Anthropic joined the Blender Development Fund as a Corporate Patron and the focus sits on Blender core development, specifically foundational work like the Blender Python API. Quoting: This support will be dedicated towards Blender core development, to maintain and continuously improve foundational features like the Blender Python API, which enables developers and artists alike to extend and improve the software for custom workflows.

Community reaction and the corporate reality check. E.a. Breathe, everybody.

This is the part worth re-reading when the next debate starts, because it will. Blender stays open-source. Donors do not own the code. The Foundation is still in charge of planning and review. And as far as Connectors and Corporate sponsors go, would you rather have Anthropic or TwitterAI?

Claude gets a Blender connector

And there is other news: The new Claude connector for Blender provides a natural-language interface to Blender’s Python API. It is positioned for scene analysis and debugging, generating scripts, and batch-applying changes to objects in a scene. It can also add tools directly to Blender’s interface by using the Python API.

This is also where the sarcasm is unsuppressible. The pitch sounds like a polite AI intern who reads the manual, writes your first draft of a script, and does not ask for access to your Perforce depot. In practice, it will do exactly what any code generator does: it will be useful right up until it makes one confident, catastrophic mistake that turns your perfectly fine scene into modern art. Test it before you let it anywhere near a deliverable.

Let’s test this together!

Digital Production author Alexander Richter will put the new connector through a first-look livestream on Thursday, the same day this news lands. The session runs at 2 PM UTC and leans into a raw test rather than a polished demo, with a quick install walkthrough using the uv package manager and then straight into hands-on scene work.

The stream title is I Let Claude AI Control Blender (Is it actually good?). Expect real-world poking at scene manipulation, lighting setups, and Python scripting, plus a TD-flavored sanity check on batch renaming, material assignments, and scene cleanup: where it saves time, where it trips, where it fucks up and where Python knowledge still separates a clean result from a slow-motion cleanup job.

MCP, or how to share the plumbing

The Blender connector is built on Model Context Protocol, an open standard for connecting AI models to external data. The connector built on MCP is designed to be accessible to other large language models, not just Claude. For pipeline folks, that is the important sentence. It frames the connector as infrastructure rather than a one-off plugin, making the integration story feel less like a lock-in play and more like a set of pipes you can reuse. Or at least, that is the marketing claim. Reality will show how it works.

Connectors everywhere, all at once

The same announcement releases “connectors” as a broader creative-work push. Listed integrations include Adobe Creative Cloud apps, Ableton documentation grounding for Live and Push, Autodesk Fusion, SketchUp, and live visual tools like Resolume.

In other words, the assistant wants to sit in the middle of your toolchain, translate between apps, and automate the stuff you do not put on your reel. Or, just, you know, read the documentation for you. If that sounds like an attempt to emrbace the creative industries, yes, that is the point. And if you already feel tired, also yes.

And if you think: “Oh, well, someone is running from the Trumpish-Industrialist grasps into the warm embrace of the creative world”, yes, that is what it looks like. Funny that the discussion about where the training data came from is not included in the messaging at all. But let’s see how Anthropic does on this side of the Copyright divide.

Pricing and availability

The sources describe the Blender connector as officially available for Claude and available now for Blender 5.1, with installation instructions hosted by Blender.

As always, treat new automation as a tool, not a teammate. Put it in a sandbox, throw ugly production scenes at it, and see whether it helps you ship faster or just helps you generate new kinds of bugs in new and exciting industreis.

https://www.blender.org/press/anthropic-joins-the-blender-development-fund-as-corporate-patron/

https://www.anthropic.com/news/claude-for-creative-work

The post Anthropic funds Blender, ships Claude connector first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the Smpte: The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) sets the technical standards behind nearly everything that moves on a screen. From colorimetry to file formats, SMPTE defines the backbone of professional workflows in postproduction, broadcast, and digital cinema. Their new engineering report Artificial Intelligence and Media (ER 1011:2025) updates the 2023 edition with the latest thinking on AI, and is freely available to non-members.

Open source and open AI

The first section revisits the foundations of machine learning and deep learning, before expanding into what SMPTE now calls “open source artificial intelligence”. The report clarifies the difference between open-weight and truly open source AI, where not just the model weights, but also code, data, and documentation are publicly accessible. It also points to the emerging concept of Responsible AI Licenses and frameworks like the Model Openness Framework (MOF). SMPTE notes that “open-washing”, marketing closed systems as open, is a growing issue engineers must recognise.

Generative models and interoperability

A substantial chapter examines generative AI, from diffusion models and GANs to LLMs and multimodal architectures capable of handling text, sound, image, and video simultaneously. The report highlights the growing influence of protocols like the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Google’s A2A for agent-to-agent interoperability, described as the foundation for “agentic workflows.” SMPTE sees these protocols as key to connecting intelligent tools in post and broadcast environments, without locking developers into single ecosystems.

Security, ethics, and regulation

Security receives dedicated attention. SMPTE warns of risks such as data poisoning, jailbreaking, and intellectual property leakage within AI-driven workflows. The report advocates Zero Trust Architectures (as defined by MovieLabs), calling for authentication and authorisation mechanisms even between AI agents. The ethics chapter, meanwhile, argues that AI in media must be both transparent and auditable “because failing is expensive, and media needs its own voice.” It outlines principles of inclusivity, transparency, and fit-for-purpose design, forming what SMPTE calls the “AI Ethics Pipeline”.

Standards and data: the next frontier

In its closing chapters, the report maps the AI standards landscape, noting gaps around ontologies, benchmarking, and model metadata. The authors identifie opportunities for collaboration with the EBU, ISO/IEC, and other bodies, stressing the need for shared datasets to train and validate media-specific AI systems. These datasets, the report says, are crucial for reproducible research and safe deployment in production pipelines. As always, SMPTE closes with a reminder that technology, especially AI, must prove itself in real-world conditions before being trusted in production.

The full Engineering Report ER 1011:2025 – Artificial Intelligence and Media is available for free download from the SMPTE website. It is dense, detailed, and refreshingly un-hyped. A technical must-read for anyone designing, coding, or approving AI-assisted tools in post, broadcast, or digital cinema. Before your next machine learning experiment runs in production, take an hour to read what SMPTE’s engineers have already tested and defined.

The post SMPTE updates its AI report: a roadmap for media engineers first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

In nuce: Icosa Gallery has released the latest version of the open-source VR sketching app Open Brush, making Open Brush 2.0 available. With the release of Open Brush 2.0, the app is also celebrating its two-year anniversary. The software is based on Tilt Brush, which was previously developed by Google. Digital Production last reported on Tilt Brush on 9 November 2017. Open Brush has been open source since 2021 and will no longer be pursued as a commercial project.

Open Brush v2.0

In toto: Below are some of the key features of Open Brush 2.0 – in addition to the fact that the app has been upgraded to the latest version of the Unity game engine.

• Support for a Layers System: Up to eight layers can be selected. This should improve clarity when working with large sketches.
• Pressure sensitivity for brushes: Some brushes now have pressure sensitivity – depending on how hard the user grips their input device, strokes appear more or less forceful.
• Up to 10 times the bit rate: Sketching is said to have become noticeably more performant – with a leap in performance from 5 frames per second to 50.
• Support for OpenXR extensions: Virtual reality and mixed reality applications are hereby supported – and Open Brush usable for a wider range of hardware offerings. This includes an extension that allows users of Meta Quest headsets to draw within a mixed reality environment.
• Two new tools: The Snip and Join tools have been added to the toolbox. With these tools, existing brushstrokes can either be halved using the control point or two existing brushstrokes can be joined together.

Clicked further: To the announcement of the release of Open Brush 2.0 or to the corresponding GitHub. Users can find out where Open Brush is available from via docs.openbrush.app . Digital Production reported on the previous version Open Brush 1.0 on 2 March 2022 – and on the new functions Lazy Input and other feature delights.

Source: cgchannel.com ( report by Jim Thacker)

The post Drawing with VR glasses – and in 3D space? first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: The VFX service provider DNEG is making its playback and reviewing software xStudio available as open source. This is according to my report, which was published by Dan Sarto on awn.com on 20 January this year. This is a beta version of xStudio. According to awn.com, xStudio is suitable for a wide range of production steps – from the film set to the production office, or even for remote reviewing sessions.

In toto: xStudio can be obtained via the GitHub account of the Academy Software Foundation (ASWF) and is provided as part of the Open Review Initiative. The announcement on awn com also states that xStudio is highly customisable and can be used both as a standalone player and integrated into pipelines via a C plug-in framework or the Python interface. The fact that users also have access to an extensive, open-source library is also emphasised.

Who is behind it? The open-source reviewing software xStudio is managed by a technical steering committee under the direction of DNEG. The committee is made up of engineers and contributors from the community. Chas Jarrett, Senior VFX Supervisor and Creative Director at DNEG, is quoted in the press release: “We encourage our customers, industry colleagues and partners to use and develop xStudio”; Jarrett emphasises that the community can benefit from xStudio.

Academy Softwaer Foundation (ASWF): The idea behind the initiative is standardisation – as Digital Production also reported on 9 August 2022 . The Open Review Initiative is a sandbox project of the Academy Software Foundation (ASWF), which is committed to building a standardised, open-source toolset for playback, reviewing and project approval. DNEG is a founding member of the ASWF, which was founded in 2018 under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation. Further information at aswf.io.

Outlook: In the coming months, the reviewing software itview from VFX house Sony Pictures Imagesworks will be made available as open source.

Click back: Just last week Thursday, 19 January 2023, Digital Production reported on how software developer Autodesk has made its reviewing & playback software Open RV accessible as part of the Open Review Initiative.

Click further: To the GitHub of xStudio. Further information on xStudio can be found at dneg.com .

Sources: awn.com ( announcement by Dan Sarto), dneg.com/xstudio/ ( official announcement)

The post Open source reviewing tool from DNEG? first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.

In nuce: The cloud computing provider Amazon Web Services has made its AWS Thinkbox plug-ins available under an Apache 2.0 open source licence; the plug-ins include Krakatoa (toolkit for volumetric particle rendering), XMesh (for caching geometries), Frost (for generating a single mesh from paricles) and Stoke (a tool for volumetric and particle simulation). The plug-ins are suitable for use with Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk Maya.

In toto: According to the corresponding release note published on aws.amazon.com, the idea behind the open source move is to give users the ability to design tools according to their own needs – and to make long-term decisions. In the same release note by Bharathi Muthukrishnan (Senior Product Manager), Conrad Wiebe (Software Development Manager) and Even Spearman (Software Development Engineer), it is mentioned that VFX service provider Scanline in particular has used the now open-source plug-ins for its productions (including: Stranger Things Season 4, The Gray Man, The Adam Project or Aquaman).

Click to continue: The official announcement, including all relevant links, can be accessed via aws.amazon.com . In a similar announcement published on 3 August 2022, Digital Production referred to VFX tools that were also made freely available by Amazon Web Services.

Sources: cgpress.org (announcement by CGPress Staff), aws.amazon.com ( announcement by Bharathi’Muthukrishnan, Conrad Wiebe and Even Spearman)

The post Open source plug-ins from Amazon Web Services! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Patrick Poti.