For those who don’t know the tool: Boris FX Sapphire is a multi host VFX plug-in suite for editors and compositors, used in After Effects, Premiere, Media Composer, and OpenFX hosts like Resolve, Flame, and Nuke.

Defocus that tries to behave like glass

Boris FX ships Sapphire 2026.5 with a new effect called Advanced Defocus, built to recreate lens blur character rather than just blur pixels. In Sapphire, artists can start from presets, including ones built from real-world lens references and more stylised options, then dial in Defocus Width plus relative width and height for anamorphic style stretching.

Advanced Defocus focuses on the lens kernel, where artists shape bokeh as circles, polygons with adjustable sides and roundness, or custom shapes. It also includes controls to introduce imperfections tied to aperture blades, such as adjustable blade notches, as well as options for colour fringing and noise. The tool targets everything from cheap, dirty glass to high-end primes, depending on how far you push those controls.

The lens vignette section adds classic edge darkening, but also an optcial vignette control that changes distortion toward the frame edges. A Matte Box control goes past soft cropping by simulating uneven light entry, slightly darkening one side while also clipping individual defocused highlights.

From grungy to clean

Advanced Defocus also includes lens textures that break up overly uniform bokeh, with parameters that range from subtle variation to grungy lens looks. Extra controls include highlight boosting, chromatic-style fringing, and grain management to match the foreground and background.

In Adobe After Effects, Advanced Defocus appears under Effect in the Sapphire Blur plus Sharpen category. The effect can work as a straight lens emulation pass, a stylised motion graphics treatment, or a transition building block. A workflow shown in Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Fusion uses Advanced Defocus to soften a keyed background for more believable depth, then adds sensor-style grain to help match elements. Another workflow in After Effects links defocus controls across layers, uses Affect Alpha to defocus type with the background, and offsets values to keep the illusion that typography sits closer to camera.

For edits, Advanced Defocus can also drive transitions inside VEGAS Pro by building an S Transition in the Sapphire Builder variant designed for transitions. That approach ties animation to the transition length on the timeline rather than keyframing, and then applies the same peak values to both incoming and outgoing clips.

Glare gets a rebuild, and flares get louder

Sapphire 2026.5 reworks S_Glare with smoother rendering, richer spectral color, and updated parameters including highlight isolation, cleaner rays, and more natural falloff, plus new styles that widen the look range beyond traditional glare.

In Adobe After Effects, S_Glare sits under the Lighting category and behaves the same across Sapphire hosts. The first control to touch is Threshold: raise it for fewer glares, lower it for more, and expect wildly different results depending on the footage. Sapphire 2026.5 also changes what the defaults look like compared with older versions, so the same effect can start from a different baseline than legacy installs.

Presets matter a lot for S_Glare, but the preview can mislead. Results change with viewer zoom level, so checking at 100 percent gives a more reliable read before you commit. Presets also store Threshold, so loading a preset often means rebalancing Threshold right away to avoid either nothing happening or everything exploding.

If glares drift or slip onto areas you do not want, Threshold Blur becomes the other big lever. Lowering Threshold Blur picks up many more points of interest, which can reduce slippage but may add jitter. A practical balancing rule shown here is: when Blur comes down, Threshold goes up, then you fine-tune from there.

Sapphire includes integrated Mocha inside the effect for masking control. A workflow shown here uses an object brush and Mask ML to generate a mask, then inverts the Mocha mask so glare stays in the scene but stops emanating from a subject.

S_Glare also appears as an embedded component in S_NightSky, where you can open the glare editor, load glare presets, and adjust glare size to customise the look directly within the NightSky effect.

Procedural ridges, more presets, faster stacking

A new Texture Ridges effect generates ridge-like patterns from noise, with controls for octave scaling, speed, frequency, contrast, and layering to build animated surface detail and abstract motion design textures. Sapphire 2026.5 also adds more than 100 new and improved presets, including anime, sci-fi, and abstract fractal motion graphics looks.

Effect Builder gets an interface update aimed at faster custom effect and transition creation, plus new built-in Dots and Noise tools. If you build stacks for repeatable looks, this is the part worth a quiet test session before you let it touch client shots.

Pricing and updates

Sapphire ships as a plug-in collection with subscriptions, upgrade and support plans, and perpetual licenses. Subscriptions start at 545 US dollars per year or 80 US dollars per month. Customers with current Sapphire or Boris FX Suite subscriptions, or with Sapphire upgrade and support plans, get the 2026.5 release obviously as a free update. If you aren’t sure: get the free Trialversion. As always, test new tools and presets in your own pipeline before you rely on them in production.

https://borisfx.com/products/sapphire/#whats-new

The post Boris FX Sapphire 2026.5 adds Advanced Defocus first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Boris FX Continuum is a multi host VFX plugin set for editors and compositors in Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, Apple Final Cut Pro and Apple Motion, Foundry Nuke, and DaVinci Resolve plus Fusion, with a shared FX Editor and Particle Illusion module.

Deinterlacing that does not feel like archaeology

Continuum 2026.5 adds an ML based deinterlacer called “BCC+ Deinterlace ML”. The idea is to take interlaced material (The bane of archived footage) and output progressive scan frames – the kind of footage you still get handed at the worst possible moment, including analog TV sources and VHS transfers, and it sits in the image restoration lane where you want it.

It also lands next to the classic, non ML deinterlacing option, BCC Deinterlace, which already covers interlaced to progressive conversion and includes options like TeleCine style pulldown and converting 29.97 fps NTSC to 24 fps film style frames. The takeaway: 2026.5 now offers two approaches in the toolbox, and you can pick based on what the clip does when it hits motion, fine detail, and compression.

Four ML models get a tune up, plus a GPU memory bouncer

Continuum updates four ML models: Face ML, License Plate ML (Yes, it’s a thing, and surprisingly useful!), Motion Blur ML, and UpRes ML. Face ML adds nose and neck segmentation, giving the face tool more regions to isolate for beauty work, stylised grading, or targeted fixes. Motion Blur ML adds a prismatic colored blur trails option, which pushes it from pure repair into a more obviously stylised look.

The release also introduces an ML model unload system that automatically removes an unused model from the GPU after a period of inactivity, then reloads it when needed. In day to day work, that aims to reduce the slow creep where multiple ML effects sit on a timeline and quietly claim VRAM, especially when you bounce between shots and forget what still has an ML node enabled. VRAM is too expensive these days to waste it on unused code.

If you rely on masking helpers for cleanup and selective looks, the best advice remains boring and true: test ML updates on your very, very worst footage first, not your demo reel footage. New models can change edges, temporal stability, and failure cases, so validate them before you bake them into a show pipeline.

FX Editor gets better at isolation and color sanity

Continuum’s FX Editor adds an integrated Pixel Chooser workflow for isolating effects within a single layer using shape masks, luminance keys, and AI-driven depth maps. The point is fewer stacked layers and fewer “why is this matte two precomps deep” moments. If your day involves lots of stylisation, glow stacks, lens effects, or targeted distortions, faster isolation saves time and makes revisions less error-prone.

The FX Editor also adds a colour management panel with OpenColorIO colour config presets, plus exposure and gamma sliders. That targets consistency when you jump between host apps or when a project uses a defined colour config, and you want the plugin preview to match the host viewing transform as closely as possible. The panel does not magically solve color management on its own, but it gives you one more place to keep settings aligned instead of eyeballing it.

An info panel provides live RGBA and pixel position readouts. That sounds small until you need to match a graphic element, verify a clamp, or confirm what the effect actually output at a pixel. It is the kind of utilitarian feature that rarely makes marketing art but regularly saves real time.

You will likely see these changes show up first in workflows already living on Pixel Chooser driven isolation, especially for masking heavy looks, selective blurs, and depth based focus tricks. One caution: more control panels also mean more places for mismatched settings, so build a quick checklist for the team and keep it consistent across shots.

Warps and displacements get rebuilt for more control

Continuum 2026.5 overhauls parts of the warp and displacement category. BCC+ Ripple now includes three independent ripples you can adjust separately or globally, plus new waveform shapes and perpendicular height options aimed at advanced distortion looks.

Displacement effects, including BCC+ Displacement Map, BCC+ Polar Displacement, and BCC+ Vector Displacement, gain access to over 1000 built-in displacement maps via the FX Editor, along with RGB separation controls. They also add built-in glitch animation and an integrated Beat Reactor that syncs animation to music. That combination signals an intent to make these effects more preset-friendly while still giving artists enough knobs to art-direct motion without keyframing every wobble.

If you have already used distortions as a finishing pass, the refresh should feel like less fighting for predictable behaviour and more time exploring variations. If you use them as a hero look, plan for a quick reapproval cycle on existing presets, because reworked effects can render slightly differently than older versions.

Wipes learn to take direction, literally

Three wipe transitions add a gradient control: BCC+ Smoke Wipe, BCC+ Texture Wipe, and BCC+ Depth Wipe. The gradient aims to guide direction, focus, and motion so the wipe does not have to hit the entire frame uniformly. Gradient types and radial direction changes live in the FX Editor, so the same place you audition presets becomes the place you shape the transition.

This is the kind of feature that can quietly improve editorial pacing. A wipe that starts where the viewer already looks often feels cleaner than a wipe that bulldozes the whole frame at once. It is also a practical tool for hiding cut pain when you need to blend shots that aaaalllllmoooooost (*Arrrgh*) match.

If you work in multiple hosts, the core appeal remains consistency: the same transition concept travels between apps, so you can rough it in the edit and refine it later without switching tools.

Particle Illusion gets parameter linking that actually helps in production

Particle Illusion inside Continuum, and in the standalone Particle Illusion Pro, gains several upgrades in 2026.5. Parameter linking lets you link parameters across particle nodes, so one change updates all linked nodes. That targets the common problem where a multi-node preset looks great until you tweak one emitter and everything falls out of alignment.

Colour mapping adds gradient mapping modes for more deliberate colour control, including angular, linear, and radial mapping, plus controls for offset and angle. The emphasis is non-random control, which helps when you need art direction rather than happy accidents.

Clone Particle Type links position-related parameters to keep multi-node effects aligned while you adjust looks. Link All Clone Parameters allows retroactive adjustments to existing presets, so you can modernise an older setup without rebuilding node by node.

For motion graphics and comp work, these features read like a direct attempt to make particle presets more editable without breaking. That matters because Particle Illusion thrives on presets, but production survives on revisions.

About one third into your tests, try pushing a complex preset harder than you normally would. If the links hold under aggressive changes, you can trust them in real jobs. If they break, you at least learn where the limits are before a client does.

Presets, performance, and the usual upgrade math

Continuum 2026.5 adds more than 150 new presets across categories, including Blur, Lens, Particle Illusion, Stylise, Title Studio, Transitions, and Warp. Several existing effects gain new parameters, including BCC+ Scanline and multiple dissolve variants tied to ripple and displacement. Beat Reactor also extends to more effects.

Title Studio receives improvements and adds 70 new drag-and-drop presets. If you rely on Title Studio as a fast title lane inside an NLE or comp host, more responsive performance and a refreshed library tend to matter more than a single marquee feature.

Pricing stays in the same model family: subscriptions, upgrade and support plans, and perpetual licenses. Subscriptions start at $325 per year or $48 per month. Customers on a Continuum subscription or upgrade and support plan, or the Boris FX Suite subscription, receive 2026.5 as a complimentary update.

As always, run a proper production-style bake-off before you roll it out. Test archival interlace conversions, stress the ML tools on tough edges, and verify that existing presets render consistently across your key hosts.

https://borisfx.com/products/continuum/

The post Boris FX Continuum 2026.5 tunes AI and FX Editor first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Gone are the days when you could buy a plug-in collection for a fixed price and then use it for years. Most providers have switched to subscription models, which can be paid for either monthly or annually. This can be advantageous for users who only need a specific effect or collection for a short period of time and remember to cancel their subscription in good time. In most cases, however, users pay many times what the collection would have cost (in the past) as a one-off purchase. And at least once a year, you are painfully reminded of this when another £250 is debited from your credit card for an FX set that you haven’t used in ages.

The situation is similar with stock footage from relevant databases: in the past, if you bought a collection in the truest sense of the word, you could use it for numerous productions and essentially forever (somewhere in our cupboard, we still have the Artbeats collections “American Cities” and “African Animals” in wonderful NTSC resolution in MotionJPEG format). Nowadays, you either buy expensive credits (as with Adobe Stock) or subscribe (e.g., Envato) to get the material you need.

The manufacturer Production Crate offers a combination of both in its suite: a plug-in collection that includes an extensive database of visuals, music, and sound effects, available by subscription, of course. In this review, we take a closer look at whether the model is worth its USD 300 annual price.

Scope and management

The entire (paid) suite consists of just over 40 plug-ins, around a quarter of which are freely available, i.e. do not require a subscription (we have taken a brief look at the most interesting effects below). According to the manufacturer, the scope of the assets, i.e. the stock material, exceeds 10,000 elements, ranging from simple explosions to animated Valentine’s Day hearts to confused zombies.

The database is divided into VFX, motion graphics, music, sound effects, and 3D models, including Blender assets, with Pro Suite customers entitled to 50 downloads per day. Plug-ins and assets are managed via a central app called ProductionCrate Portal. Depending on their preferred software and workflow, users can install plug-ins for After Effects and Premiere, tools for Blender, or extensions for direct access to assets from the host software. The idea is not new (even Envato now offers a plug-in for Premiere), but it is quite helpful when you need an atmosphere, a background or a nuclear explosion quickly.

Pro plug-ins

The set of both free and subscription-based plug-ins is designed for Premiere Pro and After Effects, with most of the tools working in both host applications. Only plug-ins that don’t really make sense in Premiere (such as unmulting layers or working in 3D space) are only available in After Effects. Otherwise, it must be said that the ProductionCrate Suite offers few surprises.

Most of the effects will be familiar to users, as they have been integral parts of other plug-in collections for decades, such as Glow, Old Film Effect, and HyperGlitch. Nevertheless, the ProductionCrate effects are very cleanly programmed (i.e. few crashes or problems when loading) and also proved to be easy to use – once you’ve experimented a bit and halfway understood what the countless controls are for.

Let’s start with the obvious: turn new video into old film. Or old video. Or old television. Production Crate provides a handful of plug-ins for different applications. The “Retro Film” effect transforms the video into 8, 16 or 35mm film with all the trimmings: faded or blurred colours (or even black and white), dust, hairs, scratches and lots of wild camera shake. The settings are relatively clear and understandable, yet comprehensive, so that the user will hardly miss any options for converting to old film.

Particularly interesting are the presets, where the user can choose among a 1960s home-video style, a Tarantino-esque grindhouse effect, or an old Italian western. All presets are lovingly designed and even include aspect ratios tailored to the look, which you don’t often find. The individual settings range from blur/sharpen to saturation, framing and lens errors to hair length and scratch depth. So basically everything you need for a quick old film effect. The preview and rendering are also pleasantly fast and of sufficiently good quality.

This is followed by the VHS effect, which does exactly what you’d expect from the name: it converts digital video into old VHS footage. Both the presets and the settings are a lot more limited than with Retro Film, but they’re more than enough to achieve a cool 80s look (what else do you really need to adjust with VHS?). In fact, you don’t need much more than the “default” preset; if that’s not enough destruction for you, you can switch to “Found Footage” or “Corrupted” to generate more magnetic interference, distorted colours or jumping line skips. Other custom options include colour softness, grain, jitter and block formation, as well as the number and colour of line skips.

Speaking of line skipping (a factor that used to exist in post-production, but which should no longer be a burden to you, dear Gen Z): a very interesting effect can be found in the CRT Factory (CRT stands for Cathode Ray Tube, or tube monitor for short). The effect transforms digital video into an old television or video monitor, with all the trimmings: curvature, pixels, interlacing, discolouration, optical deviations and strange glows. Here, too, the presets are extensive and lovingly programmed, covering numerous looks, including arcade monitors, billboards, monitors from different decades, LEDs, and plasma TVs. Especially in combination with the VHS effect, but also as a standalone tool, for example, for screen captures or the animation of screen content, impressive results can be achieved here.

And, before we forget, there is, of course, also a proper film grade effect. Unlike other plug-in collections, in which realistic film material from Fuji, Kodak or other (now bankrupt) manufacturers is meticulously reproduced, “film grade” at Production Crate is more of an interesting gimmick. Presets such as Polaroid, Miami, Pop or Retro are available, which already indicates that these are not serious stock simulations. Nevertheless, it’s fun to click through the presets, which here and there are even sufficient to achieve a look that is worth seeing and, in any case, creative. Numerous options are available for customising the image, from colouring, saturation and grain to light rays and, of course, a vignette. Strangely enough, when applied to a video element, the effect switches the comp size to 1,440 x 1,080, so you should proceed with caution here. Whether this is intentional or not is something only the manufacturer knows.

If you take a closer look at the ProductionCrate Suite, you can’t overlook Easy Glow. Although Easy Glow is certainly not the only filter on the market that makes bright areas of an image glow (hardly any plug-in collection comes without a glow effect), the result is extremely impressive and stands out from the competition thanks to its many detailed presets.

The presets range from sunset to retro to science fiction films and always look professional, neither overdone nor understated. The individual settings are not overly extensive, but they still serve their purpose. Of course, you can adjust the intensity of the effect, the colour scheme, as well as shifts and optional light streaks. All in all, Easy Glow is one of the best “make me glow” filters we’ve seen so far — and we’ve seen a lot.

One last filter from the Pro series deserves a more detailed introduction: Hyper Glitch. As the name suggests, this plug-in generates video glitches — from “very subtle” to “completely unrecognisable”. The effect is programmed in a very interesting way and offers a variety of looks, while the individual settings remain simple and easy to understand. Once you have decided on a preset, you can, of course, adjust the strength of the effect to your liking, as well as its intensity, size, colours, jittering, halftones, and speed. Ultimately, there is hardly a setting that you cannot freely design and, of course, animate. Once again, the combination of Hyper Glitch and the CRT monitor makes particular sense for achieving a realistic effect of transmission errors and an old screen.

Surprisingly, the ProductionCreate Suite (in the Pro version) includes numerous other filters that are not really documented or described anywhere (at least not on the website). Installing the collection is like opening a lucky dip: you find an incredible amount of stuff you didn’t expect, and which you probably won’t have much use for until you actually need it. For example, there is an aurora effect that generates northern lights from any image (something you’ll probably need once or twice in your life, if at all).

Or the Fractal filter, which creates 3D fractals like those from a spaceship in films from the 90s. The bokeh effects used to create soft lighting environments are also interesting. Or the Glass filter, which makes text and graphics appear as if they were made of glass, and can actually be used as a virtual window pane with corresponding glass edges. The list goes on, but the space in this report (and our readers’ attention span) is limited.

Free plug-ins

As mentioned above, Production Crate does not necessarily require a subscription for effects and assets, but also offers a handful of useful and interesting plug-ins (and elements) that can be downloaded and used free of charge from the website. We won’t go into more detail here, but we recommend trying them out on your own computer.

One of the free effects that deserves a special mention is certainly “Black Hole”, which is either useful for very specific applications or for promoting the nerdiness of individual DIGITAL PRODUCTION employees (we reported: https://digitalproduction.com/2026/01/15/diy-gravity-make-your-own-black-hole-in-afer-effects/).

DIY Gravity: Make Your Own Black Hole (In After Effects)

The Chromatic Aberration effect is also very useful. It refracts the wavelengths of different light colours to simulate faulty (or very cheap) lenses, which, especially in combination with other effects, produces amazing results. The ASCII filter (also known as the Matrix effect) is also always welcome, as it transforms video images into a shower of characters.

One last free filter that should not go unmentioned here is Long Shadow, which casts a shadow of any length based on an alpha channel of text or graphics. This shadow is not comparable to the realism of a drop shadow or the shadow of a virtual light source in After Effects, but it can be very helpful in designing interesting logos and graphic animations. And, as mentioned, all of the filters mentioned in this section are available free of charge.

VFX footage

We have already mentioned that Production Crate also offers many thousands of assets in its subscription. The focus is less on real stock footage, as is the case with Envato and its ilk, and more on all kinds of elements for designing more or less elaborate special effects. In the “SciFi” submenu alone, there are hundreds of assets for space battles, cyberpunk environments or a remake of Minority Report. Most of the VFX graphics are rendered films with optional alpha (choose from HD to 4K, in ProRes or MP4), but you can also find real images with alpha or green screen (usually when it comes to people who are either shooting wildly or staggering around as zombies).

As we mentioned, the number of downloads is limited to 50 per day (in the Pro version), but this is certainly sufficient if you know in advance what you actually want to design. The VFX section alone is divided into 16 categories (explosions, fire, smoke, blood, flying objects, and so on), which are in turn sorted into subcategories (e.g. explosions on land, in the air, and nuclear), so users should be able to find what they are looking for quite quickly.

Within the VFX section, things can also be a little less brutal if, for example, you are looking for weather phenomena such as snow or rain, or animals such as birds or fish. The motion graphics section is quite interesting, but somewhat less extensive. Here you will find all kinds of animated backgrounds, lens flares, animated icons and buttons from popular portals, cute emojis, and lots of transitions, textures, and quite elaborately designed captions.

Users of 3D programmes such as Blender will be delighted with the numerous 3D objects, most of which are once again very martial in nature (lots of war toys, apocalypse and sci-fi), but there are also things from normal, everyday life, such as cars (that aren’t standing around as bombed-out wrecks), trees, sports equipment and delicious doughnuts with pink frosting.

SFX footage

In addition to the numerous visual assets, the Production Crate subscription also includes sounds in the form of sound effects and royalty-free music (editor’s note: “royalty-free” does not necessarily mean “free for commercial use” — if in doubt, check the terms of use with the provider). The selection of music tracks is not overly extensive, but it offers a pretty good start for use as a layout, at least. The music tracks are divided into categories such as rock, disco, epic and action, so you should be able to find at least a small selection of music for every application.

In terms of quality, the tracks are in the middle range, meaning they meet the standard of a professional sound database, but do not particularly stand out. In addition to numerous music tracks, Production Crate offers more than 5,000 sound effects that can be used at will within the subscription. These are also divided into categories for ambient sound, animals, accidents, organic sounds (such as breaking bones) and various vehicles. However, it is clear that the martial approach prevails here too, i.e. there are significantly more explosions and muzzle flashes than delicate birdsong. Nevertheless, the range is extensive and of high quality.

As a special gimmick, Production Crate offers a plug-in that allows access to the sound effects directly from Premiere. Using a separate window in the editing programme, users can browse the sound library, listen to samples, and, if they find what they are looking for, download the element with a single click and insert it into the timeline at the position of the playhead. The plug-in is clever enough not to overwrite existing elements in the sequence but instead to create a new audio track.

Conclusion

Anyone interested in compositions, effects and motion design within After Effects (or sometimes even Adobe Premiere) should definitely try out the numerous free plug-ins from Production Crate. Whether a subscription is worthwhile depends, of course, very much on the individual working environment and production requirements.

Production Crate leans heavily into sci-fi, fantasy and action, which is why a large part of the material on offer and some plug-ins are not particularly suitable for, say, “normal” productions (documentaries, reports, cooking shows, weather reports, Sunday sermons). We would therefore recommend the Production Crate subscription to users from the aforementioned fictional areas. Nevertheless, it is worth taking a closer look at what is on offer for the majority of users. In fact, there is also a “beginner subscription” available for USD 9 per month (USD 100 per year), which includes the plug-ins but does not allow access to most of the footage database. So if you only want to use the effects, the starter pack is a good choice.

Info box

ProductionCrate Suite Skills (plug-ins only) $100/year
ProductionCrate Suite Pro (Plug-ins and 50 downloads/day) $299/year
ProductionCrate Suite Enterprise (plug-ins and 100 downloads/day) on request

Check current pricing and options here.

Host application: Adobe After Effects/ Adobe Premiere Pro

Further information: https://www.productioncrate.com/

The post ProductionCrate Plug-in Suite with docked footage database first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Andreas Zerr.

For those who don’t know the tool: Adobe After Effects is Adobe’s motion graphics, compositing and visual effects software in Creative Cloud. It sits alongside Premiere in postproduction and motion design workflows, and this update extends native 3D and typography capabilities with new core features.

Adobe has released After Effects 26.0 as the first major update of 2026. The release focuses on native 3D geometry, material workflows, typography enhancements and performance improvements. Official documentation and Adobe announcements confirm availability through the Creative Cloud desktop app.

Meshes

After Effects 26.0 adds native parametric meshes that let artists create and animate basic 3D shapes, such as spheres, cubes, and cones, directly in compositions without external 3D modelling tools. Users can customise the size, shape, and material properties of these meshes in the Properties panel. Integral to this 3D workflow is support for Substance 3D Materials inside After Effects. These are .sbsar procedural materials that can be applied to both imported 3D models and native parametric meshes. Controls exposed in the material allow artists to adjust colour, roughness and pattern parameters without rebuilding assets.

Typography

Typography and vector workflows see notable upgrades. The release introduces support for Variable Font axes in OpenType fonts, enabling animation of weight, width and style from a single file. This gives precise typographic control in dynamic titles and motion graphics.

On the vector import side, After Effects now imports SVG files as native editable shape layers that preserve paths, fills and transforms, ready for animation. Illustrator layer conversion has also been improved to retain gradient fills, strokes and transparency when converting into native shapes.

Unmult

Compositing and keying tools are extended with a new Unmult effect that removes solid black or white backgrounds while preserving foreground detail, easing integration of stock elements into scenes.

Performance and workflow improvements include lossless compressed playback, which reduces disk space during longer previews without visual quality loss, and a refreshed Preferences UI for quicker access to key settings. Native support for Windows ARM devices aims to improve performance and efficiency on ARM based systems.

Lighting in the Advanced 3D renderer now supports multiple light types that cast shadows in 3D compositions, offering more realistic depth and integration for scene lighting.

The release also introduces new built-in audio effects, Distortion, Compressor and Gate, that provide essential sound control within compositions without external tools. Expression and scripting enhancements simplify navigating keyframes and reading text values in scripts.

Adobe lists After Effects 26.0 as available now via Creative Cloud. As with all major updates, artists should test new features in isolated projects before adopting them into production to ensure compatibility and workflow stability.

https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2026/01/20/new-ai-powered-video-editing-tools-premiere-major-motion-design-upgrades-after-effects

The post Adobe After Effects 2026 Lands With 3D, Text and Performance Boosts first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Battle Axe has released Overlord 2.6, expanding its well-known Illustrator-to-After Effects bridge into Photoshop territory. The update introduces a direct Photoshop connection, enabling the transfer of native PSD layers, including text, masks, gradients, and layer styles, into After Effects as editable AE layers ready for animation.

Until now, After Effects users importing Photoshop files were confined to flattened or grouped layer structures. Overlord’s new system translates Photoshop data into true layer objects, retaining editable text and design attributes.

More Than a Patch

Version 2.6 also adds an image scale selector, giving users control over how imported imagery is sized during transfer. Battle Axe has rewritten the messaging system, lifting the image transfer ceiling from 16 MB to 265 MB, and redesigned the application interface. Preference handling has been moved to the app itself for faster response. Other interface adjustments include a Figma panel redesign, now hiding settings behind a gear icon.

Maintenance and Hotfix

A follow-up build, Overlord 2.6.1, was issued the next day to fix a bug that caused a blank app panel for new users. The changelog also lists fixes for Illustrator and Figma panels, resolving issues with paragraph alignment, linked file handling, and text justification.

What It Means for Production

Overlord has long served as a time-saver for motion designers bridging design tools and After Effects. The Photoshop connection extends this to one of the most common layout sources in VFX and motion pipelines. As with all major workflow updates, studios should test version 2.6 thoroughly before deploying in production to verify compatibility with existing projects and AE builds.

The post Photoshop Joins Overlord 2.6 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Adobe’s latest beta release of After Effects lets users preview HDR compositions directly within the software. Designed for professionals working with HDR content, the feature enables real-time HDR playback on HDR-compatible monitors. According to Adobe, this ensures better accuracy in visualizing brightness and color when working with HDR projects, especially compared to earlier workflows requiring third-party tools or cumbersome conversions.

Adobe After Effects Beta: HDR Preview and Enhanced Caching

The new After Effects beta introduces a groundbreaking feature: HDR preview. For motion designers and VFX professionals, the ability to view HDR compositions on HDR-compatible monitors eliminates the need for guesswork. This feature ensures that every highlight, shadow, and color appears exactly as intended, simplifying workflows for HDR projects.

The update also brings support for widely used HDR color spaces, including Rec.2100 PQ (Perceptual Quantizer) and Rec.2100 HLG (Hybrid Log-Gamma). These industry-standard spaces are crucial for delivering content compatible with platforms such as Netflix and other HDR streaming services. Artists now have the flexibility to work confidently, knowing that their output aligns with current media standards.

Beyond HDR, Adobe has also enhanced the caching system in After Effects. By optimizing RAM and disk usage, the beta delivers faster playback and smoother previews, even for large compositions. This improvement is especially valuable for professionals working on intricate VFX or motion graphics, as it reduces interruptions and enhances overall efficiency.

While the HDR preview in After Effects beta is promising, it’s essential to approach the feature with caution in live production environments. Like most beta features, its stability should be thoroughly tested in smaller projects before incorporating it into high-stakes workflows. The After Effects beta, including the HDR preview feature, is available to Creative Cloud subscribers. For more information or to download the beta, visit Adobe’s official site here.

Adobe Premiere

The Premiere Pro beta adds AI-powered Media Intelligence, simplifying the search for specific clips in extensive projects. This feature automatically analyzes footage, recognizing objects, locations, camera angles, and metadata like recording dates or camera types. Editors can now type in descriptions, such as “sunset drone shot,” into a search bar, and the system will locate the matching clips instantly. Importantly, the analysis runs entirely on local systems, ensuring data privacy. Hopefully! But, if it works, it might be one of the most usefull AI-Features we have seen in a while!

Another feature in the Premiere Pro beta is Subtitle Translation, a addition for filmmakers expanding their content’s global reach. The feature supports native translation of subtitles into 17 languages, making it easier to create localized versions of projects. This significantly reduces the reliance on manual translations, which often slow workflows and add to production costs. For more details on the Premiere Pro beta and its features, visit Adobe’s official page here.

The post Adobe After Effects Beta: HDR Preview for Precision Workflows first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Professionals experienced in teamwork will probably already be familiar with the following. But what about everyone else who, after initial successes, approaches projects that involve real money and real customers? Mistakes in the workflow and the need to fix them can push your real hourly wage well below the minimum promised by your government, not to mention the loss of your first important client.

We will highlight the challenges of roundtripping (i.e. the reciprocal handover of editing steps) with Premiere Pro (PPro for short) and DaVinci Resolve (DR for short). But the solutions are similar for other pairings, although the DR manual contains considerably more information on exchanging with Avid and even Final Cut Pro X than for Premiere. The two manufacturers probably don’t like each other that much …

The Problem

Unfortunately, some semi-informed people in the infinite expanses of the Internet keep claiming that such a co-operation is quite simple. But what’s much worse is that some project participants pick up on such information and even believe it (kind of reminds you of Corona, doesn’t it?). If these people then have something to say in the project – perhaps even more than those who are better informed – the whole thing can become exhausting. There’s little point in trying to talk a team member who really wants to do the rough cut on their own device out of their usual programme if the production is behind it.

It’s better to warn this person about the risk of working with original files – possibly even on the chip from the camera – and having to look at dull clips in log (and grumble about the camera person). You’d better tell them that you’ll provide them with carefully backed up and prepared material for the edit, which will also run on a less powerful laptop or even a tablet (yes, Luma Fusion can export an XML). The biggest remaining risk then is that the person on the other end uses effects that are lost in transit. In addition to the ones we’ve done here, you’ll need your own tests and then precise agreements on what is and isn’t allowed. Hard cuts always work, but even a fade can cause problems.

Hand over Entire Projects?

Forget it! First of all, we must unfortunately clarify what does not work: You can’t transfer projects between different NLEs. No! Nope! No way! Nada! The project management and their file formats are too different, as are the individual tools and their possibilities. You don’t even have to assume that the manufacturers are deliberately closing themselves off. These systems have literally grown over decades, and file management is ultimately the foundation of non-destructive video editing. Nobody changes this without absolutely compelling reasons.

Technical development alone means that software is usually not even fully compatible with its own previous versions. Even if some programs offer to save in an older format, it is better for everyone involved in the project to use the same version. If it is necessary for reasons of hardware performance for someone to work with an older version, the same procedures and tips apply as below, just as if you were dealing with different software, unless compatibility is expressly guaranteed by the manufacturer. Even then, we recommend carrying out your own tests. We are not alone in this opinion: ProVideo Coalition.

In addition, each manufacturer has its own solutions for working with specialised software, i.e. for compositing, audio editing (DAW) or video compression. Adobe has After Effects, Audition and Media Encoder with Dynamic Linking – not always entirely painless, as you can find out in the relevant forums. Apple has Motion, Logic Pro and Compressor, but in essence this only involves the semi-automatic transfer of rendered files or files to be compressed. Logic Pro can read XML files from FCPX, but even here there are stumbling blocks, as you can read at macProvideo. DaVinci Resolve goes the furthest by having integrated Fusion and Fairlight years ago. However, until today the separate version of Fusion is still more stable, the transfer can be done via the VFX Connect Clip and is then similar to the procedure with FCPX and Motion.

I won’t go into sound editing here, but if you want to work with Logic Pro, you can read the article above and take the diversion via FCPX if necessary. The same applies to Audition, see Larry Jordan‘s workflow here. The topic of working with Pro Tools would require a separate, extensive article by an audio specialist (no, it’s not uncomplicated either, even though this is repeatedly claimed). And if it doesn’t always work within the family, how is it supposed to work with the competition? As I said: Forget it! Anyone presenting serious tips and workflows on the internet will therefore talk about timelines and not entire projects.

Editing Material

For all non-conformists around here: Make friends with the term conform! This requires a clear division of labour, detailed agreements and careful testing of the workflow, but then you can definitely cut with one system and do the colour design with the next. As a rule, versions of the camera clips that are easier to save and edit are created for this purpose – the offline clips. The resulting edited versions have to be precisely linked to the camera originals for grading. DR was originally a pure colour grading system. It therefore offers a wide range of options for combining edited versions from other systems with the originals via re-conform, which the manual describes in detail in Chapter 56 “Conforming and Relinking Clips”.

The most common one is probably the collaboration between Premiere for editing and Resolve for colour grading, simply because of their widespread acceptance, as both programs are available for PC and Mac. We don’t want to start a religious war here about who is better (or has the fairer business model). The fact is that some people have been editing on PPro for years, but DR has the more comprehensive grading. Even though both programs largely (but by no means completely) understand the same video formats, you only really need the full quality of elaborate RAW or high-resolution log files when grading. An online/offline workflow is particularly helpful if you are not sitting next to each other, being connected to shared storage.

Creating Offline Material in Resolve (Proxies)

It is therefore advisable to use DR to capture and back up the originals. The Clone Tool is available for the backup if you don’t want to use one of the specialised programs such as ShotPut Pro. After backing up to several physically separate media, import the clips into a timeline with the appropriate frame rate.

This is where the first pitfall occurs: even though Resolve can handle a timeline with mixed frame rates (fps = frames per second), this is not recommended for roundtripping. Since such clips with deviating fps are often only intended for slow motion, the originals should be set to the target speed in the Clip Attributes. This results in the best image quality without any additional computing effort. In principle, Resolve can also handle different fps rates when importing from PPro, but this only makes sense if the final render is also carried out in Resolve.

Other changes such as speed ramping can be problematic (more on this later). If, on the other hand, clips are to retain their different fps or the other party wants to work with more complex fades and effects, you should point out possible problems and allow for additional work. It is better to limit yourself to simple cuts and fades for this approach during offline editing in PPro and to do more complex work together on a well-equipped Resolve workstation. Then you just have to make sure that your originals all contain a correct timecode (TC for short). They shouldn’t all start with 0:00:00:00, which usually indicates unreadable TC or none at all, and should have unique names.

Separately recorded sound should already be prepared (and checked) in Resolve, synced by TC, with Waveform or, if necessary, by hand. The best way to do this is to create a timeline with the maximum number of audio tracks that any of your clips require. Then put all the clips, e.g. for a working day, into a timeline as a day roll and the originals into an appropriately named bin. If the recordings are in a log format or the camera operator used a special LUT when recording, you should convert them to Rec. 709 or include the LUT so that there are no complaints regarding the picture from uninformed people. DR offers extensive options for the naming and bin arrangement of such clips with its “Smart Bins”.

It is best to include the TC and the file names in the image, so that you have an additional option to check for placement (unless the recipients object). The automatic creation of proxies in DR is now capable of such “burn-in” for the tasks described here, by activating “Render timeline effects” while rendering with the option “Individual clips”. If you have a very high shooting ratio, you can save lots of space by first sitting down with your partners to cull, creating a rough cut and consolidating it using Media Management. Be sure to link to the new clips and render the result as proxies first. Unfortunately, there is no option when transcoding with Media Management to burn information into the image or make an initial colour correction in Media Management itself. You therefore have to output the timeline as individual clips via the Deliver page.

The sound always comes across as the original without corrections, but if desired in several tracks or even in separate files. Linear PCM in 48 kHz is recommended as the format; also with a higher bit depth or sample rate if some sources allow this. For the image, use an I-frame codec that does not place too much load on the receiver’s computer and is readable in any case. MOV (and not MP4) is recommended as the container because there are no problems with the TC track. ProRes is suitable as a codec for all systems, but CineForm or DNxHD/HR is just as good for PCs. MXF in OP1A as a container is also okay for Premiere (but as MXF OP-Atom only for Avid). Surprisingly, PPro can write ProRes into MXF, while DR doesn’t offer that combination.

These codecs are easily scalable in terms of quality and file size, but are of course larger than H.264/265. Nevertheless, you should avoid such GOP codecs, because depending on the hardware performance, they may run worse on the target computer. Even when producing in 4K or UHD, offline editing can be done in HD if the originals have been checked for image sharpness beforehand. As DR allows two installations, you can run the transcoding on a weaker second computer, as it blocks the workstation for a little longer depending on the hardware. DR will point out any missing clips. If your proxies carry the same name and are in a subfolder named “Proxy” under the one with the full-res originals, DR can switch between them automatically.

Attention, Pitfalls!

Some semi-professional cameras pack a non-standard TC into an MP4 header, which is then not read everywhere. It often happens that TC in MP4 is recognised by PPro, but not in FCPX, for example. If you determine with MediaInfo that there is a TC, you can re-wrap the material to MOV, then the TC should be fully readable. This can be done quickly and losslessly with a tool such as Shutter Encoder (donationware), even in batch processing.

If there is no TC at all, you can use QTchange from Videotoolshed to add one to the MOV based on the creation time. This is not necessarily accurate enough for sound synchronisation, but at least it is close. Alternatively, you can find a few Python scripts in the Resolve forum. It is also quite bad when amateur cameras keep assigning the same names after changing the storage medium. This can often be fixed in one of the camera menus, but if it has already happened, it is better to also use the “Reelname” or “Reelnumber” field in the metadata (in PPro and FCPX this is called “Tape” or “Tape name”).

This field should always be used to ensure the link back to the originals. In the professional sector, it is usually already filled in by the cameras, but they do not generate duplicate clip names anyway. If this information is missing, it can be added in QtChange too. However, it is not read by every programme. If this is not the case, as in Resolve, you must place the clips of each memory chip in a separate bin and use this specifically for conforming (Conform from Bin). Now you can pass the rendered material through for editing. But how do the editing decisions get back to Resolve from PPro, FCPX or other editing programmes?

Via EDL

The oldest method is an EDL (Edit Decision List), which recognises a maximum of 2 video tracks and 4 mono audio tracks. The most common format is CMX3600, named after an editing control system from the 1980s when people still worked with three mechanical tape machines. This is practically always understood, but unfortunately only consists of the TC information for hard cuts and any crossfades, plus the clip names. Some of the other fades are named in the EDL, but they become fades in DR. Any effects are ignored.

Anyone who turns up their nose at such a stone-age format should realise that it is quite useful for a very reliable and uncomplicated transfer method. However, this requires a clear division of labour and discipline (how awful). It is also not ideal for RAW formats and not perfect for roundtripping, but rather a one-way street from editing to grading if the material or parts of it have not been prepared in Resolve (see above). Rather, the editors cut the originals in their favourite program and render a high-quality version in one piece at the end.

Advantages: All the options that the editing programme is capable of, including resizing, speed ramps, frame rate adjustments, etc., are baked into a single film file at this point. Titles, motion graphics or VFX can also come from a programme such as After Effects. This rules out any misunderstandings on the side of the target software. However, you should switch off any grading attempts beforehand, as the transfer to Resolve may take place in a slightly reduced colour space (and probably not without good reason).

For sources with high compression and a maximum colour depth of 10 bits, such as from filming photo devices or mobile phones, DNxHR HQX 10 bit or ProRes 422 HQ is completely sufficient for transfer. For better sources, DNxHR 444 12 bit or ProRes 4444 (for pixel peepers with a lot of storage space also in XQ) is used. This film should, however, be finally approved as far as editing and effects are concerned, because now only the grading is done. For this purpose, an EDL is also output for the timeline, which is imported into DR as a pre-conformed EDL in addition to the film. In the last step, you have to point to the folder of the clip from PPro. DR then splits everything into individual cuts again, allowing colour grading for each clip.

Disadvantages: You cannot colour grade picture-in-picture effects or superimposed graphics separately in DR. There are two options for this: You can either adjust the colours in the editing program using its tools or, if there are only a few elements that require time-consuming correction, you can place them individually at the end of the timeline (preferably separated by a short black) and grade them in Resolve. The result can then be inserted back into the original programme at the desired position. The same applies to dissolves, because the two clips are not accessible separately for the fade period. DR recognises a dissolve based on the EDL, but this contains clips that have already been mixed. If necessary, a sliding correction with keyframes can serve as a workaround here. This technical limitation is hardly noticeable with short dissolves.

In addition, the metadata of the camera originals is not available in DR, so you have to take care of the colour management yourself. This method is therefore not suitable if you have sources in RAW or changing log formats. With semi-professional cameras, this hardly matters because information about their image profiles is usually missing in DR anyway. Careful note-taking and good coordination are therefore required. However, the EDL itself provides some clues, as at least the names of the originals appear there, which usually allow the camera to be identified. Although DR also offers two quite powerful methods for automatically recognising cuts, these are not 100% reliable for fast action or some effect transitions and are more recommended for archive material for which an EDL no longer exists.

The big advantage: There are no misunderstandings between the programmes, and formats that DR does not like on PC (such as DV), or generally incompatible ones like MPEG-2 or ProRes RAW, can be used. Any changes to the cut must be made in DR. However, these are limited to hard cuts with a change of position or shortening, as the original files are not accessible to DR in this way – and therefore no extensions or new transitions. For titles and graphics, however, you can pass a duplicated timeline without these elements to DR, render the result from the grading and add the rest in the original editing software. Finally, you can adjust their colours and contrast directly without having to use DR.

Darren Mostyn has the best tutorial on this, but even he is somewhat superficial and does not mention many problems. Ultimately, we are dealing with destructive editing here, whereas any modern editing system (NLE) works non-destructively in that you can access the unaltered (and hopefully saved) original files at any time. Such restrictions are certainly not to the taste of anyone who is used to the endless tweaking of digital media right up to the last minute. If all the material was initially prepared by DR and delivered to PPro, access to the original files also works via regular import of an EDL, but XML can do much more.

Via XML

The abbreviation stands for Extensible Markup Language, so it is a universal language that is not only suitable for editing information. As an open standard, it is used for a wide variety of data descriptions and is (somewhat) readable for both humans and computers. Apple has already used it in Final Cut Pro 7 for the exchange of editing information. This oldest format (XML 1.0) has developed into a quasi-standard and is the only one that PPro reads or outputs if Final Cut Pro XML is selected for export. These files transport much more information than an EDL, but are still compact enough to be sent by e-mail or cloud service. Unfortunately, you should still not expect the target programme to understand all of the source’s options. We have therefore thoroughly tested how well PPro and DR understand each other via XML.

Premiere to Resolve

In Premiere, we simply select the desired sequence and go to File > Export > Final Cut Pro XML. We can still assign a name, but DR does not read it anyway, instead the one in the XML file. PPro kindly creates a text file called FCP translation results, but this is largely worthless: there are far fewer references than there are actual problems. A tip for importing: First load all sources into the media page, sorted neatly into bins if you like. Then load the XML from Premiere via Import > Timeline, but switch off the automatic import of the media. You can also change the name of the timeline here. If only it were that easy in Premiere (see below)!

At first glance, we are pleased that all video and audio tracks of a timeline with over 4 hours arrive without errors. Even timeline markers are included. Although they are all blue, their position and duration are correct, and a comprehensive commentary text also arrives – a very welcome tool for team coordination (called notes in DR). Clip markers, on the other hand, don’t work. Another communication aid is to switch off video tracks (this does not work for audio tracks). That’s helpful, because you can simply place Adobe-specific items such as titles or linked After Effects clips on a deactivated track for export.

As for fades, there is of course the cross-dissolve (sadly only the “video” version, “film” may look nicer), a fade to white or black and even a wipe from PPro is coming across as an edge wipe. Caution: Temporally asymmetrical transitions get centred on the cut. All other transitions become crossfades. This is stated in the aforementioned protocol, but does not fully correspond to the information in the DR manual. Regarding filters, even standards such as a Gaussian blur or unsharp masking do not come across, even if both NLEs offer them. Perspective effects are also lost, although both programmes are capable of those too.

Level changes of the audio tracks are ignored, but video opacity values are even transferred with keyframes. Only very slight deviations can be detected in all functioning keyframes, but do not tinker with the interpolation method! Even speed changes arrive including keyframes, but don’t get too excited: linear interpolation is arriving in DR, as with the other animated values. At best, you can use it to suggest what you want, but the aesthetic fine-tuning has to be done during final production. Still images are lost, so you should turn them into video clips at the source. Finally, stereo audio tracks get turned into mono for no apparent reason. You’ll need to reconfigure them in the Clip Attributes.

A smaller pitfall is the TC of the timeline. It normally starts at zero for PPro and at one hour for DR – this can easily be changed on import, in the project or for the single timeline. Scaling and position, even rotation, are coming across, including animation. There is another issue to take care of: PPro has two methods to scale a clip to the timeline resolution. If the clip is set to “Scale to frame size” that is a virtual scaling and it will not be observed in the XML, accordingly the clip will arrive in DR at its original size. “Fit to frame” will look just the same in PPro, but the clip will be scaled in DR too.

You can set this behaviour in the presets before importing media to your PPro project to make it the default. But please don’t change the anchor point, that would ruin everything. Behind this is a fundamental difference: PPro is working in absolute pixel values, while DR is resolution independent (generally) and works in percentages. Unfortunately, only linear interpolation is used here too, so it is not always looking nice. Scaling of different source sizes can be set in the DR project too, or be fixed in the Inspector. Also pay attention to the resolution of the timeline, or it will be switched to the format of the largest video source.

Resolve to Premiere

Pay attention to the format when exporting from DR: Only FCP 7 V5 XMLs are accepted by PPro via the import command. First of all, the positive: Not only do all tracks and even still images arrive here, but also the information for muting audio or deactivating video tracks. However, this almost exhausts the communication options: only clip markers are received, but they are useless without any text or names, and duration markers are not received at all. At least you don’t have to limit communication to notes on paper: right-click on the timeline and select Timelines > Export > Timeline Markers to EDL to get a list of timecodes, comment texts and the colour specification as text (note: no clip markers).

Crossfading is possible, but only in the standard version (video). Dip to colour usually becomes a black fade, but with pure white it also works in this direction. Edge wipe comes across, even with a change of direction, but don’t get overconfident straight away: A free choice of angle becomes the next 45-degree step. Opacity, zoom, position and rotation including keyframes only work if the project in PPro has already been set accordingly. If the individual clip is subsequently rearranged in DR, all keyframes are removed. Here too, the anchor point must remain in the centre, otherwise you get nonsense – without any warning. Speed ramps seem to work at first glance, but they are completely wrong. Filters: Forget them! Adjustment layers too.

What can be easily deactivated in DR can be a bit annoying in PPro: Every time a timeline is re-imported, some clips are re-imported as duplicates, even though they already exist. At some point, you may end up with an endless list of identical clips. But there is a workaround if it happens to you: Create a temporary project, load your XML timeline there, link all the media that may still be missing and save it. Now switch to the original project, go to the temporary project in the Media Browser and link it using Dynamic Link. You can now navigate to the imported sequence and open it in the source window. It can then be dragged into the current project without reloading all clips. Cumbersome, but clearer in the end. All this considered, the path from PPro to DR works much better than the other direction.

Advice

It should be clear that this information can only be a snapshot, as both NLEs are constantly being further developed. We have tested with DaVinci Resolve 19.1.3 and Premiere Pro 25.1 and have by no means tried out all the transitions and filters – this could fill several pages. In chapter 55 of the Resolve manual under “Preparing to Move Your Project to DaVinci Resolve” there are detailed tables on this, but in our own tests they were by no means correct in all points (although Premiere is hardly mentioned anyway).

It is therefore essential to carry out extensive workflow tests with your own material and all the desired design tools. If this is not respected by the production company, it is better to keep your hands off the project or make it clear in the contract that the corresponding additional services will be charged by the hour. Of course, with the XML method, only the information is handed over for editing and not the video material. We must therefore ensure ourselves that it can be found by the other system. This can be particularly confusing under Windows if the respective drive has been assigned a new letter. The link commands in the respective NLE usually solve the problem.

To be sure that the whole edit has arrived correctly, a reference clip should always be rendered on the source system, preferably again with TC and clip names burnt in. You can load this in DR as “offline” in the left-hand viewer, then it is linked via TC and runs constantly synchronised with the right-hand image of the timeline (pay attention to the start TC!). Alternatively, you can right-click on “Difference” in the timeline viewer. Then everything except the burn-ins should remain black when scrolling through if no errors have occurred.

Updated on September 10th, 2025

As of today, DR is supporting ProRes RAW too, so it can be transferred and used on both sides.

The post What about Roundtrips? Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Uli Plank.

In nuce: At this year’s Adobe Max creative conference, which began yesterday, 18 October, and will continue until tomorrow, 20 October, the software company Adobe has already made some exciting announcements – including the release of version 23.0 of After Effects. At the same time, the beta version of the software will be made available. On the other hand, the Substance 3D Collection will be expanded in terms of functionality. Among the innovations that are relevant for VFX artists are Substance 3D Modeler and Substance 3D Sampler. Adobe describes the Substance 3D Collection as a coherent ecosystem filled with applications and content relating to 3D design. The Substance 3D Collection is intended to simplify work on creative projects, particularly in conjunction with Photoshop and Illustrator.

New in After Effects: Selectable Track Mattes, new Animation Presets, and More

In toto – After Effects: Here are some of the most important new features of the new After Effects. The blog post by Senior Product Manager Eric Philpott provides a detailed overview.

• Revised workflow for matte layers, allowing each layer to be used as a track matte. The Track Matte drop-down menu is now located in the Timeline panel for this purpose. As just mentioned, this allows each layer to be defined as a track mat. The advantage of this is that instead of creating individual mattes for each layer, a single matte layer can now be assigned to several target layers. More information on how to select Track Matte Layers is available at helpx.adobe.com .
• Native, hardware-accelerated H.264 encoding has been added – can now be run directly in After Effects. This eliminates the need to use a media encoder.
• 50 new animation templates (presets) for motion graphics – this includes keyframes, effects and expressions. If, for example, an elaborate effect with specific settings for keyframes and expressions has been created, all these settings can be defined as a separate animation template. How exactly this works is also explained at helpx.adobe.com.
• Support for OpenColorIO colour management and the ACES colour space (Academy Color Encoding System). Further information on colour management and colour space is available at helpx.adobe.com .

• The workflow improvements mainly concern timeline navigation and the Composition Presets Lists.
• In After Effects Beta, users can import 3D models directly into After Effects. This works with the .obj, .gITF and .glb file formats, making the workaround of importing 3D models via a third-party plug-in a thing of the past.

In toto – Adobe Substance 3D Collection: Here are the two most important new features for VFX artists. The corresponding blog post by Adobe Group Manager Marc Hamaker provides further information. Incidentally, Digital Production reported on the release of the Substance 3D Collection on 24 June last year.

• The Substance 3D Modeler is being introduced. According to the developer, the creation of 3D objects with the Modeler is to be simplified, coming closer to the drawing of 2D images. The developer compares working with the 3D Modeler to clay, which artists can edit in a VR environment. On the one hand, 3D objects can be created using gesture control; on the other hand, it should be possible to quickly switch back and forth between the VR headset and desktop computer. Modelling in a VR environment should be particularly useful for defining the rough shape of a 3D object. With the subsequent further processing on the desktop PC, artists put the finishing touches to their creation.
• The functionality of the Substance 3D Sampler has been extended. According to Adobe’s blog, the sampler can now transfer series of images into a photorealistic 3D model or, for example, transfer a photograph into an HDR environment. This is made possible by AI-based and photogrammetry tools.

Click further: For an outlook on the future of After Effects, we recommend our advertorial in which we spoke to Adobe’s Principal Product Manager for Motion Graphics Victoria Nece at the IBC (International Broadcast Convention) about updates to After Effects.

Sources: cgchannel.com, helpx.adobe.com ( about the After Effects beta)

The post Adobe announces the new After Effects! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: Crate’s Godrays – a free plugin for Adobe After Effects that can be used to create volumetric lighting effects – has been published on the online asset library ProductionCrate . This is according to a report on cgchannel.com. In the video posted online alongside the plugin, Crate’s Godrays says: “It’s six times faster than CC Radial Blur, the standard approach to creating light rays in After Effects.” The plugin is available for After Effects CS6 and up and works with Windows and Mac operating systems.

In toto: According to the description of the plugin, its handling should be comparatively simple. A click in the viewport defines the starting point from which the light source should radiate. Parameters such as “beam length”, “diminishing beam power over a certain distance” or “chromatic aberration” are user-definable. There are also four preset quality modes to choose from, allowing you to decide whether a high-quality image of the light effect is more important than the rendering speed.

Click further: A guide has been published on productioncrate.com . It explains how to download Crate’s Godrays (see also the video below). Digital Production last reported on ProductionCrate on 28.07.2022 . At that time, it was the 3D models of the Modern Industrial Pack, which included assets for Blender, Cinema 4D, Maya, Houdini and 3ds Max.

Source: cgchannel.com

100% Free AE Plug-in! Crate’s Godrays

The post Simplify lighting in After Effects with this free plugin first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: As a follow-up to this year’s Siggraph, at which Maxon was present with its The 3D and Motion Design Show, the associated live recordings have now been released as YouTube videos – among the prominent personnel is: Eric Say. The man is the founder and creative director of the motion graphics agency Gameday Creative, which claims to have over 40 years of experience in the TV and broadcasting industry. Some of Gameday Creative’s well-known clients include HP, CBS, NBC, Verizon, Red Bull and Dr Pepper. In the tutorial video, which lasts just under three quarters of an hour, Eric dares to build a bridge between Cinema 4D and After Effects, shows some tricks and tips on how artists can achieve attractive compositing and focuses his presentation on multi-passes and compositing. The leitmotif of Eric’s presentation is look development.

In toto: Beyond this, Eric provides insights into the status quo of the motion graphics industry. Eric begins by explaining that artists who know how to work with Cinema 4D are currently – and will continue to be – in high demand in the motion graphics sector. The background to this: More and more advertising spaces are showing animated content. Eric says: “It’s a great time to be in this profession!”. The creative is a graduate of South Dakota State University, where he completed his degree in motion graphics, animation and advertising.

Click to continue: Website of Gameday Creative and Eric Say.

Eric Say @ The 3D and Motion Design Show Siggraph 2022, Day 1

 

The post Is Motion Graphics Artist a crisis-proof profession? first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: Adobe releases version 22.5 of After Effects – the popular compositing and animation software. The functional scope of the update is rather straightforward, mainly concerning support for non-Western languages.

New functions: Version 22.5 entices users with the following three flagship functions:

• Left-hand fonts are now also animated correctly. Left-hand fonts are fonts in which the characters run from right to left. In addition, animation templates should be displayed correctly once they have been applied to the left-hand font.
• Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) and Latin letters (A, B, C, D, etc.) that appear within a different font are automatically recognised by After Effects – and animated correctly. According to the developer, users no longer need to make manual corrections here.
• Character Offset Effect: Now correctly recognises the Unicode range of Korean and Hebrew. Accordingly, only characters from these languages are displayed.

Clicked next: Release note for After Effects 22.5.

The post Adobe releases After Effects 22.5! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: Adobe releases version 3.3 of its Substance 3D Sampler. Users can look forward to new tools, new content and – of course – new functions designed to simplify working with materials and ambient lighting.

The new features of Substance 3D Sampler version 3.3 – an outline: Below are some of the new features that immediately caught our proverbial user’s eye. Why don’t you jump along!

Content-Aware Fill: In Adobe Photoshop, Content-Aware Fill is used to remove parts of an image while leaving the surrounding area – around the removed part of the image – unaffected. In Substance 3D Sampler, this feature is now used to keep PRB materials and ambient lights clean.

Spherical Projection: Makes it easier to navigate – and make changes to – 360-degree environments. Adobe has published a video worth watching about how “Spherical Projection” can be used to accommodate 3D ambient lights within such a 360-degree environment, which we have linked below.

First Steps With Sampler: Light Environment

Brush Toolbar: Thanks to the new user interface, you can move the toolbar to any position within the 2D view – regardless of whether it is aligned vertically or horizontally. Use the “e” key to switch between the brush and eraser tool. According to the description, the new tiling options should make painting even more convenient.

Clone Stamp: Now paint multiple Stamp Strokes from different sources – all in a single layer. You can also access your stamp history via the layer stack. You can now display the result of your stamping directly in the Brush Preview before you start drawing.

Click further: For all other newly added functions, click through the corresponding release note.

The post Substance 3D Sampler 3.3 released! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: There are two pieces of news about Adobe: On the one hand, the video collaboration platform Frame.io is now also available in Adobe Creative Cloud, and on the other, Adobe is rolling out updates to After Effects and Premiere Pro. Many users are likely to be excited about the native support for M1 processors.

What is Frame.io? Frame.io allows filmmakers, whether editors, producers or directors, to work together live in the cloud. According to the press release, Frame.io’s review and approval workflow is designed to make the final approval of creative projects more efficient. By the way: We reported on 23 August 2021 when Adobe acquired Frame.io. Interested parties can read there how the camera-to-cloud platform became part of the Photoshop family.

Frame.io for Creative Cloud: Below is a quick run-through of some of the features associated with the integration of Frame.io.

• Users can share projects live with an unlimited number of participants worldwide
• Frame-accurate comments are accepted directly in Premiere Pro and After Effects without having to leave the timeline
• Users are provided: Frame.io’s file transfer technology for fast uploading and downloading of media with 100 GB of Frame.io storage space
• It is possible to work on up to five different projects at the same time – together with other remote users
• Camera to Cloud is available. This is an approach to sending footage from cameras to editors, motion designers and other creatives
• Click further: If you want to find out more about the full range of features offered by Frame.io in Adobe’s Creative Cloud, click on the corresponding presentation on adobe.com. Further information can also be found in the blog post “Premiere Pro and After Effects now include Frame.io for Creative Cloud” by Steven Warner, Adobe’s Vice President of Video Products, at blog.adobe.com.

Frame.io Now Included in Premiere Pro and After Effects

The innovations to After Effects in bullet points

• Native M1 support: According to the press release, M1 processors render up to seven times faster than on an Intel 10-core iMac Pro. Compositing calculations are to be doubled

Up to 4x Faster: After Effects on Apple M1

• Scene recognition with Adobe Sensei: Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, changes within a clip are quickly recognised and are then ready for further editing. You can find out everything else about Adobe Sensei at adobe.com
• Enhanced viewer: This allows users to display 2D and 3D layers within the Draft 3D engine that are outside the frame. This should make working much clearer and simplify navigation through the 3D space. Users can choose to hide or minimise the area outside the frame in order to gain further clarity
• Binning indicators for 3D planes: Shows which 3D planes are rendered together in the same 3D space so that they can overlap and cast shadows on each other

The new features of Premiere Pro in brief:

• New import workflow: the focus here is on the media, not the project settings. The advantage of this: Users can now view and select their files much more clearly, as stated in the press release

Everything You Need to Know About the New Import Mode in Premiere Pro

• New header bar: Designed to increase clarity thanks to centralised navigation. Users should be able to switch more quickly between “Import”, “Edit” and “Export”

Finding Your Way Around Premiere Pro Just Got Easier

• New export workflow: This allows users to upload their media more quickly, for example to YouTube, Facebook or Twitter

Introducing New Export Mode in Premiere Pro

• Auto Colour with Adobe Sensei: This means colour correction supported by artificial intelligence. Especially for experienced users, colour correction with Adobe Sensei should be a valuable starting point for even more professional image editing

Intelligent Colour Correction now in Premiere Pro

• Performance and workflow improvements: These include the ability to show and hide colour-coded markers, as well as a remix progression indicator for audio clips. Improved loop playback within the trim mode has also been incorporated

More information on the new Premiere Pro: If you want to find out more about the new Adobe Premiere Pro, read the blog post New in Premiere Pro: optimised import and export, integrated checks and Auto Colour by Adobe’s Marketing Manager Eric Philpott.

The post Frame.io now also available in Adobe’s Creative Cloud! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

Adobe recently published the major autumn release of the Creative Cloud apps. Adobe presented the new features at its own conference, Adobe MAX 2017, among other events. But it wasn’t just the latest technologies that were on show – with a focus on Adobe Sensei, Adobe also gave a preview of which tools are possible for future releases.

Scene Stitch

Scene Stitch has similar functions to the familiar content-based touch-up, but also allows you to automatically add image elements from collections.

Puppetron

Puppetron enables the transfer of different visual styles to the target image based on sample images. Adobe imagines this technology to be particularly useful in Character Animator.

Project Scribbler

Deep learning for drawing and sketching: Project Scribbler is designed to help with the visualisation of ideas and processes both photos and your own sketches. It can also be used to colour black and white images.

Project Deep Fill

Also based on Adobe Sensei, Adobe wants to improve existing content-aware features with Project Deep Fill in order to achieve more realistic and customised results.

Project Cloak

There was also an eagerly awaited feature in the tech preview: With Cloak, Adobe wants to bring content-based touch-ups from pure image editing into the video context.

Adobe has not announced when the technologies shown will find their way into Creative Cloud products. You can find more tech previews here.

The post Adobe MAX 2017: 11 future technologies first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Adobe has recently released a new update for After Effects that includes a number of bug fixes. These include fixes for text templates and situations in which the programme crashed. In addition, the Media Encoder now always renders all compositions in full resolution. Even if you have only set half resolution in the composition window. The frame rate for imported JPEG sequences within a project no longer reverts to the default settings.

Since the November update, it has also been possible to create team projects (beta) in After Effects and Premiere. These have also been improved in terms of formats and minor bugs. If you would like to read the full update notes, you can find them here.

After Effects November Update:

There was a major update to the compositing and motion graphics tool in November. Among other things, new functions such as project templates, GPU improvements and an integrated Cinema 4D renderer were added. We have already provided you with an overview, which you can read here.

New in the programme?

If you are not yet familiar with the Adobe software, we have put together a series of tutorials for beginners that you can watch here.

The post Adobe Update: After Effects 14.1 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.