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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!
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Apple Bundles Its Ageing Pro Apps in Subscription
Apple groups its older creative tools under the new Creator Studio plan, mostly for Apple-loyal users rather than working pros.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hover, Don’t Click: Outliner Preview Lands in Blender
Free Blender add-on Outliner Preview shows 360° model thumbnails on hover in the Outliner.
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.
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.
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.
Boris FX unwraps a holiday gift: SynthEyes Essentials, a free, three-hour matchmove training course for VFX artists, free until 31 December.
Shapelab Max 2026 bends reality with Elastic Move
Leopoly’s hybrid sculpting tool grows up: Shapelab Max 2026 adds a smarter gizmo, Pixar-inspired Elastic Move, and faster voxel remeshing.
Live FX 9.9: More Walls, More Nodes, More Fun
Bigger volumes, smarter nodes: Live FX 9.9 brings multi-GPU HDR output, Unreal integration, and new stage tools for virtual production.
Real-time Chaos: Vantage now inside Maya and Houdini
Chaos Vantage enters the DCC viewport. With V-Ray 7 updates, real-time feedback, volumetrics and AI materials now reach Maya and Houdini.
INSYDIUM Fused 2025.4: Faster NeXus, New GPU Sims, And a Procedural Animation Toolkit
The release of INSYDIUM Fused 2025.4 introduces a rebuilt NeXus core that accelerates GPU simulation performance while reducing…
Mocha Pro 2026: Refined, re-solved, re-edged
AI-assisted mattes, cleaner camera solves, and the return of the curve editor: Mocha Pro 2026 refines your roto and tracking life without reinventing the wheel.
CityEngine 2025.1 Expands CGA Geometry Tools and Introduces Python 3 API
CityEngine 2025.1 arrives with a broadened toolset for procedural modeling, architecture, and urban layout work. The update focuses…
VES Handbook of Visual Effects, Fourth Edition, coming soon
The VES Handbook enters edition four with 95 contributors, new chapters on AI, NeRFs, real time engines and more. Pre orders open now, release Dec 18.
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.
Beeble Studio puts 4K AI-powered relighting and full PBR pass generation on your own machine, no cloud uploads, no credits, just local GPU power.
World VFX Day is starting Now!
World VFX Day 2025 kicks off today at 11 AM CET. A 15-hour livestream unites 65+ speakers from across global VFX, animation and CGI.
Netflix buys Warner Bros.
Netflix will acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studios, HBO/HBO Max and content libraries in a $82.7 bn deal, a massive consolidation that may reshape streaming and media production.
Mari 7.5: Multi-Paint, Texture Transfer and the Death of the Single Channel
Multi-Paint and Bakery-based Texture Transfer redefine Mari 7.5: eight channels per stroke, faster asset reuse, and fewer excuses for misaligned maps.
Lofted Surfaces and Retopo in 3DCoat 2025.15
3DCoat 2025.15 expands plane controls, improves Smart Retopo, updates Blender Applink to 5.0, and fixes sculpting bugs.
ZBrush 2026.1: Retopo & Assets
Retopology arrives as a sculpting native system, photogrammetry lands on iPad, and ZBrush’s assets finally move out of Program Files.
Redshift 2026.2: Texture Displacement and UV Context Arrive
Redshift 2026.2 delivers texture displacement, new UV context tools, IES light refinements, and better Mac stability.
Cinema 4D 2026.1: Fluids, Distributions, and Practical Fixes
Cinema 4D 2026.1 introduces Liquid Flow for GPU-based fluids, new MoGraph distributions, a refined Take System, and numerous quality-of-life fixes.
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.
DaVinci Resolve 20.3 rolls out: 32K on M5 Macs, more flexible metadata and HDR10+ export, plus a slew of bug patches.
Cascadeur 2025.3: Inbetweening De Luxe
Cascadeur 2025.3 adds Filament rendering, new inbetweening controls, quadruped rigs and twist bones, Windows-only for now, experimental but promising.
New Trailer walks FMX 2026 home
A walking bus, a hopeful sunrise, and a nod to FMX’s roots: “Bus Buddy” drives the FMX 2026 trailer straight into the ROAD AHEAD.
Epic Games updates RealityScan: 2.1 out
pic’s RealityScan 2.1 brings LiDAR & SLAM import, server automation tools and improved UV and rendering support.
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.
Beyond VFX dives into AI Ethics
AI meets VFX and ethics: Beyond VFX returns on 26 Nov 2025 with VES and ICE.ART. Join Ben Lock, Victor Perez, Frank Govaere & Dr Jana Sedlakova and Agon Ushaku for a free panel.
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.
KeyShot Studio 2025.3: Cryptomatte, OpenPBR, and a Real Pivot
KeyShot Studio 2025.3 expands material and lighting control with OpenPBR, Cryptomatte, and better GPU speed. Real pivots, both literal and figurative.
Houdini Equinox 2025 HIVE Session Recordings Online
The session videos from Houdini Equinox 2025’s HIVE event are now live! Covering Houdini 21’s car-destruction RBD tools, CFX for creatures, ML workflows and major production case-studies.
Version 1.8 of RealityScan Mobile introduces three capture modes (including AR Guidance), mesh clean-up tools, focus peaking, capture timer and watertight mesh output: ideal for everybody capturing on-the-go.
Sapphire 2026: Film Burns, Whip Cuts & Builder Love
Sapphire 2026 blends analogue charm and new-gen tools: FilmBurn, MochaWhip, Lens Flares and a more transparent Effect Builder.
Ribbon Rules: Substance Painter 11.1 goes Vulkan
11.1 trades OpenGL for Vulkan and adds a precise Ribbon tool, symmetry for fill layers, physical-size displacement, and 75 new presets.
New add-on for Blender brings onion skinning layering into full 3D
the new “3D Onion Skinning” add-on for Blender gives you ghosted frames in 3D so you can see motion timing and spacing without flipping frames manually.
Blender 5.0 – it’s here!
Blender 5.0 is finally here — with ACES/PQ-HDR, high-geometry support, UI tweaks and a fresh release cadence for production pipelines.
World VFX Day 2025: Global Line-Up Revealed
WētāFX, ILM, Framestore, Adobe and more join World VFX Day 2025 this December, streaming live from London.
Blender 5.0 hits release candidate!
Blender 5.0’s release candidate is live. Expect ACES 2.0, smarter Geometry Nodes, and a sleeker UI before the final launch later this month.
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 ???)
Pixar’s RenderMan 27.0
Pixar’s RenderMan 27.0 lands with final-frame XPU rendering, multi-GPU scaling, deep compositing, and a production-ready Stylized Looks suite.
Chaos launches Corona 14 with Gaussian Splats for scene context, new AI-tools for materials and upscaling, Night Sky for night builds and a procedural Fabric Material.
Moho 14.4 Goes on a Side Quest: 2D Meets Game Engines
Lost Marble’s Moho 14.4 “Side Quest” links 2D animation with game engines via glTF export, plus Smart Bones in 360°, smarter particles, and smoother strokes.
Foundry Opens Nuke 17 Beta: New 3D System, New Variables
Nuke 17 Beta modernises its 3D system, adds a Variable framework and revamped annotation tools: compositors can now test them all.
Unreal Engine 5.7: foliage, PCG and in-Editor AI
Unreal Engine 5.7 adds Nanite Foliage (experimental), production-ready PCG and Substrate, new virtual-production tools, and an AI Assistant. Test first.
Analog Soul, Digital Body: ARRI Film Lab Arrives
ARRI’s new OpenFX plugin Film Lab emulates analog film’s grain, halation, and weave in real time for any camera. Free trial now via RE:Vision Effects.
Blender Foundation launches “Blender Lab” innovation hub
The Blender Foundation is launching Blender Lab, a new sandbox for prototyping features in Blender, aimed at faster iteration, acedemic research and development.
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.
SpyderPro goes full HDR with receipts (C2PA)
Datacolor’s SpyderPro adds 12,000 nits support, 3D-LUT export, and C2PA metadata embedding. Targeted squarely at post pros, not hobbyists.
Phantom Media Group: Milk, Lola, Tippett, PhantomFX and Spectre Unite
Milk, Lola, Tippett, PhantomFX and Spectre now share a roof. Phantom Digital Effects forms Phantom Media Group to align global VFX talent.
iCrowds, the new Blender add-on from iCity’s creator, brings smart Sims-style crowds, seven simulation systems, and 100k agents to 3D production.
Das Element 2.2: Major Step Forward for Asset Management
The new Das Element 2.2 release strengthens 3D handling, adds dynamic permission controls and custom Python action hooks to make studio asset management even smoother.
Neat Video 6: Smarter Noise Reduction for Nuke and Beyond
Neat Video 6 automates what used to be manual: GPU tuning, CPU balancing, and memory management. The result: up to twice the render speed and half the RAM usage inside Nuke, Premiere, and Resolve. A quiet but meaningful upgrade for anyone tired of watching progress bars instead of pixels.
Video Mocap: Reallusion’s AI Gets Moving
Reallusion adds online AI motion capture to iClone: Video Mocap turns footage into editable animation for $2.50 per clip.
Blender 4.5 LTS lands
lender 4.5 LTS arrives with studio-grade support; the Blender survey shows where users stand; and Blender 5.0 beta is already here, so its time to plan your upgrade.
Off-Grid, On-Tape: EditingTools.io Launches Local Timecode Notes Server
EditingTools.io brings offline collaboration to live productions with its new Live Timecode Notes Server for macOS.
Continuum 2026: AI masks, fixes, and faces
Continuum 2026 upgrades AI masking, keying, and transitions. Face ML, Matte Refine ML, and smarter Pixel Chooser save time on tedious isolation work.
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!
Creepy-Crawlies in 3D: Free “Arthropods” Anatomy App for Creature Designers
Twelve museum arthropods, one free app, and an excellent reason to stop swatting your references. Creepy-crawlies in 3D, just in time for Halloween.
Canva folds Affinity into one free-forever app, marking a major shift for design tools and putting the old perpetual-licence model on hold.
FMX Turns 30 in 2026
FMX 2026 celebrates 30 years of digital media creation. Stuttgart, May 5–8, 2026. Theme: “The Road Ahead”. Book your rooms, time flies.
The Mill Returns
The Mill is back. TransPerfect revives the iconic VFX studio with returning talent and a global creative push.
Photoshop 27.0: Now with Harmonise, Upscale & Firefly Video
Photoshop 27.0 is official. You get Harmonise, Generative Upscale, Firefly video export, and selectable AI models. Test before rollout.
3D Measure Master brings CAD-style precision to 3ds Max
The new plugin 3D Measure Master adds CAD-style measuring tools to 3ds Max, creating editable and renderable geometry for true 3D dimensions.
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.
Flix 8.0: Foundry’s story hub gets serious about Storyboard Pro
Foundry’s Flix 8.0 tightens its Storyboard Pro link, retools shots UI, refines ingest monitoring, still “priced on request”, which probably means “too expensive”.
“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:…
SLAPSHOT promises AI Camera Tracking “in minutes”
SLAPSHOT has released its AI Camera Tracking tool: what used to take a day or more can now take under ten minutes according to the developer.
Fluid Flow is a $14 Geometry Nodes add-on for Blender 4.2+, painting real-time water, sand, and lava straight into the viewport.
ASUS unveils 32″ 8K HDR Mini-LED ProArt monitor. Yes, 8K.
ASUS launches its 32″ 8K HDR Mini-LED monitor, the ProArt PA32KCX with great brightness and pro-features. Not for everyone, but if you edit 8K or need huge desktop real-estate, this is serious.