World Creator 2025.1 paints biomes and scatters rocks
Biomes, scattering, emissive lava and even GTAV maps: World Creator 2025.1 brings a full ecosystem update to GPU terrain generation.
Pixar beamed up: RenderMan Art Challenge 2025 goes alien
Pixar’s RenderMan Art Challenge 2025 goes extraterrestrial. Theme: Aliens. Deadline: 10 November. Tools: RenderMan only. Prizes: galactic.
KitBash3D Cargo 2.0 lands with Houdini Solaris importer and 350 free assets
KitBash3D Cargo 2.0 ships with Houdini Solaris USD importer and 350 free assets. Free for personal use, commercial rights require paid plans.
Skin Deep & Code Clean: Free Human Shaders for Godot (Yes, Godot, Not Unreal)
Human character shaders for Godot, free (skin, eyes, wetness) from MatMADNESS. Finally something substantial in Godot; demo & pack available.
Unreal Engine 5.7: Experimental Tech, Measured Expectations
Epic Games’ official Unreal Engine 5.7 roadmap lists features under development, flagged either as experimental, planned, or in…
Digital Domain on Fantastic Four: From Baby Mocap to Bearded Rock
Digital Domain’s Phil Cramer explains Fantastic Four VFX: Masquerade3, Baby Franklin, The Thing’s beard, and multi-vendor Marvel pipelines.
Animatics, AI Lighting, and a Free Tier: Previs Pro 3 Expands Storyboarding on iPad
Previs Pro 3: now with animatics, AI lighting, and a free edition for iPad filmmakers.
Berlin Animates: FAB 2025 Full Daily Programme
FAB 2025, 26 to 28 Sept: Berlin screens 132 films, plus hands-on workshops and Japan focus. Here’s the complete schedule.
Kyno Update: Still Alive, Still Useful
Kyno 1.9 isn’t new magic, but it proves the beloved media tool still lives. Apple Silicon, new RAW SDKs, proxy presets—IBC chat to follow.
Interior assets without flat-pack stress
Ikea trip cancelled: Polygoniq’s Interniq 2.0 drops 800+ Blender interior assets, ready to install via Asset Browser—no hex keys, no queues.
50 Digital Scars: Halloween Comes to Blender
250 wounds, scars and skin damage brushes for Blender. Perfect for sculpting your next zombie, vampire, or stitched-mouth monster.
Ton Roosendaal Steps Aside: Blender’s Founder Hands the Keys to the Next Generation
Ton Roosendaal leaves Blender’s helm. Blender 5, story tools, and tablet support are next. New board takes over, Ton moves to supervisory role.
Autodesk adds AI Assistants to Maya (and beyond)
Maya gets AI Assistants and Graph Assist. Autodesk outlines a larger AI push for artists.
Maxon drops Red Giant 2026.0
Red Giant 2026.0: fixes, Capsules, Resolve controls. Universe 2026.0: UI polish. A maintenance release wearing a party hat.
Godot 4.5: New Buffers, Better Access, More Control
Godot 4.5 ships with stencil buffer, shader baker, screen reader support, and dozens of workflow updates. Time to test before production.
Cascadeur Builds Proper Unreal Live Link Plugin
Cascadeur drops the export step: Unreal Live Link plugin incoming, backed by Epic MegaGrant. Release date? Not yet.
Ready-Made Hype: Epic Ships Free Sports Broadcast Motion Design Sample
Epic drops a free Unreal Engine sports motion design sample: 40+ rigged, broadcast-ready assets for sports graphics.
Eight Hands, One Brush: Mari 7.5 Beta Paints on All Fronts
Multi-Paint lands in Mari 7.5 beta. Eight channels, one stroke. Texture transfer, image grouping, and faster backups follow. Test before trusting.
RizomUV 2025: Faster Packing, But Only If You’re on Windows with CUDA
RizomUV 2025 packs faster with NVIDIA GPUs, adds a scene outliner and UDIM upgrades. Linux and macOS users: GPU speed gains not included.
Nevercenter Adds USD & UDIM in Silo 2025.2
Silo 2025.2 adds USD support, UDIM UVs, unit conversion, synced viewports, and more helpful features for serious 3D work.
Maxon Autumn Release: New Colour Science, Liquids, Clouds and a Logo
Cinema 4D 2026 brings OCIO colour management, GPU simulations, UDIMs, Redshift 2026 plus Maxon’s brand-new ecosystem and logo.
Blackmagic Camera 3.0: Remote Clip Syncing and Multi-Cam Control Arrive on Smartphones
Blackmagic Camera 3.0 syncs clips between phones, adds live streaming, LUT upgrades and more, making moile multi-cam shoots less painful.
Realtime Department’s UNIQVUE: The Software Layer Behind Turnkey Corporate Studios
Hardware is nothing without brains. Realtime Department’s UNIQVUE adds the software intelligence to ARRI and Samsung’s turnkey corporate studio. Christoph Gockel explains how.
InstaMAT Gets Smarter: September 2025 Update Sharpens Shading, Painting, and Performance
New shading, erosion, and painting tools: InstaMAT’s September 2025 update is less marketing, more material.
ARRI Packs Virtual Production Into a Box
ARRI’s turnkey stage bundles LED wall, ALEXA 35, audio, and server into a scalable studio package with automation and colour management.
Docking Phone to Pro: Blackmagic Adds Pro Controls to Mobile with Camera App and ProDock
Blackmagic’s ProDock equips iPhone 17 Pro with HDMI, genlock, SSD ports, audio and power—making it a true production camera, not just a smartphone.
Mistika 11 Adds “The Gallery” for Colourists Who Hoard Looks
Mistika 11 adds The Gallery: unlimited presets, FX stacks, metadata control, and Apple Silicon optimisation. For colourists who like tidy chaos.
DaVinci Resolve 20.2: Ripple Discipline, ProRes RAW, and AI Fog on Demand
Resolve 20.2 ships with ProRes RAW decoding on all OS, AI-driven haze, cleaner ripple edits, immersive EXR support, and metadata flexibility.
VEGAS Pro 23 Boosts Engine, Streamlines Colour-Grading, Modernises Interface
TL;DR: VEGAS Pro 23 adds ARM-native support, GPU Core Engine, refreshed UI and flexible licensing. Now with both perpetual and subscription pricing.
Pixel 10 Pro unlocks true 12-bit RAW with DCG
Pixel 10 Pro quietly enables true 12-bit RAW video via DCG. Good for BCAM, photogrammetry, or set refs. But don’t expect it to replace your cinema cam.
Premiere Pro gains 90+ Film Impact effects – plug-in now built-in
Premiere Pro 25.5 folds Film Impact into the app. 90+ GPU-accelerated effects now ship natively, real-time playback, no plug-in, no red render bars.
Datacolor’s SpyderExpress: Colour Calibration on a Budget, Now with Growth Path Options
Cheapest Spyder yet does pro-level colour calibration in 90 sec—and grows with your ambitions. Budget-friendly colour accuracy, now modular.
Pencil Pro sharpens Blender with hand-drawn precision
Pencil Pro v1.1 turns Blender meshes into living pencil sketches: faster, procedural, screen-space, edge-aware. Works on any mesh, no UVs.
mGear 5.1 sharpens RBF Manager and patches Shifter
mGear 5.1 kills off Maya 2020 support. In return: RBF Manager v2.0, Shifter bug fixes, and a forked weightDriver. Test before deploying.
Chaos Vantage 3.0 beta lands with USD, MaterialX and Gaussian Splats
Vantage 3.0 beta is here: USD, MaterialX and Gaussian Splats mean Chaos’ real-time GPU renderer finally speaks modern pipeline standards.
KitBash3D and Greyscalegorilla merge
KitBash3D and Greyscalegorilla merge: R&D speeds up, asset libraries grow, tools expand. Users should see no price or support changes.
RV 2025: Onion Skin, Live Review, ARM Macs
RV 2025 arrives with Live Review (Beta), ARM64 macOS support, and onion skin annotations.
Matching Your Moves: Inside Vision Age VFX
Vision Age VFX specialises in high-end matchmove and rotoanim. Workflows, QC, case studies, and technical tips from Tunisia’s camera tracking experts.
Blackmagic Rents out Resolve: Subscriptions in the Cloud
Resolve goes rental: Blackmagic now lets individuals rent DaVinci Resolve Studio via Cloud. Not a shift, but an optional offer.
iPhone for Tracking: Beeble Camera enables Free “Virtual Production”
Free iOS app turns an iPhone into a tracked camera for AI-powered VFX passes. Beeble Camera links directly to Beeble Web, Editor, and Blender.
DomeMaker 1.0 streamlines HDRI dome lighting for 3ds Max (V-Ray)
DomeMaker 1.0 converts Jonas Noell’s custom HDRI dome workflow into a one-click tool for 3ds Max (V-Ray). Expect instant viewport feedback, automated floor matching, water/wetness effects, and matched CPU/GPU rendering—priced at a studio-friendly $30.
We have to talk about Switchlight 2.0
Beeble’s SwitchLight 2.0 turns raw plates into PBR maps that can be relit like CG. Now trained on 13× more data and extended to full-scene maps, not just the subject. We spoke with co-founder Hoon Kim about what’s new, how it’s priced, and where 3.0 is headed.
Free Material Assets Browser for 3ds Max enters public beta
Free Material Assets Browser for 3ds Max 2025: supports MaterialX, MatCap generation, multiple renderers. Public beta available on GitHub.
EVE Turns Houdini’s VEX Pane Into a Rainbow-Bracked Autocomplete Powerhouse
EVE revamps Houdini’s VEX panel: autocomplete, error‑tips and rainbow brackets, because coding shouldn’t hurt (in theory).
Dolby Vision 2 Rewrites HDR
TL;DR: Dolby Vision 2 upgrades HDR with AI-driven tone-mapping, ambient adjustments, and creative motion control, first to be seen in Hisense TVs, coming in 2026-2027.
Pivot with Precision: Pixie Pivot Adds Maya‑Style Controls to Blender
TL;DR: Pixie Pivot lets Blender users yank control of pivots and gizmos like Maya: snap, align, rotate and origin‑shift with precision.
Next-Gen Cloud Rendering for Blender? Meet Praxilla!
Praxilla offers Blender cloud rendering with Cycles and Eevee, starting at 2.50 € per GPU hour. Secure, fast, and aiming for collaborative rendering.
Ornatrix V9 for 3ds Max: Paint, Plait, Perform
Ornatrix V9 brings hair painting, braiding, SIMD viewport speed, Alembic export and modifier tweaks, grooming artists get the full treatment.
SDI inside: EIZO’s CG2400SV aims at serious video work
SDI, HDR, 10-bit colour, and a carry handle: EIZO’s new 24" ColorEdge CG2400SV is aimed at post houses, studios, and on-set use.
3D Gaussian Splats Officially Added to glTF Standard
Khronos Group, in collaboration with OGC, Niantic Spatial, Cesium (Bentley), and Esri, has formally added 3D Gaussian Splats…
Blender 5.0 Ships Built-In ACES 2.0 View Transform
Blender 5.0 gains a built‑in ACES 2.0 view transform, new HDR and wide‑gamut export, and better OpenColorIO compatibility, making HDR pipelines more native.
MetaHuman Meets Houdini
TL;DR: Epic’s free “MetaHuman for Houdini” brings rigged, textured MetaHumans and procedural hair grooms into Houdini, with seamless Alembic export to Unreal Engine.
Sony Updates: Monitor & Control and Creators’ App Add 20-Camera Multi-View, Cloud Workflow
Sony’s Monitor & Control app finally speaks Mac—with 20-camera multi-view on Premium—and the Creators’ App now pushes direct uploads to Ci with clipped previews.
iClone 8.6 Update Adds New Eye Shaders, and UE5 Export Presets
Reallusion’s iClone 8.6 brings CC5 support, new digital human eye shaders, UE5 export presets, and workflow improvements for facial animation and rendering.
Netorium and dveas move in together
netorium AG and dve advanced systems merge to combine broadcast IT, VFX, and postproduction workflows for European clients.
ProArt PA32UCDM: The OLED Display That Thinks It’s a Reference Monitor And Dresses Like an Accountant
First impression: The ASUS ProArt PA32UCDM is the Clark Kent of displays. On your desk, it could pass for a premium, but otherwise unassuming office monitor—sleek, thin, and lightweight, with none of that over-designed “gamer” bling. But underneath?
URSA Cine Price Cut
Sharp discounts on URSA Cine kits (up to 36% off) come with expected regional price gaps. Timing suggests an IBC reveal is near.
iPhones Go “Pro” with Final Cut Camera 2.0
iPhones just levelled-up: Final Cut Camera 2.0 adds ProRes RAW, genlock, open-gate, Apple Log 2, timecode and multicam workflow tools – free update arriving later in September.
Here’s Character Creator 5 — Now in Hero-Quality, MAya-Friendly, MetaHuman-Friendly, and Armed with ActorMIXER
Reallusion launches Character Creator 5 featuring HD subdivision, upgraded facial animation, ActorMIXER Pro, and integration with Maya, Marmoset, and Unreal.
V‑Ray 7.1 for Blender: Geometry Nodes and Material Converter
Chaos’s V‑Ray 7.1 for Blender adds support for Geometry Nodes, a Cycles‑to‑V‑Ray material converter, OpenPBR standard and Blender 4.5 LTS.
Faster, wider, cleaner: KIRI Engine 4.0 drops mobile scan limits
KIRI Engine 4.0 slashes scan time, boosts photo limits, adds AR guidance and AI PBR and plus free users enjoy unlimited exports. Production-ready, at last.
Houdini 21 Finally Lands: The Buzz Is Over, Time to Actually Use It
SideFX has released Houdini 21, adding rigging, CFX, VFX, lookdev, terrain, and Copernicus updates. The hype is over; time to test in production.
Howler 2026 lands: AI inpainting, Confetti particles and four-track audio for under $33
Howler 2026 reinvents the quirky painting app with AI image tools, particle effects and multitrack audio—and it’s still just $32.99.
Clay 4.Doh Update Sculpts Blender Workflow
Rahul Parihar’s Clay 4.Doh update expands his Blender clay toolkit with new tools, modifiers, shader improvements, and perpetual free updates.
Boris FX Turns Up the Volume
Boris FX, known for VFX plugins and tracking tools, now adds Sequoia, Samplitude, and Music Studio DAWs to its portfolio.
Unity 6.2 Welcomes AI, But Pace Caution—User Liability on Copyright
Unity 6.2 introduces Unity AI, replacing Muse and Sentis with integrated generative tools for assets and code, plus Mesh LOD and UI updates.
Cross Sections Without Tears: Free Plugin for 3ds Max
Free plugin for 3ds Max generates multiple 2D cross sections on any axis, with spacing, offset and weld options
AI Render for iClone & CC with ComfyUI Integration, Available in Open Beta
Reallusion announces the open beta of AI Render, a completely free plugin that bridges Reallusion’s intuitive 3D software, including Character Creator and iClone—with ComfyUI, the open-source, node-based interface widely regarded as the gold standard for customizable AI visual generation.
EIZO CG3100X: The New Gold Standard for Colour-Critical Work?
EIZO’s new ColorEdge CG3100X offers DCI-4K, HDR presets, 99% DCI-P3 coverage and True Black filter. Available November 2025 for less money than you'd expect!
WorldEngen promises AI-built 3D scenes in hours, not weeks
WorldEngen claims to cut 3D scene creation from weeks to hours with AI integration into Blender, Unreal, and Unity. Early Access now open.
Marvelous Designer 2025.1: Draw, Wash, Repeat
Marvelous Designer 2025.1 brings Off-Avatar 3D Pen, Denim Wet Wash, AI Pose Generator, and Softbody for custom rigs.
Axiom 4.0 Sneak Peek for Houdini
First preview of Axiom 4.0 shows improved collisions, redesigned sourcing, and faster GPU-driven simulations for Houdini.
Bose QuietComfort Ultra: Noise Cancelling for when your workstation is also the Rendernode!
Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) are the current leaders in active noise cancelling. In our test, they silenced GPUs, offices, and even kindergarten tantrums, all while sounding excellent.
Meshroom 2025.1: Templates, Plugins and Photometric Stereo
Update 2025.1: Meshroom adds templates, photometric stereo and a plugin hub. More open, modular and production-friendly.
Tomato Warfare: Milk VFX on Heads of State
Milk VFX Supervisor David Sadler-Coppard on how the team built thousands of CG tomatoes, exploding doors, and digital crowds for Heads of State.
Zibra AI Frees ZibraVDB for Indie Artists (Briefly, Because Less Is More)
Zibra AI now offers ZibraVDB free to indie creators earning under $100,000/year for use with Houdini and Unreal Engine 5.3.
Marmoset Toolbag 5.02 Rolls Off the Assembly Line
Marmoset Toolbag 5.02 adds Decal layers, Smudge tool, Tile Strip system, ray‑traced fog, low‑to‑low baking and workflow enhancements in this latest real‑time VFX update.
UModeler X Personal Arrives Inside Unity Editor
UModeler Inc. has released UModeler X Personal: a Unity Editor plugin for modeling, rigging, painting, curve mesh and 3D text, ideal for indie and metaverse creators.
Painting inside the box: MatPlus gives Blender a Substance-style makeover
MatPlus embeds a Substance-style, layer-based painting system inside Blender, with masks, UDIMs, baking and bundled PBR materials.
These Are the Clones You’re Looking For: Hoplite VFX Fires Up ‘Star Wars: The 212’
Hoplite VFX trades stormtrooper aim for clone trooper precision in Star Wars: The 212. Producer Maurine Fauvert reveals how a two-artist side project turned into a full-blown studio production, complete with Move AI mocap, Blender’s GPU power, and some very unlucky troopers.
Timelapse Orbit 2.0 Keeps Blender WIPs Showreel-Ready
Timelapse Orbit 2.0 automates viewport tracking in Blender to streamline documentation and showreel creation during process video capture.
After Effects 25.4 Lands in August: HDR Metadata, Text-Format Paste, and Layer Staggering
Adobe After Effects 25.4 introduces Quick Offset, Paste Text Formatting Only, and HDR CICP metadata support.
YT-Tools for Blender: Bringing Modo Workflows Back to Life
Former Foundry engineer Yoshiaki Tazaki has released YT-Tools, a Blender add-on that re-creates much of Modo’s modeling workflow. Priced at 20 USD and designed for Blender 4.0+, it restores falloffs, contextual selection, and interactive slicing for artists who miss Modo’s speed and precision.
Procedural Forest Generator for Blender
A new Geometry Nodes tool for Blender generates procedural forests across biomes, balancing photorealism with performance and fast iteration.
VenkysTurbulenceMicrosolver: Finally, Your Smoke Can Stop Looking Like Blobby Soup
VenkysTurbulenceMicrosolver adds adaptive, detailed turbulence to Houdini Pyro, cutting manual noise setup.
Cleaning out the studio back room? The ScansMatter warehouse kit might help
Cleaning out the junk in the cellar or back room of the studio has never been easier: 165 free modular warehouse assets until 26 August 2025.
Flow Studio prices drop, tiers multiply, features shift
Autodesk adds Free and Standard Flow Studio tiers, drops Lite to $10 with reduced tools, lowers Pro price to $95, and adjusts export limits.
Houdini 21: SideFX pushes for production readiness across the CG pipeline
SideFX releases Houdini 21, promoting Apex, Vulkan, Otus, and major animation and rigging upgrades to production-ready status.
Blend Normals at Scale with Smart Mesh Blend Add-On
Smart Mesh Blend is a Geometry Nodes-based add-on for Blender and Bforartists that blends normals across collections using a drag-and-drop wizard setup.
Fast Nature Maker: UE5 Procedural World Generator Simplifies Landscapes
Gökhan Karadayı released a UE5 landscape tool that enables procedural landscapes featuring roads, buildings, rail-lines and props via Landscape Layers.
No need to water flowers in August: grow them in Houdini instead
FLOPs is a free, KineFX-based HDA toolkit for creating and animating realistic flowers in Houdini, released by Danny Laursen.
Wrinkle-Free: Substance 3D Sampler 5.1 Released
dobe has updated Substance 3D Sampler to 5.1, adding Auto Tiling, Fold Remover, new flattening tools, and improved HP Z Captis scanner integration.
botaniq 7.1 plants global reach in Blender
Polygoniq’s botaniq 7.1 adds 405 new assets, geographic filters, and scattering presets for Blender 3.6+, with a small 7.1.1 patch.
LumaFusion 5.3 Lands on iOS with New Workflow Tools and a Door for Plugins
LumaFusion 5.3 for iOS adds workflow updates, introduces plugin API, and launches CoreMelt’s PaintX as first third-party effect tool.
Xencelabs Pen Display 24+ Debuts with On-Board Calman Colour Calibration
Xencelabs launches the first pen display with built‑in Calman Ready hardware calibration for consistent, on‑device colour accuracy.
Fusion Studio 20.1: Immersive, Patchy, and Ready for 360°
Blackmagic Fusion Studio 20.1 adds immersive 360° viewer, Magic Mask v2, deep compositing improvements, and CSV import for MultiText boxes.
Maya 2026.2: Lighter Wolves, Smarter Motion, and One Less Excuse to Skip MaterialX
Maya 2026.2 boosts MotionMaker AI, enables MaterialX in LookdevX, brings Arnold GPU Toon shading, and makes Bifrost mandatory. Check docs for full details.
Resolve 20.1: Apple Vision Pro, Magic Mask V2, and a Few More Reasons to Backup
DaVinci Resolve 20.1 delivers Apple Vision Pro support, Magic Mask v2, and new editing, Fusion, and Fairlight tools. Backup before updating.
Chaos V‑Ray 7 Update 2 for 3ds Max: Now With 300% More Night Sky (And AI for Those Who Miss Deadlines)
V‑Ray 7 Update 2 for 3ds Max delivers AI material tools, a new Night Sky, and 3x faster Chaos Cloud GPU rendering.
Chaos Opens Real‑Time Rendering to All (No Unreal Required)
Chaos Arena now supports USD, MaterialX and Gaussian Splats, enabling real‑time rendering with no Unreal Engine license required.