Editor's note: This post is part of our weekly In the NVIDIA Studio series, which celebrates featured artists, offers creative tips and tricks, and demonstrates how NVIDIA Studio technology improves creative workflows. We're also deep diving on new GeForce RTX 40 Series GPU features, technologies and resources, and how they dramatically accelerate content creation.
Character animator Sir Wade Neistadt works to make animation and 3D education more accessible for aspiring and professional artists alike through video tutorials and industry training.
The YouTube creator, who goes by Sir Wade, also likes a challenge. When electronics company Razer recently asked him to create something unique and creative using the new Razer Blade 18 laptop with GeForce RTX 4090 graphics, Sir Wade obliged.
I said yes because I thought it'd be a great opportunity to try something creatively risky and make something I didn't yet know how to achieve, the artist said.
I, Robot One of the hardest parts of getting started on a project is needing to be creative on demand, said Sir Wade. For the Razer piece, the animator started by asking himself two questions: What am I inspired by? and What do I have to work with?
Sir Wade finds inspiration in games, technology, movies, people-watching and conversations. Fond of tech - and having eyed characters from the ProRigs library for some time - he decided his short animation should feature robots.
When creating a concept for the animation, Sir Wade took an unorthodox approach, skipping the popular step of 2D sketching. Instead, he captured video references by acting out the animations himself.
This gave Sir Wade the opportunity to quickly try a bunch of movements and preview body mechanics for the animation phase. Since ProRigs characters are rigs based on Autodesk Maya, he naturally began his animation work using this 3D software.
YOU SHALL NOT (RENDER) PASS. His initial approach was straightforward: mimicking the main robot character's movements with the edited reference footage. This worked fairly well, as NVIDIA RTX-accelerated ray tracing and AI denoising with the default Autodesk Arnold renderer resulted in smooth viewport movement and photorealistic visuals.
Then, Sir Wade continued tinkering with the piece, focusing on how the robot's arm plates crashed into each other and how its feet moved. This was a great challenge, but he kept moving on the project. The featured artist would advise, Don't wait for everything to be perfect.
The video reference footage captured earlier paid off later in Sir Wade's creative workflow. Next, Sir Wade exported files into Blender software with the Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD) framework, unlocking an open and extensible ecosystem, including the ability to make edits in NVIDIA Omniverse, a development platform for building and connecting 3D tools and applications. The edits could then be captured in the original native files, eliminating the need for tedious uploading, downloading and file reformatting.
AI-powered RTX-accelerated OptiX ray tracing in the viewport allowed Sir Wade to manipulate the scene with ease. Sir Wade browsed the Kitbash3D digital platform with the new asset browser Cargo to compile kits, models and materials, and drag them into Blender with ease. It's important at this stage to get base-level models in the scene, he said, so the environment can be further refined.
Dubbed the ultimate desktop replacement, the Razer Blade 18 offers NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics. Sir Wade raved about the Razer Blade 18's quad-high-definition (QHD+) 18 screen and 16:10 aspect ratio, which gives him more room to create, as well as its color-calibrated display, which ensures uploads to social media are as accurate as possible and require minimal color correction.
The preinstalled NVIDIA Studio Drivers, free to RTX GPU owners, are extensively tested with the most popular creative software to deliver maximum stability and performance.
This is by far the best laptop I've ever used for this type of work. - Sir Wade Neistadt
Returning to the action, Sir Wade used an emission shader to form the projectiles aimed at the robot. He also tweaked various textures, such as surface imperfections, to make the robot feel more weathered and battle-worn, before moving on to visual effects (VFX).
The artist used basic primitives as particle emitters in Blender to achieve the look of bursting particles over a limited number of frames. This, combined with the robot and floor surfaces containing surface nodes, creates sparks when the robot moves or gets hit by objects.
Sir Wade's GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU with Blender Cycles RTX-accelerated OptiX ray tracing in the viewport provides interactive, photorealistic rendering for modeling and animation.
Particle and collusion effects in Blender enable compelling VFX. To further experiment with VFX, Sir Wade imported the project into the EmberGen simulation tool to test out various preset and physics effects.
VFX in EmberGen. He added dust and debris VFX, and exported the scene as an OpenVDB file back to Blender to perfect the lighting.
Final lighting elements in Blender. I chose an NVIDIA RTX GPU-powered system for its reliable speed, performance and stability, as I had a very limited window to complete this project. - Sir Wade Neistadt
Finally, Sir Wade completed sound-design effects in Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve software.
Sir Wade's video tutorials resonate with diverse audiences because of their fresh approach to solving problems and individualistic flair.
Creativity for me doesn't come naturally like for other artists, Sir Wade explained. I reverse engineer the process by seeing a tool or a concept, evaluating what's interesting, then either figuring out a way to use it uniquely or e
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
YES Network and The Gotham Sports App will air seven Athletes Unlimited Softball...
12/06/2026
The United Football League will host its FAST Innovation Suite at the 2026 United Bowl presented by Credit One Bank on Saturday, June 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET at Audi...
12/06/2026
PTZOptics and LayerJot will present live demonstrations at InfoComm 2026 showing how natural-language AI prompting, robotic camera control, and on-device comput...
12/06/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will exhibit at InfoComm 2026, featuring...
12/06/2026
Ateme has announced that Eurovision Services is using Ateme's software-based frame-rate conversion technology for international live event workflows. The de...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin and Simplestream have announced a partnership with Xperi to simplify the launch of OTT streaming services on TiVo OS smart TVs and devices. The collabo...
12/06/2026
Net Insight has announced that a multinational technology company is deploying a...
12/06/2026
MLB Players Inc., the business arm of the MLB Players Association, has announced a partnership with Athletes First to develop and sell brand partnerships across...
12/06/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D) and VuWall have announced the CommandKeyboard-Advanc...
12/06/2026
Comcast Smart Solutions announces a new smart technology deployment with Major L...
12/06/2026
Elevation Worship completed the initial leg of its Elevation Nights 2026 tour ...
12/06/2026
AJA Video Systems has announced KONA IP25 support for Colorfront Transkoder and ...
12/06/2026
Audinate Group Limited (ASX: AD8) will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth C7321, Ce...
12/06/2026
Pac-12 Commissioner Teresa Gould has announced the appointment of Scott Adametz as Chief Technology Officer. The Pac-12 describes the hire as the first CTO appo...
12/06/2026
Grass Valley has announced AMPP Edge Live, a production system combining Grass Valley hardware, NVIDIA Blackwell GPU acceleration, and AMPP OS in a single platf...
12/06/2026
At one time a trailblazer with the launch of the Longhorn Network, the Universit...
12/06/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
12/06/2026
Chyron has announced PAINT 10.4, an update to its illustrated replay and sports ...
12/06/2026
SVP, Production Mark Gross: With the new schedule, with not having every Sunday night, it's given us an opportunity to take a step back and reimagine what ...
12/06/2026
For Televisa Technical Engineering Manager Roberto N nez Ibarra and the small team of 12 technicians and two production personnel at the IBC things are already ...
12/06/2026
Simple Steps to Better Acoustics - Taming The Small Room
Most of us mix in spare rooms and small spaces, where the acoustics fight us at every turn. At Gear...
12/06/2026
Latest addition expands vintage-inspired effects palette
Meris' Ottobit pedal range draws its inspiration from vintage gaming consoles, and the latest a...
12/06/2026
Soundbox-based chamber strings series expanded
Sonora Cinematic have just announced the launch of the second instalment in their Soundbox-based chamber stri...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
AJA Announces KONA IP25 Integration with Colorfront Software
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Collaboration enables uncompressed SMPTE ST 2110 I/O ...
12/06/2026
URSA Cine 12K LF Used to Create Visuals for STUTS' K-Arena Concert
Brie Clayton June 12, 2026
0 Comments
Organic visuals projected on a giant scre...
12/06/2026
MTI FILM Acquires Mango New Edit, Expanding its Global Post-Production Services ...
12/06/2026
AI Point Tracking Speeds Up Complex VFX Tracks in Mocha Pro
Jessie Electa Petrov June 12, 2026
0 Comments
The 2026.5 release adds automatic point trac...
12/06/2026
Bitmovin, a provider of video streaming solutions, has partnered with Simplestream, a provider of OTT and broadcast solutions, and technology provider Xperi, to...
12/06/2026
Leostream Corporation, creator of the world-leading Leostream Remote Desktop Access Platform, today announced Jigsaw24, a leading B2B IT solutions provider wit...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/06/2026
How Aussie indie games and screen are levelling up with IP 11 June 2026
Ari Harrison, Pro Jank Footy
Head of Games Joey Egger and Ari Harrison of Umbrella sha...
12/06/2026
AgentPerf from Artificial Analysis, the industry's first agentic AI benchmark, gives developers, enterprises and infrastructure providers a clear way to com...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First-Look Images from Villaflor, Santiago Mitre's New Film
Entertainment
12 June 2026
GlobalArgentina
Link copied to ...
12/06/2026
Back to All News
Cross the Boundaries of the Real World into the Spirit Realm i...
12/06/2026
With John Daro, DI Colourist at Warner Bros. Water Tower Color Tuesday 23 June, 10am-1pm or 3-6pm
Restar Corporation
Tokyo
Register here
John Daro is the ...
12/06/2026
Meet The Grumpy Onion Ireland's newest online sensation, all he wants is to ...
12/06/2026
RT stays Up All Night with brand new daily 2026 FIFA World Cup Vodcast
Adding to the fun around 2026 FIFA World Cup tournament, RT has launched a brand new d...
Editor's note: This post is part of our weekly In the NVIDIA Studio series, which celebrates featured artists, offers creative tips and tricks, and demonstrates how NVIDIA Studio technology improves creative workflows. We're also deep diving on new GeForce RTX 40 Series GPU features, technologies and resources, and how they dramatically accelerate content creation.
