BREAKING NEWS
LATEST POSTS
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Christine Choi Showcases a Stencil-Texturing Technique in Blender
https://80.lv/articles/3d-artist-showcases-a-mind-blowing-stencil-texturing-technique-in-blender
https://www.artstation.com/christinechoi
Texture Stencil with Blender
— mokunachoi
pic.twitter.com/PPcM25zrzJ
3D Waitlist open ( slots open Sept30) (@mokunachoi) September 8, 2025Stencil Tutorial!
— mokunachoi
pic.twitter.com/VoYfrpKo0H 3D Waitlist open ( slots open Sept30) (@mokunachoi) February 22, 2025 -
OpenAI Backs Critterz, an AI-Made Animated Feature Film
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/openai-backs-ai-made-animated-feature-film-389f70b0
Film, called ‘Critterz,’ aims to debut at Cannes Film Festival and will leverage startup’s AI tools and resources.
“Critterz,” about forest creatures who go on an adventure after their village is disrupted by a stranger, is the brainchild of Chad Nelson, a creative specialist at OpenAI. Nelson started sketching out the characters three years ago while trying to make a short film with what was then OpenAI’s new DALL-E image-generation tool.
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AI and the Law: Anthropic to Pay $1.5 Billion to Settle Book Piracy Class Action Lawsuit
https://variety.com/2025/digital/news/anthropic-class-action-settlement-billion-1236509571
The settlement amounts to about $3,000 per book and is believed to be the largest ever recovery in a U.S. copyright case, according to the plaintiffs’ attorneys.
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Sir Peter Jackson’s Wētā FX records $140m loss in two years, amid staff layoffs
https://www.thepost.co.nz/business/360813799/weta-fx-posts-59m-loss-amid-industry-headwinds
Wētā FX, Sir Peter Jackson’s largest business has posted a $59.3 million loss for the year to March 31, an improvement on an $83m loss last year.
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ComfyUI Thinkbox Deadline plugin
Submit ComfyUI workflows to Thinkbox Deadline render farm.
Features
- Submit ComfyUI workflows directly to Deadline
- Batch rendering with seed variation
- Real-time progress monitoring via Deadline Monitor
- Configurable pools, groups, and priorities
https://github.com/doubletwisted/ComfyUI-Deadline-Plugin
https://docs.thinkboxsoftware.com/products/deadline/latest/1_User%20Manual/manual/overview.html
Deadline 10 is a cross-platform render farm management tool for Windows, Linux, and macOS. It gives users control of their rendering resources and can be used on-premises, in the cloud, or both. It handles asset syncing to the cloud, manages data transfers, and supports tagging for cost tracking purposes.
Deadline 10’s Remote Connection Server allows for communication over HTTPS, improving performance and scalability. Where supported, users can use usage-based licensing to supplement their existing fixed pool of software licenses when rendering through Deadline 10.
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Google’s Nano Banana AI: Free Tool for 3D Architecture Models
https://landscapearchitecture.store/blogs/news/nano-banana-ai-free-tool-for-3d-architecture-models
How to Use Nano Banana AI for Architecture- Go to Google AI Studio.
- Log in with your Gmail and select Gemini 2.5 (Nano Banana).
- Upload a photo — either from your laptop or a Google Street View screenshot.
- Paste this example prompt:
“Use the provided architectural photo as reference. Generate a high-fidelity 3D building model in the look of a 3D-printed architecture model.” - Wait a few seconds, and your 3D architecture model will be ready.
Pro tip: If you want more accuracy, upload two images — a street photo for the facade and an aerial view for the roof/top.
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Blender 4.5 switches from OpenGL to Vulkan support
Blender is switching from OpenGL to Vulkan as its default graphics backend, starting significantly with Blender 4.5, to achieve better performance and prepare for future features like real-time ray tracing and global illumination. To enable this switch, go to Edit > Preferences > System and set the “Backend” option to “Vulkan,” then restart Blender. This change offers substantial benefits, including faster startup times, improved viewport responsiveness, and more efficient handling of complex scenes by better utilizing your CPU and GPU resources.
Why the Switch to Vulkan?
- Modern Graphics API: Vulkan is a newer, lower-level, and more efficient API that provides developers with greater control over hardware, unlike the older, higher-level OpenGL.
- Performance Boost: This change significantly improves performance in various areas, such as viewport rendering, material loading, and overall UI responsiveness, especially in complex scenes with many textures.
- Better Resource Utilization: Vulkan distributes work more effectively across the CPU and reduces driver overhead, allowing Blender to make better use of your computer’s power.
- Future-Proofing: The Vulkan backend paves the way for advanced features like real-time ray tracing and global illumination in future versions of Blender.
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Diffuman4D – 4D Consistent Human View Synthesis from Sparse-View Videos with Spatio-Temporal Diffusion Models
Given sparse-view videos, Diffuman4D (1) generates 4D-consistent multi-view videos conditioned on these inputs, and (2) reconstructs a high-fidelity 4DGS model of the human performance using both the input and the generated videos.
FEATURED POSTS
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Alberto Taiuti – World Models, the restyle and control AI technology that could displace 3D
https://substack.com/inbox/post/153106976
https://techcrunch.com/2024/12/14/what-are-ai-world-models-and-why-do-they-matter/
A model that can generate the next frame of a 3D scene based on the previous frame(s) and user input, trained on video data, and running in real-time.
World models enable AI systems to simulate and reason about their environments, pushing forward autonomous decision-making and real-world problem-solving.
The key insight is that by training on video data, these models learn not just how to generate images, but also:
- the physics of our world (objects fall down, water flows, etc)
- how objects look from different angles (that chair should look the same as you walk around it)
- how things move and interact (a ball bouncing off a wall, a character walking on sand)
- basic spatial understanding (you can’t walk through walls)
Some companies, like World Labs, are taking a hybrid approach: using World Models to generate static 3D representations that can then be rendered using traditional 3D engines (in this case, Gaussian Splatting). This gives you the best of both worlds: the creative power of AI generation with the multiview consistency and performance of traditional rendering.
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Ethan Roffler interviews CG Supervisor Daniele Tosti
Ethan Roffler
I recently had the honor of interviewing this VFX genius and gained great insight into what it takes to work in the entertainment industry. Keep in mind, these questions are coming from an artist’s perspective but can be applied to any creative individual looking for some wisdom from a professional. So grab a drink, sit back, and enjoy this fun and insightful conversation.
Ethan
To start, I just wanted to say thank you so much for taking the time for this interview!Daniele
My pleasure.
When I started my career I struggled to find help. Even people in the industry at the time were not that helpful. Because of that, I decided very early on that I was going to do exactly the opposite. I spend most of my weekends talking or helping students. ;)Ethan
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That’s awesome! I have also come across the same struggle! Just a heads up, this will probably be the most informal interview you’ll ever have haha! Okay, so let’s start with a small introduction!
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FFmpeg – examples and convenience lines
# extract one frame at the end of a video
ffmpeg -sseof -0.1 -i intro_1.mp4 -frames:v 1 -q:v 1 intro_end.jpg
-sseof -0.1: This option tells FFmpeg to seek to 0.1 seconds before the end of the file. This approach is often more reliable for extracting the last frame, especially if the video’s duration isn’t an exact multiple of the frame interval.
Super User
-frames:v 1: Extracts a single frame.
-q:v 1: Sets the quality of the output image; 1 is the highest quality.# extract one frame at the beginning of a video
ffmpeg -i speaking_4.mp4 -frames:v 1 speaking_beginning.jpg# check video length
ffmpeg -i C:\myvideo.mp4 -f null –# Convert mov/mp4 to animated gifEdit
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ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -pix_fmt rgb24 output.gif
Other useful ffmpeg commandsEdit
