Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

CG Geek Makes VFX Look Easy This Week In the NVIDIA Studio'

03/10/2023

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.

Releasing a 3D tutorial dubbed The Easiest VFX Tutorial Ever takes supreme confidence and the skills to back it up.

Steve Lund a.k.a. CG Geek - the featured artist of this week's In the NVIDIA Studio installment - has both in spades. It's no surprise that over 1 million people have subscribed to his YouTube channel, which features tutorials on animation and visual effects (VFX) as well as select tech reviews.

CG Geek has been a content creator for over 13 years, starting with videos on stop-motion animation before moving on to 3D software. Films and movies are his primary sources of inspiration. He grew up creating short films with his family - experimenting with and implementing video effects and 3D characters - which became a critical foundation for his current work.

Artists can strengthen their creative arsenal with the new Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2, available for pickup today. It's powered by GeForce RTX 4060, GeForce RTX 4050 or NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation Laptop GPUs with 13th Gen Intel Core processors, up to 64GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD. It features a bright, vibrant 14.4-inch PixelSense Flow touchscreen, a 120Hz refresh rate, and Dolby Vision IQ and HDR to deliver sharper colors.

The versatile Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2. The Easiest VFX Tutorial Ever CG Geek also happens to be a geek for Blender, free for 3D enthusiasts, who regularly create impressive, individualistic art.

I love the amazing Blender 3D community, he said. Whenever you need inspiration or creative feedback, they're the most helpful, kind and talented collective of ever-growing artists.

CG Geek wanted to make a tutorial that could prove that virtually anyone could get started in VFX with relative ease, from anywhere, at any time.

Work on VFX from anywhere - even the outdoors. The first step, he instructs, is to capture video footage. To keep things simple, CG Geek recommends mounting a camera or mobile device to a tripod. Note that the camera lens determines the focal length and sensor size - critical details to input in Blender later in the process.

Keep track of the camera's focal length and sensor size. Keep a close eye on the video footage lighting for shadows and light intensity - it helps to snap a straight-down photo of the environment the 3D element will populate, namely for light bounces, to help create more realistic shadows.

Seasoned visual effects artists can capture and scan the entire 3D area. Next, secure a 3D model. Create one with guidance from an NVIDIA Studio blog or watch detailed tutorials on the Studio YouTube channel. Alternatively, look online for a 3D model equipped with basic physically based rendering materials, as well as a roughness and normal map.

Sketchfab is an excellent resource for acquiring 3D models. Next, combine the video footage and 3D materials. Open Blender, import the video footage and line up the 3D grid floor to the surface where the model will be presented. The 3D grid doubles as a shadow catcher that will grab the shadows being cast from the 3D elements. With an added texture, lighting will bounce back against the object, resulting in heightened realism.

The 3D grid floor will determine where the 3D model will be placed. Then, light the 3D model to match the video footage. Most commonly, this is achieved by acquiring a high-dynamic range image (HDRI), a panorama with lighting data. CG Geek recommends Poly Haven for free, high-quality HDRIs. The key is picking one that resembles the lighting, color, shadow and intensity of the video footage.

Poly Haven has HDRIs for use in VFX work. Use the HDRI lighting to align the sun's rotation with the shadows of the footage, adding further realism.

Lighting adjustments in Blender. From there, import camera information into Blender and render out passes for the 3D model over a transparent background in Cycles. Create as many render layers as possible for added post-render editing flexibility, especially in compositing. Shadowcatcher, glossy passes, Z depth and ambient occlusion layers are recommended for advanced users.

Speedy renders in Blender on NVIDIA Studio hardware. These layers can then be combined in popular creative apps like Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve or any of the over 100 NVIDIA RTX GPU-accelerated apps. This workflow, in particular, will be completed in Blender's custom compositor.

Speedy renders in Blender. Add shadows to the live footage with a multiple overlay. Then, carry over the 3D elements render layer to adjust the intensity of the shadows, helping them mesh better with the video capture. Individual layers can be edited to match the desired tone.

CG Geek made use of Blender Cycles' RTX-accelerated OptiX ray tracing in the viewport. Rendering in Cycles with multiple render layers and passes, along with the NVIDIA OptiX Denoiser, made animations and early tests a breeze, he said.

All my rendering changes can be visualized in real time thanks to the power of NVIDIA Studio before ever even hitting that button. CG Geek

Finally, perform simple masking on areas where the 3D model passes in front of or behind objects. CG Geek's one-minute YouTube tutorial can help guide this process. DaVinci Resolve or Premiere Pro's AI-powered magic mask features can further speed the process by automatically masking background elements, saving the effort of painstakingly editing videos frame by frame.

These AI features are all accelerat
LINK: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2023/10/03/cg-geek-blender/...
See more stories from nvidia

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

28/08/2026

CBS L.A. Runs Two Hot Control Rooms, Dual Broadcasts for Rams-Chargers Preseason Game

KCBS takes the Chargers side, KCAL takes the Rams - with feeds out to 18 partner...

28/08/2026

Buddy Turns Childhood Comfort into Midnight Terror

(L-R) Topher Grace, Cristin Milioti, Delaney Quinn, Casper Kelly, and Keegan-Michael Key pose with the character Buddy at the Buddy Premiere during the 2026 S...

28/08/2026

IK Multimedia announce Sinphonica Maestosa Strings

The Italian orchestra, reimagined IK Multimedia have announced the upcoming launch of Sinphonica, a new family of Italian orchestral instruments designed f...

28/08/2026

Voxis from CEDAR Audio

Voice-isolation plug-in boasts sub-10ms latency Launched in 2025, CEDAR Audio's Icons range was created with the aim of bringing the company's renow...

28/08/2026

Charter Takes Scripps to Court Over Carriage of Las Vegas' KMCC

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/08/2026

Backlight Expands Creative Operations Platform with AI-p...

Global media technology company Backlight will showcase its latest innovations across Iconik and Wildmoka live video creation and distribution at IBC2026 (booth...

28/08/2026

Emergent Brings Its AI-Enhanced Content Production Platfo...

Emergent, a developer of browser-based, AI-enhanced content production tools, will present its complete AI-enhanced content production platform at IBC2026, exhi...

28/08/2026

Joseph Bell Announces VFX & Animation World Atlas 2026

Joseph Bell Announces VFX & Animation World Atlas 2026 Joseph Bell August 28, 2026 0 Comments Joseph Bell's Visual Effects & Animation World Atlas...

28/08/2026

Paris-Troyes en Champagne Goes Live on France.tv with AVEO

Paris-Troyes en Champagne Goes Live on France.tv with AVEO Brie Clayton August 28, 2026 0 Comments Regional audiovisual company builds broadcastgrade ...

28/08/2026

DHD to Introduce its Third-Generation Audio Mixing Console at IBC 2026

DHD to Introduce its Third-Generation Audio Mixing Console at IBC 2026 Brie Clayton August 28, 2026 0 Comments DHD.audio has chosen IBC 2026 as the la...

28/08/2026

Grass Valley AMPP Provides an All-Encompassing Approach t...

Encompass Digital Media and Grass Valley are expanding their collaboration with the launch of Altitude Playout Plus, a software-defined channel origination plat...

28/08/2026

Yospace releases new Ad Presentation solution

Yospace, the trusted leader in Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI), has announced the release of its Ad Presentation solution, which enables broadcasters to apply non-li...

28/08/2026

TSL Showcases Reduced Complexity for Control and Monitori...

TSL Showcases Reduced Complexity for Control & Monitoring Across IP Workflows at IBC2026 New TSL Hummingbird capabilities including Dante control routing, toge...

28/08/2026

Lutz Rathmann to Become CEO of Riedel Communications

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/08/2026

Spectrum Offers Lower-Income Internet Customers Free Amazon Prime

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/08/2026

FCC Exempts Public Access Channels from Closed Captioning

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/08/2026

Elon Musk's X Launches NFL Gametime on X

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/08/2026

GlobalM and Lamhas Partner to Expand Managed IP Broadcast...

GlobalM and Lamhas Satellite Services today announced a new agreement that will see GlobalMs GMX technology deployed as part of Lamhas expanding managed IP broa...

28/08/2026

Boland Communications Introduces SMPTE ST 2110 Option for...

Integrated 25GbE Connectivity Delivers UHD Video Directly to Up to Two Monitors, Eliminates External Gateways, and Supports SMPTE ST 2022-7 Network-Path Protect...

28/08/2026

JT-DMF Invites IBC2026 Attendees to Help Shape the Future...

Interactive Ask Me Anything sessions will connect broadcasters and technology providers with the experts developing a practical, interoperable roadmap for sof...

28/08/2026

TAG Video Systems Cuts Live Production Latency Below Two...

At IBC2026, TAG will show sub-2-frame latency and 800 Gbps of aggregate scale for uncompressed ST 2110 monitoring in software, live MXL interoperability with pa...

28/08/2026

SportsBox BHVs Ultra-Compact 4K Remote Switcher Moves fro...

SportsBox, BHV's Ultra-Compact 4K Remote Switcher, Moves from Development to Production at IBC 2026 SportsBox brings flexibility without compromise to high...

28/08/2026

Riedel Evolves Leadership and Global Go-to-Market Organiz...

Lutz Rathmann named CEO of Riedel Communications Anthony Zuyderhoff to lead unified customer-facing organization as CCO Riedel Communications is strengthenin...

28/08/2026

Scripps Research establishes endowed fund honoring institute president and CEO Pete Schultz

LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research has established the Pete Schultz Fund for Innovati...

28/08/2026

Chemists develop simpler method to make molecular building block for drug development

LA JOLLA, CA-Chemical structures called cyclopropanols are among the most useful...

28/08/2026

Sky Secures Approval for Major Livingston Campus Investment, Reinforcing Long-Term Commitment to Scotland

Friday 28 August 2026 Sky Secures Approval for Major Livingston Campus Investme...

27/08/2026

ESPN Adds College Football Saturdays to Disney+ This Fall

ESPN and Disney are launching College Football Saturdays, adding two college football games per week to Disney for U.S. subscribers as part of their existing ...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: Zixi to Showcase Live Video Platform and Broadcaster v19

Zixi will exhibit at IBC2026 (Hall 5, Stand 5.A76, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), demonstrating the Zixi Platform and the latest release of Zixi Broadcaster, ...

27/08/2026

NDI Surpasses 1.2 Million Hardware Nodes as IBC2026 Showcase Expands

NDI has announced that its ecosystem has surpassed 1.2 million NDI-enabled hardware nodes worldwide, spanning products from more than 200 hardware brands across...

27/08/2026

Clear-Com FreeSpeak Cell Trialed During Rio Carnival Before Commercial Launch

Clear-Com conducted a pre-launch field trial of FreeSpeak Cell during Carnival 2026 in Rio de Janeiro, in partnership with Brazilian systems integrator Savana C...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: BVH SportsBox Remote Mixer Becomes Reality

BHV returns to IBC 2026 with an important milestone for its own SportsBox: the broadcast industry's smallest remote vision mixer and format processor has mo...

27/08/2026

TOGETHXR and Snapchat Announce Second Snap the Gap Athlete Cohort

TOGETHXR and Snapchat have announced the second cohort of their Snap the Gap content creator program, welcoming nine athletes as Snap Stars. The program provide...

27/08/2026

CNBC UK Selects MediaKind Beam for Live News Infrastructure

MediaKind has announced that CNBC UK has selected Beam to modernize its contribution and distribution infrastructure for live broadcast operations. The deployme...

27/08/2026

Monitor Engineer Chris Dwight Deploys Sennheiser Spectera on Puscifer and A Perfect Circle Tours

Monitor engineer Chris Dwight has deployed Sennheiser's Spectera wideband bi...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: Telestream Expands UP Platform

Telestream has announced an expansion of its UP cloud-native platform, adding capabilities for orchestrating Telestream services, third-party technologies, and ...

27/08/2026

Swerve TV Signs Multi-Year Partnership with GLORY Kickboxing

Swerve TV has signed a multi-year partnership with GLORY Kickboxing, bringing live GLORY events and library programming to Swerve Combat, Swerve TV's free a...

27/08/2026

AFP and Dalet Integrate AFP Content Into Dalet Flex Newsroom Workflow

Dalet has announced a new integrated content experience with Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Dalet Flex, designed to bring AFP's editorial metadata into the p...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: Grass Valley to Demonstrate Integrated Live Production Environment

Grass Valley will demonstrate an integrated live production environment at IBC2026 (Booth 9.A01, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), combining K-Frame, Maverik X, ...

27/08/2026

NWSL and Roku Expand Partnership with Sunday Night Streaming Package

The National Women's Soccer League and Roku have announced an expanded partnership, with the Roku Sports Channel becoming the exclusive streaming home of ei...

27/08/2026

Fubo Adds ACC Network Extra and SEC Network+ to Streaming Service

FuboTV has announced the launch of ACC Network Extra (ACCNX) and SEC Network (SECN ) on the Fubo streaming service at no additional cost to subscribers with En...

27/08/2026

Moment Branding: Using Sound to Create More Powerful Fan Experiences

Sports marketers have entered the experiential age. Today, sports teams, leagues, and venues are increasingly using immersive interactions and real world events...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: MultiDyne to Debut MDoG-8800 12G Fiber Transport Module

MultiDyne will introduce the MDoG-8800 at IBC2026 (Stand 11.C12, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), extending its openGear portfolio with a high-density fiber tra...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: JT-DMF To Host Ask Me Anything' Sessions

The Joint Task Force on the Dynamic Media Facility (JT-DMF), an initiative of AMWA and the EBU, will host a series of informal Ask Me Anything sessions during...

27/08/2026

Homestream Syncs Duke, Auburn and Georgia Tech Football, Basketball Radio Calls to Live TV Broadcasts

Homestream, a mobile app that automatically syncs a team's local radio broad...

27/08/2026

Spikes Under the Lights Brings Collegiate Volleyball to AT&T Stadium in a Made-for-TV Event Built for Scale

A packager for TNT Sports, Kwokman Productions is on hand for the unique event w...

27/08/2026

25 Seasons of New York Yankees on YES Network: The Day 1 Crew Looks Back on a Quarter Century in the Bronx - and Stamford

After more than 3,000 games, five members of YES Network's original staff re...

27/08/2026

Dreamtonics unveil Instrument X orchestral alternative

Physical modelling orchestral instrument announced Following their recent cryptic hints, Dreamtonics have officially revealed the latest addition to their s...