Hothifa Smair, known for iCity and iCars, has released iCrowds — a full-featured crowd simulation system for Blender 4.5 and newer. The add-on targets film, games, architectural visualisation, and urban design, offering seven integrated systems for both static placement and dynamic movement of thousands of autonomous agents.

Seven Systems for Every Scenario

iCrowds divides its toolkit into static and dynamic subsystems.
The static systems provide surface, curve, vertex, and structured venue distribution.
The dynamic systems introduce motion, pathfinding, and crowd intelligence.

The core modules are:

• On Ground System: Scatters agents across terrain surfaces using vertex group masking, density gradients, and natural variation noise. Supports both single agents and cluster formations.
• On Curve System: Generates linear distributions along user-defined paths with width control, automatic orientation, and curve radius–based density scaling.
• On Vertex System: Enables precision placement on mesh vertices for architectural and design layouts, supporting weight painting and group-based patterning.
• Stadium System: Builds structured seating or audience arrangements, with grid controls for rows and columns, and alignment parameters for rotation and orientation.
• Walkers System: Simulates organised pedestrian flows along curves with bidirectional traffic, lane control, and personal-space handling.
• Fluid System: Adds real-time dynamic behaviour with physics-based attraction, repulsion, and path following. Agents react to scene elements and adjustable flow fields, suitable for events or evacuation simulations.
• City System: A full urban AI layer inspired by games like The Sims. Agents respond to internal needs—hunger, rest, fun, or bladder—and navigate to context-appropriate locations (restaurants, homes, toilets). Debug tools permit real-time inspection of individual agent states.

Performance and Scalability

The developer states that iCrowds supports up to 100,000 agents, depending on hardware and scene complexity. It includes LOD (Level of Detail) options for real-time performance, and baking tools to commit simulations for render-heavy scenes. The add-on uses efficient memory management for scaling from architectural previews to large film visualisations.

Characters and Customisation

The package provides 10 human base models in high- and low-poly variants, available in multiple outfits. Clothing options include formal, casual, and accessory combinations such as hats and glasses. Each model can be randomised for diversity in background and mid-distance crowd shots.

Workflow and Pipeline Integration

iCrowds fits into Blender’s standard workflow:

1. Artists select a static distribution system.
2. Density and masking are refined via vertex groups or curves.
3. Static layouts are imported into dynamic systems such as Fluid or City for movement simulation.
4. Final adjustments include variation, physics tuning, and performance baking.

Systems can be mixed for specific production needs:
Urban environments benefit from combining City and Fluid systems; structured events can merge Walkers and Stadium; architectural projects may pair On Vertex with Fluid.

Use Cases Across Industries

The toolset is aimed at multidisciplinary users:

• Architecture & Visualisation: Quickly populate renders, simulate building capacity, and contextualise scenes with human scale.
• Game Development: Populate open worlds, generate background NPCs, and run behavioural simulations for day/night cycles.
• Film & Animation: Animate large background crowds and pre-visualise crowd movement in sequences.
• Urban Planning: Test pedestrian flow, space usage, and crowd density during design studies.

Price and Availability

iCrowds is available for $19 per licence on Superhive Market. The add-on supports Blender 4.5 and above on all major operating systems.

Stability Reminder

While iCrowds appears production-ready and technically mature, artists should verify performance and reliability in their own pipelines before integrating it into ongoing projects. Stability, agent count limits, and render compatibility may vary by system configuration.

The post City Life for Crowds: iCrowds Lands in Blender first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Blender educator Andrew Price posted a short demo. He links to a pull request in Blender’s repository, suggesting a behind-the-scenes development is already underway.The post is sparking buzz in the community about templated workflows inside node systems.

https://twitter.com/andrewpprice/status/1971635801957204032

The Pull Request: 145645

The repository for Blender includes PR 145645, which appears to correspond to this “preset” feature.That pull request is listed under the Blender project’s “pulls” section and is the link Price points to in his demo post. However, at the time of writing, the PR’s content is not fully clarified in external discussions or linked documentation. The exact scope, implementation detail, or whether it will be accepted are still open questions. The presence of this Pull request lends weight to Price’s teaser, but it does not serve as final confirmation of the feature’s inclusion or form.

Recent Node Work in Blender 4.x

Blender’s recent releases have already shown movement toward more unified and flexible node workflows. In the Compositor’s release notes for version 4.5, Blender added support for texture nodes like Noise, Voronoi, and Gradient, bringing parity with Shader and Geometry node systems. New nodes including Image Info, Image Coordinates, and Relative To Pixel were introduced into the compositing context. Some older nodes or options were deprecated in preparation for removals in 5.0. These changes reduce the gap between node domains (shader, geometry, compositor), which makes a “preset” system more plausible from an architectural standpoint.

What Node Presets Could Mean — And What Isn’t Yet Clear

If a built-in preset system for geometry and compositing nodes does arrive, users might be able to start from high-level templates—common node patterns, starting layouts, or macro combinations—rather than building everything from scratch each time. Such presets may encourage consistency across projects and for teams.

At present, key details remain unknown: whether presets will be defined as node groups, templates, macro nodes, or some new structure; how users will manage them; and how backward compatibility or migration paths will be handled for existing scenes.

The post Blender 5.0 Could Ship with Node “Presets” for Geometry & Compositor first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Epic Games has released MetaHuman for Houdini, a free collection of Houdini Digital Assets (HDAs) designed to streamline MetaHuman workflows inside SideFX Houdini. The add‑on allows artists to assemble a rigged, textured MetaHuman character using the MetaHuman Character Rig HDA, provided the character is exported from Unreal Engine via the DCC Export pipeline. The result: a ready‑to‑animate model within Houdini.

The package supports procedural hairstyling directly on MetaHuman head geometry—artists can craft complex hairstyles such as ponytails, knots, buns, braids, and donuts by leveraging Houdini’s procedural toolset.

Strand-Based Grooming and Unreal Export via Alembic

The add‑on includes tools for grooming within Houdini using strand-based workflows, designed to be MetaHuman‑compatible. Once styled, these grooms can be exported via the Alembic (.abc) format for use in Unreal Engine. The integration offers a structured procedural workflow to create and export hair grooms without leaving Houdini.

Availability, Installation, and Metadata

The tool is free and available through Epic’s Fab marketplace. The listing includes essential metadata such as “Not Mature” age rating, and indicates promotional content. It clarifies that AI use is not allowed, and that the content was not generated via AI.

Installation instructions and technical details are available in accompanying documentation on Fab, though specific versions of Houdini supported are not detailed in that listing.

What This Means for Production Pipelines

For compositors, riggers, grooming artists, animators, and technical directors, MetaHuman for Houdini offers a notable reduction in software round‑trips. The combination of fully rigged rigs, procedural hair workflows, and lockdown export to Unreal Engine via Alembic streamlines digital‑human workflows.

That said, production teams should test thoroughly in their own environments to confirm compatibility and performance before adopting the tool in live pipelines. This applies especially to aspects like grooming fidelity, export integrity, and automation reliability—none of which are independently verified at this time.

The post MetaHuman Meets Houdini first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

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SideFX’s Project Greylight, spearheaded by VFX Supervisor Andreas Weidman, is a powerful addition to Houdini’s toolkit for artists working in VFX, real-time graphics, and game development. This free, artist-friendly package builds on Houdini’s Solaris (USD-based lighting and layout) framework, delivering tools aimed at improving workflows without the need for custom pipelines. Targeted at indie creators, studios, and students, it includes a five-HDA (Houdini Digital Asset) toolkit, project files, and comprehensive guides. Artists can download the tools now from SideFX or explore further details on Weidman’s Patreon page. (The download is and will remain free – the Patreon community is around it, and offers additional sources, tutorials, mentorships and other things)

About Andreas Weidman

With over two decades in the industry, Andreas Weidman has contributed to projects like The Mandalorian, Westworld, and Fear the Walking Dead. An early adopter of Solaris, he developed Project Greylight in collaboration with SideFX to address inefficiencies in USD workflows, multi-shot management, and lighting setups. Through his Patreon, Weidman also offers tutorials, bespoke workflow solutions, and insights into simplifying complex VFX processes.

Key Features of Project Greylight

• Streamlined Solaris Workflows: The toolkit focuses on improving multi-shot organization, version control, and USD department layers.
• User-Friendly Setup: Pre-configured project management tools allow for rapid folder structuring, asset ingestion, and pipeline setup, eliminating common frustrations in production workflows.
• Procedural Animation and Layout: Artists can easily handle shot-specific lighting setups, camera layouts, and animation rigging, all while working directly within Solaris.
• Unreal Engine Compatibility: Seamless integration with Houdini Engine ensures smooth export workflows for real-time graphics projects.
• Learning Resources: The package includes demo files and walkthroughs, offering a hands-on approach to learning advanced workflows without prior expertise in Solaris or USD.

Workshops and Community Impact

Weidman presented Project Greylight at the Houdini HIVE Horizon 2024 in Toronto, showcasing its capacity to empower independent artists and smaller teams. The workshop covered USD essentials, toolkit functionality, and strategies for creating production-ready setups. His contributions exemplify a move toward democratizing advanced VFX workflows for those without access to large-scale proprietary tools.

Download and Pricing

The toolkit is free and available on the SideFX website. While robust and reliable, users are advised to test the tools in their specific pipelines before heavy deployment to avoid potential disruptions.

Looking Forward

Project Greylight represents a blend of Weidman’s practical expertise and SideFX’s commitment to improving VFX workflows. It’s not just about features but about simplifying the lives of production artists. For those ready to dive deeper, Weidman’s Patreon offers personalized support, making advanced VFX pipelines more accessible than ever.

Get started today, but as always, ensure the tools fit your project’s specific needs before full implementation.

The post Andreas Weidman’s Project Greylight: Free Tools for Houdini Artists first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.