This week in 3D: Blender 3.5 is packed with new features

Here's the most interesting news from the last two weeks in 3D (since I was on holiday during GDC).

Blender 3.5 is packed with new features

Highlights of this release include:

• Upgraded Hair Grooming - The curve system first introduced in 3.3 is now much more feature complete. See introduction video.
• Viewport Compositing - Add camera effects like glare and see them live in the viewport as you work (huge time saver!)
• Vector Displacement Sculpting - You can now download a complex form (like a nose) then drop it directly onto your mesh.

Plus much, much more.

Unreal Engine to get impressive procedural tools

In a seriously impressive GDC demo, Epic revealed a powerful new system for procedural multi-object interactions. Essentially it looks like Blender's Geometry Nodes but for Unreal. Has the potential to change the way game levels are made in a big way.

Metahuman now includes automated performance capture

You can now capture a facial performance using an iPhone, and then apply it directly to a Metahuman mesh. Getting to a performance match faster means animators get to spend more time on the creative stuff like exaggeration and performance tweaking.

Ian Hubert releases another mind blowing short

Movies with 100 times the budget don't look this good. The visuals were created almost entirely by one person using Blender. In case you missed his first episode, watch Dynamo ep1 here.

Soon you'll start your 3D project with a prompt

It's been talked about for years, but Opus AI appears to be the first working version of a prompt-based scene generator. Fasten your seatbelts - 3D is about to go mainstream.

That's all folks. Follow me on Twitter for more discoveries.