Battle Axe has released Overlord 2.6, expanding its well-known Illustrator-to-After Effects bridge into Photoshop territory. The update introduces a direct Photoshop connection, enabling the transfer of native PSD layers, including text, masks, gradients, and layer styles, into After Effects as editable AE layers ready for animation.

Until now, After Effects users importing Photoshop files were confined to flattened or grouped layer structures. Overlord’s new system translates Photoshop data into true layer objects, retaining editable text and design attributes.

More Than a Patch

Version 2.6 also adds an image scale selector, giving users control over how imported imagery is sized during transfer. Battle Axe has rewritten the messaging system, lifting the image transfer ceiling from 16 MB to 265 MB, and redesigned the application interface. Preference handling has been moved to the app itself for faster response. Other interface adjustments include a Figma panel redesign, now hiding settings behind a gear icon.

Maintenance and Hotfix

A follow-up build, Overlord 2.6.1, was issued the next day to fix a bug that caused a blank app panel for new users. The changelog also lists fixes for Illustrator and Figma panels, resolving issues with paragraph alignment, linked file handling, and text justification.

What It Means for Production

Overlord has long served as a time-saver for motion designers bridging design tools and After Effects. The Photoshop connection extends this to one of the most common layout sources in VFX and motion pipelines. As with all major workflow updates, studios should test version 2.6 thoroughly before deploying in production to verify compatibility with existing projects and AE builds.

The post Photoshop Joins Overlord 2.6 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

With Roads, artist Marco Pavanello (publishing under Wolf on Superhive Market and on Gumroad) offers a deceptively simple Blender modifier setup for fast, procedural street generation. The tool lets users create complete, textured roads by extruding vertices from any mesh object.

Once a vertex is extruded, a full road mesh appears. Move the vertex, and the path curves dynamically—no additional modifiers or manual UV mapping needed. As the developer describes it: “Extrude a vertex and you’ll get a road, move it and you will create a curve, everything else is magic.” The implementation is built entirely on Blender’s native modifier stack and geometry nodes, meaning no compiled code or scripts are required.

Procedural by Design

Every aspect of the setup is procedural, from the geometry to the surface texturing. The included textures adapt automatically to the mesh deformation, maintaining consistent line markings and edge detail along curves. The system is designed to keep roads planar (flat), which simplifies viewport editing and avoids unexpected Z-offsets during extrusion. Users are reminded that vertical road modelling is unsupported—the surface will always remain level. The asset works in Blender 4.5 and is compatible with both Cycles and Eevee render engines. The creator explicitly recommends linking the asset library rather than appending, ensuring procedural dependencies remain intact when reused across projects.

Junctions and Lanes on Demand

One of the more technical features of Roads is its procedural junction generator. The setup automatically creates intersections for three-, four-, or five-way road crossings. The underlying node graph analyses connecting edges and merges topology to maintain correct lane and marking alignment. Lane count is also controlled via a single slider. Adding or removing lanes dynamically adjusts the overall width and marking patterns without breaking the underlying mesh continuity. All parameters are exposed in Blender’s Modifiers panel, allowing for live adjustments while modelling.

Workflow and Installation

Installation follows Blender’s current Asset Browser workflow. After extracting the Roads ZIP, users must register the folder in Edit → Preferences → File Paths → Asset Libraries, and set the import method to Link. In a new scene, a basic mesh (such as a plane) can serve as a starting object. Once all but one edge are deleted, dragging a Roads asset from the Asset Browser onto that edge instantiates the setup.

The developer suggests adjusting the Clip Start in the View panel to 1 metre for better visibility of painted lane markings. After setup, new roads are created simply by extruding the object’s vertices. Modifying parameters in the Modifiers panel allows fine-tuning of width, lane count, and material properties in real time.

License, Price, and Distribution

Roads is priced at $10 and distributed under a Royalty-Free licence through Superhive Market. The pluugin was authored in Blender 4.5, tested in Cycles and Eevee, and is classified under the platform’s Modifier Setups category. There is no external dependency, no installation script, and no Python component, which means the asset can be shared or version-controlled within production pipelines without modification.

Use Cases in Production

The tool is positioned for environment artists, level designers, and visualisation professionals who need rapid road layouts without external CAD or terrain plugins. Because geometry remains procedural, layout changes can be made interactively without reimporting or rebuilding the mesh.

However, since the asset enforces planarity, it’s best suited for flat terrains like urban scenes, car commercials, or realtime game prototypes where roads do not require elevation changes. The fully procedural texturing can reduce lookdev overhead, particularly in previs or real-time workflows where consistent UV alignment is required but manual texture painting is impractical.

What It Isn’t

Roads is not a terrain conformer, traffic simulator, or spline-based road network generator. It operates strictly within the Blender modifier system. The description on Superhive does not indicate automatic terrain adaptation or decal projection features. All intersections are handled within the node graph and remain 2D. As of publication, there is no mention of bridges, tunnels, or height-based modifiers. These limitations are inherent to its procedural design and must be considered during layout planning.

Testing Recommended

As with any procedural setup, users should test the modifier within their pipeline before committing to production scenes. Modifier behaviour can vary between Blender subversions, and procedural node setups occasionally differ when linked across projects. The developer’s documentation does not specify backward compatibility or version migration procedures.

Verdict

For ten dollars, Roads provides an elegant, minimalist solution for planar road generation in Blender. Its vertex-based extrusion workflow is immediately intuitive, while its reliance on procedural geometry and materials keeps files lightweight and editable. It won’t replace more advanced road tools that support vertical topology or terrain matching, but for quick previs, layout, or stylised city builds, Roads offers remarkable speed for minimal setup. As always, verify compatibility within your current Blender environment before use in production.

The post Procedural Roads Ahead: Blender Add-on “Roads” Lays Asphalt with Vertices first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

On the one hand, this is due to the growing functional scope of the host programmes, which already offer increasingly powerful functions with or without AI support. On the other hand, a wave of stock footage and template platforms such as envato/Video Hive, which offer unlimited downloads for as little as 15€ per month, has overrun us in an almost inflationary fashion. So why design effects yourself when one click is enough to move almost anything imaginable to your local computer?

However, some manufacturers are still bucking this trend, including the aescripts plugins portal. Aescripts is not so much a manufacturer as a platform where interested users can obtain effects from various companies, usually at very reasonable prices. The company Real Creations from Greece, for example, offers self-made scripts for creating geometric shapes, HUDs and dashboards, among other things. The so-called RealFX Bundle comprises six effects, which can be purchased individually for USD 30 to USD 40 or as a complete package for USD 140. We will take a closer look at the contents of this package in two parts.

circuitFX: PCBs at the touch of a button

It may sound a little surprising, but the circuitFX plug-in creates virtual PCBs. These are not physically or electrotechnically correct construction plans, but rather randomly created designs, either with or without components. The user first creates a composition, selects the size of the desired circuit board, the number of connections, optionally clicks on the insertion of any number of chips, capacitors and resistors, and the circuit board is ready.

Basically, the script only generates shapes and lines that can be found as one element in the comp. Using the effect control, the user can customise the individual elements of the design to their own taste: From the size of the components and the width of the connections to the colouring and size of the end points. If you don’t like the original design, simply click on “Create Circuit” again and a new proposal will be created. As these are, as mentioned, separate layers, you can easily switch back and forth between new designs until you have found the design you want.

To create logos or other visual content, cut-outs and masks are also available, the contents of which can be filled with other elements. Each individual object on the circuit board can be animated via the effect control using keyframes and even distorted with additional filters to simulate interesting illusions such as flowing electricity or the temporal structure of a circuit board.

Conclusion

As with most plug-ins, it is a bit of a mystery as to which applications circuitFX can actually be used for. Until the moment when the script becomes really useful. For USD 30, the plug-in is not too expensive and very easy to use. If the worst comes to the worst, it saves the user the considerable effort of having to build circuit boards using their own moulds.

Real Creations – circuitFX
circuitFX 1.9: 30 Us-Dollars
Host application: After Effects CC
Further information: https://aescripts.com/after-effects/design-tools/circuitfx

mazeFX: mazes with one click

MazeFX works in a very similar way to circuitFX, although it does not generate circuit boards but mazes: You create a comp, select the size of the maze and optionally a null object which follows the path through the maze, and click on “Create Maze”. The script then creates a new shape layer in the sequence, which contains both the walls and a “solution” that you can display and animate to your own taste. The width and roundness of the walls, colours and other options can be defined via the effect settings.

If an optional null object is selected, it can be animated over time using keyframes and any objects can follow the null object through the maze. The maze is also a shape layer, which appears as an independent element in the composition. Clicking on “Create Maze” again and again generates new mazes from which you can select a favourite for further processing.

Conclusion

Once again, the question arises: Have I ever needed a maze in the last few decades? If the answer to this question is “yes”, mazeFX is a cost-effective, recommendable and extremely easy-to-use solution at USD 30.

Real Creations – mazeFX
mazeFX 1.4: 30 US-Dollars
Host application: After Effects CC
Further information: https://aescripts.com/mazefx

quadrateFX: Random rectangles

If you need a more or less random number of rectangles instead of (or in addition to) circuit boards and labyrinths, quadrateFX is the tool of your choice. Similar to mazeFX and circuitFX, quadrateFX consists of a separate window in which you define the basic settings, such as the number of rectangles required, the randomness of the shapes and the distribution of horizontal and vertical elements. Optionally, you can also generate a separate layer for each rectangle, as well as numbers and texts within the rectangles (as separate text elements, as it were). Finally, simply click on “Generate random Quads” and the desired number of rectangles will appear. If you don’t like the first layout, simply press the button again, and again, and again, until the desired effect appears.

The elements generated by quadrateFX are again independent layers in the timeline: The user can choose whether all rectangles are assigned to a layer, or whether each rectangle should be an independent comp element (which definitely gets a bit confusing if you still have text layers added). The great advantage of combining into one layer is the optional settings: Here you can define the distances between the rectangles and the colour of the lines as well as their width and opacity.

A feature that has only been added since the new version 1.5 is the option to use external sources for the colouring of the rectangles. If you select an element from the composition in the “sampled quads” area, quadrateFX analyses the image and creates the rectangles according to the values defined by the user: The more colour differences there are in the image, the more rectangles are generated at this point. Any existing sky is therefore depicted with larger areas, whereas the actual motif appears smaller. The effect of using samples is therefore particularly suitable for transition or reveal effects, for example.

Conclusion

quadrateFX is a simple script that is very quick to learn and only costs USD 30 for the individual version. Anyone who often has to deal with the display of values or is looking for interesting image effects will find quadrateFX a helpful tool. The only disadvantage: Unfortunately, it is not possible to generate rectangles based on figures, for example external tables. If you want to visualise concrete values, quadrateFX also requires a lot of manual work and calculation.

Real Creations – quadrateFX
quadrateFX 1.5: 30 US-Dollars
Host application: After Effects CC
Further information: https://aescripts.com/quadratefx

The post RealFX Part 1: Perfectly formed scripts first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Andreas Zerr.

Ephere has released Ornatrix V9 for 3ds Max. The grooming plugin expands its toolset for hair, fur, and feather creation with direct painting, interactive braiding, clump control, and viewport acceleration. The developer describes this version as “more advanced, yet also more friendly than ever.”

Painting Directly on Hair

The new Brush Textures system allows textures to be painted directly onto strands. This eliminates dependency on external maps for colour or attributes and is particularly useful for stylised or localised looks.

Guide editing also benefits from UI refinements: tool icons have been updated, channels are easier to select, and a new Show Channels Map function improves feedback when sculpting guides.

Braiding and Clump Control

V9 introduces interactive braiding—artists can now create plaits directly in the viewport rather than constructing them manually.

Clump tools gain refinements: clumps are coloured for identification, manipulator accuracy has improved, and hit-testing now considers strand width. A new UI slider for manipulators gives more direct control over strand grouping.

Modifier Enhancements

Several modifiers see targeted upgrades:

• Generate Guide Data now visualises group data and output channels.
• Mesh from Strands supports procedural textures on strand-based meshes, adds “Cap faces” for closed tubes, and improves strand group meshing.
• Merge now includes overlap-resolving blend modes when combining grooms.
• Surface Comb offers curved sinks, expanded transform control (move, rotate, scale), and orientation based on the middle sink.
• Length gains curved extensions.
• Frizz includes a “Scale Randomness” option.
• Warp Roots now allows procedural density changes.
• Adopt External Guides supports dependency assignment, critical for Unreal Engine workflows.
• Ground Strands separates distribution meshes from character meshes.
• Hair from Guides consolidates root-count settings into one map.

New presets—Feather and Hair Ball—join the groom library. Existing presets have improved icons, better node naming, and corrected strand directions.

Alembic and Interoperability

Alembic support has been reworked. The export dialog now uses Qt instead of Win32 and can write strand rotations. Export of the groom_color attribute enables compatibility with Unreal Engine’s Alembic importer.

Viewport and UI

The viewport now runs hair calculations on the GPU, significantly improving interactivity with complex grooms. Volumetric strand shadows are enabled by default with adjustable parameters.

The user interface has also been modernised: Qt dialogs replace older windows, a “reset to defaults” button has been added to settings, and modify-panel icons have been refreshed.

Pricing and Upgrades

• Users who bought Ornatrix V8 within the last six months receive V9 free of charge.
• A 50 % early-bird discount on perpetual licences applies until 1 October 2025. After that date, the discount drops to 25 %.
• Monthly and yearly rentals are available, with rental licence holders upgraded automatically.
• A perpetual license costs 649 USD per User, 5 or more will set you back 628 USD per license, and a site license (21 or more) is 12495 USD.

For Production Use

Ornatrix V9 introduces genuinely new grooming workflows, but artists should verify compatibility and stability in production contexts. The addition of GPU hair, Alembic extensions, and procedural modifiers may require pipeline adjustments. Testing in-house is recommended before deployment.

The post Ornatrix V9 for 3ds Max: Paint, Plait, Perform first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

LumaTouch has released LumaFusion 5.3 for iOS, delivering several workflow improvements as a free update for existing users. Editors can now apply any transition to multiple selected timeline clips by double-tapping in the Library. The Color and Effects Editor consolidates blurs, styles, and distortions into a single control to make room for incoming third-party plugins. A new search function in the presets library allows effects to be located by name.

Timeline handling gains batch addition of head and tail transitions or cross dissolves via the Add Clip Menu, plus a track height adjustment in Preferences. Clip previews can now be set to full fit mode or match the timeline’s fit mode. Creator Pass subscribers receive three additional transition sets: Circular Wipes, Mod Lines, and Anchor Slides.

Plugin API Debuts

The 5.3 release also introduces LumaFusion’s first third-party plugin architecture for iOS. According to LumaTouch, the system is an internal API based on Apple’s CoreImage CIFilter framework, extended to allow advanced capabilities such as custom plugin UIs. Developers can request access to the API, create plugins as CIFilters, and test them in a developer build of LumaFusion before release. LumaTouch confirmed they evaluated OpenFX but chose a customised approach for performance reasons.

First Plugin: PaintX for LumaFusion

The first tool built for the new architecture is PaintX for LumaFusion by CoreMelt. Available immediately as a $19.99 USD in-app purchase, PaintX offers paint-based retouching and effects with integrated planar tracking, based on Mocha. Tasks include painting out unwanted objects, applying tracked colour corrections, digital makeup, warping, and repair. Each effect is tracked with a single tap after drawing the stroke. PaintX is sold directly by CoreMelt.

Platform Availability and Pricing

LumaFusion for iOS and macOS is priced at $29 USD as a one-time purchase. Versions for ChromeOS and Android are available on Google Play and the Samsung Galaxy Store. The Creator Pass subscription, formerly Storyblocks for LumaFusion, costs $9.99/month or $69.99/year and includes speed ramping, enhanced keyframing, 12-track editing, adjustment clips, Multicam Studio, FCPXML export (iOS), and the Storyblocks royalty-free library. Enhanced features can also be purchased individually for $19.99 USD.

Caution for Production Use

As with all new software versions and APIs, professional users should test LumaFusion 5.3 and any third-party plugins within their own pipelines before deployment in active projects.

The post LumaFusion 5.3 Lands on iOS with New Workflow Tools and a Door for Plugins first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.