For those who don’t know the tool: Shapelab is Leopoly’s hybrid desktop and VR sculpting app for artists who prefer to get their hands virtually dirty. It runs on Windows and PCVR headsets and mixes voxel sketching with polygon sculpting. Users can block out rough forms like digital clay, then refine them with precise brushes, remeshing tools and PBR vertex painting. The Max edition is the full version for professional desktop and VR use, distinct from the Lite or Vision Pro releases.

Gizmo re-engineering

The 2026 release completely rebuilds the transform gizmo. Artists now get non-uniform scaling and improved local-to-world switching. Movement, rotation and scale transformations share a consistent logic between desktop and VR, reducing accidental distortions. The update also expands keyboard shortcuts and controller bindings for transform tools, though Leopoly has not published the full shortcut list.

Elastic Move deformation

The new Elastic Move tool is based on a real-time elastic deformation model first developed at Pixar. It lets artists grab and bend meshes as though they were made of rubber, maintaining volume and continuity. The tool is designed for quick posing of characters or broad shape changes without breaking form.

Symmetry and topology

Shapelab Max 2026 unifies symmetry operations into one coordinate reference, meaning mirrored sculpting behaves consistently across all axes and tools. Voxel remeshing has been rewritten for better speed and quality, though Leopoly has not disclosed specific algorithmic changes. The hybrid engine still supports both voxel and polygon workflows, so artists can sculpt freely between detail stages.

Workflow and modelling tools

Brushes include Clay, Standard, Mask, Crease, Smooth, Pinch, Inflate, Snakehook, Flatten, Trim, Regularise and 3D Stamp. Multiresolution sculpting and dynamic tessellation support high-detail workflows. Remeshing and topology tools cover subdivide, decimate, regularise, mirror, weld, fill holes, merge vertices and quad remesh. The workspace can be customised with HDRI environments, ambient lighting and floor visibility toggles. Built-in and user-defined primitives simplify kitbashing and prototyping. Grid and angle snapping, constraints, grouping, cloning and boolean operations aid accurate layout. Scene hierarchy management now allows multiselect and grouping for cleaner scene organisation.

VR and interface upgrades

VR interaction receives controller haptics for interface feedback and adjustable viewport momentum for smoother navigation. Pen and tablet users gain tilt, twist and pressure support via both Wintab and Windows Ink drivers. Vertex painting now supports PBR parameters such as colour, roughness, metalness and emission. Texture export options include normal maps and vertex colours. Materials include PBR and MatCap shading for real-time visualisation. Import and export formats cover FBX, OBJ, GLB and STL. Project scenes are saved in the SL3D format, preserving geometry and shading data.

Platform, pricing and compatibility

Shapelab Max 2026 runs on Windows 10 or later and supports tethered PCVR systems including HTC Vive, Valve Index, Oculus Rift, Quest (via Link) and Windows Mixed Reality. Licences cost 69.99 US dollars for perpetual use or 49.99 US dollars per year by subscription. The price marks a five-dollar increase over the 2025 version. Some bundle offers include standalone Quest editions until early 2026.

Studios should test Shapelab Max 2026 on in-house hardware before adopting it in production.

The post Shapelab Max 2026 bends reality with Elastic Move first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

The developer Nevercenter has released version Silo 2026.0, introducing a significant new feature: the Silo Blender Bridge plugin, linking Silo with the open-source 3D tool Blender.

The new bridge

The Silo Blender Bridge enables users to select one or more objects in Blender, send them to Silo for editing, and automatically see updates back in Blender whenever they save. It also supports creating new objects in Silo that instantly appear inside Blender. The workflow provides Blender users access to Silo’s responsive and lightweight modelling environment, while Silo users gain easier entry into Blender’s full suite of rigging, animation, and rendering tools.

At present, the bridge exchanges geometry using temporary FBX files, which both programs can read and write. Nevercenter notes this may limit certain Blender-specific features, such as modifiers, but the company plans to evaluate more direct communication in future versions depending on user feedback. Installation can be done directly from within Silo via the “Silo Blender Bridge” menu, which automatically installs the plugin to Blender’s add-ons folder. Alternatively, users can download and install it manually. Once installed, it must be enabled under Edit → Preferences → Add-ons inside Blender.

Platform support and licensing

Silo 2026.0 runs on Windows 10 (64-bit) and macOS 12.0 or newer, supporting both Intel and Apple Silicon systems. The perpetual licence is priced at USD 159, covering both Silo and the Milo real-time renderer. The update is free for anyone who purchased Silo within the past year from Nevercenter’s website. Existing users can check or renew their licence at nevercenter.com/upgrade.

The update can be downloaded directly from nevercenter.com/silo/download, with a free trial available for new users. Nevercenter encourages artists to share feedback through email, social channels, or the official Silo User Forums on Discord, where the team collects feature requests and user experiences for future improvements.

Why this update matters

Silo has maintained a small but loyal user base since its first release in 2003 (Fuuuuuck, we are getting old!), appreciated for its speed and uncluttered approach to 3D modelling. By integrating with Blender, Nevercenter opens Silo to a much broader workflow context. The bridge allows production artists to model quickly in Silo’s clean environment and then hand off to Blender for layout, rigging, or rendering — all without repeated exporting and importing.

This integration marks a practical expansion rather than a reinvention: the bridge keeps Silo’s strengths intact while offering Blender users a new way to handle sub-D geometry editing. Nevercenter has explicitly framed this release as a first step, asking users to test the bridge and provide feedback before further development toward a deeper connection.

Workflow cautions

Since the plugin relies on FBX as an intermediary, certain limitations remain. Modifiers and Blender-specific data such as vertex groups or custom materials may not fully survive the round-trip. Users should also expect the bridge to handle static geometry best, rather than complex animated or rigged assets. As with all new integrations, Nevercenter advises testing the plugin thoroughly before relying on it for production work.

Community and feedback

The developer is actively soliciting user input, encouraging modelers to share their experiences on the Silo User Discord, as well as via Facebook, X, Instagram, and YouTube. This feedback will guide the next stage of development and possible refinements to the bridge’s internal communication system.

Bottom line

The Silo Blender Bridge in Silo 2026.0 offers a practical, lightweight link between Silo’s modelling environment and Blender’s broader toolset. The workflow is not yet a live-sync system, but it substantially reduces friction between the two applications. For modelers seeking Silo’s fast, focused interface without leaving their Blender pipeline, this release provides a simple but effective bridge, literally and figuratively. As always, test the workflow on sample scenes before using it in production.

The post Here comes Silo 2026.0 with Blender bridge first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

3ds Max 2026.3 from Autodesk is now available as a subscription-only release for Windows 10 and later. It delivers incremental but practical enhancements to modelling, materials, USD support and rendering pipelines.

Conform modifier gains distance & fall-off

The Conform modifier, used to project one mesh onto the surface of another, now offers dedicated distance and fall-off parameters when using the Shrink Wrap projection method. This gives users finer control over how far the modifier searches for the target surface and how the influence decays. It results in more predictable deformations when wrapping geometry—helpful for architectural visualisation, game asset prep, or surface-fitting tasks. As always, test in your own scenes before deploying in production.

Materials: animated index in the Material Switcher

The Material Switcher, which lets artists manage variant materials on assets, now supports an animatable material index. This allows dynamic switching between up to 9,999 different materials during animation or scene changes. It is particularly useful for large asset libraries, scene variants or motion graphics work that requires frequent material swaps. The “up to 9,999” figure is vendor-supplied and should be tested for performance impact in real-world scenes.

USD plugin enhancements

The USD for 3ds Max plugin, now at version 0.13, introduces several workflow improvements. A new Asset Resolver allows users to set custom search paths and tokens to reduce “asset not found” errors. The viewport now supports duplicating prims using the Shift-drag shortcut, and artists can rename, delete and re-parent prims directly. The USD Importer now supports MaterialX materials referenced in USD files, while the USD Exporter adds support for Shell materials. For studios using USD pipelines across DCC applications, these changes improve interoperability and scene organisation. Nonetheless, compatibility with downstream tools should be verified before adoption.

Arnold integration updates

The Arnold for 3ds Max plugin (MAXtoA 5.8.3.2) updates to the Arnold 7.4.3 core. It introduces a new Inference Imager, allowing image-to-image machine-learning models via the ONNX framework to stylise rendered output. There are also performance improvements in global light sampling and GPU volume rendering. The ML-based Inference Imager is potentially interesting for stylised render pipelines, though users should evaluate render time and output quality within their colour-management setup.

Fixes and workflow polish

Several workflow refinements improve day-to-day usability. The Slate Material Editor’s thumbnail cache now holds unique thumbnails for different colour-management settings, avoiding unnecessary re-renders when toggling view transforms. Users can disable “Update Browser Samples” to speed up interaction when preview accuracy is less critical. Stability fixes address Biped crashes when keyframing twist bones or setting IK keys with sub-animations enabled. In the Skin modifier, weight changes made using the Remove Zero Weights tool are now properly committed when switching bones. Cloth simulation behaviour has also been restored to match results from previous versions after inconsistencies in 2026.0–2026.2.

Licensing, system requirements & pricing

3ds Max 2026.3 runs on Windows 10 or later and is available exclusively via subscription. Pricing is set at 255 USD per month or 2,010 USD per year. In many regions, artists earning under 100,000 USD annually and working on projects valued under that amount qualify for the Indie subscription at 330 USD per year. Always verify eligibility and regional pricing before purchase.

Editorial verdict

3ds Max 2026.3 is not a major overhaul but a purposeful iteration. It strengthens modelling precision, improves material management, expands USD interoperability and introduces an ML-based stylisation tool in Arnold. For production artists in arch-viz, motion graphics and real-time asset pipelines, these modest but thoughtful refinements can streamline daily work.

The Inference Imager’s machine-learning workflow should be evaluated for integration stability and render-time overhead. The “up to 9,999 materials” limit on the Material Switcher may vary depending on scene complexity. USD enhancements look promising but must be validated against existing DCCs and pipeline tools.

As with any version upgrade, test the new tools and modifiers in a controlled environment before deploying across your pipeline.

The post Autodesk 3ds Max 2026.3: A modest update with key workflow tweaks first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Mike Kuhn.

The Camera Array Tool for Blender, developed by ToppiNappi (Olli Huttunen), generates camera rigs directly from 3D geometry. The add-on places virtual cameras at the centre of each polygon on a selected mesh and orients them according to the surface normal.

Users can decide whether the cameras face inward, outward, or in both directions. The tool allows the creation of custom rigs as well as prebuilt configurations, including grids, spheres, and cylinders. Once generated, the camera positions remain linked to the surface, meaning scaling or editing the underlying mesh automatically updates the rig.

Built for image-based reconstruction

Each camera in an array can render still images or animation sequences, stored in user-defined folders. The output data includes COLMAP text files—cameras.txt, images.txt, and points3D.txt—enabling direct use in 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) or neural rendering workflows without the usual Structure-from-Motion reconstruction step. Point cloud exports can include colour data, accelerating later training phases in external applications. A density slider helps control file size when generating point clouds.

4DGS and animated datasets

Version 3.2.0 introduces 4DGS (Four-Dimensional Gaussian Splatting) data export for animated scenes. The add-on can render each frame from all cameras while generating corresponding COLMAP data per frame. This update fixes a previous COLMAP issue: files are now written immediately after each frame, preventing data loss if rendering is interrupted. A new “Animated Camera” feature enables rendering the same array setup through a single moving camera—an alternative method for producing dataset sequences.

Compatibility and workflow integration

Image series from the Camera Array Tool can be trained into Gaussian Splatting models using external software such as Postshot, NeRF Studio, Brush, or ToppiNappi’s free Postshot Batch Trainer. According to the developer, the add-on is particularly useful for synthetic dataset creation, virtual production, or academic experiments with neural rendering and multi-view reconstruction.

Simplicity over spectacle

Despite its experimental applications, the add-on’s concept remains simple: turn a mesh into a camera grid and render from every face. This direct approach makes it accessible for both research and practical visualisation tasks. The tool costs €36 and is available through Gumroad. The “Virtual Camera Bundle” combines the Camera Array Tool with the 360 Extractor add-on at a discounted rate.

As with all Blender extensions, users are advised to test the plug-in within their own pipeline before committing to production use.

The post Camera Arrays for the Gaussian Age first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

The developer Kushiro has released a free modelling add-on for Blender named Outset Boundary, available on Gumroad. The tool adds an “outset” function, which expands face boundaries outward — effectively acting as the inverse of Blender’s native Inset operation. The developer describes it simply: “Outset Boundary is a simple tool for outset (reverse of Blender Inset) boundary edges.”

Key features and workflow

Outset Boundary allows artists to increase the margin of selected faces quickly while automatically handling overlaps. When expanded faces collide, the add-on intelligently merges and connects them to maintain clean geometry. The tool correctly handles right-angled corners by inserting quads at intersections, ensuring a stable topology even during aggressive outsets. It also supports limited use on curved or non-flat surfaces, extending its usefulness beyond basic planar modelling.

A rotation parameter lets users rotate the newly created geometry around the original edge, which helps when working on curved or angled hard-surface components. A threshold distance setting defines how close faces can get before the merge behaviour triggers, giving finer control over geometry intersections.

In use, the workflow is straightforward: in Edit Mode, switch to Edge Mode, select one or several boundary edges, then right-click in the viewport context menu and choose “OutSet Boundary.” The tool then expands the selection outward according to the chosen parameters.

Version history and updates

The Gumroad release notes list a number of updates. Version 1.3.1 improved the merge algorithm for overlapping faces and added a “Reset Rotation” option. Version 1.3.0 introduced a “Select Boundary” function that allows repeated runs of the tool using the Ctrl + R shortcut in Blender. Version 1.2.0 refined the algorithm and fixed several bugs. Earlier, version 1.1.0 had added the rotation and threshold-distance options, improving precision when working on complex meshes.

These updates suggest that the developer is actively refining the tool based on user feedback and ongoing testing, although no roadmap for future releases is provided.

Licensing and cost

Outset Boundary is distributed under a pay-what-you-want model (“$0+”) on Gumroad, making it effectively free to download. The developer notes that the tool is still under improvement but already stable enough for use. No explicit licence terms are stated regarding commercial use or redistribution, so users should verify conditions directly on the Gumroad page before deploying it in commercial projects.

Why it matters for production artists

In hard-surface modelling, the ability to expand face boundaries outward rather than only inward is useful when building shells, adding frame edges, or constructing offset geometry. Outset Boundary directly fills that gap in Blender’s standard toolkit. Its ability to merge overlapping faces is particularly helpful when maintaining clean topology across connected panels or modular assets. By simplifying the expansion process and offering quick iterative controls, the tool could save time in environment, prop, and mechanical modelling workflows. However, as with all community add-ons, production artists should confirm its behaviour on large meshes, non-planar geometry and complex Boolean structures before integrating it into studio pipelines.

Limitations and caveats

While the developer states that Outset Boundary supports curved and non-flat surfaces, there are no detailed test results for highly complex geometry such as multi-material meshes or dense subdivided surfaces. The ongoing-development note suggests that the feature set may change or expand over time, meaning version consistency across team environments should be monitored carefully.

Verdict

For those interested, the tool is currently available for download from Kushiro’s Gumroad page. As always, any newly released add-on should be tested thoroughly in production-like conditions before being used on deliverables.

Outset Boundary (Blender add-on) – Gumroad by Kushiro

The post Free Blender add-on “Outset Boundary” lets you expand faces with one click first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.