Blips Blog

Reallusion launches Character Creator integration with Unreal Engine

Reallusion has released the CC UE Control Rig, a free plugin for Character Creator (CC) users. This plugin speeds up production by enabling users to animate custom characters directly within Unreal Engine. It uses the MetaHuman Control Rig, familiar to Unreal Engine users, to handle full-body movement and facial expressions. Reallusion has stated that despite the recent introduction of UE Modular Control Rig in Unreal Engine 5.4 and advancements in MetaHuman animation, preparing fully customized or original IP characters for animation in Unreal Engine remains challenging.

Published: 10. Jun. 2024

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Defold gains support for the Teal programming language

The Defold game engine has recently received an update, adding support for the Teal programming language. Teal is a typed dialect of Lua, which is the default scripting language in Defold. Similar to how TypeScript benefits JavaScript developers, Teal helps improve the code quality and reliability of Lua. This addition is part of the new initial support for Lua transpilers in the build pipeline. Currently, this support is limited to transpilation and does not include automatic extern generation for Defold's Lua APIs. Consequently, it is better suited for writing type-safe standalone logic rather than interacting directly with the Defold runtime. Nevertheless, Teal does provide the option to manually write the necessary externs.

Published: 3. Jun. 2024

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PureRef 2.0 - An updated reference image tool for artists

PureRef is a stand-alone software designed to help creatives organize a collection of images in a visual way. Users can freely place and scale images, allowing them to create mood boards or set up reference images for tasks such as painting, 3D modeling, and more. The application features a drag-and-drop system, where images can be imported from various sources, including the host file system and web browsers. Additional features include the ability to write quick notes, toggle image desaturation, and arrange or align images.

Published: 27. May. 2024

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Deep Paint - A new blender add-on for stylized 3D illustrations

Deep Paint is a new Blender add-on created by visual artist Gaku Tada. This add-on provides a user-friendly set of tools that allow users to easily model and paint in 3D, enabling them to create hand-drawn 3D illustrations similar to those made by the artist himself. Deep Paint is designed to expand the capabilities of Blender's Grease Pencil by adding features like "GP to Mesh," which instantly converts Grease Pencil strokes into 3D meshes, including brush strokes, curves, and mesh lines.

Published: 20. May. 2024

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Visual Studio Code has received a new update (1.89)

Visual Studio Code, the popular text editor from Microsoft, has received a new update titled the April 2024 release (version 1.89). The update introduces several workflow improvements and gives developers more control over their projects. One notable addition in this release is the local workspace extensions, which allow users to restrict extension installation and usage to a particular project. This feature offers an alternative to the existing global extensions and was designed to meet users' specific workspace requirements.

Published: 13. May. 2024

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Unity 6 launched in preview

Unity Technologies recently announced the release of the preview version of Unity 6 (previously known as 2023.3 Tech Stream), now available for download. The Unity 6 Preview follows a structure similar to a Tech Stream release, offering developers early access to new and updated features, ideal for projects in the discovery or prototyping stages. However, for production purposes, the Unity team recommends using the Unity 2022 LTS version for greater stability and support.

Published: 6. May. 2024

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Unreal Engine 5.4 now available

Unreal Engine version 5.4 has recently been released with a significant focus on its animation and rendering aspects, including improvements in performance, visual fidelity, and productivity. Without further ado, let's go over the highlights of this release: On the animation front, there have been several new additions. Firstly, Automatic Retargeting simplifies the process of reusing bipedal character animations, ensuring excellent results. The Skeletal Editor has been expanded with new features, and a range of new deformer functions have been introduced to the Deformer Graph.

Published: 29. Apr. 2024

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FMOD 2.03 released with improved real-time audio control

FMOD, the professional middleware for adaptive game audio, has been updated to version 2.03. This release introduces powerful new features for real-time audio control. These include brand-new effects such as Multiband Dynamics and Spectral Sidechaining, a new Spectrum Analyzer, and utilities that offer higher levels of control over existing properties and signal chains.

Published: 22. Apr. 2024

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Nevercenter rolls out Pixelmash 2024.1

Pixelmash, presented as the next-generation pixel art and animated sprite editor for Windows and macOS, has received a new update. For those who are unfamiliar, Pixelmash is a tool for pixel art and animation that allows artists to blend high-resolution vector-based layers with low-resolution per-pixel layers. Vector layers are dynamically pixelated to a lower resolution in real-time, offering novel methods to create pixel art through transforms, tweening, and advanced layer effects. Additionally, Pixelmash includes essential features for pixel art work, such as Pixel Perfect Editing, Onion Skinning, Reference Layers, and more.

Published: 15. Apr. 2024

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Flax Engine 1.8 has been released

Flax Engine, described by the development team as "The most agile game engine," has recently been updated to version 1.8. For those unfamiliar, Flax Engine is a fully featured, source-available game engine featuring a modern editor interface and a component-based architecture similar to engines such as Unity. Some of its standout features include multiple scripting options such as C#, C++, and visual scripting, open-world tools including terrain, foliage, and fog systems, and support for large worlds with 64-bit precision coordinates.

Published: 8. Apr. 2024

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Blender has been updated to Version 4.1

Blender, the powerful open-source 3D creation suite, has received a new update. The new version introduces a multitude of new features, along with performance and workflow improvements, particularly beneficial for modelers and animators. Additionally, according to the Blender team, this release includes hundreds of bug fixes, code cleanups, and refactors, making Blender more stable and facilitating future contributions from developers.

Published: 1. Apr. 2024

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Cascadeur 2024.1 has been released

Cascadeur, the AI-driven 3D animation software, has received an update. Nekki, the company behind its development, states that the new 2024.1 version is a significant update, introducing functionality designed to improve users animation projects and streamline the workflow. One of the key additions in this release is animation unbaking, allowing you to convert baked (fully keyframed) animations into regular ones with fewer keyframes and various types of interpolation set automatically.

Published: 25. Mar. 2024