Manuel Kotulla

28 posts
Manuel Kotulla works as a freelance Creative Director, Motion Designer, and 3D / VFX Artist in Hamburg. Previously, he spent many years as Creative Director for Animation & VFX at the Serviceplan Group. He has a passion for Houdini, cinematic lighting, and his Fuji camera.

Latest articles

A close-up view of a pastel turquoise bicycle, showcasing its sleek rear gears and silver spokes gleaming against a dark background. The bike's design features a curved frame and orange safety reflector, highlighting a harmonious blend of modern style and functional engineering.

Houdini Rigging: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Start Loving APEX

For anyone tired of character setups held together by hope, version notes and one dangerous checkbox, Houdini 21 promises a paradigm shift. By decoupling mesh, rig logic, animation and execution through KineFX and APEX, SideFX is taking another run at the holy grail of procedural rigging. But can it deliver a fast and intuitive workflow?
A close-up of a fluffy, light-colored cat with a predominantly cream fur coat featuring soft brown patches. Its large, expressive eyes gaze curiously to the side, framed by delicate whiskers and gentle ear fur, against a smooth, dark gray background that enhances its detailed texture and three-dimensional form.

Here comes Houdini 22

2 hours and 18 minutes. That is almost exactly the runtime of the first Matrix film, and exactly the duration of the Houdini 22 release keynote. So yes, this promises a rather chunky package of new features and improvements.

Fridays for Fusion: Bend It

Bend It warps 2D in Fusion with bend, taper, twist, and shear plus optional lighting and materials. It needs Fusion 19.1+ and a strong sense of restraint.
A detailed view of a 3D modeling software interface featuring a wireframe representation of a human face, primarily focusing on the nose. The sidebar shows various tools and options related to the modeling process, labeled 'Bezier Deform'. The workspace is dark with contrasting colors for clarity.

Modeler 26 for Houdini released

Modeler 26 for Houdini introduces a significantly expanded PolyPen, Bezier-based deformation, curve-driven boolean operations, viewport card drawing, and a new object layer system.
Two lion head sculptures surrounded by flames in a digital editing interface.

Fusion 20: a deep look at the core

With its latest release, Blackmagic Fusion is positioning itself more aggressively than ever as a powerful and cost-effective complete package for node-based compositing and motion graphics. We check whether Fusion 20 lives up to the high expectations.