Procedural Grass with Megascans and UE4
Karsten Malmquist explains a Megascans-to-SpeedTree workflow, grass shaders, landscape materials and optimisation in Unreal Engine 4.
Browsing Tag
3D animation
439 posts
BlenderAE Transfers Scenes to After Effects
BlenderAE exports selected Blender objects, vertices and faces into After Effects for motion-graphics and compositing workflows.
Creating Human Figures with MakeHuman
This archive tutorial explains MakeHuman's macro controls, topology choices, facial asymmetry and CC0 export for downstream 3D work.
U-Render Tutorial: Materials
Part two of U-Render's first-steps series covers materials, masks, normal maps and displacement maps in Cinema 4D.
Weld Generator Adds Seams in Substance
Marek Kaplita's Weld Generator adds weld materials and brush-painted seams to models in Substance Painter 2019.3.3 or later.
After Effects Layer Binning Explained
Chris Zwar explains After Effects layer rendering order, 2D and 3D interaction, and the beta binning function.
Simple Spin Blur for Unity
AiKodex's free Unity script adds GPU-instanced volumetric motion blur to spinning objects and characters.
Simulating Snow with tyFlow
A State of Art Academy tutorial builds falling snow around a London phone box with tyFlow for 3ds Max.
Foundry 2021 Showreel
Foundry's two-minute 2021 reel collects VFX and animation work from major films, series, studios and commercial campaigns.
Substance 3D Stager 1.1 Adds PSD Passes
Stager 1.1 adds layered PSD render passes, models without UVs, automatic physical-light alignment and marquee selection.
Material-Based Ballistics in Unreal Engine
A three-part Unreal Engine tutorial builds server-authoritative bullet penetration with material-dependent damage and effects.
A Modular Hermit Interior in UE4
Daniela Ontiveros details walls, floors, trim textures, books, props, lighting and rendering for a modular Unreal Engine 4 interior.
Citigen Builds Procedural Blender Cities
Citigen generates Blender city environments with roads, lights, trees and custom buildings, with lower-detail assets for scale.
Trapcode Particular with Nick Harauz
Trainer Nick Harauz presents a 25-minute Trapcode Particular motion-graphics session featuring the Space Shark project.
KalidoKit Released for Avatar Tracking
KalidoKit combines open-source face, pose and hand tracking with blendshape and kinematics solvers for VRM and Live2D avatars.
Modo 10.1: Procedural Modelling and pFusion
A detailed look at Modo 10.1's procedural modelling stack, mesh and selection operations, curve tools, game workflows and the early pFusion extension for MeshFusion.
XMD Toolbox 3.0 Organises ZBrush Assets
XMD Toolbox 3.0 expands ZBrush asset browsing with presets, tagging, UI colour syncing, one-click macros and Source Store access.
U-Render First Steps Tutorial Series
A multi-part U-Render tutorial series covers lighting, materials, post effects, cameras, final rendering, multipass output and volumetrics.
Unreal Engine 5 Nanite Deep Dive
Epic Games graphics programmer Brian Karis explains Nanite virtualised geometry and its approach to dense real-time assets.
Rokoko Releases Smartsuit Pro II
Rokoko's Smartsuit Pro II updates its inertial motion-capture suit with multi-level tracking, Smartgloves integration and DCC export.
Maxon Makes Forger Free on iPad
Maxon made its Forger sculpting app free on iPad, with Apple Pencil support and Alembic, USD, OBJ and STL file handling.
Radeon ProRender 3.3 Adds Volumes
AMD Radeon ProRender 3.3 added volume rendering and DeepEXR export across its Blender and Maya integrations.
Allan McKay on VFX and Games
The 21 Artist Show speaks with Emmy-winning VFX supervisor Allan McKay about effects, games, career development and lifelong learning.
Lenovo Partners with DreamWorks Animation
Lenovo became DreamWorks Animation's preferred workstation innovation partner, supplying ThinkStation and ThinkPad P-series systems.
Jonathan Winbush on Motion Design
Motion designer Jonathan Winbush discusses Cinema 4D workflows and a career spanning film, television and virtual reality.
Free Plant Models Vol. 60 Released
Maxtree released Plant Models Vol. 60, a free collection of high-resolution vegetation assets for 3ds Max, Blender and Cinema 4D.
ZBrush 2022 Expands Sculpting Tools
ZBrush 2022 adds bas-relief tools, Bevel Pro, dual brush alphas and textures, expanded Knife brushes and XMD Toolbox access.
Mari 5.0 Improves Brushes and USD
Foundry Mari 5.0 updates its brush engine, Bake Points, flattening performance, USD previews, Hydra viewports and OCIO support.
NVIDIA Omniverse Avatars at GTC
NVIDIA's GTC keynote introduced Omniverse Avatar and Replicator alongside Project Tokkio, Maxine and DRIVE Concierge demonstrations.
Reallusion Announces Character Creator 4
Character Creator 4 was announced with broader character import, Spring Dynamics, more than 140 facial blendshapes and new previews.
Puppeteer Rigging Tools for Maya
Adrian Chirieac released Puppeteer, a Maya rigging and animation toolkit inspired by Richard Lico's space-switching workflow.
Trapcode 17.1 Improves Workflow
Maxon Trapcode 17.1 improves null handling, fluid render performance, Cinema 4D spline emission and Designer selection behaviour.
Modo 15.2 Completes the 15 Series
Foundry Modo 15.2 adds Primitive Slice, Edge Subdivide, mPath render-time booleans, Assembly Presets and workflow updates.
Wacom Connected Ink 2021
Wacom Connected Ink 2021 brought together art, education and technology through 70 online and in-person sessions.
CityEngine 2021.1 Expands BIM Support
Esri CityEngine 2021.1 adds IFC interchange, terrain-sculpting updates, material export, dashboard tools and improved 360 VR rendering.
2021 Student Academy Award Winners
Four animated shorts were among the 14 winners of the 2021 Student Academy Awards, selected from 1,404 submitted films.
Meshmolder Sculpting Tool Released
Karlay Souza's Meshmolder sculpting tool supports organic and hard-surface forms, normal and AO maps, and ZBrush polypaint OBJ data.
Character Animator 22 Adds Body Tracking
Adobe Character Animator 22 adds real-time body tracking and Smart Replays for triggering recorded animation.
Golaem 8 Adds Real-Time Crowds
Golaem 8 improves crowd previs with real-time Unreal Engine simulation, Maya viewport shading, layout layers and cloth physics.
Light Tracer Render 2.0 Adds Path Guiding
Light Tracer Render 2.0 adds path-guided caustics, transparent shadows, mesh-light sampling, IES profiles and geometry tools.
Arnaud Mellinger on Event Motion Design
Arnaud Mellinger demonstrates a Cinema 4D and After Effects workflow for creating and rendering visuals for live events.
Pulldownit 5.0 Released for 3ds Max
Pulldownit 5.0 for 3ds Max adds a faster fracture solver, curve-controlled cracks and rough cut faces for lighter destruction meshes.
Montreal Recruits Animation and VFX Talent
A Montreal recruitment initiative targeted experienced US animation, game and VFX workers for roles at major studios.
Knotus Adds a Knot Library to Blender
The Knotus Blender add-on supplies more than 100 knot assets and materials for building and editing ropes in Blender 2.8 or later.
Magic Bullet Looks 5 in an ACES Pipeline
Colourist Maximus Raharjo demonstrates Magic Bullet Looks 5 and its integration into an ACES colour-grading pipeline in DaVinci Resolve.
Percentage-Based Fur Shading with Yeti
Look-development artist Michael Cauchi introduces percentage-based fur shading with Peregrine Labs Yeti in a beginner tutorial.
Camera Shakify Add-on for Blender
Ian Hubert and Nathan Vegdahl's Camera Shakify add-on applies recorded camera-shake motion to Blender cameras.
Foundation Main Title Sequence
The main-title sequence introduces Apple's Foundation series, adapted from Isaac Asimov's science-fiction novels.
Sabine Heller on Rigging at Blue Sky
Sabine Heller discusses 12 years in Blue Sky Studios' rigging department and her path to leading character animation and rigging.
Darlene Sanchez on Sports Motion Design
Darlene Sanchez demonstrates Cinema 4D motion-design techniques informed by her work for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Wacom Cintiq Pro 16 Pen Display Released
Wacom's Cintiq Pro 16 combines a 4K pen display, 98 percent Adobe RGB coverage and USB-C or HDMI connectivity.
Nine Standout Artworks from Summer 2021
A 3Dtotal gallery collects nine notable artworks from summer 2021, including pieces by Ismail Inceoglu, Satoshi Ueda and Cristiano Porfirio.
Chris Schmidt Explores Cinema 4D R25
Rocket Lasso founder Chris Schmidt demonstrates Cinema 4D R25 features and explains their impact on modelling and motion-design workflows.
Creating Shang-Chi’s Mythical Creatures
VFX supervisor Christopher Townsend discusses the mythical creatures created for Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
Elly Wade Explores Cinema 4D
Maxon trainer Elly Wade demonstrates recent Cinema 4D features through a compact 3D product-animation project.
HDRI Environments in Corona Renderer
An eight-minute tutorial explains HDRI environments and Environment Overrides in Corona Renderer 7 for 3ds Max.
EJ Hassenfratz on Cinema 4D and Redshift
Motion designer EJ Hassenfratz demonstrates ways to improve Cinema 4D and Redshift workflow efficiency.
MPC Film Visual Effects Reel
MPC Film's visual-effects reel showcases work from The Lion King, Detective Pikachu, Sonic, Maleficent, Godzilla, Cruella and Alien.
Clayxels Tutorial: Volumetric Sculpting in Unity
Game developer Alex Strook demonstrates a Clayxels workflow for volumetric modelling in Unity, from reference and colour to lighting and post-processing.
Random Flow Mesh Generator for Blender
Random Flow by Ian Lloyd Dela Cruz generates non-destructive, randomised hard-surface forms and details in Blender for prototyping and concept art.
73rd Engineering Emmy Award Winners Announced
The Television Academy announced its 73rd Engineering Emmy recipients, honouring Reed Hastings and technologies from Dolby, ARRI, Golaem, Massive, Chaos and others.
3D Lighting Course for 3ds Max and V-Ray
Jamie Cardoso's 18-lesson course covers vehicle, exterior and interior lighting with 3ds Max, V-Ray and Photoshop across roughly seven hours.
Mari 5.0 Beta Adds USD and Python 3.7
Foundry's Mari 5.0 beta introduced Python 3.7, initial USD workflows, a new shader, multicolour brush splats, bake-point filters and node-graph snapping.
Post Production World Fall 2021 Programme
Post Production World ran online from 9–13 October 2021 with sessions on editing, VFX, virtual production, colour, AI, motion graphics and remote workflows.
Marmoset Toolbag Library Drop 02 Adds 135 Materials
Marmoset's Toolbag Library Drop 02 added 135 free materials, including 107 standard and 28 smart materials focused on realistic fabrics.
Cleaning Up Aerial Footage in Fusion
Dbox's 90-minute Fusion tutorial demonstrates moving-image retouching and aerial-shot cleanup for artists integrating CG into live-action footage.
Autodesk Maya 2022.2 Updates Solidify, USD and Bifrost
Maya 2022.2 added Solidify scaling, file-list and Script Editor improvements, plus stability and workflow updates for USD and Bifrost.
Tangent Animation Halts Production, Affecting Around 400 Staff
Canadian studio Tangent Animation ceased production in 2021, affecting around 400 employees and several projects.
Howler 2020 Becomes Available Free of Charge
Project Dogwaffle made Howler 2020 free, offering tools for digital painting, animation, video processing, terrain and rotoscoping.
Unreal Engine Tutorial: Animating Fighting-Game Finishers
CodeLikeMe demonstrates how to animate coordinated hand-to-hand finishing moves for two characters in Unreal Engine.
Six Animation Books Highlight Art, History and Filmmaking
A reading list surveys six books on animation artists, pixel history, Disney television, British animation, Mamoru Hosoda and decorative arts.
Akeytsu 2020.3.6 Refines Mirroring and Adds Unlit Rendering
Nukeygara’s Akeytsu 2020.3.6 improved rigging and animation mirroring and introduced an unlit display mode for clearer character silhouettes.
KeyShot 10.1 Adds Physics Placement and USD
KeyShot 10.1 adds gravity and collision placement, multi-light editing, USD import, USDZ and GLB export, and a new licence portal.
Poser 12 Adds GPU Ray Tracing and Render Denoising
Poser 12 updates the SuperFly renderer with Nvidia GPU ray tracing, Intel Open Image Denoise and a revised material-management system.
Cascadeur Research Explores Zero-Gravity Character Animation
Cascadeur’s team explains its research into weightless movement and physically plausible keyframe animation.
Digital Production Welcomes 2021
The Digital Production editorial team returned for 2021 with New Year wishes for its readers and the production community.
Akeytsu 2020.3 Adds Space Switching and a Unified Timeline
Nukeygara’s Akeytsu 2020.3 update introduces dynamic parenting through Space Switching and parallel character animation.
Happy Holidays from Digital Production
The Digital Production editorial team signs off for the 2020 holiday break with seasonal greetings and plans to return in January.
MakeHuman 1.2 Adds MakeSkin, Mass Produce and Blender Integration
MakeHuman 1.2 delivers its first major update in four years, with new material, character-generation and Blender integration tools.
German Film Academy Establishes Animation Film Section
The German Film Academy created a dedicated Animation Film section to recognise and support German animated feature filmmaking.
Inside Pixar Explores the Studio’s Creative Process
The Disney+ documentary series Inside Pixar presents stories from the artists and production teams behind the animation studio’s work.
Netflix Targets Six Animated Feature Films per Year
Netflix planned to release six animated feature films annually alongside its animated-series slate, with projects from major filmmakers.
Four Animated Features Nominated for European Film Awards
The 2020 European Film Awards nominated Calamity, Josep, Klaus and The Nose or the Conspiracy of Mavericks in animation.
Netflix Cuts 4K Streaming Bitrates with Shot-Based Encoding
Netflix said optimised shot-based encoding could deliver comparable 4K image quality at roughly half the bitrate.
Titmouse Vancouver Animation Workers Vote to Unionise
Titmouse Vancouver employees voted overwhelmingly to form a union with IATSE, citing unpaid overtime and pressure to work additional hours.
Female Mannequin Model Pack Released for Unreal Engine
The Unreal Engine asset pack provides configurable female mannequin characters for showroom scenes, animation practice and rendering setups.
FMX Spotlight Explores Framestore’s Lovecraft Country Creatures
Framestore’s Grant Walker and Stephen Nixon discussed creature design, asset building and animation for HBO’s Lovecraft Country.
Laan Labs Releases Free LiDAR 3D Scanner App
Laan Labs’ free iPad app uses the LiDAR sensor in 2020 iPad Pro models to create textured scans of large objects and environments offline.
Cinema 4D Quick Tip: Move the Time Slider
Jonas Pilz demonstrates how to move Cinema 4D’s Time Slider without directly dragging it in part 302 of Maxon’s Quick Tips series.
Cinema 4D Quick Tip: Open the Sky Manager
Jonas Pilz explains how to open Cinema 4D’s Sky Manager in part 301 of Maxon’s Quick Tips video series.
Blender 2.90 Updates Eevee, Cycles, Sculpt and VR
Blender 2.90 introduced updates across Eevee, Cycles, sculpting, VR, animation and modelling.
Cinema 4D Quick Tip 300: Using Commander
The 300th Cinema 4D Quick Tip explains how Commander can locate commands and accelerate work in the Node Editor.
Cinema 4D Quick Tip: Viewport Filter Presets
Jonas Pilz explains how to customise Cinema 4D viewport filters, save presets and connect them to render settings.
Mulan Featurette Previews Disney’s Live-Action Remake
Director Niki Caro and actors Liu Yifei and Donnie Yen introduce Disney’s 2020 live-action Mulan in a behind-the-scenes featurette.
Cascadeur Opens Its Free Beta
Cascadeur's open beta adds faster architecture and revised rigging tools to its physics-assisted keyframe animation workflow.
Camp Cretaceous Teaser Arrives
The first Camp Cretaceous season sent six teenagers into Jurassic World's dinosaur park across eight CG-animated episodes.
Building Claymation with ZBrush
Alexander Lee's 45-minute tutorial covers Maya blocking, ZBrush sculpting, blendshapes, retiming, shaders and lighting.
Meduc Award 2020 Opens for Entries
The Meduc Award 2020 invited emerging media creators to submit print, film, journalism, music and multimedia work by 1 August.
Oxford Shares Cambrian Animals in 3D
Oxford’s First Animals collection offered 19 downloadable Cambrian creature models with annotated anatomy through Sketchfab.
SpriteStack | Voxel Editor
3D pixel art with the right tool: SpriteStack is a new free online and paid standalone editor for creating your own retro designs!