For those who don’t know the site: Kitbash3D makes themed 3D environment kits for VFX, games, and visualisation. The new New Delhi Kit joins their growing library of ready-to-use digital worlds, compatible with most major DCC and realtime tools.

City without chaos

Kitbash3D has released New Delhi, a detailed collection of 3D assets designed to recreate the layered architecture and street textures of India’s capital. The kit includes 84 models and 127 PBR materials, intended for artists working in VFX, games, animation, and visualisation. The collection mixes colonial-era façades, contemporary concrete towers, and dense market alleys. Kitbash3D states that the assets are built for “realistic, lived-in environments” and are designed for both large-scale cityscapes and street-level storytelling.

Compatible across pipelines

The New Delhi Kit is supplied in standard formats, including FBX and USD, and integrates with major DCC tools such as Blender, Maya, and 3ds Max. It is also compatible with realtime engines such as Unreal Engine and Unity, and supports common renderers including Arnold, Cycles, and Redshift.

Kitbash3D lists the kit as ready for immediate production use, with pre-optimised geometry and consistent scaling for modular assembly. The files use standard PBR workflows and are organised for straightforward import and texturing.

Architectural detail and reuse

According to the official description, the New Delhi Kit focuses on flexibility and reusability. Building assets can be mixed to create anything from residential areas to commercial centres. Street props, market stalls, and signage extend the set for scene dressing or background population.

The kit is part of Kitbash3D’s ongoing series of geographically themed city kits, following earlier releases such as Tokyo, Paris, and New York. The New Delhi collection adds a South Asian context to the library, expanding possibilities for worldbuilding and localisation in cinematic and interactive productions.

Available now

The kit is available for purchase directly from Kitbash3D. The New Delhi Kit is included in Kitbash3D Unlimited, the company’s annual subscription giving full access to its 3D asset library via the Cargo desktop app. Unlimited costs USD 995 per year for individual freelancers and USD 3,995 per year for small studios with up to 50 employees. Assets can be used in active productions during the subscription, but new projects require an active licence. Perpetual rights are available separately for specific kits.

Artists are advised to test the assets in their own production setups before integrating them into active pipelines, particularly when mixing renderers or real-time and offline workflows. A quick inspection of the models suggests consistent texutre naming and clean geometry, but the actual level of optimisation can vary depending on import method and scene scale.

https://kitbash3d.com/products/new-delhi

The post Delhi in 3D: Kitbash3D goes urban first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

KitBash3D has released its DieselPunk environment kit—normally priced at US $245—for free download via Epic Games’ Fab marketplace. The offer runs until 18 November 2025. The kit targets artists building cinematic-quality, retro-futuristic environments in Unreal Engine 5, and is described by the studio as a “high-poly asset collection intended for use in cinematics within UE5.”

The DieselPunk kit channels Edwardian and interwar industrial design: cathedrals and palaces meet refineries and fuel stations. The architecture is “darkly beautiful,” filled with “greasy machinery, rugged materials, and industrial spires,” according to the official KitBash3D description.

Inside the kit

The package contains 316 unique actors built from 1,395 unique meshes, totalling approximately 17.8 million polygons. Mesh collision is enabled and automatically generated, but no LODs are included. There are 90 materials and 637 textures, all at 4K resolution. Texture and mesh quality clearly target cinematic or offline rendering rather than performance-constrained realtime scenes.

Formats provided include FBX and OBJ (on kitbash3d.com), and the Unreal build supports UE 4.26–4.27 and UE 5.0–5.4. Supported platforms are Windows, macOS, Linux, PS4, and Xbox One. The DieselPunk release date for this update is 8 November 2025; distribution is via the Fab marketplace as an “Asset Package.”

World-building details

The kit’s scope covers both civic and industrial architecture. Included are hotels, palaces, distilleries, apartments, mansions, towers, oil derricks, fuel stations, factories, pubs, stores, trams, bridges, storage tanks, walkways and chimneys. KitBash3D describes it as ideal for “retrofuturistic dystopias or grungy post-modern noir,” designed to help artists “make cohesive fuel-powered worlds.”

Licensing and restrictions

The Fab release uses the Fab Standard Licence, which allows both personal and commercial use across engines and tools, within Fab’s terms.

By contrast, KitBash3D’s own “free asset” policy states that assets downloaded via its Cargo app are for personal use only, whereas kits obtained directly from kitbash3d.com can be used commercially. Because DieselPunk is distributed through Fab, users should confirm commercial rights under Fab’s EULA before production use.

Technical notes for production artists

The assets are high-poly, built for cinematic fidelity. Artists targeting realtime or VR projects should expect to retopologise or create custom LODs. The automatic collision setup is adequate for blockouts, but may require manual refinement for gameplay environments.

Since materials are 4K, expect heavy texture memory use; production teams should test streaming and compression settings within Unreal Engine.

Why it matters

For concept, film, and cinematic environment work, this kit provides a time-saving foundation of consistent industrial architecture. The cohesive design language can accelerate set-dressing, look-dev and lighting passes for any diesel-era or noir-futuristic aesthetic.

Reminder

As always, test all assets in your pipeline before relying on them in production. Confirm file format compatibility, check materials and UVs, and validate licence terms before commercial deployment.

The post KitBash3D’s “DieselPunk” kit free till 18 Nov – retro-futurism ahoy! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

KitBash3D has added a Washington, D.C. Kit to its Unlimited subscription offering, allowing creators to access high-fidelity models of U.S. capital landmarks and civic architecture for film, games, VR, and visualisation.

What’s in the Washington, D.C. Kit

The kit includes 3D models of key D.C. landmarks and civic assets: the U.S. Capitol, the White House, the Supreme Court, memorials, plazas, museums, and related urban infrastructure. Geo-material detail is a focus: the team studied Aquia Creek sandstone, Colorado marble, and other historically significant materials to replicate textures and architectural character.

To support large scale uses, the creators developed multiple texture variants and custom solutions rather than relying on one or two material types across large surfaces. They also optimised assets to balance detail with usability for real-time or offline rendering workflows. Beyond historical structures, the kit offers modern office complexes and complementary urban elements to allow mix-and-match cityscapes. For users who need more than just the kit, there is also a “Washington, D.C. Expanded Bundle,” which includes additional substance materials, vehicles (police cruiser, large SUV, city bus), and related assets.

Unlimited or Standalone — Licensing Options

The Washington, D.C. Kit is now available via KitBash3D Unlimited, meaning subscribers can access it as part of their library subscription. For those who prefer ownership, it is also sold individually or in expanded bundles.

Challenges & Design Choices

In a “Behind the Kit” post, the KitBash3D team outlined some of their primary challenges. Scaling up architectural models without obvious tiling or visible repetition in textures posed significant difficulties. Some surfaces required bespoke textures, especially where the scale magnified flaws or pattern repeats.

The team also emphasised the tradeoff between optimisation and visual fidelity. They note that optimisation does not always mean using fewer resources; sometimes introducing new materials or more variants leads to better visual quality without harming performance. The project was reportedly one of the most ambitious for KitBash3D in terms of scale and architectural complexity.

Why This Matters for Creators

For VFX artists, environment designers, virtual production teams, and archviz specialists, the Washington, D.C. Kit offers a fast route to building cinematic capital city environments without modelling everything from scratch. The combination of recognised landmarks and supporting urban assets gives flexibility for storytelling across genres—political drama, sci-fi reimaginings, alternate history, or educational simulation.

Because the kit supports both historic and modern elements, users can blend eras or propose speculative scenarios. Meanwhile, the texture and geometry optimisations help maintain performance in real-time engines or render pipelines. That said, creators should test integration (scale, LODs, shaders) in their pipelines before committing to full shots.

Bottom Line

KitBash3D has extended its Unlimited catalogue with a Washington, D.C. kit — a detailed, modular, architecturally faithful set of civic assets, available either via subscription or standalone. The design balances historical fidelity, scale, and real-world usability. With the current state of Washington and its inhabitants, anything that makes it possible not to visit in person is a welcome addition to any toolkit.

The post Capitol Scenes Go Digital — KitBash3D Adds Washington, D.C. to Unlimited Library first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Pixar has announced the twelfth RenderMan Art Challenge, titled “First Contact.” The competition runs from 13 August to 10 November 2025 and focuses on shading, lighting, rendering, and compositing with Pixar’s renderer. The theme is aliens. Pixar ties this to two anniversaries: the release of Elio in 2025, where a boy is mistaken for Earth’s ambassador to outer space, and the 30th anniversary of Toy Story.

Participants are provided with 3D assets from Adobe, KitBash3D, Greyscalegorilla, Ozone3D, and Pixar. Submissions must be rendered using the official RenderMan plugins for Maya, Houdini, Katana, or Blender.

Rules of engagement

Each artist may submit one entry only, created individually. Works in progress must be posted to prove originality. The supplied assets form the backbone of the scene, but participants may add supporting geometry if it aids storytelling. Final images must meet these conditions:

• Resolution: up to 3840 x 2160 pixels
• Aspect ratio: 16:9
• Render engine: RenderMan only
• Compositing allowed: colour correction, grading, AOVs [Arbitrary Output Variables], LPEs [Light Path Expressions], and background replacement with owned/licensed material
• No paint-overs, photo-bashing, or third-party renderers are permitted.

Extraterrestrial feedback loop

Unlike many competitions, the RenderMan Art Challenge is structured as an open mentorship exercise. Pixar’s RenderMan team moderates the forums, answers technical questions, and provides critiques while the challenge runs.

Participants are encouraged to share works in progress. This creates a feedback loop where knowledge spreads across the community. Past challenges have shown that this process often produces detailed documentation of workflows, shading networks, and lighting techniques—resources that remain accessible after the contest ends. Semi-finalists will be asked to submit their project files to verify compliance with rules before judging.

Jury on the mothership

The 2025 jury includes senior professionals from Pixar and the wider VFX and animation industry. According to Pixar’s announcement and AWN’s coverage, jurors will include:

• Markus Kranzler, Global Technology Supervisor at Pixar
• Hannah Chan, Shading Technical Director at Pixar
• Tomer Meltser, Global Head of Education, NVIDIA
• Ahmed Gharraph, Head of Visualisation at Framestore
• Tom Reed, Senior Principal Engineer at Dell
• François Le Gall, Senior Look Development TD at Animal Logic

This mix of production TDs, hardware engineers, and educators suggests the judging will focus equally on artistic quality and technical accuracy.

Prizes orbiting the winners

The prize pool is made possible by a broad list of sponsors. The highlight is a Dell Precision Pro Max 16 mobile workstation with NVIDIA GPU.

Other prizes include:

• Software licences from Adobe, Foundry, Greyscalegorilla, KitBash3D, SideFX, SpeedTree, and fxphd
• Render credits from Ranch Computing
• Hardware tools from AMD, NVIDIA, Xencelabs, and Dell

Winners will be announced on 17 November 2025. According to Pixar’s rules, prizes are non-transferable and have no cash equivalent.

Conditions and eligibility

The contest is open to all registered members of the RenderMan community, regardless of whether they use commercial or non-commercial licences. Restrictions apply under US export control laws: entrants from Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and sanctioned Ukrainian territories are excluded.

Each entrant must respect asset copyright conditions. When publishing challenge images outside the contest forum, the following credit line is required: Assets by Adobe, KitBash3D, Greyscalegorilla, Ozone, and Pixar. RenderMan “First Contact” Art Challenge © Disney/Pixar.

Why these challenges matter

Since 2014, Pixar’s RenderMan Art Challenges have provided a public platform to test shading, rendering, and compositing skills in a production-like setting. Unlike vendor showcases, the contests rely on open participation and require all artists to use the same set of assets.

The format highlights what RenderMan can and cannot do in real-world workflows. Past challenges, such as “Shipshape” (2023) and “NASA Exploration” (2022), remain visible as galleries of tested techniques. For studios, this generates a form of community-driven benchmarking. For artists, it offers an opportunity to receive direct critique from Pixar staff and industry veterans.

The post Pixar beamed up: RenderMan Art Challenge 2025 goes alien first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Cargo 2.0: new importer, larger free library

KitBash3D has released Cargo 2.0, the rebuilt version of its asset manager for browsing and importing KitBash3D’s architectural and environment kits. The update arrives with a redesigned Houdini importer, co-developed with SideFX, that integrates natively into Solaris and exports all content in USD.

Alongside the importer, Cargo 2.0 expands its free offering. Users of the free Cargo Basic account now receive access to 364 free assets:

• 215 modular 3D models
• 141 materials
• 8 vehicles

All assets include textures up to 4K resolution in PNG or JPG. These files can be used in personal projects such as portfolios, student reels, or tests. Commercial use requires either purchasing the individual kit or upgrading to a paid Cargo subscription.

Houdini Solaris integration

The most significant change in Cargo 2.0 is the Houdini importer. KitBash3D rebuilt the plugin in collaboration with SideFX, ensuring that it works natively with Solaris. Assets imported through Cargo appear directly in Houdini’s Asset Catalog as USD files, complete with automatically generated thumbnails. Once imported, they remain in the catalogue across sessions, avoiding the need to reimport them for every new project.

Materials integrate through Solaris’ MaterialX system, making them usable within the Stage environment without additional setup. For larger projects, the Stage Manager node ties into the Cargo Asset Catalog, letting technical directors place and manage hundreds of assets procedurally inside the scene graph. For artists working in layout, the workflow is as simple as dragging and dropping assets into Solaris.

The importer works on both Windows and macOS. This marks the first time that Houdini users on macOS have had access to Cargo integration.

Other DCC integrations

Cargo 2.0 does not limit itself to Houdini. The application connects to a broad set of DCC hosts, including Autodesk 3ds Max, Blender, Maxon Cinema 4D, Autodesk Maya, Unity, and Unreal Engine. Version support starts with 3ds Max 2021, Blender 3.0, Cinema 4D 2023, Maya 2020, Unity 2021.3, and Unreal Engine 5.2. By centring its pipeline on USD, Cargo ensures a consistent workflow across platforms, while each DCC importer follows the conventions of its host application.

Free versus paid: what you actually get

Cargo remains free to download. With a Basic account, users can access all of the kits they have previously purchased as well as the newly expanded library of 364 sample assets. This is the only no-cost option, and it is explicitly limited to personal use.

Professional users face two subscription tiers. An individual licence costs $995 per year and grants access to the complete KitBash3D library of over 20,000 assets. A business licence costs $3,995 annually and is intended for studios requiring full access along with extended commercial rights. Both tiers include ongoing updates to the asset library as new kits are released.

Asset formats and pipeline alignment

All content in Cargo 2.0 is distributed in USD, accompanied by textures in either PNG or JPG format at resolutions of up to 4K. This decision to standardise around USD is consistent with how the industry is moving and directly benefits Houdini’s Solaris integration. By aligning its pipeline with USD, KitBash3D ensures that its content behaves predictably in other USD-based contexts such as Unreal Engine.

The generation of persistent thumbnails on import is a practical detail that benefits daily use. Assets can be previewed inside Houdini’s catalogues without the need to reload them. For larger studios, this feature saves significant time during layout when hundreds of assets may be in use simultaneously.

Workflow demonstration

KitBash3D has released a video walkthrough showing Cargo 2.0 in action with Houdini 21. The demonstration begins with importing a model, which automatically generates a thumbnail for Solaris’ Asset Catalog. Materials are imported in the same way, appearing within a persistent catalogue that remains available for future sessions.

Within Solaris, artists can either drag and drop assets into the Stage or make use of the Stage Manager node for larger setups. The video also shows how materials can be accessed through Solaris’ Material Linker, enabling them to be applied quickly to geometry in the scene. The goal of the redesign is clear: provide a simple workflow for generalists while supporting technical directors with procedural control at scale.

System requirements

Cargo 2.0 runs on Windows 10 or newer and on macOS 11.0 or newer. Plugins are available for all supported DCC hosts mentioned earlier. KitBash3D does not provide specific hardware requirements, but real-world performance will depend heavily on the host DCC and the size of the assets being loaded, particularly when working with USD datasets at scale.

What it means in practice

For independent artists and students, Cargo 2.0’s primary draw is the free library. The 364 included assets provide enough variety to build test scenes, practice workflows, and assemble portfolios. The new Solaris importer is especially relevant to Houdini users, since it finally closes the gap between KitBash3D’s content and a USD-native pipeline.

For studios, the decision is more financial. The $3,995 business licence gives access to the full catalogue, but the value depends on how heavily a team relies on KitBash3D assets in production. For layout-heavy pipelines, or for studios that regularly need large-scale architectural assets, the cost is justifiable. For occasional use, it may not be.

Test before production

KitBash3D claims that Cargo 2.0 improves both stability and pipeline alignment. These claims have not been independently verified at press time. As with any new tool, teams should test Cargo 2.0 carefully in their own production conditions before relying on it. This includes validating asset import behaviour, thumbnail persistence, and compatibility with existing USD workflows.

The post KitBash3D Cargo 2.0 lands with Houdini Solaris importer and 350 free assets first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.