Free tool VDBRender adds native OpenVDB rendering to Nuke

VFX artist Marty Blumen's neat free add-on renders volumes like clouds and fire in Nuke without round-tripping to an external renderer.

Monday, March 30th, 2026

ZibraVDB: the new standard in OpenVDB for virtual production

[Sponsored] With its new Houdini plugin and free edition, Zibra AI's volumetric compression technology is shaking up real-time VFX.

Monday, April 14th, 2025

This neat free plugin lets you import OpenVDBs into UE5

Eidos-Montréal's UnrealVDB lets users view VDB files inside Unreal Engine and render them with its path tracer.

Wednesday, July 13th, 2022

Download five free loopable OpenVDB smoke animations

Get Between Two Pines' simulated jets of smoke or steam for use in your 3D scenes. Commercial use.

Sunday, January 31st, 2021

NextLimit adds OpenVDB support to RealFlow

Free update adds support for the DreamWorks-developed volumetric file format, over 70 new graph nodes.

Friday, October 18th, 2013

DreamWorks open sources the OpenVDB file format

Updated: Volumetric format used on Puss in Boots due for integration into "next major release" of Houdini.

Wednesday, August 8th, 2012

tyFlow 2.0 now simulates smoke and fire as well as particles

Popular 3ds Max particle and multiphysics add-on for VFX and motion graphics gets neat new GPU-based Zenith fluid engine.

Thursday, March 5th, 2026

Autodesk releases Arnold 7.4.5

Check out the new features in the production renderer, including new shaders for non-photorealistic and motion graphics-style effects.

Thursday, February 12th, 2026

Storm HydroFX 1.0 is a GPU-based standalone FLIP fluid simulator

Now production-ready: neat new tool creates VFX-quality fluid simulations for export to CG software in USD or Alembic format.

Wednesday, January 21st, 2026

Get standalone GPU FLIP fluid solver Storm HydroFX free in beta

Promising new tool based exports liquid sims in Alembic format for use in other CG software. Now updated to support spray emission.

Monday, December 1st, 2025

Blender 5.0 is finally here: check out its 5 key features

Read our pick of the latest features in the open-source 3D software, from Geometry Nodes and Cycles to changes to color management.

Wednesday, November 19th, 2025

SideFX just released Houdini 21: check out its five key features

Read our pick of the changes in Houdini 21, from Copernicus and KineFX to new AI workflows - then see a list of all 300+ new features.

Wednesday, August 27th, 2025

ZibraVDB for Houdini and UE5 is now free to indie artists

Indie users can now use the real-time effects tech to compress and play back an unlimited number of OpenVDB sequences for free.

Tuesday, August 19th, 2025