The CG Central

2026.7 is small — but very practical for lookdev and archviz 👹 Maxon has released Redshift 2026.7, focused on better hex tiling, real-time rendering improvements, and a bigger push into architectural workflows. What matters: • Hex tiling now supports random tile flips for more texture variation • Normal maps now rotate correctly through UV Context Projection • Redshift Live gets depth of field support back • Redshift is now available for Revit • Archicad support is now in beta • Revit edition adds archviz-focused tools, including smarter asset search and easier vegetation import — Full article @ CG Channel #redshift #maxon #rendering #archviz #cinema4d #vfx #lookdev

Cinema 4D 2026.3 finally gives UVs a serious upgrade 📱 Maxon has released Cinema 4D 2026.3, and the headline is clear: a completely redesigned UV Editor that replaces the old BodyPaint-era workflow. This is less “flashy new toy” and more “daily production painkiller.” What matters: • New professional UV Editor with unwrapping, packing, organizing and UDIM support • UV tools now feel much closer to Cinema 4D’s normal modeling workflow • Better internal UV handling should make operations more robust • Cloner gets three new distribution modes: UV Projection, Rivet, and Edge • New Particle Property Manager lets artists create, view and edit particle properties in one place Full video you can watch here: 📱 YouTube — Full article @ CG Channel #cinema4d #maxon #uv #mograph #particles #3d #motiondesign

Houdini 22 looks huge - but right now it is still teaser archaeology 🛸 SideFX has shown a very short Houdini 22 sneak peek, and Digital Production’s main warning is correct: don’t treat frame-by-frame guesses as documentation yet. The full keynote is scheduled for June 22, 2026. What seems to matter: • Gaussian Splats appear to be a major focus • Splat data may be created, processed, rendered in Karma, and possibly even rigged/animated • Copernicus keeps expanding into textures, image-driven effects, terrain, and Unreal/HDA workflows • Character tools may get IK Limits, Set Driven Keys, and nested Motion Mixer clips • USD authoring inside SOPs appears in the teaser, which could reduce context switching with Solaris • Quad Remesh seems to be getting a new more rectangular/grid-like method • Terrain workflows look more connected to Copernicus • FX tools may get packaged recipes for fireworks/magic effects and faster fracture workflows — Full article @ Digital Production #houdini #sidefx #vfx #simulation #usd #karma #gaussiansplats

One Piece S2 — Framestore’s character VFX is doing three jobs at once: power system, comedy, and actual acting 😮 • Scale: Framestore delivered 570+ VFX shots focused on Smoker, Wapol, and Chopper. • Smoker (smoke that feels “alive,” not just sim): they iterated density/speed/shape so it stays intangible but still hits with weight, and avoided soft “dissolves” in favor of sharper, tactile transitions. On the show side, the brief was control: minimal smoke spill, gravity-defying tendrils, and a “smoke cuff” solution so the grab points don’t read like Luffy is emitting smoke. The hardest beat: Smoker re-forming from smoke back to solid. • Wapol (the line between “cool” and “cheesy”): his oversized mouth was redesigned with more anatomical structure + a flexible jaw system that can interact with multiple performers. The mouth expansion was pushed away from “mechanical transformer” vibes into something more organic, with a deliberate dark void inside… and yes, a fully committed growing tongue moment that the VFX team reportedly couldn’t stop replaying. • Chopper (emotional performance, not mascot): Framestore built multiple Chopper forms and developed new animation tools to keep his facial performance readable and his silhouette clean. Production leaned on a proxy actor for eyelines + reference, then recorded • Mikaela Hoover’s “performance reference” (two-camera facial capture) and handed it to Framestore for the long animation push—367 Chopper shots just for the performance work. • Software: Houdini (water sims), including “ocean going up a mountain” shots that pushed sim scale and caching hard. The season is quoted at 3,827 VFX shots across 8 episodes overall. — Full article @ Art of VFX #onepiece #framestore #vfx #netflix #cgi #creaturefx #animation

Nuke finally gets PureRef-style references inside the Node Graph 🧠 NukeRef is a tiny free Python tool that lets compositors paste image references directly into Nuke’s DAG as interactive backdrop images — no second monitor, no browser tab, no floating PureRef board. What matters: • Copy an image, hover over the Node Graph, paste it • References become regular BackdropNode objects • Supports clipboard images and local files: PNG, JPG, TIFF, WEBP • Keeps normal node copy/paste behavior intact • Saves reference images next to the .nk file in a nuke_ref_images folder • Keeps the Nuke script lighter by storing paths and metadata instead of embedding image data • Works through the usual .nuke / menu.py install route • The tool is free — Full article @ Digital Production #nuke #nukeref #compositing #vfx #pipeline #python #foundry

Chaos is putting AI ideation directly inside the render pipeline⚡️ Chaos has expanded Veras beyond Enscape — it now lands inside V-Ray and Corona, turning AI concept generation into a built-in workflow step instead of a separate side app. What matters: • Veras is now integrated with V-Ray, Corona, and Enscape • In Corona, it can generate concepts from a Corona VFB screenshot • It can also turn a still image into a short animation without complex setup • In V-Ray, Veras supports moodboards and fast look exploration during scene setup • Chaos is tying these AI tools to Chaos Credits • Active subscriptions include monthly credits: Solo 100, Premium 500, Collection 1,500 • Corona 15 also adds faster animation parsing, 3D streaming, shareable walkthroughs, and video collaboration tools — Full article @ Digital Production #chaos #vray #corona #enscape #veras #ai #rendering #archviz

Blender viewport denoising is getting an NVIDIA brain 🧠 NVIDIA says DLSS 4.5 Ray Reconstruction is coming to Blender 5.3 Cycles this fall as a new denoiser, building on the existing OptiX path. The goal: keep the viewport interactive while giving artists something much closer to a final render during lookdev. What matters: • DLSS Ray Reconstruction becomes a new Cycles denoiser • Built for ray-traced and path-traced content • Replaces traditional hand-tuned denoising with an AI reconstruction model • Targets faster lighting/material iteration in the viewport • NVIDIA says the model improves temporal stability, motion clarity, and image reconstruction • Coming with Blender 5.3 this fall • Works within NVIDIA’s RTX/OptiX-focused stack, so production testing will matter before relying on it blindly — Full article @ Digital Production #blender #cycles #nvidia #dlss #rendering #lookdev #vfx

Beeble is turning AI relighting into a real Nuke workflow 💡 Beeble’s new Nuke plugin lets artists load AI-generated PBR pass sets and relight footage directly in Nuke using Directional, Point, and HDRI lights. What matters: • Built for Nuke 14.1v2+ • Works on Windows and macOS • Loads PBR passes like Source, Normal, Basecolor, Roughness, Specular, Metallic • Supports EXR, PNG sequences, and MP4 pass sets • Includes a PBR Controller for adjusting material response before lighting • Lights can be stacked with standard Nuke-style merges • Designed for faster relighting without rebuilding a full CG lighting setup — Full article @ Digital Production #beeble #nuke #compositing #vfx #ai #relighting #postproduction

PFTrack is moving from matchmove to full scene reconstruction 🎯 The Pixel Farm has released PFTrack 26.05, adding a new dense point-cloud workflow built around Hero Cloud — a node that generates 3D point clouds from a solved camera, with no LiDAR or extra capture hardware needed. What matters: • New Hero Cloud node creates dense point clouds from tracked footage • Works from a single solved camera, using shot parallax • Point clouds can export as USD, FBX, or COLMAP data • USD export includes per-point normals and color, not just positions • COLMAP export makes the data usable for Gaussian Splat workflows • Photo Mesh can convert Hero Cloud point clouds into triangular meshes for Studio and Enterprise users • PFTrack 26.05 runs on Windows, macOS, and Rocky Linux — Full article @ CG Channel #pftrack #matchmove #vfx #pointcloud #gaussiansplatting #usd #tracking

Beeble wants to turn AI compositing into a node graph ➡️ Beeble has launched Canvas, a new node-based AI compositing system for VFX, post-production and virtual production workflows. Instead of using separate AI tools one by one, artists can build repeatable graphs that mix footage, plates, masks, references and AI-generated elements. What matters: • Node-based AI compositing for complex shot workflows • Built around Beeble’s SwitchX video-to-video model • Includes SwitchLight for generating PBR-style passes like normals • Adds integrated AI rotoscoping / matte tools • Supports external generative and utility models • Designed for batch iteration and production automation • SwitchX API is also available for custom studio pipelines — Full article @ AWN #beeble #canvas #ai #vfx #compositing #virtualproduction #postproduction

MoonRay is officially moving into the ASWF ecosystem 🌒 DreamWorks Animation’s open-source renderer MoonRay has joined the Academy Software Foundation as a hosted project — meaning it gets foundation governance while staying backed by DreamWorks engineering. What matters: • MoonRay is a production path tracer used by DreamWorks on every feature film since 2019 • Built with USD / Hydra workflows in mind • Supports distributed rendering and XPU rendering across CPU + GPU • Released under the Apache 2.0 license • Now sits alongside ASWF projects like OpenEXR, OpenVDB, OpenTimelineIO, OpenColorIO, and Open Shading Language • DreamWorks CTO Bill Ballew will give a MoonRay keynote at ASWF Open Source Days in Los Angeles this July MoonRay is no longer just “DreamWorks’ internal renderer turned open source” — it is becoming part of the wider open-source VFX pipeline stack. — Full article @ Digital Production #moonray #aswf #dreamworks #rendering #opensource #vfx #usd

Advanced 3D GSplats | Processing, Animation & Worldbuilding | Andrey Lebrov | FMX HIVE 2026 ❗️ Explore the Houdini toolset for viewport splats preview, cleanup and enhancement, then systems deriving splat skeleton allowing traditional organic animation. Splat capture through drone flight automation and traditional assembly pipelines with Splats instead of primitives. Houdini-first workflows, Octane-centric assembly, and distributed/hybrid rendering pipelines that keep iteration fast and reliable under real deadlines - while exploring modern capture primitives like Gaussian splats for production use. Full video you can watch here: 📱 YouTube

Wētā FX just opened a window into its secret simulation toolbox 🧪 Wētā FX has posted new demo videos of its in-house tech - including Loki, its unified multiphysics simulation framework, and Pahi, its water simulation pipeline used on major films like the Avatar sequels. What matters: • Loki handles coupled simulations: liquids, gas, hair, cloth and more • Pahi shows Wētā’s high-end water simulation workflow • New demos also cover underwater explosions, bubble simulation, cloth and hair, plant simulation, and BodyOpt for character deformation • Wētā has shared research papers for years - but now artists can actually see many of these tools in motion • The videos give a rare look at the tech behind one of the most advanced VFX studios in the world This is not a public software release - it is a glimpse at the kind of proprietary R&D that separates blockbuster VFX from standard production tools. — Full article @ CG Channel #wetafx #vfx #simulation #avatar #cgi #fx #research

Continuum 2026.5 is built for cleanup, stylization, and faster motion-graphics work ⚡️ Boris FX has released Continuum 2026.5, adding a new AI deinterlacing tool, FX Editor upgrades, better Warp/Wipe controls, and improvements to Particle Illusion. What matters: • New BCC+ Deinterlace ML converts interlaced footage - like VHS or analog TV - into progressive frames • Face ML now adds nose and neck segmentation for more precise facial mattes • FX Editor gets color management, pixel/RGBA info, and integrated Pixel Chooser • Warp effects now include built-in glitch and Beat Reactor audio-sync tools • Wipe transitions get new gradient controls for better direction and motion control • Particle Illusion adds parameter linking and new gradient mapping nodes • Works in hosts like After Effects, DaVinci Resolve, Nuke, and others — Full article @ Boris FX #borisfx #continuum #aftereffects #davinciresolve #nuke #vfx #motiondesign

Maxon just made Autograph free for studios 🔥👹 After making Autograph free for individual users, Maxon is now opening team licenses for free commercial use — including studios, agencies, brands, educators, and production teams. No output limits, no time restrictions, and no seat-count lock for teams. What matters: • Autograph is now free for teams and commercial work • Built for motion graphics, VFX, compositing, 2D/3D workflows • Supports USD, OpenEXR, ACES, OpenColorIO, and OpenFX • Integrates with Universe and selected Red Giant tools • Supports third-party OpenFX plugins from RE:Vision Effects, BorisFX, and Digital Anarchy • Command-line and Python support are included in the free team license • Teams can use it beyond their existing Maxon seat limits under individual accounts — Full article @ AWN #maxon #autograph #motiondesign #vfx #compositing #aftereffects #3d

Autodesk just dropped a free browser-based kitbashing tool 🚀😎 Project Falcon is a new Autodesk tech preview for fast hard-surface blockouts — built around assembling models from a library of parts instead of modelling everything from scratch. It runs directly in the browser, with no local install required. What matters: • Free browser-based 3D kitbashing tool • Built for fast blockouts: vehicles, spaceships, furniture, greebles, hard-surface assets • Includes thousands of parts, plus snap, mirror, rescale, and simple booleans • Exports USD for DCC handoff and STL for 3D printing • Saves work to Autodesk cloud space tied to your account • Best browser experience is currently in Google Chrome • It is still a technology preview, not a full production modelling app — Full article @ Digital Production #autodesk #projectfalcon #kitbash #3dmodeling #usd #vfx #gamedev

ZEISS is bringing real lens physics into Nuke 🖼 ZEISS has announced CinCraft LensCore, a new Nuke plugin designed to apply physically based cinematic lens looks directly inside VFX and animation pipelines. What matters: • Built for The Foundry Nuke • Uses GPU-accelerated, ray-traced rendering to simulate real lens behavior • Can recreate optical traits like bokeh, defocus, distortion, vignetting, chromatic aberration, cat-eye bokeh, focus falloff, and lens breathing • Artists can load profiles of real cine lenses or build custom looks • It is not limited to ZEISS lenses — the system is designed to mimic ZEISS and non-ZEISS glass • ZEISS pitches it as a way to choose a “digital lens” in comp, almost like pulling glass from a rental shelf • Release is planned for June 1, 2026; pricing has not been announced yet — Full article @ No Film School #zeiss #nuke #vfx #compositing #cinematography #lenscore

MetaHumans just got a cleaner Blender rigging path 📱 Poly Hammer has released Character Control Rig, a new Blender add-on that auto-generates Rigify control rigs for imported Unreal Engine MetaHumans. What matters: • Creates a native Blender Rigify rig matching the MetaHuman’s proportions • Retargets MetaHuman animations from Unreal Engine onto the Blender rig • Supports export of full-body and facial animation back to Unreal • Built on top of Poly Hammer’s Character DNA add-on • Includes tools for managing multi-character scenes • Future updates may add direct retargeting from online animation libraries — Full article @ CG Channel #blender #metahuman #unrealengine #rigging #animation #vfx #gamedev

Autodesk wants to cut the worst part of 3D character work: rigging 🤖 Autodesk has added AI Rigging and Neural Layer to Flow Studio, pushing the tool beyond AI asset generation and closer to a full character-animation workflow. What matters: • AI Rigging prepares 3D characters for animation with minimal setup • Characters can be driven by video-based AI mocap • Rigged assets can be exported to Maya, Blender, and Unreal Engine • Neural Layer aims to improve lighting, materials, skin, hair, motion, and final shot polish • Autodesk also added expanded generation support with Trellis 2 and Nano Banana models • AI Rigging is available across all tiers, while deeper export/live-action use depends on paid plans The big question now is not whether the demo looks cool. It is how much cleanup artists still need after the AI does its part. — Full article @ AWN #autodesk #flowstudio #ai #rigging #animation #vfx #maya #blender