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.

Nobe OmniScope gets Live Pack for on-set and live monitoring

Well, this exhaustive set of visualisation tools for all kinds of technical parameters in video and audio could always be used for live sources. But until now, any DIT couldn’t get very far if he/she needed to do some real-time grading on a film set or for a live broadcast. Yes, there is Resolve Live, but it’s rather limited. Time in Pixels has recently added the „Live Pack“ to Nobe OmniScope (NOS for short), which integrates with Pomfort’s Livegrade 7, as reported by DP on March 11th. By now, we have driven it through its paces.

Why not Resolve Live?

Even the free version of Davinci Resolve (DR for short) has this feature, which allows some live grading. But it seems a bit like walking into a store and looking for a product that has not been asked for in a while. Some salesperson may say: „Oh, I remember, it must be somewhere in that lowest drawer down in the corner“. Resolve Live is limited to a single input device, even with more than one unit connected you can’t change that. So, for several cameras your (physical) desktop would soon have computers piling up.

And then, you need to set the timeline precisely to the right frame rate and resolution for both timeline and monitoring, i.e. both the input device and the monitoring one must support the same resolution. If not, you won’t see anything, DR will not tell you the parameters of the incoming signal. It’ll just tell you to match whatever there might be. If you want to work in UHD, for example, but monitor your colors on a calibrated screen in HD with a cheaper interface, that won’t happen with Resolve Live. It’s normally not a problem if you don’t use the live feature.

Once you have developed a LUT, save and export it, then move it to your LUT box or camera and load it there. Not really a smooth process in the heat of production, and Blackmagic Design (BM for short) doesn’t seem to care much about adding any features to Resolve Live recently. Nevertheless, NOS can connect to it and deliver the signal to its scopes with very low latency by direct GPU access, and you can feed a Rec. 709 signal, even to monitors which don’t load a LUT, while working on log sources from the DIT cart. Scaling the output for an HD device is easily achieved with NOS. Don’t forget to exit from Resolve Live when done, since most of Resolve’s non-grading features are disabled while it’s running.

Why Pomfort Livegrade?

The whole toolset by Pomfort is a well-establised suite of software for the film and broadcast business, and Livegrade is their solution for real-time grading and look preparation. While it always had its own scopes, they are not as sophisticated and flexible as those in NOS. Livegrade can work with multiple sources, both cameras or references. Live grading for up to 4 cameras can be handled directly, but more than 20 can be controlled by loading LUTs into external LUT boxes, or into some cameras via Ethernet. All of this can be handled right from the software (full details here).

Looks developed here can also be exported as a CDL for dailies or post. Integration with NOS is currently limited to two live slots, but Pomfort is encouraging users to contact them if they need more, so they may be working on extending this number. Quote: „For workflows that require more OmniScope streams, extended configurations can be evaluated on request.“ NOS lists the slots you have prepared just like any other source, while both apps run concurrently. No wiring or additional interfaces needed. So, no extra cost, bad connections or latency introduced, since Direct GPU access is also applied to the signals from Livegrade 7. 

Configuration and Performance

NOS is highly optimized and still running pretty well on older machines. We tried it on a 2017 iMac, which is based on Intel and can’t run any system newer than Ventura (MacOS 13). It can support 2 HD sources and 7 Instruments without fully saturating the GPU, an AMD Radeon Pro 580 (see title). The older interfaces for HD, the UltraStudio Mini Recorder and Monitor, can be found cheaply on the second-hand market and that large screen and its design are still looking good. Maybe you got one waiting for resurrection?

Of course, it’s no match for modern Apple silicon. We tortured a Mac mini M4 Pro with 15 instruments, one source in HD and the other in UHD, and it didn’t break a sweat. GPU load was no more than 60%, most CPU cores were idle, and it used less than 4 GB of RAM. It’s absolutely credible that a Mac mini M2 Pro with 16 GB, as recommended by the author, will be plenty. All of this was tested without scaling or any of the performance options activated, but all the demanding QC features were running. Without all of the latter and some of the performance optimisations, even a Mac mini M1 with 8 GB will do. Nevertheless, you may want a Mac Studio to get more Thunderbolt ports if you need to connect more interfaces. Now, why don’t we mention any PC here, when there is NOS for Windows? (see here for hardware needs).

Well, the other component of today’s review is Mac-only, even Apple Silicon, for that matter. Minimum OS is Sequoia (15) or Tahoe (26). And then, you’ll need the latest Desktop Video driver by BM (15.3.1) for any of their compatible interfaces. There were some reports of installation issues in the forums with recent versions on macOS, but we didn’t experience any of them. It seems that you just have to watch and follow the messages popping up to give the additional components access rights under Apple’s overprotective mother, called an operating system.

All together now …

Once everything is up and running, both apps coexist nicely on our single machine, with Livegrade also just sipping on system resources, both regarding cores and RAM at about 500 MB. Finally, the installer for NOS is quite sleek at not much over 400 MB. The highly flexible and easily configured GUI of NOS can even co-exist nicely with Livegrade on one ultrawide screen like ours. Of course, you can also move the apps to two separate ones. And then, other than by DR, the parameters of incoming signals are detected by either app automatically once you have chosen the interface. You can even get an output in HD from UHD by NOS, so it’s a software issue in DR.

Latency

We measured latency using a 100 fps recording of a TC display, with 50 fps over the whole chain from the lens to the source display in Resolve Live or NOS, so the precision should be +/- 10 milliseconds. After slowing the recording down to 50 fps, we were stepping through the footage and observed the change of the frame numbers. The camera’s LCD was already about 40-50 ms late, but at that point, we don’t know if this is caused by processing in the camera or the display.

Display in Resolve Live was some 80-90 ms late, which includes hardware latency in the DeckLink card, of course. The value via Livegrade was a tad slower, like around 90 ms. The display in NOS via direct GPU access appeared about 10 ms later than in Livegrade, demonstrating the efficiency of that approach. The new focusing aids by coloured or isolated edges felt quite usable, not at all as if wading through molasses, like on systems with too much latency.

Recently Added Features

Support for multiple sources and the helpful Input Strip were already celebrated in DP last year, but now you can also record sources to disk in 720 or 1080 HD, either as H.264 or H.265 in an MP4 wrapper, or the two lighter versions of ProRes in MOV. These recordings are perfect for generating proxies for later editing. Most video speeds are already recorded correctly at constant frame rates; only those pesky fractional rates for the NTSC world are still showing VFR. But the author is aware and working on a fix. Even with 3 recordings running in the background, the GPU load didn’t climb to more than 70%.

New Instruments

There is even a new instrument, the Hectorscope, named after colourist Hector Berrebi. It enables you to examine your shot in 3D, with two dimensions representing the image and the third showing brightness. This is great for checking your shadows for noise or color casts. Loudness metering for the two established broadcast standards in audio, namely EBU R128 and ATSC A/85, is another recent addition. While SDI or HDMI output is already on board, recently the author has added Web Remote output as a very early alpha demo preview. The list of smaller, but nevertheless useful features added would literally fill several pages. Does that guy ever sleep?

Any Shortcomings?

There are only minor issues, like LiveGrade not being able to switch between SDI and HDMI sources. You’ll need to use BM’s Desktop Video Setup to do that, while NOS is handling such tasks in its own GUI. The GUI of Livegrade is less flexible than that of NOS, and it has rather coarse tooltips, whereas those by NOS are very detailed. When disconnecting a source in Livegrade, it’s still not available elsewhere; you’ll need to quit the software first. Both apps recognise and display incoming formats, but you’ll need to switch shortly between sources in Livegrade to see the new values if the source’s parameters have changed. Finally, if you quit only one of the apps and start it again, things can get messed up.

Documentation

Both apps have complete online manuals, including video tutorials. Some of the tutorials for Time in Pixels were made together with Daria Fissoun, who is also a specialist for DaVinci Resolve and explains the use of most of those scopes very well here. And then, the changelog for NOS is excellent, far better than many others; it leaves nothing unclear. If you’d like to dig even deeper, head over to Tektronix and read about the basics and scopes as artistic tools. Their hardware scopes, which used to be expensive marvels of engineering, can be found for a few hundred Euro second-hand now, left far behind by software like NOS. Their learning resources are still valid, though.

Commentary

Nobe OmniScope is getting better with every update and works fine both with LiveGrade and Resolve Live. Unfortunately, while being free, the latter is quite limited and not even really stable. We have experienced stalls when simply trying to add a node while Resolve Live was running.

Livegrade 7 is not cheap at over 1.000 € per year, but it’s stable and does what it promises. You can get a 10-day temporary license for 179,- € if you just need it for a single project.

OTOH, the Live Pack for NOS is a steal at its introductory price of 85,- € if you already own OmniScope Pro, and it’s a lifetime license. After the introduction ends, it is 128 €, which still is cheap for a tool of that magnitude. NOS itself is a subscription, but a fair one: it won’t stop functioning; you just won’t get updates anymore if you stop paying. You can even reactivate your subscription later.

The post Nobe OmniScope is a Live Act now! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Uli Plank.

Digital Production is taking a short end-of-year break. We would happily keep going until the very last calendar page, but the news situation has become impressively sparse and the editorial cat has formally vetoed any further attempts, insisting on a pause. When the cat is right, the cat is right.

Before you disappear into the holidays, one gentle reminder. Back up your data. All of it. And maybe take a moment to sort out the chaos folder. We all have one, were files like “final_really_this_one” quietly acumulate, along notes, software you defintily wanted to test and those meeting notes that were oh-so-important. Cleaning that up may even provide a respectable excuse for postponing visits to THOSE relatives.

Behind the scenes, we are still here. If anything genuinely relevant pops up, we will jump back in. Otherwise, we will see you next year with fresh news, new tools, and the usual mix of things you needed and things you did not know you cared about.

Thank you for reading, supporting Digital Production, and sticking with us through the year. Have a calm end of the year, enjoy the holidays, and see you on the other side.

The post That’s It for This Year: Digital Production Wishes You Happy Holidays first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Text2Spreadsheet, developed by mamoworld and distributed via aescripts, is a utility for Adobe After Effects that exports every text layer in a project into an editable spreadsheet. Users can modify the text in Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers, or any compatible application, and then re-import the changes back into After Effects with a single click. The tool targets common production pain points such as bulk text updates, translation management, and client review cycles.

Feature Overview

The plugin focuses on clarity and minimalism: It generates clean spreadsheets that contain only the text content of a project, without exposing any technical metadata. The export and import functions are operated through simple one-click actions, allowing users to extract all text layers and later apply edited versions without manual relinking.

A core strength of the tool lies in its ability to keep track of text layers even when they are renamed or moved inside the After Effects project. New layers created after export are automatically detected, and existing ones are matched back to their correct positions. This internal mapping enables users to work on the After Effects project in parallel with external text edits.

The spreadsheet itself can contain multiple columns for alternative versions or language variants. This makes it possible to maintain multilingual projects or several client versions within a single document. When re-importing, the user can choose which version to bring back into After Effects.

The plugin is compatible with both CSV and Excel XML formats, supporting UTF-8 encoding and multi-line text without formatting issues. It provides detailed status feedback during import, including colour-coded information to indicate which layers have changed. The interface allows filtering by folder structure and layer names, and duplicate text entries can be excluded automatically to avoid redundant exports.

The developer also highlights compatibility with AI-assisted text editing workflows. Because the exported spreadsheet is clean and free of metadata, users can process it through proofreading or translation tools such as ChatGPT or other machine-translation systems before re-importing the results.

Text2Spreadsheet is listed as compatible with After Effects from version CS4 through the current CC releases, including the 2026 version. Pricing is stated as 29.99 US dollars for a single user licence.

Why it matters …

Motion graphics and post-production projects often include large numbers of text layers like titles, captions, lower thirds, or end cards, that need to be updated repeatedly during production (Insert your own “Groan” here – we all have been there) . Editing them directly in After Effects can be tedious and error-prone, particularly when client feedback or translation is involved. By externalising all text into a spreadsheet, Text2Spreadsheet allows artists and producers to offload text editing to translators, clients, or copywriters who can work in a familiar environment without touching the AE project.

This approach simplifies revision cycles and reduces the risk of transcription errors. When changes are complete, the artist re-imports the spreadsheet and all updates are applied automatically to the correct text layers. Because layer tracking persists through renames and folder movements, the process is more reliable than manual text replacement.

Usability and workflow notes

For projects involving localisation, users can create extra spreadsheet columns for each language. Text2Spreadsheet then imports whichever column is designated as active. Mamoworld suggests combining this tool with its Pins & Boxes plugin, which dynamically adjusts background graphics or layout elements when text lengths changes, useful for multilingual motion-graphics templates.

Production takeaway

For teams handling frequent copy updates, translation rounds, or client text revisions, Text2Spreadsheet is an efficient and inexpensive solution that removes much of the manual overhead of text management in After Effects. It is not a full automation or templating system, but a focused utility designed to make repetitive text work more reliable and less error-prone. As always, any new plugin should be tested in a controlled project before it becomes part of a mission-critical workflow.

The post Text2Spreadsheet bridges AE and spreadsheets with one click first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Cascadeur 2025.3 brings its biggest visual overhaul to date with the introduction of Filament, a physically based rendering engine now integrated into the software’s viewport. Filament supports environment lighting, shadows and ambient occlusion. “Simple Textures” have been replaced by Materials, which now handle colour, roughness and other PBR-style texture channels. FBX imports now bring their material setups directly into Cascadeur scenes.

The Filament renderer is marked experimental and must be installed separately. It is Windows-only at this stage and currently omits certain features such as Ghosts and Linked Scenes. The developer states that full cross-platform integration is planned for later builds.

Smarter Inbetweening

The Inbetweening system (Cascadeur’s AI-assisted interpolation engine – more on that in an interview with the developers coming soon!) has been reworked. It is now treated as a type of interpolation, with its controls relocated to the Interpolation menu on the timeline. The Style option, previously hidden in Scene Settings, can now be accessed directly via a right-click context menu on the timeline. Artists can assign inbetweening selectively to specific animation tracks while using traditional interpolation on others.

The system now updates automatically when keyframes are added or modified, and an Update Inbetweening toggle (enabled by default) manages this behaviour. The Scene Settings panel also introduces an option for Fulcrum Motion Cleaning to refine AI-generated motion. The previous inbetweening method remains available through the Timeline menu for compatibility.

Cascadeur Quadrupeds Join the Cast

Cascadeur now officially supports quadruped characters. AutoPosing recognises four-legged models correctly, and the Quick Rigging Tool gains a Quadruped tab. These updates allow users to pose and rig non-humanoid creatures with less manual adjustment, expanding Cascadeur’s use cases beyond biped animation.

Rigging and Physics Refinements

The Quick Rigging Tool adds a Twists tab for defining twist and untwist bones. Each limb supports two twist joints by default, with additional ones creatable using standard rigging tools. This is especially useful for complex rigs from Daz Studio or Character Creator models. AutoPhysics improves inter-character collision and now includes angle limits for ragdoll joints.

Cascadeur Workflow

A new context menu on the timeline simplifies interpolation and keyframe management. Long animations now perform better, and users can resize animations while retaining keyframes. GLB export has been refined for closer visual parity with FBX. Cameras gain improved parameter control, import options, and copy functionality. Linked Scenes include new visibility, cycle and interval settings. Compatibility issues with 3DConnexion devices have also been addressed (Editorial: Which means a lot, we are still exclusively using our Space Pilot and Cadmouse!)

Outlook

Cascadeur 2025.3 positions Nekki’s animation platform closer to a full production toolset, bridging AI-assisted motion and traditional rigging. While Filament is not yet final, its viewport realism and material system hint at a more visually coherent workflow for animators and TDs. As always, test new features in controlled conditions before deploying them in production environments.

The post Cascadeur 2025.3: Inbetweening De Luxe first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

According to the official Blackmagic Design (Germany) website, several PYXIS and Pocket Cinema Camera models are now significantly discounted, and not by the usual token amount after riasing prices (I see you, cat-toy-manufacturers!). The company’s German store currently lists the Blackmagic PYXIS 6K and the PYXIS 6K EF, both reduced from 3 089 € to 2 165 €, while the PYXIS 6K PL drops from 3 279 € to 2 300 €. These prices include VAT.

The Pocket Cinema Camera 6K G2, the 6K Pro and the Cinema Camera 6K also receive a 25 percent reduction. So, from 2675 € down to 2010€. The Blackmagic PYXIS Monitor range receives a smaller but still notable discount. The base monitor, the Monitor Kit and the Monitor EVF Kit are all down by 20 percent. The official banner labels every promotion as “Begrenzt verfügbar” (limited availability) and no end date is given.

Who this matters for

A 30 percent reduction on full-frame 6K cameras brings the PYXIS 6K EF and PL models into the low-two-thousand-euro bracket, a price point rarely seen in this segment. The promotion lowers the entry barrier for cinematographers moving up from mirrorless systems or small-format video cameras, and makes it easier for small studios to standardise on a 6K workflow without crossing into high-end rental territory.

For mobile operators, the Pocket 6K G2 and 6K Pro remain attractive for lightweight production and second-unit work, offering internal BRAW recording and colour science that integrates smoothly into DaVinci Resolve pipelines. At current pricing, the cost-to-performance ratio is difficult to criticise.

Check before you click

The promotion appears genuine and active across Europe, though stock levels are not specified and availability may differ by region. Prices on the German site include VAT, but delivery charges and import duties can still apply within the EU. Not every configuration or lens mount is discounted; buyers should confirm the mount type (EF, PL or L-Mount) before ordering. It is also worth verifying firmware compatibility and accessory fit if the camera will join an existing rig. As with any newly purchased production hardware, thorough testing before live use remains essential.

A rare exception

Digital Production does not usually cover seasonal shopping events. But when a company called Blackmagic runs an actual Black Friday promotion, the pun alone justifies a short mention and the discounts happen to be serious.

The post Black Friday Turns Blackmagic: 30% Off Cinema Gear first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Luxion has released KeyShot Studio 2025.3, the latest version of its CPU- and GPU-based visualisation and rendering tool. Formerly known simply as KeyShot, the application has been rebranded as KeyShot Studio, now forming part of Luxion’s wider product design-to-market suite alongside KeyShot Dock, its digital asset management system.

While still heavily used for product design and technical visualisation, KeyShot remains a go-to tool for artists seeking quick, photorealistic renders of CAD or DCC geometry. The 2025.3 update focuses on pipeline connectivity, compositing control, and AI-assisted creative workflows.

Cryptomatte and OpenPBR join the party

Two of the release’s headline features, Cryptomatte and OpenPBR, both target interoperability between visualisation and postproduction pipelines. Cryptomatte, an open-source matte ID system widely used in VFX compositing, allows KeyShot renders to carry per-object or per-material ID information directly into postproduction tools such as After Effects or Nuke. Artists can now isolate parts of an image or animation for colour correction or retouching with precision. According to Luxion’s demo, Cryptomatte support extends to both stills and animations, with EXR output formats supported.

OpenPBR, the emerging open standard for physically based materials, is now supported within KeyShot’s importer and plugin ecosystem. Users can import glTF and .glb files, including those originating from Blender or Rhino, while preserving original material parameters. This allows consistent material behaviour across applications and enables direct use of third-party texture resources such as Polyhaven’s PBR libraries.

OpenPBR in action

In Luxion’s demo workflow, OpenPBR materials were imported directly from glTF files and applied via simple Shift-click operations within the KeyShot viewport. Material scaling and UV adjustments can be performed interactively, with full control over reflectance and surface detail. The feature integrates tightly with KeyShot’s Material Graph, ensuring imported PBR assets behave predictably, without requiring manual node rebuilds. This brings KeyShot closer to real-time tools in interoperability, particularly for artists switching between DCCs and renderers.

AI Shots: now useful for labels and backdrops

AI Shots, introduced in KeyShot 2025.2, continues to evolve. The tool uses text prompts to generate concept imagery directly inside KeyShot’s UI. In version 2025.3, the interface gains better session management: all previous AI generations are now listed in a panel for easy retrieval. In practice, AI Shots can be used to generate quick placeholder textures or mockups, such as label artwork for packaging visualisation. The prompt-based system benefits from highly specific inputs, and output quality depends heavily on GPU performance. The demo showcased AI-generated label textures applied to a product bottle, later refined through mapping adjustments. AI Shots can also generate backgrounds or scene backplates, providing context imagery for product renders without leaving the application. Generated images can be saved, reused, or dragged directly into the render environment.

Material Graph: freer navigation, finer control

The Material Graph interface has gained several usability upgrades. The workspace can now be freely repositioned and zoomed relative to the cursor, significantly improving navigation in complex node trees. Two new options, Show Grid and Snap to Grid, help organise node layouts, and the window can now be docked within KeyShot’s main UI. These quality-of-life improvements make the graph feel more integrated and less like an external editor. The demo also highlighted quick-search functionality using the Q shortcut to insert nodes such as Color Adjust between existing connections. These incremental enhancements make procedural texturing workflows smoother, especially when handling imported OpenPBR networks.

Custom pivots and grouping hotkeys

Modelling-origin pivot points have long been a nuisance for KeyShot users importing CAD data. The new Custom Pivot feature solves that by letting users redefine pivot points directly within KeyShot. Pivot placement can be defined via three modes (Cylinder, Corner, Sphere), allowing accurate local rotation and animation without returning to the source application. This helps particularly with mechanical assemblies and jointed geometry. Grouping has also been simplified: artists can now use Ctrl+G to group selected components within the scene tree, mirroring conventions from DCC applications. The feature speeds up model organisation before applying custom pivots or animation transforms.

Lighting updates: precision and control

Lighting setup in KeyShot 2025.3 benefits from several new controls and refinements. The Orbit Mode for lights now includes a Lock Axis option, enabling constrained rotations for symmetrical lighting setups. Light Layers, introduced previously, are showcased here for more granular lighting management. Artists can assign lights to specific scene elements—such as bottle, pump, or label—and toggle visibility or colour temperature per layer. This is particularly valuable for rendering passes or creating attention-focused compositions. Light intensity can be adjusted directly in the viewport using Ctrl+Shift+Mouse Wheel, and highlights can be repositioned interactively by clicking in highlight mode.

Integration and availability

KeyShot Studio 2025.3 supports Windows 10+ and macOS 11.7+. Integration plugins are available for major DCC and CAD tools including 3ds Max, Blender, Cinema 4D, Maya, SketchUp, PTC Creo, SolidWorks, CATIA, and Siemens NX. The software remains rental-only, priced at $1,299/year, an increase of $111 over the previous version.

Stability before artistry

As always, users should test new features thoroughly before committing them to production workflows. While new standards like OpenPBR promise smoother interoperability, stability and output consistency remain the deciding factors in professional rendering pipelines.

The post KeyShot Studio 2025.3: Cryptomatte, OpenPBR, and a Real Pivot first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Most of us may have perceived the colorimeters by Datacolor as rather photo and print oriented. Now, that even Digital Production doesn’t come on paper anymore, they have changed directions too. And then, the first few generations didn’t earn themselves the best reputation, due to sample variation and organic color filters, which tend to fade faster.

The recent Spyders, still in their iconic three-pronged shape, should be better. We have been assured that the filter colors are anorganic now (no, we didn’t take one apart). The software got a long expected overhaul and should serve the world of film or video much better now. Of course, we’ll also compare precision with a competitor.

SpyderPro Hardware

The shell is sturdy, and the lens and sensor assembly is well protected by the counterweight. At first touch it feels like being held magnetically, but at closer inspection there are two small latches hooking into the other side. Whatever, it does its job and doesn’t fall apart in your bag. The connector is USB-C, but the unit comes with an adpter for ‚classic‘ USB-A. That’s no problem at all, the speed of the connection doesn’t matter that much. Datacolor suggests to plug it straight into your computer, though, no hub.

The only reason for some concern is the cable, which is rather thin. It might get damaged if bent in a bag or if you need to slide the counterweight too frequently when adapting to different screen sizes. The main competition by Calibrite isn’t doing any better in this respect, their clamp may even stress the equally thin cable a bit more. Just be gentle with these.

SpyderPro Software

The calibration software is very easy to operate, in simple steps from left to right. You just need to know the backlight technology of your screen and your intended target. The biggest strength is flexibility: you can handle all current technologies, from pretty old CCFL all the way to OLED and QD-OLED. If you are not sure about your screen, check here. Maximum brightness should be no issue either. The top model, the SpyderPro, can measure up to a value we’d rather not like to look at without sunglasses: 12.000 nits. 

Datacolor tends to separate models only by software now, but there still are some important differences. The older SpyderX and SpyderX2 need a paid upgrade by software, but will only measure up to 1.200 nits, just like the SpyderExpress. Last years Spyder can handle 3.000, which should suffice for any current screen. Only the SpyderPro goes all the way to those blazing 12.000. Full support of recent display technologies is available for Spyder & SpyderPro, SpyderExpress is limited to Apple Retina XDR.

The software update is free for the SpyderExpress, last year’s Spyder and the current SpyderPro. Under MacOS it’ll run on Big Sur and higher, including Tahoe. Of course, there’s a version for Windows too, but none for Linux. Well, if you know your ways around Linux, you may know how to copy and install an ICC profile, don’t you?

Look Up Tables

Apart from generating ICC profiles for your computer, you can finally export .cube 3D LUTs in several steps of precision up to 65. Those can be loaded into LUT boxes or any kind of interface supporting the option, like some SDI converters. Please note that the cheapest model by BlackMagic, the 3G SDI to HDMI for 65,- US$, will only load a lattice of 17. The 12G models, from 165,- US$ unidirectional, will support the 33 point version. This is a great option to calibrate TVs or projectors without any internal calibration capabilities and HDMI inputs only, to be used with SDI sources.

SpyderPro can calibrate and match more than one screen connected. But don’t try to move the window to the next one by yourself, the software will take care of it. You can even generate more than one profile for different lighting conditions, which will be switched automatically if the Spyder stays connected. Helpful for those working from their living rooms, but a true professional would care for a grading room with constant lighting and, most of all, no changes of color temperature.

The software can collaborate with the Datacolor LightColor Meter (see our test). But don’t expect too much: you can take up to three measurements in different locations on your desk and just feed them to the software by hand. Only brightness, no white balance, and every other source of the current Lux value will also do. Not something to brag too much about.

A more helpful menu item is installed with SpyderPro, called SpyderUtility. It will monitor the light level of your environment, if a Spyder is connected and check if the date for your next calibration is due, and inform you accordingly. Its detailed profile information and management can be very helpful, since ICC profiles are usually buried deep in your system folders. Any of those can be activated here, and also renamed or deleted if they were made by you (but not by Apple or Adobe). You can even export a 3D LUT from any of these, albeit only in the most frequently used 33 points lattice. 

Minor issues

Watch out if you have a MacBook with the infamous camera notch and already too many menu icons, SpyderUtility may be hidden and can’t be accessed by opening it directly from the Datacolor folder. A mildly irritating issue is the measurement of the monitor’s brightness during calibration. While the maximum brightness is asked for by a message in the center of the screen, the next message for getting close to the target brightness is displayed in the lower left, where it may not immediately be noticed. If you have an ultrawide, like one of our test screens, you may wonder why your calibration doesn’t continue!

If you call the Monitor Quality Analysis (Spyder MQA) without first using the calibration software, it will ask for the sensor, even if connected. You need to start SpyderPro first, but may be surprised that there’s no SpyderPro listed in the preferences. No problem, choose Spyder, and MQA is going to work.

Precision

If you want to evaluate your screen, there are several test procedures integrated under Spyder MQA, a separate software also installed by the main installer. But after the first round we were irritated by the results for color accuracy: How could it be that our calibration should be worse than the uncalibrated screen for some patches?  

Now, the choice of color patches looks pretty much photo or print oriented, while some tables used by DisplayCal are optimized for video (there are tons of choices). DisplayCal will not work with the Spyder, but isn’t it quite interesting to cross-check with the competition? So, we made one profile with the SpyderPro and its software, and one with DisplayCal and an X-Rite colorimeter. This time we got consistent results from the highly detailed verification in DisplayCal, both calibrations were quite close and perfectly usable.

Even our cheapest screen performed surprisingly well, only the darkest values were slightly above a ΔE* of 3, while most lighter values were close to or even under 2. This monitor is advertised for gamers, so video professionals may not even pay attention to the Xiaomi Curved Gaming Monitor G34WQi. Don’t worry, you can deactivate the fancy colored light on the back, so it won’t attract any insects ;-)

Some weaknesses in the darkest values are expected behaviour of LCD panels, and nevertheless a pretty impressive result for an ultrawide monitor under 250,- €. Such a screen should suffice for Rec. 709 after calibration. At least, as long as you are not working for extremely demanding clients. Clients should also not be looking over your shoulder – this is a VA screen, which has a limited viewing angle.

Those watching your results on mobile devices under less than ideal lighting won’t notice any deviation of colors in those darkest shades anyway. Of course, you can expect even better results if you need to re-calibrate a screen like this one, which is looking good not only when switched off (not saying the Xiaomi looks bad). Its factory calibration is just as good, but any screen ages and will need re-calibration sooner or later. Being a QD-OLED, this might be sooner after daily use, but you’ll get perfect blacks and dark values.

What about HDR?

The Asus QD-OLED linked above can go to some pretty serious 1.000 nits peak. Can the SpyderPro calibrate for HDR? Well, of course you can find a preset for Rec. 2020 in the software. But measuring the maximum brightness or contrast range is not an easy task. No screen for HDR can show the peak brightness for the whole screen longer than a split second, not even far more expensive ones. Trying to get around this with any hack can kill your screen, however pricey it was.

The problem for any calibration, not only SpyderPro: manufacturers have their own limits for the size of maximum highlights and adapt the brightness dynamically. If you can switch the screen to an uniform brightness mode, which is needed for calibration, that Asus for example has only 250 nits. That’s not more than most other modern screens. For the Xiaomi monitor described we measured precisely 259. Some expensive monitors offer considerably more brightness in a static mode and can be calibrated just fine by SpyderPro.

In the end, what really matters are the correct colors for the whole image. Small, but very bright areas may be a bit off, but don’t ruin the overall impression. What matters for HDR is a screen that understands those HDR standards, like Dolby Vision, HDR10, and HLG, and switches accordingly. If SpyderPro tells you that your screen is only covering 68% of Rec. 2020, that’s already a decent value, the best one we found during this review was the MacBook Pro, which covered 72%. For further explanations of Rec. 2020 read here.

And what about BlackMagic I/O devices? In our older three articles, starting here, we have described how important it is to calibrate over the whole chain, with software like DisplayCal (free). This is not yet supported by Datacolor’s software. With the recent changes in handling of profiles and tags in DaVinci Resolve 20.2.3 on MacOS, this may not necessarily be needed any more. We’ll check that very soon.

Conclusion

Both probes and their software performed equally well, so we have a choice now for video production in this price range, including screens with recent technologies and very high brightness. Datacolor is now even ahead of the game by direct export of LUTs, for which a Calibrite probe will need third-party software. Both are measuring much faster than DisplayCal, which is freeware and rather scientific in its approach. Finally, we were impressed how good a cheap monitor can be these days, at least for SDR and those producing for social media.

Color Monitoring for Cheapskates?Part 1

Colour Monitoring for Cheapskates! Part 2

Calibration for less – Part 3

The post Crawly for Videoscreens: SpyderPro first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Uli Plank.

The 2026 edition of Sapphire refines Boris FX’s long-standing effects suite with new filmic textures, advanced transitions and workflow improvements. The focus: creative control with physical authenticity. Let’s go throug the new tools!

FilmBurn: The analogue heartbeat

The new S_FilmBurn effect reconstructs the look of “over”non-traditionally”-exposed film using high-resolution scans of damaged celluloid. Instead of overlaying stock footage, the plugin generates procedural flashes, flares, and edge burns entirely within Sapphire.

Artists can combine multiple light bursts, tune flicker frequency, and shape each flash’s hue and softness. Additional modules replicate scratches, dust, grain, hairs, leader markings and sprocket edges. Each component is independently keyframeable and blendable via combine modes such as Add or Overlay.

Presets like Silver Halide or Sepia Sulfide emulate specific chemical film responses, while the FilmBurn Transition version extends the look into motion edits, replacing hard cuts with organic light wipes. The effect is available across all major Sapphire hosts.

MochaWhip: Motion with precision

MochaWhip Transition fuses Mocha’s AI-based masking with Sapphire’s Whiplash engine to deliver tracked, subject-aware whip edits. Foreground and background motion can be driven separately, allowing smooth hand-offs between clips. The transition suits fast-cut sequences and stylised energy transitions, integrating directly into the host without pre-compositing. And, you know, Mochas excellent Mask ML.

Pro Lens Flares: Eight new optical models

Sapphire 2026 adds eight handcrafted flares based on real cinematic lenses. The collection includes strong anamorphic streaks, diffused bloom effects and chromatic internal reflections. Each preset maintains physically-plausible flare fall-off and spectral behaviour, designed for both realism and stylised grading work. Use those as a ready preset, or change them to your needs.

Grunge Stamps: Real-world texture capture

The S_Grunge module expands with new scanned materials: oil paint, chalk, ink, sponge and other tactile surfaces. These high-resolution “stamps” supply a physical texture base for titles, motion graphics and surface distress work.

Effect Builder: Easier visual logic

The Effect Builder receives one of its most practical updates yet. Parameter links, the connections driving relationships between nodes, are now visually displayed. Lines appear between linked parameters, colour-coded to indicate driver and driven nodes. Hovering reveals contextual data about what controls what. This seemingly minor change significantly improves readability for complex, multi-node setups.

The Builder also consolidates preset browsing across all Sapphire effects. Users can search, tag and favourite looks globally, or isolate only those marked “new” for the 2026 release. Presets can be edited or rebuilt from scratch, then shared seamlessly between hosts. Parameters exposed in one application remain intact in another, enabling consistent pipelines across Avid, Adobe and Resolve environments. Combined with the new visible linking, this cross-host portability makes custom effect design more transparent and maintainable.

Builder presets and advanced nodes

New “Advanced Presets” demonstrate complex node combinations, using FilmBurn, DuoTone, and Hue-Saturation stacks as modular examples. Each preset exposes only the most relevant host parameters, reducing clutter for editors while maintaining full Builder control.

The improved Builder enables rapid prototyping: layer nodes, link parameters, and adjust controls visible to the host, then export the preset for facility-wide use.

Workflow considerations

The new film-scanned effects and multi-layer composites may increase GPU load. Tests should confirm playback and render speed on specific hosts. For predictable results in colour-managed pipelines (ACES/OCIO), users should verify how FilmBurn and Grunge interact with graded footage.

Availabilty and Pricing

Sapphire 2026 supports Adobe After Effects, Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer and everything compatible with OFX-Plugin-Connections. The update runs on both macOS and Windows, with native support for Apple Silicon and modern NVIDIA/AMD GPUs.

Licensing remains subscription-based OR perpetual. As of publication, a new annual licence for Sapphire (Multi-Host) starts at 125€ per Moth, going down to 40€ a month anually, and perpetual licences from 2720. Existing users with subscriptions obviously receive the 2026 update at no additional cost. A free, fully functional trial of Sapphire 2026 is available via borisfx.com/free-trial.

The post Sapphire 2026: Film Burns, Whip Cuts & Builder Love first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

If you’ve been using Blender for years, brushing through 2.x and 4.x versions and checking for that “next big thing”, here it is. The Blender Foundation today published Blender 5.0, marking not just a point-update but a clearly defined production ready milestone. Find the official announcement here: https://www.blender.org/press/blender-5-0-release/

Blender 5.0 introduces full support for the ACES workflow (Academy Colour Encoding System), enabling a more accurate and unified colour management system across pipelines. The release also brings HDR (High Dynamic Range) support, allowing for consistent high-fidelity colour reproduction on modern displays and rendering workflows.

Handling of large-scale geometry has been improved significantly. The software can now manage much larger .blend files and assets containing millions of vertices without becoming unstable or unresponsive. This directly benefits studios handling detailed scans, simulation caches, or complex game-ready environments.

Rendering also receives notable refinements. There are new passes such as the Render Time Pass and Portal Depth Light Pass, and the OptiX Denoiser (for NVIDIA GPUs) now produces cleaner and more stable results, improving overall render efficiency. The UI and workflow have been tightened up as well. Drag-and-drop now feels smoother, the Outliner behaves more predictably, and widget styles have been unified for better readability. The Video Sequencer gains a useful improvement: using Shift + A now places a new strip directly under the mouse cursor, a small but meaningful quality-of-life fix for editors.

One caveat: Blender 5.0 introduces breaking changes that affect file compatibility. Projects saved in version 5.0 may not open properly in earlier 4.x versions. This should be considered before committing ongoing production work to the new version.

Grease Pencil

In Blender 5.0 the Grease Pencil toolset receives a new “Pen” tool in Edit Mode, which behaves similarly to the legacy curves pen tool, allowing more direct stroke-editing of Grease Pencil generated geometry. In addition, changes such as improved cyclic-stroke handling (start and end segments now connect without overlaps or gaps) are documented, improving reliability for looped 2D/3D hybrid animations.

Compositing

The compositor in Blender 5.0 sees enhancements aimed at more efficient node-based workflows. For instance, new nodes like Chromatic Aberration (simulating lens fringing) and Sensor Noise have been added. Also worth noting: the addition of an Asset Shelf in the node editor enables reuse of node groups across files, facilitating more modular compositing setups.

Geometry Nodes

Blender 5.0 significantly expands the capabilities of the Geometry Nodes system. A new volume grid data type is supported, enabling volumetric workflows in procedural layouts (via OpenVDB grids) rather than converting to mesh forms. It also introduces SDF-Grid Laplacian and SDF-Grid Median nodes to process signed distance fields for curvature flow and noise reduction within SDF data sets.

Cycles

The rendering engine Cycles in Blender 5.0 receives updates such as a new default volume rendering algorithm based on “null scattering” which reduces artefacts in overlapping volumes and simplifies parameter tuning. cSupport for thin-film iridescence in the Metallic BSDF shader and improvements in subsurface scattering (SSS) via the Random Walk model are also included.

Video Editing (Sequencer)

In the Video Sequencer module of Blender 5.0 there is now the ability to apply compositing node trees directly inside the Sequencer via a ‘Compositor modifier’, allowing editors and motion-graphics artists to work within a unified timeline rather than switching contexts. General timeline behaviour improvements and UI refinements accompany this feature, though documentation of major new video-editing specific nodes remains minimal.

Production Tips & Caveats

For anyone planning to introduce Blender 5.0 into a studio or pipeline environment, caution and preparation remain essential. It is strongly recommended to first test 5.0 on non-critical projects to assess stability and compatibility with existing tools. Large pipelines have complex dependencies, and even minor version changes can lead to unexpected issues in rendering, scripting, or I/O.

Before migrating, verify that essential add-ons and Python scripts are compatible with the new version. Major releases often introduce API changes that can break automation tools or extensions. Keeping a parallel installation of the previous stable version (such as 4.5 LTS) ensures that ongoing projects remain safe while the team evaluates the upgrade. While the release notes provide strong technical documentation, it has not been independently verified at press time how stable every new feature performs under heavy production workloads. Testing before adoption in live projects is essential.

Final Thoughts

After years of steady iteration, Blender 5.0 feels like a landmark release. It brings the open-source 3D suite closer to the needs of real production environments, not through flashy gimmicks but through practical improvements: robust colour workflows, more reliable geometry handling, and thoughtful interface refinements.

For anyone who has been with Blender since the endless 2.x days, this version might be the moment it finally explodes. If your pipeline can handle a test migration, now is a good time to download, install, and see what Blender 5.0 can actually do for your studio.

Blender 5.0 Beta!

Blender 4.5 LTS lands

Blender 5.0 hits release candidate!

Blender user survey 2025 – time to tell the team what you really think

The post Blender 5.0 – it’s here! first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

World VFX Day has announced its first round of speakers for the 2025 edition, broadcasting live on 8 December. Founded in 2023 by Hayley Miller, the annual event has quickly become a fixture for VFX and animation professionals worldwide, part celebration, part industry summit, and completely free to attend.

This year’s 12-hour livestream will once again originate from London – the hybrid format allows both in-person and online participation, connecting artists and studios across time zones in one continuous global broadcast.

A Strong Start to the Speaker Line-Up

The 2025 roster reads like a who’s who of modern visual effects. Denis Baudin, Genevieve Camilleri, and Aidan Martin from WētāFX open the programme with the VFX & Animation Supervisor Roundtable, an insider discussion on creative direction and team leadership at the highest level.

ILM’s compositing veteran Todd Vaziri joins Valentina Sgro for “VFX: Hollywood’s Underdog”, tackling the question of how visual effects are perceived and valued within major studio production pipelines.

Leadership takes the spotlight in a fireside chat with David Li (Dream Machine FX, ILP, FIN Design, Arc Creative, Zero VFX, Mavericks VFX) and William Sargent (Framestore). The conversation will focus on running studios across continents while keeping both creative integrity and artist wellbeing intact.

The panel “VFX Innovation” brings together Michael Ralla (Warner Bros.), Johnny Han (HBO), Christina Caspers (Trixter & Cinesite), Kevin Baillie (Eyeline Studios), and Christine Resch (Adobe), in association with the Visual Effects Society (VES) and the View Conference, to examine current technology shifts and production trends.

In “An Inside Look at the Future of VFX,” Alana Newell, Clare Cheetham, Jonathan Cheetham and Jasper Kidd of Crafty Apes London share their perspective on studio growth, creative collaboration, and adapting to the evolving demands of modern production.

ILM’s Delcio Gomes presents “When 85 Artists Unite,” a case study developed with Chaos Group that highlights collective creativity and technical problem-solving under production pressure.

Marcus Ryder MBE will mark “100 Years of Supporting the Film & TV Industry,” and the Leadership Roundtable will feature Laurens Ehrmann (The Yard VFX), Brian Carbin (Stone Dogs), Lucy Cooper (Union VFX), and Vikas Gandhi (Gelaro Grace), exploring what it takes to guide independent studios in today’s competitive landscape.

Additional speakers and sessions are expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

A Platform for Collaboration and Change

According to founder Hayley Miller, the mission of World VFX Day is to “elevate our industry in the eyes of the wider world” while sparking collaboration, new ideas, and shared growth. The emphasis this year continues to be on diversity, inclusivity, and the long-term sustainability of VFX as both a craft and a business.

Since its first edition, World VFX Day has reached more than forty thousand viewers, with the support of over four hundred sixty studios and one hundred fifty speakers. The initiative extends beyond the annual livestream through its “Connects” meet-up series and participation in major industry conferences.

Honouring the Origins of VFX

World VFX Day takes place every 8 December in honour of Georges Méliès, regarded as the grandfather of visual effects. The date serves as both a tribute and a forward-looking platform for discussing the art, craft, and evolving role of VFX within film, television, and games.

The post World VFX Day 2025: Global Line-Up Revealed first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

With The Conjuring: Last Rites crossing the $500M mark to become the highest-grossing horror film of 2025, Digital Domain stood at the heart of the film’s supernatural terror. Under the supervision of Alex Millet, the studio delivered 425 shots ranging from invisible fixes to hero sequences: Annabelle’s monstrous transformation into a 12-foot stalker, Abigail Arnold’s unnerving smile, the haunted mirror’s shattering hallway nightmare, and an entire Pennsylvania mill town built in CG. Armed with Houdini, Nuke, Maya, Solaris, Photoshop, and V-Ray, the team balanced photorealism with dread, crafting visuals that were frighteningly real without ever slipping into camp. We sat down with Millet to discuss scope, artistry, and the technical pipelines behind conjuring digital horror.

Meet Alex Millet (IMDB | Linkedin), a familiar face in the world of visual effects and someone whose résumé reads like a tour through modern cinema. Currently Visual Effects Supervisor at Digital Domain, Alex began his career as a lighting and look-development artist, later moving through roles as CG Supervisor, Sequence Supervisor and DFX Supervisor.

His filmography spans some of the most recognisable titles in contemporary filmmaking, including The Dark Knight Rises, Inception, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and The Electric State. Each project sharpened his eye for realism and storytelling through light, texture and composition, preparing him for his latest haunting venture with The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025).

DP: Alex, can you start by outlining the scope of Digital Domain’s work on The Conjuring: Last Rites?

Alex Millet: The major effects were the Smurl street environment, the hallway destruction and the Annabelle doll sequence. Combined, these represented a little over half of the scope. On top of these, we also had a very complex ceiling replacement in the mirror room, a CG dog, some fire enhancement and along with many other invisible effects such as glasses reflections, TV insert, background replacement, etc. The team grew up to about 150 artists, and production lasted about 8 months. 

DP: Which sequences do you personally consider the centerpiece of your team’s work, and why?

Alex Millet: The Smurl environment was a big part of our scope. We recreated the entire street surrounding the Smurls’ house and the looming factory. The environment was seen in multiple sequences at different times of day, each with different lighting and “life” in the neighbourhood. The hallway destruction was another big challenge because of all the destruction that we had to create. And, of course, Annabelle being so iconic, the sequence where she comes to life was an important one.

DP: Horror relies on timing and subtlety. How did you collaborate with the director and editorial team to ensure the VFX didn’t overwhelm, but instead amplified the tension?

Alex Millet:Scott Edelstein was the VFX Supervisor on the production side and our main link with the director, Michael Chaves. Working with Scott and Michael was amazing; they were open to ideas and understood what was possible, which made it feel very collaborative.

The goal for us is always for our effect to disappear and blend with the on-set photography to complement the look and feeling the director created. We match every detail as closely as we can; down to the subtle amount of wind in the atmosphere. The production team did a great job anticipating our needs while shooting, which made it a lot easier to integrate our image and keep our effect non-distracting.

DP: The Annabelle transformation is one of the film’s signature moments. What were the creative conversations around taking an iconic prop and making it terrifying at a larger-than-life scale?

Alex Millet:We started by building a CG version of the original doll, then turned it into the 12-foot version. As the giant version came to life in the hallway, the iterative process began. The 12-foot version of Annabelle went through a few rounds of redesign to become the scary character that the director wanted to see. Once the new look was found, we received a concept and started rebuilding our asset and worked on a new post viz. Annabelle needed to look determined and threatening as she came out of the room, yet not totally in control of her body.

As the animation team took over, some aspects they focused on were Annabelle’s silhouette, matching some of the poses established during the concept phase, and the transformation. The transformation needed to feel abrupt, painful, and scary. We scaled different limbs at different times across the cut while working very closely with our CFX team to make sure the jerky motion did not break the dress simulation or make it distracting. The lighting also played a key role in the scare, keeping things dark yet revealing just enough to feel Annabelle’s presence, until the final jump scare with the flashlight.

DP: Abigail Arnold’s smile is disturbingly subtle. How much back-and-forth was involved in refining something so specific, yet so essential to the character’s menace?

Alex Millet: We were lucky that the Director, Michael Chaves, is quite VFX-savvy, and provided us with a concept of the look and smile he wanted Abigail to have. The goal was to match his concept and bring her to life. We started with recreating the concept for different lighting scenarios, then developed a range of smile variations, ranging from neutral to wide extended smiles. The director was then able to select the right performance and the range of the smile that worked for the shots.

A lot of the subtlety is in everything around the smile. The mouth only moves so much, but the way the cheeks, nostrils, eyelids or even eyebrows, compress and deform, all contribute to the realism and expression. Once we had selected range we refined the motion further, and the compositing team integrated the new face into the shot. We used this process for different shots, all in different lighting environments.

DP: Horror effects can easily cross the line into unintentional comedy, the dreaded “absurdist 80s VHS fail.” How do you dial a CG effect into the sweet spot where it reads as horrifying, not parody?

Alex Millet: Here again, blending into the tone and vision established by the practical photography is always the most important for the effects. Our goal is always to make sure the VFX are as seamless as possible, and not distracting.

Other than matching the look, lighting and ambience of what was done on set, that also means making sure that any animation does not go over the top, and breaks the tension. The Abigail smile was a great example, we could get a much wider range for a smile but instead, the more subtle ones, and in some cases barely moving at all, kept her looking disturbing.

DP: Any tips for your peers on how to land that “maximum horror” effect faster in iteration, instead of burning weeks on trial and error?

Alex Millet: Hiding things is often a lot scarier than trying to explicitly create something scary. As VFX artists, we’re very analytical of our images and want to see every detail to make sure it’s perfect, but in this case, we needed to hide part of the image and let things fall into darkness. We’re still just as concerned with every detail; it’s more of an extra step: now that we know how it looks, what does it look like way darker? What parts are gone, and which ones are left. We, then, let the audience fill in the blanks.

DP: You’ve mentioned the Pennsylvania mill town environment. Can you walk us through how the team extended sets into a fully believable small town, while keeping continuity across day and night shots?

Alex Millet: We knew we were going to see the street in many different shots, angles and lighting scenarios; we just didn’t know what these were going to be until the edit stabilized. So it started with concept work, then committed pretty early on to building the entire street as a fully renderable CG asset.

We started with a rough 3D layout of the neighbourhood, then focused on the street the Smurls’ house was on. We built the houses in a modular way, like Lego blocks, and split them between the different floors and roofs, so we could easily swap the different pieces and create a lot of variations. This allowed us to start working on our assets to a high level of detail early on, and also prevented having to redo work if, for example, Scott or Michael wanted to move a particular house, or change the roof on another.

Once the VFX sup & director were happy with the look in some early development shots, we worked on the different lighting environments and added life with props, cars, atmosphere, etc. So having the street fully built made it easy to maintain continuity across the shots, or break it if we wanted to do so for creative reasons. Around the CG street, we used 2.5D, mixing matte painting with supporting geometry for the factory and background, and lastly, the far background and sky were 2D matte painting.

DP: Beyond the big hero moments, you delivered a large volume of invisible effects, reflections, vehicles, ceiling replacements. What kind of pipeline ensures consistency across such a wide range of tasks?

Alex Millet: Having a scalable pipeline is key. Many individual effects were only for a few shots, while others, like the Smurl street or the hallway destruction, spanned over 100+ shots. Having a single but scalable pipeline allows us to be nimble and iterate quickly to get started, but then scale up to handle any volume of shots. If things change, it also prevents us from having to go back and build things differently or with a different approach.

DP: Let’s talk specifically about the mirror sequence. How did you design your glass-break pipeline for that scene?

Alex Millet: We had to create the shattering glass in the hallway sequence as well as the crack that’s on the mirror throughout the movie. Glass is really unforgiving in the sense that it needs to be fully built for all the reflections and refractions to behave correctly; there is no shortcut. Our asset team built a CG version of the mirror first, ensuring the glass layer had the correct thickness and reflection behaviour.

Then for the shattering, the FX team fractured the glass with an evolving crack. Fracture simulations don’t always result in the cleanest geometry and with glass, any imperfection can result in unwanted highlights. So after the glass was fractured in FX, we went back to the asset team and spent more time refining the geometry to make sure everything behaved correctly and looked as real as possible. For the static cracks, we had a different approach and started with a 2D concept of the overall shape, then sculpted it directly into the geometry.

DP: The haunted mirror and hallway destruction sequence demanded complex simulation. What tools and workflows did you lean on to ensure the scene felt both physically credible and cinematically heightened?

Alex Millet: The hallway sequence was a challenge. We started with building a CG version of the hallway that had to be water-tight to work with the FX simulations. Our assets are mainly built in Maya for modelling, Mari for texturing, then Houdini & VRay for Lookdev.

Once our asset matched the set, we added some extra geometry behind the walls and floor, to be revealed during the destruction and added material variations to the debris. The next step was to animate the mirror moving through the wall and start working on the look of the broken wood and floorboard simulation.

Our FX team, working in Houdini, did different iterations of breaking wood and drywall to find that rhythm and dynamic pop in the destruction. We also played with different amounts of smoke, either slowly filling the room or shooting from the impacts. We then went back to lookdev to create some procedural materials for the additional geometry.

That’s all the inside faces that didn’t exist in the original model and were created once the geometry was fractured. Some of the finer effects, like smoke or fine particles, went directly from the FX team to the compositing team, but the main fractured geometry was passed to the lighting team to render with the mirror and the rest of the hallway. The lighting team rendered everything with VRay and Solaris in Houdini, then passed it to the compositing team to put all the elements together in Nuke.

DP: How many iterations did it take to nail the timing and behavior of the breakage, and how did you balance simulation randomness with director’s notes?

Alex Millet: The biggest challenge was to tie in the propagating crack, which was an FX simulation, with the main cracks. The main cracks, under the actor’s hands, had a very specific art direction to look like they originated from the hand. They also needed the right timing to happen when the actors touched the mirror. We laid out the main impact points first, then matched the speed of the simulated propagating crack to tie everything in.

Once the timing worked, we tweaked the geometry of our propagating crack once more so the lines would connect with the main impacts. The final effect was meant to look like a single event, moving across the entire glass but with specific impact points tied to the actor’s performance..

DP: Looking back, what do you consider the biggest technical achievement of your team on The Conjuring: Last Rites?

Alex Millet: The hallway sequence was an interesting technical challenge; it came in late in the schedule, but required a full rebuild of the hallway and a heavy amount of FX destruction in almost every shot. The mirror was plowing through the walls and floors, and we needed to maintain some consistency in the destruction across the sequence.

We also had to be very careful of the actors’ reflections, as we sometimes had to replace the mirror with a CG one for the animation and destruction to work, but we needed to maintain the actors’ reflections. Overall, the biggest challenge of the project was the aggressive timeline and wide scope of work; we had a big environment build with the Smurl street, a lot of FX simulation, some animation and character work with Annabelle and Abigail, a huge oner shot, and the list goes on. The team did an amazing job delivering this project on time and without any outstanding notes.

The post When Annabelle Grew Up: The Digital Domain Horror Pipeline first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

With ARRI Film Lab, Munich’s camera giant is bottling more than a century of photochemical experience into a single OpenFX plugin. Available now via RE:Vision Effects, it promises to give digital images the texture and tonality of analog film, complete with adjustable grain, halation, and even gate weave.

Built from the Film Lab Up

Drawing from decades of internal R&D (ARRILASER, ARRISCAN, and REVEAL Color Science among them) ARRI Film Lab offers a full analog emulation layer for RGB images from any camera that enters the ARRI pipeline. Designed for colourists and finishing artists, it runs in real time within DaVinci Resolve, Baselight, Nuke, and other OpenFX-compatible systems. The plugin supports 4K real-time processing and works across LogC3 (AWG3) and LogC4 (AWG4) workflows. Whether the footage was recorded in ARRICORE, ARRIRAW, ProRes, or a third-party codec, Film Lab aims to deliver a consistent analog response. Support for ACES 2.0 is already planned.

The Science of Imperfection

ARRI Film Lab models the key physical characteristics of motion picture film. Grain can be dialled to match the response of 50D, 200T, or 500T negative stocks. The colour engine mimics print and reversal processes, including bleach bypass. A halation control simulates the subtle red-orange glow that occurs when light scatters through film layers, while a gate weave setting introduces the fractional image instability that gives celluloid its telltale flutter. Each control is continuously adjustable, and according to ARRI, any combination of settings will produce a pleasing analog feel. The plugin’s logic ensures that user-made extremes still behave within believable photochemical limits.

On-Set Preview in the Works

A firmware update planned for Q1 2026 will allow on-set simulation of Film Lab looks on ALEXA 35 and ALEXA 35 Xtreme cameras. Using a combination of ARRI Textures and 3D LUTs, the system renders a live preview of the desired film look in the camera’s viewfinder or monitor feed. Nothing is baked in, and no external hardware is required. Once in post, the Film Lab plugin applies higher-fidelity grain and texture processing.

Familiar Looks, Now in Plugin Form

Bundled with Film Lab is a plugin edition of the ARRI Look Library, providing access to ARRI’s established LUT collection directly inside the postproduction environment. This allows colourists to mix predefined looks with Film Lab’s analog simulations for nuanced results across scenes or mixed-camera projects.

Licensing and Availability

ARRI Film Lab is distributed through both ARRI and RE:Vision Effects. A one-week free trial is offered. Individual users can purchase monthly, annual, or perpetual licenses, while companies can opt for per-user pricing. Educational institutions receive discounted rates.

Summary

• Plugin format: OpenFX
• Processing: Real-time 4K RGB
• Supported tools: Resolve, Baselight, Nuke, and others
• Camera compatibility: Any RGB source in ARRI workflow
• Workflows: LogC3 (AWG3), LogC4 (AWG4), ARRICORE, ARRIRAW, ProRes, third-party codecs
• Controls: Grain (50D, 200T, 500T), colour process (print, reversal, bleach bypass), halation, gate weave
• Additional content: Integrated ARRI Look Library plugin
• Future update: On-set preview for ALEXA 35 and 35 Xtreme in Q1 2026

Testing Recommended

As always, new emulation tools should be tested in controlled environments before being adopted in production workflows.

The post Analog Soul, Digital Body: ARRI Film Lab Arrives first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Can a Visual Effects studio survive only on film work? “Absolutely not!”

Scott Ross is an important part of the history of Visual Effects. He was manager at ILM, Senior VP at Lucasfilm, Chairman & CEO of Digital Domain and one of the Founding Members of Visual Effects Society. He summarized his experiences and a part of the industry’s history in his book “Upstart”. In our episode we trace a line from the cloistered halls of ILM and Lucasfilm through the founding of Digital Domain, across the rise of digital pipelines and into today’s inflection point of Agentic AI.

Scott’s path into film wasn’t linear: Music studies, audio engineer, then Bay Area post with One Pass before Lucasfilm recruited him. When he arrived at ILM in the mid-1980s, the reality contradicted the Oscars on the shelf: ILM was losing money and morale was low. The corporate layer above him prized brakes and cost cutting over progress and acceleration.

Scott sketched ILM at a crossroads. The facility’s reputation masked cashflow issues and a flattening culture. His first months were spent earning the trust in a “Hell’s Angels”-tight shop that viewed him as a young “video” guy; an outsider. Once in, he ignored the brake pedal people and ran ILM as if it were his own: Buying new gear, fixing the org chart, restoring transparency and diversifying revenue to smooth the feature-film boom-bust cycle, opening up opportunities for commercial and location-based attractions.

Soon after he found himself on a crossroad to either stand behind his team and support their efforts for a fair compensations and bonuses that they were promised or accepting the games at play. Waging his job for what he believed was right he found himself looking for another job. The problem was that he was the general manager of one of the biggest visual effects studios on the planet, no one else wanted to replace their GM while Scott’s reputation wasn’t of someone who played the cooperate games.

“A fixed contract to do something that’s never been done before, giving the facility all of the responsibility and none of the authority, is a model of madness.”

Scott Ross

Three-legged stool

Over the years Scott defined the concept of the “three-legged stool” as the key ingredients of a successful business. Remove even one leg and the shop tips and the business fails. The three legs consists of:

• Technology: Technology is the key to staying relevant in quality and production speed. ILM’s analog-to-digital pivot foreshadowed today’s shift toward AI-assisted craft.
• Finance: A diversified revenue is key for any business but especially for visual effects as there are only a handful of production houses. From commercials, attractions, episodic productions to visualisations those had different field while often have better margins.
• Creativity: Keep the core creative decision-makers close to the tools, but align authority with responsibility. Scott’s ILM anecdotes reveal how often errors are organisational rather than technical.

“Follow your bliss, but be brutally honest about your lane, and plan your rent. You can’t survive without profit. If it doesn’t make money, it’s not a business.”

Takeaways

Scott’s stool test is still the fastest sanity check for any show or facility. If technology dazzles but cash burns, the shop tips. When finance is tight but creative authority is outsourced, the frames suffer. If creativity is strong but tech lags deliverable specs, you ship compromise. The “fixed bid for the impossible” contract structure is as dangerous now as it was then. As AI moves from assistive to agentic, we need to write scopes, schedules, and authority trees that assume fewer hands on more decisions and still protect image integrity and human sanity.

Finally Scott warned against believing one’s own hype: if you want to be a core storyteller, develop those muscles; if not, your skills will be valuable across medicine, manuals, advertising, and beyond, especially as visual communication saturates every industry.

Do you want to read this for yourself? The Book “Upstart: The Digital Film Revolution. Managing the Unmanageable” by Scott Ross and Joanne O`Brien-Levin.

The post “A Model of Madness” Scott Ross Why VFX Fails as a Business first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Alexander Richter.

The Blender project’s steward, the Blender Foundation, has launched a new internal initiative called Blender Lab. According to the announcement, this is intended as a dedicated space for experimentation in Blender’s development process.

What is Blender Lab?

Blender Lab is described as “a new project” to allow for exploration of workflows, prototypes, and feature-ideas that might later feed into the main Blender software. The Foundation emphasises the need for “an experimentation space” separate from stable releases.

Why this matters for production users

For artists and pipeline engineers, a structured sandbox like Blender Lab offers a window into upcoming innovations before they’re settled. While the announcement does not guarantee when prototypes will hit stable releases, it sheds light on Blender’s intention to increase iteration on new tools.

What we don’t know yet

The announcement does not provide a detailed roadmap of features, nor clear criteria for when prototypes in Blender Lab will graduate to the main Blender codebase. Developers and studios should treat all work produced via Blender Lab as experimental until officially integrated into a stable release, which is kind of the point of the whole thing.

Final thoughts

The launch of Blender Lab signals the Blender Foundation’s commitment to a more agile experimentation phase ahead of feature adoption. That said, the initiative is experimental by design. Production teams should test thoroughly before integrating any Blender Lab-originated features into live workflows.

The post Blender Foundation launches “Blender Lab” innovation hub first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Blackmagic Design has released version 3.2 of its Blackmagic Camera app for iOS. The update introduces native live streaming directly to YouTube, Vimeo, and Twitch, without requiring additional encoders or third-party apps. The app continues to frame the iPhone as a production-ready camera interface with full manual control. Version 3.2 extends this idea to live workflows, letting operators start a professional broadcast straight from the app by entering a stream key for their chosen platform.

SRT for Professional Streams

Beyond platform streaming, the update adds SRT (Secure Reliable Transport) support. This protocol provides encrypted, low-latency transmission suitable for news, remote production, or event coverage over unstable networks. The app can now send SRT video directly to Blackmagic Streaming Decoders or any SRT-compatible receiver, positioning the iPhone as a viable field camera for broadcast environments. Support for custom RTMP and SRT servers allows integration with professional CDNs or in-house streaming systems. Or, you know, Vmix, Streamlabs, Facebook, and all the others.

Smarter Storage Feedback

External recording to SSDs remains supported via USB-C, but version 3.2 refines how the app reports media status. The update adds clear on-screen notifications if an external drive disconnects during recording, standby, or data upload. For mobile ProRes workflows, this is a practical safeguard against lost footage and unclear drive states.

Expanded Remote Control

Multi-view remote monitoring on iPad and Mac has been expanded. Users can now select the number of monitored angles, enabling more flexible layouts for multicamera setups. This builds on the app’s growing role as a companion tool for Blackmagic Cloud and DaVinci Resolve Camera projects.

Under-the-Hood Fixes

Blackmagic Design lists two key bug fixes: a corrected recording issue linked to auto white balance and intermittent audio monitoring dropouts. General stability improvements are included, though no details on performance changes were provided.

Availability

Blackmagic Camera for iOS 3.2 is available now as a free download on the App Store, with no subscription or in-app purchases. As with any newly introduced feature, live streaming and SRT workflows should be tested before critical productions to confirm stability and compatibility.

The post Blackmagic Camera 3.2: iPhone Streams Live, No Extra Steps first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Datacolor has announced a major overhaul of its display calibration suite with the release of SpyderPro, positioning the software as a professional-grade solution for studios and postproduction environments. The company describes it as a “quantum leap” in calibration accuracy and workflow design. Marketing rhetoric aside, the tool introduces measurable technical improvements that could matter to HDR and colour-critical workflows.

Technical updates for HDR displays

SpyderPro now supports displays up to 12,000 nits brightness, including OLED, QD-OLED, Mini-LED, and Apple’s Liquid Retina XDR panels. This covers the luminance range typical of current reference and field monitors used in HDR mastering and on-set review.

The software retains Datacolor’s colourimeter-based measurement approach but now integrates calibration control and simulation tools intended for more consistent HDR handling. Whether measurement precision remains reliable at such brightness levels has not yet been independently verified.

3D-LUT export for video workflows

A new 3D-LUT export (.cube) function allows calibrated colour transforms to be exported directly to compatible video monitors. This enables the SpyderPro to feed LUTs into devices used in video or cinema environments, simplifying display matching.

Device Preview Plus: cross-device simulation

SpyderPro introduces Device Preview Plus, a simulation and comparison tool allowing users to preview how images appear on different displays or in print. The feature supports side-by-side comparisons, pixel sampling, batch conversions, and extended export options. For production artists, this could serve as a quick-check tool when evaluating deliverables across multiple output devices.

Integration with light meters

The new light-meter integration enables synchronisation with Datacolor’s LightColor Meter and other lux-capable devices. This function adjusts calibration according to ambient illumination, potentially improving accuracy in variable lighting conditions, a practical addition for studios with mixed lighting setups.

Content authenticity with C2PA

SpyderPro now embeds Content Credentials (C2PA), an open standard for cryptographically securing authorship and edit history metadata. This allows creatives to attach verifiable provenance data to calibrated outputs. The move reflects growing industry interest in transparency within AI-influenced workflows.

We are currently preparing a story on content authenticity and will be speaking directly with Datacolor about how C2PA is implemented in SpyderPro, what data it embeds, and what that means for creative verification. Keep your eyes peeled for that.

Pricing and availability

The new SpyderPro software is available immediately for €289 through Datacolor.com, Amazon, and authorised resellers. Existing SpyderPro owners receive the update free of charge. Users of Spyder, Spyder Express, SpyderX, or Spyder X2 can upgrade at a discounted rate.

Verdict

SpyderPro’s technical claims (HDR coverage to 12 k nits, LUT export, and ambient-light integration) target postproduction more directly than earlier Spyder tools, which often leaned toward photographic use. As with any colour management solution, results depend heavily on hardware quality, measurement repeatability, and consistency of use.

The post SpyderPro goes full HDR with receipts (C2PA) first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Phantom Digital Effects Limited, headquartered in Chennai, has formally launched Phantom Media Group (PMG), a new umbrella organisation uniting several established visual-effects and post-production studios. The group brings together Milk VFX, Lola Post, Tippett Studio, PhantomFX and Spectre Post into one global structure.

Confirmed Structure and Intent

Official filings and press materials confirm that PMG sits above the existing Phantom FX corporate entity. Each studio remains operationally independent but aligned for global productions. The press release describes PMG as “a unified global identity combining creativity, scale and technology.” The announcement confirms earlier acquisitions by Phantom Digital Effects: Milk VFX and Lola Post were added in 2025, and Tippett Studio joined the group in 2024. Spectre Post, based in Bengaluru, was launched internally by Phantom FX earlier this year.

The five studios share a long list of high-profile credits. Milk VFX has contributed to Good Omens, Doctor Who and Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Lola Post is known for Walking With Dinosaurs and Bad Sisters. Tippett Studio, founded by Oscar-winning supervisor Phil Tippett, has a legacy spanning Jurassic Park, Starship Troopers and The Walking Dead. Phantom FX’s credits include large-scale Indian features and streaming series.

Strategy and Scale

PMG’s stated aim is to provide end-to-end creative services across multiple territories. The organisation cites a focus on global collaboration, shared technology, and integration of real-time rendering and machine-learning tools. Each studio’s distinct creative style is expected to remain intact. According to Phantom Digital Effects, the consolidation expands its presence across the United Kingdom, United States and Asia-Pacific.

Industry Context

The creation of Phantom Media Group reflects an ongoing trend toward consolidation among mid-sized and boutique VFX studios. By forming multi-territory alliances, companies seek economic stability, shared infrastructure, and broader client access in an increasingly volatile post-production market. It also provides access to different production incentive zones.

The post Phantom Media Group: Milk, Lola, Tippett, PhantomFX and Spectre Unite first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

A Quarter-Century of Digital Clay

The ZBrush Summit 2025 Virtual Edition runs from 7 to 9 November 2025, celebrating 25 years of ZBrush. Hosted by Maxon, the event streams globally via ZBrush Live, Twitch and YouTube. It marks a dual milestone: a decade of the live Sculpt-Off competition and a quarter-century of the digital sculpting software that reshaped 3D character creation across film, games and design.

The online format, introduced during the pandemic years, remains. No travel, no queues — only three days of streamed presentations, artist showcases and production-level tips.

Friday: Legends Return to the Arena

The Summit opens with the Past Competitors LIVE ZBrush Sculpt-Off. Over fifty artists from the competition’s first decade, including Maarten Verhoeven, Zhelong Xu, Ashley Adams and Christian Carranza, have been invited back for a three-hour speed-sculpt challenge.

That’s followed by the Public LIVE Sculpt-Off, an open competition judged on creativity and execution under time pressure. Both contests reinforce what has become the Summit’s defining spectacle: sculptors creating original work live, in front of a global audience.

Saturday: Practice, Process and Production

Day Two runs from 9:00 to 18:00 PST, starting with Robson Barros from Loot Studios discussing Creating 3D Printable Miniatures That Tell Stories. His live ZBrush demo focuses on scale readability, pose design and physical durability for tabletop models.

Ryan Kingslien, who helped define early ZBrush anatomy training, revisits Beyond Reference, a session on form interpretation and sculptural anatomy. Daniel Hahn (Daytoner) then offers a production-focused look at hard-surface workflows used in toy and concept model creation.

Marko Lazov follows with live creature design improvisation under Turning Chaos Into Creatures. Przemyslaw Malachowski demonstrates Designing Tattoos in 3D, showing how sculpting tools can map artwork precisely to body anatomy.

The evening concludes with WeFX detailing ZBrush use on Wednesday Season 2 for Netflix. Team members Brandon Golding, Carlos Jacinto, Cesar Dacol Jr, Mauro Matheus and Sam Javanrouh break down their creature and prop work before the traditional “Good-Byes” close the stream.

Sunday: Studios, Toys and Technical Futures

The final day begins with Jordi Cerdà Gaya presenting 15 Years Using ZBrush and Crafting 3D Models by Natural Intelligence, a reflection on freelance product modelling and digital craftsmanship.

A highlight session follows from ID Software (Denzil O’Neill, Jason Martin and Solomon Gaitan) showing how ZBrush contributed to asset creation for Doom The Dark Ages.

Matt Hilton from Hasbro takes the stage for Making Joe, revealing the sculpt-to-production process for the G.I. Joe Classified Series. Mitchel Wu then reframes digital sculpting from a photographer’s perspective in The Second Life of a Subtool, tracing the journey from ZBrush mesh to practical miniature sets.

Later segments include Patrick 4D’s short presentation, followed by the Maxon Development Team previewing upcoming features and a 2026 roadmap. Details of these “exciting features” were not yet disclosed at press time.

The Summit concludes with the LIVE Sculpt-Off Winners Announcement, crowning champions from both the public and invitational events before a final farewell.

Looking Back – and Ahead

First released in 1999, ZBrush has become a cornerstone of digital production pipelines and earned a 2014 Scientific and Engineering Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for its multi-resolution sculpting system. The 25th anniversary Summit blends that heritage with a forward look. For production artists, the sessions promise practical insights across sculpting, concept art, collectibles, and VFX asset creation.

Maxon – ZBrush Summit 2025 Virtual Edition

The post Sculpt-Offs, Anniversaries & Anatomy: ZBrush Summit 2025 celebrates 25 years first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

RePro Stream has announced new integrations with Pomfort Livegrade and Nobe OmniScope, connecting live look management, technical signal monitoring, and remote collaboration into a single workflow for film and television productions. The update, released on 4 November 2025, strengthens RePro’s position as a central hub between on-set decisions and postproduction review. According to the company, the new integrations allow creative and technical teams to view the same graded images or playback in real time, regardless of location.

Pomfort Livegrade streams looks directly to RePro

Pomfort’s Livegrade 7 introduces the new Outputs and Streaming extension module. This optional add-on enables DITs to stream live look previews directly through RePro. Remote directors, producers, and colourists can therefore see the same graded signal or playback that is visible on set.

Nobe OmniScope adds low-latency remote scopes

Nobe OmniScope from Time in Pixels now also connects with RePro. The video scope suite provides tools such as False Color, Twin Peaks, and HDR quality control. Through the integration, these scopes can be mirrored remotely, giving distributed teams the same analytical feedback that would normally only be available in a grading suite. OmniScope’s new SRT (Secure Reliable Transport) support allows lower-latency transmission, tighter stream control, and frame-accurate playback up to 60 fps, performance aimed specifically at live monitoring scenarios.

Founder Tom Huczek said the addition of SRT was intended to “give productions lower latency and more control.” He noted that the integration with RePro and the upcoming Live Pack feature (planned to link OmniScope directly with Livegrade) are designed to enable remote signal quality control and monitoring for workflows from colour suites to multi-camera shoots.

Fewer surprises, faster decisions

The unified workflow could help reduce miscommunication between on-set and post teams and lower the risk of costly reshoots caused by mismatched looks or exposure errors. By enabling real-time creative and technical collaboration, the integrations position RePro as a connective layer between capture, grading, and finishing. As with any new workflow feature, productions should test the system thoroughly under production conditions before relying on it for critical monitoring or grading decisions.

The post Nobe OmniScope, Pomfort, and RePro sync up on set first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.