Lucas Veber has released Auto-Rig Pro, a new commercial add on for Blender. In addition to many of the same benefits as Rigify, other features include the ability to edit reference bones to adjust the rig at anytime, a clear, easy to use and colorful bone picker, male and female rig types (with or without bust bones), stretchy spine, IK/FK snap with autokey working and correct snaps when unlocking all the leg/forearm rotation axis, a complete set of secondary controllers for advanced pose sculpt, advanced facial setup and a shape keys drivers creation tool. More on Blender Market.

Ian Failes of VFX Blog was asked by SideFX to find out what visual effects and animation studios look for in a Houdini artist. You can read the full article on (Note: expect content aimed at highlighting Houdini's capabilities)

An impressive ocean test from Vimeo user Luo, using Bifrost in Maya 2017. Watch it on Vimeo.

An experimental short by Raphael Rau (Silverwing) and composer / sound designer Simon Damborg about the popular 6000-year-old invention still being used these days. The aim of "Keys" is to create a mix between the the known everyday environment and something strange and mysterious. Watch it on Vimeo.

UK physicist, coder and artist Tom Beddard has updated his portfolio with new great fractal images. More on Subblue.

New features in Pitiwazou's useful Asset Management add-on for Blender include: (more...)

Sweden-based Stiller Studios has produced a video with a creative reenactment of John Lasseter's classic "Luxo Jr." CG short, using motion control robots (and a CG ball). Watch it on YouTube.

Two recent studies led by Michael Thom, assistant professor at the USC Price School of Public Policy, have concluded that with regard to "job growth, wage growth, states’ share of the motion picture industry and the industry’s output in each state. On average, the only benefits were short-term wage gains, mostly to people who already work in the industry. Job growth was almost nonexistent. Market share and industry output didn’t budge.” You can read more about the studies and their findings on the USC News page.