Find the things you actually care about, rather than politely reading everything we publish. There are three ways through DIGITAL PRODUCTION: the start page and general feed you already know. Or: browse by format, browse by topic, or browse by software.
Every page collects the relevant stories from the DIGITAL PRODUCTION archive and updates as new ones are published. Less wandering around the site pretending this is productive research. If your software is not listed yet, tell us. Either we missed it, it is very, very new, or you are using something impressively obscure.
Follow a topic with RSS. As we discussed with Julien Klein, RSS brings stories from your chosen DP topics and software into one reader. Copy a topic’s RSS address (even if it opens as XML) into the “Add feed” option in Inoreader, classic Outlook (not new Outlook), or Feedly. Follow what fits your workflow and filter out the rest. More readers: Install RSS Guard or Fluent Reader for a dedicated desktop reader, or use Thunderbird for feeds alongside email. Prefer the web? Try NewsBlur for filtering and training, or Feedbin for a focused reader with app support.
Your place in the pipeline for pretty pictures is …
Browse Topics in production order, visit Digital Production Tests for our reviews, or jump to Specific Software for the applications on your desk.
Camera
Where the image begins: explore cameras, lenses and capture techniques, with practical coverage of the choices that follow a shot all the way from set to screen.
Displays & Monitoring
Trust begins with what you can actually see. Explore displays, monitoring and calibration, with viewing tools that help image decisions hold up beyond a single screen.
Hardware
Meet the machines doing the heavy lifting. Workstations, GPUs and production equipment share this corner of the archive, where creative ambition meets the hardware needed to keep it moving.
Ingest
Give every take a safe landing. Follow media offload, verification, transcoding and preparation workflows that help footage arrive in post with its identity, integrity and useful metadata intact.
Storage
A home for the footage, and room for the next revision. Explore drives, shared storage and data-management approaches that keep growing productions organised and their media within reach.
Editing
Find the story hiding between the takes. Explore editing tools, timeline techniques and editorial decisions that shape pacing, build tension and turn a collection of shots into a film.
Audio
Listen beyond the picture. Discover sound recording, editing and mixing tools, alongside workflows for dialogue, music and effects that give moving images their voice, weight and sense of place.
3D & CGI
Build what the camera cannot find. Explore computer-generated imagery, digital worlds and production techniques that take an idea from its first rough shapes towards a convincing final frame.
Modeling
Start with a point, end with a world. Follow modelling tools and techniques for building characters, props and environments, with an eye on shapes that will survive the production pipeline.
Rigging
Give digital characters their strings, joints and room to perform. Explore rigs, deformation and animation controls that help a carefully built model bend, move and express a little personality.
Texturing
Every surface has a story, even the suspiciously clean ones. Explore texture creation, painting and asset workflows that add grain, wear and believable detail to digital characters and environments.
Shading
Decide how a surface greets the light. Follow materials, shaders and look development as artists turn flat colours into glass, skin, metal and the occasional beautifully troublesome mystery substance.
Lighting
Set the mood before anyone says a word. Explore digital lighting, scene illumination and practical approaches to guiding the eye, shaping depth and making an image feel deliberately lit.
Simulation
Let the carefully controlled chaos begin. Explore fluids, smoke, fire, cloth and destruction, including the tools and decisions that turn experiments into effects worth putting on screen.
Rendering
The scene is ready; now the pixels have work to do. Follow rendering engines, optimisation and production workflows that balance image quality, iteration speed and the available computing budget.
Compositing
Bring the pieces together and hide the seams. Explore keying, tracking, integration and node-based workflows that help live action, digital elements and effects convincingly share the same frame.
Motion Graphics
Give type, shapes and ideas a sense of timing. Explore motion design, animation and graphics workflows for titles, explainers and visual sequences that need to move with a purpose.
Workflow
Keep the handoffs from becoming cliffhangers. Explore pipelines, collaboration and production practices that connect people, applications and assets, making room for creative work between the deliveries and revisions.
Asset Management
Give every asset a home and a trail of breadcrumbs. Explore media libraries, metadata, search and versioning, with workflows that help teams find the right files and hand them safely along the pipeline.
Open Standards & Interchange
Shared formats, open tools and industry bodies that keep production moving between applications.
OCIO · ACES · OTIO · OpenUSD · MaterialX · OpenEXR · Alembic · glTF · SMPTE · IMF (Interoperable Master Format) · Academy Software Foundation · Khronos Group
Virtual Production
Where physical sets meet digital worlds: realtime tools, LED stages and on-set workflows that bring parts of post into the camera’s neighbourhood.
Color Grading
Find the look, then make it travel. Explore colour grading, management and creative techniques for shaping mood while keeping consistent across shots and tools.
Finishing
Mind the final millimetres. Explore conforming, online work and finishing techniques that bring the approved edit, graphics, effects and graded images together for the last careful pass before delivery.
Mastering
Prepare the film for its many destinations. Follow mastering, formats and delivery workflows that help a finished production reach screens..
Digital Production Tests
This is for all you focused readers out there – unique views, answers and takes on what works, or not.
Software Reviews
Beyond the feature list lies the working day. Find our software reviews as tools are examined for jobs, workflows and everyday friction.
Interviews
Talking to interesting people. Because everybody can teach you something, or at least tell you a joke.
Specific Software
Adobe After Effects
A busy playground for layers, keyframes and the occasional expression. Explore After Effects news, techniques and motion-design workflows for turning graphic ideas into animation and assembled elements into finished shots.
Adobe Premiere Pro
Follow the story along the timeline. Explore Premiere Pro updates, editing techniques and production workflows, from organising source material to refining the cut and handing work on to the next department.
Adobe Substance 3D
Put some character into those surfaces. Explore the Substance 3D ecosystem’s material creation, texturing and asset workflows, from repeatable patterns to the small imperfections that make a digital object feel lived in.
Autodesk 3ds Max
Build scenes with a well-stocked digital toolbox. Explore 3ds Max modelling, visualisation and rendering workflows, alongside updates and techniques for turning geometry into characters, environments and carefully composed images.
Autodesk Flame
Keep the final shot in the hot seat. Explore Flame compositing, conforming and finishing workflows, where editorial decisions meet visual effects and the last round of client-room refinements.
Autodesk Maya
Characters, worlds and plenty of moving parts live here. Explore Maya news and workflows across modelling, rigging, animation and effects, following the connections between individual tools and the wider production pipeline.
Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve
One application, several production hats. Explore DaVinci Resolve’s editing, colour, audio and finishing workflows, with updates and techniques for moving a project through its rooms without losing the creative thread.
Blackmagic Design Fusion
Connect a few nodes and the picture starts telling a different story. Explore Fusion compositing, motion graphics and visual-effects workflows, including techniques for combining sources into a coherent finished shot.
Blender
A whole creative workshop behind one orange mark. Explore Blender news and techniques across modelling, animation, effects and rendering, with workflows for taking an idea from an empty scene to a finished image.
Boris FX Continuum
A practical effects cupboard, with a few theatrical flourishes inside. Explore Continuum’s image-processing, keying, restoration and creative effects tools, alongside workflows for bringing useful fixes and deliberate style into the edit.
Boris FX Mocha Pro
Find something solid to follow, even when the camera refuses to sit still. Explore Mocha Pro tracking, masking and visual-effects workflows for attaching, replacing and removing elements within a moving shot.
Boris FX Silhouette
Some shots need a little persuasion around the edges. Explore Silhouette rotoscoping, paint and compositing workflows, with tools for shaping mattes, repairing images and keeping intricate visual-effects work under control.
FilmLight Baselight
A home for deliberate looks and finely judged adjustments. Explore Baselight colour grading, colour-management tools and finishing workflows, following how creative image decisions are developed and carried through a production.
Foundry Nuke
Follow the nodes and watch a shot come together. Explore Nuke compositing, pipeline developments and practical techniques for integrating imagery, managing complex scripts and keeping the final illusion convincingly intact.
Marvelous Designer
Give digital wardrobes a fitting room. Explore Marvelous Designer garment construction, cloth simulation and production workflows, following how patterns and fabric behaviour become clothing for characters and virtual scenes.
Maxon Cinema 4D
Make room for shapes with a sense of rhythm. Explore Cinema 4D modelling, animation and motion-design workflows, alongside tools and updates for bringing graphic ideas into three-dimensional production.
Maxon Redshift
Keep the look developing while the renderer does its sums. Explore Redshift news, materials, lighting and GPU-rendering workflows for bringing detailed scenes towards the final frame through useful creative iteration.
Maxon ZBrush
Trade the polygon-by-polygon approach for a digital sculptor’s bench. Explore ZBrush tools, character work and detailing techniques that turn broad forms into expressive creatures, props and production-ready sculpted assets.
Pilgway 3DCoat
Take an idea from digital clay to a dressed surface. Explore 3DCoat sculpting, retopology and texturing tools, with workflows for shaping assets and preparing them for the next production step.
Pixar RenderMan
A scene has many ways to catch the light. Explore RenderMan shading, rendering and pipeline developments, following the tools that help carefully built worlds make their journey into finished pixels.
Reallusion Cartoon Animator
Give flat artwork a little stage presence. Explore Cartoon Animator’s 2D character tools and animation workflows, where illustrated performers, motion and expressions turn a still design into something ready to tell a story.
Reallusion Character Creator
Every digital cast needs a good starting point. Explore Character Creator’s character-building, customisation and export workflows, shaping people and personalities that can continue their journey into animation, rendering and realtime scenes.
Reallusion iClone
Give digital performers a scene worth stepping into. Explore iClone character animation, motion tools and realtime production workflows, from a first performance pass to the small gestures that help a character feel present.
SideFX Houdini
Build the recipe, then see what it can cook. Explore Houdini’s procedural workflows, simulations and effects techniques, where interconnected operations turn creative rules into detailed, adjustable production assets and shots.
Unity
Set a scene, then give it something to do. Explore Unity software, realtime graphics and interactive production workflows, from asset preparation to the systems that make a digital world respond.
Unreal Engine
Walk into the scene while it is still taking shape. Explore Unreal Engine realtime rendering, virtual-production and world-building workflows that bring immediate visual feedback into increasingly varied creative projects.
Boris FX Vegas Pro
Keep the picture moving and the timeline within reach. Explore Boris FX Vegas Pro editing, effects and finishing workflows, following the tools that help footage, sound and creative revisions settle into a finished sequence.