Browsing Tag
Visual Effects
276 posts
Fridays for Fusion: Free InPaint Macro Tackles Cleanup
InPaint adds a matte-driven cleanup helper to Reactor for Fusion shots where cloning falls apart on gradients and uneven surfaces.
Krokodove: a massive expansion of Fusion and Resolve’s creative arsenal
Nodes on hyperdrive. A huge new toolset for motion design and visual effects in DaVinci Resolve and Fusion Studio.
MPC Joins The Mill
MPC and The Mill become one global studio, combining commercial production and film VFX under The Mill name.
Free Sci-Fi Station Lands on Fab
Fab gives Unreal artists 147 modular sci-fi assets, 4K textures and LODs for free until 16 June. Space rent remains mercifully absent.
BadFX Packs Assets Into Adobe Panels
BadFX puts stock media and adjustable animation presets inside Adobe timelines. The plugin is free, though an account is compulsory.
NukeRef Adds References to Nuke
NukeRef lets compositors paste image references into Nuke’s Node Graph as interactive backdrops. Tiny script, big sanity gain.
3DCoat 2026 gets GPU nodes
3DCoat 2026 beta adds GPU node texturing, procedural smart materials and masks. Shiny, useful and still beta-shaped.
Silhouette 2026 gets smarter roto and 3D heads
Silhouette 2026 upgrades AI mattes, adds Head Track ML and better tracking, boosts paint tools and performance, and finally gets serious about pipelines.
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.
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.
FMX 2026 bets on sound and spatial craft
FMX 2026 turns the volume up: Nina Hartstone, David Fluhr, and an AI keyframe-to-sound workflow. Your temp mix just got nervous.
Sony to wind down Pixomondo
Televisual reports Pixomondo will be wound down after contracts finish, with VFX efforts set to refocus on Imageworks.
VES Awards 2026 names winners and honours
VES Awards 2026 winners named across 24 categories, with Bruckheimer and Taylor receiving top honours.
Infinity Hotel: Endless Rooms, Endless Renders
HFF Munich’s VFX students built Infinity Hotel, a hybrid short film merging live action with CGI, LiDAR scans, and Dolby Atmos sound.
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.
World VFX Day 2025: Global Line-Up ahead!
Framestore hosts World VFX Day 2025 live from London. Free talks, panels and meet-ups unite global VFX artists for one day only. And now you can see who the speakers are!
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.
World VFX Day 2025: Global Line-Up Revealed
WētāFX, ILM, Framestore, Adobe and more join World VFX Day 2025 this December, streaming live from London.
Foundry Opens Nuke 17 Beta: New 3D System, New Variables
Nuke 17 Beta modernises its 3D system, adds a Variable framework and revamped annotation tools: compositors can now test them all.
“A Model of Madness” Scott Ross Why VFX Fails as a Business
Scott Ross: VFX is “a model of madness.” ILM, Digital Domain, and decades later, the business still cannot stand on three legs.
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.
The Mill Returns
The Mill is back. TransPerfect revives the iconic VFX studio with returning talent and a global creative push.
Flix 8.0: Foundry’s story hub gets serious about Storyboard Pro
Foundry’s Flix 8.0 tightens its Storyboard Pro link, retools shots UI, refines ingest monitoring, still “priced on request”, which probably means “too expensive”.
HFF Munich Hiring: Two Half-Time Heroes Wanted
HFF Munich’s VFX department wants two new tech minds—one for the pipeline, one for IT. Expect creative chaos, cool people, and excellent surroundings!
Netflix Merges Scanline and Eyeline
Netflix unifies Scanline VFX and Eyeline Studios as “Eyeline”, merging high-end VFX with virtual production and AI research under one label.
Blender’s Compositor Gets a Photoshop-Style Setup (Free)
Free node setup Easy Photorealism turns Blender’s compositor into a one-stop post-processing station with glare, noise, vignetting, and colour tweaks included.
Premiere Pro gains 90+ Film Impact effects – 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.
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.
Phantom FX Scoops Up Milk VFX and Lola Post
Phantom Digital Effects acquires award-winning Milk VFX and Lola Post; both will keep their names and leadership after the deal.
HDR Light Studio 9.1 Lumi‑Curve Turns Lighting into Line Art—Literally
HDR Light Studio 9.1 introduces Lumi‑Curve: freeform, editable curve-based lights for shaping reflections, highlights, trails, and backgrounds.
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.
Achoo-Free Effects: “3D Dust & Pollen Free” for After Effects
New free preset "3D Dust & Pollen Free" for After Effects simulates pollen, dust, spores, dander and other floating irritants – without triggering allergies.
Nukepedia 2.0: From Geekfest to Gigabytes
Nukepedia is getting rebuilt after 15 years of DIY infrastructure. Relaunch planned for Siggraph—survey and donations now open to support the effort.
Rodeo FX Saddles Up Mikros Animation Amid Technicolor’s Tumble
Rodeo FX acquires Mikros Animation, bolstering its animation capabilities following Technicolor's financial collapse.
FumeFX 6.7 for 3ds Max: Stoke Up Your Sims
FumeFX 6.7 delivers fire presets, Arnold 2024 support, and Stoke MX compatibility for 3ds Max—now available for $695.
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!
Inspiring Artists – Episode 08 | Ft Alexander Richter
In this episode, we dive into Alexander Richter’s inspiring journey as he shares insights into his career as…
Python Copilot: AI Coding Assistant
Discover the power of the Python Copilot: AI Coding Assistant. Advance your career as a technical artist or…
Unlocking Unreal Engine 5’s February Freebies: From MetaHumans to PCG Tools
Unreal Engine 5's February free courses cover MetaHuman animation, PCG tools, VR development, and more.
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, Shōgun 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
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!
Let’s Fix it in Pod 04 Industry Societies and Associations
In this episode, Bela and Christoph discuss means of staying connected - from informal groups and meetups to the Societies and Associations that define our industry.
Framestore Brings Spike Jonze and James Gunn to the Table—Virtually
Framestore’s collaboration with Spike Jonze and James Gunn reveals the dynamics between directors and animators in CGI filmmaking.
Breakdown Maker for Blender: Get your showreel ready!
Breakdown Maker, a $25 Blender add-on, simplifies VFX breakdowns by automating render pass exports and offering professional animation presets.
Let’s Fix it in Pod 03 Open Industry Standards with Jonas Kluger and Arne Palluck
In this episode, Bela and Christoph discuss the benefits of Open Industry Standards, but also the hurdles and processes in establishing these.
FilmConvert Hazy: Digital Mist for Cinematic Post-Production
FilmConvert introduces Hazy, a plugin for Resolve, Premiere and FCP. bringing mist filter effects to post-production workflows. Aimed at enhancing cinematic visuals digitally.
VFX Reel 2024: HFF Munich’s Visual Effects Students Showcase Their Latest Work
Experience the latest in visual effects and digital storytelling at HFF Munich's VFX Reel 2024 on November 28.
Foundry Offers 10-Year Free License for Modo: A Farewell Gift for Loyal Users
Foundry grants 10-year Modo licenses for users as part of its end-of-life transition plan.
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.
“Grease Pencil” hPaint for Houdini
hPaint now extends Grease Pencil-like features for Houdini 20.5 in one easy to use HDA.
TD Meetup 09: Photogrammetry
Photogrammetry is an important part of digital asset creation and has helped countless projects create realistic digital actors, assets and environments.
TD Meetup 01: A.I. Introduction
Our 1st TD Meetup event is about tackling the topic of A.I., Machine Learning and Deep Learning in Visual Effects, Animation, and Gaming industries.
Fallout becomes cinematic.
Paul Hatton catches up with Nikita Travnikov, an executive producer for Huuuge Games and 3D tinkerer - and we chat about the whole Fusion/Resolve pipeline!
Our Universe of… Houdini?
Who would have thought that one of our favourite documentaries seen this year would come from Bristol?
All the teeth!
Sometimes there are fantastical productions, where you get a
monster that feels fresh and new – and once we had seen Season 2 of “Carnival Row” (Release on Amazon Prime), we needed to talk about
the toothy skinned bat: Sparas!
Timeline Tools von The Foundry 2
Color, Comp und Conform! Nuke and Nuke X are the de facto-standard in node-based compositing. But even seasoned Nuke artists have often had little or no contact with the closely related reviewing and finishing products.
Elementary!
You’ve surely seen the posters: There’s a new Pixar movie, this time asking “What if the Aristotelian elements have feelings?” The story plays out in Element City, where fire-, water-, land- and air-residents live together.
Strange New Worlds in Norway
When we talked about the Virtual Production of Strange New Worlds, we only talked about one side – the interiors and strange
planets. But Star Trek is called STAR Trek –
so who made the Spaceships?
Visual Effects Society Names 2021 Special Honourees
The Visual Effects Society named James Cameron and Gary Demos honorary members, announced four new VES Fellows and revealed its 2021 Hall of Fame class.
Removing Road Traffic for an Empty-City VFX Shot
Josh Olufemii and Nick Khoo demonstrated a compositing workflow for removing vehicles from a road to create an abandoned-city effect.
Nuke Eye Effects: Colour Changes, Warping and Blink Removal
Damian Allen demonstrated Nuke techniques for changing eye colour, warping and morphing eyes, and removing blinks from a shot.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker — VFX Supervisor Roger Guyett Interview
ILM VFX supervisor Roger Guyett discusses the global production, practical and digital techniques, virtual production and fleet work behind The Rise of Skywalker.
Godzilla vs. Kong: Scanline VFX Showreel
Scanline VFX breaks down its creature and environment work for Godzilla vs. Kong in a studio showreel.
Maxon’s Fall 2021 Update Covers Cinema 4D, Redshift and Red Giant
Maxon’s fall 2021 release brought updates to Cinema 4D R25, Trapcode Suite 17, VFX Suite 2, Redshift and other Maxon tools.
Rodeo FX Legacy Showreel Highlights Film and Television VFX
Rodeo FX’s Legacy Showreel 2020 brings together visual-effects work from Blade Runner 2049, Lovecraft Country, It and Bumblebee.
JangaFX Lowers EmberGen Pricing for Indie Developers
JangaFX introduced lower EmberGen pricing for artists and studios earning under US$1 million annually.
Pixomondo 2021 Showreel Spans Raised by Wolves, Westworld and Midway
Pixomondo’s 2021 showreel brings together visual-effects work from Raised by Wolves, Westworld, Midway and Star Trek.
KeenTools 2021.3 Adds Blendshape Nodes and Tracker Improvements
KeenTools 2021.3 introduced Nuke blendshape nodes, ARKit-compatible FACS shapes and stability updates for GeoTracker, FaceTracker and FaceBuilder.
Mocha Pro VFX Workshop Covers Object Removal and Mega Plates
Boris FX specialists demonstrate Mocha Pro’s object-removal and Mega Plate workflows in a practical VFX workshop.
Cinema 4D Tutorial Recreates Free Guy’s Disintegration Effect
Jonas Pilz recreates the disintegration effect from Free Guy using Cinema 4D, Redshift, Red Giant tools and After Effects.
das element Launches Offline VFX Library and Asset Management Tool
das element organises VFX assets, textures, references and sequences in an offline library designed for production pipelines.
After Effects Tutorial Recreates a-ha’s ‘Take On Me’ Pencil Look
VFX Side Quest demonstrates how to recreate the hand-drawn pencil aesthetic of a-ha’s Take On Me music video in After Effects.
Academy Software Foundation Hosts Open Source Days 2021
The Academy Software Foundation’s two-day Open Source Days conference covered projects for VFX, animation and image creation.
Escape Studios Publishes Free Creative Software Handbook
Escape Studios released a free handbook surveying software used in VFX, animation, games and motion graphics.
Ten Tips for a Stronger Lighting and Compositing Demo Reel
Lighting and compositing artist Eva Mateo-Fabregas shares ten practical ways to improve the quality, clarity and range of a demo reel.
Artlist Acquires FXhome, Expanding into Video and VFX Software
Artlist acquired FXhome, adding HitFilm, Ignite, Imerge and CamTrackAR to its portfolio of creator tools and media services.
Tutorial: Art Directing Volumetric Clouds in Unreal Engine 4 and 5
William Faucher demonstrates positioning volumetric clouds and using Cloud Mask Object and Cloud Mask Generator in Unreal Engine.
Weta Digital Breaks Down Valerian’s Compositing, FX and Characters
Three Weta Digital breakdowns examine compositing, effects simulations and performance capture for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets.
TearKnit FX Brings Procedural Fabric Tearing to Maya
UnPLUG Tools released TearKnit FX 1.0, a Maya tool for creating procedural, physically convincing fabric tears.
Oasis Animation Workers Demonstrate for Better Conditions
Unionised animators at Montreal studio Oasis Animation demonstrated for transparent dismissals, recognition of seniority and fair pay amid a wider organising drive in Canada.
Hybride VFX Reel Revisits Star Wars and The Mandalorian
Canadian visual-effects studio Hybride showcases its work on The Mandalorian, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Solo in its 2021 reel.
Isotropix Releases Clarisse 5 with More Than 100 Improvements
Clarisse 5 brought more than 100 features and improvements for set dressing, look development, lighting, rendering and workflow, plus new pricing options.
Seth Worley Recreates Ghostbusters Proton Streams in After Effects
Director and educator Seth Worley demonstrates an After Effects workflow for recreating the iconic proton streams from Ghostbusters.
Gnomon 2021 Student Reel Showcases Emerging VFX Artists
Gnomon’s 2021 student reel presents visual-effects, games and animation work created by students at the Los Angeles school.
DNEG Film VFX Reel Features Deadpool, Wonder Woman, Thor and Venom
DNEG’s film visual-effects showreel brings together work from superhero productions including Deadpool, Wonder Woman, Thor and Venom.
MPC Film Environment Reel Showcases Cities, Worlds and Pokémon
MPC Film’s environment reel presents urban, interstellar and densely populated digital worlds created through the studio’s VFX pipeline.
Lucerne University Launches Master’s Specialisation in Animation
Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts expanded its animation education with a master’s specialisation beginning in the 2021/22 academic year.
Tenet Wins BAFTA for Special Visual Effects
Tenet won the 2021 BAFTA for Special Visual Effects, while Sound of Metal, Soul and Nomadland received awards in editing, animation and cinematography.
Autodesk Moves Licences to Named Users
Autodesk prepared to replace serial-number access with named-user licensing, assigning subscriptions to individual user identities.
Autodesk Flame Update Expands ML Tracking
Autodesk Flame adds machine-learning camera tracking, stronger colour workflows, external LUT support and NDI preview streaming.
19th VES Awards Honour 2020’s Visual Effects
The 19th VES Awards recognised work across film, episodic production, animation, games, commercials and special-venue projects.
Cinefex Ends Publication After 40 Years
Cinefex closed after more than 40 years and over 170 issues, with issue 172 becoming the final edition of the VFX journal.
Appleseed Approaches Production Readiness
The open-source Appleseed renderer targets animation and VFX with OSL, SeExpr, motion blur, spectral rendering and a permissive MIT licence.
Jürgen Schopper Joins HFF Munich as VFX Professor
HFF Munich appointed Jürgen Schopper professor for its VFX specialisation, beginning in April 2021.
RED Komodo Firmware Adds Anamorphic 6K and Audio
RED’s Komodo firmware update adds anamorphic 6K R3D recording, four-channel audio support and live-streaming tools.
White Square 2021 Announces Festival Programme
White Square announced a Minsk programme with more than 70 sessions covering marketing, branding, digital media and creativity.
Autodesk Updates Maya, 3ds Max and MotionBuilder
Autodesk’s 2022 releases add USD, Python 3, animation and rigging updates, Arnold 6.2, security tools and MotionBuilder workflow changes.
Autodesk Extends Multi-User Trade-In Terms
Autodesk extended eligibility for its 2:1 multi-user trade-in offer to qualifying renewals through August 2023.