Imagen Video applies automated color correction to sequences from Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve, using AI Profiles or uploaded LUTs, then returns a graded project you can adjust in your NLE.

Imagen Video wants to finish the grade before you finish the coffee

Imagen itself describes the tool as adaptive AI colour grading that matches cameras, fixes skin tones, handles exposure and white balance, and delivers a consistent grade across an entire timeline, clip by clip. It supports Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve, and the export/import workflow is built around processed project files rather than a rendered video roundtrip.

The setup is very clear: speed and convenience. This is not a replacement for a supervised grade on a high-end finishing job. The problem being solved here is not “make this commercial look like it came out of a Baselight room with a senior colourist and three clients arguing about teal.” It is more like: match a pile of mixed footage quickly enough that the project can leave the building before everyone involved loses the will to invoice, because they’ll watch it on a non claibrated tablet anyway.

The company comes from high-volume professional photography, with weddings, events, real estate and similar workflows: many files, repeated looks, tight deadlines, limited appetite for manual correction on every shot.

What the tool actually does

Imagen Video works after picture lock. The company recommends uploading a finalised project, because colour correction is applied to the edit as it exists at upload time. The user selects the sequences to process, including nested sequences, and Imagen uploads the project for cloud processing. When the correction is complete, the user receives an email and downloads a new project file.

Corrections can be applied directly to each clip or as adjustment layers. In Premiere Pro, Imagen applies Lumetri Color effects. In DaVinci Resolve, the result is available as node-based adjustments, so the user can still inspect and refine the grade. The processed project file receives “-with-imagen-edit” in its name, while the source project remains unchanged.

The tool supports two colour-direction methods. AI Profiles are pre-made looks built by videographers, which Imagen adapts across the footage. Think Instagram-Filters. Alternatively, users can upload their own LUTs and let Imagen use them as the basis for adaptive colour correction. The company says AI Profiles can be previewed, adjusted and reused, while LUTs can be treated as technical transforms, creative looks, complete LUTs or combinations of technical and creative LUTs.

Imagen’s LUT workflow is the more interesting claim, at least on paper. The company argues that a normal LUT is static: it applies the same transform to every clip, regardless of exposure, white balance, lighting or camera differences. Imagen says it instead uses the LUT as a reference point, then generates clip-specific corrections that preserve the intended look while adapting to the actual shot. For technical LUT workflows, Imagen says users can upload different LUTs for different camera folders. The required LUT format is *.CUBE.

AI Profiles, sliders and the part where taste becomes a settings panel

AI Profiles can be adjusted before colour correction. Users can “Adjust AI Profile,” move sliders to better match their colour style, then save those changes for the current and future projects using that profile. After processing, users can also provide feedback, adjust the profile again, and trigger an updated correction. Imagen then emails the user when the updated correction is ready.

In Premiere Pro, the help article states that the Input LUT is shown as “Imagen Edit” and the adjusted profile changes are visible in the Basic Correction sliders. That is useful because it suggests the result is not a completely opaque rendered grade. Editors can inspect at least part of what was changed and continue working with familiar controls.

Still, this is where the “filter versus workflow” question sits. Imagen insists this is not a generic filter, but a tool that adapts clip by clip. The technical claim is that the grade responds to footage conditions, not that it simply overlays one look on a whole sequence. Fair enough. But from a production standpoint, it still needs to be judged by the output, not the adjective density of the product page.

Where this gets risky

Colour correction across a timeline is not a small automation task. It touches every cut, every lighting shift, every camera transform, every skin tone, every odd white-balance decision and every “we will fix it in post” moment that should have been legally banned around 2009.

Imagen says it can match cameras, balance exposure, handle white balance, preserve skin tones and adapt LUTs across lighting shifts. Those are substantial claims. If the system guesses wrong, the mistake may not be isolated to one clip. It may be spread across a sequence in a way that only becomes obvious when the edit is watched in context – and already downloaded and paid for.

AI systems can produce confident mistakes. They may show up as skin tone drift across a scene, inconsistent contrast between angles, lifted blacks, crushed detail, a strange warmth shift, or a look that feels coherent in thumbnails and wrong in playback. The first proper review should not happen with the client in the room, unless the workflow also includes ritual humiliation as a billable service (Not judging, you do you)

Roundtrip and checking

The nondestructive workflow helps. The original project remains untouched, the graded result comes back as a new project, and the user can adjust clips in Premiere Pro or Resolve. That makes Imagen safer than a black-box render-only system, like a few we decidedly haven’t written about in the last years of AI-everything. But it does not make it safe by default.

The company recommends starting with a shorter sequence before running a full project. That advice is correct and should be taken seriously, despite being buried in product-guide politeness.

Cloud processing, storage and consent

Videos are stored on AWS servers and used exclusively for the user’s projects within Imagen Video. It also says footage is not used for any other purpose without explicit consent and claims GDPR compliance.

For wedding films and corporate work, this may be straightforward, depending on contracts. For agency jobs, broadcast material, unreleased campaigns, sensitive documentary footage or NDA-bound productions, cloud upload is not a small detail.

Pricing

The product page says the first project can be edited for free without a credit card. The pricing page also states that the free trial includes 20 minutes of colour grading.

The listed launch pricing has two individual plans. Pay-as-you-go is billed monthly, with no base fee, and charges only for processed minutes with € 1 per Minute.

The Starter Pack is listed at 30 dollars per month, includes 50 minutes, and charges extra minutes at 0.60 dollars per minute. Unused Starter Pack minutes roll over as credits.

Also, I found no clear information in the available sources about whether minutes are refunded or not charged if the tool fails to apply LUTs as expected. That is exactly the kind of detail that becomes important five minutes after it costs money.

Practical verdict

If you need a first pass for a showreel, a corporate edit, a wedding film, an event recap or a branded sequence with too many cameras and not enough time, Imagen Video could be useful. If you need a final supervised grade for high-end finishing, this is not it, but, to be fair, they do not really claim that either. Which is refreshing, because normally AI tools promise to replace the department, the client, and probably lunch.

https://imagen-ai.com/video

https://imagen-ai.com/vblog/meet-imagen-video-professional-color-grading-built-for-editors

The post Imagen Video brings AI grading to timelines first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Conform.Tools sits between offline and finishing, moving timelines and media between Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer, DaVinci Resolve, and Autodesk Flame.

What we actually found, minus the wishcasting

The headline feature here is not another file format translator. It is the idea of connected conform as a first-class workflow, with a desktop hub that plugs into finishing instead of living in a folder of one-off scripts.

Plenty of post teams already know how to brute-force a conform. The time sink comes from the repeatable stuff: checks, alignment, searching, and the endless scavenger hunt of tiny fixes that should have been a button. Conform.Tools sells that button collection as Conform Connect, and it keeps pushing the connected part as the point, not a footnote.

Also, yes, the timing feels pointed. If Flame still would push connected conform (Flame-Community: Gentle Encouragement, like Lightwave in 2015!) New tools and innovations should be tested before use in production, especially when they promise to remove steps you currently rely on to catch mistakes.

The desktop hub is in public beta

Conform Connect now has a desktop app as hub -it plugs into DaVinci Resolve 19 and later, and it supports auto-updates after the first install. It is a public beta with feedback welcomed. The release information lists Public Beta version 0.2.10 with the system requirements call out macOS 11 Big Sur or later, Windows 10 or 11 on x64 or ARM64, and Linux on a modern x64 or ARM64 distribution with WebKitGTK. DaVinci Resolve 19 or later is recommended. Resolve Studio is also recommended because some tools rely on the Fusion scripting API, which is gated to Studio licenses by Blackmagic Design. Tools that require Studio are greyed out on the free version.

Install guidance includes setting external scripting to Local inside Resolve preferences, then restarting Resolve so the change takes effect. After that, the desktop app is described as finding Resolve automatically and enabling the toolkit. The conform world has seen plenty of tools that claim they will fix the last mile, then collapse into manual steps the moment the edit gets spicy. So test the cnoform tools on a real-world timeline before you bet a deadline on it.

Pricing that reads like a spreadsheet, in a good way

The pricing page spells out a 14-day free trial for every new account with no credit card required. Pay As You Go is listed at $0 per month with no commitment, with Timeline Exchange priced at $0.05 per shot and i2o transfer priced at $0.25 per GB, plus email support.

Indie is listed at $49 per month for one seat. It includes 2,000 shots per month, 250GB of free i2o transfer per month, seven-day file retention, Conform Connect basic tools, and email support. Pro Team is listed as the most popular plan at $199 per month for three seats. It includes 10,000 shots per month, 2TB of free i2o transfer per month, 30-day file retention, Conform Connect core tools, and priority email support.

Studio Enterprise is listed as contact us for 10 or more seats. It includes unlimited shots, unlimited i2o transfer, 90-day file retention, Conform Connect full suite, air-gapped timeline exchange, dedicated email support, and custom workflow solutions. A yearly toggle advertises a 17 percent savings, and the yearly view shows Indie at $490 per year and Pro Team at $1990 per year.

If that lands, it feels less like a utility and more like a workflow layer for Color Grading and finishing. If it does not, it will join the pile of “helpful” tools that add one more moving part to delivery week. Either way, run a controlled test first, and let your own pipeline decide how much magic you can tolerate.
https://conform.tools/

P.S We found the suite when we were looking for a file size calculator – https://conform.tools/data-calc/ came up, and proved to be useful, as they can even generate Framing Charts! It’s a mixed box of tools alright…..

The post conform.tools’ Connected conform gets a desktop beta first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Evans Research Associates is running a study on the needs of german video software users. The survey takes about 12 to 15 minutes, depending on how you answer, and results get reported only in aggregate form. No need to hold back anything.

If you worked in german post long enough, you know how these surveys go. Someone somewhere tries to map real world workflows onto tidy multiple choice boxes, then discovers that editors, assistants, finishing artists, and producers all use the same words to mean different things. That mismatch is exactly why it helps when working pros fill these out.

Since this is a large multiyear survey, focused on German video pros, you might not fit the profile – I certainly don’t know how to match the target group. But after the introductory questions, you still take part in the prize drawing. Even when you are to CG for editing questions ;)

The survey (in German) starts here
https://asurveys.decipherinc.com/survey/selfserve/9d5/ado19011?list=31&LID=4

Money, vouchers, and who gets what

If you belong to the requested participant group and answer the questions, there is a Amazon gift voucher worth 15 euro for the first 250 people who complete the survey.

Also, the survey includes a separate prize draw list: one 500-euro voucher, two 200-euro vouchers, five 80-euro vouchers, and twenty-five 20-euro vouchers. If you already took part, the invitation asks you to ignore this – you already count for the draw. If the screening questions indicate you are not in the intended target group, you still enter the draw.

Confidentiality

Your answers remain strictly confidential, combined with other participants, and reported only as an overall result. If you have strong opinions about what slows you down, this is one of the rare moments where a checkbox might actually travel upward.

Rules link: https://www.evansresearch.net/NLE/rules2.php?list=31
Contact link: https://www.evansresearch.net/NLE/contact2.php?list=31
Privacy link: https://www.evansres.com/german

The post Click Here If You’re a German video editor and have yelled “Why? Why? Why?” at your NLE first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the studio: Lux Aeterna delivers documentary and natural history VFX including CG environments, FX, and compositing, and it mixes scanned data with CG for shows made with broadcasters and streamers.

History likes receipts

Historical reconstruction only works when the images carry the same authority as the research. The studio leans on archaeological reference, field documentation, and specialist feedback to keep reconstructions grounded, especially when the brief asks for ancient humans that look plausible in stills and in sequence work.

Two recent projects show how far that approach goes. Secrets of the Neanderthals needed a cave interior rebuild and physical remains that read like real bones. Human pushed further, asking for early human avatars built from actor scans and refined against scientific consultation, plus maps and timelines driven by datasets.

Bones first, drama second

For the Neanderthal work, the team recreated the interior of Shanidar Cave in northern Iraq, the site of one of the largest ever discoveries of Neanderthal remains. It used a mix of reference drawings, photographs, and expert advice from professors at the University of Cambridge and Liverpool John Moores University to guide accuracy, including cases where remains had been damaged or moved from their original positions.

Skeleton placement used inverse kinematics so the bones could interact with the ground in a natural way. The pipeline also dealt with scan data arriving as a 3D point cloud, then converting it into polygons that could support a usable cave reconstruction. That conversion problem tends to separate demo reels from production, because bad meshing reads instantly, even when the camera does not linger.

Point clouds, polygons, and the cave that ate your schedule

The cave build started with LiDAR scans that came in as a 3D point cloud. The team developed algorithms to convert the points into polygons for the reconstruction, then used Houdini to isolate areas of scan data so the mesh could be assembled and recombined like a 3D jigsaw. That kind of procedure-heavy work sits squarely in the Houdini mindset: build repeatable ops, then iterate until the scan stops looking like scan data and starts looking like a place.

The result aims for a CG environment that matches the real location closely enough that it can carry the weight of the story, while also supporting the additional CG work needed for the remains and the shot context. In a documentary pipeline, that matters because the images often sit right next to photography, maps, and archive material, with no cinematic lighting trickery to hide behind.

Lux Aeterna delivered 60 shots for a single series, and that number matters because it hints at the production scale when planning resources. WE might e talking about geological and evolutionary tiespans in the story, but delivery is far more rapid.

Full bodies: photogrammetry, casting, and millimetre arguments

The later project asked for historically accurate avatars built from scans of real performers, refined with skeletal research and scientific input. It was a five-part series produced by BBC Studios Science Unit for the BBC and PBS NOVA, hosted by paleoanthropologist Ella Al-Shamahi, and it frames visual effects as a way to tell a story spanning hundreds of thousands of years without a written record.

The workflow combined ultra-high-resolution body scans with iterative model refinements guided by BBC Studios and scientific advisors. It worked with London-based scanning studio Sample & Hold, which describes custom head and body photogrammetry systems and a photogrammetry robot for objects. In practice, that puts photogrammetry into the same category as any other acquisition step: controlled capture, predictable output, and a pipeline that can survive the boring parts like data cleanup and repeat scans.

The stated goal was four historically accurate avatars representing Jebel Irhoud, Neanderthals, Homo floresiensis, and Homo erectus, based on scientific data and real-world actors. Alongside the character work, the project also required prehistoric environments and landscapes to show migration and later disappearance of early human life across the globe. The work targets ancient humans, but it does not tolerate ancient guesswork.

Maps, timelines, and the part nobody notices until it breaks

A second strand of the work focused on animated maps and timelines that visualised migration, development, and disappearance across millennia. The graphics are being built using datasets provided by BBC Studios Science Unit researchers and scientific consultants, and not as speculative graphics.

One specific challenge involved changing coastlines and submerged landmasses, where the team created transitions and overlays to keep the visuals clear while staying scientifically accurate. That is the kind of “small” work that carries a lot of editorial risk: the map has to be readable, the timing has to serve the cut, and the choices have to stay consistent across episodes.

On the delivery scale, the project description states sixty crafted shots across five hour-long episodes, and it frames the approach as avoiding prosthetics and overly stylised effects while using a hybrid of photogrammetry, consultation, and minimalist Compositing.

What to take away if you do this for a living

If your job involves building reconstructions that sit next to real-world evidence, the takeaway is simple: acquisition quality and reference discipline decide how much time you spend “fixing” later. Scan data arrives noisy, research notes arrive detailed, and schedules arrive optimistic. The pipeline has to translate all three into images that read as plausible without distracting from the content. And as always, test any new workflow, plugin, or automation step on a throwaway shot before you bet a delivery on it. Just like with rare fossils, you don’t want to play loose with the materials.

https://www.lavfx.com/
https://www.lavfx.com/secrets-of-the-neanderthals
https://www.lavfx.com/blog/human

P.S. You have NO idea how big the challenge was not to replace “Ancient Humans” and “Prehistoric” with the users of one ore more DCC-packages….

The post Lux Aeterna rebuilds ancient humans first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Boris FX Sapphire is a multi host VFX plug-in suite for editors and compositors, used in After Effects, Premiere, Media Composer, and OpenFX hosts like Resolve, Flame, and Nuke.

Defocus that tries to behave like glass

Boris FX ships Sapphire 2026.5 with a new effect called Advanced Defocus, built to recreate lens blur character rather than just blur pixels. In Sapphire, artists can start from presets, including ones built from real-world lens references and more stylised options, then dial in Defocus Width plus relative width and height for anamorphic style stretching.

Advanced Defocus focuses on the lens kernel, where artists shape bokeh as circles, polygons with adjustable sides and roundness, or custom shapes. It also includes controls to introduce imperfections tied to aperture blades, such as adjustable blade notches, as well as options for colour fringing and noise. The tool targets everything from cheap, dirty glass to high-end primes, depending on how far you push those controls.

The lens vignette section adds classic edge darkening, but also an optcial vignette control that changes distortion toward the frame edges. A Matte Box control goes past soft cropping by simulating uneven light entry, slightly darkening one side while also clipping individual defocused highlights.

From grungy to clean

Advanced Defocus also includes lens textures that break up overly uniform bokeh, with parameters that range from subtle variation to grungy lens looks. Extra controls include highlight boosting, chromatic-style fringing, and grain management to match the foreground and background.

In Adobe After Effects, Advanced Defocus appears under Effect in the Sapphire Blur plus Sharpen category. The effect can work as a straight lens emulation pass, a stylised motion graphics treatment, or a transition building block. A workflow shown in Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Fusion uses Advanced Defocus to soften a keyed background for more believable depth, then adds sensor-style grain to help match elements. Another workflow in After Effects links defocus controls across layers, uses Affect Alpha to defocus type with the background, and offsets values to keep the illusion that typography sits closer to camera.

For edits, Advanced Defocus can also drive transitions inside VEGAS Pro by building an S Transition in the Sapphire Builder variant designed for transitions. That approach ties animation to the transition length on the timeline rather than keyframing, and then applies the same peak values to both incoming and outgoing clips.

Glare gets a rebuild, and flares get louder

Sapphire 2026.5 reworks S_Glare with smoother rendering, richer spectral color, and updated parameters including highlight isolation, cleaner rays, and more natural falloff, plus new styles that widen the look range beyond traditional glare.

In Adobe After Effects, S_Glare sits under the Lighting category and behaves the same across Sapphire hosts. The first control to touch is Threshold: raise it for fewer glares, lower it for more, and expect wildly different results depending on the footage. Sapphire 2026.5 also changes what the defaults look like compared with older versions, so the same effect can start from a different baseline than legacy installs.

Presets matter a lot for S_Glare, but the preview can mislead. Results change with viewer zoom level, so checking at 100 percent gives a more reliable read before you commit. Presets also store Threshold, so loading a preset often means rebalancing Threshold right away to avoid either nothing happening or everything exploding.

If glares drift or slip onto areas you do not want, Threshold Blur becomes the other big lever. Lowering Threshold Blur picks up many more points of interest, which can reduce slippage but may add jitter. A practical balancing rule shown here is: when Blur comes down, Threshold goes up, then you fine-tune from there.

Sapphire includes integrated Mocha inside the effect for masking control. A workflow shown here uses an object brush and Mask ML to generate a mask, then inverts the Mocha mask so glare stays in the scene but stops emanating from a subject.

S_Glare also appears as an embedded component in S_NightSky, where you can open the glare editor, load glare presets, and adjust glare size to customise the look directly within the NightSky effect.

Procedural ridges, more presets, faster stacking

A new Texture Ridges effect generates ridge-like patterns from noise, with controls for octave scaling, speed, frequency, contrast, and layering to build animated surface detail and abstract motion design textures. Sapphire 2026.5 also adds more than 100 new and improved presets, including anime, sci-fi, and abstract fractal motion graphics looks.

Effect Builder gets an interface update aimed at faster custom effect and transition creation, plus new built-in Dots and Noise tools. If you build stacks for repeatable looks, this is the part worth a quiet test session before you let it touch client shots.

Pricing and updates

Sapphire ships as a plug-in collection with subscriptions, upgrade and support plans, and perpetual licenses. Subscriptions start at 545 US dollars per year or 80 US dollars per month. Customers with current Sapphire or Boris FX Suite subscriptions, or with Sapphire upgrade and support plans, get the 2026.5 release obviously as a free update. If you aren’t sure: get the free Trialversion. As always, test new tools and presets in your own pipeline before you rely on them in production.

https://borisfx.com/products/sapphire/#whats-new

The post Boris FX Sapphire 2026.5 adds Advanced Defocus first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Beeble builds AI relighting and video transformation tools for VFX, post, and virtual production, and Canvas is its very new node based environment that wires SwitchX and SwitchLight into repeatable shot workflows.

A node graph, but for AI outputs you can wrangle

Canvas lands as a node based AI compositing environment aimed at complex workflows across VFX, post, and virtual production. The pitch is straightforward: put AI video models, compositing utilities, and workflow automation into one visual system so teams can iterate across multiple shots without rebuilding the same logic over and over.

In practical terms, it targets the part of the job where you already juggle plates, masks, reference stills, and multiple look directions, then repeat that dance across a sequence.

What is actually in the box

Canvas presents itself as a node graph workflow editor for final render, with a catalog grouped into Input, AI Tools, Edit, and Utility. Input supports text prompts plus image files in PNG, JPEG, or WebP, and video files in MP4 or MOV. In other words, it starts where most editorial and comp workflows already start: media in, decisions next.

https://digitalproduction.com/2026/05/20/beeble-canvas

The AI Tools section includes a node for SwitchX, the same model as the standalone product, with source and alpha handled as video inputs. It also includes an LLM node that can generate files from a prompt with up to four media inputs, plus image generation and video generation nodes that can route to external models. For rotoscoping style work, Canvas includes a Video Matte node that outputs an alpha matte plus RGBA, with an automatic mode and an interactive selection mode, plus options aimed at general footage and green screen keys.

On the classic comp side, the Edit nodes cover the expected utility moves: extract a frame, trim, crop, resize, curves, invert, flip, and morphology operations like erode and dilate. Utility nodes cover housekeeping: sticky notes, routing for cleaner graphs, a viewer, side by side compare, and export. It’s not fully Nuke yet, but…

That combination matters because it lets artists keep the media prep and look development steps next to the model calls, instead of bouncing between separate tools and hoping filenames stay honest.

Relighting and PBR passes, now wired into the graph

The system includes access to SwitchLight for generating physically based rendering passes. In the Canvas node catalog, the VFX Pass Generator extracts PBR material maps including BaseColor, Normal, Depth, Roughness, Specular, and Metallic from image or video using SwitchLight 3.0.

That puts relgihting adjacent tasks into the same graph where you also assemble mattes, feed references, and generate variations. It also matches the stated intent of supporting controllable, iterative pipelines across multiple shots, not one off experiments.

Automation, batches, and the part everyone really wants

Canvas claims to be built around repeatability: build workflows once, apply them to shot sequences, and automate iteration without rebuilding node logic shot by shot. It also calls out batch processing and maintaining scene consistency across projects.

Those claims describe the correct pain point. Anyone who has ever reconnected the same five nodes fifty times will understand why a programmable layer matters. Still, treat the automation story like any new tool claim: test it in your own pipeline with your own edge cases before you bet any delivery on it.

The API angle: SwitchX in your pipeline, with pricing details

SwitchX API for video transformations in YOUR pipeline

Alongside Canvas, the SwitchX API is positioned for studios and developers who want to integrate video transformation and relighting capabilities directly into custom pipelines and software environments.

The developer portal offers a REST style workflow with uploads, job creation, and polling, and it explicitly supports 720p and 1080p output. It also has pay as you go credits in US Dollar, and pricing can start at $0.10 per generation. That pricing applies to the API offering as described there, while Canvas pricing is not specified, since it is part of Bebble Online.

Beeble Studio: 4K AI relighting on YOUR desktop

Availability, media assets, and credits

Canvas is available now via the Beeble platform, with a launch video hosted on YouTube (The Video we embedded above…) .

The boring but necessary reminder

New tools and innovations should be tested before use in production, especially when they touch shot consistency, automation, and delivery formats. Run a small sequence through, break it on purpose, and see how it fails before you trust it on a deadline.

https://docs.beeble.ai/beeble/canvas
https://docs.beeble.ai/beeble/overview

The post Beeble Canvas first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Resolve Collect sits in media management between edit, conform, grade, and archive. It works with DaVinci Resolve exports and Adobe Premiere Pro XML, and runs as a standalone app on macOS.

The collect button you actually wanted

Media collection sounds boring until the day it saves your schedule. Resolve Collect pulls the source files used in a Resolve or Premiere project into a single destination, while keeping the original folder structure so you can still tell where everything came from. The app scans the project file, lists Media Pool contents and timelines, and checks if it can locate each source before it copies anything.

That preview step matters in the real world where half the media lives on whatever drive is currently in somebody’s backpack or connected somewhere on a network. The interface shows a status per item, so missing paths show up early instead of becoming a surprise at render time. It also calculates the total destination size before you start, which helps when the only spare drive in the room looks like it came free with a toaster.

Resolve Collect runs as a standalone app, and the workflow expects you to export a project file from your NLE first. For Resolve 15 to 17, it loads DRP, DRT, and DRB exports. For Resolve 18 and later, it uses an RCP file generated by a bundled export script. For Premiere, it ingests an XML sequence. The app needs to run on the same machine where the DRP or RCP file was created, so file paths match.

File formats, but with the annoying bits included

Once Resolve Collect knows what the project references, it copies movie files and image sequences into one destination. Supported examples include QuickTime, AVI, and MP4 for movies, plus DPX, EXR, TIFF, and DNG for image sequences. It also supports spanned R3D files and subclips, plus Canon MXF including spanned clips.

On the image sequence side, the tool can trim sequences when you collect a timeline. Instead of copying an entire folder of frames because one cut uses five seconds, it can copy only the frames actually used, with optional handles. That can turn a storage panic into a storage plan, especially for long EXR or DPX runs.

Resolve Collect also offers options to split the collected result into separate subdirectories for Video, Audio, Matte, and Offline. If you prefer repeatable runs, it can check whether files already exist at the destination and skip what is already there. That makes it useful for iterative turnover where the timeline changes, but you do not want to recopy everything for every export.

If you want to sanity-check the sources mid-job, you can right-click items in the list and reveal them in Finder. You can reveal multiple items at once, which is handy when you need to confirm you grabbed the right version before you commit to a long copy.

In other words, EditingTools.io aims Resolve Collect at real post rooms where media lives in too many places, filenames repeat, and you cannot afford an afternoon of manual detective work.

Resolve 18 and later: the RCP script path, spelled out

Resolve 18 changed the project format, so Resolve Collect ships with a Lua export script to generate an RCP file from inside Resolve. The documented menu path is Workspace → Scripts → ResolveCollect → Export Project, and Resolve can show script feedback in Workspace → Console.

The installer also documents the macOS install path for the script inside the Resolve directory structure, under the Fusion scripts utility location. That matters if you manage multiple systems and want the script installed consistently across machines.

If you come from Premiere, the workflow sticks to the familiar: export an XML of your timeline, then load that into Resolve Collect. The app then gathers the required files into the chosen destination.

The demo version processes the whole Media Pool but only copies the first five sources per timeline. That limitation makes the free trial more of a functional test than a free backup strategy, but it does let you validate the project scan, the path matching, and the copy options before you pay.

Symbolic links, tape workflows, and other grown-up problems

Resolve Collect can create symbolic links instead of physically copying files. That targets tape-based backup workflows where you want a virtual collection without duplicating data on disk/tape. If your pipeline relies on a collected folder structure as the index for a later stage, links can be the difference between a quick handoff and another round of drive shopping.

The tool also works offline and does not share any project data online. That is relevant for productions that treat media paths and filenames as sensitive, or for facilities where the machine doing data wrangling does not get to touch the internet. Not even for a single cute cat picture.

The app reports metadata info and an approximate copy time, and it can play a sound notification when the copy finishes. That last one sounds trivial until you remember how many collects run while you do something else, like trying to fix a porject while your producer asks why the render queue looks like it does. Or has another artsy hissy fit about something being wrong by 3 pixels in an 8K frame.

Resolve Collect does list some gaps. It does not support multicam clips, compound clips, FCPX XML, or trimming of video files. That last point is important if you expected a consolidated media set with shortened ProRes clips. The trimming feature applies to image sequences, not to movie files.

Licensing and pricing, as far as the facts go

Resolve Collect offers three license types: single-user for 60€, team for 215€ (3+ Users), and enterprise. The single-user license targets one or two computers and ties to a single account. The team license is bound to the company and requires a minimum of three licenses, with the number chosen at purchase. An enterprise option exists via the sales team. The licensing is perpetual, and the FAQ states that updates can be downloaded for free when available.

The purchase flow redirects to Paddle checkout, with Paddle acting as the merchant of record. The checkout may support reverse-charge VAT in some countries if you provide a VAT ID.

Production reality check

Collect-and-copy tools sit on the fault line between editorial convenience and pipeline disaster. A clean collect can save conform time and stop missing media errors from creeping into grade or delivery. A bad collect can quietly bake in wrong versions, missing handles, or mismatched paths that only show up when it hurts most.

Resolve Collect covers a lot of the practical workflow: scan first, report missing items, estimate size, copy in the background, and optionally trim sequences by timeline usage. That is a solid checklist for everyday media management and for building a repeatable project archive workflow on macOS.

Still, treat any new tool like a new fault line: test it on a duplicate job, validate the collected result, and confirm relinks before you trust it for a deadline. Even the most polished collector can collect the wrong thing if the project references the wrong thing.

https://editingtools.io/software/resolvecollect/

The post EditingTools.io Resolve Collect copies media first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Transcriptive is/was is a text based editing panel for Adobe Premiere that transcribes media via web services, plus related panels, and it now leans on imports and alignment.

The date that matters, and what actually stops

Transcriptive and its related products reach end of life in May, 2026. The affected lineup includes Transcriptive, Transcriptive Rough Cutter, PowerSearch, the Transcriptive Web App, and EFF-IT!.

Digital Anarchy releases ShotNotes panel for Premiere.

The change lands on the web side. After the shutdown, you cannot generate new transcripts through the Transcriptive panel, and the Web App no longer remains available. An email notice sets the cutoff for new transcripts to May 4, 2026.

If you already have transcripts, the Adobe Premiere panel continues to work and existing projects should stay intact. The panel keeps letting you open and edit transcripts you already created, and it keeps working with transcripts you import from elsewhere.

What still works inside Premiere, for now

The parts that survive are the local bits. The panels continue to run as long as Adobe keeps supporting CEP panels, while Adobe moves toward UXP for extensibility. That matters because Transcriptive, PowerSearch, and EFF-IT! sit in the CEP panel world. Digital Anarchy expects that older panels should continue to work for at least a couple of years, likely longer, but the long term direction stays with UXP.

EFF It: A Plug-In for Profanity and Professionals

In other words, your old transcripts do not evaporate, and your sequences do not suddenly uncut themselves. They just stop getting fed by the online transcription pipeline once the web services go dark.

Alignment becomes the escape hatch

There is one workflow the shutdown does not take away: importing transcripts from other sources and using the free Alignment function in the panel. If you already live on SRT, VTT, or third-party speech-to-text, alignment becomes the bridge back to text-based editing in your existing Transcriptive projects.

That also turns PowerSearch into more of a local indexer story. PowerSearch keeps operating in Premiere as a panel, and it can still search what is already in your project. The end of life does not remove it from your install, it removes the cloud services Transcriptive used for generating new transcripts.

If you depend on any of this in a shared pipeline, treat the transition as a tool change, not a footnote. Test the post shutdown behavior on a real project copy before you commit a production show to it.

Subscriptions, renewals, and refunds

Renewals for Transcriptive subscriptions have already stopped. If any renewal charges show up, the vendor asks customers to reach out for a refund.

The end of life notice also says users can keep using existing transcription access until May 2026. Once prepaid minutes run out, the public notice describes a pay as you go option for transcription during the remaining period before shutdown, with prepaid transcription credits no longer available.

Final builds and where to grab them

A final build with minor fixes is available for download for macOS and Windows.

The email notice points to version 3.17 installers here:
https://digitalanarchy.com/downloads/transcriptive_317_Pr.dmg
https://digitalanarchy.com/downloads/transcriptive_317_Pr.zip

The public end of life post points to version 3.16 installers here:
https://digitalanarchy.com/downloads/transcriptive_316_Pr.dmg
https://digitalanarchy.com/downloads/transcriptive_316_Pr.zip

If you archive toolchains for long running shows, stash the installer you actually deploy and document the host app versions you validated, especially with panel frameworks shifting over time.

The rest of the catalog continues

Ugly Gets an Upgrade: Digital Anarchy’s Free Halloween Plugins

This change only targets Transcriptive and the related panels. All other plugins remain available!

https://digitalanarchy.com/blog/video-editing-plugins/transcriptive-end-of-life-web-services-will-be-ending-in-may-2026/

https://digitalanarchy.com/eff-it/

https://digitalanarchy.com/transcriptive/

The post Digital Anarchy ends Transcriptive web first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the event: FMX is a production conference for animation and Visual Effects, mixing craft talks with pipeline sessions. It touches audio post, cinematography, and realtime tools such as Unreal.

Sound design: not an afterthought

Sound Design at FMX lands as a full track, built around immersive, interactive, and animated work where audio carries story weight. The track description positions sound as half the experience, then drills into fundamentals, standout projects, and where AI can help in early creative phases and where it fails.

The program brings in Supervising Sound Editor Nina Hartstone of Cinphonic, with a session on storytelling with sound that centers on recording, design, and editorial choices for film. Her listed credits include Bohemian Rhapsody, Moonage Daydream, Saltburn, and Wuthering Heights. She also teaches masterclasses at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg during the On Campus day, with limited participation and registration handled via program@fmx.de.

Supervising Re Recording Mixer David Fluhr brings a workflow talk tied to Walt Disney Animation Studios and the realities of modern delivery. The session covers sound, music, and mixing workflows that support storytelling, plus worldwide deliveries, language versioning, and the path from temp to final mix using sequences from Vaiana 2 and Zoomania 2.

A third session attacks the handoff between picture and audio. Christoph Groß-Fengels demonstrates an AI driven workflow that watches an edit, extracts key frames, sends them to a vision system via the Google Cloud Vision API, then searches a local sound effects library and assembles a first pass sound bed. The pipeline uses a Python workflow designed to slot into existing post pipelines. Try it, break it, then try it again before you trust it with a worklfow that ships.

Cinematography: where VFX changes the job

The Cinematography track adds Paul Cameron for a career conversation about the influence of VFX on visual design, in conversation with Jordan Thistlewood of Cooke Optics. Cameron’s credits include Westworld, Collateral, and Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell no Tales, and the talk is supposed to circle around collaboration from on set through post.

Spatial Storytelling: XR wants story first

A first time Spatial Storytelling track focuses on XR narrative craft across film, theater, and games, with an explicit mandate to keep story ahead of shiny tech.

Alex Coulombe of Agile Lens and director David Gochfeld present virtual production workflows behind A Christmas Carol VR and R and D with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Their talk “Live to Media framework” that captures live performance motion capture and preserves it via the Unreal Engine 5 Replay System, aiming for scalable, repeatable immersive content.

Andreea Ion Cojocaru of NUMENA argues for space as the medium in VR, contrasting references ranging from the Acropolis to Half Life’s City 17, and exploring scale transitions as narrative devices with examples including Mamoru Oshii’s Angel’s Egg and the Venice Biennale project titled Dear Mother.

Balthazar Auxietre of InnerspaceVR focuses on environmental narrative in immersive experiences and outlines practical design techniques and workflows, including use of Gravity Sketch, with an emphasis on balancing cinematic direction and user agency.

Robyn Winfield-Smith discusses narrative work in Apple’s 180 degree immersive format using the Blackmagic Design URSA Cine Immersive camera developed specifically for Apple Vision Pro. The session description covers story development and previsualisation, stereoscopic workflows, scenic elements to guide attention, spatial audio considerations, and the future of spatial entertainment. The supplied details do not provide technical camera specifications.

Dates, formats, and what you can actually watch

FMX runs On Site May 5 to May 7, with Online and On Campus on May 8, and On Demand from May 9 through June 9. The ticket page has all kinds of pass types including Conference Pass, Business Pass, Combi Pass, Day Pass, Experience Pass, Online Pass, and Press Pass.

Two evening get togethers round out the schedule. Tuesday, May 5 runs 19:00 to 21:00 and is powered by Houdini (Meet your favourite Digital Production Editor there). Wednesday May 6 runs 19:00 to 21:00 and is powered by ROE Visual.

The post FMX 2026 bets on sound and spatial craft first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the companies: Flanders Scientific builds reference monitors for finishing and delivery, now sitting nearer to Atomos on-camera staples like Ninja and Shinobi with fewer excuses for the grade to surprise you.

The financial stuff

A Share Purchase Agreement is signed to buy 100 percent of the issued capital of Dan Desmet & Associates, Inc., doing business as Flanders Scientific, Inc. The purchase price splits into upfront consideration plus an earn-out, with the longer-term portion tied to ongoing business operation and performance. Completion is subject to settlement of a recently approved $10 million business finance facility and other customary conditions precedent. Completion is expected to occur by the end of May 2026. The new loan facility comes from Commonwealth Bank of Australia. Part of the proceeds fund the acquisition. Funds also go toward product development acceleration, increased inventory holdings, and general working capital for both businesses.

What changes and what stays stubborn

Flanders Scientific will continue to operate as a distinct brand within the buyer’s family. There is no change to product philosophy, engineering approach, or the standards professionals rely on. That matters because reference displays live and die by trust. The plan also leans on distribution and support. Expanded infrastructure and regional presence are a way to serve markets that historically have been harder to reach for FSI, while maintaining support for the existing professional user base

For working folks, the takeaway is mMore of the monitor mountain is now intended to sit under one roof, from on-camera and on-set viewing through postproduction finishing and final delivery checks. If that becomes reality in products and support, it can reduce the number of vendor handoffs that usually show up as last-minute surprises.

NAB booths, and the awkwardly fun part

Both brands are slated to appear at NAB Show 2026, with separate booths listed and product cross-pollination mentioned across the two locations. One brand is in Central Hall at booth C4731. The other is in North Hall at booth N1827. Oh well, even more walkies necessary :)

https://www.atomos.com/2026/04/07/flanders-scientific-aquisition/

https://company-announcements.afr.com/asx/ams/8455008b-36c0-11f1-bf92-ee5d5bcb84e7.pdf

The post Atomos buys Flanders Scientific first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Even if you really want to, you have your workflow and rarely have the time to really get to know the new software. In the end, I was tired of getting slowed down by a constantly crashing software and not being able to render without artefacts. I thought the time spent on these issues with Premiere would have been better spent switching, especially since I was already colour grading in Davinci Resolve. To make the transition easier, here are some tips for switching from Premiere Pro to Davinci Resolve so you can get started as quickly and efficiently as possible:

Project Manager: Wait, where did I save my project?

One big difference between Davinci Resolve and Premiere Pro is how projects are managed. For this, the first thing you will see when opening the software is the Project Manager. This is the place to create and manage your projects. I’m honest: when switching, that was something that needed some time to adapt to, but it’s worth it.

While Premiere Pro projects are saved as files where you decide where, Davinci Resolve works with managed Libraries. These are structured containers that serve as a central repository for all project data. Libraries are managed via the Project Manager and can be hosted on your computer, on a networked server or in the Blackmagic Cloud. To switch between the three options, simply click on the one you choose in the top left corner of the Project Manager.

If you tend to make copies of your project on your computer to keep backups, this will change your workflow. But we’ll take a look at that later. For now, it’s important to know that projects saved in your active project library can easily be exported to your hard drive as a .drp file for a manual backup or transfer to another system. To export your project, right-click it and choose export.

Libraries come with some advantages. My favourite one: multiuser collaboration. I can’t describe how useful this is! Editors, colourists, VFX artists and sound engineers – everybody can work with the same project file on different workstations. Even at the same time, in the same timeline. Brilliant and timesaving.

Also speeding me up: powerbins. These are useful when working with media I use in multiple projects. They make media easily accessible across different projects, as long as it is in the same Project Library.  

Pages: Where do I start?

When switching from Premiere Pro, you’ll probably be used to using Dynamic Linking to get your edit into Audition, After Effects and Media Encoder to complete your postproduction process. In Resolve, this is what the Pages are for.

These follow the typical postproduction process from ingest to delivery, which provides a great advantage: you can have your whole postproduction in just one software. No exporting timelines for audio postproduction, visual effects or colour and no translation issues between software. There’s no need to manage multiple project files or export assets to get them from one project into another. Changes made in one page are instantly accessible in others, and you can quickly go back and forth as needed to change things.

I think to start, it’s important to say: Most things can be achieved in the Edit Page. Don’t get scared away by the masses of pages and functions! There are different ways to achieve your goal when editing, and you will get around very well, mostly by starting in Edit Page. Lots of functions from other pages are also available there. If you like, you can even turn off pages you don’t want to use in the preferences. To still give you a bit of orientation, here’s a quick overview of what the different pages are for:

The Media Page is for ingesting and organising. Right next to it we find the Cut page, which is an editing interface designed for speed. In the Edit Page, we have the traditional editing interface, which should be very familiar to you, coming from Premiere Pro. Quite different from After Effects is Fusion, the node-based workspace for compositing and VFX. The Colorpage – quite self-explanatory – is made for colour grading. Fairlight is the page where you can mix and master your audio after editing to then, finally, render your video out in the Deliver Page.

Interface basics: Where to find what you need

It will probably need some time for you to adapt to what’s different. One of the things that took me a while to get used to was the fixed panel places. While we’re used to being able to move everything around freely in Premiere Pro, Davinci Resolve allows only view windows to pop out and be moved freely throughout all pages. But once I adapted, it made total sense where everything is.

In the Edit Page, one big part of the window is the timeline in the lower part of the screen. Above that, we’ve got the source viewer and timeline viewer. Note: When your screen is too small or your screen resolution is too low, you might only see one viewer. Don’t worry, you can easily switch between those pressing Q.

In the Edit Page there are nine panels you can open and close by clicking their buttons located in the upper part of the screen. The ones on the upper left side will then open on the left and vice versa. The Media Pool on the upper left will give you fast access to your footage. It’s the same Media Pool as in the Media Page which we’ll look at later. The Effects panel, the index, and the mixer should be intuitive when switching from Premiere, though the feature I love most in the panels is the Inspector on the upper left side.

It could be compared to the effects controls in Premiere but has basic effects like crop already integrated, as well as more advanced effects like stabilisation, speed change, retime, and scaling.

Even though most panels are fixed, you can give yourself some more space by closing the panels you don’t need. Depending on whether you have opened multiple panels from both sides or not, they can be full-screen height or half-screen height. Accidentally messed up your UI? Don’t worry. You can quickly reset your UI layout in the menu Workspace > Reset UI Layout.

You’ll find dual-screen mode, full-screen Timeline, and, using Resolve Studio, permanent full-screen video out in the same menu.

Live Save and Project Backups

When working in Premiere Pro I often feared software crashes. I tried to save after every single thing I did because autosaving just didn’t cut it. Davinci Resolves Auto Save, which is called Live Save, is on a completely different level. I never fear that something is gone! I’ve got way fewer issues with the software crashing, but if it does, I know that what I did last will be there.

To restore the backups, right-click the project in the Project Manager. This won’t overwrite the current project version you’re working in. If you’re used to copying your Premiere Pro Sequence to revert to an earlier version of your edit, you may like to check out the Timeline backup function. It works just like Project Backups and can be activated and customised in the same spot. To restore a Timeline Backup, right-click on the timeline in either the media panel or Media Page. Just note: Timeline Backups will be stored locally, even when working on Network or Cloud Libraries, so they will only be accessible on the system where they were created.

Media Page: Import and Media Organisation

The one time I’d highly recommend switching pages is when importing media into your project. Even though it is possible to import media on all pages except Deliver, the Media Page offers many options for importing and managing your media.

The Media Page is split into Media Storage and Media Pool. The upper-left is Media Storage, which might be familiar to you if you used the Media Browser in Premiere Pro. It’s effectively a file browser for finding or exploring files on drives mounted on your computer. What I find very useful about this: you can quickly review or check footage in the viewer in the top-right corner of your screen, even without importing. A little extra: hovering over the footage lets you scrub through and preview without loading a clip into the viewer.

The lower part of the screen is your Media Pool – the project-specific repository for all the assets you’re importing or creating in Resolve, like footage, audio files, timelines, etc. On the left side, you’ll find the current projects bin list with the master bin. It’s the top level of your projects’ folder structure where all the other bins containing your project’s footage are listed. The right side shows the inside of the currently opened bin.

To get your footage into Resolve, simply drag and drop it from Media Storage, Finder, or Explorer into the Media Pool. If doing so on the Media Storage Bin list, the folder structure will be translated into the bin structure of your project. When adding to the right side, all the footage will be unpacked into the current bin

But there are other import options that let you stay in Resolve, leading to the same results: when you navigate to your folder in the Media Storage and right-click it, you’ll see the option to import your footage folder and all its subfolders into the current bin. This I find useful when working e.g., with Sony in camera folder structures, where you don’t want all the extra bins. Alternatively, you can choose “add folder and Sub folders into Media Pool (creating bins)” to get your complete folder structure as sub bins in the current bin. This is helpful if you already have your folders sorted out on your hard drive and want to copy the structure into Resolve.

Ways to create and work with proxies

Depending on the footage you’re working on, you might want to render some proxies. This is one particularly strong thing in Resolve and speeds me up quite a bit. You’ve got two options: if you’ve already set up your project and imported your footage, it’s super easy to create proxies by right-clicking on some highlighted footage and choosing proxie media > generate proxy media from the project settings.

In this case, it will automatically create proxies for the highlighted clips and save them in the location that is set in the project settings > master setting when scrolling down to working folders.

The Quality of the proxies can be defined in the same menu at optimised media and render cash. The proxy resolution is defined in relation to the original resolution. Possibilities are, for example: original, half of the original, a quarter of the original, etc. By default, it’s set to “choose automatically”, which will generate at the current set timeline resolution. When working with proxies, you can switch fast between disabling All proxies, preferring proxies and preferring camera originals, in the Timeline viewer.

You can also see whether proxies are attached by the white (for high-resolution) or purple (for proxies) icon on your clip, which will be visible in the thumbnail of your clip in the media pool.

If you really want to speed up your preparation process in advance, you should look into the Blackmagic Proxy Generator, an external tool which will automatically be installed with Davinci Resolve. It gives you the opportunity to render proxies in advance, without even having to get your project set up before. The proxies will then automatically be attached when importing the footage into a project.

This process will ensure you can go straight into editing when setting up your project. The strongest part of this tool is the watch folder function, which continues to scan your chosen folders for additional footage even after generating proxies. Very useful when you keep adding footage to folders you’re already working with.

Organising footage with scene metadata and smart bins

After you’ve added everything to your bins, it’s time to organise your footage. With Premiere Pro, I used to either restructure footage directly in bins, which made everything messy quite quickly, or sort my footage into sequences. In Resolve, I recommend using the scene metadata and smart bins. I know that Premiere Pro also lets you create smart bins using metadata, but it wasn’t intuitive enough for me to use back then. Resolve on the other side makes it super easy:

On the Media Page, click one clip or highlight multiple, then navigate to the top-right to close the audio panel. This will give your open Metadata panel more space. Choose “shot and scene” from the three-dotted menu. There, you’ve got lots of options to set metadata. One thing I like to use in this context is Clip colour, since it gives me an easy way to differentiate between different footage, for example, interviews with different people. Other than that, you can set metadata and let Davinci Resolve create smart bins based on it. For a start, I’d recommend you use Keywords. To do so, enter a Keyword you want to sort your footage by into the Keyword cell.

Then navigate to the bottom-left of your screen to find the Smart Bin List. By default, there should be a bin for Keywords. Davinci Resolve automatically generates one smart bin for every keyword you set before. By clicking on ‘Keywords’, a menu with all the smart bins will open.

Personally, I love this feature because it lets me keep my original folder structure while allowing me to sort my footage more intuitively. It also allows me to have the same clip in different bins, e.g., for location and person, which speeds up my process. With all this said, you should have everything you need to make your first steps in the software. Next up: how to get your Project Settings and Timeline right to start your first edit in Davini Resolve.

The post Getting your bearings: Switching from Premiere Pro to DaVinci Resolve first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Jana Johnston.

For those who don’t know the tool: Revcut is a browser based video review and approval platfrom for sharing cuts with clients and teams. It sits alongside tools such as Frame.io and Vimeo Review, focusing on European hosting and GDPR compliance.

Revcut.io has launched as a European, GDPR focused video review and approval platform aimed at production companies, agencies and post facilities that require client feedback workflows without relying on US hosted services. Revcut positions itself as a privacy first alternative to established cloud review platforms. The service is fully browser based. Users upload video files, share review links and collect timecoded comments directly in the player.

A familiar category

Cloud based review and approval is already a mature segment of the postproduction pipeline. Services such as Frame.io, now owned by Adobe, and Vimeo Review provide frame accurate commenting, versioning and client sharing in browser environments.

Revcut openly addresses this competitive context. On its “Alternatives to Frame.io” page, the company positions itself as a European based substitute for US headquartered platforms. It highlights data residency and privacy as its key distinguishing factors. Revcut does not claim novel codec technology, AI driven indexing, or advanced pipeline automation in its published material. The emphasis is on secure review links, commenting, and European data hosting. That focus is narrow but clear.

GDPR as product feature

The company states that all data is hosted in Europe and that the platform is GDPR compliant. GDPR, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, governs how personal data is processed and stored within the European Union. Revcut’s positioning suggests that data sovereignty and regulatory compliance are central to its value proposition, particularly for clients in the EU who are cautious about US cloud providers. For facilities handling sensitive commercial campaigns, unreleased broadcast material or internal corporate communications, data location can be a procurement factor. Revcut is clearly targeting this segment.

Core feature set

The platform provides secure video upload and streaming in browser. Reviewers can leave time based comments directly on the timeline. Users can share review links with clients and collaborators. The company describes the workflow as quick and simple. No API documentation or integration roadmap is publicly referenced in the sections I’ve seen.

There is no mention of direct integration with editors such as Premiere , Avid Media Composer or DaVinci Resolve. Likewise, no mention is made of panel extensions or plugin-based workflows.

Target users

Revcut states that it is designed for video professionals, agencies and production companies. The platform appears intended for client approval cycles, internal team feedback and possibly distributed production environments. There is no mention of large scale VFX shot tracking, asset management or integration with production tracking systems such as ShotGrid.

In that sense, Revcut occupies the lighter end of the review spectrum, centred on cuts rather than shot based workflows. For editors and producers working on commercials, branded content, corporate films or social campaigns, this category of tool typically replaces email attachments and ad hoc file transfer services.

Pricing and access

What is missing

The public documentation reviewed does not include performance benchmarks, uptime statistics or a published service status page. There is no publicly accessible API documentation, SDK or webhook reference that would indicate suitability for integration into automated pipelines. There is also no mention of enterprise features such as single sign on, audit logs, role-based access control or storage redundancy architecture in the sections reviewed. This does not mean such features are absent, only that they are not described in the publicly accessible material examined so far. I haven’t found them. For professional deployment, these details matter. As always, new tools and innovations should be tested before use in production. Stability, performance under load and security documentation should be assessed before migrating live review pipelines.

// Revcut homepage
https://revcut.io/

// Revcut Alternatives to Frame.io page
https://revcut.io/alternatives-to-frameio

The post Revcut launches GDPR first Video-review platform first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

The Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München (HFF Munich) is one of Germany’s leading film schools, offering specialised programmes in directing, production, cinematography, screenwriting, and visual effects. Infinity Hotel is a surrealist short film produced by the school’s VFX students, Vanessa Chu, Vanessa Ramovic, Jim Obmann, Emil Pogolski, Sonja Latussek, and Elena Rid, in collaboration with the departments of Screenwriting and Production. Directed by Professor Matthias Zentner, and supported by Prof. Jürgen Schopper, Prof. Sinje Gebauer and Dr. Rodolfo Anes Silveira, the project combines live-action cinematography, 3D scanning, and digital environments.

A production report by the Students

Written by Vanessa Ramovic, Jim Obmann,
Sonja Latussek, Elena Rid, Emil Pogolski and Vanessa Chu.

After completing our first animated short films as visual effects students at the University of Television and Film Munich, we selected our next joint film project. The basic idea of INFINITY HOTEL, written by students Michael Schwärzler and Jakob Smolinski, immediately suggested weaving reality and surrealism together. Themes such as inner fears and memories accompany our protagonist, Clarence, an insurance salesman travelling from hotel to hotel. He enters a strange hotel room and quickly realises that something about this Infinity Hotel cannot be right. He not only wanders through twisting corridors and distorted staircases, but also through fragments of his own memories, confronting them.

INFINITY HOTEL is a collaborative film project between the VFX students and the screenwriting and production departments at HFF Munich. Directed by Professor Matthias Zentner, the film gave us the opportunity to contribute to many parts of the production process and to realise a story that would hardly exist without visual effects.

Our experiences from the animated short films WOODLAND and LITTLE STAR, created in the first year of study, helped us build on existing knowledge while acquiring new expertise. Unlike full CGI animated short films, the main challenge this time was producing photorealistic assets and shots for a live-action film. The following article reflects on our experiences during production and outlines how the visual effects of INFINITY HOTEL were created.

Concept & Painting!

In the early stages of script development, we explored the visual identity of the mysterious Infinity Hotel. The VFX students designed the protagonist’s childhood living room, the hotel corridors and colour palettes, and created initial storyboard elements for planned VFX sequences. A concept art seminar with Luis Guggenberger encouraged us to give free rein to our imagination and broaden our creative horizons.

Paintings play a central role in the film. Early in production, we gained valuable insight into the work of the production design department through collaboration with Eva Maria Stiebler, who printed our digitally designed paintings onto canvas and brought them to life. Vanessa Ramovic, Vanessa Chu and Emil Pogolski created the paintings that Clarence observes before entering the ominous hotel room.

Each painting exists in two versions, each representing a fragmented glimpse into his memories or dreams. One version might show young Clarence playing with a toy rocket or receiving his stuffed snail from his mother. The second versions depict distorted pasts and desires, such as the boy as a real astronaut, abstracted with a snail shell instead of a head, or alone and silent in his childhood living room without his mother. The paintings act as clues to the character’s past. Four works were digitally painted in Procreate and printed on large canvases by Eva Maria Stiebler, framed in wood for the set. Two additional paintings were created as charcoal drawings on paper.

Comics!

The comic books lying on the hotel room table were illustrated by Vanessa Ramovic and depict the adventurous “Cosmic Knight” Clarence’s childhood hero and career role model. Sonja Latussek animated the Cosmic cartoon shown on the small CRT television behind Clarence using the drawing and animation software Krita. She aligned the hero’s origin story with the comic books and portrayed his journey into space. Each frame was drawn individually, giving the cartoon its distinctive two-dimensional charm. In collaboration with production design, the animation was played back on the television on set.

The Endless Spiral

From the start of pre-production, we aimed to visualise Clarence’s inner emotional state. The red spiral staircase at our second Munich location provided an ideal opportunity to depict his descent into memory. Since the physical set could not accommodate infinite depth, Vanessa and Jim digitally extended the staircase. They captured a 360-degree FARO LiDAR scan of the stairwell, converting the spatial data into a 3D environment.

It was striking to see how precisely the point clouds generated by Faro Scene replicated the physical world. The resulting model was adjusted and extracted in Blender, where Vanessa and Jim animated the structure. The deformation of the staircase was particularly complex and was achieved using a geometry node system in Blender. Vanessa recreated the staircase texture in Substance Painter, based on reference photos taken on location by the entire VFX team.

The final compositing step involved integrating the digital staircase into the original footage. With guidance from lecturer Martin Tallosy, Vanessa learned how to use rotoscoping in Nuke to create nearly invisible transitions between plate and CG elements. Martin supported the integration of CG footage into all VFX shots and helped with initial colour adjustments. Lecturer Ando Avila taught us to track handheld camera movement using 3D Equalizer, enabling Vanessa and Jim to transfer the motion to the digital 3D model. Working closely with our instructors allowed us to explore new tools and combine traditional sets with digital visual effects.

The particular challenge with the spiral staircase was that the real staircase on set did not have a perfect circular shape. This required us to develop a believable transition from the set staircase into our circular CG spiral staircase that extends into depth. It was also meant to feel less steep and cramped than the real-world reference. Another challenge lay in the angles of the steps. On the real staircase, the steps were not perpendicular to the circle’s tangent at their respective positions, but instead met the circular form at a slightly offset angle. For the set extension, however, we wanted an aesthetic solution that would integrate more harmoniously into the staircase. Our goal was therefore to build a transition in which the skewed angles of the set staircase would gradually evolve into the perfect roundness of the digital staircase. We opted for a smooth progression: the closer one gets to the real staircase, the more angled the steps become, while further down they eventually align perfectly perpendicular to the respective circle tangent. This created a flowing transition between the physical and the digital staircase.

Vanessa Chu found it particularly challenging to implement the staircase in perspective in a way that felt believable while simultaneously conveying an endless depth. Normally, depth is not perceived very clearly in spiral staircases. However, in order to tell the story that this staircase extends infinitely, we had to work with tilted CG spiral staircases. Vanessa Chu and Jim Obmann therefore searched for a method to display the 3D model at an angle and stretch it in depth without introducing errors in the geometry.

By the time the iterations and feedback from Jürgen and Matthias were incorporated, the basic animation workflow had already been established. The professors’ feedback therefore focused primarily on lighting conditions and the intensity of the animation. Jim developed a workaround using a geometry node system and found a solution that allowed the staircase to be stretched in depth. Physically, this staircase is not correct, but for our visual storytelling this approach worked very well. At this point, physics was deliberately bent a little in order to convey the desired impression of infinite depth.

An Elevator Ride into the Psyche

The elevator was symbolically conceived in the script as a vehicle transporting Clarence through different layers of memory. In winter 2024, Emil previsualised the first elevator scenes, experimenting with lighting and composition to send the elevator into a threatening depth populated by oversized snails.

After Vanessa developed the elevator design through multiple concept drawings, collaboration with production designer Eva Maria Stiebler became essential. While the elevator appeared as a 3D object in full CG shots, it was also built physically in the HFF film studio. Digital concepts and real-world patination informed each other, as Vanessa’s designs guided the construction, which in turn defined the dimensions for Emil’s 3D model.

Sonja Latussek supported the team with detailed textures, giving the elevator a realistic appearance. She also carefully textured small debris objects placed on the elevator roof. Once models were finalised, Emil and Vanessa developed the layout for three full CG shots, stacking snail shells in front of a dark background. Elevator chain swings and dangerous pendulum movements were animated by Vanessa. In consultation with director Matthias Zentner and Professor Jürgen Schopper, Emil built the lighting setup, handled compositing, and fine-tuned lighting digitally.

A central task was the transfer of Vanessa Ramovic’s concept drawings into a precise 3D model. A key aspect of this work was creating a coherent connection between the set construction and the digital elevator. To ensure this, particular attention was paid to a dimensionally accurate approach. In retrospect, Emil Pogolski and Vanessa Ramovic would primarily invest more time in texturing and look development. They would also carry out tests under the actual lighting conditions of the shots at an earlier stage, in order to better align materiality and mood.

To integrate the realistic elevator into the surreal environment, Jim inserted real footage of the actors inside the physical elevator into the digital model opening. Emil added digital dust particles to intensify the ominous abyss and blend live-action and CGI seamlessly.

The Distoring Corridor

Another highlight was the hotel corridor that begins to warp and distort. After Vanessa Chu and Elena Rid created initial concepts, Jim modelled the corridor based on a long basement room at the location, captured via FARO LiDAR scanning and photogrammetry. Since the corridor needed to deform dynamically, Jim tested various geometry node systems to allow distortion at arbitrary points.

Simulating an infinite corridor directly would overwhelm most computers, so Jim devised a trick by scaling the corridor into depth. Viewed through Blender’s camera, the corridor appears endless. He developed a setup allowing control over both roll axis and depth movement. This resulted in a 50-metre corridor segment that, when scaled, created the illusion of infinity. Within this segment, movement allowed the corridor to emerge and disappear into depth.

Each light element within the segment could be controlled individually, enabling transitions from white light to threatening red flames that visually pursued Clarence. It was essential to integrate these light sources with the original plate.

Lighting movement on set had to be transferred to the 3D world and synchronised with the treadmill speed on which the protagonist ran. Once physical conditions were translated into Blender, the composite could function correctly. Jim also handled greenscreen keying and camera tracking, removing the original background and inserting Clarence into the rendered 3D corridor.

The Snail and why it should be feared

The gigantic snail shell threatening to pull Clarence into his dark past was a central element of the film. Elena Rid began sketching snail concepts before the story was fully defined. Inspired by horror films such as I Saw the TV Glow, the snail was designed to feel out of place, like a relic from another world. It represented a mutated version of Clarence’s childhood plush snail, distorted by grief.

At the beginning, a more classic texture was planned for the snail. As the planning progressed, however, the idea emerged to give it a subtle resemblance to a skull. Elena Rid then stretched the 3D model of the snail so that the spiral at its center would recall the hairstyle of Clarence’s mother. During sculpting, the student worked in fine cracks. Elena mainly used the cloth brush to add further small, swirling details and folds to the surface. Small indentations and a pore-covered structure were also incorporated into the sculpt. Elena primarily based this work on the previously created concept art and additional reference photos of old bones.

To achieve the prehistoric, fossil-like look, Elena engaged intensively with the main character. The snail thus served as a symbol for a very old, deeply buried trauma of Clarence. As references, the student mainly used an ammonite fossil from a museum.

Elena later modelled and textured the snail during the VFX phase. It was not intended as a static prop, but as a manifestation of Clarence’s fears and inner conflict, visually referencing the stuffed snail in his hand. Elena sculpted the primary snail in Blender. Additional snails with varied surfaces and shapes were created with Vanessa Chu. Texturing in Substance Painter, supported by lecturer Birgit Hämmerle, resulted in a photorealistic surface with a fossilised yet “moist” quality.

Elena adjusted lighting intensity and temperature, rendered the snail shell, tracked scenes with Ando Avila in 3D Equalizer, and refined them in a complex Nuke setup.

In several iterations, the exact shape of the “eye” was defined: how strongly it should protrude, in which direction the folds should run, and how the desired effect could best be achieved. In addition to a fold that functioned like the snail’s eye, the inner hole of the snail was also intended to resemble a screaming mouth in a face. In this area, Elena Rid and Jim Obmann worked together on the interior of the snail. Jim created a soft mask in Blender that fades toward the edge of the hole. External light sources were not supposed to influence the interior. In the end, it was meant to appear like a black hole that almost sucks Clarence in.

Texturing in Substance Painter was Elena Rid’s first experience with the software, which initially made it a challenge. We wanted to achieve a moldy look, which the student built up using many layers of moss brushes in different whitish and greenish tones on the base texture. Most of the fine grooves in the snail texture were therefore created in Substance Painter, as the details would otherwise have become too small during modeling. The focus was placed more strongly on a bony, fossilized surface.

Since no greenscreen was used, Martin Tallosy assisted with rotoscoping. Colours, contrasts, and brightness were adjusted to integrate the snail seamlessly into live-action footage. Vanessa Chu, Vanessa Ramovic, and Sonja Latussek assisted with camera tracking. Accurate match moves were essential for positioning the digital camera correctly within the large hall.

Learnigns from Set Supervision

After working on animated films in the first year, we eagerly anticipated shooting on a real film set. Preparation involved understanding the responsibilities of VFX supervision on set, ensuring VFX shots were filmed and documented correctly to avoid post-production issues. Asynchronous supervision courses at CAVE Academy helped us learn LiDAR scanning, photogrammetry, and reference photography.

Once preparations and pre-produced props were complete, the four-day shoot began. Supervisory duties rotated among the team, giving everyone insight into all aspects of the role. Tasks included logging VFX shots, recording focal lengths and camera data, capturing shadows using grey balls, and placing tracking points on greenscreens. Colour checkers ensured colour accuracy and white balance. Two shoot days took place at the Munich location for corridors and reception scenes. The remaining days were spent at the HFF film studio for elevator and living room scenes.

Mentor Jan Stolz provided invaluable support as set supervisor. Cinematographer Torsten Lippstock shot the film on an ARRI Alexa 35. Simon Burger introduced us to the role of the Digital Imaging Technician. Mihail Dervenski guided data management and later edited the film, aligning technical expertise with the director’s vision.

Sound Mixing and Grading

Creating a dark atmosphere was essential. Composer Lukas Stipar, previously involved in WOODLAND, delivered a soundtrack that added weight and intensified tension. Dr. Rodolfo Anes Silveira supervised post-production sound, enhancing clarity and authenticity. A Dolby Atmos mix was created at PHAROS Studio 1, where Tschangis Charokh demonstrated object-based audio placement. Andreas Lautil handled colour grading, giving the film a consistent dark-warm palette.

Conclusion

In retrospect, INFINITY HOTEL was an exciting project for us, from which we drew important personal and professional insights.

For Sonja Latussek, it became clear above all that it is important to define clear areas of responsibility at an early stage. In hindsight, she feels she should have paid closer attention from the outset to the fixed tasks that remained under her responsibility and were primarily related to the film’s visual look, such as the textures of the snail or the elevator. An unexpected challenge for her was greenscreen compositing in Nuke, which proved significantly more complex in some scenes than initially anticipated. Camera tracking, on the other hand, went very well. Sonja learned how tracking works in principle, which points in space are suitable for tracking, when they do not work, and at what point a track becomes truly precise. Although she found all areas of on-set production particularly exciting, she would like to focus more strongly on 2D work in the future. She found the 2D animation of COSMIC KNIGHT very pleasant, as it integrated coherently with the CRT television.

Vanessa Chu mainly emphasises the importance of critically questioning technical statements and not blindly relying on hypothetical possibilities. It became apparent that an ISO setting that was too high on the Alexa camera led to heavy image noise, which meant that tracking points in 3D Equalizer had to be painstakingly corrected by hand. She therefore advocates handling technical parameters such as ISO more sensitively in the future. She also emphasizes the importance of collecting as much data as possible on set and communicating early to the production that time must be scheduled between VFX shots to gather data such as references, measurements, and scans.

Emil Pogolski summarizes his conclusion with a simple but fitting guiding principle: “Make it good, kid.” From his perspective, the production of INFINITY HOTEL proceeded overall without major complications. Planned ideas could be implemented, and post-production was structured, even if it took longer than originally planned.

For Elena Rid, it became particularly clear in retrospect how valuable an even longer and freer concept phase would have been. Elena would have liked to work with more concepts and, above all, to experiment more with the snail. Due to time constraints, this was only possible to a limited extent within the project scope. For future work, the student wants to consciously allow more room for experimentation. At the same time, Elena looks back very positively on the rest of the production process. The team made it through the intensive phase well, and in her view, the scheduling in particular proved to be a major strength of the project.

Vanessa Ramovic believes that most aspects of the production worked very well. Towards the end, she and Emil invested a great deal of time in post-production because the elevator compositing iterations required significant effort. She would also like to develop more concepts in the future and test different lighting moods more intensively. Her personal conclusion is less about technology and more about personal attitude: not losing the joy of the work. For her, making films means expressing something and perhaps even putting a smile on someone’s face. This inner light should not be allowed to fade.

Acknowledgements

What was special about our second year of studies at the University of Television and Film Munich was that our entire cohort worked together on a single project. Without question, this was a true team effort in which all six students contributed their existing knowledge to the film while continuing to develop their skills.

Our special thanks go to our professor Jürgen Schopper, who provided us with strong support in VFX supervision. His vision and creative input helped us, during the weekly classes known as “weeklies”, to push the VFX shots to their final form. Prof. Sinje Gebauer, Dr. Rodolfo Anes Silveira, Berter Orpak, Jonas Kluger, Martin Tallosy and Petra Hereth, who together with Professor Schopper form the chair of the VFX degree programme, supported us throughout the entire year with their expertise across various areas of the VFX pipeline.

Together with Prof. Sinje Gebauer, we ensured that all assets and shots were realised and integrated into the overall flow. INFINITY HOTEL introduced us to working with new VFX tools and to closer collaboration with the screenwriting and production departments at the university. Our screenwriters Michael Schwärzler and Jakob Smolinski inspired us early on with precise story ideas, which we were already able to incorporate creatively into our concept drawings in November 2024. Nevertheless, the further development of the material was a collective exchange, in which we, along with our director and professor Matthias Zentner, contributed ideas and gained insight into the authors’ working processes.

Our producers Sonja Hopf and Konstantin Holzner supported us from the very beginning and guided the production with their extensive expertise. While we, as VFX students, largely operated like a small VFX studio during post-production, we were involved in the film from the outset and gained deep insights into various departments, such as production design and casting.

We would also like to thank our actors Till Raskopf, Jonathan Tittel, Nick Woodland, and Sophie Melbinger, as well as the entire film team, for bringing the fictional characters to life and for creating a strong short film together. After the successful completion of the hotel, we were finally able to present the film to a broad audience and guests from the VFX industry at our premiere as part of the VFX Reels 2025 on 27 November 2025 at the HFF. The film premiered at the VFX-Reels 2025 on 27 November 2025 at HFF Munich.

The Producers’ view

WRITTEN BY SONJA HOPF AND KONSTANTIN HOLZNER

As student producers, our task was to realise a live-action narrative film with a high proportion of visual effects, from development through to festival distribution. Working closely with the VFX and screenwriting students, we entered an entirely new production terrain. One of our key learnings was the necessity of considering VFX shots and technical requirements from the very beginning.

We developed a solid understanding of how previs is created and how it functions, as well as what is required on the production side to make a set truly “VFX-ready”. This included scheduling time buffers for tracking markers and scans and actively coordinating between creative departments and the VFX supervisor. It became clear early on that every shot requires detailed, early planning. Learning to realistically assess how many shots can be achieved in a shooting day, and how VFX-heavy shoot days must be calculated and structured, proved to be a particularly valuable challenge.

The project could only succeed as a collective effort. Coming together early in development allowed us to contribute as creative producers and gain a deeper understanding of both the material and the production challenges. Continuous communication across departments was essential, especially as locations changed, the set expanded, and creative ambitions had to be balanced against available resources. Working with professional heads of department set a high bar and challenged us to meet professional standards, a goal we ultimately achieved, resulting in work we are proud of.

The post Infinity Hotel: Endless Rooms, Endless Renders first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by HFF Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München.

For those who don’t know the tool: LumaFusion by LumaTouch is a professional non-linear video editor for mobile devices. It sits between consumer apps and desktop suites like Premiere or DaVinci Resolve, offering editing on phones and tablets.

Android version grows up

LumaTouch has released a major update to LumaFusion for Android, version 2.5. The company states that the Android edition now mirrors most of the editing power of its iOS counterpart. The update focuses on workflow speed, transition control, and codec flexibility for professional postproduction on mobile hardware.

Faster transitions with fewer taps

The new Head and Tail Transitions function automatically adds a cross-dissolve to both the start and end of any selected clip. This eliminates multiple manual steps for editors who rely on simple fades or dissolve patterns to soften cuts. A second option allows applying multiple transitions at once. Users can select several clips in the timeline, double-tap any transition in the Transitions Library, and the effect is instantly applied to all selected clips. This behaviour mirrors the quick-apply gestures familiar to desktop editing software.

Finding source media now works both ways

LumaFusion 2.5 introduces two linked search commands: Find Selected Clip in Library and Find Selected Clip in Timeline. Selecting a clip in the timeline and invoking the first command highlights the original file in the media library. In reverse, choosing a clip in the library and selecting the second command reveals all its instances on the timeline. The feature simplifies management of reused media in multi-sequence edits.

Interface flexibility

Users can now choose the layout of the Effects Editor. Controls and presets can appear on either side of the display, depending on personal workflow or screen orientation. LumaTouch says this update improves ergonomics on large tablets and ultrawide Android devices.

APV codec support

LumaFusion for Android now supports exporting projects in Samsung’s Advanced Professional Video (APV) codec. APV is a perceptually lossless intra-frame codec designed for mobile devices, offering high-quality compression for 4K and 8K video. LumaTouch notes that APV files consume around 20 per cent less storage than comparable formats while maintaining 10- to 16-bit depth and HDR support. The codec’s intra-frame structure also simplifies frame-accurate editing and colour correction.

Near parity with iOS version

LumaTouch developers describe this release as a milestone toward feature parity between Android and iOS versions. Given the platform differences in file system access and media handling, achieving functional equivalence has been technically complex. The company has not yet announced any timeline for full parity, but the Android version now includes nearly all editing, trimming, and transition options available on iOS.

Availability and pricing

LumaFusion for Android is available via Google Play and the Galaxy Store. At press time, the standard licence price listed by LumaTouch is approximately EUR 34.99 or USD 29.99, varying by region.

Verdict

LumaFusion 2.5 continues LumaTouch’s push to make mobile editing genuinely production-ready rather than a novelty. The update primarily benefits Android professionals working on tablets, foldables, or production field devices. Its new transition automation and APV codec export broaden both speed and fidelity options.

As with any mobile tool promising professional capability, Digital Production reminds readers to verify performance and codec compatibility in their specific pipelines before committing to critical projects. The latest version, while feature-rich, should be thoroughly tested for stability with complex timelines and HDR workflows.

The post LumaFusion for Android catches up with iOS sibling first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Foundry has confirmed what many suspected was coming: perpetual maintenance is officially on its way out. From 1 January 2027, all active maintenance customers for Nuke Family, Mari and Katana will be converted to subscription plans at their next renewal. Renewals during 2026 will run as normal. After that, Foundry’s entire licensing structure will be subscription only, with no further perpetual updates. According to the company, this change “aligns Foundry with industry-standard licensing practices.”

Same price (for now), probably not for long

The company promises that 2027 renewals will start at the same price as current maintenance, with annual increases not exceeding five per cent. In other words, yes, prices technically stay the same, but you might want to assume that five percent rise is baked in. The subscription is available only on an annual or quarterly basis. For a full commercial licence, Foundry lists €3,139 per year, including taxes, or €1,719 per quarter, including taxes. Indie, student and non-commercial versions exist, but these are not viable for most studio use. Customers who decline to renew will retain their perpetual licences for the last supported version but lose access to updates, support and bug fixes.

A year to plan your escape route

Announcing the change a year early, Foundry’s Alex Foulds said the goal was to give customers “the time and information necessary for a smooth and predictable transition.” Smooth or not, 2026 now becomes the year to review budgets, check pipeline dependencies and decide whether subscription fits your studio strategy, or if you will freeze your perpetual licences at the last maintenance release.

Predictable transition, unpredictable reception

Foundry says a unified subscription model will “accelerate development and deliver more features and performance enhancements”. That statement has not been independently verified at press time. The real test will come when existing users renew in 2027 and see what value those new builds actually deliver.

Studios still running older versions of Nuke, Mari or Katana should check support timelines and network licence compatibility well before the end of 2026. Once maintenance lapses, Foundry’s technical support and update access will be gone.

Proceed with caution

Licensing transitions have a habit of exposing pipeline surprises. Test the subscription editions in controlled conditions before rollout and confirm version parity across render nodes, farm licences and DCC integrations. Because as of 2027, everyone, from the smallest comp shop to the biggest feature house, will be renting their Foundry tools. For good.

The post Foundry locks in full subscription future for 2027 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

ActionVFX produces high-quality stock VFX footage, used in compositing software such as After Effects, Nuke, and Fusion. The assets are shot practically, designed for professional use in feature, TV, and game pipelines.

ActionVFX has made its Flamethrowers effects pack available as a free download until 13 January 2026. The collection includes 30 practical flamethrower clips shot for visual effects and motion graphics use. The footage is available under a commercial-use licence.

Real fire, real footage

The clips were filmed with a RED Gemini 35K camera at 96 fps, ensuring clean motion and strong exposure detail. The pack includes 5K RED R3D masters and pre-keyed 12-bit ProRes 4444 versions in 2K and 4K resolutions. These can be imported directly into any compositor that supports ProRes with alpha channels, such as After Effects, Nuke, Fusion, or Premiere Pro.

Shot variety and usability

The set features multiple camera angles, including side views and first-person perspectives. Each shot has been keyed and delivered with transparency, reducing setup time for artists who need instant, production-ready fire elements. The keyed clips are intended for drag-and-drop compositing without the need for manual rotoscoping or colour separation.

Short-lived offer

The flamethrower pack is free to download until 13 January 2026 via the ActionVFX website (Registration required). After that date, standard pricing will apply. The company also maintains a growing library of other free practical VFX elements, including fire, smoke, dust, snow, and sparks.

In production context

As with all VFX assets, users are advised to test the footage before deployment in active production environments. Proper grading and compositing are essential to match lighting and motion in live-action plates.

// https://www.actionvfx.com/collections/flamethrowers-stock-footage/

The post ActionVFX Ignites: 30 Flamethrower Clips Free first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: 3DEqualizer by Science-D-Visions is a high-end 3D tracking and matchmoving tool used in VFX and compositing workflows. It connects to Maya, Blender, Nuke and others to generate precise camera and object solves for integration of CG elements.

Over the winter break, Science-D-Visions released 3DEqualizer4 Release 8.1. The update focuses on precision and pipeline reliability, with several technical improvements aimed at matchmove and postvis specialists.

Piggyback rigs and postvis tools

The standuot addition is a new control pane for computing main camera motion from a piggyback or auxiliary camera, including 360-degree setups. This workflow allows the calibration of static camera-to-camera transformations directly from calibration or production shots. Science-D-Visions also provides a demonstration video of this workflow. To simplify onset capture, a new import script lets users load footage directly from movie files, reducing dependency on external transcoding tools.

Small but targeted refinements

Release 8.1 introduces a new high-pass filter in image controls, a frequently requested addition for analysing fine detail in tracking plates. It also adds start-frame parameters to USD and Alembic exports, allowing more precise control when aligning sequences in downstream departments. A new Attribute Editor plugin demonstrates how to reference 3D models directly from USD files, intended as an example for studios developing their own custom pipeline tools. The update further includes a rewritten Blender export script (v2.0) that matches the design of the Python-based Maya exporter from Release 8.0.

Technical updates and Python 3.11

Under the hood, 3DEqualizer 8.1 moves to Python 3.11. The runtime update brings better session management, new methods for converting OpenCV-style lens distortion to native 3DE formats, and improved image buffer handling. Several older tools were refined, including decimation of 3D models with correct UV handling, enhanced curve filtering, and better distance constraint behaviour. The development team also addressed multiple stability issues: bug fixes cover 2D track exports to Flame, curve editor display errors, long-lat conversion crashes, and problems with rolling shutter exports.

Export and scripting improvements

Maya export now includes user preferences, the “object pgroup z distance” tool gained motion path transfer functionality, and file requesters now display file sizes in human-readable format. The ScriptDB installer received fixes for SSL warnings, and the “reel in points” and “import 2D tracks” tools were corrected for minor issues.

Pricing and compatibility

3DEqualizer 8.1 runs on Windows 10+, glibc 2.17+ Linux, and macOS 13.5+. Perpetual licences cost €7 699 (around USD 9 065), while subscriptions range from €65 per week to €1 704 per year. As always, new builds should be tested in non-critical environments before being rolled out to production shots, especially given the shift to Python 3.11 and updated exporters, which may affect pipeline compatibility.

// https://www.3dequalizer.com/index.php?id=251111_01&site=devblog

The post 3DEqualizer 8.1 Adds Piggyback Camera Solves first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Antoine Bagattini, the creator of BagaPie has released BagaCam OSL, a camera add-on that implements Open Shading Language (OSL) camera shaders directly in Blender. It runs within Blender’s Cycles render engine, allowing users to apply and customise optical effects directly at render time rather than in compositing.

The add-on introduces a OSL-driven camera system, allowing effects to behave as part of the physical light simulation. Because the shaders influence ray casting rather than pixels, they interact properly with volumetrics, transparency, motion blur, and reflections, behaviours typically missing from post filters.

Built-in optical effects

BagaCam OSL ships with a preset browser containing camera looks based on real lens artefacts. Included effects are barrel and pincushion distortion, chromatic aberration, vignette, glow, and several depth-of-field variations. The system also supports custom bokeh shapes, including anamorphic and petzval patterns, directly within Cycles.

Each camera in Blender can hold its own preset. When switching between presets, parameters reset to their default values to maintain consistency across scenes. Advanced users can access the raw OSL shader parameters to tweak the optical model beyond the preset limits.

OSL under the hood

Open Shading Language (OSL) is a shading language designed for physically based rendering. Cycles’ OSL implementation lets artists define shaders that describe how rays behave rather than how pixels look. BagaCam OSL uses this system to make the camera itself a shader, modifying how rays are projected into the 3D scene. This allows, for example, a chromatic aberration shader to refract light in the ray-tracing step, rather than faking it afterwards in compositing. It also means depth-of-field and motion blur remain physically consistent because they occur at the render stage.

Limitations and requirements

BagaCam OSL currently works only in Cycles. Eevee and Eevee Next do not support OSL camera shaders. GPU OSL rendering is limited to single-GPU setups, and CPU rendering remains the most stable mode for complex OSL operations. The add-on targets Blender 5.0 and later. Pricing details are listed on the Superhive product page. It’s 12 USD.

Why this matters

Integrating optical simulation at the camera stage allows for physically plausible renders without relying on external compositing. For production workflows requiring realistic lenses or cinematic depth, BagaCam OSL offers a direct, render-level alternative to Nuke or After Effects lens filters. Artists working on VFX, archviz, or animation projects can now match real camera characteristics within Blender’s render itself, with fewer steps between shot design and final comp.

As with any new tool, it should be tested on production scenes before adoption, especially when combining OSL with complex shading networks.

The post Blender Gets Real Lenses: BagaCam OSL Released first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

With some plug-ins, scripts and extensions, you wish you had known about them long before the start of the last project, in our case, a 100-minute archive documentary with over 1,000 individual media files. The “Project Sorter” script saves a lot of time when editing and post-processing larger projects, especially when it comes to sorting and cataloguing different media types.. Project Sorter is a bit like the post office clerk who sorts letters by city, district and street – only for media, not for direct mail items.

How Project Sorter works

But first things first… Who hasn’t been there: you find (or receive) one (or more) media files, drag them into Adobe Premiere (or After Effects) for processing, and leave them at the highest project level until you completely lose track of them and grudgingly (or the intern) start putting all the elements away individually and neatly in the bins provided for them. Only to be faced with the same problem of a completely overloaded project level a week later.

Project Sorter provides a fully automatic remedy here by sorting the elements into the correspondingly defined bins during import (including drag-and-drop directly into the timeline). Sounds simple? It should be, provided you make the effort and define a reasonably well thought-out order at the start of the project – which is actually common practice for larger productions. If even this first step is too time-consuming, you can simply rely on the “demo” settings supplied with the script to ensure at least basic sorting into audio and video bins.

Setup

The actual script can be found under Window -> Extensions and opens a three-column mask where the corresponding sorting parameters are defined. The user is not only limited to the type of file, for example video, sound or images, but can also search through metadata and file paths via a second column in order to carry out a precise sub-sorting.

An example: If you organise your raw material on the hard drive according to days and recorded cards, you can specify in the Project Sorter that all media from shooting day XY of card 1 (with the corresponding path on the hard drive) are also stored in the project bin with the same name. The secret lies in so-called sub-filters that can be defined within the “Video” filter column.

Project Sorter even goes so far as to change not only the names of the bins but also the names of the elements within Premiere (or After Effects). Instead of an element in Premiere being generically named “KLB0011.MXF”, it can be automatically renamed to “[creation-date] [creation time] cam 01″, which makes it much easier to find the clip again (if the editor knows the shooting date and time).

To perform a sort, the small chain symbol above the Project Sorter window must be activated. If you click on the “Play” button after an import, the bins are created, renamed and sorted automatically. If the link button remains pressed, the sorting function is also permanently activated, but this is not necessarily to the user’s advantage, as a file that is imported immediately disappears in the corresponding bin and must first be found there again. To avoid immediate sorting, deactivate the linking, import the element, process it in the timeline or comp, and reactivate the linking later, for example at the end of the working day (or if you lose track after a few hours), to restart the automatic sorting.

Subtleties

The Project Sorter includes lots of individual options and parameters, most of which you will never need in your entire professional life. What proves to be very useful, however, is the fact that you can add new sorting filters for each project using the ” ” symbol. The filter collections are retained and are not saved with the project so that the user can also access old settings at a later date.

In addition to the file type and creation date, the very useful sorting parameters also include file extensions, so that PSD and PNG files, for example, are not only sorted into one image folder but into different bins, as well as image sizes and resolutions, which can be used to separate HD, 4K and 6K material in the project. You can also sort by frame rates, alpha channels and multicam clips. In addition to the aforementioned sorting and renaming of project elements, the “Actions”, i.e. the tasks that the Project Sorter performs automatically, also include adding labels and automatic scaling to the active frame size.

Conclusion

The Project Sorter is not very easy to understand at first (which even the programmer admits), but once you have got behind the logic of the script, the sorter makes a lot of work steps easier that you either regularly procrastinate on, or the user may generally shy away from, for example renaming video elements according to shooting days and cards.

So if you don’t shy away from the time it takes to familiarise yourself with the software and invest 50 US dollars, you will save yourself many, many hours of work in the long run. Work hard, sort fast, retire young.

Info box

Leyero – Project Sorter v1.75: Script for automatic sorting and naming of media files.
Price for Project Sorter 1.75: USD 50
Host application: from After Effects / Premiere 2022
Further information: https://aescripts.com/project-sorter

The post Work Hard, Sort Fast: Project Sorter 1.75 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Andreas Zerr.