ActionVFX

08/28/2026

You can find a hundred videos showing off Gaussian Splats. You can't find many that show you how to actually use them on a job.

Clinton Jones (Pwnisher) built something different: a full production pipeline, not a tutorial. Five modules, and by the end you're not just capturing objects, you've got a custom, production-grade 3D asset library and a working pipeline you can run on your next shoot.

What you walk away with:
→ Field capture techniques for anything — a gas can, a tank, an entire mountain range, using radial, stereo-pair, drone grid, and void setups
→ How to process raw scans into clean radiance fields and photogrammetry meshes, and strip out floaters and artifacts
→ AI de-lighting, so your scanned assets can be lit dynamically instead of looking baked-in
→ Direct pipeline integration: native SplatRender nodes in Nuke 17, level sequences in Unreal Engine, compositing in After Effects
→ Case study breakdowns from Niko Pueringer, Sam Gorski, and Mark Ginther on how splats and scans are already running in production

No prior scanning experience required, if you can shoot with a phone or DSLR, you're qualified to start!

Pre-Order Now: https://bit.ly/gaussiansplatting

You also get Clinton's own field datasets to practice on, on-set capture cheat sheets, and ready-to-use project templates for Unreal, Nuke, and After Effects.

08/27/2026

You can find a hundred videos showing off Gaussian Splats. You can't find many that show you how to actually use them on a job.

Clinton Jones (Pwnisher) built something different: a full production pipeline, not a tutorial. Five modules, and by the end you're not just capturing objects, you've got a custom, production-grade 3D asset library and a working pipeline you can run on your next shoot.

What you walk away with:
→ Field capture techniques for anything — a gas can, a tank, an entire mountain range, using radial, stereo-pair, drone grid, and void setups
→ How to process raw scans into clean radiance fields and photogrammetry meshes, and strip out floaters and artifacts
→ AI de-lighting, so your scanned assets can be lit dynamically instead of looking baked-in
→ Direct pipeline integration: native SplatRender nodes in Nuke 17, level sequences in Unreal Engine, compositing in After Effects
→ Case study breakdowns from Niko Pueringer, Sam Gorski, and Mark Ginther on how splats and scans are already running in production

No prior scanning experience required, if you can shoot with a phone or DSLR, you're qualified to start!

Pre-Order Now: https://bit.ly/gaussiansplatting

You also get Clinton's own field datasets to practice on, on-set capture cheat sheets, and ready-to-use project templates for Unreal, Nuke, and After Effects.

08/26/2026

We built 4 Arnold shaders for pyro VDBs. Free until Aug 28th. 🔥

Here's what's in it:
→ 4 Arnold shaders, fully built node networks, you can customize the fire and smoke
→ 4 single-frame pyro VDB samples to test them on immediately
→ Just download and go

Normally you'd have to build these node networks yourself from scratch. We did it for you.

Grab them before Aug 28th:
https://bit.ly/4gRDxmj

P.S. Bigger release coming later this week. Follow me or ActionVFX so you don't miss it.

08/19/2026

The most surprising thing about bringing AI into a studio pipeline? How much Photoshop still matters.

That's what senior compositor Doug Hogan told the Allan McKay podcast after months of running ComfyUI alongside traditional compositing work. "The good old compositing paint skills are so relevant," he said.

Where AI is pulling real weight: cleanplating. Doug built a local workflow using SAM3 for segmentation and LTX for inpainting, no cloud costs, no more pulling wires and rigs out frame by frame. Roto is getting close to Cryptomatte-level object isolation on live plates too.

Where it still loses: fire and water sims, where years of CG development still beat the newer models, and small one-off fixes, where AI regenerates the whole shot just to change one detail, slower than painting it out by hand.

His warning for anyone claiming AI hands you "perfect, photorealistic" output out of the box: real delivery means EXR multipasses, depth, albedo, spec, normal. A flat MP4 doesn't cut it.

Full breakdown: https://www.actionvfx.com/blog/how-a-senior-compositor-uses-comfyui-in-post-production-doug-hogan-allan-mckay-podcast

08/18/2026

Master leadership and on-set decision-making strategies from an Emmy and VES Award–winning VFX Supervisor.

The difference between a great compositor and a VFX Supervisor isn't technical skill. It's everything nobody taught you, reading a script for VFX risk, surviving a bidding call, keeping a director's trust when a shot isn't landing.

Eran Dinur has done that job on Marty Supreme, Hereditary, Uncut Gems, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Greatest Showman. His new course breaks down how, using real case studies from those sets instead of theory.

Six modules, 27 lessons: supervision models and team roles, the full VFX pipeline, core techniques, pre-production and bidding, on-set command, and post through final delivery.

Pre-Orders Now Open: https://bit.ly/4z8Jenc

08/14/2026

The difference between a great compositor and a VFX Supervisor isn't technical skill. It's everything nobody taught you, reading a script for VFX risk, surviving a bidding call, keeping a director's trust when a shot isn't landing.

Eran Dinur has done that job on Marty Supreme, Hereditary, Uncut Gems, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Greatest Showman. His new course breaks down how, using real case studies from those sets instead of theory.

Six modules, 27 lessons: supervision models and team roles, the full VFX pipeline, core techniques, pre-production and bidding, on-set command, and post through final delivery.

If you're ready for that next step, pre-sale is live today!
Pre-order here: https://bit.ly/4z8Jenc

Link in the comments.

08/10/2026

We asked a working VFX Supervisor what actually separates a great compositor from a great supervisor.

His answer had nothing to do with node graphs, render times, or how clean your comps are.

It came down to a decision most artists never get trained to make, one that shows up the moment a director says "we're losing the light" and everyone on set is waiting on you.

Most people don't find out what that decision actually requires until they're already in the chair, making it for the first time, with no tutorial to fall back on.

We broke it down → https://www.actionvfx.com/blog/why-technical-skill-alone-won-t-make-you-a-vfx-supervisor

08/10/2026

It's not been long since we launch our FREE course with Allan McKay, The New VFX Career Playbook: https://www.actionvfx.com/academy/the-new-vfx-career-playbook.
If you don't know,. It's all about learning how studios hire, making yourself invaluable, and securing your career.

If you've followed the full course, we want to hear from you.
Lets use this community to help one another.

What advise did you find most helpful?

We'll start. The 500 Artists Test was an incredible perspective to consider while drafting a reel/CV. Great way to think what's YOURS vs what's generic.

Look forward to hearing what helped you.

A free ActionVFX career course for VFX artists who want to stay visible, trusted, valuable, and ready for the new era of VFX.

08/10/2026

This course teaches you to plan, shoot, and composite professional VFX yourself — using tools you probably already have. Taught by Zac VanHoy and Sam Crowe, built for filmmakers, editors, and DPs who already know their way around After Effects, Premiere, or DaVinci Resolve.

What you’ll walk away with:
— The ability to plan, shoot, and composite VFX shots for real client work
— Green screen keying, object removal, sky replacement, and 3D camera tracking, by hand and with AI
— Matte painting and environment builds that hold up to scrutiny
— 13 custom live-action plates + 4K production-quality VFX assets to keep
— A portfolio’s worth of finished shots

No prior compositing experience needed. If you’re already in After Effects, Premiere, or DaVinci Resolve, you’re ready.

08/05/2026

If you've sent your reel out and heard nothing back, it's not always you.

The way people used to break into this industry, build a reel, apply everywhere, wait, doesn't work the way it used to. That's not a talent problem. It's that the signals studios are actually looking for have shifted, and most artists are still optimizing for the old ones.

Allan McKay's spent years inside productions like Transformers and Avengers: Endgame, and he put together two hours of exactly what he'd tell a younger version of himself right now — how to make a reel that actually proves what you contributed, how to get on someone's radar before a role is even posted, how to talk about your rate without undervaluing yourself.

It's free. No catch, no pitch buried at the end.

There's also a short field guide that goes with it, seven pages, one idea each, built so you can pick the one thing that's actually holding you back and fix it today, without needing to carve out the full two hours first.

If you're in a stretch where the silence is getting to you, start with the guide. Watch the full thing when you've got the time.