I do a lot of greenscreen work for microbudget narrative feature work. The majority of the greenscreen shots are locked off (for economy) and don't show the floor. I'm trying to figure out a way to record the sensor/camera height that's faster than a laser/tape measure for each setup (every minute saved on set matters).

Is there some kind of two device system, where one is on the floor somewhere nearby, and one mounted on the camera rig, that will record the height distance at intervals like every two minutes? Matching up the height reading via time and TOD timecode later is no big deal for me.

I know there's the option of wide angle witness camera off to the side, but I'm hoping there's something simpler.

Hoping someone else has already implemented a system like this or knows of such a device.

TIA

Hi everyone! I’d like to share a short preview of my showreel. You can watch the full reel on YouTube here.

So tried getting automated splines out, not just a matte.

The goal was simple: get clean, editable splines out of AI roto instead of just a matte.

The splines are fully automated and generated by AI. You type a prompt (man) and set a frame range, and AI builds the roto as closed cubic B-splines. Nobody draws or places a single point by hand.

It splits the subject into parts (face, nose, head, torso, arms), each on its own layer.

For this 117-frame shot, generation took about 2 minutes.

Tried hard to keep the keyframes sparse. Each shape has only two to four keys, and everything in between is interpolated. That means no per-frame keys and very little chatter.

Also wanted the points to stay put. Every key has the same number of control points in the same order, and each point follows the same feature through the shot, so the shape doesn't boil or swim.

It's not perfect, and there's still plenty to improve.

If you have roto experience, We'd really value your thoughts on what works, what doesn't, and what you'd want next.

Hi everyone, I downloaded Blender exactly a year ago (late August 2025) and posted my first animation 3 months later. Since then, I’ve been practicing every single day, researching the industry for hours, and I recently expanded into Unreal Engine 4.27.2. I am fully committed to becoming a 3D Designer, Animator, or VFX artist when I grow up. Here is my dilemma: My parents are heavily against this path. They literally think it is just "sitting on a computer, making a quick animation, and getting paid $2." They don't believe it's a sustainable career. They are completely fixated on me getting a traditional university diploma—even though it isn't legally mandatory where we live and won't teach me these digital skills. I have tried explaining the industry to them for a year, but they won't listen to a teenager. I am writing this post specifically to show them your replies. Could working industry professionals please answer these three questions for my parents? 1. The Financial Reality: Is VFX/3D animation a real, viable, high-paying career? What does a typical starting or mid-level salary actually look like in this industry? 2. The Portfolio vs. Diploma Truth: If you are hiring an animator or artist, do you care about a university degree, or do you strictly look at their portfolio/showreel? 3. Your Advice: What would you say to parents who are terrified that their kid is wasting time on software like Blender and Unreal Engine? Thank you so much. Your comments are going to directly shape a major conversation with my family.

I have a GT 1030 (DDR4 variant) and am working on a 40v40 war game. The biggest problem is VFX. There are only a handful of high quality flame/smoke/explosion textures online, and it ends there. I looked into how games actually get their atlases and they don't rely on "realistic fire flipbook" online every time, they make it with EmberGen or Houdini/Blender whatever. The problem is my hardware, it makes doing it so incredibly difficult, and because of it my VFX looks like absolute garbage. What even are my options anymore? Should I just bite it and spend extra time rendering since it'll only be done once? (I really hate how long it takes, but that seems like the only option)

If it is, I'll do it. No other way I can currently think of.

I only have 360 camera and tracking markers and color chart and a lense grid for lense distortion abd measurement tools PLEASE tell me I DONT need the balls I hate the balls they won’t arrive in time the chrome and grey

The pilot is called Blackstar Lullaby. Still figuring plenty of it out, but I'm finally getting closer to how I pictured it.

Heres one shot broken down a little. Thought it might be interesting to show the screens and the layers that go into them.

I still remember watching those amazing Tornado Simulations by Martin Mirola which inspired me to do FX simulations.

Here's my Tornado Sim which is a part of Houdini Hollywood and this Module is completely FREE for everyone. Love giving back to community especially which inspired me so much!

The tornado Sim in this module can be setup in very easy ways and re-creating it barely takes 15-20 mins, everyone can feel free to watch the module and find out for themseves and can also fill their curosity if our methods are original or copied from tutorials ;)

The whole setup was built simply and the issues were tackled mostly with creative problem solving rather than going too techinical.

I used simple shape made from curve to emit smoke and then added some rotational velocities made from same shape to rotate the smoke.
The whole sim was split into 4 different pyro setups to make it feasible withut crashing the sim.
The top cloud lightning part was just sphere with noise.

The house was slowly activated from sleeping and added forces with threshold to break at certain impacts.

The trees were simulated in Vellum and instanced as USD in solaris.
The grass was faked with simple movement and scatter in solaris using instancer.

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Rendered in XPU - (2-3 mins) each frame
Max Ram Utilisation - Under 64GB

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Register here for FREE module releasing on 18th November 2026.
www.HoudiniHollywood.com

Hey everyone,

I'm an automotive CGI artist, and I've built a tool called CurvEngine for creating motion blur on photographic backplates and 360° HDRI panoramas.

I wanted more control over curved motion paths while keeping the workflow as simple as possible, especially for automotive CGI.

One part I'm particularly happy with is the HDRI workflow. It only takes a couple of clicks to generate the panorama blur, without having to manually set up motion paths.

I've attached a short video showing the process and the results.

The software is complete, and I'm currently wrapping up the licensing system before release.

I'd be interested to hear how other automotive CGI artists handle HDRI motion blur and what you think of the results.

Hi, I am basically a beginner in the VFX field and I've been having many doubts about masks because it's one of the things that I have used before but I do also want more information and case scenarios because my knowledge at this moment is very limited.

From what I have experimented and observed up to this point you have this option to use geometric figures, text or use the pen tool to create a mask and then once said mask is created and in contact with the background or silhoutte the person wants it to have contact with then that's how multiple effects can be applied.

In my case I have use it before for applying colors, creating frames, adding footage/images to someone's sunglasses to try to make it seem like the footage is happening in front of the person wearing them and the sunglasses are reflecting it, duplicating a person, adding shadows and blur to somewhere in particular. I don't know what other uses there are for masks but I would like to gain more information on it because I have to admit that for such a long time I've been seeing people use them and have been applying them to my projects arbitrarily without being extremely informed.

I am a hobbyist editor and I wish to edit a video and give it a visual style similar to the video game "Kane & Lynch 2 Dog Days". It is a very peculiar style that I have not seen before, I think it is supposed to be reminiscent of online videos around 2005 when HD wasn't a thing yet on the internet. You can see that the developpers have added digital artefacts that you would see when the connection wasn't to good while trying to watch a video.

I have no idea what is the name of this style, if it even has one, are there any tutorials available online to help me mimick it? The editing software I use is Kdenlive, and I use audacity when I need to modify the audio, I only use free and open source tools for my video editing hobbies.

Here are some exemples :

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Example 4

Example 5

Example 6

Example 7

Hey everyone-

I'm a videographer/editor who is trying to learn 3D/VFX and integrate it into my videos. There's a lot of filmmakers that do a fantastic job of this and this is a clip of one that I'm a big fan of. Does anyone know how this was executed? Was it a 3D render of a macro shot of the mic blended in with real footage? If I wanted to make something like this is it worth learning 3D? After Effects? Appreciate anyones feedback!

Hello!

I've been a vfx compositor for over 20 years and worked in the biggest vfx housed on blockbuster films, commercials and tv shows. I'm looking to make a change due to burnout, salaries not being great and not wanting to become a supervisor and work 24/7.

Has any compositor here ever made a shift to work in a different industry like gaming or tech? What are the pros and cons and what did you need to learn or do in order to make the shift?

Thanks!

Nicolas Cage is speaking out against Amazon after the company, which developed “Spider-Noir” for Prime Video, allegedly asked him to sign an AI waiver.
“Amazon is a very AI-friendly company, to the tune of $50 billion invested in OpenAI,” Cage said Saturday during a panel on the Empire Stage at New York Comic Con. “I am not an AI-friendly actor, so it’s like, connect those dots! I’m not a member of their club. I didn’t sign the waiver to let him use AI on ‘Spider Noir.’ I’m probably not going to be working with that studio again, but that’s okay.”

Amazon canceled the superhero series after just one season last month, days before the first weekend of the Emmy Awards, where it had earned 11 nominations (the most of any Prime Video program this year). The cancellation was a shocker to many in the industry, considering the series amassed 2.6 billion minutes viewed in its first six weeks and earned praise from critics and audiences alike.

Cage went on to tell the Comic-Con audience that he hopes to work with the rising class of Gen-Z filmmakers, praising “Backrooms” director Kane Parsons, who parlayed his YouTube fame into a Hollywood career. The horror film dethroned “Marty Supreme” as the highest-grossing release in A24’s history.

“I got to get with these young directors who are Gen Z, and they’re going at it their own way, whether it’s through the YouTube culture or whatever it is,” Cage said. “They’re doing it from scratch and by hand. I want to get with that.”
Cage also expressed interest in doing more television after starring in “Spider-Noir,” which marked his first leading role in a TV series. He then slipped the news that his next project will be a season of HBO’s “True Detective.”
“My agent’s out there somewhere listening,” Cage quipped. “That’s okay that I’m the first to announce that, right?”

As the tittle says. I have 0 real experience other than university. I have a website with my work on it. The quality of that work obviously was of a passing grade but I wouldn't say it's the best. I no longer know what area of VFX interests me after constantly changing.

Additionally, I create AI videos using Seedance and Kling.

My mind is telling me to create some Blender scenes or stuff to showcase in Blender and eventually have enough stuff for a new showreel. Maybe even see how I can incorporate AI into it.

Is it worth it assuming I want to find work? Despite me not having proper experience?

Hi folks,

Short film director here with a question. I'm working on a short psychological thriller. We've shot already and I'm very happy with most of the footage. I'm reaching out here though as I wanted to get advice on commissioning a vfx artist to enhance some shots.

The main antagonist in the film is a heron which we had a prop made for. Unfortunately the eye mechanism didn't really look believable and we didn't do enough set dressing on a crash sequence (in part because we didn't want to get the prop bloody/dirty as we still had scenes to shoot.)

I'd like to try and enhance a couple of these shots. It would be great if we could animate the eye, but the most important thing is to make shots of the heron post-crash more believable. I think it could use some blood scattered feathers, but am open to suggestions.

I've never worked with any kind of vfx before. Our budget would be a couple of hundred euro so I don't know if this is reasonable for this kind of work, or what I could ask/expect from a vfx artist.

Right now I'm just trying to understand what might be possible for our budget, and any prep or things I need to think about before approaching an artist.

Any input or advice much appreciated!

Hello!

I shot a small proof of concept in Madrid and I’m a bit desperate with the opening shot. There’s this girl in the background passing through the shot and looking directly to camera, and I think it’s quite distracting.

What’s the best way to remove her from the shot? I tried some ways that I know of for simpler occasions but they don’t work this time.

Thanks in advance!!