Blackmagic has released a new version, now 20.2, of its increasingly popular software for video editing, colour correction, visual effects, animation and audio editing. Originally developed as pure colour correction software, more and more functions were added over time and the software has since found a large following—particularly because of its outstanding price-performance ratio—and because beginners are enticed to take their first steps with a free version. So far, the software can be purchased without subscription obligations. The software seems more like a supplementary “side business” for Blackmagic, alongside its many high-end hardware products for film and television production.

Anima-what?

Countless tests and tutorials by enthusiasts of the programme are circulating on the internet. We have also published articles on DaVinci and indicated that we wanted to take a closer look at the software’s animation capabilities. Blackmagic proudly announces on its website that DaVinci Resolve is Hollywood’s number one choice for post-production. The list of features is correspondingly long and may well overwhelm beginners. The latest version is said to contain over 100 new features for all areas of video editing and post-production, including new AI functions for audio editing.

As already explained in other articles, DaVinci Resolve uses 7 workspaces, which are arranged to structure work in DaVinci (an explanation of this system was already provided by Alexander Richter in his article Goodbye Adobe Premiere): “Media for ingest, Cut for the first rough cut, Edit for the actual editing, Fusion for compositing and motion graphics, Color for, you can guess, colour correction, Fairlight for audio and Deliver for final rendering of files.” Even if this all sounds rather complex, most 2D animation and video editing programmes work in a similar way, with “individual differences,” as our colleague already mentioned.

Since DaVinci Resolve is essentially a huge collection of different tools, we have, as promised, focused “only” on the one aspect of animation for now. Of course, you should understand the principle of the 7 Pages in DaVinci, even if you “only” want to animate.

Everything Moves

In principle, all motion effects, in fact, all animation of parameters of imported objects in DaVinci, are based on the program’s sophisticated keyframe technique. Edit is not only responsible for the correct cut; it also allows you to quickly drag transitions, titles, and filters directly into the timeline and manipulate numerous parameters via the Inspector. By setting keyframes at different points on the timeline (click the small diamond-shaped symbols on the far right), animations can be created quickly and relatively easily.

Recently, the Edit Page also offers access to a convenient view of the keyframe editor (also as a floating window), where keyframes can be copied and moved, and animation curves can be edited using Bezier handles (for example, Ease-In, Ease-Out, Ease-In/Out, and Linear) easily accessible easing functions… a feature welcomed by many users. This method of animating in DaVinci is also suitable for programme newcomers and promises quickly acceptable results.

Pathfinder

Another animation method promoted by Blackmagic is path animation, something competitor programmes also offer. Animations along a path are highly requested by many users. DaVinci offers complex possibilities here.

One of the simplest methods, for example, aligning and animating text along a path, requires only a few clicks, if you know where to look. A “stripped-down” example: in the Fusion Page, you create a text node with one click. DaVinci automatically connects this to the obligatory MediaOut node. Afterwards, the Inspector offers various options to enter and edit text. Almost all settings can be animated using the already mentioned keyframes.

Pathplayer

To bring a path into play, in the Layout tab (next to the text symbol) the type should be changed from Point to Path. Then a curve can be drawn directly in the view window. The text immediately adapts to this curve. The curve can be edited, and the points and Bezier handles can also be animated. At the bottom of the menu there is an item “Right-click here for shape animation.” Oddly enough in testing, this worked flawlessly, but not on every computer (curves seemed to be generated, but were “invisible”). Maybe we should ask the people at Blackmagic about this. Paths can also first be created (or imported) as Polygon or B-Spline nodes and then assigned.

The Fusion Page overall offers, thanks to its node-based approach and additional complex effects for texts, blurs, masks, 3D animations and particles, even more possibilities for visual design than are found in the Edit Page. In the Fusion Page, unlike the Edit Page, only a single clip is ever worked on.

To use Fusion effectively, you should embrace the node-based approach (there are quite a lot of nodes, not all of them reveal their purpose by name, but if you already know the desired name, you can help yourself with the Shift and Space keys while searching). The display of nodes can be enlarged via right-click and “Show/Show Tile Picture,” so that helpful thumbnails assist with orientation in the Node Editor. Still, you should expect a learning curve that is not too shallow.

3D Effects

In Fusion, DaVinci Resolve can create or import simple 3D objects, e.g. in Alembic, FBX, or USDZ format. 2D graphics can be converted into 3D objects and assembled into a scene with the 3D renderer and lighting nodes. The options of the 3D tools are extensive and complex. Building a 3D scene appears more laborious than in “usual” 3D tools, though perhaps it is only a matter of practice?

Conclusion

Simple animations can quickly lead to acceptable results even for beginners. The ability to control almost every scene parameter with keyframes in the timeline makes such animations easy. The Fusion Page, however, already introduces a corresponding learning curve. Node systems take some getting used to for some, although for professionals they are effective once accepted and understood. The range of functions with filters and effects is huge. The names of the nodes are not always self-explanatory. Many of the possibilities for effects and animations can already be created by experienced users with some of DaVinci’s basic tools (even with the free version).

The 3D tools appear relatively cumbersome, as is also evident from some of the many video tutorials circulating on the internet and they are obviously to be regarded more as a supplement to the “all-round programme.” Overall, DaVinci Resolve is not only suitable as a highly effective film editing and effects software, but also for many areas of motion graphics animation.

The post Resolve Animation: Everything moves! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Ralf Gliffe.

Lightweight 16-inch graphics tablet with 4K OLED screen from Xencelabs – is it worth the switch?

The Pen Display 16 is said to be the industry’s first 16-inch 4K OLED pen display with over a billion colours, improved colour reproduction from deep blacks to vivid highlights. The screen resolution is 3840 x 2160, the contrast ratio is 100,000:1 and with a weight of only 1.21 kg and a thickness of 12 mm, it is easy to transport and is suitable for use in the studio as well as on the go.

Xencelabs Pen Display 16 Bundle

The topic of graphics tablets could be discussed at length: Do you even need a tablet? Logical! Which size is best for the individual? No idea! Should it be a “normal” tablet or a pen display? That also has to be decided on an individual basis. Some artists consider a tablet without a monitor to be perfectly adequate. However, one with a monitor almost always seems to be the most convenient. The size of the Xencelabs Pen Display 16 is generally seen as a pleasant compromise between space and money requirements – but above all because of the possible mobility. This is what the Xencelabs Pen Display 16 promises.
If you search for Xencelabs on the internet and social media, you will find a wealth of tests, “unboxing videos” and tutorials. The majority of users are enthusiastic about Xencelabs products. Xencelabs offers graphics tablets, pen displays and corresponding accessories. We tried out the Xencelabs Pen Display 16 Bundle and were curious to see whether the device could fulfil the high expectations raised by so many positive reviews.

Pen Display – why the bundle?

Xencelabs currently offers graphics tablets in various sizes and 3 Pen Displays with built-in monitor – actually only two: namely Xencelabs Pen Display 16 Essentials or the same tablet as a bundle with some useful accessories, as well as a Pen Display 24.

To abbreviate: We found the bundle more recommendable than the Essential version, although the “more” accessories included in the bundle can also be purchased separately (Mobile Easel, Quick Keys and better connection options thanks to more connection cables and a power supply unit).

How are the features of the bundle?

Included in this bundle is

A case – with two drawing pens (a standard pen with 3 buttons and a thin pen with two buttons)
Both have an eraser at the back. The functions for the buttons and eraser can be set in the software. The pens respond to pressure between 3 g and 500 g.
The pressure curves can be customised over a wide range. And yes, we really liked drawing with these pens. Also included are 10 replacement refills (6 standard, 4 felt tips), tip pullers and a wireless dongle.

“Mobile Easel” is the name of the lightweight and easy-to-transport stand supplied, with two tilt angles of 18° and 32° that can be adjusted by folding it open. The tablet is simply placed on it – and is stable enough to work on.
The optional Desktop Easel is even more stable and convenient. This promises infinitely variable tilt adjustment and rotation of the tablet and is VESA-compatible.

Two matching plastic clips serve as a pen holder, which can be attached to the sides of the tablet as required – practical when working on the move, the pens and holder are stable on the tablet. However, “real” pen holders would certainly be more convenient on the desk. If you want something like this, you can find stylish pen holders in the accessories section.

There are also adapters (USB-A to USB-C), a power supply unit and hub for the wireless connection to the remote control, various cables and, among other things, a carrying case and a special glove for drawing on the tablet.

Game Changer Quick Keys?

The highlight is the “Quick Keys”, the remote control included in the bundle. In the software, 40 key combinations can be preset for any application (8 customisable key combinations in up to 5 groups, switchable with a “set key”). The mechanical rotary wheel, with which up to four application-specific functions can be used (scrolling, zooming, brush size and, in some applications, rotating), is worthy of praise. A multilingual OLED display should help users to find the relevant buttons more easily. There is also a colour-adjustable LED illumination of the rotary wheel (colour ring to differentiate between the respective modes).

• The remote control is suitable for right or left-handed users and can be set horizontally or vertically.
• However, there are other users who find it a little difficult to feed the remote control with all kinds of shortcuts and then get used to the handy but unfamiliar remote control, so that they always prefer (out of old habit?) to reach for the keyboard while drawing instead of taking advantage of the Quick Keys. Some complain that macros are probably only possible by calling up corresponding batch files and that switching between different modes is said to be somewhat slow.
• In fact, we found this remote control to be a practical tool for calling up many shortcuts in different applications more quickly. Although many typical function sets are already predefined, it still takes a while to set up the possible variations of key combinations for different sets – and to actually be able to utilise them effectively.

The connection to Quick Keys can be made via cable, Bluetooth or wirelessly with the supplied dongle, which worked without any problems in the test. And if you want to know more: we took a look at the Quick Keys in everyday use as a “stand-alone device”. (https://digitalproduction.com/2024/10/31/xencelabs-quick-keys-remote).

Installation

Installing the Xencelab is simple: download the driver from the Xencelabs website, install the software, customise the settings using the Xencelabs software (e.g. pen pressure curves, display settings, remote control, etc.)

The tablet can be connected via a single USB-C cable. Then, however, with reduced maximum brightness of the display (170 cd/m2), when operated via the power supply unit and the supplied hub for USB-C, HDMI or Mini DisplayPort with three incoming cables (power, video, USB) and a single cable to the PC, 300 cd/m2 should be achieved. All cables are sufficiently long.

Who is “Xencelabs” ?

The market for digital drawing tools has developed enormously in recent years. There are now a large number of suppliers of graphics tablets whose quality is extremely high and also meets professional requirements – and some have become significantly more affordable. Xencelabs was founded in 2019 in the USA by Hanvon Ugee Technology Co. Creative professionals with many years of experience in the digital art industry had the ambition to offer digital artists, illustrators and designers even more excellent drawing tools with precise pen technology, high-quality materials and well thought-out accessories. The declared aim is to create tools that increase productivity and offer a natural drawing experience. Made up of “Xence” (pronounced “sens”) and “Labs”, the name “Xencelabs” refers to the support of artists’ artistic senses and creative experimentation. After only a few years on the market, Xencelabs’ products are sold in more than 40 countries, according to the company.

Conclusion

We have already talked about drawing: Drawing – even on a PC – is and remains individual. We liked the quality of the display and the way the pen glides smoothly across the screen. The matt surface provides slight resistance and reduces reflections – and how thin and light the device is.
We noticed typical problems (parallax – hardly noticeable, latency – not annoying, jittering lines – as with other tablets, but in contrast to users who described this as a shortcoming, we were able to live with it).

As the device has no buttons apart from a power button and there is unfortunately no touch function (so it can NOT be used as a touch display), users will have to resort to the PC keyboard or a remote control – in our case Quick Keys. It is a pity that the Xencelabs software does not yet support customisable on-screen menus.

If you want to use such menus, you can rely on the screen customisation and menu functions of some graphics software, such as Clip Studio Paint, Blender or Krita, or you can try free tools, e.g.
AutoHotPie here or Pie-Menus here

We suspect that such menus only save time for power users who use a lot of specific commands in special applications. “Normal users” should probably first search for and find the necessary commands “at their leisure” (maybe with the Quick Keys after all?).

Overall, the Xencelabs Pen Display 16 Bundle made a very good impression on us. However, it must also be noted that other providers also offer “fine” devices. In many details of technical parameters, e.g. whether 8 or 16 K pressure levels are available, as they are already available on some devices, even experienced artists seem to hardly notice any differences.

The tablet has a very high-quality finish, is simple and well thought out, also very flat and lightweight. A cover and carrying case are included. There are no buttons – but the Quick-Keys (in the bundle version) offer many options, although effective use of these may not be possible without “training”.
The lack of buttons can be seen as a shortcoming, but seems to be due to mobility (thin and light – and cost?) and could also be seen as an opportunity to avoid operating errors while drawing, such as the on/off button, which works with a 3-second delay for the same reason.

Overall, our opinion is similarly positive to that of the many users. We found the drawing experience to be very pleasant. Parallax problems did not bother us – nor did a slight latency with fast strokes. Slowly drawn diagonal lines in particular show a slight jitter, as with most tablets. This is not only due to the artist’s dithering, but is usually caused by the way the cursor position is interpolated. It seems unlikely that the body’s own shaking and the system-induced shaking will cancel each other out when drawing. But modern graphics software can help. Cheers to the effective stabilisation functions in good graphics software. If you are looking for a somewhat exquisite tablet with a super display and are not afraid of the price, the Xencelabs bundle could be an option for you.

Compatible software:

PC: Windows® 7 or higher (latest service pack/build)
Windows ARM
MAC: OS X 10.12 or higher (latest update)
Linux – Ubuntu 14.04 or higher, Debian 9.5, CentOS 7.0 or higher, Redhat 7.0 or higher
compatible hardware:
USB-C port with DisplayPort Alternate mode (UHD),
Or DisplayPort (UHD) and USB-C/USB-A,
Or HDMI 2.1 (UHD) and USB-C/USB-A
Internet access to download the driver.

Prices from Xencelabs

A selection – click here for the shop

Pen Displays
The Xencelabs Pen Display 24 = 2099,00 €
Pen Display 16 Essentials = 1129,00 €
Xencelabs Pen Display 16 Bundle = 1389,00 €

Accessories
Quick Keys = 109,90 €
Mobile Easel for Pen Display 16 = 59,90 €
Desktop Easel for Pen Display 16 = 199,00 €
Xencelabs Dongle = 19,99 €

Xencelabs Limited Edition Dragon Pen Holders = 35,00 €
for those spoilt by luxury: Mountains and Seas Pen Holder 269,00 €

Xencelabs offers free shipping, a 30-day return policy and a 2-year warranty, which can be optionally extended. There are also regular promotions where vouchers are raffled off.

The products at a glance

All the products that Xenselabs sells are shown below.

The post Test: Xencelabs Pen Display 16 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Ralf Gliffe.

Resolve, currently in version 18.6.6, is available in a slightly slimmed-down free version or for currently 329 euros as a studio version online, or as a free add-on when purchasing high-quality hardware, such as film cameras from Blackmagic Design).
It is claimed by Blackmagic, but also by many users, that the possibilities of the free version of DaVinci already completely fulfil the requirements of most users for video editing, effects, grading and sound and would “put many paid-for software applications in the shade”.
A public beta version 19 is also currently available (users must register before downloading), which replaces the current version during installation if this is not explicitly prevented (backup of the current database and renaming of the DaVinci programme folder – instructions on how users can upgrade to the new version 19 and use several versions of DaVinci at the same time can be found on YouTube – e.g. here: is.gd/resolve18_and_19

What are we talking about today?

When looking at the current version of DaVinci, we have dispensed with all the possibilities of video editing, sophisticated grading or the complex options of sound editing (Fairlight) and have instead focussed on a few (small) “delicacies” of the programme.

Install beta

At the launch of beta version 19, which will also be available in German at the request of numerous users, an overview of the upcoming innovations is provided – including Postproductions with live replays, AI tracking with Intellitrack, Colorslice – grading with 6 vectors, improved noise reduction thanks to DaVinci Neural AI Engine, text-based timeline editing, film look creator, refined volumetric rendering of smoke and flame effects, audio-to-video panning (tracks objects in the viewer for spatial sound distribution).

And let’s go into parallax!

In “mini-projects”, in which we added some (rather suptile) effects and animations to static images – cinemagrams, parallax animations – some motion graphics for beginners, so to speak, we tried out some effects, animation options with keyframes and masking options.

Static images – moving effects

Applying animation effects to static images (photo animations/cinemagraphs) is a popular method of increasing the visual impact of digital media such as videos, animations or interactive presentations. The possibilities are almost limitless and only determined by taste.

Ready for Burns!

In addition to fast, attention-grabbing movements, such as those often used in PowerPoint presentations or on advertising websites, subtle movements and effects are likely to attract more attention when it comes to dynamically conveying information, concepts or stories. Slight camera pans or zoom movements on still images (also known as the “Ken Burns effect” after the American documentary filmmaker) can be created in DaVinci Resolve both as keyframe animations and automatically using the “Dynamic Zoom effect”.
Animations in which cropped objects in the image move at different speeds can convey a spatial impression (parallax effect). Object movements that take place close to the viewer’s eye appear faster than those further away. If a gentle zoom or a small camera movement causes foreground objects to move in front of more distant objects, the three-dimensional impression is further emphasised.

Cinemagrams

Cinemagrams, i.e. photo animations in which static images are supplemented with mostly subtle, repetitive animations of individual, smaller parts of the image, are neither pure photos nor videos and are intended to attract attention, create atmosphere and evoke emotional effects.
DaVinci Resolve Studio promises to offer all the necessary tools and effects in one application – and should therefore be suitable. In addition to the wide range of effects, the current Studio version also advertises simple cropping with the help of AI – sounds ideal for our experiments with the aforementioned “mini projects”. Even if this is a bit of “shooting with cannons on sparrows” – let’s try out some of the functions. As mentioned, DaVinci is not only powerful, but also extensive and complex. Nevertheless, the software promises an easy introduction even for programme newcomers – at least to the basic functions.

PingPong – animation in a loop

Probably the simplest way to animate images is to move an entire image that is larger than the video in the inspector and set keyframes. It is advisable to “round” the animation curves, i.e. to make them “smooth”. With a “ping pong” effect, the image will move smoothly in one direction, then gradually stop to return to the starting point. Of course, scaling and rotation can also be incorporated. Dynamic Zoom is much faster and more effective.

Dynamic Zoom

All you have to do is select the relevant clip (an image) in the edit page and then switch on Dynamic Zoom in the Inspector. A drop-down menu can be opened below the viewer window, which uses two coloured rectangles to set the start and end values for zooming. The direction can be reversed using the “Swap” option. To change the duration of the zoom effect (normally applied to the duration of an entire clip), it is advisable to use an Adjustment Clip.

Automated collages with images or videos

The “Video Collage” effect offers an interesting way of arranging and animating several objects (moving images) in a scene. A grid, a kind of table with adjustable rows and columns, is superimposed on a clip with this effect. As with comic panels in graphics software, images or videos can be placed under the effect clip, allowing several objects to be arranged quickly and correctly. The parameters can also be animated here.

Masquerade

If only parts of the image are to be animated, you need the individual parts. DaVinci offers various options for masking, editing and cropping objects. The mask tools include basic shapes such as rectangles, circles, polygon and BSpline curves, colour selections – and in the Colour Page – Magic Mask. The shape masks can be combined, inverted and the deformations animated. There is even an Onion Skin function to better control the animation of the mask curves.

There are several tutorials on YouTube in which users demonstrate how to create dynamic masks and even cartoons with the shape tools (to fill the shapes with colour or image content, a suitable background must be created each time, which then becomes visible within the overlying mask).
You can also use these masks to make objects “disappear” – like with Photoshop’s copy stamp. This is also possible with the Paint tool, e.g. in clone mode. If masks are applied to moving videos, you can try using DaVinci’s intelligent tracking. But: Since we are only working with single images this time and not with moving images, this does not apply. Next time!
Ideally, masks no longer have to be adapted to movements frame by frame, but “only” tracked – DaVinci tries to track the selected object and adjust the mask so that the masking is retained even when there is movement. One of the sensations of the new version is the “Magic Mask”, which now has a person and an object mode. With just a few strokes and a few adjustable parameters, DaVinci generates amazingly good masks of objects or backgrounds surprisingly quickly.

With the Magic Mask in particular, it is possible to quickly select objects in order to apply effects to them or, in conjunction with “Add Alpha Output” in the Node window of the Colour Page, to cut them out completely. This allows you to quickly place text in front of or behind (cropped) parts of the image, for example.
Convincing effects can be achieved with a little effort using DaVinci’s 3D tools. Real parallax effects can be created here due to the spatial depth. The depth of field of a camera can also be simulated.

The post Animating images with Resolve first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Ralf Gliffe.

The actually spartan software is still in the beta phase and can be used free of charge, even commercially. An enthusiastic fan community shows some impressive results online, which were created in collaboration between EbSynth and various, mostly AI-controlled effect and video tools. We started the programme and applied some keyframes to short video sequences.

Naturally stupid – or artificially intelligent?

You can’t hear it anymore: AI – artificial intelligence – will change all our lives. Some hope that smart decisions will finally improve our lives. Others are afraid. The fact that graphics and video applications are now so dominated by AI tools is something that the occasional user may well only realise when working with graphics and videos and EbSynth, for example. EbSynth “needs the support” of video and graphics software – and effective ones at that. Most modern tools promise to make use of the new artificial intelligence, as does EbSynth itself. To create and manipulate images and videos, there is hardly any way around “AI” (the website is.gd/buzz_AItools is said to list over 1000 AI tools, including a large number of graphics programmes).

EbSynth – great image effects for a whole video?

The EbSynth website, www.ebsynth.com, shows large-scale impressive effects on video sequences and advertises with the slogan: “Bring your paintings to animated life”. Otherwise it is “very tidy” and apart from the link to download the programme and a more detailed video with examples of effects, “before” and “after”, it only offers buttons for email contact, social media channels, including the Secret Weapons YouTube channel, which has almost 14,000 subscribers, and a FAQ list. The download button shows a Windows and an apple symbol.

If you haven’t “learnt the ropes” beforehand, you will probably be a little confused when you first start the programme: The start window of EbSynth – the actual programme window – is almost as spartan as the website. There are no menus apart from links for Open, Save and Export to After Effects.

In order for the programme to do anything with a new project, paths for prepared directories with corresponding image files must be placed in fields for “Keyframes”, “Video” and optionally also for “Mask” (“Select” buttons or via drag & drop). Values can also be assigned for weighting the influence of the effects of the keyframes or the original video. Under “Advanced” there are input fields for mapping, de-flicker, diversity and synthesis detail, which are explained in the FAQ. An output directory (for individual images) can be specified and there is an option to switch on the GPU for rendering. The calculation process is started with one of the two green buttons: “Synth” if only one keyframe is used, “Run All” if several keyframes are used.

MAPPING: A higher mapping ensures that the output dashes appear in the same position as in the keyframe. If the mapping is lower, EbSynth can rearrange the input features so that they appear in other places in the output. Good values are between 5 and 50.

DE-FLICKER: De-flicker suppresses texture flickering between consecutive frames. Good values are between 0.3 and 2.0. If the value is set to zero, the output sequence flickers as if each image were painted independently each image is painted independently. The stronger the value for de-flicker, the more coherent the output will be over time.

DIVERSITY: The visual variety of the style in the keyframes in the output sequence is determined by the diversity. Good values are between 1,000 and 20,000. If the diversity is set too low, some repeating patterns may appear in the output, similar to the artefacts that can be caused by overlapping when setting a clone brush in Photoshop.

Synthesis – the workflow

In order to be able to edit a video with EbSynth, the beta version must still be available as a sequence of individual images – in the “Video” folder – which can be done with most common video programmes. Depending on the image content or movement in the scene, the copy of an image in the sequence can be made into a keyframe, or it may be necessary to define several keyframes. Painting or other effects are then applied to these keyframes. It is important that the same names and the same resolution are used as for the images in the “Video” directory. A missing file in the video directory can also lead to premature termination of the programme. In many examples found online, AI software such as Stable Diffusion is used to manipulate the key frames. There are also commercial offers for manipulating videos that specifically advertise the use of Stable Diffusion and EbSynth. “Simple painting” with any paint software or rotoscoping with Davinci Resolve or After Effects, for example, are also possible. With suitable content, complete animations can be created with just a few key frames. The FAQs point out that it makes sense to prepare videos that EbSynth is to process properly during filming.

Among other things, it is emphasised that the image material used should be correctly exposed and as diffuse as possible so that EbSynth can track the effects in the moving image content well. Hard and moving shadows are also problematic. For the clothing of characters, it is recommended to use appealing, clearly recognisable prints, for example. Flat textures, monochrome fabrics and reflective material and repeating patterns that tend to moiré are also problematic, as with “normal” video recordings. If visual tracking with a keyframe is no longer sufficient, it is recommended to manually rework the first “unclean” image to create a next keyframe. In EbSynth, areas can be defined for the individual keyframes. Crossfades can later be defined where the keyframe areas overlap. When EbSynth is finished with its synthesis, it can be exported to After Effects. However, the finished individual frames, which are located in the “Output” folder, can be further processed with any other video software. Keyframes and effects can be painted onto transparent backgrounds. Painted and reference frames must be precisely matched (fit on top of each other). However, it is also possible to rotoscope the foreground and add an alpha mask sequence as a mask input in EbSynth (“Mask” folder).

Initial tests have shown that EbSynth does its job. But without thorough planning and preparation, it can quickly happen that EbSynth transfers the desired effects to the video completely incorrectly (actually slowly, because results only become visible after the calculation process). Short, quiet sequences that fulfil the conditions listed – and possibly splitting the video material into several scenes, or filming people who overlap in the image separately (cropped, later rearranged as video layers) can help to improve the results.

Conclusion

In our opinion, EbSynth is an interesting approach and even in the beta version it produces appealing results. The biggest advantage is that image manipulations in videos only need to be carried out on specific images (keyframes). EbSynth then transfers the respective image style quite precisely to the individual frames of the video. It is possible to create complete animations in a simple style with just a few rotoscope drawings.

EbSynth’s UI is fairly spartan and the workflow essentially consists of splitting the original video into individual frames in suitable software. Depending on the action, one or more keyframes must be defined and manipulated using any tool. A mask can be defined for certain areas and some parameters can be set to control the output quality. Trial and error is the order of the day here. The results of EbSynth’s work are once again individual images that need to be processed further.

The technique is only suitable for short sequences and the results are heavily dependent on the scene content, among other things. We find that the workflow is still a little cumbersome and results are not very good due to the “tight” UI and lack of programme help, despite the fact that it is actually easy to use, results require a lot of time and practice. However, EbSynth also produces fascinating results. We are looking forward to the further development of the programme (including the price).

The post EbSynth – a tool for animations from videos by style transfer of reference images first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Ralf Gliffe.

In its own words, the biggest upgrade to date advertises the best 2D rigging system, the combination of unique traditional and non-traditional animation tools, a completely new graphics engine and many new tools, such as Liquid Shapes, Multi Strokes, Smart Line
Boil, Delayed Constraints, Vitruvian Bones, Physics, Particles, Dynamics… Despite obvious adversities in the past and great competition, Moho now wants to find and maintain its place among professional 2D animation programmes.

Moving story – from Moho to Moho 14 (2023)

According to Wikipedia, Michael Clifton, founder of Lost Marble LCC, published his animation software before the year 2000. Simple vector animation and a bone system that was already advanced at the time immediately attracted the attention of users interested in animation, who hoped for further rapid developments. As Clifton originally developed Moho for BeOS, which came to an end in 2001, he had to port his programme. He subsequently adapted his software for Windows, Mac OS and also Linux. in 2006, the programme – and the developer – moved to the company e-Frontier, which wanted to continue marketing it. A new change came in 2007, this time to Smith Micro Software. From then on, the software was called Anime Studio, but was renamed Moho again in 2016.

in 2020, many users in the Moho forum were delighted to learn that Moho was back in the hands of Lost Marble. Lost Marble acquired the software with the support of Cartoon Saloon. The Irish animation studio, Cartoon Saloon, is probably known to connoisseurs for animated films such as The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea and Wolfwalkers. It has received five Oscar nominations, among others.

“We always called Moho ‘our secret weapon'”, says Tomm Moore, co-director of Wolfwalkers
Director of “Wolfwalkers” and “Secret of Kells”, is said to have said at the time. This autumn, Lost Marble announced the release of Moho, Release 14, as a pro and debut version. While these lines were still being written, the first update, 14.1, was released, which Moho’s search for updates on a Windows 10 system did not (yet) recognise. The list of new features made us curious..

A lot of talk about a little 2D animation?

Despite the huge boom in the 3D sector, 2D animation will retain its justification in various sectors and in different media. This is not really the place to discuss design or media trends or the pros and cons of 2D or 3D. A look at 2D software, such as Moho, reveals a rather complex situation that is constantly being determined by new technologies and may soon change fundamentally through the use of AI. 2D animation has long since ceased to be limited to pure frame-by-frame animation, i.e. the classic animated cartoon that older people may still remember from early animated films, but now refers to various 2D animation techniques. The market now offers a whole range of programmes for animating with different approaches, including programmes with very different prices, such as Animate CC (adobe.com), Toon Boom Harmony (toonboom.com), TVPaint (tvpaint.com), CelAction2D (celaction.com), Pencil2D Animation (pencil2d.org), Cartoon Animator (reallusion.com), Synfig (www.synfig.org), OpenToonz (opentoonz.github.io/e)… This list is arbitrary and absolutely incomplete, but should give an impression of the fact that “simple” 2D – and the software for it – is still in demand. A look at current media also shows this: animated films still exist, advertising and explanatory videos can be found on almost every website and some stories or product information are more convincing through the graphical means of 2D design than through more elaborate, hyper-realistic 3D animations.
Meanwhile, the many programs and online platforms promise to simplify and revolutionise 2D animation and achieve the best results with the least amount of effort. Moho also aims to be such a tool. Moho is a versatile software with lots of tools that attempts to cover every area of (2D) animation and make everything animatable.

What can Moho do?

Moho Animation Software promises professional, powerful and user-friendly 2D rigging and animation tools as well as new drawing, deformation and effect tools. The list of new features is long and fills several pages in the manual, but only supplements the many tools already available. Moho is a vector drawing programme with a range of special drawing tools that now also enable a natural look similar to that of raster graphics. Thanks to the newly developed graphics engine, drawings, styles and effects should be displayed much better and more smoothly. The current version offers various drawing styles such as wet ink, charcoal, gouache, rough ink, watercolour and others, as well as several dozen preset brushes with complex adjustment options. By using styles, you can control the exact look of your drawings and edit multiple drawings at the same time, changing the shape, colour, line width, brush settings and effects.

Animations can be achieved by simply manipulating individual selected control points of the drawn (vector) curves – optionally also controllable with Bezier handlers or, for example, with a variable magnet tool or various deformation tools in the timeline, whereby Moho automatically sets keyframes. Fills and strokes can be varied as desired and thus also animated. There are a number of different tools and methods for deforming drawings (e.g. Liquid Shapes are new). Keyframes can also be set for effect settings.
In fact, everything can be animated in Moho. Moho supports the animation of vector points, strokes, shapes and layers as well as various effects in different ways. Moho allows better frame by frame animation in the current version, especially through improvements in the timeline. Although we are talking about frame-by-frame animation, with Moho this means that all of the programme’s manipulation options for vectors are available in every frame. Rotoscoping should also not be a problem.

Moho aims to support all conceivable animation options and technologies, which are almost impossible to list here: Already mentioned are animations of vector shapes (points, fills and lines), object and path animations, deformations through warping (also for imported images), bones that can be controlled with constraints (targets, IK stretching, IK solvier), or the use of physical rules, such as reactions to gravity or wind and adjustable collision detection.

New in Moho 14 are Delayed Constraints. A bone (Control Bone) to control everything! In the Bone Constraints, where Bone Dynamics and Control Bones are defined for controlling angles, position and scaling of individual bones, there is now also the option of specifying a delay for subsequent movements of bones. Controlled bones can be “told” when they should follow the control bone and by what percentage (before or after their movement, with smaller or larger amplitudes). There is an example in the Moho tutorials that shows how, for example, an (octopus) tentacle can move very lively and elastically after such settings.

Also new are the aforementioned Liquid Shapes: For shapes within a layer, it is possible to apply Boolean operations to each other. Each shape can be assigned either “Normal”, “Add”, “Subtract” or “Clip”. “Normal” shapes that are overlapped by others can then be “manipulated” by the shapes above them, as with Boolean functions in other programmes (the order of the shapes can be moved up and down within a layer using the Shift and arrow keys). The function is made particularly interesting by the “Blend” option, which, depending on the value, softly rounds off the resulting shapes. The result can be fixed with “Merge”.
As long as “everything is still in flux”, everything remains animatable and it is amazing what a variety of shapes and smooth animations are possible with this new option. The shapes behave in real time, like fluid forms that displace each other or seem to flow into each other. This technique, combined with various layer effects, is demonstrated in the trailer for Moho’s tutorial videos.
Although Moho is a 2D software, movements are also possible in 3D space. Moho can import 3D objects and also generate simple shapes from 2D shapes (rotation and extrusion bodies are defined in the layer properties, or layers are rotated and positioned around the X or Y axis).
Moho offers a rudimentary 3D view for working in space. When the 3D button is clicked, Moho still jumps to an obviously preset view, which has to be corrected every time you want to use the 3D space. A “smoother” camera pan or even the selection of possible camera settings would be more pleasant. Most users probably use the 3D options mainly to arrange objects in space and to create camera movements with parallax and depth of field effects.

Many tools

Many tools offer many possibilities, but also require a lot of work with the programme in order to be able to exhaust all the possibilities and use the respective settings and options effectively. Everything is easy if you know how to do it. – Or as the old maths teacher used to say: “The solver can see immediately what the result is”. This also applies to Moho.

A beginner can either be delighted by the ease with which lines and shapes can be animated in Moho, or frustrated by the sheer endless possibilities – and the corresponding settings and options that need to be “figured out” first. Accordingly (and irrespective of the fact that in many computer forums “your own software is always the best”), opinions also differ there, from rejection because it is too complicated, to euphoric statements about the “best 2D animation programme”. The tenor is that Moho offers a professional approach with a corresponding learning curve.
The community of Moho users appears to be quite large and there are numerous tutorials online (also on commercial learning platforms such as http://www.udemy.com or http://www.toonfiles.com) and also help, e.g. in the Moho forum of Lost Marble (see the box with links). Lost Marble provides dozens of tutorials and webinars on the software and also offers learning courses on its website in addition to various paid content and some brush packs (including character, cartoon and Halloween content packs…).
A first look at the software shows us that there can’t be too many of these courses.
The current version of Moho can be used in several languages, including German. We find the German version more convenient to use, but most of the help can be found in English-language sources, which is why we use modern, occasional German or English expressions in the programme. In addition to context-sensitive tool tips for all functions and information on the currently selected tools in the programme’s status bar, Moho offers help in the form of a wiki. Unfortunately, this is only available online. In some forums there have been requests for a downloadable PDF file or similar, which would be easier to access and perhaps more searchable.

We are sure that not all aspects of this software can be discussed here. We have limited ourselves to a general overview and some of the “specialities” and new features of Moho in order to convey at least some of the “Moho feeling”.

An easy start?

At first glance, Moho seems as simple as software is usually advertised by the manufacturers. And indeed, even beginners seem to find it easy to take their first steps in the programme. By default, a randomly selected sample animation opens after the splash screen – a nice way to see Moho in action. You can switch this off in the preferences, along with other settings, but you can also simply open several files in parallel.

Of course, everyone has already seen a graphics application, perhaps even an animation programme. Then the default UI of Moho will already appear somewhat familiar.

If you want, you can change the brightness and the display of some editor colours, e.g. for objects, selections or the canvas background, in the default settings. Menus can be docked or undocked in the Window menu and, of course, customised shortcuts are possible.
There is the usual menu bar at the top of the screen. In the centre of the screen is the canvas, Moho’s drawing area (the view can be split, display settings can hide certain content), to the left of it is the toolbar, which is equipped with different tools depending on the selected layer type. A new file opens with a vector layer by default. Accordingly, some drawing and layer tools as well as buttons for controlling the camera and screen navigation are offered (if a bone layer is active, the corresponding bone tools are activated). Depending on the active tool, a tool options bar above the canvas shows further options. To the right of the canvas, either the Style or Actions menu can be displayed. Below this is the layer menu (similar to the layer palette in other applications).

The centrepiece for animations is of course the timeline with the playback controls at the bottom of the screen. The timeline shows the current position of the playhead for the animation (a very narrow vertical line), animation channels for objects and, of course, keyframes, which can be set, moved, copied or deleted here.

There are various display modes (Channels, Sequencer, Motion Graph). The interpolation methods between keyframes can also be changed here. Onion skins can be switched on or off and the length of the animation can be set. The Relative Keyframing option allows animated objects to be repositioned and existing keyframes to be moved “relatively” with them. Perhaps a small pitfall for newcomers to the programme: objects and drawings, as well as receipt assignments… are created in frame 0 by default in Moho! No animation can be tried out here, while no drawing and no objects can be created within the timeline (except in FBF mode).

A look at different layers

Moho uses different types of layers for different purposes. Vector layers are the standard layers for all vector drawings, similar to
in common graphic programmes such as Adobe Illustrator.
There are a variety of layer options for different purposes. Among other things, there are settings for effects such as shading, the vector display (e.g. whether an animated “noise” of outlines should simulate the style of hand-drawn animations), there are also options for display, opacity, motion blur… In the layer settings, you can also specify whether elements of the layer are captured by Moho’s camera at all, whether DOF affects them – or how a layer should interact with other objects, e.g. follow a path or react to a warp layer..
Whether depth of field (as Moho calls the depth of field in the German translation) affects the layers at all, which render style, image resolution is used, or whether, for example, layers are displayed sorted by depth, is specified in the project settings. There are layers for imported images and image sequences. There are currently no more bitmap tools in Moho. Technical difficulties in editing and displaying bitmaps in earlier versions are cited as the reason. But apparently the developers are planning to fix this problem later. For the time being, the main focus was on the vector tools and the new graphics engine.
However, bitmaps can be imported and deformed, e.g. with Bones. Meshes can be
Meshes can be defined as warp layers or an automatic function for mesh creation can be used (Draw/Create Mesh Layer). Images can be masked in the same way as vector layers. Various options can be set under “Masking” in the group settings for layers. The lowest vector layer serves as a mask for the layers above it. Masks can be used to simulate light and shadow effects by applying layers with different colours, intensities, blur and layer modes to objects – but only up to the edge of the mask. In the test with a Windows 10 system, an assigned shadow effect was often only displayed in the render preview.

Patch layers offer a special type of masking, e.g. to conceal overlapping contours at joints. Patch layers (round vector shapes) “hide” the overlapping layer, e.g. exactly at the joint.
The new Curver layers are used for simple but effective deformation of vector or image layers. If a layer is selected, a new type of warp layer can be created under “Draw/Create Curver Layer”. The layers to be deformed are specified in the layer settings, under “Vectors”, to which warp layer they should react. Curver layers, originally consisting of just two points, can be customised in terms of size, thickness (area of influence) and number and position of points. Smooth distortions are then possible in the timeline.

Curver layers can be combined with Bones. The animations can also be controlled with Smart Bones. Compressible Curver layers do not distort their objects “linearly”, but according to exactly which points are moved. This means that part of a figure can remain “untouched” while the rest is wildly distorted. This is a very simple way of creating organic-looking deformations (which can of course be animated).
Special layers also contain particles and bones. Switch layers contain elements that are only displayed “switched”. Switch layers group different elements, but only display one at a time. This means that predefined or drawn hand positions (as vector or bitmap graphics) can be exchanged in animations using keyframes, for example. When importing Photoshop files, layer groups in which only one element is visible are automatically converted to switch layers. Moho also uses the same principle for FBF animations
principle is also used for FBF animations, as well as for lip synchronisation. Here, as with
Switch Layers, the most suitable mouth shapes are made visible according to the imported sound curve of a speaker. Moho attempts to do this fully automatically, but also works together with Papagayo, for example, a tool that simplifies lip synchronisation. Of course, the images for the respective phonemes can also be set by hand or Smartbone, as in “normal” switch layers. If vector drawings that have been “morphed” are used for the mouth shapes, Moho can even calculate smooth transitions here. However, the smooth transitions should not be visible when using Smartbones.
Layers can be sorted and summarised in groups in the layer menu. Different blending modes (as in other graphics applications) can also be selected there, for example.
If bones are used, all elements to be animated must be subordinate to a bone group. To do this, either create a bone layer in the layer menu and then move the layers to be manipulated underneath it, or create a layer group by right-clicking on selected layers, which can then be converted into a bone layer. Switch layers can also be created in exactly the same way. And Moho also has a text layer.

Bony

Lost Marble advertises a sophisticated bone system. Not all bones are the same in Moho. There are bones that are “simply” drawn hierarchically.
Every bone that is drawn on an active bone is automatically bound to it. With the “Reparent Bone” icon, the hierarchy, represented by green and, for selected bones, red arrows, can be viewed and changed. Sketch bones are drawn even more simply, in a single line. This allows long bone chains to be created. The length of the individual bones can be preset. Smart Bones can probably control every animation that has been summarised in an action via its respective angle – including the order of the objects in switch layers. Actions can be reused as required. Under “suitable” conditions, e.g. if bone structures with the same structure are used, they can even be used in different projects.
The Vitruvian Man, or rather the famous depiction by Leonardo da Vinci, was the model for the name Vitruvian Bones. When using these bones, similar to switch layers, elements (e.g. body parts, but with the bones included) are exchanged in the animation. For example, a character has four arms, like Shiba. Each arm has a different posture and position. By switching the individual poses of the arms, animation time is to be saved considerably.
Pin bones are created by simply placing a point when drawing a bone. They can be used like “normal” bones but, depending on the specified bone strength, they enable special distortion effects to be created both for vector drawings and imported bitmaps by moving (T), rotating (T Alt) or scaling (T CTRL). As mentioned, bones always affect the objects that are subordinate to them.
Binding in Moho, as in 3D software, is the linking of bones and “content”. Flexi-Bind Points is the standard method; it binds points to bones in such a way that they are influenced by all the bones in the parent bone layer, depending on the Bone Strength, the area of influence of each bone. More control is achieved with the direct binding of selected points to selected bones (bind points). When recreating classic cutout animations, it makes sense to have all the body parts of a figure to be animated in individual layers. Bones that are connected to these layers (bind layers) then only affect these elements.

Moho still offers some options to make rigging more efficient, e.g. the option to “Create Smooth Joint for Bone Pair” (tries to create smooth joints between two bones). This is probably best suited for bending bitmaps, e.g. when bending a leg.

Conclusion

Moho clearly claims to do 2D animation at a professional level, and not just because of the $400 price tag for the Pro version. Moho offers a wealth of drawing and animation options that cover almost every possible 2D task. However, the software also requires a corresponding amount of effort before it can be used effectively. We will save ourselves a comparison with other applications that are either easier to use but offer fewer possibilities – or can do even more, but are then also more complex.
If you are serious about 2D animation and want to try out the advantages of vector graphics and, above all, Moho’s Bone system, you should take a look at the demo versions. We think that the latest upgrade, especially because of the new graphics engine, has really taken Moho to a new level. We wish Moho a good way into the future and hope for good news from Lost Marble.

A collection of Moho scripts

There are various instructions for installing the scripts in Moho, including here:
is.gd/moho_scripts_install. At least for most of the scripts in this list there is the option “Download for Install Script command”. In this case, the installation was successful with just a few clicks using the installation script integrated in Moho. Please make sure that the scripts are intended for the current Moho version!

Some suggestions for testing
MR Curve Tool: This script simplifies the drawing of curves. One option is
z. Drawing outside frame 0. is.gd/mr_curve_tool

MR Pose Tool: Promises to speed up posing by combining the Transform Bone and Manipulate tools. is.gd/mr_pose_tool

MR Key Motion: Manipulates curves in the timeline by moving selected keyframes (Smooth, Pull
(Smooth, Pull, Scale, Flip). is.gd/mr_key_motion

MR Path: Should help to analyse animations by drawing “bone” and “point paths” across the animation layers for visualisation. is.gd/mr_path

MR Tween Machine: Anticipation and exaggeration – anticipating movements and “overshooting” are among the well-known principles of animation. This script generates additional keyframes before and after the end of a movement in order to achieve the desired behaviour. is.gd/mr_tween_machine

MR Transform Rig Tool: Parts of the rig can be deformed without affecting its functions. is.gd/mr_transform_rig

MR Guides: Create and edit guides without having to leave the current layer and action. is.gd/mr_guides

MR Overlay: Create an “overlay” to obtain a reference layer. is.gd/mr_overlay

MR Continue Animation: Extend existing animations based on two neighbouring keyframes up to the current frame. is.gd/mr_continue_animation

MR Track Bone: Transfer the transformation of a bone from an animation to any skeleton. is.gd/mr_track_bone

Script for importing Affinity Layers or Krita, Spine, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Gimp… into Moho is.gd/import_layers

LipSync with papagayo: An app to easily automate lip synchronisation lostmarble.com/papagayo

Specsheet

Moho Pro 14: 399.99 US dollars
Moho Debut 14: 59.99 US dollars
For the differences between the two versions, see here: is.gd/moho_debut_14
or is.gd/moho_pro_14

System requirements

Windows 10 or higher, 2.0 GHz Intel Core i3 or higher, 4 GB RAM or higher, 16 GB free hard drive space or more, OpenGL 4.1-supported graphics card required (1920 × 1080 recommended)

macOS 10.15, or higher, 2.0 GHz Intel Core i3 or higher, 4 GB RAM or higher,
1.6 GB free hard drive space or more, OpenGL 4.1-supported graphics card required (1920 × 1080 recommended) – Moho 14 is fully compatible with Apple silicon chips (M1) (M2)

For displays with high pixel density, the minimum resolution varies depending on the scaling level recommended by the operating system. For example, if the operating system recommends a scaling level of 200 per cent, the minimum requirement may be a resolution of 2736 × 1824. Or if the operating system recommends a scaling level of 150 per cent, the minimum requirement can be up to a resolution of 2160 × 1440.

A demo version is available. This is fully functional, allows opening and saving of Moho files, and is valid for 30 days. Restrictions are no import of external file formats (images, films) and no export of animations to other formats (MP4, MOV, PNG…)

The post Moho 14 – the most advanced 2D animation first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Ralf Gliffe.

Plasticity has caused quite a furore on the internet and in some forums of the maker scene in a short space of time. There are already hundreds of tutorials on YouTube, mostly by enthusiastic users who proudly share their first experiences and knowledge of the fairly new programme. Many of these videos have already been viewed by thousands of users within a short space of time and have received plenty of comments. We took a quick look at the latest version – and were equally impressed.

Design history and parametric modelling – or just simple direct modelling?

The release of Pro/ENGINEER in 1987, which introduced chronology-based parametric modelling to the CAD industry, is generally regarded as an important milestone in the history of computer-aided design (CAD). Since then, this modelling principle has been used in the most common CAD programs. The advantages of this method are the ability to retrace every design step and to edit all parameters, such as dimensions and dependencies, retrospectively. However, this work requires correct planning and structuring of the projects and some effort, e.g. when creating the obligatory sketches with dimensions and restrictions… Anyone who tries to model something “on the fly” with CAD software without prior knowledge is likely to be frustrated at first.

Plasticity as a pure direct modeller promises a remedy here. Reminiscent of the UI and workflow of Blender, modelling should be quick and easy – even for artists who are not so familiar with CAD – and shy away from the effort required to see results. Plasticity does without some of the important functions for the CAD industry: no parametric editing, no design history, no editable sketches with dimensions..

Is this a new Blender – in slimline?

Plasticity starts with a tidy interface. In the centre is a 3D work window, just like in Blender – even with the obligatory cube. There are no menus to be seen, just a few icons arranged in groups, which seem somewhat self-explanatory. Tool tips help to recognise the functions that are easy to understand at first glance. At the top left is a small circle with a “P” on it and a tick next to it. A menu can be opened here, including file commands and access to the preferences. Below this is the equivalent of Blender’s Outliner (lists all objects in the project).

At the bottom left there are icons for transformation and quickly accessible commands (Boolean, Cut solid width curve, Mirror, Duplicate Object). On the right-hand side of the work window, a vertical icon bar shows the actual tools for creating various curve shapes (Line, Spline Curve, Centre circle…) and for editing them (trimming, adding new points or generating a bridge curve between two reference points). You can also create “solid” bodies (sphere, cube, cylinder). Context-sensitive input windows and icons for additional functions are provided for all tools. Help for shortcuts to various options is also displayed. The “f” key can be used to call up a list of all program commands, assign shortcuts or define favourites for the search menu. At the top right are navigation elements and a switch to change the render mode. At the top left, similar to Blender, there are icons for changing the editing modes: points, edges, surfaces, objects – already assigned the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 by default.

On the right, outside the work window, snap functions and construction planes can be switched, on which, for example, new objects are aligned in space when they are created (XY, YZ, XZ, Plane from Camera, Plane from Selection – with the Space button, the current selection also becomes a “Temporary construction plane”, which can be called up again until a new selection is made. The alignment of the construction planes represents Plasticity’s grid. In addition, some information about the current performance in FPS and about selected scene objects is displayed.

Even if at first glance you might have the feeling that you are looking at a slimmed-down version of Blender’s Polygon Modeller, nothing is polygonal – everything is NURBS with the corresponding special features. In some cases, the software seems to be able to deal better with operations in which polygon objects for smooth surfaces must consist of very dense meshes with many polygons, while the shapes in Plasticity are first “calculated” independently of resolution with the help of NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines). Polygon meshes are only created during export, e.g. for 3D printing (.STL or .OBJ) or for further processing in other 3D applications. Plasticity offers various options for exporting with preview views of the respective mesh.

First steps – cubes

For the first steps in Plasticity, we accepted the obligatory cube and simply “played” with the functions offered. What was striking was the sometimes really quick and easy access to various functions, which hardly differ from Blender’s polygon workflow. The selection of points, edges, surfaces and objects is reminiscent of Blender. Even Blender’s shortcuts and navigation commands can be found again (navigation presets for a whole range of 3D tools can be selected in the preferences (Blender, Maya, MoI3D, 3ds Max, Fusion 360, Rhino). The object manipulation tools, such as transformations, array functions (linear, radial) or Booleans are fairly self-explanatory and quick to use, as they can be called up with a single click. In contrast to Blender, where a huge range of functions is also achieved through add-ons and non-destructive modifiers, Plasticity tries to score points with simplicity and quick function calls. We found it a bit of a pity that although the dimensions of objects, for example, can be entered easily and accurately when creating them (Plasticity can even do the maths here!), the other ease of use seems to be missing when editing later.

For example, to subsequently edit length, width, angle or position, Plasticity only offers to change the existing shape relatively (e.g. scaling factors). Plasticity does offer several options for subsequently defining dimensions in absolute terms, but probably no longer with just one click. Commands such as moving, scaling or rotating “matching” objects, which offer definable snap points, use the “Freestyle” option, for example. In this mode, objects can be precisely positioned and aligned with each other, among other things. The absolute size can also be defined in this way. When scaling, a starting point must first be defined (e.g. the centre of an object surface) in order to then define absolute values for the transformation of an opposite surface from there. Snapping to reference objects also works. Object lengths can also be determined by displaying the length of edges or faces. Users who are spoilt for choice would be pleased to be able to enter or edit such parameters later – especially as Plasticity displays various data for selected objects anyway: in addition to the position, the length of curves, the curve length (the circumference) and radius for circles and the surface area and volume for solid bodies – even in different units of measurement.

In addition to the transformations of solids (still our cube), all edges and faces can be edited as required. If one or more edges, even of different objects, are selected, the Fillet tool is automatically available. Depending on the direction of movement of the mouse pointer, either a bevel or a soft chamfer is created. Bevels can be subsequently deleted or further edited in the same way as faces – the values from bevels on other objects can also be adopted with a click of the mouse. When faces are selected, the extrusion tool is automatically activated.

Sharp curves – 6 tools for everything

With a total of 6 drawing tools, all necessary curved shapes can be created: Line, Spline, Circle, Regular Polygon, Spiral and Rectangle. There are options for some tools, e.g. Spline Curve or Control Point Curve – can be changed during drawing using the Tab key. Other options relate to whether shapes, e.g. circles, are defined from the centre or via control points. The sharp corners of lines can be smoothed with the Fillet function (b) (or with the Convert vertex command). Curves can be joined together (if the end points are in the same position). Spline curves can also be deformed, as in other programmes. It is not necessary to activate the Move mode for this, as is usual with Blender. It is sufficient to click and drag vertices or control points directly with the cursor in point mode. By additionally holding down the Alt key, a curve can be proportionally deformed up to the next control vertice. Extend Curve achieves interesting results. This allows you to “continue drawing” open curves that have been started according to various rules – or to shorten them. This creates further harmonious curves.

Essentially, Plasticity offers 4 methods to generate bodies from curves:

• Pipe (P) – a simple way to extrude profiles on a curve. The default setting is a circle. In earlier versions, it was probably still possible to use profile curves. This was not available in the current version. Pipe can be a cool way to add details to objects, e.g. if the edges of bodies (or painted curves) are used as pipe curves to cut profiles into the surfaces (Boolean Difference) or to apply ornaments (Boolean Union).
• Sweep (Shift P) – like the Pipe tool, to extrude profiles along curves. There still seems to be potential here – some other graphic tools offer taper options or scaling of cross-sections at junctions or twists..
  Revolve – contours are rotated along an arbitrary axis – without flourishes.
• Extrude (E) – corresponds to what is known as the extrusion of curves or surfaces. It is possible to specify a thickness during extrusion
  during extrusion. Angles can be specified for the extrusion of surfaces. For example, a pyramid can be extruded from a square instead of a cube.
• Loft (L) – perhaps the most interesting option in Plasticity, because curves can be combined quite easily to create beautiful smooth surfaces and Plasticity is quite convenient when designing 3D curves. As mentioned, curves can be drawn in various ways, but can also be obtained from the surfaces of 3D objects. The easiest way is to duplicate existing edges, e.g. on fillets or the intersections of Boolean functions. However, it is also possible to draw directly on the surfaces of objects or to project curves onto them.

In this way, for example, you can obtain three-dimensionally curved curves that are adapted to the surface of the bodies. This makes it relatively easy to provide more complex three-dimensionally aligned curves for the loft objects.
The shape of loft objects can also be controlled using special guides (control curves). Plasticity offers different continuity settings for loft and patch objects (“plugged” holes in surfaces) in order to achieve smoother transitions on surfaces. It was not always possible to achieve optimum results immediately in the test if the geometric specifications were probably too “critical” for a satisfactory calculation by Plasticity.

Conclusion

We don’t want to get involved in the discussion as to whether Plasticity 3D represents a revolution in 3D modelling or is not a CAD program to be taken seriously. Plasticity does not come close to the functional scope of large – and in some cases expensive – CAD applications. It also lacks typical, quasi “standard features” of CAD programs, such as chronology-based parametric modelling or customisable dimensions and special editing functions. Plasticity 3D is unlikely to compete with established CAD applications for industrial design.

However, users can start using direct modelling almost immediately and quickly achieve results, even without extensive prior knowledge of complex CAD programs and without preparatory measures (including time-consuming sketching with correct restrictions…). Although or because the UI is reminiscent of Blender’s modelling workflow – Blender users will quickly find their way around – we found the introduction to NURBS-based modelling in Plasticity quite accessible. Many modelling tasks go surprisingly quickly after some practice.

We particularly liked the easy-to-use curve tools and the ability to create harmoniously curved surfaces from 3D curves. Easy-to-use curve tools, extrusion and rotation solids, sweep and Boolean functions, cutting solids with curves or “hollow a solid” with just a few clicks – and of course the cool fillet functions make you want to model with this software. There is already another beta version, which will include a bridge to Blender to make it easier to combine the advantages of both programmes. Given the pace of development of the software to date, this could be expected soon. Then even more users could possibly follow the advice from a forum and try using both programmes in a complementary way. After all, it costs nothing to test the free demo version. We look forward to further developments.

Indie: 99 dollars (plus VAT) Use on 2 machines simultaneously, version 1.x updates included
Studio: 299 dollars Use on 4 machines simultaneously, all updates included for 12 months, including major versions (2.x) Access to the beta programme for 12 months

Mandatory for companies with more than 10 employees
30-day trial version: free Windows, MacOS (M1), MacOS (Intel), Linux (deb)

The post Plasticity 3D – CAD for Artists first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Ralf Gliffe.

With Womp 3d, primitive solids can easily be assembled into simple models using metaballs and Boolean operations. The principle is not new. The metaball algorithm has been around for a while. Anyone who remembers the “Organica” programme from more than 10 years ago, or currently knows MagicaCSG (bit.ly/magica_csg), which is also still in a very early development phase, can get an idea of the new, more modern variant Womp, which is completely browser-based. According to the Womp website, only the Chrome browser is currently fully supported. Metaballs are also supported by most major 3D programmes – including Blender, which is used in a commercial for Womp as an example of 3D that Womp users probably don’t want. However, the Womp website also states that the developers of Womp are not on a mission to replace Blender. Womp wants to make it easy for beginners in particular to get started with 3D. Incidentally, it is emphasised that the American company Womp is run by women.

A look at Womp

Womp fulfils its promise of being easy to use even in the alpha phase. If you want to try out Womp, you have to register or log in via Google. Womp starts with a fairly straightforward interface, which essentially consists of the 3D workspace with navigation instructions and a sample project by default, a simple model made up of two spheres and a cube. On the far left, there is a list of the objects in the project with stylised icons and a colour preview as well as some options for selecting, renaming or showing or hiding.

The objects can be organised in groups and their order can be changed (crucial for Boolean subtractions). At the top, next to the Womp logo, there is a hamburger menu with the usual file commands (New File, Delete, Undo …Contact Us), 5 icons with menus for objects, material, background and light settings as well as “Functions” (Duplicate, Union, Subtract). At the top right, a cloud symbol with a green tick indicates that the current project has been saved in the cloud and is available for later access. Next to it is a button that makes it possible to record a video – up to one minute long. This is followed by a blue “Share” button. As the name suggests, you can download 3D objects and images here or share your creation with the community.

An “Info” button leads to a small Womp manual and a series of links to video tutorials. This is followed by an icon for the personal area, where you can view your profile and find an assessment of your “Womp level”. Womp users should exchange ideas, for example in the forum and by publishing their creations and making them available to the community and taking part in competitions. In return, you receive “Womples” and can rise in level. On the right-hand side of the screen is a kind of “Inspector”, the Objects Property Panel, with information and setting options for the respective selection. At the bottom is a live chat, which actually worked and answered questions about the programme – even in German!

That’s easy

The actual “womping” is quite simple and should be easy even for inexperienced 3D artists. Navigation in the 3D space is super simple and is supported by displayed shortcuts. A “navigation cube”, as in conventional 3D applications, makes it easier to change views. Objects can be aligned more easily if the snapping option is active. Whether you work on the supplied sample project or start from scratch remains the same. Womp provides four types of primitives. However, objects created in Womp that have been published by the community can also be inserted into the scene.

If you start with a sphere, it is positioned in the centre of the work window (X, Z plane) and “lies on the floor”. Spheres can be positioned, rotated? and their overall size can be changed. This can be done with the mouse in the work window or in the Objects property panel using numerical inputs. In this property panel, the object type can also be switched between sphere, cylinder and cube – and objects can be switched “negative” for subtractions. Cylinders can be changed in length and cross-section, cubes in all three dimensions.

Curves (2 points) are something special. When you call a curve, you get a capsule-like object that is created because the object consists of two points and has already been given corresponding values for “Goop Strength” and “Density”. These values can of course be varied, points can be added or deleted, repositioned, scaled and provided with different materials. Cylinders or cubes can also be assigned to the curve object instead of the predefined spheres. In this way, very different shapes can be created that also interact with “negative” bodies. The decisive values for objects are “Roundness” (except for a sphere) – the name says it all and “Goop Strength”. Goop is a sticky or semi-liquid substance, and here refers to the area of influence with which the acting bodies are covered with a tough skin (comparable to “Influence Threshold” in Blender). Density and roundness can also be varied for curve objects, allowing interpolations between curve points to be achieved and an angular shape to be created from a soft curve shape.

The actual modelling therefore consists of putting these basic objects together and varying the parameters mentioned or using the Boolean functions “Union” and “Subtract”. This is simple, but users of proper 3D software have significantly more options and can certainly create more complex models more quickly. Boolean subtraction is achieved using negative objects if they are located below other objects in the object list. This makes it very easy to determine which body is subtracted from which. By forming groups (“Union” function), objects can be summarised but also excluded from Boolean operations. There is an option to load a reference image.

Filmed

A nice function is “Record a video”. Actions in the work window (navigation, scaling and moving objects or colour changes) can be recorded as a video of up to one minute. However, only objects that were already present in the scene before the recording began are displayed. The addition of new objects to the scene could not be recorded. There was also a small pitfall when downloading: If the download is started in the preview of the video, you only get a video in preview size (i.e. 1280 x 720 in our case). The blue button for the download did not seem to work. This was because the video had to be rendered first. Depending on the resolution, this requires a little patience. You can see how far along the rendering process is by clicking on the download arrow at the top.

Conclusion

Womp is still in the alpha phase, but can already be used. The tool is primarily aimed at people who rarely use 3D software but still want to create simple 3D models “on the fly”.

Womp is an online tool (currently for the Chrome browser) that promises to be easy to use – and in our opinion, it is. Starting with four different basic shapes (Sphere, Cylinder, Qube, Curve), you can also create more complicated shapes using metaballs and Boolean assignments. However, it is not intended for larger projects or scenes. Womp allows the definition of simple materials without textures, but thanks to effects such as gloss and transparency as well as various predefined lighting situations (global lighting), quite impressive (simple) results are possible. Finished works can be exported as OBJ or STL files with different compression rates and images and videos can be rendered with up to UHD resolution. Womp encourages its users to share the
Results (after initial attempts to upload simple objects, “nice” comments from other users were actually received quite quickly). This means that objects and materials provided by the community can be used. For the future, Womp promises to remain usable as a free alpha version. A Pro version is to be added later. We are curious.
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The post Womp: Simple 3D for everyone? first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Ralf Gliffe.

There are now a whole host of 2D animation tools. Cartoon Animator (CTA5), formerly Cazytalk Animator, is something very special (we reported on previous versions). This tool has no drawing tools! Instead, it relies on the connection with well-known graphics tools and the use of ready-made, reusable content, with automated animation functions and allows even beginners to achieve quick results with the right content.

Same principle – existing features extended

The basic concept of Cartoon Animator and its appearance have not changed in the current version (some icons have been added and some have been “reorganised”). Cartoon Animator remains a pure animation software without its own drawing tools. In the new version, Reallusion seems to be focussing even more on the use – and reuse – of content, which can be purchased in large quantities on its own website in various stores (there are: “ContentStore”, “Actorstore” and “Marketplace”, where assets are provided by the community).

After the purchase (there is also some content available as a freebie), the “Smart Content Manager” appears again in Cartoon Animator when the online mode is active to start the download and installation. By the way: The new Smart Content Manager now has a search option for the content library.
Reallusion now promises more customisation options, including the new customisable FFD functions and feather effects (bone chains can be categorised as feather bones, users can apply multiple FFD effects and animations to the same object), imported vector graphics can be changed in colour and style.

Reallusion has now combined the two existing versions, “Pro” and “Pipeline” into the new Cartoon Animator 5, at a slightly lower price. The (optional) welcome window has been adapted – Cartoon Animator 4 now also offers a preview of CTA5, while the current version links to “Must Have Content”, “Freebies” and the Reallusion newsletter. Reallusion offers the following Cartoon Animator 4 (CTA4) plug-ins for a free updated version for use in Cartoon Animator 5 (info from Reallusion bit.ly/cta5_plugins):

• Face3D profile for Motion LIVE 2D plugin
• iPhone Live Face Mocap profile
• Perception Neuron Body Mocap Profile
• Rokoko mocap profile
• Leap Motion Hand Mocap Profile

All Cartoon Animator 4 (CTA4) users who have purchased and registered the above plug-ins in their Reallusion member account qualify for the free upgraded plug-ins for Cartoon Animator 5. The Motion LIVE 2D plug-in for Cartoon Animator is now fully embedded in Cartoon Animator 5, no upgrade is required.

Basics

CTA was already advertised in the last version with a plethora of functions, some of which we had already presented. Typical for CTA is the insertion and positioning of content and effects, including pre-set animations via drag & drop, which leads to quick results, but which brought some criticism from users of other software, especially in the previous version: it was alleged that the results lacked individuality because the same or similar content was often used and there were too few individual editing options with reasonable effort.

At the time, it actually seemed tempting to us to achieve results with just one click instead of going to the trouble of creating our own content and then painstakingly customising it in CTA5.

And yes, some animations created with CTA5 have “similar attitudes”, e.g. rubbery moving arms and legs of characters whose limbs are simply deformed by bones. CTA5 does not allow the painting of bone weightings as in other programmes, which results in “smooth” deformations that do not necessarily look as if real joints are bending.

Instead of weightings, however, “pins” can be used in the Bone Editor (Composer Mode). Pins can be used to protect static image areas from the forces of bones. Pins that are attached to bones are moved along with them.

Problems with “rubber legs” can be solved with little effort in the Bone Editor if pins are set at the joints. The resolution or alignment of meshes created in the Bone Editor can also be adjusted (can be checked in “Preview Mode”). Then a leg can bend relatively realistically with a realistic bend in the knee instead of bending like a plastic stick.

Quality and quantity

Describing Cartoon Animator in full here would go beyond the scope of this article, especially as there is a lot of information material available for previous versions (also from us). There can hardly be any criticism of the quantity of functions integrated in CTA 5 and the learning media provided by Reallusion. From our point of view, the current version is not only interesting because of a few new features, but actually expands the existing possibilities considerably. Reallusion links to learning resources on the welcome screen and has its own YouTube channel(bit.ly/cta_youtube).

Here are just the most important functions that were already mentioned in version 4 of CTA: Face mocap (via webcam – real-time lip-sync and head-controlled movements), talking 2D heads (also with pseudo 3D movements, 360-degree rotations), intelligent inverse kinematics (easy switching between FK and IK, bone restrictions, quick locking or unlocking of end effectors…), character templates for humans and animals to make your own characters “fit” for automatic animations, dynamic props, Photoshop pipeline… After Effects pipeline (as a plug-in).

Cartoon Animator has a “Composer Mode”, in which characters or props are “composed”, e.g. provided with bones – and a “Stage Mode”, in which the actions take place on the Cartoon Animator stage.

CTA uses a 3D camera system (the camera, as well as the scene objects, can be arranged 3-dimensionally in space to enable camera movements and parallax effects). However, it is not possible to rotate objects 3-dimensionally, i.e. around their Y-axis. Y-rotation effects or spatial perspectives must be realised with 2D distortions. The new FFD functions now do this quite well.

There is only one camera in CTA. Scenes also have to be created and rendered individually. However, there is a “Camera Record Mode” in which camera movements are possible and abrupt jumps, quasi hard cuts, to new scenes are also possible. For this purpose, content can be positioned outside the actual scene, to which the camera then switches from one frame to the next and plays back the scene content as if it had jumped from scene to scene. As in previous versions, the frame rate is preset to 30 frames per second. This can only be changed in the export settings (render settings). The output size and format can also be set there.

Backgrounds can be imported as a separate category from the Content Manager. They are then automatically adapted to the current stage size. This is practical, but not very flexible, as background images cannot be edited on the stage. There are some setting options in the project settings. Images can also be imported as “props”.

They are then “real” stage elements with all editing options and can also be used as a (flexible) background, e.g. animated. Also worth mentioning are “image layers”, which are placed like windows in front of all stage elements.

New old principle

Cartoon Animator focusses even more than before on the quick and easy use of predefined content and continues to dispense with its own drawing functions. Instead, (suitable!) content can be animated in the programme with extremely little effort, thanks to many ready-made templates for a wide variety of objects, movements and effects.

Photoshop and SVG files can be created via “bridges” to external graphics editors and imported into CTA with a single click. Synchronisation worked perfectly in the test. Every change to a graphic was updated with a click on Save in CTA. The user still does not have the feeling of being able to draw directly into a scene, but this bridge function is convenient. Reallusion also promises more customisation options, a point of criticism that some users have raised, at least in previous versions.

Despite a few corrections, the programme interface looks just as you would expect from Reallusion. The UI appears modern and tidy (there are two GUI themes: light and dark). Some of the programme icons are self-explanatory, e.g. the navigation elements. For others, a newcomer will need a little imagination or a look at the manual or the numerous tutorials provided by Reallusion or available on YouTube.

Tool tips, which are available for each icon, also make it easier to get started. The central element in CTA5 remains the stage, on which actors act and props are positioned. Now there is the Smart Content Manager, which lists all available content (actors, props, backgrounds, scene elements, animations and effects etc.) and can be synchronised online with the user account at Reallusion (online mode of the Smart Content Manager). The Scene Manager shows the elements of the current scene that have been placed on the stage using drag-and-drop.

Reallusion claims that animation is now very easy for everyone, which is true at least for the use of ready-made content and the many animation elements. However, newcomers or users of “standard” animation tools should still expect a corresponding familiarisation period before the many functions can be used safely and their own projects can be implemented.

Anyone who watches a demonstration of the programme, e.g. on YouTube or the numerous tutorials on thewww.reallusion.com website, in which the effective use of the ready-made content (including the animation templates supplied) is shown, will be amazed at the speed with which animations are possible in Cartoon Animator.

There are ready-made templates for almost every animation purpose – in CTA5, or in the Content Store with access via the Content Manager, there are extensive libraries of assets, including demo projects, character assets, accessories, animations, scenes and props, which lead to super-fast results. However, these are not necessarily “customised”.

New, promised!

With new Spring Dynamics, Reallusion promises to make secondary animations very easy. And squash & stretch (compression and extension movements) will be freely definable thanks to an improved FFD deformer. The new version now also supports vector graphics in SVG format. This means zooming and scaling without losses and colour changes in the program (colour adjustments – colour, brightness, contrast, saturation).

As with Photoshop files, there is now an extra button (“SVG”) that calls up a suitable editor. This is preset in the Preferences under Vector. We are all familiar with major announcements for new software products – of course the new version of Cartoon Animator is also revolutionising the industry. Nevertheless, the latest announcement from CTA5 seems somewhat more modest – and more focussed on the essentials. The superlatives are limited, but the new functions announced make us curious.

We were able to take a look at an early version of the current release – and had a fairly positive opinion, even if not all functions seemed to be “fully developed”, which is why we also tried out an English-language version. There was no German language update available yet. The SVG editors offered, with the exception of Illustrator, could already be specified in the preferences, but not all of them were really available yet – upcoming updates should remedy this, as we could also read in some Reallusion forums.

In order to be able to use Affinity Photo as a PSD editor, “Enable saving for overwriting imported PSD files” had to be activated in its settings – there was a warning about possible incompatibilities between the Affinity format and PSD – but this bridge worked in the test. In any case, Cartoon Animator can communicate with other programmes – and the import via drag & drop worked perfectly anyway.

Lots of content – can be animated

Actors, backgrounds and various scene objects can simply be dragged from the content folders into the current scene – ready-made animations and effects are also assigned to the objects using drag & drop. Animations can be strung together in the timeline, stretched or shortened in tempo, looped and mixed. With the new functions, everything really seems to be animatable. CTA5 has really stepped up its game here.

It jumps!

A new feature is the ability to apply spring dynamics to actors and all possible objects in a scene. To do this, bones must be “implanted” into any object (Composer Mode/Bone Editor). Various “Spring Bones” groups can then be created in the Spring Editor (“Assign to Group”). After selecting a preset, you can test what resonates where and how in “Preview” mode.

There are 10 presets for different material and physical properties, which are labelled in a relatively self-explanatory way. Stylised icons indicate the type of movement. A symbolic mini animation is played when the mouse is moved over the icons. The behaviour of the spring dynamics can be influenced with values for: Bounciness, Speed, Gravity, Limit Angle, Translate. Secondary animations such as bouncing hair or swinging body parts can be created with just a few clicks, even by inexperienced users!

Feather bones can react to movement data and live mocap animations, allowing them to swing along with a character’s movements and make movements appear more lively without the need to create complex keyframe animations. You can also save your own presets for spring dynamics.

Free forms

FFD – Free Form Deformer was already available in CTA4 as a prop key editor. This can still be used for deformations and animations (of props), but the possibilities have been significantly improved with the FFD editor. FFD can now be applied to all objects. Brand new: also on vectors (SVG). FFD deformations and animations can be created very quickly by using the FFD Editor at the appropriate points in the timeline. Points on the FFD grid can be manipulated very simply so that the active object is deformed.

The FFD grid surrounds the active object. It consists of 5 x 5 points, the number of which obviously cannot be changed. However, different points can be summarised and scaled, rotated, moved and mirrored. This makes amazing deformations possible. Several deformations can be stacked if “Additive” is activated in the FFD Editor. Useful for adjusting deformations more dramatically.

CTA5 automatically generates keyframes. CTA5 has a number of presets for different deformations, which can be customised in intensity and various values (including scaling, angle…). The FFD editor contains 109! organic FFD presets categorised into 6 main groups: Basic, Sheer, Squash & Stretch, Convex & Concave. This allows certain (identical) deformation effects to be quickly applied to different objects – and of course edited manually.

If FFD animations are mixed with other animations, for example, it can be helpful to make them temporarily “invisible” in order to maintain a clear view. To do this, they can be saved from the timeline as clips that can be activated and deactivated by setting the intensity value to zero (instead of having to remove them from the timeline). Swell muscles or Disney-style exaggeration suddenly seem easy to achieve.

Conclusion

Cartoon Animator 5 is a consistent further development of the previous versions. The programme concept has not been changed – there are still no drawing functions, but the Animator aims to work better with graphics editors. Externally, the new version has hardly changed: a little new UI, new icons..

In our opinion, the new functions that significantly enhance CTA5 are more important. With Free Form Deformations, it is now easy to create complex deformations and customised animations. With just a few clicks, all objects can be freely deformed and animated via keyframe in the timeline – even already animated actors! Vector graphics can also be imported with a click, edited in sync and their colour and style manipulated – regardless of resolution!

The new spring dynamics, with which various secondary animations can be automatically added to corresponding springbones with a click, also make CTA5 a truly exceptional tool that should be worth a second look. And the tool costs only 99 US dollars as an upgrade – a demo is available for download. We would like to see this consistent development continue, perhaps even our own drawing tools?

The post Cartoon Animator 5 (CTA5) Cartoon Dynamics & Vector Animation for everyone? first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Ralf Gliffe.

Flame Painter is a painting programme with a difference. The main feature of the software is vivid brushstrokes that are controlled by various particle systems. This makes it possible to create fascinating effects that can hardly be realised with normal software – at least not without effort. Anyone trying out the software for the first time will easily understand how the programme got its name.

The tool invites you to experiment with a wide variety of brushes and different particle systems – with almost limitless possibilities.

A short but fiery introduction

The operation of the programme is similar to that of conventional painting programmes. You can get started without having to study the software too much: In principle, after creating a new file and selecting a brush, you can start painting straight away. In most cases, the results are astonishing – at least in most cases hardly predictable.

Below the standard menu bar (File, Edit, Layer …) there is a drawing area (canvas), arranged on the left, a tools palette, an options window and the brushes library. On the right-hand side there is a navigator window, a colour palette and a layers panel. The user interface can be customised to suit individual requirements by scaling and positioning the work windows. In the current version, the “Reset Layout to Default” option is available under the “Window” menu item. This allows you to restore order to the screen after a restart. A brush and a pen tool are available for drawing. There is also an eraser, a fill tool and an eyedropper. A symmetry and mirror option can be switched on for the brush tool. Flame Painter has various selection tools (rectangle, circle, polygon, freehand, magic wall) with Boolean functions to combine selections. With a crop tool, the creations can be brought into shape by cropping the canvas (absolutely similar to the crop tool in Photoshop) or the image size can be changed by dragging handles. At the top right is a navigator for quicker orientation in large documents, below this is the window with the colour palette.

At the bottom right, the Layers window is reminiscent of the layer window in Photoshop. A special feature are the vector layers, which allow strokes to be edited afterwards (both curve points and parameters of the particle system). Only one stroke at a time is possible on a vector layer. If the painting stroke is interrupted and restarted, the previous stroke is deleted. A separate vector layer must therefore be created for each stroke.

It is precisely these vector layers that elevate Flame Painter from a hobby tool to a real tool, because this is the only way to achieve a certain degree of control over the living brushes. It is also possible to import SVG graphics, for example. Any brushes can subsequently be assigned to paths.

Flame Painter imports Photoshop files as well as PNG, JPG, BMP and TIF formats. Images can also be dragged directly from an Internet browser into Flame Painter.
The complex features of Flame Painter are the particle systems, the painting modes of Flame Painter. These are standard:

• Flame – the classic painting mode, in which the brushstroke follows the cursor with different oscillations depending on the speed, creating the most bizarre colour patterns of varying brightness.
• Follow – here the brushstroke follows the cursor more precisely.
• Ribbon – the manual calls this painting mode “Loop”.

Various parameters can be set for each of these particle systems, all of which influence each other. Hundreds of brush effects (settings) are available to create seemingly infinite variations of strokes.

Newly burnt in Flame Painter 4

• The particle systems have been expanded to include the additional “Liner”, “Elastic” and “Fuzzy”. Around 250 prepared brushes (brush presets) are waiting to be downloaded from the Escape Motions page (this online collection can also be accessed via a button in the Flame Painter library, where there is also a button for uploading your own creations).
• The Brush Creator expands the setting options of the brushes enormously with new variables. You can easily create your own brushes by varying existing brushes. The Symmetry tool with Mirror option creates symmetrical graphics, which is particularly helpful for maps.
• Palette Panel – The palette window has been revised and expanded. It is now possible to choose between different colour models (HSV, HSL, HSLuv and RGB). In addition to the colour selection, the colour gradient and image library can also be called up here. Gradients are still only available as linear gradients. Angle settings are also not yet possible. The matching colour selection tool allows you to pick up colours from the active or all layers, whereby the tool shows the current colour of the palette and the respective colour under the cursor for comparison.
• In addition to the Blur, Glow – the name says it all – and Tile Layer filters for creating endless tileable patterns, there are 9 new filters for adjusting brightness, colour and contrast, among other things. White or black can be made transparent using filters or coloured layers can be converted to shades of grey using various options (Desaturate).
• With the Photoshop plug-in “Flame Painter Connect”, layers can be exchanged directly between Flame Painter and Photoshop
  can be exchanged. However, Flame Painter Connect for Flame Painter 4 is only compatible with Photoshop CC 2015 and higher.

Conclusion

What started out as a small, experimental tool has now become an application that is not only fun to use, but also fulfils professional requirements.

Flame Painter is still a fun programme that invites you to experiment (almost) endlessly. But this tool should also offer professional users interesting possibilities for quickly creating a wide variety of unusual effects, e.g. for backgrounds, textures, as additional image effects, etc. New particle systems, lots of new, customisable brushes, an editor for creating your own brushes, editable vector layers to which hundreds of brushes can now be assigned with a single click, import of SVG graphics and improved exchange with Photoshop CC are all reasons to update to the latest version.

It’s a bit of a shame that the personal edition is no longer available. On the other hand, the large version that is now available has really grown up. With the latest innovations, the creative boundaries have been pushed further and Peter BlaškoviČ’s vision that anyone can be an artist if they only have the inspiring tools to hand has become more tangible.

The post Flambé pictures – Flame Painter 4 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Ralf Gliffe.

As one of the first 3D programmes on the market – originally a 3D component of the Amiga-based video toaster from Newtek – the software (now for Windows and Mac) has a long and chequered history behind it. Especially in its heyday, Lightwave was able to score points by being used in numerous productions such as “300”, “Iron Man” or “Avatar”. The times when graphics and especially 3D software was booming (suddenly everyone seemed to be able to produce cinematic 3D film effects themselves) are probably over. Some websites that list such software are now categorised as “dead”.

Lightwave has also suffered. The disaster with the “Core” project certainly caused the first major setback. For many users, Core was seen as a real new beginning with a new UI, new concepts and innovative functions – and a stylish T-shirt that some users referred to as a shroud. After the project was quietly cancelled in 2011, things became increasingly quiet around Lightwave. Nevertheless, the software has remained available to its users and has been further developed. Even today, Lightwave is still sometimes the software of choice for smaller studios and freelancers.

Fans of Lightwave 3D are particularly hopeful about the latest upgrades. There was also a change in nomenclature – after numbering up to version 11, the last version was 11.6, followed by version 2015 (we reported on this in issue 02:15). The next release did not appear until 2018 – but now Newtek seems to be getting serious. Lightwave 2019 was announced at the beginning of the year. After a few weeks, the first fixed versions have been released. The software’s range of functions has increased significantly.

Regular Lightwave users, as well as users of other 3D software, amateurs and professionals, are encouraged to see Newtek’s new start as an opportunity. Newtek offers an unconventional but complete and production-proven tool for a manageable price without any subscription obligation, with which a variety of tasks for motion FX, animation and game design can be completed.

Some say so – others say so …

The current version of Lightwave remains true to itself and retains some of its sometimes famous and much-discussed peculiarities. For example, while the division of the software into two programmes, the Modeler (the part in which 3D objects are created) and Layout (the part in which scenes are arranged, illuminated, animated and rendered) is an annoying relic for some users, others see this as an advantage because it keeps the focus on the essentials and improves clarity. Lightwave’s UI manages without colourful icons or tooltips. Some new users complain about hidden functions or functions that are complicated to use. For example, a number of different presets can be selected for the viewport layout – albeit in the preferences. In the view layout menu under the “View” tab, there are only options to call up the previous or next layout from the list. This still applies, for example: If nothing is selected in the modeller, Lightwave considers everything to be selected – without studying the manual, the learning curve seems to be difficult to overcome. Experienced users, on the other hand, praise the customisability of the UI (all menus can be freely designed), the effective control options with shortcuts and the speed when working as well as the variety of functions of the software, which can be enhanced with numerous plug-ins from third-party providers(a list of extensions can be found here).

The many third-party extensions, some of which have been developed over the years and are used by professionals as a matter of course, can be a challenge for programme newcomers when, for example, video tutorials are studied and commands appear that Lightwave does not even have by default. The names of plug-ins or commands do not always say anything about their function. Some different extensions fulfil very similar tasks in different ways, and some simply no longer exist at some point.

15, 18, 19 …?

As Lightwave has hardly changed externally, the new features only become apparent at second glance. While new features in the 2015 version included bullet constraints, the Genoma 2 character rigging system, a match perspective tool and rendering techniques such as importance sampling or edge rendering, as well as workflow improvements, the list of new features in the 2018 version is much more extensive: Lightwave’s scene format has been changed to support new functions. If scenes are to be opened in older versions of the programme, they must be exported as an earlier version.

A new physical-based rendering system was introduced in the 2018 version (PBR Rendering); new shading, lighting and rendering options are intended to enable a higher degree of realism when creating 3D scenes and images.

With extended render & light buffers, Newtek aims to improve performance when working with compositing. Using the Node system, any render buffer can be created and displayed in any viewport as a VPR preview in (near) real time.

For the 2019 version, Newtek is advertising the bridge to the Unreal Engine. Several Lightwave applications can be connected to the Unreal Engine at the same time. Updates to scenes or objects are made in real time. According to Newtek, the bridge uses a network detection algorithm from Newtek for simple automatic configuration, which can be installed on a single project in Unreal or as a general plug-in for use in all Unreal projects. In an initial test, the connection to the Unreal Engine worked straight away.

Creating OpenVDB content, Metamorphic (animated sculpting in layout), Empty Volumes (conversion of meshes to volumes, Boolean functions in real time), new shader nodes and new compositing buffers as well as physical sky and render extensions (Denoiser, Despike) are just some of the keywords for the current 2019 version.

Shape primitives and empty volumes

Null objects can be assigned primitive shapes (sphere, cube, cylinder, torus, cone and plane) as object properties in Layout. The Shape > Empty Volume option creates an empty volume. Such empty volumes can be used to create real-time Booleans in Layout. The CSG node takes over the Boolean functions (Union, Intersection, Subtraction). A new Volumetric Engine generates volumetric clouds and fog from primitives.

Newtek introduced OpenVDB support in the 2018 version. This award-winning open source C library is now used by most 3D programmes. In the 2018 version, Newtek advertises volumetric effects for smoke and fire, among others.

New content – OpenVDB Evaluator

The OpenVDB options have been significantly expanded in the current version. You can now create your own OpenVDB content using a range of node tools and manipulate it in various ways. Meshes, particles or primitives can be turned into gaseous, liquid or even solid volumes and, for example, enter into Boolean real-time interactions. The new VDB workflow, e.g.
converting meshes into volumes and vice versa, opens up amazing new modelling and animation possibilities (objects become animated clouds, for example). Initial tests and, above all, Newtek’s video tutorials impressively demonstrate how powerful this technology is.

Materialistic – new nodes for new material components

A number of new functions have been added to the material system in the 2019 version. Not only the Surface Editor, but above all the node system has been given numerous new material properties and functions, especially for creating PBR materials.

Material Components in Lightwave 2019 is a new, complex set of nodes and tools that can be used to customise shading effects. Lightwave professionals should be able to achieve the exact look they want for materials. There is access to Fresnel functions, lighting models, volumetrics, material integrators etc. New cel shaders promise improved NPR rendering.

An Edge Shader creates the illusion of additional geometry needed to round edges. A new Patina Node generates shading effects such as on chipped edges or dirty surfaces.

A light goes on

The lighting architecture was completely revised in 2018. For example, the Dome Light has been removed. Instead, the Distant Light now has the option of angle and distance input, which can also be used to control the shadows. There are now physical lights. The “Primitive” light type allows light sources to be assigned the shape of any scene objects, with the “Sample Surface” option taking the surface of the objects into account when emitting light.

Spotlights no longer have shadow maps, but they can now create soft shadows using “Size” settings.

Area lights now only shine in one direction. This means that the lighting effects can be controlled more precisely. The “Portal” option for area lights or polygon light sources supports the illumination of interior spaces.

In addition, most light sources now have a switch called “Normalise”. It determines that the amount of light emitted only depends on the set light intensity. If this option is switched off, the object size also influences how much light is emitted. The loading of IES web files has been improved to better simulate the light intensity of real manufactured luminaires. With the “Visible to Camera” option, light sources can be displayed visibly in the rendering. Volumetric primitives and OpenVDB objects provide new options for luminaires that affect the volumetrics, e.g. a volumetric scattering effect (for so-called God Rays) and new fog settings.

New in the old UI

Menus can now be navigated using the buttons (arrow, mouse wheel, start, end, etc.). Large menus can be searched using filters. The key combination Ctrl-Spacebar calls up a list of all available commands in Modeler or Layout, including the associated key combinations.

Since 2018, a layout view can be displayed in Modeler with “Layout View” (if several viewports are open in Layout, the selection is made by clicking on the camera icon, which is also responsible for the animation preview). Newtek received a lot of praise for the long-awaited revision of the undo system in Layout.

Lightwave’s Node Editor has also been revised. Not only have a number of new nodes been added. A very pleasant new feature is the “Tidy Nodes” function in the Node Editor. Even complex node networks can now be easily untangled. The comma key also highlights all connections upstream of a node, while the dot key highlights all connections downstream. Furthermore, the display of the node connections can be switched between straight, square or as a curve and a background grid can be set.

Some options for UV mapping have been added. The sizes or edge lengths and angles of the geometry and the UV map can now be compared and differences highlighted in colour. The programme highlights overlapping polygons of the UV map in red. A new feature is the ability to create UDIM tiles for UV maps.

By the way, but perhaps worth mentioning for Lightwaver: The online documentation now adapts to the screen format of each device.

Metamorphic – Sculpting in the layout

Newtek has integrated the mesh sculpting and vertex map editing system Metamorphic by Jamil Halabis, which was previously available as a plug-in, into the 2019 version. The toolset is multithreaded and supports the pen pressure of a tablet to control the size, thickness and hardness of the modelling brushes, at least under Windows. It is now possible to perform animated sculpting, weight mapping and vertext painting in the layout. However, Metamorphic is not a competitor to applications such as ZBrush (the bridge to ZBrush, GoZ, has been part of Lightwave since version 11).

To start sculpting, a “Metamorphic” modifier must be assigned to the object to be edited in the properties. Double-click on the modifier to open the plug-in’s work window. The features of Metamorhic include

• Free-form animated sculpting
• Integrated undo / redo system
• Multithread with all available CPU cores
• Pen pressure support for brush size, thickness and hardness (Windows only)
• Nodal Brush Texture Support
• Non-linear interpolation of keyframes for sculpt animations
• Convert shape animation keyframes to endomorphs
• Full motion blur support

There are various brush modes such as Select (vertex selection), Transform (moving vertices), Sculpt (the actual sculpting), Weight (for creating weight maps in layout), Normal (for editing normal maps), Colour (for creating vertex colour maps). The brush size can be adjusted with the shift and right mouse button.

To sculpt animatedly, simply navigate to the desired position in the timeline. Lightwave automatically creates keyframes for the changes to the object during sculpting.

Metamorphic works, but should not be seen as a competitor to real sculpt software. Rather, the tool is designed to create corrective morphs for animations. The tool is surprisingly well suited for this purpose. Sculpt animation keyframes can be converted into endomorphs, Lightwave’s built-in animation objects, and interpolated non-linearly.

The sky above Lightwave – Physical Sky

Lightwave offers various options for designing a scene environment, backgrounds or skies. In the current version, the Hosek Wilkie Sky Simulator, which is also used by Blender, is added to the backdrop options Gradient, Image World, Sky Tracer 2 or Textured Environment.

In Lightwave, it is possible to select any point on a world map and specify the date and time. A sky background is generated accordingly. The values for azimuth, elevation and (colour) temperature as well as the intensity and size of a sun can also be specified manually. A light source in the scene can act as a sun (SunLight Hosek-Wilkie light type). In this case, the option of selecting a location is omitted.

This and that – making life easier for Lightwaver

Newtek has tweaked many aspects of the new Lightwave. The render options have become much more extensive. The two new options “Enable Despike” and the noise filter should be emphasised. When “Enable Despike” is active, an attempt is made to smooth out abnormal brightness peaks in the rendering. Newtek recommends only activating this function if bright peaks actually occur in the rendering.

The noise filter can be set to be CPU- or GPU-based. However, according to the manual, the GPU option only works for still images (not on the network) and requires an Nvidia Geforce, Quadro or Tesla graphics card with at least a Kepler chipset. There are no user-configurable options.

The Nvidia CUDA system is no longer supported by MacOS. This means that Nvidia Optix Denoising is not available for the MacOS platform Source.

Lightwave offers quite a long list of render buffers in the current version. There are standard buffers that are provided by the render engine (alpha, depth, lens flare etc.). Additional buffers, which depend on the materials used among other things, are intended to support extensive compositing work (e.g. refraction, reflection).

In the render settings under “Buffers”, light groups can be created for which special buffers can be rendered. It is also possible to create user-defined buffers that are saved together with the respective object in the interface.

One little thing: after the last update, it was no longer possible to delete anything in the Modeler – at least not as usual with the Del key. Why the shortcut had disappeared from the default settings remains a mystery – but such minor problems can be quickly resolved with Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts.

Model-like

a tool for the parametric creation of bolts was added in 2019. QuickBolt generates bolts according to various, quite complex specifications with one click in an empty layer. This works in a similar way to the “Gemstone Tool”, which is already part of the arsenal, but has far fewer setting options and is also interactive. Unfortunately, LWCAD is not (yet?) part of the software.

Simple but effective is Spline Bridge, a tool for connecting polygons with a bridging effect. There are only three options: Divisions (number of subdivisions), First Twist, Second Twist (twists at the beginning and end of the connection) and the ability to bend the bridge at a spline.

Conclusion

After many years of a chequered history, Newtek finally seems to be recognising the potential of Lightwave and devoting the necessary attention to the software. The latest updates give us hope. It’s not just the regular users who will be grateful.

The software has at least retained essential characteristics such as the separation of modeler and layout or the fact that everything is selected in Lightwave if nothing is selected, or that Newtek still does not use icons in the UI.

Despite this, or perhaps because of it, Lightwave die-hards claim that the software is beginner-friendly, leads to quick results and, given the current price-performance ratio, represents a real alternative to the (current) top programmes.

As far as the programme’s performance is concerned, this is true. The manageable price for the range of functions also speaks in favour of the program (approx. 1000 US dollars for the full version, 495 US dollars for an upgrade – 95 US dollars for an educational licence) and it is still possible to purchase the software without the need for a subscription.

From our point of view, the tool offers a large number of professional functions and, for those in the know, an unmanageable wealth of possibilities that make enormous time savings possible (for trained users). The functions added in the latest versions make us curious about future developments. If Newtek continues to develop the programme in the way it has, Lightwave could perhaps soon return to its former heights. We hope so.

The post Lightwave 3D 2019 – the continuation of a new beginning? first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Ralf Gliffe.

“This is it. Version 1.O.O is gold.” Reiner Prokein, the man behind Bforartists, proudly declares the development cycle to be complete after almost three years on his website http://www.bforartists.de and thanks his development team for their commitment. Most of the original goals have been achieved. Future developments will probably depend on the next major expected Blender update.

The ambitious goal of the developers is a 3D application with all the possibilities that Blender offers in the current version, but with a more user-friendly graphical programme interface, better documentation and comprehensible tutorials. The focus should be on ease of use and better understanding of the software rather than on speed and effective use of hotkeys. Bforartists is particularly aimed at Blender newcomers or occasional users who do not want to study the specifics of the Blender UI in order to achieve results. The name stands for “Be for Artists” and means: “for the artist, not for the programmer”.

Blender or Bforartists? It’s (not only) about looks

Like Blender, Bforartists is open source. It is available in English for Windows (the language change in the preferences works, but with the original Blender translations). An announced version for Mac OS X is to follow. Things are not looking so good for Linux users at the moment. The personnel situation at Bforartists is a problem. However, Linux freaks have the option of downloading the source code from Github and compiling it themselves (this should work in the same way as for Blender).
Blender’s user interface was often a point of contention – as with many complex applications designed for effective use by specialists. When the jump to version 2.5 took place, opinions were divided – as is so often the case when switching to something new – partly because of the (then) new UI. Blender is now more popular than ever. Nevertheless, Blender’s UI presents considerable hurdles, especially for the uninitiated. It starts with the fact that objects cannot simply be clicked with the left mouse button by default. In Blender, selections are made with the right mouse button (can be changed in the preferences). Blender users should be familiar with some shortcuts. Some programme functions such as the search function only seem to be accessible via keyboard shortcuts. The Blender programme interface is a topic of discussion in various forums and video channels. The Blender developers themselves are also aware of the complexity of the UI – and seem to be working on solutions for the next updates.

When you open Bforartists, you realise: it’s Blender – only different. The developers have endeavoured to create a high-contrast interface for the standard theme (customisable in the preferences). The start screen offers various interaction modes (e.g. “Blender” to follow Blender tutorials, “Maya”, “3DMax” or “Bforartists” – including an “Experimental” version). The actual differences relate to the user philosophy – away from a workflow optimised for speed based on the intensive use of hotkeys and towards graphical operation with (rather) reduced shortcut use. This should suit beginners and occasional users.
Although the differences between Blender and Bforartists are only external – under the bonnet it’s still Blender – the list of changes in Bforartists is quite long. Hundreds of duplicate menu entries have been removed. Many functions that can only be accessed via hotkey have been given menu entries (e.g. the search function – now found under “Windows”). Menu layouts have been optimised. A completely new icon sheet with several hundred native icons is used. The tooltips have also been revised.

The use of icons has saved space in the menus. This looks clearer and often saves scrolling (under “Display” you can switch between pure icon display and display with text).
There is a toolbar editor (menu item Editor Type > Tool Bar) with which customisable toolbars can be designed. Menu items (e.g. File, Meshedit, Primitives etc.) can be stored directly in toolbars. The respective call then only requires one click instead of the usual menu selection: a time saver. These settings can also be found in the Preferences, under Add-ons > User Interface: Toolbar Settings Bforartists.
The position of the menu bar(s) at the top shifts when the working window is zoomed in and out. This is supposed to be a Blender bug, but you can accept it. In order to achieve a better overview, a new keymap has been introduced, reduced to the necessary hotkeys (you can of course define your own shortcuts or switch to Blender’s interaction).
No improvement for experienced Blender users, but those who are new to the software have the advantage of being able to use shortcuts that are probably easier to remember. Add-ons such as Reset 3D View or Important Hotkeys (shows or hides frequently used hotkeys) should make working with Bforartists more pleasant. Smaller helpful details include an option to hide the 3D cursor or adjustable wireframe colours (in the object display settings).

The latest

The latest update of Blender is version 2.79b. The developers of Bforartists explain that their software always obtains the code from the Blender master (the latest version), which is why there are some add-ons for which the current code in Bforartists is too new, so that problems can occur. This applies, for example, to Destructive Extrude, a purchase add-on on Gumroad.
To use GPU rendering with CUDA 9, it is recommended to upgrade to 64-bit Windows (Nvidia only supports 64-bit systems).

What impression remains?

Bforartists does indeed make a tidy impression. Getting used to the more graphical user interface is easy for a non-professional. Whether or not it is worth trying out Bforartists as an alternative to Blender is, as with all software, an individual decision. As Bforartists is actually Blender (2.79b) – also open source – and has the same range of functions, there is no risk in testing it.

The wider distribution speaks in favour of using Blender. Blender has a large community and there is a huge amount of tutorials and literature. Professionals achieve fast results with Blender’s workflow (intensive use of hotkeys).

Those who are familiar – and satisfied – with Blender should not be lured away. Bforartists is aimed at people who have little or no experience with the programme and at those who want to reduce the effort required to familiarise themselves with Blender’s special UI. Reiner Prokein, the initiator and driving force behind the development of Bforartists, says that he would not be sad if Bforartists became superfluous after the next major update of Blender because there would be nothing left to improve. There would still be enough work on the documentation and tutorials.
It remains to be seen what the much-anticipated update to Blender 2.8 will bring. Until then, thanks to the volunteer developers who have worked for 3 years to create an easier-to-use interface for Blender. And, yes, Blender is Blender with a conventional UI – or as Bforartists.

The post Bforartists – a fork for Blender first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Ralf Gliffe.