The 2025.2 update of Marvelous Designer, developed by CLO Virtual Fashion, focuses on five new features that enhance realism, efficiency, and creative control across digital garment workflows. The release expands the program’s animation and simulation toolkit while tightening interoperability with external systems such as Epic Games’ MetaHuman Creator.

Keyframe Animation Gains Real Cloth Control

The most substantial technical update lies in the expanded key-framable properties. Fabric behaviour can now be animated directly through properties such as shrinkage, pressure, solidify, tack, and trim weight. Artists can animate shrinkage weft and warp to tighten or loosen cloth dynamically, or use pressure values to create inflation and deflation effects. The solidify control adjusts fabric stiffness over time, useful for animating transitions from soft to rigid materials in one shot. Tack properties can be keyed to attach or release trims, and trim weight itself can be animated — for example, making a prop lighter or heavier in response to motion. This deeper control allows complex, physically-based animations such as self-inflating garments, reactive drapery, or controlled cloth deformation without leaving Marvelous Designer’s simulation environment.

Patterns Become Trims and Accessories

Patterns can now be converted directly into trims or avatar accessories through a context-menu operation. Once converted, these assets are stored as Trim Styles or registered as accessories, allowing them to be reused across projects. The change provides clear advantages in asset management and simulation efficiency. Trims are treated as rigid geometry rather than simulated cloth, which reduces processing overhead. This workflow supports the creation of non-deformable surfaces such as metal, wood, or plastic, enabling hard-surface detailing directly inside Marvelous Designer. In practice, it is now possible to design a fully armoured character by converting fabric plates into rigid trims or to repurpose footwear and props as reusable accessories.

Local FBX Export Without CONNECT

EveryWear, Marvelous Designer’s asset-exporter, now supports direct FBX export to local storage. Earlier versions required users to upload garments to the CONNECT platform before download. The 2025.2 revision replaces that dependency with a local-only workflow. Artists can optimise garments, rig avatars, pack UVs, bake textures, and export the final FBX directly to disk. This update eliminates one of the most common production bottlenecks, streamlining integration with DCC tools and game engines that rely on FBX.

MetaHuman DNA Import

Epic Games’ MetaHuman Creator avatars can now be imported directly into Marvelous Designer in their native DNA format. This import process is non-destructive, preserving the avatar’s proportions, mesh fidelity and rigging data. Designers can fit garments directly on MetaHuman bodies, export them back to Unreal Engine, and have the clothing automatically adapt to any subsequent body adjustments made in MetaHuman Creator. The result is a tighter pipeline between digital-human design and cloth simulation, significantly reducing retargeting and scaling errors.

Pleats Made Simple

Creating pleats manually has long been a slow, calculation-heavy task. The new Pleats Tool simplifies the process with an interactive interface for generating knife, box or accordion pleats. Designers can adjust number, depth, interval and fold angle parameters directly in the tool’s window, previewing results in real time. The system allows non-destructive editing: pleats can be undone and modified without redrawing patterns. This not only saves time but also makes pleated garments—such as skirts, dresses and uniforms—more iterative and design-friendly.

Pricing

Marvelous Designer 2025.2 is available now for both Windows 10 and later, and macOS 12 and above. The software continues to be offered exclusively through subscription. Individual licences are priced at around US $39 per month, or US $280 per year, equating to roughly US $23 per month when billed annually. Enterprise pricing remains higher, with node-locked licences typically around US $199 per month or US $1,900 per year, and floating licences in the region of US $2,000 per year.

As always, professionals should test the new version within controlled environments before integrating it into production pipelines. Although the update appears stable in demonstrations, verifying simulation performance, export fidelity, and MetaHuman interoperability is essential before deployment.

The post Marvelous Designer 2025.2: MetaHumans, Pleats & Keyframes first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Epic Games has officially released Unreal Engine 5.7. The update expands major systems across rendering, procedural content, materials, animation, and virtual production. It also introduces an in-Editor AI Assistant. Several features, including the Nanite Foliage rendering system, remain Experimental, while others, most notably the PCG framework and Substrate materials, are now designated production-ready. If you think “Didn’t you tell me all of this already?”: We had a Preview-News for the Preview and Teasers.

Procedural Content Generation (PCG) ready for production

Epic now considers the PCG framework suitable for use in final projects. The system allows artists to populate large environments procedurally, introduce variety, and automate level construction. Unreal Engine 5.7 adds a dedicated PCG Editor Mode, performance optimisations for GPU compute tasks, and a Procedural Vegetation Editor (PVE) for foliage placement. While PCG itself is stable, the PVE remains Experimental. Epic recommends verifying runtime performance and scalability before adoption in production environments.

Nanite Foliage enters testing

Nanite Foliage introduces a new geometry rendering pipeline for dense, animated vegetation in open-world environments. It combines Nanite Assemblies, Nanite Skinning, and Nanite Voxels to balance geometric detail with runtime efficiency. Epic lists the entire system as Experimental. Studios considering it for production should expect incomplete support for physics, collisions, and wind animation, and should validate performance on target hardware.

Substrate materials: modular and physically accurate

The Substrate framework for modular material authoring and rendering has graduated to production-ready status. It enables layering of physically accurate material types such as clear coat, metal, cloth, and skin, producing more realistic composite surfaces.

For material and look-dev teams, Substrate now replaces earlier shading models in complex asset pipelines. Epic recommends migrating projects incrementally and benchmarking shaders to ensure compatibility and consistency across devices.

Animation and virtual-production improvements

Unreal Engine 5.7 extends its animation toolkit with an overhauled Animation Mode, improved IK Retargeter and Skeletal Editor, and a new Dependency View for visualising control hierarchies.

For virtual-production users, the engine adds a Live Link Broadcast Component, allowing Unreal itself to act as a live animation source on-set. Composure, Unreal’s integrated real-time compositor, has been upgraded for improved handling of shadows, reflections, and colour accuracy during LED volume shoots. Incremental Cooking enters Beta, promising faster asset iteration for large virtual-production projects, though Epic cautions against immediate production use.

AI Assistant built into the Editor

A new AI Assistant now lives directly within the Unreal Editor. Users can ask technical questions, request code snippets in C++, or receive step-by-step instructions without leaving the viewport. The tool is designed to reduce context switching but is not intended to replace documentation or verified workflows. Its long-term reliability in multi-user pipelines remains untested, and Epic has not disclosed details about data handling or privacy.

Extended MetaHuman and cross-platform updates

The MetaHuman Creator plugin now runs on Linux and macOS, expanding platform support beyond Windows. Additional scripting APIs enhance automation and integration for character pipelines.

Here’s more about the Hairstyle generator.

Rendering, audio, and mobile improvements

Rendering updates include support for Android 15, new “Geometry Inspection” viewport modes for surface analysis, and expanded anti-aliasing and shadowing options. Nanite continues to gain broader coverage across rendering passes. Audio workflows benefit from “Audio Insights” (Beta), enhanced subtitle support, and updates to the waveform editor. These features target real-time review and iteration efficiency rather than final mixdown.

Caveats and production considerations

Despite multiple “production-ready” designations, Epic’s documentation lists numerous features as Beta or Experimental. Nanite Foliage, the Procedural Vegetation Editor, and MegaLights are explicitly unfinished. Documentation for several systems remains incomplete, and large projects upgrading from earlier versions will require shader recompilation and plugin verification. Studios are advised to test workflows in parallel, evaluate GPU and CPU loads, and confirm asset compatibility before upgrading live projects.

The post Unreal Engine 5.7: foliage, PCG and in-Editor AI first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

ICE Nexus 1, the inaugural event by ICE.art and Arcware, has released all session recordings online. For everyone who missed the live stream, the full lineup is available for replay. The sessions covered interactive 3D, digital humans, and the ever-popular topic of real-time graphics.

Who Said What? Speaker Lineup and Sessions

The event opened with a technology overview by Arcware, setting the stage for a day focused on storytelling with interactive 3D content. The speaker roster included:

• Madis Kirsman from Avar on “Virtual 3D Showrooms”—bringing pixel streaming to real projects after eight years in the trenches.
• Rudi Witt and Steffen Schreiber of Access Point AI with “Let Them Speak. Bringing LLM-driven Digital Humans to Life.” These two also introduced VMAT, a branch of their company dedicated to medical education.
• Fabrice Bourrelly, Unreal Engine educator and 3D visualizer, on “The Realtime Revolution.” Bourrelly currently teaches architectural visualization at a UK university—sometimes from Venice.
• Fatih Inan from Bizzlogic with “Visualizing Virtual & Real Worlds.” Inan, with over a decade of experience in immersive tech and Unreal, discussed his daily workflow spanning technology, arts, and deployment.

A panel discussion and outro wrapped up the event, featuring all the above plus Manolis Emmanouilidis and Derk Steemers from Arcware, and Matthias Buehler from VRBN.

The event, hosted live from Arcware’s Munich HQ, managed a hybrid of live presentations, panel chats, and Q&A. Real-time chat allowed for on-the-fly feedback,spontaneous discussions about car configurators and the finer points of architectural visualization. No lengthy monologues—just quick-fire intros and direct answers.

How to Watch

All ICE Nexus 1 recordings are now available via the ICE.art website. Whether you want the Arcware overview, Madis Kirsman’s virtual showroom workflow, the Access Point AI digital human demo, or a taste of Fabrice Bourrelly’s Unreal world, every session is just a click away. Questions about the event or suggestions for the next one can be directed to conference@ice.art.

ICE nexus 1: Arcware Technology Overview

ICE nexus 1: Intro

ICE nexus 1: Madis Kirsman: “Virtual 3D Showrooms”

ICE nexus 1: Fabrice Bourrelly: “The Realtime Revolution”

ICE nexus 1: R. Witt & S. Schreiber: “Let them speak. Bringing LLM-driven digital humans to life.”

ICE nexus 1: Fatih Inan: “Visualizing Virtual & Real Worlds”

ICE nexus 1: Panel Discussion & Outro

The post ICE Nexus 1 Recordings Now Online: Catch the 3D Action (With Crisp Audio) first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Ice.Art.

In a significant move for the compositing- community, Maxon has announced the acquisition of the Autograph team from Left Angle. As Left Angle winds down its operations, its staff, known for their expertise in modern compositing workflows, will join Maxon’s expanding family. Autograph, developed by Left Angle, was created with the vision to rethink compositing from the ground up, offering a modern toolset for motion designers and visual effects artists. The integration of Autograph’s technology and team into Maxon’s ecosystem is expected to foster innovation and development of new tools that cater to the evolving needs of artists and creators worldwide.(left-angle.com) For more information, visit Maxon’s official announcement: Maxon Welcomes Autograph Team Following Left Angle Transition.

And since we probably won’t be using the cool company name “Left Angle” anymore, here are some post which had that tag:

Autograph Starter: Free Motion Graphics Tool with a Twist

Autograph 2025: Sign Here for New Features

From the left..

The post Maxon Acquires Autograph: A New Chapter in Compositing Tools first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

Epic Games has released the Unreal Engine 5.6 Preview, now available for download via the Epic Games Launcher and GitHub. This preview introduces several significant updates aimed at enhancing the development experience across various domains.

The preview emphasizes the capability to create vast, high-fidelity open worlds while maintaining consistent 60Hz frame rates. This enhancement is geared towards delivering smoother performance in expansive environments.

Unreal Engine 5.6 features the most substantial update to its animation authoring tools to date. While specific details are not provided, this overhaul suggests a focus on improving the animation workflow for developers.

The MetaHuman Creator is now integrated directly within the engine. This integration includes capabilities for blending and sculpting MetaHuman bodies, improved visual fidelity, and new real-time workflows for the MetaHuman Animator.

Enhanced Content Browser and Viewport Layout

The introduction of Content Browser 2.0 and a new Viewport toolbar layout aims to streamline the development process, allowing for faster content creation and easier navigation within the engine.

Procedural Workflows for Expansive Worlds

Developers can now build expansive worlds more efficiently using enhanced procedural workflows. These workflows are designed to facilitate the rapid creation of complex environments.

Availability and Stability Notice

The Unreal Engine 5.6 Preview is currently available for download. However, as a preview release, it is still in active development and may be unstable. Users are advised to back up existing projects before testing the new features.

For more information and to download the preview, visit the official announcement.

The post Unreal Engine 5.6 Preview: Now with 60Hz Open Worlds and In-Engine MetaHumans first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.