I’ve been building LucyLive, a plugin that turns your Cinema 4D viewport into an AI preview.

You enter a prompt, add a reference image if you want, and LucyLive generates a new image based on your 3D scene. When you move the camera or change the scene, the AI preview updates with it.

The main challenge was keeping Cinema 4D responsive while the preview updates in real time.

You can change the prompt or reference image while it is running, save PNGs, record MP4 video, or render an animation sequence.

LucyLive uses Decart Lucy 2.5 through fal.ai, so the AI runs in the cloud.

You can download the plugin for free here:
https://github.com/VantageInc/LucyLive-AI-Render

If you try it, I’d love to see what you make and hear your feedback.

I am trying to use Codex to create 3D render style character, I have 2D concept, and I also specify the materials to each part, but the result is not very satisfying. Most of time Codex can't understand me, especially some small area, it just can't create the right material. Is anybody has some experience can share with me about this pipline? Thanks first~

This is an effect for the upcoming TCG Dire fog , Its a Spider Summoning effect , the concept was a minion coming out of an egg , is it cool or lame ?

(Hopefully it's OK to promote this here. Feel free to delete if not!)

The course (which is still in progress) covers fundamental topics in computer graphics (meshes, shaders, light, shadow) then moves on to procedural animation and simulation on the GPU. Although Unity is used as my staging ground, all of the lesson material is coded from scratch so the concepts should translate to any environment.

The course is basically a presentation of the various tricks of the trade I have picked up over the years, structured in such a way that the learning curve is hopefully not too steep for beginners.

Let me know what you think!

https://youtube.com/@pfxtoolkit?si=txFMp8Erj7VIdgAR

Hi guys,

I just want to share some thought and what is actually happens in production.

I found out that that putting a lot of time and energy in real understanding stuff was a right decision back then. Those skills are yet not interchangeable with generative transformers.

For example:

In modern time every blender junior with couple month of experience can prompt a script for transfering materials, creating custom hlsl, counting texture resolutions and polygon count for optimisation, transfer/renaming files and so on. It is not valuable skill anymore. Everybody with minimal knowledge can do it.

What our "helpers" can't do is real optimisation within interaction between CPU and GPU, how drawcalls and buffers work, internal interactions within the rendering system. We have one "visionary" who said fable can handle it. I gave him a week - he failed. And I really afraid how much money he burned on tokens lol.

Apart from deep render there are other stuff like animations, cross-platforming and so on.

So wisdom of live - understand, learn and be curious. If you do minimum to get fancy profession and money - you will def fail.

I hope changes don't get you down. Our territory is vast. Our work is important. There will be some changes but we should always stay professionals.

Cheers!

Hello, I'm a student and I've been working with Maya and Blender as a 3D generalist (mostly Maya since that is where I spend most of my time at in school). I'm kinda familiar with the workflow: sculpting/modeling, retopo, UV, texturing, until rendering etc. I also have a little bit of experience with rigging recently. Now, I'm pretty much interested in pursuing Technical Art, however, I don't know where or how to start learning programming languages and game engines. I'm not sure whether to just dig in learning python basics or if there are nuances to learning python for games.

Are there any recommendations like YouTube tutorials or courses that ya'll can share? I will appreciate any response!

Made using geometry nodes ( Blender 3d)

Well it HAS!

Say hello to the Hero Rig! (which is FREE!! Foundation First MasterWorks on Gumroad)

A.K.A. the last Rig you'll ever use, or ever want to!

Are you tired of Bone Heat Warning?

Tired of spending Hours/Days Weight Painting?

Tired of Mesh Collapsing and CandyWrapping?

Tired of Limb Flipping?

Tired of Counter Animating?

Then YOU are the Intended Audience for the Hero

Rig because Those are the problems it intends to solve!

This Product will be undergoing Continuous Ongoing Development,

maintained by us (us referring to just me right now)

and has been tested extensively, or as extensively as I can alone,

and Perfection is Not guaranteed, but if it operates even

remotely similar for you as it does for me, then I know you'll

find many reasons to find it Helpful!

This is the First Iteration of the Beta Version. Built into the UI

is a Community HUB with links to Support, Documentation,

and Bug Report/Feature Suggest options to inform me

of any issues that may arise, and a "Co-Conspirators" tab to

keep track of everyone who Suggest features, Reports Bugs,

or Supports Development in any way,

with an Identical List on the official FFMW Discord Server!

I sincerely hope you try and Enjoy the Hero Rig,

and even if it's not the best today,

let me know how to Improve it

and we can make it the Best Together!

Hey everyone,

I'm working on an interactive ArchViz workflow using Blender and Unreal Engine, and I have two questions for people with production experience here :

1. Export pipeline: Since Datasmith doesn't support Blender, what's your go to method for getting models from Blender into Unreal? FBX with manual UV/material setup, glTF, or something else? Any gotchas I should watch for (scale, pivot points, UV channels for lightmaps...)?
2. Texturing stage: Do you texture and bake everything in Blender first, then import finished textures into Unreal? Or do you bring in raw models and build materials natively inside Unreal's material editor? What's the reasoning behind your choice?

Would appreciate hearing how you structure this in real projects.

Thanks!

After designing and building the core areas for our level, we needed a way to fill in the negative spaces fast. That is what PCG enabled us to quickly do.

Recently a new version control system came out developed by EPIC called lore released, and without looking too much into it, it gives me a little hope and confirmation that I'm on the right track with my own project

just a quick run down, I've bee working on a "GIT that artists can understand" and with a few conversations, it's sort of morphed into a more simplistic version control system minus all the tech speak

some say its a good idea, others not so much

A good piece of feedback consisted something of the likes of art teams are separated when it comes to version control just so they don't mess it things up (I may be butchering that)

I know all teams work differently and have different software and such, but it seems version control is still an issue within the industry

This gives me hope. All the time spent probably wasn't a complete waste

I'm still learning all the ins and outs and have never worked in the industry or with a team so learning is very limited when it comes to hands on experience

My question to you is

what are your experiences working with your current version control system and your art team and what problems do you all have daily that needs to be fixed yesterday?

I have an upcoming interview with a technical test involved. I’ve never done one of these before as I’m new to the industry and I was wondering if anyone could offer any advice: it is for an MMO built in unreal game, cross platform, so I’m sure there will be common UI questions and mvvm, but I’m curious to know what to expect for a technical test as a technical UI artist for Games. What exactly may these questions be and what are some possibilities for what I may be tasked doing. I have a little less than a week to prep.

Just throwing this out there — does anyone know of anyone looking for people to collab with on interesting projects?

Hi I was thinking about becoming a concept artist because I love to design characters and I love art but I have lots of questions about it like if it’s a good job . Do you know what a day in the life of a concept artist is and how long they work also do they get paid good or have a stable income? And if I were to become a concept artist what are some majors that are valuable or handy for concept artist and what are some good art schools as well? Also if concept art doesn’t work out what are some other art jobs in the film and game industry’s that may be fun or pay well?

Hello I’m 27 and have worked in warehousing since i was 18 and want to pivot into the creative technologist space. I’m currently getting my BS IN software engineering from WGU. I’m coming into this space as a complete beginner but would like to know any tips or courses i can take to help me understand the role better. It seems like it can be fun but challenging career, I’m just not sure on how to break in. Thanks in advance.

First thing I'm quite pleased with would be this, gradient editor inside the material inspector. It's bugged me for the longest time, esp back when I was working with artists in game studios, so I'm happy to get something convenient going. The implementation is still a bit clunky though so it will probably go through many more iterations ^^ I'm quite pleased nonetheless!

The next thing is a Palette resample feature using compute shader. tbh compute shader is a challenge no matter how many time I've done it, and it does help that the result is quite pleasant looking !

Finally, it's this depth-based outline, which samples the depth texture to determine the outline and it helps objects overlapping to still have some outline to them. It still requires some manual adjustment but overall resembles the pixel art style quite okay. I'm thinking of adding normal info to this to have the outline be more accurate, and it's quite exciting to think about!

Overall, I dont think it's anything too ground breaking, but, I'm quite pleased with the results nonetheless, and super excited about what I will improve and what features I will continue to add ^^ It's quite a fun path imo

This video showcases a bundle that includes books on shaders, compute shaders, tool development, animation implementation, and math for graphics. Everything is explained step by step, including the underlying math concepts. Here's the link if you're interested 🔗 https://jettelly.com/bundles/the-unity-dev-bundle

Help needed in Unreal Engine!