Markus Manninen

Huge announcement from M-XR! To any 3D / texture artists seeing this, I'd highly recommend giving this a read and watching the video.

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I turned my 5-year-old daughter’s drawings into a Christmas short film. Based on a bedtime story I invented for her. This project was created using an original Hybrid 3D Animation + AI workflow developed at Pistachio Studios. (full breakdown below) At Pistachio, we partner with production companies, agencies, and brands to create technology-driven stories and experiences that never lose their human touch. If you enjoyed this, let's chat! ___________________________________ Technical Breakdown of Our Hybrid 3D + AI Workflow: Once the script and storyboard are locked, concept arts are sketched/ painted (Ps). VISUALS Begins with original 3D character models, rigs, and main asset builds. These served as the foundation to train a visual style and generate additional assets. Nano Banana Pro 4K was used to produce alternative angles, edits, and variations. Final compositions were crafted in Photoshop, blending elements together. VIDEO Some shots are rendered fully in 3D when the rigged characters and scenes allowed for complete control. For AI-assisted shots, this film tested Kling 2.6 (Early Access) against Google Veo 3.1 (Kling delivered the strongest results in most scenes) R&D Note: We are also actively exploring Marey by Moonvalley, a clean, licensed AI video model that offers precise camera control and motion-point tools. Editing, compositing, and FX were completed in Adobe After Effects, followed by Premiere for the final mix and assembly. SOUND Sound design utilized Epidemic Sound music and SFX libraries, along with additional original recordings. Follow to see the full behind-the-scenes coming soon.  #ChristmasCloud #HybridAnimation #3DAnimation #Kling #Veo #Filmmaker #AIart #StopMotion #PistachioStudios #AfterEffects #CharacterDesign

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🚀 Excited to Share My Latest AI Animated Story Project! 🐦✨ I recently created a short cinematic AI animation called “The Little Bird” — a heartwarming 1-minute motivational story about courage, persistence, and never giving up. This project was fully developed using AI-powered creative workflows, including: 🎬 AI Story Development 🎨 Consistent Character Design 🖼️ Pixar-Style Visual Creation 🎥 Cinematic Shot Planning 🎙️ Voice-Over Scripting ✨ AI Video Prompt Engineering 📱 YouTube & Social Media Branding The goal was to create an emotional children’s animation that feels like a miniature Pixar-style short film while showcasing the power of AI-assisted storytelling and visual production. 💡 Story Moral: Success comes to those who never give up after failure. This project helped me explore: AI cinematic storytelling Character consistency pipelines AI animation pre-production Visual direction for kids content Thumbnail and social media design I’m excited to continue building more AI-driven animated stories and cinematic experiences. 🌟 #AI #Animation #AIArt #Storytelling #GenerativeAI #PixarStyle #KidsAnimation #CreativeAI #AIVideo #MotionDesign #ContentCreation #DigitalStorytelling #Portfolio #YouTubeShorts #AIArtist

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Some interesting facts about the integration of AI into the film industry: James Cameron is on the board of Stability. Darren Aronofsky partnered with DeepMind. Ron Howard called AI "revolutionary" for filmmaking. Robert Zemeckis has used AI extensively. Zack Snyder endorses AI. Scorcese used AI to de-age Deniro in the Irishman. Taika Waititi used an AI baby in Love and Thunder. Denis Villeneuve used AI to automatically tint the eyes blue in Dune Part Two. George Miller used AI in Mad Mad: Fury Road. AI is already integrated into many modern film pipelines in some capacity - while others may focus on "in the lens" production. Both seem like valid pathways for their given audiences. But for the larger scale commercial side of production, some level of AI integration seems inevitable. The question now is "how do we best integrate AI into the creative process?" What kind of things do we as creatives find helpful, and what are the things that are detracting from our human expression or our ability to connect emotionally to the material? We don't yet know the answers to these questions, but IMHO, mindful stewardship of the medium involves mindfully asking, experimenting and attempting to answer these questions earnestly.

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Proud to see how raw facial performance capture transforms into expressive digital characters APPLE ARTS STUDIOS Motion Capture Services. With 15+ years of experience, we continue delivering high-quality motion capture solutions for films, games, and virtual production. #MotionCapture #FacialCapture #VFX #Animation #VirtualProduction

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You can go in any direction you want I made this with Luma AI's dream machine to test out Ray 3's animation capabilities. I loved the results! These were make by placing the initial image into the first frame dialog and adding a relevant prompt. Added some music to give it that extra old school feel. Have you tried Ray 3 yet? -------------------------------------- Join hundreds of creatives who follow our ZenRobot newsletter, for weekly GenAI tools and practical tips ♻️ and if you found this post useful, please repost ♻️

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Tip for a lead comp. Be a technical problem solver. You don’t need to be the studio’s pipeline TD. Know your way around Nuke gizmos, scripts, and workarounds to fix common issues. This prevents your team from losing hours on avoidable technical roadblocks.

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When approaching the Wizard of Oz for the Sphere, I initiated a traditional approach to VFX production. While some of these methods worked, there was a lot of redirection and process changes that occurred on a weekly basis. This was due to the show being new. New formats. New workflows. And then newer workflows. After we onboarded all our main vendors. I shifted over to help manage the core AI-generated content for the Super Resolution and Outpainting. It was not an easy task. In addition to specific vendors for these elements, several in-house departments were then created with artists, coordinators, and managers. They worked more on these elements through a traditional VFX pipeline. We were not only creating the work, but actually creating the workflow. The conversation around AI rarely matches the reality of using it, at least in my experience. AI is a tool, and the challenge isn't the technology. It's building the operational infrastructure to integrate it into established workflows. That requires understanding both the technology AND the production process it's serving. The people succeeding with AI aren't the ones with the best prompts or the flashiest tools. They're the ones who understand the craft well enough to know when AI helps and when it doesn't. The AI-generated content saved time on specific technical tasks. Super Resolution for upscaling. Outpainting for extending backgrounds. But it also added coordination complexity. New QC requirements. Different version control challenges. Integration points that didn't exist in traditional pipelines. AI didn't make the work simpler. It made different parts easier and other parts more complex. Hating AI without understanding it doesn't make sense, but neither does adopting it blindly without knowing what problems it actually solves The skill is understanding when AI serves the work and when it complicates it. I don't think its choosing sides. AI is different. And different requires new thinking. #AI #VFX #ProductionManagement #AIWorkflows #Sphere #Leadership #ProjectManagement

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I made a tutorial on the "180 Degree Rule" for AI Filmmaking when creating dialogue scenes. https://lnkd.in/efcnKft8 This is especially important for people using the Kling Motion Control workflow, where the source performance video dictates the screen direction the performance will appear in the final film.

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Need unique liquid splatter effects? Simulate them in real-time with LiquiGen & generate variations in seconds, including render passes, 3D mesh and particle exports. This particular setup takes about 5 seconds per variant on an RTX 4090 (so hundreds could be created in less than an hour).

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Excited to finalize our partnership with Epic Games! Multi-cloud integration with #unrealengine, allowing studios to easily offload their Unreal workloads to cloud resources, paying as they go. Available via FAB and the GCP/AWS Marketplaces.

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The AI–Copyright Ruling Every VFX Studio Should Care About ⚖️🤖 A landmark federal court decision just reshaped the AI landscape—and if you're in VFX, animation, or post-production, the implications are massive. What Happened U.S. District Judge William Alsup ruled that training AI models on lawfully purchased copyrighted books is "exceedingly transformative" and qualifies as fair use—comparing it to how humans learn from reading. But here's the critical caveat: The court found that acquiring pirated materials remains copyright infringement, regardless of how transformatively they're used. This led to a historic $1.5 billion settlement—roughly $3,000 per pirated work. Two Clear Messages for Studios ✅ The Green Light: Legitimate AI training on licensed content is being protected as transformative fair use—opening doors for innovation. 🚫 The Red Line: Using unauthorized sources carries severe financial and legal consequences, with statutory damages that can reach tens of billions. What This Means for VFX & Post-Production With major studios actively litigating over AI training on film catalogs and image libraries, this ruling sets the precedent for how our industry will navigate AI integration. At 3D Services India, this decision reinforces our core philosophy: 🔹 Innovate responsibly – AI should augment creativity, not exploit it 🔹 Build on legitimate foundations – Only licensed, owned, or clearly permitted datasets 🔹 Protect creators first – Sustainable AI adoption requires respecting IP rights The Bottom Line The AI revolution in VFX is here—but the path forward requires both cutting-edge innovation and ethical foundations. The settlement is likely to serve as a benchmark for other copyright cases against AI companies, making compliance not just ethical, but essential. Working on AI-driven pipelines for pre-viz, VFX, or post? Let's discuss workflows that deliver next-generation results without compromising on creator rights or legal compliance. #AIinVFX #CopyrightLaw #VFXIndustry #Animation #PostProduction #AIEthics #GenerativeAI #3DServicesIndia

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One the the LLMs I use regularly thinks I'm a Pipeline TD. I'll allow it... for now. #vfx #ai

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𝗩𝗙𝗫 𝗣𝗜𝗣𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘 𝗗𝗜𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗬 𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗨𝗖𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘 𝗤𝗨𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗡𝗔𝗜𝗥𝗘 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘯𝘰𝘯-𝘱𝘪𝘱𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘬𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦𝘭𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯! I've worked at 7 different VFX/animation studios, and while each had their own pipeline implementation, one consistent principle stood out: the SG hierarchy was usually reflected on disk. That is: 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘄 → 𝘀𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 → 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘁 → 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽 → 𝘁𝗮𝘀𝗸 (𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸/𝗽𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝘀𝗵) In your ideal pipeline directory structure:   • Where would you put the 𝗘𝗗𝗟?   • Where would you put the 𝗮𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼?   • Where would you put the 𝗟𝗨𝗧?   • Where would you put the 𝗖𝗗𝗟/𝗖𝗖𝗖?   • Where would you put the 𝗢𝗖𝗜𝗢 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗴?   • Where would you put the 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗼? In short:   • Would you associate any (or all) of these with a 𝗧𝗮𝘀𝗸 in 𝗦𝗚?   • Would you use 𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁/𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗲/𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 or other directories for these?   • Would you group them all under an 𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 folder?   • If yes, what qualifies as an "element", and what doesn't? Additionally:   • Where would you put the 𝗰𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 and 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁𝘀?   • If there is any data created by the pipeline, where would you put it?   • Did I forget anything? 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀? 𝗣𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝘆.. Thanks in advance! #vfx #pipeline #folderstructure #questionnaire

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🎁 Free Scan #1 of 10 is here! (new pack) 🚀 Production-ready asset for Virtual Production, pre and post-production. Over the next 10 weeks, I'll be releasing a new, hyper-detailed 3DGS scan each week for you to use in your projects. This is a continuation of our large library of assets for the film industry. We're starting with this beauty: ➡️ https://lnkd.in/dw_xhXRn Want access to our entire, constantly growing library of free scans? Let me know, and I'll send you the link. I share goodies like this in almost every post, so stay tuned! Why is 3DGS the new reality for filmmaking? This isn't just "another technology"; it's a fundamental shift. Instead of spending weeks on pre-production, imagine this: ✅ Pre-production in hours, not days: We scan a complex location in a couple of hours. The director and DP can "walk" through it in VR the same day, planning every shot. ✅ No more "plastic" look: The main pain point of VP is the "game engine feel" of virtual sets. Our scans are a direct capture of the real world. We use a hybrid approach: LiDAR for huge spaces and custom multi-camera rigs for "hero" assets to ensure every detail is photorealistic. ✅ Seamless Integration: We don't just hand you a.PLY file. We are your R&D team. We'll show you and introduce you to the best solutions and plugins on the market for Unreal Engine, Unity, Nuke, After Effects, and Houdini, so you can painlessly integrate these assets into your pipeline. 🛠️ Hardware: An Honest Conversation XGRIDS scanners in Europe. But I'm not here to just sell you a product. I'm a practitioner, and my job is to help you choose the right tool. ➡️ LiDAR Scanners (XGRIDS): Perfect for massive scenes. But they have their flaws (dynamic range issues, "sky sticking"), which I write about often. If you buy a scanner through us, you get my personal, extensive expertise and consultation on how to work around these issues and achieve ideal quality. ➡️ Custom Rigs: For "impossible" tasks that require maximum detail (like in projects for Apple or Meta), I create unique multi-camera systems. If standard equipment can't do the job, we invent it. 🤝 Let's Build the Future Together! We're looking for interesting teams and projects to collaborate with. If you want to integrate 3DGS/4DGS into your pipeline but don't know where to start, or if you have an ambitious idea that others have dismissed, you've found the right person. Calendar: https://lnkd.in/dX_Gf9G5 Is the xgrids lixel l2 pro price justified for a small studio? Maybe not. Rent it or hire a pro. But if you do huge sites, this lidar for construction is a money printer. Here is the ROI breakdown: https://lnkd.in/dPPg6FQf XGRIDS & Nucleus4D #3DGS #4DGS #VirtualProduction #ImmersiveCinema #VolumetricFilm #LEDStudio #PostProduction #FilmMaking #Teleportour #ShramkoScan #Volinga #xgrids #volumetric #photogrammetry #ShramkoVR #ShramkoCamera #ShramkoSoft

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Built a webcam motion tracker for face and body capture. You can export the tracking data as an FBX and upload it into C4D. https://face.mayoflux.tv/ After exporting, run the c4d_build_puppet_rig.py script from the export .zip, and it will import everything for you. Let me know how it works, and if you have any feature requests.

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Continuing to experiment AI-assisted motion transfer. Character swaps, style changes, 3D animation, de-ageing, product replacement, wardrobe changes — the potential of all this is massive! 🚀 Earlier this year we were building some pretty heavy setups in ComfyUI just to get this level of control and delivery, but now things are moving so much faster with Kling 2.6 Wan 2.6, Ray 3 etc... 2026 is gonna be a pretty crazy year for AI & VFX 🤯

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One take. Infinite shots. Here’s a first look at our  4D x Gen AI workflow: a knight duel captured in a single volumetric take. This short test showcases our hybrid production pipeline, combining: ⚔️ Real-actor volumetric capture (live performance → 3D virtual asset) 🏰 Virtual environments built in 3D ✨ AI-powered rendering for enhanced textures and realism What makes it unique - One single take for any camera angle: no cuts, no continuity issues - Full relighting flexibility in post-production - No heavy sets, lighting rigs, camera gear, or large crews needed This first sequence was shot in one take: the entire framing, lighting, and camera work were done after the shoot, in full 3D. We’re still early in our R&D journey, but the potential is clear: a new creative freedom for filmmakers, at a fraction of traditional costs. Stay tuned - more experiments are on the way. Special Thanks to :  4Dviews for volumetric capture KOUZ for Music and sound design Sword Fighters: Dylann & Mathieu, Compagnie Briselame (France) Romain PERRIER Digital Born Producers Gilles Guerraz Malhar Mohite Clement Menier Yann Girard Varante Soudjian ESMA - Ecole Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques

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DaVinci Resolve 20.1 is live, and it just made immersive workflows real. If you edit, grade, do VFX, or mix audio, this update is worth opening Resolve for. This application provides native Apple Immersive Video support, enabling users to edit, color, add visual effects, mix spatial audio, and deliver content for Apple Vision Pro seamlessly within a single application. Quick highlights you can actually use: - Apple Vision Pro monitoring + Immersive Viewer: Pan, tilt, and roll immersive clips on your monitor or stream directly to Vision Pro for real-time previews. - Spatial audio support in Fairlight: Apple Spatial Audio Format support and 3D panning tools enable true spatial mixes, ideal for immersive storytelling and live performance work. - Fusion & AI upgrades: Magic Mask improvements, a new 3D title, USD-friendly VFX tools, lens-space corrections, and immersive patcher utilities. - Better VFX pipeline for stereoscopic/immersive footage. Newsshooter offers enhanced editor usability and a free version. It includes MultiText character and paragraph styling, CSV import for column-aligned text, improved safe-area tools, clip compositions that respect timeline resolution, and higher-precision timeline support. Why this matters: You no longer need 3 or 4 apps to build immersive experiences. Resolve is stepping up as a single platform to create spatial video and spatial audio, from ingest to final delivery. That changes how teams plan immersive projects and lowers the barrier for creators. #DaVinciResolve #ImmersiveVideo #AppleVisionPro #SpatialAudio #PostProduction #editingworkflow #videoeditordxb #dxbvideoeditor #creativecontent #editingupdates #softwareupdate

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