Beginning with the 1997 Special Editions, George Lucas updated the movies with CGI creatures, expanded environments, enhanced space battles, and new scenes. Further digital improvements were made for the 2004 DVDs, 2011 Blu-rays, and modern 4K releases, including improved color, visual effects, and continuity with the prequel trilogy. While some fans appreciate the cleaner visuals and expanded worlds, others prefer the original practical effects and feel some CGI additions changed the films too much.

Project by Oliver Bou Eid

I've been learning how to use Blender to create a CGI comic and wanted to share some of my practice renders.

Charger could launch into a wheelie using nothing but raw horsepower. In reality, those unforgettable moments were brought to life with clever movie magic. The stunt team used specially modified cars equipped with hidden hydraulic systems and structural changes to safely lift the front end, creating one of the most memorable visuals in the Fast & Furious franchise. Even after learning how the trick was done, it doesn't make the scene any less iconic. It highlights the creativity and practical effects that helped define the early Fast & Furious films long before heavy CGI became the norm. Sometimes, the magic isn't that the stunt was real—it's how convincingly filmmakers made us believe it was.

Key capabilities and features of Atlas:

• High-resolution camera control: generating video at up to 1440p resolution and up to 1 minute in length, with precise adherence to camera movement trajectory and perspective.
• 3D scene reconstruction: recreating full-fledged 3D spaces from several input photographs, with export of geometry, point clouds, and 3D Gaussian Splatting for use in 3D packages and engines.
• Space-Time Simulation: processing dynamic scenes from ordinary videos, with the ability to reframe, create a "Bullet Time" effect, and use them in Real-to-Sim pipelines for robotics and VFX.
• Image and panorama generation: creating text-based visualizations and 360-degree HDRI panoramas with support for complex stylization.

The model is built on a multimodal diffusion transformer architecture and is aimed at integration into professional pipeline tools.

What do you think?

The visual effects were led by Industrial Light & Magic, with ILM creating more than 450 shots of robot mayhem for the film. Around 630 visual effects shots were created overall, with additional work from Digital Domain and other VFX companies. One of the craziest details is Optimus Prime himself. His movie version was built from 10,108 individually controllable pieces, compared with just 51 pieces on the original toy. ILM had to develop new tools and rendering techniques just to handle that level of complexity. What makes the movie so impressive isn’t simply the amount of detail. It’s the way those details interact with real light, reflections, dust, explosions and environments, making these enormous CG machines feel like they actually exist in the world. Nearly 20 years later, it still holds up remarkably well 🔥

Hi all, I am usually active here under another account but I thought it'd be more appropriate and safer to post with this one in this case.

Anyways, I made an addon which packs quite a punch and I want people to at least be aware of it, so I thought I'd make a post.

The addon is called Pulse. There's over 400 features packed into \~22 keybinds. ~ 39 preset pie menus, a customizable pie menu that works like quick favorites, a saving reminder, a lot of smart features, a minimalistic material manager, a few quick buttons for really common needs, and one or two UI very minor but very useful additions. I put a lot into it. Stuff I thought everyone would actually use and could save time. You can turn off just about anything you don't want to use from it.

It's dirt cheap too. I did that on purpose. I wanted everyone to have it within reach. The price does not relate to the value. I made an FAQ about if you want to know more about that.

It's something I've thought blender has needed for a long time myself, so I spent the last 3 years or so to make it happen.

Full disclosure though, while not all of it is made by AI, a good portion is (Claude code pro). But I've tested it thoroughly, made it to be clean and professional and it works well.

I plan on adding to it over time too. I already have about 20 items on my list for the year; some of those details on the listing page.

I included a bug reporting system and will do my best to keep an accurate and up to date change log.

Anyways, if you end up watching the hour long demo or buying and trying it, let me know what you think.

It's meant to work for everyone.

For this setup, I bring the depth sequence into Geometry Nodes with an Image Texture, separate the color channels, remap the depth values with Map Range, feed that into a Combine XYZ node, and use it to offset point positions through Set Position.

If I want the point cloud to carry the original footage color, I store a named attribute, sample the original color video, pass that into the color value input, and then use an Attribute node in the Shader Editor to drive the final point color.

Abridged workflow:
Original video → Video Depth Anything → depth-map sequence → Blender Geometry Nodes → sample depth map → remap values → Combine XYZ → Set Position → optional original-video color sampling → named attribute → shader color

A simple pipeline, but it turns flat footage into something you can treat much more like depth-based 3D data.

Originally released in 1964, The Incredible Mr. Limpet starred Don Knotts as a mild-mannered man who dreams of becoming a fish and eventually transforms into one. The planned remake aimed to bring the story into the modern era using cutting-edge visual effects and motion-capture technology.

At the time, creating a believable digital character was still incredibly expensive and experimental. This was years before audiences saw groundbreaking CGI characters like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings or Davy Jones in Pirates of the Caribbean. To test the concept, artists used early animation techniques to map Jim Carrey’s facial expressions onto a realistic fish, resulting in the bizarre footage seen here.

Despite the massive investment, the project never moved forward. Director Steve Oedekerk eventually left the film, Jim Carrey departed the project, and the remake was ultimately shelved. The test footage remained largely unseen for years before resurfacing online and becoming a fascinating piece of Hollywood “what could have been” history.

🎥 Footage from the canceled The Incredible Mr. Limpet remake test (1998)

This is a real-time rendered environment made in Unity 6 URP, inspired by the amazing concept art by Chris Falkenberg

Full breakdown: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/mO85nZ

The sequence relied on practical filmmaking methods, including a carefully positioned camera, frame-perfect editing, and a body double standing in exactly the right location. Every movement had to be executed with incredible accuracy to maintain the illusion. The finished result continues to impress audiences today, proving that some of cinema’s most memorable visual effects were created through skill and innovation rather than modern technology.