| VFX Engine Weekly |
Issue #003 |
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A simulation engine built by an ex-Walt Disney Animation Studios engineer just landed in Blender as a one-time purchase, and it handles cloth, hair, rigid bodies, and soft bodies in a single unified solver. That is the kind of tool that used to require a studio-grade pipeline or an expensive third-party license.
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This week: a Disney-pedigreed physics engine hits Blender, Zee Entertainment takes a stake in the group that includes Tippett Studio and Milk VFX, and Digikore's AI-pipeline animated feature heads to global theaters on July 24.
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Tools
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HiPhyEngine Brings Disney-Grade Character Simulation to Blender, Built by a Former WDAS Engineer
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HiPhyEngine is a new multi-physics simulation engine for Blender, developed by Haixiang Liu, who spent six years at Walt Disney Animation Studios building and maintaining character simulation and grooming tools. It runs cloth, hair, rigid bodies, and soft bodies inside a unified solver and guarantees intersection-free results. An MPM solver is included for snow and sand simulation. The tool is a one-time purchase that covers all future updates, and a free trial is available.
The significance here is not just feature depth, it is provenance. Liu built this to solve problems he watched artists hit daily at one of the most demanding character-simulation environments in the world. Blender's native tools have improved, but a unified solver with intersection-free guarantees is not something you get out of the box. For freelancers and smaller studios pricing out Marvelous Designer or custom Houdini setups, this changes the math on what a Blender-native pipeline can deliver.
Read the full breakdown on 80.lv →
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The cost floor of production-grade work keeps dropping, and it is dropping fastest at the tool and pipeline layer, not at the creative layer.
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The briefs
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Production · befores & afters
The Third Floor's Andor Season 2 Previs Reel Shows How the Show's Biggest Sequences Were Built
The Third Floor has released its previs and postvis reel for Andor Season 2, showing the visualisation work used to plan cinematography, blocking, editing, and VFX shots across the Lucasfilm series. If you are pitching previs work or building a case for its value on your next show, this reel is a concrete benchmark for the level of craft expected on a prestige episodic.
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Studio News · AWN
Zee Entertainment Puts ₹116 Crore Into PhantomFX, the Group That Owns Tippett Studio and Milk VFX
Zee Entertainment's board approved an investment of up to Rs. 116 crores in PhantomFX via compulsorily convertible debentures, subject to PhantomFX shareholder approval. PhantomFX's global operations include Milk Visual Effects and Tippett Studio, which are expected to feed Zee's original content pipeline. The deal is structured as non-exclusive, so PhantomFX's existing client relationships stay intact, but the direction of travel for both studios' work is now tied to a broadcaster's IP ambitions.
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India desk
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Production · AWN
Digikore's AI-Pipeline Animated Feature Kingdom Games Sets July 24 Global Theatrical Release
Digikore Studios has released the trailer for Kingdom Games, a 90-minute 4K CG animated feature hitting cinemas worldwide on July 24 across the US, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, India, and Latin America. The studio developed an AI-assisted pipeline touching concept design, previsualization, asset generation, motion blocking, crowd simulation, and compositing, compressing some processes from weeks to hours. Digikore is listed on India's National Stock Exchange and has delivered VFX on productions including Stranger Things and The Marvels. If you are pricing an animated feature bid right now, this pipeline's scope-to-cost ratio is the number your client will eventually find and ask you about.
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Production · Animation Xpress
Hombale Films Locks in a Second Mythological Feature Universe Entry, Mahavatar Parshuram, for December 2027
Hombale Films has announced Mahavatar Parshuram as the second chapter in its Mahavatar Cinematic Universe, following Mahavatar Narsimha, with a scheduled release in December 2027. No cast has been disclosed yet. Hombale is building a franchise structure around Hindu mythology, and for studios and supervisors who want long-run work on a scaled Indian production slate, this is the kind of IP that generates multi-year pipeline commitments worth tracking.
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| ▸ Jobs this week |
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Surface Artist
Keywords Studios · Portland, United States · 1d ago
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Apply → |
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Senior Pipeline TD
Industrial Brothers · Toronto, Canada · 1d ago
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Apply → |
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| ▸ Featured reel |
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Adrian Delmotte
Graduated in June 2025 with a Master’s degree in VFX, I am seeking opportunities both in France and abroad. While I specialize in environmen
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| ▸ The Pulse - VFX Engine, this week |
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48
new VFX jobs this week
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996
open roles right now
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37
reels & resumes audited
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Industrial Light & Magic
top hiring studio (7 roles)
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Closing thought
Three stories this week point at the same pressure point. A WDAS-pedigreed simulation engine ships as a one-time Blender purchase. An Indian studio compresses weeks of animation work to hours using an AI pipeline and sends a feature to global theaters. A broadcaster buys into studios spanning two continents to lock down a content supply chain. The common thread: the cost floor of production-grade work keeps dropping, and it is dropping fastest at the tool and pipeline layer, not at the creative layer.
That gap between what a small team can now produce and what a client expects to pay for it is where the next round of bidding pressure will be felt. The artists who understand both the craft AND the pipeline economics will be the ones who frame that conversation, rather than just absorb it. Reply with the one pipeline change, tool switch, or workflow upgrade that saved your last project from a budget squeeze.
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Priyank Murarka
Founder, VFX Engine.
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