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New AE Particle Plugin + Blender 5.3 Teases New NPR Shading | Motion Mondays
There's a fast new GPU-based particle plugin for After Effects in beta, an AI agent lives inside After Effects and actually impressed Jake Bartlett, and Blender is getting real per-light cel shading in 5.3.
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A lot of After Effects news this week: Harry Frank (of Red Giant fame) and Brian Behm have founded Wild Construct and launched Entropy, a brand new GPU-based particle system for After Effects, currently in beta. AEP Transplant lets you surgically pull comps, layers, and assets from any AEP, PSD, or AI file without the Reduce Project mess. Atom is an AI agent trained on the After Effects API that actually knows your comp, and Jake Bartlett came away impressed after putting it through real tasks.
In 3D news: Higgsfield brings their AI toolset into Blender with a scene builder and model generator, though their track record of overpromising on one-prompt results is worth keeping in mind. Blender 5.3 is getting a fundamentally new NPR system developed by Goo Studios and Krysidian that lets materials write their own shading response per light. Ripplor brings procedural, cache-free water to Cinema 4D. SouthernShotty's MoGraph Toolbox for Blender adds a Spring Field and Honeycomb Array. Softie Collision System fakes soft body collisions in Blender in real time with no simulation needed.
Also, Figma adds an Eraser and Paint tool to its vector workflow. Some cool work from Oddfellows, and Apple's Mac Mini M6 claymation ad got mistaken for AI, and 22 Rive artists built one collaborative project together. Plus, our student of the week is Joey Myers out of Dallas, with his Design Bootcamp Urban Freestyles.
🎓 SCHOOL OF MOTION COURSES MENTIONED
🗒️ SHOW NOTES
🎨 ARTIST SPOTLIGHT
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Plugins for ALL + Maxon Doubles Down on Autograph | Motion Mondays
Maxon made Autograph free for entire studios this week, and there are more plugins dropping than we know what to do with.
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NEW Maxon Updates + This Tool Fixes Blender Materials FOREVER | Motion Mondays
Lottie Creator 2.0 takes aim at interactive animation workflows, Crayon Box brings smart material tools to Blender, and Maxon drops procedural scratches in Redshift 2026.8.
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After Effects' AI Agent is HERE & Rive Can't Stop Won't Stop | Motion Mondays
After Effects can now take spoken instructions and build an editable rig, Rive shipped another pile of serious animation tools, and Dash Bash is bringing five hundred motion designers back to Raleigh.