ICE.ART 2026.II agenda is set
ICE.ART 2026.II has its final agenda: three online evenings covering animation, virtual production, architecture, materials and realtime worlds.
Browsing Tag
MaterialX
36 posts
UV Flex 0.3 Adds Spline UV Deformation to Blender
UV Flex 0.3 adds interactive split, merge, reshape and spline controls to Blender's UV Editor, including falloff and 2D IK.
MoonRay’s First ASWF Release Adds MaterialX
MoonRay’s first ASWF release adds MaterialX map graphs, HdMoonRay integration and production-focused lighting, volume and stability work.
RenderMan 27.3 Adds MaterialX to XPU
Pixar’s RenderMan 27.3 adds native MaterialX and initial Cryptomatte support to XPU, plus stylized-look, hair and volume updates.
Roji Goes Deep on USD Rendering
Roji beta registration is open for a nodal USD workflow with MaterialX lookdev, Hydra review, path tracing and AI render support.
Adobe Sampler 6.0 Adds OpenPBR
Substance 3D Sampler 6.0 adds OpenPBR defaults, preset material templates, USD material export and updated HP Z Captis capture tools.
OctaneRender 2026.3 adds virtual texture netrender
OTOY ships OctaneRender 2026.3: virtual textures finally work on the farm, NRC uses less memory, and USD plus MaterialX get more pipeline glue.
Cargo 3.0 merges two asset libraries
Cargo 3.0 folds two libraries into one app, adds smarter search, and hands you hundreds of free assets so you can start dressing scenes today.
Chaos Vantage 3 update 2 adds Toon
Toon shading meets splats and VDB export in Vantage, while Enscape 4.17 quietly tidies DLSS, lights, and exports. Less drama, more frames.
Autodesk ships Maya 2027
Maya Creative gets most of Maya 2027, while Maya 2027 adds Smart Bevel, USD tools, MotionMaker horses, and deeper Bifrost perks.
OctaneRender 2027.1 alpha goes neural
OctaneRender 2027.1 alpha chases cleaner viewports, smarter lights, and more USD. Test it like it is spicy, because it is.
Nuke 17.0 rewires 3D and adds Gaussian Splats
Nuke 17.0 brings native splats, USD scene graph control, BigCat ML scaling and core performance gains.
Checkpoint, fixed: Pixar ships RenderMan 27.1
Pixar refines RenderMan 27.1: better Lama layering, smarter checkpointing, memory savings, and fixes across Blender and Houdini bridges.
Pixar’s RenderMan 27.0
Pixar’s RenderMan 27.0 lands with final-frame XPU rendering, multi-GPU scaling, deep compositing, and a production-ready Stylized Looks suite.
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.
Chaos Vantage 3 Released: USD, MaterialX, AI Materials & Volumetric Rendering
Chaos Vantage 3 expands its real-time rendering engine with USD and MaterialX support, AI-driven material generation, volumetric rendering, and Gaussian splats. The update brings Vantage closer to open-pipeline workflows for VFX and visualization and adds plenty of new toys for artists who prefer to stay in real time.
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.
Chaos Vantage 3.0 beta lands with USD, MaterialX and Gaussian Splats
Vantage 3.0 beta is here: USD, MaterialX and Gaussian Splats mean Chaos’ real-time GPU renderer finally speaks modern pipeline standards.
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.
ACES Gets a New Home: Academy Hands Off Colour Science to the Academy Software Foundation
ACES, the open source color standard for film, is now under the Academy Software Foundation. The move aims for greater open collaboration and innovation.
Maya 2026.2: Lighter Wolves, Smarter Motion, and One Less Excuse to Skip MaterialX
Maya 2026.2 boosts MotionMaker AI, enables MaterialX in LookdevX, brings Arnold GPU Toon shading, and makes Bifrost mandatory. Check docs for full details.
Chaos Opens Real‑Time Rendering to All (No Unreal Required)
Chaos Arena now supports USD, MaterialX and Gaussian Splats, enabling real‑time rendering with no Unreal Engine license required.
Procedural Texturing using Houdini and MaterialX
Learn how Houdini's MaterialX simplifies procedural texturing for VFX artists, with a focus on efficient shading and rendering workflows.
New version of Pixar RenderMan 26.2
New functions for more efficient rendering and enhanced material visualisation.
USD, Solaris and Karma in Houdini 20 (and elsewhere…)
Solaris saw the light of day 4 years ago in Houdini 18. When I tried it out for the first time back then, it was still very bumpy and initially put me off. One crash followed another. If that happens today, then it's probably due to the graphics card driver, which is supposed to be up to date.
Prism Pipeline, the second
The technical requirements of animation and VFX productions are increasing every year - I don't have to tell you that. In most projects, a variety of tools are used to achieve the desired quality. In order to complete these increasingly complex projects within the specified deadlines, more powerful pipeline tools are also required.
Who should use the Aurora renderer from Autodesk?
It is aimed at artists who work with Universal Scene Description (USD). What other functions does the real-time path tracing renderer offer?
Omniverse Create 2022.3 released – Omniverse Create 2022.3.1 coming soon
A beta release in two parts - part two will follow in November. Relevant for VFX artists: Support for DLSS 3, MaterialX USD workflows. A release note.
Angie Hybrid Rendering in Clarisse 5.5
Isotropix's Angie combines CPU and GPU rendering in Clarisse 5.5 Early Access with OSL, MaterialX and NVIDIA OptiX.
Arnold 7 Adds OIDN and Reduces GPU Memory
Autodesk Arnold 7 adds Open Image Denoise, ACEScg defaults, MaterialX 1.38, deeper USD workflows and lower GPU memory use.
AMD Releases Open-Source USD Hydra Add-on for Blender
AMD’s beta USD Hydra add-on enabled USD import, scene creation, Hydra rendering and USD export from Blender, with MaterialX support.
MaterialX Joins the Academy Software Foundation
MaterialX became the Academy Software Foundation’s seventh hosted project, strengthening an open standard for exchanging look-development data.
Vision Series Covers Maya USD Workflows
The Source Awakens session examines Maya USD, MaterialX and OpenColorIO workflows for collaboration across artists and studios.
MaterialX Beta Connects Substance Tools
A beta MaterialX plug-in linked Substance Designer and Painter through portable OpenGL viewport shaders and material networks.
Allegorithmic – Interview with developers
Allegorithmic is known for its material authoring tools. We met the team at FMX and talked about current and future developments, with information on Project Alchemist, UDIMs, UV tools, the new PBR Guide and more!
MaterialX: Open Standard from ILM
New open standard for exchanging materials between applications: ILM and Lucasfilm release the first version of MaterialX.