For those who don’t know the tool: Sketchbook Pro is a lightweight drawing and paintover app for Windows and macOS, paired with a mobile sibling on iOS and Android. It also includes Flipbook animation inside the desktop app.

The headline features: two selection tools, less fiddling

Sketchbook Pro version 9.4 adds two tools built around selections: Lasso Fill and Draw Outline. Lasso Fill dynamically fills regions you define with the lasso and targets fast shape blocking for coloring workflows. It lives in the Fill sub-toolbar and can also work with Randomize Color. It can also run with Transparent Color as a clean-up move when you need to nibble back into an edge.

Draw Outline uses the current selection as a path to apply a stroke using the active brush and active color. The stroke centers on the selection line, and the tool sits in the Selection toolbar. It can push beyond plain outlines, including border and halo effects, glow-style results with softer brushes, and softer edge work with eraser-style strokes.

If your day job involves concept art paintovers and quick iterations, both tools aim straight at the boring bits: blocking, edging, and making a selection do something immediately useful.

Desktop release notes: flips, palettes, and Randomize Color behaving

Version 9.4 on macOS adds Layer Menu actions for Rotate CW, Flip Horizontally, and Flip Vertically. The Windows edition lists the same Layer Menu additions, along with the two new selection tools. Across both desktop platforms, color palettes now indicate the active swatch. The Fill tool, including solid fill and lasso fill, now works with Randomize Color instead of ignoring it. Draw Styles also work with Randomize Color.

Mobile builds: same core tools, Premium gate

On mobile, the new tools arrive in the Premium Bundle, not the free base app. On Android, version 6.2.5 lists Draw Outline and Lasso Fill as new Premium Bundle features. It also adds Copy, Cut, and Paste to the selection sub-toolbar, adds palette reordering in the Color Editor, and makes color palettes indicate the active swatch. The Fill tool now works with Randomize Color.

On iOS, version 6.2.6 lists the same two Premium Bundle additions and also adds palette reordering in the Color Editor plus active-swatch indication in palettes. iOS also notes fixes for brush information not populating in the double puck in 6.2.5, an export behavior where an Open button appeared during export of a TIFF file from the gallery, Glow blend mode alpha behavior, artifacts under groups with blend modes, and a canvas edit crop limit issue on very large dimensions. The Fill tool on iOS now works with Randomize Color as well.

The Premium Bundle itself is a one-time in-app purchase on iOS and Android. It unlocks more brush, color, and layer management features, including Lasso Fill, Draw Outline, layer grouping, clipping masks and alpha masks, adjustment effects, and multi-page PDF export. If you live in storyboard land, the selection-driven approach maps cleanly to the way boards get cleaned up: lasso, block, outline, move on. The main catch is that on mobile, you need Premium for the new toys.

As always, test new releases on real jobs, with real brushes, and with your worst legacy files before you bet a deadline on them. Your future self will thank you, or at least complain less loudly.

https://www.sketchbook.com/

The post Sketchbook Pro 9.4 adds Lasso Fill and Draw Outline first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Autograph is a 2D plus 3D compositor with a USD core, can hook into Maxon Studio and Red Giant, and imports SVG from Adobe Illustrator and Figma plus PSD from Affinity and Adobe Photoshop.

Free now, with a catch that is not scary

Maxon has released Autograph 2026.0.0 and made it free for anyone with a (free) MyMaxon account. The same release adds native integration with Maxon Studio for searching, navigating, and applying Red Giant effects, and it adds full OpenFX support for third-party plugins. Pricing beyond that free individual access is not specified yet.

The Autograph pitch in plain production terms

Autograph is a motion graphics and compositing application that mixes a layer-based timeline with a 3D mode for manipulating 3D assets. Think Nuke met After Effects at the Flame Birthday party, and they got drunk.

From the left..

The new kid on the block!

The timeline includes a standard layer stack and a dope sheet, then it switches into a 3D workspace when you need to push assets around in depth.

Autograph also promotes a responsive design workflow aimed at delivering multiple resolutions and aspect ratios from a single project file. Autograph calls these “responsive-design compositions”. Elements can be positioned relative to frame dimensions so one project can render multiple aspect ratios without duplicating layouts.

On the feature list side, Autograph describes itself as a tool for motion graphics, VFX and compositing, plus 2D and 3D projects. So, eveything Comp. It also sports a GPU-powered engine and extensible capabilities as part of how the tool approaches performance and expansion.

OpenUSD 3D inside a compositor timeline

Autograph includes an integrated 3D workspace powered by OpenUSD. The 3D space blends with the 2D workflow and supports extruded vector shapes and text, using compositions as textures, and compositing with multi-pass renders inside the same application.

That same 3D space is useful for motion designers who want depth, lighting, and dimensional design without moving to another application, and for 3D artists who want to streamline texture creation and final composite across the broader toolchain.

Plug-ins, Studio integration, and the new OFX door

Autograph 2026.0.0 introduces full OpenFX support. That matters if your shop already lives and dies by OFX (because, why wouldnt it…), or if you want a compositor that does not treat third-party effects as an afterthought.

The release also adds native integration with Maxon Studio. The stated goal is quick search, navigation, and application of Red Giant effects from inside Autograph. Capsules are explicitly not available in Autograph yet.

One naming change also comes with the re-release: Instancer has been renamed to Cloner, aligning naming with Cinema 4D terminology. The Sources do not list additional feature renames beyond that one.

System requirements and supported platforms

Autograph 2026.0.0 supports Windows and macOS. On macOS, the supported versions listed are macOS 15 Sequoia and macOS 26 Tahoe, and the supported hardware requirement listed is Apple Silicon M1 or better, with 16 GB of memory.

On Windows x64, the supported operating systems listed are Windows 10 version 22H2 and Windows 11. The minimum CPU requirement listed is a 64-bit Intel or AMD CPU with AVX2 support. The minimum GPU requirement is either an NVIDIA GPU from the Maxwell generation or newer with at least 4 GB of VRAM, or an AMD RX 570 or RX 580 with 4 GB or 8 GB, or a discrete GPU with at least 4 GB VRAM and support for OpenCL. The memory requirement is 16 GB.

Test new tools and updates before you put them into a production-critical pipeline!

https://support.maxon.net/hc/en-us/articles/26689114527388-Autograph-2026-0-0-April-15-2026

The post Maxon Autograph 2026 is here first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Neat Video runs as a denoise plug-in inside apps like Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve, and Foundry Nuke. It cleans up shots without making you leave your host, which is the nicest kind of cleaning.

What 6.1.2 actually changes

Neat Video 6.1.2 shipped on 9 April 2026. The update targets three very practical areas: support for new Apple Silicon graphics hardware, compatibility with newly released host versions, and small workflow and stability improvements across plug-ins and platforms.

Boris FX welcomes Vegas Pro

The headline compatibility additions are support for Apple M5 Pro and M5 Max GPUs on macOS, support for Nuke 17 on Windows, macOS, and Linux, support for Nuke Studio 17 and Nuke Indie 17 on Windows, macOS, and Linux, plus support for Vegas Pro 2026 on Windows.

If your pipeline depends on host upgrades staying unblocked, that list matters more than any marketing adjective. A denoiser that falls behind host compatibility turns into the most expensive bypass node you never wanted.

Vegas Pro 2026 support on Windows

6.1.2 adds support for Vegas Pro 2026 on Windows. What is clear is the intent: the update aligns the plug-in with the newest Vegas Pro release line, so editors on that host can update without losing access to the denoise plug-in. If your finishing workflow includes cuts or conform work in Vegas Pro, this update keeps that lane open. And, if you think that EWgas is getting a second wind, you don’t have to miss your favourite denoiser.

Nuke 17, Nuke Studio 17, Nuke Indie 17 compatibility

6.1.2 adds support for Nuke 17 across Windows, macOS, and Linux, and adds support for Nuke Studio 17 and Nuke Indie 17 across the same trio of platforms. In a mixed facility where artists jump between OS builds or where show work crosses between Linux workstations and macOS laptops, that cross-platform statement carries scheduling weight.

Some teams will care about this update purely because it removes friction around moving to Nuke 17. Others will care because they have already moved and need the denoise step to catch up. Either way, the result is the same: one less reason to keep an older host version installed just to keep a plug-in alive.

Apple Silicon M5 Pro and M5 Max support

Version 6.1.2 adds support for Apple M5 Pro and M5 Max GPUs on macOS. The practical promise is simple: GPU-accelerated processing for faster renders on Apple Silicon M5 Pro and M5 Max machines.

Updating, licensing, and what costs money

6.1.2 is described as the latest update improving compatibility and support for new software and hardware, and it is free for licensed users of version 6 of the product.

To update, the release directs users to the My Products page. The My Products page requires login access through the vendor site, so you should expect the usual account-based download flow rather than a public direct installer link for licensed builds, or a line of smooth WinGet.

Upgrading from older major versions gets described in two ways across the official materials provided. Owners of versions 1 through 5 can upgrade to the new major version 6 with a discount. Another official upgrade page adds extra detail: version 6 can coexist with version 5 or older and does not replace it in current projects, a v6 demo is available to try before upgrading, and users who purchased version 5 within the last 12 months receive an additional discount.

Pricing of a single-copy license price is €72.90 for the Home edition and €136.90 for the Pro edition on several host categories. The same page also shows discounted bundle pricing for certain host combinations, but the exact bundles and discount figures vary by host section on that page. If you buy based on a specific host, verify the exact host row you plan to license, because the page layout presents pricing per host family.

https://www.neatvideo.com/news/nv612

The post Neat Video 6.1.2 adds Vegas 2026 and Nuke 17 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

A proper hardware device by Blackmagic Design (BM for short) and a calibrated screen has been the iron law for any professional user of DaVinci Resolve (DR for short). But for all those working under MacOS, this may have been valid for the longest time. We are looking at recent changes in DR for those without one. Spoiler: calibration still matters!

How to check

To see what’s going on when playing your movie on other devices and players you can compare your own footage, for sure. At least, if you were the colorist, you should know how it should look like. But if you are unsure (and our memory for colors can be tricked easily), there is the classic SMPTE chart in DR, which has the so-called PLUGE pulse (short for picture line-up generation equipment) in the lower right. In the wider black bar there are two narrow zones with a value just above black, the left one being the darker one (check your waveform).

If your blacks are not crushed by a false gamma interpretation, you should be able to see the right bar just faintly inside the black stripe. The middle one may only become visible if the shadows are lifted too much. Of course, it all depends on your screen too. If it’s not capable of showing black or at least near black, the rest of that whole area will not be pitch black, making it harder to judge the subtle differences. Actually, there is a third bar to the left of the two, but that is reaching down into the sub-black area and only visible if you have exported the file with “Retain sub-black and super-white data” activated. Normally it is just cut off.

Calibration options

DisplayCal is plugging into DR and sending its test patches through the grading software over any compatible I/O device to the screen you need to calibrate. The resulting LUT can be copied into DR and used as a monitoring LUT to correct deviations of the connected screen. This approach works absolutely correctly with the right settings in DisplayCal, being able to avoid any interference of the operating system, be it MacOS, Windows or Linux. Final precision is limited only by shortcomings of your monitor, like weak shadow areas, as visible below. BTW, those small spikes and minor shifts in the waveform are caused by compression in our recorder.

In our series of articles for those not able to spend a fortune on high-end solutions, we have shown how to get a proper LUT with the help of free software and second-hand hardware for Apple silicon. But now we have two solutions pretty much on par regarding calibration in the operating system by an ICC profile. So, we wanted to know if one can live without such an I/O device and that perfect calibration over the whole chain. Actually, BM has recently changed how preview windows and full screen display color and contrast. So, ICC profiles may not be insufficient any more for DR on a Mac with a screen adhering to standard!

Direct monitoring

BM has supported the use of Mac display profiles in DR’s viewers under MacOS for quite some time, even in 10-bit. But due to peculiarities carried over from older systems, they needed to use a non-standard version of Rec. 709, called 709-A. That was nothing but a crutch, and it was not only Apple’s fault that contrast and brightness were inconsistent between many players and other devices. If you are seriously bored, you can read this thread, with over 20 pages, the longest one ever in the DR user forum. You can follow some true experts and many wannabes there, discussing a ‘final’ solution. So, what’s our take on it?

The Never Ending Story: Are Apple XDR devices suitable for reference use in colour grading?

The main problem is lack of timely standardization when everything went from tubes to digital cameras and screens. The Rec. 709 standard for HDTV was defined based on analog technology, which behaved differently from modern cameras and screens. The newer addition to that standard is called BT. 1886, but it was only published by the ITU in 2011.

At that time there were already too many digital technologies in use, and most manufacturers didn’t really care much about adherence to a standard coming so late. BT.1886 defines a gamma (a contrast curve) of 2.4, which is fine for viewing TV in a rather dimly lit living room. Adjusting that curve is not really adhering to the standard, but on this model of a TV, for example, a value of +2 will get it to 2.2.

This slightly older Samsung TV, as a typical example, is offering modes like Movie, Natural, Standard, and Dynamic. Nothing says “Rec. 709” or “BT. 1886” right away, but „Natural“ is actually adhering to BT.1886, even fixed to it. „Standard“ is BT. 1886 too by default, but allows you to override that gamma in the expert settings – go figure. “Movie” is also adhering to BT.1886, but with a very warm tint – which again can be overridden, just like gamma. Recent ones have the “Filmmaker” setting, which is supposed not to change anything, and “Dynamic” is for bright rooms. Have fun with all the creative names and options of other manufacturers!

A lighter and less contrasty gamma of 2.2 might be better in a brighter environment. Mobile devices in particular are watched wherever you go. Even if some can reach very high brightness values these days, details in darker areas of the image can get lost if the content was graded as 2.4. Encoding clips for social media instead of movies for cinema buffs may profit from a gamma of 2.2, which is correctly flagged as 1-4-1 by DR. It even adheres to a standard, called BT.470 System M, as shown by MediaInfo (free). But this was a standard for analog television in some parts of the world only, and is now considered historical.

But do TVs and other devices really check such flags, which contain the information about encoding in your digital video files? They should tell the playback device which colour primaries, which colour matrix, and which gamma (called transfer characteristics here) were used. If you check with the info function for a video file on a Mac, the ones for Rec. 709 BT. 1886 are code points 1-1-1 or flags (I’ll use flag from here). They will be listed by cross-platform software such as MediaInfo as Rec. 709 for all three parameters.

In a perfect world, all playback devices and software players should respect such flags and show your video accordingly. Well, at least most of them assume your sources are 1-1-1, but often don’t care if it’s flagged as anything else, like 1-4-1 or 1-2-1. Some even force 1-1-1 on your clips, whatever they are. As we all know, YouTube is recompressing your sources, which is acceptable if the quality is good enough. But what’s absolutely unacceptable: whatever your original flagging was, YouTube will set it to 1-1-1 without even asking you! Just try to send one of your clips to YT and read it back. The free video patcher AMCDX by Alex Mogurenko will help you to correct wrong flags, but you need to remember the original encoding.

What to do?

In consequence, your results, which you encoded as gamma 2.2 for viewing in brighter environments, will actually be displayed darker and loose detail in the shadows. And if you encode from DR as Rec.709 gamma 2.4, which is offered as another option, it may too bright and lack contrast and saturation on players or a browser not respecting the flags. So, always encode as Rec. 709 (Scene) and hope for the best. It should look right on a TV with the correct settings. These can normally be found on most modern TVs or monitors if you dig deep enough into the menus, either as Rec. 709 or BT. 1886. Out of the box, many TVs are set to a very contrasty and saturated look, shouting out “Buy Me!” to the visitors of a mall for electronics.

The very popular VLC player is another example of ignoring flags, while we can recommend mpv player or its descendants for observance of flags. Of course, this says nothing yet about the quality of the screen attached to it. If that one is not calibrated, or at least set correctly in its menus, the image may still be far off. And then, there are all those image ‘enhancements’ imposed by digital TVs for viewing conditions, like bright environments or late hours. Or think of a projector meant to be visible in a not so dimly lit boardroom and optimized for (visual!) clarity of business charts.

Recommendations

Recent MacBooks and iPad Pro models have excellent blacks and offer reference modes for several standards, including HDTV (BT.709-BT. 1886). These are factory-calibrated and deactivate any image adjustments, assuming an environment properly lit for grading. Now, there is some sample variation and according to our own measurements, the nit value for white can be a tad low, like around 90 instead of 100 (some experts even suggest 120). Nevertheless, such screens come pretty close to a properly calibrated screen in the lower price range and offer much better blacks than conventional IPS panels.

If you are working for TV, we would still advise a professional, calibrated monitor via an I/O device. But, at least with the settings explained above, your viewers in DR will not look completely off when a client is looking over your shoulder. For all those working for social media, where your audience will have devices that you can’t control anyway, we suggest sticking to the only widespread norm: Rec. 709 with a gamma of 2.4. If you are concerned about visibility in bright environments, change the lighting in your room and check with an average smartphone, but avoid the setting for gamma 2.2 when rendering.

If you work for clients who want your results for social media, but are picky about how their movies look, you may need to supply them with an iPad Pro for presentations. Set it to a reference mode, block that, and try to explain to them why their average boardroom projector may look different. You may even want to take a photograph of TVs in an electronics market showing the same content next to each other.

Let’s do it on a Mac

So you’ve got a MacBook Pro (MBP for short) with Apple silicon and you’ve got a calibration probe, be it by Datacolor or Calibrite. But working just for the internet, you didn’t invest in an I/O device. We don’t care which generation of that laptop, as long as it has the nice XDR screen and reference modes. But who likes to work with DaVinci Resolve on such a small screen (even the menu bar is too short for all the little extras)? Let’s say you have a larger screen with decent color quality attached when you start grading at your home base. After all, not only Apple says that you should be grading to standards in a controlled environment – something hard to find in a hotel room or on the road. Now calibrate that external screen with your probe, and you’ll be generating just an ICC profile for the Mac in this case. More than one profile can be prepared for the correction of different monitors, which will be managed by the system.

Brightness according to BT. 1886 would be 100 nit, but 120 fits modern screens better. The steps needed for calibration are fully self-explanatory with the Spyder Pro software, and the result on a decent screen is very close to what we see on the MBP when set to reference mode. OK, DisplayCal may be a tad more precise. But it’s more complicated and taking many more measurements, resulting in excessively long lunch breaks.

You need to set the system preferences of DR to use the Mac profiles, as already shown above, and now you have to stick to Rec. 709 (Scene) on the Deliver page to get your output and its flags right. Do not use Rec. 709 Gamma 2.4, even if theoretically it should be the same!

Your timeline can be whatever you prefer: Rec. 709, ACES, or DaVinci Wide Gamut Intermediate (DWG). Of course, with manual settings your first node should get a CST (Color Space Transform) to adapt the incoming camera sources to DWG. Resolve’s automatic setting, called DaVinci YRGB Color Managed (aka RCM) set to SDR would also deliver the flags as 1-1-1, by the way. But you may need to check if the incoming footage’s color and gamma is identified correctly or needs to be set manually. That’s often the case if some difficult source has been transcoded into an intermediate codec, like ProRes, DNxHR, or Cineform.

Conclusion

In the end, you need to understand that rendering into a specific colour space and gamma is actually changing the visual content of your results. 
Tags are just metadata, which should trigger the right interpretation in players. That’s the point where chaos breaks loose, because manufacturers often don’t care for the tags and display your video based on assumptions. The only reliable approach is encoding to Rec. 709 with a gamma of 2.4 and having the tags set to 1-1-1, which is automatically done if you render into Rec.709 (scene).

The post LUTs, Tags, or ICC: Getting Colours Right in Resolve on a Mac first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Uli Plank.

For those who don’t know the tool: Atlux λ plugs into Unreal Engine and ships a virtual studio, lights, presets, and automation for fast renders. It is sold on Fab and can also be installed with the Epic Games Launcher.

Fab listing, now with Mac support

Atlux λ is now available on Fab as a visualisation plugin for Unreal Engine. The newest version adds macOS support. The plugin is solo-developed by Jorge Valle Hurtado. The plugin requires account registration. The listing also shows no rating yet, Allows usage with AI set to Yes, and Generated with AI set to No.

The pitch, minus the pitchforks

The core idea: a complete in-editor photo studio-style workflow aimed at speeding up lighting, rendering, and cinematic work inside Unreal Engine. In practice, that means a Virtual Photo Studio, realistic light assets, studio and light presets, camera motion presets, an automated turntable, batch rendering, post-process materials and LUTs, procedural gobos, VFX reference assets, and a simplified render interface.

A key workflow point is automation around sequences and rendering. Rendering takes one click, with everything handled automatically, and no manual Level Sequences or Movie Render Queue setup required. That is a big promise, so treat it as a workflow claim until you validate it in your own scenes and build environment.

One click rendering as a pipeline building block

If you have ever tried to standardise look dev outputs across a team, you know the dull truth: the hardest part is rarely the final pixels. It is the repeatability. Atlux λ leans into repeatability by bundling its own studio environments, lighting assets, presets, and a streamlined render interface, then pushing users toward a single-button render flow. The idea is to keep the shot setup and output consistent, especially when multiple artists work on the same asset library.

That is also where the curated content matters. When a tool ships with production-ready assets and presets, it reduces the number of decisions per shot and lowers the odds that one artist accidentally reinvents the sun at 3 a.m. It also gives supervisors a clearer target for what “correct” looks like in a shared lighting and camera language.

Gaussian Splatting prep, with COLMAP export

The feature list includes COLMAP export for Gaussian Splatting workflows. For teams experimenting with Splatting , the practical value depends on how smoothly the exported data lines up with your existing reconstruction steps and tooling, including COLMAP. The sources do not provide detailed specifications for what is exported or how it maps to downstream tools, so you will need to validate that part yourself.

Atlux λ Live and packaging as a desktop app

The feature list also includes Atlux λ Live, described as a “runtime version” that allows users to package a scene as a fully interactive desktop application, for purposes such as interactive client presentations, sharing scenes without requiring the Unreal Editor, and delivering a controlled runtime experience using the toolset.

If you have ever handed off an interactive review build to a client, you already know why this matters. Packaging is rarely hard in theory. It is hard because it is always the week you cannot afford surprises. Treat the packaging automation as a convenience feature that still deserves a dry run on your target machines and OS versions.

Pricing and licensing, in plain numbers

Pricing is now official: A Personal perpetual license is listed at US$249.99 excluding tax. A Professional perpetual license is listed at US$349.99 excluding tax. Both are perpetual licenses with one active user on any computer, offline access, and full support, updates, and maintenance.

The buy page has a standalone installer for Windows only for the Personal and Professional options, and it also describes purchasing via Fab with the same Personal and Professional pricing, plus availability on Mac and inclusion in the Epic Games Launcher.

Educational pricing is also specified on the same page. An Educational Rental is listed at US$4.95 per month excluding tax, described as cancel any time, one active user on any computer, and support, updates, and maintenance while active, with Windows only and a requirement for school or academy validation.

Support is for Unreal Engine versions 5.4, 5.5, 5.6 and 5.7.

// Fab listing page for Atlux λ
https://www.fab.com/listings/3c321e8e-f0b0-4235-ba38-02d59299869b
// Official product homepage and feature overview
https://atlux.one/

Atlux λ 2 brings 3D scanning inside Unreal

The post VINZI Atlux λ arrives on Fab first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.