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Stitch Head!
โStitch Headโ: A charming animated adventure blending gothic charm, playful humor, and a heartfelt journey of self-acceptance, crafted by a team spanning multiple continents and pipelines.
TD Meetup 21: VR, Quill & the Renaissance of Real-Time Storytelling
At TD Meetup #21, Dan Franke showed how Quill VR lets you literally paint, animate, and pivot scenes in real timeโno rig, just hand and headset.
Need an AI Video Enhancer in Your Workflow? Aiarty Video Enhancer!
Blocky VHS? Grainy DSLR shots? Aiarty Video Enhancer upscales, denoises, and restores video locallyโno cloud upload required. (Sponsored Post)
After Effects Gets Hands-On: Victoria Nece Shows Off Quick Offset & Co.
At IBC 2025, I talked with Adobeโs Victoria Nece about Quick Offset, Smooth Zoom, and 3D compositing in After Effects. Itโs tactile, fast and oddly fun.
Rebelle 8: Digital Paintingโs 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 Motionsโ latest release feels less like an update and more like a real studio, minus the turpentine.
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Gen2 and Gen4: Professional Audio for Creators?
The Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 Gen4 brings Auto Gain, Safe, and Air to content creators looking for reliable, studio-grade audio in a compact form. We tested it with the Shure SM7B and Rode PodMic USB. Hereโs what you should know BEFORE you upgrade.
RiseFX on Heads of State: Explosions, Statues, and Digital Diplomacy
500 shots, one exploding limo, and statues aimed at helicopters: Rise FX brings high-stakes action to Heads of State with a new Riseflow pipeline.
Digital Domain on Fantastic Four: From Baby Mocap to Bearded Rock
Digital Domainโs Phil Cramer explains Fantastic Four VFX: Masquerade3, Baby Franklin, The Thingโs beard, and multi-vendor Marvel pipelines.
Hell Froze Over โ ProRes RAW for Resolve
For an eternity, it seemed, Blackmagic Design (BM for short) refused to support the import of Apple's ProRes RAW format into their flagship app DaVinci Resolve (DR for short).
Realtime Departmentโs UNIQVUE: The Software Layer Behind Turnkey Corporate Studios
Hardware is nothing without brains. Realtime Departmentโs UNIQVUE adds the software intelligence to ARRI and Samsungโs turnkey corporate studio. Christoph Gockel explains how.
ARRI Packs Virtual Production Into a Box
ARRIโs turnkey stage bundles LED wall, ALEXA 35, audio, and server into a scalable studio package with automation and colour management.
Premiere Pro gains 90+ Film Impact effects โ plug-in now built-in
Premiere Pro 25.5 folds Film Impact into the app. 90+ GPU-accelerated effects now ship natively, real-time playback, no plug-in, no red render bars.
Matching Your Moves: Inside Vision Age VFX
Vision Age VFX specialises in high-end matchmove and rotoanim. Workflows, QC, case studies, and technical tips from Tunisiaโs camera tracking experts.
We have to talk about Switchlight 2.0
Beebleโs SwitchLight 2.0 turns raw plates into PBR maps that can be relit like CG. Now trained on 13ร more data and extended to full-scene maps, not just the subject. We spoke with co-founder Hoon Kim about whatโs new, how itโs priced, and where 3.0 is headed.
Next-Gen Cloud Rendering for Blender? Meet Praxilla!
Praxilla offers Blender cloud rendering with Cycles and Eevee, starting at 2.50 โฌ per GPU hour. Secure, fast, and aiming for collaborative rendering.
ProArt PA32UCDM: The OLED Display That Thinks Itโs a Reference Monitor And Dresses Like an Accountant
First impression: The ASUS ProArt PA32UCDM is the Clark Kent of displays. On your desk, it could pass for a premium, but otherwise unassuming office monitorโsleek, thin, and lightweight, with none of that over-designed โgamerโ bling. But underneath?
Bose QuietComfort Ultra: Noise Cancelling for when your workstation is also the Rendernode!
Boseโs QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen) are the current leaders in active noise cancelling. In our test, they silenced GPUs, offices, and even kindergarten tantrums, all while sounding excellent.
Tomato Warfare: Milk VFX on Heads of State
Milk VFX Supervisor David Sadler-Coppard on how the team built thousands of CG tomatoes, exploding doors, and digital crowds for Heads of State.
These Are the Clones Youโre Looking For: Hoplite VFX Fires Up โStar Wars: The 212โ
Hoplite VFX trades stormtrooper aim for clone trooper precision in Star Wars: The 212. Producer Maurine Fauvert reveals how a two-artist side project turned into a full-blown studio production, complete with Move AI mocap, Blenderโs GPU power, and some very unlucky troopers.
Workstations for Virtual Production
Virtual production wouldnโt be possible without high-performance workstations. These systems deliver the computing power required for rendering, simulations, and complex visual effects directly within the studio environment.
Beyond Normal: A Creative’s Guide to Different Minds and Managing Neurodivergent Talent (Part 1)
Creative brilliance doesnโt come in one flavorโand in todayโsย VFX-landscape, understanding how your team thinks isnโt just good leadership, itโs critical infrastructure.
Still Taping? You Should Be: Why LTO Is the Only Backup That Ages Well
Your backup drive will die. Your cloud costs will rise. But a ยฃ100 tape will quietly last 30 years, if you treat it right. Yes, LTO still matters.
Game Boy Robot: When Nostalgia Gets a Quad-Based Makeover
Game Boy nostalgia meets quad-based hard-surface modeling in Benavidmarkโs detailed 3D robot tributeโevery production step dissected.
Using Unreal Engine in animation pipelines: How to use version control
Anchorpoint brings Git + locking + inโeditor commits to Unreal. See why Maya pipelines feel prehistoric now.
Graphite: openโsource vector design tool with a twist
Graphite launches in browser alpha, mixing layerโbased drawing with procedural node graph, desktop apps and bitmap editing due later in 2025.
โFor Those Who Dareโ
These days you wouldnโt always have to go for an expensive, professionally calibrated screen if you are not working for extremely demanding clients. Has the age of correct colors finally arrived? What about HDR? Letโs have a broader look!
No DRM, No Fuss: Digital Production Archive Now Online
The Digital Production archive is live: all issues as DRM-free PDFs via Dropbox, exclusively for subscribers.
The Noise You Want, None You Donโt: Bubblebirdโs Browser Generator Delivers
Free browser noise generator by Bubblebird Studio: 2D/3D seamless noise, Perlin/Voronoi/random, PNG export, presets, normal maps, MIT licensed.
Mayaโs Jiggle Assistant: PUPbuildDynamic Does Your Secondary Motion
PuppetSoul PUPbuildDynamic for Maya is a free add-on delivering real-time secondary motion and collision on joint chainsโwithout FX overhead.
Crossbow: Workflow Automation for VFX & Animation
Four years of R&D, zero spreadsheets, no more copy-pasting shot statusโCrossbow promises a less painful way to manage VFX and animation projects. In this interview, Jindrich Cervenka explains what Crossbow shoots, why it matters, and why you still need a mid-range GPU.
Over 1,500 Free PBR Textures from LotPixelโs Library
LotPixel has released over 1,500 scanโbased PBR texture sets in JPEG format, with resolutions up to 8โฏK, and…
Unreal Engine Freebie: 350โPiece Flying Fantasy Town Kit
Epic Games offers 358 free Unreal Engineโready meshes from GeorgeโฏShachnevโs Flying Fantasy Town kit. Available via Fab until 15โฏJulyโฏ2025.
PackerโIO with Blender integration!
PackerโIOโฏ1.3 merges scaleโaware UV packing, multithreading, and smarter holeโfilling with UnwrellaConnect for Blender.
The visual effects of Star Trek – a retrospective
On September 8th, 1966, the U.S.S. Enterprise flew across American screens for the first time - since then, "Star Trek" in all its various iterations has become part of the zeitgeist. And, in keeping with the Enterprise's mission, it has also repeatedly stepped into new areas of visual effects, making it one of the many trailblazers for our industry. In this retrospective, we want to take a closer look at some of these milestones.
Lola Postโs VFX Survival Guide on Walking with Dinosaurs
Lola Postโs Rob Harvey shares VFX details on Walking with Dinosaurs 2025: 800 shots, 200 artists, Unreal Engine for dinosaurs, and zero Jurassic Park liberties.
OpenVAT Adds VAT Encoding to BlenderโReal-Time Asset Ready
OpenVAT encodes animated Blender geometry into VATs with normals, PNG/EXR output and realโtime engine support for Unity, Unreal, and Godot.
Skeleton Crew: How Halon Gave Ms. Blue Her Digital Bones
Halon preserved an 87-foot blue whale skeleton for AR using LiDAR, photogrammetry, and good timingโthanks to a foggy morning jog.
Thunderbolts* Vaults: Digital Domain on Marvelโs Most Grounded Brawl
Digital Domain VFX Producer Ryan Wilk breaks down Marvelโs Thunderbolts* vault chaos, Ghost phasing, and why less is more for photoreal CG.
Draw the Line: Octane Edge Tools Brings Outlines to Blender โ For Free
Octane Edge Tools is a free Blender add-on from Otoy for creating mesh-based outlines with OctaneRender Toon Material. Controls for edge thickness, object selection, and NPR styles.
Free 330โpiece kitbash set for gritty postโapoc scenes
Oleg Ushenok offers 330 PBRโtextured FBX kitbash assets from his commercial Post Apocalypse Survivor Environment pack, free for commercial use.
Polydex fromโฏPoliigon Tackles Asset Chaos
Polydex auto-indexes local 3D textures, models and HDRIs for easy import into Blender with one click.
Procedural Ferns in Blender
Alex Martinelliโs free Blender 4.3+ fern asset uses Geometry Nodes for non-destructive, procedural plant creation with material and instancing controls.
Cinemaโฏ4Dโฏ2025.3 gets liquid sim and UDIMs
Maxon Cinemaโฏ4Dโฏ2025.3 debuts GPUโbased liquid sims with fill emitter and Liquify modifier, adds UDIM/texelโdensity tools, AI Asset Browser search, and native Laubwerk plant support.
Crossbow Confidential: PFXโs Digital Dashboard Keeps โLockedโ Rolling
PFX marshals 60 artists, a lidar-scanned SUV and its Crossbow app to steer 750 shots for Locked through four months of frantic VFX.
RealityScan 2.0: Epic Gives RealityCapture a New Name and New Tricks
Epic overhauls RealityCapture into RealityScan 2.0, complete with AI masking, LiDAR fusion, and a mobile-first workflow focus.
Modeler 2025.2 for Houdini Lands: HardโSurface Modelling Makeover
Alexey Vanzhulaโs Modelerโฏ2025.2 rebuilds hotkeys, shading presets and moves to Qt6, offering a smoother hardโsurface workflow in Houdini.
MoonRayโฏ2.15: Developer Joy with NUMA, GUI Control & Fisheye Finesse
MoonRayโฏ2.15 adds a new regression suite (~400 tests), NUMA tuning, rdla_gui, perโBSDF lightsets, fisheye FOV and TwoSidedMapโconfirm stability before use.
Strange New Virtual Production Worlds!
It's a good time for us Trekkies - between Discovery and Lower Decks, between Picard and Strange New Worlds, there's something for everyone - finally again! But there's a lot going on behind the scenes - because the first big show to be filmed on a Virtual Production Stage was Star Trek: Discovery. And right after that - almost simultaneously - came Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. As it was definitely worth seeing, we asked what you can expect from your big VP production.
The Hungarian Dressmaker – by PFX
Not every historic drama is created equal - "The Hungarian Dressmaker" rebuild a world barely out of reach of living memory, and we got a chance to talk to PFX artists and artisans about rebuiling 1940' s Bratislava and Biskupice
WeFX Saddles Up for โ1923โ
From pristine scans to viscous blood foam: how 50 artists spent six months on 20 shots that make one horseโs final tumble painfully believable.
Final Cut Pro:Mac mini or iPad M4?
Let's evaluate the M4 iPad Pro and Mac mini Pro for video editing, especially with DaVinci Resolve and Final Cut Pro X. While the iPad shares advantages with integrated hardware for certain formats, the Mac mini excels in handling high-end camera sources in raw formats. Or does it?
3ds Max 2026.1: More Than Just a Modifier Update
3ds Max 2026.1 updates Push, Attribute Transfer and XForm modifiers, improves spline optimization and skin performance, and bumps OCIO to version 2.4.2.
LiDAR scanning for Everybody!
Scanner veteran Lawren Bancroft-Wilson gives us a look behind the curtain on Lidar Scanning for VFX and Post.
Digital Domain vs. the Nether Horde: Behind the VFX of Minecraft
When Warner Bros. enlisted Digital Domain to tackle the final battle in Minecraft: The Movie, they werenโt just signing up for blocks and shaders...
Rise FX saves christmas?
When Red One dropped last this year, audiences got get a holiday cocktail of Jumanji-style action (The director…
Getting Colors Right with the Datacolor LightColor Meter
Let's test! The Datacolor LightColor Meter Model LCM200 is designed for accurate light source measurement, addressing challenges in color matching across different light sources.
The Survivor: A Study in Character-Driven Look Development
At FMX, we met a few students from "PIXLVISN " - and since we never looked at what they are doing, it is high time to do so!
Unreal Engine 5.6 Preview: Now with 60Hz Open Worlds and In-Engine MetaHumans
Unreal Engine 5.6 Preview introduces 60Hz open worlds, an overhauled animation toolset, in-engine MetaHuman Creator, and enhanced procedural workflows.
Nara: Now with More Sync, Less Scream
Filmlightโs Nara adds remote realtime playback sync, review-in-Baselight, and more versioning features for collaborative post and color workflows.
Mac mini or iPad Pro M4 for Post?
The iPad Pro, with its M4 processor, shows potential for video editing, particularly with applications like DaVinci Resolve. However, limitations arise, notably in memory capacity (16 GB max), affecting stability with high-resolution projects.
CEUM 2025.1 Videos are online :)
CEUM 2025.II follows on 17 September, and if you missed the last one: no worries, the CEUM 2025.I talk videos are already online and ready for your next coffee break.
Scaling New Heights: Blender Users Summit on the Blender Mountain
On May 24, 2025, Blender enthusiasts will gather in Wiggensbach, Germany, to ascend the Blender mountain together.
Marine-Snow-Simulation in Houdini
Join our workshop and discover how to simulate marine snow and oceanic particles for VFX - Master underwater simulations, ocean effects, and particle-based systems. Perfect for VFX artists and anybody who tripped over the phrase "Ocean dandruff".
AI-Workspace: Flora Fauna
There are many different tools for visualisation with AI. "Flora Fauna AI" takes an interesting alternative approach here. The system aims to combine many technologies under one bonnet and be an AI workspace.
ACES 2.0 – available in Mistika!
Wait, there is already a new Version of ACES? We barely got used to the last one! And it is already working in SGO Mistika? Let's dive in!
Blackmagic Fusion 20
At NAB, Blackmagic presented what is probably the most relevant update for Fusion since the
Acquisition of Eyeon. But what exactly is in it?
Test: Xencelabs Pen Display 16
Let's test! Lightweight 16-inch graphics tablet with 4K OLED screen from Xencelabs
is said to be the industry's first 16-inch 4K OLED pen display. But ...
Red Poppies, Bears and Open Source!
Polish war drama Red Poppies (Czerwone Maki) brings the Battle of Monte Cassino to the big screen with over 400 VFX shots, 120 of which were crafted by Polish VFX studio Imaginary Pixels. And the team relied on open-source tools?
Trailmakers from Denmark!
Game trailers should make you interested in the game, obviously, and since we can't wait for Trialmakers 2, the trailer did its job - so, we are talking to the creatives behind the trailer!
Using 3D Objects in After Effects
Since 2024, it has been possible to integrate 3D objects into After Effects Beta. The updated version of the Adobe compositing solution now also has this functionality.
Architectural visualisation in a war zone
Let's do a 3D reconstruction of the Museum of Western and Eastern Art with Rhino and Blender in Odessa (Ukraine)!
Speed in a small package: LaCie Rugged SSD Pro 5 Review
Thunderbolt 5 offers the ONE thing all VFX professionals crave - more speed. LaCie now rolls out the very first SSD to really take advantage of the new standard and it seems like they had us in mind when designing this little drive.
Out on its own: Twixtor Standalone
Twixtor standalone offers an easy-to-use solution for slow-motion video generation using AI, but it is slower than competitors. Topaz Video AI excels in speed and quality, making it the recommended choice, even if it doesn't come cheap. Which one is right for you?
VES Awards 2025: Apes Ascend, Dune Dazzles, Robots Rule
Visual Effects Society Awards, VES Awards 2025, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes VFX, Dune Part Two visual effects, The Wild Robot animation, Shลgun TV series VFX, VES, Awards, VFX, Animation
Mufasa heads to MPC
The Prequel of a remake of a animated movie, based on a Shakespeare play... and still worth watching! We got a Chance to talk to Audrey Ferrara, MPCs VFX Supervisor for Mufasa
FilmLight sends your frames!
FilmLightโs Nara simplifies media workflows and improves collaboration. And you don't even need to have Baselight in your pipeline! The latest version enables seamless progress reviews, approvals, and compliance processesโall without proxies. Interested?
The Rise and Fall of Cyborg
When we think of compositing systems of the late nineties and early two thousands, Discreet and Quantel come to mind. But for a brief time, there was a real contender to those two powerhouses: 5D Cyborg!
Hardware for CineMon (et. al.)
After looking at the software side of CineMon, it's time to take a look at the hardware - whats good and what's not?
ASUS ProArt Display 5K PA27JCV
Let's not faff about: 5K Screens? Really? I tested one, and here are the results - the Use Case is not what you might think it is.
IBC 2024 Adobe Premiere Pro News with Francis Crossman
Francis Crossman shows the new color management, the properties panel and the new look of the Adobe Premiere GUI.
Digital Domain Lets Agatha Fly
The prettiest Marvel show this year was "Agatha All Along" Time to ask Digital Domain how they did that!
CineMon 1.0 (Beta) for iPad and Mac
The times of expensive hardware-based scopes are gone. Modern software scopes are versatile, flexible, and can be adapted to new technologies. Until now, Nobe OmniScope by Time in Pixels was the leading solution, both under Windows and MacOS. But thereโs a new kid on the block for MacOS and iOS now, called CineMon (with a charming agnomination to a popular spice).
IBC 2024 Frame.io with JJ Powell
The new version 4 of Fram.io has many workflow improvements. And JJ Powell explains how the Frame.io team uses Frame.io in their own workflow.
IBC 2024 Adobe AI News with Anton Knoblach
A second IBC-Interview: Anton Knoblach talks about the new AI features coming to Firefly. This german interview is translated with the new subtitle translation in Adobe Premiere.
VES Awards 2025: Nominees UnveiledโPrepare Your Applause (and Renders)!
The Visual Effects Society has announced the nominees for the 23rd Annual VES Awards, celebrating excellence in visual effects across film, television, animation, and more.
iClone 8.52: A Major Leap for Animation Editing
iClone 8.52 delivers a highly anticipated update for professional animation editing, packed with groundbreaking features driven by user feedback. Despite its numerical step from 8.51, this release introduces transformative tools to elevate animation workflows.
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?
Hff’s Little Star
Every year, the VFX programme at HFF Munich produces various projects that break new creative ground. These include the animated mixed-media short film "Little Star", which brings a touching encounter to life through a combination of traditional hand-drawn 2D animation and 3D computer animation. But how exactly was the film made?
Through the Woodlands
Creatures made of tree branches and roots seem to have a firm place in the history ofVFX. Just…
VR gallery at the Ostfalia
Wouldn't it be great if you could see something else in VR besides hectic hustle and bustle, demos and microtransaction calls? An art exhibition, for example? Yes, there is - and we found one such project with Noah Thiele, a student at Ostfalia.
University up north!
By the way, you can also study at a university in Flensburg if you want to distance yourself as far as possible from the "Wild South". But what can you expect there?
Xencelabs Quick Keys Remote
Functionality and compactness for artists on the graphics tablet - useful, but with pitfalls when creating macros.
How to Persuade Competing VFX Studios to Cooperate
How can you get a number of companies that are in extreme competition with each other and, therefore, do not trust each other to work together? You introduce an independent third organization in which all competitors are jointly involved.
What you need to Know: Premiere Integrates AI Video Generation
Adobe rolls out new AI-driven video tools for Premiere Pro, including Firefly-powered features. Enhanced workflows, time-saving tools, and stable performance are the key highlights, and not making editors superfluos.
Once upon a time, there was a Henry
Everything used to be better - that's nonsense, of course. But nostalgia also has its very own charm. And so we want to take a look back at the supposedly good old days in a magazine that usually keeps its eyes curiously open to the future. Completely subjective, beautifully coloured and deliberately seen through rose-tinted glasses.
Ghosts at the HFF
A humanoid robot leans against a car, smoking, with a dog sitting opposite. They enjoy the sunset together.
Keychron Q8
After direct enquiry: Our "Ergonomics and the perfect workplace" recommendation has a hole: What about all those who suffer from joint pain when typing? Carpal tunnel, tension, and so on?
Paths in Substance Painter and Substance Designer in use
Splines and paths have been added to Substance Painter and Substance Painter for a year now. Here I show various application examples of what can be achieved with them.
Fallout!
Most of us have played an episode or two of Fallout - and were cautiously pleased when Amazon Prime announced a film adaptation. Turns out the first season was a lot of fun - and had some great shots. Some of the best came from Rise FX - so we connected our Pip-Boy to the bunker in Berlin and asked the artists!