scene tab selection, file thumbnails, Environments downloads, and various DWG importer/exporter issues.

API & developer notes: scenes are now undoable; non-invertible transforms rejected; IFC exporter updated

Scene operations are now undoable. Extension authors must wrap scene edits in Model#start_operation and #commit_operation or risk flooding the undo stack and Extension Warehouse rejection. Non-invertible transforms—like scale-to-zero—are rejected for component instances, groups, and images in both Ruby and C APIs. The Ruby API moves to a unified IFC exporter with options for version and hierarchy; there are new accessors for active section planes, safer page naming, style add/remove returns, and assorted fixes. LayOut’s APIs add linear dimension alignment, leader-line visibility, text strikethrough, attribute dictionaries, and camera/viewport override control. Test any extension that touches scenes, transforms, or exporters.

Upgrade guidance

If your day involves DWG/IFC exchange, LayOut deliverables, or frequent client review, the upgrade pays off immediately. Extension authors should validate scene logic due to undo changes. On macOS, note that cube material thumbnails are Windows-only. Pilot on a single machine, test your critical extensions, then roll out.

The post SketchUp 2026.0 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Jürgen Firsching.

Apple has announced a multi-day educational programme aimed at filmmakers and developers who want to produce content for Vision Pro. The twist: you can attend for free (well, aside from your time and gear). The workshops run from 21 to 23 October 2025, both online (livestreamed) and in person at Apple’s Developer Center in Cupertino.

Two tracks, two signups

There are two separate tracks. The first is a livestreamed online programme, open to anyone who registers before 20 October at 5:00 PM PDT. The second is an in-person workshop in Cupertino, which requires a separate “request to attend” form. That one has limited slots for project consultations—because, of course, exclusivity is part of the Apple experience. In short: one RSVP for your screen, and another if you want to fly to Cupertino and feel like part of the inner circle.

What you’ll actually learn (and play with)

Apple promises to cover framing, spatial interaction, and a host of other topics around immersive production. The curriculum includes concept planning for Apple Immersive Video and spatial storytelling in visionOS 26. It also explores SharePlay and “spatial Personas,” Apple’s branding for multi-user spatial collaboration.

Participants can expect guidance on spatial audio workflows, post and VFX approaches, and lessons learned from prior immersive Apple projects. Those who attend in person will also get hands-on time with the Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive camera, spatial audio tools, and the option to book one-on-one consultations with Apple engineers. Because nothing says “Apple workshop” quite like limited access to hardware.

When and where (so you don’t miss it)

The workshops take place from 21 to 23 October 2025, running daily from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM PDT. The online and in-person sessions will occur concurrently, with the Cupertino event hosted at Apple’s Developer Center.

What it means (and what it doesn’t)

For creators experimenting with immersive formats for clients or internal R&D, this is a rare chance to see how Apple envisions its spatial ecosystem. The workshop is educational rather than production-ready, so not every workflow or technique shown will necessarily scale to real projects. It’s a useful orientation for aligning your creative pipeline with Apple’s expectations—but treat it as training, not gospel.

If you’re curious, it’s worth registering for both versions. Worst case: you get some slides and a reminder that spatial video is “the future.” Best case: you pick up practical pointers on how to survive in Apple’s immersive storytelling universe.

The post Apple Offers Free Vision Pro “Immersive Video” Workshops first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Jürgen Firsching.

XPU grows up

Pixar has pushed its hybrid CPU/GPU renderer, XPU, into full production status with the beta of RenderMan 27. XPU, introduced as experimental in earlier releases, now supports final-frame rendering. The engine adds interactive denoising for live look feedback, deep compositing outputs, and holdouts/mattes for layered workflows. Checkpointing allows partially saved renders, useful for iterative approval cycles. XPU also gains multi-GPU support, extending performance across several cards, and now runs OSL (Open Shading Language) filters. Limitations remain: no Cryptomatte support, no texture or light baking, no NURBS/quadrics rendering, and reduced performance with thousands of lights. macOS users must wait for a later dot release to run XPU at all.

RIS heads to retirement

RIS, RenderMan’s long-standing CPU-only engine, is still included but officially marked for deprecation. Pixar has not provided a removal version, but signals its intent to transition all users to XPU in the near future.

MaterialX integration

MaterialX, the open standard developed by ILM and adopted by the Academy Software Foundation, arrives in RenderMan 27. XPU can evaluate MaterialX shading graphs, allowing interchange between applications that support the format. This addresses a key demand for studio pipelines that rely on cross-software asset exchange.

Stylized Looks expand

Pipeline features

RenderMan 27 continues Pixar’s effort to fit modern VFX pipelines. The update improves checkpointing and adds output flexibility for deep compositing passes. Support for mattes and holdouts makes it easier to combine live-action and CG layers, or to generate masks for postproduction.

Smaller additions

The release also improves interactive workflows with enhancements to the IPR (Interactive Preview Render). Users can now update shaders and geometry with fewer restarts, reducing iteration time. XPU’s viewport responsiveness has been tuned for lookdev, even on large assets. Another area of focus is light transport and filtering. XPU gains extended support for OSL filters, giving TDs more granular control over pixel output during rendering. This makes it possible to implement customised passes or in-house filtering logic without rewriting the core renderer.

Plugin updates

The release ships with updated plugins for Houdini, Katana, Maya, and Blender. Integration is designed to expose XPU features directly within host DCC applications, keeping lookdev and shot work inside familiar UIs.

Historical context

RenderMan has been Pixar’s in-house renderer since the late 1980s, originally built on the Reyes architecture optimised for micropolygon rendering. RIS, introduced in 2014, replaced Reyes with a path tracer better suited to global illumination. With version 27, Pixar signals the next phase: shifting from CPU-centric RIS to the hybrid CPU/GPU XPU engine, reflecting the industry-wide migration towards GPU acceleration. RenderMan 27 is available as a beta for registered users.

The post RenderMan 27: XPU graduates, RIS retires first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Jürgen Firsching.

Twinmotion 2025.2 introduces Nanite, Unreal Engine’s virtualised geometry system. Nanite uses a new mesh format and rendering technology to stream only the visible parts of geometry on demand, allowing pixel-scale detail and very high object counts. Imported geometry meshes can be converted to Nanite at the time of import or afterwards via the Properties panel. A new Convert all to Nanite option has been added to the Scene graph’s contextual menu, enabling batch conversion of all geometries under a selected parent object. A dedicated Nanite triangles viewport mode displays Nanite mesh detail directly in the viewport. This can be enabled through the View mode icon.

In practice, this allows Twinmotion users to import high-resolution models from CAD, scan data, or sculpting applications without a pre-optimisation pass. According to Epic, the system is capable of handling datasets with hundreds of millions or even billions of polygons while retaining real-time responsiveness. This opens doors for users in architecture or automotive, where models often contain overwhelming detail at the component level, from bolts in a car chassis to screws in a façade system.

The implication is that asset fidelity is no longer artificially constrained at the import stage. However, Nanite’s real-world performance is always hardware dependent. While Epic emphasises “real-time performance,” users should expect performance scaling based on GPU capability, VRAM, and I/O throughput. Twinmotion’s positioning of Nanite as “removing the need to optimise” should be read literally only in terms of workflow steps, not in terms of performance costs. Heavy assets still consume resources.

Parallax Windows

Twinmotion 2025.2 includes a new Parallax Windows library. This library provides 32 assets, including office, residential, and gym interiors, alongside 10 retail interiors developed with wParallax.

These parallax windows can be dropped into scenes to simulate interior spaces without modelling and furnishing every room. Properties include night cycle simulation with randomised lighting, glass overlay simulation for added realism, and controls for mirroring and dual-sided occlusion.

3D Grass Material

The update adds a new 3D Grass Material with several enhancements. An Accent meshes section introduces small vegetation elements that break up uniform grass distribution and create a more natural appearance. A new Presets section contains 15 curated setups combining grass types, accent meshes, and parameter settings. Colour blending has been reworked, and a Dryness parameter allows application of a dry, sun-scorched effect across grass surfaces.

Installer Size Reduction and On-demand Content

The Twinmotion installer has been reduced in size by moving content to cloud storage. This change simplifies network deployment and makes distribution lighter. A new content-on-demand system allows users to download legacy content as needed. A Download icon in the Library categories lets users fetch entire categories. Content packs can also be downloaded from the Library packs tab of the Home panel. Epic now distinguishes between a Standard Library Pack, containing the full drag-and-drop asset collection, and a lighter Starter Library Pack for demos or quick installs.

Fog Cards

Twinmotion 2025.2 introduces Fog Cards into the VFX category. These are lightweight particle cards designed to add fog layers to a scene. Seventeen Fog Card assets are included. They can be scaled, tinted, and given emissive colours. A set of wind-reactive properties enables fog cards to move with global wind or at custom speed and direction. Fog cards can be combined with existing fog features, such as the global Ambience > Env > Fog or smaller fog banks in Library > Objects > VFX > Fog.

Camera Synchronisation

Twinmotion 2025.2 adds Camera Synchronisation with DCC applications. Through Direct Link or Datasmith imports, both active viewport cameras and saved DCC camera views can be aligned with the Twinmotion viewport camera. A new Camera Sync icon appears in the viewport when a Direct Link or Datasmith connection is active. This opens a user interface with options to enable or disable sync, and to select which DCC view to synchronise.

Static Motion Blur

A new Static Motion Blur system is included. Two tools, Linear Blur and Circular Blur, are available in the Tools > Static motion blur section of the Library.

When a static mesh is made a child of one of these tools in the Scene graph, the chosen blur effect is applied. This allows simulation of motion in still renders, such as wheel rotation on a static vehicle or directional blur on crowds.

Virtual Camera (VCam)

Twinmotion 2025.2 connects with the Unreal VCam app on Android and iOS. This allows a handheld device to control a live camera in Twinmotion scenes. The system supports placement of live cameras and real-time control of focal length, focus, exposure, and navigation settings. Streaming quality can be configured in the Preferences panel.

Exploder

The update introduces Exploder as a new type of Animator tool. Exploders create exploded view animations by separating the parts of an object in space and optionally reassembling them. Exploder Animators include a Shape parameter (sphere, cylinder, or plane) to define movement direction. Per-object settings for Timing and Origin allow staggered offsets and pivot controls. Exploders affect only their direct children in the Scene graph. The Library includes Exploder tool presets, such as Gentle Push, Deconstruct, Inflate, Ring Peel, Pressurize, Plan Split, and Stack Reassemble. These presets can be customised and saved as new versions.

Static and Real-time Animations in Images and Panoramas

Twinmotion 2025.2 introduces a global Static / Real time animation toggle for images and panoramas. This allows creators to pause animations at a specific frame when rendering stills or panoramas, rather than being restricted to real-time playback.

Sony Spatial Reality Display Support

Configuration triggers are now supported on the Sony Spatial Reality Display (SRD). This enables switching between configuration states directly on the SRD device.

Custom LUT Support

Twinmotion 2025.2 adds support for custom LUTs (lookup tables) in .cube format. LUTs can be imported into the new LUT category under the FX tab of the Ambience panel.

Users can apply LUTs from libraries or create them externally in image editing software such as Photoshop.

Advanced Post-process Effects

The FX tab filter system has been redesigned. Filters are now grouped under an Effects category with new settings for sketch-style visuals. Options include hatching, Kuwahara filtering, and pen-style outlines. Parameters are fully exposed, allowing customisation and saving of filter presets.

Conclusion

Twinmotion 2025.2 is a major release, expanding across geometry handling, materials, animation, post-processing, and interoperability. With features such as Nanite integration, Parallax Windows, Fog Cards, Exploder Animators, VCam support, custom LUTs, and mesh tessellation, this update covers both headline capabilities and smaller workflow refinements. Studios should review these features against their production needs before integrating them into pipelines.

The post Nanite marches in: Twinmotion 2025.2 update first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Jürgen Firsching.