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 Momo (2025), director Christian Ditter, Ratpack Film Production and RiseFX took on the challenge of reimagining Michael Ende’s timeless tale for a new generation — without losing its quiet melancholy or handmade charm. Based on the 1973 novel and following in the shadow of the 1986 adaptation, Momo centres on an orphan girl who must battle the soulless Men in Grey, who stealthily take over her city and steal time.

Michael Wortmann, who worked on films such as Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Star Trek Into Darkness (2013), and Black Panther (2018) and Red One (2024) brings Hollywood scale experience to Momo. As VFX Supervisor at RiseFX, he led the team through a 16-month production cycle, delivering more than 280 shots with a crew of roughly 50 artists – merging blockbuster techniques with a grounded, naturalistic aesthetic in this German production.

Creative Directions

DP: How jarring was it to go from the adrenaline-soaked action comedy Red One to the timeless, melancholic world of Momo?

Michael Wortmann: Well, these two movies might not seem to be much alike on the first look but if you think about it they do have a lot in common. Both movies address a wide audience, they fall into the genre fantasy and they both deal with the timeless topic of who we spend time with. The surreal set extensions are a fantasy but keeping a lot of things grounded in the real world is key to make the story relatable to the viewer.

DP: Momo comes with serious nostalgia baggage, both from the book and the 1986 movie. How much of that legacy influenced your take? And how did you decide what to preserve, what to reinvent, and what to toss out with the Men in Grey’s cigars?

Michael Wortmann: The goal was clear from the beginning: we are not doing a remake, we really want to upgrade Momo and make a 2025 version of it. So this was not about nostalgica but really updating all the elements of the story to make them relatable to a new generation that didn’t grow up with the old movie. So dolls became Bibibots, cigars became inhalers, there’s grey women now and so on. Still, we tried not to lean into science fiction too much because essentially Momo is a tale. Director Christian Ditter had all these wonderful ideas when he wrote the script and this really translated into the design of the film.

DP: The realm of the Men in Grey and the Source of Time are gorgeous, especially that giant pendulum over the water. How did those concepts evolve visually? How many iterations did they go through before locking in the final design?

Michael Wortmann: The golden dome is one of the pivotal moments in the book and the movie as well. It took a while to figure it out and there were a lot of options discussed. The description in the original book was a cave like place so we started looking into actual caves in Croatia.

During preproduction it became obvious that we wouldn’t be able to make a cave shoot happening so we got creative about it. We discussed all kinds of ideas, minimalistic approaches like a black void just shoing a water surface with Momo and the flower of the hour. We also discussed shooting in an LED Stage but we felt this is not the right approach for our movie. Momo is essentially shot entirely on location so we were worried that LED stage shots would look unnatural.

So on one weekend, while we were still shooting our director went to a beach in Split and found that little half moon shaped bay –  and we all knew this is the place! So we started developing concepts which developed a bit over time. We started with antique ruins but ended up with a more naturalistic design reelected in a dome made from driftwood as our director felt that this place needed to be more organic. We worked closely with concept artist Francesco Corvino who depicted style frames for this environment.

DP: How much of the final look was premeditated versus discovered? Were there moments where someone said, “Wait, this actually looks better upside down,” and you just rolled with it?

Michael Wortmann: We tried to plan as much as we could but on the visual effects side we had to develop some things to make things look really appealing. For example in the Neverlane we were facing problems because the whole set and the set extension were sandstone color. So we started introduce lensflares which were artificially rgb colored so they resemble rainbow colors. They weren’t the true look of the lenses we used but they helped a lot in making the shots not look monochromatic.

DP: Momo has this delicate balance of realism and magic and  it never tips too far into fantasy. Was there a guiding visual rulebook or “Momo physics” that defined what could exist in that world?

Michael Wortmann: We agreed with the director that anything in our Momo world is grounded in reality. Time being frozen is a thing, it is something we can show without being non-physical. Even the dissolves of the greys are based on their colors, non-gravity and the pink color of the flour of the hour – they come across like fairy dust but in essence they are organic and real in terms of the story.

DP: In terms of look development, what role did RiseFX play in setting the tone?

Michael Wortmann: There was a little concept art that was done before we shot the movie and then we had Francesco working on concepts together with the director after the shoot. But there were still a lot of things left for us to figure out so we did a lot of design work on this one. The look through Momo’s glasses, the design of the future city, the Neverlane set extensions, the time vault and the screen during the judgement scene, just to name a few.

Technical & Pipeline

DP: Let’s talk about scale. When did Rise actually start on  Momo? How long did production run, how many artists were involved, and roughly how many shots were completed?

Michael Wortmann: We started on Momo in January 2025 and we finished in May 2026, so it was a long one. I think we had a crew of 50 artists working on our show over time and we completed 280 shots, which is the majority of work. 

DP: The reel shows full-CG environments, set extensions both “normal” and “fantastic,” time-freeze sequences, particle sims — basically a buffet of VFX challenges. How did the team manage such variety without losing track of what’s real, what’s magic, and what’s due Tuesday?

Michael Wortmann: I am working with an experienced team that I know for years so I can completely rely on them helping me navigate through the storm. As I was on set supervising the shoot and in direct touch with the director and producer so I had a lot of background knowledge of what we needed to do.

DP: The USD-based multishot pipeline was pushed forward, I assume – how exactly did that work in practice these days? Were there multiple vendors, and how did you keep asset exchanges from turning into a Kafka novel?

Michael Wortmann: No, this was not as crazy as it sounds. Our pipeline is well established and it all worked out as planned. We pushed pretty much all shots through our pipeline: Maya, Houdini, Karma rendering and Nuke.

DP: Which shots were the biggest technical headaches, and how did Rise solve them?

Michael Wortmann: I think the golden dome shots were really challenging, both creatively and technically. We needed to match the beach including water sims, caustic renderings and all that, the asset was extremely heavy with all the wooden structures. Finally we needed this weird lighting setup where the center of the scene is in bright light but towards the end of the set we wanted night. We tried to sell the sunlight in the plates as the light coming down onto the pendulum and I think that worked beautifully.

Creature Feature: Cassiopeia the Turtle

DP: Let’s talk about Cassiopeia, everyone’s favourite turtle and possibly the calmest on-screen actor in cinema. How much research went into her design and movement?

Michael Wortmann: When we started I was told Cassiopeia is an animatronic build and that we only need to take care of her letters. I was curious but when I saw the first tests I knew we would need to help so we ended up with a good combination of animatronic and cgi shots here. We had all kind of hybrid shots where we just replaced the feet or touched up the rig underneath her shell. Chris Creatures did a great job and she really looks cute. Some closeups are especially incredibly well working, the animatronic had two versions, one that could move around and one that was slightly bigger and had a full facial rig. The only thing she basically can’t do is walk like a real turtle so that’s when we had to fully replace her.

DP: Be honest: did anyone at Rise actually have a turtle at home they brought in for research? And if yes, how long did the motion capture session take? And how is RiseFX’s policy towards pets in the office?

Michael Wortmann: Haha, we do have that occasional dog coming in but like always no animals were harmed during making this movie!

DP: The film’s Cassiopeia clearly isn’t a real turtle, not just because of the writing on her shell (D’uh). She moves with agency, emotion, even purpose. How much of that is biologically plausible, and how much is, well, pure storytelling?

Michael Wortmann: I think we went modest when it comes to unnatural behaviour, Michael Ende wrote Momo in Italy and had turtles in the garden of the place where he stayed. That’s why she is mostly natural and also why she doesn’t speak. I really like the mix of a natural turtle but then being spiced up with fantasy colors, she is way to blue for a real turtle.

DP: There’s a fine line between an anatomically accurate turtle and an expressive one. How did the animators find that sweet spot — especially when Cassiopeia smiles (something turtles, tragically, do not do)?

Michael Wortmann: Anatomically turtles cannot smile but her mouth shape really helps. Most facial expressions are not a result of one thing moving but if you open your mouth while you close your eyes a bit it makes the whole face suddenly resonate and allows to read an emotion. Animating the flower petals was much more difficult because that animation really is just about translating an object in space while still transporting a message.

DP: If you had to define Cassiopeia in one word what would it be?
Michael Wortmann: (Classic) Sidekick!

Wrap-Up

DP: If you were to start Momo again from scratch (same script, same crew, same turtle) what would you do differently, either creatively or technically?

Michael Wortmann: Well, there’s always that one shot you are not super happy with but overall we really managed to deliver a very consistent and high quality of vfx work. This was a german production and even though we had a decent budget we had to manage things efficiently in order to make this movie really look as big as it should. Everyone in Germany want to finally do these big, cinematic movies – I think we did one.

DP: What lessons or tools from Momo will Rise carry forward into future productions, apart from the obvious “saving time to spend time” mantra, which seems to apply to pipelines, not to artists?

Michael Wortmann: After this we have done another step into a direction where we can provide the full scope of VFX, not only in terms of content but also in terms of supervision and production support. Momo was always about taking all the experience and knowledge and make it possible to shoot a big looking movie on set without impacting the production as little as possible. There’s hardly greenscreens, no LED stage, everything is real and onset, thats’s why it looks so good. There’s a reason why the directior Christian Ditter and me both own a copy of “Making of The Creator”. 

DP: Finally, what’s next for you and for Rise FX?

Michael Wortmann: Welcome to the Hunger Games! I’m working on the new installment, titled “Sunrise on the reaping” – stay tuned, It’s going to be good!

The post Momo: Of Time, Turtles, and Technical Wizardry first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

We developed the story with our professor Jürgen Schopper back in October 2023. Dr Rodolfo Anes Silveira, Jonas Kluger, Berter Orpak and our team assistant Petra Hereth enriched and strongly supported this intensive process. During the weekly meetings, we were able to discuss our concept ideas and aesthetic approaches with each other. Our shared love for 2D animation also brought our film team together, consisting of Vanessa Ramovic, Sonja Latussek and Elena Rid. We wanted to work together on a story that would make everyone’s “inner child” shine again.

by Vanessa Ramovic, Sonja Latussek and Elena Rid

At an internal meeting, we came up with the idea of using the stars as a medium for a look into our own past. The film should not only be family-friendly, but also appeal to an emotion that touches older audiences. “Little Star” revolves around astronomer Mina, who rediscovers her lost passion for the stars through a magical encounter with her younger self. The encounter – an emotional climax to the story – also reflects our journey while working on the film. We also went back to our roots in animation and used that to create something new. To better understand the depth of our character and further elaborate the story, we received great support from psychologist Dr. Walter Stehling, who led a seminar on the hero’s journey and character motivation.

Concept Art: Night-Time Desertadventures

We decided to choose a solitary setting in an observatory that was deserted except for one workstation, to better represent the extent of Mina’s overtime impact on her daily life. All the lights except for her PC screen should be off while Mina sits alone at her desk and works away. Our producer Pearl Fröhlich organised for us to spend a day together with some students and research assistants from the Munich University Observatory in Bogenhausen. Field trip!

They gave us great first-hand information about the daily routine and everyday life in an observatory. We designed thick tube monitors for an authentic depiction of the 80s in our film, a desk littered with instant noodle cups and paper litter and – naturally for an observatory – a gigantic telescope in the middle of the room. There were also piles of boxes filled with documents, star analyses and star observations. Posters and a diploma at Mina’s workplace are intended to tell part of our character’s story visually. The observatory was to stand alone in a desert landscape. For the interior and the desert colours, we looked for references week after week, which we used as a template for our drawings until we were completely satisfied with the look of the film.

Two character designs for one character

In the character design of Mina, as an overworked workaholic, we specifically wanted to visually emphasise the influence of her monotonous everyday life on her life. Character development also played a major role here: How much importance does she attach to a well-groomed appearance? What does she eat during her breaks? Does she take breaks at all? It was important for us to be able to read her basic behaviour from her appearance.

While Mina is exhausted and overworked, her younger self, whom we have affectionately christened “little star” to keep her apart, is a playful child who doesn’t shy away from big adventures in nature. In the earliest concept drawings, Mina still had long blonde hair and a white coat – Little Star, on the other hand, wore glasses, braces and a bright red superhero cape. After a few variations, we came up with a warm, everyday outfit for Mina instead and a hairstyle that doesn’t require too much styling in the morning. For the little one, we chose a wide and airy jumpsuit that she can jump around in.

To emphasise the visual similarity between the two characters, we gave Mina a small scar on her cheek, which she once got on her childhood adventures. Little Star, on the other hand, has a plaster in the same place. After many different concepts, we gradually found the right designs for Mina and Little Star that successfully reflect their character traits.

Animatic: Bringing drawings to Life

Starting with tiny sketches on our tablets and mobile phones, we drew the first visual storyboards based on rough script ideas. These evolved week by week with various ideas and changes to the camera angles. We discarded some shots in order to achieve a final result that better reflected our message and the character of Mina.

With the support of Prof. Michael Coldewey, we finalised our storyboards, created a 2D animatic with the help of Dr. Rodolfo Silveira and, thanks to the great mentoring of Berter Orpak, turned it into a 3D animated pre-visualisation. To do this, we built rough models of our desert in Blender to determine the focal lengths of our camera. Our preliminary Mina model and initial experiments with the magical star swirls that appear later in the film also found a place in the desert. We then merged our renders with hand-drawn 2D frames in Adobe Premiere. We quickly found the first solutions for having a 3D character interact with a 2D character and decided on a mostly static camera language for the sake of feasibility. We ultimately used the final 3D animatic as a reference for our final film shots.

Mina: Character Modelling and Rigging

The first step was to model Mina completely ourselves. As we were all beginners in this field, we were initially surprised by the amount of work involved in the process. However, after a few concepts, we found our feet and worked our way towards Mina’s design using a prefabricated base model from Blender.

Editing her face proved to be particularly time-consuming, as she had to retain her sharply stylised lips exactly as in our concept artwork and still look like her younger self, for example. Sonja adapted the proportions of her face to our drawings, first from the front and then from the side, and also gave her a round nose and reworked her ears. She worked on the hair at the end: each strand of hair consists of two curves, which we edited into meshes shortly before rigging. Elena Rid designed and modelled Mina’s clothes herself from scratch.

Desert Horizons and Offices
– Environment design!

The special thing about our film is that it only takes place at night and in front of and inside a large observatory in the middle of a desert. We wanted to tell the story of the character’s everyday life through the furnishings of the office and a vast, empty stone desert. So it was a task to fill the vast space and Mina’s workplace with a few objects. First, Vanessa Ramovic built rough shaders for the round walls and metallic grids in Blender. In the meantime, Elena modelled some objects herself – such as Mina’s table lamp – and gave them the finishing touches in the subsequent matte painting.

A layout that was considered during the design phase helped us to set up Mina’s office and stack all the objects on her desk in a harmonious yet chaotic way. Through the hand-drawn reworking, we also managed to make the room look fuller, darker or dirtier.

We also worked by hand on all the posters and the diploma that hangs above Mina’s desk. Elena built the basic model of the desert using Geometry Nodes in Blender. We chose a painterly surface, which we didn’t create in Blender’s shading process, but also laid over the desert using Elena’s hand-painted matte paintings. Vanessa used noise textures in the “World” shader to depict a starry sky at night. When the sky moved, she placed the star shader on a sphere and animated it using keyframes.

Stardust Effects in FX

To bring Mina’s childhood passion and love for the stars to life, we worked on a colourful interplay of stars in the sky. As the film progressed, these were to build up into a whole vortex of stars that revolved around Mina and Little Star. We designed a 2D-like aesthetic for the vortex that would fit into both Mina’s 3D world and Little Star’s 2D world. After some experimentation, Vanessa simulated the animated star effect in a geometry node tree. This uses a curve that defines the path of the vortex. She made design decisions such as the density or direction of the vortex in Blender’s shading mode. We always turned to our 3D mentor Benc Orpak for suggestions and questions. He helped us to rework overlapping edges or unclean areas of the vortex. Basically, Vanessa used two differently developed versions of the simulation, which were configured, detailed and scaled differently. She manually reworked the vortex in each shot, depending on the perspective and distance from which it was viewed.

For individual shooting stars, she reduced the geometry nodes to such an extent that instead of a vortex, only a colourful starburst was visible, which we could place at different positions in the sky. We generated the particles with an invisible particle emitter that follows the path of a spiral curve, the radius of which became larger and larger as it progressed. We used emission shaders in the colours of the star vortex for each component of the particle system. Sonja made further corrections per frame afterwards in the 2D animation.

Embodying characters in MoCap

We had the opportunity to familiarise ourselves with the technology of motion capture suits and were then able to apply this to “Little Star”. We received a lot of support and a great introduction from our lecturer David Emmenlauer. After an intensive casting process, initiated by our producer Pearl Fröhlich, we found the perfect actress for our character in Franzi Frey. Once we had attached the motion sensors to our actress, the one-day shoot could begin. We collected all the data on movement, acceleration and orientation in Movella’s Xsens system, which is available at our university.

The software reconstructed every movement into a virtual 3D world so that we could transfer it to our 3D character in Maya and Blender. We used animation layers to refine the movements and make corrections. Franzi Frey provided us with many versions of individual shots so that we could understand what kind of movements were recorded more precisely than others. She moved like a real cartoon character herself and breathed life into our character with deliberately exuberant body movements. Meanwhile, the rest of our film team alternated between different positions. We also acted as partners in the film scene or directed the shoot ourselves.

Animation in 2D and 3D

As hand movements and facial expressions could not be recorded by the motion capture system, we animated some of the shots. Using the Blender add-on Animation Layers, we were able to move Mina’s body parts in different layers, set keyframes and thus animate them. We used the Blender add-on Auto-Rig Pro for our character’s rig and corrected complications in the rig with Sonja’s elaborate weight paintings. Inconsistencies from the motion capture could be corrected with our own animations. Frame by frame, we moved our character’s rig to the right place and set our keyframes piece by piece. We received great support from our lecturer, Prof Melanie Beisswenger, who explained the basic theory of animation technology to us before we started the practical application.

For the little girl, we drew each individual frame in the traditional way. We used the ProCreate and Krita apps on our digital tablets to do this. In the group, we split up any film shots so that Elena could work on 2D keyframes and Sonja on her inbetweens at the same time.

For the 2D animation, we orientated ourselves strongly on Elena’s reference videos that she had previously recorded. Finally, we placed great importance on a distinctive body language that would give Little Star character even without dialogue. The biggest challenge for us was the interaction between Mina and Little Star. To achieve this, Sonja and Elena split the previously generated 3D animations into individual keyframes and drew Little Star into the scene frame by frame. Vanessa supported them in the lineart and colouring process.

Lighting under a starry sky

The special feature of our film is that it only takes place at night. We worked on various lighting concepts to tell the visual story of the look we had conceived. After consulting with the group, we used these to create a colour sheet for our film. It was clear that almost all the lights in the observatory should be off, while a bright moonlight should shine into the building. Thanks to great support from our lecturer Kathrin Hawelka, we gained a deeper insight into master lighting and shot lighting.

With a mixture of the changed sun position in Blenders Sky Texture and a strong spotlight, Vanessa simulated a soft moonlight at night. Using Area Lights, Sonja lifted our character from the background and gave her more definition in the face. Inside the observatory, Vanessa also worked mostly with area lights, for example on the PC screen. The moonlight in the opening of the observatory was created using a spotlight.

Finding the right light colour and temperature proved difficult at first. Our concept was to start the film with the coldest and darkest colours possible. However, as soon as Mina meets her little self, a warm colour appears for the first time in the film with the girl’s striking red jumpsuit. With the help of the fantastic starry vortex, which we designed in shades of cyan and purple, the colourful tones take over Mina’s surroundings and the astronomer herself. The colours represent a return to her inner child and her deep enthusiasm for the stars. Thanks to the amazing colour grading by Claudia Fuchs, we were able to highlight some parts of the film even more and give the film a final polish.

Melodies of Magic: Sounds and Music

Even in the earliest sketches of our animatics, in which Sonja had already incorporated existing film music as references, it was clear that we wanted to go in a direction with the music that would strike an emotional chord. We found great inspiration in many works by Pixar. Back in April 2024, we discussed our musical perspectives and ideas with our composer Julia Chen, whom we met as part of a collaboration between the HFF Munich and the Munich University of Music and Theatre. Working with her was a unique experience, as our wishes and ideas immediately went in the same direction. Shortly afterwards, we received the first musical sketches for our early and unfinished 3D animatics, which already impressively summarised the dimensions of our film.

After a lively exchange, we jointly decided to place a major climax in the music on the embrace of Mina and Little Star. We also asked Julia Chen to personally record the vocals for the credits. We are over the moon with the end result and were very happy to bring them together with our film sounds. Even without dialogue in the film, it was important to record sounds such as breathing, laughing or groaning in a sound booth. Our team member Elena lent her voice to both Mina and Little Star in the final film. All the voice recordings were made in a recording studio at the HFF and the music academy. Many of our sounds could be taken from our internal sound library at the university, and additional Foley sounds could also be recorded in the studio if necessary. The final 5.1 mix of sound, music and voices for our final mix was created by our sound mixer Gerhard Auer.

Magical Adjustments in Compositing

The compositing was created by Vanessa and Elena in DaVinci Fusion. The core of the work was the merging of 2D matte paintings and hand-drawn 2D animations into the three-dimensional Blender scene. The interactions between Mina and Little Star had to look fluid and not leave any gaps, which was a big challenge for a short time. In some cases, we corrected every single frame by hand. We placed the matte paintings as PNGs with an alpha channel over the 3D renders. Vanessa gave the star swirls in particular a major compositing polish. She corrected some of the colours, added blurring and enhanced the lighting effects. We made the particles shine all the brighter. One of the biggest challenges for us was to place 2D matte paintings in a scene with a moving camera – as is the case with the meeting of Mina and Little Star. As a solution, Elena added her drawing to the Blender scene itself instead of compositing it. By drawing the matte paintings several times, she found out where the most parallax occurs when the camera is moved more strongly. Based on this, she divided the background into eight different layers, which we inserted as planes in Blender and moved over the 3D desert. The process resembled staggered stage elements in terms of perspective and turned out to make sense in retrospect.

Starry Adventures in retrospect

Life is through and through a collection of many experiences and adventures that shape us into the people we are today. Many of us probably also know what it feels like to be frustrated or on the verge of burnout. However, only very few of us talk about it, which is why we want to take the big step with our short film of addressing people who may be struggling in their job or everyday life, or even those who have lost sight of their own preferences, hobbies and passions. After working on “Little Star” for two semesters and half a summer, we were finally able to show the film to a larger and more diverse audience, including some professional eyes from the industry, on 28 November 2024 at the VFX Reel 2024 at the HFF. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our team assistant Petra Hereth for organising our premiere and the numerous support from all the visitors. It would be a pleasure for us to be able to present the film at other occasions such as festivals afterwards. We hope that the audience will enjoy Mina’s adventures – but also that they will give their own inner little star a big hug after seeing the film!

Summary and Producer’s Notes

The “Little Star” project was already in its infancy when I approached the team consisting of Sonja Latussek, Vanessa Ramovic and Elena Rid. Having just arrived at the HFF, it was my heart’s desire to be able to take part in an animated film within reach. The VFX department and the students of the 2023 class worked closely together in weekly meetings (weeklies), which I was able to attend for the first time in November and then experience the development of the film throughout the year.

by Pearl Fröhlich

The filmmakers impressed the supervising chair and myself with their precise and creative
brainstorming phase and quickly moved on to script development. The team was quickly joined by our composer Julia Chen, who had also worked on “Schattenspiel” from the previous year. The proximity between us and the music academy made it easy to work closely together, which gave everyone an instructive insight into the work processes of both trades.

For the design of the space and the characters, we went on a joint research trip as a team to the university observatory in Munich, which Dr Oliver Friedrich organised and designed together with us. On site, the scientific staff shared their knowledge and enthusiasm for the field of astronomy with us, which gave us deeper access to Mina and Little Star.

Mina was brought to life by actress Franzi Frey on a day of motion capture filming in the HFF’s in-house studio, supervised by David Emmenlauer. The three filmmakers took it in turns to act in the role of the starlet. After a steep learning curve, the motion capture data and reference recordings made it easier to realise the final animated version.

The chair of the VFX degree programme, consisting of Prof. Jürgen Schopper, Dr Rodolfo Anes Silveira, Berter Orpak, Jonas Kluger and Petra Hereth, supported the entire process with their expertise. The project and all those involved went through many intensive phases in its creation and there was a shared anticipation of the final premiere of the film at the VFX-Reel 2024 in November this year at the HFF.

I would like to thank you for the many learning opportunities and experiences gained, which have given me further training for future projects and left me with an enthusiasm for digital production.

From the production side, I would like to personally thank Lissy Giglberger, Ina Mikkat, the production manager of the project, and Daniel Zitzer, the production assistant, who have strongly supported and strengthened me through the first year of this project.

Team

A Film By: Vanessa Ramovic – Elena Rid – Sonja Latussek
Script / Modeling / Texturing / Rigging / Lighting / Compositing By: Vanessa Ramovic – Elena Rid – Sonja Latussek
Musical Score, Song & Vocals By: Julia Chen
Produced By: Pearl Fröhlich
Mina Actress: Franzi Frey
Project Supervision: Prof. Jürgen Schopper
Project Consultant: Dr. Rodolfo Anes Silveira
Visual Effects Pipeline TD: Jonas Kluger
Mentor 3D Computer Animation: Berter Orpak
Line Producer: Ina Mikkat
Team Assistant Line Producer: Ron Sikkes
Team Assistance: Petra Hereth
Colour Grading: Claudia Fuchs
Sound Design & Re-Recording Mixer: Gerhard Auer
Audio Consulting: Andreas Goldbrunner
Audio Consulting: Stefan Möhl
Editing Support: Yuval Tzafrir

Studio Management: Peter Gottschall
Studio Management: Andreas Beckert
Scheduling: Beate Bailas
Scheduling: Sabina Kannewischer
Voice Acting: Elena Rid

Thanks To Our Tutors!
3D Animation: Prof. Melanie Beisswenger
Storyboard: Prof. Michael Coldewey
Motion Capture: David Emmenlauer
Lighting: Kathrin Hawelka
Modeling & Rigging: Benc Orpak
Characterbuilding: Dr. Walter Stehling
Cinematography: Dr. Rodolfo Anes Siilveira
Rendering: Jonas Kluger
Overall Management: Prof. Jürgen Schopper

Special Thanks To:
Jim Obmann – Emil Pogolski – Vanessa Chu – Ina Mikkat – Edgar Bauer – Paula Wodniok – Mayra
Ebensen – Silvia Loose – Franz Stoecker – Felix Zachau – Yuval Tzafrir – Mika Angeli – Lissy Giglberger

The post Hff’s Little Star first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by HFF Hochschule für Fernsehen und Film München.

Topaz Labs has unveiled Gigapixel AI v8, the latest upgrade to its popular AI-powered image upscaling software. Designed to enlarge and sharpen images for high-resolution needs, Gigapixel AI is particularly useful for professionals dealing with detailed graphics, film sequences, and complex visuals that demand crisp upscaling without pixelation.

With improved real-time image processing, Gigapixel AI v8 processes images up to twice as fast as previous versions, providing greater compatibility across different production workflows. Machine learning continues to be the backbone of Topaz’s software, and this new iteration reflects more refined algorithms that enhance image quality while reducing artifacts and preserving textures in high-resolution outputs.

Redefine Model: Enhanced Detail and Noise Reduction

Gigapixel AI v8 introduces a new Redefine model, aiming to improve both detail retention and noise reduction during upscaling—a critical factor for users in VFX and film production who require accurate reproductions of original image textures. This model focuses on enhancing clarity in highly detailed areas, such as fine textures on materials and backgrounds, while reducing noise in low-contrast zones, delivering a sharper and cleaner look that retains a natural aesthetic. For post-production artists, this means fewer follow-up edits to correct over-sharpened or “over-processed” elements, a frequent issue with upscaling AI.

The Redefine model also works in tandem with the software’s customizable scaling options, allowing users to fine-tune the amount of detail and noise reduction applied. This added layer of control is particularly useful when upscaling diverse assets, from cinematic close-ups to expansive environmental shots. According to Topaz Labs, users can expect more consistent results that are particularly well-suited to compositing workflows where visual coherence between multiple assets is paramount. This makes Gigapixel AI v8 an efficient tool for those looking to balance detail enhancement with image fidelity across a range of production needs.

New Features: Better Face Recovery, Cloud stuff

Gigapixel AI v8 brings notable updates to its Face Recovery model with the new Gen 2 version, now delivering improved upscaling for faces in profile and offering enhancements for challenging details like teeth and eyeglasses. This version also better handles less-defined facial attributes, helping restore obscure faces with minimal detail. Another major addition is the option to render images in the cloud, available with generative AI models, including the Redefine model and the Recover model (first introduced in Gigapixel 7.1 for upscaling extremely low-resolution images). Cloud processing operates on a credit-based system, with costs varying by image size and model used—larger outputs requiring more credits. This setup offers a flexible alternative for users looking to balance local and cloud-based workflows.

Perhaps the most practical addition is the customizable scaling options, enabling users to enlarge images with greater flexibility. Need to convert a single 4K frame to 8K? Gigapixel AI v8 has options for both presets and manual controls, allowing experienced users to fine-tune the results. The manual control, Topaz notes, can be set to adjust parameters like sharpness and noise, allowing for more tailored results when working with different types of assets, from film scenes to animated characters.

AI Quality Control: Results and Reliability

While AI-driven tools offer promising results, Topaz acknowledges that image processing still requires a critical eye. To keep quality at a premium, they recommend that users perform a few test runs on sample projects before committing to full production use. As with any technology, particularly in high-stakes production, it’s advisable to integrate this software carefully to ensure output aligns with professional standards.

Pricing and Compatibility

Gigapixel AI v8 is available for purchase at $99.99. It’s compatible with both Windows and macOS platforms, offering flexible integration into various pipelines for photo editors, VFX artists, and color graders alike. For more details, visit Topaz Labs’ official website.

Also: There is a cloud option, for large batches, but that costs “Topaz Credits” – so be aware of the costs!

The post Topaz Labs Launches Gigapixel AI v8 first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

NVIDIA has released a new technology driver aimed at optimizing performance for Adobe’s AI-based tools. This release targets Artists using Adobe’s generative AI technologies, including tools like Firefly. The driver improves processing times and ensures smoother workflows by making full use of GPU power.

This update is particularly relevant for production Artists working with the resource-heavy AI functionalities in Adobe’s suite. Tasks such as image generation, video editing, and automated VFX creation will see noticeable speed improvements. NVIDIA’s driver optimizations ensure that AI models work more efficiently on their GPUs, reducing lag and boosting real-time processing.

According to NVIDIA and Adobe, this driver works across a range of NVIDIA GPUs, including GeForce, RTX, and professional Quadro models. Adobe Firefly users can expect a smoother experience when generating assets for video, animation, or game development. Additionally, the update impacts Adobe Sensei, improving performance for those utilizing AI to automate repetitive tasks such as scene detection, color grading, and content-aware fill.

The update is free to download for all existing NVIDIA GPU users. For new buyers, the driver comes bundled with any Adobe Creative Cloud subscription that includes AI-powered tools.

Before integrating this driver into production, however, Artists should carefully test the stability and compatibility with their current Adobe workflows. While the update promises improved performance, the real-world effects will depend on specific project requirements and hardware configurations. It’s crucial to validate these changes on non-critical projects first. For more technical details and to download the driver, see NVIDIA’s official documentation.

The post Nvidia boosts Adobe’s AI with New Tech Driver first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.