3D Take on Wolverine with a Toon Shader Made with Blender

The tech of ‘Terminator 2’ – an oral history

Bài viết kể lại lịch sử phát triển công nghệ CGI tại ILM cho phim Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), khi nhóm nghệ sĩ và lập trình viên sáng chế các công cụ như Body Sock, Make Sticky, Chan-Math và poly alloy shader để tạo nên T-1000. Họ vượt qua giới hạn phần cứng thời đó (máy SGI, 9.000 USD/GB lưu trữ) bằng phần mềm Alias, motion capture thủ công từ diễn viên Robert Patrick, và 5 giai đoạn mô hình RP, cùng giải pháp kỹ thuật cho các cảnh biểu tượng như "đầu xuyên sàn", "đầu xuyên song sắt" và phân cảnh chết trong nhà máy thép. Đây là thời điểm ILM mở rộng bộ phận CG từ 12 người lên gần toàn công ty.

Những kỹ thuật CGI trong Terminator 2 không chỉ là nghệ thuật mà còn là cách giải quyết những thách thức kỹ thuật thực tế của thời điểm đó, giúp bạn hiểu rõ cách các công cụ và giải pháp từ trước đến nay đã định hình ngành công nghệ hình ảnh 3D.

This Cooking 3D Setup Made in Blender Looks Like an Animated Film

3D artist Azure Rod created a cooking animation in Blender as a tribute to music band Mili, whose song is featured in the piece. The work showcases cinematic quality with detailed characters and lifelike motion, with Marvelous Designer used for cloth simulation.

Godot Road Generator Adds Traffic Lanes For Procedural Intersections

The Godot Road Generator plugin by TheDuckCow has received a community-contributed update adding traffic lanes for procedural intersections. The plugin generates fully customizable road geometry using Path3D nodes, supports arbitrary lane counts, auto-generates lane-change geometry, collision meshes, and AI lane paths. Additional features include custom viewport gizmos, Terrain3D flattening support, GLTF export, and compatibility with Godot 4.7.

Testing Facial Expressions For Stylized 3D Characters

Florence Simon and a team of MoPA students share facial rig tests for two stylized characters, Noah and Jade, from their graduation short film Sans Contact. The rigs feature expressive blendshapes, with Jade's rig built by transferring and refining Noah's base blendshapes and skinning to match her unique facial features. The post also highlights related facial rig work from other artists and mentions Animo, a free animation toolkit for Maya.

Blender Studio Takes Open-Source Filmmaking To Feature Length

Blender Studio has announced 'Overgrown', its first feature-length animated film, co-directed by Hjalti Hjálmarsson and Rik Schutte. Set in a post-human, robo-apocalyptic world reclaimed by nature, the project aims to build an open-source 'feature playbook' — a collection of tools and documentation for creating large-scale productions with Blender. The goal is to empower independent filmmakers and small teams without relying on cloud services or generative AI. To fund the project, Blender Studio needs to reach 7,000 subscribers by September to secure minimum financial support for taking the film to market.

Free Custom Maya Deformer For Advanced Facial Rigs

Zhenggang Deng, Lead Rigger at Sony Pictures Imageworks, has released interpBlendShape, a free custom Maya deformer for high-end facial rigging. It extends Maya's built-in blendShape with surface UV interpolation, in-between support, and Bezier-style blending instead of linear interpolation. It supports both meshes and curves, includes GPU-accelerated performance, and ships with a dedicated editor UI featuring real-time Maya sync and full undo/redo. Available free for Windows and Maya 2023+.

Indie Devs Film Themselves as Animation Reference for Deer & Boy

The indie developers behind the cinematic platformer Deer & Boy filmed real-life footage of themselves as animation reference to bring the game's characters to life. The game, developed by Lifeline Games and published by Dear Villagers, follows a boy and a fawn through a silent, emotionally driven story. Released on June 23, it has been praised as a hidden indie gem for its cinematic visuals, calm gameplay, and touching narrative. The post highlights the character creation process from sketching to 3D modeling.