Browsing Tag
Simulation
167 posts
Golaem opens Houdini and Unreal bridges
Autodesk has published Golaem’s Houdini and Unreal cache bridges under Apache 2.0, with procedural loading, Layout edits and no geometry bake.
Ripple Pro for 3ds Max
Ripple Pro brings modern ripple, wake and rain controls to 3ds Max, without relying on its ageing built-in modifier stack.
Hurricane puts multiphysics in Blender
Hurricane brings fluid, fabric, soft body, sand and grain simulation to Blender, with paid tiers, support and future GPU plans.
Houdini 22: How Right Were We?
Houdini 22 arrived earlier than expected and confirms nearly all our keynote findings, with two experimental features carrying caveats.
Thinkbox MX reaches 3ds Max 2027
Krakatoa, Frost and XMesh community builds now cover 3ds Max 2018 to 2027. Stoke remains capped at 2026 for now.
EasyWaterscape Brings FFT Water to UE5
EasyWaterscape is a UE5.7+ water tool with FFT oceans, presets, CoastMaker, buoyancy and beta underwater/lake modes.
Quick Finger Collision for Blender
Blender hand posing gets a tiny helper: finger bones stop at mesh contact, wrap around props, and cost $7.99.
Real Clay and Digital Ice Cream at Uber Eck
Clay sculptures, photos, Houdini MPM and Redshift made Kayak’s Greek ice cream statues melt on cue. Real dairy was less cooperative.
VectorayGen Goes Free Again
JangaFX has brought VectorayGen back as a free tool for authoring vector fields for real-time VFX and GPU-particle workflows.
Blender Roadmap Puts Plans in One Place
Blender gets a central Roadmap for active projects and recent features, giving artists and studios a clearer view beyond release-note excavation.
NeXus Beta Lands in Blender
NeXus arrives in Blender with GPU particles, fluids, smoke, fire and live viewport feedback. The beta is paid, perpetual and already patched.
Free Komodo Rig for Fun
Free Komodo rig for portfolio work, plus paid tiers for commercial pipelines. Big lizard, small invoice, careful license.
Cinema 4D 2026.3 Rebuilds UV Editing
Version 2026.3 rebuilds UV editing and adds practical tools for particles, rivets, edge cloning and UV-driven animation.
Houdini 22 Teaser Fuels Guesswork
Houdini 22 looks ambitious, but the teaser is maddeningly brief. Treat every feature reading as informed fan speculation, not documentation.
Mush3D 3.0 Adds Soft Tissue Tools
Mush3D 3.0 adds pose-trained corrections and tetrahedral soft tissue simulation for artists polishing cached character animation.
These are the Bugs You Were Looking For (in Blender)
Flying Bugs Generator brings 10 insect types, three motion modes, and Asset Browser-ready drop-ins for fast and vast bug swarms in Blender.
Stair Builder brings parametric stairs to C4D
A €25 Cinema 4D generator for stairs and railings, with presets, UV handling, and all of it parametric.
C4D Octane: 1.9.x Update Features Video
SilverwingVFX digs into the new juicy features delivered via the most recent Octane update for Cinema 4D. Learn what's improved so you can get the best out of Octane.
Massive Crowd Sim gets a free 101-edition
Massive 101 goes free for non-commercial use, with watermarked renders and a forum-based license login. Great for learning, risky for deadlines.
ZOZO Contact Solver gets Blender add-on
Official Blender add-on client for Contact Solver is out, open source, remote GPU friendly, and already shipping updates like armature deformable colliders.
Maya 2027.1 adds OTIO to Sequencer
Maya 2027.1 lands with OTIO in Sequencer, LookdevX projection tools, and more Bifrost and USD housekeeping. Patch it, test it, then trust it.
C4D Pyro Tutorial: Helicopter Kickup Dust
SilverwingVFX goes airborne: Cinema 4D Pyro can fake rotor wash the smart way: simulate air first, cache velocity, then spawn dust only where wind speed peaks.
RS Node Tools speeds Redshift nodes
RS Node Tools targets the most repetitive Redshift node chores in Cinema 4D, aiming for faster PBR hookups and fewer manual clicks.
SpyderPro learns new tricks: where colour goes wrong
Datacolor is pushing beyond display profiling with Device Preview Plus, C2PA tracking, and a software layer that wants to help you with other duties as well.
ZEISS CinCraft LensCore targets Nuke lens looks
LensCore brings lens profiles, ray-traced lens behavior, and physics-driven controls to Nuke, aiming for fast, repeatable lens looks across sequences.
Theory Accelerated shifts Paradigm 1.0 for Houdini
Paradigm 1.0 lands for Houdini: faster GPU liquids, better emission, a Tank node for open water, and a very honest list of what is still missing.
Phoenix moves to end of support
Chaos Phoenix is now end of support. No new standalone subs, existing subs can renew, and bundles still include it in the same state.
Marvelous Designer 2026.0 adds 3D Pencil and lacing
Draw patterns on an avatar, auto-route laces, flip to toon materials, and tighten export controls. Marvelous Designer 2026.0 aims at faster iteration.
AdonisFX 2.0 brings Houdini support, anisotropic muscles, and triangle-level self-collisions
AdonisFX 2.0 is a big structural release: Houdini support arrives as SOP nodes, core solvers pick up anisotropy and triangle-level self-collisions, paint maps gain non-linear remaps, and the toolset gets a practical layer of “pipeline hygiene” improvements.
MPC’s Cold Storage
MPC Paris delivered 575 shots on Cold Storage, from invisible fixes to slime, creatures and a nuclear finale. But how?
VFX School Closes and Leaves the Lights On
For those who don’t know the school: The VFX School was an online training platform focused primarily on…
tyFlow 2 adds CUDA fluid solver and 20 Infernos
tyFlow 2 integrates a CUDA fluid solver, adds 20 Inferno operators, and expands caching and collision features.
Dynamic Flow makes water move without waiting
Dynamic Flow is a low cost Blender add-on that creates real time, terrain-aware water without baking or physics simulation.
Dosch Design Adds Defense Trucks to the Asset Library of Modern Cities
Dosch Design adds detailed defense logistics trucks to its 3D asset library, quietly acknowledging that modern realism now includes military vehicles in everyday urban environments.
Storm HydroFX ships water without the node graph
Storm HydroFX 1.0 launches as a standalone GPU FLIP fluid solver for Windows with whitewater, mesh export and annual subscriptions.
Simply Cloth Studio 2.0 rebuilds cloth in Blender
Simply Cloth Studio 2.0 is a full rebuild for Blender with new UI, adaptive wrinkle tools, and faster, more stable cloth simulation.
Liquid Thinking: Paradigm Brings GPU Speed to Houdini
Theory Accelerated releases Paradigm, a GPU liquid solver for Houdini, now in open beta and free until February 2026.
Marvelous Designer adds indie pricing, quietly
Marvelous Designer introduces a discounted indie licence with defined revenue limits and feature parity.
Poser 14 drops Cloth Room, gains simpler PBR setup
Bondware releases Poser 14 with simplified PBR and environment tools, SuperFly update, and no Cloth Room or macOS edition.
Cinema 4D 2026.1: Fluids, Distributions, and Practical Fixes
Cinema 4D 2026.1 introduces Liquid Flow for GPU-based fluids, new MoGraph distributions, a refined Take System, and numerous quality-of-life fixes.
Rendering the Inferno at RiseFX: The Lost Bus
128 shots, 15 sequences, and GPUs on the brink: RISE FX’s Oliver Schulz explains how his team built the burning world of The Lost Bus.
FumeFX 7.5: Fire Meets GPU soon
FumeFX 7.5 ignites GPU acceleration: up to 5× faster smoke and fire sims, automatic CPU fallback when memory runs out.
Houdini 21: Like good wine (Part1, VFX & Geo)
Houdini 21 polishes the chaos: production-ready MPM, neural surfacing, smarter Pyro, and Vulkan viewport upgrades: all taste-tested for real-world use. (Part 1 of ???)
City Life for Crowds: iCrowds Lands in Blender
iCrowds, the new Blender add-on from iCity’s creator, brings smart Sims-style crowds, seven simulation systems, and 100k agents to 3D production.
Open-Source Engine O3DE Hits Version 25.10
O3DE 25.10 trims installers, builds faster, supports C++20, and upgrades robotics Gems — a solid, practical update for technical artists.
Rebelle 8: Digital Painting’s Physical Upgrade
Rebelle 8 turns digital painting into a physical experience. The new Bristle Brush engine simulates every hair of a real brush, RealShader adds true lighting and shadow depth to thick paint, and the NanoPixel 2 engine scales artwork up to 32 K resolution. With layer-specific materials, symmetry tools, Escape Motions’ latest release feels less like an update and more like a real studio, minus the turpentine.
Sharper, Faster, Smokier: FumeFX 7.1 for 3ds Max
FumeFX 7.1 delivers faster warps, Alembic point clouds, and smarter VDB handling in 3ds Max. Less waiting, more burning.
Axiom 4 for Houdini: Faster GPU Pyro With Better Collisions
Theory Accelerated has dropped Axiom 4, the GPU-driven Houdini solver for smoke and fire that promises fewer artifacts, more speed, and a UI that doesn’t feel like it was designed during a caffeine shortage.
FumeFX 7.0 on Water: New Version Adds NodeWorks Ocean
FumeFX 7.0 for 3ds Max introduces NodeWorks Ocean, a GPU‑accelerated simulation system for waves, foam, spray, bubbles and multiphysics.
Axiom 4.0 Sneak Peek for Houdini
First preview of Axiom 4.0 shows improved collisions, redesigned sourcing, and faster GPU-driven simulations for Houdini.
Houdini 21 : Otto, Otis, Copernicus and 300+ New Features. No, Really
Houdini 21 sneak peek: SideFX previews 300+ features: Otis solver, Otto rig, Copernicus, Vulkan viewport, full rigging and CFX overhaul.
Unigine 2.20: Now with More Splat and a Whole Lot Else
Unigine 2.20 debuts Gaussian Splatting, UI Designer, XR and renderer upgrades, multithreaded shadows, mesh compression, and sweeping engine optimizations.
Framestore Opens Up Oz: Wicked FX Webinar with Evan Peignet
FX Lead TD Evan Peignet explains Framestore’s Wicked magic—from Glinda’s bubble to Munchkin crowds—in a live online event.
Maya 2026.1’s MotionMaker: AI Walks the Walk
Maya 2026.1 introduces MotionMaker, an AI-powered tool for rapid character animation, alongside Bifrost rigging and simulation enhancements.
ThinkingParticles 7.4: More Boom, Smarter Fluids, and Debugging You Can See
ThinkingParticles 7.4 adds an Explosion System, updated SPH solver, ME-L Markers for debugging, and full support for 3ds Max 2026.
Melt Simulator for Blender: Gooey Goodness Without the Mess
CGMatter's Melt Simulator for Blender 4.3 introduces particle, instance, and mesh modes, plus UV advection and time-based melting triggers.
HairFlow: Bad Hair Days Are Simulated Now
HairFlow simulates hair in Blender using simulation nodes—wind, gravity, collisions, even goosebumps. Realtime playback included.
Browser Cloth: Wiggle It Just a Little Bit
Finally, a cloth sim that runs in your browser and doesn’t crash your machine. Click, drag, wiggle—no download, just delightful chaos.
Virtual Glass: ZEISS Enters the Simulated Optics Game
ZEISS Virtual Lens simulates cine optics for VFX and digital twins—designed for integration in workflows and compositing.
The Grove 2.2: Cutting-Edge Tree Tech Goes Cross-Platform
The Grove 2.2 brings a radical tech boost with a new Skeleton tool, optimized simulations, and unified naming for Houdini and Blender.
Free ZibraVDB for Unreal: Smoke, Fire, and Simulated Chaos
ZibraVDB's new free version brings volumetric simulation tools to Unreal Engine, letting artists create smoke and fire effects in real time.
Cell Fluids 2.0 Released: A Splashy Update for Blender
Cell Fluids 2.0 brings new features for fluid simulation in Blender, targeting VFX and real-time workflows. Check it before jumping in!
SideFX Offers Free Houdini Muscle Masterclass
If you already know your New Years resolution to get "fit" will fail as miserably as always: Why not change the objective and build muscles in Houdini?
Activision Releases Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera Dataset for Real-Time Applications
The Call of Duty: Warzone Caldera datase has been released, for testing and developing, offering production-ready assets for real-time graphics and game development
Move it like Hyfydy
SCONE plug-in enables real-time muscle simulations for biological motion. Ideal for gait analysis, machine learning, and unusual muscle setups.
Ember-, Liquid- and Geo-Gen now available!
JangaFX introduces updates to EmberGen, LiquiGen and GeoGen, offering moving simulation domains, whitewater systems and spline-based terrain control.
The next generation of water simulation
There are some things that get more complicated, the more
you look at them - simulation of physical phenomena is one of them. And as we saw at this year's Siggraph Conference,
there are people who are looking very closely!
Houdini 20
The long-awaited update has finally been released and brings with it a whole host of new features. So many, in fact, that a special issue would be worthwhile. For now, here's an overview and an in-depth article on rendering by Olaf Finkbeiner in the next issue.
We Hunt Giants
The short film "We Hunt Giants" takes the viewer into a world in which humans and dinosaurs fight for survival. Action, drama and CGI - without a Hollywood budget in the millions. Here is a brief insight into the making of the film and its visual effects.
The easy Cloudrendering?
There are many, many companies offering cloudrendering services – and most tell you how you can tweak everything, you have all the control –
and therefor you also need a TD and DEEP pockets, because the first time the bill from the cloud infrastructure arrives, it’s going to be massive.
Elementary!
You’ve surely seen the posters: There’s a new Pixar movie, this time asking “What if the Aristotelian elements have feelings?” The story plays out in Element City, where fire-, water-, land- and air-residents live together.
Node-based simulation framework for Blender?
With his Twitter post, software developer Jacques Lucke shows what Blender's simulation framework could look like with the release of Blender 3.5 in March 2023.
Get started with Phoenix thanks to this two-part guide!
Cory Holm, Team Lead at Chaos Group, publishes a detailed guide suitable for newcomers. How the Phoenix fluid simulation software works ..
Club culture, techno music and character animation combined with iClone & Character Creator
Music video par excellence: Relative.berlin makes DJ Taube dance and utilises all the new features of iClone!
How does the simulation work with Cinema 4D?
The lecturer with the Maxon nose: Athanasios "Noseman" Pozantzis presented his latest explainer video live at Siggraph - as part of The 3D and Motion Design Show.
JangaFX introduces EmberGen 1.0!
Particle simulation is when it crashes and splashes: Feature delights of the new version presented. Which functions are on the roadmap?
Houdini 19.5: I/O – UI – RBD -FLIP – PYRO – UX ..
There are no completely new features in the Houdini 19.5 update this time. Rather, there are fundamental revisions to the most important functionalities of Houdini: RBD Rigid Body Dynamics and Fluids Simulations. I/O, i.e. input & output, is another topic that extends across all tools. And as expected, there are some user interface standardisations and improvements - especially in the interactive tools. Let's dive right in!
New version of Ziva released!
Dino-like strength: Ziva VFX is released in version 2.0. If you want to flex your muscles with Allosaurus and co. you should take a look at this Maya plugin.
Wellen-Generator | Release
Head first - and in: Version 1.1 of the water wonder for 3ds Max!
Zibra Liquids Combines Real-Time Fluid Simulation with Machine Learning
Zibra Liquids entered early access with a Unity fluid plug-in combining physical solvers and machine-learning-based neural object representations.
Dune Solver | Release
For Houdini: counting grains of sand - just like on the desert planet.
Maya BOSS Tutorial: Creating Large-Scale Ocean Simulations
Sam Biddle demonstrates how to build large bodies of water with Maya’s Bifrost Ocean Simulation System, followed by Autodesk’s four-part BOSS series.
JangaFX Lowers EmberGen Pricing for Indie Developers
JangaFX introduced lower EmberGen pricing for artists and studios earning under US$1 million annually.
Bifrost 2.3 Adds Real-Time Feedback and Simulation Improvements
Autodesk Bifrost 2.3 introduced real-time feedback, virtual sliders, adaptive volumes and upgrades for simulation graphs, Aero, MPM, Alembic and OpenVDB.
Sleep Tight – A modern horror tale
"From the edge of a forest, the werewolf steps into the moonlight; in front of him lies a small settlement by a forest lake."
This sentence comes from an early version of our script. A lot happened from there to the final film. The old-fashioned settlement became a big city, the forest lake became a hill with modern flats and the werewolf became a werewolf.
Storm 0.3.5 Adds CUDA and VDB Export
Storm 0.3.5 introduced initial CUDA support, sequence loading, VDB meshing output, particle-size overrides and a new file browser.
Atoms Unreal Beta 1.5 Released
Atoms Unreal Beta 1.5 adds simulation optimisation, table imports, texture atlases and skeleton LODs for crowd characters.
EmberGenFX Public Beta Released
EmberGenFX beta added GPU-based fire, smoke, particles and fluids with VDB and image-sequence export for OctaneRender workflows.
Maya 2020.2 Updates UVs and Outliner
Maya 2020.2 added Preserve UVs, Outliner workflow changes, remote Viewport 2.0 and updates for Arnold, Bifrost and Substance.
SIGGRAPH 2020 Papers Moved Online
SIGGRAPH 2020 presented more than 150 technical-paper projects spanning stylisation, cloth, fluids, MPM, portraits and tactile rendering.
V-Ray 2020 Game Cinematic Reel
Chaos Group's 2020 V-Ray reel included game cinematics for Cyberpunk 2077, Assassin's Creed Unity, God of War and other projects.
Free | VDB Simulations from JangaFX
Fancy some volumes? Smoke, fire, explosion, implosion and more: you can use these VDBs free of charge for your purposes!
Rigging and Animation Tools in Maya 2020
New video providing an overview of the Autodesk 2020 release: Blues Sky Studios and the Maya team discuss the new animation & rigging features.
The Witcher – Netflix | VFX Breakdown
Toss a Coin to Framestore: In the new VFX breakdown, the studio shows its work on the new Netflix series “The Witcher”!
SideFX | Houdini 18 Release Is Here!
Houdini 18 is released: SideFX adds a new USD context, destruction, Pyro and FLIP fluid updates, modelling features and much more.
New in Amazon Lumberyard: Simulated Objects
Amazon's free game engine gets its next update: With new PhysX and animation features.
Autodesk | Arnold 5.4 Update
After the new Maya 2019.2, Autodesk follows up with Arnold 5.4: GPU rendering, Bifrost support and more!
Autodesk with Bifrost for Maya 2019.2
Autodesk presented Maya 2019.2 and Bifrost, a new plug-in for node-based simulations!
Chaos: New Physics for Unreal Engine
The new physics system for Unreal Engine was presented at GDC - and no name could be more fitting: "Chaos"