
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.
Tis the season for friends, family and beautifully rendered Santa animations from this week's In the NVIDIA Studio artist, 3D expert Bo o Balov.
This week also marks an incredible milestone, with over 500 NVIDIA RTX-powered games and creative apps now available with support for ray tracing and AI-powered technologies like NVIDIA DLSS. Over 120 of the most popular apps - including the Adobe Creative Cloud suite, Autodesk Maya, Blender, Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve, OBS, Unity and more - use RTX to accelerate workflows by orders of magnitude, power new AI tools and enhancements and enable real-time, ray-traced previews.
To celebrate, NVIDIA GeForce is hosting a giveaway for gift cards, rare, sought-after #RTXON keyboard keycaps and more. Follow GeForce on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or X (formerly known as Twitter) for instructions on how to enter.
THANK YOU FOR 500 RTX GAMES & APPS
To celebrate use #RTX500 ALL December across our social channels for a chance to win $500 gift cards courtesy of Green Man Gaming + other great prize giveaways.
For your first chance to win:
Comment #RTX500
Tell us your favorite pic.twitter.com/l3g7kTKujD
NVIDIA GeForce (@NVIDIAGeForce) December 4, 2023
Say it ain't snow: the NVIDIA Studio #WinterArtChallenge is back. Through the end of the year, share winter-themed art on Facebook, Instagram or X for a chance to be featured on NVIDIA Studio social media channels. Be sure to tag #WinterArtChallenge to join.
Winter has returned and so has our #WinterArtChallenge!
Share your winter-themed art (like this incredible one created on an RTX GPU by @rafianimates) using the hashtag for a chance to be featured on our social channels!
We can t wait to see what you create! pic.twitter.com/Ml4cUAUgW3
NVIDIA Studio (@NVIDIAStudio) December 4, 2023
Finally, 80 Level - the creative community for digital artists, animators and computer-generated imagery specialists - is hosting its Community Metasites Challenge. Artists can showcase their creativity by applying unique aesthetics to a simple block level via characters, game mechanics, visual effects and more - with a chance to win a new NVIDIA Studio laptop. Register today.
Special Thanks to @NVIDIAStudio who is offering this incredible prize for the first place winner of the 80 Level Community Metasites Challenge.
An ASUS ProArt Studiobook 16 OLED H7600 16" Laptop!
Register Nowhttps://t.co/OigWqOUlSD#NVIDIA #80levelmetasiteschallenge #UE5 #CG pic.twitter.com/atOozRqSxR
80 LEVEL (@80Level) November 27, 2023
Wrapper's Delight Balov's Christmas Rush 3D animation reimagines Santa as a resident of the coastal city of Split, Croatia - but with a harsher, less jolly edge.
https://blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/studio-bozo-balov-wk86-face-closeup-1280w.mp4
Balov jumped straight into modeling edgy Saint Nick in the virtual-reality modeling software Quill. He deployed vertex-painting techniques and used a photogrammetry scan of a Vespa as a base, adding brushstrokes to blend it with the rest of the scene.
https://blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/studio-bozo-balov-wk86-turntable-light-1280w.mp4
To achieve a flickering effect on Santa's clothing, Balov created a custom texture with different brush strokes in Adobe Photoshop. The texture doubles as an alpha map, which intentionally clips the geometry.
https://blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/studio-bozo-balov-wk86-solid-anim-1280w.mp4
When it comes to rendering 3D graphics, nothing really comes close to NVIDIA GPUs. - Bo o Balov
He then used Adobe Photoshop to paint monochromatic background layers. Balov's GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU unlocked over 30 GPU-accelerated features, including blur gallery, liquify, smart sharpen and perspective warp.
Balov then converted the files to the FBX adaptable file format for 3D software before importing them into Blender, where he animated the layers to move in the opposite direction of the character to create a sense of speed. He kept the lighting fairly simple, with one light source as the base and a few supplemental ones to emphasize specific parts of the scene.
https://blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/studio-bozo-balov-wk86-turntable-half-1280w.mp4
Balov prefers working in Blender's real-time engine EEVEE to animate his scene, cutting wait times. RTX-accelerated OptiX ray tracing in the viewport enabled greater interactivity with smoother movement, speeding his ideation and creative workflow.
Extraordinary detail. Rendering is a joy on NVIDIA RTX cards, said Balov. Since OptiX made its debut, rendering times have been cut in half or more - Blender Cycles feels like a real-time engine.
When asked for advice to give aspiring artists, Balov emphasized the importance of individual passion.
Pursue what matters to you, he said. Don't spend time fulfilling other people's ideas of what art should be.
https://blogs.nvidia.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/studio-itns-bozo-balov-wk86-artist-feature-1280w.mp4
Check out Balov's art portfolio on Instagram.
Follow NVIDIA Studio on Facebook, Instagram and X. Access tutorials on the Studio YouTube channel and get updates directly in your inbox by subscribing to the Studio newsletter.
North America Stories
19/10/2026
The NBA 2026/2027 is about to tip off and with it the NBA is enhancing its digit...
19/10/2026
Net Insight has appointed Mario von Dahn as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and member of the Executive Management Team. He will assume his position no la...
19/10/2026
The Miami HEAT have announced a television broadcast partnership with My15 WTCN in West Palm Beach for the 2026-27 season. The agreement began Friday, Oct. 16, ...
19/10/2026
KOKUSAI DENKI Electric America will show its broadcast cameras, remote control p...
19/10/2026
Bridge Technologies has announced its participation in the Media eXchange Layer (MXL) initiative following IBC2026, saying the work has supported the containeri...
19/10/2026
PSSI Global Services has promoted Tracy Michaels to Vice President of Engineering, a newly created position. Michaels has been a member of PSSI's engineerin...
19/10/2026
Gone are the days of needing a large budget or a full army of technologies to ex...
19/10/2026
Live volleyball propels Polsat to the number one position for the first time in 2026
Warsaw, Poland, 19.10.26 - Nielsen, a global leader in audience measuremen...
19/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/10/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Artificial intelligence has already demonstrated great promise in m...
19/10/2026
Building on nearly five decades of experience, Hiltron Communications is one of Europes longest established specialists in the design, integration and maintenan...
19/10/2026
Sobatech Group Takes Its Production Model Remote with Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton October 18, 2026
0 Comments
Multi output production supports loca...
19/10/2026
At a creative industry event that took place today in Berlin - hosted in collabo...
18/10/2026
Pliant Technologies Showcases New CrewCom Flex at NAB New York 2026
Brie Clayton October 18, 2026
0 Comments
Pliant Technologies is highlighting its n...
17/10/2026
At PBR Teams Series: Maverick Days at UBS Arena in Belmont Park, NY, PBR Executi...
17/10/2026
By Ramona Flume
Speaking out against injustice rarely comes without a price. Th...
17/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
17/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
17/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
17/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
17/10/2026
Oklahoma filmmaker Elijah Felkins launches crowdfunding campaign to shoot Kairat...
17/10/2026
Secret Weapon Post Powers New Remote Workflows with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton October 16, 2026
0 Comments
Going remote: redefining what post...
17/10/2026
Danilo P rez Premieres New Work Honoring Architect Frank Gehry Commissioned by the Herbie Hancock Institute, P rez performed The Ever-Changing World at its In...
17/10/2026
NVIDIA RTX Spark laptops are now available, bringing NVIDIA Blackwell RTX graphics, up to 128GB of unified memory and the full NVIDIA AI platform to slim, premi...
16/10/2026
The LA Clippers have announced their local television plan for the 2026-27 seaso...
16/10/2026
At sports-media summit, he describes the success of the one-year-old agreement a...
16/10/2026
Parks Associates, in partnership with InterDigital, has published a white paper ...
16/10/2026
Cisco is expanding its work with the Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment (BSE) as the 2026-27 NBA season gets underway, prov...
16/10/2026
Broadcast Management Group (BMG) has introduced Media Command, a private cloud broadcast platform that integrates recording, media asset management (MAM), chann...
16/10/2026
TNDV and GameTime Productions have expanded their remote production responsibilities for Team Boxing League (TBL) for the league's recently completed fourth...
16/10/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level have one major thing in common: the intensity and attention to detail ramps up dur...
16/10/2026
Broadcast and streaming are converging around live media. Traditional broadcasters increasingly distribute their linear services through streaming platforms alo...
16/10/2026
DAZN and Guardians League, a new professional franchise surf racing series, have announced a multi-year global broadcast partnership. Guardians League events wi...
16/10/2026
Sobatech Group is producing live coverage of the F4 Spanish Championship and Eur...
16/10/2026
The Walt Disney Company and Dude Perfect have announced an integrated creative partnership. Dude Perfect will develop original content for its own channels insp...
16/10/2026
Onsite studio show will accompany game productions in San Francisco and Atlanta
...
16/10/2026
Grass Valley s AMPP platform continues to grow in popularity, especially with th...
16/10/2026
FloSports and the National Lacrosse League (NLL) have entered a multiyear media partnership that makes FloSports the exclusive global streaming home of the NLL....
16/10/2026
At PBR Teams Series: Maverick Days at UBS Arena in Belmont Park, NY, PBR Executive Producer Jason Jacquette took a few minutes with SVG to discuss how his team ...
16/10/2026
(Suzanne Cordeiro/Shutterstock for Sundance Film Festival)
By Patty Consolazio
...
16/10/2026
The launch of the autumn programming schedules on traditional TV channels translated into a noticeable increase in total video viewership. Poles spent an averag...
16/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/10/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of media integration and managed services for the sports broadcast industry, will showcase the latest developments in Content Exch...
16/10/2026
Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble Presents America at 250 The free event, taking place at Samuel Adams Park at Faneuil Hall, features a program of inspiring A...
16/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...