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.
To celebrate the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, NVIDIA artist Zhelong Xu, aka Uncle Light, brought Chinese zodiac signs to life this week In the NVIDIA Studio - modernizing the ancient mythology in his signature style.
Chinese Tradition Brought to the 21st Century NVIDIA principal artist Zhelong Xu is also co-founder of the Shanghai Magicstone Images studio and an art consultant for the Tencent TiMi Studio Group.
Xu is deeply passionate about modeling Chinese zodiac signs in 3D. His first serious attempt, Carefree Sheep, was chosen by Adobe Substance Painter, previously Allegorithmic, as the artwork on its first software launch screen.
Carefree Sheep' by 3D artist Zhelong Xu. Xu creates at least one piece for his zodiac series each year. Harboring a Cute Tiger is his most popular work, which reached over 16 million people on the Chinese social media app Weibo.
Harboring a Cute Tiger' by Zhelong Xu. I had the idea to turn this series into ceramic works, so I continued working with my friends in Jingdezhen to turn this series into physical objects, he said.
Zodiac piece for the Year of the Rabbit. I wanted to do something different in the Year of the Rabbit, so I chose to color the rabbit in NVIDIA green to match the classical Chinese atmosphere and to bring out the Chinese New Year energy, said Xu, who joined NVIDIA last year.
The two emerald rabbits, one with its ears up and the other with them down, are designed to look like they're teeming with anticipation for the arrival of Lunar New Year.
Xu deployed ZBrush for initial modeling with its custom sculpting tools. He then UV mapped the 3D model in preparation for applying a special emerald texture made in Adobe Substance 3D Painter. NVIDIA RTX-accelerated light- and ambient-occlusion features baked and optimized the scene assets in mere seconds, letting Xu experiment with textures quickly and easily with his GeForce RTX 4090 GPU.
Lighting adjustments in Blender. The artist quickly exported files to Blender to set up the environment and tinker with lighting. He added many Eastern-style architectural and furniture options from the PBRMAX.com asset library.
High-quality 3D assets gathered from the PBRMAX.com asset library. Movement within the viewport was seamless with Blender Cycles RTX-accelerated OptiX ray tracing for interactive, photorealistic modeling.
Xu then deployed his secret weapon: NVIDIA Omniverse, a platform for creating and operating metaverse applications. He saved files in Universal Scene Description (USD) format using the Omniverse export plug-in to import them into the NVIDIA Omniverse Create app for final modeling. Here, Xu made adjustments to the translucent emerald material to make it as realistic as possible.
USD format enables import into Omniverse Create. Omniverse Create was incredibly useful for scene modifications, Xu said, as it enabled him to test lighting with his scene rendering in real time. This provided him with the most accurate iteration of final renders, allowing for more meaningful real-time edits.
Thanks to the power of the GeForce RTX 4090 GPU and RTX optimization in Omniverse, I got the desired effect very quickly and tested a variety of lighting effects, he said.
Final environmental edits in Omniverse Create. Omniverse gives 3D artists their choice of renderer within the viewport, with support for Pixar HD Storm, Chaos V-Ray, Maxon's Redshift, OTOY Octane, Blender Cycles and more. Xu deployed the unbiased NVIDIA Iray renderer to complete the project.
3D artist Zhelong Xu. View more of Xu's work on ArtStation.
#NewYearNewArt Challenge With a new year will come new art, and we'd love to see yours! Use the hashtag #NewYearNewArt and tag @NVIDIAStudio to show off recent creations for a chance to be featured on our channels.
The challenge is off to a great start:
A new year means new art!
Join our Jan-Feb #NewYearNewArt challenge by sharing any new or relatively new art you ve created for a chance to be featured on our channels!
Be sure to tag #NewYearNewArt and thanks to @AOi__Pan for sharing their new art. pic.twitter.com/lXiFLROhQh
NVIDIA Studio (@NVIDIAStudio) January 10, 2023
Excellent artists like @rabbit.hole_renders have helped kick off the challenge with creativity that's taking people to new worlds.
Who s playing this game?
Awesome submission to the #NewYearNewArt Challenge by rabbit.hole_renders (IG).
Share any new or relatively new art you ve created with the tag #NewYearNewArt for a chance to be featured on our channels! pic.twitter.com/GyrdJPbcM5
NVIDIA Studio (@NVIDIAStudio) January 14, 2023
Plus, get a dose of potassium with @graffitpl's banana-based animation that comes with a side of mushrooms.
Were you looking for m o r e spore banana animations? Look no further!
This dose of potassium comes from the brililant @graffitpl (IG).
Tag #NewYearNewArt in your recently created art for a chance to be featured until the end of February! pic.twitter.com/78ETFDtVH4
NVIDIA Studio (@NVIDIAStudio) January 16, 2023
Keep your eyes peeled for more amazing submissions on the NVIDIA Studio Instagram stories.
Access tutorials on the Studio YouTube channel and get updates directly in your inbox by subscribing to the Studio newsletter.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
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.
