Arnold 7.5.4: Pixels, Pauses and Speed
Arnold 7.5.4 adds a Shader Imager, faster viewport previews, true render pausing, rim lighting and major scene-update improvements.
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Computer Generated Image
735 posts
Physics Scatter: Substance Meets Gravity
Physics Scatter drops OBJ/FBX meshes into a real rigid-body pile, then bakes seamless material maps up to 8K inside Substance Designer.
SculptForge 0.9.3: Free Clay, Big Ambitions
SculptForge offers free cross-platform sculpting, Blender and Unreal links, retopology and phone scanning. We haven't tested it. Have you?
Ucupaint 3.0: More Paint, Less Panic
Ucupaint 3.0 brings adjustment layers, dedicated displacement channels, unified previews and more flexible texture baking to Blender.
SketchUp 2027: The Small 3D Toolbox for Post
When postproduction needs a building, shot layout or 3D-printed greeblies, SketchUp 2027 offers approachable modeling with smarter procedural tools.
Finally, No More Post-its: Procedural Canvas for Houdini
Your Monday coffee comes with welcome desk clearance: Procedural Canvas keeps references, sketches, VEX and notes inside Houdini. Save one Post-it for its name.
Christmas Assets: Eight Weeks to Look Festive
63 models, 121 materials and eight weeks to Christmas. Greyscalegorilla supplies the props; your company still needs a plan.
DRACARD: The Complete Character pilenine the houdini way.
Twelve DRACARD chapters connect Houdini character creation, clothing and rigging. We explain when that workflow suits the job over pattern-based tailoring.
Fumaris: Fire for the Festive Blender Brief
Fumaris brings interactive GPU smoke and fire to Blender, with OpenVDB bakes and safer cache handling. Seasonal greetings can get complicated.
TenPix Cloth Brings GPU Simulation to Max
TenPix Cloth adds GPU cloth modifiers to 3ds Max, with triangle collisions, painted controls, deformation preservation and Alembic caching.
IlluGen 2.0: More Particles, Fewer Detours
IlluGen 2.0 adds GPU particles, fracture, pivot animation textures and Niagara exports. Here is the technical detail, including the 2.0.1 follow-up.
Print & Pin: Blender Walls With Baggage
G_ni’s Poster Print and Poster Pin age artwork, pack 4K atlases and dress Blender walls with bent paper, pins and a little narrative clutter.
ValTerra Puts Sun, City and Camera in Place
ValTerra brings city context, sun planning and drone-photo camera matching into 3ds Max, with a full trial, free Lite tier and perpetual licences.
ColorEdge Softens the Edges in 3ds Max
ITOOSOFT’s free ColorEdge map blends roads and terrain in 3ds Max, with adjustable ramps, procedural noise and renderer caveats worth checking.
Plasticity 2026.2 Gets Its Parts Together
Plasticity 2026.2 adds reusable assets, live constraints, Project Align and finer surface controls. Some relationships remain strictly session-based.
Animatica Marionette: Pull Less, Pose More
Animatica brings offline posing and motion editing to Blender. We examine its Platige pedigree, practical limits and the Cascadeur connection.
World Creator 4 Aims for Planetary Terrain
BiteTheBytes outlines World Creator 4. We examine the announced changes, existing terrain handoff and current licence options.
Pipe It Draws Editable Networks in Unreal
Pipe It builds editable pipe networks in Unreal Engine, with custom kits, runtime Blueprint editing and bake outputs that need a dependency check.
SyncKey Reducer Keeps Poses Together
Amir Porat’s reducer aligns surviving pose frames in Max and Maya, with error controls, rig exclusions and a few cleanup buttons worth reading twice.
Colormass Scans 177 Reasons to Check Your Shader
Colormass offers free scanned materials for look development. The maps deserve a close look, and the licence deserves an even closer one.
Tripo P2.0: Put Quad Mesh Generation to the Test
Tripo P2.0 adds quad output, adjustable mesh budgets and local regeneration. A practical starting point for testing image-to-3D assets in your own pipeline.
Hair Bone Generator Maps Blender Strands
Hair Bone Generator maps stylised Blender hair into connected deform-bone chains, with three guide methods and controls for spacing and root placement.
RailClone Opens Its Graphs to MaxScript
RailClone exposes its style graphs as XML, opening them to MaxScript automation, pipeline tools and, inevitably, LLM experiments.
The Royal Way to Render
In 2001, render farms were local, internet connections still screamed through telephone lines, and launching jobs across several machines could consume an entire evening. Holger Schoenberger founded Binary Alchemy to remove some of that administrative misery
Plugin Hub Tames Blender’s Tab Jungle
Plugin Hub herds Blender’s proliferating add-on panels into one tidy tab, with optional menu and floating-window access.
COLMAP Moves Into the Browser
Rafael Spring ports COLMAP’s sparse reconstruction workflow into a local browser app, with WebGPU acceleration and standard COLMAP output.
Animo Sliders Bring Maya Controls to Blender
Ehsan Bayat brings 16 Animo animation sliders to Blender for faster pose, timing and keyframe adjustments.
SuperSplat 3 Moves Editing to WebGPU
SuperSplat 3 rebuilds its Gaussian-splat editor on WebGPU, shrinking browser memory use and moving sorting, selection and more onto the GPU.
Pixel Lab Sells Gems Cheaper Than GPUs
Pixel Lab packs 30 gemstones and 40+ ancient tree stumps into PLY Gaussian splats. The gems are cheap. Your workstation probably isn't.
Flair Heads for Unreal, Maya 2027 Ready
Flair is closing in on its Unreal Engine debut while the Maya renderer adds Maya 2027 support and clears out several workflow gremlins.
GhostPencilPro Gives Max a Grease Pencil
GhostPencilPro brings Grease Pencil-style drawing, animation, .ABR brushes and scripting into 3ds Max, without making Max users learn Blender.
Animo Packs 500+ Maya Tools Into One Panel
Animo gathers 500+ Maya animation tools into one editor, adds direct reference media, hotkeys and six new sliders. Still beta. Still free.
FreePencil2 Draws Blender Lines in One Click
FreePencil2 turns Blender geometry into editable line art with one setup button, compositor edge detection and manual paint fixes.
KitBash3D Paris: City Break, No Airport
The Kitbash3D Set "Paris" brings Haussmann blocks, landmarks, street props and a game-ready Unreal path. Your next city break may require 32 GB of RAM.
Edge Decal Generator generates edgy Edge Decals
Gilad Baruch’s Blender add-on creates editable mesh decals for wear, welds and seams, with layers, masks, FBX export and an Unreal workflow.
retoPoly puts manual retopology in 3ds Max
Mihail Lupu’s retoPoly adds projected drawing, flow tools and stack-editable artist-directed retopology to 3ds Max 2023–2027.
EDGY Cuts Mesh Damage in C4D and Blender
EDGY cuts chips, cracks, craters and breaks into closed Cinema 4D and Blender meshes while leaving the original object untouched.
Open-Source Photogrammetry Gets Friendlier
Simple Photogrammetry GUI bundles an open-source reconstruction stack behind a friendly UI, now with beta AMD/HIP support and useful logs.
PBR Generator bakes 3ds Max materials
Leonid Kychko's 3ds Max script bakes complex shader networks into texture sets and rebuilds them for V-Ray or Physical Material.
ZEISS LensCore is here
ZEISS explains how LensCore recreates physical lens behaviour inside Nuke, supports custom lenses and fits into professional VFX pipelines.
3ds Max 2027.2 Adds Editable Splats
3ds Max 2027.2 brings editable 3DGS workflows, Points, Point Instance, Arnold 7.5.2 support and USD path diagnostics.
Howler 2027 adds 3D, Outpaint Fill and timeline curves
Howler 2027 adds Howler 3D, Outpaint Fill, editable timeline keyframes and a new curve system for animation work.
3DF Zephyr 9 Adds Gaussian Splatting
3DF Zephyr 9 integrates Gaussian Splatting and adds map tiles, faster photoconsistency, improved navigation and new export options.
Overgrown targets an open feature pipeline for Blender
Blender Studio is pushing Overgrown as a feature project with production logs, tools and docs, funded first through subscriber growth.
ByHand Makes Digital Sculpting Free on Windows
ByHand is a free, early-alpha Windows sculpting app for form studies, character work and commercial projects.
C4D Octane: 1.9.x Update Features Video
SilverwingVFX digs into the new juicy features delivered via the most recent Octane update for Cinema 4D. Learn what's improved so you can get the best out of Octane.
C4D Pyro Tutorial: Helicopter Kickup Dust
SilverwingVFX goes airborne: Cinema 4D Pyro can fake rotor wash the smart way: simulate air first, cache velocity, then spawn dust only where wind speed peaks.
Autodesk adds generative 3D to Flow Studio
Autodesk introduces Wonder 3D inside Flow Studio, enabling text and image prompts to generate editable 3D assets.
SideFX launches central Houdini learning hub
SideFX consolidates Houdini tutorials into a structured Learning Library aimed at students and production artists.
Infinity Hotel: Endless Rooms, Endless Renders
HFF Munich’s VFX students built Infinity Hotel, a hybrid short film merging live action with CGI, LiDAR scans, and Dolby Atmos sound.
LotPixel drops 1,300+ free PBR textures in Hub app
LotPixel Hub beta gives 3D artists free access to 1,300+ PBR textures up to 8K, with Blender integration and more DCCs to come.
Foundry locks in full subscription future for 2027
Foundry drops perpetual maintenance: from 2027, all Nuke, Mari, and Katana users will be on subscription only.
DIY Gravity: Make Your Own Black Hole (In After Effects)
Free After Effects plug-in creates cinematic black holes using ray marching, volumetric fog and physically-based parameters.
How I Spent Five Years Making a Solo 3D Film
Maxim Gehricke spent five years creating his solo 3D short film SEN. Here’s how he did it without funding, team, or sleep.
Free 3D Fruit: Fresh Assets, No Pesticides
Kiri offers 141 free, production-ready 3D fruit and vegetable scans with full PBR textures under CC0 licence.
Hover, Don’t Click: Outliner Preview Lands in Blender
Free Blender add-on Outliner Preview shows 360° model thumbnails on hover in the Outliner.
Blender Gets Real Lenses: BagaCam OSL Released
Antoine Bagattini, the creator of BagaPie has released BagaCam OSL, a camera add-on that implements Open Shading Language…
Shapekeys: The angle on your mesh
CamKeys automates ShapeKeys by camera angle in Blender. Users say it mimics per-object FOV , the docs say it drives morphs.
New Trailer walks FMX 2026 home
A walking bus, a hopeful sunrise, and a nod to FMX’s roots: “Bus Buddy” drives the FMX 2026 trailer straight into the ROAD AHEAD.
Beyond VFX dives into AI Ethics
AI meets VFX and ethics: Beyond VFX returns on 26 Nov 2025 with VES and ICE.ART. Join Ben Lock, Victor Perez, Frank Govaere & Dr Jana Sedlakova and Agon Ushaku for a free panel.
Blender 5.0 – it’s here!
Blender 5.0 is finally here — with ACES/PQ-HDR, high-geometry support, UI tweaks and a fresh release cadence for production pipelines.
World VFX Day 2025: Global Line-Up Revealed
WētāFX, ILM, Framestore, Adobe and more join World VFX Day 2025 this December, streaming live from London.
When Annabelle Grew Up: The Digital Domain Horror Pipeline
425 shots, one terrifying doll, and a CG mill town: Digital Domain’s Alex Millet explains how his team built the horror of The Conjuring: Last Rites and kept it real.
Keep Your Pipeline: Chaos on Skipping the Game Engine
Chaos’ Chris Nichols explains how Chaos Arena and Chaos Vantage cut out the engine middleman with full ray tracing, open formats, and one asset for all.
KitBash3D’s “DieselPunk” kit free till 18 Nov – retro-futurism ahoy!
KitBash3D’s $245 “DieselPunk” 3D kit (1,395 meshes and 4K textures for Unreal 5) is free on Fab until 18 Nov 2025. Cinematic-grade, no LODs.
Sculpt-Offs, Anniversaries & Anatomy: ZBrush Summit 2025 celebrates 25 years
ZBrush turns 25 and Maxon is celebrating online, 7-9 November, with live Sculpt-Offs, artist sessions and a first look at what’s next for ZBrush.
Das Element 2.2: Major Step Forward for Asset Management
The new Das Element 2.2 release strengthens 3D handling, adds dynamic permission controls and custom Python action hooks to make studio asset management even smoother.
Camera Arrays for the Gaussian Age
Camera Array Tool for Blender creates surface-based camera rigs and exports 4DGS-ready image data for Gaussian Splatting workflows.
Blender 4.5 LTS lands
lender 4.5 LTS arrives with studio-grade support; the Blender survey shows where users stand; and Blender 5.0 beta is already here, so its time to plan your upgrade.
FMX Turns 30 in 2026
FMX 2026 celebrates 30 years of digital media creation. Stuttgart, May 5–8, 2026. Theme: “The Road Ahead”. Book your rooms, time flies.
The Mill Returns
The Mill is back. TransPerfect revives the iconic VFX studio with returning talent and a global creative push.
Photoshop 27.0: Now with Harmonise, Upscale & Firefly Video
Photoshop 27.0 is official. You get Harmonise, Generative Upscale, Firefly video export, and selectable AI models. Test before rollout.
SLAPSHOT promises AI Camera Tracking “in minutes”
SLAPSHOT has released its AI Camera Tracking tool: what used to take a day or more can now take under ten minutes according to the developer.
Ugly Gets an Upgrade: Digital Anarchy’s Free Halloween Plugins
Digital Anarchy resurrects its Ugly Box and Flicker Freak plugins just in time for Halloween. Free, frightful, and gloriously hideous.
Netflix Merges Scanline and Eyeline
Netflix unifies Scanline VFX and Eyeline Studios as “Eyeline”, merging high-end VFX with virtual production and AI research under one label.
After Effects Gets Hands-On: Victoria Nece Shows Off Quick Offset & Co.
At IBC 2025, I talked with Adobe’s Victoria Nece about Quick Offset, Smooth Zoom, and 3D compositing in After Effects. It’s tactile, fast and oddly fun.
RenderMan 27: XPU graduates, RIS retires
Pixar ships RenderMan 27: XPU is ready for final frames, RIS is being phased out, MaterialX joins the toolset, and Stylized Looks evolve.
Nanite marches in: Twinmotion 2025.2 update
Nanite now works in Twinmotion. 2025.2 also brings a new post stack, animation upgrades, VCAM tweaks, and cloud storage.
50 Digital Scars: Halloween Comes to Blender
250 wounds, scars and skin damage brushes for Blender. Perfect for sculpting your next zombie, vampire, or stitched-mouth monster.
Eight Hands, One Brush: Mari 7.5 Beta Paints on All Fronts
Multi-Paint lands in Mari 7.5 beta. Eight channels, one stroke. Texture transfer, image grouping, and faster backups follow. Test before trusting.
RizomUV 2025: Faster Packing, But Only If You’re on Windows with CUDA
RizomUV 2025 packs faster with NVIDIA GPUs, adds a scene outliner and UDIM upgrades. Linux and macOS users: GPU speed gains not included.
Maxon Autumn Release: New Colour Science, Liquids, Clouds and a Logo
Cinema 4D 2026 brings OCIO colour management, GPU simulations, UDIMs, Redshift 2026 plus Maxon’s brand-new ecosystem and logo.
KitBash3D and Greyscalegorilla merge
KitBash3D and Greyscalegorilla merge: R&D speeds up, asset libraries grow, tools expand. Users should see no price or support changes.
Free Material Assets Browser for 3ds Max enters public beta
Free Material Assets Browser for 3ds Max 2025: supports MaterialX, MatCap generation, multiple renderers. Public beta available on GitHub.
EVE Turns Houdini’s VEX Pane Into a Rainbow-Bracked Autocomplete Powerhouse
EVE revamps Houdini’s VEX panel: autocomplete, error‑tips and rainbow brackets, because coding shouldn’t hurt (in theory).
Pivot with Precision: Pixie Pivot Adds Maya‑Style Controls to Blender
TL;DR: Pixie Pivot lets Blender users yank control of pivots and gizmos like Maya: snap, align, rotate and origin‑shift with precision.
Next-Gen Cloud Rendering for Blender? Meet Praxilla!
Praxilla offers Blender cloud rendering with Cycles and Eevee, starting at 2.50 € per GPU hour. Secure, fast, and aiming for collaborative rendering.
V‑Ray 7.1 for Blender: Geometry Nodes and Material Converter
Chaos’s V‑Ray 7.1 for Blender adds support for Geometry Nodes, a Cycles‑to‑V‑Ray material converter, OpenPBR standard and Blender 4.5 LTS.
Houdini 21 Finally Lands: The Buzz Is Over, Time to Actually Use It
SideFX has released Houdini 21, adding rigging, CFX, VFX, lookdev, terrain, and Copernicus updates. The hype is over; time to test in production.
Cross Sections Without Tears: Free Plugin for 3ds Max
Free plugin for 3ds Max generates multiple 2D cross sections on any axis, with spacing, offset and weld options
WorldEngen promises AI-built 3D scenes in hours, not weeks
WorldEngen claims to cut 3D scene creation from weeks to hours with AI integration into Blender, Unreal, and Unity. Early Access now open.
Axiom 4.0 Sneak Peek for Houdini
First preview of Axiom 4.0 shows improved collisions, redesigned sourcing, and faster GPU-driven simulations for Houdini.
Meshroom 2025.1: Templates, Plugins and Photometric Stereo
Update 2025.1: Meshroom adds templates, photometric stereo and a plugin hub. More open, modular and production-friendly.
Tomato Warfare: Milk VFX on Heads of State
Milk VFX Supervisor David Sadler-Coppard on how the team built thousands of CG tomatoes, exploding doors, and digital crowds for Heads of State.
Marmoset Toolbag 5.02 Rolls Off the Assembly Line
Marmoset Toolbag 5.02 adds Decal layers, Smudge tool, Tile Strip system, ray‑traced fog, low‑to‑low baking and workflow enhancements in this latest real‑time VFX update.
VenkysTurbulenceMicrosolver: Finally, Your Smoke Can Stop Looking Like Blobby Soup
VenkysTurbulenceMicrosolver adds adaptive, detailed turbulence to Houdini Pyro, cutting manual noise setup.
Houdini 21: SideFX pushes for production readiness across the CG pipeline
SideFX releases Houdini 21, promoting Apex, Vulkan, Otus, and major animation and rigging upgrades to production-ready status.
No need to water flowers in August: grow them in Houdini instead
FLOPs is a free, KineFX-based HDA toolkit for creating and animating realistic flowers in Houdini, released by Danny Laursen.
Wrinkle-Free: Substance 3D Sampler 5.1 Released
dobe has updated Substance 3D Sampler to 5.1, adding Auto Tiling, Fold Remover, new flattening tools, and improved HP Z Captis scanner integration.
Fusion Studio 20.1: Immersive, Patchy, and Ready for 360°
Blackmagic Fusion Studio 20.1 adds immersive 360° viewer, Magic Mask v2, deep compositing improvements, and CSV import for MultiText boxes.