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EIZO Previews First OLED ColorEdge
EIZO is bringing OLED into the ColorEdge lineup. The company is previewing an OLED ColorEdge model under development, positioned for 4K HDR workflows and featuring refined ABL luminance control, a status indicator, built-in calibration sensor technology, and ColorNavigator software demos at NAB and MPTS 2026.
SideFX launches central Houdini learning hub
SideFX consolidates Houdini tutorials into a structured Learning Library aimed at students and production artists.
KIRI Engine releases free Scatter for Blender
KIRI Engine releases Scatter, a free Blender add on offering click, procedural and physics based object placement.
PFTrack update tidies Maya and LiDAR workflows
PFTrack update refines Maya export, LiDAR error handling and Survey Solver node logic for Studio and Enterprise users.
InstaLOD 2026 Targets VR and Animation Pipelines
InstaLOD 2026 adds VR delivery targets, raytraced shadows and full GLTF USD animation support for real-time pipelines.
D5 Works launches with 42K models and no comission ?
D5 Works
lists 42K models and 2.2K materials and claims zero commission, with D5-native delivery via D5A and D5M.
Resolve 20.3.2 tidies up the edges
Resolve and Fusion Studio 20.3.2 refine trims, speed up AI scaling and fix a long list of real world bugs.
Arnold adds lines, points and faster volumes
Arnold update adds NPR shaders and accelerates OpenVDB volumes up to five times in official tests.
Live FX 9.9: New Unreal Engine workflows, in a 3-part tutorial
Assimilate has published a short three-part tutorial series for combining Live FX 9.9 with Unreal Engine in virtual production. The videos cover GPU Texture Share on a single system, an nDisplay workflow that outputs multiple render streams, and a Switchboard setup that enables live Unreal edits
Quad Wrap offers quad-first retopology, no magic wand
FlippedNormals releases Quad Wrap, a Blender retopology tool focused on manual quad layout and mesh wrapping.
Kangaroo Builder learns to move faces between meshes
Kangaroo Builder for Maya adds Landmark Warp, a topology transfer tool aimed at moving blendshapes between meshes without matching topology.
PureRef 2.1 adds grids lines notes and control
PureRef 2.1 ships with grids snapping drawing tools image management updates and a long list of workflow fixes.
Katana 9 deepens USD and previews Hydra 2
Katana introduces UsdSuperLayer, new USD lighting and material nodes, and alpha Hydra 2 viewer support.
Nevercenter speeds up Milo 2026 and drops VR quietly
Milo 2026.0 moves to Unreal Engine 5.7, adds raytracing on Mac, pathtracing on Windows, faster lighting, workflow tweaks and removes VR.
Modeler 26 for Houdini released
Modeler 26 for Houdini introduces a significantly expanded PolyPen, Bezier-based deformation, curve-driven boolean operations, viewport card drawing, and a new object layer system.
Blender 5.1 Beta Improves Performance, Workflow, and Compositing
Blender 5.1 enters public beta with a familiar focus on refinement rather than disruption. The update brings targeted improvements across animation, compositing, UI, and USD export, offering a smooth and predictable upgrade path for artists already working in Blender 5.0.
130 animations, one rig, zero drama
Quaternius releases a second Universal Animation Library with over 130 humanoid animations, free for commercial use.
Download IKEA furniture as 3D models, minus the trolley
A community script allows direct downloads of IKEA’s web 3D models, skipping the store visit and the measuring tape optimism.
New 3D Pose Reference Tool for Character Artists
HAELE 3D announces Pose Studio, a fully editable 3D pose reference tool for character artists with anatomical view toggles. Still in development.
Topiary Generator grows procedural foliage in Blender
Topiary Generator converts any mesh into procedural topiary foliage in Blender using Geometry Nodes, available for $15.
RapidPipeline Plugin Brings One-Click CAD Prep to Unreal
RapidPipeline launches a native Unreal Engine plugin that lets artists import, clean and optimise CAD/3D assets locally inside the Unreal Editor.
One click exports and zero patience for menus from Blender to Unreal, Unity and more.
A free Blender add-on offers fast exports to Unity, Unreal and Godot using collections and selection logic.
Crocotile 3D Gets Projection UVs Tool and Workflow Additions
Crocotile 3D version 2.6.5 introduces a projection UVs tool, grid snapping, export options and animation control enhancements.
Frame Ref tidies your reference mess
Frame Ref 1.0 launches with an infinite canvas for images, video, PDFs and GIFs, aimed at daily reference work for creatives.
MetaTailor adds engine bridges and less FBX fatigue
MetaTailor 2.5 introduces official engine bridges and workflow updates for realtime character clothing pipelines.
BlendShape Monitor puts Maya rigs under a heat lamp
A new Maya plugin visualises blendshape influence in real time, targeting riggers dealing with dense and poorly documented rigs.
Animate re-animated
The King is dead, long live the King: Adobe caves, and Animate remains available with support and fixes, but no new features.
Blender turns meshes into sponges. Rubber duck not included
A free Blender Geometry Nodes setup converts meshes into sponge like forms using volumetrics and procedural subtraction.
glTF learns to splat without losing the plot
Khronos proposes a glTF extension for Gaussian splats, aiming to standardise how splat data is stored and exchanged.
Adobe pulls the plug on Animate at last
Adobe has confirmed the end of life of Adobe Animate, setting clear dates for sales, access, and support wind-down.
Resolume adds 10 bit colour and speed fixes
Resolume update adds 10 bit output, faster loading, Wire usability changes, and capture updates for live graphics.
RGB sliders now judge your colour skills
A free Android game turns RGB value matching into a timed test of colour perception. No scopes. No mercy.
GGro grows strange things in Houdini, for free
Free Houdini add-on GGro generates procedural organic growth forms via custom solvers and influence nodes.
Sky: Geometry Nodes-Based Volumetric Cloud and Atmosphere System for Blender
Sky is a new Geometry Nodes-based system for Blender that generates physically based volumetric clouds and a real-scale atmospheric sky directly inside Cycles.
Infinity Hotel: Endless Rooms, Endless Renders
HFF Munich’s VFX students built Infinity Hotel, a hybrid short film merging live action with CGI, LiDAR scans, and Dolby Atmos sound.
Lazy Composer 2 Teaches Blender to Pretend It Shot Film
Lazy Composer 2 adds film emulation presets and grading sliders to Blender, aiming to make renders look expensively intentional.
Photoshop gets less destructive and slightly less vague
Adobe updates Photoshop with new adjustment layers, higher-resolution generative output and a new Dynamic Text feature.
World Creator 2026.1 polishes the boring bits
World Creator 2026.1 focuses on stability, pen input and modest performance gains rather than new features.
FMX opens ticket shop and confirms collaboration track talks
FMX opens ticket sales, confirms new speakers, details pass options and highlights ongoing PANEURAMA industry research.
Dynamic Flow makes water move without waiting
Dynamic Flow is a low cost Blender add-on that creates real time, terrain-aware water without baking or physics simulation.
Dosch Design Adds Defense Trucks to the Asset Library of Modern Cities
Dosch Design adds detailed defense logistics trucks to its 3D asset library, quietly acknowledging that modern realism now includes military vehicles in everyday urban environments.
Marvelous Designer adds indie pricing, quietly
Marvelous Designer introduces a discounted indie licence with defined revenue limits and feature parity.
Godot 4.6 Arrives With Major CG-Friendly Updates
Godot Engine 4.6 ships with polished workflows, Modern UI, Jolt physics as default, improved reflections, debugger tools and LibGodot support.
Storm HydroFX ships water without the node graph
Storm HydroFX 1.0 launches as a standalone GPU FLIP fluid solver for Windows with whitewater, mesh export and annual subscriptions.
Simply Cloth Studio 2.0 rebuilds cloth in Blender
Simply Cloth Studio 2.0 is a full rebuild for Blender with new UI, adaptive wrinkle tools, and faster, more stable cloth simulation.
Teya Conceptor Free and Pro Editions Expand 3D Concept Workflow
Teya Conceptor’s toolset for quick 3D geometry creation has broadened free edition capabilities while retaining time-based limitations and a brush-centric workflow.
Material Maker 1.5 adds DDS, FBX, CLI, 10 new nodes
Material Maker 1.5 adds common game formats, command-line export, workflow upgrades, and more nodes in this free procedural texturing tool.
Blender LTS patches, still no surprises
Blender 4.5.6 LTS and 4.2.17 LTS deliver bug fixes only, confirming Blender’s long term support policy for production use.
Liquid Thinking: Paradigm Brings GPU Speed to Houdini
Theory Accelerated releases Paradigm, a GPU liquid solver for Houdini, now in open beta and free until February 2026.
UVPackmaster 4 unwraps a smarter way to pack
UVPackmaster 4 for Blender refactors its core, adds Dynamic Tiles, new texel density control, and better group layouts.
Baselight v7 refines the colourist’s toolkit
FilmLight’s Baselight v7 adds smarter mattes, new depth tools and workflow upgrades for complex grading and VFX-heavy productions.
Adobe After Effects 2026 Lands With 3D, Text and Performance Boosts
After Effects 26.0 debuts 3D parametric meshes, Substance 3D materials, SVG import and core workflow improvements.
HFF Munich seeks new mentor for 3D animation
HFF Munich is hiring a part-time 3D animation mentor for its VFX programme under Prof. Jürgen Schopper, starting 1 May 2026.
Premiere drops the “Pro” and picks up some serious AI
Adobe has released the Creative Cloud 26.0 updates for its video apps, headlined by a big shift in Premiere. The “Pro” label is gone, and in its place comes a more capable editor. The new release centres on automated masking, improved tracking, and a creative pipeline that’s tighter than ever.
Animcraft 5.5: Stability, ribbons, and MetaHumans
Animcraft 5.5 improves mocap stability, rewrites the Dragon Breath Ribbon System, and expands MetaHuman and Maya tools.
LumaFusion for Android catches up with iOS sibling
LumaFusion 2.5 for Android introduces faster transitions, smarter clip location, and APV codec export support.
LotPixel drops 1,300+ free PBR textures in Hub app
LotPixel Hub beta gives 3D artists free access to 1,300+ PBR textures up to 8K, with Blender integration and more DCCs to come.
Blender topology patch tool Quad Filler reaches 1.0 release
Quad Filler 1.0 is released for Blender, automating clean quad patching between open edge chains with expanded modes and hotkey support.
Delhi in 3D: Kitbash3D goes urban
Kitbash3D launches New Delhi, a 3D asset kit with 84 models and 127 materials for building detailed urban cityscapes.
Visual Effects Society Announces Full List of Feature, Episodic, and Student Award Nominations
The Visual Effects Society has released the nominations for its upcoming awards, covering a broad range of feature…
No More 2D Smoke and Mirrors: Volumetric Noise for Nuke
Compositing Academy releases Volumetric Noise for Nuke, a raymarched plugin generating true 3D volumetrics with lighting and occlusion.
Foundry locks in full subscription future for 2027
Foundry drops perpetual maintenance: from 2027, all Nuke, Mari, and Katana users will be on subscription only.
Free Browser Based Procedural Tree Generator Released
EZ-Tree is a free, open source, browser based procedural tree generator with over 50 parameters and exports to GLB and PNG.
Ocean, clouds, and splats: D5 Render 3.0 sets sail
D5 Render 3.0 introduces new environment tools, expanded AI generation, and a lightweight D5 Lite for SketchUp users.
Procedural sawdust: EC Wood Grain hits Blender
Eric Charles releases EC Wood Grain, a Geometry Nodes setup that adds procedural 3D wood detail directly in Blender.
Sapphire gets the “Essentials” treatment
Boris FX adds a free 11-part Sapphire Builder Essentials course to its training library, covering professional multi-host workflows.
Maxon Previews Digital Twin
Maxon previews Digital Twin which turns cleared for use CAD and 3D models into photoreal product assets for consistent marketing workflows.
Pulldownit 6.5 for Maya cracks a new non-destructive workflow
Pulldownit 6.5 for Maya adds non-destructive fracturing, Xref support, and UI updates for improved control and flexibility.
CardCutter turns texture into Nanite meshes
CardCutter for Blender 4.0+ generates Nanite-optimised meshes from texture masks for Unreal Engine foliage and decal pipelines.
Bury Your Good Intentions in 3D
Over 300 stylised graveyard assets from Cryptic Realms are free on Fab until 27 January 2026.
DIY Gravity: Make Your Own Black Hole (In After Effects)
Free After Effects plugin creates cinematic black holes using ray marching, volumetric fog and physically-based parameters.
Reallusion expands licences for iClone and Character Creator
Reallusion now offers subscription or perpetual licences for key tools and repositions AccuPOSE INFINITY as a standalone purchase.
Free 3D Fruit: Fresh Assets, No Pesticides
Kiri offers 141 free, production-ready 3D fruit and vegetable scans with full PBR textures under CC0 licence.
Over 1,000 free sculpting brushes land in BlenderKit
BlenderKit now hosts over 1,000 free 3D sculpting brushes, integrated directly in Blender and licensed for commercial use.
Better Bend: A Gentler Way to Deform in Blender
Blender’s Simple Deform walks so Better Bend can twist: cleanly, controllably, and without breaking your mesh in half.
Fast Lines for Blender: Stylized Outline Generator Released
RUIDO VFX’s Stylized Outline Generator for Blender adds quick anime-style outlines without shaders or Grease Pencil rigs.
ActionVFX Ignites: 30 Flamethrower Clips Free
Feeling the heat in global news? Now you can literally add it to your comps: ActionVFX drops 30 free flamethrower shots.
Epic drops 80 free temple assets on Fab
Epic Games offers 80 free modular temple assets for Unreal Engine 5 on Fab until 13 January 2026.
Poser 14 drops Cloth Room, gains simpler PBR setup
Bondware releases Poser 14 with simplified PBR and environment tools, SuperFly update, and no Cloth Room or macOS edition.
PFTrack 2025: Matchmoving gets its groove back
The Pixel Farm’s PFTrack 2025 delivers major lens, tracking, and mesh improvements plus new perpetual licence options.
Hover, Don’t Click: Outliner Preview Lands in Blender
Free Blender add-on Outliner Preview shows 360° model thumbnails on hover in the Outliner.
3DEqualizer 8.1 Adds Piggyback Camera Solves
3DEqualizer 8.1 introduces piggyback rig solving, a rewritten Blender export script and new import and export options.
Rays Behaving Badly No More: MoonRay 2.34.0.1 Fixes the Path
MoonRay 2.34.0.1 lands with a light path visualiser, better macOS and Linux builds, smarter lightsets, and fewer crashes for your next render night.
Blender Gets Real Lenses: BagaCam OSL Released
Antoine Bagattini, the creator of BagaPie has released BagaCam OSL, a camera add-on that implements Open Shading Language…
Cinebench 2026: Benchmark therapy
Cinebench 2026 updates the classic benchmark with full GPU support and new SMT tests. Time to see if your workstation is still worth its power bill.
AOUSD Releases OpenUSD Core Specification 1.0
The Alliance for OpenUSD publishes the first ratified core standard defining composition, data models, file formats, and compliance for OpenUSD.
That’s It for This Year: Digital Production Wishes You Happy Holidays
Digital Production is taking a short end-of-year break. Back up your data, sort out the chaos folder, enjoy the holidays, and we will be back next year.
Godot Now Shakes When You Code Badly
Tired of calm coding sessions? Ridiculous Coding turns Godot scripting into an action scene with screenshake, fireworks, and XP bars.
Quad Draw Comes to Blender
New Vulkan-based retopology add-ons make Blender’s mesh work feel like Maya’s Quad Draw, fast, intuitive, and production-ready.
FMX 2026: First Talks Confirmed and APD Project Submissions Open
FMX 2026 confirms early talks including VFX for Woodwalkers 2 and AI debate, and reminds industry to submit to Animation Production Days by February 4.
Blackmagic Camera 10.0 brings fan brains and pre-record tricks
Blackmagic Camera 10.0 adds pre-record, smarter cooling, and new API tools for PYXIS and URSA cameras.
Mansur Rig 3.0 Goes Free and Open Source Lite
Mansur Rig 3.0 drops activation, goes partially open source, adds Maya 2026 support on Windows, and warns older versions stop working after March 2026.
Plasticity 2025.3: Now with Instances, Curves and Clouds
Plasticity 2025.3 drops a full toolset refresh: live instancing, SVG export, real-time curvature and continuity feedback, new materials and precision tools.
SMPTE updates its AI report: a roadmap for media engineers
SMPTE’s revised AI report defines where AI stands in media: open source, agentic systems, security, ethics, and data. Read before you automate.
Terrain Wrapping Made Easy: Kiri Engine’s Free Blender Add-on
Kiri Engine releases Mesh Wrap, a free Blender add-on that makes projecting and scattering 3D-scanned terrain pieces onto base geometry fast, precise, and non-destructive.
Painterly Trees for Blender: ShapeScape Studio Blooms
New Blender add-on ShapeScape Studio lets artists grow painterly trees procedurally with NPR shaders, custom meshes, and built-in animation.
KeenTools 2025.3 Brings Blender 5, Character Creator 5 & AE Exports
KeenTools 2025.3 expands host support with Blender 5, Character Creator 5 export from FaceBuilder and Alembic output from GeoTracker for After Effects.
Chaos Adds macOS & AI to V-Ray for Blender
Chaos ships V-Ray for Blender Update 2: macOS support, AI tools, faster distributed rendering, and a long list of bug fixes and GPU tweaks.
Substance Designer cleans up its nodes
Cleaner graphs, smarter noise, and a friendlier graph creation UI: Substance 3D Designer 15.1 focuses on making material authoring less fiddly.