Alan Demafiles

BREAKING: The Animation & VFX Power Shift is ON Ready to watch the creative map get redrawn in real time? Texas just dropped a bombshell: a 450,000 sq ft production campus at Alliance Texas, built to run FOUR big shows at once. Paramount/101 Studios are already rolling on Landman S2. Translation: infrastructure, incentives, and pipeline all go. Meanwhile, Mumbai is center stage (Aug 22–24): At Anime India + AM Summit, global heavyweights land in India: Susumu Fukunaga (The Pokémon Company) and legendary director Tetsurō Araki (Attack on Titan, Death Note). For a market of ~100M anime fans, this is a watershed moment. Numbers that matter (and why they signal a boom): • VFX market set to grow +$15.24B (2025–2029). • PS5 already crossed 50M units—audiences are hungry for premium worlds. • LinkedIn engagement is up 44% YoY—creators who ship smart content win distribution. The productivity kicker? AI-first pipelines. Autodesk just added MotionMaker to Maya—AI-assisted animation that turns shots from weeks to minutes in layout/previs, without sacrificing control. Studios using this get iteration speed and quality. Studios that “get it” are already moving: Warner Bros. inked a 5-film partnership with Indian producers to localize iconic titles for the next billion viewers. What this means for your career/business ✅ Global hiring in animation/VFX is heating up ✅ Remote, cross-border collaboration is the new default ✅ AI skills = unfair advantage in creative ops ✅ Cross-cultural IP is the next growth engine My call: The next 12 months separate adapters from spectators. Will you lead this wave—or watch it from the timeline? Drop your take below. If this hit a nerve, share it with a creator who needs to see the signal. ⬇️ #AnimationRevolution #VFXFuture #CreativeTech #FilmIndustry #GameChanger #Innovation2025 #AnimeIndia #Maya #AIForCreatives

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When a client asks for character animation, most beginners start keyframing every limb manually. But pros? They rig. In this tutorial, I broke down the process of using Duik Angela—a free tool inside After Effects—to build a custom skeleton and automate complex character movement using Inverse Kinematics (IK). What I covered: • What is Rigging? Creating a skeleton system that lets one body part influence the others—for example, when you move the arm, the hand follows naturally. • Planning the Character: I designed a custom character (“Karubhuddhi Lal Bhaiya in an MJ jacket”), broken into layers—arms, legs, torso, hands, etc.—to prep for rigging. • Setting up Duik Angela: Built a full bone structure using custom joints, linked everything together, and created a fully controllable puppet. • Animating with Ease: Used controllers to animate the dance sequence, with smooth movement and minimal manual keyframing. 

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I still can’t believe this is real… Adobe Premiere Pro - Tips, Tricks, & Tutorials Premiere Pro’s Object Mask allows you to isolate specific areas of your footage to apply effects, color corrections, or blur elements selectively. These tools are designed to streamline your editing workflow, enabling you to accomplish complex tasks without leaving your editing environment to use After Effects.

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I’ve seen this happen recently in AI animation team I work with... → They install tools like Move AI → They test it once → They’re impressed → Then… nothing changes in their production speed The tool is powerful, yes! 🦾 But without operator discipline, it becomes just a demo... In AI production, speed comes from 'Operational Precision'. And it's one of the pillars of the Xtendency Blueprint™ ⚙️ Speed = Trained operators + structured workflow + predefined quality standards. Without that, AI tools don’t accelerate… they scatter. If you want tools like Move AI to actually reduce animation time, here’s how high-performing studios are using it: Assign roles before touching the tool Animator = operates presets Director = approves motion Nobody “figures it out on the fly" ✅ Train operators, not just creatives ✅ A trained operator can generate usable raw motion in 2 minutes. ✅ An untrained one produces 15 unusable clips. Define your “approval threshold” before generation When quality is defined upfront, revision loops disappear. Today, anyone can generate motion with AI. But only teams who structure how it’s operated will produce high-fidelity animation faster than traditional pipelines, without drowning in revisions 🤝 P.S If you are curious about internalizing your AI production explore how the Xtendency™ Blueprint helps businesses →https://lnkd.in/eTxfbAVp

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Here’s your text with the emojis placed correctly and consistently: How to relight your shot with AI? Apply various scene lighting configurations to any video with Luma AI Ray 2 Modify Video. 1 🔸 Setup a static shot of a subject and hold still. 2 🔸 While holding the pose, capture various Start Frames with different lighting configurations. 3 🔸 Record a video of the subject starting in their pose, then moving freely or looking around in the scene. 4 🔸 Open Dream Machine and create a new Board. 5 🔸 Select the Modify option in composer settings. Then import your captured video onto the blank Video Card in the composer. Import your Start Frame onto the Start Frame Card next to your original video. 6 🔸 Select and lock in your preferred Strength level. Flex 2 and 3 were used for subtle light changes. Reimagine 1 was used for more aggressive light changes. 7 🔸 Tap the Create button in the composer to make your virtual relighting video come to life. Relighting your shots afterwards is a chance for you, as a creative, to get more control over the look and aesthetic of your AI film. 🤔 Want to learn AI Production? 💎 Would you trust an AI to design your next campaign? ────── ✦ ────── We help luxury brands create emotional and remarkable campaigns with AI.  Xtendency™ AI Productions ↳ https://www.xtendency.ai/

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Excited to share a new pipeline tool I’ve released: Likesyrup Batch Exporter v2.5 🎉 This Maya tool simplifies asset delivery by batch-exporting to FBX, OBJ, MA, and STL. It’s built with production workflows in mind: • Smart naming (prefix/suffix, short vs. hierarchy, collision-safe) • Freeze transforms, center pivots, and move-to-origin toggles • Live filename preview for confidence before you hit export • STL export that works even when Autodesk’s translator doesn’t (Python fallback) Whether you’re exporting for games, VFX, or 3D printing, it’s designed to save time and reduce repetitive errors. https://lnkd.in/e3D-MMN2 Available now on Gumroad 👉 [Gumroad link] #Maya #3D #PipelineTools #Automation #BatchExport #Likesyrup

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Weekly Houdini Tip #3 - Whitewater rendering with Karma XPU For many years, the standard way of rendering whitewater in Houdini has been using the traditional Mantra renderer. Mantra is capable of producing a highly accurate, volumetric "wet" look that closely resembles real whitewater. However, Mantra is now becoming outdated and is being replaced because of its slow performance. As a result, it's important to explore alternative methods for rendering whitewater using Houdini’s modern, fast, and efficient built-in renderer, which is Karma XPU. While Karma XPU cannot interpret the legacy Whitewater shader from the Material Palette (since that shader is built with VEX nodes, which Karma XPU does not support), there are still several viable approaches to achieving a visually acceptable whitewater look using MaterialX-based workflows. 1. Rendering Whitewater points as particles - Adjust the pscale of your whitewater points to keep them small enough for rendering. - Apply a MaterialX Standard Surface shader to the WW points, they will be rendered as small spheres by default - Set Specular Roughness to a low value for a wet, shiny look. - Optionally tweak Transmission, Opacity or add color (you can use the Cd attribute from your points with the "MtlX Geometry Property Value" node) - This is the fastest method - on my machine, a full HD frame rendered in under 1 minute using Karma XPU. 2. Rendering Whitewater as a volume - Convert your whitewater points to a volume using nodes like "Volume Rasterize Particles", "Volume Rasterize Attributes", "VDB from Particles" - Apply a "Karma Uniform Volume" or "Karma Pyro material" and adjust Density and Shadow Density - This method takes longer to render, about 5 minutes per frame in my tests, but gives a softer, more mist-like result. 3. Combining Particle and Volume renders in comp - Volume rendering alone lacks specular highlights, so it can appear flat or dry. - To restore wetness, render the whitewater both as A) Volume for body/mist, and as B) Particles for specular highlights. - In compositing, layer the speculars from the particle pass over the volume pass. This blended result can closely match the look of the classic Mantra whitewater shader. It would be great if future Houdini releases include a ready-made Whitewater material using MaterialX nodes, that will be fully compatible with Karma XPU. If you’re aware of a better method for rendering whitewater with Karma XPU, or if I missed something, let me know in the comments. . . . #houdini #karma #sidefx #whitewater #sidefxhoudini #fx #fxartist #simualtion #flip #fluids #water #materialx #xpu #rnd #vfx #flipsimulation #tutorial #particles #volume #solaris #lops

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The future favours those who adapt. Wētā FX CEO Daniel Seah shares why embracing AI is essential for the industry, and how they're using it to shape what's next in VFX. With a decades-long history in advancing the use of machine learning, Wētā FX continues to push creative boundaries.

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2,000+ VFX jobs. One painful problem. I didn’t create another job board. I fixed how people find jobs. For years, Chris Mayne has maintained a legendary Google Sheet with VFX, animation, and gaming jobs. It’s gold. But scrolling through thousands of rows isn’t. So my team and I asked a simple question: 👉 What if this data was actually easy to explore? So we built : https://jobs.akashcg.com/ Here’s what we built: • A clean web UI on top of the same Google Sheet • Smart filters by role, country, studio, and location • Interactive world map to explore jobs geographically • Full job details on click — company, site, apply link • Hiring stats so patterns become visible, not hidden No data scraping. No ownership claims. No monetization tricks. The data stays Chris’s. The value goes to the community. Great community resources don’t always need more data. They need better interfaces. Tools don’t replace people. They amplify the work of people already doing great things. This project exists for one reason: To make job hunting in VFX, animation, and games less exhausting. If you’re job hunting right now — I hope this saves you time. If you maintain community resources — thank you, seriously. Question for you: What’s one community tool you love… but wish had a better UI? 👇 Comment below. #VFX #Jobs #Animation #Gaming

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Quick HSL Tutorial on CapCut! Just shared a short tutorial on how to use HSL (Hue, Saturation, Luminance) in CapCut to enhance your color grading. If you want to make your videos pop and control colors like a pro—this is for you. Check it out and share your thoughts! #CapCut #VideoEditing #ColorGrading #HSL #ContentCreation

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It has been 4 years now since we opened HAA, the first specialty school for animation in the US. 100% animation in person for 8 hours a day with training from experienced Hollywood animators and directors. Students learn with classical animation training and industry geared projects for film, games, and television. It has been a great joy to develop the kind of curriculum I wished I would have gotten from Cal Arts after working in the industry for 30 years. Most colleges leave their students without guidance on what they specifically need for a competitive portfolio today. Students do character designs and student films that are misguided and unpolished. We build projects that are industry relavent and train students 6 semesters deep in order for them to reach pro levels. We even help our students build their portfolio websites and teach them how to be a professional within a studio system. This is a school striving to lead education with cutting edge technology and experience. Learn feature storyboarding from experienced feature story artists. Learn TV production boards from primetime directors or TV board artists. Learn Previs from a top previs lead from Marvel and Universal. Learn game animation and cinematics from an experienced lead and game cinematic director. Learn Unreal Engine for filmmaking from feature and game directors. The animation industry is more challenging than ever and for serious students we offer one of the best solutions. Daily in person professional guidance with a structure that is second to none in practical real world training. In 2026 we launch our next intermediate level program for online students called Creative Edge and grow our 3rd year Mastercraft program with fantastic pro level projects. It's going to be an exciting year and we invite new students to check out our website and contact us if you are interested in learning more. https://lnkd.in/g8E8uFuU #animation

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Great production means solving problems before they exist which was exactly the case with Nexus’ arm guns. Morgan Loomis explains how the rigging team got ahead of a potential slow down. How we made Spice Frontier: Escape From Veltegar: https://lnkd.in/gncFNQ8t Animated Pilot Episode: https://lnkd.in/gbRtvGvd

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