BlackRAW – a pocket-sized Studio
BlackRAW Studio brings BRAW and ProRes RAW playback, grading, proxies and NLE hand-off to iPhone and iPad. We test its speed and workflow limits.
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Longform for subscribers: deep dives into VFX and post workflows, tool and pipeline analysis, real-world constraints, integration notes, licensing and performance realities, and what actually holds up in production. Less hype, more usable detail you can bookmark and share internally.
Fridays for Fusion & Instancer2D: Foudini’s Copy to Points
Instancer 2D brings procedural 2D instancing, Fields, atlas textures and GPU performance to Fusion and other OpenFX hosts.
The Royal Way to Render
In 2001, render farms were local, internet connections still screamed through telephone lines, and launching jobs across several machines could consume an entire evening. Holger Schoenberger founded Binary Alchemy to remove some of that administrative misery
All the World’s Codecs out of DaVinci Resolve
InterX brings FFmpeg-backed encoding, compliance checks and deep codec controls straight into DaVinci Resolve’s Deliver page on macOS.
Baselight 8: The feature list is the easy part
FilmLight explains why Baselight 8 adds mastering-focused audio tracks, a new linear-light grain model, Color Crosstalk, Color Correlation and ML-assisted Groups View.
OBSBOT Meet Flip Review: Finally, a Webcam That Knows How to Shut Up
The OBSBOT Meet Flip is tiny, genuinely portable and physically private. Add very good 4K video and surprisingly mature software, and this may be the travel webcam we have been waiting for.
Digital Anarchy for the Adobe UXP Rewrite
CEP panels still run, but their comfortable retirement is approaching. Jim Tierney explains what UXP migration really costs.
Why Tape Is Suddenly Cool Again: An Interview with Quantum CEO Hugues Meyrath
Tape is back. Apparently it just needed AI, an energy crisis and a few hundred petabytes to become fashionable again. Quantum CEO Hugues Meyrath explains why.
ColorEdge CS3200X review: The EIZO feeling without the colourist tax?
Two weeks with EIZO's new 31.5-inch CS3200X reveal a colour-accurate 4K production monitor that retains much of the CG experience at roughly a thrid of the price. How?
Automation Agent for Premiere: Why I Built an AI Workflow Layer Around the Timeline
I built Automation Agent to give AI real Premiere context, scoped permissions and reusable workflows without handing it the creative edit.
reMarkable Paper Pure: Let’s Test
A production test of reMarkable Paper Pure, covering the display, Marker, exports, Connect subscription, handwriting search and daily note-taking.
Hearing Voices: What can AI in DaVinci Resolve 21 do for you?
We have been looking into transcription and subtitles from audio before, but Resolve 21 has added background processing and more AI in this field. Like going the other way, from text to audio, or from one voice to another. Are these features production-ready?
EIZO ColorEdge CG3100X review: Is this the last great IPS monitor?
Four months with EIZO’s 30.5-inch DCI-4K flagship reveal a superbly uniform, silent IPS monitor that leaves very little room for excuses.
Let’s talk to the Caddis developer.
Digital Production spoke with developer Mike Gaynor about the creation and implementation of Caddis.
ZEISS LensCore is here
ZEISS explains how LensCore recreates physical lens behaviour inside Nuke, supports custom lenses and fits into professional VFX pipelines.
Workshop: Building a Real-Time Location
A practical workshop on reconstructing real locations in Unreal Engine, using Sonagraf’s Yoyogi project to explain each production decision.
How much Intelligence in DaVinci Resolve’s AI?
DaVinci Resolve 21 spots faces, cats and chaotic slates. We tested how smart IntelliSearch really is before the RAM starts sweating.
LaCie 8big Pro5: The Big Box
Fast, vast and decidedly audible: we tested the 192 TB LaCie 8big Pro5 with RAID 50, Thunderbolt 5 and real production workloads.
Nukepedia Rebuilt, nuBridge Reloaded
An interview with Nukepedia founder Frank Rueter, one of the long-standing Nuke community voices, about the platform rebuild, nuBridge and the next steps for 2D Compositing tools.
Krokodove: a massive expansion of Fusion and Resolve’s creative arsenal
Nodes on hyperdrive. A huge new toolset for motion design and visual effects in DaVinci Resolve and Fusion Studio.
Real Clay and Digital Ice Cream at Uber Eck
Clay sculptures, photos, Houdini MPM and Redshift made Kayak’s Greek ice cream statues melt on cue. Real dairy was less cooperative.
Houdini Rigging: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Start Loving APEX
For anyone tired of character setups held together by hope, version notes and one dangerous checkbox, Houdini 21 promises a paradigm shift. By decoupling mesh, rig logic, animation and execution through KineFX and APEX, SideFX is taking another run at the holy grail of procedural rigging. But can it deliver a fast and intuitive workflow?
Docking an iPhone or M5 Mac
The hardware On the physical side, the Prodock is a sturdy box made of metal, which should be…
Asus ProArt 16 USV: A Laptop-Sized Production Monitor
The ASUS ProArt PA16USV LED-Monitor, a 15.6-inch 4K HDR portable display that incorporates a 12G-SDI marks a significant pivot for ASUS into hardware that explicitly targets on-set workflows and DIT (digital imaging technician) monitoring tasks rather than solely desktop creative use. But is it any good?
Here comes Houdini 22
2 hours and 18 minutes. That is almost exactly the runtime of the first Matrix film, and exactly the duration of the Houdini 22 release keynote. So yes, this promises a rather chunky package of new features and improvements.
The Right Colours Without a Computer
SpyderPro exports a 33-point correction LUT, but you want one compact converter to apply it between SDI gear and an HDMI display.
Splat happens: Volinga 3DGS workflow for Unreal
Volinga turns photo sets into Gaussian splats for Unreal, with local processing, PLY and NVOL export, cleanup tools, and relighting support. But what does that actually mean? Let's ask some questions!
Asus ProArt PA27UCGE: A 4K Monitor That Mostly Refuses to Be Annoying
The Asus ProArt PA27UCGE is a 27-inch 4K 10-bit IPS monitor with hardware calibration, , USB-C with 96 W Power Delivery, HDR10, 160 Hz refresh rate and a monitor hood. It is not a Class A reference monitor, but for general production work, it is annoyingly sensible.
Lux Aeterna rebuilds ancient humans
LiDAR caves, rigged skeletons, photogrammetry casts, and millimetre checks against research. Historical VFX gets very literal.
Das szenische Portal RT: When the Stage Starts Listening to the Music
Das szenische Portal RT combines Unreal Engine, live cameras, audio triggers and virtual scene control into a hybrid stage environment for live events. But how?
SpyderPro learns new tricks: where colour goes wrong
Datacolor is pushing beyond display profiling with Device Preview Plus, C2PA tracking, and a software layer that wants to help you with other duties as well.
Switching to Resolve: Sharing and delivery
Export DRP, DRT, or DRA, trim and package media, auto subtitles, and render from the Deliver page without leaving DaVinci Resolve.
RISE: Fallout Destroys LA, Politely
Los Angeles gets procedurally wrecked, Area 51 gets sand-blasted, and the Caswennan gets treated like a flying film set. We play 20 Questions with RISE.
Switching to Resolve: Selects and Assembly in Multicam editing
Two cameras, one interview, zero chaos: timecode sync, multicam cuts, gap trimming, quick audio leveling, and titles in Resolve Studio.
LUTs, Tags, or ICC: Getting Colours Right in Resolve on a Mac
For years, proper monitoring in DaVinci Resolve meant a Blackmagic I/O box and a calibrated display. On recent Macs, Resolve has become more predictable without dedicated hardware, but that does not make calibration optional. Here is where the situation has improved, where it still falls apart, and why Rec.709 scene remains the least bad common denominator.
Nobe OmniScope is a Live Act now!
OmniScope LivePack turns your scopes rig into a live-friendly sidekick, with SDI out, Livegrade hookup, and recordings that behave. Really? We run it through its paces!
Getting your bearings: Switching from Premiere Pro to DaVinci Resolve
When editing, I want to know how I can achieve something, and the tool I choose should not hinder my creative process. That's why people are often hesitant to switch software, and I was no exception when I switched from Premiere to Davinci Resolve.
ProductionCrate Plug-in Suite with docked footage database
ProductionCrate bundles a huge asset library in its Suite, so you can grab a glow, a glitch, or an explosion fast, then pay for it yearly.
Huion Kamvas Slate 11 Review: A Practical Android Tablet That Also Draws
A compact, competitively priced Android tablet that works as a daily driver for sketching and notes, with solid performance, a surprisingly good screen, and a pen that is good for everyday work but not in Wacom territory for pressure and tilt nuance.
On a Mission: Creating “NO ONE’S LIGHT”
No One’s Light is what happens when you start with 50 sci-fi ideas, delete 47 of them for survival reasons, and end up with a five-minute animated short that still looks like an alien planet got a proper art department. Blender handles the world building and Geometry Nodes chaos, CloudRig keeps characters bendy instead of broken, and Nuke ties it together before final grading at HFF München.
How Pixar Cheats a Skunk Tail
Kranzler talks Hoppers grooming and shading, including a layered wet-fur look and why skunks got a “cheated” tail.
MPC’s Cold Storage
MPC Paris delivered 575 shots on Cold Storage, from invisible fixes to slime, creatures and a nuclear finale. But how?
A World Divided: Shaping a Global WWII Epic at Overmind Studios
125 shots, six episodes, and a two-person team. VFX lead Tobias Kummer explained how Overmind Studios delivered geographic transformations, period cleanup, atmospherics, and a nuclear blast for A World Divided, built on disciplined templating and automation in Fusion.
Grading Kraken: insights from the colour grade
Senior Colourist Dylan Hopkin (Shortcut Oslo) outlines the grading process behind the new sci-fi film Kraken, and how contrast, colour and AI-assisted tools were used to support storytelling.
Cascadeur on physics, AI and control
Cascadeur explains how physics solvers and local AI shape modern keyframe animation. Physics-assisted keyframing and AI-generated Inbetweening sound like shorthand for automation. In practice, they describe a layered system that revolves around explicit poses, timing and animator intent.
Hawaiki Keyer – for those who don’t trust all the magic of AI
Hawaiki Keyer 5 brings AI tracking and dual-key control to Resolve, handling messy greenscreen shots more reliably than Magic Mask. Or does it?
Mnemonica sets out to fix digital cinema memory
Mnemonica Archive addresses digital film by treating preservation as an active, monitored process rather than passive storage.
Unreal Reality: Building A New Specimen
Director Dimitri Vallein breaks down the real-time production of his Unreal Engine short film New Specimen, from motion capture to cloth sims.
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.
InstaMAT Test: Painting, Procedurals and Pasta
InstaMAT merges painting, materials, and mesh editing into one node-based tool that connects Substance-style workflows with procedural control. Sounds great, so we'll get our hands dirty and test it!
Virtual Production Without the Disney Budget
A Rhode Island studio proves virtual production isn’t just for sci-fi. Door G’s team talks LEDs, Unreal, and the human side of real-time filmmaking.
How I Spent Five Years Making a Solo 3D Film
Maxim Gehricke spent five years creating his solo 3D short film SEN. Here’s how he did it without funding, team, or sleep.
Assimilate Live FX: The VP-Stages’ very, VERY nervous system.
Live FX turns a laptop into a virtual production media server, driving LED walls, lights, compositing, and colour.
Digital Domain welcomes IT to Derry
Digital Domain supervisors break down the design, rigging, lighting, and animation challenges behind the Skeleton Man creature for HBO’s return to the Stephen King universe.
Keychron K5 Max: The New Default
A keyboard is the most used tool in digital production, so why settle for mediocrity? After eight months of testing, the Keychron K5 Max has earned a place as my daily driver. Here’s why.
Work Hard, Sort Fast: Project Sorter 1.75
Project Sorter 1.75 auto-sorts your Premiere and After Effects imports by type, path, or metadata. Fewer bins to drag, more time to cut.
RealFX Part 2: From the loading bar to the keyboard
Three scripts, one goal: easyRulers, LoadUP and keyboardFX bring clean, functional motion graphics utilities for everyday After Effects work.
Rendering the Inferno at RiseFX: The Lost Bus
128 shots, 15 sequences, and GPUs on the brink: RISE FX’s Oliver Schulz explains how his team built the burning world of The Lost Bus.
Photoshop AI in practice
Following the integration of Adobe Firefly, there are now AI systems from partners. Flux Context Pro and Nano Banana are useful additions for Photoshop-AI in practice.
Crawly for Videoscreens: SpyderPro
SpyderPro gets serious: anorganic filters, 12,000 nits, 3D LUT export, OLED support, and proper profiling tools make it fit for postproduction again. Let's see if the claims hold up!
Houdini 21: Like good wine (Part1, VFX & Geo)
Houdini 21 polishes the chaos: production-ready MPM, neural surfacing, smarter Pyro, and Vulkan viewport upgrades: all taste-tested for real-world use. (Part 1 of ???)
When Annabelle Grew Up: The Digital Domain Horror Pipeline
425 shots, one terrifying doll, and a CG mill town: Digital Domain’s Alex Millet explains how his team built the horror of The Conjuring: Last Rites and kept it real.
Huion Kamvas 13 (Gen 3): Welcome to Sensible Pen Tablets
Sometimes you just want a tablet that works without selling your workstation. That was the starting point for our test of Huion’s Kamvas 13 (Gen 3). In times where many artists keep an eye on their budgets, the idea of a small, solid, and affordable pen display is tempting. So we teamed up with Huion to see what this one could actually do.
“A Model of Madness” Scott Ross Why VFX Fails as a Business
Scott Ross: VFX is “a model of madness.” ILM, Digital Domain, and decades later, the business still cannot stand on three legs.
The Cube Moved: Go for the Chaos (Ad) Vantage
Architecture Illustrators and Visualizers test Chaos Vantage for a narrative short and accidentally build a moving house. Unbox proves real-time previz can tell stories, not just sell floor plans.
Keep Your Pipeline: Chaos on Skipping the Game Engine
Chaos’ Chris Nichols explains how Chaos Arena and Chaos Vantage cut out the engine middleman with full ray tracing, open formats, and one asset for all.
Dolby Vision, Dolby Vision 2, and Beyond!
HDR isn’t just a jungle of acronyms on your TV box—though it may feel that way. To bring some order, we sat down with Michael Hackl from Dolby to talk about Dolby Vision, how it compares to HDR10 and HDR10+, how it is made, and what’s new in Dolby Vision 2.
RealFX Part 1: Perfectly formed scripts
The landscape of plug-in providers for After Effects (and other host applications) has thinned out noticeably in recent times. Whereas in the 2000s and 2010s we used to receive press releases about new and interesting plug-ins several times a week, nowadays we are lucky to receive one announcement per month. But we found a few beauties!
Momo: Of Time, Turtles, and Technical Wizardry
VFX Supervisor Michael Wortmann on how RiseFX built the fantasy of Momo: almost entirely on location, with 280 shots and the best turtle in the business.
“Task Force Querlitz” Brings Adult Animation to ZDF
With Task Force Querlitz, screenwriter Simon Thummet, director Arne Hain and producer Sebastian Simon have achieved something rare:…
Jason Druss makes Premiere sparkle at IBC 2025
At IBC 2025, Adobe’s Jason Druss showed how Premiere Pro 25.5 brings Film Impact’s 90+ transitions and real-time effects into the core app. Time to test this!
Stitch Head!
“Stitch Head”: A charming animated adventure blending gothic charm, playful humor, and a heartfelt journey of self-acceptance, crafted by a team spanning multiple continents and pipelines.
TD Meetup 21: VR, Quill & the Renaissance of Real-Time Storytelling
At TD Meetup #21, Dan Franke showed how Quill VR lets you literally paint, animate, and pivot scenes in real time—no rig, just hand and headset.
Need an AI Video Enhancer in Your Workflow? Aiarty Video Enhancer!
Blocky VHS? Grainy DSLR shots? Aiarty Video Enhancer upscales, denoises, and restores video locally—no cloud upload required. (Sponsored Post)
After Effects Gets Hands-On: Victoria Nece Shows Off Quick Offset & Co.
At IBC 2025, I talked with Adobe’s Victoria Nece about Quick Offset, Smooth Zoom, and 3D compositing in After Effects. It’s tactile, fast and oddly fun.
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Gen2 and Gen4: Professional Audio for Creators?
The Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Gen4 brings Auto Gain, Safe, and Air to content creators looking for reliable, studio-grade audio in a compact form. We tested it with the Shure SM7B and Rode PodMic USB. Here’s what you should know BEFORE you upgrade.
ProRes RAW vs. BRAW
BMPCC 4K just learned a new trick: ProRes RAW via firmware. We stacked it against BRAW Q0. One’s cleaner, one’s bigger. Which would you shoot?
RiseFX on Heads of State: Explosions, Statues, and Digital Diplomacy
500 shots, one exploding limo, and statues aimed at helicopters: Rise FX brings high-stakes action to Heads of State with a new Riseflow pipeline.
ProRes RAW News – Fresh from the Freezer
Resolve 20.2.1 + Sequoia = real ProRes RAW. Sonoma users: no dice. iPhone 17 footage shows the difference...
Digital Domain on Fantastic Four: From Baby Mocap to Bearded Rock
Digital Domain’s Phil Cramer explains Fantastic Four VFX: Masquerade3, Baby Franklin, The Thing’s beard, and multi-vendor Marvel pipelines.
Hell Froze Over – ProRes RAW for Resolve
For an eternity, it seemed, Blackmagic Design (BM for short) refused to support the import of Apple's ProRes RAW format into their flagship app DaVinci Resolve (DR for short).
Realtime Department’s UNIQVUE: The Software Layer Behind Turnkey Corporate Studios
Hardware is nothing without brains. Realtime Department’s UNIQVUE adds the software intelligence to ARRI and Samsung’s turnkey corporate studio. Christoph Gockel explains how.
Resolve Animation: Everything moves!
Resolve Animation? Well, everything is based on keyframes. Fusion adds power (and pain), 3D feels clunky. Still: motion graphics inside an editor? Works.
ARRI Packs Virtual Production Into a Box
ARRI’s turnkey stage bundles LED wall, ALEXA 35, audio, and server into a scalable studio package with automation and colour management.
Matching Your Moves: Inside Vision Age VFX
Vision Age VFX specialises in high-end matchmove and rotoanim. Workflows, QC, case studies, and technical tips from Tunisia’s camera tracking experts.
We have to talk about Switchlight 2.0
Beeble’s SwitchLight 2.0 turns raw plates into PBR maps that can be relit like CG. Now trained on 13× more data and extended to full-scene maps, not just the subject. We spoke with co-founder Hoon Kim about what’s new, how it’s priced, and where 3.0 is headed.
Next-Gen Cloud Rendering for Blender? Meet Praxilla!
Praxilla offers Blender cloud rendering with Cycles and Eevee, starting at 2.50 € per GPU hour. Secure, fast, and aiming for collaborative rendering.
Goodbye Adobe Premiere
I whispered, "Goodbye, Adobe!" as I pressed the unsubscribe button. To me it sounded very much like “Hasta la vista” but less dramatic. We had a good run, but it was time to move on.
ProArt PA32UCDM: The OLED Display That Thinks It’s a Reference Monitor And Dresses Like an Accountant
First impression: The ASUS ProArt PA32UCDM is the Clark Kent of displays. On your desk, it could pass for a premium, but otherwise unassuming office monitor—sleek, thin, and lightweight, with none of that over-designed “gamer” bling. But underneath?
Making it Soft – Diffusion in Post II
We looked at Halation and Diffusion before - but how about the new Tools from FilmConvert and Resolve 20?
Bose QuietComfort Ultra: Noise Cancelling for when your workstation is also the Rendernode!
Bose’s QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) are the current leaders in active noise cancelling. In our test, they silenced GPUs, offices, and even kindergarten tantrums, all while sounding excellent.
Tomato Warfare: Milk VFX on Heads of State
Milk VFX Supervisor David Sadler-Coppard on how the team built thousands of CG tomatoes, exploding doors, and digital crowds for Heads of State.
These Are the Clones You’re Looking For: Hoplite VFX Fires Up ‘Star Wars: The 212’
Hoplite VFX trades stormtrooper aim for clone trooper precision in Star Wars: The 212. Producer Maurine Fauvert reveals how a two-artist side project turned into a full-blown studio production, complete with Move AI mocap, Blender’s GPU power, and some very unlucky troopers.
Workstations for Virtual Production
Virtual production wouldn’t be possible without high-performance workstations. These systems deliver the computing power required for rendering, simulations, and complex visual effects directly within the studio environment.
Beyond Normal: A Creative’s Guide to Different Minds and Managing Neurodivergent Talent (Part 1)
Creative brilliance doesn’t come in one flavor—and in today’s VFX-landscape, understanding how your team thinks isn’t just good leadership, it’s critical infrastructure.
Still Taping? You Should Be: Why LTO Is the Only Backup That Ages Well
Your backup drive will die. Your cloud costs will rise. But a £100 tape will quietly last 30 years, if you treat it right. Yes, LTO still matters.
Game Boy Robot: When Nostalgia Gets a Quad-Based Makeover
Game Boy nostalgia meets quad-based hard-surface modeling in Benavidmark’s detailed 3D robot tribute—every production step dissected.
Using Unreal Engine in animation pipelines: How to use version control
Anchorpoint brings Git + locking + in‑editor commits to Unreal. See why Maya pipelines feel prehistoric now.
„For Those Who Dare“
These days you wouldn’t always have to go for an expensive, professionally calibrated screen if you are not working for extremely demanding clients. Has the age of correct colors finally arrived? What about HDR? Let’s have a broader look!