Beyond VFX dives into AI Ethics
AI meets VFX and ethics: Beyond VFX returns on 26 Nov 2025 with VES and ICE.ART. Join Ben Lock, Victor Perez, Frank Govaere & Dr Jana Sedlakova and Agon Ushaku for a free panel.
Here comes Silo 2026.0 with Blender bridge
The developer Nevercenter has released version Silo 2026.0, introducing a significant new feature: the Silo Blender Bridge plugin,…
KeyShot Studio 2025.3: Cryptomatte, OpenPBR, and a Real Pivot
KeyShot Studio 2025.3 expands material and lighting control with OpenPBR, Cryptomatte, and better GPU speed. Real pivots, both literal and figurative.
Houdini Equinox 2025 HIVE Session Recordings Online
The session videos from Houdini Equinox 2025’s HIVE event are now live! Covering Houdini 21’s car-destruction RBD tools, CFX for creatures, ML workflows and major production case-studies.
SuperSplat 2.14 adds full video export
SuperSplat v2.14 adds WebM/AV1 + VP9, MOV/MKV export, frame-range and framerate controls. Browser-based editor gets properly production-ready for splat video output.
RealityScan Mobile 1.8 with Tools for On-the-Go Scanning
Version 1.8 of RealityScan Mobile introduces three capture modes (including AR Guidance), mesh clean-up tools, focus peaking, capture timer and watertight mesh output: ideal for everybody capturing on-the-go.
Sapphire 2026: Film Burns, Whip Cuts & Builder Love
Sapphire 2026 blends analogue charm and new-gen tools: FilmBurn, MochaWhip, Lens Flares and a more transparent Effect Builder.
CEUM 2025 Recordings Online: Cities, Pipelines & Python
All CEUM 2025 recordings are now online. The CityEngine User Meeting covers procedural-city workflows, ArcGIS-based planning pipelines, and fresh Python 3 support — a compact update for anyone working in urban-scale visualization.
the new “3D Onion Skinning” add-on for Blender gives you ghosted frames in 3D so you can see motion timing and spacing without flipping frames manually.
Blender 5.0 – it’s here!
Blender 5.0 is finally here — with ACES/PQ-HDR, high-geometry support, UI tweaks and a fresh release cadence for production pipelines.
Text2Spreadsheet bridges AE and spreadsheets with one click
Text2Spreadsheet exports all text layers in After Effects to a spreadsheet for editing, then re-imports them in one click. Simple.
World VFX Day 2025: Global Line-Up Revealed
WētāFX, ILM, Framestore, Adobe and more join World VFX Day 2025 this December, streaming live from London.
Free “BranchK” toolkit for Houdini adds hierarchy-deformation features
The free BranchK toolkit for Houdini gives environment artists hierarchical capture and deform tools, download and test now.
Photoshop Joins Overlord 2.6
Overlord 2.6 links Photoshop to After Effects for the first time, with a new image scale selector and expanded 265 MB transfer limit.
Blender 5.0 hits release candidate!
Blender 5.0’s release candidate is live. Expect ACES 2.0, smarter Geometry Nodes, and a sleeker UI before the final launch later this month.
Marvelous Designer 2025.2: MetaHumans, Pleats & Keyframes
Marvelous Designer 2025 introduces direct MetaHuman DNA import, pattern-to-trim/accessory conversion, pleat creation and expanded keyframe control.
Arnold 7.4.4: better hair, bloom & light-sampling
Autodesk’s Arnold 7.4.4 lifts hair realism, adds aperture-bloom modes and speeds global-light sampling. Worth a test in your next render?
Pixar’s RenderMan 27.0 lands with final-frame XPU rendering, multi-GPU scaling, deep compositing, and a production-ready Stylized Looks suite.
Corona 14: Gaussian Splats, Night Sky & fabric-material
Chaos launches Corona 14 with Gaussian Splats for scene context, new AI-tools for materials and upscaling, Night Sky for night builds and a procedural Fabric Material.
Moho 14.4 Goes on a Side Quest: 2D Meets Game Engines
Lost Marble’s Moho 14.4 “Side Quest” links 2D animation with game engines via glTF export, plus Smart Bones in 360°, smarter particles, and smoother strokes.
When Annabelle Grew Up: The Digital Domain Horror Pipeline
425 shots, one terrifying doll, and a CG mill town: Digital Domain’s Alex Millet explains how his team built the horror of The Conjuring: Last Rites and kept it real.
Autodesk launches Maya 2026.3 & Creative 2026.3
Maya 2026.3 packs Bifrost rigid bodies, Graph Editor channel sets, Flow connectivity, and an upgraded USD asset resolver.
Xsens Rebuilds Its Link Mocap Suit With 4D Stretch
Xsens reinvents its Link suit: 4D stretch fabric, Wi-Fi 6E, one-click sensors, and fewer cables. mocap setups just got a lot less sweaty, or at least easier to keep (reasonably) clean.
Foundry Opens Nuke 17 Beta: New 3D System, New Variables
Nuke 17 Beta modernises its 3D system, adds a Variable framework and revamped annotation tools: compositors can now test them all.
Unreal Engine 5.7: foliage, PCG and in-Editor AI
Unreal Engine 5.7 adds Nanite Foliage (experimental), production-ready PCG and Substrate, new virtual-production tools, and an AI Assistant. Test first.
Ucupaint 2.4.0 with alpha channel and decal-constraints
Ucupaint 2.4.0 adds dedicated alpha channel, decal-stick option, UI overhaul and faster VDM baking.
Sometimes you just want a tablet that works without selling your workstation. That was the starting point for our test of Huion’s Kamvas 13 (Gen 3). In times where many artists keep an eye on their budgets, the idea of a small, solid, and affordable pen display is tempting. So we teamed up with Huion to see what this one could actually do.
Analog Soul, Digital Body: ARRI Film Lab Arrives
ARRI’s new OpenFX plugin Film Lab emulates analog film’s grain, halation, and weave in real time for any camera. Free trial now via RE:Vision Effects.
Xencelabs Pen Display 16 Lite: 4K OLED in a 12 mm Shell
Xencelabs launches the Pen Display 16 Lite, a 12 mm, 1.2 kg 4K OLED tablet with Super AG Etching and EMR pen support. The device targets mobile artists who need wide-gamut color accuracy on the go, with pricing starting at US$ 800 and the full Pen Display 16 Bundle listed at US$1250
Beeble launches SwitchLight 3.0
SwitchLight 3.0 from Beeble brings full video-frame PBR pass generation and relighting workflows.
Blender Foundation launches “Blender Lab” innovation hub
The Blender Foundation is launching Blender Lab, a new sandbox for prototyping features in Blender, aimed at faster iteration, acedemic research and development.
Spotlight Generator for 3ds Max Automates IES Light Setup for Corona and V-Ray
ArchvizTools releases Spotlight Generator, a free script for 3ds Max that automates IES spotlight placement for Corona and V-Ray. Version 1.0 targets faster lighting workflows in arch-viz and VFX production by generating renderer-ready IES lights directly on selected geometry.
Blackmagic Camera 3.2: iPhone Streams Live, No Extra Steps
Blackmagic Camera 3.2 turns your iPhone into a live streaming unit—now with native YouTube, Vimeo, and Twitch streaming, plus SRT for pro use.
The Cube Moved: Go for the Chaos (Ad) Vantage
Architecture Illustrators and Visualizers test Chaos Vantage for a narrative short and accidentally build a moving house. Unbox proves real-time previz can tell stories, not just sell floor plans.
Keep Your Pipeline: Chaos on Skipping the Game Engine
Chaos’ Chris Nichols explains how Chaos Arena and Chaos Vantage cut out the engine middleman with full ray tracing, open formats, and one asset for all.
KitBash3D’s $245 “DieselPunk” 3D kit (1,395 meshes and 4K textures for Unreal 5) is free on Fab until 18 Nov 2025. Cinematic-grade, no LODs.
Procedural Roads Ahead: Blender Add-on “Roads” Lays Asphalt with Vertices
Blender add-on “Roads” builds procedural roads from vertex extrusions. Fast, planar, parametric and $10.
SpyderPro goes full HDR with receipts (C2PA)
Datacolor’s SpyderPro adds 12,000 nits support, 3D-LUT export, and C2PA metadata embedding. Targeted squarely at post pros, not hobbyists.
Phantom Media Group: Milk, Lola, Tippett, PhantomFX and Spectre Unite
Milk, Lola, Tippett, PhantomFX and Spectre now share a roof. Phantom Digital Effects forms Phantom Media Group to align global VFX talent.
City Life for Crowds: iCrowds Lands in Blender
iCrowds, the new Blender add-on from iCity’s creator, brings smart Sims-style crowds, seven simulation systems, and 100k agents to 3D production.
Sculpt-Offs, Anniversaries & Anatomy: ZBrush Summit 2025 celebrates 25 years
ZBrush turns 25 and Maxon is celebrating online, 7-9 November, with live Sculpt-Offs, artist sessions and a first look at what’s next for ZBrush.
Procedural Thursday: CityEngine Users Meet Online Tomorrow
Tomorrow, 5 p.m. CET: CityEngine User Meeting: free, online, and full of procedural nerds. Bring your node graphs.
Das Element 2.2: Major Step Forward for Asset Management
The new Das Element 2.2 release strengthens 3D handling, adds dynamic permission controls and custom Python action hooks to make studio asset management even smoother.
Nobe OmniScope, Pomfort, and RePro sync up on set
RePro connects Pomfort Livegrade and Nobe OmniScope for a unified on-set-to-post workflow. Real-time streaming, shared looks, and synced scopes cut guesswork.
HDR isn’t just a jungle of acronyms on your TV box—though it may feel that way. To bring some order, we sat down with Michael Hackl from Dolby to talk about Dolby Vision, how it compares to HDR10 and HDR10+, how it is made, and what’s new in Dolby Vision 2.
Camera Arrays for the Gaussian Age
Camera Array Tool for Blender creates surface-based camera rigs and exports 4DGS-ready image data for Gaussian Splatting workflows.
Free WaveManager Brings Procedural Motion to Maya
WaveManager for Maya adds procedural wave motion to any rig via expressions: no keyframes, full control, free download.
Neat Video 6: Smarter Noise Reduction for Nuke and Beyond
Neat Video 6 automates what used to be manual: GPU tuning, CPU balancing, and memory management. The result: up to twice the render speed and half the RAM usage inside Nuke, Premiere, and Resolve. A quiet but meaningful upgrade for anyone tired of watching progress bars instead of pixels.
Video Mocap: Reallusion’s AI Gets Moving
Reallusion adds online AI motion capture to iClone: Video Mocap turns footage into editable animation for $2.50 per clip.
Blender 4.5 LTS lands
lender 4.5 LTS arrives with studio-grade support; the Blender survey shows where users stand; and Blender 5.0 beta is already here, so its time to plan your upgrade.
Off-Grid, On-Tape: EditingTools.io Launches Local Timecode Notes Server
EditingTools.io brings offline collaboration to live productions with its new Live Timecode Notes Server for macOS.
Continuum 2026: AI masks, fixes, and faces
Continuum 2026 upgrades AI masking, keying, and transitions. Face ML, Matte Refine ML, and smarter Pixel Chooser save time on tedious isolation work.
Creepy-Crawlies in 3D: Free “Arthropods” Anatomy App for Creature Designers
Twelve museum arthropods, one free app, and an excellent reason to stop swatting your references. Creepy-crawlies in 3D, just in time for Halloween.
Canva folds Affinity into one free-forever app, marking a major shift for design tools and putting the old perpetual-licence model on hold.
FMX Turns 30 in 2026
FMX 2026 celebrates 30 years of digital media creation. Stuttgart, May 5–8, 2026. Theme: “The Road Ahead”. Book your rooms, time flies.
Mesh2Motion Update 6 Adds Explore Library and Rebuilt Rigs
Update 6 gives Mesh2Motion a new Explore Library, rebuilt Blender rigs, and smarter bones for birds, dragons, and quadrupeds.
The Mill Returns
The Mill is back. TransPerfect revives the iconic VFX studio with returning talent and a global creative push.
Peakto for Premiere: search your footage like never before
At Adobe MAX 2025, CYME launched “Peakto for Premiere Pro”: a plugin giving editors AI-search across local and shared media without the cloud.
Photoshop 27.0: Now with Harmonise, Upscale & Firefly Video
Photoshop 27.0 is official. You get Harmonise, Generative Upscale, Firefly video export, and selectable AI models. Test before rollout.
Open HDRI: 25 Free 29K HDRIs (More to come)
A new online library offers 25 free HDRIs at up to 29K resolution, all under a CC0 license. Open HDRI provides ultra-high-quality lighting environments without sign-ups, tracking or licensing headaches.
3D Measure Master brings CAD-style precision to 3ds Max
The new plugin 3D Measure Master adds CAD-style measuring tools to 3ds Max, creating editable and renderable geometry for true 3D dimensions.
No hard hats mandatory: 120 Free Construction-Site Props for Unreal & Beyond
Environment artist Marcos Frazao releases 120 free semi-modular construction-site assets via Epic’s Fab marketplace. Nanite-ready, 4 K textured, and available for Unreal Engine: no dust, no steel-toed boots, and definitely no hard hats required.
VFX Supervisor Michael Wortmann on how RiseFX built the fantasy of Momo: almost entirely on location, with 280 shots and the best turtle in the business.
Flix 8.0: Foundry’s story hub gets serious about Storyboard Pro
Foundry’s Flix 8.0 tightens its Storyboard Pro link, retools shots UI, refines ingest monitoring, still “priced on request”, which probably means “too expensive”.
“Task Force Querlitz” Brings Adult Animation to ZDF
With Task Force Querlitz, screenwriter Simon Thummet, director Arne Hain and producer Sebastian Simon have achieved something rare:…
SLAPSHOT promises AI Camera Tracking “in minutes”
SLAPSHOT has released its AI Camera Tracking tool: what used to take a day or more can now take under ten minutes according to the developer.
Fluid Flow paints physics into Blender
Fluid Flow is a $14 Geometry Nodes add-on for Blender 4.2+, painting real-time water, sand, and lava straight into the viewport.
ASUS unveils 32″ 8K HDR Mini-LED ProArt monitor. Yes, 8K.
ASUS launches its 32″ 8K HDR Mini-LED monitor, the ProArt PA32KCX with great brightness and pro-features. Not for everyone, but if you edit 8K or need huge desktop real-estate, this is serious.
Ugly Gets an Upgrade: Digital Anarchy’s Free Halloween Plugins
Digital Anarchy resurrects its Ugly Box and Flicker Freak plugins just in time for Halloween. Free, frightful, and gloriously hideous.
Free Blender add-on “Outset Boundary” lets you expand faces with one click
Free Blender add-on “Outset Boundary” offers an outset tool for expanding faces rather than insetting them, nice for quick margins.
Vectorify: Simplify Animation Repathing in Maya
Tool developer Ehsan Bayat has released Vectorify, a free tool for Autodesk Maya that transforms animation repathing from…
AWS Thinkbox will put Deadline 10 into maintenance mode on 7 Nov 2025: no new features, just fixes. Studios should plan migration to Deadline Cloud.
Retopoflow 4.0 for Blender
Orange Turbine’s Retopoflow 4.0 brings full Edit Mode integration in Blender and support for curves/NURBS/metaballs, but one tool is still missing in this release.
Open-Source Engine O3DE Hits Version 25.10
O3DE 25.10 trims installers, builds faster, supports C++20, and upgrades robotics Gems — a solid, practical update for technical artists.
Accurate Film Simulation for Blender: Analog Soul, Digital Body
Analog meets Geometry Nodes: Blender now has an add-on that simulates real photographic film stocks. Developer Edin Spiegel’s…
Blender user survey 2025 – time to tell the team what you really think
Blender’s asking you for feedback again: join the 2025 survey and help shape how the software is used across film, game and animation workflows.
Wildlife by Click: Fauna Master Pro Brings 150+ Creatures into Blender
Fauna Master Pro adds 150+ animals and real-time behaviours inside Blender: a fast route to lifelike scenes, though not without quirks.
Painterly Garden: 200+ Ghibli-Style Foliage Assets for Blender
Painterly Blender artists rejoice: 200+ stylised foliage assets by Craftreaper and BD3D, tuned for EEVEE Next, now on Gumroad.
SideFX launches “How To Houdini” contest for Houdini 21
SideFX’s new “How To Houdini” contest rewards the best Houdini 21 tutorials with FX and Indie licences, merch, and "exposure" in the community.
Chaos Vantage 3 Released: USD, MaterialX, AI Materials & Volumetric Rendering
Chaos Vantage 3 expands its real-time rendering engine with USD and MaterialX support, AI-driven material generation, volumetric rendering, and Gaussian splats. The update brings Vantage closer to open-pipeline workflows for VFX and visualization and adds plenty of new toys for artists who prefer to stay in real time.
Atlux λ 2 makes Unreal Engine a virtual 3D scanner, exporting Gaussian-ready data. Real photogrammetry, synthetic edition.
ZEISS CinCraft Virtual Lens Enters BETA: Real Glass, Virtual Magic
ZEISS opens BETA registration for CinCraft Virtual Lens Technology, a GPU-powered Nuke plugin that replicates real lens behaviour in compositing, simulating optical artefacts like bokeh, distortion, and chromatic aberration.
Unreal 5.7 Preview: PCG Grows Up, Foliage Gets Fancy
Unreal Engine 5.7 Preview is out. PCG hits production-ready, foliage goes Nanite, and MetaHumans get smarter, all free via Epic’s launcher.
Stitch Head!
“Stitch Head”: A charming animated adventure blending gothic charm, playful humor, and a heartfelt journey of self-acceptance, crafted by a team spanning multiple continents and pipelines.
Blender 5.0 Beta!
Blender 5.0 Beta runs until 5 November 2025, bringing ACES 2.0, node and compositor updates, HDR colour support, and stricter compatibility rules.
HFF Munich Hiring: Two Half-Time Heroes Wanted
HFF Munich’s VFX department wants two new tech minds—one for the pipeline, one for IT. Expect creative chaos, cool people, and excellent surroundings!
Anastomia: Comparative Anatomy for Creature Artists
Human, horse, wolf, dog: Anastomia visualises their anatomy side by side, with sync, isolation, and pose features. Free in early access.
Trees in Autumn: SpeedTree Controller 3.0 Falls for Houdini 21
SpeedTree Controller 3.0 lets Houdini artists break, regrow and shade trees with Karma: new features, same procedural roots
One Toolbag to Rule Your Clicks
William Faucher’s EasyToolbag trims the fat from Unreal Engine 5 workflows with one-click helpers, shortcuts, and smarter viewport tweaks.
Netflix unifies Scanline VFX and Eyeline Studios as “Eyeline”, merging high-end VFX with virtual production and AI research under one label.
UE Organizer: Taming the Unreal Vault Jungle
DocHardGames’ UE Organizer finally brings order to your Unreal Engine Vault. Free for browsing and tagging, $5/month for one-click import, AI tagging and sync.
Blender’s Compositor Gets a Photoshop-Style Setup (Free)
Free node setup Easy Photorealism turns Blender’s compositor into a one-stop post-processing station with glare, noise, vignetting, and colour tweaks included.
GPU-FLIP solver Storm HydroFX launches in free open beta
Storm HydroFX, a standalone GPU FLIP fluid solver from Storm VFX, is now freely available in open beta with full import/export and no feature lockouts.
Material Maker 1.4: Godot 4 port, flexible UI, 32-bit baking
Material Maker 1.4 debuts: full Godot 4 migration, rebuilt shader engine, new node types and UI redesign. A serious update, not cosmetic.
Miauu colours your chaos: LayerColorizer for 3ds Max
Miauu’s new LayerColorizer for 3ds Max lets you colour-code layer names and backgrounds in the Scene Explorer, turning layer soup into legible order.
Blackmagic Camera app 3.1.2 adds 1920×1440 Open-Gate
Blackmagic’s iOS app update unlocks 1920×1440 Open-Gate with Apple Log and stabilises LUT, RAW, and orientation handling for real-world shoots.
Free 3D Cathedral Kit Lands on Fab
Epic’s Fab marketplace offers RagTarock’s Abandoned Cathedral pack: 210 modular Unreal Engine 5 assets, Nanite and Lumen ready, free until 21 October 2025.
Chaos Anima 6.2: cars that finally drive themselves (almost)
Chaos Anima 6.2 drives cars with people in them, adds brake lights, tags crowds, and eats less RAM, all wrapped into the Chaos ArchViz Collection.
Project Manager 3.41 lands with archive import, PBR translucency, online licences, colour labels, and multi-category filtering for 3ds Max users.
Rebelle 8: Digital Painting’s Physical Upgrade
Rebelle 8 turns digital painting into a physical experience. The new Bristle Brush engine simulates every hair of a real brush, RealShader adds true lighting and shadow depth to thick paint, and the NanoPixel 2 engine scales artwork up to 32 K resolution. With layer-specific materials, symmetry tools, Escape Motions’ latest release feels less like an update and more like a real studio, minus the turpentine.