Elden Ring Glintstone Kris Shortsword Made in Maya & ZBrush

New UV Visualization Tool For Houdini

SideFX Labs has released a new Copernicus node called UV Grid Texture COP for Houdini. It generates procedural textures to help artists test UV layouts, check texture orientation, texel density, and distortion. The texture can be customized with tile colors, markers, outlines, and text labels, and can be previewed directly on geometry using the UV Visualize SOP. SideFX Labs is a free, open-source toolset developed outside the main Houdini release cycle.

I was wrong about game development

After releasing a mobile game called Burst, the author reflects on an underestimated challenge in game development: getting difficulty balance just right. The initial release was too easy, a subsequent update made it too hard, and player feedback drove the creation of a new Zen mode that restores the relaxed feel without leaderboard pressure. The post also touches on the unintended consequences of adding a tip jar, which triggered an 'in-app purchases' label on the App Store listing that felt misleading to users.

Blender Artist Builds Typewriter Setup In Geometry Nodes

Jeong Heon has built a fully procedural typewriter setup in Blender's Geometry Nodes, with every key press animated without keyframes. The project is still a work in progress but plans to release it for free on Gumroad once complete. The post also links to beginner Geometry Nodes tutorials and other Geometry Nodes-driven projects for inspiration.

New Free Tool Automatically Creates Clean Quad Topology

AutoRemesher 1.0 has officially launched after more than five years of development. It is a free, open-source retopology tool (MIT license) that converts high-polygon meshes into clean quad-based topology. Available on Windows, macOS, and Linux, it uses libraries like Geogram and libigl under the hood. While some manual cleanup may still be needed, the remeshing process is reportedly fast, making it a viable alternative to other retopology solutions.

Making Magical Hand-Painted Crystal Sword in 3D

A game art student shares a detailed breakdown of creating a hand-painted crystal sword in 3D, inspired by League of Legends. The workflow covers sculpting in ZBrush using Move, hPolish, and Pinch brushes, retopology and UV unwacking in Maya targeting 3K tris, texturing gold and crystals in Substance 3D Painter, and final rendering in Unreal Engine 5 using a four-light setup with Lumen and post-process color grading. Key tips include planning retopology before modeling, managing texel density in UV packing, and using a Cube brush in Substance Painter to simulate crystal facets.

Watch Synthetic Muscles Grow in This Blender 3D Animation

Artist Cartesian Caramel has created a new Blender animation using Geometry Nodes that shows synthetic muscles growing across a character fiber by fiber. The setup has a cinematic, sci-fi/cyberpunk aesthetic. The artist is known for impressive procedural setups in Blender, including previous works on running water, sound visualization, skeleton arm tests, lighting effects, and spider webs.

Creating Hand-Painted Elf Portrait in 3D with Blender & Substance 3D

Arturo Galván Soler chia sẻ quy trình tạo bức chân dung elf 3D theo phong cách vẽ tay, từ sketch concept (Procreate, Photoshop), sculpting (Nomad Sculpt), retopology & hair cards (Blender), đến hand-painted PBR textures (Substance 3D Painter), cuối cùng là facial rig (blendshapes + bones) nhằm tối ưu cho game real-time trên Unity.

Là người muốn xây dựng pipeline game-ready từ khái niệm đến render, bạn sẽ tìm hiểu cách kết hợp kỹ thuật sculpting, retopology và texturing trong Blender và Substance 3D để tạo ra nhân vật 3D chi tiết và hiệu suất cao cho Unity.