Digital Production is taking a short end-of-year break. We would happily keep going until the very last calendar page, but the news situation has become impressively sparse and the editorial cat has formally vetoed any further attempts, insisting on a pause. When the cat is right, the cat is right.

Before you disappear into the holidays, one gentle reminder. Back up your data. All of it. And maybe take a moment to sort out the chaos folder. We all have one, were files like “final_really_this_one” quietly acumulate, along notes, software you defintily wanted to test and those meeting notes that were oh-so-important. Cleaning that up may even provide a respectable excuse for postponing visits to THOSE relatives.

Behind the scenes, we are still here. If anything genuinely relevant pops up, we will jump back in. Otherwise, we will see you next year with fresh news, new tools, and the usual mix of things you needed and things you did not know you cared about.

Thank you for reading, supporting Digital Production, and sticking with us through the year. Have a calm end of the year, enjoy the holidays, and see you on the other side.

The post That’s It for This Year: Digital Production Wishes You Happy Holidays first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the event: FMX is Europe’s long-running conference for animation, visual effects, interactive media, games and basically the same topics as Digital Production. It takes place every spring in Stuttgart and online as part of Stuttgart Animated Week. The event is organised by the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg and runs alongside the Animation Production Days (APD) market and the International Festival of Animated Film Stuttgart. FMX combines technical talks, case studies, workshops, exhibitions and a marketplace for tools and services. Attendance spans creative professionals, technologists and students.

Early Programme Highlights Confirmed

FMX 2026, themed THE ROAD AHEAD, has confirmed the first sessions focusing on visual effects practice and the impact of artificial intelligence on creative workflows. One confirmed session from Pixomondo VFX Supervisor Max Riess will detail the transformation of human actors into animal characters for the feature Woodwalkers 2, covering on-set supervision, digital blend techniques and rendering strategies used to create authentic animal performances. This is one of the first concrete case studies announced ahead of the conference.

Another confirmed talk will feature Dr Aaron Hertzmann from Adobe Research discussing whether AI algorithms can be considered artists, grounded in parallels to historical art technologies. He argues that while generative AI tools reshape production and the understanding of art, they are unlikely to be recognised as artists themselves in the near term.

Larry Cutler, CTO of Baobab Studios, is scheduled to share industry-wide patterns in reactions to “job-killing” technologies, drawing from his experience with AI-driven character systems. These early confirmations suggest FMX 2026 will combine production insight with reflective debate on emergent technologies.

FMX Forum and Partner Participation

In addition to conference talks, the FMX Forum is open for bookings and planned to include workshops, a marketplace for tools and technologies, recruiting hubs, and university showcases. Partners already confirmed include Abstract, CG Wire, RnDeep and VFX PICK for the marketplace; Artineering and Prism Pipeline for workshop slots; Chaos in the company suite; and several studios and educational institutions in the recruiting and campus spaces. These components aim to give attendees direct access to tools, technology and talent pipelines.

Animation Production Days: Submit by February

The Animation Production Days (APD 2026), the business and co-production market that runs from 5–7 May in Stuttgart as part of Stuttgart Animated Week, has opened submissions for animation projects. APD is the key co-production and financing platform in Germany for feature films, TV series, mobile content, games, cross-media and virtual reality projects, bringing producers into curated one-to-one meetings with broadcasters, streamers, distributors and financing partners. Projects should be in concept or development and demonstrate international co-production potential. Up to 50 projects will be selected and showcased at the event. Project entries are accepted until 4 February 2026.

APD also offers a Talent Programme for emerging European producers and creator teams, providing free accreditation and festival access to selected teams, including accommodation support.

Notes for Production Artists
Attendees and presenters should verify final session details when the full FMX programme is published, as early confirmations may be updated with additional technical specifics closer to the event dates. And there is always a boiit of shift.

P.S: This is your reminder: Book hotels well in advance, or you have to stay somewhere in the Swabian mountains. There be dragons!

The post FMX 2026: First Talks Confirmed and APD Project Submissions Open first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Blackmagic Design develops cameras, broadcast gear, and postproduction software including DaVinci Resolve, Fusion, and Fairlight. The Blackmagic Camera Setup utility keeps their cameras’ firmware up to date, adds new features, and includes the Blackmagic RAW toolset used in Resolve and other DCC workflows.

PYXIS learns to cool itself

Version 10.0 of Blackmagic Camera Setup, released just now, introduces a dynamic fan control system for the Blackmagic PYXIS 12K. The camera now adjusts its cooling behaviour automatically while recording.

Pre-record and expanded audio arrive

Both the PYXIS 6K, PYXIS 12K, and the URSA Broadcast G2 gain a pre-record mode, allowing the capture of a few seconds before the record button is pressed, a practical addition for live and documentary work. All three models also now support four-channel audio recording, mono headphone monitoring, and a 0% opacity option for frame guides, giving operators the ability to clear overlays entirely when composing shots.

API, proxies and lens support updates

The update adds new Camera Control REST API commands, aimed at remote operation and integration with external systems. Blackmagic also adds an option to inhibit proxy recording, which could be useful for locked-down or multi-camera workflows. For the URSA Broadcast G2, 10.0 also improves Blackmagic Cloud integration and B4 lens compatibility. Blackmagic has not detailed the nature of these improvements, and they are not independently verified at press time.

RAW utilities and system requirements

The installer continues to bundle Blackmagic RAW Player, RAW Speed Test, RAW SDK, and RAW plugins for host applications. The update supports macOS 14 (Sonoma) and macOS 15 (Sequoia) on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs, as well as Windows 10 and Windows 11 64-bit systems. Blackmagic lists 8 GB RAM as the minimum for macOS.

Updfated PYXIS Manual

At the same time, BMD updated and released a new manual for the PYXISI Camera – geht the full PDF here for free or have a look if you think about getting one of them. https://documents.blackmagicdesign.com/UserManuals/BlackmagicPYXISManual.pdf?

Practical reminder

As always, users should verify firmware stability and feature compatibility before deploying updates in active production environments. Never update during production, which we heartily recommend, because yesterday a Windows-Update made this news you are reading a hectic morning duty instead of a relaxed last evening thing. Also: Check yourt backups, while you are at it.

The post Blackmagic Camera 10.0 brings fan brains and pre-record tricks first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the tool: Plasticity by Plastic Software is a NURBS modeller designed for artists who prefer CAD precision without CAD overhead. It runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, sits between MoI and Fusion, and exports clean geometry for Blender, Maya, Houdini and other DCC tools.

Instancing Arrives

Plasticity 2025.3 adds proper instancing. The new Create Instance command generates live references of solids, sheets, curves or groups. Changes to the master object automatically propagate across all instances, keeping files light and consistent. When geometry needs editing, Realize Instances converts them back into full bodies. Array and Mirror commands now also support instances, allowing users to pattern complex forms without duplication.

Cloud Preview: Publish to Plasticity Share

The new Publish to Plasticity Share feature lets users export a lightweight mesh preview to the web. Only mesh data is uploaded (no CAD data or full project files) so models can be reviewed safely by clients or collaborators through a browser link. It is designed for quick visual checks rather than full production transfers.

Precision Modelling Tools

Plasticity 2025.3 expands its measurement toolkit with Measure Radius, providing direct readouts on cylindrical or conical forms. The new Ellipse Tool finally delivers native ellipse creation with precise control. Measurements now display clear arrowheads at both ends, and curves render with thinner strokes for cleaner viewports.

Smarter Manipulation and Pivot Control

Edges on cylindrical or conical surfaces can now be moved directly while retaining analytical geometry. The Move tool supports both interior and exterior edge adjustments if the adjacent faces are planar, cylindrical or conical. Pivot points now align automatically along surface normals when primitives or sketches are placed, streamlining operations on complex shapes.

Curvature and Continuity with Real-Time Feedback

The former Measure Curvature command is now Toggle Curvature, featuring a right-panel menu for comb scaling and visibility control. Both Toggle Curvature and Measure Continuity now display live updates: manipulating curves or edges shows curvature and continuity changes immediately. Each offers its own panel with G0/G1/G2 scaling and deviation displays. Files from 25.3 remain backward compatible, with curvature data stripped when opened in older versions.

Enhanced Arrays, Mirrors and Sweeps

Array commands now support meshes, images and instances, with a Make Instances toggle for lightweight duplication. The Mirror command can now mirror meshes and instances, including negative scaling for direct axis reflection. The Sweep tool gains Mitre and Round corner types for guiding curves around sharp or smooth bends, adding control for product-style surfacing.

Export and Topology Controls

Plasticity’s export engine grows more configurable. OBJ export gains several topology and cleanup features:

• Remove Small Features strips fine details by numeric threshold for retopology or baking workflows.
• Simplify Radial Surfaces maintains continuous edge flow across curved forms.
• Convex Ngons Only prevents concave ngon generation, improving downstream shading in tools like RizomUV or 3ds Max.
• OBJ export also now supports empty meshes and un-realised instances. SVG export is now available for curves, enabling vector output for documentation or design applications.

Section Analysis for Meshes

Section Analysis can now cut through mesh data (STL, FBX, OBJ), not only NURBS bodies. This gives users a quick way to inspect internal geometry or verify imported scan data.

Material Handling and Visuals

Render Mode ships with a new default HDRI for better baseline lighting. The Cathedral Tile PBR material joins the library, and material management is now more interactive: dragging a material from the Assets menu or directly from the Outliner applies it in the viewport. Hovering over materials in the Assets panel highlights every object using that material.

Performance, Snapping and Navigation

Mousewheel zooming is faster and smoother, particularly in dense assemblies. Snap performance on OBJ files has been improved for both face and vertex snaps. Incremental snapping now respects grid settings during scaling, and spherical faces feature new centre snap points.

Localisation and Preferences

Plasticity now supports ten interface languages, including English, German, French, Japanese, Portuguese and Chinese. Faceting density in Preferences can be adjusted without restarting the application. Mesh objects’ pivots can be repositioned and saved for consistent orientation.

General Optimisation

Curve performance has been improved for intersection-heavy scenes. The outliner now better handles instanced hierarchies. Render and viewport updates deliver smoother interaction with high-poly models.

Availability

Plasticity 2025.3 is available now for Windows 10+, macOS 12.0+ and Ubuntu 22.04+. Users should test all new tools and exporters in controlled environments before deploying them in production.

Social Media: Plasticity 2025.3 lands with live instances, SVG export, new curvature toys and a cloud preview. Time to model smarter, not heavier.

The post Plasticity 2025.3: Now with Instances, Curves and Clouds first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.

For those who don’t know the Smpte: The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) sets the technical standards behind nearly everything that moves on a screen. From colorimetry to file formats, SMPTE defines the backbone of professional workflows in postproduction, broadcast, and digital cinema. Their new engineering report Artificial Intelligence and Media (ER 1011:2025) updates the 2023 edition with the latest thinking on AI, and is freely available to non-members.

Open source and open AI

The first section revisits the foundations of machine learning and deep learning, before expanding into what SMPTE now calls “open source artificial intelligence”. The report clarifies the difference between open-weight and truly open source AI, where not just the model weights, but also code, data, and documentation are publicly accessible. It also points to the emerging concept of Responsible AI Licenses and frameworks like the Model Openness Framework (MOF). SMPTE notes that “open-washing”, marketing closed systems as open, is a growing issue engineers must recognise.

Generative models and interoperability

A substantial chapter examines generative AI, from diffusion models and GANs to LLMs and multimodal architectures capable of handling text, sound, image, and video simultaneously. The report highlights the growing influence of protocols like the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Google’s A2A for agent-to-agent interoperability, described as the foundation for “agentic workflows.” SMPTE sees these protocols as key to connecting intelligent tools in post and broadcast environments, without locking developers into single ecosystems.

Security, ethics, and regulation

Security receives dedicated attention. SMPTE warns of risks such as data poisoning, jailbreaking, and intellectual property leakage within AI-driven workflows. The report advocates Zero Trust Architectures (as defined by MovieLabs), calling for authentication and authorisation mechanisms even between AI agents. The ethics chapter, meanwhile, argues that AI in media must be both transparent and auditable “because failing is expensive, and media needs its own voice.” It outlines principles of inclusivity, transparency, and fit-for-purpose design, forming what SMPTE calls the “AI Ethics Pipeline”.

Standards and data: the next frontier

In its closing chapters, the report maps the AI standards landscape, noting gaps around ontologies, benchmarking, and model metadata. The authors identifie opportunities for collaboration with the EBU, ISO/IEC, and other bodies, stressing the need for shared datasets to train and validate media-specific AI systems. These datasets, the report says, are crucial for reproducible research and safe deployment in production pipelines. As always, SMPTE closes with a reminder that technology, especially AI, must prove itself in real-world conditions before being trusted in production.

The full Engineering Report ER 1011:2025 – Artificial Intelligence and Media is available for free download from the SMPTE website. It is dense, detailed, and refreshingly un-hyped. A technical must-read for anyone designing, coding, or approving AI-assisted tools in post, broadcast, or digital cinema. Before your next machine learning experiment runs in production, take an hour to read what SMPTE’s engineers have already tested and defined.

The post SMPTE updates its AI report: a roadmap for media engineers first appeared on DIGITAL PRODUCTION and was written by Bela Beier.