Vision Canvas: Blender’s UI, On Your Terms
Build a Blender control panel that answers to you: targeted properties, camera widgets, Python buttons, reusable animation and asset favourites.
Browsing Tag
Lighting
175 posts
SwitchX 2.0 Adds 2160p and 10-Bit Output
Beeble doubles SwitchX shot length to 20 seconds, adds 2160p and 10-bit output, source-following camera motion and a draft-to-finish path.
Free area light textures for Blender
A free 20 pack of area light textures for Blender aims at softer, less flat lighting, with a sample file and a Patreon free signup gate.
ShaderError Light Painter paints light in Blender
Light Painter turns lighting into brush strokes on a light texture, with layers and masks. Cycles only, so keep Eevee in its lane.
Thomas Riedel buys ARRI
ARRI changes hands, keeps Munich HQ, and lines up a Eurovision camera debut. Big signal chain meets big glass.
Open Light: Procedural HDR Lighting Without the Texture Archaeology
Open Light is a new tool that generates procedural HDR light textures. It builds softboxes, gobos, Kino Flo style sources and other modifiers as 32-bit EXR or HDR files, with support for ACEScg and resolutions up to 4K.
VINZI Atlux λ arrives on Fab
Atlux λ is now on Fab, bringing a virtual photo studio and one click renders to Unreal Engine, plus Mac support.
Katana 9 deepens USD and previews Hydra 2
Katana introduces UsdSuperLayer, new USD lighting and material nodes, and alpha Hydra 2 viewer support.
Nevercenter speeds up Milo 2026 and drops VR quietly
Milo 2026.0 moves to Unreal Engine 5.7, adds raytracing on Mac, pathtracing on Windows, faster lighting, workflow tweaks and removes VR.
No More 2D Smoke and Mirrors: Volumetric Noise for Nuke
Compositing Academy releases Volumetric Noise for Nuke, a raymarched plugin generating true 3D volumetrics with lighting and occlusion.
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.
Digital Domain welcomes IT to Derry
Digital Domain supervisors break down the design, rigging, lighting, and animation challenges behind the Skeleton Man creature for HBO’s return to the Stephen King universe.
Rays Behaving Badly No More: MoonRay 2.34.0.1 Fixes the Path
MoonRay 2.34.0.1 lands with a light path visualiser, better macOS and Linux builds, smarter lightsets, and fewer crashes for your next render night.
Open HDRI: 25 Free 29K HDRIs (More to come)
A new online library offers 25 free HDRIs at up to 29K resolution, all under a CC0 license. Open HDRI provides ultra-high-quality lighting environments without sign-ups, tracking or licensing headaches.
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.
DomeMaker 1.0 streamlines HDRI dome lighting for 3ds Max (V-Ray)
DomeMaker 1.0 converts Jonas Noell’s custom HDRI dome workflow into a one-click tool for 3ds Max (V-Ray). Expect instant viewport feedback, automated floor matching, water/wetness effects, and matched CPU/GPU rendering—priced at a studio-friendly $30.
HDR Light Studio 9.1 Lumi‑Curve Turns Lighting into Line Art—Literally
HDR Light Studio 9.1 introduces Lumi‑Curve: freeform, editable curve-based lights for shaping reflections, highlights, trails, and backgrounds.
Plastic Software upgrades Plasticity to 2025.2 with HDRIs, physical materials, new surfacing tools
Plastic Software’s Plasticity 2025.2 adds HDRI lighting, physical materials, new shaders and continuity tools in a surfacing-focused upgrade.
MoonRay 2.15: Developer Joy with NUMA, GUI Control & Fisheye Finesse
MoonRay 2.15 adds a new regression suite (~400 tests), NUMA tuning, rdla_gui, per‑BSDF lightsets, fisheye FOV and TwoSidedMap—confirm stability before use.
Chaos Corona 13: AI, GPU & Cartoon Vibes
Corona 13 adds AI Enhancer, GPU rendering via Vantage Live Link, cel/outline shaders, Scatter Clusters, AI‑based asset variations, Firefly removal, VRScene import, Thin‑Film shader.
Mocha 2025.5: Faces, Frames & Focal Lengths
Mocha 2025.5 tracks faces, fixes mattes, solves 3D scenes with stationary cameras and adds batch export presets for speedier pipelines.
Sink or Shoot: Datacolor Webinar on Underwater Photography
Datacolor teams up with Kate Jonker for a free webinar on underwater photography – covering gear, lighting, and techniques for tiny critters and coral giants.
Maxon Acquires Autograph: A New Chapter in Compositing Tools
Maxon welcomes the Autograph team from Left Angle, aiming to integrate their compositing expertise into its suite of creative tools,
Unreal Engine 5.6, Fully released. Still 60 FPS, still Smarter MetaHumans, and still possibly Fewer CPU Tantrums
Unreal Engine 5.6 brings integrated MetaHuman Creator, Control Rig Physics, 60 FPS optimization, and enhanced Sequencer tools for streamlined game development.
Nomad: Sculpting on Desktop
Nomad Sculpt enters free public beta on Windows, macOS and Linux - desktop edition includes all iPad features.
Fibric: Stitching Curves into Cloth—Procedurally
Fibric introduces a Houdini SOP-based toolset for procedural clothing creation using curves, featuring UV-ready, quad-based geometry and real-time rendering with Karma XPU.
8K HDRIs from Simon Lachapelle
VFX artist Simon Lachapelle releases free 8K HDRIs for CGI, VFX, and 3D lighting - now with tone-mapped versions and new greyscale variants.
Blender’s 2024 User Survey Results: The Good, the Bad, and the ?
Over 7,000 Blender users shared their thoughts in the 2024 survey, highlighting satisfaction levels and areas for improvement.
Ucupaint 2.3: Baking Bad Gets Better
Ucupaint 2.3 adds real-time Ambient Occlusion, rebake-all layers, and bakeable edge detect—because who needs sleep when you can have features?
Getting Colors Right with the Datacolor LightColor Meter
Let's test! The Datacolor LightColor Meter Model LCM200 is designed for accurate light source measurement, addressing challenges in color matching across different light sources.
The Survivor: A Study in Character-Driven Look Development
At FMX, we met a few students from "PIXLVISN " - and since we never looked at what they are doing, it is high time to do so!
Free Fab? Epic’s Giving Away a Back Alley
Epic Games drops 50 modular 3D assets for Unreal Engine on Fab – for free. Think dumpsters, cables, trash bags, brick walls. It's exactly that.
Fusion 20: a deep look at the core
With its latest release, Blackmagic Fusion is positioning itself more aggressively than ever as a powerful and cost-effective complete package for node-based compositing and motion graphics. We check whether Fusion 20 lives up to the high expectations.
Unreal Engine 5.6 Preview: Now with 60Hz Open Worlds and In-Engine MetaHumans
Unreal Engine 5.6 Preview introduces 60Hz open worlds, an overhauled animation toolset, in-engine MetaHuman Creator, and enhanced procedural workflows.
Free Plugin Connects Blender to Nuke – Without Alembic Detours
Free plugin bridges Blender and Nuke via FBX and OBJ – no Alembic or USD needed. Geometry and camera data flow directly into your comp.
HairFlow: Bad Hair Days Are Simulated Now
HairFlow simulates hair in Blender using simulation nodes—wind, gravity, collisions, even goosebumps. Realtime playback included.
UDIM Planet: Free Globe Toolset Orbits Blender, Max, Maya, Houdini, Unreal and C4D
Free add-on "Figments UDIM Globe" maps UDIM textures to globe objects—UVs are auto-generated, PBR-ready.
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
Corona 12 Update 2: Sunlight, Static Meshes & Setups
Corona 12 Update 2 adds support for Sun Directionality, static mesh export from Chaos Scatter, and a unified setup for the Corona Sky in 3ds Max and C4D.
Weight No More: Streamlining Blender’s Weight Painting with Robust Weight Transfer
Enhance your Blender workflow with Sent From Space's free Robust Weight Transfer add-on, simplifying weight painting and improving character rigging efficiency.
Blueprints & C++: Epic’s New Tutorial Series for Unity Devs
Epic Games releases a 5-part tutorial series with Enduring Games to assist Unity developers in transitioning to Unreal Engine, focusing on Blueprints and C++ integration.
finalRender Free: A Renderer That Costs Nothing but Demands Something
cebas offers finalRender Free for 3ds Max users, featuring single-device rendering with CPU or GPU. Commercial use permitted; registration required.
Using 3D Objects in After Effects
Since 2024, it has been possible to integrate 3D objects into After Effects Beta. The updated version of the Adobe compositing solution now also has this functionality.
Datacolor LightColor Meter: Precision in Light and Color
Datacolor’s LightColor Meter provides precise light and color temperature measurements with Bluetooth connectivity and app control.
Illuminate Your Blender Scenes with Free God Ray Generator, no prayer necessary
Add atmospheric god rays and glimmering dust particles to your Blender projects effortlessly with Giorgi's free setup.
Blender Gets Lit: Free Tools to Manage Your Render Passes
VFX artist Robert Rioux releases Render Manager and Light Editor add-ons to streamline complex scene management in Blender.
Mufasa heads to MPC
The Prequel of a remake of a animated movie, based on a Shakespeare play... and still worth watching! We got a Chance to talk to Audrey Ferrara, MPCs VFX Supervisor for Mufasa
TD Meetup 11: Capture Reality for Visual Effects
Let's us look on how capturing reality will improve our own creative output.
Building your own Super 8 film scanner
Nowadays, you don’t have to be an engineer or electrician to make your own tools. Thanks to the…
Our Universe of… Houdini?
Who would have thought that one of our favourite documentaries seen this year would come from Bristol?
Castle In The Sky Hommage
We all think Studio Ghibli is great - and if you want to learn what makes it so charming and appealing, a homage is always a good way to go. And I had the opportunity at Ostfalia University,
to really immerse myself - a
an experience report.
What’s New in Nuke 14?
"The next generation of Nuke" - the British developers from Foundry are confidently announcing their new version. Let's take a look at what's new between Copycat and Scanline Renderer, what's changed, what's completely new or what remains the same?
That girl is green!
For Marvel Studio‘s most recent streaming series, “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law”, the concept of a workplace dramewdy (think Ally McBeal, 90s kids!) merges with Superhero-battles (think all the Marvel movies, comic-book-geeks!) – leading to 6-foot-
7-inch-sized, gorgeously green,
super-powered viewing pleasures.
A conversation with VFX Production Coordinator Erika Feijoo Spena and Visual Effects Supervisor Chris Smallfield about Hulk-ifications at VFX-powerhouse Trixter.
The Foundry releases Katana 6.0!
The software for look development and lighting is getting an update - and should further speed up workflows.
download 25 HDRI Maps and 6 HDRI Area Light Textures for free
Lightmap, the developer of the lighting design software Light Studio, is making two download packages available - for HDRI maps and area light textures. These simulate realistic studio shots.
Create 4K lighting renders in Unreal Engine 5 with this app?
Computer artist Jamie Cardoso is working on a real-time application that is capable of 4K renderings - and is designed to work in a hardware-friendly way via the web browser.
Simplify lighting in After Effects with this free plugin
The ProductionCrate asset library has released Crate's Godrays - an AE plugin that can be used to generate volumetric lighting effects.
Lighting in Unreal Engine 5: More than just lumens!
Gnomon Workshop with Digital Content Developer Charleston Silverman: Learn the most important lighting techniques of the game engine. A further training programme.
Lighting in Unreal Engine 5 for Beginners
William Faucher's 45-minute tutorial explains UE5 light types and builds both daylight and dark, atmospheric lighting setups.
Download USD Island Paradise from the Disney film Moana now
South Pacific beaches are beyond your travel budget? Then take a trip to Motunui Island now with this USD download.
The Lighting Generator is coming for Blender 3.0
A light goes on for two Artist luminaires, the result: free radiance (for you)!
Easy Light Add-on for Blender Released
Kuimi 3D's Easy Light add-on streamlines lighting controls in Blender, including IES lights, multi-light editing and frame-based animation.
Neural 3D Lighting for Image Composites
NVIDIA and University of Toronto researchers present a neural method for lighting inserted 3D objects inside 2D images.
3D Lighting Course for 3ds Max and V-Ray
Jamie Cardoso's 18-lesson course covers vehicle, exterior and interior lighting with 3ds Max, V-Ray and Photoshop across roughly seven hours.
U-Render 2021.9 Adds Sheen Materials and Cinema 4D R25 Support
U-Render 2021.9 introduced a sheen material effect, Cinema 4D R25 compatibility and access to Asset Browser textures.
Tutorial: Rendering, Lighting and Shading in Marmoset Toolbag 4
3D Scan Store demonstrates head rendering in Marmoset Toolbag 4, covering ZBrush export, lighting, shaders, maps, eyes and textures.
Ten Tips for a Stronger Lighting and Compositing Demo Reel
Lighting and compositing artist Eva Mateo-Fabregas shares ten practical ways to improve the quality, clarity and range of a demo reel.
Lighttracer Review: Native GPU Path Tracing in a Web Browser
A historical review examines Lighttracer’s client-side WebGL path tracing, materials, lighting, cameras, GLB export and GPU performance.
Book: V-Ray 5 for 3ds Max 2020 Rendering Workflows
Jamie Cardoso’s technical book covers client acquisition, materials, virtual cameras, lighting and rendering workflows in V-Ray 5 and 3ds Max.
Unreal Engine 5 Tutorial Explains Lumen Lighting
William Faucher’s Unreal Engine 5 tutorial examines Lumen, including common problems, limitations, unwanted shadows and useful console commands.
Sun Locator Pro Review: Planning Natural Light on Android
Sun Locator Pro helps photographers plan sun and moon positions, blue and golden hours, shadows and augmented-reality previews; this archive review tests it on Android.
U-Render Tutorial Series Explores Image Contrast and Three-Point Lighting
U-Render tutorials explain how contrast shapes an image and demonstrate practical three-point lighting for real-time rendering.
Lighting Artist Samuel Felix Eugene Presents Film Showreel
Samuel Felix Eugene’s lighting showreel features work from Artemis Fowl, Dolittle, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and Detective Pikachu.
Isotropix Releases Clarisse 5 with More Than 100 Improvements
Clarisse 5 brought more than 100 features and improvements for set dressing, look development, lighting, rendering and workflow, plus new pricing options.
Gnomon Workshop Covers Lighting, Shading and Texturing
CG artist Adrien Vallecillas teaches material realism, lighting, shading and texturing with Maya and Redshift in a two-part Gnomon workshop.
Epic Publishes Unreal Engine DMX Previs Sample
Epic Games released a free Unreal Engine DMX sample for previsualising complex live-event lighting and effects.
Katana 3.0 Revisited: Hydra and 3Delight Integration
A detailed look back at Katana 3.0, including its Hydra viewport, integrated 3Delight renderer and improvements to lighting workflows.
HDR Light Studio Xenon Drop 2 Adds Diffusion Controls
HDR Light Studio Xenon Drop 2 introduces diffusion filtering, instant feedback and new planar and spherical light options.
Arnold 6.2 Adds Light Mixing and OpenColorIO 2.0
Arnold 6.2 introduces light mixing, expanded GPU rendering, USD improvements and OpenColorIO 2.0 support.
LightPlacer Simplifies Lighting in 3ds Max
LightPlacer is a US$15 script for creating and managing V-Ray, Corona, Arnold and Octane lights in 3ds Max.
More Than 70 Free High-Resolution HDRIs Available from iHDRI
Game artist Elvis Posa made more than 70 indoor and outdoor HDR environments available for commercial use.
Tutorial: Building Layered Procedural Shader Networks in Blender
CG Fast Track’s four-part Blender tutorial covers mesh fundamentals, normal maps, layered materials and cloth-shader development.
HDRI Projector Setup for Cinema 4D and Octane
Daniel Mozbäuchel’s HDRI Projector setup lets Cinema 4D and Octane users project HDR environments and move objects through them.
V-Ray 5 for Cinema 4D Launches with Light Mixing and GPU Rendering
Chaos released V-Ray 5 for Cinema 4D with Light Mixing, Adaptive Dome Light, GPU rendering and distributed-rendering tools.
KeyShot 10 Adds Advanced Lighting, Animation and Export Tools
KeyShot 10 introduced a Light Manager, viewport gizmos, caustics, cloth rendering, environment animation and improved 3D export.
Foundry Releases Katana 4.0
Katana 4.0 introduces Foresight rendering, artist-focused lighting tools and an updated Hydra bridge for USD workflows.
Weta PhysLight Brings Physical Values to Manuka
Weta Digital’s PhysLight toolset lets the Manuka renderer use physically based values such as colour temperature and on-set camera data.
ARRI Stellar 2 Expands Wireless Lighting Control
ARRI Stellar 2 added third-party DMX fixtures, fixture replacement, colour-temperature grouping and improved network handling.
Foundry Previews Katana 4.0
Katana 4.0 previews artist-facing lighting, TML controls, interactive network rendering and Hydra Viewer improvements.
V-Ray 5 LightMix Relights Finished Renders
V-Ray 5 beta added LightMix and VFB layer compositing so artists could change light colour and intensity after rendering.
V-Ray 5 Beta Adds Light Mix
The V-Ray 5 public beta for 3ds Max added layered Frame Buffer compositing, a 500-material library, Light Mix, coat and sheen layers.
NewTek: LightWave 2020
NewTek releases LightWave 2020 with various new shading and rendering features and more.
Raising Dion – VFX Breakdown RodeoFX
New VFX breakdown from RodeFX: The studio presents past work on the Netflix series “Raising Dion”!
Maya-Clarisse Bridge Tool 2.0
Faster exchange between Maya and Clarisse IFX: For anyone who switches a lot between the applications – the Bridge Tool is now available in V2.0!
Introduction to V-Ray | Chaos Group
No good resolutions for the new year yet? How about V-ray: Chaos Group releases a new tutorial series with practical tips and tricks!
CG Cinematography | Free Guide
Colour, ACES, light types, Gestalt laws, techniques and methods: this online guide is packed with CG cinematography information!
The best light meter ..
... is the one you have with you. And what does everyone have in their pocket these days? Sure, a mobile phone. But can an app compete with a professional light meter? We did the maths. And aren't light meters terribly old-school? Not really for cameramfolks on a film set - except perhaps for solo entertainers on YouTube.
Lighting Mastery Course
The Blender Guru with a new five-part Lighting Master Course: How, when and where should which lights be placed?
