Remove goes local

Adobe Photoshop 27.7 adds an on-device AI model option for the Remove tool. After the model download, object removal can run locally without cloud processing. You can download, cancel, or remove the model whenever you want, and Photoshop checks hardware compatibility automatically before it starts. You can also switch between cloud and on-device processing.

In the on-device Remove workflow, Photoshop exposes a Device option for generative AI processing, and the model download is roughly 5 GB. If the Device option stays unavailable, the documented behavior is that the system does not meet the minimum requirements for the model. The net effect for artists is simple: you get a loacl option for Remove when you cannot, or do not want to, round-trip to the cloud.

So far no information if that still uses AI-credits in one way or another.

Boards, now with fewer copy-pastes

Photoshop 27.7 tightens integration with Firefly Boards in a few practical places. You can share any Photoshop document directly to Firefly Boards, either by creating a new board or adding to an existing one, from the Share panel and the Export menu.

Firefly Boards also appears as a destination inside the Variations panel for moodboarding and comparing AI-generated variations. When you generate image variations with Ideate in Firefly Boards, you can open those variations in a preconfigured Board layout for further exploration and iteration. New guided workflows target moodboards and visual concepts, branding and marketing assets, and social media content.

Credits and account controls move into the room

Photoshop 27.7 expands access to premium generative AI features for eligible subscribers. Existing generative credits can now be used across both standard and premium generative AI features. Photoshop also adds a Unified Account Menu in the Edit workspace, where you can view and manage account and subscription details, plus generative credits.

Small workflow fixes that add up

Save for Web gets a modernized interface intended to match the rest of Photoshop more closely. File handling and preferences get two quality-of-life toggles. You can open JPEG files as a regular layer instead of a locked background layer. You can also create new documents without a default background layer, starting with a transparent canvas.

Under the hood, the internal Metrics module is refactored to focus on heavy-use metrics, with the stated goal of reducing telemetry overhead and improving responsiveness during normal operation. Canvas HUD diagnostics move out of the canvas context area and into the View menu.

Fix-wise, Photoshop addresses a customer-reported issue where Hue and Saturation ranges did not update when selecting a prominent color preset from the Properties panel. On Windows, it also fixes an inability to launch versions 26.2 and 25.12.1 simultaneously. The Open JPEG without Background layer preference now defaults to off to avoid confusing existing users, and the Learn More URL in the generative credits quota exhausted notification is updated.

What to test before you bet a deadline on it

On-device Remove changes performance, storage, and review habits in a way that only shows up in your own shot types, textures, and delivery constraints. Test new builds and new AI paths before you roll them into production, especially if you need strict repeatability across machines and artists.

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/desktop/whats-new/photoshop-on-desktop-release-notes.html

The post Adobe Photoshop 27.7 runs Remove on device first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Mesh first, regrets later

Tangenten positions Puppet Pin Tool as a mesh deformation tool for the Fusion page inside DaVinci Resolve, built around a node you drop into a comp and feed with an image. The first stop is the mesh tab, where the plugin generates a triangulated mesh automatically.

Mesh generation follows the non-transparent pixels of the input, so cutouts with clean alpha give cleaner boundaries. The mesh can be adjusted with generation controls when the automatic result needs a nudge, including cases where you want tighter coverage around thin shapes or want to avoid clipping at edges. Everything else in Puppet Pin lives on top of the automatic mesh step. Pins grab vertices from that mesh, then move them around. Deformers move pins. Solvers push the rest of the vertices into place. Locators output motion data from the whole mess.

Pins: source, destination, and mseh wrestling

Pins in Puppet Pin have two positions. A source position defines where the pin grabs vertices from, and a destination position defines where those vertices get moved to.

The workflow starts in the pins tab. Adding a pin enables it and switches the viewer into source pin view so you can place it exactly where you want. After placing source pins, create controls switches the viewer into destination pin view and gives you per pin viewer controls you can drag to pose the subject.

For quick pose edits, this stays pleasantly direct: place pins on key body parts, generate controls, then pull and rotate until the silhouette behaves. The demo workflow uses four pins for a simple pose tweak, with pins on feet, hips, and neck to bend and tilt the figure.

Pin radius acts like the pin’s grip size. Increasing radius makes a pin grab and lock down more vertices, and it also enables rotation and expansion controls. Radius becomes essential once you want feet to stay planted or once secondary motion from other pins starts pushing things you intended to keep still.

Pins also include a render layer control that changes triangle render order. That makes it possible to decide which parts draw in front when pieces overlap after deformation, like choosing whether a tail renders in front of a body or behind it.

Keyframes and loops, because artists like sleep

Puppet Pin supports standard keyframing on pin controls, and the tutorial example builds a short loop by animating a neck pin across a 30 frames per second section. Two keyframes set the motion, then spline controls apply smoothing and a ping pong loop for a back and forth cycle.

This is the kind of tiny feature that saves real time. You can rough a loop from a still without opening another tool, without baking a bunch of transforms, and without manually copying and pasting keyframes to fake a cycle.

It also means Puppet Pin fits neatly into the existing Fusion animation muscle memory: set keyframes, shape curves, loop when needed, and keep moving. If you plan to drop it into a show, test the whole setup in your own comps before you trust it with client deadlines.

Deformers: follower, wave, and IK FK rigs

The deformers tab adds another layer, letting you build relationships between pins so you can animate less and get more motion for free. A follower deformer makes one or more pins follow a target pin. In the example setup, the hip pin follows the neck pin, with amplitude and delay controls creating softer secondary motion.

The post Tangenten Puppet Pin brings mesh warping to Resolve first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: DriveCompare is a macOS data offload and verification app from EditingTools.io. It targets on-set and post handoffs, and the same site also ships tools for Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, DaVinci Resolve, and Final Cut Pro.

A compare tool that actually cares about evidence

If you ever watched a drive copy “finish” and still felt zero joy, you already understand the problem space: file transfer is easy, proof is harder. DriveCompare is a standalone app for macOS that compares drives and folders side by side, syncs missing files in both directions, and verifies data using hashes. It can also create and verify ASC Media Hash List manifests, which are used in professional workflows for documenting what got copied, when, and how.

In practical terms, the app offers two styles of comparison. One mode compares by file names and sizes only, which can run faster but does not confirm that the content matches. Another mode uses hash verification to check whether two files are identical, not just similarly named.

The app can ignore ASC MHL directories and empty directories during comparisons. After a compare, it can export the results as an RTF report, which is handy when you need a paper trail for a handoff, a delivery package, or a polite argument with yesterday’s backup strategy.

ASC MHL, because chain of custody beats vibes

ASC Media Hash List is an industry-standard specification developed by the American Society of Cinematographers for recording file metadata such as paths, hashes, sizes, and timestamps. The goal is consistent file comparison and verification across systems, instead of “it copied fine on my laptop.”

The spec also frames the “chain of custody”: tracking each copy made from the media’s initial download through final archival. That matters because data integrity problems tend to show up late, loudly, and on the wrong day.

DriveCompare supports multiple actions around ASC MHL. It can generate a manifest for a selected folder and its subfolders, detect existing manifests in subfolders, and reference them automatically. It can also check a folder against a manifest to find differences using file names and sizes, and it can verify by recalculating hashes, updating the ASC MHL chain as it goes.

There is also a manifest-to-manifest compare feature, intended to identify differences in file structure, metadata, or content between two manifests. This method is not part of the ASC MHL standard, and it relies on the accuracy of the manifests themselves. Some productions will treat that as a warning label. Others will treat it as a Friday afternoon survival feature. Others as the setup for the stories about big regrets at the premiere party.

Hashes, algorithms, and the Netflix checkbox

DriveCompare supports multiple hash algorithms, including xxHash, MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, and SHA-512. It also lists C4 and several xxHash variants: xxHash3, xxHash128, and xxHash64be. Netflix recommendations show right up: They recommend using xxHash64be, xxHash128, or MD5 hash types for its workflows. If your deliverables include a Netflix-shaped compliance checklist, that one sentence alone will get this tool forwarded to at least three people, two of whom are currently asleep in a DIT tent.

Hash verification also plays into the sync workflow. When the app finds missing filse on either side, it presents a sync option that can copy from A to B and B to A, using hash verification for the copy.

Demo limits, system requirements, and offline behavior

DriveCompare requires macOS 14 or later. The demo version supports comparing drives or directories with up to 500 files. For ASC MHL, the demo can create or check manifests with up to 50 files. That makes it possible to test the workflow on a small sample before committing a purchase order.

The app does not require an internet connection, works offline, and does not share project data online. That is a workflow fit for air-gapped sets and for anyone who prefers their media security policy to remain unchallenged by a surprise login prompt.

Licensing: perpetual, with a couple of flavors

The license model is perpetual: single-user, team, and enterprise. The single-user license for 15€ is ideal for freelancers who want to use the software on one or two computers, and it is tied to a single account. The team license at 53,55€ (? Somebody avoing 6-7- memes?) is bound to the company, with the number of licenses chosen on purchase and a minimum of three licenses. An enterprise option exists via contacting sales. Updates are free to download when available.

Setup, activation, and the unglamorous stuff you will ask about anyway

Installation uses a downloaded zip, then a pkg installer. License activation happens in the app menu under File, then License, where a serial number is entered. Removing a license from a device uses the same menu path with a remove option. Uninstalling is deleting the app file from the computer. Development is led by Nikolai Waldman, with publishing and distribution via EditingTools.io.

The boring advice that keeps projects alive

Tools that touch camera originals, sound rolls, and delivery packages can look fine in a demo and still break your day under real pressure. Test DriveCompare in your actual DIT workflow before you trust it on a shoot, and verify that its reports, manifests, and hash choices match your show’s requirements.

https://editingtools.io/software/drivecompare/

The post DriveCompare brings ASC MHL offload checks to macOS first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Photoshop and Lightroom sit at the image edit and photo finish end of the pipeline, with ideation support via Firefly Boards and automation via Firefly AI Assistant under Creative Cloud.

Rotate Object goes GA, keeps edits non destructive

Adobe moved Rotate Object from beta to general availability in Photoshop. The tool targets a familiar pain point: matching a cutout element to a new perspective without rebuilding the thing from scratch.

Rotate Object lets you tilt, spin, and recomposite an object from new angles in real time while keeping the workflow non destructive. The feature runs as a guided transform, with on canvas controls and additional rotation values available in a properties panel, and it can be reopened to refine the rotatoin later.

Adobe Turntable spins into Illustrator

The promise here is speed, not magic. You still need a decent selection and clean edges to get something usable, and you still need to evaluate artifacts against your actual plate.

Layer Cleanup tries to fix the mess we all made

Layer Cleanup arrives in Photoshop after being previewed at Adobe MAX in October. It renames layers and removes empty ones to declutter complex files, aiming to make handoff and collaboration less painful once a file grows past the point where any human remembers what Layer 143 copy 9 actually contains.

In practice, this is less about creativity and more about reducing the tax of working in large PSDs. If you move between artists, teams, and companies (And even different industries), layer names matter. If you move between yesterday and today, they also matter, because who knew there’d be a nother set of notes from the “Art” Director.

Firefly Boards plugs ideation into the edit loop

Firefly Boards now integrates with both Photoshop and Lightroom, aiming to cut the app switching between early concept and final execution. Firefly Boards is a visual workspace for rapid ideation, including mood boards, storyboards, and pitch materials, with an emphasis on gathering references, organising generations, and keeping direction in one place before you commit to a heavy edit.

The integration pitch focuses on moving smoothly from early concept to final output without breaking flow. That reads like workflow glue rather than a single feature, which is sometimes the stuff that saves actual time in a real porject, before you give the files to the actual artists.

Lightroom gets search, presets, and speed

Lightroom picks up Improved Search that lets you find photos by describing what you want in your own words. The update also adds new film inspired presets for a nostalgic look, alongside performance upgrades that include faster Assisted Culling and up to 5x faster interactive slider performance. There is also support for all Sony A7V formats listed in the release notes provided. If you shoot high volume and live on quick selects, faster culling and faster sliders can matter more than any single new creative knob.

Firefly AI Assistant enters public beta

Adobe also pushed Firefly AI Assistant into public beta. The assistant runs inside Firefly and uses a chat interface where you describe an outcome and the assistant orchestrates multi step workflows across Creative Cloud apps including Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere, and more.

Eligibility for the beta rollout is tied to Creative Cloud Pro or paid Firefly plans, and the beta includes complimentary daily generative credits for use with the assistant during the rollout.

https://firefly.adobe.com/ai-assistant

The post Adobe updates Photoshop and Lightroom first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Adobe ships Color mode as a dedicated color workspace inside Premiere Pro beta. It uses a streamlined layout that maximizes the Color monitor, reduces on-screen clutter, and adds dedicated color panels that only appear in Color mode.

Colour mode centres the experience around three pieces: the Colour monitor for evaluation, a Clip Grid for picking shots quickly, and a Colour Controls panel for doing the actual work. The intent reads as editorial-first grading: jump between shots fast, make decisions with the image front and centre, and keep the toolset close to what you already do in an NLE.

Color mode switches the monitor between a sequence view for checking the timeline and a clip view for focusing on a single shot. It also adds a Solo mode that temporarily disables overlays and composited elements so you can judge adjustments without extra layers muddying the view.

The new workspace design lands alongside a clear compatibility message. The Lumetri effect remains available in the beta Effects panel and stays supported. Existing projects and Lumetri grades keep their expected look. The Lumetri panel itself no longer appears in the beta UI, and Lumetri changes move to the Effects Controls panel.

Clip Grid turns your sequence into a grading playlist

The Clip Grid presents clips from the active sequence as thumbnails for quick selection. It supports filtering, sorting, and grouping to keep large timelines manageable while you grade. It also includes view controls that change between a row style layout and a multi-row grid so you can either stay focused on a short run of shots or see more of the cut at once.

Color Controls and Operations aim at repeatable grades

The Color Controls panel acts as the hub for adjustments to the currently selected clip in the Clip Grid. It organises colour operations applied to that clip, and it frames each operation as equivalent to a layer or node of colour tool modifications. That puts grade-building blocks front and centre, with a structure that can scale from quick balancing to more involved looks.

Color mode also introduces an Operations system for grade management, positioned as part of the new experience alongside the interface and control set. Operations appear as the mechanism for managing grades across clips, groups, and sequences.

Color mode also leans heavily on feedback. Many controls activate a heads-up display that combines scopes, numeric feedback, and real-time visual guidance. The goal is to help you understand what a control does while you drag it, instead of making you guess and undo your way back to safety.

That HUD concept matters because many controls are bi-directional. One axis adjusts one parameter and the other axis adjusts a second parameter. There is also a modifier for precise single-axis moves. Each control can surface its own on-screen feedback as you work.

If you already live in scopes, the pitch is simple: fewer trips to separate panels, more continuous feedback while you push the image. If you are newer to grading, the design tries to teach you by making the response visible and measurable while you move.

New controls: from contrast to zones to hue isolation

Color mode adds a set of new control groups and built-in styles and modules. On the adjustment side, the control set includes contrast with contrast and pivot, exposure with exposure and black level, temperature with temperature and tint, balance for shifting color balance, saturation, and a Detail section that covers texture and sharpness. Texture offers global, single, or multi-band detail. Sharpness includes radius and threshold controls, plus blur.

There is a Zones section that grades the whole image globally or isolates grades into shadow zones and highlight zones. Shadow zones and highlight zones support multiple preset zones and custom zones, letting you target darker or brighter parts of the image with separate adjustments.

There is also a Color Shift section with Sat Shift, Hue Shift, and Lum Shift. These controls focus on specific hues, letting you change saturation, hue direction, and brightness for a selected hue range. Automatic Hue Isolation surfaces prominent hues from the image for faster selection, and it also supports an eyedropper plus a full RGB spectrum picker for manual targeting.

Styles and Modules show up as built-in starting points. The system includes modules such as Film Color, Contrast Kit, and Flare, plus style presets such as Cinematic Contrast, Varied Temp, Varied Lighting, Varied Sat, and Monochrome. There is also a Make Your Own path that combines modules to build custom styles.

Color management: SDR and HDR workflows in the same mode

Color mode links directly into the application color management system. It supports workflows that include Direct Rec. 709 SDR and Wide Gamut Tone Mapped. It also supports SDR and HDR output formats including Rec. 709 and Rec. 2100.

Wide Gamut Tone Mapped has more flexibility when adjusting images. Tone mapping aims to create smoother highlight and shadow roll-off, with the benefit of easier exposure and color adjustments without clipping.

There are also updated tone-mapping and gamut-compression settings for handling SDR media and graphics. An advanced option called Apply Inverse Tone Mapping and Gamut Compression targets accuracy when working across mixed media formats. But never change the working color space mid-workflow, since switching after adjustments can alter the appearance of the grade and force extra refinement.

This is the part that can make or break the experience in real projects. Colour management should behave consistently across cameras, codecs, and delivery targets, or editors will revert to what they trust.

Some workflows will still need careful validation on your own media, especially mixed camera jobs and sequences that move between SDR and HDR deliverables. Test new tools and innovations before use in production, and verify the pipeline from ingest to export with footage that matches your real work.

Plans, beta access, and what it costs

Color mode is included in the Premiere beta and it comes with any Creative Cloud plan that includes Premiere, with no additional cost for the feature itself. The beta installs through the Creative Cloud desktop app. New users can start with a 7-day free trial of Premiere. The official product page also states that the Premiere single app plan starts at US$22.99 per month for an annual plan billed monthly. Pricing changes by plan and region…

https://www.adobe.com/de/products/premiere/color-mode.html

The post Adobe brings Color mode to Premiere beta first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

ShotNotes adds a dedicated notes-and-tasks panel to Adobe Premiere. It targets the everyday problem that never makes it into a spec sheet: remembering what to fix, what to check, and what to deliver while the timeline keeps changing.

The core idea is sequence-based notes: You add an entry, and it belongs to the sequence you are working on. Notes can be colour-coded, and the panel can filter what you see by colour, so you can separate client feedback from internal reminders or mark items by priority.

A note can include an optional timecode pulled from the current playhead position. When an entry includes timecode, ShotNotes automatically places a marker on the timeline so the entry stays linked to that frame. The panel treats timecode as more than a label: it turns timecode into a navigation control.

Clickable timecode that behaves like a jump button

ShotNotes can insert clickable timecode into a note so you can jump straight to the referenced point in the timeline. The note becomes a shortcut, not just a comment.

The panel supports copying timecode from one sequence and pasting it into a note for another sequence. That makes it possible to reference a moment in a different sequence and still navigate there quickly from the note.

Notes can also reference other sequences directly. The result is a lightweight way to connect the dots across a project: a note in one sequence can point to a specific moment in another sequence and take you there with a click.

If your usual approach is to build a marker forest, ShotNotes can still feed that workflow by creating markers for each note so the timeline can carry the breadcrumbs the panel shows, without forcing you to rely on markers alone as the only place your thinking lives.

Links and reference material that stay one click away

Notes support hyperlinks. If you type a URL into a note, ShotNotes turns it into a clickable link and opens it in a web browser. That is handy for reference docs, client frames, internal shot tracking pages, relevant memes, or just the one weird spec sheet everyone forgets until export day. The point is not that links are rare, but that links usually end up in a separate app, which becomes another place to lose context.

Search and filters for the whole project brain

ShotNotes can search notes across the entire project. When you need to find that one line about audio cleanup, the one producer note that actually made sense, a missing lower third, or the exact frame that needs stabilization, the panel can locate it without you hunting sequence by sequence.

The interface also includes filtering, including options to filter based on whether entries have timecode. Combined with sequence-based organisation, this lets you narrow the panel down to the entry you need right now. Notes and tasks can expand and collapse in the panel, so you can keep long entries around without turning the panel into a wall of text.

Marker sync, because timelines move

ShotNotes links entries to timeline markers when you include timecode. When edits move markers later in the project, ShotNotes provides Sync and Sync All buttons to sync entries to the marker’s new position, because a note is only useful if it still points at the right moment after the cut changes. (*looks emberassed at the heap of PostIts building a ramp below the screen*)

There is an important limitation: depending on how you edit, Premiere Pro may not move the markers. If that happens, you may need to manually update the timecode in the affected notes when frame accuracy matters.

A built in time tracker for tasks and receipts

ShotNotes includes tasks with timers. You can start and stop a timer for a task, log multiple timer entries, and then review those entries in the task log. If you forget to stop a timer, the panel includes an edit option that lets you adjust the end time so the entry reflects when you actually finished. If a timer entry is junk, you can delete it so it does not appear in exports.

The time tracker also logs certain events to provide more detail about what happened while a timer ran, including switching sequences or selecting a clip in the timeline. That makes the report more descriptive than a single number on an invoice.

This is also where reality bites a little. Premiere Pro limits what events can be captured, so the activity log does not represent every editing action. Some actions can appear as delete and add events because Premiere Pro treats certain edits that way internally.

Export and backup that fits the handoff phase

ShotNotes can export notes and other data in a variety of formats for printing out or viewing.

For backup and transfer, ShotNotes includes exporting to JSON as its native format. That JSON export can be imported on another computer, copied to another sequence, or used as a backup. For time tracking, ShotNotes can generate a report that saves timer entries for a sequence to a CSV file that can be viewed in a spreadsheet.

Exportable notes and exportable time data matter for finishing and delivery, because that is where you often need to share information outside the NLE. Like, what to bill the client for his latest “Just one more change”. ShotNotes gives you a structured way to pull that information out without rewriting it.

Licensing, trial, and getting it into the workspace

ShotNotes includes a free seven-day trial, which is fully functional. Licensing can be done with a serial number or by logging in to a Digital Anarchy Cloud account. The cloud account method is described as the easiest way to license if you want to install on a different machine without juggling serials. If you cannot license online, support provides an offline activation file option.

Compatibility notes, including one awkward bug

ShotNotes only supports Premiere Pro 2023 and newer versions. A known issue exists in Premiere Pro 2025 and 2026 that can occasionally cause the recorded timecode of newly created entries to be slightly inaccurate. The amount of offset can depend on how zoomed out the timeline is when the entry is created; zooming in typically reduces the offset. If needed, you can manually adjust the timecode for the entry.

Price, promo window, and the practical take

ShotNotes is available immediately at $129 USD, with a $99 price offered until May 15. As with any new workflow tool, test it before you rely on it for a deadline-sensitive job.

https://digitalanarchy.com/shot-notes/

The post Digital Anarchy releases ShotNotes panel for Premiere. first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Tl;DR: AutoCut lives inside Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve, so editors can nuke busywork in the same timeline where deadlines go to scream.

AI that cleans up after the creative decisions

There is a familiar moment in every edit: the story finally works, the pacing clicks, and then the timeline reveals the bill. Breaths to trim. Dead air to delete. Captions to build. Takes to compare. Chapters to mark. Shorts to slice. It is not glamorous, but it is where hours disappear.

AutoCut targets that stretch of the process with a set of automation tools that run directly in the host editor. The plugin bundles 10 distinct tools into a single subscription and runs in Premiere Pro versions from 2023 through 2026. It also supports DaVinci Resolve 18.6 and 19 or later, including the free version of Resolve.

The goal is simple: keep editors on the same Timeline and offload repetitive cleanup that does not need creative judgment, while leaving the actual choices in human hands. New tools and innovations should always be tested before use in production, especially when they touch timing, dialogue, and deliverables.

Silence cutting with knobs editors actually recognize

Silence removal sits at the centre of the toolset, and it is the feature on which the plugin originally built its name. The workflow starts with something editors already do every day: define an in point and an out point on the timeline. From there, the editor sets a noise floor value in dB and tunes the minimum silence duration and the minimum speech duration, then lets the analysis do the trimming.

For fast iteration, it also provides preset profiles ranging from Calm to Jumpy that adjust how aggressively gaps are removed. In practice, that means the editor can decide whether the cut should feel conversational or more like a caffeinated highlight reel, without manually razor-blading every pause.

This is the kind of automation that tends to fit high-volume talking-head work: solo presenters, interview-heavy pieces, video journalism, and anyone cutting long-form dialogue where micro-pauses add up to macro time loss. It is also relevant to podcast workflows, especially when the job includes preparing multiple versions of the same content for different platforms and runtimes.

About one third into a real-world edtiing day, silence trimming is usually where optimism goes to die. This is where automation earns its keep.

Captions, chapters, profanity, resizing, and the rest of the boring buffet

The plugin’s ten-tool bundle extends beyond silence cutting into other mechanical steps that commonly stack up after an edit locks. It includes animated captions and translation, along with tools aimed at podcast and short-form production.

The feature set also covers take selection via repetition detection, profanity bleeping (a f**** usefull feature depending on the topic… though we haven‘t tested it with the creative swearing that comes from an 8+ hour editing session…) , and chapter creation for long videos. There is also an aspect ratio conversion tool for resizing deliverables for different formats, which matters when a single cut needs to ship in multiple aspect ratios under the same deadline.

One module focuses on turning long videos into short-form clips by identifying key segments. Another uses AI to add B-rolls, with the B-roll feature listing Storyblocks as the stock footage source powering that portion of the workflow. These features sit squarely in the current reality of editorial: one master timeline often needs to feed a whole ecosystem of cutdowns, captions, and platform-specific versions.

The plugin includes a podcast module and a multicam podcast editing workflow, which targets a common pain point for creators and small teams: syncing the cameras is the easy part, but cleaning up the dead air, surfacing the best takes, and generating captions can turn a quick turnaround into a multi-hour grind.

Licenses, trials, and what it costs when the honeymoon ends

The plugin ships with a 14-day free trial that requires no credit card. After that, pricing splits into three plans, with monthly and annual billing options.

The Basic Plan unlocks only the silence-removal tool. It costs $6.60 per month when billed annually, listed as $79 per year, or $9.90 per month when billed monthly.

The AI Plan includes the full set of ten tools. It costs $14.90 per month when billed annually, listed as $178.80 per year, or $19.80 per month when billed monthly.

The Enterprise Plan starts at three seats and is priced at $19.90 per seat per month when billed annually, listed as $238.80 per seat per year, totaling $716.40 for the minimum three-seat configuration. It includes priority support, on-demand demo calls, team licensing, and centralized billing.

On the payment side, the pricing page notes secure checkout by Stripe. The plugin is also listed as working on both macOS and Windows.

A single license activates on one computer at a time, with the option to transfer between machines via an account dashboard. That is a practical detail for editors who bounce between a studio workstation and a travel laptop, or who split their time across different facilities.

Where it fits in a modern post pipeline

The plugin’s appeal is not about replacing editorial decisions. It is about compressing the cleanup stage that follows those decisions. When you are cutting dialogue-driven content at volume, the work is not only creative but also procedural. The procedural part tends to be the same every time, making it a strong candidate for automation.

The best way to judge tools like this is to throw real timelines at them. Use a project with messy audio, uneven pacing, multiple cameras, and actual delivery requirements, then validate the output against your standards. If the tool saves time without introducing new cleanup, it earns a spot. If it creates edge-case errors, it stays in the sandbox until it behaves.

https://www.autocut.com

The post AutoCut brings AI cleanup inside Premiere Pro first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the case: This lives in the subscription plumbing behind Creative Cloud plans used by Photoshop and Acrobat, right where creatives meet billing screens and regret. A proposed stipulated order filed by the U.S. Department of Justice would resolve a federal case over online subscription enrollment and cancellation practices. The total settlement value is $150 million.

The proposed order requires a $75 million civil penalty payment to the Department of Justice. It also requires $75 million in free services for qualifying customers. The case also named two employees, Maninder Sawhney and David Wadhwani, and the proposed order would resolve the case against them as well. Court approval still matters here. The proposed order only takes effect if the court enters it (As far as we understand it – I am NOT a lawyer and not even a US Citizen – take all of this with a muntainsized grain of salt!)

What the government said went wrong

The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. The legal hook is the Restore Online Shoppers’ Confidence Act, often shortened to ROSCA. ROSCA generally requires clear disclosure of important subscription information and simple ways to cancel.

The allegations centered on two themes. First, important information about subscription plans, including Early Termination Fees, appeared in fine print and inconspicuous hyperlinks. Second, subscribers faced cancellation flows described as convoluted and inefficient, with unnecessary steps, delays, unsolicited offers, and warnings.

The Early Termination Fee point matters to artists because it tends to surface only when a project wraps, budgets tighten, or a studio pipeline shifts. That is exactly when a cancellation flow becomes part of production reality, not just a legal footnote.

What changes the proposed order requires

If the court enters the order, the required changes focus on disclosure timing and exit friction. Any Early Termination Fee and how it is calculated must be clearly disclosed before enrollment. That disclosure must happen before customers get locked into a subscription that can trigger the fee.

There is also a requirement tied to longer free trials. For any free trial lasting longer than seven days, customers must be reminded before the trial converts into a paid subscription that includes an Early Termination Fee. The order also requires easy ways to cancel subscriptions. The thrust is simple: if a subscriber can sign up without needing a scavenger hunt, they should be able to leave without one too.

These requirements land squarely on the unglamorous screens that most product teams treat as a footnote. For working post and VFX artists, those screens are still part of your toolkit because they decide whether an account can be trimmed cleanly during downtime or whether a production ends with finance drama.

What the company said it will do

Adobe said it finalized a settlement agreement that ends the litigation filed in June 2024 related to disclosure and subscription cancellation practices. The statement said it disagrees with the government’s claims and denies wrongdoing.

It also said it agreed to provide $75 million worth of services for free to customers that qualify, and that it will proactively reach out to affected customers once the appropriate court filings are made and accepted. The statement also said it agreed to a $75 million payment to the Department of Justice.

Why this hits creatives where it hurts

This story is not about a new brush engine or a faster render. It is about the moment you try to leave a plan. Subscription software sits in the same mental bucket as storage. You only notice it when it fails, when it fills up, or when it refuses to let go. For artists, that moment often arrives between gigs, at a studio wrap, or after a toolchain change.

Products like Photoshop and Acrobat get mentioned in the underlying enforcement action because they are part of the broader subscription universe in question. That matters because these are daily drivers across design, editorial, previs, and deliverables.

If the court enters the order, the practical impacts will show up in enrollment screens, trial conversion reminders, and cancellation user experience. Those are the touchpoints that determine whether a subscription feels like a utility or like a trap with a user interface.

The legal frame in plain English

ROSCA is a US federal law that targets certain online sales tactics and requires clear material terms and express informed consent in covered scenarios. It is part of the broader consumer protection toolkit used by the Federal Trade Commission. The enforcement action here used ROSCA as the named statute and targeted both disclosure of material terms and cancellation mechanisms.

There is no need to be a lawyer to understand the production takeaway. If a tool’s checkout flow hides costs behind links and the off ramp feels like a puzzle, regulators now have a well established playbook to challenge that pattern under existing law.

What is still not spelled out

The public settlement materials describe the $75 million in free services for qualifying customers, but they do not specify which services, which plans, or which product bundles will be included. They also do not spell out the exact criteria that define qualifying customers. There is also no public schedule in the materials for when customers will be contacted beyond the note that outreach follows court filings being made and accepted.

What to do with this information in a pipeline context

If you manage seats for a team, this is a reminder to treat subscription lifecycle as part of pipeline hygiene. Procurement, offboarding, and account access are as real as colour management and version control.

If you are an individual artist, the practical watch items are the upfront fee disclosures, the free trial conversion reminders for trials longer than seven days, and the ease of cancellation requirement. Those items are the ones that affect how risky it feels to try a short-contract plan.

As always, new tools and innovations should be tested before use in production, and that includes billing flows and cancellation paths, not just features and performance. Two things can be true at once. A creative app can be excellent, and the subscription experience around it can still need guardrails. The settelment and its required changes target that second part.

And if you have ever had to schedule time to cancel something the same way you schedule a render, you now have a fresh reason to keep screenshots of signup terms in your project folder, right next to the license keys and the delivery checklist. Yes, that sounds ridiculous. So does a canclelation flow that needs more endurance than a night shift.

// Settlement and injunction details, $75 million civil penalty, $75 million free services, cancellation and disclosure requirements, named employees, court filing and date
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/adobe-agrees-150-million-settlement-and-injunction-resolve-alleged-violations-restore-online

// Company statement on finalizing settlement, denying wrongdoing, $75 million free services, $75 million payment, outreach after court filings
https://news.adobe.com/news/2026/03/adobe-statement

// FTC action filed June 2024 and allegations about fees and cancellation hurdles
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/06/ftc-takes-action-against-adobe-executives-hiding-fees-preventing-consumers-easily-cancelling

// ROSCA statute reference
https://www.ftc.gov/legal-library/browse/statutes/restore-online-shoppers-confidence-act

// Case docket reference
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/68860528/united-states-v-adobe-inc/

The post Adobe settles US case over cancel terms first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Rotate Object is now available in the Photoshop beta. The feature is designed to quickly transform a 2D object on a pixel layer into a rotatable 3D image, so the object can be rotated from different viewpoints to help match perspective and depth. The beta build called out alongside the feature is Version 27.5.0 20260311.m.3453.

How the workflow behaves

Rotate Object starts with a familiar setup: open or place an image, then select a pixel layer that contains the object you want to rotate. Duplicating the layer gets recommended because the selected layer converts into a Rotate Object layer.

From there, the entry points described are Free Transform with Cmd+T or the Edit menu path: Edit> Rotate Object. The feature can also be triggered from the context bar via a Rotate object button. After the conversion step completes, the rotated result initially appears as a low-resolution preview. Once rotation is finished and you select Done, the result gets upscaled with added details.

Rotation controls and where they live

Rotate Object exposes multiple control routes while you are in rotation mode. The described options include sliders in the Contextual Task Bar, on-canvas blue controls you can drag, right-click drag for unconstrained on-canvas rotation, and numeric entry via the Properties panel. Once you accept a rotation, the feature also supports an Edit rotation step for changing the rotation and then accepting again.

https://twitter.com/icreatelife/status/2032099581291348034

Credits and usage costs

Rotate Object uses Generative Credits in the beta. The stated cost is 20 Generative Credits for the feature, with the first three tries not deducting credits. The announcement also notes that 20 credits are deducted only on the first rotation.

Blending the rotated result back into the comp

A suggested next step after rotating is using Harmonize to blend the rotated object with the background. The feature callout positions Rotate Object within a larger composite workflow: rotate for perspective first, then blend for cohesion. In practical terms, that means Rotate Object aims to reduce the number of times you have to rebuild a cutout just because the angle feels wrong, while still staying in a layer-based 2D pipeline.

Beta reality check

Rotate Object is explicitly presented as a beta feature, and the feedback loop is built into the beta app experience via the beaker icon and Beta feedback area. The flow described for feedback includes selecting whether Rotate Object feels ready for a non-beta release and optionally leaving comments.

Notes for production teams

Rotate Object has a clear promise: keep your existing 2D asset workflow, but let a single layer behave like it can spin, tilt, or dolly for a better perspective match. That makes it easy to see why it fits into daily comp cleanup, especially when an element needs a subtle angle correction without a full rebuild.

Still, treat it like any new beta capability. Test it on representative assets, validate the upscaling step against your delivery requirements, and watch how credit costs behave across iterations, because hte billable reality shows up fast when a workflow becomes habit.

// Rotate Object beta announcement and workflow steps
https://community.adobe.com/announcements-698/rotate-object-is-now-available-in-beta-1553466

The post Adobe ships Rotate Object in Photoshop beta 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.

InstaMAT Studio is out now – a layer-based painting and node-based authoring tool in the same general category as Substance 3D tools like Substance 3D Painter, Substance 3D Designer, and Substance 3D Sampler, with integrations into common DCCs and engines including 3ds Max, Blender, Maya, Unity, and Unreal Engine.

What changes in 2026 is the set of levers available for high-precision, iteration-friendly detailing. Curves Brushes move detail painting toward an editable, control-point workflow. Lazy Stroke helps freehand lines behave. Radial symmetry adds a new patterning tool. Masking and mesh filters expand geometry-aware selection and effects. The new toolbar and hotkeys aim to keep artists in flow instead of chasing settings panels.

And yes, your first experiment should probably be those curve-driven panel lines that always look great right up until the model changes. This time, the system is explicitly designed so the detail survives that upstream change.

Curves Brushes: strokes that stay alive

Curves Brushes let you create editable curve paths on the mesh, using control points rather than a one-and-done freehand stroke. Those curves remain editable after creation, including moving and refining control points, and transforming an entire curve as a unit by translating, rotating, or scaling the path.

A single curves layer can hold multiple curves, and their painting sequence can be reordered. Curves can also be set to erase instead of paint, and they can be closed to form continuous shapes from end point to end point.

Control points support different point types, including linear, symmetrical, smooth, and cusp, with a Joint Smooth setting to control how sharp or fluid the transitions are between segments. Each control point also supports per-point settings for radius, falloff, flow, and rotation, enabling effects such as tapering and gradual fading along the curve.

Curves can orient brush strokes along the path, so details follow the curve’s flow rather than fighting it. Curves also support dynamics for randomised size, flow, rotation, and position to add variation without manually wiggling your wrist into submission. The Curves workflow uses a GPU-accelerated 3D painting engine and does not rely on mesh UVs. The stated result is that curves remain intact even when topology or UV layout changes, which is framed as especially useful for repeating high-precision details such as panel lines, seams, stitches, and decorative elements.

Lazy stroke smoothing, now built in

Alongside Curves, InstaMAT 2026 adds Lazy Stroke, a brush-smoothing feature designed to dampen shaky-hand input and cursor jitter. When enabled, the brush follows the cursor with a delay set by a configurable radius, producing smoother lines for precision freehand painting. The feature is positioned for tasks such as smooth linework, organic patterns, and fine-detail passes where jitter becomes visible in the final maps. If you have ever zoomed in to paint one confident line and instead produced a seismograph reading, Lazy Stroke is aimed squarely at that moment. Try it, then decide if it belongs in production.

Symmetry upgrades: radial joins planar

Radial symmetry painting is new in InstaMAT 2026, enabling repeating brush instances around a central axis. The symmetry axis can be set to X, Y, or Z, the number of repeated instances is configurable, and the angle span can cover full 360 degree patterns or partial arcs. The plane origin is also customizable, allowing the symmetry center to be placed where it is needed on the asset.

Planar symmetry painting is also described as significantly improved. The symmetry plane can be offset to a custom position on any of the three world axes, plane visibility can be customised, and there is an option to mirror the brush on the opposite side of the plane. Symmetry accuracy is described as improved even when painting on meshes that are not exactly symmetrical, targeting the real-world scenario where characters and props have small asymmetries and deformations.

Masking: normals, submesh size, and raytraced AO

InstaMAT 2026 extends its mask set with new workflows aimed at isolating geometry features without hand-selecting everything. The new Mesh Normal Mask can isolate parts of a mesh based on polygon normals and an angle tolerance. The workflow is click-based: click a region, and the mask selects surfaces with similar normal directions. Multiple chosen areas can be defined within a single mask, and tolerance can be adjusted per point. The mask is described as UV independent and stable across topology or UV changes.

The Mesh Submesh Mask can mask submeshes by size and distance, targeting scenes with many similarly sized objects where manual isolation is tedious. There is also a Mesh Ambient Occlusion Mask described as using raytracing to generate occlusion-based selections for isolating crevices, corners, and recessed areas.

Mesh filters and nodes: mirror, bevel normals, drips, and smoothing

A batch of mesh-oriented effects and nodes are listed as part of the 2026 update. Mesh Laplacian smoothing arrives as an option in the Mesh Smooth node, described as producing a more unified surface while better preserving mesh volume compared to traditional smoothing methods that can shrink geometry. The described use cases include cleaning scan data, removing photogrammetry noise, and refining sculpted details while preserving silhouette.

Mesh Mirror can mirror decals, masks, and entire layers, and it can be applied to a layer group to mirror complex effect and mask combinations.

Mesh Bake Bevel Normals is a node for beveling low poly asset edges using a GPU-accelerated bevel normals baker, with procedural masking for selecting which objects or edges to bevel. The behavior is described as procedural, so bevel placement remains correct if the input mesh topology or UVs change.

Mesh Directional Blur is presented as a way to create leak and drip effects by blurring in a specific direction in 3D space, keeping directionality consistent across the mesh surface regardless of UV layout or texture resolution. It includes distortion and falloff controls.

Additional mesh features listed include Mesh Solidify for solidification to prevent rendering artifacts, Mesh Sharpen for definition and detail clarity, and a Mesh Stylized Filter for non-photorealistic texturing options.

InstaMAT UI and workflow: less hunting, more painting

InstaMAT 2026 introduces a dedicated painting toolbar intended to centralise common controls. The toolbar provides quick access to brush and curve settings, including radius, flow, rotation, Lazy Stroke radius, symmetry, and curve-specific controls. It is described as dynamic, updating based on the active layer type so only relevant options are displayed.

There is also a dedicated brush rotation hotkey, described as Cmd or Ctrl+Shift with a left-mouse drag, to rotate the brush, aiming to reduce interruptions during stroke work.

Viewport and gizmo changes include planar translation gizmos for moving a mesh, effect, or mask along two axes at once, plus custom viewport wireframe settings for width and color, and a viewport shortcut overlay that displays hotkeys while painting, using curves, and using the paint projector.

Mesh import settings add options to configure mesh up axis and coordinate system handedness for asset texturing projects.

Integrations: Blender, Unreal, 3ds Max, Maya

The release notes list updates for several integration plugins tied to the latest https://docs.instamat.io/en/Products/InstaMAT_Studio release.

InstaMAT_for_UnrealEngine lists support for Unreal Engine 5.7.3, plus fixes for crashes when creating invalid graph instances, and fixes for broken materials and mesh orientations for Scene outputs. Library previews are added for Mesh-type Graphs and Graph Instances.

Blender integration notes include support for the latest Studio release, improved performance when setting mesh as a graph input, improved performance when resetting graph instance inputs, and fixes for plugin stalls when creating faulty graph instances. Library grid UX is adjusted with fixed cell width, and search results quality is described as improved.

3ds Max integration notes list support for the latest Studio release and a fix for the plugin getting stuck when creating faulty graph instances, plus window icons changed to match the main menu.

Maya integration notes list support for the latest Studio release, improved mesh-as-input performance, fixes for plugin stalls on faulty graph instances, and a fix for incorrect exported textures when using the export dialog window.

InstaMAT Licensing and pricing: what the numbers say

InstaMAT licensing is split across tiers with revenue or funding caps stated for some options. The Pioneer license is free and fully featured with commercial-use rights, with availability limited to individuals or businesses with annual revenue or total funding less than 100,000 US dollars, and it requires attribution.

The Indie license is available for individuals or businesses under 250,000 US dollars in annual revenue or total funding, with an option at 8 US dollars per month billed annually, and a perpetual Indie price shown at 489 US dollars. For Pro, the pricing page lists a Pro subscription shown at 36 US dollars per month billed annually, and a perpetual Pro license shown at 989 US dollars.

If you are evaluating the tool for a pipeline, test it against real assets, real render targets, and real deadlines before it touches a production branch. New tooling should earn trust with results, not promises.

Finally, keep an eye on how the new mesh filters slot into your existing material graph habits. Directional blur for drips in 3D space, procedural bevel normals, and AO-based masking can remove steps that otherwise happen in separate tools. If it holds up, it reduces context switching. If it does not, at least you learned it on a duplicate branch instead of the hero asset.

Also, do not skip the boring step: validate exports, naming conventions, and texture packing against your engine ingest rules before you fall in love with a shiny new brush. The most dangerous bug is the one that looks like a style choice until delivery day.

InstaMAT Test: Painting, Procedurals and Pasta

The post Abstract ships InstaMAT 2026 Curves Brushes first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Manuel Kotulla.

For those who don’t know the tool: Adobe Substance 3D Painter is a texture painting hub that spits out textures and masks for other DCC apps.

Warp to Geometry, because decals deserve better

Substance 3D Painter has a new option called Warp to Geometry aimed squarely at one of texturing’s most reliable time sinks: projecting decals onto surfaces that refuse to behave. The feature lives as a new toggle in the contextual toolbar. When enabled, decals follow the curvature and topology of the mesh they are projected onto. The stated goal is cleaner results on complex surfaces, including cases where curvature shifts sharply and projection artifacts become obvious.

The practical change is easy to describe. A decal projection that would normally fade at the edges when the surface bends hard can retain its shape instead, with the toggle stopping that edge fade in the before-and-after comparison shown for the feature. If your decal workflow involves anything more dramatic than a flat panel, the point is clear: fewer hand fixes and fewer compromises to keep projected detail readable across tricky shapes.

Viewport post effects step up the lookdev game

Painter now includes additional post-processing effects in its built-in renderer. The intent is to let artists preview assets in the viewport under conditions that are closer to final renders. There are now 10 post effects in total. New options include lens flares and film grain. In other words, the viewport can lean further into presentation and context, so you can judge a surface with more of the usual render seasoning already applied.

This is still a preview context, not a final render pipeline. It is a way to iterate with more of the finishing layer visible while you paint, adjust, and evaluate. As always with shiny new viewport tricks, test new tools and innovations before using them in production.

Flatten layers, export fast, keep the editability

A new Flatten action has been added inside the layer stack. The workflow improvement here is about speed and convenience, especially when you want to get something out of your stack without committing to the full export pipeline. The flow described is simple. You can group layers and merge them to create a flattened copy. That flattened copy can be exported to disk. The payoff is a quicker path for getting textures or masks out of Painter so you can test them in other DCC applications, without having to go through the full export pipeline.

Crucially, flattening does not have to mean losing your ability to keep iterating. The original group can be saved as a Smart Material, making it possible to edit it in future. That is a useful balance for anyone who wants fast outputs for testing while keeping the layered logic intact for later adjustments. This is also the kind of change that quietly speeds up team communication. A flattened export is easier to pass around, and a saved Smart Material keeps the authoring side reusable for the next asset that needs the same treatment.

The end result is less friction when you need quick texutres for a test, while still keeping the layered work ready for a more considered pass later.

Project setup tweaks and a nod to USD workflows

Painter 12 also updates parts of project setup and iteration. The New project dialog has been reordered to make key settings quicker to access. There is also a new checkbox for reimporting the project mesh in the Project configuration dialog. Taken together, these are small adjustments that aim to reduce the number of clicks and the time spent hunting for the setting you always use.

Beyond that, there are smaller feature updates and bugfixes, including to USD workflow. Even when changes like these do not grab headlines, they often show up as day-to-day time saved, especially on projects where geometry keeps evolving and the texturing side needs to keep pace with mesh updates.

Platforms, licensing, and the money part

Substance 3D Painter 12.0 is available for Windows 11, Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 8.6 and 9.2 or later, Ubuntu 22.04 or later, and macOS 12.0 or later.

Perpetual licenses are available via Steam and cost $199.99.

The software is also available via Creative Cloud based 3D and AR subscriptions. Substance 3D Texturing subscriptions cost $24.99 per month or $249.99 per year. Substance 3D Collection subscriptions cost $59.99 per month or $599.99 per year. That gives teams and individuals a choice between a one time buy through Steam or subscription access through the 3D and AR plans, depending on how they prefer to budget tools and how often they expect to stay on the latest major versions.

If you are planning to fold these features into an existing pipeline, keep the usual discipline. Validate the new projection behavior on your typical asset types, check that flattened exports match what downstream expects, and confirm viewport effects do not mislead your approvals when compared to your final render targets. And yes, do a quick proejct side-by-side on something ugly, curved, and full of detail. The tools are clearly aimed at those moments.

The post Adobe releases Substance 3D Painter 12 with decal warp first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: OpenPBR sits in the material and shading layer, feeding lookdev and final-frame rendering. It can travel between CPU and shader code thanks to a shared macro layer, and it plugs neatly into a broader Substance 3D style workflow.

A reference library you can actually drop in

A public reference implementation of the full OpenPBR 1.0 BSDF is now available, released as a small, self-contained library built to mirror a production implementation used in an internal engine. The package is designed to be simple to integrate. It is delivered as a single header include named openpbr.h, aimed at teams who want to evaluate, sample, and ship consistent shading behaviour without hauling in a larger framework. The licensing choice matters for production teams and tool builders. The library is licensed under the Apache License 2.0, which is commonly used for permissive reuse and redistribution.

The API is small and very on purpose

The exposed interface is intentionally compact. The API surface is described as prepare, sample, eval, and pdf. That kind of shape is familiar to anyone who has wired a material model into a renderer, a path tracer, or a real-time shading stack. You prepare state, you sample directions, you evaluate response, and you compute the probability density for whatever sampling strategy you picked.

The key point here is not that these names exist, but that the implementation is a complete production implementation of the full OpenPBR 1.0 BSDF, then refactored into a tighter library form. That implies the library is meant to be used as a working baseline rather than a toy example.

One source, many targets

A core design goal is portability across multiple compilation targets. The library includes a GLSL style macro layer so the same source can compile as C++, GLSL, CUDA, Metal Shading Language, or Slang. For pipeline folks, that is the headline hiding behind the headline. A single code path that can be shared between CPU side reference evaluation and GPU side shading variants can reduce mismatches between offline and realtime looks, reduce duplicated bug fixing, and cut down on the inevitable drift that happens when implementations fork.

This release is presented as a reference implementation, but it is also explicitly described as the physically based production implementation that ships in an internal engine. That is a different promise than a pure spec document. It is code that has been used in anger, then packaged to travel.

What this changes for lookdev and realtime teams

The practical value for working artists and tech artists is consistency. A reference implementation offers a common baseline for how OpenPBR 1.0 behaves across tools and targets, especially when the same source is intended to compile into CPU and GPU contexts.

For realtime teams, the goal of compiling into shader languages and shader adjacent toolchains is the kind of detail that can save weeks. If your renderer uses GLSL and your tools team validates materials in a C++ baker or previewer, sharing one library can reduce the odds that two implementations disagree in subtle ways.

For offline teams, a compact library with a clean API can be easier to wrap into a renderer plugin, a USD shading adapter, or a testing harness that validates renders across builds. Nothing in the provided facts claims any of those integrations exist out of the box, but the library shape is clearly aligned with that kind of usage.

Some of the most valuable wins in shading are painfully unglamorous. Deterministic results across targets, fewer implementation forks, and clearer testability can be the difference between a stable material library and a never ending parade of look diffs.

One reminder that applies to every new shading drop, no matter how solid it sounds: new tools and innovations should be tested before use in production.

The vendor angle

Adobe is positioning this as a public release of a production OpenPBR 1.0 BSDF implementation, repackaged into a minimal single header library with a cross target macro layer.

https://github.com/adobe/openpbr-bsdf

The post OpenPBR BSDF reference code from Adobe first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Adobe Firefly is Adobe’s browser-based generative AI studio within the Adobe ecosystem, complementing Creative Cloud tools. The Firefly Video Editor adds AI-assisted video editing in the cloud, positioned for fast-turnaround content and lightweight workflows.

From blank timeline to first cut

Adobe has introduced Quick Cut in beta for the Firefly Video Editor. The company describes it as an AI-supported feature that generates a structured first-draft edit from a natural-language description. According to Adobe’s documentation, users describe their video concept in natural language. Quick Cut then creates an initial sequence that serves as a starting point for further refinement. The stated goal is to reduce the time spent reviewing footage and assembling a first edit.

Adobe positions this as a response to a common bottleneck in video production: the initial review and assembly phase that precedes narrative refinement. The feature is presented as particularly relevant for formats such as social media videos, product demos, interviews and event recaps. The beta is available from today.

Text prompts as edit instructions

Adobe specifies that users can describe the intended structure or concept of a video, such as an interview or event recap. Quick Cut uses these inputs to automatically generate a structured draft edit. The resulting edit can be refined and adjusted by the user. Adobe states that creators retain control over parameters including aspect ratio, pacing and B-roll organisation.

There is no published information on supported codecs, maximum timeline length, track limits, or interchange formats. It is also not specified whether sequences can be exported to other Creative Cloud applications such as Premiere Pro.

Positioned for fast-turnaround content

Adobe explicitly frames Quick Cut as optimised for “creator workflows,” particularly for social videos, product demos, vlogs, and event recaps. The documentation highlights use by hobby editors and time-constrained creators who want a structured starting point without engaging in a complex editing process.

This positioning indicates a focus on rapid content production rather than high-end broadcast or feature post pipelines. There is no mention of advanced editorial controls such as multi-cam handling, script-based editing, EDL export, or collaborative review workflows. Whether Quick Cut will expand beyond these use cases has not been announced.

Firefly as a creative AI hub

Quick Cut is part of Adobe Firefly, which Adobe describes as its all-in-one creative AI studio. Firefly spans image, video and other generative workflows within Adobe’s broader Creative Cloud strategy. Adobe states that Quick Cut integrates with the existing Firefly Unlimited offering. The company presents this as enabling greater iteration speed and flexibility. As with other Firefly features, Adobe emphasises commercial safety in relation to its own Firefly image and video models.

Unlimited Firefly and model access

Adobe is offering access to Quick Cut beta through the Firefly app. Users can register until 16 March to benefit from what Adobe describes as unlimited image and Firefly video generations at resolutions up to 2K.

The offer applies to customers on Firefly Pro, Firefly Premium, 4,000-credit, 7,000-credit and 50,000-credit plans. Adobe states that this includes unlimited generations using image models such as Google Nano Banana Pro, GPT Image Generation and Runway Gen-4 Image, alongside Adobe’s own Firefly image and video models. No detailed technical comparison between these third-party models is included in the announcement. Adobe does not specify which models are used by Quick Cut for edit generation versus image or video asset generation.

What is not specified

The currently available documentation does not clarify several points relevant to professional pipelines. There is no explicit statement about media ingest limits, storage quotas, or project retention policies within Firefly Video Editor. Integration with on-prem or MAM systems is not mentioned. There is no information about API access, automation hooks, or enterprise deployment models.

Colour management, LUT handling, audio track control, and support for professional camera formats are not described in the Quick Cut overview. These omissions may reflect the current scope of the beta, but they are not addressed in the official text. Professionals considering use in production environments should evaluate these factors directly within the beta before committing deadlines or client deliverables.

Beta status and production caution

Quick Cut is explicitly labelled as beta. As with any beta feature, stability, performance and feature completeness may evolve. New tools and innovations should always be tested before use in production.

// https://helpx.adobe.com/de/firefly/web/firefly-video-editor/create-quick-cut/quick-cut-overview.html

The post Adobe adds Quick Cut to Firefly Video Editor first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

DaVinci Resolve (DR for short) had the Magic Mask function on board for quite a while, and some voiced their disappointment when it didn’t conjure up what greenscreen keying does. Well, Blackmagic Design (BM for short) never claimed it does, by concept it was rather aiming at secondary colour grading. While its capabilities are quite impressive, Magic Mask has some problems with backgrounds that are too close in colour and contrast to the foreground, or subjects with motion blur. And then, it needs very capable hardware and there are still quite a few reports of limited reliability of Magic Mask 2 in DR, caching in particular. While version 20.3.2 should have some improvements in that area, we wouldn’t bet the house (or the company) on it yet.

FxFactory to the rescue

So, good old greenscreen has not yet been obsoleted by AI, at least if you don’t shoot the whole scene in a virtual studio anyway. The authors, Rob Mackintosh and Gabriele de Simone, have obviously thought about facilitating boring tasks by blending in some AI with ‘classic’ greenscreening. They are the masterminds behind the Hawaiki Keyer (HK for short, even if not from China), which is supported and distributed by FxFactory. Version 5 of that keyer adds tracking by a neural engine, including face or object recognition. They also ported it to DR, while older versions were only available for Adobe’s video software and Final Cut Pro. Reason enough to have a closer look?

Test scenes

We have tested it with critical footage, like a too well-lit background lacking saturation, and another one with good saturation, but lighting issues. The latter one was even in ‘small’ HD out of a DVCPro camera (from Hollywood Camera Works). Of course, a perfectly lit greenscreen in 12K from a modern digital camera would hardly stress any of the keyers included by BM, like the 3D Keyer in DR Studio, or Cryptomatte and Delta Keyer in Fusion. HK rather aims at those fighting with not so perfect shots.

Tracking instead of boring

After watching the older tutorial you may be wondering about the shape of the window coming up for the secondary keyer, which is now rectangular. You can round it off if needed with its “Roundness” slider. This is now in its own menu under “Shape”, where you also define the tracking area. The secondary key is controlled by this adjustable shape, and this is where tracking comes into play. You can have it follow the initial content like any good tracker.

Or you can activate “AI Track” and let it follow faces or objects, even multiple targets up to six. In our tests it was tracking very reliably, only some of the wildly shaken strains of blonde hair with high motion blur in one example were overshooting and needed minor adjustment. Such tracking capabilities are not only taking a lot of manual work out of garbage matting for scenes with a moving camera, but allow you to apply the secondary key to critical areas, like hair. A detailed tutorial is here.

Two for the price of one

Actually, even four, counting the extras. At first view, most of HK’s functions are set to “Auto” or quite decent presets, but all can be fine-tuned manually, if not to say infinitely. There is even a separate version for bluescreen, in case anybody, not even knowing where the heck that name originated, is confronted with optochemical footage. Now, either version is actually two keyers in one. If you have some experience with chroma keying, you will already know that one single key is often not enough to handle both delicate semi-transparencies and an uneven background at once. HK offers a primary and a secondary key, which both can be enabled and fine-tuned individually, as explained here. Most of the YouTube tutorials for HK were made by Simon Ubsdell, a very experienced compositing artist who also produced hundreds of other tutorials.

Clean the edges

“Denoise” is not exactly what you may assume. General denoising, if needed, should rather be done before using your incoming footage with HK. We would suggest NeatVideo for such tasks, which is still king in the lower price range. That function in HK is rather aiming at critical edges from weaker sources, like 4:2:2 subsampling, which can lead to stairstepping or even crawly contours. While it can’t perfectly cure our poor sample from DVCPro, it did a pretty good job improving it, considerably better than simply blurring the edges. There is a whole set of settings to improve the edges under “Edge Tool”, you can find that part of a tutorial by Simon here.

Clean your screen

And then there is “Screen Clean”, explained here. It does a better job than the standard sliders of other keyers at identifying and cleaning areas of uneven lighting of the background and preserving semi-transparent foreground areas at the same time. Screen Clean has a pretty decent “Auto” default, but can be fine-tuned and excluded from an active shape if needed. Of course, there’s “Despill”, which will not only base its effect on the keying color, but can accomodate the background image if you wish.

Grading included

HK even integrates a whole range of color grading functions. This may have you wondering why, if you are working inside one of the best grading applications on the planet. But anybody with some decent compositing experience will know how helpful it can be to do some corrections right in the keyer. Of course, you can also choose appropriate color space and gamma here. Most of these parameters were added in version 5, BTW. Like all the rest, those values can be animated.

If you have never used this keyer before, have a look at the tutorials for HK 4 and 4.5, they contain valuable explanations of the earlier improvements. Not all material is yet adapted to DR, but this tutorial is going over the use of the keyer in DR in general. In particular the use of the background for functions like the “Edge Tools”, e. g. light wrap. These can be a bit tricky in Resolve and will be easier with the help of a simple Fusion composition, clearly explained in that video.

Help is just a mouse-click away for all of the Hawaiki tools, both in the Inspector or the Open FX Overlay. The manual will show up in a separate window, which you can place on a second screen or next to DR on a superwide one, if DR is not set to full-frame.

DR with Fusion not enough?

Now, if seasoned Fusion specialists may claim that they could do most of what HK does with the tools already on board, that may be true to some degree. But that’s not easy for the average users of DR, who will probably see HK’s all-in-one concept as a godsend. They can discover a highly-specialised set of tools coming clearly from practical experience and not found anywhere else. And then, HK works in the free version of DR too, while many of the more advanced tools in DR don’t.

Being fully optimized for Apple silicon, the keyer is very fast, even on a humble Mac mini M4. The intelligent pipeline contributes to this: if you first crop the picture in for garbage matting, the outside areas are not processed any further by the tracker and all the rest to avoid the load. And then, whatever can be done by the neural engine will not put any load on the GPU cores. Finally, on limited hardware in particular it’s considerably more stable than Magic Mask 2.

Commentary

There might be only one minor flaw to disappoint a few of our readers: all FxFactory filters are MacOS only, with no plans to change that any time soon. But for all those using DaVinci Resolve, even the free version, on a modern Apple computer and needing greenscreening regularly, Hawaiki Keyer’s all-in-one approach should be quite appealing. Many of the other offers by FxFactory are worth a look as well.

The post Hawaiki Keyer – for those who don’t trust all the magic of AI first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Uli Plank.

For those who don’t know the tool: Adobe Animate is Adobe’s 2D animation and interactive authoring tool, used for vector animation, rigged characters, and legacy Flash-style pipelines inside the wider Adobe Creative Cloud ecosystem.

What actually happened

Following several days of confusion, contradictory reporting, and one notably premature obituary, Adobe has formally clarified the status of Adobe Animate. The application is not being discontinued. It is not being removed. It is not being sunset on a fixed date. Instead, Animate has been placed into what Adobe calls maintenance mode, indefinitely.

Adobe updated its official Animate knowledge base article on February 4, 2026. The wording is explicit and repetitive, likely by design. Adobe states that Animate will continue to be available to both existing and new customers, with no deadline for removal. The company also states it has no plans to discontinue or remove access to the application. This represents a change from an earlier customer email that suggested a clearer end-of-life trajectory. Adobe now says that information is no longer valid and that the position has changed.

The distinction matters, particularly for studios and freelancers still shipping broadcast graphics, educational content, and lightweight 2D animation using Animate-based pipelines.

Maintenance mode, defined precisely

Adobe’s definition of maintenance mode is narrow and unambiguous. Animate will continue to receive security updates and bug fixes. It will continue to be supported. It will remain downloadable for new users. It will continue to open existing projects.

It will not receive new features.

Adobe repeats this point multiple times in its documentation. There is no language about feature backlogs, paused development, or future reassessment. Maintenance mode is described as indefinite. This is not an uncommon status for mature tools with stable user bases, but Adobe rarely uses such blunt phrasing for Creative Cloud applications.

Access to existing content

One of the central concerns raised by users was long-term access to authored content. Adobe explicitly addresses this. The company states it is committed to ensuring Animate users retain access to their content regardless of future changes in development status.

This applies to individual subscribers, small businesses, and enterprise customers. Adobe does not describe any technical mechanisms beyond continued availability of the application itself. No migration tools or export guarantees are mentioned. There is also no mention of file format deprecation or conversion paths. Animate documents remain Animate documents.

The backlash and the cleanup

The clarification follows widespread reporting that Animate was being discontinued outright. Digital Production published an article stating that Adobe had pulled the plug on Animate. That headline was based on earlier information provided by Adobe and has since been overtaken by events. The company’s own documentation now contradicts that earlier messaging.

Adobe pulls the plug on Animate at last

Adobe acknowledges this directly, stating that what it initially shared has changed. This is a rare case where the vendor explicitly reverses a communicated product trajectory, rather than quietly rephrasing it.

Implications for production users

For production artists, the practical outcome is stability without evolution. Existing pipelines can continue to function. Security vulnerabilities should be addressed. Bugs may still be fixed, though Adobe does not define the scope or frequency. There will be no new animation tools, no workflow improvements, and no modernisation beyond what is required to keep the application operational.

For some teams, this is acceptable. For others, it confirms the need to plan exits, even if no forced deadline exists. Animate becomes a frozen dependency, not an actively developed one. The key point is that this decision is now explicit, not implied.

// Adobe Animate maintenance mode documentation
// https://helpx.adobe.com/animate/kb/maintenance-mode.html

The post Animate re-animated first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Adobe Animate is a 2D vector animation tool in Creative Cloud, used for character animation, interactive content, and legacy web workflows, sitting between After Effects and Illustrator. It has been, under different names like Flash, and in the very beginning, the FutureSplash Animator, around since 1996.

The official decision

Adobe has formally confirmed that Adobe Animate is being discontinued. The information is published in an official end of life. According to Adobe, sales of Adobe Animate will stop on 1 March 2026. After that date, the application will no longer be available for new purchases or new subscriptions.

Adobe states that existing customers will retain access for a limited time, depending on their licence type. Individual subscribers can continue to access and receive support for Adobe Animate until 1 March 2027. Enterprise and education customers will retain access, downloads, and support until 1 March 2029. After those dates, Adobe Animate will no longer be supported or accessible through Adobe systems.

“As technologies evolve, new platforms and paradigms emerge that better serve the needs of the users. Acknowledging this change, we are planning to discontinue supporting Animate.” (Here)

Adobe’s notice is explicit that users should plan ahead. Access to project files stored in Adobe services may end when support expires. Adobe recommends exporting content before the relevant deadlines. No automatic migration tools or replacement workflows are documented, and no guarantees are made regarding future compatibility.

The death notice does not mention artificial intelligence or strategic shifts. Any interpretation beyond the published dates and access conditions is not stated by Adobe and is therefore not verified at press time. However, it doesn’t take a genius to conclude that they haven’t found a way to integrate AI into it, or maybe they just forgot about the tool, so they are taking it to the grave, instead of open-sourcing it.

Access and support timelines

For individual users, Adobe Animate remains usable until March 2027, provided it is already installed and licensed. Updates, bug fixes, and official support will cease at that point. For enterprise and education customers, Adobe extends this window to March 2029, allowing organisations more time to transition archives and pipelines.

Adobe warns that once support ends, downloads may no longer be available, even for previously licensed users. This affects reinstallation, system upgrades, and long-term archiving strategies. The company advises users to export assets to other formats while access is still guaranteed.

A long, slow goodbye

Adobe Animate has a long history under multiple names, including Flash Professional. It has been used for broadcast graphics, web animation, interactive content, and game assets. Over time, its role narrowed as web standards changed and interactive Flash content declined. Animate survived by repositioning itself as a general-purpose 2D animation tool that exports to video, HTML5 Canvas, and other formats.

Despite that repositioning, Adobe Animate remained isolated within Creative Cloud. It does not share a unified timeline and its character animation tools overlap only partially with other Adobe products.

Practical implications for production

For production teams, the shutdown introduces predictable but non-trivial risks. Projects with long lifecycles, educational curricula, and archived content built in Animate will need review. Pipelines depending on FLA or XFL files should be audited well before access deadlines. Asset export and documentation should be treated as a scheduled task, not a last-minute exercise.

// Adobe Animate end of life notice
// https://helpx.adobe.com/animate/kb/end-of-life.html

The post Adobe pulls the plug on Animate at last first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Adobe has introduced three new adjustment layers to Photoshop: Clarity, Dehaze and Grain. These controls were previously available only through Camera Raw and the Camera Raw Filter. They are now accessible as standard, non-destructive adjustment layers within the main Photoshop layer stack.

According to Adobe, the new layers behave like other adjustment layers. They can be masked, reordered, blended and revisited at any time without altering the underlying image data. This brings parity between Camera Raw based workflows and traditional Photoshop compositing, reducing the need to commit early to contrast or texture decisions.

Clarity adjusts midtone contrast, Dehaze targets low-frequency contrast loss caused by atmospheric scatter, and Grain applies a controllable film-style noise pattern. Adobe does not specify whether the underlying algorithms are identical to those in Camera Raw, only that the controls are now natively available in Photoshop.

Generative tools move to higher resolution

Adobe has updated several Firefly-powered features in Photoshop, including Generative Fill, Generative Expand and the Remove tool. Output resolution has been increased to up to 2K. Adobe states this results in sharper detail, fewer visible artefacts and improved alignment with text prompts.

The company also highlights improvements to Reference Image support. When a reference is supplied, the generative system is intended to better preserve object identity, including scale, orientation, lighting, colour and perspective. Adobe positions this as a way to reduce iterative prompting when compositing generated elements into existing plates.

Dynamic Text enters beta

A new Dynamic Text feature, currently labelled as beta, allows users to transform text layers into predefined shapes such as circles, arcs and curves with a single action. The text remains editable and automatically conforms to the chosen shape without requiring manual path creation.

Adobe frames this as a productivity feature for layout and graphic design tasks. The company does not indicate whether the system supports custom shapes or whether it exposes underlying typographic controls beyond the provided presets. As a beta feature, behaviour and availability may change.

Availability and platforms

These updates are available now in Photoshop on desktop. The improved generative tools are also available in Photoshop on the web. No changes to pricing or subscription structure are mentioned. Photoshop remains available exclusively via Adobe’s subscription model.

As with all new or updated tools, Adobe recommends testing features in non-critical projects before integrating them into production workflows. New tools and innovations should always be validated in real-world conditions before use on actual client work.

// Adobe blog announcement on new Photoshop features
// https://blog.adobe.com/en/publish/2026/01/27/new-photoshop-innovations-provide-creative-pros-more-control-realism-precision

The post Photoshop gets less destructive and slightly less vague first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Object Mask: Click, Click, Done

Premiere’s new AI Object Mask tool aims to end frame-by-frame rotoscoping. Hover over a subject, click once, and Premiere builds a mask that automatically tracks that object through the scene. You can use it to blur faces, relight subjects, or isolate areas for colour grading. Six coloured overlays make selections easy to read, while the lasso and rectangle tools handle manual tweaks. Tracking runs both forward and backwards, with near real-time previews and a frame-track editing mode for fine-tuning. Feather and expansion controls help blend the result into your shot without visible edges.

Mask tracking is now powered by a rewritten core that runs locally on the machine. Adobe says the new object selection models don’t require cloud processing, keeping footage on the device and preserving user privacy. Tracking performance is substantially faster in real use, especially on newer GPUs.

Shape Masks Grow Up

Traditional ellipse, rectangle, and pen masks have been rebuilt. The tracking engine is up to 20 times faster, bezier curves supposedly behave more predictably, and on-screen controls finally feel modern. Each mask supports blend modes for combining shapes, including add, subtract, and intersect. There is also a new 3D perspective tracking mode for sticking masks to surfaces that aren’t flat to the camera.

Firefly Boards: From Moodboard to Timeline

Premiere now connects directly to Firefly Boards, Adobe’s collaborative AI workspace for brainstorming and visual planning. Editors can import ideas, concept images, or generative assets directly into a Premiere project without the usual download-and-export routine. The workflow lets teams move from early ideas to polished edits without breaking creative flow.

Workflow Tweaks

Premiere 26.0 also brings a long list of smaller but meaningful improvements. The Frame.io V4 and Adobe Stock panels have been reworked so editors can search, preview, license, and import assets directly in the app. File relinking is smarter, the Effects panel is reorganised for clarity, and startup on macOS is quicker with a smaller install footprint. Windows ARM builds now deliver better responsiveness and longer battery life. Nikon R 3D NE raw video files are supported natively, including from the new Nikon ZR camera.

Beta and Reality Check

Some of the masking features remain in the Premiere beta build, so expect updates and occasional quirks. In tests, the Object Mask handles clear subjects well but can still fumble in noisy or low-contrast footage. Early adopters are advised to test thoroughly before trusting it with client deadlines.

Pricing and availability: Premiere 26.0, After Effects 26.0, and Firefly Boards integrations are now rolling out to all Creative Cloud subscribers. As always, test new tools in controlled environments before letting them loose on paid work. And yes, we’re updating our website tags.

Coming Up Next: After Effects

After Effects 26.0 got its own set of major updates, including native parametric 3D meshes, 1,300 free Substance materials, SVG import with gradient preservation, and variable-font animation. We will be pouring through that one very soon.

The post Premiere drops the “Pro” and picks up some serious AI first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Substance 3D Designer by Adobe is the procedural backbone of the Substance ecosystem, used to author textures, materials, filters, and 3D scan data for applications such as Unreal Engine, Unity, Maya, and Blender. Unlike Substance 3D Painter, Designer is node-based, non-destructive, and procedural. It feeds entire material pipelines in VFX, games, and lookdev.

Graph creation, now less of a click-fest

Version 15.1 introduces a reworked graph creation window. Instead of plain text templates, users now see visual thumbnails of material and filter templates. Each preview displays the graph type and intended use, such as base materials, scan processing, or filters. Tooltips now provide short technical descriptions, making it easier to select the correct graph type. The window also features a new categorisation system, grouping templates by purpose. Users can still switch to legacy list or package views if they prefer.

Sample materials: less blank-page syndrome

To ease onboarding, Adobe has added ready-made example graphs for common material families: fabric, wood, metal, plastic, and ceramic. These graphs use clean node layouts and minimal complexity, illustrating practical network structures without clutter. The samples are embedded in the installation and open directly in the main window.

Noise nodes behave themselves

One long-standing annoyance in Designer was inconsistent noise behaviour. Version 15.1 brings better predictability to noise nodes like Cells, Cloud, Dirt, and Directional. Several noises no longer force tiling when used on non-repeating surfaces. Bit depth is no longer locked at 16-bit for most procedural patterns, giving artists finer control of data precision. Adobe has also unlocked additional parameters for certain noise types, allowing subtler tuning of randomisation and distribution. These changes should make procedural pattern generation more stable and flexible when working on high-frequency materials or custom filters.

Node search and grouping: smaller wins for large graphs

To make navigating large graphs faster, Designer 15.1 adds a Group attribute for nodes. When defined, this attribute helps organise search results by logical groups within a graph. It’s a small improvement that can make a large difference when managing hundreds of nodes.

Platform and pricing

Substance 3D Designer 15.1 is available now for Windows 11, macOS 12.0 or newer, and RHEL-compatible Linux. It ships via Adobe’s Substance 3D subscription plans or as a standalone perpetual licence for approximately $199.99 on Steam. The update installs directly through the Creative Cloud Desktop app for current subscribers.

What’s missing (and what’s not broken)

This release does not include any changes to the viewport renderer, path tracer, or USD import/export features introduced in 15.0. Those remain in place and function identically. There are no new node types or export formats. In other words, 15.1 is an incremental workflow update, not a rendering overhaul. As always, test the new version on non-critical projects before rolling it out in production, especially if your pipeline relies on custom graphs or legacy noise nodes.

The post Substance Designer cleans up its nodes first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.