Advice for a POV Alien Abduction in a Forest?

For my VFX supervisors out there, if a director wanted to do a POV shot of someone getting grabbed by an alien abduction beam in a forest and levitated into the air, what would you recommend? The ideas being floated right now are: a.) using a full CGI takeover at the moment the character begins leaving the ground, b.) using a drone to create that sensation of rising into the trees, or c.) having the camera attached/carried by someone who the stunt team hauls into the air on ropes?

https://redd.it/1qeoce9
@vfxbackup

How do they make the real actors sit perfectly in the CG water?

https://redd.it/1qeqrof
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CG meet up in BC! Feb 6
https://redd.it/1qjfyvb
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Made a music video using Gaussian splatting

https://redd.it/1qirs65
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My simple video review tool to replace Frame.io in my workflow... and fund my first feature film...
https://redd.it/1qj1qjn
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Was exploring some effects and made this

https://redd.it/1qjmqjs
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I want to leave the industry any suggestions?

Hi everyone, I’m a compositor with 7 years of experience, and I’ve definitely decided I want to leave the industry. I have some coding and design skills, but I’m not sure how to start pivoting. Has anyone here successfully made a career change like this?

Uk based.

Thank you

https://redd.it/1qj4gje
@vfxbackup

META 🤡

Meta wants to take over the VFX industry

https://youtu.be/3ey2qx5uGXc?si=GFM_BGv1R1G1EsE0

https://redd.it/1qjpi1o
@vfxbackup

Sean Astin on how he’s fighting for humanity against an onslaught of AI actors
https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/this-is-an-unbelievable-moment-in-the-course-of-human-history-sean-astin-on-how-hes-fighting-for-humanity-against-an-onslaught-of-ai-actors

https://redd.it/1qisu65
@vfxbackup

How to optimize performance of AM5(7950x) with 4 sticks of RAM(448GB=192GB RAM) for Houdini Work?

Hi everyone,

I’m curious as to how to optimize my system performance.

The Specs:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X

RAM: 192GB (4 x 48GB) DDR5

GPU: NVIDIA RTX 5070 Ti OC (16GB)

Mobo: ASRock B850M Pro RS WIFI

Case: Small form factor (Mechanic Master C26). CPU and GPU temps stable even on 90-100% usage at 85 degrees and 75 degrees respectively.

The Problem: I recently had a major scare. After a problematic windows update, during a standard simulation/render, the system suffered a "hard crash"—no BSOD, no error codes, no frozen screen. The PC just clicked off instantly like the power was cut and I had to manually boot it back up. This happened multiple times over the course of one week even with uninstalling the Windows update. A BIOS reset finally fixed the issue. (Not sure why as I hadn't tweaked anything in BIOS)

The RAM Struggle: After the crash, I reset the BIOS. I’m currently stable with all 4 sticks, but they are running at 3600 MT/s (BIOS defaults which I had no idea before). Whenever I try to push them even to 4800 MT/s, the system fails to boot (stuck on Red/Yellow DRAM lights).

My Dilemma:

Is AM5 actually suited for 4 sticks? I’ve read conflicting reports that the memory controller on Ryzen 7000/9000 simply isn’t designed to handle 4 high-density sticks at anything resembling "fast" speeds.

Capacity vs. Speed: In my heaviest Houdini sims so far, I’ve seen my RAM usage peak around 95GB.

Should I stick with the 192GB at 3600 MT/s for the peace of mind of having the overhead?

Or should I drop to 2 sticks (96GB)? My theory is that 2 sticks would let me hit the 5200–6000 MT/s "sweet spot," which might actually speed up my "Scene Prep" and "I/O" times in Houdini more than the extra capacity helps.

Seeking Recommendations On:

Stability: Given the "hard crash" (which I suspect might be the PSU or Memory Controller being overstressed), what’s the consensus on 4 sticks with 192GB for professional work?

BIOS Tweaks: Beyond RAM speed, what settings (PBO limits, Curve Optimizer, SoC voltages) would you recommend for a 7950X in a small case to keep it from tripping the PSU but still performing well?

GPU: Any specific NVIDIA settings for the 5070 Ti OC that play nice with high-density RAM builds?

I have a deadline this week so I'm staying at 3600 MT/s for now, but I plan to experiment the moment I submit. Would love to hear from anyone else running "unsupported" RAM amounts on AM5.

https://redd.it/1qjigjk
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CGI Showreel 2026 | Unreal Engine

https://redd.it/1qjsask
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Ubisoft Cancels 6 Projects Including Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake, Closes 2 Studios and Confirms Further Layoffs in Major Company Restructure
https://www.ign.com/articles/ubisoft-cancels-6-projects-including-prince-of-persia-sands-of-time-remake-closes-2-studios-and-confirms-further-layoffs-in-major-company-restructure

https://redd.it/1qjvsrg
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2026 Oscar Noms are out
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgyyqkn0yvo

https://redd.it/1qjwxyt
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Ubisoft shares tumble after Assassin&Creed; creator unveils restructuring, cancels games
https://www.reuters.com/business/ubisoft-shares-tumble-after-assassins-creed-creator-unveils-restructuring-2026-01-22/

https://redd.it/1qjy627
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First Time in VFX

https://redd.it/1qk0f7c
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Growing Old - Pushed Myself To Improve My VFX Skills

Feature Presentation

VFX Breakdown

First Episode (Has No VFX)

I made this as part of an episodic series, what I originally had planned to do in VFX was exacerbated by my own mistakes. Have you ever shot a whole video only to realize after it was over that your main actor was staring straight down the barrel of the lens? Sigh... I did.

By not being prepared for all of the challenges I was going to face, I've taken my time over the last year and a half coming back to this and chipping away at it piece by piece. The benefit of that is now I have a better idea of how I should have approached it, unfortunately I worked myself into a corner at a certain point, wishing I had Nuke, as Resolve for VFX can be hot garbage by losing my data and sometimes crashing when I come back and try to update things like tracking.

Invisible VFX is what I wanted to improve most on, as well as VFX in service to the story. Paint-outs and morphing are the main things I worked on learning, I don't believe I nailed down anything to a professional level, but I do believe I can move forward with what I learned to do better next time. If there's one thing I know I should have done, it's add grain, I really don't have an excuse asides from being afraid to unload my rendered footage out of fear of something breaking if I did.

Let me know what you think, I appreciate you guys taking the time out of your busy schedules to take a look at my silly little shows. I hope I accomplished something you like, or at the very least something you don't hate.

https://redd.it/1qjzjw0
@vfxbackup

Useful VFX jobs resource (credit to Chris Mayne)

Chris Mayne maintains a well-known Google Sheet that tracks VFX / Animation / Games jobs worldwide and keeps it consistently updated.

I’ve built a simple UI that references that sheet and makes it easier to browse — with filtering and sorting instead of scrolling rows.

It updates live and is shared purely as a convenience for artists.

Jobs page: https://showreelbio.com/jobs

(All credit to Chris Mayne for the original jobs data)

https://redd.it/1qk58zd
@vfxbackup

Denoising Practices?

Hey everyone, had a few questions about common denoising practices. I only really work on my own projects, so I'm not concerned with other departments or anything.

On our last short, we didn't really do any denoising on our footage. I do rather like a good film emulation though, so I ended up with film grain on top of digital noise. While I got no complaints, and I saved a lot of time, I dont really want to do that going forward.

I've seen some good non destructive workflows in after effects for degraining/regraining with grain mattes. If I plan on adding film grain to all of my project, should I denoise all of my footage prior to beginning work? Is that fine to do, or should I always try to regrain my vfx comps?

My main cam is also a BMPCC 4k. Love the thing. But I was also curious if it is viable to create a noise profile for the camera itself for VFX, because I tend to shoot projects at the same ISO and light accordingly. Or do I really have to degrain each shot on a case by case basis?

I work in syntheyes, blender, after effects, and resolve. Would love some insight!

https://redd.it/1qk5p4m
@vfxbackup

James Cameron: Generative AI will only produce mediocrity in filmmaking
https://youtu.be/liob7Acq_1c?si=i-LqmdUhdsyEOv9Z

https://redd.it/1qk7llw
@vfxbackup

How incredible the quality of VFX winners/nominees has regressed over the years... Gore Verbinsky is right!
https://youtu.be/-HGUG2-67I4

https://redd.it/1qkh4i3
@vfxbackup

Small studio owners....

How many hours per week does your producer spend manually updating spreadsheets to match what's actually happening in the render folders?

https://redd.it/1qkjjbd
@vfxbackup