Browsing Tag
VFX
475 posts
Lux Aeterna rebuilds ancient humans
LiDAR caves, rigged skeletons, photogrammetry casts, and millimetre checks against research. Historical VFX gets very literal.
Boris FX Sapphire 2026.5 adds Advanced Defocus
Sapphire 2026.5 doubles down on lens looks with Advanced Defocus, new Texture Ridges, a rebuilt Glare, Builder updates, and fresh flares.
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.
Beeble Canvas
Canvas arrives as a node based AI compositor plus automation, with SwitchX and SwitchLight under the hood and an API for pipeline integration.
Scene Auditor Pro targets Blender bloat
Scene Auditor Pro maps Blender datablock dependencies, flags orphans and duplicates, and pushes a safer cleanup workflow for big scenes.
Blender Singularity lands in 4K HDR
Singularity drops as a 4K HDR short, with free downloads of assets and encodes. Also: painterly brushstrokes meet procedural crowds.
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.
Boris FX Continuum 2026.5 tunes AI and FX Editor
Continuum 2026.5 stacks AI deinterlacing, sharper ML masks, saner FX Editor isolation, refreshed warps and wipes, and tighter Particle Illusion linking.
Artineering Flair 1.2 for Maya hits macOS
macOS support lands for Maya 2024+, licensing expands to floating and perpetual, and lines get darker with negative light response. Also: Unreal beta.
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.
PlayCanvas updates SplatTransform to 2.0
SplatTransform 2.0 brings sparse voxel grids, new GPU cleanup filters, URL inputs, and a new coplanar merge path. Less splat chaos, more control.
CrumplePop 2026.5 adds ARA, and that’s interesting
CrumplePop 2026.5 adds SoundApp ARA for full clip processing in DAWs, plus a processed audio cache, faster model loading, and updated pricing tiers.
RISE: Fallout Destroys LA, Politely
Los Angeles gets procedurally wrecked, Area 51 gets sand-blasted, and the Caswennan gets treated like a flying film set. We play 20 Questions with RISE.
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.
VES releases On-Set VFX Data Guide
The VES drops a CC-BY on set data guide and hosts a May 12 webinar, because nobody enjoys rebuilding reality from half a slate photo.
VirtuCamera 2: The Weird Byte goes Android
VirtuCamera 2 lands with Android support, refreshed UI, updated DCC plug-ins, and a Python API. Yes, your phone is still the camera now.
FMX gehts a new head for the 30th Birthday
FMX celebrates its 30th edition with a planned handover: Mario Müller steps down after 2026 and Agon Ushaku takes over the mantle for 2027 and onwards.
ICE.ART 2026.I recordings are now live
Missed ICE.ART 2026.I? The full set of talks and panels is now online for free, ready to binge between renders.
Volume Forge for Blender
Volume Forge drops local beams and fog into Blender without bathing the whole scene in volume. Two modes, two creation methods, lots of knobs.
Adobe After Effects 26.2 adds Object Matte and more
For those who don’t know the tool: Adobe makes After Effects, a compositing and motion graphics workhorse that…
Epic Games ships Twinmotion 2026.1
Twinmotion 2026.1 goes harder on camera realism and faster lookdev, then quietly fixes the boring stuff you actually feel daily.
FMX 2026 adds animation, lens talks and of course AI
New sessions span performance animation, AI workflow debates, and lens science, with cloud and software partners joining the mix. Just three weeks until FMX! Wuhu!
Open Light: Procedural HDR Lighting Without the Texture Archaeology
Open Light is a new tool that generates procedural HDR light textures. It builds softboxes, gobos, Kino Flo style sources and other modifiers as 32-bit EXR or HDR files, with support for ACEScg and resolutions up to 4K.
RealityScan 2.1.1 adds better COLMAP support and new XMP export options
RealityScan 2.1.1 is a maintenance release, but a practical one. Epic updates COLMAP exchange, adds new XMP with image list export options, cleans up mask export, and fixes a long list of editor, alignment, and CLI issues.
Beeble Background Remover hits Cloud app
Background Remover unbundles fast AI masking into a standalone workflow with preview, refinement, and RGBA or alpha-only exports for comps.
ProductionCrate Plug-in Suite with docked footage database
ProductionCrate bundles a huge asset library in its Suite, so you can grab a glow, a glitch, or an explosion fast, then pay for it yearly.
Texturing XYZ puts SKAP online, pores included
Texturing XYZ’s SKAP turns 2K to 8K inputs into 16K skin maps in a browser, priced in credits at $1 each.
MPC’s Cold Storage
MPC Paris delivered 575 shots on Cold Storage, from invisible fixes to slime, creatures and a nuclear finale. But how?
Autodesk adds generative 3D to Flow Studio
Autodesk introduces Wonder 3D inside Flow Studio, enabling text and image prompts to generate editable 3D assets.
RenderMan 27.2 adds USD and XPU updates
RenderMan 27.2 ships with USD, XPU and workflow updates aimed at production use.
Cinema 4D plugin for organic line growth hits the web
AlgoMesh releases Differential Line Growth, a free Cinema 4D plugin that iterates splines into organic curves.
Nuke 17.0 rewires 3D and adds Gaussian Splats
Nuke 17.0 brings native splats, USD scene graph control, BigCat ML scaling and core performance gains.
VES Awards 2026 names winners and honours
VES Awards 2026 winners named across 24 categories, with Bruckheimer and Taylor receiving top honours.
SynthEyes 2026 Speeds Up
SynthEyes 2026 adds a Mocha-powered affine point tracker, real-time GeoH previews and expanded USD support to cut solve iteration time.
FMX 2026 spotlights fire, fur and pipelines
FMX 2026 adds Wētā FX, Pixar and Illogic Studios sessions, plus new Premium Partners AMCRS, Accenture Song VFX and AYON.
Foundry buys Griptape to “orchestrate AI”
Foundry acquires Griptape to add "AI orchestration" to Nuke and broader VFX pipelines.
SideFX launches central Houdini learning hub
SideFX consolidates Houdini tutorials into a structured Learning Library aimed at students and production artists.
KIRI Engine releases free Scatter for Blender
KIRI Engine releases Scatter, a free Blender add on offering click, procedural and physics based object placement.
PFTrack update tidies Maya and LiDAR workflows
PFTrack update refines Maya export, LiDAR error handling and Survey Solver node logic for Studio and Enterprise users.
Quad Wrap offers quad-first retopology, no magic wand
FlippedNormals releases Quad Wrap, a Blender retopology tool focused on manual quad layout and mesh wrapping.
Katana 9 deepens USD and previews Hydra 2
Katana introduces UsdSuperLayer, new USD lighting and material nodes, and alpha Hydra 2 viewer support.
Animate re-animated
The King is dead, long live the King: Adobe caves, and Animate remains available with support and fixes, but no new features.
Unreal Reality: Building A New Specimen
Director Dimitri Vallein breaks down the real-time production of his Unreal Engine short film New Specimen, from motion capture to cloth sims.
FMX opens ticket shop and confirms collaboration track talks
FMX opens ticket sales, confirms new speakers, details pass options and highlights ongoing PANEURAMA industry research.
Virtual Production Without the Disney Budget
A Rhode Island studio proves virtual production isn’t just for sci-fi. Door G’s team talks LEDs, Unreal, and the human side of real-time filmmaking.
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.
Baselight v7 refines the colourist’s toolkit
FilmLight’s Baselight v7 adds smarter mattes, new depth tools and workflow upgrades for complex grading and VFX-heavy productions.
HFF Munich seeks new mentor for 3D animation
HFF Munich is hiring a part-time 3D animation mentor for its VFX programme under Prof. Jürgen Schopper, starting 1 May 2026.
Animcraft 5.5: Stability, ribbons, and MetaHumans
Animcraft 5.5 improves mocap stability, rewrites the Dragon Breath Ribbon System, and expands MetaHuman and Maya tools.
LotPixel drops 1,300+ free PBR textures in Hub app
LotPixel Hub beta gives 3D artists free access to 1,300+ PBR textures up to 8K, with Blender integration and more DCCs to come.
Delhi in 3D: Kitbash3D goes urban
Kitbash3D launches New Delhi, a 3D asset kit with 84 models and 127 materials for building detailed urban cityscapes.
Foundry locks in full subscription future for 2027
Foundry drops perpetual maintenance: from 2027, all Nuke, Mari, and Katana users will be on subscription only.
Sapphire gets the “Essentials” treatment
Boris FX adds a free 11-part Sapphire Builder Essentials course to its training library, covering professional multi-host workflows.
Bury Your Good Intentions in 3D
Over 300 stylised graveyard assets from Cryptic Realms are free on Fab until 27 January 2026.
DIY Gravity: Make Your Own Black Hole (In After Effects)
Free After Effects plug-in creates cinematic black holes using ray marching, volumetric fog and physically-based parameters.
Pulldownit 6.5 for Maya cracks a new non-destructive workflow
Pulldownit 6.5 for Maya adds non-destructive fracturing, Xref support, and UI updates for improved control and flexibility.
How I Spent Five Years Making a Solo 3D Film
Maxim Gehricke spent five years creating his solo 3D short film SEN. Here’s how he did it without funding, team, or sleep.
Free 3D Fruit: Fresh Assets, No Pesticides
Kiri offers 141 free, production-ready 3D fruit and vegetable scans with full PBR textures under CC0 licence.
Over 1,000 free sculpting brushes land in BlenderKit
BlenderKit now hosts over 1,000 free 3D sculpting brushes, integrated directly in Blender and licensed for commercial use.
ActionVFX Ignites: 30 Flamethrower Clips Free
Feeling the heat in global news? Now you can literally add it to your comps: ActionVFX drops 30 free flamethrower shots.
PFTrack 2025: Matchmoving gets its groove back
The Pixel Farm’s PFTrack 2025 delivers major lens, tracking, and mesh improvements plus new perpetual licence options.
3DEqualizer 8.1 Adds Piggyback Camera Solves
3DEqualizer 8.1 introduces piggyback rig solving, a rewritten Blender export script and new import and export options.
Rays Behaving Badly No More: MoonRay 2.34.0.1 Fixes the Path
MoonRay 2.34.0.1 lands with a light path visualiser, better macOS and Linux builds, smarter lightsets, and fewer crashes for your next render night.
Cinebench 2026: Benchmark therapy
Cinebench 2026 updates the classic benchmark with full GPU support and new SMT tests. Time to see if your workstation is still worth its power bill.
SynthEyes Essentials Training is here and Free for the Holidays
Boris FX unwraps a holiday gift: SynthEyes Essentials, a free, three-hour matchmove training course for VFX artists, free until 31 December.
Keychron K5 Max: The New Default
A keyboard is the most used tool in digital production, so why settle for mediocrity? After eight months of testing, the Keychron K5 Max has earned a place as my daily driver. Here’s why.
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.
Optics 2026 Adds AI-Driven Masks, Upscaling & Depth Tools
ptics 2026 integrates into Photoshop via a new panel and adds AI-based tools (DeNoise, UpRes, Depth Map, Face ML), plus updated Sapphire filters for stylised looks.
Godot ARKit: Facial Mocap Without the Detour
Open-source plug-in GodotARKit links Apple’s ARKit and Godot 4 for real-time facial mocap using the Live Link Face app—no extra tools needed.
Cascadeur 2025.3: Inbetweening De Luxe
Cascadeur 2025.3 adds Filament rendering, new inbetweening controls, quadruped rigs and twist bones, Windows-only for now, experimental but promising.
World Creator 2025.3 adds ORBX , Godot bridge and caves
World Creator 2025.3 brings ORBX export for OctaneRender, Godot integration and cave-mask terrain tools, adding flexibility for terrain export and engine pipelines.
Epic Games updates RealityScan: 2.1 out
pic’s RealityScan 2.1 brings LiDAR & SLAM import, server automation tools and improved UV and rendering support.
Black Friday Turns Blackmagic: 30% Off Cinema Gear
We rarely cover Black Friday promotions. Most are marketing fluff. But when Blackmagic Design quietly drops quietly reduces camera prices across Europe by up to 30 percent, that counts as news.
Unity’s 2026 Roadmap: CoreCLR, Verified Packages, Fewer Surprises
Unity maps out its 2026 engine roadmap: CoreCLR migration, ECS-GameObject unification, verified packages, and a fresh round of AI-assisted dev tools.
New Trailer walks FMX 2026 home
A walking bus, a hopeful sunrise, and a nod to FMX’s roots: “Bus Buddy” drives the FMX 2026 trailer straight into the ROAD AHEAD.
Blender Studio drops “Storm” rig for Blender 5.0
Blender 5.0 gets Storm: a new Blender Studio character rig with CloudRig body, shape-key facial system, pose library and Blender-only compatibility.
Beyond VFX dives into AI Ethics
AI meets VFX and ethics: Beyond VFX returns on 26 Nov 2025 with VES and ICE.ART. Join Ben Lock, Victor Perez, Frank Govaere & Dr Jana Sedlakova and Agon Ushaku for a free panel.
SuperSplat 2.14 adds full video export
SuperSplat v2.14 adds WebM/AV1 + VP9, MOV/MKV export, frame-range and framerate controls. Browser-based editor gets properly production-ready for splat video output.
Crawly for Videoscreens: SpyderPro
SpyderPro gets serious: anorganic filters, 12,000 nits, 3D LUT export, OLED support, and proper profiling tools make it fit for postproduction again. Let's see if the claims hold up!
Sapphire 2026: Film Burns, Whip Cuts & Builder Love
Sapphire 2026 blends analogue charm and new-gen tools: FilmBurn, MochaWhip, Lens Flares and a more transparent Effect Builder.
Ribbon Rules: Substance Painter 11.1 goes Vulkan
11.1 trades OpenGL for Vulkan and adds a precise Ribbon tool, symmetry for fill layers, physical-size displacement, and 75 new presets.
Blender 5.0 – it’s here!
Blender 5.0 is finally here — with ACES/PQ-HDR, high-geometry support, UI tweaks and a fresh release cadence for production pipelines.
Free “BranchK” toolkit for Houdini adds hierarchy-deformation features
The free BranchK toolkit for Houdini gives environment artists hierarchical capture and deform tools, download and test now.
Photoshop Joins Overlord 2.6
Overlord 2.6 links Photoshop to After Effects for the first time, with a new image scale selector and expanded 265 MB transfer limit.
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 ???)
Autodesk 3ds Max 2026.3: A modest update with key workflow tweaks
3ds Max 2026.3 arrives with more precise Conform modifier controls, dynamic material switching, USD workflow improvements and an updated Arnold plugin.
When Annabelle Grew Up: The Digital Domain Horror Pipeline
425 shots, one terrifying doll, and a CG mill town: Digital Domain’s Alex Millet explains how his team built the horror of The Conjuring: Last Rites and kept it real.
Xsens Rebuilds Its Link Mocap Suit With 4D Stretch
Xsens reinvents its Link suit: 4D stretch fabric, Wi-Fi 6E, one-click sensors, and fewer cables. mocap setups just got a lot less sweaty, or at least easier to keep (reasonably) clean.
Blender Foundation launches “Blender Lab” innovation hub
The Blender Foundation is launching Blender Lab, a new sandbox for prototyping features in Blender, aimed at faster iteration, acedemic research and development.
Keep Your Pipeline: Chaos on Skipping the Game Engine
Chaos’ Chris Nichols explains how Chaos Arena and Chaos Vantage cut out the engine middleman with full ray tracing, open formats, and one asset for all.
KitBash3D’s “DieselPunk” kit free till 18 Nov – retro-futurism ahoy!
KitBash3D’s $245 “DieselPunk” 3D kit (1,395 meshes and 4K textures for Unreal 5) is free on Fab until 18 Nov 2025. Cinematic-grade, no LODs.
Procedural Roads Ahead: Blender Add-on “Roads” Lays Asphalt with Vertices
Blender add-on “Roads” builds procedural roads from vertex extrusions. Fast, planar, parametric and $10.
Phantom Media Group: Milk, Lola, Tippett, PhantomFX and Spectre Unite
Milk, Lola, Tippett, PhantomFX and Spectre now share a roof. Phantom Digital Effects forms Phantom Media Group to align global VFX talent.
Sculpt-Offs, Anniversaries & Anatomy: ZBrush Summit 2025 celebrates 25 years
ZBrush turns 25 and Maxon is celebrating online, 7-9 November, with live Sculpt-Offs, artist sessions and a first look at what’s next for ZBrush.
Procedural Thursday: CityEngine Users Meet Online Tomorrow
Tomorrow, 5 p.m. CET: CityEngine User Meeting: free, online, and full of procedural nerds. Bring your node graphs.
Nobe OmniScope, Pomfort, and RePro sync up on set
RePro connects Pomfort Livegrade and Nobe OmniScope for a unified on-set-to-post workflow. Real-time streaming, shared looks, and synced scopes cut guesswork.
Camera Arrays for the Gaussian Age
Camera Array Tool for Blender creates surface-based camera rigs and exports 4DGS-ready image data for Gaussian Splatting workflows.
Free WaveManager Brings Procedural Motion to Maya
WaveManager for Maya adds procedural wave motion to any rig via expressions: no keyframes, full control, free download.
Video Mocap: Reallusion’s AI Gets Moving
Reallusion adds online AI motion capture to iClone: Video Mocap turns footage into editable animation for $2.50 per clip.
Blender 4.5 LTS lands
lender 4.5 LTS arrives with studio-grade support; the Blender survey shows where users stand; and Blender 5.0 beta is already here, so its time to plan your upgrade.