Browsing Tag
Filmmaking
38 posts
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.
Virtual Production Without the Disney Budget
A Rhode Island studio proves virtual production isn’t just for sci-fi. Door G’s team talks LEDs, Unreal, and the human side of real-time filmmaking.
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.
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.
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.
Animatics, AI Lighting, and a Free Tier: Previs Pro 3 Expands Storyboarding on iPad
Previs Pro 3: now with animatics, AI lighting, and a free edition for iPad filmmakers.
Workstations for Virtual Production
Virtual production wouldn’t be possible without high-performance workstations. These systems deliver the computing power required for rendering, simulations, and complex visual effects directly within the studio environment.
Strange New Virtual Production Worlds!
It's a good time for us Trekkies - between Discovery and Lower Decks, between Picard and Strange New Worlds, there's something for everyone - finally again! But there's a lot going on behind the scenes - because the first big show to be filmed on a Virtual Production Stage was Star Trek: Discovery. And right after that - almost simultaneously - came Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. As it was definitely worth seeing, we asked what you can expect from your big VP production.
WeFX Saddles Up for “1923”
From pristine scans to viscous blood foam: how 50 artists spent six months on 20 shots that make one horse’s final tumble painfully believable.
Step Into the Unknown: ‘Worlds Next Door’ Invites Digital Artists to Create and Collaborate
The Blender challenge Worlds Next Door starts June 8. Artists remix a template into looping shorts—no AI, transparent background required.
Nara: Now with More Sync, Less Scream
Filmlight’s Nara adds remote realtime playback sync, review-in-Baselight, and more versioning features for collaborative post and color workflows.
Dungeon Assets for Free: Fab.com’s New Drop for Unreal
Fab's new Dungeon Pack delivers 110 modular assets and props for Unreal Engine - and it’s free.
Kdenlive 25.04: Finally, Someone Gave the Timeline Some Respect
Kdenlive 25.04 brings AV1, OpenTimelineIO, better timeline tools, and updated keyframe management—but as always: check for stability before production use.
Achoo-Free Effects: “3D Dust & Pollen Free” for After Effects
New free preset "3D Dust & Pollen Free" for After Effects simulates pollen, dust, spores, dander and other floating irritants – without triggering allergies.
Neat Video 6.0.5: Noise Reduction Gets a Patch-Up
Neat Video 6.0.5 squashes bugs, improves GPU performance, fixes color channel issues, and updates presets – denoising stays smooth across video workflows, even in Resolve and Fusion 20
FMX 2025: AI, Arcane, and a Light Stage Walk into a Conference
FMX 2025 unleashes Arcane secrets, Houdini hocus pocus, and a swarm of AI panels onto Stuttgart. Turquoise flags and login buttons now live!
FMX 2025: Rebels, Randomness & Real-Time
FMX dives into the VFX secrets of “Andor” Season 2, “Severance,” “Vaiana 2” and much more – discover intricate workflows and innovative techniques in production.
Mustafa Morad’s Datacolor LightColor Meter Adventure
Discover how Datacolor's LightColor Meter can enhance your workflow and save you from unnecessary post-processing in a free webinar on April 3.
MotionBuilder 2026: A little Leap
Autodesk's MotionBuilder 2026 enhances USD workflows, introduces animation retention, and adds new selection shortcuts for improved motion capture editing.
Blackmagic’s URSA Cine 17K 65: The Camera That’s More ‘K’ Than Your Keyboard
Blackmagic Design's URSA Cine 17K 65 camera showcases its 17K resolution and 65mm sensor in new films "Iceland" and "The Ranch," offering unparalleled cinematic depth and flexibility.
Cinemon 1.0: Signal Correction Done Right
Cinemon 1.0 is here. Color pipeline analysis, waveform monitor, and Scopes — now out of beta and ready for your iPad workflow.
GIMP 3.0: Free Image Editor Gets Non-Destructive—and a Bit Fancy
GIMP 3.0 lands after seven years of development: Non-destructive filters, real-time previews, improved PSD export, and layer multi-selection included.
ACES 2.0, Deinterlacing and Topaz: Mistika’s Triple Threat Update
ACES 2.0, AI deinterlacing, Topaz Labs and SDK support: Mistika Boutique and Ultima update integrates new tech for color, footage, and pipeline flexibility.
FMX 2025: AI, Animation, and Previs Take the Stage
FMX 2025 reveals a packed program featuring AI-powered VFX, animation techniques, sound design innovations, and the role of previs in action-heavy productions.
16.03.25: DESIGN FOR FILM: Bridging Art, Costume & VFX @ HFF Munich
The symposium Design for Film at HFF München explores the intersection of Art and Costume Departments with VFX, tackling workflows, communication, and education.
Oscars: ‘Flow’ and ‘In the Shadow of the Cypress’ Take the Spotlight
Latvia’s Flow wins Best Animated Feature, while Iran’s In the Shadow of the Cypress takes Best Animated Short at the Academy Awards.
Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF Body: Full Power, No Extras
Blackmagic Design introduces the URSA Cine 12K LF Body for $6,995, allowing professionals to rig their setup with existing accessories.
More ALEXA 35, Less Budget—But Still ARRI
ARRI introduces the ALEXA 35 Base Model, a lower-cost version of its flagship ALEXA 35. The new model offers the same sensor and image quality but trims the price tag by making advanced features available as separately licensed upgrades.
Unreal Engine 5.6: Enhanced Tools for Virtual Production
Unreal Engine 5.6 introduces usability improvements for virtual production, including better World Partition tools, Lumen updates, and procedural Megaworlds biomes.
Blackmagic Camera 9.2 Update: Pyxis 6K Gets Remote Love
Control the Pyxis 6K remotely, courtesy of the new Blackmagic Camera App. Firmware updates that might actually make life easier.
Blackmagic’s $30,000 URSA Cine Immersive Camera Enters Pre-Order Stage
Blackmagic Design's new URSA Cine Immersive Camera targets VR pros with stereoscopic 3D video capture at a steep $30,000 price tag.
Epic Games Launches Free Unreal Fellowship Game Development Course
Epic Games introduces a free, limited-time Unreal Fellowship course for aspiring game developers, filmmakers, and VFX professionals.
D5 Render 2.9: Enhanced Terrain and Workflow
D5 Render 2.9 updates: Terrain tools, AI-based lighting, and pipeline optimizations for smoother real-time rendering.
The power of the crowd
Looking back: In DP 03 : 2015, Lighting Boy Studio realised the film project Le Gouffre. A Kickstarter campaign brought the animated film over the finishing line. An animago AWARD-nominated short film.
Cut faster – The Blackmagic Speed Editor
In DP 02:20, we already presented the Editor Keyboard from Blackmagic Design (BMD for short). It used to be close to 1,000 euros, but when it didn't become a big seller, it was lowered to around 600. Meanwhile, the manufacturer has removed the regular keys in the centre, moved the side panels closer together and added a few extra keys. The result is called Speed Editor (SE for short) and is still being offered at the competitive price of 380 euros including a licence for DaVinci Resolve Studio. Some folks are even marketing the device for 199 euros without the licence, but it remains unclear whether this is permissible on the part of BMD.
Bomper Studio | Workshop report
"Honey, do you want to animate my music video?" And other romantic stories with Cinema 4D.
From another star | Retro article
Review: In DP 01 : 2010, Weta Digital created a wacky planet, alien life forms and humanoid screen heroes. For what? For James Cameron's Avatar!