Jason Bickerstaff

Stop struggling with monolithic meshes in Solaris! 🛑 📦 Transitioning from Houdini SOPs to Solaris (USD) can be frustrating if your geometry doesn't come across with the right hierarchy. If you import a complex asset and it shows up as a single "mesh" primitive, you lose the granular control needed for high-end Look-Dev and Lighting. In my latest tutorial, I break down the SOP to LOP workflow specifically for splitting OBJ geometry into discrete USD meshes. Key Takeaways: ✅ Proper SOP Prep: Using attributes to define USD paths before export. ✅ Primitive Control: Why separate meshes are "stronger" for material overrides. ✅ Pipeline Efficiency: Organizing your Scene Graph for cleaner asset management. Whether you are a Lead Artist or just starting with USD, mastering how meshes are recognized in the Stage is a game-changer for your workflow. 📺 Watch the full breakdown here: https://lnkd.in/gARkGzgq #Houdini #Solaris #USD #VFX #LookDev #SideFX #LightingArtist #Pipeline #3DArt #SRS_PICTORIAL

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Episode 2 – Octane in Blender 🎬 In this one, I’ve covered environment setup and nodes — how to light your scene using world properties, HDRIs, and environment controls. If you’re getting started with Octane and struggling with lighting, this episode should help make things clearer ✨ #Octane #Blender #BlenderOctane #OctaneTutorial #BlenderTutorial #Lighting #HDRI #CGI #BeginnersSeries

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🎨 Realiz3D: Bridging the Gap Between CG Renders and Photorealism One of the stubborn problems in AI-assisted 3D pipelines: when you fine-tune diffusion models on synthetic renders, the outputs start looking… synthetic. Realiz3D from Meta AI & Technion tackles this head-on with a lightweight training framework that decouples visual appearance from geometric controls. The insight is elegant — instead of letting the model conflate "has geometry control signal" with "looks like a render," they explicitly teach it what "real" vs "synthetic" domain means, independently. Small residual adapters handle the domain shift cleanly. ✅ Text-to-multiview generation that stays 3D-consistent AND photorealistic ✅ Texturing of 3D meshes from real image priors, no realism compromise ✅ Plug-in residual adapter approach — lightweight, trains on top of existing generators ✅ Results that significantly close the realism gap vs. baseline fine-tuning This kind of domain-aware learning could reshape how look dev and asset creation pipelines are built — training on vast libraries of annotated synthetic 3D assets while preserving the photorealistic output quality that actually matters on screen. The interplay between CG data richness and real-world appearance has always been a core tension in these workflows, and frameworks like this feel like genuine progress. CVPR 2026 | Paper: https://lnkd.in/daYVUJ7A | Project: https://lnkd.in/dejiQTV6 #AI #VFX #3DGeneration #NeuralRendering #Diffusion #GenerativeAI #FilmTech #ComputerVision

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𝗔 𝗦𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗿, 𝗙𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗶 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 As the year wraps up, I’ve been thinking about what actually improved my Houdini workflow... and honestly, it wasn’t learning more nodes. The biggest improvements came from removing little bits of friction in the setups I already use. So here’s the approach I’m taking into 2026 and maybe it’ll help you too: 𝟭. 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗺𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼-𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝟰𝟴 𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗿𝘀  Not the big challenges, the tiny things that quietly slow you down:  • Rebuilding the same SOP chain again  • Copying VEX snippets from old files  • Fixing scale or normals on every import  • Jumping between SOPs and LOPs because the scene wasn’t structured right  • Digging for the “real” latest cache These little moments add up and drain focus without you noticing. 𝟮. 𝗣𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗮 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄 Ask yourself: “If this could only take two or three clean steps, what would that look like?” Examples:  • Turn your common cleanup chain into a Houdini Recipe  • Build a consistent import setup that handles scale + naming  • Create a USD scene with camera, lights, and render settings already in place When the pattern is simple, everything speeds up. 𝟯. 𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗿𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝗹𝘀𝗲 Not tools. Not scripting. Just repeatability and clarity. Create the foundation:  • A versioned folder structure  • A Karma preset with your AOVs  • A clean starting .hip file  • Your go-to VEX snippets saved  • A handful of Recipes you rely on Consistency beats complexity every time. 𝟰. 𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝟱 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲, 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘂𝗽𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲𝘀 One per week:  • Week 1 → clean up naming + versioning  • Week 2 → build a proper import pipeline  • Week 3 → make a Karma/AOV preset  • Week 4 → create a LOP/USD template  • Week 5 → save your core SOP chains as Recipes This sets you up with a cleaner system right at the start of the year. What’s one part of your Houdini workflow you want to simplify in 2026?

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Want 4× Mesh Quality and PBR textures from a single image? Here’s the workflow you need 😉 Rodin Gen-2 API is now live in ComfyUI! ✨ Features: → 4× Mesh Quality → T/A Pose → PBR Textures → Multiview to 3D How to start: 1️⃣ Use the nightly ComfyUI build. 2️⃣ Search for "Rodin 3D Generate - Gen-2 Generate" or find it under “3D API.” Transform your creative workflows. Imagine the possibilities! 🤯 Have you tried it yet? Let me know how it fits into your projects. 🔑 𝗢𝘄𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗳𝗹𝗼𝘄. 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲. ────── ✦ ────── We install custom ComfyUI AI Production pipelines that empower agencies, production companies, and enterprises to run AI video & imagery production in-house, with full team training, without guesswork, and outsourcing. ✅Book a strategy call here 👇 ↳ https://lnkd.in/ebG_RUdg

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Using Luma AI for Storyboarding 🎬✏️ we Wild Visual Effects been experimenting with Luma AI as part of a quick storyboard workflow, and I thought it might be useful to share a simple process for anyone considering adding it to their pipeline. we have put together a short document that walks through this in more detail, including example prompts and panels. #artificialintelligence #wildvfx #lumaai #dreammachine #modify #prakashkumararajan #generativeai #llm #aitools #aieducation #aianimation #aivfx #aifilmmaking #WildVFX #GenAI #VisualEffects #Filmmaking #AIVideo #HybridWorkflow #CreativeAI #VFXStudio #AIContentCreation #GenerativeAI #AIinFilm #dreammachine #lumaai #hybridai #ray2 #photon2 #filmmaking

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Here's the Rive rig overview from my last post. I don't know why that post blew up (The engagement from that post isn't earth-shattering, but almost 2k reactions are already a lot for me 😅) Maybe there's something about the solution, or the output is nice to look at, or a bit of both. A lot of people have asked for a tutorial (by a lot, I mean about 4 😂), so here's a quick breakdown. It's not a full-blown tutorial, but it's the quickest one I can compile. I'll probably make a detailed tutorial in the future. Honestly, I was surprised by the solution's output. And the solution is really simple and obvious, now that I think of it, I just haven't thought of it until now. I have worked with many rigs before (in After Effects), but Rive's built-in joystick and the ability to select a target for the handle are so intuitive and flexible that they enable solutions like this.

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I’m thrield to share a project I’ve been working on one of the most time-consuming parts of the rigging pipeline: Naming conventions. Whether you’re working on a stylized game character or a complex VFX creature, this Python-based tool provides a quick solution for maintaining clean, scalable hierarchies in Autodesk Maya. Key Features: Context-Aware Naming: Specialized presets for Biped, Quadruped, VFX, and Game-ready skeletons. Smart Prefixes & Suffixes: Manual entry or automated "By Position" and "By Type" logic to ensure consistency across the rig. Advanced Search & Replace: Quickly swap characters or strings across complex hierarchies. Batch Indexing: Rename multiple objects with a clean, sequential numbering system. Flexible Scope: Apply modifications to your current selection, the entire hierarchy, or everything in the scene. Built for riggers who need precision and speed. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts! This tool was one of many applications that we did inside Python workshop with Anas Elkinawy #MayaPython #Rigging #TechAnim #GameDev #VFX #Automation #Python

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I wanted to make this project a bit more interactive, so I figured, why not integrate a controller directly into Blender? There was just one small problem… I didn’t actually have a controller Then I thought, wait..what if I used a Steam Deck as the controller? 🤔 So I did exactly that. Integrating the Steam Deck’s controller interface into Blender and mapping all the buttons took weeks (and a lot of debugging 💀), but it finally works full viewport navigation, camera toggling, zoom, and even timeline control, all from the Deck. I’ll be writing up a short breakdown soon on how I got everything connected and working smoothly. Stay tuned. I’ll share the link here once it’s ready. #3d #blender #animation #scripting #development #simulation #interactive

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Need to learn DaVinci Resolve Fusion from scratch? VFX artist Bernd Klimm shows you how to build a title animation using nodes, the Merge tool, keyframes, and the power of reusing elements. https://lnkd.in/esiwnHR9

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What if your next prop could start with a prompt? 👾 Generate 3D assets from text prompts, refine and iterate in your browser or export them into your pipeline, and experiment faster across previs, prototyping, and 3D printing workflows. Try it today in Flow Studio: flowstudio.com

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Ready to take your FX skills to a professional level? Our 12-week FX for Film & TV (Level 9) certificate brings you inside the world of high-end VFX, CG animation and real-time FX. Learn how to design art-directable simulations, work with industry tools like Houdini, Maya and Unreal Engine, and build a polished FX showreel that showcases your skills for film, TV and games. As part of this course you will study - Fundamentals of FX Creation How FX are developed from concept to execution Research, problem-solving and iterative workflows Understanding natural phenomena to inform realistic FX Visual Effects Techniques Particle simulations Fluid dynamics Rigid body dynamics Pyro and other core FX systems Using tools such as Houdini and Maya Real-Time FX Working in Unity or Unreal Engine Creating shaders and particle systems Integrating assets from Houdini/Maya into game engines Building efficient, real-time FX workflows Lighting and Rendering for VFX Lighting considerations for smoke, particles and simulated elements Rendering for both quality and optimisation Preparing and presenting work for a professional demo reel Apply Now https://lnkd.in/duEEe7eu

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Iterations of up to 10000 (or more if you want your machine to suffer) for super clean, noise free sampling. Precise control over step size, falloff, advection, warp intensity and influence. My Soft Warp Node seems to be fully working now. However no matter what kind of voodoo math magic I am trying to squeeze into the formula, I cannot get it to be "bulletproof" when using too strong values. I am not even sure if I completely understand what is happening. From my understanding, offset pixels start to move faster than their neighbors, which results in some wrapping issues or folding over each other. But anyway, let's hope for the common sense and artistic vision of my future users that also prevents them from using ultra high values on a regular warp because of the same issues. :D Anyone interested in testing this little baby out? I am thinking of creating folds, maybe even terrain generation or in combination with my Height Conform some foil wrapping shenanigans. PS: It's not tileable yet, this will be the last step. #madewithsubstance #substance3d #substancedesigner Adobe Substance 3D

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💻 Tutorial Spanish https://lnkd.in/eqz5xreD 💻 Tutorial English https://lnkd.in/eeD2uUbC A test of what I could do with #rodin convert an image into a 3D model Meshcapade video capture #unrealengine

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🙌 Geometry doesn't have to be your roadblock anymore! 🤫 Unlock the secrets of projections without the constraints of geometry. Download our captivating article and dive into the world of Linear Algebra for practical VFX Compositing. 🤓 Comp Lair's Founder, Pedro Andrade will guide you through his research and thinking process, demystify the hierarchy of linear transformations, and show you how to effortlessly transform PWorld Space to PObject/Pref Space, as well as how to achieve Projections in Nuke without geometry. Get your FREE copy now! ➡️ Get it here: https://lnkd.in/eVYNPwQv

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It’s been a while since I posted anything, so here’s a simple tool for overriding rotation on a joint without using KineFX.

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I couldn’t agree more. Before you start cooking, decide what you want to make so you know what ingredients to get.

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