Animation Production Days 2021 Goes Online
Animation Production Days 2021 examined European animation, market trends, transmedia projects and commissioning needs in an online programme.
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Hair Cards Tool Builds Real-Time Hair in 3ds Max
Mihail Lupu’s 3ds Max add-on creates and edits textured hair-card geometry for game characters and real-time projects.
Epic Publishes Unreal Engine DMX Previs Sample
Epic Games released a free Unreal Engine DMX sample for previsualising complex live-event lighting and effects.
Emiliano Topete Breaks Down a Remote C4D Pilot
Emiliano Topete explains how a small team produced the 12-minute pilot Shu and the Resistance with Cinema 4D and Red Giant tools.
19th VES Awards Honour 2020’s Visual Effects
The 19th VES Awards recognised work across film, episodic production, animation, games, commercials and special-venue projects.
Peter Eszenyi Shares a Cinema 4D Workflow
Peter Eszenyi presents Cinema 4D workflow lessons drawn from Ghost in the Shell, Pacific Rim: Uprising and The Dark Crystal.
Wacom Career Days Runs Online
Wacom Career Days offered nine online sessions with presentations, discussions, portfolio reviews and career advice for digital artists.
Clothify Pro Adds Modifier-Based Cloth Tools
Clothify Pro brings non-destructive real-time cloth shaping and animation to 3ds Max through a stack-compatible modifier.
Golaem Academy Teaches Crowd Simulation
Golaem marked a decade of its crowd-simulation software with 16 free training sessions covering large-scale digital populations.
Cinefex Ends Publication After 40 Years
Cinefex closed after more than 40 years and over 170 issues, with issue 172 becoming the final edition of the VFX journal.
Jürgen Schopper Joins HFF Munich as VFX Professor
HFF Munich appointed Jürgen Schopper professor for its VFX specialisation, beginning in April 2021.
Paletter Assigns Material Colours in Blender
Phygitalism’s Blender add-on Paletter assigns selected polygons to defined materials and colour palettes.
XRayMorph-EL Previews Pose Editing in 3ds Max
Raylight Games previews XRayMorph-EL, a 3ds Max pose editor for character animation, specialised animation and deformation.
White Square 2021 Announces Festival Programme
White Square announced a Minsk programme with more than 70 sessions covering marketing, branding, digital media and creativity.
Autodesk Updates Maya, 3ds Max and MotionBuilder
Autodesk’s 2022 releases add USD, Python 3, animation and rigging updates, Arnold 6.2, security tools and MotionBuilder workflow changes.
Autodesk Extends Multi-User Trade-In Terms
Autodesk extended eligibility for its 2:1 multi-user trade-in offer to qualifying renewals through August 2023.
Robert Hranitzky Demonstrates Product Rendering
Robert Hranitzky explains remote product-visualisation workflows using Cinema 4D and After Effects in a 45-minute presentation.
Modo 15 Reworks MeshFusion and Animation
Foundry’s Modo 15 overhauls MeshFusion booleans and the animation editor, with viewport depth of field, mPath interaction and Python 3.
FMX Spotlight Examines Epic’s Digital Humans
Epic Games’ Vladimir Mastilovic joins FMX to demonstrate MetaHuman Creator with Animationsinstitut R&D head Volker Helzle.
Maxon’s 3D and Motion Design Show Goes Online
Maxon’s free online show brings together Cinema 4D, motion-design, VFX and visualisation artists for demonstrations and talks.
Pixar TD Andrew Finley Releases Vertigo
Pixar technical director Andrew Finley presents Vertigo, a personal CG project centred on a sleek futuristic spacecraft.
Gnomon Teaches Python Jaw Rigging in Maya
Arturo Coso’s four-and-a-half-hour Gnomon workshop builds a jaw rig in Maya and automates parts of the process with Python.
Inside Digital Production 02:2021
Digital Production 02:2021 covers colour tools, Resolve, Magic Bullet, Marmoset, Houdini, Katana, Nuendo, Cascadeur and Unreal Niagara.
Faceware Studio Targets MetaHuman Facial Capture
An fxguide feature examines Faceware Studio, its Mark IV head-mounted camera and planned compatibility with Epic MetaHuman assets.
ZBrush 2021.6 Adds Curve Sculpting Tools
ZBrush 2021.6 introduces Curve Alpha and Snake Curve brushes, a Mesh from Mask system and more control over curve shapes.
White Square 2021 Opens Festival Submissions
White Square 2021 announced its jury and invited agencies, brands and creatives to submit work for the international advertising festival.
MeInGame Generates 3D Faces from Portraits
MeInGame automates 3D face shape and texture generation from a single photographic portrait for use in game characters.
3D Motion Show Shares Six Hours of C4D Advice
The IBC 2020 edition of the 3D Motion Show collects nearly six hours of Cinema 4D motion-graphics demonstrations and production advice.
Morphle Adds Shape-Key Tools to Blender
Phygitalism’s free Morphle add-on creates objects containing shape keys derived from selected vertex positions.
Mod Tech Labs Explains Volumetric Video
Mod Tech Labs outlines a volumetric-capture workflow that records a subject from multiple angles and reconstructs an animated 3D mesh.
Maxon Announces 3D and Motion Design Show Line-up
Maxon’s 2021 show programme covers Cinema 4D, Redshift and Red Giant workflows, beginning with Jonas Pilz on procedural infrastructure.
PhysX Painter 2.0 Adds Object Forces and Drop Brush
Kinematic Lab’s 3ds Max plug-in paints objects into scenes, then uses gravity, attraction and explosion forces to distribute them.
KeyShot 10.1 Adds Physics Placement and USD
KeyShot 10.1 adds gravity and collision placement, multi-light editing, USD import, USDZ and GLB export, and a new licence portal.
Lazy Manager Adds Shared 3ds Max Asset Management
Joker Martini’s Lazy Manager organises and publishes objects, materials and modifiers across multiple 3ds Max instances.
Game UI Database Catalogues 12,000 Screenshots
Edd Coates’ Game UI Database catalogues more than 12,000 interface screenshots from over 340 AAA and independent games.
Pixar Research Refits Garments to Digital Bodies
Pixar’s garment-refitting method alternates relaxation and rebinding optimisation to adapt clothing to different digital body shapes.
Trapcode 15 Adds Dynamic Fluids to Particular 4
Trapcode 15 adds fluid-like particle dynamics to Particular 4 and Form 4, while Mir 3 gains OBJ import, texturing and reflection mapping.
FMX 2021 Adds VFX, AR and VR Sessions
FMX 2021 announces sessions on Jim Button VFX, Nexus Studios’ palace AR project and Baobab Studios’ Baba Yaga VR experience.
SIGGRAPH Course Examines Dynamic Deformables
Theodore Kim and David Eberle discuss dynamic deformable materials, solver design and collision handling in a SIGGRAPH 2020 course.
Vox Machina Making-of Introduces Its Fantasy World
Critical Role’s making-of video introduces the locations and visual development of The Legend of Vox Machina with its art directors.
Unity Shader Graph 2020.2 Introduces Master Stack
Unity’s Shader Graph 2020.2 adds the Master Stack and clearer real-time feedback for visual shader creation.
93rd Academy Awards Visual Effects Shortlist Announced
The Academy names ten films on the Visual Effects shortlist for the 93rd Academy Awards, ahead of the final five nominations.
Poser 12 Adds GPU Ray Tracing and Render Denoising
Poser 12 updates the SuperFly renderer with Nvidia GPU ray tracing, Intel Open Image Denoise and a revised material-management system.
Stuttgart Animation Festival Extends Animated Games Deadline
The Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film extended submissions for its €5,000 Animated Games Award to 15 February 2021.
The Animation Workshop Streams 2021 Graduation Films
The Animation Workshop presented a pre-release livestream of its 2021 graduation projects on 5 February.
FMX 2021 Announces Its First Online Edition
FMX 2021 announced an online programme focused on remote work, virtual workflows and animation and VFX production.
Tutorial: Creating a Fractured 3D Logo in Cinema 4D
EJ Hassenfratz demonstrates how to convert Adobe Illustrator splines into a fractured 3D logo with Cinema 4D dynamics.
Cascadeur Research Explores Zero-Gravity Character Animation
Cascadeur’s team explains its research into weightless movement and physically plausible keyframe animation.
Blender Add-on Enables Remote Character Animation
Wanderson Studio used Blender’s addRoutes add-on and TouchOSC to animate a character remotely for the short Xmas Is Cancelled.
23lunes Shares Its 2021 Studio Reel
Barcelona studio 23lunes presents a three-minute reel featuring its character animation and visual-effects work.
Power IK Full-Body Solver Released for Unreal Engine
Power IK provides Unreal Engine users with a full-body inverse-kinematics solver supporting multiple effectors.
Animcraft 1.1 Brings Reusable Animation Workflows to DCCs and Game Engines
Animcraft builds reusable animation libraries and transfers keyframe or motion-capture data between major DCC applications and game engines.
Tutorial: Sculpting a Primate Aviator in ZBrush
Konstantin Gdalevich demonstrates the ZBrush character-sculpting process behind Marcus, a stylised primate aviator.
KeenTools 2021.1 Expands FaceBuilder and FaceTracker Support
KeenTools 2021.1 adds Nuke Indie support, new FaceBuilder topologies, ARKit-compatible blendshapes and tracking improvements.
Dynamo Brings GPU-Accelerated Cloth Dynamics to 3ds Max
Deform Dynamics’ Dynamo plugin uses GPU acceleration to speed up cloth simulation workflows in 3ds Max.
FMX Spotlight: Producer Jinko Gotoh on Storytelling and Social Impact
Producer Jinko Gotoh and Women in Animation’s Imke Fehrmann discuss how animated storytelling can address social injustice.
Autodesk Ends Physical Media Orders and Moves Fully to Downloads
Autodesk discontinued orders for physical installation media in December 2020 as it completed the move to digital delivery.
Tutorial: Creating Groomed Fur for a 3D Chipmunk
Student artist Seonghyeon Park explains the grooming workflow behind a detailed 3D chipmunk character.
Akeytsu 2020.3 Adds Space Switching and a Unified Timeline
Nukeygara’s Akeytsu 2020.3 update introduces dynamic parenting through Space Switching and parallel character animation.
Rumba 1.0 Introduces Real-Time Character Animation for VFX Pipelines
Rumba 1.0 offers geometry-based character manipulation, onion-skin posing and integration with existing Maya pipelines.
DragonFly 2.0 Improves Virtual Camera Tracking and Live Motion Capture
Glassbox Technologies’ DragonFly 2.0 adds better camera tracking, live motion-capture support and more flexible licensing.
MakeHuman 1.2 Adds MakeSkin, Mass Produce and Blender Integration
MakeHuman 1.2 delivers its first major update in four years, with new material, character-generation and Blender integration tools.
Aardman Academy Launches 12-Week Online Stop-Motion Course
Aardman Academy announced a three-month online programme covering the craft and production workflow of stop-motion animation.
Zeitfeld: Martin Hoppe’s Camera Arrays Freeze Time
Martin Hoppe explains Zeitfeld’s scalable bullet-time rigs, LuxMatrix lighting system and high-speed camera experiments.
FMX Spotlight Examines Reusable Assets in EU Project SAUCE
FMX Spotlight presents EU Project SAUCE research into reusable creative assets, light fields, asset pipelines, semantic animation and crowds.
Shams Meccea Discusses Creativity and Motion Design
Vancouver motion designer Shams Meccea explores abstract ideas, spirituality, self-discovery and experimentation across media.
ZBrush 2021.5 Adds Thick Skin and Surface-Sculpting Tools
Pixologic previewed ZBrush 2021.5 with Thick Skin, new surface tools and updates to ZModeler and Sculptris Pro.
Mehdi Hadi at The 3D and Motion Design Show
VFX and motion graphics artist Mehdi Hadi discusses his multidisciplinary work at The 3D and Motion Design Show.
Creating Dreadlocks with Maya XGen and 3ds Max
Hazel Brown demonstrates a dreadlock-creation workflow using Maya XGen, 3ds Max, xNormal and Photoshop.
Building a Stylised Goth Girl in Maya and ZBrush
Carlos Adrian Gonzalez Villagomez demonstrates a stylised character workflow spanning Maya, ZBrush, Arnold, XGen, Photoshop and Substance Painter.
Vertex 2021 Moves Its 2D and 3D Art Conference Online
Vertex 2021 brought talks, drawing classes, an exhibition hall and artist presentations for 2D and 3D creators to an online event.
FMX Spotlight Explores How Women in Animation Can Make an Impact
Jinko Gotoh and Imke Fehrmann joined an FMX Spotlight on supporting storytellers, collaboration and Women in Animation.
Procedural Hair Creation Previewed for Substance Painter
Olivier Lau previews a Substance Painter tool for generating procedural hair cards directly across a model’s surfaces.
Inside Pixar Explores the Studio’s Creative Process
The Disney+ documentary series Inside Pixar presents stories from the artists and production teams behind the animation studio’s work.
Julia Siemón Discusses Motion Graphics and Animation
Designer and educator Julia Siemón shares insights into motion graphics, 3D design, animation and the challenges of a creative career.
Three Cinema 4D Quick Tips for Animation and Viewport Work
Three Cinema 4D videos cover camera jump cuts, isolating animated parameters and adding viewport bloom with Magic Bullet Looks.
Learning Character Rigging with Blender’s Rigify Add-on
Todor Nikolov’s Rigify tutorial series explains armatures, meta-rigs, custom character rigs, bone groups and posing in Blender.
Eran Stern Presents a Beginner Cinema 4D Workflow
Eran Stern demonstrates an accessible Cinema 4D workflow built around an astronaut scene for The 3D and Motion Design Show.
Tiny Giants Share Their Animation and VFX Work
Dutch animation and visual-effects studio Tiny Giants presents its work in a session with Bas Helmig and Bart Brinkman.
Cloth Deform Adds Interactive Wrinkle Sculpting to 3ds Max
KM-3D’s Cloth Deform plug-in for 3ds Max provides an interactive way to press, pull and sculpt wrinkles into cloth surfaces.
Mario Domingo Shares Motion Design Tips in Cinema 4D
Dublin motion designer Mario Domingo demonstrates creative Cinema 4D techniques in a session for The 3D and Motion Design Show.
Foundry Completes the Modo 14 Series
Modo 14.2 completed Foundry’s Modo 14 series with USD support, Rig Clay, MeshFusion tools, viewport upgrades and major performance gains.
GS CurveTools v1.1 Expands Procedural Hair Creation in Maya
GS CurveTools v1.1 for Maya provides tools for curve-controlled hair cards, tubes, braids and other procedural grooming elements.
Animatics Channel Curates Animated Short Films
Autour de Minuit’s Animatics channel presents animated shorts for adult audiences, including The Death, Dad & Son, Pixels and Logorama.
Studio Ghibli Releases 400 Film Stills
Studio Ghibli released 400 still images from eight films, including Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle and Ponyo.
Don Bluth Launches New Animation Studio
Don Bluth Studios launches with Bluth Fables, livestreamed development and a stated focus on new hand-drawn characters and stories.
Cinema 4D Quick Tip: Move the Time Slider
Jonas Pilz demonstrates how to move Cinema 4D’s Time Slider without directly dragging it in part 302 of Maxon’s Quick Tips series.
Cinema 4D Quick Tip: Open the Sky Manager
Jonas Pilz explains how to open Cinema 4D’s Sky Manager in part 301 of Maxon’s Quick Tips video series.
After Effects Tutorial: Liquid Reveal Animation
Ben Marriott demonstrates a liquid reveal animation in After Effects using an illustration by Pierre Kleinhouse.
Cinema 4D Tutorial: Abstract Spline Effect
Dave Bergin combines Dynamics and MoGraph Effectors to create a colourful abstract spline effect in Cinema 4D.
Cinema 4D Tutorial: Abstract Wave Effect
Vladislav Solovjov demonstrates how to create abstract wave forms with Cinema 4D and Redshift in a 15-minute tutorial.
Cinema 4D Quick Tip 300: Using Commander
The 300th Cinema 4D Quick Tip explains how Commander can locate commands and accelerate work in the Node Editor.
After Effects Tutorial: Animated Gradient Backgrounds
Peter Arumugam of Move Shapes demonstrates a concise workflow for creating animated gradient backgrounds in After Effects.
Cinema 4D Quick Tip: Viewport Filter Presets
Jonas Pilz explains how to customise Cinema 4D viewport filters, save presets and connect them to render settings.
Cinema 4D R23 Adds Character, UV and Scene Node Tools
Cinema 4D R23 introduced character-animation and UV improvements, Magic Bullet Looks integration, Python 3 and an early Scene Nodes system.
Cinema 4D Tutorial: Looping Voxel Effect
CG Shortcuts combines MoGraph Cloner, Volume Effector and Shader Effector to build a looping voxel animation in Cinema 4D.
Unity Course Teaches Real-Time Animated Storytelling
Unity’s beginner course covers real-time previs, animation and cinematography in approximately 25 hours of self-paced training.
DSP Motion Generates Sound Effects from Drawn Gestures
Tsugi’s DSP Motion turns drawn gestures into sound effects for animation, motion graphics and real-time projects.
Gnomon Workshop Teaches Hair Grooming in Yeti
A two-hour Gnomon Workshop tutorial demonstrates character hair grooming with the Yeti plug-in for Autodesk Maya.
Bforartists 2 Reworks Blender’s User Interface
Bforartists 2 introduced a streamlined keymap, reorganised interface, configurable icon toolbar and revised tooltips.