What ZoneLAB is, in plain English

ZoneLAB is an OpenFX plugin that maps the image into a grid and assigns an exposure zone to each cell. You get a zone readout per cell, directly over the picture, so you can judge how light sits across the frame without leaving the viewer. It runs as a single tool that combines exposure analysis and grading controls. The product page describes it as built on a Live Zone System and lists it as patent pending.

What ZoneLAB is, in novelty rap.

If you want to hear it in Rap-Form, here is a Video about the Plugin (Hopefully GenAI, but we wouldn’t put it past low-level proto gangstas to do it).

The zone view modes

ZoneLAB includes a 21 zone exposure map with a false colour overlay. It also includes an 11 zone Ansel Adams mode with greyscale zones and roman numeral notation. The interface can show an A B split view for comparing raw versus graded imagery side by side. There is also a Zone Isolate option to highlight only the zones you care about.

Exposure and grading controls

ZoneLAB includes per zone exposure control over shadows, midtones, and highlights, also a suite with temperature, tint, saturation, contrast, and density. For monochrome work, ZoneLAB includes black and white grading with traditional filter simulation and split toning, and film grain with exposure dependent weighting.

Skin Tone Selection lets you select grid cells over faces for targeted exposure work. Auto Expose is a “intelligent scene analysis” with skin tone awareness. If you want the short mental model, ZoneLAB encourages you to fix expsoure where it lives in the frame, then keep grading with the same tool instead of jumping between overlays, scopes, and separate node setups.

Export formats and what they are for

ZoneLAB can export PNG screen grabs via the PNG format, or 16 bit DPX with alpha overlay via DPX. Multi layer EXR export is listed, which aligns with OpenEXR. Those exports can make the zone overlay portable for reviews, notes, and downstream work, but you still want to test them against your own deliverables and comps before you rely on them in production.

Camera profiles and supported log spaces

ZoneLAB lists 22 camera profiles with pre configured dynamic range data for ARRI Alexa 35 and Mini LF, Sony VENICE, FX6, FX3, and A7 V, RED V RAPTOR, KOMODO X, and KOMODO, Canon C300 Mk III, C70, and R5C, Fujifilm X H2S, Panasonic LUMIX S1MII and S5IIX, Nikon Z9 Z8 and Z6 III, plus Blackmagic Design cameras and more.

It also lists 16 log and colour spaces, including DaVinci Wide Gamut, ARRI LogC3 and LogC4, Sony S Log3, RED Log3G10, Canon Log2 and Log3, Panasonic V Log, Fujifilm F Log2, Nikon N Log, and more.

The quick start workflow is simple: apply ZoneLAB to a serial node, set the Color Space to match the camera log format, then pick a camera profile so the tool sets dynamic range.

Performance, requirements, licensing, price

ZoneLAB lists GPU acceleration via Metal compute shaders for real time performance. Requirements are DaVinci Resolve Free or Studio on macOS, an Apple Metal GPU, and macOS 10.15 or later. One purchase includes two machine activations, described as desktop plus laptop. The licence key is generated after purchase and the page says to follow the included instructions. The listed price is £90.00 GBP. Windows support is listed as “coming soon”, with also a compatibility imminent for Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere Pro.

However you plan to use it, treat it like any new grading tool: throw real footage at it, confirm the coluor management and exports, and only then let it into a production pipeline.

https://driftwood-dctl.com/products/zonelab-zone-system-exposure-color-grading-plugin

The post ZoneLAB for Resolve: Ansel Adams and even more zones… first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Material Maker builds procedural textures and painted looks with node graphs, runs on Godot Engine, and exports materials for engines while you keep your DCC doing DCC things.

1.6 focuses on speed, sanity, and shipping

Material Maker 1.6 lands as a practical release: faster interaction on heavy graphs, new nodes aimed at controlled variation workflows, and a longer list of fixes that smooth daily use. The update keeps the core loop intact. You build textures and materials in a node graph, preview the result, and push assets downstream.

The release moves the app to Godot Engine 4.5.1. That base change pairs with performance work across graph rendering and several parameter editors. Graph rendering now optimizes zoomed-out views, and editor changes target responsiveness in places artists touch all day.

Controlled Variations aims for repeatable variety

1.6 introduces Controlled Variations and related nodes. The release frames this as a system for generating variants of a material look with more control than pure randomness.

Variant workflows matter when you need a family of surfaces that stay consistent across a set, a biome, or a prop library. In day-to-day terms, controlled variation can reduce duplicated graphs and the temptation to fork a graph into ten nearly identical versions you never want to touch again.

Aperture nodes cut the spaghetti

1.6 adds Aperture nodes to keep graphs readable. In and Out nodes connect through a shared identifier that appears as a label on the node. You edit the identifier by double-clicking the label or using keyboard shortcuts, and you can change label color with a key command while the node stays selected.

That feature targets the real enemy of node workflows: scaling up. A small graph stays understandable through wires. A production graph turns into a plate of noodles. Aperture nodes let you route signals cleanly without dragging cables across half the canvas.

Portal nodes and a growing node toolbox

1.6 adds portal nodes, plus a variadic Color Pick node. It also updates multiple existing nodes and editors. The changelog mentions changes around text handling, warp inputs, pixel tools, gradient options, and improved curve and polygon parameter editors. Comment nodes and remote links also receive attention, alongside drag-and-drop improvements for remote and iOS parameters.

glTF export takes a first step

1.6 adds a basic exporter for static PBR materials in the glTF format. The feature targets straightforward export rather than full dynamic graph translation. That still helps in real pipelines, where “get me the baked result in a common format” solves more problems than a perfect one-click pipeline dream. Several export-related fixes also land, including fixes tied to Godot 4 export behavior, missing ORM textures, and improvements to the Dynamic PBR preview and Godot 4 export paths.

Availability, licensing, and Steam plans

Material Maker distributes builds for Windows, macOS, and Linux via itch.io with name-your-own-price, including free. Source code lives on GitHub under the MIT License.

A Steam listing shows a planned release date of July 2026 and lists system requirements. Windows requires Windows 10, an x86_64 CPU with SSE4.2, and graphics support for Vulkan 1.2 or DirectX 12. macOS lists macOS 10.13 with Metal support. Linux lists Vulkan 1.2 support.

https://rodzilla.itch.io/material-maker/devlog/1491329/material-maker-16

https://github.com/RodZill4/material-maker

https://www.materialmaker.org/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4110830/Material_Maker/

The post Material Maker 1.6 tunes graphs and exports first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Redshift is a production renderer that plugs into DCCs like Cinema 4D, Autodesk Maya, SideFX Houdini, Autodesk 3ds Max, Foundry Katana, and Blender, so lighting TDs can argue about samples in the app they already love.

The night shift arrives everywhere

So, after sorting through the heap, it is time to talk about Redshift, specifically. Redshift 2026.5.0 adds a night sky representation to the Sun and Sky system across hosts, including stars, moon, and Milky Way, with time and location controls.

That matters less for hero closeups and more for the boring shots that still need to ship: wide establishing frames, background domes, and lighting continuity on sequences that bounce between day and night. And also, to keep the internet sleuths ansd “Actually-s…” at bay.

The same update also includes a fix for the Physical Sun and Sky light where the milky way could render in flipped coordinates. It is the kind of bug that makes you doubt your compass and your life choices at the same time.

OpenPBR takes the default seat in Cinema 4D

For Cinema 4D, OpenPBR becomes the default material, and the default material list in preferences gets updated. The shader model itself comes from OpenPBR, the OpenPBR Surface specification hosted under the Academy Software Foundation umbrella.

In practical terms, the change means new scenes in that host start from OpenPBR unless a user switches the preference. It also comes with a cleaned up material menu that puts OpenPBR up front and pushes older options out of the spotlight.

If your pipeline has older material libraries, this is the moment to check how presets migrate, how template scenes behave, and whether old lookdev assumptions still hold. New tools and innovations should always be tested before use in production.

Texture Displacement gets smarter and less picky

Texture Displacement continues to expand, building on the system introduced earlier as an alternative to vertex displacement. In 2026.5.0, texture-based displacement gains preliminary UDIM and UVTILE support. It also gets mirror repeat mode when smart baking is enabled, plus improved quality when displacement is driven by UV projections.

There is also enhanced auto bump mapping support meant to improve bump mapping quality when used with displacement nodes. This addresses a common pain point where displacement and bump interplay can get noisy or fight each other in shading.

A set of fixes targets stability and interactivity too. The release notes list multiple cases where texture displacement could disappear or show artefacts in interactive preview rendering when using bucket mode, and those issues have received fixes.

One more fix calls out self-shadowing artefacts on objects with extremely high polygon angles when using Texture Displacement. If you have ever seen displacement turn into a crunchy self-shadowed mess on near-planar geometry, that line will feel oddly personal.

Some Cinema 4D specific fixes also land here, including a bug where UDIMs were not correctly rendered when using Team Render, plus a bug that could cause random black images when rendering heavy meshes with deformation blur enabled. Redshift 2026.5.0 also sets a minimum plugin requirement of Cinema 4D 2026.2.

In the middle of all that, one of the most important workflow wins is banal: fewer special cases. The more often displacement works the same way across UV layouts, projections, and preview modes, the less time artists spend building around the renderer instead of using it. Also, please rmember that displacement tends to be the first place where a scene crosses from fine to on fire, so keep an eye on memory and subdiv settings when you roll this out.

AMD ray tracing via HIP RT, marked experimental

Redshift 2026.5.0 adds experimental support for HIP Hardware Ray Tracing, also known as HIP RT. HIP RT itself is an AMD HIP RT ray tracing library designed for applications using HIP.

The release notes call the feature experimental. That is a polite way of saying you should not bet a deadline on it without testing it on your actual scenes, drivers, and farm images.

The same build also mentions improved render startup performance in scenes with high primitive counts when using Hardware Ray Tracing. Together, those notes make a clear point: hardware ray tracing paths continue to expand, and more of the heavy lifting is expected to land in that codepath over time.

Windows on Arm joins the CPU party

Redshift 2026.5.0 adds native Windows Arm64 support for Redshift CPU in Cinema 4D, ZBrush, and via the command line renderer. That is specifically CPU rendering, not GPU rendering. For the broader platform context, Windows on Arm covers Arm64 devices running Windows, including systems where native Arm apps run without emulation while other binaries may run under emulation.

If you are eyeing Arm based Windows laptops for travel kits or lightweight previs work, this change removes at least one hard block for CPU rendering workflows in those supported routes. It does not magically turn an ultraportable into a render node, but it does make it a more honest option for tests, turntables, and emergency output.

Bottom line for production

None of that removes the usual responsibility from leads and TDs. Update one step at a time, validate looks against show frames, and test your farm and plugin versions before you flip defaults for everyone. That advice feels boring, right up until it saves your weekend.

https://www.maxon.net/en/redshift

The post Maxon ships Redshift 2026.5 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the event: ICE.ART is a webinar-style conference for people who build 3D worlds, with sessions published on YouTube for on-demand catching up.

After the fact

ICE.ART 2026.I has published its full set of presentation and panel recordings for free streaming. If you could not make the live dates on 7 and 8 April 2026, the recrodings now turn the whole event into an on-demand playlist you can dip into between dailies.
The archive covers both conference days, including intros, individual talks, and panel discussions. As always, test any new workflow ideas before you put them into production, even if the speaker makes it sound like it will fix your envrionment pipeline overnight.

The Videos

ICE.ART 2026.I Day I Intro
A quick warm-up that sets the tone before the pixels start doing push-ups.

ICE.ART 2026.I Day I Christian Tanner | Toyota City Hunt Physics: A behind-the-scenes look at the project, with physics as the main character and the first steps into Unreal realtime smoking tires. Strap in!

ICE.ART 2026.I Day I Goran Pavles Art directing Physics Simulations for Hollywood Blockbusters: A talk for anyone who has ever argued with gravity and lost.

ICE.ART 2026.I Day II Andrey Lebrov Gaussian Splat Environment Pipeline for Octane Render: A pipeline-focused session that connects splats, environments, and renderer reality checks.

ICE.ART 2026.I Day II Tobias Hauck Geospatial Gaussian Splats 3D Maps of Large Environments: If you know how much fun can be had in large-scale data and larger-scale scenes, this one is for you.

ICE.ART 2026.I Day II Prof. Dr. André Thomas Planning Physical Studios Business and Creativity: A business and studio-planning angle that still remembers artists need working chairs and working budgets.

https://www.ice.art/

The post ICE.ART 2026.I recordings are now live first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Volume Forge is a volumetrics add-on for Blender that targets both Eevee and Cycles with localized light volumes and fog volumes.

What it is and what it builds

Volume Forge creates localized volumetric objects inside Blender. The intent is simple: place atmosphere only where it matters in the frame, instead of filling the entire scene with volume and then masking it back down. It is a faster and more practical path to focused volumetrics, with the additional claim that results often render much faster than physical fog applied across the whole scene. Each created volume is a mesh object with its own unique material, stored in a dedicated collection named Volume Forge. A created volume stays editable through the add-on panel rather than requiring manual rebuilding of the setup per scene.

The add-on workflow starts with four creation operators, then switches to editing controls once a valid Volume Forge object is selected.

Two volume types define shader behavior

Volume Forge exposes two volume types that differ at shader level. Light Volume uses an emission-driven volume. The store description calls it an emissive fake fog approach. The documentation describes it as usually faster to render and easier to push toward stylized light shafts, beams, and graphic atmospheric effects. The origin of this mode traces back to a widely used Blender trick: connecting an Emission shader into the Volume output, which can produce fog-like volumetrics that are often significantly faster to render than full physical fog.

Real Fog uses a Principled Volume shader and is intended for a more physically believable localized haze or fog response, including visible shadowing inside the volume. The documentation flags it as generally more expensive to render than Light Volume. Real Fog is not emissive, so it requires light in the scene to read clearly.

Two creation methods decide how geometry is generated

Volume Forge also splits creation by geometry construction. Cube is the fastest placement method. A Cube volume is created at the current 3D Cursor position, then behaves like a normal mesh object for transforms. Both Cube buttons follow this rule, and an unexpected placement typically traces back to the 3D Cursor location.

From Faces creates a volume prism between two selected quad faces. The prerequisites are strict: Blender must be in Object Mode, exactly two mesh objects must be selected, and each selected mesh must have exactly one selected quad face. If these conditions are not met, the operator stops and returns a warning instead of creating an invalid volume.

Selection order matters in From Faces workflows. The first selected object defines side A, the source side, and the second selected object defines side B, the target side. In typical Blender selection behavior, the second selected object is usually also the active object. This order defines an A to B direction used by the generated volume, including fade and spread behavior.

The prism generation reads the two selected quad faces in world space, reorders face B to best match face A, then generates the prism between them. If face A and face B do not match perfectly, the generated prism can differ slightly from the original B face. This is expected behavior, driven by a preference for planar faces to avoid twisted or deformed faces that can produce unstable volumetric results. Face B is adjusted as little as possible while keeping the generated volume clean and usable.

The four creation operators and their consequences

The Create section is always visible and shows two columns, Light Volume and Real Fog, each with Cube and From Faces options.

Create Light Volume Cube creates a mesh cube, moves it into the Volume Forge collection, assigns a dedicated Volume Forge material, and configures it in Light Volume mode. No object or face selection is required. This is positioned as a fast option for quick beam tests, early look development, and stylized shafts that do not need to be built between real surfaces. After creation, Cube-built objects expose the full Fade Direction control because the internal fade direction is not locked by geometry.

Create Light Volume From Faces builds a light volume anchored to scene geometry. It uses the two-object, two-quad-face requirement and the A to B selection order. The result is a prism between the faces with a dedicated Light Volume material, and the created object becomes the active selection. Fade Direction is hidden for these objects because it is locked by the A to B construction. Invert Fade remains available to reverse the internal fade without rebuilding the object.

Create Real Fog Cube creates a mesh cube at the 3D Cursor, places it in the Volume Forge collection, assigns a unique material, and configures it in Real Fog mode using a Principled Volume. The non-emissive nature of this mode means scene lighting becomes part of visibility. Cube-created fog objects keep Fade Direction visible, along with Fog Density, Main Color, Noise controls, Volume Shape controls, and Advanced Mask controls.

Create Real Fog From Faces builds a prism between two selected quad faces using the same A to B selection logic, creates a dedicated material in Real Fog mode, and selects the new volume for immediate editing. Like the light version, Fade Direction is hidden because it is locked by the A to B construction, while Invert Fade remains available.

Panel anatomy and what each section controls

Once a valid Volume Forge object is selected, the add-on panel exposes editing sections in a fixed order.

Selected Volume shows the active object name, the current mode, and a Viewport Wire toggle used to make navigation easier when a dense volume obscures scene context.

Mask and Falloff controls the internal fade and the overall mask. Fade Direction appears on Cube volumes and defines the axis along which the internal fade travels through the voluem. Fade Start controls where the visible fade ends. Invert Fade reverses fade direction without changing the chosen axis. Fade Interpolation controls the softness or sharpness of the transition between the visible side and the masked side. Edge Softness softens falloff near the volume boundaries.

Look controls the main visual response. Emission Strength exists only in Light mode and controls how much light is emitted inside the volume, with higher values making the light volume read stronger and denser. Fog Density exists only in Fog mode and controls the density of the localized fog volume. Main Color sets the main visible color of the volume.

Noise shapes internal variation and is positioned as essential for beams, broken-up shafts, and more organic fog. Noise Amount sets overall influence. Noise Global Scale sets the base scale of the Noise Texture. Noise Detail, Noise Roughness, and Noise Distortion provide procedural refinement. Noise Scale is a mapping scale vector, and reducing the Z component is described as a key technique for stretching the pattern along the volume length for longer god-ray style streaks. Noise Location moves the noise pattern in 3D space without moving the mesh. Noise Rotation rotates the noise pattern. Ray Spread opens or tightens the internal pattern along A to B travel. Invert Spread reverses the direction of the spread effect. Noise Animation animates the W dimension of the noise, with 0 keeping it static and positive or negative values moving it in opposite directions. Animated controls can be keyed directly when the small dot appears next to the parameter in the add-on UI.

Volume Shape controls tube-like rounding of the generated mesh through a non-destructive Bevel modifier. Enable Tube Bevel activates the modifier limited to relevant edges. Bevel Amount controls bevel width. Bevel Segments controls segment count. Clamp Overlap helps prevent problematic self-overlap when bevel becomes too large. Bevel Weight Direction appears on Cube-created volumes and changes which axis the bevel edge weighting follows. On From Faces volumes, the edges marked with bevel weight are the edges adjacent to the source and target faces.

Advanced Mask controls the tail end of the internal mask. Fade End controls where the fade reaches its end position. Shadow Color controls the color used on the darker side of the mask. Fade Start, Fade End, Main Color, Shadow Color, and Invert Fade together define how the volume transitions between a cleaner visible side and a darker masked look.

Marketplace details, compatibility, and licensing

The listing price is $19. The listing includes Blender Version 4.5 through 5.1, render engine usage in Cycles and Eevee, and license as GPL. The listing also states that future improvements are planned and that updates remain free for purchasers. Volume Forge is sold on Superhive.

New tools and innovations should be tested before use in production, especially when visibility depends on lighting, scale, render settings, and mask values that can shift between shots.

https://superhivemarket.com/products/volumeforge

https://depthoptica.com/docs/volume-forge/index.html

The post Volume Forge for Blender first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.